Chapter V: H. B (4)

_Trade, Commerce and Industries._--Frankfort has always been more of a commercial than an industrial town, and though of late years it has somewhat lost its pre-eminent position as a banking centre it has counterbalanced the loss in increased industrial development. The suburbs of Sachsenhausen and Bockenheim have particularly developed considerable industrial activity, especially in publishing and printing, brewing and the manufacture of quinine. Other sources of employment are the cutting of hair for making hats, the production of fancy goods, type, machinery, soap and perfumery, ready-made clothing, chemicals, electro-technical apparatus, jewelry and metal wares. Market gardening is extensively carried on in the neighbourhood and cider largely manufactured. There are two great fairs held in the town,--the Ostermesse, or spring fair, and the Herbstmesse, or autumn fair. The former, which was the original nucleus of all the commercial prosperity of the city, begins on the second Wednesday before Easter; and the latter on the second Wednesday before the 8th of September. They last three weeks, and the last day save one, called the _Nickelchestag_, is distinguished by the influx of people from the neighbouring country. The trade in leather is of great and growing importance. A horse fair has been held twice a year since 1862 under the patronage of the agricultural society; and the wool market was reinstituted in 1872 by the German Trade Society (Deutscher Handelsverein). Frankfort has long been famous as one of the principal banking centres of Europe, and is now only second to Berlin, in this respect, among German cities, and it is remarkable for the large business that is done in government stock. In the 17th century the town was the seat of a great book-trade; but it has long been distanced in this department by Leipzig. The _Frankfurter Journal_ was founded in 1615, the _Postzeitung_ in 1616, the _Neue Frankfurter Zeitung_ in 1859, and the _Frankfurter Presse_ in 1866.

Of memorial monuments the largest and most elaborate in Frankfort is that erected in 1858 in honour of the early German printers. It was modelled by Ed. von der Launitz and executed by Herr von Kreis. The statues of Gutenberg, Fust and Schoeffer form a group on the top; an ornamented frieze presents medallions of a number of famous printers; below these are figures representing the towns of Mainz, Strassburg, Venice and Frankfort; and on the corners of the pedestal are allegorical statues of theology, poetry, science and industry. The statue of Goethe (1844) in the Goetheplatz is by Ludwig von Schwanthaler. The Schiller statue, erected in 1863, is the work of a Frankfort artist, Johann Dielmann. A monument in the Bockenheim Anlage, dated 1837, preserves the memory of Guiollett, the burgomaster, to whom the town is mainly indebted for the beautiful promenades which occupy the site of the old fortifications; and similar monuments have been reared to Senckenberg (1863), Schopenhauer, Klemens Brentano the poet and Samuel Thomas Soemmerring (1755-1830), the anatomist and inventor of an electric telegraph. In the Opernplatz is an equestrian statue of the emperor Wilhelm I. by Buscher.

_Cemeteries._--The new cemetery (opened in 1828) contains the graves of Arthur Schopenhauer and Feuerbach, of Passavant the biographer of Raphael, Ballenberger the artist, Hessemer the architect, Soemmerring, and Johann Friedrich Boehmer the historian. The Bethmann vault attracts attention by three bas-reliefs from the chisel of Thorwaldsen; and the Reichenbach mausoleum is a vast pile designed by Hessemer at the command of William II. of Hesse, and adorned with sculptures by Zwerger and von der Lausitz. In the Jewish section, which is walled off from the rest of the burying-ground, the most remarkable tombs are those of the Rothschild family.

_Parks._--In addition to the park in the south-western district, Frankfort possesses two delightful pleasure grounds, which attract large numbers of visitors, the Palmengarten in the west and the zoological garden in the east of the city. The former is remarkable for the collection of palms purchased in 1868 from the deposed duke Adolph of Nassau.

_Government._--The present municipal constitution of the city dates from 1867 and presents some points of difference from the ordinary Prussian system. Bismarck was desirous of giving the city, in view of its former freedom, a more liberal constitution than is usual in ordinary cases. Formerly fifty-four representatives were elected, but provision was made (in the constitution) for increasing the number, and they at present number sixty-four, elected for six years. Every two years a third of the number retire, but they are eligible for re-election. These sixty-four representatives elect twenty town-councillors, ten of whom receive a salary and ten do not. The chief burgomaster (Oberbuergermeister) is nominated by the emperor for twelve years, and the second burgomaster must receive the emperor's approval.

Since 1885 the city has been supplied with water of excellent quality from the Stadtwald, Goldstein and Hinkelstein, and the favourable sanitary condition of the town is seen in the low death rate.

_Population._--The population of Frankfort has steadily increased since the beginning of the 19th century; it amounted in 1817 to 41,458; (1840) 55,269; (1864) 77,372; (1871) 59,265; (1875) 103,136; (1890) 179,985; and (1905), including the incorporated suburban districts, 334,951, of whom 175,909 were Protestants, 88,457 Roman Catholics and 21,974 Jews.

_History._--Excavations around the cathedral have incontestably proved that Frankfort-on-Main (_Trajectum ad Moenum_) was a settlement in Roman times and was probably founded in the 1st century of the Christian era. It may thus be accounted one of the earliest German--the so-called "Roman"--towns. Numerous places in the valley of the Main are mentioned in chronicles anterior to the time that Frankfort is first noticed. Disregarding popular tradition, which connects the origin of the town with a legend that Charlemagne, when retreating before the Saxons, was safely conducted across the river by a doe, it may be asserted that the first genuine historical notice of the town occurs in 793, when Einhard, Charlemagne's biographer, tells us that he spent the winter in the villa Frankonovurd. Next year there is mention more than once of a royal palace here, and the early importance of the place is indicated by the fact that in this year it was chosen as the seat of the ecclesiastical council by which image-worship was condemned. The name Frankfort is also found in several official documents of Charlemagne's reign; and from the notices that occur in the early chronicles and charters it would appear that the place was the most populous at least of the numerous villages of the Main district. During the Carolingian period it was the seat of no fewer than 16 imperial councils or colloquies. The town was probably at first built on an island in the river. It was originally governed by the royal officer or _actor dominicus_, and down even to the close of the Empire it remained a purely imperial or royal town. It gradually acquired various privileges, and by the close of the 14th century the only mark of dependence was the payment of a yearly tax. Louis the Pious dwelt more frequently at Frankfort than his father Charlemagne had done, and about 823 he built himself a new palace, the basis of the later Saalhof. In 822 and 823 two great diets were held in the palace, and at the former there were present deputies from the eastern Slavs, the Avars and the Normans. The place continued to be a favourite residence with Louis the German, who died there in 876, and was the capital of the East Frankish kingdom. By the rest of the Carolingian kings it was less frequently visited, and this neglect was naturally greater during the period of the Saxon and Salic emperors from 919 to 1137. Diets, however, were held in the town in 951, 1015, 1069 and 1109, and councils in 1000 and 1006. From a privilege of Henry IV., in 1074, granting the city of Worms freedom from tax in their trade with several royal cities, it appears that Frankfort was even then a place of some commercial importance.

