FO M 
with a greater weight, that the superfluous 
mercury U?ay be driven out, and the tin ad- 
here more closely to the glass. When it is 
dried, the weight is removed, and the look- 
ing-glass is complete. Foliating ot globe 
looking-glasses is done as follows : take five 
ounces of quicksilver, and one ounce of 
bismuth ; of lead and tin half an ounce 
each. First put the lead and tin into fu- 
sion, then put in the bismuth, and when 
you perceive that in fusion too, let it stand 
till it is almost cold, and pour the quick- 
silver into it : after this, take the glass globe, 
which must be very clean, and the inside 
free from dust ; make a paper tunnel, which 
put into the hole of the globe, as near to 
the glass as you can, so that the amalgam, 
When you pour it in, may not splash, and 
cause the glass to be full of spots ; pour if 
in gently, and move it about, so that the 
amalgam may touch every where. If you 
find the amalgam begin to be curdly and 
fixed, then hold it over a gentle fire, and 
it will easily flow again. And if you find 
the amalgam too thin, add a little more lead, 
tin, and bismuth to it. The finer and clearer 
your globe is, the better will the looking- 
glass be. ' 
FOLIO, in merchants’ books, denotes 
a page, or rather both the right and left 
hand pages, these being expressed by the 
same figure, and corresponding to each 
other. 
Folio, among printers and booksellers, 
the largest form of books, when each sheet 
is so printed, that it may be bound up in two 
leaves only. This form is only used in large 
works ; but the quarto or octavo forms are 
much more handy. 
FOLKMGTE, or Folcmote, according 
to Rennet, was the common- council of all 
the inhabitants of a city, town, or borough : 
though Spelman will have the folkmote to 
have been a sort of annual parliament or 
convention of the bishops, thanes, alder- 
men, and freemen on every May-day. Dr. 
Lrady, on the contrary, tells us, that it 
was an inferior court, held before the King’s 
reeve, or his steward, every month, to do 
folk right. 
FOMAHAUT, in astronomy, a star of 
the first magnitude in the constellation 
Aquarius. 
FOMENTATION, in medicine, the 
bathing any part of the body with a con- 
venient liquor ; which is usually a decoction 
of herbs, water, wine, or milk ; and the 
applying of bags stuffed with herbs and 
other ingredients, which is commonly called 
FOO 
dry fomentation. Fomentations differ of 
little else from embrocations, but that they 
are mostly made with aqueous menstruum*, 
are more extensive in their manner of appli- 
cation, and are assisted by actual heat, and 
hot woollen cloths : add to this, that fo- 
mentations, when general, or applied to 
every part of the body, are called baths. 
FONT, among ecclesiastical writers, a 
large bason, in which water is kept for the 
baptizing of infants, or other persons. It 
is so called, probably, because baptism was 
usually performed among the primitive Chris- 
tians at springs or fountains. In process ot 
time the font came to be used, being placed 
at the lower end ot the church, to intimate, 
perhaps, that baptism is the rite ot admis- 
sion into tlie Christian cluirch. 
Font. See Fount. 
FONTANESIA, in botany, so named in 
honour of Mons. Desfontaines, a genus of 
the Diandria Monogynia class and order. 
Natural order of Sepiariae. Jasmine®, 
Jussieu. Essential character: calyx four- 
parted, inferior ; petals two, two-parted ; 
capsule membranaceous, not opening, two- - 
celled ; cells one-seeded. There is but one 
species. 
FONTINALIS, in botany, a genus of 
the Cryptogamia Musci, or Mosses. Ge- 
neric character : capsule oblong, with the 
mouth ciljate ; opening with an acuminate 
lid ; covered with a sessile, smooth, coni- 
cal veil ; included in a pitcher-shaped, im- 
bricate perichaetium. Only four species 
are known, and they are all natives of Eng- 
land : three of them are water mosses, and 
one grows upon trees. Professor Martyn 
says, that several new species have been 
discovered by Swartz in the West Indies. 
■ FOOD, implies whatever aliments are 
taken into the body to nourish it. See 
Dietetics. 
FOOL, according to Mr. Locke, is a per- 
son who makes false conclusions from right 
principles ; whereas a madman, on the con- 
trary, draws right conclusions from wrong 
principles. 
FOOT, ]>es, a part of the body of most 
animals, whereon they stand, walk, &c. 
Animals are distinguished, witli respect 
to the number of their feet, into bipedes, 
two-footed ; such are men and birds : qua- 
drupedes, four-footed ; such are most land- 
animals : and multipedes, or many-footed ; 
as insects. The reptile-kind, as serpents, 
&c. have no feet; the crab-kind of fish have 
got ten feet, but most other fishes have no 
feet at all ; the spider, mites, and polypuses 
