ADVERTISEMENT TO THE PENNY CYCLOPÆDIA.

In order to comply with the wishes of the bulk of the Subscribers to the Cyclopædia, it is the intention of the Committee, upon the completion of the letter B, to publish at the rate of three volumes annually, instead of two; so that the entire work may be published in little more than four years from the present time.

In making this announcement as to an increased speed in publication, and giving this pledge as to limitation of quantity, the Committee and the Publishers beg it to be understood, that they consider these arrangements as final. They do not think it possible to proceed at a quicker rate than they have announced, or to attempt any curtailment that may reduce the number of volumes below eighteen, without injury to the character of the work.

April 21, 1836.

AMERICAN ADVERTISEMENT TO VOLUME THE SIXTH.

A PUBLICATION such as this, aiming at the union of cheapness with excellence, requires the support of a very large body of purchasers. In the British empire that support has been obtained. The introduction of Mechanics' Institutes, together with the Mechanics' Registers and Magazines, have made the operative workmen of the Old Country thinking and reading men. They are no longer content to go through their labour by mere manual operations, and in contented ignorance of the principle upon which they act. They have begun to perceive that such a course of action can never lead to any important improvements, and they are aware, that to effect important advances, they must understand science as well as art. Hence it is perceived that the Mechanics' Institutes are the halls of meeting for Societies that have a considerable claim to the title of scientific bodies;-hence it is that Emigrant artificers in this country are careful to possess themselves of the continuation of works, on practical and theoretical points, connected with their avocations, which they began before their departure. It is to be regretted that the same degree of eager zeal has not yet pervaded through the extensive class of artizans and operative mechanics in America. It may be accounted for, perhaps, by the consideration that the same degree of impulse has not yet been given here; and, doubtless, the time will arrive when there will be as intense a demand for useful works, like the PENNY CYCLOPÆDIA, as we find it to be the case beyond the Atlantic. Another reason may be, that the deluge of light and trivial reading which has been poured upon society here, and is always found to be attractive and interesting to young and ardent feelings, has excluded, in a measure, the taste for the useful and important matter which is the subject of these pages. This latter reason is more to be regretted than the former, for the one is a deficiency which may be supplied, whilst the other is a disease which requires

a cure.

BUF

BUFFON, GEORGE LOUIS LE CLERC, COMTE DE, son of Benjamin Le Clerc Buffon, a councillor of parliament, was born at Montbard, in Burgundy, on the 7th September, 1707, a year which was also marked by the entrance of Linné into life. We first trace the young Buffon at Dijon, where he was entered at the Jesuits' college as a student of law; but it would appear that the legal profession, which his father wished him to adopt, had no charms for him, and that astronomy and mathematics were his favourite pursuits. The parent, observing his son's disgust at the former study and his zealous application to the last-named sciences, wisely suffered him to follow the path which he had chosen; and he became so wedded to his geometry that some of his biographers assert, that while his companions were at their sports he was generally to be seen in some retired nook poring over his pocket Euclid, which he seems to have cherished at this early age with no less affection than Parson Adams had for his Eschylus. Such a mode of spending hours, which would otherwise have been hours of idleness, brought forth its fruits in due season, and there are stories current that he had anticipated Newton in some of his discoveries, but that he withheld his claim, observing that people were not obliged to believe the assertion. We receive these on dits with some grains of allowance, for, to say nothing of dates, vanity was certainly not absent as an ingredient in Buffon's character.

