INFANT SCHOOLS 153 INFLUENZA INFANT SCHOOLS, a means of edu- cating very young children. Oberlin may be regarded as the founder of in- fant schools. He appointed women in his own parish to assemble the little chil- dren between the ages of 2 and 6, to in- terest them by conversation, pictures, and maps, and to teach them to read and to sew. The education and training of young children were matters of great interest and study to Pestalozzi. The most successful system of educating quite young children is the Kindergar- ten (q. v.). INFECTION, a term which has been vaguely used for the contamination of the human body by morbific particles, whether there has or has not been con- tact with a person similarly affected, but more specifically applied to the contam- ination of the atmosphere or water by such agency, and through them of the human body. INFEFTMENT, a Scotch law term, »sed to denote the symbolical giving pos- session of land, which was the completion of the title, the mere conveyance not be- ing enough. INFEBIOB PLANET, a planet whose •rbit lies within that of the earth. Mer- cury and Venus are the inferior planets. INFEHNAL, pertaining ta the lower regions or regions of the dead, the Hades •r Tartarus of the ancient. INFERNAL MACHINE, an apparatus filled with gunpowder or other explosive materials for the destruction of human life and property. The Italian engineer Federico Gianibelli was the first to em- ploy these engines at the siege of Ant- werp in 1584-1585. See Anarchism. INFIDEL, from the Christian stand- point, one who does not believe in the Christian faith. It includes heathens, etc. It is founded on II Cor. vi: 15 and I Tim. v: 8. One who does not believe that Christianity or any other religion has been divinely revealed, though such evidence as exists on the subject has been laid before him, is styled an infidel. The "infidel" may be a Deist, believing in a God, or an Atheist, denying or at least seriously doubting his existence; or an Agnostic, considering that he has not sufficient evidence to form an opinion on the subject. From the standpoint of the Mohamme- ,dan or other non-Christian faiths, the Christian is an "infidel." INFINITE, not finite; having no ■bounds or limits; without limit, un- bounded; boundless; not limited or cir- cumscribed; applied to time, space, the Supreme Being or His attributes; as, The goodness of God is infinite. In mu- sic, a term applied to certain forms of the canon, because they could be played forever, inasmuch as the ending leads to the beginning; called also perpetual canon. INFINITESIMAL, in mathematics, a quantity less or smaller than any assign- able quantity; a quantity so small as not to be comparable with any finite quantity. Infinitesimals are of different orders. No quantity is great or small except in comparison with some other quantity. An infinitely small quantity of the first order is one that is infinitely small with respect to a finite quantity, that is, so small that it may be contained in it an infinite number of times. An infinitely small quantity of the second or- der is one that is infinitely small with respect to an infinitely small quantity of the first order. INFLAMMATION, a morbid state of the whole or any part of the system, characterized by heat, redness, and pain. The varieties are — parenchymatous, ex- udatory or secretory, plastic, rheumatic, gouty, gonorrhoeal, and others not so strictly defined. INFLORESCENCE, the arrangement of flowers upon a branch or stem. It may be axillary or terminal. In the for- mer case the branch can grow indefi- nitely, producing new flowers on the ax- ils, hence this is called an indefinite in- florescence; in the latter the terminal flower stops the further development of the branch, hence this kind of inflores- cence is called definite. Infloi'escence may be centripetal or centrifugal. Dif- ferent kinds of inflorescence are (1) the spike, (2) the raceme, (3) the corymb, (4) the umbel, (5) the panicle, (G) the thyrsus, (7) the compound corymb and compound umbel, (8) the cyme. No. (1) is subdivided into — (a) the spike proper, (b) the ament or catkin, (c) the spadix, (d) the spikelet, (e) the cone, (f) the capitulum, and (g) the ccenanthium. Inflorescence is also frequently called anthotaxis. INFLUENZA (in-flo-en'za) , a specific catarrhal Inflammation of the mucous membranes of the air-passages, conta- gious, and often epidemic, attended with early involvement oi chill, lassitude, and prostration to a marked degree, intense frontal headache, giddiness, and acrid discharge from the nose, with sleepless nights, and sometimes delirium. Per- sistent cough, worst at night, expectora- tion, remittent feverishness, with noc-
