[1] Louis XVIII.'s speech from the throne, Jan. 28, 1823.
FERDINAND II. (1810-1859), king of the Two Sicilies, son of Francis I,
was born at Palermo on the 12th of January 1810. In his early years he
was credited with Liberal ideas and he was fairly popular, his free and
easy manners having endeared him to the _lazzaroni_. On succeeding his
father in 1830, he published an edict in which he promised to "give his
most anxious attention to the impartial administration of justice," to
reform the finances, and to "use every effort to heal the wounds which
had afflicted the kingdom for so many years"; but these promises seem to
have been meant only to lull discontent to sleep, for although he did
something for the economic development of the kingdom, the existing
burden of taxation was only slightly lightened, corruption continued to
flourish in all departments of the administration, and an absolutism was
finally established harsher than that of all his predecessors, and
supported by even more extensive and arbitrary arrests. Ferdinand was
naturally shrewd, but badly educated, grossly superstitious and
possessed of inordinate self-esteem. Though he kept the machinery of his
kingdom fairly efficient, and was a patriot to the extent of brooking no
foreign interference, he made little account of the wishes or welfare of
his subjects. In 1832 he married Cristina, daughter of Victor Emmanuel
I., king of Sardinia, and shortly after her death in 1836 he took for a
second wife Maria Theresa, daughter of archduke Charles of Austria.
After his Austrian alliance the bonds of despotism were more closely
tightened, and the increasing discontent of his subjects was manifested
by various abortive attempts at insurrection; in 1837 there was a rising
in Sicily in consequence of the outbreak of cholera, and in 1843 the
Young Italy Society tried to organize a general rising, which, however,
only manifested itself in a series of isolated outbreaks. The expedition
of the Bandiera brothers (q.v.) in 1844, although it had no practical
result, aroused great ill-feeling owing to the cruel sentences passed on
the rebels. In January 1848 a rising in Sicily was the signal for
revolutions all over Italy and Europe; it was followed by a movement in
Naples, and the king granted a constitution which he swore to observe.
A dispute, however, arose as to the nature of the oath which should be
taken by the members of the chamber of deputies, and as neither the king
nor the deputies would yield, serious disturbances broke out in the
streets of Naples on the 15th of May; so the king, making these an
excuse for withdrawing his promise, dissolved the national parliament on
the 13th of March 1849. He retired to Gaeta to confer with various
deposed despots, and when the news of the Austrian victory at Novara
(March 1849) reached him, he determined to return to a reactionary
policy. Sicily, whence the Royalists had been expelled, was subjugated
by General Filangieri (q.v.), and the chief cities were bombarded, an
expedient which won for Ferdinand the epithet of "King Bomba." During
the last years of his reign espionage and arbitrary arrests prevented
all serious manifestations of discontent among his subjects. In 1851 the
political prisoners of Naples were calculated by Mr Gladstone in his
letters to Lord Aberdeen (1851) to number 15,000 (probably the real
figure was nearer 40,000), and so great was the scandal created by the
prevailing reign of terror, and the abominable treatment to which the
prisoners were subjected, that in 1856 France and England made
diplomatic representations to induce the king to mitigate his rigour and
proclaim a general amnesty, but without success. An attempt was made by
a soldier to assassinate Ferdinand in 1856. He died on the 22nd of May
1856, just after the declaration of war by France and Piedmont against
Austria, which was to result in the collapse of his kingdom and his
dynasty. He was bigoted, cruel, mean, treacherous, though not without a
certain bonhomie; the only excuse that can be made for him is that with
his heredity and education a different result could scarcely be
expected.
See _Correspondence respecting the Affairs of Naples and Sicily,
1848-1849, presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her
Majesty_, 4th May 1849; _Two Letters to the Earl of Aberdeen_, by the
Right Hon. W.E. Gladstone, 1st ed., 1851 (an edition published in 1852
and the subsequent editions contain an _Examination of the Official
Reply of the Neapolitan Government_); N. Nisco, _Ferdinando II. il suo
regno_ (Naples, 1884); H. Remsen Whitehouse, _The Collapse of the
Kingdom of Naples_ (New York, 1899); R. de Cesare, _La Caduta d' un
Regno_, vol. i. (Citta di Castello, 1900), which contains a great deal
of fresh information, but is badly arranged and not always reliable.
(L. V.*)
FERDINAND III. (1769-1824), grand duke of Tuscany, and archduke of
Austria, second son of the emperor Leopold II., was born on the 6th of
May 1769. On his father becoming emperor in 1790, he succeeded him as
grand duke of Tuscany. Ferdinand was one of the first sovereigns to
enter into diplomatic relations with the French republic (1793); and
although, a few months later, he was compelled by England and Russia to
join the coalition against France, he concluded peace with that power in
1795, and by observing a strict neutrality saved his dominions from
invasion by the French, except for a temporary occupation of Livorno,
till 1799, when he was compelled to vacate his throne, and a provisional
Republican government was established at Florence. Shortly afterwards
the French arms suffered severe reverses in Italy, and Ferdinand was
restored to his territories; but in 1801, by the peace of Luneville,
Tuscany was converted into the kingdom of Etruria, and he was again
compelled to return to Vienna. In lieu of the sovereignty of Tuscany, he
obtained in 1802 the electorship of Salzburg, which he exchanged by the
peace of Pressburg in 1805 for that of Wurzburg. In 1806 he was admitted
as grand duke of Wurzburg to the confederation of the Rhine. He was
restored to the throne of Tuscany after the abdication of Napoleon in
1814 and was received with enthusiasm by the people, but had again to
vacate his capital for a short time in 1815, when Murat proclaimed war
against Austria. The final overthrow of the French supremacy at the
battle of Waterloo secured him, however, in the undisturbed possession
of his grand duchy during the remainder of his life. The restoration in
Tuscany was not accompanied by the reactionary excesses which
characterized it elsewhere, and a large part of the French legislation
was retained. His prime minister was Count V. Fossombroni (q.v.). The
mild rule of Ferdinand, his solicitude for the welfare of his subjects,
his enlightened patronage of art and science, his encouragement of
commerce, and his toleration render him an honourable exception to the
generality of Italian princes. At the same time his paternal despotism
tended to emasculate the Tuscan character. He died in June 1824, and was
succeeded by his son Leopold II. (q.v.).
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--A. von Reumont, _Geschichte Toscanas_ (Gotha, 1877);
and "Federico Manfredini e la politica Toscana nei primi anni di
Ferdinando III." (in the _Archivio Storico Italiano_, 1877); Emmer,
_Erzherzog Ferdinand III._, _Grossherzog von Toskana_ (Salzburg,
1871); C. Tivaroni, _L' Italia durante il dominio francese_, ii. 1-44
(Turin, 1889), and _L' Italia durante il dominio austriaco_, ii. 1-18
(Turin, 1893). See also under FOSSOMBRONI; VITTORIO; and CAPPONI,
GINO.
FERDINAND, MAXIMILIAN KARL LEOPOLD MARIA, king of Bulgaria (1861- ),
fifth and youngest son of Prince Augustus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, was
born on the 26th of February 1861. Great care was exercised in his
education, and every encouragement given to the taste for natural
history which he exhibited at an early age. In 1879 he travelled with
his brother Augustus to Brazil, and the results of their botanical
observations were published at Vienna, 1883-1888, under the title of
_Itinera Principum S. Coburgi_. Having been appointed to a lieutenancy
in the 2nd regiment of Austrian hussars, he was holding this rank when,
by unanimous vote of the National Assembly, he was elected prince of
Bulgaria, on the 7th of July 1887, in succession to Prince Alexander,
who had abdicated on the 7th of September preceding. He assumed the
government on the 14th of August 1887, for Russia for a long time
refused to acknowledge the election, and he was accordingly exposed to
frequent military conspiracies, due to the influence or attitude of that
power. The firmness and vigour with which he met all attempts at
revolution were at length rewarded, and his election was confirmed in
March 1896 by the Porte and the great powers. On the 20th of April 1893
he married Marie Louise de Bourbon (d. 1899), eldest daughter of Duke
Robert of Parma, and in May following the Grand Sobranye confirmed the
title of Royal Highness to the prince and his heir. The prince adhered
to the Roman Catholic faith, but his son and heir, the young Prince
Boris, was received into the Orthodox Greek Church on the 14th of
February 1896. Prince Boris, to whom the tsar Nicholas III. became
godfather, accompanied his father to Russia in 1898, when Prince
Ferdinand visited St Petersburg and Moscow, and still further
strengthened the bond already existing between Russia and Bulgaria. In
1908 Ferdinand married Eleanor (b. 1860), a princess of the house of
Reuss. Later in the year, in connexion with the Austrian annexation of
Bosnia-Herzegovina and the crisis with Turkey, he proclaimed the
independence of Bulgaria, and took the title of king or tsar. (See
BULGARIA, and EUROPE: _History_.)
FERDINAND, duke of Brunswick (1721-1792), Prussian general field marshal,
was the fourth son of Ferdinand Albert, duke of Brunswick, and was born
at Wolfenbuttel on the 12th of January 1721. He was carefully educated
with a view to a military career, and in his twentieth year he was made
chief of a newly-raised Brunswick regiment in the Prussian service. He
was present in the battles of Mollwitz and Chotusitz. In succession to
Margrave Wilhelm of Brandenburg, killed at Prague (1744), Ferdinand
received the command of Frederick the Great's _Leibgarde_ battalion, and
at Sohr (1745) he distinguished himself so greatly at the head of his
brigade that Frederick wrote of him, "le Prince Ferdinand s'est
surpasse." The height which he captured was defended by his brother
Ludwig as an officer of the Austrian service, and another brother of Duke
Ferdinand was killed by his side in the charge. During the ten years'
peace he was in the closest touch with the military work of Frederick the
Great, who supervised the instruction of the guard battalion, and sought
to make it a model of the whole Prussian army. Ferdinand was, moreover,
one of the most intimate friends of the king, and thus he was peculiarly
fitted for the tasks which afterwards fell to his lot. In this time he
became successively major-general and lieutenant-general. In the first
campaign of the Seven Years' War Ferdinand commanded one of the Prussian
columns which converged upon Dresden, and in the operations which led up
to the surrender of the Saxon army at Pirna (1756), and at the battle of
Lobositz, he led the right wing of the Prussian infantry. In 1757 he was
present, and distinguished himself, at Prague, and he served also in the
campaign of Rossbach. Shortly after this he was appointed to command the
allied forces which were being organized for the war in western Germany.
