BARYTON-BASALT. B., have been previously referred to in this article and that on BARIUM. BA'RYTON (Viol di Bardoni), an old chamberinstrument, somewhat like the viol di gamba in tone: had a broader finger-board, with seven gutstrings, while under the neck there were sixteen strings of brass wire, which were touched with the point of the thumb, to produce a sound, while the gut-strings were acted on by a bow. BA'RYTON, that species of the human voice which lies between the bass and the tenor, the tone-character of which is more allied to the bass. The compass of a B. voice is from (sulphate of B.). It may be prepared in several ways: 1. By acting upon the carbonate of B. (BaOCO,) by nitric acid (NO), which causes the disengagement of the carbonic acid (CO), and the nitric acid combining with the B. forms the nitrate of baryta (BaONO). On evaporating the latter substance to dryness, and igniting the residue, the nitric acid volatilises, and leaves the baryta (BaO). 2. Another mode of preparing the same substance is to act upon a solution of sulphuret of barium (BaS) by the black oxide of copper (CuO), when an interchange of elements occurs, the sulphur uniting with the copper, producing sulphuret of copper (CuS), and the oxygen with the barium, forming B. (BaO), which remains dissolved in the water, and, on evaporation, deposits crystals in the hydrated condition (BaО,ĤO). B. belongs to the group of alkaline earths, and has the property of acting like but the principal notes of the voice are from an alkali (q. v.) on colouring matters. It has a very harsh taste, is highly caustic, and is very poisonous. A solution of B. is used by the chemist as the best indication of the presence of carbonic acid gas in the atmosphere, for when a plate or other vessel containing the solution is exposed to the air, the carbonic acid floating across the surface combines with the B., and forms a film of white carbonate of baryta (BaO,CO2). Otherwise, B. possesses little interest, as it is not put to any commercial or medicinal use. The compounds of B. are, however, of considerable importance. The sulphate of B. (BaOSO,), other wise called ponderous or heavy spar, is found in the mineral kingdom, diffused in fissures or cracks, Crystal of Sulphate of Baryta. passing through other rocks, especially in Cumberland, Durham, and Westmoreland, and in the island of Arran. At the latter place, an extensive mine of heavy spar has been worked for many years. In its native condition, the sulphate of B. occurs of a crystalline texture, is sometimes found pure and white, but generally presents a flesh-red colour, from the red oxide of iron (rust) incorporated in it. The rust can be got quit of by reducing the sulphate of B. to a fine powder under rollers or travelling-wheels, and subjecting the pulverised material to the action of dilute sulphuric acid, which dissolves the red oxide of iron, and leaves the sulphate of B. as a white dense powder. The principal use of heavy spar is as a pigment under the name of permanent white; but having little opacity, it cannot be employed by itself, but only when mixed with ordinary white lead. When added to the latter, however, it must be regarded as an adulteration, for the little opacity it possesses renders it of service only as an increaser of the bulk of the white lead. Several mixtures of sulphate of B., and white lead are manufactured, and are known in commerce. Venice White contains 1 part Sulphate of B., and 1 part White Lead. Hamburg White contains 2 parts Sulphate of B., and 1 part White Lead. Dutch White_contains 3 parts Sulphate of B., and 1 part White Lead. The native sulphate of B. has been employed by the celebrated potter Wedgwood in the manufacture of jasper ware, and for the formation of white figures, &c., on coloured jars and vessels. The Carbonate of B. found native as Witherite, and the Nitrate of 722 ; and these should possess the ener getic character of a bass voice, and, above all, be produced from the chest, excepting perhaps the highest. In former times, the music for this species of voice was written on a stave with the F clef placed on the 3d line, thus: Its BAS, or BATZ, a small island in the English Channel, belonging to France, and situated off the north coast of the department of Finisterre. length is about 3 miles, and its breadth 2. It has a light-house, in lat. 48° 45' N., and long. 4° 14′ W., on an elevation 223 feet above the sea, and is defended by two forts and four batteries. Pop. above 1000, whose chief occupation is fishing. BASALT, strictly a variety of trap-rock (q. v.), although some writers use the words as synony. mous. It is composed of the same materials as greenstone (q. v.), and other varieties of trap, viz., hornblende and felspar, with a small quantity of iron; but these exist in a state of finer division than