J8 O ti 
B O II 
[scarcely soluble in water, and not to crystal-, 
bze. 
When boracic acid and silica are exposed 
to a strong heat, they melt together into a 
transparent glass. This compound has re- 
ceived the name ofborat of silica. 
BORBON1A, a genus of the decandria 
order, and diadelphia class of plants. The 
stigma is emarginated ; the calyx has pointed 
spines; and the legumen is pointed. There 
- are six species, all natives of warm countries. 
[ They are a kind of broom; and rise to the 
height of ten or twelve feet, but in Europe 
I seldom above four or live. They are green- 
house plants, and may be propagated by 
j layers ; but as these are generally two years 
] before they put forth roots, the best method 
j is by seeds, which must be procured from 
[ their native places. 
BORBO RITES, borboritae, in church-his- 
I tory, a sect of gnostics in the second century, 
) who, besides embracing the errors of these 
I Christians, denied the last judgment. Their 
name comes from Popfyos, tilth, on account 
of a custom they had of daubing their faces 
and bodies with dirt and tilth. 
BORDARII, a term mentioned in the 
Ijomesday-inquisition"; they were distinct 
i from the servi and villani, and were of a 
I somewhat higher rank ; having a bord, or 
i cottage, with a small parcel of land allowed 
to them, on condition that they should su,p- 
I ply the lord with poultry and eggs, and other 
i small provisions for his board and entertain- 
ment. The same, term is used to denote 
J servants employed in fetching wood, draw- 
ing water, grinding corn, cleaning yards, 
j See. by which they are distinguished from 
j villani, employed in the tillage of lands. 
BORDURE, in heraldry, a cutting off 
j from within the escutcheon all round it about 
one-fifth of the field, serving as a difference 
in a coat of arms, to distinguish families of 
| the same name, or persons bearing the same 
coat. 
If the line constituting the bordure is 
j straight, and the bordure plain, then in blazon- 
1, mg you must only name the colour of the 
j bordure. 
BOREAL signs, in astronomy, are the 
; first six signs of the zodiac, or those north- 
wards of the equinoctial. 
BORECOLE, see Bras sic a. 
BORER, an implement invented for the 
purpose of searching or exploring the nature 
‘ of soils. It is composed of two rods of iron, 
each about six feet long, and an inch in dia- 
meter, which screw into one another. By 
this instrument two men will easily sound the 
depth of twelve feet in less than a quarter 
of an hour, if they do not meet with many 
stones. Thus, without much charge, or any 
hazard, there is a certainty of discovering 
what earths are under the upper soil, and 
_ whether other substances lie concealed there, 
such as marl, chalk, fullers’ earth, fossile 
shells, coals, quarriesjof slate or stone, ores, &c. 
BORING, in mineralogy, a method of 
piercing the earth by a set of scooping-irons, 
made with joints so as to be lengthened at 
pleasure. The mineralogist can guess where 
a vein of ore may He, though there are none 
of the common outward signs of it upon the 
; surface of the earth, and in this case he 
has recourse to boring: the scooping-irons 
arc drawn back at proper times, and the 
samples of earth and mineral matters they 
bring up are examined, to know whether it 
will be worth while to open a mine in the place. 
BoffiNG of water-pipes. The method of 
boring water-pipes is as follows. The poles 
of aider, which is a very useful wood in mak- 
ing pumps, water-pipes, &c. being laid on 
horses or tressels of a foot in height, to rest 
the auger upon while they are boring, they 
set up a lathe to turn the least end of the 
poles, to tit them to the cavities, of the great 
end of the others. They turn the small ends 
of the poles about five or six inches in length, 
to the size they intend to bore the larger 
ends about the same depth, viz. 5 or 6 inches. 
This is designed to make a joint to shut each 
pair of holes together; the concave part being 
the female part, and the other part the male, of 
the joint. In turning the male part they turn a 
channel in it, or a small groove at a certain 
distance from the end ; and in the female 
part, they bore a small hole to lit over this 
channel. This being done, they bore the 
poles through ; and to prevent them from 
boring out at the side, they stick great nails 
at each end to be a guide in boring, it is 
usual, however, to bore them at both ends ; 
so that if a pole is crooked one way, they 
can bore it through and not spoil it. 
The operation is now performed with a 
horse-mill, as at Dorset-stairs, for the New 
River company. 
BOROUGH, Burrougii, Borqw, or 
Burgh, a corporation Or town which is not 
a city. 'The word in its original signification 
meant' a company consisting often families, 
which were bound together as each other’s 
pledge. ’Afterwards borough came to signify 
a town, having a wall or some kind of iuclo- 
sure round it ; and all places which former- 
ly had the name of borough, it is said, were 
fortified, or fenced in some shape or other. 
