(see Charles,Apoc. Bar.pp. xliv.-liii). The necessity of postulating a Hebrew original was first shown by the present writer, and has since been maintained by Wellhausen (Skizzen u. Vorarbeiten, vi. 234), by Ryssel (Apok. und Pseudepig. A. T., 1900, ii. 411), and Ginzberg (Jewish Encyclopaedia, ii. 555).
Different Elements in the Book and their Dates.—As there are undoubtedly conflicting elements in the book, it is possible to assume either a diversity of authorship or a diversity of sources. The latter view is advocated by Ryssel and Ginzberg, the former by Kabisch, de Faye, R. H. Charles and Beer (Herzog'sRealenc., art. "Pseudepigraphen des Alten Testaments," p. 250). A short summary may here be given of the grounds on which the present writer has postulated a diversity of authorship. If the letter to the tribes in captivity (lxxviii.-lxxxvi.) be disregarded, the book falls into seven sections separated by fasts, save in one case (after xxxv.) where the text is probably defective. These sections, which are of unequal length, are—(1) i.-v. 6; (2) v. 7-viii.; (3) ix.-xii. 4; (4) xii. 5-xx.; (5) xxi.-xxxv.; (6) xxxvi.-xlvi.; (7) xlvii.-lxxvii. These treat of the Messiah and the Messianic kingdom, the woes of Israel in the past and the destruction of Jerusalem in the present, as well as of theological questions relating to original sin, free will, works, the number of the saved, the nature of the resurrection body, &c. The views expressed on several of the above subjects are often conflicting. In one class of passages there is everywhere manifest a vigorous optimism as to Israel's ultimate well-being on earth, and the blessedness of the chosen people in the Messianic kingdom is sketched in glowing and sensuous colours (xxix., xxxix.-xl., lxiii.-lxxiv.). Over against these passages stand others of a hopelessly pessimistic character, wherein, alike as to Israel'spresent and future destiny on earth, there is written nothing save "lamentation, and mourning, and woe." The world is a scene of corruption, its evils are irremediable, its end is nigh, and the advent of the new and spiritual world at hand. The first to draw attention to the composite elements in this book was Kabisch (Jahrbücher f. protest. Theol., 1891, pp. 66-107). This critic regarded xxiv. 3-xxix., xxxvi.-xl. and liii.-lxxiv. as independent sources written before the fall of Jerusalem,A.D.70, and his groundwork, which consists of the rest of his book, with the exception of a few verses, as composed after that date. All these elements were put together by a Christian contemporary of Papias. Many of these conclusions were arrived at independently by a French scholar, De Faye (Les Apocalypses juives, 1892, pp. 25-28, 76-103, 192-204). The present writer (Apocalypse of Baruch, 1896, pp. liii.-lxvii.), after submitting the book to a fresh study, has come to the following conclusions:—The book is of Pharisaic authorship and composed of six independent writings—A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, B3. The first three were composed when Jerusalem was still standing and the Messiah and the Messianic kingdom were expected: A1, a mutilated apocalypse = xxvii.-xxx. 1; A2, the Cedar and Vine Vision = xxxvi.-xl.; A3, the Cloud Vision = liii.-lxxiv. The last three were written afterA.D.70, and probably before 90. Thus B3= lxxxv. was written by a Jew in exile, who, despairing of a national restoration, looked only for a spiritual recompense in heaven. The rest of the book is derived from B1and B2, written in Palestine afterA.D.70. These writings belong to very different types of thought. In B1the earthly Jerusalem is to be rebuilt, but not so in B2; in the former the exiles are to be restored, but not in the latter; in the former a Messianic kingdom without a Messiah is expected, but no earthly blessedness of any kind in the latter, &c. B1= i.-ix. 1, xxxii. 2-4, xliii.-xliv. 7, xlv.-xlvi., lxxvii.-lxxxii., lxxxiv., lxxxvi.-lxxxvii. B2= ix.-xxv., xxx. 2-xxxv., xli.-xlii., xliv. 8-15, xlvii.-lii., lxxv.-lxxvi., lxxxiii. The final editor of the work wrote in the name of Baruch the son of Neriah.
The above critical analyses were attacked and rejected by Clemen (Stud. und Krit., 1898, 211 sqq.). He fails, however, in many cases to recognize the difficulties at issue, and those which cannot be ignored he sets down to the conflicting apocalyptic traditions, on which the author was obliged to draw for his subject-matter. Though Ryssel (Kautzsch,Apok. u. Pseud. des A. T.ii. 409) has followed Clemen, neither has given any real explanation of the disorder of the book as it stands at present. Beer (op. cit.) agrees that xxxvi.-xl. and liii.-lxx. are of different authorship from the rest of the book and belong to the earlier date.