Under the Hohenstaufens many brilliant diets were held within its walls. That of 1147 saw, also, the first election of a German king at Frankfort, in the person of Henry, son of Conrad III. But as the father outlived the son, it was Frederick I., Barbarossa, who was actually the first reigning king to be elected here (in 1152). With the beginning of the 13th century the municipal constitution appears to have taken definite shape. The chief official was the royal bailiff (_Schultheiss_), who is first mentioned in 1193, and whose powers were subsequently enlarged by the abolition, in 1219, of the office of the royal _Vogt_ or _advocatus_. About this time a body of _Schoeffen_ (_scabini_, jurats), fourteen in number, was formed to assist in the control of municipal affairs, and with their appointment the first step was taken towards civic representative government. Soon, however, the activity of the _Schoeffen_ became specifically confined to the determination of legal disputes, and in their place a new body (_Collegium_) of counsellors--_Ratmannen_--also fourteen in number, was appointed for the general administration of local matters. In 1311, the two burgomasters, now chiefs of the municipality, take the place of the royal _Schultheiss_. In the 13th century, the Frankfort Fair, which is first mentioned in 1150, and the origin of which must have been long anterior to that date, is referred to as being largely frequented. No fewer than 10 new churches were erected in the years from 1220 to 1270. It was about the same period, probably in 1240, that the Jews first settled in the town. In the contest which Louis the Bavarian maintained with the papacy Frankfort sided with the emperor, and it was consequently placed under an interdict for 20 years from 1329 to 1349. On Louis' death it refused to accept the papal conditions of pardon, and only yielded to Charles IV., the papal nominee, when Guenther of Schwarzburg thought it more prudent to abdicate in his favour. Charles granted the city a full amnesty, and confirmed its liberties and privileges.

By the famous Golden Bull of 1356 Frankfort was declared the seat of the imperial elections, and it still preserves an official contemporaneous copy of the original document as the most precious of the eight imperial bulls in its possession. From the date of the bull to the close of the Empire Frankfort retained the position of "Wahlstadt," and only five of the two-and-twenty monarchs who ruled during that period were elected elsewhere. In 1388-1389 Frankfort assisted the South German towns in their wars with the princes and nobles (the Staedtekrieg), and in a consequent battle with the troops of the Palatinate, the town banner was lost and carried to Kronberg, where it was long preserved as a trophy. On peace being concluded in 1391, the town had to pay 12,562 florins, and this brought it into great financial difficulties. In the course of the next 50 years debt was contracted to the amount of 126,772 florins. The diet at Worms in 1495 chose Frankfort as the seat of the newly instituted imperial chamber, or "_Reichskammergericht_," and it was not till 1527 that the chamber was removed to Spires. At the Reformation Frankfort heartily joined the Protestant party, and in consequence it was hardly treated both by the emperor Charles V. and by the archbishop of Mainz. It refused to subscribe the Augsburg Recess, but at the same time it was not till 1536 that it was persuaded to join the League of Schmalkalden. On the failure of this confederation it opened its gates to the imperial general Bueren on the 29th of December 1546, although he had passed by the city, which he considered too strong for the forces under his command. The emperor was merciful enough to leave it in possession of its privileges, but he inflicted a fine of 80,000 gold gulden, and until October 1547 the citizens had to endure the presence of from 8000 to 10,000 soldiers. This resulted in a pestilence which not only lessened the population, but threatened to give the death-blow to the great annual fairs; and at the close of the war it was found that it had cost the city no less than 228,931 gulden. In 1552 Frankfort was invested for three weeks by Maurice of Saxony, who was still in arms against the emperor Charles V., but it continued to hold out till peace was concluded between the principal combatants. Between 1612 and 1616 occurred the great Fettmilch insurrection, perhaps the most remarkable episode in the internal history of Frankfort. The magistracy had been acquiring more and more the character of an oligarchy; all power was practically in the hands of a few closely-related families; and the gravest peculation and malversation took place without hindrance. The ordinary citizens were roused to assert their rights, and they found a leader in Vincenz Fettmilch, who carried the contest to dangerous excesses, but lacked ability to bring it to a successful issue. An imperial commission was ultimately appointed, and the three principal culprits and several of their associates were executed in 1616. It was not till 1801 that the last mouldering head of the Fettmilch company dropped unnoticed from the Rententurm, the old tower near the bridge. In the words of Dr Kriegk, _Geschichte von Frankfurt_, (1871), the insurrection completely destroyed the political power of the gilds, gave new strength to the supremacy of the patriciate, and brought no further advantage to the rest of the citizens than a few improvements in the organization and administration of the magistracy. The Jews, who had been attacked by the popular party, were solemnly reinstated by imperial command in all their previous privileges, and received full compensation for their losses.

