I N S 
I N S 
To IN'SULATE, v. a. To make into an ifland. Bailey. 
. _To phice any thing by itfelf, detached from adjacent 
objects; chiefly tiled in eleftricity. See the next word. 
IN'SULATE, or Insulated, adj. [ infula , Lat. an 
ifland.] Not contiguous on any fide; a term applied to a 
column or other edifice, which Hands alone, or fiee and 
detached from any adjacent wall, &c. like an ifland in the 
fea. In electricity, a term applied to bodies that are flip- 
pert ed by eleftrics, or nou-conduftors; fo that their com¬ 
munication with the earth, by conducting iubltances, is 
interrupted. 
IN'SULOUS, adj. Full of iflands. Badey._ 
INSUL'SE, adj. [infuitus, Lat.] Dull; infipid ; heavy. 
IN'SULT, f \_infultus, Lat. infulte, Fr.] The aft of leap- 
in 0 ' upon any thing. In this fenfe it has the accent on 
the lalt fyllable : the fenfe is rare: 
The bull’s vifult at four flip may fuftain, 
But after ten from nuptial rites refrain. Dryden. 
Act or fpeech of infolence or contempt.—Take the fen- 
tence ferioufly, becattfe railleries ate an infalt on the un¬ 
fortunate. Brcom. 
The ruthlefs fneer that infull adds to grief. Savage. 
To INSULT', v. a. To treat with infolence or con¬ 
tempt.—It is tiled lometimes with over, fometirnes without 
a prepofition.—The poet makes his hero, after he was 
glutted by the death of Hector, and the honour he did 
.his friend by infulting over his murderer, to be moved by 
■the tears of king Priam. Pope. 
So ’feapes the infulting fire his narrow jail, 
And makes fmall outlets into open air. Dryden. 
Ev’n when they fing at eafe in full content, 
Infulting o'er the toil they underwent. 
Yet ftill they find a future talk remain, 
To turn the foil. Dryden. 
INSULTA'TION, f. The aft of infulting.—When lie 
looks upon his enemy’s dead body, ’tis a kind of noble 
keavinefs, no infultation. Overbury. 
INSULT'ER, A One who treats another with infolent 
triumph : 
Ev’n man, the mercilefs infulter man, 
Man, who rejoices in our lex’s weaknefs, 
.Shall pity thee. Roux. 
INSULT'ING, /. The act of treating with infolence, 
INSULTINGLY, adv. With contemptuous triumph ; 
Infultingly, he made your love his boaft, 
Gave me my life, and told me what it coft. Dryden. 
INSUL'TURE, / The aft of leaping upon. Bailey. 
INSU'MA, a town of Arabia, in the province of Heds- 
jas t 100 miles iouth-weft ot Mecca. 
INSU'PER, adv. [Lat. over and above.] A word ufed 
by auditors in their accounts in the exchequer ; as when 
fo much is charged upon a perfon as due on his account, 
they fay fo much remains infuper to fucli an accountant. 
INSUPERABILITY, f. [from infuperable. ] The qua¬ 
lity or being-invincible. . . 
INSU'PER ABLE, adj. [infuptrabilis , Lat.] Invincible ; 
infurmountable; not to be conquered; not to be over¬ 
come.—Much might be done, would we but^endeavour ; 
nothing is infuperable to pains and patience. Ray. 
And middle natures how they long to join, 
Yet never pafs th’ infuperable line. Pope. 
INSU'PER ABLENESS, /. Invinciblenefs ; impoffibi- 
dity to be furmounted. 
INSU'PER ABLY, adv. Invincibly; infurmountably.— 
Between the grain and the vein of a diamond there is this 
difference, that the former furthers, the latter, being fo 
infuperably hard, hinders, thefplitting of it. Grew's Mvfawn. 
INSUPPOR'TABLE, adj. [Fr. from in and fupportable.] 
jUfttoierable; infufferable; not to be endured.—Adifgrace 
put upon a man in company is infupportoble ; it is heigh¬ 
tened according to the greatnefs, and multiplied accord¬ 
ing to the number, of the perfons that hear. South. 