Relation to 4 Ezra.—The affinities of this book and 4 Ezra are so numerous (see Charles,op. cit.170-171) that Ewald and Ryle assumed identity of authorship. But their points of divergence are so weighty (seeop. cit.pp. lxix.-lxxi.) that this view cannot be sustained. Three courses still remain open. If we assume that both works are composite, we shall perforce admit that some of the constituents of 4 Ezra are older than the latest of Baruch, and that other constituents of Baruch are decidedly older than the remaining ones of 4 Ezra. On the other hand, if we assume unity of authorship, it seems impossible to arrive at finality on the chronological relations of these two works. Langen, Hilgenfeld, Wieseler, Stähelin, Renan, Hausrath, Drummond, Dillmann, Rosenthal, Gunkel, have maintained on various grounds the priority of 4 Ezra; and Schürer, Bissell, Thomson, Deane, Kabisch, De Faye, Wellhausen, and Ryssel the priority of Baruch on grounds no less convincing.
Relation to Rabbinical Literature.—A very close relation subsists between our book and rabbinical literature. Indeed in some instances the parallels are so close that they are almost word for word. The description of the destruction of Jerusalem by angels in vi.-viii. is found also in the Pesikta Rabbati 26 (ed. Friedmann 131a). By means of this passage we are, as Ginzberg has shown, able to correct the corrupt reading "the holy Ephod" (vi. 7),אפוד הקודשinto "the holy Ark,"i.e.ארון הקודש. What might be taken as poetic fancies in our text are recounted as historical facts in rabbinical literature. Thus the words (x. 18):
"And ye priests, take ye the keys of the sanctuary,And cast them into the height of heaven,And give them to the Lord and say:'Guard Thine own house; for lo we are found unfaithful stewards,'"
"And ye priests, take ye the keys of the sanctuary,And cast them into the height of heaven,And give them to the Lord and say:'Guard Thine own house; for lo we are found unfaithful stewards,'"
"And ye priests, take ye the keys of the sanctuary,
And cast them into the height of heaven,
And give them to the Lord and say:
'Guard Thine own house; for lo we are found unfaithful stewards,'"
are given in various accounts of the fall of Jerusalem. (See Ta'anith, 29a;Pesiḳt.R.,loc. cit.;Yalquṭ Shim‛onion Is. xxi;Abothof Rabbi Nathan vii.). Even the statement that the bodies of Sennacherib's soldiers were burned while their garments and armour remained unconsumed has its parallel inSanh. 94a.
Integrity of the Book.—In lxxvii. 19 it is said that Baruch wrote two epistles, one to the nine and a half tribes and the other to the two and a half at Babylon. The former is found in lxxviii.-lxxxvi.; the latter is lost, but is probably preserved either wholly or in part in the Book of Baruch, iii. 9-iv. 29 (see Charles,op. cit.pp. lxv.-lxvii). On the other hand, it is not necessary to infer from lxxv. that an account of Baruch's assumption was to be looked for in the book.
Authorities.—The literature is fully cited in Schürer,Gesch.iii. 223-232, and R. H. Charles,Apocalypse of Baruch, pp. xxx.-xliii. Ginzberg's article in theJewish Encyclopaedia, ii. 551-556, is a fresh and valuable contribution.
Rest of the Words of Baruch. This book was undoubtedly written originally by a Jew but was subsequently revised by a Christian, as has been shown by Kohler in theJewish Quarterly Review(1893), pp. 407-409. It passed under a double name in the Abyssinian Church, where it was known both as "the Rest of the Words of Baruch" and "the Rest of the Words of Jeremiah." Its Greek name is the latter—τὰ παραλειπόμενα Ἱερεμίου προφήτου. It has been preserved in Greek, Ethiopic, Armenian and Slavonic. The Greek was first printed at Venice in 1609, next by Ceriani in 1868 in hisMon. Sacra, v. 11-18; by Harris,The Rest of the Words of Baruch, in 1889; and Bassiliev,Anec. Graeco-Byzantina, i. 308 sqq. (1893). The book begins like the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch with an account of the removal of the sacred vessels of the Temple before its capture by the Chaldees. Baruch remains in Jerusalem and Jeremiah accompanies the Exiles to Babylon. After 66 years' exile Jeremiah brings back the Jews to Jerusalem, but refuses to admit such as had brought with them heathen wives. Then follows a vision of Jeremiah which is Christian.
Harris regards the book in its present form as an eirenicon addressed to the Jews by a Christian after the rebellion of Bar Cochba (Barcochebas) and written about 136. Though the original work was dependent on the Apocalypse of Baruch it cannot have been written much before the close of the 1st cent.A.D.Itsterminus ad quemis at present indeterminable.
