of which the pattern required is cut: the operation is performed in the lathe, and the instrument is held in a side rest, that circles of the same diameter may be formed on all the buttons.

The process of gilding buttons, or the drying off, being, from the vapor of the mercury, exceedingly dangerous to the operator, an apparatus, fig. 4, has been employed with success, by Mr. Mark Sanders, an eminent button manufacturer at Birmingham, for drying off buttons, and at the same time preserving the mercury evaporated in the process. It is thus described in the Philosophical Magazine, vol. ix. A hearth, or fire-place, of the usual height, is to be erected; in the middle of which, a place for the fire is to be made; but instead of admitting the smoke to ascend into the top A, made of sheet or cast iron, through which the mercury is volatilised, a flue for that purpose should be conducted backwards to the chimney B. An iron plate, thick enough to contain heat sufficient to volatilise the mercury, is to cover the fire-place at the top of the hearth C. There must be an ash-hole D under the fire-place. The dark square space E, seen in the fire-place, is the flue which serves to carry the smoke back under the hearth into the chimney B. The door of the fire-place and the ashpit, may either be in front or at the end of the hearth at F, which will perhaps less incommode the work people. The space between A and the iron plate C, is covered up with a glass window, coming down so low as only to leave sufficient room for moving the pan backwards and forwards with facility. If the sides were also glass instead of brick-work it would be still better, as the work people would be able to have a full view of their work without being exposed to the fumes of the mercury, which when volatilised, by heat communicated to the pan by the heated iron plate over the fire-place, ascends into the top A, appropriated for its reception, and descends into the tub G, covered at top, and filled pretty high with water. By this means the hearth would in fact become a distilling apparatus for condensing and recovering the volatilised mercury. In the tub G the principal part would be recovered; for, of what may still pass on, a part would be condensed in ascending the tube H, and fall back, while the remainder would be effectually caught in the tube or cask I, open at the top and partly filled with water. The latter tub should be on the outside of the building, and the descending branch of the tube H should go down into it at least eighteen inches, but not into the water. The chimney or ash-pit should be furnished with a damper to regulate the heat of the fire. The water may be occasionally drawn out of the tube by a siphon; and the mercury, clogged with heterogeneous matter, may be triturated in a piece of flannel till it passes through, or placed in a pan of sheet iron, like a dripping-pan, in a sufficient degree of heat, and having such an inclination that the mercury, as it gets warm, may run down and unite in the lower part of the pan. But the mercury will be most effectually recovered by exposing the residuum left in the flannel bag to distillation, in a retort made of iron or earthenware.

BUTTON-SHANKS are generally made from

thus formed is slipped off, and a wire-fork C put into into it. It is now laid upon an anvil, and by a punch the coil is beat down between the two branches of the fork C, so as to be in the state D. The punch has an edge which marks the middle d, and the coil being cut open by a pair of shears along this mark, each turn of the coil is divided into two perfect button shanks.

An ingenious improvement on this, however, is said to have been lately introduced at Birmingham. A machine is contrived that, merely by turning a winch, supplies itself with wire from a reel, and, after performing the different operations of cutting and bending to the proper form, delivers the shank completely finished. One shank is formed at each turn of the winch, and the power required to set it in motion is so small, that the strength of a boy is sufficient. The inventor, however, employs a small steam-engine as his moving power, and in this way can produce these articles at a very trifling advance upon the cost of the wire.

BUTTON, in fencing, signifies the tip of a foil, made roundish, and usually covered with leather, to prevent contusions or wounds.

BUTTON, in the menage, the button of the reins of a bridle, is a ring of leather, with the reins passed through it, which runs all along the length of the reins. To put a horse under the button, is when a horse is stopped without a rider upon his back, the reins being laid on his neck, and the button lowered so far down that the reins bring in the horse's head, and fix it to the true posture or carriage. Not only the horses managed in the hand must be put under the button; but the same method must be taken with such horses as are bred between two pillars, before they are backed.

BUTTON-STONE, in natural history, a kind of figured stone, so denominated from its resembling the button of a garment. Dr. Hook gives the figure of three sorts of button-stones, which seem to have been nothing else but the filling up of three sorts of shells. They are all very hard flints; and have this in common, that they consist of two bodies, which seem to have been the filling up of two holes or vents in the shell. Dr. Plot describes a species finely striated from the top, after the manner of some hair-buttons. This name is also given to a peculiar species of slate found in the marquisate of Bareith, in a mountain called Fichtelberg; which is extremely dif ferent from the common sorts of slate, in that it runs with great ease into glass in five or six hours, without the addition of any salt or other foreign substance, to promote its vitrification. It contains in itself all the principles of glass, and really has mixed in its substance the things

and many of them are not only commodious, but elegant. The duke of Devonshire has erected a most magnificent building in the form of a crescent, with piazzas, under which the company walk in wet or cold weather. It is divided into different hotels, shops, &c. with a public coffeeroom, and a very elegant room for assemblies and concerts; and has twenty-nine windows in length on each floor, besides five at each end. There are stables on the back of this building, of an octagonal form on the outside, and circular within the yard, where there is a riding-house. The principal trade is the cotton manufacture. It lies in an open healthy country, twenty-three miles from Manchester, thirty-two north-west of Derby, and 160 N. N. W. of London.