He found this army dejected by a reverse and a capitulation, yet within a
week of his taking up the command he assumed the offensive, and thus
began the career of victory which made his European reputation as a
soldier. His conduct of the five campaigns which followed (see SEVEN
YEARS' WAR) was naturally influenced by the teachings of Frederick, whose
pupil the duke had been for so many years. Ferdinand, indeed,
approximated more closely to Frederick in his method of making war than
any other general of the time. Yet his task was in many respects far more
difficult than that of the king. Frederick was the absolute master of his
own homogeneous army, Ferdinand merely the commander of a group of
contingents, and answerable to several princes for the troops placed
under his control. The French were by no means despicable opponents in
the field, and their leaders, if not of the first grade, were cool and
experienced veterans. In 1758 he fought and won the battle of Crefeld,
several marches beyond the Rhine, but so advanced a position he could not
well maintain, and he fell back to the Lippe. He resumed a bold offensive
in 1759, only to be repulsed at Bergen (near Frankfort-on-Main). On the
1st of August of this year Ferdinand won the brilliant victory of Minden
(q.v.). Vellinghausen, Wilhelmsthal, Warburg and other victories attested
the increasing power of Ferdinand in the following campaigns, and
Frederick, hard pressed in the eastern theatre of war, owed much of his
success in an almost hopeless task to the continued pressure exerted by
Ferdinand in the west. In promoting him to be a field marshal (November
1758) Frederick acknowledged his debt in the words, "Je n'ai fait que ce
que je dois, mon cher Ferdinand." After Minden, King George II. gave the
duke the order of the Garter, and the thanks of the British parliament
were voted on the same occasion to the "Victor of Minden." After the war
he was honoured by other sovereigns, and he received the rank of field
marshal and a regiment from the Austrians. During the War of American
Independence there was a suggestion, which came to nothing, of offering
him the command of the British forces. He exerted himself to compensate
those who had suffered by the Seven Years' War, devoting to this purpose
most of the small income he received from his various offices and the
rewards given to him by the allied princes. The estrangement of Frederick
and Ferdinand in 1766 led to the duke's retirement from Prussian service,
but there was no open breach between the old friends, and Ferdinand
visited the king in 1772, 1777, 1779 and 1782. After 1766 he passed the
remainder of his life at his castle of Veschelde, where he occupied
himself in building and other improvements, and became a patron of
learning and art, and a great benefactor of the poor. He died on the 3rd
of July 1792. The merits, civil and military, of the prince were
recognized by memorials not only in Prussia and Hanover, but also in
Denmark, the states of western Germany and England. The Prussian
memorials include an equestrian statue at Berlin (1863).
See E. v. L. Knesebeck, _Ferdinand, Herzog von Braunschweig und
Luneburg, wahrend des Siebenjahrigen Kriegs_ (2 vols., Hanover,
1857-1858); Von Westphalen, _Geschichte der Feldzuge des Herzogs
Ferdinands von Braunschweig-Luneburg_ (5 vols., Berlin, 1859-1872); v.
d. Osten, _Tagebuch des Herzogl. Gen. Adjutanten v. Reden_ (Hamburg,
1805); v. Schafer, _Vie militaire du marechal Prince Ferdinand_
(Magdeburg, 1796; Nuremberg, 1798); also the _Oeuvres_ of Frederick
the Great, _passim_, and authorities for the SEVEN YEARS' WAR.
FERDINAND (1577-1650), elector and archbishop of Cologne, son of William
V., duke of Bavaria, was born on the 7th of October 1577. Intended for
the church, he was educated by the Jesuits at the university of
Ingolstadt, and in 1595 became coadjutor archbishop of Cologne. He
became elector and archbishop in 1612 on the death of his uncle Ernest,
whom he also succeeded as bishop of Liege, Munster and Hildesheim. He
endeavoured resolutely to root out heresy in the lands under his rule,
and favoured the teaching of the Jesuits in every possible way. He
supported the league founded by his brother Maximilian I., duke of
Bavaria, and wished to involve the leaguers in a general attack on the
Protestants of north Germany. The cool political sagacity of the duke
formed a sharp contrast to the impetuosity of the archbishop, and he
refused to accede to his brother's wish; but, in spite of these
temporary differences, Ferdinand sent troops and money to the assistance
of the league when the Thirty Years' War broke out in 1619. The
elector's alliance with the Spaniards secured his territories to a great
extent from the depredations of the war until the arrival of the Swedes
in Germany in 1630, when the extension of the area of the struggle to
the neighbourhood of Cologne induced him to enter into negotiations for
peace. Nothing came of these attempts until 1647, when he joined his
brother Maximilian in concluding an armistice with France and Sweden at
Ulm. The elector's later years were marked by a conflict with the
citizens of Liege; and when the peace of Westphalia freed him from his
enemies, he was able to crush the citizens and deprive them of many
privileges. Ferdinand, who had held the bishopric of Paderborn since
1618, died at Arnsberg on the 13th of September 1650, and was buried in
the cathedral at Cologne.
See L. Ennen, _Frankreich und der Niederrhein oder Geschichte von
Stadt und Kurstadt Koln seit dem 30 jahrigen Kriege_, Band i.
(Cologne, 1855-1856).
FERENTINO (anc. _Ferentinum_, to be distinguished from Ferentum or
Ferentinum in Etruria), a town and episcopal see of Italy, in the
province of Rome, from which it is 48 m. E.S.E. by rail. Pop. (1901)
7957 (town), 12,279 (commune). It is picturesquely situated on a hill
1290 ft. above sea-level, and still possesses considerable remains of
ancient fortifications. The lower portion of the outer walls, which
probably did not stand free, is built of roughly hewn blocks of a
limestone which naturally splits into horizontal layers; above this in
places is walling of rectangular blocks of tufa. Two gates, the Porta
Sanguinaria (with an arch with tufa voussoirs), and the Porta S. Maria,
a double gate constructed entirely of rectangular blocks of tufa, are
preserved. Outside this gate is the tomb of A. Quinctilius Priscus, a
citizen of Ferentinum, with a long inscription cut in the rock. See Th.
Mommsen in _Corp. Inscrip. Lat._ x. (Berlin, 1883), No. 5853.
The highest part of the town, the acropolis, is fortified also; it has
massive retaining walls similar to those of the lower town. At the
eastern corner, under the present episcopal palace, the construction is
somewhat more careful. A projecting rectangular terrace has been
erected, supported by walls of quadrilateral blocks of limestone
arranged almost horizontally; while upon the level thus formed a
building of rectangular blocks of local travertine was raised. The
projecting cornice of this building bears two inscriptions of the period
of Sulla, recording its construction by two censors (local officials);
and in the interior, which contains several chambers, there is an
inscription of the same censors over one of the doors, and another over
a smaller external side door. The windows lighting these chambers come
immediately above the cornice, and the wall continues above them again.
The whole of this construction probably belongs to one period (Mommsen,
_op. cit._ No. 5837 seq.). The cathedral occupies a part of the level
top of the ancient acropolis; it was reconstructed on the site of an
older church in 1099-1118; the interior was modernized in 1693, but was
restored to its original form in 1902. It contains a fine canopy in the
"Cosmatesque" style (see _Relazione dei lavori eseguiti dall' ufficio
tecnico per la conservazione dei monumenti di Rome a provincia_, Rome,
1903, 175 seq.). The Gothic church of S. Maria Maggiore, in the lower
town (13th-14th century), has a very fine exterior; the interior, the
plan of which is a perfect rectangle, has been spoilt by restoration.
There are several other Gothic churches in the town.
Ferentinum was the chief town of the Hernici; it was captured from them
by the Romans in 364 B.C. and took no part in the rising of 306 B.C. The
inhabitants became Roman citizens after 195 B.C., and the place later
became a _municipium_. It lay just above the Via Latina and, being a
strong place, served for the detention of hostages. Horace praises its
quietness, and it does not appear much in later history. (T. As.)
See further Ashby, _Rom. Mittell._ xxiv. (1909).
FERENTUM, or FERENTINUM, an ancient town of Etruria, about 6 m. N. of
Viterbo (the ancient name of which is unknown) and 3-1/2 m. E. of the
Via Cassia. It was the birthplace (32 A.D.) of the emperor Otho, was
destroyed in the 11th century, and is now entirely deserted, though it
retains its ancient name. It occupied a ridge running from east to west,
with deep ravines on three sides. There are some remains of the city
walls, and of various Roman structures, but the most important ruin is
that of the theatre. The stage front is still standing; it is pierced by
seven openings with flat arches, and shows traces of reconstruction. The
acropolis was on the hill called Talone on the north-east.
See G. Dennis, _Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria_ (London, 1883), i.
156; _Notizie degli scavi_, 1900, 401; 1902, 84; 1905, 31.
FERETORY (from Lat. _feretrum_, a bier, from _ferre_, to bear), in
architecture, the enclosure or chapel within which the "fereter" shrine,
or tomb (as in Henry VII.'s chapel), was placed.
