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of a pluerisy in his 72d year, December 31, 1679. His principal work was "De Motu Animalium," in two volumes small 4to. The object of this work was to explain the functions of animal bodies, on mechanical principles. He describes the fibres of the muscles, and measures the power or force which each possesses, and the power of them collectively. He points out in what manner that power is increased or diminished, by the manner in which the fleshy fibres are joined to the tendons. He calculates the power of the heat, in propelling the blood, which he supposed equal to 180,000 pounds weight. In his calculations Borelli was found to have erred in many respects, but his principles were generally admitted.

BORER, an instrument invented for the purpose of searching or exploring the nature of soils, it consists of iron rods about six feet long, made to screw into one another: to the lower one is fixed a steel point: with an instrument of this kind two men will easily sound the depth of 12 feet in a quarter of an hour, if they do not meet with stones. When the rod becomes too heavy to be conveniently managed with the hand, it may be raised by a rope fastened at one end to the handle, and at the other to a roller, or kind of windlass, erected at a proper height, perpendicularly over the hole, and turned with one or two handles. The toughest iron is used for making this instrument, which should be well hammered, till its surface is quite smooth and even, for the least roughness and inequality would occasion a friction, that must greatly retard its working. For the same reason, and also to increase the force of its fall, it is necessary that it should be perfectly straight, nor should it ever be struck with a mallet, &c. to force it down, because a blow might bend it, and it would easily break afterwards. A bit, like that of an augre, proportioned to the thickness of the rod, may at any time, when necessary, be substituted instead of the steel point to draw up a sample of the substance from the very bottom of the sounding.

BORING, in a general sense, the art of perforating, or making a hole through any solid body.

BORING, in mineralogy, a method of piercing the earth with scooping irons, which, being drawn back at proper times, bring up with them samples of the different strata through which they have passed; by the examination of which the skilful

mineralogist will be able to guess where abouts a vein of ore may lie, or whether it will be worth while to open a mine there

or no.

BORING of water-pipes. The method of boring alder poles for water-pipes is thus : being furnished with poles of a fit size, horses or tressels are procured of a due height, both to lay the poles, and rest the augre on in boring; they also set up a lathe, whereby to turn the lesser ends of the poles, and adapt them to the cavities of the greater ends of others, in order to make the joint shut each pair of poles together. The outer, or concave part, is called the female, and the other, or inner, the male part of the joint. In turning the male part, they make a channel, or small groove in it, at a proper distance from the end; and, in the female part, bore a small hole to fit over this channel; they then bore through their poles, sticking up great nails at each end, to guide them right; but they commonly bore a pole at both ends, so that if it be crooked one way, they can nevertheless bore it through, and not spoil it.

BORONIA, in botany, a genus of the Octandria Monogynia class and order. Calyx four-parted ; petals four; antheræ pedicelled below the summits of the filaments; style from the top of the germ very short ; stigma capitate; capsule four-united; seeds coated. There are four species natives of New South Wales.

BOROUGH, or BURGH, in a general sense, signifies a town or a corporation, which is not a city. The word, in its original signification, is by some supposed to have meant a company, consisting of ten families, which were bound together at each other's pledge. Afterwards, as Verstegan has it, borough came to signify a town, having a wall or some kind of inclosure round it. And all places that in old times bad the name of borough, it is said, were fortified, or fenced in some shape or other. Borough is a place of safety and privilege; and some are called free burghs, and the tradesmen in them free burgesses, from a freedom they had granted to them originally, to buy and sell without disturbance, and exempt them from toll.

Borough is now particularly appropriated to such towns or villages as send burgesses or representatives to parliament, whether they may be incorporated or not.

They are distinguished into those by charter or statute, and those by prescription or custom; the number in England

Plate II

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Fig.1.Arctomy's marmota: Alpine Marmot Fig.2.A.empetra: Quebec Marmot - Fia.3.A.Monax: Maryland Marmot Fig.4.Hamster Fig.5.Lapland Marmot - Fig.6. Bradypus tridactylus: three toed Sloth.

