BUR 
a high entertainment to the reader, who is capable of being 
pleated as well as inftructed. This even Keill himfelf al¬ 
lows : “ l or as I believe (fays he) never any book was 
toller of errors and mitlakes in philofophy, tin none ever 
abounded with more beautiful fcenes, and furprifing ima¬ 
ges of nature. But Twrite only to thofe who might per¬ 
haps expedt to find a true philofophy in it : they who read 
it as an ingenious romance, will ftill be pleafed with their 
entertainment.” 
BUR'NET, f. in botany. See Poterium, Sangui- 
sorba, and Pimpinella. 
BURNE'TA,yi Cloth made of dyed wool. A burnct 
colour mull be dyed; but brunus color may be made with 
wool without dying, which are called medleys or ruflets. 
Lyndcwcod. Thus much is mentioned, becaufe this word 
is fometimes wrote bruncta. 
BUR'NEYS, an ifland on the north-eafi coat! of Siberia, 
in the Frozen Sea. Lat.67.40.N. Ion. 182.30.E.Greenwich. 
BURN'HAM, or Burnham-Market, a fmall town 
in Norfolk, 34 miles from Norwich, and 127 from Lon¬ 
don. It has a good harbour ; with a market on Saturdays, 
and fairs March 15 and Auguft 1. On the fhore are many 
little hills, fuppofed to be the tombs of the Saxons and 
Danes formerly killed here. There are feveral villages 
in this neighbourhood of the fame name, which, for dif- 
timflion, carry an additional one of the names of the an¬ 
cient lords of the feveral manors. They carry on a great 
trade in corn coafiwife. Burnham-Deepdale, in the north- 
weft part of the county, is noted for its falt-marlhes, which 
are proper for feeding and preferving ftieep in health. 
BURN'ING, J'. [from burn.'] The adtion of fire on 
fome pabulum or fuel, by which its minute parts are put 
into a violent motion, and fome of them, aftuming the 
nature of fire, fly off in orbcm, while the reft are diftipated 
in vapour, or reduced to allies. See Ignition. 
BURN'ING, adj. Vehement; powerful : 
Thefe things fting him 
So venomoufly, that binning fhame detains him 
From his Cordelia. Shakefpeare. 
BURN'ING, f. in forgery, denotes the application of 
an adlual cautery, that is, a red-hot iron inftrument, to 
the part aftedted ; which is otherwife denominated caute¬ 
rization. The whole art of phyfic among the Japanefe 
lies in the choice of places proper to be burnt; which are 
varied according to the dileafe. In the country of the 
Mogul, the cholic is cured by an iron ring applied red- 
hot about the patient’s navel. Certain it is, that fome 
very extraordinary cures have been performed accidental¬ 
ly by burning. The following cafe was communicated to 
Mr. Homberg by a phylician at Bruges. A woman, who 
for feveral years had her legs and thighs fwelled in an ex¬ 
traordinary manner, found fome relief from rubbing them 
before the fire with brandy every morning and evening. 
One evening the fire chanced to catch the brandy flie had 
rubbed herfelf with, and Rightly burnt her. She applied 
fome brandy to her burn; and in the night all the water 
her legs and thighs were fwelled with was entirely dif- 
charged by urine, and the fwelling did not again return. 
The ancients had recourfe to this remedy very frequently, 
and with a degree of advantage that, ought to have de¬ 
terred modern furgeons from relinquifliing the pradfice fo 
abfolutely as they have done. 
BURN'ING of COLOURS. See Colour-making'. 
BURN'ING the DEAD. See Funeral Pile. 
BURN'ING in the HAND. See Branding. 
BURN'ING of HOUSES, out-houfes, &c. malicioufiy, 
fee Arson, vol. ii. p. 218. To the malicious burnings 
there mentioned, may be added, that by fiat. 6 Geo. I. 
c. 23, aftaulting with intention to burn the garments of ano¬ 
ther in the public ftreet (by aqua-fortis, &c.) is punifha- 
ble with tranfportation. By ftat. 22 and 23 Car. 11 , c. it. 
and 1 Anne, c. 9. to burn any Jhif> to the prejudice of the 
owners or freighters ; and by ftat. 4 Geo. 1 . c. 12. to the 
prejudice of the underwriters, is made felony without 
clergy. By ftat. 12 Geo. III. c. 24. to burn the king’s 
ftiips of war, or any of the arfenals or ftores, Sc c. therein, 
Vol. III. No. 146, 
BUR 533- 
is alfo made felony without clergy. By ftat. 27 Geo. *1. 
c. 15. threatening by anonymous or fictitious letters to 
burn houfes, barns, &c. is felony without clergy. As to 
penalty on fervants letting fire to houfes by negligence, 
fee the article Fire. 