FERGHANA, or FERGANA, a province of Russian Turkestan, formed in 1876
out of the former khanate of Khokand. It is bounded by the provinces of
Syr-darya on the N. and N.W., Samarkand on the W., and Semiryechensk on
the N.E., by Chinese Turkestan (Kashgaria) on the E., and by Bokhara and
Afghanistan on the S. Its southern limits, on the Pamirs, were fixed by
an Anglo-Russian commission in 1885, from Zor-kul (Victoria Lake) to the
Chinese frontier; and Shignan, Roshan and Wakhan were assigned to
Bokhara in exchange for part of Darvaz (on the left bank of the Panj),
which was given to Afghanistan. The area amounts to some 53,000 sq. m.,
of which 17,600 sq. m. are on the Pamirs. The most important part of the
province is a rich and fertile valley (1200-1500 ft.), opening towards
the S.W. Thence the province stretches northwards across the mountains
of the Tian-shan system and southwards across the Alai and Trans-Alai
Mts., which reach their highest point in Peak Kaufmann (23,000 ft.), in
the latter range. The valley owes its fertility to two rivers, the Naryn
and the Karadarya, which unite within its confines, near Namangan, to
form the Syr-darya or Jaxartes. These streams, and their numerous
mountain affluents, not only supply water for irrigation, but also bring
down vast quantities of sand, which is deposited alongside their
courses, more especially alongside the Syr-darya where it cuts its way
through the Khojent-Ajar ridge, forming there the Karakchikum. This
expanse of moving sands, covering an area of 750 sq. m., under the
influence of south-west winds, encroaches upon the agricultural
districts. The climate of this valley is dry and warm. In March the
temperature reaches 68 deg. F., and then rapidly rises to 95 deg. in
June, July and August. During the five months following April no rain
falls, but it begins again in October. Snow and frost (down to -4 deg.
F.) occur in December and January.
Out of some 3,000,000 acres of cultivated land, about two-thirds are
under constant irrigation and the remaining third under partial
irrigation. The soil is admirably cultivated, the principal crops being
wheat, rice, barley, maize, millet, lucerne, tobacco, vegetables and
fruit. Gardening is conducted with a high degree of skill and success.
Large numbers of horses, cattle and sheep are kept, and a good many
camels are bred. Over 17,000 acres are planted with vines, and some
350,000 acres are under cotton. Nearly 1,000,000 acres are covered with
forests. The government maintains a forestry farm at Marghelan, from
which 120,000 to 200,000 young trees are distributed free every year
amongst the inhabitants of the province.
Silkworm breeding, formerly a prosperous industry, has decayed, despite
the encouragement of a state farm at New Marghelan. Coal, iron, sulphur,
gypsum, rock-salt, lacustrine salt and naphtha are all known to exist,
but only the last two are extracted. Some seventy or eighty factories
are engaged in cotton cleaning; while leather, saddlery, paper and
cutlery are the principal products of the domestic industries. A
considerable trade is carried on with Russia; raw cotton, raw silk,
tobacco, hides, sheepskins, fruit and cotton and leather goods are
exported, and manufactured wares, textiles, tea and sugar are imported
and in part re-exported to Kashgaria and Bokhara. The total trade of
Ferghana reaches an annual value of nearly L3,500,000. A new impulse was
given to trade by the extension (1899) of the Transcaspian railway into
Ferghana and by the opening of the Orenburg-Tashkent railway (1906). The
routes to Kashgaria and the Pamirs are mere bridle-paths over the
mountains, crossing them by lofty passes. For instance, the passes of
Kara-kazyk (14,400 ft.) and Tenghiz-bai (11,200 ft.), both passable all
the year round, lead from Marghelan to Kara-teghin and the Pamirs, while
Kashgar is reached via Osh and Gulcha, and then over the passes of
Terek-davan (12,205 ft.; open all the year round), Taldyk (11,500 ft.),
Archat (11,600 ft.), and Shart-davan (14,000 ft.). Other passes leading
out of the valley are the Jiptyk (12,460 ft.), S. of Khokand; the
Isfairam (12,000 ft.), leading to the glen of the Surkhab, and the Kavuk
(13,000 ft.), across the Alai Mts.
The population numbered 1,571,243 in 1897, and of that number 707,132
were women and 286,369 were urban. In 1906 it was estimated at
1,796,500. Two-thirds of the total are Sarts and Uzbegs (of Turkic
origin). They live mostly in the valley; while the mountain slopes above
it are occupied by Kirghiz, partly nomad and pastoral, partly
agricultural and settled. The other races are Tajiks, Kashgarians,
Kipchaks, Jews and Gypsies. The governing classes are of course
Russians, who constitute also the merchant and artizan classes. But the
merchants of West Turkestan are called all over central Asia Andijanis,
from the town of Andijan in Ferghana. The great mass of the population
are Mussulmans (1,039,115 in 1897). The province is divided into five
districts, the chief towns of which are New Marghelan, capital of the
province (8977 inhabitants in 1897), Andijan (49,682 in 1900), Khokand
(86,704 in 1900), Namangan (61,906 in 1897), and Osh (37,397 in 1900);
but Old Marghelan (42,855 in 1900) and Chust (13,686 in 1897) are also
towns of importance. For the history, see KHOKAND.
(P. A. K.; J. T. Be.)
FERGUS FALLS, a city and the county-seat of Otter Tail county,
Minnesota, U.S.A., on the Red river, 170 m. N.W. of Minneapolis. Pop.
(1890) 3772; (1900) 6072, of whom 2131 were foreign-born; (1905) 6692;
(1910) 6887. A large part of the population is of Scandinavian birth or
descent. Fergus Falls is served by the Great Northern and the Northern
Pacific railways. Situated in the celebrated "park region" of the state,
the city possesses great natural beauty, which has been enhanced by a
system of boulevards and well-kept private lawns. Lake Alice, in the
residential district, adds to the city's attractions. The city has a
public library, a county court house, St Luke's hospital, the G.B.
Wright memorial hospital, and a city hall. It is the seat of a state
hospital for the insane (1887) with about 1600 patients, of a business
college, of the Park Region Luther College (Norwegian Lutheran, 1892),
and of the North-western College (Swedish Lutheran; opened in 1901). It
has one of the finest water-powers in the state. Flour is the principal
product; among others are woollen goods, foundry and machine-shop
products, wooden ware, sash, doors and blinds, caskets, shirts, wagons
and packed meats. The city owns and operates its water-works and its
electric-lighting plant. Fergus Falls was settled about 1859 and was
incorporated in 1863.
FERGUSON, ADAM (1723-1816), Scottish philosopher and historian, was born
on the 20th of June 1723, at Logierait, Perthshire. He was educated at
Perth grammar school and the university of St Andrews. In 1745, owing to
his knowledge of Gaelic, he was appointed deputy chaplain of the 43rd
(afterwards the 42nd) regiment (the Black Watch), the licence to preach
being granted him by special dispensation, although he had not completed
the required six years of theological study. At the battle of Fontenoy
(1745) Ferguson fought in the ranks throughout the day, and refused to
leave the field, though ordered to do so by his colonel. He continued
attached to the regiment till 1754, when, disappointed at not obtaining
a living, he abandoned the clerical profession and resolved to devote
himself to literary pursuits. In January 1757 he succeeded David Hume as
librarian to the faculty of advocates, but soon relinquished this office
on becoming tutor in the family of Lord Bute.
In 1759 Ferguson was appointed professor of natural philosophy in the
university of Edinburgh, and in 1764 was transferred to the chair of
"pneumatics" (mental philosophy) "and moral philosophy." In 1767,
against Hume's advice, he published his _Essay on the History of Civil
Society_, which was well received and translated into several European
languages. In 1776 appeared his (anonymous) pamphlet on the American
revolution in opposition to Dr Price's _Observations on the Nature of
Civil Liberty_, in which he sympathized with the views of the British
legislature. In 1778 Ferguson was appointed secretary to the commission
which endeavoured, but without success, to negotiate an arrangement with
the revolted colonies. In 1783 appeared his _History of the Progress and
Termination of the Roman Republic_; it was very popular, and went
through several editions. Ferguson was led to undertake this work from a
conviction that the history of the Romans during the period of their
greatness was a practical illustration of those ethical and political
doctrines which were the object of his special study. The history is
written in an agreeable style and a spirit of impartiality, and gives
evidence of a conscientious use of authorities. The influence of the
author's military experience shows itself in certain portions of the
narrative. Finding himself unequal to the labour of teaching, he
resigned his professorship in 1785, and devoted himself to the revision
of his lectures, which he published (1792) under the title of
_Principles of Moral and Political Science_.
When in his seventieth year, Ferguson, intending to prepare a new
edition of the history, visited Italy and some of the principal cities
of Europe, where he was received with honour by learned societies. From
1795 he resided successively at the old castle of Neidpath near Peebles,
at Hallyards on Manor Water and at St Andrews, where he died on the 22nd
of February 1816.
In his ethical system Ferguson treats man throughout as a social being,
and illustrates his doctrines by political examples. As a believer in
the progression of the human race, he placed the principle of moral
approbation in the attainment of perfection. His speculations were
carefully criticized by Cousin (see his _Cours d'histoire de la
philosophie morale au dix-huitieme siecle_, pt. ii., 1839-1840):--"We
find in his method the wisdom and circumspection of the Scottish school,
with something more masculine and decisive in the results. The principle
of _perfection_ is a new one, at once more rational and comprehensive
than benevolence and sympathy, which in our view places Ferguson as a
moralist above all his predecessors." By this principle Ferguson
endeavours to reconcile all moral systems. With Hobbes and Hume he
admits the power of self-interest or utility, and makes it enter into
morals as the law of self-preservation. Hutcheson's theory of universal
benevolence and Smith's idea of sympathy he combines under the law of
society. But, as these laws are the means rather than the end of human
destiny, they are subordinate to a supreme end, and this supreme end is
perfection. In the political part of his system Ferguson follows
Montesquieu, and pleads the cause of well-regulated liberty and free
government. His contemporaries, with the exception of Hume, regarded his
writings as of great importance; in point of fact they are superficial.
The facility of their style and the frequent occurrence of would-be
weighty epigrams blinded his critics to the fact that, in spite of his
recognition of the importance of observation, he made no real
contribution to political theory (see Sir Leslie Stephen, _English
Thought in the Eighteenth Century_, x. 89-90).