in greenstone, shewing that the crystalline action has been stopped at its commencement by the more rapid cooling of the mass. To this is owing its sharp conchoidal fracture and its hardness. As the hardness is frequently accompanied with tenacity, it makes B. a valuable material in the making of roads. It is of a more uniform darkx-gray colour, approaching to black, than the other varieties of trap. A rock of a similar appearance and structure occurs as a variety of lava, in volcanic districts. This Lava-B. differs from the older Trap-B. in the form which the silicates of magnesia and lime assume when crystallising. In the newer rocks, they appear as augite; in the older, as hornblende. These two minerals can scarcely be distinguished by their chemical composition, the different formulas given by mineralogists being the result of the presence, in the specimen analysed, of accidental ingredients or impurities. The slightly differing crystallographic angle has been accounted for by the supposed more speedy cooling of the volcanic rocks. Rose, indeed, has shewn that the hornblende of melted greenstone, in re-cooling, crystallises as augite; and we have observed that the same change has taken place in specimens of recrystallised B., obtained from works which existed lately at Basalt section. on each other, during the process of cooling, such | from the centre, the greater would be their approach spheres being produced in planes of refrigeration to parallelism; and the structure would be finally or absorption. They increase by the successive formation of external concentric coats, until their growth is prevented by the contact of neighbouring spheres; and as in a layer of equal-sized spheres, each is pressed on by six others, the result is that each sphere will be squeezed into a regular hexagon. Watt published this theory as the result of his celebrated observations on the cooling of a mass of molten basalt, in which he noticed the production of numerous spheroids, having a radiate structure. Many greenstones, in weathering, present such a structure, giving often to the rock the appearance as if it were composed of a mass of cannonballs, and Watt's experiments satisfactorily explain this phenomenon; but they will not go further. Anxious, however, that they should throw some light on the structure of basaltic columns, he manages it by the following remarkable assumption: In a stratum composed of an indefinite number in superficial extent, but only one in height, of impenetrable spheroids, with nearly equidistant centres, if their peripheries should come in contact in the same plane, it seems obvious that their mutual action would form them into hexagons; and if these were resisted below, and there was no opposing cause above them, it seems equally clear that they would extend their dimensions upwards, and thus form hexagonal prisms, whose length might be indefinitely greater than their diameters. The further the extremities of the radii were removed propagated by nearly parallel fibres, still keeping 728 BASCINET-BASE OF OPERATIONS. so affected them as to produce a beautiful series of united with oxygen. Thus, the metal potassium regular hexagonal prisms. The columns had a dia- (K), when it combines with oxygen (0), forms the meter of nearly half an inch. Their direction was at B. potash (KO); sodium (Na) and oxygen, the B. soda right angles to the oven floor. The earthy structure (NaO); lead (Pb) and oxygen, the B. oxide of lead of the brick remained. The columns, in short, were or litharge (PbO). A distinguishing feature of a in every respect, except the material of which they B. is that it unites with an oxygen acid, such as were formed, true basaltic columns. It is surely sulphuric acid (SO) to form a salt (q. v.). Thus, the better to look for an explanation of this structure in B. potash (KO) combines with sulphuric acid (SO2) causes similar to those which have produced the to make the salt sulphate of potash (KOSO,); examples adduced, than to find it in such ground-potash with nitric acid (NO) to form the salt nitrate less assumptions as are at the foundation of the of potash, or nitre (KONO). Occasionally sulphur generally received theory of Watt. The columnar replaces the oxygen in a base. Thus, the metal structure of B. seems to have been produced subse- potassium (K) unites with sulphur (S) to form the quently to the cooling of the mass, by changes in sulphur base, sulphuret of potassium (KS), which the solid rock, probably from the escape of some can unite with a sulphur acid like sulpharsenious volatile matter. acid or orpiment (ASS) to make the salt sulpharsenite of potash (KS, ASS,). The metal half of a B. need not be a simple element, but may be a compound body which, for the time, plays the part of a simple substance. Thus, the compound ethyl (CH) can