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BELL-BELLADONNA.

In 1839, in conjunc- | bell-shaped flowers of a lurid purple colour, which are fully larger than those of the common harebell, stalked and solitary in the axils of the leaves. It produces berries, of the size of a middle-sized cherry,

tion with Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton and Dr. Lardner, he started The Monthly Chronicle, a literary periodical, published by Longman & Co.; and latterly was editor of it. In 1841, he retired from The Atlas. For Lardner's Cyclopædia, B. wrote The History of Russia, 3 vols., and The Lives of the English Poets, 2 vols. The last volume of Southey's Naval History, left unfinished by the author, was also written by him, as was the concluding volume of Mackintosh's History of England. At the London theatres, three five-act comedies have been produced by him. He is author, also, of The. Ladder of Gold, a novel, 3 vols., 1850; Heart and Altars, a collection of tales, 3 vols.; Life of Canning; Outlines of China; Memorials of the Civil War, consisting of the Fairfax correspondence, 2 vols.; Wayside Pictures through France, Belgium, and Holland. In 1854, he commenced an annotated edition of the English poets; and received from the king of the Belgians a gold medal, as a token of his majesty's sense of his services to literature. Died Apr. 12, '67.

[graphic]

Belladonna.

persistent calyx.

BELL, THOMAS, a distinguished naturalist, the son of a medical practitioner, was born at Poole, Dorsetshire, in 1792. In 1814, he went to London, and studied at Guy's Hospital, and in 1815, a, part of a branch with leaves and flowers; b, fruit, with passed the College of Surgeons. In 1817, he commenced a course of annual lectures on dental surgery at Guy's Hospital, where he also for some time delivered lectures on comparative anatomy. He was one of the founders of, and a principal contributor to, The Zoological Journal, of which five volumes were published; also one of the members of the Zoological Club of the Linnæan Society, afterwards incorporated with the Zoological Society. Elected in 1828 a Fellow of the Royal Society. in 1840 he was appointed its secretary. In 1836, he became Professor of Zoology in King's College, London. On the establishment of the Ray Society, in 1844, for the publication of rare and costly works on natural history, he was elected its first president. In 1853, he resigned the secretaryship of the Royal Society, on being elected president of the Linnean Society. He is author of a History of British Reptiles, in Van Voorst's series of British natural history, 1829; a History of British Quadrupeds, same series, 1836; and a History of the British Stalk-eyed Crustacea, same series, 1853. In 1833, he commenced a Monograph of the Testudinata. The article Reptiles,' in Darwin's Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle, was written by Bell. It has been the happy but deserved good-fortune of Professor Bell to become proprietor of the manor of Selborne, endeared to all naturalists by the observations of the celebrated Gilbert White.

6

BELLA, a thriving town of Naples, in the province of Basilicata, with a population of between

5000 and 6000.

BELLA, STEFANO DELLA, a famous Italian engraver, was born at Florence, 18th May 1610. He was intended for a goldsmith, but he soon left that calling, and devoted himself to engraving. He executed upwards of 1400 different works, of almost all subjects—battles, sea-pieces, landscapes, animals, &c. All are characterised by freedom and delicacy, and give evidence of high imagination on the part of the author, and also of much patient and careful manipulation. One of his most admired works is a view of the Pont-Neuf, Paris. He died 12th July

1664.

BELLADO'N NA, DWALE, or DEADLY NIGHTSHADE (A'tropa Belladonna), a plant of the natural order Solanaceae (q. v.); an herbaceous perennial, growing up every year as a bush, from two to six feet high, with ovate entire leaves, and