During the Thirty Years' War Frankfort did not escape. In 1631 Gustavus Adolphus garrisoned it with 600 men, who remained in possession till they were expelled four years later by the imperial general Lamboy. In 1792 the citizens had to pay 2,000,000 gulden to the French general Custine; and in 1796 Kleber exacted 8,000,000 francs. The independence of Frankfort was brought to an end in 1806, on the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine; and in 1810 it was made the capital of the grand-duchy of Frankfort, which had an area of 3215 sq. m. with 302,100 inhabitants, and was divided into the four districts of Frankfort, Aschaffenburg, Fulda and Hanau. On the reconstitution of Germany in 1815 it again became a free city, and in the following year it was declared the seat of the German Confederation. In April 1833 occurred what is known as the Frankfort Insurrection (Frankfurter Attentat), in which a number of insurgents led by Georg Bunsen attempted to break up the diet. The city joined the German Zollverein in 1836. During the revolutionary period of 1848 the people of Frankfort, where the united German parliament held its sessions, took a chief part in political movements, and the streets of the town were more than once the scene of conflict. In the war of 1866 they were on the Austrian side. On the 16th of July the Prussian troops, under General Vogel von Falkenstein, entered the town, and on the 18th of October it was formally incorporated with the Prussian state. A fine of 6,000,000 florins was exacted. In 1871 the treaty which concluded the Franco-German War was signed in the Swan Hotel by Prince Bismarck and Jules Favre, and it is consequently known as the peace of Frankfort.

AUTHORITIES.--F. Rittweger, _Frankfurt im Jahre 1848_ (1898); R. Jung,
_Das historische Archiv der Stadt Frankfurt_ (1897); A. Horne,
_Geschichte von Frankfurt_ (4th ed., 1903); H. Grotefend, _Quellen zur
Frankfuerter Geschichte_ (Frankfort, 1884-1888); J. C. von Fichard,
_Die Entstehung der Reichsstadt Frankfurt_ (Frankfort, 1819); G. L.
Kriegk, _Geschichte von Frankfurt_ (Frankfort, 1871); J. F. Boehmer,
_Urkundenbuch der Reichsstadt Frankfurt_ (new ed., 1901); B. Weber,
_Zur Reformationsgeschichte der freien Reichsstadt Frankfurt_ (1895);
O. Speyer, _Die Frankfurter Revolution 1612-1616_ (1883); and L.
Woerl, _Guide to Frankfort_ (Leipzig, 1898).

FRANKFORT-ON-ODER, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, 50 m. S.E. from Berlin on the main line of railway to Breslau and at the junction of lines to Cuestrin, Posen and Grossenhain. Pop. (1905) 64,943. The town proper lies on the left bank of the river Oder and is connected by a stone bridge (replacing the old historical wooden structure) 900 ft. long, with the suburb of Damm. The town is agreeably situated and has broad and handsome streets, among them the "Linden," a spacious avenue. Above, on the western side, and partly lying on the site of the old ramparts, is the residential quarter, consisting mainly of villas and commanding a fine prospect of the Oder valley. Between this suburb and the town lies the park, in which is a monument to the poet Ewald Christian von Kleist, who died here of wounds received in the battle of Kunersdorf. Among the more important public buildings must be noticed the Evangelical Marienkirche (Oberkirche), a handsome brick edifice of the 13th century with five aisles, the Roman Catholic church, the Rathhaus dating from 1607, and bearing on its southern gable the device of a member of the Hanseatic League, the government offices and the theatre. The university of Frankfort, founded in 1506 by Joachim I., elector of Brandenburg, was removed to Breslau in 1811, and the academical buildings are now occupied by a school. To compensate it for the loss of its university, Frankfort-on-Oder was long the seat of the court of appeal for the province, but of this it was deprived in 1879. There are several handsome public monuments, notably that to Duke Leopold of Brunswick, who was drowned in the Oder while attempting to save life, on the 27th of April 1785. The town has a large garrison, consisting of nearly all arms. Its industries are considerable, including the manufacture of machinery, metal ware, chemicals, paper, leather and sugar. Situated on the high road from Berlin to Silesia, and having an extensive system of water communication by means of the Oder and its canals to the Vistula and the Elbe, and being an important railway centre, it has a lively export trade, which is further fostered by its three annual fairs, held respectively at _Reminiscere_ (the second Sunday in Lent), St Margaret's day and at Martinmas. In the neighbourhood are extensive coal fields.

Frankfort-on-the-Oder owes its origin and name to a settlement of Franconian merchants here, in the 13th century, on land conquered by the margrave of Brandenburg from the Wends. In 1253 it was raised to the rank of a town by the margrave John I. and borrowed from Berlin the Magdeburg civic constitution. In 1379 it received from King Sigismund, then margrave of Brandenburg, the right to free navigation of the Oder; and from 1368 to about 1450 it belonged to the Hanseatic League. The university, which is referred to above, was opened by the elector Joachim I. in 1506, was removed in 1516 to Kottbus and restored again to Frankfort in 1539, at which date the Reformation was introduced. It was dispersed during the Thirty Years' War and again restored by the Great Elector, but finally transferred to Breslau in 1811.

Frankfort has suffered much from the vicissitudes of war. In the 15th century it successfully withstood sieges by the Hussites (1429 and 1432), by the Poles (1450) and by the duke of Sagan (1477). In the Thirty Years' War it was successively taken by Gustavus Adolphus (1631), by Wallenstein (1633), by the elector of Brandenburg (1634), and again by the Swedes, who held it from 1640 to 1644. During the Seven Years' War it was taken by the Russians (1759). In 1812 it was occupied by the French, who remained till March 1813, when the Russians marched in.

See K. R. Hausen, _Geschichte der Universitaet und Stadt Frankfurt_
(1806), and Bieder und Gurnik, _Bilder aus der Geschichte der Stadt
Frankfurt-an-der-Oder_ (1898).

