BALLSTON SPA BALTIC SEA. 



fluences. Hitherto, however, old prejudices have 

 stood in the way of so reasonable a wish, although 

 these are fast wearing away, and there is now little 

 doubt of the ultimate adoption of the system. 



BALLSTON-SPA ; a village of New York, seven 

 miles S.VV. of Saratoga springs, twenty-six N. of Al- 

 bany, This place is noted for its mineral waters, 

 which are similar, though inferior, to those of Sara- 

 toga springs. It is situated in a deep vale, on a 

 branch of the Kayaderosseras creek, and contains 

 about a hundred houses, a court-house, an Episcopal 

 church, a Baptist meeting-house, and a number of 

 large boarding-houses and inns, for the accommoda- 

 tion of visitors. 



BALM OF GILEAD is the dried juice of a low tree 

 or shrub (amyris Gileadensis), which grows in several 

 parts of Abyssinia and Syria. This tree has spread- 

 ing, crooked branches ; small bright-green leaves, 

 growing in threes ; and small, white flowers on sepa- 

 rate footstalks. The petals are four in number, and 

 the fruit is a small egg-shaped berry, containing a 

 smooth nut By the inhabitants of Syria and Egypt, 

 this balsam, as appears from the Scriptures, was in 

 great esteem from the highest periods of antiquity. 

 We are informed by Josephus, the Jewish historian, 

 that the balsam of Gilead was one of the trees which 

 was given by the queen of Sheba to king Solomon. 

 The Ishmaelitish merchants, who were the purchas- 

 ers of Joseph, are said to have been travelling from 

 Gilead, on the eastern side of Canaan, to Egypt, and 

 to have had their camels laden with " spicery, balm, 

 and myrrh." It was then, and is still, considered one 

 of the most valuable medicines that the inhabitants 

 of those countries possess. The virtues, however, 

 which have been ascribed to it exceed all rational 

 bounds of credibility. The mode in which it is ob- 

 tained is described by Mr Bruce. The bark of the 

 trees is cut with an axe, at a time when its juices 

 are in their strongest circulation. These, as they 

 ooze through the wound, are received into small 

 earthen bottles ; and every day's produce is gathered 

 and poured into a larger bottle, which is closely 

 corked. When the juice first issues from the wound, 

 it is of a light yellow colour, and a somewhat turbid 

 appearance ; but, as it settles, it becomes clear, has 

 the colour of honey, and appears more fixed and 

 heavy than at first. Its smell, when fresh, is exqui- 

 sitely fragrant, strongly pungent, not much unlike 

 tliat of volatile salts ; but if the bottle be left un- 

 corked, it soon loses this quality. Its taste is bitter, 

 acrid, aromatic, and astringent. The quantity of 

 balsam yielded by one tree never exceeds sixty drops 

 in a day. Hence its scarcity is such, that the genu- 

 ine balsam is seldom exported as an article of com- 

 merce. Even at Constantinople, the centre of trade 

 of those countries, it cannot without great difficulty 

 be procured. In Turkey, it is in high esteem as a 

 medicine, an odoriferous unguent, and a cosmetic. 

 But its stimulating properties upon the skin are such, 

 that the face of a person unaccustomed to use it be- 

 comes red and swollen after its application, and 

 continues so for some days. The Turks also take it 

 in small quantities, in water, to fortify the stomach, 

 and excite the animal faculties. 



BALNAVES, Henry, of Halhill ; an eminent lay re- 

 former, and also a prose-writer of some eminence, 

 was born in the town of Kirkaldy, Fifeshire. After 

 an academical course at St Andrews, he travelled to 

 the continent, and, hearing of a free school in Co- 

 logne, procured admission to it, and received a liberal 

 education, together with instruction in protestant prin- 

 ciples. Returning to his native country, he applied 

 himself to the stuay of law, and acted for some time 

 as a procurator at St Andrews. In the year 1538, he 

 was appointed by James V. a senator of the college of 



justice, a court only instituted five years before. 