It is asserted by antiquaries, that the Romans were well acquainted with the wells of Buxton, as there is a military way still visible, called the Bath-gate, seven miles long, from Burgh to this place. When, about a century ago, Sir Thomas Delves, of Cheshire, caused a monument to be erected in memory of a cure he received here, the workmen in digging for the foundations, came to the remains of a solid and magnificent Roman structure; in other places of the neighbourhood very capacious leaden vessels, and other utensils, of Roman workmanship, have also been discovered. These waters are mentioned by Leland as well known above 200 years ago. They were brought into great credit, by a Dr. Jones, in 1572, and by George Earl of Shrewsbury, who erected a building over the bath, then composed of nine springs. The warm waters are the bath, consisting of nine springs, St. Ann's well, and St. Peter's or Bingham well. St. Ann's well rises at the distance of somewhat more than thirty-two yards north-east from the bath. It is chiefly supplied from a spring on the north side, out of a rock of black limestone, or bastard marble. It formerly rose into a stone basin, shut up within an ancient Roman brick wall, a yard square within, a yard high on three sides, and open on the fourth. But in 1709 Sir Thomas Delves erected an arch over it, twelve feet long and as many broad, set round with stone steps on the inside. In the midst of this dome the water springs up into a stone basin two feet square. St. Peter's or Bingham well rises about twenty yards south-east of St. Ann's. It is also called Leigh's well, from a memorable cure received from it by a gentleman of that name. It rises out of a black limestone, in a very dry ground; and is not so warm as St. Ann's well. The hot water resembles that of Bristol. It has a sweet and pleasant taste. The principal pecuHarity in the appearance is a large quantity of elastic vapor, that rises and forms bubbles, which pass through the water, and break as soon as they reach the surface. The air of these bubbles was ascertained by Dr. Pearson to consist of azotic gas, mixed with a small proportion of atmospheric air. Buxton water is frequently employed both internally and externally one of which methods often proves beneficial, when the other would be injurious; but, as a bath alone, its virtues may not be superior to those of tepid common water. It contains the calcareous earth, together with a small quantity of sea salt, and an

inconsiderable portion of a purging salt, but no iron can be discovered in it. This water taken inwardly is esteemed good in the diabetes, bloody urine, bilious cholic, loss of appetite, coldness of the stomach, inward bleedings, atrophy, contractions of the vessels and limbs, especially from age, cramps and convulsions; dry asthma without fever, and in barrenness. Inwardly and outwardly, it is said to be good in rheumatic and scorbutic complaints, the gout, inflammation of the liver and kidneys, consumptions of the lungs, old strains, hard callous tumors, withered and contracted limbs, the itch, scabs, nodes, chalky swellings, ring worms, and similar complaints. Besides the hot water, there is also a cold chalybeate water, with a rough irony taste: it resembles the Tunbridge water in virtues. For composing artificial Buxton water, or impregnating the original water with a greater quantity of its own or other gases, see WATERS, MEDICINAL.

BUXTON (Jedidiah), a prodigy of the last century, with respect to skill in numbers. His father, William Buxton, was schoolmaster of the parish where he was born, in 1704, yet Jedidiah's education was so much neglected that he was never taught to write; and, with respect to any other knowledge but that of numbers, seemed always as ignorant as a boy of ten years of age. How he came first to know the relative proportions of numbers, and their progressive denominations, he did not remember; but he applied the whole force of his mind to them from an early age, and upon them his attention was constantly fixed: so that he frequently took no cognisance of external objects, and when he did, it was only with respect to their numbers. If any space of time was mentioned, he would soon after say it was so many minutes; and if any distance of way, he would assign the number of hairs' breadths, without any question being asked, or any calculation expected by the company. When he once understood a question, he began to work with amazing facility, after his own method, without the use of a pen, pencil, or chalk, or even understanding the common rules of arithmetic as taught in the schools. He would stride over a piece of land or a field, and tell the contents of it almost as exact as if it had been measured by the chain. In this manner he measured the whole lordship of Elmton, of some thousand acres, belonging to Sir John Rhodes, and brought him the contents, not only in acres, roods, and perches, but even in square inches. After this, for his own amusement, he reduced them into square hair breadths, computing fortyeight to each side of the inch. His memory was so great, that while resolving a question, he could leave off, and resume the operation again, where he left off, the next morning, or at a week, a month, or at several months, and proceed regularly till it was completed. His memory would doubtless have been equally retentive with respect to other objects, if he had attended to other objects with equal diligence; but his perpetual application to figures prevented the smallest acquisition of any other knowledge. He was sometimes asked, on his return from church, whether he remembered the text, or any part of the ser