The chief authority for Ferguson's life is the _Biographical Sketch_
by John Small (1864); see also _Public Characters_ (1799-1800);
_Gentleman's Magazine_, i. (1816 supp.); W.R. Chambers's _Biographical
Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen_; memoir by Principal Lee in early
editions of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_; J. McCosh, _The Scottish
Philosophy_ (1875); articles in _Dictionary of National Biography_ and
_Edinburgh Review_ (January 1867); Lord Henry Cockburn, _Memorials of
his Time_ (1856).
FERGUSON, JAMES (1710-1776), Scottish mechanician and astronomer, was
born near Rothiemay in Banffshire on the 25th of April 1710, of parents
in very humble circumstances. He first learned to read by overhearing
his father teach his elder brother, and with the help of an old woman
was "able," he says in his autobiography, "to read tolerably well before
his father thought of teaching him." After receiving further instruction
in reading from his father, who also taught him to write, he was sent at
the age of seven for three months to the grammar school at Keith. His
taste for mechanics was about this time accidentally awakened on seeing
his father making use of a lever to raise a part of the roof of his
house--an exhibition of seeming strength which at first "excited his
terror as well as wonder." In 1720 he was sent to a neighbouring farm to
keep sheep, where in the daytime he amused himself by making models of
mills and other machines, and at night in studying the stars.
Afterwards, as a servant with a miller, and then with a doctor, he met
with hardships which rendered his constitution feeble through life.
Being compelled by his weak health to return home, he there amused
himself with making a clock having wooden wheels and a whalebone spring.
When slightly recovered he showed this and some other inventions to a
neighbouring gentleman, who engaged him to clean his clocks, and also
desired him to make his house his home. He there began to draw patterns
for needlework, and his success in this art led him to think of becoming
a painter. In 1734 he went to Edinburgh, where he began to take
portraits in miniature, by which means, while engaged in his scientific
studies, he supported himself and his family for many years.
Subsequently he settled at Inverness, where he drew up his _Astronomical
Rotula_ for showing the motions of the planets, places of the sun and
moon, &c., and in 1743 went to London, which was his home for the rest
of his life. He wrote various papers for the Royal Society, of which he
became a fellow in 1763, devised astronomical and mechanical models, and
in 1748 began to give public lectures on experimental philosophy. These
he repeated in most of the principal towns in England. His deep interest
in his subject, his clear explanations, his ingeniously constructed
diagrams, and his mechanical apparatus rendered him one of the most
successful of popular lecturers on scientific subjects. It is, however,
as the inventor and improver of astronomical and other scientific
apparatus, and as a striking instance of self-education, that he claims
a place among the most remarkable men of science of his country. During
the latter years of his life he was in receipt of a pension of L50 from
the privy purse. He died in London on the 17th of November 1776.
Ferguson's principal publications are _Astronomical Tables_ (1763);
_Lectures on Select Subjects_ (1st ed., 1761, edited by Sir David
Brewster in 1805); _Astronomy explained upon Sir Isaac Newton's
Principles_ (1756, edited by Sir David Brewster in 1811); and _Select
Mechanical Exercises, with a Short Account of the Life of the Author,
written by himself_ (1773). This autobiography is included in a _Life_
by E. Henderson, LL.D. (1st ed., 1867; 2nd, 1870), which also contains
a full description of Ferguson's principal inventions, accompanied
with illustrations. See also _The Story of the Peasant-Boy
Philosopher_, by Henry Mayhew (1857).
FERGUSON, ROBERT (c. 1637-1714), British conspirator and pamphleteer,
called the "Plotter," was a son of William Ferguson (d. 1699) of
Badifurrow, Aberdeenshire, and after receiving a good education,
probably at the university of Aberdeen, became a Presbyterian minister.
According to Bishop Burnet he was cast out by the Presbyterians; but
whether this be so or not, he soon made his way to England and became
vicar of Godmersham, Kent, from which living he was expelled by the Act
of Uniformity in 1662. Some years later, having gained meanwhile a
reputation as a theological controversialist and become a person of
importance among the Nonconformists, he attracted the notice of the earl
of Shaftesbury and the party which favoured the exclusion of the duke of
York (afterwards King James II.) from the throne, and he began to write
political pamphlets just at the time when the feeling against the Roman
Catholics was at its height. In 1680 he wrote "A Letter to a Person of
Honour concerning the 'Black Box,'" in which he supported the claim of
the duke of Monmouth to the crown against that of the duke of York;
returning to the subject after Charles II. had solemnly denied the
existence of a marriage between himself and Lucy Waters. He took an
active part in the controversy over the Exclusion Bill, and claimed to
be the author of the whole of the pamphlet "No Protestant Plot" (1681),
parts of which are usually ascribed to Shaftesbury. Ferguson was deeply
implicated in the Rye House Plot, although he asserted that he had
frustrated both this and a subsequent attempt to assassinate the king,
and he fled to Holland with Shaftesbury in 1682, returning to England
early in 1683. For his share in another plot against Charles II. he was
declared an outlaw, after which he entered into communication with
Argyll, Monmouth and other malcontents. Ferguson then took a leading
part in organizing the rising of 1685. Having overcome Monmouth's
reluctance to take part in this movement, he accompanied the duke to the
west of England and drew up the manifesto against James II., escaping to
Holland after the battle of Sedgemoor. He landed in England with William
of Orange in 1688, and aided William's cause with his pen; but William
and his advisers did not regard him as a person of importance, although
his services were rewarded with a sinecure appointment in the Excise.
Chagrined at this treatment, Ferguson was soon in correspondence with
the exiled Jacobites. He shared in all the plots against the life of
William, and after his removal from the Excise in 1692 wrote violent
pamphlets against the government. Although he was several times arrested
on suspicion, he was never brought to trial. He died in great poverty in
1714, leaving behind him a great and deserved reputation for treachery.
It has been thought by Macaulay and others that Ferguson led the English
government to believe that he was a spy in their interests, and that his
frequent escapes from justice were due to official connivance. In a
proclamation issued for his arrest in 1683 he is described as "a tall
lean man, dark brown hair, a great Roman nose, thin-jawed, heat in his
face, speaks in the Scotch tone, a sharp piercing eye, stoops a little
in the shoulders." Besides numerous pamphlets Ferguson wrote: _History
of the Revolution_ (1706); _Qualifications requisite in a Minister of
State_ (1710); and part of the _History of all the Mobs, Tumults and
Insurrections in Great Britain_ (London, 1715).
See James Ferguson, _Robert Ferguson, the Plotter_ (Edinburgh, 1887),
which gives a favourable account of Ferguson.
FERGUSON, SIR SAMUEL (1810-1886), Irish poet and antiquary, was born at
Belfast, on the 10th of March 1810. He was educated at Trinity College,
Dublin, was called to the Irish bar in 1838, and was made Q.C. in 1859,
but in 1867 retired from practice upon his appointment as deputy-keeper
of the Irish records, then in a much neglected condition. He was an
excellent civil servant, and was knighted in 1878 for his services to
the department. His spare time was given to general literature, and in
particular to poetry. He had long been a leading contributor to the
_Dublin University Magazine_ and to _Blackwood_, where he had published
his two literary masterpieces, "The Forging of the Anchor," one of the
finest of modern ballads, and the humorous prose extravaganza of "Father
Tom and the Pope." He published _Lays of the Western Gael_ in 1865,
_Poems_ in 1880, and in 1872 _Congal_, a metrical narrative of the
heroic age of Ireland, and, though far from ideal perfection, perhaps
the most successful attempt yet made by a modern Irish poet to revivify
the spirit of the past in a poem of epic proportions. Lyrics have
succeeded better in other hands; many of Ferguson's pieces on modern
themes, notably his "Lament for Thomas Davis" (1845), are, nevertheless,
excellent. He was an extensive contributor on antiquarian subjects to
the _Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy_, and was elected its
president in 1882. His manners were delightful, and his hospitality was
boundless. He died at Howth on the 9th of August 1886. His most
important antiquarian work, _Ogham Inscriptions in Ireland, Wales,
Scotland_, was published in the year after his death.
See _Sir Samuel Ferguson in the Ireland of his Day_ (1896), by his
wife, Mary C. Ferguson; also an article by A.P. Graves in _A Treasury
of Irish Poetry in the English Tongue_ (1900), edited by Stopford
Brooke and T.W. Rolleston.
FERGUSSON, JAMES (1808-1886), Scottish writer on architecture, was born
at Ayr on the 22nd of January 1808. His father was an army surgeon.
After being educated first at the Edinburgh high school, and afterwards
at a private school at Hounslow, James went to Calcutta as partner in a
mercantile house. Here he was attracted by the remains of the ancient
architecture of India, little known or understood at that time. The
successful conduct of an indigo factory, as he states in his own
account, enabled him in about ten years to retire from business and
settle in London. The observations made on Indian architecture were
first embodied in his book on _The Rock-cut Temples of India_, published
in 1845. The task of analysing the historic and aesthetic relations of
this type of ancient buildings led him further to undertake a historical
and critical comparative survey of the whole subject of architecture in
_The Handbook of Architecture_, a work which first appeared in 1855.
This did not satisfy him, and the work was reissued ten years later in a
much more extended form under the title of _The History of
Architecture_. The chapters on Indian architecture, which had been
considered at rather disproportionate length in the _Handbook_, were
removed from the general _History_, and the whole of this subject
treated more fully in a separate volume, _The History of Indian and
Eastern Architecture_, which appeared in 1876, and, although complete in
itself, formed a kind of appendix to _The History of Architecture_.
