FASTING, the partial or total abstinence of mankind and animals from the ordinary requisite supply of aliment, by which it is to be understood that quant.i.ty which is adapted to preserve them in a healthy and vigorous condition. It would appear that various warm-blooded animals are capable of sustaining total abstinence much longer than human beings. Cats and dogs have survived for several weeks without nourishment of any kind, but it is probable that few human beings could survive such deprivation for more than a week. The use of water without solid food enables life to be sustained much longer than it could otherwise be.
FASTS, temporary abstentions from food, especially on religious grounds.
Abstinence from food, accompanied by signs of humiliation and repentance or grief, is to be found more or less in almost all religions. Among the Jews fasts were numerous, and we find many instances of occasional fasting in the Old Testament. Herodotus says that the Egyptians prepared themselves by fasting for the celebration of the great festival of Isis. So in the Thesmophoria at Athens, and in the rites of Ceres at Rome, it was practised. The Church of Rome distinguishes between days of fasting and of abstinence. The former are: (1) the forty days of Lent; (2) the Ember days, being the Wednesday, Friday, and Sat.u.r.day of the first week in Lent, of Whitsun week, of the third week in September, and of the third week in Advent; (3) the Wednesdays and Thursdays of the four weeks in Advent; (4) the vigils or eves of Whitsuntide, of the feasts of St. Peter and St. Paul, of the a.s.sumption of the Virgin, of All Saints, and of Christmas Day. When any fasting day falls upon Sunday, it is observed on the Sat.u.r.day before.
The Greek Church observes four princ.i.p.al fasts: that of Lent, one beginning in the week after Whitsuntide, one for a fortnight before the a.s.sumption, one forty days before Christmas. In the East, however, the strict idea of a fast is more preserved than in the West. The Church of England appoints the following fixed days for fasting and abstinence, between which no difference is made: (1) the forty days of Lent; (2) the Ember days at the four seasons; (3) the three Rogation days before Holy Thursday; (4) every Friday except Christmas Day. The Church, however, gives no directions concerning fasting.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: L. d.u.c.h.esne, _Christian Worship_; J.
Dowden, _The Church Year and Kalendar_; article _Fasting_ in Hastings"
_Encyclopaedia of Ethics and Religion_.
FAT, an oily concrete substance, a compound of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, deposited in the cells of the adipose or cellular membrane of animal bodies. In most parts of the body the fat lies immediately under the skin. Fat is of various degrees of consistence, as in tallow, lard, and oil. It is generally white or yellowish, with little smell or taste. It consists of esters of glycerine with fatty and other acids, and these are generally termed glycerides. The commonest of these are stearin, a waxy solid, palmitin, a softer solid, and olein, an oil. Fats are insoluble in water. When boiled with caustic alkalies, e.g. caustic soda, they are decomposed (saponified), yielding an alkali salt of the fatty acid (soap) and glycerine. The consistency of any natural fat depends on the proportions in which these three substances are present, e.g. mutton suet consists mainly of stearin, and olive oil of olein. In the body fat serves as a packing, and helps to give roundness of contour. Being a bad conductor of heat, it is useful in retaining warmth, but its chief function is that of nutrition.
FA"TALISM, the belief in fate, or an unchangeable destiny, to which everything is subject, uninfluenced by reason, and pre-established either by chance or the Creator. Fatalism existed among the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, and is still prevalent among Mohammedans. The fact that many events in man"s life seemed to be inevitable gave rise to the belief in fatalism.
Amongst notable historical examples of the belief in fate may be mentioned the old Greek conception of a fate which stood behind the G.o.ds themselves as a controlling power; the Mohammedan fatalism, which regards all things great and small as inexorably predetermined, so that no accident is possible. Fatalism is to be distinguished both from _determinism_ and _predestination_.
FATEGARH (f_a_t-e-g_a_r"), a town, United Provinces of India, on the Ganges, now munic.i.p.ally united with Farukhabad; the scene of a ma.s.sacre of upwards of 200 Europeans during the Mutiny of 1857. Pop. 12,500.
FATEHPUR (f_a_t-e-por"), a town of India, in district of the same name, Allahabad division, United Provinces, 50 miles S.E. of Cawnpore. Pop.
16,939.--The district has an area of 1639 sq. miles, and a pop. of 686,400.
