FARADAY. 456 FARCE. proportioned to the current passing through the solution, and that equal quantities of electricity decompose equivalent amounts of different electro- Ivies. To him we owe the terms 'anode' and 'cathode.' He was also the discoverer of 'specific inductive capacity,' or the measure of the electric attraction and repulsion exerted through various dielectrics or insulating substances. According to Faraday, both electrostatic and electromagnetic induction takes place along curved lines, which he denominated 'lines of force.' Faraday dis- covered that the plane of vibration of a beam of polarized light is rotated under the influence of a powerful magnetic field. The phenomena of diamagnetism, or the repulsion of certain sub- stances, were also carefully investigated by Fara- day, and many valuable results obtained. In chemistry, also, where most of Faraday's early work was done, many important discoveries are to be recorded, including a number of new chem- ical compounds. Of these perhaps the most im- portant is an investigation on new compounds of carbon and hydrogen (Philosophical Transactions, 1825), inasmuch as it included the discovery of benzol, which is the basis of aniline dyes. He also carried on a number of experiments looking to the production of optical glass with unusual power of refraction ; but while glass with an index of refraction of 1.866 was made, it did not prove available, on account of its softness. Faraday was one of the most brilliant experi- mentalists that science has ever known, and to him credit must be given for much that elec- tricity has accomplished. The experimental work that he had done with such care furnished a basis for the mathematical and theoretical dis- cussions of Maxwell, and his Experimental Re- searches in Electricity (1839-55) contains a com- plete record of his investigations. In 1835 Fara- day received a pension of £300 a year for the rest of his life, and in 1S30 he became the scientific adviser of Trinity House. By royal grant he occupied a house at Hampton Court. He was in- vited to become the president of the Royal So- ciety, but declined the honor. Faraday was a deeply religious man. belong- ing to a small sect of Christians known as San- demanians, and was generous and sympathetic to a high degree. His last years were marked by failing powers nf mind and body, yet in spite of this siime of li is best work was accomplished shortly before his death. In addition to the Ex- perimental Researches in Electricity (1839-55), he published Researches in Chemistry ami Phys- ics (1850), and many papers in the Proceedings (if the I'minl Institution and the Philosophical Magazine. For his life and work, consult; Jones, / ■ and Letters of Faraday (London, 1870); Tyndall. Faraday as a Discoverer (2d ed., London, 1870); and Thompson, Michael Faraday: His I. if'- ami Work (London, 1898). FARADAY EFFECT. See Electricity, and Light. FARADAY TUBES. Sec Km iiuoity. FAR'ADISM. Sec ELECTRICITY, MEDICAL 0] FARALLONES ( fa'ra -lr.nz') ISLANDS. A group of sis small, rocky islands nil' tin' coast of California, about 3.") miles directly west of San Francisco Their extreme points -northwes( and I. nut 12 miles apart. I in the southernmost island -land- an important light- house, having a flashing light of the first order, 300 feet above the sea. The Farallones are the resort of myriads of sea-gulls and murres, whose eggs are collected in large quantities for the San Francisco market by a company which owns the islands. Great numbers of sea-lions and rab- bits are also found. FARANDOLE, fa'rax'dol'. A popular dance of southern France, where it has been in vogue for hundreds of years. A leader, who must always be a bachelor, holds out a handkerchief to his partner, who takes hold of it and extends her own to an- other man, who in turn gives his to his partner, and so on indefinitely, the number of performers having practically no limit. Whatever motions the leader makes must be imitated by the other dan- cers, and the long line winds, coils round on itself, and again straightens out, according to the lead- er's pleasure. The time is rapid, and the music is supplied by a fife and drum. The farandole is essentially a dance of rejoicing oyer family af- fairs, and when held at night is extremely pic- turesque, as each performer carries a Venetian lantern. There is a vivid description of a faran- dole which Daudet saw in the amphitheatre of Aps, in Provence, in his book Numa Roumestan. FARCE (Fr. farce, from Lat. farsus, p.p. of farcire, to stuff). A dramatic piece of a gro- tesquely comic character. The difference between it and regular comedy is more in degree than in kind. Both aim to excite laughter, but while legitimate comedy does so with a comparatively faithful adherence to nature and truth, the farce assumes to itself a much greater license, and does not scruple to make use of any extravagance or any improbability that may serve its usually very simple plot. Instead of refined wit or humor it substitutes broad absurdities. Broadly speaking, farcical elements have entered into many of the forms of primitive comedy. Thus, both in the significance of the word and the kind of 'stuffing' it denotes, farce would seem to bear an analogy to the early Latin sal urn: while the popular commedia dell' arte of a much later day in Italy were of a somewhat similar character. The name farce, however, seems to have been first applied in its present sense particularly to the pieces produced by the French society of the clercs de bazoche as a contrast to the moralities played by the religious orders. They have been con- founded in their origin with the sermons joyeum, or parodies on the ritual of the Church. A char- acteristic of many of the farces was a mixture of dialects. In one scene of the Farce de Pathe- lin, the principal personage speaks seven or eight. This most famous of all the farces has been at- tributed In different authors, most commonly to Pierre Blanchet, one of the Bazoche in the fif- teenth century, and even to the poet Villon. At a later dale. Moliere elevated and refined nw iliaval lane into pure comedy in his Mahriv malarc Ini, I, is /in'rii-iiscs ridicules, and other inimitable productions. In England, the fares came about the beginning of the eighteenth cen- tury t" iir regarded as something distinct from comedy proper and to constitute a special form nf composition. Out nf the numerous farces which have been performed before English-speaking audiences. Hinsc ,,f Samuel Finite especially bave kept a place in literature, (hi the stage al the present day. the name farce, or sometimes (lie vulgarism 'farce comedy,' is freely applied In
