a method of catching birds in the night, by lighting some straw, or torches, near the place 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 bulbes fixed to the end of poles, &c.

Batenbourg, a town of the United Provinces, situated upon the Maese, between Ravenstein and Megen.

Bath, a sufficient quantity of water collected in some convenient receptacle, for people to wash in, either for health or pleasure.

Baths are distinguished into natural and artificial, and natural again into hot and cold. The chief hot baths in our country are those at Bath, near Wells, in Somersetshire; and those at Buxton and Matlock in Derbyshire.

In the city of Bath are four hot baths: one triangular, called the cross bath, the heat of which is more gentle than that of the rest, because it has fewer springs in it; the second is the hot bath, which was formerly much hotter than the rest, but it was then not so large as at present: the other two are the King's and Queen's Bath, divided only by a wall; the last having no spring, but receives its water from the King's Bath: each of these is furnished with a pump, to throw out the water upon the diseased, where that is required.

These waters abound with a mineral sulphur; they are hot, of a bluish colour, and strong scent; they do not pass through the body like most other mineral waters; though if salt be added, they purge presently. On settlements, they afford a black mud, which is used by way of cataplasm in aches, and proves of more service to some than the waters themselves: The like they deposit on distillation, and no other: The cross-bath preys on silver, all of them on iron, but none on bras.

The use of these baths is found beneficial in disorders of the head, as palsies, &c., in cuticular diseases, as leprosies, &c., obstructions, and constipations of the bowels, the scurvy and stone, and in most diseases of women and children; they are used as a last remedy in obstinate chronic diseases, where they succeed well, if they agree with the constitution of the patient.

Of the three hot European waters of note, viz. Aix-la-Chapelle, Bourbon, and Bath, the first abounds more eminently in sulphur, which makes its heat, nauseous, and purgative faculty so great, that few stomachs can bear it.

The Bourbon are of a middle nature, between the Aix-la-Chapelle and the Bath waters; being less hot, nauseous, and purgative than those of Aix-la-Chapelle; but more so than the Bath waters.

Cold baths were by the ancients held in the greatest esteem; and though they were long banished out of medicine, the present age can boast of abundance of noble cures performed by them, and such as were long attempted in vain by the most powerful medicines.

The cold bath is serviceable in most chronic disorders; it always acts the part of a diuretic; and will do more, especially plunging over head in sea-water, in the cure of melancholy, madness, and particularly that occasioned by the bite of a mad dog, than any other medicine.

Artificial baths are various, according to the various occasions; as aqueous baths, vaporous baths, dry baths, &c. Aqueous baths are made from common plants, and other emollient, resolvent, and nervine substances; confining sometimes of milk and emollient herbs, with rose-water, &c., when the design is to humectate, or when it is only to cleanse, it consists of bran and water alone; and when it is for an excessive pain or tumour, &c., in these cases it consists of a decoction of roots, plants, and some spirit of wine.

In vapour-baths, the design of which is to promote a perspiration, the steam or fume of some decoction is received upon some part of the body for that purpose. In these baths there is no part of the patient's body plunged into the decoction, only those parts which require it are properly disposed to receive the steams of some proper fermentation. Of this kind are the bag-nios, where persons are made to sweat by the heat of a room, and pouring on of hot water.

Vapour-baths are of singular service in cold distempers, anaerica's, oedematous tumours, paralytic cases, swellings of the testicles, &c.

Dry baths are made of ashes, salt, sand, shreds of leather, &c. This bath is successful in provoking sweat in a plentiful manner, the patient being placed conveniently for the reception of the fumes: They are found useful in removing old obstinate pains, and are very effectual in venereal complaints.

Bath, in Hebrew antiquity, a measure of capacity, containing the tenth part of an omer, or seven gallons and four pints, as a measure for things liquid; or three pecks and three pints, as a measure for things dry.

Baths, in architecture, superb buildings, erected for the sake of bathing.

Those buildings, among the ancients, were most pompous and magnificent; such were those of Titus, Paulus Emilius, and Dioclesian, whose ruins are still remaining.

Bath, in geography, a city of Somersetshire, situated on the river Avon, ten miles east of Bristol, in 2° 30' W. long, and 51° 30' N. lat.

Bath is also the name of a town in Hungary, in 20° 40' E. long, and 46° N. lat.

Knights of the Bath, a military order in England, supposed to have been instituted by Richard II., who limited their number to four: However, his successor, Henry IV., increased them to forty-six. Their motto was tres in uno, signifying the three theological virtues.

This order received this denomination from a custom of bathing, before they received the golden spur. It is seldom ever conferred but at the coronation of kings, or the inauguration of a prince of Wales or Duke of York. They wear a red ribbon beltwise.

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

Bath-kol, 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 fantastic way of divination invented by the Jews themselves, not unlike the sortes virgilians of the heathens. How- ever, 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.

**BATH-metal**, a mixed metal, otherwise called prince's metal. See Prince's Metal.

**BATH-water.** See the article Bath.

**BATHA,** the name of two towns, the one in Barbary, in the kingdom of Algiers, and the other in Hungary, upon the banks of the Danube.

