Ferrer, Rafael, a Spanish missionary, was born at Valencia. Having entered the order of the Jesu- its, he devoted himself to the preaching of the Gospel in the deserts bordering on the Amazon'lliver. It was, in particular, tlie ferocious and numerous nation of the Cofanps, whicli had never yet seen a missionary, and which, divided into twenty tribes, occupied a territory about sixty miles from Quito, to which he devoted his labors. Tlie Cofanes had never been suijjected to Spanish rule, and had recently destroyed the town of Ecija and a number of villages. In 1603, after four- ! teen months of labor, Ferrer succeeded in organizing the mission of -S'rtw Paulo y^Saii Pedro d? los Cofanes. j In 1604 two other villages swelled the number "of ttie [ converted population to 6500. In-1605 Ferrer follow- ed the course of the Aguarico, penetrated into the I
Napo, and altogether, in the course of two years and a half, travelled more than 1000 miles, and acquired a better acquaintance with tlie savage nations in the vi- cinity of the Amazon than any man of that time. In 1608 he returned to the Cofanes. He then prepared a Grammar of the language of the Cofanes, and trans- lated for thom the Catechism. Me next undertook a journey to Quito, to induce the authorities to establish new missions. His petition having been granted, ho again returned to the Cofanes, when his earnest ser- mons against polygamy cost him his life in 1611, one of the chiefs whom he had compelled to give up his concubines precipitating him from a steep rock. — Hoe- fer, Nouv. Biori. Giner. xvii, 535. (A. J. S.)
Ferrer or Ferrier, Vincentius (St.), a Domin- ican monk, was born in Valencia Jan. 23, 1357. He entered the order in 1374, and in 1380 he went to the University of Barcelona, where he spent two j'cars. In 1384 he was made doctor at Lerida. In 1395 ho was called to Avignon by pope Benedict XIII as mas- ter of the palace, and here he conceived the idea of devoting his life to the healing of the schism in tho papacy which then threatened the destruction of the Roman Church. He carried out this idea by declai-- ing for INIartin V, and by striving for a reunion in man}^ writings, and by vast labors and travels in Spain, France, Italy, and the British Islands. He died at Vannes, in Brittany, April 5, 1419, and was canonized by pope Calixtus in 1455. His writings aro said to be poor in thought and language. — Mosheim, Ch. Hist. cent, xv, pt. ii, ch. ii, n. 75 ; Butler, Lives cf the Saints, April 5.
Ferret, evidently a conjectural rendering for ana- hah' (np;X, a sighing; Sept. ^/iiyaX?';, Vulg. mygale'), one of the unclean creeping things mentioned in Lev. xi, 30. The Rabbinical writers seem to have identi- fied this animal with the hedgehog (see Lewysohn, Zool. des ralmuds, § 129, 134). The Sept. and"Vulg. refer to an animal which, acco; ding to Aristotle {Hist. Anim.-vm, 24), is the Mus araneus, or shrew-mouse; but the associated names render it more probalde that the animal referred to in Leviticus was a reptile of the lizard tribe (so Bochart and Gesenius), deriving its name from the mournful cry, or wail, whicli some liz- ards utter, especial]}' those of the Gecko famil}-. The Lacerta gedco (otherwise called "fan-foot" liz:ird ; Gedio hhidatus, the Piyodactylus of Hasselquist) is per- haps the animal intended. "The geckos are small
The Gecko.
lizards, usually somewhat clumsy in form, stealthy and cat-like in their actions, secreting themselves in holes and crevices by day, and at night coming forth to prey upon nocturnal insects. The form of the eye indicates their season of activity, for the pupil, which is capable of great expansion and contraction, closes to a vertical line. The animals crawl with ease and confidence on perpendicular walls, and even on the under sides of ceilings, beams, and the like, prnvded these have a somewhat roughened surface. Tnis cu- rious power, the rapidity with which they disappear in some crevice when alarmed, and their sombre and lu-
FERRIER
535
FERRY-BOAT
rid hues, tliair association with night, their loud and harsh croak, their slow and stealthy pace, and espe- cially a certain sinister expression of countenance, produced by the lar^e globular ej'e, unprotected by an eyelid and divided by its linear pupil, have com- bined to give to these reptiles in all countries a popu- lar reputation for malignity and venom, and they are generally much dreaded. This reputation, however, appears to be wholly groundless ; and the story told by Hassclquist of a man who would lay hold of the reptile, and wliose hand instantly became covered with red pustules, inflamed and itching, must be received with suspicion. Still more incredible is another ac- count by the same naturalist, to the effect that he saw at Cairo two women and a girl at the point of death from having eaten some cheese over which a gecko had crawled ! The most interesting point in the econ- omy of these curious lizards is the structure of their feet, by which they are enabled to defy the laws of gravity. The feet are nearly equal, short, stout, and terminated 1)}' five toes, differing little in length, which radiate as if from a centre, so as to form two thirds of a circle. Tlie under surface of the toes is, in most of the genera, mucli widened, and furnished with small plates or laminae, overlapping each other in a regular manner, whicli varies in different genera and species. The toes are frequently united by a membrane at their base. The claws are pointed, hooked, and kept con- stantly sharp, by an apparatus by whicli they are ca- pable of retraction, like those of tlie cat. It is lij' means of the singular lamellated structure of the un- der surface of tlie toes that these reptiles, or at least many of them, are enabled to cling to vertical or even inverted surfaces, as house-flics do. The mode in whicli this is effected we do not tlioroughly under- stand ; but we may conjecture that it is by the raising of these imbricated plates hy muscular action, so as to form a vacuum beneatli the sole, when the pressure of the external air causes the toe to adhere firmly to the surface. The similarity of the structure to tiiat of the coronal sucker in the rcniora suggests this explana- tion. A familiar illustration of the principle is seen in the leathern suckers which children make, which adhere so firmly that large stones are lifted by them" (Fairbairn, s. v.). See Lizakd.