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BALCARRA, a town of Ireland , in Mayo.
BALCONY, in architecture, a projecture, in the front of ahouse,, or other building, supported by pillars or consoles, and en-compassed with a balustrade.
Balcony, in a ship, denotes a gallery either covered or open,made abaft, either for ornament, or convenience of the captain’scabin.
BALDACHIN , [ Jiahlachino , Ital.] a piece of architecture,in form of a canopy, supported with columns, and serving as acovering to an altar."
BALDIV1A, or VALDIVIA, a sea-port town of Chili, in S.America.
BALDNESS , a failing off of the hair, chiefly on the sinciput.It differs from alopecia, area, ophiasis, and tinea, as these all arisefrom some vice in the nutritious humour ; baldness, from the de-fect of it. When the eye-lids shed their hair, it is called a ptilosis.—Among the causes of baldness, immoderate venery is reputedone of the chief : old age usually brings it on of course. Somewill have the proximate cause of baldness to be the dryness of thebrain, and its shrinking from the cranium ; it having been ob-served, that in bald persons there is always a vacuity or emptyspace between the skull and the brain. Women are seldom af-fected with baldness.
BALDOC, or BALDOCK, a town in Hertfordshire , 37 milesN. N. W. from London .
BALD HICK was a belt worn by the Saxons , hanging fromthe shoulder across the breast, and on which the sword washung.
BALE, in commerce, is particularly applied to a quantity' ofmerchandize wrapped or packed up 111 cloth, and corded roundvery' tight.
Bale Goods, in the East India trade, the bulky'goods, as salt-petre, pepper, red earth, tea, Ac. Bale goods stand opposed topiece goods.
BALEARES Tnsuj.je, or BALEARIC Islands , islands inthe Mediterranean , so called from B*M.eiv, because the inhabi-tants were excellent slingers. They are now called Majorca, Mi-norca , and lvica, which see.
BALES, Peter, a very extraordinary person in his profession,lie was a most famous master in the art of penmanship, or fairwriting; and one of the first inventors of short-hand writing. Hewas born in 1547. He is recorded for his skill in micrography,or miniature-writing. Hadrian Junius speakhig as a miracle ofsomebody, who wrote the Apostle’s Creed , and the beginning ofSt. John’s Gospel , within the compass of a farthing ; “ what wouldlie have said,” says Mr. Evelyn, “ of our famous Peter Bales;who in the year of 1575, w rote the Lord’s Prayer , the Creed, De-calogue, with two short prayers in Latin , his ow n name, motto,day of the month, year of the Lord, and reign of the Queen, towhom lie presented it at Hampton Court , all of it written withinthe circle of a single penny, inchased in a ring and borders ofgold ; and covered with a crystal so accurately wrought, as tobe very plainly legible, to the great admiration of her Majesty,the whole Privy Council, and several ambassadors then at Court ?”Jle was also dexterous in imitating hand-writing, and, about 1580,was employed by Secretary Wulsingham in certain political ma-noeuvres. In 1590; in which year he published his “WritingSchoolmaster, in three parts; the 1st teaching swift writing, thei’d true writing, the 3d fair writing.” In 1595, he had a greattrial of skill in Blackfriars w ith Daniel Johnson, for a golden penof 201. value, and won it ; and lie had also the arms of Caligraphy given him, which are Azure , a pen, Or, as a prize, at a trial ofskill in this art among the best penmen in London .
BA LESTRA, Antonio, an excellent historical painter, bornat Verona in 1666. He obtained the prize of merit in the aca-demy of St. Luke, in 1694, when he was only 28. His paintingswere" universally admired. His stile is like that of Maretti; andhis works have a certain mixture of the manners of Raphael,Correggio, and Carracci . He died in 1740.
