Where d denotes the cube of the diameter of the bore in inches. But shells have also lately been made with the metal all of the same thickness quite around.

In general, the windage or difference between the diameter of the shell and mortar is th of the latter; also the diameter of the hollow part of the shell is th of the same.

Bombs are thrown out of mortars or howitzers; but they may also be thrown out of cannon; and a very small sort are thrown by the hand, which are called granados.

BOMB chest, a kind of chest filled usually with bombs, sometimes only with gunpowder, placed under ground to tear and blow it up into the air with those who stand upon it. It was formerly set on fire by means of a saucisse fastened at one end, but is now much disused.

· BOMB ketch, a small vessel built and strengthened with large beams for the use of mortars at sea.

BOMBARD, a piece of ordnance anciently in use, exceedingly short and thick, and with a very large mouth. There have been bombards which have thrown a ball of 300 pound weight. They made use of cranes to load them.

BOMBARDIER, a person employed about a mortar. His business is to drive the fusee, fix the shell, load and fire the mortar, and to work with the fire-workers on all sorts of fire-works, whether for war or recreation.

BOMBARDMENT, is the act of assaulting a city or fortress by throwing shells into it, in order to set it on fire, or otherwise demolish it. As one of the effects of the shell results from its weight, it is never discharged as a ball from a cannon, that is, by pointing it at a certain object: the mortars in England are fixed at an elevation of 45o.

BOMBARDO, a musical instrument of the wind kind, much the same as the bassoon, and used as a base to the hautboy.

BOMBASINE, a name given to two

sorts of stuffs, the one of silk and the other, crossed, of cotton.

BOMBAX, in botany, English silk cotton, a genus of the Monadelphia Polyandria. Natural order of Columniferæ; Malvacea Jussieu. Essential character; calyx fivecleft; stamina five or more; capsule woody, five-celled, five-valved; seeds woolly; receptacle five-cornered. There are four species, of which we shall notice the B. ceiba as being the most interesting: it grows to a great size in both Indies; it is one of the tallest trees in those countries; the wood is very light and not much valued except for canoes; their trunks are so large as, when hollowed, to make very large ones. In Columbus's first voyage it was related that a canoe was seen at the island of Cuba made of one of these trees, which was ninety-tive palms long, of a proportional. width, and capable of containing one hundred and fifty men. The canoes now made in the West Indies from this tree frequently carry from fifteen to twenty hogsheads of each, the average about twenty-five tons sugar, from six to twelve hundred weight burthen. When sawn into boards, and then well saturated with lime-water, the wood bears exposure to the weather many years; it is also formed into laths for roofs, curing pots, and hogshead heading. When the tree decays it becomes a nest for the macaca beetle, the caterpillar of which, gutted and fried, is esteemed by many persons one of the greatest delicacies.

BOMBIC acid, in chemistry. The silkworm forms an acid liquor which was supposed to be an acid of a peculiar nature, and accordingly received, in the new nomenclature, the name of bombic acid; but Mr. Murray thinks that this and some other acids formed by insects, as that by the ant, which is named formic acid, are acetic acid slightly disguised.

BOMBYLIUS, in natural history, a genus of insects of the order Diptera: the generic character is, mouth furnished with a very long porrected, setaceous, bivalve trunk, with horizontal valves, including setaceous piercers. The insects of this genus have somewhat the appearance of the smaller kinds of humble-bees; thickly covered with erect downy hair; they fly with much rapidity, and may sometimes be observed to hang, as if suspended, over a flower, in the manner of some of the spinges, rapidly vibrating their wings and darting off on the least disturbance to a considerable distance. There are forty

eight species according to Gmelin. The most common and therefore the most worthy attention are the B. medius, B. major, and B aureus. The medius may be seen in the early periods of spring in the gardens and the fields, and is easily distinguished by its downy bee-like body, and its straight sharppointed proboscis. Its colour is pale chesnut-brown, with whitish yellow hair; and the wings are blackish along the whole length of the upper half, the remainder being transparent and marked with numerous black spots. The major resembles the medius, but the wings are said to be without spots, being only marked by the black up per division. The Linnæan characters of these two species are not, according to Shaw, sufficiently distinct: B. aureus is hairy; thorax brown; abdomen golden, from which it derives its name. It is found in Barbary. The head is covered with golden-coloured hairs; the sides of the thorax are lined with golden-coloured hairs; abdomen with tufts of hairs; wings brownish at the base, the tip whitish, with six black dots; legs testaceous.

This genus is separated into three divisions, viz. A. distinguished by two hairy feelers; antennæ united at the base: B. sucker with three incumbent bristles; no feelers; antennæ approximate: C. antennæ distant, the last joint subulate, and two feeters.

BOMBYX. See PHALENA.