BUF

year, on account of the coldness of the other apartment, and where he composed the greater number of his works. It was a small square building, situated on the side of a terrace, and was ornamented with drawings of birds and beasts. Prince Henry of Prussia called it the cradle of natural history; and Rousseau, before he entered it, used to fall on his knees and kiss the threshold. At nine o'clock Buffon usually took an hour's rest; and his breakfast, which consisted of a piece of bread and two glasses of wine, was brought to the pavilion. When he had written two hours after breakfast, he returned to the house. At dinner he spent a considerable portion of time, and indulged in all the gaieties and trifles which occurred at table. After dinner he slept an hour in his room, took a solitary walk, and, during the rest of the evening, he either conversed with his family or guests, or sat at his desk examining the papers which were submitted to his judgment. Anine o'clock he went to bed to prepare himself for the sade routine of judgment and pleasure. Among his oth studies the alleged burning of the Roman fleet, und Marcellus, by Archishot, by means of mirmedes, on its approach within the commenced a series of rors, attracted his attention, verifying the fact. After experiments, with the vicnsiderable expense, he con several experiments and structed a great mirror by eight. Between each was an omposed of 168 pieces of plain silvered glass, six ing These intervals gave the experiAn acquaintance which he had made with Lord Kingston interval of four lithe point on which the machine was to and his tutor, at Dijon, soon ripened into friendship, and Buf- mentalist a view he contrivance allowed of extensive mofon travelled through Italy with these companions, the latter be directed, ale of the pieces were set in an iron frame, of whom appears to have been a man of science, while the tion; for thetus of screws and springs. Having made his former was the ready partner in his pleasures. The death with an aphe commenced his experiments, and on the of his mother, whom he lost during this expedition, put him preparatarch, a plank of beech, which had been covered in possession of a large income, nearly 12,000l., at an early 23rd was set on fire at the distance of sixty-six feet, only age, and having become entangled in some affair, on his re- withhirrors being brought to bear on it, and without their turn to Montbard, he found it advisable to leave that place; fog set in the stand. On the same day ninety-eight mirand he accordingly went to Paris, and visited England. Wes, under some disadvantageous circumstances, ignited a do not find him settled on his estate for good till the agetarred and sulphured plank, at the distance of 126 feet. On of twenty-five. In.this retirement he resolutely pursued studies, and as it may not be uninteresting to those who to life was not given to us to be passed in mere frivoli acknow how Buffon passed his time, we select the follorstory count from a modern biographer, premising that geneof one day seems to have been that of all the After rally speaking, throughout a period of fifty his domeshe was dressed he dictated letters, and registudies at the tic affairs; and at six o'clock he retired eds pavilion was pavilion called the Tower of St. Louis about a furlong situated at the extremity of the ch it contained was from the house, and the only fur hair. No books or a large wooden secretary and of the apartment, or pictures relieved the naked an ned possessor. The endistracted the thoughts of rs, the walls were painted trance was by green foldi appearance of a chapel, on green, and the interior e roof. Within this was anoaccount of the elevati resided the greater part of the ther cabinet, where

the 3rd of April, at 4 o'clock p. m., a board, covered with small pieces of wool, was placed at the distance of 138 feet, and the rays from 112 mirrors slightly inflamed it. The next day, at 11 o'clock a. m., 154 mirrors caused a tarred plank, fixed at a distance of 150 feet, to smoke densely in two minutes; but just as the experimentalists were expect ing it to burst into flame, the sun was obscured. At 3 o'clock, on the 5th of the same month, 154 mirrors fired small sulphured chips of deal, mingled with charcoal, at the distance of 250 feet, when the day was not bright: a few seconds were sufficient to produce ignition when the sun shone powerfully. An unclouded and clear sun, soon after mid-day of the 10th of April, inflamed very suddenly a tarred fir-plank, the distance being 150 feet, and the num ber of mirrors brought into action being 128; at half-past two on the same day a beech plank, partially sulphured, and covered in other parts with small pieces of wool, was inflamed so suddenly and strongly that it became necessary to

B 2

plunge it into water for the purpose of quenching the fire; 148 mirrors performed this at a distance of 150 feet. On the 11th of April some small combustibles were ignited by 12 mirrors, at 20 feet; a large pewter flask, 6 lbs. in weight, was melted by 45 mirrors at the same distance, and some thin pieces of silver and iron were brought to a red heat by 117. These experiments led him to others, having for their object the structure of mirrors by bending glass upon spherical moulds; but his great difficulty appears to have been encountered in the cooling and grinding, and only three, it is said, were preserved out of twenty-four. He presented one of these, having a diameter of 46 inches, and considered as the most powerful burning-glass in Europe, to the King of France.

