578 
I R N 
which the feeds are Town ffiould be put under a garden- 
frame in winter, to ffielter them from hard frofl. 
The Cape irifes rauli be kept in the dry Itove; and in- 
creafed and managed in the fame manner as other Cape 
bulbs. Many of the African forts, efpecially the cdulis, 
furnifli nutriment both to men and monkeys ; the bulbs 
with the feapes collected in bundles and gently boiled 
are elteemed plealknt and nourilhing. See Ferraria and 
IvIOR/F.A. 
I'JilSH, adj. Belonging to Ireland; produced in Ire¬ 
land ; made in Ireland. 
I RISH,;/! [from the adj.'} The people of Ireland ; the 
natives of Ireland. 
IRISH SE'A, that part of the Atlantic Ocean which 
is between the coafts of Ireland and Great Britain. 
IRISSA'RI, a town of France, in the department of 
the Lower Pyrenees : ten miles fouth-weft of St. Palais. 
IRITI'BA, a river of Brafil, which runs into the At¬ 
lantic in lat. 21. S. 
IRK, a river of England, in the county of Lancafter, 
which runs into the Irwell near Manchefter. 
To IRK, v. a. [■yrk, work, Illandic.] This word is 
ufed moltly imperfonally, as, It irks me\ It gives me pain, 
or, I am weary of it.—It irks his heart he cannot be re¬ 
veng’d. ShaktJ'jieare. 
Come-, ffinll we go and kill us venifon? 
And yet it irks me, the poor dappled fools 
Should, in their own confines, with forked heads, 
Have their round haunches gor’d. Skakefpeare. 
IR'KEN, Jer'kin, or Yar'kan. See Yarkan. 
IRKINEE'VA, a town of Ruffin, in the government of 
Tobollk: 160 miles ealt-north-ealt of Enifeifk. Lat. 58. 
50. N. Ion. p< 3 . E. 
IRK'SOME, adj. Wearifome; tedious; troublefome ; 
toilfome; tirefome; unpleafing.—There is nothing fo irk - 
fame as general difeourfes, efpecially when they turn chiefly 
upon words. Addifon. 
Since that thou can’ll talk of love fo well, 
Thy company, which erlt was irkfome to me, 
I will endure, Shahejpeare. 
IRK'SOMELY, adv. Wearifomely ; tedioully. 
IRK'SOMENESS, /. Tedioufnefs; wearifomenefs : 
That buy the merry madnefs of one hour 
With the long irkfomcnefs of following time. B. Jonfon. 
IR'KUT, a river of Ruffia, which runs into the An¬ 
gara oppoiite Irkutik. 
IR'ICUTSK, a town of Ruffia, and capital of a govern¬ 
ment, to which it gives name, on the Angara, near lake 
Baikal; the fee of a Greek archbilhop, and a place of 
confiderable commerce, the caravans which trade to China 
palling through it : 840 miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Kolivan, 
1248 ealt Ibuth-eaft of Tobollk. Lat. 52. 4. N. Ion. 95. E. 
IRKUT'SKOl, a government of Ruffia, containing all 
that part of Siberia which lies beyond the 107th degree 
of ealt longitude ; bounded on the north by the Frozen 
Sea, on the ealt by the North Pacific Ocean, on the fouth 
by Chinefe Tartary, and on the weft by the governments 
of Kolivan and Tobollk. It is the largeft and leaft popu¬ 
lous of all the Ruffian governments, and is divided into 
the four provinces of Irkutik, Nertchinlk, Yakutik, and 
Ochotlk, from the four principal towns. 
IR'MA-HIS'SAR, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in Na- 
tolia: forty miles fouth-eall of Caltamena. 
IR'MUNSAL, fuppofed to be the fame with Mercury; 
an idol worfliipped by the ancient Britons. 
IRNE'E, a town of Hindooftan, in the circar of Ma* 
bur : thirty-eight miles north of Mahur. 