FATEHPUR SIKRI, a town of India, district of Agra, United Provinces. It was the favourite residence of the Emperor Akbar, who enclosed and fortified it. It now chiefly consists of a vast expanse of magnificent ruins enclosed by a high stone wall some 5 miles in circuit. Pop. 6132.
FATES (in Lat. _Parcae_, in Gr. _Moirai_), in Greek and Latin mythology, the inexorable sisters who spin the thread of human life. The appellation _Clotho_ (the spinner) was probably at first common to them all among the Greeks. As they were three in number, and poetry endeavoured to designate them more precisely, _Clotho_ became a proper name, as did also _Atr[)o]pos_ and _Lach[)e]sis_. Clotho means she who spins (the thread of life); Atropos signifies unalterable fate; Lachesis, lot or chance; so that all three refer to the same subject from different points of view. They know and predict what is yet to happen. Lachesis is represented with a spindle, Clotho with the thread, and Atropos with shears, with which she cuts it off. We find also in the northern mythology three beautiful virgins, the _Nornen_, who determine the fate of men. Their names are _Urd_ (the past), _Varande_ (the present), and _Skuld_ (the future).
FATHERLASHER, or BULL-HEAD, a fish of the genus Cottus (_Cottus bub[)a]lis_), from 8 to 10 inches in length. The head is large, and is furnished with several formidable spines. The fish is found on the rocky coasts of Britain, and near Newfoundland and Greenland. In the latter regions it attains a much larger size, and is a considerable article of food.
FATHERS OF THE CHURCH, THE.
1. _The term "Fathers"._--This term, as used in the sense of spiritual parents of the Christian faith and life, appears to have become current in the fourth century. It was so used by Christian teachers, who cited as authoritative the great teachers and guides who were their predecessors. By the "Fathers" they meant, specifically, the earlier writers who carried on the work of instruction which was begun by Peter and John and the rest of the Apostles. As employed nowadays, the term has a great fluidity of meaning. In the widest sense it signifies all ecclesiastical writers (i.e.
all writers within the Christian Church who treat of matters of Christian belief and practice) belonging to the older post-Apostolic period. In the narrower and more frequent sense it signifies only those ecclesiastical writers of the older post-Apostolic period who conform, more or less, to the Catholic tradition. As St. Vincent of Lerins lays it down, "Those alone should be named "Fathers" who have been staunch in the communion and faith of the One Catholic Church, and have received ecclesiastical approbation as teachers".
2. _Fathers and Doctors._--To such among the Fathers as were regarded as the most eminent the distinguishing t.i.tle of "Teachers" (_doctores_) was given. Thus in the Western Church Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory I were the four great Teachers or Doctors; while in the Eastern Church a similar position was a.s.signed to Athanasius, Basil, Gregory of n.a.z.ianzus, and Chrysostom. But others also have been acknowledged as Doctors, as Hilary of Poitiers, Cyril of Alexandria, John of Damascus, and our one English Father (born out of due season) the Venerable Bede--not to speak of the application of the term to some of the mediaeval Schoolmen.
3. _The Patristic Period._--While it is universally agreed that the Apostolic Age is succeeded by the Age of the Fathers, there is a difference of view as to when the Age of the Fathers terminates. Gregory I (the Great) is usually regarded as the last of the Latin or Western Fathers and the first of the Schoolmen, and John of Damascus as the last of the Greek or Eastern Fathers. But where the term "Fathers" is broadly used to designate the older Church writers in general, the tendency is--and it is logically defensible--to extend the Patristic period far beyond the Age of the Great Fathers (325-451), and to include among the later Fathers many mediaeval writers. Thus the Abbe Migne, who in the middle of last century issued a monumental edition of the original Greek and Latin texts of the Fathers, carried the Latin Fathers as far as Innocent III in the beginning of the thirteenth century, and the Greek Fathers down to the Council of Florence and the fall of Constantinople in the middle of the fifteenth century.
4. _Division and Cla.s.sification._--The broadest division of the Fathers is according to locality, and is into Eastern and Western. To this the division according to language, into Greek and Latin, largely corresponds.
