474 FLU 
FLU 
fore called by the Latins flriges and ruga. The French 
call them cannelures, as being excavations ; and we, flutes 
or flutings, as bearing fonie reiemblance to a row of mufl- 
cal inftruments fo called. They are chiefly adopted in 
the Ionic order, in which they had their firft rife ; though 
they are rfed in the richer orders, as the Corinthian and 
Conipofile ; but rarely in the Doric, and fcarcely ever in 
t lie Tufcan. 
To FLUTE, v. n. To cut columns into hollows. 
To FLUT'TER, v. n. [plotejian, Sax. flotter , Fr.] To 
take fhort flights with great agitation of the wings.—As 
an eagle (lirreth up her neft, flutteret/i over her young, and 
fpreadeth abroad her wings, fo the Lord alone did lead 
him. Dent. —To move about with great fhow and buflle 
without confequence.—Excefs muddles the belt wit, and 
only makes it flutter and froth high. Grew. 
No rag, no fcrap of all the beau or wit, 
That once fo flutter'd, and that once fo writ. Pope. 
To be moved with quick vibrations or undulations ; 
Ye fpirits! to your charge repair ; 
The fluidring fan be Zephryetta’s care. Pope. 
They the tall mad above the veflel rear, 
Or teach the flutt’ring fail to float in air. Odyjfey. 
To be in agitation ; to move irregularly ; to be in a flate 
of uncertainty.—It is impoflible that men fliould certainly 
difcover the agreement or difcernment of ideas, whilft 
their thoughts flutter about, or flick only in founds of 
doubtful fignification. Locke. 
Efleem we thefe, my friends ! event and chance, 
Produc’d by atoms from the ]ifluttering dance ! Prior. 
To FLUT'TER, v. a. To drive in diforder; like a 
flock of birds fuddenly roofed ; 
Like an eagle in a dovecote, I 
Flutter’d your Volfcians in Corioli. Shakcfper.re. 
To hurry the mind.—To diforder the pofltion of any 
thing. 
FLUT'TER,/ Vibration; undulation; quick and ir¬ 
regular motion.—An infinite variety of motions are to be 
made ufe of in the flutter of a fan: there is the angry 
flutter , the mode ([flutter, and the timorous/utter. Spe&at'or. 
—Hurry; tumult; diforder of mind.—Confufion ; irre¬ 
gular pofltion. 
FLUTTERING, / Agitation: 
And all the horrors that the guilty feel, 
With anxious//ute’rh/a,jwake theguiltlefs bread .Armflrong. 
FLUVAN'NA, a county of the American States, in 
Virginia, bounded north by Albemarle, north-eafl by 
Louifa, euft by Goochland, weft by Amherft, and Couth 
by Fluvanna or James river, which divides it from Buck¬ 
ingham. It is twenty-two miles long, and twenty 
broad, and contains 3921 inhabitants. There is great 
plenty of marble, both white and variegated with blue, 
red, and purple, veins, bounding James river, at the 
mouth of Rockfifh ; where it forms a vaft precipice, over¬ 
hanging the navigable part of the river. 
FLU'VIAN, a river of Spain, in Catalonia, which runs 
into the fea, in the Gulf of Rofes. 
FLUVIA'LIS, fl. in botany. See Natas. 
FLUVIA'TIC, adj. [fluviaticus, Lat.] Belonging to 
rivers. 
FLUVIA'TILE, adj. [ fluvius , Lat. a river.] Belong¬ 
ing to a river, growing in or near a river. Scott.—Not much, 
vjed. 
FLUVI'OSE, adj. [ fluvius, Lat. a river.] Flowing, 
flowing much. Scott.—Little ufed. 
FLUX,/, \fluxus, Lat. flux, Fr. ] The add of flowing; 
palfage.—The Ample and primary motion of fire is flux, 
in a dir 61 line from the centre of the fuel to its circum¬ 
ference. Digby. —The (late of pafling away and giving 
place to others.—Languages, like our bodies, are in a per¬ 
petual flux, and (land in need of recruits to fupply thofe 
words that are continually falling. Felton.-^ Any flow or 
a 
iflue of matter.—Quinces flop fluxes of blood. Ar but knot. 
