BAT 
points upon the left breast of his upper 
garment. 
The order of the bath, after remaining 
many years extinct, was revived under 
George the First, by a solemn creation of a 
great number of knights. 
Bath-coZ, the daughter of a voice. So 
the Jews call one of their oracles, which is 
frequently mentioned in their books, espe- 
cially the Talmud, being a fantastical way 
of divination invented by the Jews them- 
selves, not unlike the sortes virgilianae of the 
heathens. However, the Jewish writers 
call this a revelation from God’s will, which 
he made to bis .chosen people, alter all verbal 
prophecies had ceased in Israel. 
BATIS, in botany, a genus of the Dioecia 
Tetranchia class and order. Essential cha- 
racter : male ament four-fold, imbricate ; 
calix and corolla none. Female ament 
ovate ; involucre two-leaved ; calyx and co- 
rolla none ; stigma two-lobed, sessile ; ber- 
ries conjoined, four-seeded. There is but 
one species, viz. B. maritima, a shrub four 
feet high, with a round asli-coloured stem, 
much branched ; stigmas white ; fruits yel- 
low or greenish yellow. The plant is salt 
to the taste, and is burnt for barilla at Car- 
thagena. Native of the Caribbee islands 
and the neighbouring continent. 
BATMAN, in commerce, a kind of 
weight used at Smyrna, containing six okes 
of four hundred drachms each, which amount 
to 16 pounds, 6 ounces, and 15 drachms of 
English weight. 
BATTALION, a small body of infantry, 
ranged in form of battle, and ready to en- 
gage. 
A battalion usually contains from 5 to 
800 men ; but the number it consists of is 
not determined. They are armed with fire- 
locks (pikes being quite laid aside) swords 
and bayonets; and divided into thirteen 
companies, one of which is grenadiers. 
They are usually drawn up with three men 
in tile, or one before another. Some regi- 
ments consist but of one battalion, others 
are divided into four or five. 
BATTEL, a trial by combat, which was 
anciently allowed by our laws, where the 
defendant, in an appeal of murder or felony, 
might fight with the appellant, and make 
proof thereby, whether he were culpable or 
innocent. This mode of trial was used also 
in one civil case, namely, upon an issue 
joined in a writ of right ; but as the writ of 
right itself is now disused, this course of 
trial is only matter of speculation. 
BATTEN, a name that workmen give to 
BAT 
a scantling of wooden stuff, from two to four 
inches broad, and about one inch thick ; the 
length is pretty considerable, but undeter- 
mined. 
BATTERING, the attacking a place, 
work, or the like, with heavy artillery. To 
batter in breach is to play furiously on a 
work, as the angle of a half moon, in order 
to demolish and make a gape therein. In 
this they observe never to fire a piece at the 
top, but all at the bottom, from three to six 
feet from the ground. The battery of a 
camp is usually surrounded with a trench, 
and pallisadoes at the bottom, with two re- 
doubts on the wings, or certain places of 
arms, capable of covering the troops which 
are appointed for their defence. 
BATTERY, in the military art, a parapet 
thrown up to cover the gunners and men 
employed about the guns from the enemy’s 
shot. This parapet is cut into embrasures 
for the cannon to fire through. The height 
of the embrasures, on the inside, is about 
three feet; but they go sloping lower to the 
outside. Their wideness is two or three 
feet, but open to six or seven on the outside. 
The mass of earth that is betwixt two em- 
brasures is called the merlon. The plat- 
form of a battery is a floor of planks and 
sleepers, to keep the wheels of the guns 
from sinking into the earth ; and is always 
made sloping towards the embrasure, both 
to hinder the reverse and to facilitate the 
bringing back of the gun. 
Battery, in law, the stinking, beating, 
or offering any violence to another person, 
for which damages may be recovered. But 
if the plaintiff made the first assault the 
defendant shall be quit, and the plaintiff 
amerced to the king for his false suit. Bat- 
tery is frequently confounded with assault, 
though in law they are different offences : 
for in the trespass for assault and battery 
one may be found guilty of assault, yet ac- 
quitted of the battery ; there may, there- 
fore, be assault without battery, but battery 
always implies an assault. 
Battery. See Electricity and Gal- 
vanism. 
BATTLE, a general engagement be- 
tween two armies, ii/ a country sufficiently 
open for them to encounter in front, and at 
the same time ; or, at least, for the greater 
part of the line to engage. Other great 
actions, though of a longer duration, and 
even attended with a greater slaughter, are 
only called fights. 
The loss of a battle frequently draws with 
it that of the artillery and baggage the 