mon, but it never appeared that he brought away one sentence; his mind, upon a closer examination, being found to have been busied, even during divine service, in his favorite operation, either dividing some time, or some space, into the smallest known parts, or resolving some question that had been given him as a test of his abilities. As this extraordinary person lived in laborious poverty, his life was uniform and obscure. Time, with respect to him, changed nothing but his age; nor did the seasons vary his employment, except that in winter he used a flail, and in summer a ling-hook. In 1754 he came to London, where he was introduced to the Royal Society, who, in order to prove his abilities, asked him several questions in arithmetic, and he gave them such satisfaction, that they dismissed him with a handsome gratuity. In this visit to the metropolis, the only object of his curiosity, except figures, was to see the king and royal family; but they being at Kensington, Jedidiah was disappointed. During his residence in London, he was taken to see King Richard III. performed at Drury-lane theatre; and it was expected, either that the novelty and splendor of the show would have fixed him in astonishment, or kept his imagination in a continual hurry, or that his passions would, in some degree, have been touched by the power of action, if he had not perfectly understood the dialogue. But Jedidiah's mind was employed in the theatre just as it was employed in every other place. During the dance he fixed his attention upon the number of steps; he declared, after a fine piece of music, that the innumerable sounds produced by the instruments had perplexed him beyond measure; and he attended even to Mr. Garrick, only to count the words that he uttered, in which he said he perfectly succeeded. Jedidiah returned to the place of his birth, where, if his enjoyments were few, his wishes did not seem to be greater. He applied to his labor with cheerfulness; he regretted nothing that he left behind him in London; and it continued to be his opinion, that a slice of rusty bacon afforded the most delicious repast.

BUXUS, the box-tree, a genus of the tetrandria order, and monacia class of plants; natural order, thirty-eighth, tricoccæ. Male CAL. try phyllous; COR. two-petalled; the germ an embryo, or imperfect rudiment. Female CAL. is tetraphyllous; COR. three-petalled; the capsule is three-beaked and trilocular, with three seeds. There are three species; viz. 1. B. angustifolia, the narrow-leaved box; 2. B. arborescens, with oval leaves. These two species grow in great plenty upon Box-hill, near Dorking, in Surrey. Here were formerly large trees of that kind; but now they are few in number. The arborescens, or large box-tree, is proper to intermix in clumps of evergreens, &c. where it adds to the variety of such plantations; they are a very great ornament to cold and barren soils, where few other things will grow. The leaves possess a very strong nauseous bitter taste, and aperient virtues. They are occasionally exhibited, in form of decoction, amongst the lower orders of people, in cases of dropsy, asthma, and worms. As much as will lie upon a shilling, of the common dwarf box,

dried and powdered, may be given at bed-time, every night, to an infant. Boxwood is extremely hard and smooth, and therefore well adapted to the use of the turner. Combs, mathematical instruments, knife-handles, and button moulds, are made of it. It is also used for wood engravings. It may properly enough be substituted in default of ebony, the yellow alburnum of which it perfectly resembles. Decoction of boxwood has been recommended by some as a powerful sudorific, preferable even to guiacum; but the taste readily discovers that it wants the qualities of that wood. Neither the wood nor the leaves of the box-tree at present are used for any other medicinal purpose than the distillation of an empyreumatic oil; and an oil of nearly the same quality is obtained from almost every other wood. 3. B. suffruticosa, dwarf or Dutch box, commonly used for bordering flower-beds. It is increased by parting the roots, or planting the slips but as it makes a great increase of itself, and easily parts, it is hardly worth while to plant the slips that have no roots. For borders to flower plots, it far excels any other plant; being subject to no injuries from cold or heat. It is of long duration; is easily kept handsome; and, by the firmness of its rooting, keeps the mould in the borders from washing into the gravel walks more effectually than any plant.

BUXTORF (John), a learned philologist, and Hebrew scholar, born in 1564 at Camen, in Westphalia. He became Chaldee and Hebrew professor at Basil, where he died in 1629. His principal works, are 1. Lexicon Chaldaicum, Talmudicum, et Rabbinicum, fol. 2. A small Hebrew and Chaldaic Lexicon, 12mo. 3. Thesaurus Linguæ Hebraicæ, 2 vols. 8vo. 4. A Hebrew Bible, with a Rabbinnical Commentary, 4 vols. fol. 5. Synagoga Judaica. 6. Institutio Epistolaris Hebraica; 7. Concordantiæ Hebraicæ, &c.

