Part 177

_Obs._ The preparation of French polish is precisely similar to that of other spirit or naphthalic varnishes. Sometimes it is coloured, in order to modify the character of the wood. A REDDISH TINGE is given with dragon's blood, alkanet root, or red sanders wood; and a YELLOWISH TINGE, by turmeric root or gamboge. When it is simply desired to DARKEN the wood, brown shell-lac is employed to make the polish; and when the object is to keep the wood LIGHT COLOURED, a little oxalic acid (2 to 4 dr. to the pint) is commonly added. These substances are either steeped in or agitated with the polish, or with the solvent, before pouring it on the 'gums,' until they dissolve, or a sufficient effect is produced. French polish is not required to be so clear and limpid as other varnishes, and is, therefore, never artificially clarified. See VARNISH, and _below_.

=FRENCH POL'ISHING.= This process, now so generally employed for furniture and cabinet work, is performed as follows:--The surface to be operated on being finished off as smoothly as possible with glass paper, and placed opposite the light, the 'rubber' being made as directed below, and the polish (see above) being at hand, and preferably contained in a narrow-necked bottle, the workman moistens the middle or flat face of the rubber with the polish, by laying the rubber on the mouth of the bottle and shaking up the varnish against it, once, by which means the rubber imbibes the proper quantity to cover a considerable extent of surface. He next encloses the rubber in a soft linen cloth, doubled, the rest of the cloth being gathered up at the back of the rubber to form a handle. The face of the linen is now moistened with a little raw linseed oil, applied with the finger to the middle of it, and the operation of polishing immediately commenced. For this purpose the workman passes his rubber quickly and lightly over the surface uniformly in one direction, until the varnish becomes dry, or nearly so, when he again charges his rubber as before, omitting the oil, and repeats the rubbing, until three coats are laid on. He now applies a little oil to the rubber, and two coats more are commonly given. As soon as the coating of varnish has acquired some thickness, he wets the inside of the linen cloth, before applying the varnish, with alcohol, or wood naphtha, and gives a quick, light, and uniform touch over the whole surface. The work is, lastly, carefully gone over with the linen cloth, moistened with a little oil and rectified spirit or naphtha, without varnish, and rubbed, as before, until dry.

The RUBBER for French polishing is made by rolling up a strip of thick woollen cloth (list) which has been torn off, so as to form a soft elastic edge. It should form a coil, from 1 to 3 inches in diameter, according to the size of the work.

=FRES'CO-PAINTING.= See PAINTING.

=FRICANDEAU.= [Fr.] Among _cooks_, a ragoût, or fricassée of veal. The same term is also sometimes applied to stewed beef, highly seasoned.

=FRICASSEE.= [Fr.] A dish prepared by stewing or semi-frying, highly flavoured with herbs, spices, or sauce. Small things, as chickens, lamb, &c., and cold meat, are usually formed into fricassees.

=FRIC'TION=. In a general sense, the act of rubbing one body against another; attrition.

=Friction.= In _mechanics_ this is the resistance which the surface of a moving body meets with from the surface of the body on which it moves. To lessen the amount of friction in machines, various unctuous substances, as oil, tallow, soap, black-lead, &c., are used by engineers. These substances act by imparting smoothness to the points of contact, and thus reduce their resistance to each other. The full consideration of the subject belongs to engineering.

=Friction.= In _medicine_, friction, whether simple or conjoined with liniments, is a therapeutical agent of considerable power. By it the circulation is promoted in debilitated parts, and medicinal substances (iodine, mercurials, opium, &c.) are made to penetrate the pores of the skin. "The benefit of friction, which consists of motion and heat, whether or not the same be raised by rubbing the body with a coarse cloth or the flesh-brush, has advantages inconceivable and scarcely credible, by which the obstructions of the pores and cutaneous glandules are opened, their stagnating juices broken into small particles, dissolved, and rendered fit to be carried off in perspiration, in the room of which, as my Lord Verulam well observes, new juice will succeed with new vigour to the body; and longevity, saith that great naturalist, is this way most certainly promoted" (Daniel Turner).

Simple friction is performed by the hand alone, or with a piece of flannel, a hair glove, or a flesh-brush. "If it be properly performed--namely, by short, brisk strokes with the tips of the fingers, and with great celerity, when the naked hand is the agent; and if it be continued for an hour or upwards, and repeated several times a day--its influence in reducing swelled glands and swellings of the joints, as well as in alleviating rheumatic pains, is very great; but, besides being well performed, the friction should be continued for (at least) half an hour, in order to render it useful." (Dr R. E. Griffith.)