and which, when ripe, are of a shining black colour,
and of a sweetish and not nauseous taste, although
the whole plant has a disagreeable heavy smell. It
is a native of the southern and middle parts of
Europe, and is not uncommon in England, in the
neighbourhood of towns and of ruins. All parts of
the plant are narcotic and poisonous, and fatal con-
sequences not unfrequently follow from the eating of
its berries, which have an inviting appearance. Its
roots have sometimes been mistaken for parsnips.
Dryness of the mouth and throat, dilatation of the
eyes, obscurity of vision, paralytic tremblings, loss
of sensation, delirium, and stupor, are among the
effects of poisoning by belladonna. When death
takes place from this cause, corruption ensues with
extraordinary rapidity. B. is, however, of great
value in medicine, soothing irritation and pain,
particularly in nervous maladies, and is adminis-
tered both internally and externally, in the form
of extract, tincture, ointment, and plaster, which
are generally prepared from the dried leaves, some-
times from the root. It is particularly useful,
from its power of dilating the pupil of the eye, and
is constantly employed by oculists both for exami-
nations and operations. It is also applied to
the eye to diminish the sensibility of the retina
to light. It has recently been recommended as
ground of its tendency, when administered in
a preventive of scarlet fever, apparently on the
frequent small doses, to produce an eruption and
an affection of the throat, somewhat similar to
those characteristic of that disease; but the evi-
dence of its utility for this purpose is not sufficient
to warrant confidence.-The name B., i. e.,
Lady, is supposed to have originated in the employ-
Fair
ment of the juice for staining the skin. The name
Dwale is apparently from the
the French deuil, grief-an allusion to the same
qualities which have obtained for the plant the
appellation of Deadly Nightshade. Atropa is from
Atropos, one of the Fates.-The other species of
Atropa are South American.

same root with

B. owes its active properties on the animal system to the presence of the alkaloid Atropine, accompanied by another alkaloid, Belladonnine. The alkaloid atropine is present in all parts of the plant, and in all the preparations. It is generally procured from the root of B., and then forms

BELLADONNA LILY-BELL-BIRD.

needle-shaped crystals, which are sparingly soluble in water, but readily dissolve in alcohol and ether. Atropine is a very active poison, and its effects on the animal system resemble in an intensified degree the manner in which B. acts. It has recently been introduced into medicine, along with its nitrate, its sulphate, and its hydrochlorate.

BELLADO ́NNA LILY (Amaryllis Belladonna), a very beautiful species of Amaryllis (q. v.), with rose-coloured drooping flowers clustered at the summit of the leafless flowering stem. It is a native of the Cape of Good Hope and of the West Indies, has become naturalised in Madeira, and is a not unfrequent ornament of gardens in England. The flowering stem is about 18 inches high.

BELLAMY, JACOBUS, a distinguished Dutch poet, was born at Vliessingen (Flushing), November 12, 1757, and died March 11, 1786. His parents were very poor, and he was indebted for his education to the patronage of a clergyman, and other persons who had seen and admired the patriotic effusions of his boyish muse, and who subscribed to effusions of his boyish muse, and who subscribed to send him to the university of Utrecht. Here the talents already remarked in B. were devoted chiefly to poetry, though his benefactors had hoped that he would devote himself to theology. His first sentimental and anacreontic poems, published at Amsterdam in 1782, were followed by a series of earnest patriotic poems (Vaderlandsche Gezangen), and in the same year, a third volume full of merit (1785). A collected edition of his works appeared at Haarlem (1826), but it does not contain his most popular poem, Roosje. B. was possessed of a glowing spirit and fancy, as well as a fine taste and ease in composition. He deservedly ranks as one of the chief restorers of national literature in Holland.

