B E V
B E Z
flowers, call'd by many the fmooth field fideritis; and, 8. The pale, yellow-flower* J fea-betony, call'd alfo by many a fpecles of fideritis,
Pliny tells us,thzt betonica was only the namegiven by theGauls to the plant call'd in Italy ferrata ; which, by all defcriptions left us of it, appears to have been the fame with our ferratuh, or faw-wort, having deeply fmuated leaves indented about the edges. Some authors have indeed attributed to it leaves like thofe of the dock ; but this arifcs from the ftrange error of con- . founding it with the britannica of the antients, which was no other than our great water-dock. The commentator on the fynonymous words of Diofcorides has given bettmica and bri- tannica, as meaning the fame plant, tho' their whole defer ip- tion is different in that author, and their virtues wholly diffe- rent, and nothing at all alike in them but the found of their names. Diofcorides fjys, that the betonica, or ceftrum, as he calls it, has leaves fmuated and notch'd, and that the britannica has leaves like the great docks ; yet authors have contriv'd fmce to apply thefe two characters to the fame plant, and Neophytus has made a long Greek defcription for his bctoniee, containing all that this author has faid of this plant, and all that feveral others have faid, either of the britannica or betonica; for he fets out with the error of fuppofing them the fame, and lias on the whole given an account more unintelligible, by reafon of its length, than the generality of the accounts we have from the Greeks are, by reafon of their fhortnefs. Betony is a medicinal plant, eftcemed a good cephalic, vulne- rary, cardiac, diuretic, and dryer. Some alfo make betony a good fplenetlc, hepatic, thoracic, uterine, and what not. The Italians, when they would praife any body, fay, tu hai piu di virtu che non ha betonica ; that is, you have more virtues than betony ; and proverbially defire, vende la tunica €if compra la betonica; that is, fell your coat and buy betony. Ray, Syn. Stirp Brit p. 127. Mathiol. zdDiofcor, 1. 4. c. 1, Ant. Mufa, phyfician of the emperor Auguftus, wrote a treatife exprefs, de betonica, ftill extant a . Wherein he commends it greatly as a vulnerary, efpecially in wounds of the head, and enumerates its ufes in the cure of no lefs than forty-feven difeafes b . — [ a It was printed with other writers de remedica, at Bafil, 1528. and again, with Apulaei Herbarium, Tigur. 1537. b Vid. fabric. Bibl. Lat. T. 2. 1. 3, c. 2.
p. 2$. Burggr. Lex Med. T. 1. p 1554. feq.] Betony is chiefly adminiftred in the way of decoction, fome- times of fmoak, fometimes as an ingredient of a cerat or plaifter, hence called anplajlrum de betonica. Some alfo give its juice boiled to the confiftence of honey, mixed with a little balfam of Peru, as a pectoral healer. B^mnc. Difpenf. P. 2, §. 1. n. J. p. 70.
Foreign difpenfaries alfo give the preparations of a betony wa- ter, a fyrup, conferve, and extract of betony. Vid. Jwtck. Confp. Therap. tab. 6. p. 238. and Burrg. p. 1553.
BETONICA Pauli, in botany, a name given by many to fome of the fpecies of the veronica, or fpeedwell. See the article Veronica.
BETROTHMENT, a mutual promife or compact between two parties, for a future marriage. Vid. Wale. Introd. Phil. 1. 2. c. 6. §. 90.
The word imports as much as giving one's troth ; that is, true faith, or promife. Vid. Skin. Etym. in voc. Betrothment amounts to the fame with what is called by civi- lians and cznomfe fponfalia, or efpoufals \ fometimes defponfa- lion ; and, by the French, fanfailles. Trev. Diet, Univ. T. 2. p. 1780.
Betrothment is either folemn, made in the face of the church, or private, made before witnefies out of the church. Trev. Diet. Univ. ubi fupr.
To betroth ly giving arrha, or earneft, is called in middle-age writers fublarrare. Du Cange, T. 4. p. 982. The nuns of the annunciada, hold an annual feaft, in honour of the defponfation, or betrothment of the holy virgin to Jo- feph. Trev. Diet. Univ. T. 2. p. 704.
BETULA, the birch-tree, in botany. See Birch.
BEVEL ( Cycl ) — The be vel anfwers, in good meafure, to the French fauffe equerre, fauterelle, and angle 3 '. Divers forms of which are defcribed by Bion b . — [ a Vid. Qzan. Diet. Math. p. 29. b Trait, des Inftrum, Mathemat. 1. 4. c. 3. Wolf. Lex. Math. p. 620.]
Bricklayers have alfo a bevel, by which they cut the under fides of the bricks of arches ftreight or circular, to fuch ob- lique angles as the arches require, and alfo for other ufes. Moxon. Mechan. Exerc. p. 245.
Graduated Bevel is that which has about the center of one of its arms a femicircle graven, and divided into 180 degrees, whofe diameter ftands fquare with the fides of the fame arm ; fo that the end of the other arm, being divided at right angles, almoft to the centre, fhews by its motion the number of de- grees contained in the angle to be meafured. Davil. Archit. p. 849. This is alfo called rccipiangle, and pantamette.
BEVERAGE, in a general fenfe, fignifies a drink. Hence nectar is faid to be the beverage of the Gods. In writers of the middle age, beverage, beveragium, or biberagium, denotes money given to an artificer, or other perfon, to drink, ov and above his hire or wages, Du Cangc, T, 1 , p. 545,
BEUPLEURUM, in botany. See Hare's ears.
BEWITS, in falconry, denote pieces of leather, to which & hawk's bells are faflened, and buttoned to his legs. Rufti Diet, in voc.
