BAG 



It puts forth roots from the knots, both as it runs along the 

 ground, and as it h'es on the furfacc of the water. A native 

 of Cayenne, on the borders of rivulets, flowering in Decem- 

 ber. The inhabitants of the ifland call it herlc aux bruluia, 

 on account of its being ufed for curing burns. 



CACQ^UERE, Benfdict, in Biography. Ofthis writer, 

 wlio lived towards the end of the fevcnteenth centur)-, but of 

 whofe life no memorials have come to us, we have a much ef- 

 teemed work, '-Salvator Sennm," publifhed 1672 ; and, if it 

 is not the fame work, " Senuni Medicus, prxfcribens obfcr- 

 vanda, ut fine magna moleilia fencftus protrahatur." Colon. 

 1673, and 16S3, 8vo. Haller Bib. Med. Prad. Monf. Car- 

 rera fays, that Bacquere was profcfibr of theology, and prior 

 of the abbey of Dunes, which Eloy obferves is very pruba- 

 ble, as at the end of the directions for the prtfervation of 

 the health of aged perfons, is another work intitlcd, " S:d- 

 vator Senus, remedia fuggerans pro Ssaum falute etc:na." 

 Eloy. Diction. Hift. De la Med. v. i. p. 242. 



BACC^JET, John, a learned French lawyer, was ad- 

 vocate to the king, and flouiilhed at the clofe of the fixteenth 

 century. He wrote many excellent law-trads, which were 

 pubhlhed with notes by Ferriere at Lyons, in 2 vols, folio, 

 in 1744. He died in 1597. Nouv. Diet. Hiilor. 



BACTISHUA,or BoKT ]z%v,Sir'vanU of J.fus, a Chrif- 

 tian family .^'amed in the Eaft for tiieir knowledge of phyfic. 

 Bactishua, George, the firft of the family of whom 

 we have any account, who befides his ikill in m.cdicine, was 

 eminent for his proficiency in the Perfian and Arabian 

 languages, received liis education at Jondifabur, or Nifabur, 

 the capital of Korafan. Sapores king of the Perfians is 

 faid to have built this city, A. C. 272, in honour of his 

 queen, the daughter of the emperor Aurelian, who fent 

 with her leveral Greek phyficians. Thefe men, fettling 

 there, received and propagated the do£lrines of Hippocrates, 

 in the call, and hence, Freind conjeftures, it happened, 

 that moft of the celebrated Arabian phyf^ians, Rhazcs, 

 Haly Abbas, Avicenna, were educated m the more eailern 

 parts of Aha. George, bting fent for to Bagdad, by 

 Almanzor, the fecond caliph of the houfe of Abbas, to 

 relieve him of a complaint of his llomach, in which he was 

 fuccefsful, was detained there, and at the defire of the 

 caliph, tran'lated ieveral books of phyfic ; and when, on 

 account of his ill health, he dcfired leave to return to his 

 country, Ahnanzor fent him home with great honour, 

 and a reward of io,ooc aurei. Rhazes and Serapion have 

 recorded in their woiks many of the maxims and medicines 

 of George. The anfwer was remarkable which he made to 

 Almanzor, who had condefcended to folicit his convcrfion 

 from Chriilianity to Mahometanilm, and offered to infure him 

 a place in paiadife upon his compliance. "No," replied the 

 doiilor, " I am very well contented to go wherefocver my 

 forefathers have gone, be it to heaven or to hell." RufTcl's 

 Aleppo, vol. ii. Append, p. 5. 



Gabriel, the fon ot George, was ia equal eftimation with 

 the caliph Haroim Al Rafchid, whom he cured of an 

 apoplexy, by diretling him to be blooded, which was per- 

 formed, though contrary to the opinion of the other ph\ fi- 

 cians. Freind annexed to his Hitlory of Phyfic, the iiic 

 of Gabriel, tranflated into Latin, from the Arabic of Abi- 

 Ofbai. The tranflation was performed at the expence of 

 Dr. Mead. The work is principally remarkable for the 

 extravagant praiies bellowed on Gabriel, and the account 

 of the high honours and prodigious Wfalth heaped by the 

 caliphs on their phyficians. Freind's Hiilory of Phyfic, 

 vol. ii. Haller. Bib. Med. Praft. For an account of others 

 ofthis family, which in fucceflion fupplied the caliphs with 

 phyficians for above two centuries ; fee Ruflcl's Aleppo 

 (ubi fupra]. 



