There

FO'RMER. a. (from roɲma, Saxon, first.) 1. Before another in time (Shakspeare). 2. Mentioned before another (Pope). 3. Past: as, this was the custom in former times. FORMERLY. ad. In times past (Add.). FORMIAT. See FORMIC ACID. FORMIC ACID. Acid of auts. can be no doubt that the strong acid smell which is observed to arise from the atmosphere of an ant-bed, after being disturbed, must have been known to the ancients, but from their want of chemical knowledge, it is not very extraordinary that they should have been ignorant that this smell proceeded from an acid of a peculiar kind. In more modern times, the existence of this acid was first made known by Mr. Ray, in a correspondence with Dr. Hulse. The doctor informed him that these insects, when irritated, give out a clear liquid, which tinges blue flowers red; a fact which had been observed by others. Hence it was found to be an acid, which was obtained by bruising the insects, by distilling them, and by infusing them in water. The French chemists obtain ed the acid by bruising ants, and macerating them in alcohol. When the alcohol was distilled over, an acid liquor remained, which saturated with lime, mixed with sulphuric acid, and distilled, yielded a liquid that possessed all the properties of acetic acid. This acid has been thought by some chemists, and especially by Margraaf, to be acetic acid, or at least to have a great analogy to vinegar; and by others to be a mixture of acetic and malic acid. A minute examination of it, however, sufficiently proves, that it differs very essentially from both, whether separate or in conjunction, quite as much, indeed, as these differ from each other; it differs in its specific gravity, in its effects with alkalies, in its metallic salts, and in its affinities.

Thouvenel, on the contrary, contended, that it is very closely related to the phosphoric, or, as he calls it, the microcosmic; but he has not stated in what the relation or analogy consists. Lister affirmed that he had extracted a similar acid from wasps and bees; but Arvidson and Oehrn failed in making the attempt after him, nor has any one been able to succeed since.

The formic acid, therefore, is an acid sui generis: it is extracted from ants, either by distillation or expression with water; in the living insect it reddens blue flowers; flies off in the form of a vapour smelling like musk: destroys animals under this gasseous form; is capable of serving economical purposes like vinegar; is decomposed by a great heat; takes oxygen from oxygenated muriatic acid; and forms salts with alkalies and earths, which are crystallizable and not deliquescent.

These salts are called formiats.

FORMICA. Ant or emmet. In zoology, a genus of the class insecta, order hymenoptera. Feelers four, unequal with cylindrical articulations placed at the tip of the lip which is cylindrical, and nearly membranaceous; antennas filiform; a small erect scale between the thorax and abdomen; females and neuters

(or rather those commonly called neuters) armed with a concealed sting; males and females with wings; neuters wingless. This is a gregarious and proverbially industrious family, consisting, like bees, of males, females, and a third kind which are yet called neuters. These last are the well-known little insects who construct the nests or ant-hills, who labour with such unremitting assiduity for the support of themselves and the idle males and females, and who guard with such ferocity the larves, or what are commonly called ants eggs. They wander about all day in search of food or materials for the nest; and assist each other in bringing home what is too cumbersome for such as have attempted it. They every day bring out of the nest and expose to the warmth of he sun the newly hatched larvæ, and feed them till they are able to provide for themselves. In the evening they consume together whatever has been collected during the day, and do not, as is commonly supposed, lay up any store for the winter, but probably against that season become torpid or die. They are peculiarly fond of plant-lice, and are themselves eagerly sought after by the ant-eater and various birds. A very grateful acid is procured from them by maceration and distillation. See FORMIC ACID: as also Nat. Hist, Plate CXVI.

1. F. cœespitum. This is the common ant or emmet: black in colour, petiole of the abdomen with two tubercles: scutel two-toothed. Inhabits Europe in dry meadows under moss. The males and females fly abroad in large swarms in a serene day, like the day fly.

2. F. herculanea. Herculanean ant. So called from being the largest species of the genus: in colour black; abdomen ovate; legs ferruginous. Found chiefly in dry woods of pine or fir, where it inhabits a large conical nest or hillock, composed of dry vegetable fragments, chiefly of fir-leaves; the nest is internally divided into distinct roads or avenues converging towards the centre, and opening externally in the centre are placed the young larvæ under the care of the neutrals. Found in our own country, and in Europe in general.

3. F. omnivora. Thorax rough, with raised dots; petiole with two tubercles; body testaceous; abdomen very minute. Inhabits Surinam; and in such swarms that a sheep killed and left abroad in the evening will be found entirely devoured by the morning.

FORMICATION, in building, arched

vaulting.

FORMIDABLE. a. (formidabilis, Lat.) Terrible; dreadful; tremendous; terrific.

FORMIDABLENESS. s. (from formidable.) 1. The quality of exciting terror or dread. 2. The thing causing dread (D. of P.). FORMIDABLY. ad. (from formidable.) In a terrible manner (Dryden).