de Controversiis Fidei adversus hujus Temporis
Hereticos (3 vols., Rome, 1581; 4 vols., Prague, 1721;
4 vols., Mayence, 1842). These disputations are
regarded by Catholics as the best arguments for
their tenets. There can be no question of their
merits with regard to erudition and adroitness in
controversy; but as Gerhard, in his Bellarminus
Orthodoxias Testis (Jena, 1631-1633), and Dallæus
have shewn, many of the conclusions are far from
Industry, clearness, and
being sound or logical.
acuteness are the chief merits of B.'s great work;
but it is seriously lessened in value by subtilty,
forced conclusions, and a very defective exegesis-
faults which have long been evident to enlightened
Catholic writers themselves. Among his other
writings, the most able is the Christianae Doctrinæ
Applicatio, originally written in Italian, and now
translated into all the European languages. Pope
Urban VIII., at the instigation of the Jesuits,
declared B. to be a 'faithful servant of God;' but
his canonisation as a saint has hitherto been
opposed. Complete editions of his works have been
published at Venice, 5 vols., 1721; and Cologne, 7
vols., 1619. His life was written in Italian by the

Jesuit Fuligatti (Rome, 1624); and translated into
Latin by Petra Sancta (Liege, 1626).

The main

BELLARY, a district of British India in the presidency of Madras, bounded on the N. by the Nizam's territories, on the E. by Cuddapah, on the S. by Mysore, and on the W. by Dharwar. With an area of 13,056 square miles, it extends in N. lat. between 13° 40′ and 15° 58'; and in E. long. between 75° 44′ and 78° 19'. Pop. 1,229,599. peculiarities of the district are connected with its Elevated on the east slope of the West situation. Ghauts, B. enjoys so healthy a climate that it has been officially recommended as the site of a sanatorium for the neighbouring provinces. Screened by the Ghauts from the south-west monsoon, and protected against the north-east one by its distance from the Bay of Bengal, B. receives, on an average, less rain than any other portion of Southern India-the annual fall ranging between about 12 inches and about 26 inches. Hence all its subordinate streams become, in the dry season, mere expanses of sand, which, excepting when bound together by the growth of the nuth-grass, is apt to encroach from year to year, like a glacier, over the bordering grounds. B., in fact, may in a great measure be said to be habitable through artificial means. Irrigation, though rude, is yet ingenious; dug wells amount to 22,000; of tanks there are 1400; and weirs or dams of huge stones, to the number of 331, cross the various watercourses, so as to form, after the rains, so many reservoirs.

BELLARMINE, ROBERT, one of the most celebrated Catholic theologians, was born at Monte Pulciano in Tuscany, October 4, 1542. He entered the order of Jesuits in 1560, and was distinguished among his confrères by the zeal with which he studied theology, the church-councils, the Fathers, Hebrew, history, and the canon law. In 1563, he gave lessons in polite literature and astronomy at Florence; and in rhetoric, at Mondovi, 1564-1567. In his twentyseventh year, when he went to Louvain as professor of theology, he began that long controversy with 'heretics which formed the main business of his life. In 1599, when he was made a cardinal against his own inclination, he used his influence over Pope Clement VIII. to prevent the introduction of the Platonic philosophy into the university of Rome, on the ground of its being 'pernicious; but though himself a Jesuit, he honourably opposed the Dominicans with regard to the Pelagian writings of Molina. He seems, however, to have participated to some extent in that writer's suicidal ethics, for in his Disputationes he argues that, as the pope is the supreme authority in doctrine and morals, if he should call virtue vice, and vice virtue, we are bound to believe him, and to act accordingly. In 1602, he was appointed Archbishop of Capua. After the death of Clement VIII., he contrived to escape promotion to the papal chair, but was induced by Pius V. (1605) to hold an important place in the Vatican, where he remained until the time of his death, which took place in the Novitiate-house of BE'LL-BIRD (Casmarynchus carunculata), a bird the Jesuits, September 17, 1621. In his work, De Potestate Pontificis in Temporalibus (On the Pope's found in some of the warm parts of South America, Power in Secular Matters), he introduced the remarkable for the metallic resonance of its cry, doctrine that the pope must be held as supreme which resembles the tolling of a bell, with pauses This over all kings. On this account, the book was con- varying from a minute to several minutes. demned as treasonable in Paris, Venice, and Mentz. bird belongs to a genus nearly allied to the Cotingas His chief work contains the disputations held in the (q. v.) and Wax-wings (q. v.), but characterised by a Jesuits' College at Rome, 1576-1581, Disputationes | very broad and much depressed bill, soft and flexible

