6-/> B A L 
BALl.IS'TA, f. [of Gr. to fhoof, or throw;] 
A military engine tiled in the ancient artillery. See Alt - 
' t; r.i.ER'y, p. 230, of tins volume. 
Ba'llista, j\ in practical geometry, the fame as the 
geometrical crol's, called alfo Jacob's Staff. See Cross- 
' Staff. 
B ALLISTA'RII, or Ballistra'rii, /. in antiquity, 
[lingers in the ancient armies, or loldiers v\ ho fought with 
the ballilhe. There are two kinds of ballijiani milites ; 
the former call ft'ones, and other mifiive weapons, witli 
tlte hand, called manuballijlarii, fometimes limply manu- 
balUJice ; the latter, called iqri'trballijlarii, fometimes only 
carrbba/ljlcr, made life of a machine. Some fpeak of a 
third kind, called drcuballijlarii ; but thefe are better re¬ 
duced to the fecond. The ballijiani were fcarcely heard 
of before the age of Conflantine. Ballifiarius is alio tiled, 
in middle-age writers, for a crofs-bowman, or arbalctier. 
BALLIS'TEUM, or Ba llis'trzea, f. [from (?a aA«, 
Gr. to call or toffs, on account of the motions ufed in this 
dance.] In antiquity, a military fong or dance ufed on oc- 
cafions of 1 victory. Vopifcus has preferved the balljlcum 
fung in honour of Aurelian, who, in the Sarmatian war, 
was faid to have killed forty-eight of the enemy in one 
day witli his own hand. Milte, milk, mille, milk, mille, 
milk dccollavimus : unus homo mille, milk, milk, mille' dccolla- 
vit\ milk, milk, milk vivat, qui mille, milk occidit. Tanlum 
vini habet nemo, quantum fudit fanguinis. The fame writer 
fubjoins another popular fong of the fame kind ; Milk 
Francos, mille Sarmatas, femcl occidimus ; milk, mille, mille, 
mille, mille Perfas quarimus. The balUJlca were a kind of 
popular ballads, compofed by poets of the lower clafs, 
without much regard to the laws of metre. 
BALLIS'TIC PENDULUM, J\ an ingenious machine 
invented by Benjamin Robins, for afeertaining tire velo¬ 
city of military projectiles, and confequently the force of 
fired gunpowder. It confifts- of a large block of wood, 
annexed to the end of a ftrong iron Item, having a crofs 
fleel axis at the other end, placed horizontally, about 
which the whole vibrates together like the pendulum of a 
clock. The machine being at red, a piece of ordnance is 
pointed llraight towards the wooden block, or ball of this 
pendulum, and then difeharged : the confequence is this ; 
the ball difeharged from the gun (Trikes and enters the 
block, and caufes the pendulum to vibrate more or lefs ac¬ 
cording to the velocity of the projectile, or the force of the 
blow ; and, by obferving the extent of the vibration, the 
force of that blow becomes known, or the greatefi: velo¬ 
city witli which the block is moved out of its place, and 
confequently the velocity of the projectile itfelf which 
[truck the blow and urged the pendulum. 
RALLIS'TICS,/. is ufed by fome for projectiles, or the 
art of throwing heavy bodies. Merfennus has publilhed 
a treatife on the projection of bodies, under this title. 
BAL'LOGK, rocks on the north-wed coad of the 
ifland of I la. 
B ALI.OGIS'T AN, a didriCt of Ilindodan, in the.coun¬ 
try of Delhi, of an oval form, about eighty miles long, 
and from twenty to thirty broad ; the extremity about 
twenty miles wed from Delhi. 
BALLOO'N, f. [ ballon, Fr.] Any fpherical hollow 
body, of whatever matter it be compofed, or for what¬ 
ever purpofes it be ddigned. Thus, with chemids, bal¬ 
loon denotes a round diort-necked veffel, ufed to receive 
what is diddled by means of fire ; in architecture, a round 
globe on the top of a pillar ; and among engineers, a kind 
of bomb made of padeboard, and played off, in fire¬ 
works, either in the air or on the water, in imitation of a 
real bomb. 
.AV-Ba.li,oon. See Aerostation & Air-Balloon. 
Balloon alfo denotes a kind of game fomething re- 
fenibiing tennis. The balloon is played in the open field, 
with a great round ball of double leather blown up with 
wind, and thus driven to and fro with the flrength of a 
man’s arm, fortified with a brace of wood. 