The name is now particularly appropriated 
to such towns or villages as send burgesses 
or representatives to parliament, whether 
they are incorporated or not. They are 
distinguished into those by charter or sta- 
tute, and those by prescription or custom : 
The number in England and v\ ales, includ- 
ing cities and cinque ports, which elect mem- 
bers, is 215; some of which send one, and 
some two representatives. 
Royal Boroughs, in Scotland, are corpo- 
rations made for the advantage of trade, by 
charters granted by several of their kings, 
having the privilege of sending commissioners 
to represent them in parliament, besides 
other peculiar immunities. They form a 
body of themselves, and send commissioners 
each to an annual convention at Edinburgh, 
to consult the benefit of trade and their ge- 
neral interest. 
Borough-engeish, a customary descent 
of lands or tenements, in certain places, by 
which thej descend to the youngest instead 
of the eldest son ; or, if the owner has- no 
issue, to the younger instead of the elder 
brother. This custom goes with the land, 
although there be a devise or feoffment at 
the common law to the contrary. The rea- 
son of this custom, says Littleton, is because 
the youngest is presumed, in law, to be 
least able to provide for himself. 
Borough-head, see Headborough. 
BORRELLISTS, in church-history, a 
Christian sect in Holland. They are a kind 
of anabaptists, but they have some very 
particular opinions. They reject the use of 
BOS 2i? 
churches, of sacraments, public prayer, and 
all other external acts of worship. 
BOS, in zoology, the ox, a genus of qua- 
drupeds of the order of pecora. The generic 
character is, horns concave, turned out- 
wards, lunated, smooth ; front teeth eight 
in the lower jaw ; canine teeth none. 
1st, The Bison, from which the several 
races of common cattle have been gradually 
derived, is found wild in many parts both, 
of the old and new continent ; inhabiting 
woody regions, and arriving at a size far 
larger than that of the domestic or cultivat- 
ed animal. In this its native state of wild- 
ness, tne Bison is distinguished, not only by 
his size, but by the superior depth and shag- 
giness of his hair ; which about the head, 
neck, and shoulders, is sometimes of such a 
length as almost to touch the ground: his 
horns are rather short, sharp-pointed, ex- 
tremely strong, and stand distant from each 
other at their bases, like those of the com- 
mon bull. His colour "is sometimes of a 
dark blackish brown, and sometimes rufous 
brown ; iiis eyes large and fierce ; his limbs 
extremely strong, and his whole aspect in 
degree savage and gloomy. See Plate Nat- 
Hist. ug. 59. 
I he principal European regions where 
this animal is at present found, are the marshy 
forests of Poland, the Carpathian mountains,, 
and Lithuania. Its chief Asiatic residence 
is the neighbourhood of mount Caucasus ; 
but it is also found in other parts of the Asia- 
tic world. 
The American bison seems to differ in i«> 
respect from the European, except in being 
more shaggy, and having a more protuberant 
bunch or tleshy substance over the shoulders- 
It grows to a vast size, and has been found 
to weigh sixteen hundred, and even two 
thousand four hundred pounds ; and the 
strongest man cannot lift one of the skins 
from the ground. 
These were the only animals which bore 
any affinity to the European cattle, on the 
first discovery of the American continent ; 
and might have been made to answer every 
purpose of the European cow ; but the na- 
tives, being in a savage state, and living 
chiefly by chace, had never attempted the 
domestication of the animal. 
2nd, Common ox. This is, in rea- 
lity, the bison reduced to a domestic 
state ; in which, in different parts of the 
world, it runs into as many varieties as the 
sheep ; differing widely in size, form, and 
colour, according to climate and other cir- 
cumstances. Its importance in this its do- 
mestic state needs not be mentioned. For- 
merly the ox constituted the whole riches 
of mankind ; and he is still the basis of the 
wealth of nations, which subsist and flourish 
in proportion to the cultivation of their lands 
and the number of their cattle. See Plate 
Nat. Hist. fig. 54. 55. 
The British breed of horned cattle has 
been so much improved by a foreign mix- 
ture, that it is difficult to point out the ori- 
ginal kind of these islands. Those which 
may be supposed to have been purely 
British, are far inferior in size to those of the 
northern parts of the continent. r Ihe cattle 
of the highlands of Scotland are exceeding- 
ly small; and many of them, males as well 
as females, are hornless. The Welsh runts 
are much larger : the black cattle of Com- 