But it is to be remembered that in the early Patristic Age, or before Tertullian, Latin was not used by ecclesiastical writers. It is also to be remembered that among the Eastern Fathers there were writers in Syriac, Armenian, and Coptic, as well as Greek. Another broad and general division is into ante-Nicene, Nicene, and post-Nicene; which is according to the principle that the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) marks the transition from a simple and unsystematized to a unified doctrinal testimony. But it is usual in Church history, while observing the aforesaid general divisions, to arrange the Fathers in certain historical groups, representing for the most part distinct schools of thought. There are, however, great names that cannot be conveniently treated under any historical group, such names as Irenaeus, Athanasius, Jerome, Leo the Great, and Gregory the Great. Keeping this in view, we might cla.s.sify the Fathers in accordance with the following scheme: (1) the _Apostolic Fathers_ (the best known of whom are Clement of Rome, Ignatius, and Polycarp), who received their t.i.tle not only as being younger contemporaries and perhaps personal disciples of Apostles, but also for their nearness and faithfulness to the Apostolic tradition; (2) the _Greek Apologists_ (the most notable of whom is Justin Martyr), who sought to defend Christian truth on rational and philosophical grounds against both Jew and pagan; (3) the _Alexandrians_ (outstanding among whom are Clement and Origen), who greatly furthered the development of Christian theology in general, but whose names are specially a.s.sociated with the allegorical and mystical type of Scriptural interpretation; (4) the _North African School_ (to which Tertullian and Cyprian belong), who shaped Christian Latinity, as well as the theology and ecclesiastical polity of the West; (5) the _Cappadocians_ (in which group the most prominent members are Basil, Gregory of n.a.z.ianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa), who caught up the theology of Athanasius, providing it with well-defined terms, and so laying broad the foundations of the Greek orthodoxy; (6) the _Antiochians_ (among whom Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and Theodoret are the greatest), who were opposed to the Alexandrian mysticism and held by the literal and historical mode of Scriptural interpretation; (7) the _Western Nicene Group_ (counting in their number eminent teachers like Hilary of Poitiers and Ambrose), who followed the Alexandrians in their exegetical method, and in their dogmatic theology Athanasius and the Cappadocians; (8) the _School of Augustine_, in which the Western theological tradition set by Tertullian and Cyprian culminated; (9) the _School of Lerins_ (leading members of which are Hilary of Arles and Vincentius), which attempted to mitigate the extreme Augustinian doctrines of sin and grace.
5. _Value of Patristic Study._--Among the Fathers are many great thinkers and writers (not to say orators, organizers, and statesmen) who should be studied for their own sake, and for the influence they have wielded. We would only indicate here some of the various uses of patristic study. (1) The _student of the Bible_ turns to the Fathers, and especially the earlier of them, for light upon the problem of the true or original text of the Bible--although very few of the Fathers knew the Hebrew tongue, and only Origen and Jerome can throw direct light upon the Old Testament text. To the Fathers also, especially great exegetes like Origen, Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustine, the Biblical student turns for light upon the meaning of the sacred text, and for knowledge of the history of its interpretation. (2) The _student of Church history_ finds first-hand material in the Fathers for the older post-Apostolic period. This material is supplied in the tractates and letters of the Fathers generally. But patristic writers from Eusebius downwards furnish us also with formal histories of the Church of both a general and special character. Patristic histories, as indeed all histories, are to be used with critical caution.
And not only do the Fathers inform us as to the course of events; we are dependent upon them for our knowledge of the development of creed and liturgy, ritual and order, and other Christian inst.i.tutions. (3) The _student of ecclesiastical dogma and Christian theology in general_ cannot dispense with the study of the Fathers. The patristic was the formative and, in a sense, conclusive period of Christian theology. In the ancient Greek theology the idea of G.o.d was developed, and in the so-called Nicene Creed and the Chalcedonian Definition the doctrines of the Trinity and the Person of Christ respectively received their final Greek dogmatic expression. Landmarks in the history of this dogmatic development are the names of Origen, Athanasius, Basil and the Gregories, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and Leo the Great. In the ancient Latin theology, in accordance with the more practical genius of the Westerns, the doctrine of man was developed, and of sin and grace. With this anthropological or soteriological, as distinguished from the other more strictly theological movement, the names of Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine are princ.i.p.ally a.s.sociated. It was left to the mediaeval theologians to work out the doctrine of the Work of Christ.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. W. Farrar, _Lives of the Fathers_; E. Leigh-Bennett, _Handbook of the Early Christian Fathers_; S.P.C.K., _The Fathers for English Readers_ (a series of biographies); also _Early Church Cla.s.sics_ (a series of translations); H. B. Swete, _Patristic Study_ (1902: an excellent introduction to the field of patristic learning, with useful bibliographies); W. Bright, _The Age of the Fathers_.