FRANKINCENSE,[1] or OLIBANUM[2] (Gr. [Greek: libanotos], later [Greek: thyos]; Lat., _tus_ or _thus_; Heb., _lebonah_;[3] Ar., _luban_;[4] Turk., _ghyunluk_; Hind., _ganda-birosa_[5]), a gum-resin obtained from certain species of trees of the genus _Boswellia_, and natural order _Burseraceae_. The members of the genus are possessed of the following characters:--Bark often papyraceous; leaves deciduous, compound, alternate and imparipinnate, with leaflets serrate or entire; flowers in racemes or panicles, white, green, yellowish or pink, having a small persistent, 5-dentate calyx, 5 petals, 10 stamens, a sessile 3 to 5-chambered ovary, a long style, and a 3-lobed stigma; fruit trigonal or pentagonal; and seed compressed. Sir George Birdwood (_Trans. Lin. Soc._ xxvii., 1871) distinguishes five species of _Boswellia_: (A) _B. thurifera_, Colebr. (_B. glabra_ and _B. serrata_, Roxb.), indigenous to the mountainous tracts of central India and the Coromandel coast, and _B. papyrifera_ (_Ploesslea floribunda_, Endl.) of Abyssinia, which, though both thuriferous, are not known to yield any of the olibanum of commerce; and (B) _B. Frereana_ (see ELEMI, vol. x. p. 259), _B. Bhua-Dajiana_, and _B. Carterii_, the "Yegaar," "Mohr Add," and "Mohr Madow" of the Somali country, in East Africa, the last species including a variety, the "Maghrayt d'Sheehaz" of Hadramaut, Arabia, all of which are sources of true frankincense or olibanum. The trees on the Somali coast are described by Captain G. B. Kempthorne as growing, without soil, out of polished marble rocks, to which they are attached by a thick oval mass of substance resembling a mixture of lime and mortar: the purer the marble the finer appears to be the growth of the tree. The young trees, he states, furnish the most valuable gum, the older yielding merely a clear glutinous fluid resembling copal varnish.[6] To obtain the frankincense a deep incision is made in the trunk of the tree, and below it a narrow strip of bark 5 in. in length is peeled off. When the milk-like juice ("spuma pinguis," Pliny) which exudes has hardened by exposure to the atmosphere, the incision is deepened. In about three months the resin has attained the required degree of consistency. The season for gathering lasts from May until the first rains in September. The large clear globules are scraped off into baskets, and the inferior quality that has run down the tree is collected separately. The coast of south Arabia is yearly visited by parties of Somalis, who pay the Arabs for the privilege of collecting frankincense.[7] In the interior of the country about the plain of Dhofar,[8] during the south-west monsoon, frankincense and other gums are gathered by the Beni Gurrah Bedouins, and might be obtained by them in much larger quantities; their lawlessness, however, and the lack of a safe place of exchange or sale are obstacles to the development of trade. (See C. Y. Ward, _The Gulf of Aden Pilot_, p. 117, 1863.) Much as formerly in the region of Sakhalites in Arabia (the tract between Ras Makalla and Ras Agab),[9] described by Arrian, so now on the sea-coast of the Somali country, the frankincense when collected is stored in heaps at various stations. Thence, packed in sheep- and goat-skins, in quantities of 20 to 40 lb., it is carried on camels to Berbera, for shipment either to Aden, Makalla and other Arabian ports, or directly to Bombay.[10] At Bombay, like gum-acacia, it is assorted, and is then packed for re-exportation to Europe, China and elsewhere.[11] Arrian relates that it was an import of Barbarike on the Sinthus (Indus). The idea held by several writers, including Niebuhr, that frankincense was a product of India, would seem to have originated in a confusion of that drug with benzoin and other odoriferous substances, and also in the sale of imported frankincense with the native products of India. The gum resin of _Boswellia thurifera_ was described by Colebrooke (in _Asiatick Researches_, ix. 381), and after him by Dr J. Fleming (Ib. xi. 158), as true frankincense, or olibanum; from this, however, it differs in its softness, and tendency to melt into a mass[12] (Birdwood, _loc. cit._, p. 146). It is sold in the village bazaars of Khandeish in India under the name of _Dup-Salai_, i.e. incense of the "Salai tree"; and according to Mr F. Porter Smith, M.B. (_Contrib. towards the Mat. Med. and Nat. Hist, of China_, p. 162, Shanghai, 1871), is used as incense in China. The last authority also mentions olibanum as a reputed natural product of China. Bernhard von Breydenbach,[13] Ausonius, Florus and others, arguing, it would seem, from its Hebrew and Greek names, concluded that olibanum came from Mount Lebanon; and Chardin (_Voyage en Perse_, &c., 1711) makes the statement that the frankincense tree grows in the mountains of Persia, particularly Caramania.

Frankincense, or olibanum, occurs in commerce in semi-opaque, round, ovate or oblong tears or irregular lumps, which are covered externally with a white dust, the result of their friction against one another. It has an amorphous internal structure, a dull fracture; is of a yellow to yellowish-brown hue, the purer varieties being almost colourless, or possessing a greenish tinge, and has a somewhat bitter aromatic taste, and a balsamic odour, which is developed by heating. Immersed in alcohol it becomes opaque, and with water it yields an emulsion. It contains about 72% of resin soluble in alcohol (Kurbatow); a large proportion of gum soluble in water, and apparently identical with gum arabic; and a small quantity of a colourless inflammable essential oil, one of the constituents of which is the body oliben, C10H16. Frankincense burns with a bright white flame, leaving an ash consisting mainly of calcium carbonate, the remainder being calcium phosphate, and the sulphate, chloride and carbonate of potassium (Braconnot).[14] Good frankincense, Pliny tells us, is recognized by its whiteness, size, brittleness and ready inflammability. That which occurs in globular drops is, he says, termed "male frankincense"; the most esteemed, he further remarks, is in breast-shaped drops, formed each by the union of two tears.[15] The best frankincense, as we learn from Arrian,[16] was formerly exported from the neighbourhood of Cape Elephant in Africa (the modern Ras Fiel); and A. von Kremer, in his description of the commerce of the Red Sea (_Aegypten_, &c., p. 185, ii. Theil, Leipzig, 1863), observes that the African frankincense, called by the Arabs "asli," is of twice the value of the Arabian "luban." Captain S. B. Miles (_loc. cit._, p. 64) states that the best kind of frankincense, known to the Somali as "bedwi" or "sheheri," comes from the trees "Mohr Add" and "Mohr Madow" (_vide supra_), and from a taller species of _Boswellia_, the "Boido," and is sent to Bombay for exportation to Europe; and that an inferior "mayeti," the produce of the "Yegaar," is exported chiefly to Jeddah and Yemen ports.[17] The latter may possibly be what Niebuhr alludes to as "Indian frankincense."[18] Garcias da Horta, in asserting the Arabian origin of the drug, remarks that the term "Indian" is often applied by the Arabs to a dark-coloured variety.[19]

