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strong, succulent stalks, and leaves of a deep purple colour. This plant requires to be supported, for it will climb to the height of eight or ten feet. The flowers have no great beauty; but the plant is preserved for the odd appearance of the stalks and leaves. It is a native of the East Indies, Amboyna, and Japan. From the berries a beautiful colour is drawn: when used for painting does not continue very long, but changes to a pale colour; and has also been used for staining calicoes in India.

BASEMENT, in architecture, a base continued a considerable length, as round a house, room, &c.

BASILIC, in ancient architecture, a term used for a large hall, or public place, with isles, porticoes, galleries, tribunals, &c. where princes sat and administred justice in person. But the name has since been tranferred, and is now applied to such churches, temples, &c. which by their grandeur as far surpass other churches as princes' palaces do private houses: as also to certain spacious halls in princes' courts, where the people hold their assemblies and to such stately buildings as the Palais at Paris, and the Royal Exchange at London, where merchants meet and converse.

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BASILICON. See PHARMACY. BASILICUS, in astronomy, Cor Leonis, a fixed star of the first magnitude in the constellation Leo. See LEO.

BASKET, a kind of vessel made of twigs interwoven together, in order to hold fruit, earth, &c.

The best baskets are made of osiers, which thrive in moist places. To form an osier bed, the land should be divided into plots, eight or ten feet broad, by narrow ditches, and if there is a power of keeping water in these places, by means of a sluice, it is of, the greatest importance in dry seasons. The common osier is cut at three years, but that with yellow bark not till the fourth. When the osiers are cut down, those that are intended for white work, such as baskets used in washing, are to be stripped of their bark while green. This is done by means of a sharp instrument, fixed into a firm block, over which the osiers are passed, and stripped of their covering with great velocity. They are then dried, and put in bundles for sale. Before they are worked, they must be soaked in water, which renders them flexible. The basket-maker usually sits on the ground to his business. Hampers and other coarse work are made of osiers without any previous preparation.

The ancient Britons were celebrated for their ingenuity in making baskets, which they exported in great numbers. They were often of very elegant workmanship, and bore a high price.

BASKETS of earth, in the military art, are small baskets used in sieges, on the parapet of a trench, being filled with earth. They are a foot and a half high, about a foot and a half diameter at the top, and eight or ten inches at bottom; so that being set together, there is a sort of embrassures left at their bottoms, through which the soldiers fire, without exposing themselves.

BASKET fish, a kind of star-fish caught in the seas of North America.

BASKET salt, that made from salt springs, being purer, whiter, and composed of finer grains than the common brine salt.

BASS, in music, that part of a concert which is most heard, which consists of the gravest and deepest sounds, and which is played on the largest pipes or strings of a common instrument, as of an organ, lute, &c. or on instruments larger than ordinary, for that purpose, as bass-viols, bassoons, bass-hautboys, &c. The bass is the principal part of a musical composition, and the foundation of harmony; for which reason it is a maxim among musicians, that when the bass is good, the harmony is seldom bad.

BASS, counter, is a second or double bass, where there are several in the same concert.

BASS, figured, is that which, while a certain chord or harmony is continued by the parts above, moves in notes of the same harmony. Thus, if the upper parts consist of C, E, G, (the harmony of C,) and while they are continued, the bass moves from C, the fundamental note of that barmony, to E, another note of the same harmony; that bass is called a figured bass.

BASS, fundamental, is that which forms the tone or natural foundation of the incumbent harmony; and from which, as a lawful source, that harmony is derived: that is, if the harmony consist of the common chord of C, C will be its fundamental bass, because from that note the harmony is deduced; and if, while that harmony is continued, the bass be changed to any other note, it ceases to be fundamental, because it is no longer the note from which that harmony results and is calculated.

BASS ground, is that which starts with some subject of its own, and continues to

be repeated throughout the movement, while the upper part or parts pursue a separate air, and supply the harmony. This kind of bass is productive of a monotonous melody, and has long since been rejected as a restraint upon the imagination.

BASS, thorough, is the art by which harmony is superadded to any proposed bass, and includes the fundamental rules of composition. It is theoretical and practical: the former comprehends the knowledge of the connection and disposition of the several chords, the latter is conversant with the manner of taking the several chords on an instrument.

BASSANTIN (JAMES), a Scotch astronomer, of the 16th century, born in the reign of James IV. of Scotland. He was a son of the laird of Bassantin, in the Merse. After finishing his education at the Univer sity of Glasgow, he travelled through Germany and Italy, and then settled in the University of Paris, where he taught mathematics with great applause. Having acquired some property in this employment, he returned to Scotland in 1562, where he died six years after.

