The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 48

BAB-EL-MANDEB (i. e. the Gate of Tears), a strait between Asia and Africa forming the entrance to the Red Sea, so called from the strong currents which rush through it, and often cause wreckage to vessels attempting to pa.s.s it.

BABER, the founder of the Mogul empire in Hindustan, a descendant of Tamerlane; thrice invaded India, and became at length master of it in 1526; left memoirs; his dynasty lasted for three centuries.

BABES IN THE WOOD, Irish banditti who infested the Wicklow Mountains in the 18th century, and were guilty of the greatest atrocities. See CHILDREN.

BaBIS, a modern Persian sect founded in 1843, their doctrines a mixture of pantheistic with Gnostic and Buddhist beliefs; adverse to polygamy, concubinage, and divorce; insisted on the emanc.i.p.ation of women; have suffered from persecution, but are increasing in numbers.

BABOEUF, FRANcOIS NOEL, a violent revolutionary in France, self-styled Gracchus; headed an insurrection against the Directory, "which died in the birth, stifled by the soldiery"; convicted of conspiracy, was guillotined, after attempting to commit suicide (1764-1797).

BABOO, or BABU, name applied to a native Hindu gentleman who has some knowledge of English.

BABOON, LEWIS, the name Arbuthnot gives to Louis XIV. in his "History of John Bull."

BA'BRIUS, or GABRIUS, a Greek poet of uncertain date; turned the fables of aesop and of others into verse, with alterations.

BABY-FARMING, a system of nursing new-born infants whose parents may wish them out of sight.

BABYLON, the capital city of Babylonia, one of the richest and most magnificent cities of the East, the gigantic walls and hanging gardens of which were cla.s.sed among the seven wonders of the world; was taken, according to tradition, by Cyrus in 538 B.C., by diverting out of their channel the waters of the Euphrates, which flowed through it and by Darius in 519 B.C., through the self-sacrifice of Zophyrus. The name was often metaphorically applied to Rome by the early Christians, and is to-day to great centres of population, such as London, where the overcrowding, the acc.u.mulation of material wealth, and the so-called refinements of civilisation, are conceived to have a corrupting effect on the religion and morals of the inhabitants.

BABYLO'NIA, the name given by the Greeks to that country called in the Old Testament, Shinar, Babel, and "the land of the Chaldees"; it occupied the rich, fertile plain through which the lower waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris flow, now the Turkish province of Irak-Arabi or Bagdad. From very early times it was the seat of a highly developed civilisation introduced by the Sumero-Accadians, who descended on the plain from the mountains in the NW. Semitic tribes subsequently settled among the Accadians and impressed their characteristics on the language and inst.i.tutions of the country. The 8th century B.C. was marked by a fierce struggle with the northern empire of a.s.syria, in which Babylonia eventually succ.u.mbed and became an a.s.syrian province. But Nabopola.s.sar in 625 B.C. a.s.serted his independence, and under his son Nebuchadnezzar, Babylonia rose to the zenith of its power. Judah was captive in the country from 599 to 538 B.C. In that year Cyrus conquered it for Persia, and its history became merged in that of Persia.

BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY, the name given to the deportation of Jews from Judea to Babylon after the capture of Jerusalem by the king of Babylon, and which continued for 70 years, till they were allowed to return to their own land by Cyrus, who had conquered Babylon; those who returned were solely of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi.

BACCHa.n.a.lIA, a festival, originally of a loose and riotous character, in honour of Bacchus.

BACCHANTES, those who took part in the festival of Bacchus, confined originally to women, and were called by a number of names, such as Maenads, Thyads, &c.; they wore their hair dishevelled and thrown back, and had loose flowing garments.

BAC'CHUS, son of Zeus and Semele, the G.o.d of the vine, and promoter of its culture as well as the civilisation which accompanied it; represented as riding in a car drawn by tame tigers, and carrying a THYRSUS (q. v.); he rendered signal service to Zeus in the war of the G.o.ds with the GIANTS (q. v.). See DIONYSUS.

