or FRANK-INCENSE, in the materia medica, &c. a dry resinous substance, known among authors by the names thus and olibanum.
Incense is a rich perfume, with which the ancient pagans, and the Roman Catholics fill, perfume their temples, altars, &c.
The burning of incense made part of the daily service of the ancient Jewish church. The priests drew lots to know who should offer it; the destined person took a large silver dish, in which was a censer full of incense; and being accompanied by another priest, carrying some live coals from the altar, went into the temple. There, in order to give notice to the people, they struck upon an instrument of brass placed between the temple and the altar; and being returned to the altar, he who brought the fire left it there, and went away. Then the offerer of incense having said a prayer or two, waited the signal, which was the burning of the holocaust; immediately upon which he set fire to the incense, the whole multitude continuing all the time in prayer. The quantity of incense offered each day, was half a pound in the morning, and as much at night.
One reason of this continual burning of incense might be, that the multitude of victims that were continually offered up, would have made the temple smell like a slaughter-house, and consequently have inspired the comers rather with disgust and aversion, than awe and reverence, had it not been overpowered by the agreeable fragrance of those perfumes.
incest, the crime of venereal commerce between persons who are related in a degree wherein marriage is prohibited by the law of the country.
inch, a well known measure of length; being the twelfth part of a foot, and equal to three barley-corns in length.
incidence, denotes the direction in which one body strikes on another. See Optics and Mechanics.
incident diligence, in Scots law, a warrant granted by a lord ordinary in the court of session, for citing witnesses for proving any point, or for production of any writing necessary for preparing the cause for a final determination, or before it goes to a general proof.
incisive, an appellation given to whatever cuts or divides: thus, the fore-teeth are called dentes incisi, or cutters; and medicines of an attenuating nature, incidents, or incisive medicines.
incle, a kind of tape made of linen yarn.
inclination, is a word frequently used by mathematicians, and signifies the mutual approach, tendency, or leaning of two lines or two planes towards each other, so as to make an angle.
inclined plane, in mechanics, one that makes an oblique angle with the horizon. See Mechanics.
inclosure, in husbandry, the fence or hedge made to inclose lands.
incognito, or incog, is applied to a person that is in any place where he would not be known: but it is more particularly applied to princes, or great men, who enter towns, or walk the streets, without their ordinary train or the usual marks of their distinction and quality.
incombustible, something that cannot be burnt, or consumed by fire. See Asbestos.
incommensurable, a term in geometry, used where two lines, when compared to each other, have no common measure, how small soever, that will exactly measure them both. And in general, two quantities are said to be incommensurable, when no third quantity can be found that is an aliquot part of both.
incommensurable numbers are such as have no common divisor that will divide them both equally.
incompatible, that which cannot subsist with another, without destroying it: thus cold and heat are incompatible in the same subject, the strongest overcoming and expelling the weakest.