FAT"IMITE DYNASTY, a line of caliphs claiming descent from Fatima, the favourite daughter of Mohammed, and of Ali her cousin, to whom she was married. In the year 909 Abu-Mohammed Obeidalla, giving himself out as the grandson of Fatima, endeavoured to pa.s.s himself off as the Mahdi or Messiah predicted by the _Koran_. Denounced as an impostor by the reigning Caliph of Bagdad, he fled into Egypt, became Caliph of Tunis, and soon conquered all Northern Africa from the Straits of Gibraltar to the borders of Egypt.
His son wrested Egypt from the Abbasides in 970 and founded Cairo. The Fatimite dynasty was extinguished in 1171, on the death of Al Adid, the fourteenth caliph, and a new line began with Saladin.
FATTY ACIDS, the h.o.m.ologues of formic and acetic acid; so called because the members first studied were obtained from fats and oils, e.g. butyric acid from b.u.t.ter, stearic acid from stearin, palmitic acid from palm-oil.
These acids are present united with glycerol in the fats as glycerides, and are obtained from them by saponification with superheated steam or mineral acids, when the fatty acid is liberated, floats to the surface, and glycerol remains in solution. They are all mon.o.basic acids; the lower members are colourless liquids, and the higher members from C_7H_{15}COOH upwards are colourless solids. The general formula for the series is C_nH_{2n + 1}COOH (where n = the number of carbon atoms in the alkyl group).
FATTY DEGENERATION, an abnormal condition found in the tissues of the animal body, in which the healthy protoplasm is replaced by fatty granules.
It is a sign of defective nutrition, and is common in old age, affecting the muscles, the heart, arteries, kidneys, &c. It is accompanied by great muscular flabbiness and want of energy, the sufferer looking at the same time fat and comparatively well.
FATTY TISSUE, in anatomy, the adipose tissue, a tissue composed of minute cells or vesicles, having no communication with each other, but lying side by side in the meshes of the cellular tissue, which serves to hold them together, and through which also the blood-vessels find their way to them.
In the cells of this tissue the animal matter called fat is deposited.
FAUBOURG (f[=o]-bor; Lat. _foris_, outside, beyond, and _burgus_, borough), a suburb of French cities; the name is also given to districts now within the city, but which were formerly suburbs without it. Thus the _Faubourg St. Germain_ is a fashionable quarter of Paris in which the ancient n.o.bility still resides.
FAU"CES (Lat., "jaws"), in anatomy, the throat, the slightly constricted communication between the posterior part of the mouth cavity and the pharynx. The tonsils are lodged in the fauces at the sides of the root of the tongue.
FAUCIGNY (f[=o]-s[=e]-ny[=e]), a district of France, department of Haute Savoie, one of the loftiest districts of Europe, being partly traversed by the Pennine Alps.
FAU"CIT, Helena, Lady Martin, was born in 1816, died in 1898. She was the daughter of Mrs. Faucit the actress, and made her debut at the Theatre Royal, Richmond, in 1833, as Juliet in _Romeo and Juliet_. She first appeared in London at Covent Garden as Julia in _The Hunchback_, in which she gained a decided success. One of the most important members of Macready"s company during the Shakespearean revivals of 1837, she created the heroine"s part in Lord Lytton"s _Lady of Lyons_, _Money_, and _Richelieu_, and in Browning"s _Strafford_, _Blot on the Scutcheon_, and _Colombe"s Birthday_. She was married to Sir Theodore (then Mr.) Martin in 1851, after which she but rarely appeared on the stage except for charitable purposes. In 1879 she appeared as Beatrice at the opening of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-on-Avon. Lady Martin wrote a volume _On Some of Shakespeare"s Female Characters_.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fault in Geology]
FAULT, in geology, a fracture of strata, accompanied by a sliding down or an upheaval of the deposits on the one side of the fracture to a greater distance than the other. Faults are frequently recognizable in coal-beds, the miner coming unexpectedly upon an abrupt wall cutting off the seam. The angle this makes with the plane of the bed he is working usually indicates whether he must look up or down for its continuation on the other side of the fracture; but _reversed faults_ occur, in which the strata on one side have been pushed up the slope of the plane of fracture. In mines these faults often serve for natural drains. The cut shows at _a a_ the change of position in strata caused by a fault. This is called the _throw_, and is measured vertically.
