FERGUSSON, SIR W., surgeon, born at Prestonpans; graduated at Edinburgh; was elected to the chair of Surgery in King’s College, London, and in 1866 was made a baronet; was serjeant-surgeon to the Queen, and president of the Royal College of Surgeons; Fergusson was a bold and skilful surgeon; is the author, amongst other treatises, of a “System of Practical Surgery,” besides being the inventor of many surgical instruments (1808-1877).

FERISHTAH, a Persian historian, born at Astrabad, on the Black Sea; went at an early age, accompanied by his father, to India, where his life was spent in the service, first of Murtaza Nizam Shah, in Ahmednagar, and afterwards at the court of the prince of Bijapur; his famous history of the Mohammedan power in India, finished in 1609, and the writing of which occupied him for 20 years, is still a standard work, and has been translated into English (about 1570-1611).

FERMANAGH (74), an Irish county in the SW. corner of Ulster, of a hilly surface, especially in the W.; is well wooded, and produces indifferent crops of oats, flax, and potatoes; some coal and iron, and quantities of limestone, are found in it; the Upper and Lower Loughs Erne form a waterway through its centre; chief town, Enniskillen.

FERMAT, PIERRE DE, a French mathematician, born near Montauban; made important discoveries in the properties of numbers, and with his friend Pascal invented a calculus of probabilities; was held in high esteem by Hallam, who ranks him next to Descartes (1601-1665).

FERNANDEZ, JUAN, a Spanish navigator, discovered the island off the coast of Chile that bears his name; d. in 1576.

FERNANDO PO (25), a mountainous island, with an abrupt and rocky coast, in the Bight of Biafra, W. Africa; the volcano, Mount Clarence (9300 ft.), rises in the N.; is covered with luxuriant vegetation, and yields maize and yams, some coffee, and palm-oil and wine; is inhabited by the Bubis, a Bantu tribe; is the chief of the Spanish Guinea Isles.

FEROZEPORE (50), the chief town of the district of the same name in the Punjab, India, a few miles S. of the Sutlej; is strongly fortified, and contains a large arsenal; the present town was laid out by Lord Lawrence.  F. DISTRICT (887), lies along the S. bank of the Sutlej; came into the possession of the British in 1835; cereals, cotton, sugar, and tobacco are cultivated.

FERRAR, NICHOLAS, a religious enthusiast in the reign of Charles I.; was elected a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1610; afterwards devoted himself to medicine and travelled on the Continent; subsequently joined his father in business in London, and entered Parliament in 1624; but a year later retired to the country, and at Little Gidding, Huntingdonshire, founded, with some of his near relations, a religious community, known as the “Arminian Nunnery,” some account of which is given in Shorthouse’s “John Inglesant”; it was broken up by the Puritans