Hitherto we have seen Buffon devoting himself to his studies with unwearied diligence; but the more abstruse of the sciences and the formation of his style appear to have almost entirely occupied him up to a certain period.

who perpetrated this sacrilege were many of his own retainers-of those who had followed him to that very grave with reverential mourning. Nor were this baseness and disgrace confined to a host of furious madmen, drunk with political excitement; for when a citizen, to whom science was dear, complained to the Committee of Public Instruction of the outrage, and proposed that Buffon should have a place in the Pantheon, he was answered that the temple would be profaned by the presence of one who had been connected with the aristocracy of France. The character of Buffon's mind seems to have been comprehensive, exhibiting an insatiable desire of knowledge joined with a persevering fondness and appetite for study rarely to be found: to these gifts nature had added a most fervid imagination, and his biographers have superadded no small portion of vanity. If by vanity be meant an anxious solicitude for a literary immortality, that last infirmity of noble minds,' which was continually betraying itself, Buffon was without doubt a vain man. He would read to his visiters those passages in his works which were his greatest favourites, such as portions of his natural history of man, the description of the Arabian deserts in the account of the camel, and his poetical pages on the swan. The last affected Prince Henry of Prussia, to whom the author read it when he was on a visit to Montbard, so strongly that he sent to the zoologist a service of porcelain on which swans were represented in almost every attitude. Buffon was of a noble countenance and commanding figure, and his fondness for magnificence and dress seem to have amounted almost to a passion. It is curious to observe such an intellect as his finding time in the midst of the severest studies to submit his head to the friseur often twice and sometimes three times in the day, and to make his toilet in the extreme of the fashion. On a Sunday, after the service of the church, the peasantry of Montbard came to gaze on the count, who, clad in the richest dress, and at the head of his son and retainers, was wont to exhibit himself to their admiring eyes. This last exhibition however may have been a trait of the times.

Some few years, however, before he commenced the experiments above recorded, he was, at the age of thirty-two (about the year 1739), called to succeed M. Dufay, who, struck by a mortal disease (the small-pox). had recommended Buffon to the minister as the only man capable of following up his projects in the office of intendant of the Royal Garden and Museum, where he planted the two avenues of limetrees which terminate towards the extremity of the nursery, and mark the limits of the garden at that period. The appointment seems to have at once awakened his dormant love for the study of natural history. His ardent mind took an immediate and comprehensive view of the subject, and commencing with the theory or history of the earth as his basis, he followed it out through the great work which has immortalized his name as a zoologist, calling to his assistance the talents of men who were most deeply versed in particular branches of the study :-the names of Daubenton and Lacepède stand pre-eminent among those who were thus associated with him.

His marriage with Mademoiselle de Saint Belin, in 1762, appears to have been productive of great happiness to both parties, for she is recorded as anxiously watching all his steps on the road to fame, and rejoicing with him at the honours who were showered upon him by crowned heads and learned socaties. Louis XIV., in 1776, raised his estate into a compté, an invited him to Fontainebleau, with a view of inducing him to cept the office of Administrator of the Forests of France, bu Buffon declined the office.

His devotion to study soon ripened into a habit, and became his solace under the excruciating torments which imbittered the last years of his life. When asked how he had found time to do so much, he would reply, Have I not spent fifty years at my desk?'

Buffon's style was brilliant and eloquent even to the verge of poetry; and it is worthy of remark that a mind which had been trained and disciplined in the severity of the exact sciences should surrender the reins so entirely to the most luxuriant but wildest imagination. Hence, as is observed in the article on birds, he was often arraigning nature at the bar of his fancy for some supposed defect of design, when the fault was in his own want of perception of the end to which that design was directed, arising from his not being acquainted with the habits to which it ministered. His observations on the bill of the avoset, on the structure of the sloth, and on the melancholy condition of the woodpecker (picus), are examples of this habit; upon the woodpecker he is quite pathetic, but, as in all such cases, he bestows his pity upon a very unworthy object.

His days appear to ha, been passed in great tranquillity, uninterrupted till a late iod of his life, when that cruel disease, the stone, came tmbitter the rest of it. This torturing malady seems to hav become seriously distressing about his 73rd year. He was operation, but he never would cortuned to submit to an attendants assured him of relief: nt, though his medical was confirmed on examination after opinion, it is stated, place on the 16th of April. 1788, at death, which took eight years of intense suffering. Fifty-age of 81, after of them as large as a bean, are said to han stones, some been found in his bladder.

His body was embalmed, and placed in the with that of his wife, at Montbard."

me vault

The respect paid to his memory was great, and. honour on the assemblage of academicians and perected rank and distinction who followed his remains to the tof It is said that above 20,000 people had congregated to s. the funeral pass.

