614 F O S 
which, becaufe we difcover them by digging into the 
bowels ot" the earth, are called by one common name 
fojjih ; under which are comprehended metals and mine¬ 
rals. Locke. —Many foffils are very oddly and elegantly 
ffiaped. Bentley. —Thofe bodies which will melt in the 
fire are called minerals, the reft foffils Pemberton. 
Foffil, and mineral, are words which have been often con¬ 
founded ; but the word foffil correCHy denotes a vegetable 
or animal fubftance, which has become mineralifed.—For 
this curious procefs of nature, fee the article Minera¬ 
logy. 
FOS'SIL-ME AL, called alfo laclune , mineral argaric, 
and guhr, is, according to M. Fabbroni, a mixed earth, 
which exhales an argillaceous odour, and throws out a 
light whitifti fmoke when fprinkled with water. It is 
abundant in Tufcany, where it is employed for cleaning 
plate. It does not effervefee with acids ; is infufible in 
the fire, in which it lofes an eighth part of its weight, 
though it becomes fcarcely diminifhed in bulk ; and, ac¬ 
cording to the analyfts made by M. Fabbroni, conftfts of 
the following component parts: (iliceous earth 55, mag- 
nefia 15, water 14, argil 12, lime 3, iron 1. With this 
earth, which is found near Cafteldelpiano in the territo¬ 
ries of Sienna, M. Fabbroni compofed bricks, which, 
either baked or unbaked, floated in water. Hence he in¬ 
fers, that the floating bricks, which Pliny mentions as 
peculiar to Maflilua and Calento, two cities in Spain, 
mud have been made of foffil meal. Bricks made of 
that fubftance refill water exceedingly well, and unite 
perfectly with lime; they are fubjedt to no alteration 
either by heat or cold ; and about a twentieth part of 
argil may be added with advantage to their compofition, 
without depriving them of the property of floating. 
M. Fabbroni tried their reliftance, and found it very little 
inferior to that of common bricks ; but it is much greater 
in proportion to their lightnefs. One of thefe bricks, 
feven inches in length, four and a half in breadth, and 
one inch eight lines in thicknefs, weighed only fourteen 
ounces and a quarter ; whereas a common brick weighed 
five pounds fix ounces and three-quarters. Bricks of 
foflil-meal may be of important benefit in the conftrudlion 
of reverberating furnaces ; as they are fuch bad con¬ 
ductors of heat, that a perfon may bring one half of 
them to a red heat, while the other is held in the hand. 
They may be employed alfo for buildings that require to 
be light; for conftruCting cooking places on-board (hips ; 
and alfo floating batteries, the parapets of which, if 
made of thefe bricks, would be proof againft red-hot 
bullets; and, laftly, for conftrudting powder magazines. 
FOSSIL'OGY, f. [foffilis, Lat. and Aoy&j, Gr. a dif- 
courfe.] The fcience of foffils, or that department of mi¬ 
neralogy which inveftigates the nature and formation of 
thofe concrete animal and vegetable fubftances found in 
the bowels of the earth. See Mineralogy. 
FOSSOMBRO'NE, a town of Italy, in the ftate of the 
Church, and duchy of Urbino, on the Metro, the fee of 
a bilhop, fuffragan of Urbino: ten miles fouth-eaft of 
Urbino. 
FOS'SUM, a town ef Norway, in the diocefe of Agger- 
huus : twenty-three miles weft of Chriftiana. 
FOS'TA, a town of Sweden, in the province of Sma- 
land : twenty-one miles eaft of Upfal. 
FOS'TAT, Forstat, or Masr-el-atik, a town of 
Egypt, near Cairo, which though greatly decayed, may 
ftiil be confideredus a fuburbof Cairo of the middle fize. 
It has a cuftom-houfe, where the duties on goods from 
Upper Egypt are paid. In a large fquare, inclofed with 
a wall, government ftore up, in the open air, a confidera- 
ble quantity of grain every year. Some authors fpeak 
ef this as a granary built by the patriarch Jofeph ; but 
the wall is plainly of a later date than even the conqueft 
of Egypt by the Arabians. The old citadel of Mafr is 
inhabited, at prefent, by none but Chriftians. In it are 
to be feen feveral churches of the Greeks and Copts, 
with a convent of monks of the latter nation. A grotto } 
F O S 
under one of the Coptic churches, is regarded with high 
veneration, becaufe it is fuppoled to have been the re¬ 
treat of the Holy Family, when they fled into Egypt. 