Gentle, slow, and equable friction, by producing a continued repetition of an agreeable impression on the nervous system, acts both as an anodyne and hypnotic. For this purpose "the operator should sit by the side of the bed, and introducing the hand under the bedclothes, rub the legs or the arms (or other parts) gently with equally lengthened but slow movements. When the invalid is a child, its influence is more powerful when aided by a monotonous, but a soft tune, which, although it operates upon a distinct sense, yet, by combination, renders the friction more soporific." (Griffith.)

When the friction is accompanied with the use of any acrid or irritating substance, or is intended to introduce any active remedy into the system, the rubbing should be brisk, and of sufficient force to slightly abrade and inflame the cuticle; and should be continued until the substance, which is usually in the form of an ointment, either wholly or partially disappears, owing to its absorption by the skin. The hand of the operator should, in most cases, be guarded by a glove; otherwise he is likely to share with the patient the effects of the medicine, a result not always agreeable or even safe.

=FRIGORIFIC MIXTURES.= See REFRIGERATION.

=FRIT.= The pulverulent materials of glass, heated until they coalesce without melting. See ENAMEL, GLASS, &C.

=FRIT'TERS.= Fried batter. A species of pancake, containing fruit, sweetmeats, poultry, meat, or fish.

_Prep._ 1. (M. Alexis Soyer.) "The following is thirty receipts in one:"--Soak crum of bread, 1 lb., in cold water, q. s.; take the same quantity of any kind of boiled or roasted meat (a little fat), and chop it into fine dice; press the water out of the bread; put into the pan butter, lard, or dripping, 2 oz., with chopped onions, two teaspoonfuls; fry two minutes, add the bread, stir with a wooden spoon until rather dry, then add the meat, and season with salt, 1 teaspoonful, pepper, 1/2 do., and a little grated nutmeg if handy; stir till quite hot; then further add two eggs, one at a time, mix very quickly, and pour it on a dish to cool; next roll it into the shape of small eggs, then in flour, 'egg' them, and bread-crum them; lastly, fry in abundance of fat to a nice yellow colour, and serve either plain or with any sharp or other savory sauce you fancy. Innumerable dishes can be made in this way; in fact, from everything that is eatable, and at any season of the year--from the remains of meat, poultry, game, fish, vegetables, &c. The same can be done with chopped, dried, or preserved fruits, simply using a 1/4 lb. more bread, and sifting powdered sugar and cinnamon over them. Cream may also be used for fruit, or curds.

Fritters are also (and more commonly) fried in ordinary batter, instead of bread-crumbs. "There is no end to what may be done with these receipts." "They can be ornamented and made worthy the table of the greatest epicure if the bread be soaked in cream, and spirits or liquor introduced into them." (Soyer.)

2. Mrs Rundell:--_a._ (APPLE FRITTERS.) See FRUIT FRITTERS.

_b._ (BUCKWHEAT FRITTERS, B. CAKES, BOCKINGS.) Made by beating up buckwheat flour to a batter with some warm milk, adding a little yeast, letting it rise before the fire for 30 or 40 minutes, then beating in some eggs and milk or warm water, as required, and frying them like pancakes. Buckwheat fritters, when well prepared, are excellent. Made without eggs and served up with molasses, they form a common dish in almost every breakfast in North America.

_c._ (CURD FRITTERS.) From dried curd, beaten with yolk of egg and a little flour, and flavoured with nutmeg.

_d._ (FRENCH FRITTERS.) Common pancakes, beaten up with eggs, almonds, and flavouring sugar, orange-flower water, and nutmeg, and the paste dropped into a stew- or frying-pan half full of boiling lard, so as to form cakes the size of large nuts, which are cooked till brown.

_e._ (FRUIT FRITTERS.) From the sliced fruits, with rich batter.

_f._ (SOUFFLÉ FRITTERS.) Rich pancakes, flavoured with lemon.

_g._ (SPANISH FRITTERS.) From slices of French rolls soaked in a mixture of cream, eggs, sugar, and spices, and fried brown.