According to Pliny (_Nat. Hist._ xiv. 1; cf. Ovid, _Fasti_ i. 337 sq.), frankincense was not sacrificially employed in Trojan times. It was used by the ancient Egyptians in their religious rites, but, as Herodotus tells us (ii. 86), not in embalming. It constituted a fourth part of the Jewish incense of the sanctuary (Ex. xxx. 34), and is frequently mentioned in the Pentateuch. With other spices it was stored in a great chamber of the house of God at Jerusalem (1 Chron. ix. 29, Neh. xiii. 5-9). On the sacrificial use and import of frankincense and similar substances see INCENSE.

In the Red Sea regions frankincense is valued not only for its sweet odour when burnt, but as a masticatory; and blazing lumps of it are not infrequently used for illumination instead of oil lamps. Its fumes are an excellent insectifuge. As a medicine it was in former times in high repute. Pliny (_Nat. Hist._ xxv. 82) mentions it as an antidote to hemlock. Avicenna (ed. Plempii, lib. ii. p. 161, Lovanii, 1658, fol.) recommends it for tumours, ulcers of the head and ears, affections of the breast, vomiting, dysentery and fevers. In the East frankincense has been found efficacious as an external application in carbuncles, blind boils and gangrenous sores, and as an internal agent is given in gonorrhoea. In China it was an old internal remedy for leprosy and struma, and is accredited with stimulant, tonic, sedative, astringent and vulnerary properties. It is not used in modern medicine, being destitute of any special virtues. (See Waring, _Pharm. of India_, p. 443, &c.; and F. Porter Smith, _op. cit._, p. 162.)

Common frankincense or thus, _Abietis resina_, is the term applied to a resin which exudes from fissures in the bark of the Norway spruce fir, _Abies excelsa_, D.C.; when melted in hot water and strained it constitutes "Burgundy pitch," _Pix abietina_. The concreted turpentine obtained in the United States by making incisions in the trunk of a species of pine, _Pinus australis_, is also so designated. It is commercially known as "scrape," and is similar to the French "galipot" or "barras." Common frankincense is an ingredient in some ointments and plasters, and on account of its pleasant odour when burned has been used in incense as a substitute for olibanum. (See Flueckiger and Hanbury, _Pharmacographia_.) The "black frankincense oil" of the Turks is stated by Hanbury (_Science Papers_, p. 142, 1876) to be liquid storax. (F. H. B.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Stephen Skinner, M.D. (Etymologicon linguae Anglicanae, Lond.,
1671), gives the derivation: "Frankincense, Thus, q.d. Incensum (i.e.
Thus Libere) seu Liberaliter, ut in sacris officiis par est,
adolendum."

[2] "Sic _olibanum_ dixere pro thure ex Graeco [Greek: o libanos]"
(Salmasius, C. S. _Plinianae exercitationes_, t. ii. p. 926, b. F.,
Traj. ad Rhen., 1689 fol.). So also Fuchs (Op. didact. pars. ii. p.
42, 1604 fol.), "Officinis non sine risu eruditorum, Graeco articulo
adjecto, _Olibanus_ vocatur." The term _olibano_ was used in
ecclesiastical Latin as early as the pontificate of Benedict IX., in
the 11th century. (See Ferd. Ughellus, _Italia sacra_, tom. i. 108,
D., Ven., 1717 fol.)

[3] So designated from its whiteness (J. G. Stuckius, _Sacror. et
sacrific. gent. descrip._, p. 79, Lugd. Bat., 1695, fol.; Kitto,
_Cycl. Bibl. Lit._ ii. p. 806, 1870); cf. _Laben_, the Somali name
for cream (R. F. Burton, _First Footsteps in E. Africa_, p. 178,
1856).

[4] Written _Louan_ by Garcias da Horta (_Aromat. et simpl.
medicament. hist., C. Clusii Atrebatis Exoticorum lib. sept._, p.
157, 1605, fol.), and stated to have been derived by the Arabs from
the Greek name, the term less commonly used by them being _Conder_:
cf. Sanskrit _Kunda_. According to Colebrooke (in _Asiatick Res._ ix.
p. 379, 1807), the Hindu writers on Materia Medica use for the resin
of _Boswellia thurifera_ the designation _Cunduru_.

[5] A term applied also to the resinous exudation of _Pinus
longifolia_ (see Dr E. J. Waring, _Pharmacopoeia of India_, p. 52,
Lond., 1868).

[6] See "Appendix," vol. i. p. 419 of Sir W. C. Harris's _Highland of
Aethiopia_ (2nd ed., Lond., 1844); and _Trans. Bombay Geog. Soc._
xiii. (1857), p. 136.

[7] Cruttenden, _Trans. Bombay Geog. Soc._ vii. (1846), p. 121; S. B.
Miles, J. Geog. Soc. (1872).

[8] Or Dhafar. The incense of "Dofar" is alluded to by Camoens, _Os
Lusiadas_, x. 201.

[9] H. J. Carter, "Comparative Geog. of the South-East Coast of
Arabia," in _J. Bombay Branch of R. Asiatic Soc._ iii. (Jan. 1851),
p. 296; and Mueller, _Geog. Graeci Minores_, i. p. 278 (Paris, 1855).

[10] J. Vaughan, _Pharm. Journ._ xii. (1853) pp. 227-229; and Ward,
_op. cit._ p. 97.

[11] Pereira, _Elem. of Mat. Med._ ii. pt. 2, p. 380 (4th ed., 1847).

[12] "_Boswellia thurifera_," ... says Waring (_Pharm. of India_, p.
52), "has been thought to yield East Indian olibanum, but there is no
reliable evidence of its so doing."

