BUL 



BUL 



form the food was retained, and the body 

 being duly supplied with nourishment, 

 the stomach and rest of the system reco- 

 vered their proper tone and energy. But 

 the most extraordinary instance of buli- 

 my, which perhaps ever occurred, is that 

 recorded in the third volume of the " Me- 

 dical and Physical Journal," communi- 

 cated by Dr. Johnson, commissioner of 

 sick and wounded seamen, to Dr. Blane, 

 formerly physician to the navy. The 

 subject was a Polish soldier, named 

 Charles Domery, in the service of the 

 French, on board of the Hoche frigate, 

 which was captured by the squadron un- 

 der the command of Sir John Borlase 

 Warren, off Ireland, in 1799. He was 

 21 years of age, and stated that his fa- 

 ther and brothers had been remarkable 

 for their voracious appetites. Fie began 

 \vhenhewasl3yearsofage. He would de- 

 vour raw and even live cats, rats, and dogs, 

 besides bullock's liver, tallow candles, 

 and the entrails of animals. One day (viz. 

 September 7th, 1799) an experiment 

 was made of how much this man could 

 eat in one day. This experiment was 

 made in the presence of the before-men- 

 tioned Dr. Johnson, Admiral Child, and 

 Mr. Forster, agent for prisoners at Liver- 

 pool, and several other gentlemen. He 

 had breakfasted at 4 o'clock in the morn- 

 ing on 4>lbs of raw cow's udder ; at half 

 past nine o'clock there were set before 

 him 5lbs. of raw beef and 12 tallow can- 

 dles of lib. weight, together with 1 bottle 

 of porter ; these he finished by half past 

 ten o'clock; at one o'clock there were 

 put before him 5lbs. more of beef, \lb. of 

 candles, and three bottles of porter ; he 

 was then locked up in the room, and cen- 

 tries were placed at the windows, to pre- 

 vent his throwing away any of his provi- 

 sions. At two o'clock he had nearly 

 finished the whole of the candles and 

 great part of the beef; but without having 

 had any evacuations by vomiting, stool, 

 or urine. His skin was cool, pulse regu- 

 lar, and spirits good. At a quarter past 

 six he had devoured the whole, and de- 

 clared he could eat more ; but the pri- 

 soners on the outside having told him 

 that experiments were making upon him, 

 he began to be alarmed. 



BULK heads are partitions made athwart 

 the ship with boards, by which one part 

 is divided from the other ; as the great 

 cabin, gun-room, bread-room, and several 

 other divisions. The bulk head afore is 

 the partition between the forecastle and 

 gratings in the head. 



BULK breaking. See BREAKING. 



BULL. See Bos, 



See LOXIA. 



BULL, among ecclesiastics, a written 

 letter dispatched by order of the Pope, 

 from the Roman chancery, and sealed 

 with lead, being written on parchment, 

 by which it is partly distinguished from 

 a brief. See BRIEF. 



BULL, golden, an edict or imperial con- 

 stitution, made by the Emperor Charles 

 IV. reputed to be the magna chartu, or 

 the fundamental law of the German em- 

 pire. 



It is called golden, because it has a gold- 

 en seal, in the form of a pope's bull, tied 

 with yellow and red cords of silk : upon 

 one side is the Emperor represented sit- 

 ting on his throne, and on the other the 

 capital of Rome. It is also called Caro- 

 line, on Charles IV. 's account Till the 

 publication of the golden bull, the form 

 and ceremony of the election of an em- 

 peror were dubious and undetermined, 

 and the number of the electors not fixed. 



This solemn edict regulated the func- 

 tions, rights, privileges, and pre-eminen- 

 ces of the electors. The original, which 

 is in Latin, on vellum, is preserved at 

 Frankfort; this ordinance, containing 

 thirty articles or chapters, was approved 

 of by all the princes of the empire, and 

 remains still in force. 



BULLA, in natural history, a genus of 

 insects of the Vermes Testacea. Animal 

 a limax ; shell univalve, convolute, un- 

 armed with teeth ; aperture a little 

 straightened, oblong, longitudinal, very 

 entire at the base ; pillar oblique, smooth. 

 There are nearly sixty species. B. ligna- 

 ria is found on European coasts, and is a- 

 bout three inches long. The shell is thin, 

 of a dirty colour, but within it is white. 

 The inhabitants of this species, and. ac- 

 cording to Gmelin, those of mst of the 

 genus, are furnished with an organ re- 

 sembling the gizzard of a fowl, and which 

 they appear to use for the purpose of 

 masticating their food. 



BULLET, an iron or leaden ball, or 

 shot, wherewith fire-arms are loaded. 

 Bullets are of various kinds; viz. red-hot 

 bullets, made hot in a forge, intended to 

 set fire to places where combustible mat- 

 ters are found. Hollow bullets, or shells 

 made cylindrical, with an aperture and 

 fuse at one end, which giving fire to the 

 inside when in the ground, it bursts;, and 

 has the same effect with a mine. Chain- 

 bullets, which consist of two balls, joined 

 by a chain three or four feet apart. 

 Branch-bullets, two balls joined by a bar 

 of iron, five or six inches apart. Two- 

 headed bullets, culled also angles, tw 



