BOR 
which are wholly employed in digging the borax, which 
they fell into Thibet and Nepal, they having no other 
means, of fubfiftence, the foil being fo barren as to pro¬ 
duce nothing but a few rallies. Near the two above-men¬ 
tioned cattles there is a poo! of moderate fize, and l'ome 
final ler ones, where the ground is hollow, in which the 
rain water collects. In thefe pools, after the water has 
been fome time detained in them, the borax is formed na¬ 
turally : the men, wading into the water, feel a kind of 
pavement under their feet, which is a lure indication that 
borax is there formed, and there'they accordingly dig for 
it. Where there is little water, the layer of borax is thin ; 
and where it is deep, it is thicker; and over the latter 
there is always an inch or two of foft mud, which is pro¬ 
bably a depofit of the water after it has been agitated by 
rain or wind. Thus is the borax produced merely by na¬ 
ture, without either boiling or diftillation. The water in 
which it is formed is fo bad, that the drinking a fmall 
quantity of it will occafion a fwelling of the abdomen, and 
in a Ihort lime death enfues. The earth that yields the 
borax is of a whitilh colour ; and in the lame valley, about 
four miles from the pools, there are mines of fait, which 
is dug in great abundance for the ufe of all the inhabitants 
of thele mountains, who live at a diftance from the lea. 
The natives, who have no other fubfiftence on account of 
the fterility of the foil, pay nothing for digging borax ; 
but ftrangers pay a certain price, and ulually agree at fo 
much a workman. This is paid to a lama, named Pema 
Tupkan, who owns the pits in Marine. Ten days jour¬ 
ney farther north there is another valley, named Tapre, 
where they dig borax, and another ftill farther, called 
Cioga; but of this latter the prefect did not mark the 
fituation. Borax is, in the Hindoo and Nepalefe languages, 
called foaga. If it be not purified, it will ealily deliqueice ; 
and, in order to prel’erve it any time till they have an op¬ 
portunity of felling it, the people often mix it with earth 
and butter. It does not appear that the true borax was 
known to the ancients, their chryfocolla being a very dif¬ 
ferent Jubilance, eompofed of the rail of copper tritura¬ 
ted with urine. The word borax occurs for the firft time 
in the works of Geber. In its natural or crude ftate, it is 
called tincle\ and is not only found in the Eaft, but like- 
wife in South America. Mr. Anthony Carera, a phyftcian 
citablilhed at Potofi, informs us, that this lalt is abundantly 
obtained at the mines of Riquintipa, and thole in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Efcapa, where it is uled by the natives in the 
fufion of copper ores. 
The purification of borax by the Venetians and Hol¬ 
landers, was for a long time among thoi'e fecrets which the 
want of a fufficient i'pirit of refearch prevented from be¬ 
coming general: chemical writers have been latisfied in 
afferting that the proceffes confided of folution, filtration, 
cryftallization, and calcination. Chaptal, however, in¬ 
forms us, from his own extenfive experience, that the de- 
ftruttion of the oily part of borax by calcination is attend¬ 
ed with confiderable lofs. He finds, after trying all the 
proceffes in the large way, that the fimpleft method confiftsin 
boiling the borax llrongly, and for a long time, with water. 
This folution being filtered affords by evaporation cryftals, 
which are l'omewhat foul, but may be purified by repeating 
the operation. 
Purified borax is white, tranfparent, greafy in its frafture, 
affe&ing the form of fix-fided priims, terminating in three- 
fided or fix-fided pyramids. Its tafte is ftyptic; it converts 
fyrup of violets to a green, and, when expofed to heat, it 
fwells up, boils, loles its water of cryftallization, and be¬ 
comes converted into a porous, white, opaque, mal's, com¬ 
monly called calcined borax. A ftronger heat brings it 
into a ftate of quiet fufion: but the glaffy fubftance thus 
afforded, which is tranfparent, and of a greenilh yellow 
colour, is folublc in water, and effiorelces in the air. This 
fait requires about eighteen times its weight of water to 
diffolve it at the temperature of fixty degrees of Fahren¬ 
heit ; but water at the boiling heat diffolves three times 
this quantity. Borax is uled by the dyers to give a glols 
BOR 2ii 
lo filks; and is an excellent fittx in docimaftic operations. 
