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Tlie abbe Bofcovich was tall in ftature, of a robuft con. 

 ftituiion, wuli a long nalc vifagf. His temper was open 

 and friendly, bnt irritable, vehement, and impatient of con- 

 tradiftion. James noUell, in his amnfinjr I.ile of Dr. John- 

 fon, incidentally mcnlion*, that the Enj-,li(h moralill chan- 

 einp to meet Bofcovich in London, had a vei7 keen difpute 

 with him ill I^tin on fome metaphyfical topic. There was 

 tntich heat on both fides; and tiic Gohah of literature 

 treated the nwthematician in his uUial bearilh manner. 



Bofcovich was more dillinj^uirticd by the elegance of his 

 mathematical genius, than for taltnts of invention. The 

 prcdileetion he entertained for the geometry of the Greeks, 

 led him perhaps to undervalue the modern analylis, and ra- 

 ther to negle-'t the cultivation of the integral calculus, that 

 allonifhing inllrument of difcovery, which is indifptnfahle 

 in making any great progrtfs in the deeper parts of ])liyricul 

 and allronomical fcience. His example, with fmiilar ones 

 in this country, (hows the dangtr of indulgiiig a tadc fo 

 laudable in itfelf, but which has a tendency to circumfcribc 

 the powers of human intellect. 



The only work of Bofcovich that has appeared in F.nglini, 

 16 his " lilemcnts of the Conic Seaions," which was, within 

 thcfe few ycart, traiillated, abridged, and i'oniewhat altered 

 by the Rev. Mr. Newton of Cambridge. This little treatife, 

 we are forry to obferve, has not yet received fsch attention 

 from the public as it well merits. For a view of his theory 

 of matter, fee the article Corpuscular Philosophy. 



liOSCUS, in ylncieiil Ldw-ll^iiters, lignities a wood of 

 any kind. It is formed from the Greek, /jqc-xi', / ped, as 

 ferving for pallurc. In which fenfe, bnfcus amounts to the 

 fame with the Italian bofro, and French Lois. Bofcus is 

 «livided into high wood, or timber, called ■dUo/n/iits, and /laiit- 

 bois ; and coppice, or underwood, /a//-io/rw, or fiii-liois. 



BOSEA, lu Botimy, (in honour of Bofe, a fenator of 

 Leipfic). Liim. Ji^ 'Reich. .5^4. Schreb. 442. Willden. 

 504. Jufl". 83. Gxrt. 490. Clafs, fcntanJna lUgynia. 

 Nat. Ord. atripl'ucs. Jufl". 



Gen. Char. Cal. perianth five-leaved, equal ; folioles 

 roundilh, concave, ereit, thinner at the edge. Cor. none. 

 Slam, filaments fubulate, longer than the calyx ; anthers 

 fimple. Pyl. genu ovate-oblong, cufpidate ; ilyle none. 

 Pericarp, berry globular, one-celled. Seed one, round, 

 acuminate. 



Efl". Char. Calyx five-leaved. Cor. none. Berry one- 

 fecdcd. 



Sp. B. yervamora. A fmall (hrub. Leaves fimple, al- 

 ternate, petioled, ovate, pointed, entire, fmooth, with fine 

 purple nerves ; flowers reddifh, in loofe axillary racemes. 

 Cultivated by Mr. Miller before 1-2S. A native of the 

 Canary iflands. La Marck intimates a doubt whether 

 Sloanc's Jamaica plant be the fame. 



BOSEN, in Geography, a town of Prnffia, in the province 

 of Natangen, feated on the Satteu lake ; 50 miles S. of 

 Konigfherg. 



BOSENBRUNN, a town of Germany, in the circle of 

 Upper Saxony, and the Vogtland ; 3 miles S. W. of 

 Oelfnitz. 



* BOSHAM, a town of Abyfiinia, near the fource of the 

 tiver I--tbec. N. lat 7° 40'. E. long. 36*^ 30'. 



BOSHOND, inZw%_)', (Jachhals vel'bofhond). Boffin- 

 guin, p. 291. The fpottcu hya:iia, canis crocuta. 