Balloon, or Balloen, is more particulary ufed a- 
B A L 
ttioiig voyagers forthe date-barges of Siam.' The balloons 
are a kind of brigantine, managed with oars, of very odd 
figures, as ferpents, fea-liorfes, &c. but, by their iharp- 
nefs and number of oars, are of incredible fwiftnefs. The 
balloons are faid to be made of a (ingle piece of timber, of 
great fize and length ; they are railed high, and m« ch de¬ 
corated with carving at the head and ftern: fome are gilt 
over, and carry 120 or even 150 rowers on each fide. The 
oars are either plated over with filve«r, or gilt, or radiated 
witli gold ; and the dome or canopy in the middle, where 
the company is placed, is ornamented with rich duff, and 
furnifhed with a balluftrade of ivory or ebony, enriched 
with gilding. The edges of the balloon juft touch the 
water, but the extremities rife with a fvveep to a great 
height. Some are adorned with variety of figures, made 
of pieces of mother-of-pearl inlaid : the richer fort, inltead 
of a dome, carry a kind of fleeple in the middle ; fo that; 
confidering the flende.rnefs of the veffel, which is ufually 
100 or 1 20 feet long, and fcarcely fix broad, the height of 
the two ends, and of the deeple with a load of decorations, 
it is a kind of miracle that they are not overfet. 
Balloon, in the French paper-trade, is a term for a. 
quantity of paper, containing twenty-four reams. 
Balloon, Ballon, or Ballot, in the French glafs- 
trade, ftgnifies a certain quantity of glafs-plates, fmaller or 
greater, according to their quality. The ballon of white 
glafs contains twenty-five bundle-s, of (ix plates per bun¬ 
dle; but the ballon of coloured glafs is only of twelve 
bundles and a half, and of three plates to a bundle. 
BAL'LOT,y. {balloite, Fr.] A 1 ttle ball or ticket ufed 
in giving votes, being put privai ly into a box or urn. 
The a£t of voting by ballot. 
To Ballot, v. n. [ balloiter, Fr.] To choofe by ballot, 
that is, by putting little balls or tickets, with particular 
marks, privately into a box ; by taking out or counting 
which, it is known what is the refult of the poll, without 
any difeovery by whom each vote was given.—Giving 
their votes by balloting, they lie under no awe. SioiJ't. 
BALLO'TA,/. [/SaAAzJ h, Gr. a name in Diofcorides. ] 
In botany, a genus of the clafs didynamia, order gymno- 
fpermia, natural order of verticillaUe, or labiatae. The 
generic charadters are—Calyx: perianthium one-leafed, 
tubular, falver-fhaped, five-cornered, oblong, ten-ftreaked, 
erect, permanent, equal ; mouth acute, patulous, plaited, 
five-toothed ; involucre of linear folioles under the whorls. 
Corolla.: monopetalous, ringent; tube cylindric, the length 
of the calyx ; upper lip ereft, ovate, entire, crenate, con¬ 
cave ; lower trifid, obtufe; the middleTegment larger, 
emarginate. Stamina:_ filaments four, the two fliorter 
fubulate, bending towards the upper lip, and fliorter than 
it ; anthene oblong, lateral. Piftillum : germ quadrifid ; 
ftyle filiform, in the lame lituation and form with the 
flymens ; ftigrna flender, bifid. Pericarpittm : none ; ca¬ 
lyx unchanged, foftering the feeds in its bofom. Seeds : 
four, ovate .—EJJcntial Chara&er. Calyx falver-fhaped, five- 
toothed, ten-ftreaked; corolla, upper lip crenate, concave. 
Species. 1. Ballota nigra, or (finking or black hore- 
hound : leaves cordate, undivided, ferrate ; calyxes acu¬ 
minate. Stinking or black horehound is a hairy plant, 
with an upright brovnifh ftem, about two feet in height. 
It is a perennial plant, common in 1110ft: parts of Europe, 
in walk places and hedges, flowering in July. It is re¬ 
commended in hyfterical cafes. In Gotland it is an uni- 
verfal remedy in dilorders incident to cattle ; but the 
Svvedifli plant is fuppofed not to be the fame with ours. 
The Rowers are occafionally found white, and then it is 
miftaken for ballota alba of Linnaeus, which is not a na¬ 
tive of England. 
2. Ballota alba, or white-flowered black horehound : 
leaves cordate, undivided, ferrate; calyxes fubtruncate. 
Liniucus doubts whether this may not be a variety of.the 
foregoing fort. 
3. Ballota lanata, or woolly black horehound : leaves 
palmate, toothed; Item woolly. Native of Siberia towards 
China. Cultivated in 1776, by Mr. James Gordon. 
4. Ballota 
