BOO 



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BOH 



order ; a. journal, in which the contents 

 of the waste-book are technically en- 

 tered on the debtor and creditor sides ; 

 and the ledger, in which the posts en- 

 tered in the journal are placed undei 

 particular accounts. Besides these, 

 some merchant* use a chase-book, a 

 bill-book, a recoipt-book, a sales-book, 

 an invoice-book, a letter- book, a stock- 

 book, besidess books of charges, house- 

 hold expenses, &c. These are called 

 subsidiary books. 



BOOM, from Sax. boeme, a beam, a 

 bar. In nautical language : 1 . A long pole 

 or spar run out from various parts of a 

 ship or other vessel, for the purpose of 

 extending the bottom of particular sails, 

 as the jib-boom, studding-sail boom, main- 

 boom, square-sail boom, &c. 2. A strong 



iron chain fastened to spars and extended 

 across a river or the mouth of a harbour 

 to prevent an enemy's ships from passing. 

 3. A pole set up as a mark to direct 

 seamen to keep the channel in shallow 

 water. 1. To boom, to rush with vio- 

 lence, as a ship under a press of sail. In 

 this sense the word is, Dut. bom, the 

 sound given by an empty barrel when 

 struck ; hence bomme, a drum, and bom- 

 men, to drum. 



BOOM'KIN, dim. of boom, a short spar 

 projecting from the bow of a ship to ex- 

 tend one edge of the foresail to the 

 windward. 



BOOPS, the pike-headed whale, so 

 named from its sharp-pointed nose. It 

 has a double pipe in its snout, and a 

 bony ridge on its back. 



BOOR, a peasant (V. boer, a rustic), par- 

 ticularly applied to the peasantry of Rus- 

 sia. These are divided into two classes, 

 free boors and vassal boors. The former 

 cannot, be sold ; the latter are mere slaves 

 entirely at the disposal of their lords. The 

 crown-boors, the mine-boors, and the pri- 

 vate-boors, are all of this latter description. 

 BOOT, a covering for the leg, made of 

 leather, and united to a shoe. In old law, 

 the boot was a kind of rack for the leg, 

 used for the purposes of torture. It was 

 made of boards bound fast to the legs by 

 cords. Another kind was a small boot 

 made of strong leather, which being 

 made thoroughly wet and soft was 

 drawn upon the leg, and then dried by 

 the fire so as to contract and squeeze 

 the leg. The boot of a coach is the space 

 underneath, between the coachman and 

 the body of the coach, in which the lug- 

 gage is stowed. The apron of a gig is 

 also sometimes called, very improperly, 

 the boot. 



BOOTES, a northern constellation, called 

 by the Greeks Arctophylax, and by the 

 English Charles's Wain. Arcturus was 

 piaced by the ancivdts on his breast, and 



by the moderns on the skirt of his coat. 

 Fable relates that Ceres, as the reward of 

 Philomelus for his invention of the art 

 of ploughing, transferred him and his 

 oxen to the heavens, under the name of 

 Uootes (fiotarvi;, a husbandman). In the 

 Berlin tables this constellation contains 

 64 stars. 



BOOT-TOPPING, the operation of clean- 

 ing a ship's bottom near the surface of 

 the water, by scraping off the grass, 

 shells, slime, &c., and daubing it over 

 with a mixture of tallow, rosin, and 

 sulphur. 



ORACIC, pertaining to borax. Boracic 

 acid is obtained from borax by dissolv- 

 ing the salt in hot water, filtering the 

 solution, adding sulphuric acid till the 

 liquid has become sensibly sour ; then 

 setting aside to cool, the boracic acid will 

 be deposited in small white shining scaly 

 crystals. It is composed of boron and 

 oxygen, in the proportion of eight parts 

 of the former to sixteen of the latter. Its 

 salts are called borates. 



BORACI'TE, a native borate of magnesia 

 found embedded in gypsum in Hanover 

 and Holstein. Its colours are white and 

 greyish ; it is generally of a cubic form, 

 and possesses, when heated, strong elec- 

 trical properties. 



BOR'AGE, a name common to all the 

 plants of the genus Borneo, but especially 

 applied to the B. officinalis, an indigenous 

 annual, much used as an ingredient in 

 the summer beverage called cool tankard. 

 It contains much nitrate of potash. 



BORAGIN'E.E, a tribe of dicotyledonous 

 plants, of which the geuus Borago is the 

 type. 



BO'RATE, a salt formed by the combina- 

 tion of the boracic acid with a salinable 

 base. 



BO'RAX, a biborate of soda which, in an, 

 impure state, is called tincal. This salt 

 is found crystallised in certain lakes in 

 Thibet ; in solution in many springs in 

 Persia ; and may be procured of superior 

 quality from China. It is purified by cal- 

 cination, solution, and crystallisation. Its 

 composition, according to Kergman, is 

 boracic acid, 34 ; soda, 17 ; water, 49. It 

 is highly important in the arts as a flux. 

 The word borax is latinised from the Per- 

 sian word bourakon, from bordka, to shine, 

 glisten. 



BOR'BONITES, a sect of Gnostics of the 

 second century. They denied the last 

 judgment, and take their name from 

 /3ago98f, in allusion to their daubing 

 themselves with filth. 



BORBORTG'MUS, the name given by me- 

 dical practitioners to the rumbling noise 

 occasioned by flatus in the intestines, 

 from jBo^t 'vy/ao; , intestinal noise. 



BOR'DER. The term is from the sam 