The Greeks have a church, famous fora miracle of a An¬ 
gular nature : idiots recover their fenfes upon being bound 
to a certain pillar of it. Between this town and Cairo is 
an aqueduCt, which was conftruCted in the beginning of 
the fixth century, by fultan Gari, and conveys water into 
the neighbourhood of the caftle. Near the canal is a con¬ 
vent of Dervifes, celebrated tor the elegance of the build¬ 
ing, and the opulence of the foundation ; and near this 
convent are large fquares, in which the principal inhabi¬ 
tants of Cairo, amufe themfelves with military exercifes. 
The fmall village of Geefh ftands on the fouthern bank of 
the Nile, oppofite to Foftat. Its origin is unknown. The 
heights around it, which have no doubt been raifed by 
the accumulation of the dirt from the ciiy, feenn to be- 
fpeak its antiquity. Here are fome country-houfes be¬ 
longing to rich inhabitants of Cairo, and fome manu¬ 
factories. 
FOS'TER, /. [contracted from Forester.] A rude 
inhabitant of a foreft : 
So as they gazed after her a whyle, 
Lo ! where a griefly fojler forth did rufk, 
Breathing out beaftly luft her to defyle. Spenfcr. 
To FOS'TER, v. a. [po^tpinn, Sax.] To nurfe ; to 
feed; to fupport; to train up .—Fojlering has always been 
a (tronger alliance than blood. Davies. 
The fon of Mulciber, 
Found in the fire, and JoJler'd. in the plains, 
A Ihepherd and a king at once he reigns. Drydcn. 
To pamper; to encourage. To cherilh ; to forward s 
Ye fojlering breezes, blow ; 
Ye foftening dews, ye tender fhowers, defeend. Thompfon, 
To FOS'TER v. n. To be foftered.—Other great houfes 
there be of the Englifh in Ireland, which through licen¬ 
tious converling with the Irifh, or marrying, or fojlering 
with them, have degenerated. Spenfer. 
FOS'TER (James), a learned Englifh nonconformift 
divine, the fon of a fuller, born at Exeter in 1697. He 
commenced public preacher in the year 1718, and was 
much admired in feveral places where he occafionally of¬ 
ficiated. In 1724 he was chofen to fucceed Dr. Gale, 
by the baptift congregation in Barbican, London, to whom 
he officiated in the paftoral connection, with the ntraoft 
fidelity, for more than twenty years. In 1728 he engaged 
in a Sunday evening lecture in the Old Jewry, which he 
carried on till near the time of his death, with a degree 
of popularity which was unexampled among the proteft- 
ant dilfenters. “ Here,” fays Dr. Fleming, “ was a con¬ 
fluence of perfons of every rank, ftation, and quality.” 
In 1731, Mr. Fofter publifhed a treatife, entitled The 
Ufefulnefs, Truth, and Excellency, of the Chriftian Re¬ 
velation defended againft the Objections contained in a 
late Book, entitled Chriftianity as old as the Creation, &c. 
8vo. This performance met with fuch general appro¬ 
bation, that repeated impreffions were foon demanded by 
the public. Even Dr. Tindal, againft whofe work it 
was written, is faid always to have fpoken of it with great 
refpeCt. In 1734, Mr. Fofter publifhed a volume of Ser¬ 
mons, on various interefting fubjeCts, in 8vo. which 
was fo well received that a fourth edition of it was print¬ 
ed in 1745. One of thefe fermons, on the fubjeCt of he- 
refy, engaged him in a controverfy with Dr. Henry Steb- 
bing, then one of the king’s chaplains, and preacher to 
the Society of Gray’s-inn. The Letters and Anfwers, of 
thefe controvertifts, were publifhed at different periods in 
1735, and the two following years. Mr. Fofler’s next 
publications were three additional volumes of Sermons, 
of which the laft appeared in 1744. In that year he was 
chofen to fucceed Dr. Jeremiah Hum, in the paftoral 
charge of the proteftant diffenting congregation at Pin- 
ner’s-hall. In 1746, he was called upon lo perform a 
melancholy 