[13] "Libanus igitur est mons redolentie & summe aromaticitatis. nam
ibi herbe odorifere crescunt. ibi etiam arbores thurifere coalescunt
quarum gummi electum olibanum a medicis nuncupatur."--_Perigrinatio_,
p. 53 (1502, fol.).

[14] See, on the chemistry of frankincense, Braconnot, _Ann. de
chimie_, lxviii. (1808) pp. 60-69; Johnston, _Phil. Trans_. (1839),
pp. 301-305; J. Stenhouse, _Ann. der Chem. und Pharm_. xxxv. (1840)
p. 306; and A. Kurbatow, _Zeitsch. fuer Chem_. (1871), p. 201.

[15] "Praecipua autem gratia est mammoso, cum haerente lacryma priore
consecuta alia miscuit se" (_Nat. Hist._ xii. 32). One of the Chinese
names for frankincense, _Ju-hiang_, "milk-perfume," is explained by
the _Pen Ts'au_ (xxxiv. 45), a Chinese work, as being derived from
the nipple-like form of its drops. (See E. Bretschneider, _On the
Knowledge possessed by the Ancient Chinese of the Arabs_, &c., p. 19,
Lond., 1871.)

[16] _The Voyage of Nearchus, loc. cit._

[17] Vaughan (_Pharm. Journ._ xii. 1853) speaks of the Arabian Luban,
commonly called _Morbat_ or _Shaharree Luban_, as realizing higher
prices in the market than any of the qualities exported from Africa.
The incense of "Esher," i.e. Shihr or Shehr, is mentioned by Marco
Polo, as also by Barbosa. (See Yule, _op. cit._ ii. p. 377.) J.
Raymond Wellsted (_Travels to the City of the Caliphs_, p. 173,
Lond., 1840) distinguishes two kinds of frankincense--"_Meaty_,"
selling at $4 per cwt., and an inferior article fetching 20% less.

[18] "Es scheint, dass selber die Araber ihr eignes Raeuchwerk nicht
hoch schaetzen; denn die Vornehmen in Jemen brauchen gemeiniglich
indianisches Raeuchwerk, ja eine grosse Menge Mastix von der Insel
Scio" (_Beschreibung von Arabien_, p. 143, Kopenh., 1772).

[19] "De Arabibus minus mirum, qui nigricantem colorem, quo Thus
Indicum praeditum esse vult Dioscorides [lib. i. c. 70], Indum
plerumque vocent, ut ex Myrobalano nigro quem Indum appellant, patet"
(_op. sup. cit._ p. 157).

FRANKING, a term used for the right of sending letters or postal packages free (Fr. _franc_) of charge. The privilege was claimed by the House of Commons in 1660 in "a Bill for erecting and establishing a Post Office," their demand being that all letters addressed to or sent by members during the session should be carried free. The clause embodying this claim was struck out by the Lords, but with the proviso in the Act as passed for the free carriage of all letters to and from the king and the great officers of state, and also the single inland letters of the members of that present parliament during that session only. It seems, however, that the practice was tolerated until 1764, when by an act dealing with postage it was legalized, every peer and each member of the House of Commons being allowed to send free ten letters a day, not exceeding an ounce in weight, to any part of the United Kingdom, and to receive fifteen. The act did not restrict the privilege to letters either actually written by or to the member, and thus the right was very easily abused, members sending and receiving letters for friends, all that was necessary being the signature of the peer or M.P. in the corner of the envelope. Wholesale franking grew usual, and M.P.'s supplied their friends with envelopes already signed to be used at any time. In 1837 the scandal had become so great that stricter regulations came into force. The franker had to write the full address, to which he had to add his name, the post-town and the day of the month; the letter had to be posted on the day written or the following day at the latest, and in a post-town not more than 20 m. from the place where the peer or M.P. was then living. On the 10th of January 1840 parliamentary franking was abolished on the introduction of the uniform penny rate.

In the United States the franking privilege was first granted in January 1776 to the soldiers engaged in the American War of Independence. The right was gradually extended till it included nearly all officials and members of the public service. By special acts the privilege was bestowed on presidents and their widows. By an act of the 3rd of March 1845, franking was limited to the president, vice-president, members and delegates in Congress and postmasters, other officers being required to keep quarterly accounts of postage and pay it from their contingent funds. In 1851 free exchange of newspapers was re-established. By an act of the 3rd of March 1863 the privilege was granted the president and his private secretary, the vice-president, chiefs of executive departments, such heads of bureaus and chief clerks as might be designated by the postmaster-general for official letters only; senators and representatives in Congress for all correspondence, senders of petitions to either branch of the legislature, and to publishers of newspapers for their exchanges. There was a limit as to weight. Members of Congress could also frank, in matters concerning the federal department of agriculture, "seeds, roots and cuttings," the weight to be fixed by the postmaster-general. This act remained in force till the 31st of January 1873, when franking was abolished. Since 1875, by sundry acts, franking for official correspondence, government publications, seeds, &c., has been allowed to congressmen, ex-congressmen (for 9 months after the close of their term), congressmen-elect and other government officials. By special acts of 1881, 1886, 1902, 1909, respectively, the franking privilege was granted to the widows of Presidents Garfield, Grant, McKinley and Cleveland.

FRANKL, LUDWIG AUGUST (1810-1894), Austrian poet. He took part in the revolution of 1848, and his poems on liberty had considerable vogue. His lyrics are among his best work. He was secretary of the Jewish community in Vienna, and did a lasting service to education by his visit to the Orient in 1856. He founded the first modern Jewish school (the Von Laemmel Schule) in Jerusalem. His brilliant volumes _Nach Jerusalem_ describing his eastern tour have been translated into English, as is the case with many of his poems. His collected poems appeared in three volumes in 1880. (I. A.)

FRANKLAND, SIR EDWARD (1825-1899), English chemist, was born at Churchtown, near Lancaster, on the 18th of January 1825. After attending the grammar school at Lancaster he spent six years as an apprentice to a druggist in that town. In 1845 he went to London and entered Lyon Playfair's laboratory, subsequently working under R. W. Bunsen at Marburg. In 1847 he was appointed science-master at Queenwood school, Hampshire, where he first met J. Tyndall, and in 1851 first professor of chemistry at Owens College, Manchester. Returning to London six years later he became lecturer in chemistry at St Bartholomew's hospital, and in 1863 professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution. From an early age he engaged in original research with great success.