combine with oxygen to form ordinary ether ([CH]0); and the B. thus produced can, in its turn, combine with acids to form salts. A base may be soluble or insoluble in water. Thus, the bases potash (KO), soda (NaO), ammonia (NHO), baryta (BaO), strontia (StO), lime (CaO), and magnesia (MgO), are more or less soluble in water; whilst the oxide of iron or rust (Fe,0), the red oxide of lead (Pb,O), the red oxide of mercury (Hg), are insoluble in water, but soluble See CHEMISTRY, in SUPP., Vol. X. The two best known and most beautiful examples of columnar B. are Fingal's Cave, in the island of Staffa, on the west coast of Scotland, and the Giants' Causeway, on the north coast of Ireland. BA'SCINET. See HELMET. A B C CH BASE, in Heraldry, the lower portion of the shield is called the B.; there is a dexter base, middle base, and sinister base, marked by the letters G, H, I, in the accompanying diagram, in which, for the convenience of the heraldic student, the other points of the escutcheon are also indicated. The chief or principal part of the escutcheon is the top, marked A, B, C. The dexter or right-hand side is that marked AG; the sinister or left-hand side, CI, an arrangement which is explained when we consider that the shield is always supposed to be on the arm of the wearer, and that it is his right and left hands, not those of the spectator, which are kept in view. The ground or surface of the shield, on which all the charges or figures are depicted, is called the field. Base. IN BASE. When any figure is placed in the B. part of the shield, it is said to be in base. BASE (Fr. and Ital.), the foot or lower member of a pillar, on which the shaft rests. Of the classical orders, the Doric column alone had no base. The height of the B. is usually about half the lower Tuscan Base. diameter of the shaft; and it is divided into the plinth, or flat projecting square block or blocks, immediately above the ground, and the mouldings (q. v.), or fillets, which surround the column, and are usually circular. In the early Norman style, the bases of pillars still retained, from the Romanesque, forms closely resembling the Tuscan order. As Gothic architecture advanced, and emancipated itself from the arbitrary rules by which the classical orders were governed, bases became infinitely varied in detail, though something approaching to the original conception of a strong and firm foundation for the column, adhered to them throughout. BASE, in Chemistry, is a term applied to a compound body, generally consisting of a metal in acids. BASE, or BASS (from basis, the foundation), in Music, is the deepest or lowest part, by whatever instrument it may be performed. The B., next to the upper part, is the most striking, the freest in its movements, and richest in effect. Its movement downwards is unfettered, unconcealed, and undisturbed, whereas the middle parts are circumscribed and concealed. In respect to harmony, the B. is the most important part in music, containing more frequently the fundamental notes of the chords, while on it is formed that most important and effective figure in music called 'organ-point' (q. v.).-B. is also the name of the lowest and deepest quality of the human voice. The compass of a B. voice is chest-notes, except, perhaps, the highest. The most useful range, however, is from Đ In the characteristic use of the B. voice, the old masters were unquestionably the greatest, especially Handel and Bach. The B. voice only begins to shew itself at the years of manhood, and is generally a change from the alto voice of a boy.-B. is also the name of an old stringed instrument, with from five to six strings, tuned variously to suit the music, and played with a bow. It was a sort of middle instrument between the contra-bass and violoncello, but is now out of use. Double B. (contra-bass) is the deepesttoned of stringed instruments. BASE OF OPERATIONS, in Military Manœuvres, is some spot or line which the general of an army relies upon as a stronghold and magazine. An army cannot take with it all the food, forage, and ammunition for a long war; the consumption is enormous, and a constant supply is indispensable. Again, the sick and wounded cannot accompany the army through toilsome marches; the commander endeavours to send them back to some place of safety. Furthermore, fresh troops must have some spot from which they can safely advance through the enemy's country. To secure all these advantages, a BASE-COURT-BASEL B. of O. is necessary. It may be a port, a stretch exaggerations, mistakes, and conceits; yet it cannot of sea-coast, a river, a mountain-range, according be disputed that his numerous philosophical and to circumstances; but it must be such as to serve as educational works powerfully awakened attention a magazine of supply, a place for retreat under and interest in the