The Greeks had such an high opinion of the preeminence to which they were raised by civilisation and science, that they seem hardly to have acknowledged the rest of mankind to be of the same species with themselves. To every other people they gave the degrading appellation of barbarians; and in consequence of their own boasted BAREIN. A swift footed animal, that abounds superiority, they asserted a right of dominion over at Kamtschatka. Bears put in practice a remarkthem, in the same manner, to use their own ex-able stratagem to catch these animals, which run pression, as the soul has over the body, and men too swift for them to expect much in pursuing

them. The bareins herd together in great num- | alone, the weather is free from rain. The bark is bers, at the bottom of precipices; at the top of of three kinds-the red, the yellow and the pale. which the bear conceals himself, and, with his paws, The first has now become scarce, but has also lost pushes down upon them large pieces of the rock. the exclusive reputation which it once had, the If he perceives that he has killed or maimed any yellow and pale barks having been found to be of the flock, he descends and devours the prey. stronger in their febrifuge properties. The crownThere appears to be a peculiar sagacity in the bear bark, as the highest-priced is termed, is of a pale, of this country. The Kamtschatkadales are indebt- yellowish-red. ed greatly to their bears not only for their food and clothing, but for their medicines. They say that their knowledge of the medicinal virtues of certain plants was obtained by their ancestors, from observing the use made of them by bears, when sick or maimed.

The uses of the bark, in medicine, are too well known to need description; but the chemical discoveries in relation to it are deserving of more particular mention. Its medicinal properties were found, a few years since, to depend upon the presence of a substance called quinine. This exists more or less, in all kinds of Peruvian bark, but in BARK. In the anatomy of plants, the exterior quantities very unequal in the various kinds. It part of trees, corresponding to the skin of an an- was discovered by Messrs. Pelletier and Caventou, imal. As animals are furnished with a panniculus who also ascertained that the most useful and peradiposus, usually replete with fat, which invests manent form of the substance was that of a neutral and covers all the fleshy parts, and screens them salt, in which it was combined with sulphuric acid, from external cold; so plants are encompassed with constituting the celebrated sulphate of quinine. a bark replete with fatty juices, by means whereof This extract is so powerful, that one grain of it is the cold is kept out, aud, in winter time, the spic-a dose; and thus does this little powder, which is ules of ice prevented from fixing and freezing the almost imperceptible, supply the nauseous mouthjuices in the vessel; whence it is, that some sorts fuls of bark, which were absolutely eaten by the of trees remain evergreen the year round, by reas- unfortunate beings who were afflicted with ague, on their barks contain more oil, than can be spent before this invaluable article was discovered. Next and exhaled by the sun, &c. It appears that trees to the bleaching liquor and the gas lights, this may stripped of their bark in the time of their sap, and be regarded as the most interesting and valuable suffered to die, afford heavier timber, more uni- of the gifts of chemistry to her sister arts. So exformly dense, stronger, and fitter for service, than tensive has the manufacture of this most important if the trees had been cut down in their healthy article become, that, in 1826, no less than 1593 cwt. of bark were used by four chemists concerned in the production of it in Paris; and 90,000 ounces of sulphate of quinine were produced in France during the same year, being enough for the curing, at a fair calculation, of near 2,000,000 of sick, who have, by this most happy discovery, been spared the swallowing of at least 10,000,000 ounces of crude bark. This one fact should entitle the name of Pelletier to the gratitude of all posterity.

state.

BARK-BREAD. Is a species of bread which the Laplanders prepare from the inner bark of pine trees. For this purpose the most lofty and clearest branches are selected, the scaly bark taken off, and the succulent white alburnum is collected, dried on coals till it is friable, when it is pulverized, kneaded with water into cakes, baked in an oven, and eaten as bread. In Siberia, when the ermine hunters find their ferment, with which they make their quass, destroyed by the cold, they digest the inner bark of the pine with water over a fire for an hour, mix it with rye meal, bury the dough in the snow, and after twelve hours find the ferment ready prepared in the sediment.