FAUN, one of a kind of rural deities or demi-G.o.ds believed in among the Romans, inhabiting the forests and groves, and differing little from satyrs. Their form was princ.i.p.ally human, but with a short goat"s tail, pointed ears, and projecting horns; sometimes also with cloven feet. There are some famous antique statues of fauns, _The Dancing Faun_ at the Uffizi in Florence (restored by Michel Angelo); _The Dancing Faun_ at Naples; _The Faun_ (_of Praxiteles?_) at the Capitoline Museum, Rome; and _The Sleeping Faun_.
FAUNA (from _faun_, q.v.), a collective word signifying all the animals of a certain region, and also the description of them, corresponding to the word _flora_ in respect to plants.
FAUST, or FAUSTUS, Doctor John, a celebrated dealer in the black art, who lived in Germany, early in the sixteenth century. There is really a substratum of fact beneath the Faust legend; there actually was a charlatan of this name who lived in the sixteenth century. He seems to have been a pretentious and vicious egomaniac. A vast amount of legend, however, has gathered round his name in Germany. According to some accounts he was born in Suabia, others make him a native of Anhalt, others of Brandenburg. In his sixteenth year he went to Ingolstadt and studied theology, became in three years a _magister_, but abandoned theology, and began the study of medicine, astrology, and magic, in which he likewise instructed his familiar Johann Wagner, the son of a clergyman at Wa.s.serburg. After Dr.
Faust had spent a rich inheritance, he, according to tradition, made use of his power to conjure up spirits, and entered into a contract with the devil for twenty-four years. A spirit called _Mephistopheles_ was given him as a servant, with whom he travelled about, enjoying life in all its forms, but the evil spirit finally carried him off. Even yet Dr. Faustus and his familiar Wagner play a conspicuous part in the puppet-shows of Germany, and the legend forms the basis of Goethe"s well-known drama _Faust_, and furnishes the libretto for Gounod"s famous opera of the same name. As early as 1590 Christopher Marlowe made the legend the subject of his masterpiece _Doctor Faustus_, the last scene of which is one of the most dramatic in all literature.--Cf. H. B. Cotterill, _The Faust-legend and Goethe"s Faust_.
FAUSTI"NA, the name of two Roman ladies: (1) Annia Galeria Faustina (died A.D. 141), the wife of the Emperor Antoninus Pius; and (2) her daughter, who was married to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (died A.D. 175). Both were accused of dissolute conduct.
FAVART (f[.a]-var), Charles Simon, creator of the serio-comic opera in France, born 1710, died in 1792, the son of a pastry-cook. His poetical reputation rests princ.i.p.ally on his numerous productions for the _opera aux Italiens_, and the comic opera. He also wrote _Memoires et correspondance litteraires_ (1808). He was the director of a company of itinerant actors which followed Marshal Saxe into Flanders. His wife, Madame Favart, was a famous singer, comic actress, and dancer, and helped in the composition of her husband"s plays.
FA"VERSHAM, a seaport of England, county Kent, on a branch of the Swale, giving name to a parliamentary division of the county. It is a very ancient place, and has manufactures of brick, cement, and gunpowder. Faversham Creek is navigable up to the town for vessels of 200 tons. Pop. 10,870.
FAVRE (favr), Jules, a French politician, born 21st March, 1809, at Lyons, died in 1880. He studied law, and after distinguishing himself at the Lyons Bar came to Paris in 1835, where he became famous as a defender of political prisoners. On the outbreak of the revolution of 1848 he became secretary to Ledru-Rollin. He was a leader of the party of opposition to the President Louis Napoleon; and after the _coup d"etat_ (1851) he retired from political life for six years, till in 1858 his defence of Orsini for the attempt on the life of the emperor again brought him forward. From this time he again became an active leader of the Republican opposition to the emperor. On the fall of the empire he became Vice-President of the Government of National Defence and Minister of Foreign Affairs. As such he conducted the negotiations for peace with Prince Bismarck, and signed the Treaty of Paris at Frankfurt on 10th May, 1871. But though he showed great energy, and was very eloquent, his operations both in the matter of the armistice and the peace showed a lack of skill and judgment. He resigned his office in July, 1871.