BELLA'RY, the chief town of the above district, is situated about 380 miles south-east of Bombay, and 270 north-west of Madras. Lat. 15° 8' N., and As one of the principal military long. 76° 59′ E. stations in the presidency of Madras, it is connected by good roads with Belgaum, Bangalore, Hyderabad, The fort stands on a rock two and Madras itself.

miles round, and 450 feet high; and is supplied with water from tanks excavated in the solid granite. Besides the fort and adjacent cantonments, B. contains a native town, which, in 1836, numbered 30,426 inhabitants.

BELLE-ALLIANCE-BELLENDEN.

[blocks in formation]

about the size of a jay; the male is of snow-white plumage, and from his forehead rises a strange tubular appendage, which, when empty, is pendulous, but which can be filled with air by a communication from the palate, and then rises erect to the height of nearly three inches. He generally takes his place on the top of a lofty tree, and his tolling resounds through the forest, not only at morning and evening, but also at mid-day, when the heat of the blazing sun has imposed silence on almost every

can be heard to the distance of three miles. It

other creature.

BELLE-ALLIANCE, the name of a farm in the province of Brabant, Belgium, 13 miles south of Brussels. It has become famous as the position occupied by the centre of the French army in the battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815. The Prussians gave the name B. to this decisive battle; the French named it from Mont-Saint-Jean, the key of the British position, about two miles to the north; but the English name, Waterloo (q. v.), taken from the village where Wellington had his head-quarters, is now commonly used.

BELLE DE NUIT (Fr., Beauty of the night), a name given to certain tropical species of Convolvulacece, with extremely beautiful and fragrant flowers, which open only during the night. The species to which perhaps the name more particularly belongs, is Calonyction Bona Nox, a native of the forests of the West Indies and of tropical America, with twining stem, spiny branches, heart-shaped leaves, and exquisitely beautiful white flowers of five or six inches in diameter, which are produced in large many-flowered corymbs.

It

BELLEGARDE, a hill-fortress of France, in the department of Pyrénées Orientales. It is situated on the Spanish confines on the road from Perpignan to Figueras, and in the pass between Col de Portus on the east, and Col de Panizas on the de Portus on the east, and Col de Panizas on the west. Here the French, under Philip III., were defeated by Peter III. of Arragon in 1285. In the 14th c., B. consisted only of a fortified tower. was captured by the Spaniards in 1674, and again by the French under Marshal Schomberg in 1675. After the peace of Nimeguen, 1678-1679, a regular fortress, with five bastions, was erected here by order of Louis XIV. In 1793 it was blockaded and taken by the Spaniards under Ricardos, but was retaken by the French in the following year.

strengthened it. His grandson, the celebrated Marshal Belleisle, ceded the island to Louis XV. in exchange for the comté Gisors, 1718. In 1761, it was captured by the English fleet under Keppel, and restored in 1763.

BELLENDEN (BALLANTYNE), JOHN, Archdeacor V. and Queen Mary, regarding whose personal of Moray, a Scottish writer in the reigns of James He is frehistory little is known with certainty. quently confounded with a contemporary of the held the offices of Lord Justice-Clerk and director of same name, Sir John Bellenden of Auchinvole, who the Chancery at that time, and took a considerable part in political affairs. The works by which the archdeacon established his claim to an honourable place among Scottish literary men, are his translations of Boece's Scottish History, and of the first five books of Livy, both interesting as specimens of the Scottish prose of that period, and remarkable for the ease and vivacity of their style. To these works are prefixed poetical prologues; and appended to the Scottish history is an epistle to the king, written. in a free and manly strain of admonition. B. had enjoyed some share of favour at the court of James, at whose request he executed the translations. As the reward of his performances, he received grants of considerable value from the treasury, and afterwards was made Archdeacon of Moray and Canon of Ross. The translation of Livy was first published in 1822 by Mr. Thomas Maitland (afterwards Lord Dundrennan), uniform with his edition of Boece in the previous year (Edin., 2 vols. 4to).

