chronologers assure us'; whence the author is 
usually supposed to have consulted the Jew- 
ish writings. Berosus speaks of an universal 
deluge, an ark, &c. He reckons 10 gene- 
rations between the first man and the de- 
luge, and marks the duration of the several 
generations by saroi, or periods of S23 lu- 
nar months; which, reduced to years, differ 
not much from the chronology of Moses. 
The Babylonics consisted of three books, 
including the history of the ancient Baby- 
lonians, Medes, &c- but only a few imper- 
fect extracts are now remaining of the 
work, preserved chiefly by Josephus and 
Syncellus ; where all the passages of cita- 
tions of ancient authors out of Berosus are 
collected with great exactness. Annius, of 
Viterbo, kindly offered his assistance to sup- 
ply the loss, and forged a complete Berosus 
out of his own head. The world has not 
thanked him for the imposture. 
BABYROUSSA, in zoology, the Indian 
hog. See Sus. 
BACCHARIS, in botany, ploughman’s 
spikenard: of the Syngenesia Polygamia 
Superflna class and order. Natural order 
composite ; compound flowers, division 
the third discoideae ; corymbiferae, Jussieu. 
Essential character ; calyx imbricate, cylin- 
dric ; florets, female mixed with herma- 
phrodites ; down simple ; receptacle naked. 
There are nine species ; most of the’ plants 
are shrubby ; the flowers are disposed com- 
monly in corymbs. 
BACHELOR, or Batchelor, a man who 
still continues in the state of celibacy, or 
who was never married, and who, in certain 
cases, is subject to a double tax. 
Bachelor was anciently a denomination 
given to those who had attained to knight- 
hood, but had not a number of vassals suffi- 
cient to have their banner carried before 
them in the field of battle ; or, if they were 
not of the order of bannerets, were not of 
age to display their own banner, but obliged 
to march to battle under another’s banner. 
It was also a title given to young cavaliers, 
who having made their first campaign, receiv- 
ed the military girdle accordingly. And it 
served to denominate him who had over- 
come another in a tournament, the first 
time he ever engaged. 
Bachelors, knights, were so called, as 
being the lowest order of knights, or inferior 
to bannerets. 
Bachelors, in an university sense, are 
persons that have attained to the bacca-lau- 
reat ; or who have taken the first degree in 
the liberal arts and sciences. Before a per- 
VOL. I. 
son can be admitted to this degree at Ox- 
ford, it is necessary that he study there four 
years ; three years more may entitle him to 
the degree of master of arts; and in seven 
years more he may commence bachelor of 
divinity. At Cambridge the degrees are 
usually taken much the same as at Oxford, 
excepting in law and physic, in either of 
which the bachelor’s degree may be taken 
in six years. In France, the degree of ba- 
chelor of divinity is attained in five years 
study, that is, in two years of philosophy, 
and three of divinity. 
Bachelor, in music, one who has taken 
his first degree in music. A qualification 
formerly required of a candidate for this 
honour, was the being able to read and ex- 
pound certain books in Boethius, a Greek 
writer in the science, of the sixth century. 
It is now required of the candidate, to com- 
pose an exercise for voices and instruments, 
in six parts, which exercise must be publicly 
performed in the music-school, or other 
place in the university. 
BACILLARIA, in natural history, a ge- 
nus of insects of the order Infusoria. Gene- 
ric character : body consisting of cylindri- 
cal 'Straw-like filaments, placed parallel to 
each other, and frequently changing their 
position. There is but a single species 
noticed by Gmelin, viz. B. paradoxa, found 
on the ulva latissima ; body composed of 
linear, yellowish, short filaments, united to- 
gether, forming themselves into a square 
zigzag, or extended line, but always pre- 
serving their parallelism and resting in a 
square. 
BACK, in brewing, a large flat vessel in 
which the wort is put to stand and cool be- 
fore boiling. The ingredients of beer pass 
through three kinds of vessels; they are 
mashed in one, worked in another, and cool- 
ed in a third, called backs or coolers. 
Back gammon, an ingenious game played 
with dice and tables, to be learned only by 
observation and practice. 
However, the following rules concerning 
it cannot fail to be acceptable to our readers. 
In the first place, the men, which are thirty 
in number, being equally divided between 
the two gamesters, are placed thus, viz. two 
on the ace point, five on the side of your 
left hand table, three on the cinque, and 
five on the ace point of your right hand 
table, which are answered on the like points 
by your adversaries men : or they may be 
disposed thus, viz. two on the ace point, five 
on the double sice or sice-cinque point, three 
on the cinque point in your own tables, and 
Gg 
