flowers, the violet; of tour-footed annuals, the cameleon; 
of fowls, the peacock; of human confiitutions, the fan- 
guine; and of the ages, youth. 
AZY'GES,/. [from a. priv. and £yyo <;, a yoke.] Inana¬ 
tomy, the os fphenoides. 
AZY'GOS,/. [from « priv. and a yoke, becaufe 
it has no fellow.] Having nothing anfwerable, or that will 
pair with it, as the azygos vein of the thorax, See. 
AZY'MA,/ [of «, without, and leaven.] The 
feafi of unleavened bread among the Jews. 
A'ZYMITES.yi [fromapriv. and ferment.] In 
church hiflory, Chrifiians who adminifier the eucharifl 
with unleavened bread. This appellation is given to the 
Latin by the Greek church, becaufe the members of the 
former ufe fermented bread in the celebration of the eu- 
charift. They alfo call the Armenians and Maronites by 
the fame name, and for the fame reafon. 
A'ZYMOUS[from a priv. and fermentation.] 
BAA 
Unfermented, or made without leaven; us unleavened 
bread. Sea-bifcuit is of this kind; and therefore, accord¬ 
ing to Galen, lefs wholefome than bread that has been fer¬ 
mented. 
AZYR', (Felix Vicq d’), was phyfician to the late queen 
of France, one of the forty members of the late French 
Academy, member of the Academy of Sciences, fecretary 
of the Medical Society at Paris, and author of many va¬ 
luable works, chiefly on anatomical fubjedts. Of Ins Iplen- 
did anatomical plates only five numbers were publilhed ; 
but he has left many more plates finifhed, and much MS 
defeription prepared for the prefs. Thefe are to be pub¬ 
lilhed at the expence of the French nation. His laft per¬ 
formance was an anatomical defeription of the rhinoceros 
that died lately at Verfailles. He died at Paris in June, 
1794, of a pulmonary inflammation, in the forty-lixth year 
of his age. 
AZZO'GLIO, a town of Italy, in the principality o£ 
Maflerano, fix miles north-north-eaft of Malferano. 
T HE letter B is the fecond of the Englifli and mod 
other alphabets. It is the fir ft confonant, and firlt 
mute, and its pronunciation is fuppofed to refemble the 
bleating of a fheep ; upon which account Pierius tells 11s, 
in his Hieroglyphics, that the Egyptians rCprefented the 
found of this letter by the figure of that animal. B is al¬ 
fo one of thole letters w hich the eaftern grammarians call 
labial, becaufe the principal organs employed in its pro¬ 
nunciation are the lips. It is pronounced by prefling the 
whole length of them together, and forcing them open with 
a flrong breath. It has a near affinity with the other la¬ 
bials P and V, and is often tiled for P both by the Arme¬ 
nians and other orientals, as in Betrus for Petrus, apfens for 
abfens, &c. and by the Romans for V, as in amabit for ama- 
vit, berna for verrta, Sic. whence arofe that jefi of Aurelian 
on the emperor Bonofus, Non ul vivat natus ejl,fed ut bibat. 
Plutarch obferves, that the Macedonians changed <p into 
B, and pronounced Bilip, Berenice, Sic. for Philip , Phere- 
nice, St c/ and thofe of Delphos ufed B infiead of II, l 3 a 8 eiv 
for rrx 8 nv, ( 3 tvgov for mv.gov, Sic. The Latins fa.\dfuppono, 
vppono, for fubpono, obpono ; and pronounced optinuit, though 
ihey wrote obtinv.it, as Quintillian has obferved. They 
alfo ufed B for F or PH : thus, in an ancient infeription 
mentioned by Gruter, Obrendario is ufed for Ofren- 
dario. In Germany this letter is confounded with P, 
and in Gafcony with V, from whence an epigrammatifl re¬ 
marks, that bibere and vivere are in Gafcony the fame. The 
•Spaniards, in mod words, ufe B or V indifferently. 
