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the inlliumciitj of Mr. Smyth cleferving our confideration. 

 Experience, in a great number of cafes, warrants the life of 

 them, and particularly thole of a large llze ; on account of 

 the extreme fmoothnefs of their fiuface, the yielding- or 

 flexible property they have, without breaking, and the 

 length of time which patients may wear the bougies (where it 

 is neceflary to retain them in the bladder) with eafe to them- 

 felves, and without eroding the metal. 



We cannot, however, divelt ourfelves of an ohjedlion, 

 which has too mucii foundation in truth, againft the fmall- 

 iized metallic bougies, viz. that there is great danger of 

 tearing or penetrating the urethra in pafling ihem ; fo that 

 they can hardly be trailed with fafety in the hands of inex- 

 perienced perfons, or even of young furgeons who may not 

 be adepts in this line of praflice. Mr. Smyth has certainly 

 obtained very refpcdlable tettimonies in favour of his inllru- 

 ments ; but, we think, on perufmg his late publication, that 

 the comparative advantages and difadvantages of thefe bou- 

 gies are not always detailed with fufficient precilion. Some 

 of the objeftions, which were formerly made by one of the 

 furgeons of the Lock Hofpital, in the fourth volume of the 

 London Medical Review, do not apply to the larger 

 Jized metallic bougies ; and we are alTured that, lince the 

 period alluded to, the inventor has improved the form of 

 his inllruments fo much as to have obviated the little diffi- 

 culties then fuggefted by Mr. Blair. It was our duty to 

 fay this, in juftice to tlie inventor ; and we doubt not, that 

 by further trials and obfervation, it will be found that Mr. 

 Smyth's bougies and catheters are entitled to the patronage 

 of furgeons in general. We do not mean to affirm, that 

 they will exclude the ufe of all other kinds of bougies and 

 catheters ; but only that they are highly ferviceable, (and 

 even to be preferred to any others) in fome particular cir- 

 cumftances of dilealed urethra, or retention of urine, &c. 



We referve the obfervations we have to make on caujlic 

 bougies for a future article on the fubjeft of Stricture, 

 where the hiftory and treatment of this morbid affeftion 

 will properly come under confideration. In the interim, we 

 refer our readers to the fcveral pubhcations of Mr. Hom.e 

 and Mr. Whateley ; and to a paper, in the i8th number of 

 the London Medical Review, p. 209, vol. iv. entitled " Re- 

 fleftions on the ufe of cauftic fubHances and metaUic bougies 

 in ftriclures of the urethra, by Mr. Blair, furgeon of the Lock 

 Hofpital, &c." 



Bougie, Inlet, in Geography, lies on the coaft of North 

 Carolina, between Core Sound and Little Inlet. 



BOUGINESE, or Bonians, a denomination diftin- 

 guifliing one of the various nations who inhabit the ifland 

 of Celebes. Thefe and the Mawflers are the moll known. 

 The Bouginefe are at prcfcnt the moft powertul people 

 in tliis ifland, though, about a century ago, they were 

 not comparable with the Macad'trs. They are ol a middle 

 ilature, ilrong, and mufcular, and of a light brown com- 

 plexion. Some of them, efpecially the women, are nearly 

 as fair as Europeans ; and they have pltaling countenances, 

 except that their nofcs are fomewhat flattifh. The fe- 

 males are ardently addifted to fcnfual pleafures, and inge- 

 nious in every relincment of amorous gratiiication ; and on 

 this account, the Bouginefe girls are preferred, through- 

 out the call, fur concubines, both by Europeans and by 

 Indians. The Bouginefe are generally called by the Eng- 

 lifli BuggelTes. 



BOUGLON, a town of France, in the department of 

 the Lot and Garonne, and chief place of a canton, in the 

 dillrici of Marmande ; 4 miles N. of Caftel Jaloux. The 

 p'ace contains 681, and the canton 5,547 inhabitants. The 



territorial extent comprehends 162^ kiliometres, and it 



communes. 