BARK, PERUVIAN. Is the produce of a tree, the various species of cinchona, which is the spontaneous growth of many parts of South America, but more particularly of Peru. The tree is said somewhat to resemble a cherry-tree in appearance, and bears clusters of red flowers. This valuable medicine was formerly called Jesuit's bark, from its having been introduced into Europe by the members of that religious order, who were settled in South America. They were instructed in the use of it by the natives of Peru, to whom it had been long known; and it continued, for many years, a source of profit to the order. Its botanical name was derived from that of the Countess del Cinchon, the lady of a Spanish viceroy, who had been cured by it. The tree from which it is obtained grows abundantly in the forests of Quito and Peru, and the bark is cut by the natives in the months of September, October and November, during which,

BARILLA. A plant, whose salts are used in manufacturing glass. When this plant is grown to its pitch, it is cut down, and let dry; afterwards it is burnt and calcined in pits, like limekilns, dug in the ground for that purpose; which are closely covered up with earth, so that no air may come at the fire. The matter, by these means, is not reduced into ashes only, but is made into a very hard stone, like rock salt, which must be broken with hammers to get it out.

BARM, or YEAST. Used in the composition of bread, to render it light. When the art of brewing became known, this ingredient, which is much better adapted to the purpose than any thing previously used, was discovered. It is the spume which arises on the surface of the beer in fermentation.

BAROMETER. A machine for ascertaining the weight of the atmosphere, in order chiefly to determine the changes of the weather; hence usually termed a weather glass. It consists generally of a glass tube, somewhat more than thirtyone inches in length. It is filled with quicksilver, and immersed in a small basin of the same metal;

the immersion being so made, that no air can ascend to the upper part of the tube; hence the small space above the quicksilver is usually a complete vacuum, and hence the ease with which the metal moves up and down in the tube, according as the atmosphere presses upon the quicksilver in the basin. The usual range of the barometer in this country is from twenty-eight to thirty-one inches; at twenty-eight the air is lightest; at thirty-one heaviest. Of course when the air is light, the vapors which are suspended in it when it is heavy, must fall to the ground. When high winds blow, the quicksilver is generally low; it rises higher in cold weather than in warm; and is also higher at morning and evening than at mid-day. In hard frosts the air is purest and heaviest, the barometer then being at its highest point.

The barometer is also used for measuring the height of hills and mountains, as well as depths of mines. It sinks about one tenth of an inch at the height of ninety feet from the level of the sea. Thus, when the quicksilver is (at that level) 30 inches, at 1000 feet of height it is 28.91 inches; at 2000 feet, 27.86 inches; at 3000 feet, 26.85 inches; 4000 feet, 25.87 inches; 5000 feet, 24.93 inches; 1 mile, 24.67 inches; 2 miles, 20.29 inches; 3 miles, 16.68 inches; 4 miles, 13.72 inches. In measuring mountains by the barometer it is necessary to ascertain the temperature of the air at the top and bottom, and if different at the two places, allowing for such difference, the height can be accurately found by this instrument.

vessels filled with earth, stones, carts, trees cut down, against an enemy's shot, or assault; but generally trees cut with six faces, which are crossed with battoons as long as a half-pike, bound about with iron at the feet.

In a vessel of war, the vacant spaces between the stanchions are commonly filled with rope, mat, cork, or pieces of old cable, and the upper part which contains a double rope netting above the sail, is stuffed full with hammocks, to intercept the motion, and prevent the execution of small shot in the line of battle.

BARRISTER. From barr, and ester, to remain or continue: thus the combination of the two forms, barrester, one who takes his station at a bar; who continues there-that is who carries on his profession at the bar, a pleader of causes.

BARS. In music, lines drawn perpendicularly through the staves, to divide the notes into equal temporary quantities. By the assistance of these lines, the composer figures the correspondence of the parts of his score. It is also by their assistance that the performer is enabled to keep his time, and that a whole band, however numerous, is regulated and held together.

BARTER. The exchanging of one commodity for another, the trucking of wares for wares among merchants. Barter was the original and natural way of commerce, there being no buying till money was invented, and used in exchanging.