As a numeral, B was ufed by the Greeks and Hebrews 
to denote 2; but among the Romans for 300, and w'ith a 
dafh over it for 3000. B is alfo ufed as an abbreviation: 
thus B. A. Bands for bachelor of arts ; B. L. for bachelor 
©flaws; andB.D. for bachelor of divinity. B.F. in the 
preface to the decrees or fenatus-confulta of the old Ro¬ 
mans fignified bonum falium. In mulic, B Bands for the 
tone above A; as Bo, or fB, does for B flat, or the femi- 
tone major above A. B alfo Bands for bafs; and B. C. 
for bajjo continuo, or thorough bafs. 
BA, a town of Africa, in the country of Adra, on the 
Slave Coafi. 
BAA,yi The cry of a Bleep : 
—Therefore thou art a fheep.. 
Such another proof would make me cry baa. Shahefpeare. 
To Baa, v. n. [ halo, Lat.] To cry like a Bleep : 
Or like a lamb, whofe dam away is fet. 
He treble baas for help, but none can get. Sydney. 
BAAD'STEDj or Bat'ste», a f«a-pprt town of Swe¬ 
den, in South Gothland, with a bay, in which are feveral 
fmall ports : ten miles north of Engelholm. Lat. 56. 28. 
N. Ion. 18. o. E. Ferro. 
BA'AL, [Sya Heb. a lord or pofleflor.] The fame as 
Bel, or Belus ; an idol of the Chaldeans, the Phoenicians, 
or Canaanites. The former worfliipped Mars under this 
name, according to Jofepluis ; who, fpeaking of Thurus 
the fuccelfor of Ninus, fays, “ To this Mars tire Aflyrians 
erected‘the firB fiatue, and worfliipped him as a god, call¬ 
ing him Baal." It is probable that the Phoenicians wor¬ 
fliipped the fun under the name of Baal; for Joliah, will¬ 
ing to make fome amends for the wickednefs of Manaf- 
feh, in worfhipping Baal, and all the liofi of heaven, put 
to death the idolatrous priejls that burnt incenfe unto Baal, to 
the fun, and to the'hioon, and to the planets, and to all the hofi 
of heaven. He likewife took away the horfes that the kings of 
Judah had given to the fun, and burnt the chariots of the fun 
with fre. 
The temples confecrated to this god are called in the 
Scripture chamanim, which fignifies ‘places inclofed with 
walls,’ in which was kept a perpetual fire. Maundrell, in 
his journey from Aleppo to Jerufalem, obferved fome tra¬ 
ces of thefe inclolures in Syria. In moil of them were no 
Batues; in a few there were fome, but of no uniform figure. 
The word baal (in the Punic language) fignifies ‘lord 
ormafler;’ and doubtlefs meant the fupreme Deity, the 
lord and mafier of the univerfe. It is often joined with 
the name of fome falfe god, as Baal-beritk, Baal-peor, Baal- 
zephon, and the like. This deity paffed from the Phoeni¬ 
cians to the Carthaginians, who were a colony of the Phoe¬ 
nicians ; as appears from the Carthaginian names, Hanni¬ 
bal, Afdrubal, &c. according to the cuftom of the eafi, 
where kings and great men added to their own names thofe 
of their gods. 
This falfe deity is frequently mentioned in Scripture in 
the plural number (Baalim)-, which may fignify, either 
that the name Baal was given to feveral difierent gods, or 
that there were many Batues, bearing difierent appella¬ 
tions, confecrated to this idol. Arnobius tells 11s, that 
Baal was of an uncertain fex ; and that his votaries, when 
they called upon him, invoked him thus : “Hear us, whe¬ 
ther thou art a god or a goddefs.” 
Some learned men think, that the Baal of the Phoeni¬ 
cians is the Saturn of the Greeks; which is probable e- 
nough from the conformity there is between the human 
facrifices offered to Saturn and thofe which the Scripture 
tells us were offered to Baal. Others are of opinion, that 
Baal was the Phoenician or Tyrian Heracles, a god of great 
antiquity in Phsenicia. 
Ba4G 