BOSIO, James, in Biography, a native of Milan, who 

 fiourifhcd about the end of the i6th century, and being 

 knight-fervitor of the order of Malta, condufted its concerns 

 at Rome for a long time with reputation. Difappointed 

 in the expeftation of the advancement of his patron, cardinal 

 Petioctnni, to the papal chair^ he retired and. devoted the 



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remainder of his life to pious cxercifes. As a writer he U 

 known by his voluminous hillory of the order of Malta, 

 entitled " Dell' illoria dcUa facra religione dell' illuftriflima 

 militia dl fan Gioano Gien.foliuiitano," ,3 vols. fol. printed 

 at Rome, in coufequcnce of the arrangement of two corde- 

 liers, in 1621, 1629, and 1684. This is the loiirce whence 

 later hillorians of the order have derived their chief materials. 

 Some idea may be formed of Bofio's underltanding and dif- 

 pofition, from the veneration which he maiiifelled to the 

 wood of the real crofs, of which he wrote the hillory from 

 its difcovery in the time of Conllantine. Jn'onio Bofio, the 

 nephew of the preceding, who was alfo agent at Rome for 

 Malta, publilhcd in jfii2, the refult of his rcfearches into the 

 vaults and catacombs of Rome in a folio volume, entitled 

 " Roma Sotteranea," a work that contains all the monu- 

 ments and epitaphs which he could find of the firft Chrif- 

 tians. An improved edition was publifhcd in Latin by 

 Paid Aringhi in if>-;i. Moren. Nouv. Dift. Hill. 



BOSLE, in Geography, a town of France, in the depart- 

 ment of the Loiret, and chief place of a canton, in the dif- 

 trict of Beaugency ; 2 miles N. of Beaugency. 



BOSN.\, Skrai. See Serajo. 



Bo SNA, a river of Bofnia, which palTts by Serajo, and 

 joins the Save, 50 miles N. of that town. 



BOSNIA, called alfo Rama, a province of Turkey in Eu- 

 rope, being a part of ancient Pannonia, or of Turkilh Illyi*- 

 cum, and deriving its name from the river Bofna, or from the 

 people called Boll'eni. It is bounded on the north by the 

 river Save, which feparates it from Sclavonic, on the eail 

 by the Drino, which parts it from Servia, on the weft by the 

 Verbas, Croatia, and Dalmatia, and o:: tii-: fouth by a 

 chain of mountains, which feparates it frori Dahnntia. It 

 is about 40 leagues long, and 24 broad ; and though moun- 

 tainous, it is fertile, more efpecially near the rivers ; its 

 arable land producing good wheat, and its p lilurcs feeding 

 many cattle ; its mountains contain fome mines of filvcr. 

 Its air, foil, produce, language, and inhabitants, rcfemble 

 thofe of Servia. Bofnia and Servia were formerly united to 

 Hungary, and governed by their own princes ; but in 1465, 

 the Turks took pofl'effion of them ; Stephen V. their lalt 

 fovercign being taken prifoner by Mahomet II. and flayed 

 alive ; from that time they have been a province of the 

 Turkifh empire, which appoints beglerbeys and fangiacs over 

 them. Bofnia is chietly inhabited by Greek ChnftianB, 

 together with fome Mahometans, Jews, and Catholics. Its 

 principal towns are Banjaluka, Orbach, Serajo, and 

 Zwernick. 



BOSOK, a town of Hungary, 3 miles E. of Baia. 



BOSON, in Conchology, the turbo muricatus, fo called' 

 by Adanfon. 



BOSOWKA, in Geography, a town of Poland, in the 

 palatinate of Braclaw. N. lat. 49° 20'. E. long. 30°. 



BOSPHORICUM Marmor, a name given by the an- 

 cients to a Ipccies of marble, of a yellowilh white colour,, 

 w ith beautiful veins of a fomewhat darker hue ; called alfo,, 

 from its tranfparency, pheri^ites. 



EOSPHORUS, or Bosporus, formed from jSsj, bos,. 

 and CTopoi, pajfage, in Geography, a long and narrow fea whicb 

 it is fuppoftd a bullock may fwim over ; in a more general 

 fenfe, a long narrow fea running in between two lands, oi> 

 feparating two continents, and by which two feas, or a 

 guif and a fea, are made to communicate with each other. 



In which fenfe bofphorus amounts to the fame with what 

 we otherwife call an arm of the fea, channel, sr ftreight; the 

 Italians, faro ; the Latins, fretum, and the French pat, 

 manche. 



The name bof^harus is chiefly confined to two ftreights, 



in- 