IRNE'RIUS, Wer'nerus, or Guar'nerus, a cele¬ 
brated ju-rift of the twelfth century, has by lome been 
fuppofed a German, by others a Miianefe, but, according 
to Tirabofchi, was certainly a native of Bologna. He 
Frit taught philafophy in that city, but acquired his dif- 
tinttion by being the fir if who opened a fchool for the 
I R O 
Roman law in Italy, afterits interruption by the invafions 
of the barbarous nations. Some, indeed, iuppofe that it 
had before been ftudied at Ravenna, and that it was thence 
transferred to Bologna. Irnerius was, however, the firlt 
who compoled gloffes upon the Roman law, not only 
up;»u the Code and Inllitutions, but upon the Digell. He 
obtained a great reputation by his-labours ; and in a plea 
of the countefs Matilda, in 1113, the name of Warnerius, 
a Bolognefe lawyer, Hands before that of any other of 
the profeffion. The fame thing is found in pleas of the 
emperor Henry IV/ in the years 1116, 17, and 18, which 
ffiows that he occalionally attended upon the court of 
that monarch. In iii8 he accompanied Henry to Rome, 
where he was employed to perfuade the Romans to the 
election of the anti-pope Burdin. No later record of him 
exilts, yet he is thought to have lived to the time of Lo- 
thaire II. who is laid at his inftigation to have introduced 
into academies the form of creating doctors. 
IROI'S POINT, vulgarly called Irijli Point, a village on 
the welt end of the iiland of St. Domingo. 
I'RON, f. Jiaiarn, Welfli; ipepn, ljten, Sax. iorn, 
Erfe.] A metal common to all parts of the world.— of 
all metals it is confiderably the liardeft; and, when pure, 
naturally malleable: when wrought into fteel, or when in 
the impure Itate from its firlt fufion, it is ftarcely mallea¬ 
ble. Molt of the other metals are brittle, while they are 
hot; but this is moll malleable as it approaches nearelt to 
fufion. The lpecific gravity of iron is to water-as 7632 
is to 1000. It is the only known fubfiance that is at¬ 
tracted by the load-ltone. Iron has greater medicinal vir¬ 
tues than any of the other metals. Hill. —In a piece of 
iron ore, of a ferruginous colour, are feveral thin plates, 
placed parallel to each other. There are incredible quan¬ 
tities of iron flag in various parts of the foreft of Dean. 
Iron (lone lies in ftrata. Woodward. 
Nor airlefs dungeon, nor llrong links of iron, 
Can be retentive to the Itrength of fpirit. Shakefpeare. 
For the different fpecies of iron, fee Ferrum in the article 
Mineralogy ; and for its magnetical properties, fee 
Magi^tism. 
Mr. W. Cook, of Birmingham, has publiflied fome in¬ 
genious oblervations on the benefits that would refult from 
the employment of an indigenous material, as a fubllitute 
for mahogany and other coltly woods ufed for furniture 
and the fimlhing of houfes. The lubftitute which he pro¬ 
motes is iron. In bedlleads for inltance, the pods, as well 
as the frame, might be call hollow ; the former might be 
beautifully wreathed with flowers, felloons, or clulters of 
fruit, or emboffed with numberlefs fanciful ornaments, 
which the workman might touch up with his graver and 
chifel, to clear them from the fand, and to make them 
fharp and neat before they go to the finilher. The painter 
might colour them, fo as to give them a more handfome 
and elegant appearance than it is poffible to give to carved, 
wood. This would furnilh employment to numberlefs 
hands, and afford ample fcope for ingenuity. Chelts of 
drawers, bookcafes, and bureaus, might all be made of 
Iheet-iron. Such furniture would be made at a confidera¬ 
bly lei's price than articles of mahogany ; it would not 
be heavier than wood; it would be more beautiful; and, 
exclulive of the convenience for removal, as it might eaiily 
be taken to pieces, and all the parts fcrewed up again 
without injury, it would afford a great fecurity againlt 
fire and bugs. 
The fuperiority of iron for roofs of houfes, in lieu of 
wood, in Itrength, durability, and expence, is exemplified 
in a roof lately conftruCted by the Aberdare Iron-Com¬ 
pany, and put up at Newport, Monmouthfliire. It covers 
a building forty feet long; and twenty-one feet wide over 
the walls, and confills of feven main couples, two leading 
couples, and wall-plating, all of call-iron, wrouglit-iron 
laths, ferew-pins, &c. total weight 2 ton, 4 cwt. 2 qrs,, 
2olb. being fufficiently llrong to fuftain the heavielt Itoile- 
tiie of country, and is in itlelf lighter than one of wood. 