much-neglected subject of educadisaster, and the end of a line of open communi- tion, and that he set many excellent ideas and cation extending to the spot occupied by the army. weighty truths in rapid circulation among men. When Lord Raglan and Marshal St Arnaud advanced from the Alma towards Sebastopol, in September 1854, they intended to attack the great fortress on the north side; but the tactics of the Russians prevented this; and the allies, changing their plan, resolved on the celebrated dank-march to Balaklava, by which they secured the whole coast from Balaklava to Kamiesch as a B. of O. during the siege of Sebastopol. See BALAKLAVA. In the military contests arising out of the Indian mutiny, in 1857 and 1858, Cawnpore was the chief B. of Ŏ. whence Havelock, Outram, and Clyde made those advances towards Lucknow which led ultimately to the suppression of the revolt. In the Italian war of 1859, the Austrian B. of O. was very fluctuating, owing in part to the disaffected state of the Lombard population around the great fortresses of Mantua, Peschiera, &c.; and indeed the only reliable base was furnished by the Eastern and Tyrolese Alps. The French and Sardinian base, in the same war, was virtually Genoa, and the line of country extending thence to the great stronghold of Alessandria. BA'SE-COURT (basse-cour), the outer court of a feudal mansion, which contained the stable-yard and accommodation for servants. It was distinct from the principal quadrangle, and was sometimes constructed of timber. BA'SEL, or BA'SLE (Fr. Bâle), a city and canton of Switzerland. The canton was divided in 1833 into two sovereign half-cantons, called Basel-city (Basel-stadt, in French, Basle-ville) and Baselcountry (Basel-landschaft, in French, Basle-campagne). The half-canton of Basel-city consists only of the city, with its precincts, and three villages on the right bank of the Rhine; the remainder of the canton forms the half-canton of Basel-country. The canton of B. is bounded by France and Baden, and by the cantons of Aargau, Soleure, and Berne, and has, according to different estimates, an extent of from 170 to about 200 square miles. Lying on the northern slope of the Jura, it is a country of hills and valleys. The mountains attain an elevation of from 2000 to 3000 feet. The chief rivers of B. are the Rhine (which flows through the north part of the canton) and its tributaries, the Birz, and Ergloz. The soil is fertile and well cultivated. The climate, except in elevated situations, is very mild. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in agriculture, the cultivation of fruit-trees and of the vine, cattle-husbandry, fishing, salt-works, the manufacture of ribbons (which are manufactured to the value of £400,000 sterling annually), paper, woollens, linens, and leather. The transit trade is very considerable. The city of B. arose out of the Roman fortified post of Basilia or Basiliana, near Augusta Rauracorum, BA'SEDOW, JOH. BERNH. (properly, Joh. Berend of which once more important place the little village Bassedau, or Bernh. von Nordalbingen, as he is of Augst, near B., exhibits a few ruins. On the divioften called), a remarkable educationist of the 18th sion of the Frank Empire, the district of B. fell to c., was born, 8th September 1723, at Hamburg, Louis or Ludwig the German. The Emperor Henry where his father was a peruke-maker. He attended I., in the earlier part of the 10th c., rebuilt the the Johanneum there from 1741 to 1744, and after-town, which had been destroyed. It then became a wards studied philosophy and theology in Leipsic, from which he went in 1746 as a private tutor to Holstein. In the year 1753, he was appointed a master in the academy for young noblemen at Sorüe. In 1761 he was removed from the Gymnasium at Altona on account of heterodox opinions. Rousseau's Emile awakened in him, in 1762, the thought of improving the method of education, and of reducing to practice Rousseau's maxims and those of Comenius. Contributions from princes and private persons, amounting to 15,000 thalers (about £2171 sterling), covered the cost of his Elementarwerk, which, after the most pompous announcements, appeared as an Orbis Pictus, with 100 copper-plates by Chodowiecki, and was translated into French and Latin. Therein the young receive a large number of representations of the actual world, whereby B. sought at once to delight the eyes, and to awaken a sentiment of cosmopolitanism, at which his whole method aimed. As a model school on this method, he established in 1774 the Philanthropin at Dessau, to which place he had been called in 1771. His restlessness of disposition, and the quarrels in which he was involved, especially with his active but capricious coadjutor Wolke, caused him to leave the Philanthropin; but he proceeded with as much eagerness as ever in