Analytical problems, such as the isolation of certain organic radicals, attracted his attention to begin with, but he soon turned to synthetical studies, and he was only about twenty-five years of age when an investigation, doubtless suggested by the work of his master, Bunsen, on cacodyl, yielded the interesting discovery of the organo-metallic compounds. The theoretical deductions which he drew from the consideration of these bodies were even more interesting and important than the bodies themselves. Perceiving a molecular isonomy between them and the inorganic compounds of the metals from which they may be formed, he saw their true molecular type in the oxygen, sulphur or chlorine compounds of those metals, from which he held them to be derived by the substitution of an organic group for the oxygen, sulphur, &c. In this way they enabled him to overthrow the theory of conjugate compounds, and they further led him in 1852 to publish the conception that the atoms of each elementary substance have a definite saturation capacity, so that they can only combine with a certain limited number of the atoms of other elements. The theory of valency thus founded has dominated the subsequent development of chemical doctrine, and forms the groundwork upon which the fabric of modern structural chemistry reposes.

In applied chemistry Frankland's great work was in connexion with water-supply. Appointed a member of the second royal commission on the pollution of rivers in 1868, he was provided by the government with a completely-equipped laboratory, in which, for a period of six years, he carried on the inquiries necessary for the purposes of that body, and was thus the means of bringing to light an enormous amount of valuable information respecting the contamination of rivers by sewage, trade-refuse, &c., and the purification of water for domestic use. In 1865, when he succeeded A. W. von Hofmann at the School of Mines, he undertook the duty of making monthly reports to the registrar-general on the character of the water supplied to London, and these he continued down to the end of his life. At one time he was an unsparing critic of its quality, but in later years he became strongly convinced of its general excellence and wholesomeness. His analyses were both chemical and bacteriological, and his dissatisfaction with the processes in vogue for the former at the time of his appointment caused him to spend two years in devising new and more accurate methods. In 1859 he passed a night on the very top of Mont Blanc in company with John Tyndall. One of the purposes of the expedition was to discover whether the rate of combustion of a candle varies with the density of the atmosphere in which it is burnt, a question which was answered in the negative. Other observations made by Frankland at the time formed the starting-point of a series of experiments which yielded far-reaching results. He noticed that at the summit the candle gave a very poor light, and was thereby led to investigate the effect produced on luminous flames by varying the pressure of the atmosphere in which they are burning. He found that pressure increases luminosity, so that hydrogen, for example, the flame of which in normal circumstances gives no light, burns with a luminous flame under a pressure of ten or twenty atmospheres, and the inference he drew was that the presence of solid particles is not the only factor that determines the light-giving power of a flame. Further, he showed that the spectrum of a dense ignited gas resembles that of an incandescent liquid or solid, and he traced a gradual change in the spectrum of an incandescent gas under increasing pressure, the sharp lines observable when it is extremely attenuated broadening out to nebulous bands as the pressure rises, till they merge in the continuous spectrum as the gas approaches a density comparable with that of the liquid state. An application of these results to solar physics in conjunction with Sir Norman Lockyer led to the view that at least the external layers of the sun cannot consist of matter in the liquid or solid forms, but must be composed of gases or vapours. Frankland and Lockyer were also the discoverers of helium. In 1868 they noticed in the solar spectrum a bright yellow line which did not correspond to any substance then known, and which they therefore attributed to the then hypothetical element, helium.

Sir Edward Frankland, who was made a K.C.B. in 1897, died on the 9th of August 1899 while on a holiday at Golaa, Gudbrandsdalen, Norway.

A memorial lecture delivered by Professor H. E. Armstrong before the
London Chemical Society on the 31st of October 1901 contained many
personal details of Frankland's life, together with a full discussion
of his scientific work; and a volume of _Autobiographical Sketches_
was printed for private circulation in 1902. His original papers, down
to 1877, were collected and published in that year as _Experimental
Researches in Pure, Applied and Physical Chemistry_.

FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN (1706-1790), American diplomat, statesman and scientist, was born on the 17th of January 1706 in a house in Milk Street, opposite the Old South church, Boston, Massachusetts. He was the tenth son of Josiah Franklin, and the eighth child and youngest son of ten children borne by Abiah Folger, his father's second wife. The elder Franklin was born at Ecton in Northamptonshire, England, where the strongly Protestant Franklin family may be traced back for nearly four centuries. He had married young and had migrated from Banbury to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1685. Benjamin could not remember when he did not know how to read, and when eight years old he was sent to the Boston grammar school, being destined by his father for the church as a tithe of his sons. He spent a year there and a year in a school for writing and arithmetic, and then at the age of ten he was taken from school to assist his father in the business of a tallow-chandler and soapboiler. In his thirteenth year he was apprenticed to his half-brother James, who was establishing himself in the printing business, and who in 1721 started the _New England Courant_, one of the earliest newspapers in America.

Benjamin's tastes had at first been for the sea rather than the pulpit; now they inclined rather to intellectual than to other pleasures. At an early age he had made himself familiar with _The Pilgrim's Progress_, with Locke, _On the Human Understanding_, and with a volume of _The Spectator_. Thanks to his father's excellent advice, he gave up writing doggerel verse (much of which had been printed by his brother and sold on the streets) and turned to prose composition. His success in reproducing articles he had read in _The Spectator_ led him to write an article for his brother's paper, which he slipped under the door of the printing shop with no name attached, and which was printed and attracted some attention. After repeated successes of the same sort Benjamin threw off his disguise and contributed regularly to the _Courant_. When, after various journalistic indiscretions, James Franklin in 1722 was forbidden to publish the _Courant_, it appeared with Benjamin's name as that of the publisher and was received with much favour, chiefly because of the cleverness of his articles signed "Dr Janus," which, like those previously signed "Mistress Silence Dogood," gave promise of "Poor Richard." But Benjamin's management of the paper, and particularly his free-thinking, displeased the authorities; the relations of the two brothers gradually grew unfriendly, possibly, as Benjamin thought, because of his brother's jealousy of his superior ability; and Benjamin determined to quit his brother's employ and to leave New England. He made his way first to New York City, and then (October 1723) to Philadelphia, where he got employment with a printer named Samuel Keimer.[1]