**BATHING,** the washing, soaking, suppling, refreshing, moistening, &c., the body, or any part thereof, in water, liquor, &c., for pleasure or health. See Bath.

**Bathing a falcon,** is when, weaned from her ramage fooleries, she is offered some water to bathe herself in a basin, where she may stand up to her thighs. By this means she gathers strength and boldness.

**BATHMUS,** in anatomy, denotes the cavity of a bone, fitted to receive the prominence of another bone.

**BATICALA,** in geography, a kingdom of India, upon the coast of Malabar, to the north of the kingdom of Canara.

**BATIS,** in zoology, the trivial name of a species of raja. See Raja.

**BATMAN,** in commerce, a kind of weight used at Smyrna, containing six okes of four hundred drams each, which amount to fifteen pounds, six ounces, and fifteen drams of English weight.

**BATON,** or Baston. See Baston.

**BATRACHITES,** or Frog-stone, a kind of gem mentioned by the ancients, and so called from its resembling the colour of a frog.

**BATRACHOMYOMACHIA,** the battle of the frogs and the mice, the title of a fine burlesque poem, usually ascribed to Homer.

The subject of the work is the death of Psycharpax, a mouse, son to Toxartes, who, being mounted on the back of Phylsignathus, a frog, on a voyage to her palace, to which she had invited him, was seized with fear, when he saw himself in the middle of the pond, so that he tumbled off and was drowned. Phylsignathus being suspected to have shaken him off with design, the mice demanded satisfaction, and unanimously declared war against the frogs.

**BATTa,** a province of the kingdom of Congo in Africa, which is watered by the river Barbela.

**BATTALIA,** denotes an army drawn up in order of battle.

**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, swords, and bayonets; and divided into thirteen companies, one of which is grenadiers. They are usually drawn up with six men in file, or one before another. Some regiments consist but of one battalion, others are divided into four or five.

**BATTLE,** a town of Sussex, six miles north of Hastings, in 35° E. long. and 50° 55' N. lat.

**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.

This term is chiefly used in speaking of doors and windows of shops, &c., which are not framed of whole deal, &c., with stiles, rails, and panels like wainscot, but are made to appear as if they were, by means of these battens, bradded on the plain board round the edges, and sometimes cross them, and up and down.

**BATTENBURY,** a town of Dutch Guelderland, situated on the north shore of the river Maeze, almost opposite to Ravenstein, in 5° 30' E. long. and 51° 45' N. lat.

**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 palliades 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. See Battery.

**Battering-pieces,** or pieces of battery. See Cannon and Gunnery.

**Battering-ram,** in antiquity. See Ram.

**Battering-rams,** in heraldry, a bearing, or coat of arms, resembling the military ensign of the same name. See Plate LI. fig. 10.

**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 into 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 embrasures, both to hinder the reverse, and to facilitate the bringing back of the gun.

**Battery of mortars** differs from a battery of guns, for it is sunk into the ground, and has no embrasures.

**Cross-Batteries** are two batteries, which play athwart one another, upon the same thing, forming there an angle, and beating with more violence and destruction; because what one bullet shakes, the other beats down.

**Battery sunk or buried,** is when its platform is sunk, or let down into the ground, so that there must be trenches cut in the earth, against the muzzles of the guns, for them to fire out at, and to serve for embrasures.

**Battery d'enfilade,** is one that scours, or sweeps the whole length of a straight line.

**Battery en echappe** is that which plays obliquely. Battery de reverse, that which plays upon the enemy's back.

Camerade Battery is when several guns play at the same time upon one place.

Battery, in law, the striking, beating, or offering any violence to another person, for which damages may be recovered.

Batteurs d'eftrade, or Scouts, are horsemen sent out before, and on the wings of an army, one, two, or three miles, to make discoveries.

Battle, a general engagement between two armies, in a country sufficiently open for them to encounter in front, and at the same time.

Other great actions, though of a longer duration, and even attended with a greater slaughter, are only called fights.

Naval Battle, 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 unseervicable.

As for a fleet consisting but of few ships, when obliged to fight in an open sea, it should be brought up to battle in only one front, with the chief admiral in the middle of them, and on each side of him the strongest and best provided ships of the fleet.

Battle is also used figuratively, for a representation of a battle in sculpture, painting, and the like.

Battle-royal, in cock-fighting, a fight between three, five, or seven cocks all engaged together, so that the cock which stands longest gets the day.

Battle-ax, a kind of halbard, first introduced into England by the Danes.

Battlements, in architecture, are indentures or notches in the top of a wall or other building, in the form of embrasures, for the sake of looking through them.

Battology, in grammar, a superfluous repetition of some words or things.

Batton, Batoon, or Baston. See Baston.

Battory, in commerce, a name given by the Hanse towns to their country-houses and warehouses in foreign countries. The principal battories were at London, Archangel, Novogorod, Lisbon, Venice, and Antwerp.

Battus, an order of penitents at Avignon, and in Provence, whose piety carries them to exercise very severe discipline upon themselves, both in public and private.

Batuecos, or Los Batuecos, a people of Spain in the kingdom of Leon, that inhabit the mountains between Salamanca and Corica, and are thought to be defended from the Goths.