London Published by Longman Hurst Rees & Orme April 11808.

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is one hundred and forty-nine, some of which send one, but the most of them two representatives.

BOROUGHS, royal, in Scotland, are corporations made for the advantage of trade, by charters granted by several of their kings, having the privilege of sending commission ers to represent them in parliament, besides other peculiar immunities, They form a body of themselves, and send commissioners each to an annual convention at Edinburgh, to consult for the benefit of trade, and their general interest.

BOROUGH, English, a customary descent of lands or tenements, in certain places, by which they descend to the youngest instead of the eldest son; or, if the owner have no issue, to the younger instead of the elder brother. The custom goes with the land, although there be a devise or feoffment at the common law to the contrary. The reason of this custom, says Littleton, is, because the youngest is presumed, in law, to be least able to provide for himself.

Borough-head, or headborough, called also borough-holder, or bursholder, the chief man of the decenna, or hundred, chosen to speak and act in behalf of the rest.

Headborough also signifies a kind of head constable, where there are several chosen as his assistants, to serve warrants, &c.

BORROWING, when money, corn, grain, gold, or other commodity, merely esteemed according to its price, is borrow ed, it is repaid by returning an equal quantity of the same thing, or an equal value in money. If money is borrowed, it is always understood that interest is payable, and it is by law demandable; but when a house, or a horse, &c. is borrowed, the restoration of the identical property is always understood; or if a thing be used for any other, or more purposes, than those for which it was borrowed, or be lost, the party may have his action on the case for it. :

BOS, in zoology, the ox, a genus of quadrupeds of the order of Pecora. The generic character is, horns concave, turned outwards, lunated, smooth; front teeth eight in the lower jaw; canine teeth none. B. taurus, the bison, from which the several races of common cattle have been gradually derived, is found wild in many parts, both of the old and the new continent; inhabiting woody regions, and arriving at a size far larger than that of the domestic or cultivated animal. In this its native state VOL. I.

of wildness, the bison is distinguished not only by his size, but by the superior depth and shagginess of his hair, which about the head, neck, and shoulders, is sometimes of such a length as almost to touch the ground. His horns are rather short, sharp-pointed, extremely strong, and stand distant from each other at their bases, like those of the common bull. His colour is sometimes of a dark blackish brown, and sometimes rufus brown; his eyes large and fierce; his limbs extremely strong, and his whole aspect in a degree savage and gloomy. See Plate III. Mammalia, fig. 2.

The principal European regions where this animal is at present found, are the marshy forests of Poland, the Carpathian mountains, and Lithuania. Its chief Asiatic residence is the neighbourhood of Mount Caucasus; but it is also found in other parts of the Asiatic world. The American bison seems to differ in no respect from the European, except in being more shaggy, and having a more protuberant bunch or fleshy substance over the shoulders.

It

grows to a vast size, and has been found to

weigh sixteen hundred, and even two thousand four hundred pounds, the strongest man cannot lift one of the skins from the

ground. These were the only animals which bore any affinity to the European cattle, on the first discovery of the American conti nent, and might have been made to answer every purpose of the European cow; but the natives being in a savage state, and living chiefly by chase, had never attempted the domestication of the animal. The common ox is, in reality, the bison reduced to a domestic state; in which, in different parts of the world, it runs into as many varieties as the sheep; differing widely in size, form, and colour, according to climate and other circumstances. Its importance in this its domestic state needs not be mentioned. Formerly the ox constituted the whole riches of mankind; and he is still the basis of the wealth of nations, which subsist and flourish in proportion to the cultivation of their lands and the number of their cattle.

The Urus, or wild bull, is a variety of the ox kind, and is chiefly to be met with in the extensive forests of Lithuania. It grows to a size almost equal to the elephant, and is quite black; the eyes are red and fiery, the horns thick and short, and the forehead covered with a quantity of curled hair; the neck is short and strong, and the skin has an odour of musk. The female,

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though not so big as the male, exceeds the largest of our bulls in size: nevertheless her udder is extremely small. Upon the whole, however, this animal, which greatly resembles those of the tame kind, probably owes its variety to its natural wildness, and the richness of the pastures where it is produced. Fig. 1.

