BEL

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BEN

BELLONARU, in antiquity, prie.-'ts of Bellona. Thcbcllo-narfi cut and mangled their bodies with knives and daggers in acru>! manner, to pacify the deity. They offered their own blood,not that of other creatures, in sacrifice.

BELLONIA, a genus of the monogynia o-der, and pentandriaclass of plants. Corolla wheel-shaped; capsule one- ellcd, infe-rior, pointed ; seeds nunierods. It has two species, and is littleknown.

BELLO VAC I, a people of Gallia Belgica, reckoned thebravest of the Belgae.

BELLOWS , an apparatus so contrived, as altcrnatc-ly to in-spire and expel the air. This machine is too well known to re-cpiire a particular description. It is used in chambers, kitchens,forges, and founderies, as likewise lor organs, and other pneu-matic instruments, to introduce into them a proper volume ofair. Anacharsis, the Scythian , is recorded as the inventor of bel-lows. Their action bears au alfinity to that of the lungs; forv hat is called blowing in the former, is an illustration of respiringin the latter. Animal life may, on some occasions, be supportedbv blowing into the lungs with a pair of bellows; especially inaccidents of drowning or suffocation. Dr. llooke’s experimentto this effect is famous: having laid the thorax of a dog bare, In-cutting away the ribs and diaphragm, pericardium, &c. andbavin”- cut off the aspera arleria below the epiglottis, and boundit on the nose of a bellows, he found, that as he blowrd, the dogrecovered, and as he ceased, fell convulsive ; and thus was theanimal kept by turns alive and dead above the space of an hour.Bellows are of various constructions, according to the purposes forwhich they are intended. The action and effect of bellows ofevery kind, whether constructed with leather or wood, wroughtby men, bv steam, or by water, depends on this, that the airwhich enters them, and which they contain when raised, is againcompressed into a narrower space when they are closed. As theair liovs to that place where it meets with the least resistance,it must of necessity 11 v out of the pipe with a velocity propor-tional to the force by which it is compressed.

Bellows , Hessian, are a contrivance for driving air into amine for the respiration of the miners. This M. Papin improved,changing its cylindrical form into a spiral one; and with this,working it only with his foot, lie could make a w ind to raise twopound weight.

Bellows of an Organ are commonly six feet long, and fourbroad ; each having an aperture of four inches, that the valve may-play easily. There should likewise be a valve at the nose of thebellows, that the one may not take the air from the other. Toblow an organ of 16 feet, there are required four pair of these bel-lows. Tiiey are wrought by a man called the blower; and, insmall organs, by the foot of the player.

Bellows , \V ater, a contrivance to save expence in the fusionof metals, wherein water, falling through a funnel into a close ves-sel, sends from it so much air as blows the fire.

BELLI!-E, in zoology, the sixth order of the mammalia ; fore-teeth obtuse, truncated ; feet hoofed; motion heavy ; food vege-tables. It has four genera, viz. Eqiius, Hippopotamus, Sus,Tapir.

BELLUNESE, a territory of Italy , lately belonging to the Ve-netians.

BELLUNO, a town of Italy, capital of Bellunese .

BELLY , the Abdomen. See Anatomy.

Belly-Acii, or Colic. See MtDrcrNE.

BELMONTE, a town of Italy, in Naples .

BELOMANCY, [from bo.©' and /*".•* 7ua.] belomancy, or di-vination by arrows hath been in request with Scythians , Alans,Germans, with the Africans and Turks of Algiers .

BELSHAZZAR , the last king of Babylon, is generally agreedto have been the son of Evil-Merodacb, by the celebrated Nito-cris, and grandson of Nebuchadnezzar the Great . He succeededupon the deaths of his uncle-in-law Neriglissar , and his infantcousin Hiborosoarchod, (with whom some authors confound him,)about A. M. 3393, or, according to others, 3449. He is said tohave reigned 17 years, but was "so devoted to his pleasures, thatnothing is recorded of him, excepting his folly, dissipation, andiinpietv, till the last day of his reign and life; when the miracu-lous vision of the hand-writing on the wall, denouncing the imme-diate overthrow' of his empire, alarmed him and his impious nobles,in the midst of their guilty festival ; anti led him to apply for ad-

vice, when too late, to the long neglected prime-minister andprophetic instructor of his grandfather. The wonderful events ofthat night, with the interpretation and fulfilment of the vi ion,are fully recorded by Daniel, chap. v. Babylon was taken byCyrus, Belshazzar slain, and the kingdom tmnslerred to theMerles and Persians ; A. M. 3410, or 346b, and about B.C. 538.