BOUGUER, Peter, in Biography, a celebrated mathe- 

 mctician, was born at Croific in Lower Brittany, Feb. 10, 

 1698. He was the fon of John Bouguer, royal profelTor 

 of hydrography, and author of a complete trcatife on Na- 

 vigation, firlt printed in 1698, 4to. and re-piintcd in 1706. 

 In this compiehenlive and excellent work, the author cor- 

 reftly delineated the Hate of navigation at that period. 

 Bouguer, the fon, was initiated by his father in the mathe- 

 matics, at a very early age ; and fueh was his proficiency, 

 that at the age of 1 1 years, he inlhuAed his regent in the 

 Jefuits' college at Vaunts; and at the age of 13, he de- 

 tected the en-or ot a profeffor of mathematics, who, mor- 

 tified at being thus expofed, quitted the country. Al- 

 though he loll his father at the age of 15, and before he 

 had linilhed his Itudies, he was thought competent to ,be 

 his lucceflbr in the office of hvdiographcr ; and he dif- 

 charged the duties of it with great reputation, even at this 

 early age. In 1727 he obtained the prize, propofed by 

 the royal academy of fciences, for the heft method of mail- 

 ing fliips ; in 1729, that, for the bell method of obferving 

 the height of the ftars at fea ; and in 1731, that, for the 

 moft advantageous means of obferving the variation of the 

 compafs. In his piece concerning the bell method of ob- 

 ferving the height ot the liars at fea, he afTnmes the honour 

 of having been the firft perfon who undertook to give a le- 

 gitimate folution of the " Solar ;" for fo he calls the curve, 

 traced by a ray of the fun, in its defcent through the at- 

 mofphere. But though he did not feem to have known it, 

 Mr. Taylor, in his " Methodus incrementorum direfta et 

 inverfa," had obtained, by an elegant analyfis, a fluxional 

 equation, which gave all the points of the curve. How- 

 ever, Bouguer's method was the firft that was applied to 

 ufe for aftronomical purpofes. Bouguer, in his " Optical 

 effay on the gradation of light," publilhed in 1729, ex- 

 amined the intenfity of light, and determined its various, 

 degrees of diminution, in pafling through different pellucid 

 fubftances, and particularly that of the fun in traverfing 

 through the atmofphere. An extract of this firll eflay was 

 given by M. Mairan in the Journal des favans, for i/JO. 

 l)r. Priertley in his " Hiftory of light and colours," p. 

 541, &c. has given a particular aecount of Bouguer's ob- 

 fervations on this fubjeft. At Havre, whither he removed 

 in 1730, he became intimately conncdttd with feveral mem- 

 bers of the Academy of Sciences ; in the following year, 

 he was chofen to fuccetd Maupertuis as affociate-geometer ; 

 and in 1735 he was promoted to the office of penfioncr-af- 

 tronomer. On the i6th of May in this year, Bouguer 

 left France, on a commiffion, in which he was joined with 

 Godin and La Condamine, for meafuring a degree of the 

 meridian in South America; and he returned to his own 

 country from this expedition in June 1744. Of his various 

 operations, he gavr an account to the French academy in 

 November following : and this account was printed in the 

 " Memoirs" for 1744, and afterwards in his treatife " De la 

 figure dc la terre." The pri:'.cipal fcene of this laborious un- 

 dertaking, was the Cordilleras mountains ; and in the execu- 

 tion of it, Bouguer and his affociates made many other im- 

 portant and uftfiil obfervations, bcfides thofe that related to 

 the immediate objctt of their commiffion. To Bouguer in 

 particular, we are indebted tor many curious rcmaiks on the 

 expanfion and contraftion of metals, and other fubftances, 

 by the fudden change of heat and cold, among thofe lofty 

 mountains ; on the rcfraflion of the atmofphere from their 

 fummits, and on the fingular phenomenon of a fudden in- 



creafe 