The Zebu is another variety of the Bos Taurus. They are all equally docile and gentle when tamed, and are in general covered with fine glossy hair, softer and more beautiful than that of the common cow. Their humps are of different sizes, in some weighing from forty to fifty pounds, but in others less. That part is in general considered as a great delicacy; and when dressed has much the appearance and taste of udder. Fig. 3.

The Bisons of Madagascar and Malabar are of the great kind; those of Arabia, Petrea, and most parts of Africa, are of the Zebu or small kind. In America, especially towards the North, the bison is well known. They herd together in droves of from one to two hundred, on the banks of the Missisippi, where the inhabitants hunt them, their flesh being esteemed good eating. They all breed with the tame cow. The hump, which is only an accidental characteristic, gradually declines, and in a few generations no vestiges of it remain. Thus, we see, whether it be the wild or the tame ox, the bonasus or the urus, the bison or the zebu, by whatever name they are distinguished, and though variously classed by naturalists, in reality they are the same; and however diversified in their appearance and properties, are descendants of one common stock, of which the most unequivocal proof is, that they all mix and breed with each other. The oxen of India are of different sizes, and are made use of in travelling, as substitutes for horses. Their common pace is soft. Instead of a bit, a small cord is passed through the cartilage of the nostrils, which is tied to a larger cord, and serves as a bridle. They are saddled like horses; and, when pushed, move very briskly: they are likewise used in drawing chariots and carts. For the former purpose white oxen are in great esteem, and much admired. They will perform journies of sixty days, at the rate of from twelve to fifteen leagues a day, and their travelling pace is generally a trot. In Persia there are many oxen entirely white, with small blunt horus, and humps on their backs. They are very

strong, and carry heavy burthens. When about to be loaded, they drop down on their knees like the camel, and rise when their burthens are properly fastened.

Bos babylus, or buffalo, ox with horns lying backwards, turning inwards, and flat on the fore part. In its general appearance, the buffalo is so nearly allied to the common ox, that, without an attentive examination, it might pass for a variety of the same animal. It differs, however, in the form of its horns, and in some particulars relative to its internal structure. The buffalo is rather superior in size to the common ox; the head larger in proportion; the forehead higher; the muzzle of a longer form, but at the same time broad and square: but it is principally the form of the horns that distinguishes the buffalo. They are large, and of a compressed or depressed form, with the exte rior edge sharp. The buffalo has an appearance of great strength, and a more ferocious or malignant aspect than the bull; owing to the convexity of his forehead, the smallness of his eyes, the flatness of his muzzle, and the flatter and more inclined position of his horns. The general or prevailing colour of the buffalo is blackish, except the hair on the top of the forehead, and that at the tip of the tail, which is of a yellowish white; the skin itself is also of a black colour; and from this general cast it is but very seldom observed to vary. As the buffalo in his domesticated state is, in general, larger and stronger than the ox, he is employed with advantage in different kinds of labour. Buffaloes are made to draw heavy loads, and are commonly directed and restrained by means of a ring passed through the nose. Two buffaloes yoked, or rather chained, to a cart, are able to draw as much as four strong horses. As they carry their neck and head low, the whole weight of their body is employed in drawing; and their mass much surpasses that of a labouring horse. In its habits the buffalo is much less cleanly than the ox; delighting to wallow in the mud; and, next to the hog, may be considered as the dirtiest of domesticated quadrupeds. His voice is deeper, more uncouth, and hideous, than that of the bull. The milk of the female buffalo is said, by some authors, to be not so good as that of the cow; but it is more plentiful, and is used for the purposes of the dairy in the warmer regions.

Italy is the country where buffaloes are at present most common, in a domesticated state; being used, as in India, both for the

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