=FROG.= The esculent variety, in Europe, is the common green or gibbous frog, the _Rana esculenta_ of Linnæus. As an aliment, it is much esteemed on the Continent, the hind legs only being eaten. Its liver is among the simples of the Ph. L. 1618, and was once considered a useful remedy in certain forms of ague.

The Americans eat the bull-frog (the _Rana taurina_). This variety of the edible frog, which is a native of the Northern States and is much prized as a table delicacy, has been lately introduced into France by the Société d'Acclimatisation. Its flesh, when cooked, is said to have a taste very like that of turtle. In South Africa, a large frog called Matlamétlo is eaten. Frogs are also favourite food with the natives of China and Australia.

=FROG OINTMENT or Thrush Mixture.= Brown syrup, 90 grammes; verdigris, 6 grammes; strong acetic acid, 10 grammes; solution of perchloride of iron, 2 grammes. (Hager.)

=FROST-BITES.= When those parts of the body in which the circulation of the blood is most languid are exposed to extreme cold, they quickly become frozen, or, as it is called, 'frost bitten.' The fingers, toes, ears, nose, and chin are most liable to this attack. The remedy is long-continued friction with the hands or cold flannel, avoiding the fire, or even a heated apartment.

=FROSTBEULENTINCTUR, FROSTBEULENWASSER--Chilblain Tincture, Chilblain Water.= Manufactured by a chiropodist of Munich. It is a solution of 2 grammes zinc sulphate in 60 grammes water. (Wittstein.)

=FROSTSALBE--Frost Ointment= (Wahler, Kupferzell). Mutton tallow, 24; hog's lard, 24; iron oxide, 4; heat it in an iron vessel, stirring continually with an iron rod until the whole has become black; then add 4 parts Venice turpentine, 2 parts bergamot oil, and 2 parts Armenian bole rubbed smooth with olive oil.

=FRUIT.= _Syn._ FRUCTUS, L. Among botanists this is the mature ovary or pistil, containing the ripened ovules or seeds. In familiar language, the term is applied to any product of a plant containing the seed, more especially those that are eatable.

Fruits are extensively employed as articles of diet by man, both as luxuries and nutriment. The fruit of the cereals furnishes our daily bread; that of the vine gives us the well-known beverage, wine, whilst other varieties enrich our desserts, and provide us with some of our most valuable condiments and aromatics. The acidulous and subacid fruits are antiseptic, aperient, attenuant, diuretic, and refrigerant. They afford little nourishment, and are apt to promote diarrh[oe]a and flatulency. They are, however, occasionally exhibited medicinally, in putrid affections, and are often useful in bilious and dyspeptic complaints. The farinaceous fruits (grain), as already stated, furnish the principal and most useful portion of the food of man. The oleo-farinaceous (nuts, &c.) are less wholesome and less easy of digestion than those purely farinaceous. The saccharine fruits, or those abounding in sugar, are nutritious and laxative, but are apt to ferment and disagree with delicate stomachs when eaten in excess. Stone fruits are more difficult of digestion than the other varieties, and are very apt to disorder the stomach and bowels.

As a rule, fruit should never be eaten in large quantities at a time, and only when quite ripe. It then appears to be exceedingly wholesome, and to be a suitable corrective to the grossness of animal food. It also exercises a powerful action on the skin, and is a specific for scurvy in its early stages. Many cutaneous diseases may likewise be removed by the daily use of a moderate quantity of fruit, or other fresh vegetable food. Cases are not uncommon which, after resisting every variety of ordinary medical treatment, yield to a mixed fruit or vegetable diet.

Fruits should be gathered in dry weather, and preferably about noon, because the dew and moisture deposited on them during the night and earlier part of the morning has then evaporated. They should be quite ripe when gathered, but the sooner they are removed from the tree after this point is arrived at, the better. Immature fruit never keeps so well as that which has ripened on the tree; and overripe fruit is liable to be bruised and to lose flavour. The less fruit is handled in gathering the better. Some of them, as PEACHES, NECTARINES, GRAPES, PLUMS, &c., require to be treated with great delicacy, to avoid bruising them or rubbing off the bloom. Some fruit, as a few varieties of APPLES, PEARS, and ORANGES, &c., are gathered before they are fully ripe, in order that they may the better undergo the perils of transit and storage.

