39 
INF 
years 1741 and 1757. Cuttings of iron, which had been 
left in water, and were afterwards expofed to the open 
air, gave fparks, a#d fet fire to the neighbouring bodies. 
The caufes of t’nefe phenomena the chemilt will aflign ; 
but they are here recorded as a warning, to tradefmen and 
others. It is evident, from the faffs which have been re¬ 
lated, that, fpontaneous inflammations being very fre¬ 
quent, and their caufes very various, too much attention 
and vigilance cannot be ufed to prevent their dreadful 
effects. And confequently it is impoflible to be too care¬ 
ful in watching over public magazines and ftorehoufes, 
particularly thofe belonging to the ordnance, or thofe in 
which are kept hemp, cordage, lamp-black, pitch, tar, 
oiled-cloths, &c. which fubftances ought never to be left 
heaped up, particularly if they have any moifture in them. 
In order to prevent any accident from them, it would be 
proper to examine them often, to take notice if any heat 
is to be obferved in them, and, in that cafe, to apply a re¬ 
medy immediately. Thefe examinations fhould be made 
by day, it not being advifable to carry a light into the 
magazines; for, when the fermentation is fufficiently ad¬ 
vanced, the vapours which are difengaged by it are in an 
inflammable ftate, and the approach of a light might, by 
their means, fet fire to the fubftances whence they pro¬ 
ceed. Ignorance of the before-mentioned circumftances, 
and a culpable negligence of thofe precautions which 
ought to be taken, have often caufed more misfortunes 
and lofs than the molt contriving malice ; it is therefore 
of great importance that thefe fails fhould be univerfally 
known, that public utility may reap from them every pol- 
fible advantage. 
We have hinted, at the beginning of this article, that 
the human body has fometimes been confumed by fpon¬ 
taneous inflammation, that is, by fire generated within. 
Of this moft dreadful of all fufferings for a human being, 
but few inftances are recorded upon good authority; fome 
however are fo, for a few of which lee the article Burn¬ 
ing, vol. iii. p. 533. and a more extenfive catalogue, with 
a full examination into the fubjeit, accompanied by Rat¬ 
able reflections, may be found in a monthly publication 
called the Britannic Magazine, vol. xi. p. 79-86. 
INFLAM'MATIVE, adj. Tending to inflammation. 
Scott. 
INFLAM'MATORY, adj. Having the power of in¬ 
flaming.—The extremity of pain often creates a coldnefs 
in the extremities; fuch a fenfation is very confident with 
an inflammatory diftemper. Arbuthnot. 
To INFLA'TE, v. a. [inflatus , Lat.] To fwell with 
wind.—Vapours are no other than inflated veficulae of wa¬ 
ter. Derkam. —To fill with the breath : 
With might and main they chas’d the mtird’rous fox, 
With brazen trumpets and inflated box, 
To kindle Mars with military founds, 
Nor wanted horns t’ infpire fagacious hounds. Dryden. 
INFLA'TING,/. The aft of diilending with wind. 
INFLA'TION, f. The ftate of being fwelled with wind 5 
flatulence.—Wind coming upwards, inflations and tu¬ 
mours of the belly, are figns of a phlegmatic constitution. 
Arbuthnot. 
To INFLECT, v.a. [infleXo, Lat.] To bend; to turn. 
—Do not the rays of light.wbich fall upon bodies, begin 
to bend before they arrive at the bodies ? And are they 
not reflected, refrafted, and inflefied, by one and the fame 
principle, afting varioufly in various circumftances ? 
Newton's Optics. 
What makes them"this one way their race direft. 
While they a thoufand other ways reject ? 
Why do they never once their courfe wjltll ? Blackmore. 
To vary a noun or verb in its terminations. 
INFLECTING,/. The act of bending. 