From his writings it appears he was no inconsiderable astronomer, for the age he lived in; but, according to the fashion of the times, he was not a little addicted to judicial astrology. It was doubtless to our author that Sir James Melvil alludes in his Memoirs, when he says, that his brother Sir Robert, when he was using his endeavours to reconcile the two queens, Elizabeth and Mary, met with one Bassantin, a man learned in the high sciences, who told him, “that all his travel would be in vain ; for," said he," they will never meet together; and next, there will never be any thing but dissembling and secret hatred for a while, and at length captivity and utter wreck to our queen from England." He added, that "the kingdom of England at length shall fall, of right, to the crown of Scotland; but it shall cost many bloody battles; and the Spaniards shall be helpers, and take a part to themselves for their labour." A prediction in which Bassantin partly guessed right, which it is likely he was enabled to do, from a judicious consideration of probable circumstances and appearances.

Bassantin's works are, on astronomy, music, and various parts of the mathematics. BASSET, a game at cards, said to have been invented by a noble Venetian, for

which he was banished. The persons concerned in it are a dealer, or banker, his assistant, who supervises the losing cards, and the punter, or any one who plays against the banker.

BASSIA, in botany, so called in honour of Ferdinando Bassi; a genus of the Dodecandria Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Dumosa; Sapotæ, Jussieu. Essential character. Calyx four-leaved; corolla stamina 16; drupe eight-cleft; tube inflated; five-seeded. There are 3 species, of which B. longifolia is a lofty tree, with the outmost branches recurved, thickish, and covered with a grey down; berry fleshy, milky, with five seeds, one in each cell; they are oblong, slightly compressed, sometimes acuminate at each end, sometimes only at the base, very smooth, shining, yellow, with a white band; native of Malabar and Ceylon.

BASSOON, a musical instrument of the wind sort, blown with a reed, furnished with eleven holes, and used as a bass in a concert of hautboys, flutes, &c. To render this instrument more portable, it is divided into two parts, whence it is also called fagot. Its diameter at bottom is nine inches, and its holes are stopped like those of a large flute. The compass of the bassoon comprehends three octaves, extending from double B flat, to B above the treble-cliff note. The scale includes every semitone between its extremes, and its tone is so assimilated to that of the hautboy, as to render it the most proper bass to that instrument.

BASSO-RELIEVO, or BASS-RELIEF, a images do not protuberate, jet, or stand piece of sculpture, where the figures or out far above the plane on which they are formed. Whatever figures or representations are thus cut, stamped, or otherwise wrought, so that not the entire body, but only a part of it is raised above the plane, are said to be done in relief, or relievo: and when that work is low, flat, and but a little raised, it is called low relief; when a piece of sculpture, a coin, or a medal, has its figure raised so as to be well distinguished, it is called bold, and we say its relief is strong.

The origin of basso-relievo is said to have been described in the story of the maid of Corinth, related by Pliny, who says that the Sicyonian potter, her father, invented the following method of taking likenesses. His daughter being in love with a youth going to a foreign country, she circumscribed the

shadow of his face with lines on the wall by lamp-light. Her father took the impression in clay and baked it among his vases.

BASSOVIA, in botany, a genus of the Pentandria Monogynia class and order. Essential character: corolla five-cleft; spreading, with a very short tube; berry ovate, knobbed, with many seeds. There is but one species; viz. B. sylvatica; the stems herbaceous, three or four feet high, branched; flowers in axillary corymbs, green and very small. Native of Guiana, in wet forests, flowering and fruiting in June.

BASS-VIOL, a musical instrument of a like 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 semistops; its sound is grave, and has a much nobler effect in a concert than that of the violin.

BASTARD, a natural child, or one born of an unmarried woman. By the laws of England, a bastard is incapable of inheriting land, as heir to his father; nor can any one inherit land as heir to him, except the children of his own body, born in wedlock; for by order of law, a bastard has no relation, of which it takes any notice, and he himself is accounted the first of his family. If a man marries a woman that is big with child by another, who was not her husband, and the child is born within the espousals, then it shall be deemed the child of the husband, and no bastard, though it were born but a day after the marriage; but this is understood when the parties are of age, and there is no apparent impossibility on the man's side. If a woman be with child by a man who afterwards marries her, and then the child is born, this child is no bastard; but if a man hath issue by a woman, before marriage, and afterwards marries her, the first issue is a bastard, by our laws, but legitimate by the civil law. If a woman elope from her husband, and he be within the four seas, her issue shall not be a bastard by our laws, though by the special law it shall: and if the wife continues in adultery, and has is sue, it is a bastard in our law. If the husband and wife consent to live separate, and have issue afterwards, it shall be accounted legitimate, because the access of the husband shall be presumed; but if the contrary be found, it shall be a bastard.

