BATRACHOMYOMACftlA BATTEUX. 



44.9 



who compares him with Mengs, calls the latter the 

 painter of philosophy ; the former, the painter of na- 

 ture. B. painted many altar-pieces, and numerous 

 portraits ; for instance, that of the emperor Joseph 

 and the empress Maria Theresa, in the imperial gal- 

 lery. His Magdalen, in Dresden, and his Return of 

 the Prodigal Son, in Vienna, are celebrated. 



BATRACHOMYOMACHIA (Greek; /Wja;^, a frog, 

 fii/s, a mouse, and ^a^jj, a battle) ; the battle of the 

 frogs and the mice a mock-heroic poem, falsely 

 ascribed to Homer, and, apparently the Iliad traves- 

 tied, probably composed by an Alexandrian, in which 

 a war between the frogs and the mice is described 

 with much humour. 



BATTA ; a country of Sumatra, which stretches along 

 the south-western shore, between Sinkell and Tabu- 

 yong, across the island. The whole population is 

 estimated at a million, two or three hundred thousand 

 of whom can read. The soil is fertile, and produces 

 chiefly camphor, gum, benzoin, cassia, cotton, and 

 indigo. The language of the Battas is a settled one, 

 and extensively written. , They have many neatly 

 printed books. There is another Batta, a province 

 in Africa, formerly an independent state, now subject 

 to Congo. The principal towns are Batta, Cangon, 

 and Agysimba. 



BATTALION ; a division of infantry, commonly of 

 from 600 to 800 men strong, in the armies of the con- 

 tinent. The battalion forms an independent body, 

 under the orders of a staff-officer, commonly a major ; 

 has its own standard, a musical band, and consists 

 not, like the regiments, of unequal companies, but of 

 equal divisions. Therefore, the strength of infantry 

 is always given in battalions. In the British 

 army, the strength of a battalion varies from 600 

 to 1000, or even 1200 men. Each of their batta- 

 lions consists of four divisions, each division of two 

 sub-divisions, which are again divided into sec- 

 tions. Each regiment of Napoleon's army had a 

 battalion of light troops, voltigeurs. This is also the 

 case in the Prussian army, where they are called 

 Fuseliere. Battalions form the most convenient and 

 manageable columns ; and the columns of battalions 

 most frequently occur in modern battles. 



BATTERING RAM. The ancients employed two 

 different machines of this kind the one suspended, 

 mid vibrating after the manner of a pendulum, and 



the other movable on rollers. These were deno- 

 minated the swinging and rolling ram, and, when 

 worked tinder a cover or shed, to protect the assail- 

 ants, they were denominated tortoise rams, from the 

 shed being assimilated to a tortoise-shell. The 

 swinging ram resembled, in magnitude and form, the 

 mast of a large vessel, suspencfed horizontally at its 

 centre of gravity, by chains or cords, from a movable 

 frame. Ligatures of waxed cord surrounded the 

 beam at short intervals, and cords at the extremity, 

 opposite to the head, served for the purpose of apply- 

 ing human force to give the oscillatory motion. 

 Other ecrds. at intermediate distances, were also some- 



times employed. The rolling ram was much the same 

 as the above in its general construction, except that 

 instead of a pendulous motion, it received only a mo- 

 tion of simple alternation, produced by the strength 

 of men applied to cords passing over pulleys. This 

 construction seems to have been first employed at the 

 siege of, Byzantium. These machines were often 

 extremely ponderous. Appian declares that, at the 

 siege of Carthage, he saw two rams so colossal, that 

 100 men were employed in working each. Vitruvius 

 affirms that the beam was often from 100 to 120 

 feet in length ; and Justus Lipsius describes some as 

 180 feet long, and two feet four inches in diameter, 

 with an iron head, weighing at least a ton and a half. 

 In contrasting the effects of the battering ram with 

 those of the modern artillery, we must not judge of 

 them merely by the measure of their respective mo- 

 menta. Such a ram as one of those described by 

 Lipsius would weigh more than 45,000 Ibs., and its 

 momentum, supposing its velocity be about two yards 

 per second, would be nearly quadruple the momen- 

 tum of a 40 Ib. ball moving with a velocity of 1600 

 feet per second. But the operation of the two upon 

 a wall would be very different. The ball would 

 penetrate the opposing substance, and pursue its way 

 almost undisturbed ; but the efficacy of the ram would 

 depend almost entirely upon duly apportioning its 

 intervals of oscillation. At first, it would produce no 

 obvious effect upon the wall ; but the judicious repe- 

 tition of its blows would, in a short time, give motion 

 to the wall itself. First, there would be a just per- 

 ceptible tremor, then more extensive vibrations ; 

 these being evident, the assailants would adjust the 

 oscillations of the ram to that of the wall, till, at 

 length, a large portion of it, partaking of the vibra- 

 tory impulse, would, by a well-timed blow, fall to 

 the earth at once. This recorded effect of the ram has 

 nothing analogous in the results of modern machinery 



BATTERY, in the military art; 1. any raised place 

 in which cannon are planted ; 2. all the lines of a 

 fortress, behind the parapets of which are cannon. 

 They are erected in the open field, in citadels, on a 

 lake, or the sea, before a place which is to be be- 

 sieged, &c. AVith regard to the kind of artillery, 

 they are distinguishea into cannon, howitzer, mortar, 

 &c. With regard to their object, they are divided 

 into breach batteries, used to attack the faces or 

 salient angles of the bastion or ravelin, in order to 

 make an accessible breach ; batteries en echarpe, or 

 oblique batteries, which are erected beside the 

 breach batteries, under an angle of 20 30 degrees, 

 in order to batter a breach obliquely ; ricochet bat- 

 teries, which command the enemy's lines, so that the 

 balls roll along the whole length of the rampart, and 

 render it insecure, &c. Their position is perpendicu- 

 lar to the line which is to be enfiladed. Mortar 

 batteries have the parapets inwards, and no embra- 

 sures. In respect to their position, they are divided 

 into horizontal, raised, and sunk batteries. The 

 disposition of floating batteries may be various. Such 

 a battery commonly consists of a raft, in the middle 

 line of which cannon are placed, having before them 

 breastworks made of bags of wool. The raft is fas- 

 tened, by a strong cable, to a beam or anchor, round 

 which it is to be moved, and brought, by the aid of 

 oars or rudders, to the proper place. (For an account 

 of the floating batteries invented by d'Argon, which 

 were used, in 1782, against Gibraltar, see Elliot.) 



In experimental physics, battery is a combination 

 of several jars or metallic plates, to increase the 

 effect of electricity and galvanism. See Leyden Jar, 

 and Galvanism. 



BATTERY. See Assault. 



BATTEUX, Charles; honorary canon of Rheims, 

 born, May 7, 1713. at Allend'huy, a village near 