Condorcet, Broussonet, Vicq d'Azyr, and Lacépède were his principal eulogists.

He has been charged with infidelity; but this, like some others, is a charge easy to be made and hard to be disproved, though it must be admitted that his works afford ground for it. There is no doubt that his opinions drew down the censure of the Sorbonne, and in the 4th vol. of his 'Histoire faturelle' will be found the letters of the Faculty of Theopc and the answers. His moral character, we are comevil to add, was far from good, there being too much to ade in proof of his licentious habits and conversation His of doubt on the subject.

Buffon left an only son, whose abilities were considerable, and whose attachment to his parent was extreme, if indeed filial love can ever be extreme. He was in the army, and had risen to the rank of major in the regiment of Angoumois. We have seen the father's obsequies celebrated by the great and good, and attended by the people; but this homage to a great genius was soon to give way to the storm that darkened the political horizon of all Europe. The son of the great Comte de Buffon expiated the crime of his birth on the scaffold which had already reeked with the noblest blood of France; and even the bones of the father-the man whom the people had delighted to honour-could not escape desecration. The remains of the illustrious zoologist were torn from the grave; the lead in which he was hearsed was plundered, and his monument was razed to the ground. It is confidently stated, that among the frenzied populace

that fames were numerous, and have obtained for him translationsch he is said to have so much desired. His Fluxions, bales's Vegetable Statics,' and of Newton's pear to have be which he prefaced with great ability, apstyle as well as ondertaken with a view of improving his of the Royal Acancing his knowledge. The Memoirs member, contain ma of which he was so distinguished a into these and other co his papers; but without entering of his opus magnum, the ions, we proceed to the notice editions the first in 36 votoire Naturelle.' Of the 4to. appeared in 1749, and was rinted at the royal press, to 1788; another was publishe urse of publication down years, in 28 vols., but this is com 1774 and the following vely of less value for

of his own re that very grate = baseness and en, drunk with whorn science Public Instruc should have

at the temple who had been

ave been com

of knowledge -tite for study added a most = superadded

e meant an that last ly betraying He would which were natural bisserts in the

the swan. whom the

ntbard, so porcelain attitude. manding

ess seem urious to midst of eur often to make

Sunday,

though it contains the supplementary matter, Daubenton's
Anatomy is cut out, and the plates are considered as worn
and bad. Of the Supplement 6 vols. appeared in Buffon's
life-time. The 7th was published in 1789, by Lacepède,
after Buffon's death, and, in it, Lacépède expressed his deep
regret for the loss.

In the department of the birds Buffon was assisted by M.
Gueneau de Montbeillard, Baillon, and the Abbé Bexon.
There are 5 vols. on minerals: a history of vegetables was
also contemplated.

The magnificence of the Planches Enluminées' is well
known to every collector.

The Histoire Naturelle' has been translated into Italian, Spanish, Dutch, German (twice with additions), and English.* Voltaire, D'Alembert, and Condorcet were among the most severe critics of Buffon's hypotheses; but the first did not add to his fame by an attack which exhibited more point than learning, and the last pronounced his eulogy. (L'Homme aux quarante écus, chap. 6; and also Dialogues d'Evhémère, &c., vol. xxxv. ed. of Lequien.) His system of organic molecules, and his theory of generation, faded before the luminous observations of Haller, Spallanzani, and other experimental philosophers.

BUFFOON, a jester; the name is said to be derived
from 'buffa,' a word of the corrupt latinity of the middle
ages, synonymous with alapa,' i. e. a slap on the cheek.
Buffe' and Buffet' in the old French, and Bofetada in
Spanish, were used in the same sense. Mountebanks and
clowns in the farces used frequently to swell their cheeks
with wind and then give each other a slap which produced
a noise, to the amusement of the spectators. Hence are
derived the word Buffones in Latin, the French Bouffons,
and the Italian Buffoni (Ducange). Buffare or sbuffare
in Italian means to puff the wind through the mouth. The
English word buffoon is now generally used in a contemp-
tuous sense. The Italians have two distinct words, Buffo
and Buffone. Buffo is a theatrical term: opera buffa, com-
media buffa, is a burlesque play, in contradistinction to opera
seria and commedia di carattere, or serious comedy. The
buffo is one of the principal characters in those plays corre-
sponding to the English clown; in an opera there are
often two, primo buffo and secondo buffo. Buffoné in Italian
means a funny ludicrous fellow, but not always in a con-
temptuous sense. Bouffon in French and buffoon in Eng-
lish have been occasionally used as synonymous with king's
fool, a well-known character at courts in former times.
BUFO. [FROG.]