Previously to this, in 1862, he issued his _History of Modern
Architecture_, in which the subject was continued from the Renaissance
to the present day, the period of "modern architecture" being
distinguished as that of revivals and imitations of ancient styles,
which began with the Renaissance. The essential difference between this
and the spontaneously evolved architecture of preceding ages Fergusson
was the first clearly to point out and characterize. His treatise on
_The True Principles of Beauty in Art_, an early publication, is a most
thoughtful metaphysical study. Some of his essays on special points in
archaeology, such as the treatise on _The Mode in which Light was
introduced into Greek Temples_, included theories which have not
received general acceptance. His real monument is his _History of
Architecture_ (later edition revised by R. Phene Spiers), which, for
grasp of the whole subject, comprehensiveness of plan, and thoughtful
critical analysis, stands quite alone in architectural literature. He
received the gold medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects in
1871. Among his works, besides those already mentioned, are: _A Proposed
New System of Fortification_ (1849)_, Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis
restored_ (1851), _Mausoleum at Halicarnassus restored_ (1862), _Tree
and Serpent Worship_ (1868), _Rude Stone Monuments in all Countries_
(1872), and _The Temples of the Jews and the other Buildings in the
Haram Area at Jerusalem_ (1878). The sessional papers of the Institute
of British Architects include papers by him on _The History of the
Pointed Arch_, _Architecture of Southern India_, _Architectural
Splendour of the City of Beejapore_, _On the Erechtheum_ and on the
_Temple of Diana at Ephesus_.
Although Fergusson never practised architecture he took a keen interest
in all the professional work of his time. He was adviser with Austen
Layard in the scheme of decoration for the Assyrian court at the Crystal
Palace, and indeed assumed in 1856 the duties of general manager to the
Palace Company, a post which he held for two years. In 1847 Fergusson
had published an "Essay on the Ancient Topography of Jerusalem," in
which he had contended that the "Mosque of Omar" was the identical
church built by Constantine the Great over the tomb of our Lord at
Jerusalem, and that it, and not the present church of the Holy
Sepulchre, was the genuine burial-place of Jesus. The burden of this
contention was further explained by the publication in 1860 of his
_Notes on the Site of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem_; and _The Temples
of the Jews and the other Buildings in the Haram Area at Jerusalem_,
published in 1878, was a still completer elaboration of these theories,
which are said to have been the origin of the establishment of the
Palestine Exploration fund. His manifold activities continued till his
death, which took place in London on the 9th of January 1886.
FERGUSSON, ROBERT (1750-1774), Scottish poet, son of Sir William
Fergusson, a clerk in the British Linen Company, was born at Edinburgh
on the 5th of September 1750. Robert was educated at the grammar school
of Dundee, and at the university of St Andrews, where he matriculated in
1765. His father died while he was still at college; but a bursary
enabled him to complete his four years of study. He refused to study for
the church, and was too nervous to study medicine as his friends wished.
He quarrelled with his uncle, John Forbes of Round Lichnot,
Aberdeenshire, and went to Edinburgh, where he obtained employment as
copying clerk in a lawyer's office. In this humble occupation he passed
the remainder of his life. While at college he had written a clever
elegy on Dr David Gregory, and in 1771 he began to contribute verses
regularly to Ruddiman's _Weekly Magazine_. He was a member of the Cape
Club, celebrated by him in his poem of "Auld Reekie." "The Knights of
the Cape" assembled at a tavern in Craig's Close, in the vicinity of the
Cross; each member had a name and character assigned to him, which he
was required to maintain at all gatherings of the order. David Herd
(1732-1810), the collector of the classic edition of _Ancient and Modern
Scottish Songs_ (1776), was sovereign of the Cape (in which he was known
as "Sir Scrape") when Fergusson was dubbed a knight of the order, with
the title of "Sir Precentor," in allusion to his fine voice. Alexander
Runciman, the historical painter, his pupil Jacob More, and Sir Henry
Raeburn were all members. The old minute books of the club abound with
pencilled sketches by them, one of the most interesting of which,
ascribed to Runciman's pencil, is a sketch of Fergusson in his character
of "Sir Precentor."
Fergusson's gaiety and wit made him an entertaining companion, and he
indulged too freely in the convivial habits of the time. After a meeting
with John Brown of Haddington he became, however, very serious, and
would read nothing but his Bible. A fall by which his head was severely
injured aggravated symptoms of mental aberration which had begun to show
themselves; and after about two months' confinement in the old Darien
House--then the only public asylum in Edinburgh--the poet died on the
16th of October 1774.
Fergusson's poems were collected in the year before his death. The
influence of his writings on Robert Burns is undoubted. His "Leith
Races" unquestionably supplied the model for the "Holy Fair." Not only
is the stanza the same, but the Mirth who plays the part of conductor to
Fergusson, and the Fun who renders a like service to Burns, are
manifestly conceived on the same model. "The Mutual Complaint of
Plainstanes and Causey" probably suggested "The Brigs of Ayr"; "On
seeing a Butterfly in the Street" has reflections in it which strikingly
correspond with "To a Mouse"; nor will a comparison of "The Farmer's
Ingle" of the elder poet with "The Cottar's Saturday Night" admit of a
doubt as to the influence of the city-bred poet's muse on that exquisite
picturing of homely peasant life. Burns was himself the first to render
a generous tribute to the merits of Fergusson; on his visit to Edinburgh
in 1787 he sought out the poet's grave, and petitioned the authorities
of the Canongate burying-ground for permission to erect the memorial
stone which is preserved in the existing monument. The date there
assigned for his birth differs from the one given above, which rests on
the authority of his younger sister Margaret.
The first edition of Fergusson's poems was published by Ruddiman at
Edinburgh in 1773, and a supplement containing additional poems, in
1779. A second edition appeared in 1785. There are later editions, by
Robert Chambers (1850) and Dr A.B. Grosart (1851). A life of Fergusson
is included in Dr David Irving's _Lives of the Scottish Poets_, and in
Robert Chambers's Lives of _Illustrious and Distinguished Scotsmen_.
FERGUSSON, SIR WILLIAM, Bart. (1808-1877), British surgeon, the son of
James Fergusson of Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire, was born at Prestonpans,
East Lothian, on the 20th of March 1808. After receiving his early
education at Lochmaben and the high school of Edinburgh, he entered the
university of Edinburgh with the view of studying law, but soon
afterwards abandoned his intention and became a pupil of the anatomist
Robert Knox (1791-1862) whose demonstrator he was appointed at the age
of twenty. In 1836 he succeeded Robert Liston as surgeon to the
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and coming to London in 1840 as professor of
surgery in King's College, and surgeon to King's College Hospital, he
acquired a commanding position among the surgeons of the metropolis. He
revived the operation for cleft-palate, which for many years had fallen
into disrepute, and invented a special mouth-gag for the same. He also
devised many other surgical instruments, chief among which, and still in
use to-day, are his bone forceps, lion forceps and vaginal speculum. In
1866 he was created a baronet. He died in London on the 10th of February
1877. As a surgeon Fergusson's greatest merit is that of having
introduced the practice of "conservative surgery," by which he meant the
excision of a joint rather than the amputation of a limb. He made his
diagnosis with almost intuitive certainty; as an operator he was
characterized by self-possession in the most critical circumstances, by
minute attention to details and by great refinement of touch, and he
relied more on his mechanical dexterity than on complicated instruments.
He was the author of _The Progress of Anatomy and Surgery in the
Nineteenth Century_ (1867), and of a _System of Practical Surgery_
(1842), which went through several editions.
FERINGHI, or FERINGHEE, a Frank (Persian, _Farangi_). This term for a
European is very old in Asia, and was originally used in a purely
geographical sense, but now generally carries a hostile or contemptuous
significance. The combatants on either side during the Indian Mutiny
called each other Feringhies and Pandies.
FERISHTA, MAHOMMED KASIM (c. 1570-c. 1611), Persian historian, was born
at Astrabad, on the shores of the Caspian Sea. While he was still a
child his father was summoned away from his native country into
Hindostan, where he held high office in the Deccan; and by his influence
the young Ferishta received court promotion. In 1589 Ferishta removed to
Bijapur, where he spent the remainder of his life under the immediate
protection of the shah Ibrahim Adil II., who engaged him to write a
history of India. At the court of this monarch he died about 1611. In
the introduction to his work a _resume_ is given of the history of
Hindostan prior to the times of the Mahommedan conquest, and also of the
victorious progress of the Arabs through the East. The first ten books
are each occupied with a history of the kings of one of the provinces;
the eleventh book gives an account of the Mussulmans of Malabar; the
twelfth a history of the Mussulman saints of India; and the conclusion
treats of the geography and climate of India. Ferishta is reputed one of
the most trustworthy of the Oriental historians, and his work still
maintains a high place as an authority. Several portions of it have been
translated into English; but the best as well as the most complete
translation is that published by General J. Briggs under the title of
_The History of the Rise of the Mahometan Power in India_ (London, 1829,
4 vols. 8vo). Several additions were made by Briggs to the original work
of Ferishta, but he omitted the whole of the twelfth book, and various
other passages which had been omitted in the copy from which he
translated.
FERMANAGH, a county of Ireland, in the province of Ulster, bounded N.W.
by Donegal, N.E. by Tyrone, E. by Monaghan and S.W. by Cavan and
Leitrim. The area is 457,369 acres or about 715 sq. m. The county is
situated mostly in the basin of the Erne, which divides the county into
two nearly equal sections. Its surface is hilly, and its appearance (in
many parts) somewhat sterile, though in the main, and especially in the
neighbourhood of Lough Erne, it is picturesque and attractive. The
climate, though moist, is healthy, and the people are generally tall and
robust. The chief mountains are Cuilcagh (2188 ft.), partly in Leitrim
and Cavan, Belmore (1312), Glenkeel (1223), North Shean (1135), Tappahan
(1110), Carnmore (1034). Tossett or Toppid and Turaw mountains command
extensive prospects, and form striking features in the scenery of the
county. But the most distinguishing features of Fermanagh are the Upper
and Lower Loughs Erne, which occupy a great extent of its surface,
stretching for about 45 m. from S.E. to N.W. These lakes are expansions
of the river Erne, which enters the county from Cavan at Wattle Bridge.
