FLA 
445 
Like florms of hail the (tones fell down from high, 
Cad from the bulwarks, flankers, ports, and towers. 
Fairfax. 
To FLANK'ER, v. a. \_flanquer, Fr.] To defend by la- 
teral fortifications. 
FLAN'N AN ISLANDS, or Seven Hunters, a group 
of (mail ifiands in the North Sea, about feventeen miles 
north-welt from the illand of Lewis. Lat. 58. 26. N. 
Ion. 4. 12. W. Edinburgh. 
FLAN'NEL,yi [ gavlanen, Welfli ; from gwlan, wool. 
Davies.'] A foft nappy ItufF made of wool, loofely woven. 
—I cannot anfwer the Welch flannel. Skakefpcare. 
Sir Benjamin Thomfon, now Count Rumford, in his 
philofophical refearches into the caufes and effects of 
heat and moifture, has noticed a flriking relation betwixt 
the power which the fubltances ufually worn as clothing 
have of abforbing moifture, and that of keeping our bodies 
warm. Having provided a quantity of fubltances men¬ 
tioned in the table below, he expofed them upon clean 
China plates, for the fpace of twenty-four hours, to the 
warm and dry air of a room which had been heated by a 
German ftove for feveral months, and during the laft fix 
hours had raifed the thermometer to 85° of Fahrenheit; 
after which he weighed equal quantities of the different 
fubltances with a very accurate balance. They were then 
again fpread out upon a China plate, and removed into a 
very large uninhabited room upon the fecond floor, where 
they were expofed 48 hours upon a table placed in the 
middle of the room, the air of which was at 45 0 of Fah¬ 
renheit. At the end of this fpace they were weighed, 
and then removed into a damp cellar, and placed on a 
table in the middle of the vault, where the air was at the 
temperature of 45 0 , and which by the hygrometer feemed 
to be fully faturated with moifture. In this fituation they 
were fuftered to remain three days and three nights ; the 
vault beingall the time hung round with wet linen cloths, 
to render the air as completely damp as poflible. At the 
end of three days they were again weighed, and the 
weights at the different times flood thus: 
Weight af- Weight af- Weight af¬ 
ter being ter coming ter remain- 
dried inthe out of the ing?2h in 
hot room, cold room, the vault. 
1 163 
Sheep’s wool, - - - - 
Beaver’s fur, - - - - 
The fur of a Ruflian hare, 
Eider down, - - - - 
c Raw (ingle thread 
0*11, \JXdW IlllgiC UllCdU - 
1 l Raveilings white taffety ' 1 
T . 5 Fine lint, - - - 
men £ Ravellings of linen, 
Cotton wool, - -' - - - 
Ravellines of filver lace 
Parts 
Weight af¬ 
ter coming 
out of the 
cold room. 
1084 
1072 
1065 
I 067 
i °57 
105 + 
1046 
1044 
1043 
1000 
1125 
1115 
111 2 
1107 
1103 
1102 
1082 
1089 
toco 
On thefe experiments the count obferves, that though 
linen, from the apparent eafe with which it receives damp- 
nefs from tjje atmofphere, feems to have a much greater 
attraction for water than any other ; yet it would appear 
from the facts Hated above, that thole bodies which re¬ 
ceive water in its unelaliic form with the .greateft eafe, 
or are molt eafily wet, are not thofe which in all cafes at¬ 
tract the moifture of the atmofphere with the greateft 
avidity. “ Perhaps (fays he) the apparent dampnefs of 
linen to the touch, arifes more from the eafe with which 
fhat fubftance parts with the water it contains, than from 
the quantity of water it actually holds : in the fame man¬ 
ner as a body appears hot to the touch, in confequence of 
its parting freely with its heat; while another body, which 
is really at the fame temperature, hut which withholds its 
beat with greater obftinacy, afteCts the fenle of feeling 
much lefs violently. It is well known that woollen clothes, 
fuch as flannels, &c. worn noxt the Ikin, greatly promote 
infenfible perfpiration. May not this arife principally 
from the ftrong attraction which fubfifts between wool and 
Vol.VII. No. 440. 