—Dyfentery ; difeafe in which the bowels are excoriated 
and bleed; bloody flux : 
Eat eaftern fpice, fecure 
From burning/zAW and hot calenture. Llallifax. 
Excrement; that which falls from bodies.-—Civet is the 
very uncleanly flux of a cat. Shakeflpeare .—Concourfe 5 
confluence: 
Left and abandon’d of his velvet friends ; 
’Tis right, quoth he ; thus mifery doth part 
The flux of company, Shakeflpeare. 
FLUX, adj. [fluxus, Lat.] Unconflant ; not durable 5 
maintained by a conftant fuceeflion of parts. 
To FLUX, v. a. To melt.—To falivate ; to evacuate.- 
by fpitting.—He might fafhionably and genteelly have 
been duelled or fluxed into another world. South. 
FLUX,/ in hydrography, a regular and periodical mo¬ 
tion of tire fea, happening twice in twenty-four hours and 
forty-eight minutes, nearly ; in which time the water is 
raifed, and driven violently againft the fliores. The flux, 
or flow, is one of the motions of the tide : the other, by 
which the water finks and retires, being called the reflux,, 
or ebb. See the article Tide. —Between the flux and re¬ 
flux there is a kind of reft or ceffation, of about half an, 
hour ; during which time the water is at its greatcfl, 
height, called high-water.— -The flux of the fea follows 
chiefly the courfe of the moon ; and is always higheft 
and greatefl at new and full moons, particularly near the 
time of the equinoxes. In fome parts, as at Mount St, 
Michael, it rifes eighty or ninety feet, though in the open 
fea it never rifes above a foot or two ; and in fome places,, 
as about the Morea, there is no flux at all. It runs up 
fome rivers above 1 20 miles: though up the river Thames 
it goes only about eighty, viz. near to Kingfton in Surry. 
Above London-bridge, the water flows four hours, and 
ebbs eight ; and below the bridge, it flows five hours, and 
ebbs feven. 
FLUX,/, a fubftance ufed to affift the fufion of mi- . 
nerals. In the large way, lime-ftone or fufible fpar are 
the fluxes ; but in fmall allays, or chemical experiments,, 
the fluxes, confift of alkalis, which render the earthy 
mixtures fufible, by converting them into glafs, or glafs. 
into powder. Alkaline fluxes are of three kinds; the 
crude, the white, and the black. Crude flux, is a mixture 
of nitre and tartar, which is put into the crucible with the 
mineral intended to be fufed. The detonation of the 
nitre with the inflammable matter of tire tartar is of fer- 
vice in fome operations ; though generally it is attended 
with inconvenience on account of the fwelling of the 
materials, which may throw them out of the veflel, if 
proper care be not taken. White flux, is formed by pro- 
jedting equal parts of a mixture of nitre and tartar, by. 
moderate portions at a time, into an ignited crucible. In 
the detonation which enfues, the nitrous acid is decom- 
pofed, and flies off with the vegetable acid, and the re¬ 
mainder conlifts of the vegetable alkali in a date of con- 
fiderable purity. Black flux only differs from the preceding 
in the proportion of its ingredients. In this the weight 
of tine tartar is double that of the nitre ; on which ac¬ 
count the combuftion is incomplete, and a confiderable 
portion of the acid and tartar is decompofed by the mere 
heat, and leaves a quantity of coal behind, on which the 
black colour depends. It is generally ufed where metallic 
ores are intended to be reduced. There is danger of lofs, 
however, in the treatment of fulphureous ores with alka¬ 
line fluxes : for, though much of the fulphur may be 
diflipated by roafting, yet that which remains will form 
an hepar with the alkali^ which is a moll powerful folvent 
of metallic bodies. The advantage of Morveau’s reduc¬ 
ing flux feems to depend on its containing no uncombined 
alkali. It is made of eight parts of pulverized glafs, one 
of calcined borax, and half a part of powder of charcoal. 
Care muff be taken to ufe a glafs which contains no lead. 
See Chemistry, vol.iv. p. 239. 
FLUXIBI'LITYj 