It passes Belturbet, the Loughs Erne, Enniskillen and Belleek, on its
way to the Atlantic, into which it descends at Ballyshannon. At Belleek
it forms a considerable waterfall and is here well known to sportsmen
for its good salmon fishing. Trout are taken in most of the loughs, and
pike of great size in the Loughs Erne. There are several mineral springs
in the county, some of them chalybeate, others sulphurous. At Belcoo,
near Enniskillen, there is a famous well called Daragh Phadric, held in
repute by the peasantry for its cure of paralytic and other diseases;
and 4 m. N.W. of the same town, at a place called "the Daughton," are
natural caves of considerable size.
This county includes in the north an area of the gneiss that is
discussed under county Donegal, and, west of Omagh, a metamorphic region
that stretches in from the central axis of Tyrone. A fault divides the
latter from the mass of red-brown Old Red Sandstone that spreads south
nearly to Enniskillen. Lower Carboniferous sandstone and limestone occur
on the north of Lower Lough Erne. The limestone forms fine scarps on the
southern side of the lake, capped by beds regarded as the Yoredale
series. The scenery about the two Loughs Macnean is carved out in
similarly scarped hills, rising to 2188 ft. in Cuilcagh on the south.
The "Marble Arch" cave near Florence-court, with its emerging river, is
a characteristic example of the subterranean waterways in the limestone.
Upper Lough Erne is a typical meandering lake of the limestone lowland,
with outliers of higher Carboniferous strata forming highlands
north-east and south-west of it.
With the exception of the pottery works at Belleek, where iridescent
ware of good quality is produced, Fermanagh has no distinguishing
manufactures. It is chiefly an agricultural county. The proportion of
tillage to pasture is roughly as 1 to 2-1/2. Cattle and poultry are the
principal classes of live stock. Oats and potatoes are the crops most
extensively cultivated. The north-western division of the Great Northern
railway passes through the most populous portion of the county, one
branch connecting Enniskillen with Clones, another connecting
Enniskillen with Londonderry via Omagh, and a third connecting Bundoran
Junction with Bundoran, in county Donegal. The Sligo, Leitrim & Northern
Counties railway connects with the Great Northern at Enniskillen, and
the Clogher Valley light railway connects southern county Tyrone with
the Great Northern at Maguiresbridge.
The population (74,170 in 1891; 65,430 in 1901; almost wholly rural)
shows a decrease among the most serious of the county populations of
Ireland. It includes 55% of Roman Catholics and about 35% of Protestant
Episcopalians. Enniskillen (the county town, pop. 5412) is the only town
of importance, the rest being little more than villages. The principal
are Lisnaskea, Irvinestown (formerly Lowtherstown), Maguiresbridge,
Tempo, Newtownbutler, Belleek, Derrygonnelly and Kesh, at which fairs
are held. Garrison, a fishing station on the wild Lough Melvin, and
Pettigo, near to the lower Lough Erne, are market villages. Fermanagh
returns two members to parliament, one each for the north and south
divisions. It comprises eight baronies and nineteen civil parishes. The
assizes are held at Enniskillen, quarter sessions at Enniskillen and
Newtownbutler. The headquarters of the constabulary are at Enniskillen.
Ecclesiastically it belongs to the Protestant and Roman Catholic
dioceses of Clogher and Kilmore.
By the ancient Irish the district was called _Feor-magh-Eanagh_, or the
"country of the lakes" (lit. "the mountain-valley marsh district"); and
also Magh-uire, or "the country of the waters." A large portion was
occupied by the _Guarii_, the ancestors of the MacGuires or Maguires, a
name still common in the district. This family was so influential that
for centuries the county was called after it Maguire's Country, and one
of the towns still existing bears its name, Maguiresbridge. Fermanagh
was formed into a county on the shiring of Ulster in 1585 by Sir John
Perrot, and was included in the well-known scheme of colonization of
James I., the Plantation of Ulster. In 1689 battles were fought between
William III.'s army and the Irish under Macarthy (for James II.),
Lisnaskea (26th July) and Newtownbutler (30th July). The chief place of
interest to the antiquary is Devenish Island in Lough Erne, about 2-1/2
m. N.W. from Enniskillen (q.v.), with its ruined abbey, round tower and
cross. In various places throughout the county may be seen the ruins of
several ancient castles, Danish raths or encampments, and tumuli, in the
last of which urns and stone coffins have sometimes been found. The
round tower on Devenish Island is one of the finest examples in the
country.
FERMAT, PIERRE DE (1601-1665), French mathematician, was born on the
17th of August 1601, at Beaumont-de-Lomagne near Montauban. While still
young, he, along with Blaise Pascal, made some discoveries in regard to
the properties of numbers, on which he afterwards built his method of
calculating probabilities. He discovered a simpler method of quadrating
parabolas than that of Archimedes, and a method of finding the greatest
and the smallest ordinates of curved lines analogous to that of the then
unknown differential calculus. His great work _De maximis et minimis_
brought him into conflict with Rene Descartes, but the dispute was
chiefly due to a want of explicitness in the statement of Fermat (see
INFINITESIMAL CALCULUS). His brilliant researches in the theory of
numbers entitle him to rank as the founder of the modern theory. They
originally took the form of marginal notes in a copy of Bachet's
_Diophantus_, and were published in 1670 by his son Samuel, who
incorporated them in a new edition of this Greek writer. Other theorems
were published in his _Opera Varia_, and in John Wallis's _Commercium
epistolicum_ (1658). He died in the belief that he had found a relation
which every prime number must satisfy, namely 2^2n + 1 = a prime. This
was afterwards disproved by Leonhard Euler for the case when n = 5.
_Fermat's Theorem_, if p is prime and a is prime to p then a^(p-1) - 1
is divisible by p, was first given in a letter of 1640. _Fermat's
Problem_ is that x^n + y^n = z^n is impossible for integral values of x,
y and z when n is greater than 2.
Fermat was for some time councillor for the parliament of Toulouse, and
in the discharge of the duties of that office he was distinguished both
for legal knowledge and for strict integrity of conduct. Though the
sciences were the principal objects of his private studies, he was also
an accomplished general scholar and an excellent linguist. He died at
Toulouse on the 12th of January 1665. He left a son, Samuel de Fermat
(1630-1690) who published translations of several Greek authors and
wrote certain books on law in addition to editing his father's works.
The _Opera mathematica_ of Fermat were published at Toulouse, in 2
vols. folio, 1670 and 1679. The first contains the "Arithmetic of
Diophantus," with notes and additions. The second includes a "Method
for the Quadrature of Parabolas," and a treatise "on Maxima and
Minima, on Tangents, and on Centres of Gravity," containing the same
solutions of a variety of problems as were afterwards incorporated
into the more extensive method of fluxions by Newton and Leibnitz. In
the same volume are treatises on "Geometric Loci, or Spherical
Tangencies," and on the "Rectification of Curves," besides a
restoration of "Apollonius's Plane Loci," together with the author's
correspondence addressed to Descartes, Pascal, Roberval, Huygens and
others. The _Oeuvres_ of Fermat have been re-edited by P. Tannery and
C. Henry (Paris, 1891-1894).
See Paul Tannery, "Sur la date des principales decouvertes de Fermat,"
in the _Bulletin Darboux_ (1883); and "Les Manuscrits de Fermat," in
the _Annales de la faculte des lettres de Bordeaux_.
FERMENTATION. The process of fermentation in the preparation of wine,
vinegar, beer and bread was known and practised in prehistoric times.
The alchemists used the terms fermentation, digestion and putrefaction
indiscriminately; any reaction in which chemical energy was displayed in
some form or other--such, for instance, as the effervescence occasioned
by the addition of an acid to an alkaline solution--was described as a
fermentation (Lat. _fervere_, to boil); and the idea of the
"Philosopher's Stone" setting up a fermentation in the common metals and
developing the essence or germ, which should transmute them into silver
or gold, further complicated the conception of fermentation. As an
outcome of this alchemical doctrine the process of fermentation was
supposed to have a purifying and elevating effect on the bodies which
had been submitted to its influence. Basil Valentine wrote that when
yeast was added to wort "an internal inflammation is communicated to the
liquid, so that it raises in itself, and thus the segregation and
separation of the feculent from the clear takes place." Johann Becher,
in 1669, first found that alcohol was formed during the fermentation of
solutions of sugar; he distinguished also between fermentation and
putrefaction. In 1697 Georg Stahl admitted that fermentation and
putrefaction were analogous processes, but that the former was a
particular case of the latter.
The beginning of definite knowledge on the phenomenon of fermentation
may be dated from the time of Antony Leeuwenhoek, who in 1680 designed a
microscope sufficiently powerful to render yeast cells and bacteria
visible; and a description of these organisms, accompanied by diagrams,
was sent to the Royal Society of London. This investigator just missed a
great discovery, for he did not consider the spherical forms to be
living organisms but compared them with starch granules. It was not
until 1803 that L.J. Thenard stated that yeast was the cause of
fermentation, and held it to be of an animal nature, since it contained
nitrogen and yielded ammonia on distillation, nor was it conclusively
proved that the yeast cell was the originator of fermentation until the
researches of C. Cagniard de la Tour, T. Schwann and F. Kutzing from
1836 to 1839 settled the point. These investigators regarded yeast as a
plant, and Meyer gave to the germs the systematic name of
"Saccharomyces" (sugar fungus). In 1839-1840 J. von Liebig attacked the
doctrine that fermentation was caused by micro-organisms, and enunciated
his theory of mechanical decomposition. He held that every fermentation
consisted of molecular motion which is transmitted from a substance in a
state of chemical motion--that is, of decomposition--to other
substances, the elements of which are loosely held together. It is clear
from Liebig's publications that he first regarded yeast as a lifeless,
albuminoid mass; but, although later he considered they were living
cells, he would never admit that fermentation was a physiological
process, the chemical aspect being paramount in the mind of this
distinguished investigator.