BALGUY, John, a learned divine, was born in 1686 at Shef-field, in Yorkshire. I 11 1702, he was admitted of St. John’s col-lege , Cambridge, w here he took his degrees in arts. In the Ban-gorian controversy Mr. Balguv distinguished himself so well thatbishop Hoadlev gave him a prebend in the church of Salisbury,and in 1729 he was presented to the vicarage of Northallerton,<n Yorkshire. lie died in 1748. Mr. Balguy wrote, besides his
tracts in the Bangorian dispute, 1. On the Beauty and Excellenceof Moral Virtue , 8vo. 1726. 2. The Foundation of Moral
Goodness, or a farther Inquiry into the Original of our Idea ofV irtue, 1728. 3. Divine Rectitude, or a brief Inquiry concern*
mg the Moral Perfections of the Deity , particularly' in respectof Creation and Providence, 1730. 4. A 11 Essay on Redemption.1741. 5. Sermons on several Occasions, 2 vols. 8vo. This Iasi
is posthumous.
BALI, an island of Asia , in the East Indies, forming the N.side of the straits of Java.
UAL1NTRA, a town of Ireland in the county of Roscommon,83 miles from Dublin .
BALIOL, BALLIOL , orBOILLIOL, John, king of Scot-land, and competitor with Robert Brnce for that crown.
Baliol, or Bai.liol, Sir John de, founder of Baliol college,in Oxford, was the son of Hugh Baliol, of Bernard’s castle, in Uiediocese of Durham ; and was eminent for his power and riches.During the wars between King Henry HI. and his barons, he ad-hered to the king. In 1263, he began the foundation and endow-ment of Baliol college, which was afterwards perfected by hiswidow. He died in the year 1269.
BAI.ISTES, a genus "of the class pisces, order cartilagenei:teeth several in both jaws ; body compressed ; abdomen carinat-ed ; skin tough, often reticulated by scalerlike divisions. Thereare 24 species: of which the B. monoceros, or unicorn lile-fish,which is often two feet long or more ; the body is of an ovalshape ; the skin is every where covered with minute spines, andthe general colour is grey, inclining to brown on the upper parts,and varied with irregular, dusky, subtransverse, undulations andspots: both tins and tail are of a pale brow n colour, the tatterbeing marked by a few dusky bars. 'Phis iisii is a native of theIndian and American seas, .feeding chiefly on crustaceous andtestaceous marine animals. It is said to be a poisonous iisb.15. maculates, spotted file-fish; is of an oval shape; its length isabout eighteen or twenty inches, sometimes as much as two feet;colour pale violet: skin strongly marked into lozenge-shaped re-ticulations ; first dorsal fin three-rayed : B. undulates, or blacktile-fish, is a native of the Indian seas, observed first about theshores of Sumatra by the enterprising afid highly meritorious tra-veller Mungo Park . From the mouth to the base of the pectoralfins run three red lines, and the body is obliquely undulated bytwelve lines of the same colour. See Plate VI.
BALK, [balk, Dut. and Germ.] a great beam such as is usedin building.
Balk, or Balkh, a province of Great Bukhara, in Asia , about360 miles long and 250 broad, situated S. of Samarkand, and E.of Bukhara Proper. The province is subdivided into severalcounties ; the most remarkable of which are Khotlan or Kalian,Tokharestan, and Badagshan. Its chief cities are Balk, the capital,Earivab, Talkhan, Badagshan, and Anderab.
BALL, in a general sense, a spherical and round body, whetherit be so naturally, or turned into that figure by the hand of anartist: thus we say, a tennis-ball, foot-ball, cotton-ball, &c. Theword is also used to signify some tools of several trades and arts,because they bear some resemblance to balls.
Ball, in the military art, comprehends all sorts of bullets forfire-arms, from the cannon to the pistol. See the articles Can-non, Pistol, &c. Cannon-balls are of iron, musquet-balls,pistol-balls, &c. are of lead. The experiment has been tried ofiron halls for pistols and fusees, but they are justly rejected, notonlv on account of their lightness, which prevents them fromliving straight, but because they are apt to furrow the barrel ofthe pistol, &c. Cannon-balls are distinguished by their calibresthus:
A 42.32241812903
pound ball, the dia-meter of which is -
6,684 inches
6,105
5,547
.5,040 ,
4,403
4,000
3,498
2.775
-
Ball, among Cornish miners, a tin-mine.
Bali., among printers, a kind of wooden tunnel stutfci
wuy