endeavours to give effect to his ideas by educational works, which, however, aimed more at popularity than solidity, until, after many changes of residence, he died at Magdeburg, 25th July 1790. His influence on the public mind of his age, particularly in Germany, was very great. He has been justly reproached with disparaging the ancients, a consequence chiefly of his own want of sound scholarship, and with a multitude of place of importance, and belonged for a time to Burgundy, but after 1032 formed part of the German empire. It became at an early period the seat of a bishop, who, from the 11th c., shared in the supreme power with the imperial governor, a number of noble families, and the burgesses. Amidst many internal and external disturbances, the power of the nobility was gradually broken, that of the bishop restricted, and the authority of the burgesses extended. Surrounding towns were also destroyed, or conquered, and purchased, along with their territories, so that the city extended its dominion over a country district which until very recently was kept in a state of dependence and subjection. Involved in many feuds with the House of Hapsburg, B. closely allied itself to the Swiss confederacy; and after the peace between the Emperor Maximilian I. and the confederacy, B. formally joined it in 1501. From 1519 onwards, the writings of Luther were printed in B.; and at the end of twenty years from that time, the reformed doctrine had become generally prevalent, the chapter of the cathedral had left the city, and the convents had been suppressed. After the union with Switzerland, the triumph of the burgess party became also more complete, part of the nobility emigrated, and those who remained were placed upon the same level with the freemen of the municipal corporation. Orderly industry, economy, and an external severity of manners, became the characteristics of the citizens; but the peace of the city was not unfrequently disturbed by strifes consequent upon the assertion of what was deemed undue authority by the magistrates. The government of the city, to which the whole canton was subject, was intrusted to a Great and a Little BASEL. Council, under the presidency of alternate burgomasters and chief wardens of the guilds; but the Little Council, uniting legislative and judicial functions with the highest executive authority, became gradually more and more preponderant. All parties in the city, however, remained always well combined against the country district; and persons belonging to the city were appointed to all offices, civil and ecclesiastical, whilst the depression of the country district was completed by the neglect of a proper provision for education. This state of things caused great dissatisfaction, which repeatedly broke out in fruitless rebellion. Under the impulse communicated by the French Revolution, equality of rights was conceded in 1798; but in 1814, although the equality of rights remained apparently intact, the new constitution of the canton was so framed, and the representation so distributed, as virtually to make the city again supreme. The discontent of the country district became so great that, after unsuccessful attempts to obtain redress of grievances by petition, civil war broke out in 1831, which did not cease till the troops of the Swiss Confederation took possession of the canton, and the diet recognised the separation of the city and the country district, as sovereign half-cantons, in 1833. The constitutions of the two half-cantons are in most respects similar, and are framed on the basis of the old constitution, modified in accordance with the principle of universal suffrage. According to the census of 1870, the half-canton of Basel-city contained 47,760 inhabitants, of whom 34,457 were Protestants; and Basel-country, 54,127, of whom 10,245 were Roman Catholics. By the federal constitution, proclaimed May 29, 1874, the half-canton of Basel-city sends two, and the half-canton of Basel-country three, members to the National Council. The capital of Basel-country is Liestal. Since its separation from the city, more ample provision has been made for education, and there has been a rapid increase of material prosperity. Both Roman Catholic and Protestant clergy are paid by the state, and the parishes of the Reformed Church have received the right of choosing their own pastors. mathematicians Euler and Bernouilli, who were natives of B.; but it is now little frequented. The population of the whole canton in 1870 was 82,217. BA'SEL, COUNCIL OF, a memorable and important ecclesiastical council, held in the city of Basel. It was summoned by Pope Martin V., and his successor Eugenius IV., in accordance with an announcement made at the Council of Constance, and was opened on 14th December 1431, under the presidency of the Cardinal Legate Julian