658 B A L 
Valier de St. Balmont ; it is, however,' Madame de St. 
Balmont of that name who returns you your (word, and 
begs you in future to pay more regard to the requefts of 
the ladies. She then left him, covered with thame and 
confufion. The courage of the fair challenger being thus 
inflamed, (he did not red fatisfied with merely preferving 
her eftates by repelling force by force, but fite afforded 
protection to marry of the gentlemen in her neighbourhood, 
who made no fcruple to take refuge in her village, and to 
pur themfelves under her orders when fhe took the field, 
which fhe always did with fuccefs, her defigns being exe¬ 
cuted with a prudence equal to her courage. The man¬ 
ner of living, however, of Madame de St. Balmont, fo 
far removed from that of her (ex, and which, in all other 
females who have attempted it, has ever been found uni¬ 
ted with libertinifm of manners, was in her accompanied 
with nothing that bore the lead refemblance to it. When 
(he was at home, in time of peace, her whole day was 
employed in the offices of religion ; in prayers, in reading 
the Bible and books of devotion, in viliting the poor of 
her parifh, whom ffie was ever affiffing with the moft ac¬ 
tive zeal and charity.. This manner of living procured 
her the admiration and efieem of perfons of all deferip- 
tions in her neighbourhood, and infured her a degree of 
TefpeCl that could not have been greater towards a queen.” 
BALMUC'CIA, a town of Piedmont, in the valley of 
Sefia; (even miles weft of Varallo. 
BAL'MY, adj. Having the qualities of balm ; 
Soft on the flow’ry herb I found-me laid, 
In balmy fweat; which with his beams the fun 
Soon dry’d. Milton. 
Producing balm : 
Let India boaft her groves, nor envy we 
The weeping amber and the balmy tree. Pope. 
Soothing ; foft ; mild : 
Come, Defdemona, ’tis the foldiers life 
To have their balmy (lumbers wak’d with ftrife. Shakefp. 
Fragrant; odoriferous : 
The winds upon their balmy wings convey’d, 
Thofe rich perfumes which firft the world betray’d. Dryd. 
Mitigating; affitafive: 
O balmy breath, that doth almoft perfuade 
Juftice to break her fvvord ! Sliakcfpeare. 
BALNEA'RII SER'VI, in antiquity, fervants or at¬ 
tendants belonging to the baths. Some were appointed 
to heat them, called fornicatores ; others were denominated 
capfarii, who kept the clothes of thofe that went into 
them ; others aliptce, whofe care it was to pull off the hair; 
others unEluarii, who anointed and perfumed the body. 
BALNEA'RIUS FUR, in antiquity, a kind of thief 
who prattifed dealing the clothes of perfons in the baths; 
fometimes alfo called fur balnearum. The crime of thofe 
thieves was a kind of facrilege ; for the hot baths were 
facred : hence they were more feverely puniftied than com¬ 
mon thieves who dole out of private houfes. The latter 
were acquitted with paying double the value of the thing 
ftolen ; whereas the former were puniftied with death. 
BAL'NEARY,yi [ balnearium, Lat.] A bathing-room. 
•—The balnearies, and bathing-places, he expofeth unto 
the fummer fetting. Brown. 
B ALNEA'TION,yi [from balneum, Lat. a bath.] The 
aft of bathing.— As the head may be difturbed by the 
ikin, it may the Came way be relieved, as is obfervable in 
balneations, and fomentations of that part. Brown. 
B AL'Nt£ATORY, adj. \_balncanus, Lat.] Belonging 
to a bath or ftove. 
BAL'NEUM, f. [(SctAavnoi', from | 3 aAaj/oan acorn, 
becaufe the ancients it fed to burn the bulks of nuts or 
aimns in their baths. Minffievv. Or from ffuWu, to call 
away, and grief, becaufe it expels griefs from the 
mind. D. Auguft. in Lib. Confeff. Probably from ^3 
B A L 
Talmud.] A bath, or bathing-houfe. Alfo a term uffid 
by chemifts to lignify a velfel filled with land, water, or 
the like, in which another is placed that requires a more 
gentle heat than the.naked fire. 
