equivalent is enfants perdus), a military term (sometimes shortened to “forlorn”), used in the 16th and 17th centuries for a body of troops thrown out in front of the line of battle to engage the hostile line, somewhat after the fashion of skirmishers, though they were always solid closed bodies. These troops ran great risks, because they were often trapped between the two lines of battle as the latter closed upon one another, and fired upon or ridden down by their friends; further, their mission was to facilitate the attacks of their own main body by striking the first blow against or meeting the first shock of the fresh and unshaken enemy. In the following century (18th), when lines of masses were no longer employed, a thin line of skirmishers alone preceded the three-deep line of battle, but the term “forlorn hope” continued to be used for picked bodies of men entrusted with dangerous tasks, and in particular for the storming party at the assault of a fortress. In this last sense “forlorn hope” is often used at the present time. The misunderstanding of the word “hope” has led to various applications of “forlorn hope,” such as to an enterprise offering little chance of success, or, further still from the original meaning, to the faint or desperate hope of such success.
FORM (Lat. forma), in general, the external shape, appearance,
configuration of an object, in contradistinction to the matter of
which it is composed; thus a speech may contain excellent
arguments,—the matter may be good, while the style, grammar,
arrangement,—the form—is bad. The term, with its adjective
“formal” and the derived nouns “formality” and “formalism,”
is hence contemptuously used for that which is superficial,
unessential, hypocritical: chap. xxiii. of Matthew’s gospel is
a classical instance of the distinction between the formalism
of the Pharisaic code and genuine religion. With this may be
compared the popular phrases “good form” and “bad form”
applied to behaviour in society: so “format” (from the French)
is technically used of the shape and size, e.g. of a book (octavo,
quarto, &c.) or of a cigarette. The word “form” is also applied
to certain definite objects: in printing a body of type secured
in a chase for printing at one impression (“form” or “forme”);
a bench without a back, such as is used in schools (perhaps to
be compared with O. Fr. s’asseoir en forme, to sit in a row); a
mould or shape on or in which an object is manufactured; the
lair or nest of a hare. From its use in the sense of regulated order
comes the application of the term to a class in a school (“sixth
form,” “fifth form,” &c.); this sense has been explained without
sufficient ground as due to the idea of all children in the same
class sitting on a single form (bench).
The word has been used technically in philosophy with various shades of meaning. Thus it is used to translate the Platonic ἰδέα, εἶδος, the permanent reality which makes a thing what it is, in contrast with the particulars which are finite and subject to change. Whether Plato understood these forms as actually existent apart from all the particular examples, or as being of the nature of immutable physical laws, is matter of discussion. For practical purposes Aristotle was the first to distinguish between matter (ὕλη) and form (εἶδος). To Aristotle matter is the undifferentiated primal element: it is rather that from which things develop (ὑποκείμενον, δύναμις) than a thing in itself (ἐνεργεία). The development of particular things from this germinal matter consists in differentiation, the acquiring of particular forms of which the knowable universe consists (cf. Causation for the Aristotelian “formal cause”). The perfection of the form of a thing is its entelechy (ἐντελέχεια) in virtue of which it attains its fullest realization of function (De anima, ii. 2, ἡ μὲν ὕλη δύναμις τὸ δὲ εἶδος ἐντελέχεια). Thus the entelechy of the body is the soul. The origin of the differentiation process is to be sought in a “prime mover” (πρῶτον κινοῦν), i.e. pure form entirely separate (χωριστόν) from all matter, eternal, unchangeable, operating not by its own activity but by the impulse which its own absolute existence excites in matter (ὡς ἐρώμενον, οὐ κινούμενον). The Aristotelian conception of form was nominally, though perhaps in most cases unintelligently, adopted by the Scholastics, to whom, however, its origin in the observation of the physical universe was an entirely foreign idea. The most remarkable adaptation is probably that of Aquinas, who distinguished the spiritual world with its “subsistent forms” (formae separatae) from the material with its “inherent forms” which exist only in combination with matter. Bacon, returning to the physical standpoint, maintained that all true research must be devoted to the discovery of the real nature or essence of things. His induction searches for the true “form” of light, heat and so forth, analysing the external “form” given in perception into simpler “forms” and their “differences.” Thus he would collect all possible instances of hot things, and discover that which is present in all, excluding all those qualities which belong accidentally to one or more of the examples investigated: the “form” of heat is the residuum common to all. Kant transferred the term from the objective to the subjective sphere. All perception is necessarily conditioned by pure “forms of sensibility,” i.e. space and time: whatever is perceived is perceived as having spacial and temporal relations (see Space and Time; Kant). These forms are not obtained by abstraction from sensible data, nor are they strictly speaking innate: they are obtained “by the very action of the mind from the co-ordination of its sensation.”
FORMALIN, or Formaldehyde, CH2O or H·CHO, the first
member of the series of saturated aliphatic aldehydes. It is
most readily prepared by passing the vapour of methyl alcohol,
mixed with air, over heated copper or platinum. In order to
collect the formaldehyde, the vapour is condensed and absorbed,
either in water or alcohol. It may also be obtained, although
only in small quantities, by the distillation of calcium formate.
At ordinary temperatures formaldehyde is a gas possessing
a pungent smell; it is a strong antiseptic and disinfectant,
a 40% solution of the aldehyde in water or methyl alcohol,
sold as formalin, being employed as a deodorant, fungicide
and preservative. It is not possible to obtain the aldehyde
in a pure condition, since it readily polymerizes. It is
a strong reducing agent; it combines with ammonia to form
hexamethylene tetramine, (CH2)6N4, and easily “condenses”
in the presence of many bases to produce compounds which
apparently belong to the sugars (q.v.). It renders glue or gelatin
insoluble in water, and is used in the coal-tar colour industry
in the manufacture of para-rosaniline, pyronines and rosamines.
Several polymers have been described. Para-formaldehyde, or
trioxymethylene, obtained by concentrating solutions of formaldehyde
in vacuo, is a white crystalline solid, which sublimes at
about 100° C. and melts at a somewhat higher temperature,
changing back into the original form. It is insoluble in cold water,
alcohol and ether. A diformaldehyde is supposed to
separate as white flakes when the vapour is passed into chloroform
(Körber, Pharm. Zeit., 1904, xlix. p. 609); F. Auerbach
and H. Barschall (Chem. Zentr., 1907, ii. p. 1734) obtained three
polymers by acting with concentrated sulphuric acid on solutions
of formaldehyde, and a fourth by heating one of the forms so
obtained. The strength of solutions of formaldehyde may be
ascertained by the addition of excess of standard ammonia to the
aldehyde solution (hexamethylene tetramine being formed),
the excess of ammonia being then estimated by titration with
standard acid. On the formation of formaldehyde by the
oxidation of methane at high temperatures, see W. A. Bone
(Journ. Chem. Soc., 1902, 81, p. 535; 1903, 83, p. 1074). Formaldehyde
also appears to be a reduction product of carbon
dioxide (see Annual Reports of the Chemical Society).
FORMAN, ANDREW (c. 1465–1521), Scottish ecclesiastic, was educated at the university of St Andrews and entered the service of King James IV. about 1489. He soon earned the favour of this king, who treated him with great generosity and who on several occasions sent him on important embassies to the English, the French and the papal courts. In 1501 he became bishop of Moray and in July 1513 Louis XII. of France secured his appointment as archbishop of Bourges, while pope Julius II. promised to make him a cardinal. In 1514 during a long absence from his own land Forman was nominated by Pope Leo X. to the vacant archbishopric of St Andrews and was made papal legate in Scotland, but it was some time before he secured possession of