BONA fides, or BONA fide, among lawyers, is as much as to say, such a thing was done really, without either fraud or deceit.

A man is said to possess any thing bona fide, who is ignorant of that thing's being the property of another; on the contrary, he is said to possess a thing mala fide, who is conscious of its being the property of another.

BONA notabilia, are such goods as a person dying has in another diocese besides that wherein he dies; amounting to the value of 51. at least; in which case the will of the deceased must be proved, or administration granted in the court of the archbishop of the province, unless by composition, or custom, any dioceses are authorised to do it, when rated at a greater

sum.

BONA patria, an assise of countrymen, or good neighbours, where twelve or more are chosen out of the country to pass upon an assise, being sworn judicially in the presence of the party.

BOND, an obligatory instrument, or deed, in writing, whereby one binds him

self to another to pay a certain sum of money, or perform some certain acts; as that the obligor shall make a release, execute a sufficient conveyance of his estate, save the obligee harmless, perform the covenants of a deed, &c.

A bond contains an obligation with a penalty, and a condition generally written under it, which expressly mentions the sum that is to be paid, or other thing to be per formed, and to whom, with the limited time thereof, for which the obligation is peremptorily binding.

The condition of a bond must be to do something lawful; for if it be to perform an act malum in se, as to kill a person, &c. it is void likewise bonds not to use trades. &c. are unlawful and void: so also are bonds made by compulsion, by infants, and feme coverts, &c. but if a drunken man voluntarily gives his bond, it shall bind him ; and a bond, though it be without any consideration, is binding. Where a bond has no date, or a false one is inserted therein, if it be scaled and delivered, it is a good bond; and a person shall not be charged by any bond, though signed and sealed, without delivery or words, or other thing, amounting to it. Notwithstanding a bond be made to pay money on the 30th of February, and there be no such day, the bond is good, and the money shall be paid presently. It is the same if no time is limited; in that case it must be immediately paid, or in convenient time.

If a bond be of twenty years standing, and no demand is proved to be made thereon, or good cause shown for so long forbearance, upon pleading the payment at the day, it shall be intended paid.

BOND, post obit, is one that becomes payable after the death of some person, whose name is specified in it. The life of a person being uncertain, the risk attached to such bonds frees them from the shackles of the common law of usury.

BOND, in carpentry, a term among workmen; as, to make good bond, means that they should fasten the two or more pieces together, either by tenanting, mortising, or dovetailing, &c.'

BONE. By bones are meant those hard, solid, well-known substances, to which the firmness, shape, and strength of animal bodies are owing; which, in the larger animals, form, as it were, the ground-work upon which all the rest is built. In man, in quadrupeds, and many other animals, the bones are situated below the other parts, and scarcely any of them are exposed to view; but shell-fish and snails have a hard

covering on the outside of their bodies, evidently intended for defence.

The bones are the most solid part of animals. Their texture is sometimes dense, at other times cellular and porous, according to the situation of the bone. They are white, of a lamellar structure, and not flexible nor softened by heat. Their specific gravity differs in different parts. That of adults' teeth is 2.27: the specific gravity of children's teeth is 2.08. It must have been always known that bones are combustible, and that when sufficiently burnt, they leave behind them a white porous substance, which is tasteless, absorbs water, and has the form of the original bone. The nature of this substance embarrassed the earlier chemists. But in 1771, Scheele mentioned, in his dissertation on fluor spar, that the earthy part of bones is phosphate of lime. This discovery was the first and the great step towards a chemical know. ledge of the composition of bones. The component parts of bones are chiefly four; namely, the earthy salts, fat, gelatine, and cartilage. The earthy salts may be obtained either by calcining the bone to whiteness, or by steeping it for a sufficient length of time in acids. In the first case the salts remain in the state of a brittle white substance; in the second, they are dissolved, and may be thrown down by the proper precipitants. These earthy salts are four in number: 1. Phosphate of lime, which constitutes by far the greatest part of the whole. 2. Carbonate of lime. 3. Phosphate of magnesia, lately discovered by Fourcroy and Vauquelin. It occurs in the bones of all the inferior animals examined by these indefatigable chemists, but could not be detected in human bones. 4. Sulphate of lime, detected by Mr. Hatchett in a very minute proportion. The proportion of fat contained in bones is various. By breaking bones in small pieces, and boiling them for some time in water, Mr. Proust obtained their fat swimming on the surface of the liquid. It weighed, he says, one-fourth of the weight of the bones employed. This proportion appears excessive, and can scarcely be accounted for without supposing that the fat still retained water. The gelatine is separated by the same means as the fat, by breaking the bones in pieces and boiling them long enough in water. The water dissolves the gelatine, and gelatinizes when sufficiently concentrated. Hence the importance of bones in making portable soups, the basis of which is concrete gelatine, and likewise