BEXUQUJLLO, in the materia medica, a name given to the white ipecacuanha, which the Spaniards bring fiom Peru, as the Portugucfe do the brown from Brafil.
BEZANTLER, among fportfmen, that branch of a deer's horn next below the brow antler. Skin. Etym. in voc.
BEZOAR (Cycl.) — This is the fame with what is otherwife called bczaar, or bezehard ; by the Perfians pazor; by the In- dians bczar, or bazar ; by the Arabs blager; by the Jews bel- zuar. Sahnuth. ad Pancirol. P. 2. tit 3 p. 116. feq. The firft mention made of bezoar is in Avenzour, an Arab phyfician of the 10th century, who gives a very romantic ac- count of its origin. The fkft genuine account we owe to Gar- cias ab Horto, phyfician to the Portuguefe vice-roy of the In- dies 3 . Kempfer has given a further defcription, with fome more particulars b . — [" Garc. abHort.de Aromat. & Simpl. Medic, ap. Indos, 1. 1. b Kcmpf. Amcen. Exot. Fafc. 2.
Rel. 9. §. 8. p. 398. feq.]
Nic. de Monardis, Cafp, Bauhin, and M. Geoffroy, have pieces exprefs on bezoard. Avenzour defcribes it, as gene- rated of the tears, or gum of the eyes of flags ; who, after eating fcrpents, ufed to run into the water up to the nofe, where they flood till their eyes began to ooze a humour, which, collecting under the eye-lids, gradually thickned and coagulated, till being grown hard, it was thrown off by the animal in rubbing frequently. Friend, Hift. Phyf. P. 2. p. ic6. feq. Lang. Epift. Medic. 24. 1. 2. Pancirol. de Reb. Memor. P. 2. tit. 3. Salmuth ad loc.
Other opinions no lefs fabulous obtam'd till the time of Gar- cias ab Horto, as that bezoar was found in the head of an ani- mal, in the gall-bladder of a porcupine, C3V. Burgr. Lex. Med. p. 1563. b.
There is generally, if not always, fome foreign body in the center of the bezoar, around which, as a nucleus, the bezoar- tic coats, or ftrata, are ranged a ; as ftraws, rnir, marcafites, pebbles, talc, fand, &c. and ftones like cherry-ftones ; but the common nucleus is the pod of a fruit much like that of the Acacia vera Mgyptiaca ; though at firft fight it rcfembles a caf- fia, or tamarind ftone. This fruit being taken into the fto- mach, caufes, by its aftringency, a condenfation of the li- quors it there meets with, from which in time arifes the Bezo~ ard b . — [ a Mem. Acad. Scienc. 1712. p. 263, feq. b Phil. Tranf. N° 282. p. 1284. Mem. Acad. Scienc. 1710. p. 264. feq.]
The ftones produced by each animal may be felt and numbred on the out-fide, by which in trade the price of the animal is regulated.
Pomet pretends, that one animal never produces above one ftone, which is.inclofed in a tunic, appropriated to that ufe : all which has been found a miftake. Geojfr. ap. Mem. Acad. 1710. p. 266. feq.
Dr. Slare endeavoured to prove both the oriental and occiden- tal bezoards factitious, which M. Geoffroy has refuted, by the confideration of a foreign body being conftantly found in the middle. Counterfeits would hardly tie themfelves down to fuch an obfervance. We are, however, told of artificial be- zoars in the ifie of Ormus, made fo dexteroufly, as to be in- difcernable from the natural, uulefs they be firft broken 3 . Bezoar is faid to be adulterated among us with powders, rofin, and mucilage b . Le Mort defcribes a factitious bezoar, re- fembling the native one, and fhews how it may be prepared, from the magiftery of alexipharmic herbs c . [ a Burgr. Lex. Med. T. 1. p. 1509. b Nought. Coll. T. 2. p. 68. c In Chym. Med. Phyf. c. 15. p. 198. Cajl. Lex Med. p. 103. b.]
Bezoar, in a more extenfive fenfe, includes all animal fub- ftances iorrridjlratum fuptr flratum, in the ftomachs or inte- ftines of animals. Geoffr. in Mem. Acad. Scienc. 17 12. p. 268. In which fenfe pearls, the ftones found in cafforeum, fSV, belong to the clafs of bezoars. Fonten. Hift. Acad. Scienc. 1717. p. 32.
Human bezoars are ftony fubftances found in the interlines of feveral perfons, form'd from the ftones of plumbs, or other fruits, retained in the csecum, or ether guts, and growing coated over ; of which we have an inftance given by Dr. Cole. Phil. Tranf. N°235- p. 30.
To this kind alfo belongs the hippo'ithos, or bezoar equinmn, a fort of ftone fometimes voided by thefe creatures by fiege. Plott, Nat. Hift. Stafford, c. 7. §.72. Phil. Tranf. N 250.
P- 99- _
To this alfo belongs bezoar Gennamcum, or German bezoar, a kind of ftony fubftance found in mountain deer, or goats, efpecially on the Alps. GaJr.Lex. p. 103. b. Though in ftrictnefs this is not a ftone, but rather a ball of hair or herbs, or perhaps roots compacted in the ftomach of the animal, and call'd more properly by late writers JEgagro- phila, or /EgagropiU. SeeJEcAGRoPiLA. Bezoar is alfo applied to other ftony fubftances found in divers animals, difpofed Jlr atum fupcr f.ratum. Mem. Acad. Scienc. an. 17 10. p. 315. feq.
Such are the cayman bezoar ; hog and deer bezoar, brought from Sumatra i the monkey bezoar; cow bezoar, and elephant be- zoar,