BELT , [BALTIIEUS,] a kind of military girdle, commonlv ofleather, wherewith the sword or other weapons are sust, ined.Belts were known among the ancient and middle-age w riters by di-vers names, as fun-*!, zona, cingulum, remiiuculu - , nnca or

ringa, and baidvellus. The belt was an essential piece of the an-cient armour ; insomuch that we sometimes nnd it used to denotethe whole armour. In later ages, the belt was given to a personw hen he was raised to knighthood ; whence it has also been usedas a badge or mark of the knighMy order.

Belts, [fascia,"] in astronomy, two zones or girdles surroundingthe body of the planet Jupiter. Sen. Astronomy .

Belt, the Great, a famous strait of Denmark between theisland of Zealand and that of Funen , at the entrance of the BalticS< a.

Belt, the Less, lies to the west of the Great Belt , betweenthe Island of l- iinen and the coast of Jutland .

BELTURBET, a town of Ireland, in Cavan .

BLITZ, or BELZO, a province and town of Red Russia inPoland .

BELVEDERE, a considerable town of Greece , the capital ofCallo copium. l„on. 21. 45. E. Lat. 38. 0. N.

Belvedere, a province of Greece , on the W. coast of theMorca, neai* Cape 'l orness, subject to the Turks.

Belvedere, in the Italian architecture, &c. denotes either apavilion on the top of a building, or an artificial eminence in agarden ; the word literally signifying a fine prospect.

BELULCUM, a chirurgicul instrument for extracting darts,arrows, &c. from wounds.

BELL’S, in ancient geography, a small river of Galilee, at thedistance of two stadia from Ptolemais.

BEMA, [B>i|tt«,] denotes a step or pace. The bema made akind of itinerary measure among the Greeks, the length of whichwas equivalent to one cubit and two thirds, or to ten palms.Whence also the term /5>i/xreh£iiv, to measure a road.

Bema, in ecclesiastical w riters, denotes 1. the altar or sanctuaryin the ancient churches, answering to the chancel among us. 2.The bishop's chair, seat, or throne, placed in the sanctuary, wascalled bema from the steps by which it was to be ascended. 3.’Pile reader's desk.

BEMBEA, a province of the kingdom of Angola in Africa . .

BEMBER, a chain of mountains in Asia, which divide India from Tartary.

BEMILI.CIUS, in mythology, a surname of Jupiter, repre-sented yc-ung and beardless.

BEMSTER, BF.MINSTEIl, or I5EMISTER, a town ofDorsetshire . Lon. 3. 15. W. I,at. 50 . 45. N.

BEN, in pharmacy, an exotic purgative fruit of the size andfigure of a nut; whence it is also called the ben-nut, sometimesbaianus myrepsica, or glans unguentaria. Naturalists distinguishtwo kinds of bens ; viz. the great ben magnum which resemblesthe filbert, and is by some called avellana purgatrix, broughtfrom America; and the small ben parvum, brought from Ethio-pia . Ben-nuts yields, by expression, much oil, which, from itsproperty of not becoming rancid, at least for years, is used as amenstruum for the extraction of the odoriferous part of the flowersof jessamin, violets, roses, hyacinths, lilies of the valley, tube-roses, jonquils, clove julyflovvers, and others, which, like these,yield little or no essential oil by distillation, but impart their fra-grance to expressed oils.

BENARES, a district of the East Indies, in Ilindostan Proper,between Bahar and Outle ; also a fine, rich and populous city, thecapital of the district, 425 miles S. E. of Delhi . Lon. 83. 10. E.Lat. 25.20. N.

BENAVARRI, or BENI1UABEL, a town of Arrngon inSpain, 17 miles N. ol Lerida .

BENAVENTO, a town of Spain , in Terra di Campos, inLeon, with the title of Duchy .

BENCH, or BANC, inlaw. See Banc.

Bench, Free, signifies that estate in copyhold lands which the

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