B A 
and ball, which the We!Hi term bcl. By the Scotch alto 
the head is named bliel ; whence the Ehglilli bill is derived, 
iignifying the beak of a bird. Figuratively, the Phrygians 
and Tlmrians by underftood a king. Hence alfo, 
in the Syriac dialects, (3aaA, and likewife /3o.-A, nu¬ 
llifies lord, and by this name alfo the fun ; and, in tome 
dialeCts, y,A and fA, whence iA©- and - fl Ai©-, and |3»- 
Ai©-, and alfo, in the Celtic diminutive way of expre’flion, 
tAsi©', ysAsy©, and fignified the fun ; and *A«nr, 
yiXern, and (3=A ek ?, the moon. Among the Teutonics, hoi 
and heil have the fame meaning; whence tire adjeCtive ha- 
lig, or heilig , is derived, and fignifies divine or holy ; and 
flte afpiration being changed into J j- the Romans form 
their/o/.] Any tiling made in a round form, or approach¬ 
ing to round.—Worms with many feet round themfelves 
into balls under logs of timber, but not in the' timber. Ba¬ 
con. —Like a ball of fnovv tumbling down'a hill, he gather¬ 
ed ftrength as he palled. Howell. —A round thing to play 
with, either with the hand or foot, ora racket.—Thofe I 
have feen play at ball, grow extremely earned who fhotild 
have the ball. Sidney. —A frnall round thing, with Tome 
particular mark, by which the votes are given, or the 
lots calf : 
Minos,, the drift inquilitor, appears : 
Round in his urn the blended balls lie fowls, 
Abfolve.s the juft, and dooms the guilty fouls. Dry den. 
A globe ; as, the ball of the earth : 
Ye gods, what juftice rules the ball ? 
Freedom and arts together fall. Pope. 
A globe borne as an enfign of fovereignty.—Hear the tra¬ 
gedy of a young man, that by right ought to hold the ball 
of a kingdom ; but, by fortune, is made himfelf a ball, 
tolled from mifery to mifery, from place to place. Bacon. 
—Any part of the body that approaches to roundnefs ; as, 
the lower and fwelling part of the thumb ; the apple of 
the eye.—To make a ftern countenance, let your brow 
bend fo, that it may almofl touch the ball of the eye. 
Peacham. 
Ball, f. \_bal , Fr. from balare , low Lat. from iS^AAi^u, 
to dance.] An entertainment of dancing, at which the 
preparations are made at the expence of fome particular 
perfon or perfons : 
If golden fconces hang not on the walls, 
To light the coftly flippers and the balls. Drydcn. 
—He would make no extraordinary figure at a ball ; Tut 1 
can affure the ladies, for their confolation, that he has 
written better verfes on the fex than any man. Swift. 
Ball, in the military art, comprehends all forts of bul¬ 
lets for fire-arms, from the cannon to the piftol. Cannon¬ 
balls are of iron ; mufket-balls, piftol-balls, See. are of 
lead. The experiment has been tried of iron balls for 
piftols and fufees ; but they are juftly rejected, not only 
on account of their lightnefs, which prevents them from 
flying ftraight, but becaufe they are apt to furrow the bar¬ 
rel of the piftol, Sec. 
Bali, of a Pendulum, the weight at the bottom. In 
fhorter pendulums this is called the bob. 
Bam,, in pyrotechnics, is a compofition of various com- 
buftible ingredients, ferving to burn, fnioke, give light, 
Sec. In this fenfe we read of fire-balls, light-balls, fmoke- 
balls, ftink-balls, fky-balls, water-balls, land-balls, horfe- 
balls, See. 
Ball, among the Cornifh miners, fignifies a tin-mine. 
Ball, among printers, a kind of wooden tunnel fluffed 
with wool, contained in a leather cover,-which is nailed to 
the wood, with which the ink is applied on the forms to 
be wrought off. See Printing. 
HorJ'e- Balls, among farriers. Horfes have a very 
nice tafte ; it is therefore proper to give the more difa- 
greeable drugs in the form of balls, and to make drenches 
of the more palatable. Horfe-balls fliould be of ah oval 
Y-ol. II, No. 94 . 