FLA 
the watery vapour which is continually Hitting from the 
human body ? That it does not depend entirely on the 
warmth of that covering, is clear ; for the fame degree of 
warmth produced by wearing more clothing of a different 
kind, does not produce the fame effeCt. The perfpira¬ 
tion of the human body being abforfced by a covering of 
flannel, it is immediately diftributed through the whole 
thicknefs of that fubftance, and by that means expofed, 
by a very large furface, to be carried off by tire aernof- 
plfere ; and the lofs of this watery vapour, which the flan¬ 
nel fuftains on the one fide by evaporation, being imme¬ 
diately reftored from the other, in confequence of the 
ftrong attraction between the flannel and this vapour, the 
pores of the fkin are diftneumbered, and they are conti¬ 
nually furrouiided by a dry and falubrious atmofphere.” 
Hence this ingenious philofopher deduces the many ad¬ 
vantages of wearing flannel next the (kin, as a preler- 
vative from colds, and from many other complaints. 
FLAN'QUE,/: in heraldry. See Flanch. 
FLAN'VILLE, a town of France, in the department 
of the Mozelle, and chief place of a canton, in the dif- 
triCl of Metz, one league and a half eaft of Metz, and 
three and three-quarters fouth-weft of Boulay. 
FLAP,/! [loeppe, Sax.) Any thing that hangs broad 
and loofe, fattened only by one fide—There is a peculiar 
provifion for the windpipe, that is a cartilaginous flap 
upon the opening of the larinx, which hath an open 
cavity for the admiflion of the air. Brown. —The motion 
of any thing broad and loofe. 
To FLAP, v. a. To beat with a flap, as flies are beaten. 
—A hare, hard put to it by an eagle, took fandtuary in a 
ditch with a beetle : the eagle flapt oft' the former, and 
devoured the other. L’Eflrange. 
Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings. 
This painted child of dirt, that (links and (tings. Pope. 
To move with a flap or noife made by the ftroke of any 
thing broad : 
Three times, all in the dead of night, 
A bell was heard to ring ; 
And fhrieking at her window thrice 
The raven flapp'd his wing. Ticket. 
To FLAP, v. n. To ply the wings with noife.—’Tis 
common for a duck to run flapping and fluttering away, as 
if maimed, to carry people from her young. L’Eflrange .— 
To fall with flaps or broad parts depending: 
When fuffbeating miffs obfeure the morn, 
Let thy word wig, long us’d to (forms, be worn ; 
This knows the powder’d footman, and with care 
Beneath his flapping hat feenres his hair. Gay. 
FLAP DRAGON, f. [from a dragon fuppofed to 
breathe fire.] A play in which they catch r.ilins out of 
burning brandy, and, extinguifhirig them by clofing the 
mouth, eat them. The thing eaten at flapdragon.—He 
plays at quoits well, and eats conger and fennel, and 
drinks candle-ends for flapilragons, and rides the wild 
mare with the boys. Shakejpeare. 
To FLAP'DRAGON, v. a. To fwallow ; to devour. 
Low cant. — But to make an end of the (hip, to fee how the 
fea flapdragoned it. Shakeflpeare. 
FLAP'EARED, adj. Having loofe and broad ears.—■ 
A whorefon, beetle-headed flapeared knave. Shakfpeare. 
FLAP-JACK, f. [a provincial term for] An apple- 
puff.—We’ll have flelh for holy-days, fifhfor fading-days, 
and moreover puddings, and flap-jacks. Pericles. —Cream 
and cu(lards, flap-jacks., and pan-puddings.. Jovial Crew. 
FLAP'PER, f. One employed to flap another.—I 
will pofitively not keep you a flapper. You may read in 
Dr. Swift the defeription of thefe flappers, and the ufe 
they were of. Chejlcrjield. —A young wild duck. 
To FLARE, v. a. [flederen, to flutter, Dut. Skinner ; 
perhaps accidentally changed from glare.j To glitter with 
tranfient luftre; 
5 X 
Doctrine 
