BUT
BUT
and legal. Du Gauge, GlofT. Lat. T. r. p. 659. Butt.kr of France, But'iadarius Francia, was one of the four great officers in the houfhold of the antient kings of that coun- try, who figned all the royal patents, or at lead was prefent at the difpatch of them a . His feat was among the princes, and he even difputed the precedency of the conftable of France. He had a right of prefiding at the chamber of accounts ; and, in the registers of that office of the year 1 397, mention is made, that John de Bourbon, grand butler of .France, was ad- mitted there as firft prefident. But the title is now aboliihed, and* in lieu thereof, a new office of grand echanfon, or cup- bearer, erected b . — [ a Du Cange, ubi fupra. Spelm. Glofl" p, 96. voc. Butiadarius. b Trev. Diet. Univ. T. 1. p.
BuT.LER'jy?5;w, a medicinal preparation, of which Van Helmont tells us wonderful things ; fuch as, that, by flightly plunging it into oil or almond milk, they would acquire the virtues of cur- ing the head-ach, eryiipelas, and many other diforders ; nay,
" even corpulency could not withfland the power of this medi- cine, if the patient did but nimbly lick a fmall fragment of this ftone every morning. Mr. Boyle docs not feem to difcredit thefe ftories. See his Works abr. Vol. 1. p. 50. The inventor, from whom it takes its name, was a Scotch- man, in great favour with king James I. and is faid to have done wonders with it, not only in the fpeedy cure of the moft dangerous divfempers, but in the making of gold out of lead, nndquickfdver.
- The preparation of this (tone is given by Morley. Collect.
Chym. Leyd. c. 375.
BUTMENT [Cycl.) — Butments of arches are the fame with but- trefles. They anfwer to what the Romans call fublices, the French, cukes and butees.
Butments, or Abutments of a bridge, denote the two maf- fives at the end of a bridge, whereby the two extreme arches are fuftained and joined with the more on either fide. Hawkf. Account of JLond. Bridge, p. 47. Davit, Expbc. Term. Ar- chit. p. 538. voc. Gulee. Felib. Princ. Archit. p. 486. The butments of bridges next the banks, fhould be built more firm and folid, as ferving to fuftain the whole feries of arches, and hinder them from fpreading. See the article Bridgf.
BUTOMUS, die flowering rujh, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : The flower is of the rofaceous kind, being compofed of feveral petals, arranged in a circular form ; from the center of the flower arifes a pif- til, which finally becomes a membranaceous fruit, compofed of feveral fmall capfules, each terminating in a fort of point. Thefe fplit open longitudinally when ripe, and are found to contain oblong feeds. There is only one known fpecies of the butomus, with its variety. I. The common or pale red- flowered butomus. 2. The white-flowered butomus. Tournef. Inftit. p. 271.
Butomus is faid to be of an aperient and deobffruent quality. Jameses Medic. Diet, in voc.
BUTORIUS, in zoology, a name by which fome have called the ardea ftellaris, or bittern, a bird of the heron kind. See the article Bittern.
BUTROj in natural hiftory, the name of a fort of wild bull 'common in Florida, having a large bunch on bis back like that of a camel ; the fame with that defcribed by Gefner under the name of bos camelita, and feeming the fame with the bifon of Mr. Ray, and other authors. See Bos camelita.
BUTT, in our anticnt cuftoms, denotes a place erected for archers to fhoot at, and in which a mark or white was fixed.
BUTTER [CyeL) is properly the fatty oleaginous part of milk; whence fome have called it the oil of milk, oleum ex lacle*. A denomination which it feems well entitled to in many parts of the Eaft Indies, where the butter is always fluid the yearthrough, and fold like other liquors by meafure, not weight b . The fame appears to have been the cafe in Job's country, who fpeaks of brooks of butter^ and warning his fteps in butter c . Butter, when folid or confiftent, appears in affate of violence. Mr. Boyle makes an inquiry which of the two is the moft natural ■'. Some confider butter rather as the produce of cream than of milk e . Tacitus feems to fpeak of it under the name of lac concretum, clotted milk ; agreeably enough to what Pliny fays, that milk is condenfed into butter*, denfari lac in pingue bttty- rum f .— [ a Caff. Lex. Med. p. 1 16. b Boyle, Phil. Works abr. T. 3. p. 404. c Job xx. 6. Idem, xxix. 6. d Boyle, lib. cit. T. 1. p. 466, feq. e Savar. Diet. Coram. T. 1. p. 325. f Coming, de Habit. Corp. Germ. p. 57, feq] Butter is made in greateft plenty from cows milk, but fome- fimes alfo from goats, and the richeft from fhecps milk, as is ©bferved by Pliny s- tho' Galen feems to doubt it. Inftances have alfo been known of butter made from woman's milk, Which is extolled by Hoffman as a fovereign remedy againft the phthifis h . Add, that the antient Scythians, according to Hippocrates, made butter of mares milk ; the method of pre- paring which is defcribed by that author i .— [ s PHri. Hift. Nat. L 28. c. 35. h Hoffm. Clav. ad Schrod. Pharm ' p. 662. Hipp. 1. 4 de Morb. 25. p. 22, feq. Linden, Exerc. 16. §. iiCi feq. i Caft. Lex. Med. p. 116. Coming, ubi fupra, p. 59, feq.]
Plot mentions a woman at Littie Worley in Staff ordflnre. named Mary Eagle, who, befides fuckling a child, made two
pounds of butter per week of her own milk, during upwards of five months after her being brought to bed. It was afterwards adminiftred by the neighbouring apothecaries againft fwel- lings k . Borellus gives a like cafe of a woman at Boulogne, but her butter was chiefly ufed againft cohfumptions '. — [ k Plct, Nat. Hift. Stafford, c. 8. §. 3 }. p. 285. » Borell Hift. &Ob- fervat Med. Pbyf. Cent 3. Obf. 82.]