BACCHYL'IDES, a Greek lyric poet, 5th century B.C., nephew of Simonides and uncle of Eschylus, a rival of Pindar; only a few fragments of his poems extant.

BACCIO DELLA PORTO. See BARTOLOMEO, FRA.

BACCIO'CHI, a Corsican officer, who married Maria Bonaparte, and was created by Napoleon Prince of Lucca (1762-1841).

BACH, JOHANN SEBASTIAN, one of the greatest of musical composers, born in Eisenach, of a family of Hungarian origin, noted--sixty of them--for musical genius; was in succession a chorister, an organist, a director of concerts, and finally director of music at the School of St.

Thomas, Leipzig; his works, from their originality and scientific rigour, difficult of execution (1685-1750).

BACHE, A. DALLAS, an American physicist, born at Philadelphia, superintended the coast survey (1806-1867).

BACHELOR, a name given to one who has achieved the first grade in any discipline.

BACIL'LUS (lit. a little rod), a bacterium, distinguished as being twice as long as it is broad, others being more or less rounded. See BACTERIA.

BACK, SIR GEORGE, a devoted Arctic explorer, born at Stockport, entered the navy, was a French captive for five years, a.s.sociated with Franklin in three polar expeditions, went in search of Sir John Ross, discovered instead and traced the Great Fish River in 1839, was knighted in 1837, and in 1857 made admiral (1796-1878).

BACKHUY'SEN, LUDOLPH, a Dutch painter, famous for his sea-pieces and skill in depicting sea-waves; was an etcher as well as painter (1631-1708).

BACON, DELIA, an American auth.o.r.ess, who first broached, though she did not originate, the theory of the Baconian authorship of Shakespeare's works, a theory in favour of which she has received small support (1811-1859).

BACON, FRANCIS, LORD VERULAM, the father of the inductive method of scientific inquiry; born in the Strand, London; son of Sir Nicholas Bacon; educated at Cambridge; called to the bar when 21, after study at Gray's Inn; represented successively Taunton, Liverpool, and Ipswich in Parliament; was a favourite with the queen; attached himself to Ess.e.x, but witnessed against him at his trial, which served him little; became at last in succession Attorney-General, Privy Councillor, Lord Keeper, and Lord Chancellor; was convicted of venality as a judge, deposed, fined and imprisoned, but pardoned and released; spent his retirement in his favourite studies; his great works were his "Advancement of Learning,"

"Novum Organum," and "De Augmentis Scientiarum," but is seen to best advantage by the generality in his "Essays," which are full of practical wisdom and keen observation of life; indeed, these show such shrewdness of wit as to embolden some (see _SUPRA_) to maintain that the plays named of Shakespeare were written by him (1561-1626).

BACON, ROGER, a Franciscan monk, born at Ilchester, Somerset; a fearless truth-seeker of great scientific attainments; accused of magic, convicted and condemned to imprisonment, from which he was released only to die; suggested several scientific inventions, such as the telescope, the air-pump, the diving-bell, the camera obscura, and gunpowder, and wrote some eighty treatises (1214-1294).

BACON, SIR NICHOLAS, the father of Francis, Lord Bacon, Privy Councillor and Keeper of the Great Seal under Queen Elizabeth; a prudent and honourable man and minister, and much honoured and trusted by the queen (1510-1579).

BACSANYI, JANOS, a Hungarian poet; he suffered from his liberal political opinions, like many of his countrymen (1763-1845).

BACTE'RIA, exceedingly minute organisms of the simplest structure, being merely cells of varied forms, in the shape of spheres, rods, or intermediate shapes, which develop in infusions of organic matter, and multiply by fission with great rapidity, fraught, as happens, with life or death to the higher forms of being; conspicuous by the part they play in the process of fermentation and in the origin and progress of disease, and to the knowledge of which, and the purpose they serve in nature, so much has been contributed by the labours of M. Pasteur.

BAC'TRIA, a province of ancient Persia, now BALKH (q. v.), the presumed fatherland of the Aryans and the birthplace of the Zoroastrian religion.

BACTRIAN SAGE, a name given to Zoroaster as a native of Bactria.