FAVUS is a disease due to a fungus, and affects the hair, hair-follicles, and skin, usually of the scalp. It produces rounded cup-shaped crusts, and may lead to very extensive destruction of the hair. Cats and mice are affected by the disease, and are frequently responsible for spreading it.
The X-rays are the most effective treatment.
FAW"CETT, Henry, an English politician and economist, born at Salisbury in 1833, died 6th Nov., 1884. He was educated at Cambridge, studied law for a while at the Middle Temple, but soon renounced it. In 1858, when out partridge shooting, he met with an accident which inflicted on him total blindness. Undiscouraged, however, by his deprivation, he gave his attention to economic studies. In 1863 he was elected to the chair of political economy at Cambridge. In 1865 he was elected member of Parliament for Brighton, which he represented till the general election of 1874, when he was elected for Hackney. He became Postmaster-General in the second Gladstone administration, and effected many reforms in his department. In 1883 he was made Lord Rector of Glasgow University. Amongst his princ.i.p.al writings are: _A Manual of Political Economy_, _Lectures on the Economic Position of the British Labourer_, and articles on Indian finances.
FAWCETT, Millicent Garrett, wife of the preceding, born 1847, shared her husband"s studies, and published: _Political Economy for Beginners_, _Some Eminent Women of Our Time_, _Life of Queen Victoria_, and _Five Famous French Women_. She is also known as a prominent advocate of all measures for the educational and political advancement of women, and wrote _Women"s Suffrage_ (1912).
FAYAL (f[=i]-[.a]l"), an island belonging to Portugal, one of the Azores.
It is of a circular form, about 10 miles in diameter. The climate is good, and the air always mild and pure. The soil is very fertile, producing in abundance wheat, maize, flax, and almost all the fruits of Europe. It exports a great quant.i.ty of oranges and lemons. The chief place is Villa Horta or Orta. Pop. 22,385.
FAYOUM (f[.a]-yom"), a province of Middle Egypt, a little to the west of the Nile, surrounded by the Libyan Desert; area about 670 sq. miles. The soil is alluvial, and, in the north, particularly fertile. Fayoum is irrigated by ca.n.a.ls coming from the Ca.n.a.l of Joseph, and that from the Nile, and is one of the most fertile provinces of Egypt. Here lay the ancient Labyrinth and the artificial Lake Moeris. On the west lies Lake Birket-el-Kurun. The chief town, Medinet-el-Fayoum, is connected with Cairo by a railway. Pop. of province, 441,583.
FEAST OF THE DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE, a Jewish feast inst.i.tuted by Judas Maccabaeus in 164 B.C. It lasted eight days, and was a time of general rejoicing, when the people--old and young--carrying palm branches, met together in their synagogues to hold services of thanksgiving and commemoration. Every house was illuminated, and even the temple at Jerusalem was lighted up. In certain of its observances it resembles the Feast of the Tabernacles. Some authorities think that Christmas was celebrated in December by the ancient Church because that was the date of the Feast of Dedication. It is mentioned in _John_, x, 22.
FEATHER-GRa.s.s, the popular name of _Stipa pennata_, a native of dry places in the south of Europe. The rigid leaves roll up in dry air like those of marram-gra.s.s; the awns are exceedingly long, feathered to the point, and hygroscopic, curling up spirally when dry, and uncurling when moistened; these movements of the awn serve to bury the fruit. _S. tenacissima_ is the esparto-gra.s.s used in paper-making.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Types of Feathers from a Gull]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Feather from the Back of an Argus Pheasant]
FEATHERS, the form which the dermal appendages a.s.sume in birds, agreeing in mode of development, but differing in form from hairs and scales. The feather consists of a stem, h.o.r.n.y, round, strong, and hollow in the lower part, called the _quill_, and in the upper part, called the _shaft_, filled with pith. On each side of the shaft is a web composed of a series of regularly arranged fibres called _barbs_. The barbs and shaft const.i.tute the _vane_. On the edges of the barbs are set the _barbules_, which interlock with those of adjacent barbs, and thus give strength to the vane.