_Pres._ Ripe fruits are commonly preserved in the fresh state by placing them in a cool dry situation, on shelves, so that they do not touch each other; or by packing them in clean, dry sand, sawdust, straw, bran, or any similar substance, with like care, to preserve them from the action of air and moisture. An excellent plan, commonly adopted for dessert fruit in this country, is to wrap each separately in a piece of clean, dry paper, and to fill small, wide-mouthed jars or honey-pots with them. The filled pots are then packed one upon another (see _engr._) in a dry and cold place (as a cellar), where the frost cannot reach them. The space (_a_) between the two pots may be advantageously filled up with plaster of Paris made into a paste with water. The joint is thus rendered air-tight, and the fruit will keep good for a long time. The mouth of the top jar is covered with a slate. For use, the jars should be taken one at a time from the store-room as wanted, and the fruit exposed for a week or ten days in a warm dry room before being eaten, by which the flavour is much improved.

Fruit is preserved on the large scale for the London market by placing in a cool situation first a layer of straw or paper, and so on alternately, to the height of 20 or 25 inches, which cannot be well exceeded, as the weight of the superincumbent fruit is apt to crush or injure the lower layers. Sometimes alternate layers of fruit and paper are arranged in baskets or hampers, which are then placed in the cellar or fruit-room. The baskets admit of being piled one over the other without injury to the fruit. The use of brown paper is inadmissible for the above purposes, as it conveys its peculiar flavour to the fruit. Thick white-brown paper is the cheapest and the best.

=Fruit Essences (Artificial).= These remarkable products first attracted attention at the Exhibition of 1851. To speak somewhat generally, they are mixtures of amylic, butyric, pelargonic, valerianic, and other ethers, in alcohol. By judicious mixture, the flavour of almost any fruit can be more or less perfectly imitated. The artificial essences are generally coloured to represent the juice of the fruit from which they are supposed to be derived. The ESSENCE OF JARGONELLE PEAR and the ESSENCE OF APPLE, which are, perhaps, the best of all the artificial essences, are respectively formed from the ACETATE and VALERIANATE OF AMYLE. See AMYLE, ESSENCE, &c.

=FRU'MENTY.= Wheat boiled in water until quite soft, then taken out, drained, thinned with milk, sweetened with sugar, and flavoured with nutmeg. When currants and eggs are added, it forms 'SOMERSETSHIRE FRUMENTY,' Some persons boil the wheat like rice. "Eaten with milk, in the evening, for some time, it will often relieve costiveness." (Griffith.)

=FRY'ING.= "The frying-pan is, without doubt, the most useful of all kitchen implements, and, like a good-natured servant, is often imposed upon and obliged to do all the work, while its companion, the gridiron, is quietly reposing in the chimney corner." "The usual complaint of food being rendered greasy by frying is totally remedied by sautéing the meat in a small quantity of fat, butter, or oil, which has attained a proper degree of heat, instead of placing it in cold fat, and letting it soak while melting." "According to the (common) mode in which all objects are cooked which are called fried, it would answer to the French word 'sauté,' or the old English term 'frizzle,' but to fry any object, it should be immersed in very hot fat, oil, or butter." "To frizzle, sauté, or, as I will now designate it, semi-fry, is to place in the pan any oleaginous substance, so that, when melted, it shall cover the bottom of the pan by about two lines; and when hot, the article to be cooked is to be placed therein. To do it to perfection requires a little attention, so that the pan shall never get too hot. It should also be perfectly clean--a great deal depends on this." (Soyer.)

According to the writer quoted above, a chop or steak, for frying, should be chosen 3/4 of an inch thick, and should "never exceed one inch, nor be less than half an inch, and to be as near as possible of the same thickness all over." "An ill-cut chop (or steak) never can be but ill-cooked; you can always equalise them (when badly cut) by beating them out with a chopper."

"The motive of semi-frying food is to have it done quickly; therefore, to fry a whole fowl, or even half (for example), is useless, as it could be cooked in a different way in the same time; but to semi-fry a fowl (in joints or pieces), with the object of having it quickly placed on the table, in order to satisfy a good, and perhaps fastidious appetite, it should be done in a similar way to that practised in Egypt some 3000 years since, and of late years for the great Napoleon--that is, cooked in oil. In France this dish is called '_Poulet à la Marengo_,' It is related that the great conqueror, after having gained that celebrated victory, ate three small chickens at one meal done in this way, and his appetite and taste were so good, and he approved of them so highly, that he desired that they may always be served in the same way during the campaign."