In 1857 Pasteur decisively proved that fermentation was a physiological
process, for he showed that the yeast which produced fermentation was no
dead mass, as assumed by Liebig, but consisted of living organisms
capable of growth and multiplication. His own words are: "The chemical
action of fermentation is essentially a correlative phenomenon of a
vital act, beginning and ending with it. I think that there is never any
alcoholic fermentation without there being at the same time
organization, development and multiplication of globules, or the
continued consecutive life of globules already formed." Fermentation,
according to Pasteur, was caused by the growth and multiplication of
unicellular organisms out of contact with free oxygen, under which
circumstance they acquire the power of taking oxygen from chemical
compounds in the medium in which they are growing. In other words
"fermentation is life without air, or life without oxygen." This theory
of fermentation was materially modified in 1892 and 1894 by A.J. Brown,
who described experiments which were in disagreement with Pasteur's
dictum. A.J. Brown writes: "If for the theory 'life without air' is
substituted the consideration that yeast cells can use oxygen in the
manner of ordinary aerobic fungi, and probably do require it for the
full completion of their life-history, but that the exhibition of their
fermentative functions is independent of their environment with regard
to free oxygen, it will be found that there is nothing contradictory in
Pasteur's experiments to such a hypothesis."
Liebig and Pasteur were in agreement on the point that fermentation is
intimately connected with the presence of yeast in the fermenting
liquid, but their explanations concerning the mechanism of fermentation
were quite opposed. According to M. Traube (1858), the active cause of
fermentation is due to the action of different enzymes contained in
yeast and not to the yeast cell itself. As will be seen later this
theory was confirmed by subsequent researches of E. Fischer and E.
Buchner.
In 1879 C. Nageli formulated his well-known molecular-physical theory,
which supported Liebig's chemical theory on the one hand and Pasteur's
physiological hypothesis on the other: "Fermentation is the
transference of the condition of motion of the molecules, atomic groups
and atoms of the various compounds constituting the living plasma, to
the fermenting material, in consequence of which equilibrium in the
molecules of the latter is destroyed, the result being their
disintegration." He agreed with Pasteur that the presence of living
cells is essential to the transformation of sugar into alcohol, but
dissented from the view that the process occurs within the cell. This
investigator held that the decomposition of the sugar molecules takes
place outside the cell wall. In 1894 and 1895, Fischer, in a remarkable
series of papers on the influence of molecular structure upon the action
of the enzyme, showed that various species of yeast behave very
differently towards solutions of sugars. For example, some species
hydrolyse cane sugar and maltose, and then carry on fermentation at the
expense of the simple sugars (hexoses) so formed. _Saccharomyces
Marxianus_ will not hydrolyse maltose, but it does attack cane sugar and
ferment the products of hydrolysis. Fischer next suggested that enzymes
can only hydrolyse those sugars which possess a molecular structure in
harmony with their own, or to use his ingenious analogy, "the one may be
said to fit into the other as a key fits into a lock." The preference
exhibited by yeast cells for sugar molecules is shared by mould fungi
and soluble enzymes in their fermentative actions. Thus, Pasteur showed
that _Penicillium glaucum_, when grown in an aqueous solution of
ammonium racemate, decomposed the dextro-tartrate, leaving the
laevo-tartrate, and the solution which was originally inactive to
polarized light became dextro-rotatory. Fischer found that the enzyme
"invertase," which is present in yeast, attacks methyl-_d_-glucoside but
not methyl-_l_-glucoside.
In 1897 Buchner submitted yeast to great pressure, and isolated a
nitrogenous substance, enzymic in character, which he termed "zymase."
This body is being continually formed in the yeast cell, and decomposes
the sugar which has diffused into the cell. The freshly-expressed yeast
juice causes concentrated solutions of cane sugar, glucose, laevulose
and maltose to ferment with the production of alcohol and carbon
dioxide, but not milk-sugar and mannose. In this respect the plasma
behaves in a similar manner towards the sugars as does the living yeast
cell. Pasteur found that, when cane sugar was fermented by yeast, 49.4%
of carbonic acid and 51.1% of alcohol were produced; with expressed
yeast juice cane sugar yields 47% of carbonic acid and 47.7% of alcohol.
According to Buchner the fermentative activity of yeast-cell juice is
not due to the presence of living yeast cells, or to the action of
living yeast protoplasm, but it is caused by a soluble enzyme. A.
Macfadyen, G.H. Morris and S. Rowland, in repeating Buchner's
experiments, found that zymase possessed properties differing from all
other enzymes, thus: dilution with twice its volume of water practically
destroys the fermentative power of the yeast juice. These investigators
considered that differences of this nature cannot be explained by the
theory that it is a soluble enzyme, which brings about the alcoholic
fermentation of sugar. The remarkable discoveries of Fischer and Buchner
to a great extent confirm Traube's views, and reconcile Liebig's and
Pasteur's theories. Although the action of zymase may be regarded as
mechanical, the enzyme cannot be produced by any other than living
protoplasm.
Pasteur's important researches mark an epoch in the technical aspect of
fermentation. His investigations on vinegar-making revolutionized that
industry, and he showed how, instead of waiting two or three months for
the elaboration of the process, the vinegar could be made in eight or
ten days by exposing the vats containing the mixture of wine and vinegar
to a temperature of 20 deg. to 25 deg. C., and sowing with a small
quantity of the acetic organism. To the study of the life-history of the
butyric and acetic organisms we owe the terms "anaerobic" and "aerobic."
His researches from 1860 and onwards on the then vexed question of
spontaneous generation proved that, in all cases where spontaneous
generation appeared to have taken place, some defect or other was in the
experiment. Although the direct object of Pasteur was to prove a
negative, yet it was on these experiments that sterilization as known
to us was developed. It is only necessary to bear in mind the great part
played by sterilization in the laboratory, and pasteurization on the
fermentation industries and in the preservation of food materials.
Pasteur first formulated the idea that bacteria are responsible for the
diseases of fermented liquids; the corollary of this was a demand for
pure yeast. He recommended that yeast should be purified by cultivating
it in a solution of sugar containing tartaric acid, or, in wort
containing a small quantity of phenol. It was not recognized that many
of the diseases of fermented liquids are occasioned by foreign yeasts;
moreover, this process, as was shown later by Hansen, favours the
development of foreign yeasts at the expense of the good yeast.
About this time Hansen, who had long been engaged in researches on the
biology of the fungi of fermentation, demonstrated that yeast free from
bacteria could nevertheless occasion diseases in beer. This discovery
was of great importance to the zymo-technical industries, for it showed
that bacteria are not the only undesirable organisms which may occur in
yeast. Hansen set himself the task of studying the properties of the
varieties of yeast, and to do this he had to cultivate each variety in a
pure state. Having found that some of the commonest diseases of beer,
such as yeast turbidity and the objectionable changes in flavour, were
caused not by bacteria but by certain species of yeast, and, further,
that different species of good brewery yeast would produce beers of
different character, Hansen argued that the pitching yeast should
consist only of a single species--namely, that best suited to the
brewery in question. These views met with considerable opposition, but
in 1890 Professor E. Duclaux stated that the yeast question as regards
low fermentation has been solved by Hansen's investigations. He
emphasized the opinion that yeast derived from one cell was of no good
for top fermentation, and advocated Pasteur's method of purification.
But in the course of time, notwithstanding many criticisms and
objections, the reform spread from bottom fermentation to top
fermentation breweries on the continent and in America. In the United
Kingdom the employment of brewery yeasts selected from a single cell has
not come into general use; it may probably be accounted for in a great
measure by conservatism and the wrong application of Hansen's theories.
_Pure Cultivation of Yeasts._--The methods which were first adopted by
Hansen for obtaining pure cultures of yeast were similar in principle to
one devised by J. Lister for isolating a pure culture of lactic acid
bacterium. Lister determined the number of bacteria present in a drop of
the liquid under examination by counting, and then diluted this with a
sufficient quantity of sterilized water so that each drop of the mixture
should contain, on an average, less than one bacterium. A number of
flasks containing a nutrient medium were each inoculated with one drop
of this mixture; it was found that some remained sterile, and Lister
assumed that the remaining flasks each contained a pure culture. This
method did not give very certain results, for it could not be guaranteed
that the growth in the inoculated flask was necessarily derived from a
single bacterium. Hansen counted the number of yeast cells suspended in
a drop of liquid diluted with sterilized water. A volume of the diluted
yeast was introduced into flasks containing sterilized wort, the degree
of dilution being such that only a small proportion of the flasks became
infected. The flasks were then well shaken, and the yeast cell or cells
settled to the bottom, and gave rise to a separate yeast speck. Only
those cultures which contained a single yeast speck were assumed to be
pure cultivations. By this method several races of _Saccharomycetes_ and
brewery yeasts were isolated and described.
The next important advance was the substitution of solid for liquid
media; due originally to Schroter. R. Koch subsequently improved the
method. He introduced bacteria into liquid sterile nutrient gelatin.
After being well shaken, the liquid was poured into a sterile glass
Petrie dish and covered with a moist and sterile bell-jar. It was
assumed that each separate speck contained a pure culture. Hansen
pointed out that this was by no means the case, for it is more
difficult to separate the cells from each other in the gelatin than in
the liquid. To obtain an absolutely pure culture with certainty it is
necessary, even when the gelatin method is employed, to start from a
single cell. To effect this some of the nutrient gelatin containing
yeast cells is placed on the under-surface of the cover-glass of the
moist chamber. Those cells are accurately marked, the position of which
is such that the colonies, to which they give rise, can grow to their
full size without coming into contact with other colonies. The growth of
the marked cells is kept under observation for three or four days, by
which time the colonies will be large enough to be taken out of the
chamber and placed in flasks. The contents of the flasks can then be
introduced into larger flasks, and finally into an apparatus suitable
for making enough yeast for technical purposes. Such, in brief, are the
methods devised by that brilliant investigator Hansen; and these methods
have not only been the basis on which our modern knowledge of the
_Saccharomycetes_ is founded, but are the only means of attack which the
present-day observer has at his disposal.