His per

His

BELLENDEN, WILLIAM, a Scottish author in the time of Queen Mary and James VI. know being the testimony of Dempster (Hist. Eccl.), sonal history is meagre and obscure; all that we advocate in the parliament of Paris, and that he was that he was a professor in the university, and an employed in a diplomatic capacity by Queen Mary, and also by her son, who conferred on him the honorary appointment of Master of Requests. first work, entitled Ciceronis Princeps, &c., was published at Paris in 1608; his next, Ciceronis Consul, Senator, &c., in 1612. Both these works are compilations from the writings of Cicero, and exhibit in all the information and reflections scattered througha systematic form, and in the words of the original, and senatorial government. out his works on the subjects of regal, consular, Statu Prisci Orbis, appeared in 1615, and consists of BELLE ISLE, an island in the Atlantic, about a condensed sketch of the history and progress of midway between the north-west of Newfoundland religion, government and philosophy in ancient and the south-east of Labrador, in lat. 52° N., and times. These three works he soon after republished long. 56° W. Although on the parallel of Essex in in a collected form. His crowning labour, De England, it yields little but potatoes and ordinary Tribus Luminibus Romanorum, was published after vegetables. It is chiefly known as giving name to his death. The three luminaries' were Cicero, the adjacent strait on the south-west, which, separat-Seneca, and Pliny, out of whose works he intended ing Labrador from Newfoundland, forms the most to compile, on the same plan as his previous works, northerly of the three channels between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the open ocean.

BELLEISLE-EN-MER, an island belonging to France in the department Morbihan, in the Atlantic, 8 miles south of Quiberon Point. Its length is 11 miles, and its greatest breadth 7. Pop. about 9000, chiefly engaged in pilchard-fishing. Salt is made on the island. B. is a place of considerable antiquity. The chief town is Palais, a seaport and fortified place. In the 9th c., B. came into the possession of the Count of Cornouailles, who bestowed it on the abbey of Redon, afterwards on the abbey of Quimperlé. In the 16th c., the monks of Quimperlé ceded the island to Charles IX., who gave it as a marquisate to the Marshal de Retz, who fortified it. His successor sold the island in 1658 to Fouquet, intendant of Finance, who further improved and

His next work, De

a comprehensive digest of the civil and religious
history, and the moral and physical science of the
Romans. The first of these only was completed,
and forms a remarkable monument of B.'s industry
and ability. 'B.,' says Mr. Hallam, 'seems to have
taken a more comprehensive view of history, and to
have reflected more philosophically on it than per-
haps any one had done before; at least I do not
remember any work of so early an age which
reminds me so much of Vico and the Grandeur et
Decadence of Montesquieu.'
B.'s works are sup
posed to have furnished the materials for Dr.
Middleton's Life of Cicero, though that learned
divine abstains from any allusion to his predeces-
sor. An edition of B.'s De Statu was published in
1787 by Dr. Parr, with an elaborate, political, and
somewhat pedantic preface in Latin.

BELLEROPHOF-BELLINI.

BELLE'ROPHON, a genus of univalve shells, known only as a fossil. Montfort, who established the genus, placed it among the chambered Cephalopoda. It was subsequently associated with the living Argonaut, but is now generally considered as a genus of De Blainville's Nucleobranchiata (q. v.), having as

described.

Bellerophon tangentialis.

department of the Seine, forming a suburb of Paris, and enclosed by the new fortifications. It has manufactories of cashmeres, varnished leather, articles of polished steel, chemical stuffs, &c. There are springs at B. which have supplied Paris with water from a very early date, and it has tea-gardens and other places of amusement much resorted to by the Parisians. Pop. 56,833.

