and it is a favourite wood for small carvings. The use of boxwood for turnery and musical instruments is mentioned by Pliny, Virgil, and Ovid. The quantity of the wood which passes out from Constantinople yearly is estimated at from 5000 to 7000 tons, with about 1500 tons more of inferior and small pieces. While the consumption is con tinually increasing the present sources of supply are rapidly becoming exhausted, the forests near the sea are denuded of their best trees, and access to the wood growing in the interior of the countries around the Black Sea is difficult owing to the want of means of internal communication. The consequent increase of the cost of boxwood has led to frequent attempts to discover other woods which might take its place for the purposes of the wood engraver ; but none of the numerous substitutes proposed have hitherto been found to possess the necessary combination of
properties.BOYACA, a village in the state of Boyaca, in the Republic of Colombia, situated about 20 miles south of the capital Tunja, and celebrated as the scene of the victory of Bolivar over the Spaniards in 1819. See Bolivar.
BOYCE, William, an English musical composer of eminence, was born in London in 1710, and died there in 1779. As a chorister in St Paul s he received his early musical education from King and Dr Greene, and he afterwards studied the theory of music under Dr I epusch. In 173G he was appointed organist of St Michael s church, Cornhill, arid in the same year he became composer to the chapel royal. In 1749 he received the degree of doctor of music from the University of Cambridge, as an acknowledg ment of the merit of his setting of the ode performed at the installation of the duke of Newcastle as chancellor. He became master of the king s band in succession to Greene in 1757, and soon afterwards he was appointed principal organist to the chapel royal. As an ecclesiastical composer Boyce ranks among the best representatives of tlie English school. His two church services and his anthems, of which the best specimens are By the Waters of Babylon and 0, Where shall Wisdom be found, are still frequently performed. Of his other works the best known are the serenade of Solomon, a setting of David s lamenta tion over Jonathan, and twelve trios for two violins and a bass, which were long popular. One of his most valuable services to the art was his publication (17GO) of a collec tion of English church music in three volumes quarto, which included all the best compositions of the two preced ing centuries. The collection had been begun by Greene, but it was mainly the work of Boyce.
BOYD, Zachary, a learned clergyman of the Scottish Church, was born towards the end of the 16th century, and died in 1G53 or 1G54. He was for many years regent in the college of Saumur in France, but returned to his native country in 1621, to escape the persecution of the Protes tants. In 1G23 he was appointed minister of the Barony church in Glasgow, and held the office of rector of the university in the years 1G34, 1635, and 1G45. He bequeathed to the university the half of his fortune, a sum amounting to 20,000 Scots, besides his library and MSS. His bust over the gateway within the court com memorates his important benefactions. The number of his published works was considerable, and eighty-six of his MSS. are said to be preserved in the library of Glasgow College. His poetical compositions are not without some merit, though the remarkable eccentricity of some of them has generally made them a source of amusement rather than edification. The common statement that he made the printing of his metrical version of the Bible a condition of the reception of his grant to the university is a mistake.
His best known works are The Last Battle of the Soule in Death, 1629, of which a new edition, with a biography by Mr Neil, was published at Glasgow in 1831 ; Zion s Floiccrs, 1644; the Enylish Acadcmie ; and Songs of Zion.
BOYDELL, John, an engraver, chiefly known by his plates illustrating Shakespeare, was born at Dorrington in 1719. At the age of twenty-one he came to London and was apprenticed for seven years to an engraver. In 174G he published a volume of views in England and Wales, and started in business as a printseller. By his good taste and liberality he managed to secure the services of the best artists, and his engravings were executed with such skill that his business became extensive and lucrative. He succeeded in his plan of a Shakespeare gallery, and obtained the assistance of the most eminent painters of the day, whose contributions were exhibited publicly for many years. The engravings from these paintings form a splendid companion volume to his large edition of Shake speare s works. Towards the close of his life Boydell sustained severe losses through the French Revolution, and was compelled to dispose of his Shakespeare gallery by lottery. It had been his wish and intention to bequeath it to the nation. He died in 1804 before the lottery took place. Some years before his death he had held the position of Lord Mayor of London.
BOYER, Abel, a well-known lexicographer and historian, was born at Castrcs in France in 1GG4. Upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes he first went to Geneva, and then to Franeker, where he finished his studies. Finally he came to England, where he soon acquired such a proficiency in the English language, that he became an author of considerable note, and was employed in writing several periodical and political works. He had for many years the principal management of a newspaper called the Postboy, and he likewise published a monthly work entitled The Political State of Great Britain. He died at Chelsea in 1729.
He wrote Life of Queen Anne, folio ; History of William III,, 3 vols. 8vo; Annals oj the Reign of Queen Anne, 11 vols.Svo; his best known work is the Dictionary and Grammar of the French Language.
born on the 1st of March 1757, at Uzerches in Limousin. His father was in the humble station of a tailor, and the son received the elements of a medical education in the shop of a barber-surgeon in a provincial town. His evident talent induced his friends to procure his removal to Paris, where he had the good fortune to attract the notice of his two distinguished masters, Louis and Dessault ; and his unwearied perseverance, his anatomical skill, and finally his dexterity as an operator, became so conspicuous, that at the age of thirty-seven he obtained the appointment of second surgeon to the Hotel Dieu of Paris, and was elected professor of operative surgery in the Ecole de Sante. This latter appointment he soon exchanged for the chair of clinical surgery, a department in which his manual dexterity and his admirable lectures on surgical subjects gained him the highest reputation, and introduced him to extensive practice. Perhaps no French surgeon of his time thought or wrote with greater clearness and good sense than Boyer ; and while his natural modesty made him distrustful of innovation, and somewhat tenacious of established modes of treatment, he was as judicious in his diagnosis, as cool and skilful in manipulating, as he was cautious in forming his judgment on individual cases. In 1805 Napoleon nominated him imperial family surgeon, and, after the brilliant campaigns of 1806-7, conferred on him the legion of honour, with the title of Baron of the Empire, and a salary of 25,000 francs. On the fall of Napoleon the merits of Boyer secured him the favour of the succeeding sovereigns of France, and he was consulting-
surgeon to Louis XVI1L, Charles X. ; and Louis Philippe.