Fel´lows, Sir Charles, traveller and antiquarian, was born in 1799 at Nottingham, died in 1860. He first explored the valley of the Xanthus in Lycia, in 1838, and discovered the remains of the cities Xanthus and Teos. Under the auspices of the trustees of the British Museum he made further explorations in 1839 and 1841, and succeeded in obtaining the marbles now in the Lycian saloon of the museum. He was knighted by the queen in 1845. His principal works are: The Xanthian Marbles: their Acquisition and Transmission to England; Travels and Researches in Asia Minor; and Coins of Ancient Lycia before the Reign of Alexander.
Fellowship, a distinction conferred by some universities, especially those of Oxford and Cambridge, which entitles the holder, called a fellow, to an annual stipend for a certain period. Fellowships in the English colleges commonly range in value from about £150 to £250 or £300 a year, and they all confer upon their holders the right to apartments in the college, and certain privileges as to commons or meals. Formerly they were usually tenable for life or till the attainment of a certain position in the Church or at the Bar, or till marriage; but six or seven years is now a common period during which they may be held, though this may be prolonged in certain circumstances. At Dublin University senior fellows hold their office for life.
Felo de se (Lat., 'a felon in regard to himself'), in law, a person who, being of sound mind and of the age of discretion, deliberately causes his own death. Formerly, in England, the goods of such a person were forfeited to the Crown, and his body interred in an ignominious manner; that is, unless the coroner's jury gave a verdict of unsound mind; but these penalties have been abolished.
Fel´ony, in law, includes generally all crimes below treason and of greater gravity than misdemeanours. Formerly it was applied to those crimes which entailed forfeiture of lands or goods as part of the punishment.
Felsite, or Felstone, a hard, compact igneous rock of somewhat flinty appearance, composed usually of quartz and orthoclase felspar intimately mixed, but sometimes of less highly siliceous minerals.
Fel´spar, or Feldspar, a very important group of mineral silicates of aluminium, with potassium, sodium, or calcium, ranging from orthoclase, the potassium species, with 64.7 per cent of silica, to anorthite, the calcium species, with only 43.3. Albite, the sodium felspar, has 68.8 per cent of silica, and the species between this and anorthite are regarded as mixtures of albite and anorthite molecules. These molecules probably do not exist as such within the crystals; but the various characters of the species graduate into one another in agreement with the chemical constitution, so that the felspars form an admirable example of the relation of chemical composition, specific gravity, and crystalline and optical features. At the same time orthoclase and microcline are both potassium felspars; yet the former crystallizes in the monoclinic, and the latter in the triclinic system. All the sodium, sodium-calcium, and calcium species are triclinic, except the rare monoclinic sodium felspar barbierite. The forms throughout the felspar series are closely similar, and the hardness is uniform, being just below that of quartz, and about that of a steel file. Felspar is one of the principal constituents of almost all igneous rocks, such as granite, diorite, and basalt. The alkali species yield kaolin by alteration, and are thus the source of china-clay.
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NOTES
[1] The use of gas, as already pointed out, had been forced on the British by its adoption by the Germans. Ultimately the methods invented by British chemists and physicists outgassed the Germans.