in making glue. When bones are deprived of their gelatine by boiling them in water, and of their earthy salts by steeping them in diluted acids, there remains a soft white elastic substance, possessing the figure of the bones, and known by the name of cartilage. From the experiments of Hatchett, it appears that this substance has the properties of coagulated albumen. This cartilaginous substance is the portion of the bone first formed. Hence the softness of these parts at first. The phosphate of lime is afterwards gradually deposited, and gives the bone the requisite firmness. The gelatine and fat, especially the first, gave the bone the requisite degree of toughness and strength; for when they are removed, the bone becomes brittle. The relative proportion of phosphate of lime and carti, lage differ exceedingly in different bones and in different animals. Ox bones, according to the analysis of Fourcroy and Vauquelin, are composed of

Solid gelatine... ...........51
Phosphate of lime..........$7.7
Carbonate of lime.... .....10
Phosphate of magnesia... 1.3

See ANATOMY.

100.0

BONIS non amovendis, in law, is a writ directed to the Sheriffs of London, &c. changing them, that a person, against whom judgment is obtained, and prosecuting a writ of error, be not suffered to remove his goods until the error is determined.

BONNET, in fortification, a small work, consisting of two faces, having only a parapet with two rows of palisadoes, of about ten or twelve feet distance: it is generally raised before the saliant angle of the counterscarp, and has a communication with the covered way, by a trench cut through the glacis, and palisadoes on each side.

BONNET, in the sea-language, denotes an addition to a sail: thus they say, lace on the bonnet, or shake off the bonnet.

BONNETIA, in botany, so called in honour of M. Charles Bonnet, a genus of the Polyandria Monogynia class and order. Essential character: calyx five-parted, two parts larger; corol five-petalled, three smaller upright, two longer declinate; capsules oblong, three-celled, three-valved, many seeded. There is only one species, viz. B. mahuria grows in marshy places in Cayenne and Guiana, a tree about fifteen feet high, branching chiefly towards the top. The flowers are borne on terminal spikes, and are of a purple colour.

BONTIA, in botany, so called from Jacobus Bontius, a genus of the Didynamia Angiospermia class and order. Natural order of Personatæ. Essential character: calyx five-parted; corol two-lipped; lower lip three-parted, revolute; drupe ovate, one-seeded, with the end oblique. There is but one species viz. B. daphnoides, the leaves of which are thick and rather stiff, very smooth and green on both sides; corolla yellowish, with a line of dusky purple along the middle of the lower lip; birds grow fat upon the fruits, but unless the entrails are taken out as soon as the bird is killed, it becomes too bitter to be eaten.

BOOK, liber, the composition of a man of wit and learning, designed to communicate somewhat he has invented, experienced, or collected, to the public, and thence to posterity; being withal of a competent length to make a volume.

In this sense, a book is distinguished from a pamphlet, by its greater length; and from a tome or volume, by its containing the whole writing. According to the ancients, a book differed from an epistle, not only in bulk, but in that the latter was folded, and the former rolled up; not but that there are divers ancient books now extant, under the names of epistles.

By 8 Anne, c. 19, the author of any book, and his assigns, shall have the sole liberty of printing and reprinting the same for fourteen years, to commence from the day of the first publication thereof, and no longer; except that if the author be living, at the expiration of the said term, the sole copyright shall return to him for other fourteen years: and if any other person shall print, or import, or shall sell or expose it to sale, he shall forfeit the same, and also one penny for every sheet thereof, found in his possession. But this shall not expose any person to the said forfeitures, unless the title thereof shall be entered in the register book of the Company of Stationers.

By statute eleven copies of each book, on the best paper shall, before publication, be delivered to the warehousekeeper of the Company of Stationers, for the use of the Royal Library, the libraries of the two universities in England, the four universities in Scotland, the library of Sion College, the library belonging to the College of Advocates in Edinburgh, the library of Trinity College, Dublin, and the King's Inn, Dublin, on pain of forfeiting the value thereof, and also five pounds.

By Stat. 34 Geo. III. c. 20, and 41 Geo. III. c. 107, persons importing for sale books first printed within the united kingdom, and reprinted in any other, such books shall be seized and forfeited; and every person so exposing such books to sale, for every such offence shall forfeit the sum of ten pounds. The penalties not to extend to books not having been printed for twenty years.

By the act of union, 40 Geo. III. c. 67, all prohibitions and bounties on the export of articles (the produce and manufacture of either country) to the other shall cease; and a countervailing duty of two-pence for every pound weight avoirdupois of books, bound or unbound, and of maps or prints, imported into Great Britain directly from Ireland, or which shall be imported into Ireland from Great Britain, is substituted.