FO'RMLESS. a. (from form.) Shapeless; wanting regularity of form (Shakspeare).

FORMOSA, a large island in the Eastern ocean, between 119° and 1220 E. lon, and 229 and 25° N. lat. about 100 miles E. of Canton

in China. It is subject to the Chinese, who, notwithstanding its proximity, did not know of its existence till the year 1430. It is about 255 miles long and 75 broad. A long chain of mountains, running from N. to S. divides it into two parts, the E. and W. The Dutch built the fort of Zealand in the W. part in 1634. This secured to them the principal port of the island. They were driven thence in 1661 by a Chinese pirate, who had made himself master of all the W. part. But in 1682 the whole island submitted to the emperor of China. It contains extensive and fertile plains, watered by a great number of rivulets that fall from the mountains. Its air is pure and wholesome; and the earth produces abundance of corn, rice, &c.

FORMULA, or FORMULARY, a rule or model, or certain terms prescribed or decreed by authority, for the form and manner of an act, instrument, proceeding, or the like. FORMULA, in church history and theology, signifies a profession of faith.

FORMULA, in medicine, a little form of prescription, such as physicians direct in extemporaneous practice, in distinction from the greater forms in pharmacopoeias, &c.

FORMULA, in mathematics, a theorem or general rule or expression for resolving certain particular cases of some problem, &c. So d

2

+ - is a general formula for the greater of two quantities whose sum is s and difference d. d; and

2

2

is the formula, or general value

for the less quantity. Again da- is the formula or general value of the ordinate of a circle whose diameter is d and absciss r.

FORNAX, a goddess at Rome, who presided over the baking of bread. Her festivals, called Fornicalia, were first instituted by Numa. (Ovid).

FORNAX CHEMICA, in astronomy, the chemist's furnace, a new southern constellation, consisting of 14 stars of the first six magnitudes, i. e. 0. 0. 0. 1. 2. 11.

FORNICATE. (fornix, an arch or vault.) In botany, ARCHED or VAULTED, which

see.

To FO'RNICATE. v. a. (from fornix, Lat.) To commit lewdness (Brown).

FORNICATION. s. (fornication, Fr.) 1. Concubinage, or commerce with an unmarried woman (Graunt). 2. In scripture, some times idolatry (Ezekiel).

tricle, over the third ventricle, and below the septum lucidum.

FORRAGE, among military men, denotes hay, oats, barley, wheat, grass, clover, &c. brought into the camp by the troopers, for the sustenance of their horses.

FORRES, a town of Murrayshire, seated on an eminence, 2 miles E. of the river Findhorn. Here are manufactures of linen and sewing thread; and east froin the town is a remarkable obelisk 23 feet high, said to be the most stately monument of the Gothic kind to be seen in Europe.

To FORSA'KE. v. a. preter. forsook; part. pass. forsook or forsaken. (versarken, Dutch.) 1. To leave in resentment or dislike (Cowley) 2. To leave; to go away from (Dryden). 3. To desert; to fail (Rowe).

FORSA'KER. s. (from forsake.) Deserter; one that forsakes (Apocrypha).

FORSKOLEA, in botany, a genus of the class octandria, order tetragynia. Calyx four or five-leaved, longer than the corol; petals eight or ten, spatulate pericarpless; seeds four or five, connected by wool. Three species; Egypt, Teneriffe, and the Cape.

FORSOOTH. ad. (forrode, Saxon.) In truth; certainly very well (Hayward).

FORSTER (John Reinhold, LL.D.) professor of natural history in the university of Halle, member of the academy of science at Berlin, and of other learned societies, was born at Dirschau, in West Prussia, in the month of October, 1729, and was formerly a Protestant clergyman at Dantzick. He had a numerous family, and the emoluments of his office were slender. He therefore quitted Dantzick, and went, first to Russia, and thence to England, in quest of a better settlement than his own country afforded. In the Socinian academy at Warrington, he was appointed tutor in the modern languages, with the occasional office of lecturing in various branches of natural history. For the first of these he was by no means well qualified; his extraordinary knowledge of languages, ancient and modern, being unaccompanied by a particle of taste. As a natural historian, a critic, geographer, and antiquary, he ranked much higher. But these were acquisitions of comparatively little use to him in that situation.

FORNICA TRESS, s. A woman who with out marriage cohabits with a man (Shaks.).

FORNIX. (fornia, an arch or vault. A part of the corpus callosum in the brain is so called, because, if viewed in a particular direction, it has some resemblance to the arch of an ancient vault.) The medullary body, composed of two anterior and two posterior crura, situated at the bottom and inside of the lateral ven

himself and his son made it expedient for them both to leave the kingdom. Fortunately he received an invitation to Halle, where, for 18 years, he was a member of the philosophical and medical faculties. Among his works are: An Introduction to Mineralogy, or, An accurate Classification of Fossils and Minerals, &c London, 1768, 8vo. A Catalogue of the Animals of North America, with short Directions for collecting, preserving, and transporting all

8vo.