L L. - 693 
fhape, not exceeding the fize of a pullet’s egg; and fliould. 
be dipped in fweet oil to make them flip down the .eafler. 
See Farriery. 
Ball-vein, in mineralogy, a name given by the mi¬ 
ners of Suffex to a fort of iron ore produced there, and 
wrought to conliderable advantage. It yields not any,great 
quantity of metal, but what it has runs freely in the fire; 
it is ufually found in loofe- maffes, not in the form of a 
ftratum, and is often covered with one or more crufts, it 
generally contains fome glittering particles ; and is ufually 
of a circular form in the perfect maffes, thickeft in the 
middle, and gradually thinner as it approaches the (ides. 
The ores of Suffex in general are poor, but they require 
very little trouble in the working ; fo that a confiderable 
profit is made from them. 
Ball and Socket is an inftrument made of brafs, with 
a perpetual ferew, fo as to move horizontally, vertically, 
and obliquely ; and is generally ufed for the management 
of furveying and aftronomical inftruments. 
Puff- Ball, the Englifh name of the lycoperdon, a ge- 
nus of fungi. See Lycoperdon. 
Balls, Martial. A medical compofition, confifiing 
of iron filings and cream of tartar, ufed to impregnate wa¬ 
ter, or other liquids, with iron difiolyed by the acid of 
tartar. To make thefe balls, one part of filings of iron 
and two parts of powdered cream of tartar are mixed well 
together, and put into an earthen or iron veflel with fome 
water. This mixture is to be ftirred from time to time, 
until it becomes almoft dry, and then it is to receive more 
water, and to be ltirred as befoie. This treatment is to 
be continued until it acquires, when nearly dry, fomewhat 
of the confidence and tenacity of foftened refin. Then it 
is to be rolled up into the form of a ball, which is gene-i 
rally kept tied up in a rag; and when intended to be ufed, 
it is to be infufed in water until it gives fome colour to that 
liquid. In this compofition, part of the acid of tartar, 
combines with part of the iron ; and the remaining or 
greater part of the cream of tartar and iron continues fo- 
lid in this way of proceeding. The infufion of the mar¬ 
tial ball in water does not therefore differ, as Macquerob- 
ferves, from the tartarized tincture of iron. Its virtues 
are much the fame as thofe of other martial medicines. 
Thefe balls are unknown to us in England. 
Balls, Mercurial. Thefe confift of an amalgam of 
tin and mercury, in which the former metal fo far predo¬ 
minates, as to give the rhafs a foiid form, Macquer men¬ 
tions the ufe of them by travellers to purify water, in 
which they are boiled for this purpofe. We do not fee, 
however, in what refpedt they would produce any mate¬ 
rial advantage. The mercurial impregnation, which the 
water would flightiy receive from this treatment, does not 
feetn likely to counteract, in any confiderable degree, the 
bad qualities of another nature which may predominate in 
waters. 
Balls of Silk-worms and Spiders, are little cafes 
or cones of lilk, wherein thofe infects depofit their eggs. 
Spiders are extremely carefui of their balls, which they 
carry about with them, adhering to the papillae of the 
anus. See Aranea. 
Balls, in electricity, invented by Mr. Canton, are two 
pieces of cork, or pith of elder-tree, nicely turned in a 
lathe to the fize of a frnall pea, and fufpended by fine 
linen threads. They are ufed as electrometers, and are of- 
excellent ufe to difeover frnall degrees of eleCtrjcity ; and 
to obferve its changes from pofitive to negative, or the re¬ 
verie ; as alfo to eftimate the force of a (hock before the 
di(charge, fo that the operator (hall always be able to tell 
very nearly before-hand what thp explofion will be, by 
knowing how high he has charged his jars. 
Balls of Fire, in meteorology. See FiRE-Balls. 
Eire- Balls, in the military art, are bags of canvas 
filled with gun-powder, fulphur, falt-petre, pitch, See. 
to be thrown by the foldiers, or out of mortars, to fire the 
houfeSj ftorm trenches, advanced pofts, or the like. The 
Greeks had divers kinds of fire-balls, or mfofio),©' AiSoi 3 
8 D one 