Books, materials of. Several sorts of materials were used formerly in making books: plates of lead, and copper, the bark of trees, bricks, stone, and wood were the first materials employed to engrave such things upon, as men were willing to have transmitted to posterity. Josephus speaks of two columns, the one of stone, the other of brick, on which the children of Seth wrote their inventions and astronomical discoveries: Porphyry makes mention of some pillars, preserved in Crete, on which the ceremonies, practised by the Corybantes in their sacrifices, were recorded: Hesiod's works were originally written upon tables of lead, and deposited in the temple of the Muses, in Boeotia: the ten commandments, delivered to Moses, were written upon stone; and Solon's laws, upon wooden planks. Tables of wood, box, and ivory, were common among the ancients: when of wood, they were frequently covered with wax, that people might write on them with more ease, or blot out what they had written. The leaves of the palm-tree were afterwards used instead of wooden planks, and the finest and thinnest part of the bark of such trees, as the lime, the ash, the maple, and the elm; from hence comes the word liber, which signifies the inner bark of the trees; and as these barks were rolled up, in order to be removed with greater ease, these rolls were called tolumen, a volume; a name afterwards given to the like rolls of paper or parchment.

Thus we find books were first written on stones, witness the decalogue given to Moses: then on the parts of plants, as leaves chiefly of the palm tree; the rind

and bark, especially of the tilia, or phillyrea, and the Egyptian papyrus. By degrees wax, then leather, were introduced, especially the skins of goats and sheep, of which at length parchment was prepared: then lead came into use; also linen, silk, horn, and lastly, paper itself.

Books, form of. The first books were in the form of blocks and tables: but as flexible matter came to be wrote on, they found it more convenient to make their books in the form of rolls: these were composed of several sheets fastened to each other, and rolled upon a stick, or umbilicus; the whole making a kind of column, or cylinder, which was to be managed by the umbilicus as a handle, it being reputed a crime to take hold of the roll itself: the outside of the volume was called frons; the ends of the umbilicus, cornua, horns, which were usually carved, and adorned with silver, ivory, or even gold and precious stones; the title ovλna, was struck on the outside; the whole volume, when extended, might make a yard and a half wide, and fifty long. The form which obtains among us is the square, composed of separate leaves; which was also known, though little used by the ancients.

Books, in a mercantile sense, or Bookkeeping, the several registers wherein merchants and other dealers keep their ac

counts.

A merchant's books should exhibit the true state of his affairs. They should shew the particular success of each transaction, as well as the general result of the whole; and should be so arranged as to afford correct and ready information upon every subject for which they may be consulted.

Merchants' books are kept either by single, or according to the method of double entry. They who keep them in the former method have occasion for few books, as a journal, or day-book; and a ledger, or post book: the former to write all the articles following each other as they occur in the course of their business; and the other to draw out the accounts of all the debtors and creditors on the journal. This method is only proper for retail dealers, or at least for traders who have but very little business: but as for wholesale dealers and great merchants, who keep their books according to the double entry, or Italian method, as is now most commonly done, their business requires several other books, the usefulness of which will be seen from what follows.

The most considerable books, according

to the method of double entry, are the waste-book, the journal, and the ledger; but besides these three, which are absolutely necessary, there are several others, to the number of thirteen, or even more, called subservient or auxiliary books, which are used in proportion to the business a man has, or to the nature of the business a man carries on. These books are the cashbook, the debt-book, the book of numeros, the book of invoices, the book of accounts current, the book of commissions, orders, or advices, &c.

The waste-Book may be defined a register, containing an inventory of a merchant's effects and debts, with a distinct record of all his transactions and dealings, in a way of trade, related in a plain simple stile, and in order of time as they succeed one another.

The waste-book opens with the inventory, which consists of two parts; first, the effects, that is, the money a merchant has by him, the goods he has in hand, his part of ships, houses, farms, &c. with the debts due to him; the second part of the inven tory is the debts due by him to others: the difference between which, and the effects, is what the merchants call neat stock. When a man begins the world, and first sets up to trade, the inventory is to be gathered from a survey of the particulars that make up his real estate; but ever after is to be collected from the balance of his old books, and carried to the new.

After the inventory is fairly related in the waste-book, the transactions of trade come next to be entered down; which is a daily task to be performed as they occur. The narrative ought to exhibit transactions with all the circumstances necessary to be known, and no more. It should contain the names of persons with whom the merchant deals upon trust, the conditions of bargains, the terms of payment, the quantity, quality, and prices of goods, with every thing that serves to make the record distinet, and nothing else. The waste-book, if no subsidiary books are kept, should contain a record of all the merchant's transactions and dealings in a way of trade; and that not only of such as are properly and purely mercantile, but of every occurrence that affects his stock, so as to impair or increase it, such as private expences, servants fees, house-rents, money gained, &e.

The journal, or day-book, is the book wherein the transactions recorded in the waste-book are prepared to be carried to