INI- 
INF 
used to denote the mode of flowering ; the 
manner in which flowers are supported on 
their footstalks. The various modes in 
which flowers are joined to the plant by the 
peduncles or foot-salk are expressed by dif- 
ferent terms. See Botany. 
The various modes of flowering are appli- 
cable to those flowers which proceed from 
the angle formed by the leaves and branches, 
as is the case in most instances, and to such 
also as terminate the stem and branches. 
In the first case, flowers are termed “ axil- 
lares,’’ that is proceeding from the arm-pit 
of the leaf : in the latter “ terminales,” that 
is, the terminating the branches. Inflo- 
rescence affords a characteristic mark, by 
which to distinguish the species of plants, 
but is not used as a generic difference. 
INFLUENZA, in medicine, a species 
of contagious catarrh, so named because it 
was supposed to be produced by a peculiar 
influence of the stars. The phenomena of 
contagious catarrhs have been much the 
same with those of the simple kind, but the 
disease has always been particularly re- 
markable for this, that it has been the most 
widely and generally spreading epidemic 
known. It has seldom appeared in any one 
country of Europe, without appearing suc- 
cessively in most of the others. 
IN FORMA PAUPERIS. When any 
man who has a just cause of suit, either in 
Chancery or any. of the courts of common 
law, will come before the Lord Keeper, Mas- 
ter of the Rolls, either of the Chief Justices, 
or Chief Baron, and make oath, that he is not 
worth five pounds, his debts paid ; either 
of the said judges will, in his own proper 
court, admit him to sue in forma pauperis, 
or as a poor man, and he shall have coun- 
sel, clerk, or attorney assigned him, to do 
his business, without paying any fees. 
INFORMATION, in law, may be de- 
fined an accusation or complaint exhibited 
against a person for some criminal offence. 
It differs principally from an indictment in 
this, that an indictment is an accusation 
found by the oath of twelve men, but an 
information is only the allegation of the 
officer who exhibits it. Informations are of 
two kinds ; first, those which are partly at 
the suit of the king, and partly at the suit 
of a subject, and secondly, such as are only 
in the name of the king : the former are 
usually brought upon penal statutes, which 
inflict a penalty on conviction of the offen- 
der, one part to the use of the king, and ano- 
ther to the use of the informer, and are a sort 
of qui tarn or popular actions, only carried on 
by a criminal instead of a civil process. 
Informations that are exhibited in the name 
of the king alone are also of two kinds; 
first, those which are truly and properly 
his own suits, and filed ex officio by his 
own immediate officer, the Attorney- Gene- 
ral ; secondly, those in which, though the 
King is the nominal prosecutor, yet it is 
at the relation of some private person, or 
common informer, and they are filed by 
the Master of the Crown-office, under the 
express direction of the court. And when 
an information is filed in either of these 
ways, it must be tried by a petit jury of 
the county where the offence arises ; after 
which, if the defendant be found guilty, he 
must resort to the Court of King’s Bench 
for his punishment. Common informers, 
by 18 Elizabeth, c. 5, are to pay costs in 
case of failure of suit upon informations, 
unless the judge certifies that there was a 
reasonable cause for prosecuting. 
INFUSION, in chemistry, is the mace- 
ration of any substance in water, dr any 
other liquid, hot or cold, in order to ex- 
tract its soluble parts. The liquid thus im- 
pregnated is called an infusion. Infusion 
differs from maceration, in being continued 
for a longer time, and it can only be em- 
ployed for substances which do not easily 
ferment or spoil. See Pharmacy. 
INFUSORIA, in natural history, the 
fifth order of the class Vermes, in the Lin- 
na>an system. They are simple microsco- 
pic animalcules. There are three divi- 
sions : 
A, with external organs, of which there 
are five genera, viz. 
Branchionus, 
Cercaria, 
Leucopera. 
B, without external 
four genera : 
Colpoda, 
Cyclidium, 
C, without external 
genera : 
Bacillaria, 
Bursaria, 
Euchelis, 
Trichoda, 
Vorticella, 
organs, flattened; 
Gonium, 
Paramecium. 
♦ 
organs, round; six 
Monas, 
Vibria, 
Volvox. 
This order, Infusoria, is scarcely distin- 
guished from the Intestina and Mollusca, by 
any other character than the minuteness of 
the individuals belonging to it, and their 
spontaneous appearance in animal and vege- 
table infusions, where we can discover no 