BAG 



BACTRIA, or Bactriana, in yfneieni Geography, a 

 country of Afia, was bounded on the weft by Margiana 

 and Ana, on the north by the river Oxus, which fcparatcd 

 It from Sogdiana, on the fouth by the mountains called Pa- 

 ropamifus, which covered the north of India, and on the 

 eaft by mountains which feparated it from Afiatic Scythia 

 and the country of the Maffagetx. It comprehended the 

 prcfent provinces of Balk and Ganr, and probably, fays 

 major Rennell, part of Korafan. It was a large, fruitful, 

 and wtU-peopltd country, and contained, according to Am- 

 tnianus Marcelhnus (l.xxiii.), a great number of cities men- 

 tioned by the ancients ; but the metropolis wa4 Badra, called 

 alfo Zariafpa, and now Balk, from which, or from the ri- 

 ver Badrus, the country derived its name. Q_iiintus Curtius 

 (1. vii. C.4.) deduces the name both of the city and country 

 from the river Badrus, which watered the environs of the 

 capital. Pliny (1. vi. c. 15, 16.) places B.idra on the river 

 Zariafpe ; and Curtius, on the Badrus, ?.t the foot of mount 

 Paropamifus ; but Ptolemy defcribcs it as fituated on the 

 river Dargidus, in t!ic heart of tire country, at a great di- 

 ftance from this mountain, which was the fouthcni boun- 

 dary. The chief rivers of Badria, with regard to the names 

 of which there is coiifiderable confufion, were the Oxus, 

 the Ochus, the Orgomenes, or as Ptolemy calls it, Dargo- 

 mencs, which, uniting with the O.hus, fell into the Oxus ; 

 the Zariafpa, or Zariafpes j tlie Artenris ; and the Dargi- 

 dus. That part of Badria, which was watered by the ri- 

 ver Oxus, is defcribed by the ancients as a ver)- fruitful 

 coui.try, abounding with paftures, and well flocked with 

 cattle of a very large fize ; but the foutherii parts were 

 fandy deferts, through which travellers journeyed only in 

 the night, being under a necelTity of guiding thcmfclves by 

 the fiars, as if they were at fea, and expofcd to the danger 

 of being buried in the fand. The country was inhabited by 

 the fidlowing nations : the Salatrx and Zariafpx ; the Cho- 

 maii, or Comarians, placed by Ptolemy near tire fourccs of 

 the laxartes, toward the eailern boundaries of Sogdiana ; 

 the Comi ; the Acinacae ; the Tan.bazx, or Tambyzi ; the 

 Thocaite, or Tocliari, who were mountaineers on tlie decli- 

 vity which regaids Badriana, whence the modern Toka- 

 reflan ; the Marycxi ; the Scordx ; the Varui ; the Ara- 

 dix ; the Orfippi ; the Amarifpii, and fome others. The 

 Badrians in general were reckoned good foldiers, and were 

 always at war, either among themfelvcs, or witli the neigh- 

 bounng nations. Herodotus fays they were archers, and 

 ufed hows made of their couuti-y reed or cane, and had 

 fhort darts. In other refpcds they v.ere accoutred, like 

 the Medes, who wore tiaras, tunics^ and breeches, with a 

 dagger at their girdles. They were enemies to every kind 

 of luxury. Pliny informs us, that they ufed to expofe 

 their old people after a certain age, to be devoured by tierce 

 matliifs, which they kept for that purpofe, and called Ic- 

 pulchral dogs. He adds, that they allowed their daughters 

 to auociate with any whim they hked, and that incontinence 

 was not difreputable even to the women. 



The early hiflory of Badria is, like that of other ancient 

 nations, involved in confideralile obfcurily and uncertainty. 

 According to Diodorus, the Badiian government, in the 

 earlier a jes, was monarchical. Zoroalleris faid by Eufcbins 

 (in Chron.) to have reigned in Badria, and to have been 

 conterrporary with Nirus, who made war upon him, and 

 fubdued his country. But Ctciias, followed by Diodorus, 

 mentions one Oxyartes, who reigned in Badria, when that 

 country was reduced by Ninus, and he fays that Zoroafter 

 was contemporary with Cyrus the Great. But the liillory 

 of this Perfian lawgiver is loft in remote antiquity. It ha» 

 been afferted by fome writers, that Ninus fubdued all Afia, 

 except India and BaCrtriaua. However this be, all author* 



arc 