Cesarini of St Angelo. The hall in which it met is still shewn at Basel. It addressed itself to the reconciliation of the Hussites with the Roman Catholic Church, and to the reform of abuses in the church itself. But the first attempt to conciliate the Hussites, whom an army of crusaders had in vain sought to subjugate, was met with resistance by the pope, who not only refused his sanction, but empowered the cardinal legate to dissolve the council. The council strongly repelled the pope's pretension of right to dissolve it, and proceeded with its business. His injunctions, that it should remove to Italy, were equally disregarded. It renewed the decree of the Council of Constance, asserting the right of a General Council to exercise authority over the pope himself, and on his persevering to issue bulls for its dissolution, caused a formal process to be commenced against him, and cited him to appear at its bar. It assumed the papal powers, and exercised them in France and Germany, where its authority was acknowledged. It concluded a peace, in name of the church, with the Calixtines, the most powerful section of the Hussites, by the Prague Compact of 20th November 1433, granting them the use of the cup in the Lord's Supper. By this, the Emperor Sigismund was much helped in obtaining possession of Bohemia; and he in return sought to reconcile the council with Eugenius IV., who, being hard pressed by insurrections in the States of the Church, and afraid of losing his whole influence in France and Germany, solemnly ratified all its decrees, by a bull dated 15th December 1433. Desirous, however, of limiting the papal prerogatives, the council restored to the chapters of cathedral and collegiate churches the free right of election to stalls and benefices, of which the pope had assumed the right of disposing; and with a view to the reformation of gross abuses, restricted the power of granting interdicts, and prohibited annats and other grievous exactions. It left the pope the right to dispose of those benefices only which belonged to the diocese of Rome, and prohibited the bestowal of reversions to ecclesiastical offices. It also appointed punishments for certain immoralities in the clergy; and prohibited Festivals of Fools, and all the indecencies which had been commonly practised in churches at Christmas. It adopted decrees concerning the election of popes, and for the regulation of the College of Cardinals. The city of B. was much more populous in the middle ages than it is now. Its population in 1870 was 44,834. In the 14th c., the number of its inhabitants was greatly reduced by the plague, or black death' (q. v.), which raged in it with terrible severity, and is sometimes mentioned as the death of Basel.' It is well-built and clean, but its appearance does not proclaim it the wealthiest city in Switzerland, which, however, it is. Amongst its buildings are a cathedral, founded in the beginning of the 11th c., by the Emperor Henry II., and a bridge over the Rhine, built in 1226. The Rhine divides the city into two parts-Great B., on the south side, and Little B., on Eugenius, exasperated to the utmost, comthe north. B. is connected by railway with Stras-plained loudly to all sovereign princes. At this burg on the one hand, and Berne, Lucerne, Zurich, &c., on the other. It has many benevolent and educational institutions, among which are an orphan asylum, and an institution for deaf mutes; a university, founded in 1459, which has a library of about 120,000 volumes, and a very valuable collection of manuscripts, a numismatological collection, a botanic garden, and a museum of natural history; the new museum, in which there are several pictures of the younger Holbein, who was long resident in B. (some accounts say, he was born here); a public library of 70,000 volumes. During the Reformation, the university was a central point of spiritual life, and it has numbered among its professors men of great eminence in learning and science, including Erasmus, who died here in 1536, and the time, a prospect was opened up of the union of the distressed Greeks with the Church of Rome; and both the pope and the council endeavoured to make use of this for the advancement of their own interests and influence. Both despatched galleys for the Greek deputies, but through the intrigues of his agents, the pope was successful, and brought the Greek deputies to Ferrara. The Archbishop of Tarentum, a papal legate at B., circulated an ordinance in name of the council, and sealed with its seal, recommending Udine or Florence as the place of conference. The ordinance was a forgery, and this proceeding put an end to forbearance on the part of the council, which, on July 31, 1437, again cited the pope to its bar; and not only on his failing to appear, declared him contumacious, but on his opening an |