From the foregoing it will be seen that the term fermentation has now a
much wider significance than when it was applied to such changes as the
decomposition of must or wort with the production of carbon dioxide and
alcohol. Fermentation now includes all changes in organic compounds
brought about by ferments elaborated in the living animal or vegetable
cell. There are two distinct types of fermentation: (1) those brought
about by living organisms (organized ferments), and (2) those brought
about by non-living or unorganized ferments (enzymes). The first class
include such changes as the alcoholic fermentation of sugar solutions,
the acetic acid fermentation of alcohol, the lactic acid fermentation of
milk sugar, and the putrefaction of animal and vegetable nitrogenous
matter. The second class include all changes brought about by the agency
of enzymes, such as the action of diastase on starch, invertase on cane
sugar, glucase on maltose, &c. The actions are essentially hydrolytic.
_Biological Aspect of Yeast._--The Saccharomycetes belong to that
division of the Thallophyta called the Hyphomycetes or Fungi (q.v.). Two
great divisions are recognized in the Fungi: (i.) the _Phycomycetes_ or
Algal Fungi, which retain a definitely sexual method of reproduction as
well as asexual (vegetative) methods, and (ii.) the _Mycomycetes_,
characterized by extremely reduced or very doubtful sexual reproduction.
The Mycomycetes may be divided as follows: (A) forms bearing both
sporangia and conidia (see FUNGI), (B) forms bearing conidia only, e.g.
the common mushroom. Division A comprises (a) the true _Ascomycetes_, of
which the moulds Eurotium and Penicillium are examples, and (b) the
_Hemiasci_, which includes the yeasts. The gradual disappearance of the
sexual method of reproduction, as we pass upwards in the fungi from the
points of their departure from the Algae, is an important fact, the last
traces of sexuality apparently disappearing in the ascomycetes.
With certain rare exceptions the Saccharomycetes have three methods of
asexual reproduction:--
1. The most common.--The formation of _buds_ which separate to form new
cells. A portion of the nucleus of the parent cell makes its way through
the extremely narrow neck into the daughter cell. This method obtains
when yeast is vigorously fermenting a saccharine solution.
2. A division by _fission_ followed by Endogenous spore formation,
characteristic of the Schizosaccharomycetes. Some species show
fermentative power.
3. _Endospore_ formation, the conditions for which are as follows: (1)
suitable temperature, (2) presence of air, (3) presence of moisture, (4)
young and vigorous cells, (5) a food supply in the case of one species
at least is necessary, and is in no case prejudicial. In some cases a
sexual act would appear to precede spore formation. In most cases four
spores are formed within the cell by free formation. These may readily
be seen after appropriate staining.
In some of the true Ascomycetes, such as _Penicillium glaucum_, the
conidia if grown in saccharine solutions, which they have the power of
fermenting, develop single cell yeast-like forms, and do not--at any
rate for a time--produce again the characteristic branching mycelium.
This is known as the _Torula_ condition. It is supposed by some that
Saccharomyces is a very degraded Ascomycete, in which the Torula
condition has become fixed.
The yeast plant and its allies are saprophytes and form no chlorophyll.
Their extreme reduction in form and loss of sexuality may be correlated
with the saprophytic habit, the proteids and other organic material
required for the growth and reproduction being appropriated ready
synthesized, the plant having entirely lost the power of forming them
for itself, as evidenced by the absence of chlorophyll. The beer yeast
_S. cerevisiae_, is never found wild, but the wine yeasts occur
abundantly in the soil of vineyards, and so are always present on the
fruit, ready to ferment the expressed juice.
_Chemical Aspect of Alcoholic Fermentation._--Lavoisier was the first
investigator to study fermentation from a quantitative standpoint. He
determined the percentages of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in the sugar
and in the products of fermentation, and concluded that sugar in
fermenting breaks up into alcohol, carbonic acid and acetic acid. The
elementary composition of sugar and alcohol was fixed in 1815 by
analyses made by Gay-Lussac, Thenard and de Saussure. The
first-mentioned chemist proposed the following formula to represent the
change which takes place when sugar is fermented:--
C6H12O6 = 2CO2 + 2C2H6O.
Sugar. Carbon dioxide. Alcohol.
This formula substantially holds good to the present day, although a
number of definite bodies other than carbon dioxide and alcohol occur in
small and varying quantities, according to the conditions of the
fermentation and the medium fermented. Prominent among these are
glycerin and succinic acid. In this connexion Pasteur showed that 100
parts of cane sugar on inversion gave 105.4 parts of invert sugar,
which, when fermented, yielded 51.1 parts alcohol, 49.4 carbonic acid,
0.7 succinic acid, 3.2 glycerin and 1.0 unestimated. A. Bechamp and E.
Duclaux found that acetic acid is formed in small quantities during
fermentation; aldehyde has also been detected. The higher alcohols such
as propyl, isobutyl, amyl, capryl, oenanthyl and caproyl, have been
identified; and the amount of these vary according to the different
conditions of the fermentation. A number of esters are also produced.
The characteristic flavour and odour of wines and spirits is dependent
on the proportion of higher alcohols, aldehydes and esters which may be
produced.
Certain yeasts exercise a reducing action, forming sulphuretted
hydrogen, when sulphur is present. The "stinking fermentations"
occasionally experienced in breweries probably arise from this, the free
sulphur being derived from the hops. Other yeasts are stated to form
sulphurous acid in must and wort. Another fact of considerable technical
importance is, that the various races of yeast show considerable
differences in the amount and proportion of fermentation products other
than ethyl alcohol and carbonic acid which they produce. From these
remarks it will be clear that to employ the most suitable kind of yeast
for a given alcoholic fermentation is of fundamental importance in
certain industries. It is beyond the scope of the present article to
attempt to describe the different forms of budding fungi
(Saccharomyces), mould fungi and bacteria which are capable of
fermenting sugar solutions. Thus, six species isolated by Hansen,
_Saccharomyces cerevisiae_, _S. Pasteurianus_ I.,[1] II., III., and _S.
ellipsoideus_, contained invertase and maltase, and can invert and
subsequently ferment cane sugar and maltose. _S. exiguus_ and _S.
Ludwigii_ contain only invertase and not maltase, and therefore ferment
cane sugar but not maltose. _S. apiculatus_ (a common wine yeast)
contains neither of these enzymes, and only ferments solutions of
glucose or laevulose.
Previously to Hansen's work the only way of differentiating yeasts was
by studying morphological differences with the aid of the microscope.
Max Reess distinguished the species according to the appearance of the
cells thus, the ellipsoidal cells were designated _Saccharomyces
ellipsoideus_, the sausage-shaped _Saccharomyces Pasteurianus_, and so
on. It was found by Hansen that the same species of yeast can assume
different shapes; and it therefore became necessary to determine how the
different varieties of yeast could be distinguished with certainty. The
formation of spores in yeast (first discovered by T. Schwann in 1839)
was studied by Hansen, who found that each species only developed spores
between certain definite temperatures. The time taken for spore
formation varies greatly; thus, at 52 deg. F., _S. cerevisiae_ takes 10,
_S. Pasteurianus_ I. and II. about 4, _S. Pasteurianus_ III. about 7,
and _S. ellipsoideus_ about 4-1/2 days. The formation of spores is used
as an analytical method for determining whether a yeast is contaminated
with another species,--for example: a sample of yeast is placed on a
gypsum or porcelain block saturated with water; if in ten days at a
temperature of 52 deg. F. no spores make their appearance, the yeast in
question may be regarded as _S. cerevisiae_, and not associated with _S.
Pasteurianus_ or _S. ellipsoideus_.
The formation of films on fermented liquids is a well-known phenomenon
and common to all micro-organisms. A free still surface with a direct
access of air are the necessary conditions. Hansen showed that the
microscopic appearance of film cells of the same species of
Saccharomycetes varies according to the temperature of growth; the
limiting temperatures of film formation, as well as the time of its
appearance for the different species, also vary.
In the zymo-technical industries the various species of yeast exhibit
different actions during fermentations. A well-known instance of this is
the "top" and "bottom" brewery fermentations (see BREWING). In a top
fermentation--typical of English breweries--the yeast rises, in a bottom
fermentation, as the phrase implies, it settles in the vessel. Sometimes
a bottom yeast may for a time exhibit signs of a top fermentation. It
has not, however, been possible to transform a typical top yeast into a
permanent typical bottom yeast. There appear to be no true distinctive
characteristics for these two types. Their selection for a particular
purpose depends upon some special quality which they possess; thus for
brewing certain essentials are demanded as regards stability,
clarification, taste and smell; whereas, in distilleries, the production
of alcohol and a high multiplying power in the yeast are required.
Culture yeasts have also been successfully employed in the manufacture
of wine and cider. By the judicious selection of a type of yeast it is
possible to improve the bouquet, and from an inferior must obtain a
better wine or cider than would otherwise be produced.
Certain acid fermentations are of common occurrence. The _Bacterium
acidi lacti_ described by Pasteur decomposes milk sugar into lactic
acid. _Bacillus amylobacter_ usually accompanies the lactic acid
organism, and decomposes lactic and other higher acids with formation of
butyric acid. Moulds have been isolated which occasion the formation of
citric acid from glucose. The production of acetic acid from alcohol has
received much attention at the hands of investigators, and it has an
important technical aspect in the manufacture of vinegar. The phenomenon
of nitrification (see BACTERIOLOGY, AGRICULTURE and MANURE), i.e. the
formation of nitrites and nitrates from ammonia and its compounds in the
soil, was formerly held to be a purely chemical process, until
Schloesing and Muntz suggested in 1877 that it was biological. It is now
known that the action takes place in two stages; the ammonium salt is
first oxidized to the nitrite stage and subsequently to the nitrate.
(J. L. B.)