It enters into the compofition of reducing fluxes, and is of 
the greateft ufe in analyfes by the blow-pipe. It is ap¬ 
plied with advantage in glafs manufactories; for, when the 
fufion tarns out bad, a lmall quantity of borax re-eftablilhes 
it. It is more efpecially uled in foldering: it affitts the 
fufion of the folder, caufes it to flow, and keeps the fur- 
face of the metals in a foft or dean ftate, which facilitates 
the operation. It neverthelefs has the inconvenience of 
fwelling up, and requires the greateft attention on tire 
part of the artift who ufes it in delicate works, more efpe- 
cialiy when defigns are to be formed with gold of diffe¬ 
rent colours. The borax of the fhops is often adultera¬ 
ted with alum ; but then it is not fo light, nor clear, nor 
does it lwell fo much as the pure when it is put on live coals. 
Its conftituents teem to be the mineral fixed alkaline lalt, and 
a peculiar kind of acid. By all the mineral acids, its alkaline 
bafts may be disjoined from thel'ubacid part. For the mode 
of effecting this analyfis, and other procefles, fee the article 
Chemistry, vol. iv, p. 256. 
As a medicine, borax feems to poffefs greater virtues 
than are yet mauifefted in it. It is a powerful deobftruent, 
diuretic, and emenagogue, in dofes of half a dram, or two 
fcruples. The fedative fait, now called acid of borax , is- 
recommended in febrile complaints. A mixture with ho¬ 
ney, viz. borax one dram, honey one ounce, is efficacious- 
in removing aphthous crufts from the mouth and fauces, 
but a folution in water is 'eonfidered to poffefs fuperior 
power. Externally it is a far better coljnetic than bifmuth- 
Dr. Alfton, of Edinburgh, lays, that it fhould be diffolved 
when taken inwardly, for the ftomach will not melt it, 
and, if given in a diffolved ftate, it enters the vafa minima, 
mixes with the blood, and dilutes it. If given in powder, 
it is emetic; but mixed with aromatics, this quality is- 
checked ; and tn the fluor albus it is laid to be a ipecific. 
It is recommended by l'ome as a provocative to venery, 
and is reckoned offovereign virtue influxes of the belly, and 
of the femen, as being a kind of ftyptic earth. A dole of 
borax is from gr. v. to 3 i. $• 
BORBETO'MAGLS, anciently a qity of the Vangiones 
on the Rhine ; now Worms, in Germany. 
BOR'BO, a river of Piedmont, which runs into the Ta- 
naro at Afti. 
BORBO'NIA,yi [fo named from Gajlon Bourbon, duke 
of Orleans.] In botany, a> genus of the clafs diadeiphia,. 
order decandria, natural order papilionaeete , or legumi- 
nofe. It has no Engiilh name. The generic characters 
are—Calyx : perianthium one-leafed, femiquinquefid, tur¬ 
binate, half the length of the corolla; divifions lanceolate, 
acuminate, rigid, pungent, fubequal; the loweft longer 
than the reft. Corolla: pentapetalous, papilionaceous, 
hirfute on the outfide; banner refledted, obtufe, claw the 
length of the calyx ; wings lemicordate, a little iliorter 
than the banner 5 keel two-petalled, lunulate, obtufe. Sta¬ 
mina; filaments nine, united into a cylinder gaping longi¬ 
tudinally above, rifing at the ends; antherae lmall. Pil- 
tillum : germ fubulate; ttyle very Ihort, afeending : ftignta, 
obtule, emarginate. Pericarpium: legume roundilh, acu¬ 
minate, one-celled, mucronate with alpine. Seed : kidney- 
form.— EJfential Charafter. Calyx, acuminate, fpiny; 
ftigma emarginate ; legume mucronate. 
Species. 1. Borbonia ericifolia : leaves fublinear, acute, 
villole; heads terminal. 2. Borbonia kevigata: leaves 
lanceolate, nervelels, lmooth y involucres and calyxes rough, 
with hairs. 3. Borbonia trinervia: leaves lanceolate, three- 
nerved, quite entire. 4. Borbonia lanceolata, or fpear- 
leaved borbonia.: leaves lanceolate, many-nerved, quite 
entire. 5. Borbonia cordata, or heart-leaved borbonia : 
leaves cordate, many-nerved, qttite entire. 6. Borbonia. 
crenata, or notch-leaved borbonia: leaves cordate, many, 
nerved, toothletted. 
Thefe plants grow naturally at the Cape of Good Hope,, 
where they rife to the height of ten or twelve feet ; but 
in Europe they fcldom are more than four or five; having 
{lender ftems, divided into ieveral branches, with ftitf 
leaves 