BUG, one of a numerous tribe of insects which constitute
the order Hemiptera, belonging to the family Cimicida
(Leach), and genus Cimex, under which head the structure
of the common bug together with its generic characters is
given at present we will confine ourselves to a brief ac-
count of the habits of this insect.

It has been said that the bed bug was not known in
England previous to the great fire of London in 1666, and
that it was first imported from America in the timber
brought over to rebuild that city; of the accuracy of this
statement however there is considerable doubt. It appears
to have been well known in various parts of Europe long
before that time. Its shape, colour, and the offensive smell
which it emits when touched, together with the circum-
stance of its deriving its nutriment from blood sucked
through a long pointed proboscis, which when not in
use lies parallel with the underside of the body, are all
circumstances too well known to need comment. The
female bug deposits her eggs in the beginning of summer;
they are of a tolerable size compared with that of the insect,
of a whitish colour, and each fixed to a small hair-like stalk,
which, when the egg is first deposited, is apparently of a
glutinous nature, and readily adheres to anything which it
touches. The places generally chosen to deposit the eggs
in are the crevices of bedsteads and other furniture, or
the walls of a room.
In about three weeks it is said these
eggs hatch, and the young bug comes forth-an active
larva, very closely resembling the parent insect except in
size. The larva then undergoes the usual transformation,
and becomes a perfect insect in about three months.

Sonnini's Histoire Naturelle, generale et particulière, accompagnée de
notes, etc.. published at Paris from 1798 to 1807, forms a complete course of
Natural History, in 127 vols. 8vo., containing Buffon's works, and the labours
of the most able naturaliats of the time, who assisted the editor in their several
departments.

The structure of the antenna and some other parts, however, differ from those of the perfect insect,

What was the natural habitat of this insect, which differs from most of its tribe in having no wings, is difficult to say; the species of bug which come nearest to it in affinity are generally found under the bark of trees, a habitat which the flat form of our insect is well adapted for. Pigeons, swallows, &c., are said to be harassed by bugs as well as man.

Various means have been proposed for destroying these insects, but we would recommend cleanliness as the best. BUG (river). [BOG.]

BUGEY, an Alpine district of France, inclosed on the S.E., S., and S.W. by the Rhône, which here forms a considerable bend; several maps, however, make it extend across the Rhône into Savoy. It is a mountainous country; the heights are crowned with wood, especially firs; the valleys afford pasturage to a great quantity of cattle, from whose milk the inh. make cheese, which furnishes them with an important article of trade. The other chief articles of trade are cattle, wood, nuts, and hemp. The little city of Belley was the capital of the district.

Bugey formerly was subject to the counts (afterwards dukes) of Savoy, by whom it was ceded to France by the treaty of Lyon, A.D. 1601. BUILDING ACT. [BRICK, p. 410.] BUILTH. [BRECON.] BUITENZORG. [JAVA.] BULAMA. [BISSAGOS.]

BULB, a bud, usually formed under ground, having very fleshy scales, and capable of separating from its parent plant. Occasionally it is produced upon the stem, as in some lilies. [BUD.]

BULBOUS PLANTS, or those which spring from a bulb, form so peculiar a class among the objects of the gardener's care, as to require a short notice.