Kinds of Natural Curiosities, London, 1771, Observations made during a Voyage round the World, on Physical Geography, &c. London, 1778. He was the author of a great many productions in English, Latin, or German, and of several papers in the Philosophical Transactions. He translated into English, Bourgainville's Voyage round the World, and Kalm's, Bossu's, and Reidsel's Travels. He was employed likewise, when in England, in the Critical Review; and he wrote various detached papers on different subjects, which have been inserted in foreign journals and the transactions of learned academies. He died at Halle on the 16th of December 1798, in the 70th year of his age.

FORSTERA, in botany, a genus of the class gynandria, order diandria. Calyx double; the outer inferior, three-leaved; inner, superior, six-cleft; corol tubular; berry inferior, one-celled, one-seeded. One species: an ascending herbaceous plant of New Zealand, having white flowers with a red throat.

To FORSWEAR. v. a. pret. forswore; part. forsworn. (ƒопƒрæɲian, Saxon.) 1. To renounce upon oath (Shakspeare). 2. To deny upon oath (Shakspeare). 3. With the reciprocal pronoun: as, to forswear himself; to be perjured; to swear falsely (Smith).

TO FORSWEAR. v. n. To swear falsely; to commit perjury (Shakspeare)

FORSWEARER. s. (from forswear.) One who is perjured.

FORT, in the military art, a small fortified place, environed on all sides with a moat, rampart, and parapet. Its use is to secure some high ground, or the passage of a river, to make good an advantageous post, to defend the lines and quarters of a siege, &c. Forts are made of different figures and extents, according as the ground requires. Some are fortified with bastions, others with demi-bastions. Some again are in form of a square, others of a pentagon. A fort differs from a citadel, as this last is built to command some town.

FORTS (Vitrified), a very singular kind of structure found in the Highlands and northern parts of Scotland, in which the walls have the appearance of being melted into a solid mass, so as to resemble the lava of a volcano, for which indeed they have been taken by several persons who have visited them.

These walls were taken notice of by Mr. Williams, an engineer, who wrote a treatise upon the subject, and was the first who supposed them to be the works of art; other naturalists having attributed them to a volcanic origin. These works are commonly situated on the tops of small hills, commanding an extensive view of the adjacent valley or low country. The area on the summit, varying, as is supposed, according to the number of cattle the proprietor had to protect, or the dependents he was obliged to accommodate, is surrounded with a high and strong wall, of which the stones are melted, most of them entirely; while others, in which the fusion has not been so complete, are sunk in the vitrified matter in

such a manner as to be quite inclosed with it; and in some places the fusion has been so perfect, that the ruins appear like masses of coarse glass.

In the Phil. Trans. of the Royal Society of Loudon for 1777, Part II. No. 20. is an account of Creck Faterick, there termed a volcanic hill near Inverness, in a letter from Thomas West, esq. to Mr. Law, F.R.S. in which the writer does not hesitate to pronounce this hill an extinguished volcano: and having sent specimens of the burnt matter for the inspection of the Royal Society, the secretary subjoins a note to the paper, intimating that these specimens, having been examined by some of the members well acquainted with volcanic productions, were by them judged to be real lava. Such was likewise the opinion of the late Andrew Crosbie, esq. who, in an account which he gave to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh in 1780, offered some very curious conjectures with regard to that process of nature, by which he supposed the whole of this hill to have been thrown up from the bottom of the sea by the operation of intestine fire.

Mr. Tytler agrees with those who think the vitrified structures to be artificial works; but he differs from Mr. Williams and others, who think that they were vitrified on purpose for cementing the materials together. His reason for this is, that the number of forts that show marks of vitrification is inconsiderable when compared with those that do not. He therefore considers the vitrification as accidental, and describes the manner in which he conceives it must have been accomplished. Among other observations of his opinion, he urges, that, in the fortification on Craig Phadrick, a large portion of the outward rampart bears no marks of vitrification. Mr. Cordiner, on the other hand, is of opinion, that the vitrifications in question cannot have been the works of art, and ridicules the contrary hypothesis, though without adducing any argument against it.

Mr. Tytler concludes his dissertation with a conjecture, which indeed seems well supported, that the forts in question were constructed, not only before the Roman invasion, but be fore the introduction of the rites of the Druids into Britain; as "there appears no probability that the inhabitants either lived under such a government as we know to have prevailed under the influence of the Druids, or had any acquaintance with those arts which it is certain they cultivated." On a view of the disputes which have agitated the learned on this obscure subject, we can only observe, that their arguments seem to have placed it in a state of equiponderance, and that the fact remains open to the investigation of future speculators.

FORTE, a musical term, directing the performer to sing or play loudly; its superlative is F. F. or fortissima.

FO'RTED. a. (from fort.) Furnished or guarded by forts: out of use (Shakspeare). FORTMENT, a musical term, implying strength and energy.

FORTESCUE (Sir John), an English