INSUPPOR'T ABLENESS, / Infufferablenefs; the (rate 
of being beyond endurance.—Then fell (he to fo pitiful a 
declaration of the infupportablenefs of her deiires, that Do- 
rus’s ears procured his eyes with tears to give teftimony 
how much they fuffered for her fuffering. Sidney. 
INSUPPOR'TABLY, adv. Beyond endurance.—The 
firft day’s audience fufficiently convinced me, that the 
poem was infupportably too long. Dryden. 
But fafeft he who flood aloof. 
When infupportably his foot advanc’d. 
In fcorn of their proud arms, and warlike tools, 
Spurn’d them to death by troops. Milton. 
INSUPPRES'SIVE, adj. Not to be fuppreffed: 
Do not fiain 
The even virtue of our enterprife. 
Nor tli’ infupprejfive mettle of our fpirits. Shakefpectre. 
INSU'RANCE, f. in law ar.d commerce, a contraft, 
whereby one party engages to pay the Ioffes which the 
other may fuftain, for a ftipulated premium or confidera- 
tion. The molt common forts are, infurance againft the 
dangers of the feas, infurance againft fire, and infurance 
of lives; for particulars of all which, fee Assurance, 
vol.ii. p. 293. 
It has been conceived, from a paffage in Suetonius, that 
Claudius Csefar was the firft who invented the cuftom of 
infurance 5 but, with greater probability, Savary, in his 
DiBionaire de Commerce, title Affurance, thinks this cuftom 
•was firft introduced by the Jews in the year 1182; but 
whoever was the firft contriver, or original inventor, of 
this ufeful branch of bufinefs, it has been many ages 
p raft i fed in this kingdom, and is fuppofed to have been 
introduced here by fome Italians from Lombardy, who at 
the,fame time came to fettle at Antwerp, and among us; 
and, this being prior to the building of the Royal Ex¬ 
change, they ufed to meet in a place where Lombard-ftreet 
now is, at a lioufe they had called the Pawn-houfe, or 
Lombard, for tranfacling bufinefs; and, as they were then 
the fple negociators in infurance, the policies made by 
others in after-times had a claufe inferted, that thofe lat¬ 
ter ones fliould have as much force and effect as thofe for¬ 
merly made in Lombard-ftreet. This latter opinion is 
adopted by Mr. Parke, in his Syftem of the Law of Marine 
Infurances; to which excellent work we beg to refer the 
reader who willies to become acquainted with the points 
of law relating to infurance of every kind ; or, fora very 
good abridgement of it, to Jacob’s Law Dictionary, arti¬ 
cle Infurance. 
According to Beckmann, the oldeft laws and regula- 
ti’ons refpefting infurance are the following. On the 
28th of January, 1523, five perfons, who had received an 
appointment for that purpofe, drew up fome articles at 
Florence, which continue to be employed on the exchange 
at Leghorn. Thefe interelting regulations, and the pre- 
feribed form of policies, which are deemed the oldelf, 
were inferted by Magens, in his Treatife on Infurance, 
publilhed at Hamburgh in Italian and German, in the 
year 1753. A fhort regulation of the 25th May, 1537, by 
the emperor Charles V. refpefting bills of exchange and 
infurance, is ftill preferved, in which even the fulfilling 
of an agreement is ftriftly commanded. In the year 1556, 
Philip II. of Spain gave the Spanilh merchants certain re¬ 
gulations refpefting infurance, which Magens has inferted 
in the fore-mentioned work. They contain fome forms 
of policies on fliips going to the Indies. The chamber of 
infurance was eftabliflied at Amfterdam in 1598, an ac¬ 
count of the firft regulations of which office was pnbliflied 
by Pontanus, in his hiftory of that city. Regulations re¬ 
fpefting infurance were formed by the city of Middle- 
burgh in Zealand in the year 1600; and it appears that 
the firft regulations refpefting infurances in England were 
1 mad? 