BELLEY, a town of France in the department of Ain, is a place of great antiquity, and was at one time strongly fortified. The finest lithographing stones in France are procured here. Pop. about 4000.

BELL-FLOWER. See CAMPANULA.

BELLI'NI, the name of a Venetian family which

[graphic]

He was

а

by angels, is full of beauty and lively expression. His Holy Virgin, Baptism of the Lord, and Christ and the Woman of Samaria, are also much admired. Among his numerous pupils the most distinguished were Giorgione and Titian.

its nearest ally the genus Atlanta; from which, how-produced several remarkable painters. The earliest The shell was JACOPO B., who died in 1470. ever, it differs in having a strong shell. of the B. is symmetrically convolute, with few and pupil of the celebrated Gentile da Fabriano, and one of the first who painted in oil. His eldest son, occasionally sculptured whorls, globular or discoidal, GENTILE B., born 1421, died 1501, was distinguished and having a dorsal keel, which terminates in a as a portrait painter, and also as a medailleur. deep notch in the sinuous aperture. It is a paleozoic organism, extending from the lower silurian to the Along with his brother, he was commissioned to carboniferous series. Seventy species have been decorate the council-chamber of the Venetian senate. Mohammed II., having by accident seen some of his works, invited Gentile to Constantinople, BELLE'ROPHON (originally called HIPPONOUS) employed him to execute various historical works, was the son of the Corinthian king Glaucus, and and dismissed him laden with presents. The PreachEurymede, daughter of Sisyphus. Other accounts ing of St. Mark is his most famous achievement. make Neptune his father. Having accidentally killed His more celebrated brother, GIOVANNI B., born his brother, B. fled to his relative Protus, king of 1422, died 1512, was the founder of the older Argos, by whom he was hospitably received and Venetian school of painting, and contributed greatly protected; but Anteia, the spouse of Protus, having to its progress. His works are marked by naiveté, become enamoured of him, and he, like Joseph, warmth, and intensity of colouring. His best works having declined her overtures, she revenged herself are altar pieces. His picture of the Infant Jesus after the manner of Potiphar's wife. This induced slumbering in the lap of the Madonna, and attended Prœtus to send his guest away to Iobates, king of Lycia, to whom B. carried a sealed message. After being entertained nine days at the court of Lycia, B. delivered the letter, which contained a request that Iobates would cause the youth to be slain. This, however, Iobates was reluctant to do in a direct way, as B. was his guest. He consequently imposed upon B. the seemingly impossible task of slaying the formidable Chimæra (q. v.). B., mounted on the winged steed Pegasus (given to him by Pallas), ascended into the air, and succeeded in slaying the monster with his arrows. Afterwards, he was sent by king Iobates against the Amazons, whom he On his way home he destroyed an ambuscade of Lycians, which Iobates had set for his destruction. That monarch now thought it useless to attempt his death, and as a sort of recompense, gave the hero in marriage his daughter Philonoë, by whom he had three children-Isander, Hippolochus, and Laodameia; such at least is the story as told by Apollodorus, who here concludes. Homer relates that he at last drew on himself the hatred of the gods, and wandered about in a desolate condition through the Aleïan field. Pindar relates that B. on the steed, maddened by Jove through the agency Pegasus endeavoured to mount to Olympus, when of a gadfly threw his rider, who was stricken with blindness. B.'s adventures were a favourite subject of the ancient artists. Sculptures have recently been discovered in Lycia, which represent him vanquishing the Chimæra.

defeated.

BELLES-LETTRES, a term adopted from the French into the English and various other languages. It is generally used in a vague way to designate the more refined departments of literature, but has in fact no precise limits. In English usage it is synonymous with another vague expression, polite literature, including history, poetry, and the drama, fiction, essay, and criticism.