BUXTORF (John), son of the former, born at Basil in 1599. He succeeded to his father's professorship; and published a book against Cappellus, entitled Tractatus de Punctorum Vocalium et Accentuum in Libris Veteris Testamenti Hebraiciæ Origine, Antiquitate, et Auctoritate, 1648. He also compiled a Chaldaic and Syriac Lexicon, and other works. He died in 1664.

BUY, v. > Mod. Goth, buggan; Sax. bygBUYING, gan; Swed. bygga; byta; Teut. BUYER, beuten; Per. biutan; Old Fr. biguer; Sans., and Ara. biccu; Sax. bige, traffic. To purchase; to procure by giving a price, either money, or an equivalent; opposed to gift, or theft.

The shepheards there robben one another,
And layen baytes to beguile hir brother;
Or they will buye his sheepe out of the cote,
Or they will carven the shepheardes throte.

Spenser's Shepheard's Calender. We loath the very light (some of us, as Seneca notes,) because it comes free; and we are offended

with the sun's heat, and those cool blasts, because we buy them not. Burton Anat. Mel.

I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people. Shakspeare.
Pent to linger

But with a grain a day, I would not buy
Their mercy at the price of one fair word.

Ang.-Sax. beon. This word can only be classified according to the distinctions so judiciously marked out by Dr. Johnson. Change here would not be improvement, but injury. It notes the agent.

The Moor is with child by you, Launcelot.

Shakspeare. The grammar of a language is sometimes to be carefully studied by a grown man. Loche. Death 's what the guilty fear, the pious crave, Sought by the wretch, and vanquished by the brave. Garth.

It notes the instrument, and is commonly used after a verb neuter, where with would be put after an active; as he killed her with a sword; she died by a sword.

But by Pelides' arms when Hector fell,
He chose Eneas, and he chose as well.

Shakspeare.

Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity, That is not quickly buzz'd into his ears? I will buzz abroad such prophecies,

That Edward shall be fearful of his life. Did you not hear

Id.

Dryden.

A buzzing of a separation

By chance, within a neighbouring brook, He saw his branching horns, and altered look.

Addison.

When every knight and citizen

Kept legislative journeymen,
To bring them in intelligence

From all points of the rabble's sense,
And fill the lobbies of both Houses
With politic important buzzes.
Butler's Hudibras.
We join, like flies and wasps, in buzzing about wit.
Swift.
Where I found the whole outward room in a buzz
of politicks.
Addison.
And here the buzz of eager nations ran,
In murmured pity, or loud-roared applause,
As man was slaughtered by his fellow man.
Byron's Childe Harold.
BUZZARD; Per. buz, baz; Fr. buzard;
Lat. buteo. A species of hawk, Johnson says,
mean and degenerate. Hence it is metaphori-
cally applied to a blockhead, or a dunce.

This have I heard oft in saying,-
That man ne maie for no daunting
Make a sperhawk of a bosarde.
Chaucer. Romaunt of the Rose.

BUZZARD, in ornithology, the name of several species of the hawk kind. See FALCO.

BY'. The preposition. Maso Goth.bi; Swed. and Sax. bi; Belg. by; Teut. bei; Arab. and Per. bi, ba. Tooke makes it the imperative of

It has a signification, noting the method in which any successive action is performed with regard to time or quantity.

The best for you, is to re-examine the cause, and try it even point by point, argument by argument, with all the exactness you can. Hooker.

We are not to stay altogether, but to come by hin, where he stands, by ones, by twos, and by threes. Shakspeare.

Others will soon take pattern and encouragement by your building; and so house by house, street by street, there will at last be finished a magnificent city. Spratt

It notes the quantity had at one time. Bullion will sell by the ounce for six shillings and five pence unclipped money.

Lock

What we take daily by pounds, is at least of as much importance as what we take seldom, and only by grains and spoonfuls. Arbuthnot.

The north by myriads pours her mighty sons; Great nurse of Goths, of Alans, and of Huns. Pope.

At, or in; noting place: it is now perhaps only used before the words sea, or water, and land. This seems a remnant of a meaning now little known. By once expressed situation; as by west, westward

We see the great effects of battles by sea; the battle of Actium decided the empire of the world. Bacon. I would have fought by land, where I was stronger; Dryden. By land, by water, they renew their charge. Pope.

You hindered it; yet, when I fought at sea,
Forsook me fighting.