"For many objects I prefer the frying-pan to the gridiron; that is, if the pan is properly used. As regards economy, it is preferable, securing all the fat and gravy, which is often lost when the gridiron is used." "This simple _batterie de cuisine_" may be employed "equally as well in the cottage as in the palace, or in the bachelor's chamber as in the rooms of the poor." (Soyer.)

=FUCH'SIN.= See TAR COLOURS.

=FUCUS'AMID, FU'CUSINE, and FU'CUSOL.= Compounds obtained by Dr Stenhouse from several varieties of FUCUS by treatment with sulphuric acid, as in the preparation of FURFURINE (which _see_).

=FU'EL.= Matter used for the production of heat by burning. The principal substances employed as fuel are--ANTHRACITE, CHARCOAL, COAL GAS, COKE, OIL, SPIRIT, PITCOAL, TURF, and WOOD.

The heating power of almost every description of fuel has been determined by the direct experiments of Lavoisier, Regnault, Andrews, and others; the general principle of their methods consisting in the use of an apparatus wherein the entire heat of combustion was absorbed by a known weight of water, the whole arrangement being protected from the influence of external changes of temperature, and the increase of the temperature of the water being known by the simultaneous indication of several delicate thermometers suspended in it. The real value of such determinations is simply relative. The imperfect character of most boiler and furnace arrangements, and the large quantity of fuel which passes into the 'ash-pit' unconsumed, together with the irregular 'draught,' and the amount of heat absorbed by excess of cold air, result practically in an enormous loss of heating power, even under the most careful management. The mechanical condition of a fuel must be considered in estimating its value. In a series of trials instituted by the Government it was a _sine quâ non_ that the toughness of each kind of coal must be such, for naval use, as to resist, without crumbling, the constant friction in the ship's hold, at the same time that its 'fracture' must be such that it packs into the smallest possible space.[319]

[Footnote 319: For full information on coal and other fuels, refer to Ure's 'Dict. of Arts, Manufactures, &c.,' Percy's 'Metallurgy,' and Watt's 'Dict. of Chemistry.']

In the _chemical laboratory_ COAL GAS is now generally employed as fuel. It is cheap and manageable, and, with proper apparatus, may be made to supply almost any amount of heat. Where gas cannot be conveniently procured, OIL and SPIRIT are used as fuel for lamps. See ANTHRACITE, CHARCOAL, COKE, FURNACE, PITCOAL, &c., also _below_.

=Fuel, Econom'ical.= Various mixtures have been recommended under this name. The following is one of the best:--

_Prep._ Small coal, charcoal, or sawdust, 1 part; clay, loam, or marl, 1 part; sand, or ashes, 2 parts; water, q. s.; make the mass up wet into balls. For use, these balls are piled on an ordinary fire to a little above the top bar. They are said to produce a heat considerably more intense than that of common fuel, and ensure a saving of one half the quantity of coals, whilst a fire thus made up will require no stirring, nor fresh fuel for ten hours. The quantity of the combustible ingredient in them should be doubled, when they are intended to be used with a very little foundation of coal.

_Obs._ Of late years simple FIRE-CLAY BALLS have been much used for radiating heat from parlour-grates, and so effecting saving in the consumption of fuel. They are very useful for partially filling up those roomy, old-fashioned, badly-constructed grates, which are still to be found in many private houses.

PEAT and TURF, both recent and charred, are commonly used as fuel by the lower classes, in neighbourhoods where they are plentiful. FIR CONES or TOPS contain a great quantity of solid woody in addition to the resinous matter, and are well adapted for domestic fires.

=Fuel, Prepared.= _Syn._ COMPRESSED FUEL, PATENT F., STEAM F. Many artificial fuels are now in use. The greater number have one character in common--they are composed of small coal cemented by some bituminous matter. The following are the principal kinds:--

FUEL, ABERDARE PATENT STEAM. From the 'small' of the South Wales Steam Coal mixed with coal, pitch, and compressed by hydraulic machinery. The pitch is broken up, and thoroughly mixed with the small coal over a furnace, in iron pans, in which shafts with obliquely attached blades are continually revolving. The mixture is afterwards pressed into iron moulds by a force equal to about 2-1/2 tons per inch. The weight of a cubic foot of this excellent fuel is 80 lbs.; the space occupied by 1 ton, 28 cubic feet.