BARON. Is the lowest title of nobility in England. The origin and primary import of the terin BARUCH. In Scripture Biography, was the son baron have been much contested: some will have of Neriah, of the tribe of Judah, and the faithful that it originally denoted a man; some, a hero, or disciple and servant of the prophet Jeremiah, who valiant man; others, a great or rich man.-Menage employed him as his secretary or amanuensis. derives it from the Latin baro, which we find used This prophet having received orders, in the reign in the pure age of that language for vir, a stout or of Jehoiachim king of Judah, whilst he was in valiant man; whence, according to this author, it prison, to write all his prophecies till that time, was, that those placed next the king in battle, were dictated them to Baruch, by whom they were read called barones, as being the bravest men in the to the people assembled in the temple on occasion army; and as princes frequently rewarded the of the feast of expiation, B. c. 605. Baruch terrifibravery and fidelity of those about them with fees, ed by the threats contained in the roll which he the word came to be used for any noble person, had read to the people, was encouraged by an aswho held a fee immediately of the king. Barons surance, that, notwithstanding all the calamities sometimes have their title from particular places, which would befall Judah and Jerusalem, he should and sometimes they take them from their name obtain a deliverance. (Jer. xlv.) Archbishop Usher before their elevation to the peerage, as Lord Rod- | and Dr. Prideaux are of opinion, that this roll was ney, Lord Erskine, &c. Barons, in England, are read a second time to the people, in the fifth year peers of the realm, and enjoy all the privileges of Jehoiachim, B. c. 604; after which it was comthereof. In ancient records, the word barons in-mitted to the flames by the king himself; and the cluded all the nobility of England, because, regularly, all noblemen were barons, though they had a higher dignity.

BARONET. The lowest degree of honor that is hereditary. It is below a baron, and above a knight. The order was founded by King James I. A. D. 1611, at the suggestion of Sir Robert Cotton, when 200 baronets were created at once; to which number it was intended they should be always restrained; but it is now enlarged at the king's pleasure, without limitation.

BARRICADE, or BARRICADO. A warlike defence, consisting of empty barrels and such like

Jews keep an annual fast, even to this day, in commemoration of the burning of the roll: the day marked for it in the calendar is the 29th day of Cisleu, the ninth month of the Jewish year, and corresponding to our November. After the buruing of this roll, another was immediately written, by God's special command, from the mouth of the prophet, by the hand of Baruch; and to this were added many other words, and particularly that prophecy with respect to Jehoiachim, and his house, which is denounced against them for this impious act, in the 30th and 31st verses of the 36th chapter of Jeremiah.

In the fourth year of Zedekiah (B. c. 594), Baruch went to Babylon with his brother Seraiah,

requires him to be ever attempting means to cut off such as are too aspiring, or engaged in designs that may be any way prejudicial to the Porte. This often occasions his own deposition; but he is unconcerned about that, as his person is always sacred; and his losing his post is only a step to higher preferment.

and carried thither a written account of the pro- | phecies contained in the fiftieth and fifty-first chapters of Jeremiah, which denounce the judgments that were to be executed upon Chaldea and Babylon by the Medes and Persians. Baruch, having read these prophecies to Jehoiachim and the other captives, threw the roll that contained them into the Euphrates, as the prophet had commanded him. The appellation of bashaw is also given by way Baruch accompanied Jeremiah into Egypt, and af- of courtesy, at Constantinople, to the lords about ter the death of the prophet, he retired to Babylon, the grand seignior's court, the officers in the army, where according to the rabbins, he died in the and almost every person of any figure. A bashaw twelfth year of the captivity. The book of Baruch, is made with the solemnity of carrying a flag or bancontained in the Apocrypha, is an epistle sent, or ner before him, accompanied with music and songs feigned to be sent, by King Jehoiachim and the by the Mirialein, an officer whose business it is to Jews in captivity with him at Babylon, to their invest the bashaws. Bashaw, used absolutely, debrethren that were still left in Judah and Jerusa-notes the prime vizier; the others of that denomilem; with an historical preface, in which it is rela- nation being distinguished by the addition of the ted, that Baruch being then at Babylon, drew up province, city, or the like, which they have the comthis epistle in the name of the king and the people, mand of; as the bashaw of Egypt, of Palestine, &c. by their appointment, and read it to them for their The bashaws are the emperor's sponges. We find approbation; and that a collection having been loud complaints among the Christians who reside made, the epistle with the money was sent to Jeru-in Turkey, of their avarice and extortions. As they salem. No Hebrew copy of this book is extant; but there are three other copies, one in Greek and the other two in Syriac. The Jews have not received this book into their canon; nor is it found in the ancient catalogues of the scriptures, cited by the fathers and the councils. In the later catalogues, it is annexed to the book of Jeremiah, and cited by the fathers as a part of Jeremiah.