BALOG', a town of Hungary, 20 miles eaft of Altfol. 
BALO'HA, a town of Africa, on the river Grand, 
inhabited by the defeendants of a mixture of Portuguefe 
and Africans. 
B ALON'GO, three iflands in the bay of Bengal, near 
the coaft of Aracan. Lat. 19. 50. to 20. 5. N. Ion. 93. to 
93.20. E. Greenwich. 
B ALOTA'DE, f. The leap of a liorfe, fo that, when 
his fore-feet are in the air, he (hews nothing but the (hoes 
of his hinder-feet, without yerking out. A balotadc differs 
from a capriole ; for, when a horfe works at caprioles, lie 
yerks out his hinder legs with all his force. 
BALOU', a country or kingdom of Africa, bounded 
on the north by Egypt, on'the weft by Nubia, on the eaft 
by the Red Sea, and on the Couth by Abyffinia; fixty 
leagues in length, and forty in breadth. The inhabitants 
are Mahometans, but the country is not well peopled. 
Balou, a town of Afia, in Armenia ; twenty-five miles 
north-weft of Cars. 
BALS, a river of Weft Greenland, which runs into the 
fea. Lat. 64. 30. N. Ion. 30. 10. W. Greenwich. 
BAL'SA, anciently a town of Lufitania in the Ager, 
Cunaeus ; now Tavira, capital of Algarva. 
BAL'SAM, J. \_balfam, Teut. baum, Fr. balfamum, Lat. 
of j3&A<7a//.ov, Gr.] A name given to certain oily, refinous, 
and odorous, lubltances, procured by making incifions in 
the outer bark of trees or plants. They are originally li¬ 
quid, but fomewhat thick, and in fome inftances flow fpon- 
taneoufly from the plant which produces them. Thele are 
called natural balfams, to diftinguiffi them from pharma¬ 
ceutical or chemical compofitions that bear the fame name. 
Balfams are only refins in their liquid ftate, though they 
are often found to be combined with a confiderabie pro¬ 
portion of gum, in which ftate they are called gum refins. 
Refins not fo combined are only foluble in vinous fpirits 
and oils. They cannot be diffolved by water, nor are they 
volatile in the heat of boiling water ; but they are fufible 
in a fmall degree of heat, and readily inflammable on the 
contact of any flaming or ignited body. Balfams which 
are of the nature of gum refins can o.niy be diffolved by a 
mixture of fpirit and water. See Ci-if.mistry. 
Balfamic medicines are warm and ftimulating. Under 
this denomination come what we commonly call nervous 
and antiparalytic medicines, as alfo many cordial tinchires 
and other compounds of ffmilar properties. The princi¬ 
pal medicines belonging to this clafs, which are retained 
in our modern pharmacopoeias, are amber, benzoin, fforax, 
the balfams of Peru and Tolu, &c. &c. But though 
many writers have confidered that clafs of remedies which 
we call balfams as of great fervice in medicine, yet there 
are others who entertain great doubts of their efficacy. 
And indeed it muff be admitted, that where they are de- 
figned to a< 5 t locally, as on the lungs for inffance, balfams 
labour under a mod important defeff ; for they mu ft take 
a great circuit in mod inftances, before they can arrive at 
the difeafed part; by which means they not only operate 
(lowly, but are much weakened by the aftion of the ftc- 
mach and blood-veffels, and by the intermixture of other 
fluids. Where balfams are chiefly given, the feat of the 
diforder is generally in the vifeera ; where a medicine fan 
only arrive by the common conveyance of the blood; and 
how long, from its being taken into the ftomach, muft 
fuch a medicine be, and how many alterations muft it un¬ 
dergo in the divers parts of the body it paffes through, be¬ 
fore it comes to the part affefted! Though the lungs are, 
by their fituation, fo near the ftomach, yet a medicine can¬ 
not arrive there till it has taken its courfe through the 
lafteuls, paffed all the meanders of the mefentery, gone 
up with the chyle into the fubclavian vein, and there en¬ 
tered the blood ; and, after all, it has only the chance 
o'f coming to the part in fuch a quantity, as with re- 