BASTION, in the modern fortification, a huge mass of earth, faced usually with sods, sometimes with brick, and rarely with stone, standing out from a rampart, where.

of it is a principal part, and is what, in the ancient fortification, was called a bulwark. A bastion consists of two faces and two flanks; the faces include the angle of the bastion; and their union makes the outmost, or the saliant angle, called also the angle of the bastion; and the union of the two faces to the two flanks makes the sideangles, called also the shoulders, or epaules; and the union of the two other ends of the flanks to the two curtains makes the angles of the flanks. See FORTIFICATION.

BASTON, in law, one of the servants to the warden of the Fleet-prison, who attends the king's courts with a red staff for taking into custody such as are committed by the court. He also attends on such prisoners as are permitted to go at large by licence.

BASTON, OF BATOON, in heraldry, a kind of bend, having only one third of the usual breadth. The baston does not go from side to side, as the bend or scarf does, being in the form of a truncheon. Its use is a note or mark of bastardy.' .

BASTONADE, or BASTINADO, a kind of punishment inflicted by beating the offender with a stick. This sort of beating, among the ancient Greeks and Romans, was the punishment commonly inflicted on criminals that were freemen, as that of whipping was on the slaves. We find some instances of this sort of discipline among the Hebrews; and it is a penalty used in the east at this day.

BAT. See Vespertilio.

BAT fowling, a method of catching birds in the night, by lighting some straw, or torches, near the place where they are at roost; for upon beating them up, they fly to the flame, where being amazed, they are easily caught in nets, or beat down with bushes fixed to the end of poles, &c.

BATH, knights of the, a military order in England, supposed to have been instituted by Richard II. who limited the number of knights to four; however, his successor, Henry IV. increased them to fortysix. Their motto is "Tria juncta in uno,” signifying the three theological virtues.

This order received its denomination from a custom of bathing before the knights received the golden spur. They wear a red ribband beltwise, appendant to which is the badge or symbol of the order, which is a sceptre, rose, thistle, and three imperial crowns conjoined within a circle, upon which circle is the motto, and all of pure gold. Each knight wears a silver star of eight

points upon the left breast of his upper garment.

The order of the bath, after remaining many years extinct, was revived under George the First, by a solemn creation of a great number of knights.

BATH-col, the daughter of a voice. So the Jews call one of their oracles, which is frequently mentioned in their books, especially the Talmud, being a fantastical way of divination invented by the Jews themselves, not unlike the sortes virgiliana of the heathens. However, the Jewish writers call this a revelation from God's will, which he made to his chosen people, after all verbal prophecies had ceased in Israel.

BATIS, in botany, a genus of the Dioecia Tetrandria class and order. Essential character: male ament four-fold, imbricate; calix and corolla none. Female ament ovate; involucre two-leaved; calyx and corolla none; stigma two-lobed, sessile; berries conjoined, four-seeded. There is but one species, víz. B. maritima, a shrub four feet high, with a round ash-coloured stem, much branched; stigmas white; fruits yellow or greenish yellow. The plant is salt to the taste, and is burnt for barilla at Carthagena. Native of the Caribbee islands and the neighbouring continent.

BATMAN, in commerce, a kind of weight used at Smyrna, containing six okes of four hundred drachms each, which amount to 16 pounds, 6 ounces, and 15 drachms of English weight.

BATTALION, a small body of infantry, ranged in form of battle, and ready to engage.

A battalion usually contains from 5 to 800 men; but the number it consists of is not determined. They are armed with firelocks (pikes being quite laid aside) swords and bayonets; and divided into thirteen companies, one of which is grenadiers. They are usually drawn up with three men in file, or one before another. Some regiments consist but of one battalion, others are divided into four or five.

BATTEL, a trial by combat, which was anciently allowed by our laws, where the defendant, in an appeal of murder or felony, might fight with the appellant, and make proof thereby, whether he were culpable or innocent. This mode of trial was used also in one civil case, namely, upon an issue joined in a writ of right; but as the writ of right itself is now disused, this course of trial is only matter of speculation.

BATTEN, a name that workmen give to

a scantling of wooden stuff, from two to four inches broad, and about one inch thick; the length is pretty considerable, but undetermined.

BATTERING, the attacking a place, work, or the like, with heavy artillery. To batter in breach is to play furiously on a work, as the angle of a half moon, in order to demolish and make a gape therein. In this they observe never to fire a piece at the top, but all at the bottom, from three to six feet from the ground. The battery of a camp is usually surrounded with a trench, and pallisadoes at the bottom, with two redoubts on the wings, or certain places of arms, capable of covering the troops which are appointed for their defence.

BATTERY, in the military art, a parapet thrown up to cover the gunners and men employed about the guns from the enemy's shot. This parapet is cut intò embrasures for the cannon to fire through. The height of the embrasures, on the inside, is about three feet; but they go sloping lower to the outside. Their wideness is two or three feet, but open to six or seven on the outside. The mass of earth that is betwixt two embrasures is called the merlon. The platform of a battery is a floor of planks and sleepers, to keep the wheels of the guns from sinking into the earth; and is always made sloping towards the embrasure, both to hinder the reverse and to facilitate the bringing back of the gun.