INFLECTION,/, [inflettio, Lat.] The act of bend¬ 
ing or turning.—Neither the divine determinations, per- 
fuafions, or inflexions of the und?rftanding or will of rati- 
INF 
onal creatures, doth deceive the underftanding, pervert the 
will, or necefiitate either to any moral evil. Hale. —Modu¬ 
lation of the voice.—His virtue, his gefture, his counte¬ 
nance, his zeal, the motion of his body, and the inflexion 
of his voice, who firft uttereth them as his own, is that 
which giveth the very eflence of inftruments available to 
eternal life. Hooker. —In grammar, the variation of nouns 
and verbs, by declenfion and conjugation. Variation as 
it refpefts dialeft.—The fame word in the original tongue, 
by divers inflexions and variations, makes divers dialefts. 
Brerewood. 
Inflection, in optics, called alfo diffraftion, and de¬ 
flection, of the rays of light, is a property of them, by 
reafon of which, when they come within a certain dis¬ 
tance of any body, they will either be bent from it or 
towards it; being a kind of imperfeft reflection or refrac¬ 
tion. See the article Optics. 
Some writers aferibe the difeovery of this property to 
Grimaldi, who firft publiftied an account of it in his 
treatife De Lumine , Coloribus, £? Iridc, printed in 1666. 
But Dr. Hook alfo claims the difeovery, and communi¬ 
cated his obfervations on this fubjedt to the Royal Socie¬ 
ty, in 1672. He lhows that this property differs both 
from reflection and refraClion ; and that it feems to de¬ 
pend on the unequal denfity of the conftituent parts of 
the ray, by which the light is difperfed from the place of 
condenfation, and rarefied or gradually diverged into a 
quadrant; and this defleftion, he fays, is made towards 
the fuperficies of the opaque body perpendicularly. 
Newton difeovered, by experiments, this inflection of 
the rays of light; which may be feen in his Optics. 
M. De la Hire, obferved, that when we look at a can¬ 
dle, or any luminous body, with our eyes nearly Ihut, 
rays of light are extended from it, in feveral directions, 
to a confiderable diftance, like the tails of comets. The 
true caufe of this phenomenon, which has exercifed the 
fagacity of Des Cartes, Rohault, and others, feems to be, 
that the light parting among the eyelalhes in this fitua- 
tion of the eye, is infleCted by its near approach to them, 
and therefore enters the eye in a great variety of direc¬ 
tions. He alfo obferves, that he found that the beams of 
the itars being obferved, in a deep valley, to pafs near 
the brow of a hill, are always more refraCted than if there 
were no fuch hill, or the obfervation were made on the 
top of it; as if the rays of light were bent down into a 
curve, by parting near the furface of the mountain. 
Point of Inflection, in the higher geometry, is a 
point where a curve begins to bend a contrary way. 
INFLECTIVE, adj.- Having the power of bending.—- 
This infleXive quality of the air is a great incumbrance 
and confufion of aftronomical obfervations. Derkam. 
INFLEXIBILITY,/ [ inflexibility , Fr. from inflexible .] 
Stiffnefs; quality of refilling, flexure.—Obltinacy ; temper 
not to be bent; inexorable pertinacity. 
INFLEXIBLE, adj. [Fr. from inflexibilis, Lat.] Not 
to be bent or incurvated.:—Such errors as are but acorns 
in our younger brows, grow oaks in our older heads, and 
become inflexible to the powerful arm of reafon. Brown .— 
Not to be prevailed on ; immoveable.—A man of an up¬ 
right and inflexible temper, in the execution of his coun¬ 
try’s laws, can overcome all private fear. Addifon. 
The man refolv’d and Heady to his trull. 
Inflexible to ill, and obftinately juft. Addifon, 
Not to be changed or altered.—The nature of things is 
inflexible, and their natural relations unalterable; we mult 
bring our underltapding to things, and not bend things 
to our fancies. Watts. 
INFLEX'IBLENESS, / Inflexibility. 
INFLEXIBLY, adv. Inexorably; invariably; without 
relaxation or remiflion.—It fliould be begun early, and 
inflexibly kept to, ’till there appears not the leaft reluc- 
tancy. Locke. 
INFLEXION,/ Bending, &c. See Inflection. 
To INFLICT, v, a. {jnfligo; Lat. infliger, Fr.] To put 
s in 