A rapid composer and a workman full of resource, Franklin was soon recognized as the master spirit of the shop. Sir William Keith (1680-1749), governor of the province, urged him to start in business for himself, and when Franklin had unsuccessfully appealed to his father for the means to do so, Keith promised to furnish him with what he needed for the equipment of a new printing office and sent him to England to buy the materials. Keith had repeatedly promised to send a letter of credit by the ship on which Franklin sailed, but when the Channel was reached and the ship's mails were examined no such letter was found. Franklin reached London in December 1724, and found employment first at Palmer's, a famous printing house in Bartholomew Close, and afterwards at Watts's Printing House. At Palmer's he had set up a second edition of Wollaston's _Religion of Nature Delineated_. To refute this book and to prove that there could be no such thing as religion, he wrote and printed a small pamphlet, _A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain_, which brought him some curious acquaintances, and of which he soon became thoroughly ashamed. After a year and a half in London, Franklin was persuaded by a friend named Denham, a Quaker merchant, to return with him to America and engage in mercantile business; he accordingly gave up printing, but a few days before sailing he received a tempting offer to remain and give lessons in swimming--his feats as a swimmer having given him considerable reputation--and he says that he might have consented "had the overtures been sooner made." He reached Philadelphia in October 1726, but a few months later Denham died, and Franklin was induced by large wages to return to his old employer Keimer; with Keimer he quarrelled repeatedly, thinking himself ill used and kept only to train apprentices until they could in some degree take his place. In 1728 Franklin and Hugh Meredith, a fellow-worker at Keimer's, set up in business for themselves; the capital being furnished by Meredith's father. In 1730 the partnership was dissolved, and Franklin, through the financial assistance of two friends, secured the sole management of the printing house. In September 1729 he bought at a merely nominal price _The Pennsylvania Gazette_, a weekly newspaper which Keimer had started nine months before to defeat a similar project of Franklin's, and which Franklin conducted until 1765. Franklin's superior management of the paper, his new type, "some spirited remarks" on the controversy between the Massachusetts assembly and Governor Burnet, brought his paper into immediate notice, and his success both as a printer and as a journalist was assured and complete. In 1731 he established in Philadelphia one of the earliest circulating libraries in America (often said to have been the earliest), and in 1732 he published the first of his Almanacks, under the pseudonym of Richard Saunders. These "Poor Richard's Almanacks" were issued for the next twenty-five years with remarkable success, the annual sale averaging 10,000 copies, and far exceeding the sale of any other publication in the colonies.

Beginning in 1733 Franklin taught himself enough French, Italian, Spanish and Latin to read these languages with some ease. In 1736 he was chosen clerk of the General Assembly, and served in this capacity until 1751. In 1737 he had been appointed postmaster at Philadelphia, and about the same time he organized the first police force and fire company in the colonies; in 1749, after he had written _Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania_, he and twenty-three other citizens of Philadelphia formed themselves into an association for the purpose of establishing an academy, which was opened in 1751, was chartered in 1753, and eventually became the University of Pennsylvania; in 1727 he organized a debating club, the "Junto," in Philadelphia, and later he was one of the founders of the American Philosophical Society (1743; incorporated 1780); he took the lead in the organization of a militia force, and in the paving of the city streets, improved the method of street lighting, and assisted in the founding of a city hospital (1751); in brief, he gave the impulse to nearly every measure or project for the welfare and prosperity of Philadelphia undertaken in his day. In 1751 he became a member of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, in which he served for thirteen years. In 1753 he and William Hunter were put in charge of the post service of the colonies, which he brought in the next ten years to a high state of efficiency and made a financial success; this position he held until 1774. He visited nearly every post office in the colonies and increased the mail service between New York and Philadelphia from once to three times a week in summer, and from twice a month to once a week in winter. When war with France appeared imminent in 1754, Franklin was sent to the Albany Convention, where he submitted his plan for colonial union (see ALBANY, N.Y.). When the home government sent over General Edward Braddock[2] with two regiments of British troops, Franklin undertook to secure the requisite number of horses and waggons for the march against Ft. Duquesne, and became personally responsible for payment to the Pennsylvanians who furnished them. Notwithstanding the alarm occasioned by Braddock's defeat, the old quarrel between the proprietors of Pennsylvania and the assembly prevented any adequate preparations for defence; "with incredible meanness" the proprietors had instructed their governors to approve no act for levying the necessary taxes, unless the vast estates of the proprietors were by the same act exempted. So great was the confidence in Franklin in this emergency that early in 1756 the governor of Pennsylvania placed him in charge of the north-western frontier of the province, with power to raise troops, issue commissions and erect blockhouses; and Franklin remained in the wilderness for over a month, superintending the building of forts and watching the Indians. In February 1757 the assembly, "finding the proprietary obstinately persisted in manacling their deputies with instructions inconsistent not only with the privileges of the people, but with the service of the crown, resolv'd to petition the king against them," and appointed Franklin as their agent to present the petition. He arrived in London on the 27th of July 1757, and shortly afterwards, when, at a conference with Earl Granville, president of the council, the latter declared that "the King is the legislator of the colonies," Franklin in reply declared that the laws of the colonies were to be made by their assemblies, to be passed upon by the king, and when once approved were no longer subject to repeal or amendment by the crown. As the assemblies, said he, could not make permanent laws without the king's consent, "neither could he make a law for them without theirs." This opposition of views distinctly raised the issue between the home government and the colonies. As to the proprietors Franklin succeeded in 1760 in securing an understanding that the assembly should pass an act exempting from taxation the _unsurveyed_ waste lands of the Penn estate, the surveyed waste lands being assessed at the usual rate for other property of that description. Thus the proprietors finally acknowledged the right of the assembly to tax their estates.