BATTERY, in law, the striking, beating, or offering any violence to another person, for which damages may be recovered. But if the plaintiff made the first assault the defendant shall be quit, and the plaintiff amerced to the king for his false suit. Battery is frequently confounded with assault, though in law they are different offences; for in the trespass for assault and battery one may be found guilty of assault, yet acquitted of the battery; there may, therefore, be assault without battery, but battery always implies an assault.

BATTERY. See ELECTRICITY and GALVANISM.

BATTLE, a general engagement be. tween two armies, in a country sufficiently open for them to encounter in front, and at the same time; or, at least, for the greater part of the line to engage. Other great actions, though of a longer duration, and even attended with a greater slaughter, are only called fights.

The loss of a battle frequently draws with it that of the artillery and baggage; the

consequence of which is, that as the army beaten cannot again look the enemy in the face till these losses have been repaired, it is forced to leave the enemy a long time master of the country, and át liberty to execute all their schemes; whereas a great fight lost is rarely attended with the loss of all the artillery, and scarcely ever of the baggage. See TACTICS.

BATTLE, naval, the same with a sea-fight, or engagement between two fleets of men of war. Before a naval battle every squadron usually subdivides itself into three equal divisions, with a reserve of certain ships out of every squadron to bring up their rear. Every one of these observing a due birth and distance are in the battle to second one another; and the better to avoid confusion and falling foul of each other, to charge, discharge, and fall off by threes or fives, more or less, as the fleet is greater or smaller. The ships of reserve are instructed either to succour and relieve those that are any way in danger, or to supply and put themselves in the place of those that shall be made unserviceable. See TACTICS.

BAUERA, in botany, a genus of the Polyandria Monogynia class and order. Calyx eight-leaved; petals eight; capsule two celled, two-valved, many-seeded. One species, which is a native of New Holland.

BAUHINIA, in botany, so called in honour of the two famous botanists John and Caspar Bauhin,, a genus of the Decandria Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Lomentacea; Leguminosa, Jussieu. Essential character: calyx five-cleft, deci duous; petals expanding, oblong, with claws, the upper one more distant, all inserted into the calyx, legume. There are 13 species, of which B. aculeata is an erect shrub, the height of a man; the trunk and branches are very prickly; leaves roundish; the two lobes also are roundish and blunt; the flowers are large, white, and have a scent which is somewhat unpleasant; sometimes the fold of the calyx is entire, not cloven. Mr. Miller says that it rises to the height of sixteen or eighteen feet in Jamaica where it grows plentifully, and the other sugar islands in America; that the stalks are terminated by several long spikes of yellow flowers, which are succeeded by bordered pods, about three inches long, containing two or three swelling seeds; that these pods are glutinous, and have a strong balsamic scent, as have also the leaves when bruised; and that it is called in America the

Indian savin tree, from its strong odour, somewhat resembling the common savin.

BAWDY-house, a house of ill fame, to which lewd persons of both sexes resort, and there have criminal conversation.

The keeping a bawdy-house is a common nuisance, not only on account that it endangers the public peace by drawing together debauched and idle persons, and promoting quarrels, but likewise for its tendency to corrupt the manners of the people. And, therefore, persons convicted of keeping bawdy houses are punishable by fine and imprisonment; also liable to stand in the pillory, and to such other punishment as the court, at their discretion, shall inflict.

BAXTERIANS, in church history, a sect of Christians who look up to the celebrated Richard Baxter as their founder, and who make the tenets of that worthy man the foundation of their faith. The object of Baxter was a hopeless cause, it was to reconcile the opinions of Calvin and Arminius, and his scheme is called the middle scheme. Although the old adage, that the middle path is the safest, may be true in many things relating to the conduct of life, yet where truth and religion are concerned there can between what is true and what is erroneous. be no middle way. There is no medium Baxter taught that God elected some whom he determined to save without any foresight of their good works, and that others to whom the gospel is preached have the means of salvation put into their hands. He contended that the merits of Christ's death, of which he appears to have had no precise idea, are to be applied to believers only, but all men are in a state capable of salvation. Mr. Baxter also assumed that there may be a certainty of perseverance here; and yet he cannot tell whether a man may not have so weak a degree of saving grace as to lose it again.

BAYER, (JOHN) in biography, a German lawyer and astronomer of the latter part of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century, but in what particular year or place he was born is not certainly known: however, his name will be ever memorable in the annals of astronomy, on account of that great and excellent work which he first published in the year 1603, under the title of "Uranometria," being a complete celestial atlas, or large folio charts of all the constellations, with a nomenclature collected from all the tables of astronomy, ancient and modern, with the useful invention of denoting the stars in every constellation by

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