BASALTES. In natural history, hard stone, chiefly black or green. The most remarkable property of this substance, is its figure, being never found in strata, like other marbles; but always standing up, in the form of rectangular columns, composed of a number of joints, one placed upon, and nicely fitted to the other, as if formed by the hand of a skilful workman. Basaltes was originally found in columns in Ethiopia, and fragments of it in the river Tmolus, and some other places. We now have it frequently both in columns and small pieces, in Spain, Russia, Poland, near Dresden, and in Silesia: but the noblest store in the world, seems to be that called the Giant's Causeway, in Ireland, and Staffa, one of the western isles of Scotland. It has been considered by some as a crystallization from water; but others strenuously maintain, that it is only a species of lava. It is commonly found in the neighborhood of volcanoes.

buy their governments, every thing is venal with them. When glutted with wealth, the emperor frequently makes them a present of a bow-string, and becomes heir to all their spoil.

BASILIC or BASILICA. Is used in Eclesias tical Writers, for a church. In which sense this name frequently occurs in St. Ambrose, St. Austin, St. Jerome, Sidonius Apollinaris, and other writers of the fourth and fifth centuries. M. Perrault says, that basilics differed from temples, in that the columns of temples were without side, and those of basilics within.

Some will have the ancient churches to have been called basilicae, because generally built in the fashion of the Roman halls called by that name; others, because divers churches were formed of those halls. Some have supposed that on the conversion of Constantine, many of the ancient basilicae were given to the church, and turned to another use, viz. for Christian assemblies to meet in; and they refer to that passage in Ausonius, where speaking to the emperor Gratian, he tells him, the basilicae, which heretofore were wont to be filled with men of business, were now thronged with votaries praying for his safety; by which it is apprehended he must mean, that the Roman halls or courts were turned into Christian churches; and hence it has been conceived, that the name basilicae came to be a general name for churches in after-ages.

BASHAW, PASCHA, or PACHA. A Turkish governor of a province, city, or other district. All Egypt is, on the part of the grand scignior, govern- BASE, OR BASIS. The bottom of any thing; ed by a bashaw, who has, in reality but little pow-commonly used for the lower part of a building or er; but seems principally to be meant for commu- column. In chemistry, any body which is dissolvnicating to his divan of beys, and to the divans of the several military ogiacs, the orders of the grand seignior, and to see that they be executed by the proper officers. When a bashaw farms a country of the grand seignior, the fines that are paid, when any life drops upon the lands, belong to him. Originally all the lands of Egypt belonged to the grand seignior; and he still looks on them as his own: but his power being now lost, they all go to the next heir; who must, however, be invested by the bashaw, and he is therefore glad to compound for a small sum. The nature of the bashaw's office

ed by another body, which it receives and fixes, and with which it forms a compound, is called the basis of that compound. Thus, for example, the bases of neutral salts are the alkaline, earthy, and metallic matters, which are saturated by the several acids, and form with them these neutral salts. In this sense it is, that these neutral salts are called salts with earthy bases, salts with alkaline bases, salts with metallic bases: also the appellations basis of alum, basis of nitre, basis of Glauber salt, basis of vitriol, &c.; signifying the argillaceous earth, which, with the vitriolic acid, forms alum; the vegetable

alkali, which, with the nitrous acid, forms nitre; the | so that the name of a prisoner was never pronouncmineral alkali, which, with the vitriolic acid, forms ed, nor even known among the inferior officers of Glauber's salts; and the metallic, which, with the the Bastile. vitriol, forms vitriol; because the substances are supposed to be fixed, unactive, and only yielding to the action of the acids, which they fix, and to which they give a body and consistence.

BASS. The lowest in the four parts of music. Of all the parts, this is the most important; and it is upon this that the chords proper to constitute a particular harmony are determined. Hence the maxim among musicians, that when the bass is properly formed, the harmony can scarcely be bad.