Pliny fpeaks of butter as a delicacy peculiar to the Barbarians, and that which chiefly diftinguiflicd the richer fort from the poor. P//«.Hift. Nat. 1. 2!?. c. 35.
The firft time the word 0vKp» occurs is in Hippocrates, in fpeaking of the Scythians, from whom the Greeks appear to have firft learnt the art of making it. In reality, whatreafon can be given, why Herodotus mould defcribe the Scythian pro- cefs of making butter with fo much exactnefs, if the fame had been In trie among the Greeks. Hcrodot. Melpcm. Coming. de Habit. Corp. Germ. p. 60.
It muff not be forgot, that the antient Jews appear to have been acquainted with the method of preparing butter. Solo- mon m , Efaiah n , and even Mofes, fpeak of it. The laft re- prefents it as in ufe in Abraham's time °, unlefs we fhould fup- pofe, with fome modern writers, that by butter in thefe pafTages we are to underftand cheefe p.— [ m Prov. xxx. 33. Churning of milk bringeth forth butter. ft Efa. vii. i". Butter and honey Jhall he eat. ° Gmring. lib. cit. p. 6 1 , feq. p Calm. Diet. Bibl. T. i. p. 332.J
In the cathedral of Rouen there is a tower called the butter tower, tour de beurre, by reafon George d'Amboife, archbifhop of Rouen in 15CO, finding the oil fail in his diocefe during Lent, permitted the ufe of butter, en condition that each in- habitant fhould pay fix deniers for the liberty, with which fum this tower was, erected. There are other butter towers at Notre Dame, Bourges, &c. Trev. Did. Univ. T. 1. p. 1010.
Butter is an emollient, and has virtues approaching to thofe of oil j having a peculiar power of refifting poifoh, and obtund- ing the acrimony thereof 1. By its fuppling and relaxing the parts, Dr. Quincy thinks it has a tendency to flop in the capil- laries and glands, and foul the viflera. Some reprefent it as a diuretic, purgative, and promoter of expectoration r .— [1 Dio- feer. 1. 2. c. br. Foreji. Obfcrv. 1. 30, n. 8. in Schol. Caji. Lex. Med. p. 1 r6. ' §htinc. Difpenf. P. 2. feet. 13. n. 591. p. 232. Junck. Confp. Therap. tab. 9. P.2S7, feq.] Writers on the dairy defcribe the procefs of making and order- ing butter. The chief means whereby butter is produced, is a long continued agitation of milk, whereby its texture is broken. After the butter is come, as they call it, they take it out, wafh it, and beat it, to exprefs the milk 5 . In Bengal, butter is ea- fily made, by the flight turning of a ftlck in milk K~ [ * Ruff. Diet. T. 1. in voc. * Lett. Edit". T. 4. p. 424. Phil. Tranf. N° 337. p. 227.]
If the milk be not well wrought out, die butter will not keep. In India we are told of butter four hundred years old, which is valued there equally with gold, for curing old aches, fore eyes, &c. Vid. Phil. Tranf. N u 244. p. 343.
When butter begins to decay and tafte amifs, working it Well anew, and wafhing it in water, will reftore it. In Bengal, to make butter pafs for frefh when old and rank, they melt it, and pour on it four curdly milk ; fome hours af- ter which, they ftrain it through a cloth for fale. Phil. Tranf. N° 337- P- 22 7-
If cows feed on fhort grafs, they will yield more butter, though lefs milk, than if they fed oh long rank grafs. The milk ot fome cows, though fed on the fame grafs, will not yield fo much butter as that of others. In many cafes, the butter is found to retain the tafte of the plant on which the cows feed. Boyle, Philof. Works abr. T. 3. p. 550.
The trade of butter is very conliderable ; fome compute 50000 tons confumed annually in London u . It is chiefly made with- in forty miles round the city. Fifty thoufand firkins are faid to be fent yearly from Cambridge and Suffolk alone ; each fir- kin containing 56 pounds *, Utoxeter in Staffordfhire is a market famous for good butter, infomuch that the London chcefemongcrs have an eftablifhed factory here for butter. It is bought by the pot, of a lohg cylindrical form, weighing 14 pounds.— [" Compl. Engl. Trad. T. 2. p. 134. w Idem, ib. p. 31. AtlasMarit. p. no.]
Divers abufes are practifed in the packing and falling of butter, to increafe its bulk and weight, againft which we have afta- tute exprefs *. Pots are frequently laid with good for a little depth at the top, and with bad at bottom j fometimes the butter is fet in rolls, only touching at the top, and ftanding hollow be- low. To prevent thefe mobrlandifh cheats, the factors at Ut- oxeter keep a furveyor, who, in cafe of fufpicion, try the pois with an iron inftrument, called a butter-bore, made like acheefe- tafter, to be ftruck in obliquely to the bottom >'. — [ * Stat. 4. Car. 2. c. 26. Abr. T. r. p. r 2 8. Coll. Difc. Salt. p. 137J feq. r Plot, Nat. Hift. Stafford, c. 3. §. 3. p. 109. ] Butter of antimony, is prepared of the fitnple regulus cf anti- mony, by mixing it with twice its own Weight of fublimate mercury, and either by letting it ftand a day or two in a cellar, or putting it directly in a retort, and urging it with a proper de- gree of fire in a fand furnace, by which means the acid fpirit of the fublimate, diffolving and imbibing the regulir, carries it
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