BELLEVILLE, a town of France, in the

BELLI'NI, VINCENZO, one of the most popular modern opera composers, was born at Catania, in Sicily, November 1, 1802, and died at Puteaux, near education at the Conservatory of Naples, and was He received his early Paris, September 24, 1835. subsequently instructed in composition by Tritto and Zingarelli. After making some attempts, without much success, in instrumental and sacred music, he brought forward, in 1825, the opera Andelson e Salvina, which was played in the small theatre of the Royal College of Music (Naples). Another opera, Bianco e Gernando, was given in the theatre St. Carlo (1826) with such success that, in 1827, Bellini was commissioned to write a piece for La Scala at Milan. This opera, Il Pirata, was the first which carried the composer's name beyond Italy. It 1829, and by I Capuletti ed i Montecchi, written for was followed with equal success by La Straniera, exhausted his productive powers. the theatre of Venice, 1830, which was the culmination of the fame of B., though it by no means La Sonnambula and Norma appeared in 1831, and Beatrice di Tenda in 1833. In the same year the composer went to Paris, where he became acquainted with other forms of music beside the Italian. He was received with great applause in London, and after his return to Paris, wrote his opera I Puritani, which shews the influence of the French school of music, but without servile imitation. At an early age the career of B. was interrupted by death, before the composer had fully developed his powers. He was the most genial and original of all the followers of Rossini, and though inferior to his master in exuberance of fancy, is superior in carefulness and finish, especially in the due subordination of instrumental decorations to

BELLINZONA-BELLS.

vocal melody. In private he was highly esteemed
for the purity and affectionateness of his character.
BELLINZO'NA, or BELLENZ,
of
town
a
Switzerland, in the canton of Tessin or Ticino, on
the left bank of the river of that name, and the
seat of the provincial government, alternately with
Lugano and Locarno. It is guarded by three old
castles, and completely commands the passage of
the valley in which it is situated. In former times, it
was considered a place of great military importance,
and was the scene of frequent conflicts between the
Italians and Swiss; the latter of whom finally made
themselves masters of it about the beginning of
the 16th c. As an entrepôt for the merchandise of
Germany and Italy, it is now a place of considerable
commercial importance, though the population is but

small-about 2000.

BE'LLIS. See DAISY.

BELLO'NA, the goddess of war among the Romans, was described by the poets as the companion, sister, wife, or daughter of Mars; she was also represented as armed with a bloody scourge, and as inspiring her votaries with a resistless enthusiasm in battle. In the war with the Samnites, the Consul Appius Claudius vowed a temple to B., which was erected afterwards on the field of Mars. In this temple the senate gave audience to embassies from foreign powers, and also to consuls who had claims to a triumph which would have been nullified by entrance into the city. The priests of the goddess were styled Bellonarii, and practised sanguinary rites; such as cutting their own arms or feet, and offering (or even drinking) the blood in sacrifice. This was especially done on the dies sanguinis (day of blood), March 24.

time by M'Clintock on his crowning voyage. It
is about 20 miles long, and, at its narrowest part,
about 1 mile wide, running pretty nearly on the
parallel of 72°, between granite shores which, every-
where high, rise here and there to 1500 or 1600 feet.
Through this funnel both the winds and the waters
have full play; the latter, permanent currents and
flood-tides alike, coming from the west.
most northerly point on the south shore, M'Clintock
has given the name of Murchison promontory, which,
at least unless other straits like B. S. be found
towards the isthmus of Boothia, must be also the
most northerly point of the new continent. See
BARROW, POINT.

To the

BELLOY, PIERRE Laurent BUIRETTE, one of the first French dramatists who ventured to introduce on the stage native, instead of Greek, Roman, or other outlandish heroes. He was born at St.