BASSOON, or BAS SON, low sound. A double bodied wind instrument made of wood, between three and four feet long, with finger holes and keys and a curved brass tube, to which is attached a reed by means of which the sounds are produced, it being blown into by the mouth. It is used as a bass occasionally in concerts; its sounds are said to assimilate best with the hautboy. Its compass includes three octaves.

BASS-VIOL. A musical instrument of the same form with that of a violin, but much larger. It is struck with a bow, as that is; has the same number of strings; and has eight stops, which are subdivided into semi-stops: its sound is grave, and has a muchi nobler effect in a concert than that of the violin.

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BASTILE. Denotes a small antique castle, fortified with turrets. Such was the bastile of Paris, which seems to have been the only castle that retained the name; it was began to be built in 1369, by order of Charles V, and finished in 1383, under the reign of his successor. Its chief use was for the custody of state prisoners.

Of the plan and structure of this edifice, which was for several ages appropriated to the clandestine purposes of unfeeling despotism, and which might be justly considered as the abode of human misery, and of the regulations by which it was governed, it is now needless to record many particulars: as it was assaulted and totally destroyed at an early period of the revolution in France.

The perpetual and most insupportable torments of this cruel and odious inquisition were vague, indeterminate, false or equivocal promises, inexhaustible and constantly deceitful hopes of a speedy release, exhortations to patience, and blind conjectures, of which the lieutenant of the police and officers were very lavish. To cover the odium of the barbarities exercised here, and slacken the zeal of relations or patrons, the most absurd and contradictory slanders against a prisoner were frequently published. The true causes of imprisonment, and the real obstacles to release, were concealed. These resources which were infinitely varied were inexhaustible.

When a prisoner who was known and protected had entirely lost his health and his life was thought in danger, he was always sent out. The ministry did not choose that persons well known should die in the Bastile. If any did die there, they were interred in the parish of St. Paul, under the name of domestics, and this falsity was written in the register of deaths in order to deceive posterity.

Nowhere else on earth, perhaps, has human misery, by human means, been rendered so lasting, so complete, or so remediless, as within the dire walls of the Bastile of France. This the following, the particulars of which are translated from that elegant and energetic writer M. Mercier, may sufficiently show. The heinous offence which merited an imprisonment surpassing torture, and rendering death a blessing, though for obvious reasons not specified by our author, is known from other sources to have consisted in some unguarded expression of disrespect towards the Gallic monarch Louis XV. Upon the accession of his unfortunate successor, the ministers then in office, moved by humanity, began their administration with an act of clemency and justice: they inspected the registers of the Bastile, and set many of the prisoners at libertyAmong the number was an old man, who had groaned in confinement, for a period of forty-seven years, between four thick and cold stone walls. Hardened by adversity, which strengthens both the mind and the constitution, when men are not overpowered by it, he had resisted the horrors of his long imprisonment with an invincible and manly spirit. His locks, white, thin and scattered, had almost acquired the rigidity of iron; whilst his body, environed for so long a time by a coffin of stone, had borrowed from it a firm and compact habit. The narrow door of his tomb, turning upon its grating hinges, opened not as usual by halves; and an unknown voice announced his liberty, and bade him depart. Believing this to be a dream he hesiEvery prisoner on coming to the Bastile, had an tated, but at length rose up and walked forth with inventory made of every thing about him. His trembling steps, amazed at the space he traversed: trunks, clothes, linen, and pockets, were searched, the stairs of the prison, the halls, the court, seemed to discover whether there were any papers in them to him vast, immense, and almost without bounds. relative to the matter for which he was apprehend- He stopped from time to time, and gazed around ed. It was not usual to search persons of a certain like a bewildered traveller: his vision was with rank; but they were asked for their knives, razors, difficulty reconciled to the clear light of day: he scissors, watches, canes, jewels, and money. These contemplated the heavens as a new object: his were put into a box, and labelled, with the tower eyes remained fixed, and he could not even weep. and number of the chamber in which he was to be Stupified with the newly acquired power of changconfined, and by which he was afterwards called;ing his position, his limbs like his tongue, in spite

Such was the place of horror, in which hundreds were confined at the caprice of an arbitrary monarch, or minister; and so rigidly were the wretched victims concealed, that many have been shut up for years, cut off from all communication with mankind, except the turnkeys and keepers of the prison, and neither friends nor relations have known what was become of the persons so mysteriously lost.