BURNING-GLASS, Lens, or Mirror, a machine 
by which the fun’s rays are collected into a point; and 
by that means their force and effect are extremely heigh¬ 
tened, fo as to burn objects placed in it. Burning-glades 
are of two kinds, convex and concave. The convex ones 
are lenfes, which, adting according to the laws of refrac¬ 
tion, incline the rays of light towards the axis, and unite 
them in a point or focus. The concave ones are mirrors 
or refledfors, whether made of polifhed metal or filvered 
glafs, and which, adfing by the laws of reflection, throw 
the rays back into a point or focus before the glafs. 
The life of burning-glafTes.appears to be very ancient, 
many of the old authors relating fome eft’edls of them. 
Diodorus Siculus, Lucian, Dion, Zonaras, Galen, Anthe¬ 
mius, Eli ftat i us, Tzetzes, and others, relate that by means 
of them Archimedes fet fire to the Roman fleet at the 
fiege of Syracufe. Tzetzes is fo particular in his account 
of this matter, that his description fuggefted to Kite her 
the method by which it was probably accompliflied. That 
author fays, that “ Archimedes fet fire to Marcellus’s 
navy by means of a burning-glafs compofed of fmall fquare 
mirrors, moving everyway upon hinges; which, when 
placed in the fun’s rays, directed them upon the Roman 
fleer, fo as to reduce it to allies at the diftance of a bow- 
(hot.” And the burning power of refledlors is mentioned 
in Euclid’s Optics, theor. 31. Again, Ariftophanes, in 
his comedy of The Clouds, introduces Socrates as examin¬ 
ing Strepliades about a method he had difeovered of get¬ 
ting clear of his debiS. He replies, that “ he thought of 
making ufe of a burning-glafs which he had hitherto ufed 
in kindling his fire ; for, Ihould they bring a writ againft 
me, I’ll immediately place my glafs in the fun at fome lit¬ 
tle diftance from it, and let it on fire.” Pliny and Ladlan- 
tius have alfo fpoken of glades that burn by refraction. 
The former calls them balls or globes of cryjlal or glafs , 
which, being expofed to the fun, tranfmit a heat fufiicient 
to fet fire to cloth, or corrode the dead fiefh of thofe pa¬ 
tients who Hand in need of cauftics ; and the latter, after 
Clemens Alexandrinus, obferves, that fire may be kindled 
by interpofing glades filled with water between the fun 
and the obj.e£t, fo as to tranfmit the rays to it. 
Among the ancients the mod celebrated burning-mir¬ 
rors were thofe of Archimedes and Proclus; by the for¬ 
mer was burnt the fleet of Marcellus, as above-mentioned ; 
and by the latter, the navy of Vitellius, befieging Byzan¬ 
tium, according to Zonaras, was burnt to allies. Among 
the moderns, the mod remarkable burning-glades are thofe 
of Magine, of 20 inches diameter ; of Sepatala of Milan, 
near 42 inches diameter, and which burnt at the diftance 
of fifteen feet ; of Settala, ofVillette, of Tfchirnhaufen, 
of BufFon, of Trudaine, and of Parker. Villette, a French 
artift at Lyons, made a large mirror, which was bought by 
Tavernier, and prefented to the king of Priifha ; a fecond, 
bought by the king of Denmark; a third, prefented to the 
Royal Academy by the king of France; and a fourth 
came to England, and was publicly fhewn. 1 his mirror 
is 47 inches inches wide, being a fegment of a Iphere of 
76 inches radius ; fo that its focus is about 38 inches from 
the vertex ; and its fubftance is a comp ojfit ion of tin, cop¬ 
per, and tin-glafs. Some of its effects were as follow : 
A filver fixpence melted in - - Seconds 7J 
A George the Firfi’s halfpenny in 
and runs with a hole in - 
Tin melts in — 
Caft-iron in - - - - 
Slate in 
A fofiil ftiell calcines in . .. 
tv c V, . -n •. -r f the black part in 
Piece of Pompey’s pillar vitrifies | thg whi(e ‘ part in 
Copper-ore in 
Bone calcines in 4, and vitrifies in 
6 U 
16 
34 
3 
16 
3 
7 
SO 
54 
8 
33 ' 
An 