In

Flour, in Auvergne, 17th November 1727, and died 5th March 1775. His father having died while B. was young, his uncle took him under his protection, and educated him for the law: but the seductions of the drama proved irresistible, and the opposition which he encountered in the cultivation of his theatrical talent ultimately determined him to leave his adopted home. Under the name of Dormont de B. he performed on various northern boards, and was much esteemed for his private worth. For some years he resided at St. Petersburg, where the Empress Elizabeth interested herself in him. In 1758, he returned to France, to superintend the 'bringing out' of his tragedy Titus, trusting that its success would reconcile his family to him. this, however, he was disappointed, for the piece proved a failure, being only a feeble imitation of BELLOT, JOSEPH RENÉ, a lieutenant in the Metastasio, and he returned to St. Petersburg. After French navy, who perished in the arctic regions, in the death of his uncle, he again visited France, and search of Sir John Franklin, was born in Paris, 18th obtained a decided success by his tragedy of Zelmire. March 1826, and educated at Rochefort, in the In 1765, appeared Le Siége de Calais, which was Naval School. In the French expedition against mation; and in 1771, Gaston and Bayard, which In the French expedition against immensely popular, and is even yet held in estiTamatave, in 1845, he gave proof of so much courage secured for him an entrance to the French Academy. and presence of mind, that the Cross of the Legion But of all his productions, the one which has longest attained his twentieth year. In May 1851, he retained a place in the répertoire of the stage, though joined the expedition then preparing in England for it was far from popular at first, is Pierre le Cruel. the Polar regions, in search of Sir John Franklin, theatrical effectiveness, but are marred by great B.'s dramas are not by any means wanting in and sailed in the Prince Albert, Kennedy comincorrectness. They have been collected and edited mander, sent out by Lady Franklin. Distinguished by his noble daring and spirit of enterprise, he by Gaillard (6 vols., Par. 1779). took part in several explorations. In one of these he made an important geographical discovery, to which his name was given-Bellot Strait (q. v.). On his return, he was promoted to the rank of navy lieutenant. In the expedition fitted out by the British Admiralty, under Captain Inglefield, he sailed as a volunteer, in H.M.S. Phoenix; but never returned, having been carried by a violent gust of wind, 21st March 1853 into a deep crack in the ice on which he was travelling. A considerable sum was subscribed in England for a monument to his memory. His Journal of a Voyage to the Polar Seas made in Search of Sir John Franklin in 1851-1852, edited, with a notice of his life, by M. Julien Lemer, 2 vols., was published at Paris in 1854. English translation. London 1855.

of Honour was conferred on him before he had

BELLS, on shipboard, is a term having a peculiar meaning, not exactly equivalent to, but serving as a substitute for time or 'o'clock' in ordinary land-life. The day, or rather the night, is divided into watches or periods, usually of four hours' duration each; and each half-hour is marked by striking on a bell. The number of strokes depends, not on the hour, according to ordinary reckoning, but on the number of half-hours which have elapsed in that particular watch. Thus, 'three bells' is a phrase denoting that three half-hours have elapsed, but it does not in itself shew to which particular watch it refers. Captain Basil Hall, n his Fragments of Voyages and Travels, while treating of Sunday usages on board ships of the Royal Navy, mentions one or two phrases illustrative of BELLOT STRAIT, the passage which separates this mode of time-reckoning. While the sailors. North Somerset from Boothia Felix, and connects are at breakfast on Sunday morning, 'the word Prince Regent's Inlet with Peel Strait or Sound, is passed to "clean for muster," and the dress is or, in M'Clintock's new nomenclature, Franklin specified according to the season of the year and Channel, Its east entrance was discovered by climate. Thus, at different seasons is heard: "Do Kennedy during his search for Franklin, and he, you hear there, fore and aft! clean for muster at assuming the continuity of the opening, classified five bells! duck-frocks and white trousers! "—or, it accordingly, naming it after his lamented com- "Do you hear there, clean shirt and a shave for panion Bellot. After four unsuccessful attempts, muster at five bells!"' A ship's bell is usually it was explored for the first and perhaps last hung to the beam of the forecastle, but occasionally

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