Bulbous plants are usually found wild in light sandy soil, in sheltered places; they spring up in the wet season, grow rapidly, and flower beneath a steady sun, and by the time their seeds are ripe their leaves wither, and the bulbs fall into a state of rest, which lasts generally for half the year. When they first begin to grow, their young stems are nourished to a great degree by the inspissated sap contained in the fleshy scales of which all bulbs consist; by the time they have acquired vigour enough to attract a sufficiency of nutritive matter from the soil by aid of their roots, the bulbs are so much exhausted that their external scales never recover, but dry up and fall away, while their place is supplied by an addition of new scales to the centre of the bulb. In order to secure flowers, and a state of vigorous health for the succeeding year, it is necessary that the new scales should, during the growing season, be filled as completely with nutritive secretion or inspissated sap, as those were that first existed; and it is this to which the cultivator has especially to direct his attention. Now the only way to secure this result is to present the leaves during the whole time of their growth to the influence of solar light, because it is only by such agency that nutritive matter can be generated. If this is attended to, bulbous plants will go on growing and flowering and multiplying themselves from year to year, provided care is taken, firstly that the soil which actually surrounds the bulbs, which are extremely succulent, is not retentive of moisture; and secondly, that the roots when they are emitted should have access to an abundant store of food. These circumstances are attended to with great care by the Dutch, who possess an exclusive trade of some value in hyacinths, tulips, and similar plants, in consequence of their low sandy fields being naturally capable of satisfying the conditions above mentioned. This will be evident from the following account given of the bulb-grounds near Haarlem by a competent observer :

Wherever the bulbs do well, he found the soil to be of the lightest description of sand, such as can be blown away by the wind, with the water standing under it not nearer the surface than 15 inches, nor farther below it than 2 feet 6 inches. This, it seems, is the level of the water in the adjoining canals and ditches; and it is owing mainly to the points of the fibres going down to this water that the plants are so fresh and vigorous, while the dry sand above prevents their bulbs from being rotted. As a proof of the exceeding lightness of the soil, immediately after putting in a crop in the spring season, the surface is raked, and generally thrown into beds; cow-dung mixed with water is then thrown from barrels wheeled along the alleys over the whole surface with a scoop, so as to cover it all with a thin

plunge it into water for the purpose of quenching the fire; 148 mirrors performed this at a distance of 150 feet. On the 11th of April some small combustibles were ignited by 12 mirrors, at 20 feet; a large pewter flask, 6 lbs. in weight, was melted by 45 mirrors at the same distance, and some thin pieces of silver and iron were brought to a red heat by 117. These experiments led him to others, having for their object the structure of mirrors by bending glass upon spherical moulds; but his great difficulty appears to have been encountered in the cooling and grinding, and only three, it is said, were preserved out of twenty-four. He sented one of these, having a diameter of 46 inches, and considered as the most powerful burning-glass in Europe, to the King of France.

pre

Hitherto we have seen Buffon devoting himself to his studies with unwearied diligence; but the more abstruse of the sciences and the formation of his style appear to have almost entirely occupied him up to a certain period.

His devotion to study soon ripened into a habit, and became his solace under the excruciating torments which imbittered the last years of his life. When asked how he had found time to do so much, he would reply, Have I not spent fifty years at my desk?"

Buffon's style was brilliant and eloquent even to the verge of poetry; and it is worthy of remark that a mind which had been trained and disciplined in the severity of the exact sciences should surrender the reins so entirely to the most luxuriant but wildest imagination. Hence, as is observed in the article on birds, he was often arraigning nature at the bar of his fancy for some supposed defect of design, when the fault was in his own want of perception of the end to which that design was directed, arising from his not being acquainted with the habits to which it ministered. His observations on the bill of the avoset, on the structure of the sloth, and on the melancholy condition of the woodpecker (picus), are examples of this habit; upon the woodpecker he is quite pathetic, but, as in all such cases, he bestows his pity upon a very unworthy object.

He has been charged with infidelity; but this, like some others, is a charge easy to be made and hard to be disproved, though it must be admitted that his works afford ground for it. There is no doubt that his opinions drew down the censure of the Sorbonne, and in the 4th vol. of his 'Histoire aturelle' will be found the letters of the Faculty of Theopel and the answers. His moral character, we are comevide to add, was far from good, there being too much to adm, in proof of his licentious habits and conversation His wf doubt on the subject.

that fame were numerous, and have obtained for him translations ch he is said to have so much desired. His Fluxions, botales's Vegetable Statics,' and of Newton's pear to have beef which he prefaced with great ability, apstyle as well as of adertaken with a view of improving his of the Royal Acadencing his knowledge. The Memoirs member, contain many of which he was so distinguished a into these and other com his papers; but without entering of his opus magnum, the tions, we proceed to the notice editions the first in 36 volstoire Naturelle. Of the 4to. appeared in 1749, and was in rinted at the royal press, to 1788; another was published urse of publication down years, in 28 vols., but this is compa1774 and the following vely of less value for