 Notwithstanding the jealousy of the clergy, who 

 hated him on account of his religious sentiments, he 

 was employed on important embassies by James V., 

 and subsequently by the governor Arran, during the 

 first part of whose regency he acted as secretary of 

 state. Having at length made an open profession 

 of the Protestant religion, he was, at the instigation 

 of Arran's brother, the abbot of Paisley, dismissed 

 from that situation. He appears now to have enter- 

 ed into the interests of the English party against the 

 governor, and accordingly, with the earl of Rothes 

 and Lord Gray, was thrown into Blackness castle, 

 (November, 1533,) where he probably remained till 

 relieved next year, on the appearance of the English 

 fleet in the Frith of Forth. He was privy to the 

 conspiracy formed against the life of cardinal Beaton, 

 and shared in the fate of the conspirators. He was 

 conveyed to the castle of Rouen in France, and there 

 committed to close confinement. Here he employed 

 himself, during his solitary hours, in composing a 

 treatise on Justification, which was published at 

 Edinburgh, in 1584, under the title of " The Confes- 

 sion of Faith, containing how the troubled man should 

 si-ek refuge at his God, thereto led by Faith ; &c., 

 Compiled by M. Henrie Balnaves of Halhill, one of 

 the lords of session and counsell of Scotland, being 

 a prisoner within the old pallaice of Roane, in the 

 year of our Lord, 1548. Direct to his faithful breth- 

 ren being in like trouble or more, and to all true 

 professors and favourers of the syncere worde of God." 

 After his return from banishment, Balnaves took a 

 bold and conspicuous part in the contest carried on 

 by the lords of the congregation against the regent 

 Mary. In 1563, he was re-appointed to the bench, 

 and also nominated as one of the commissioners for 

 revising the Book of Discipline. He acted some 

 years later, along with Buchanan and others, as 

 counsellors to the earl of Murray, in the celebrated 

 inquiry by English and Scottish commissioners into 

 the alleged guilt of queen Mary. He died, accord- 

 ing to Mackenzie, in 1579. 



BALOOCHISTAN. See Beloochistan. 



BALSAM. The term balsam was formerly applied 

 to any strong-scented, natural, vegetable resin, of 

 about the fluidity of treacle, inflammable, not misci- 

 ble with water without addition, and supposed to be 

 possessed of many medical virtues. All the turpen- 

 tines, the Peruvian balsam, copaiba, &c., are exam- 

 ples of natural balsams. Many medicines, also, 

 compounded of various resins or oils, have obtained 

 the name of balsams: as Locatelli balsam, c. 

 Lately, the term has been restricted to those resins 

 which contain benzoic acid. The most important 

 balsams are those of Tolu and Peru storax and ben- 

 zoin, as they are named : the latter is concrete, the 

 former fluid, though becoming solid with age. They 

 are odorous and pungent, and useful only as articles 

 of the materia medica. The benzoic acid is extracted 

 from them either by applying a gentle heat, when it 

 is volatilized, or by maceration in water, when it is 

 dissolved. 



BALTIC SEA, or the EAST SEA ; a large gulf, con- 

 nected with the North sea. It washes the coasts of 

 Denmark, Germany, and Prussia, of Courland, Livo- 

 nia, and other parts of Russia and of Sweden ; ex- 

 tends to 65 3(X N. lat. ; is above 600 miles long, from 

 75 to 150 broad, and its superficial extent, together 

 with the contents of the gulfs of Bothnia and Finland, 

 amounts to 120,000 square miles. Its small breadth, 

 its depth amounting, on an average, to from fifteen 

 to twenty fathoms, out in many places to hardly half 

 so much, the shallowness of the Prussian shore, and 

 the rugged nature of the Swedish coasts, but, above 

 all, the sudden and frequent changes of the wind, 