(R. H. C.)
[1]Toy (Jewish Enc. ii. 556) thinks that the "them" in ii. 4, 5 may be a scribal slip and that we have here not the confession of the Palestinian remnant and that of the Exiles, but simply a juxtaposition of two forms of confession.[2]In ii. 25 we have the wordἀποστολήwith the extraordinary meaning of "plague" as in Jer. xxxix. (xxxii.) 36.[3]Ryssel has adopted Charles's restoration of the text in these passages and practically also in xliv. 12. but without acknowledgment.
[1]Toy (Jewish Enc. ii. 556) thinks that the "them" in ii. 4, 5 may be a scribal slip and that we have here not the confession of the Palestinian remnant and that of the Exiles, but simply a juxtaposition of two forms of confession.
[2]In ii. 25 we have the wordἀποστολήwith the extraordinary meaning of "plague" as in Jer. xxxix. (xxxii.) 36.
[3]Ryssel has adopted Charles's restoration of the text in these passages and practically also in xliv. 12. but without acknowledgment.
BARUGO,a town on the north coast of the province of Leyte, island of Leyte, Philippine Islands, on Carigara Bay. Pop. (1903) 12,360. It exports large quantities of hemp and copra, and imports rice, petroleum, and cotton-goods.
BARWANI,a native state of India, in the Bhopawar agency in central India. It lies in the Satpura mountains, south of the Nerbudda. Area, 1178 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 76,136. Many of the inhabitants are Bhils. The chief, whose title is Rana, is a Rajput of the Sisodhyia clan, connected with the Udaipur family. Though the family lost most of its possessions during the Mahratta invasion in the 14th century, it never became tributary to any Malwa chief. The forests are under an English official. The town of Barwani is situated near the left bank of the Nerbudda. The population in 1901 was 6277.
BARYATINSKY, ALEXANDER IVANOVICH,Prince(1814-1879), Russian soldier and governor of the Caucasus, was privately educated, entered the school of the ensigns of the Guard in his seventeenth year and, on the 8th of November 1833, received his commission of cornet in the Life Guards of the cesarevich Alexander. In 1835 he served with great gallantry in the Caucasus, and on his return to St Petersburg was rewarded with a gold sword "for valour." On the first of January 1836 he was attached to the suite of Alexander, and in 1845 was again ordered off to the Caucasus and again most brilliantly distinguished himself, especially in the attack on Shamyl's stronghold, for which he received the order of St George. In 1846 he assistedFieldmarshal Paskievich to suppress the Cracow rising. From 1848 to 1856 he took a leading part in all the chiefmilitaryevents in the Caucasus, his most notable exploits being his victory at Mezeninsk in 1850 and his operations against Shamyl at Chechen. His energetic and at the same time systematic tactics inaugurated a new era of mountain warfare. On the 6th of January 1853 he was appointed adjutant-general and, on July 5th of the same year, chief of the staff. In 1854 he took part in the brilliant Kürük Dere campaign. On the 1st of January 1856 he became commander-in-chief of the Caucasian army, and, subsequently, governor of the Caucasus. As an administrator he showed himself fully worthy of his high reputation. Within three years of his appointment, the whole of the eastern Caucasus was subdued and the long elusive Shamyl was taken captive. Baryatinsky also conquered many of the tribes of the western Caucasus dwelling between the rivers Laba and Byelaya. For these fresh services he was created a fieldmarshal. But his health was now entirely broken by his strenuous labours, and on the 6th of December 1862 he was, at his own request, relieved of his post. He spent the last days of his life abroad and died at Geneva, after forty-eight years of active service.
See A. L. Zisserman,Fieldmarshal Prince A. I. Baryatinski(Russ.) (Moscow, 1888-1891).
BARYE, ANTOINE LOUIS(1796-1875), French sculptor, was born in Paris on the 24th of September 1796. Like many of the sculptors of the Renaissance he began life as a goldsmith. After studying under Bosio, the sculptor, and Gros, the painter, he was in 1818 admitted to the École des Beaux Arts. But it was not till 1823, when he was working for Fauconnier, the goldsmith, that he discovered his real bent from watching the wild beasts in the Jardin des Plantes, making vigorous studies of them in pencil drawings worthy of Delacroix and then modelling them in sculpture on a large or small scale. In 1831 he exhibited his "Tiger devouring a Crocodile," and in 1832 had mastered a style of his own in the "Lion and Snake." Thenceforward Barye, though engaged in a perpetual struggle with want, exhibited year after year these studies of animals—admirable groups which reveal him as inspired by a spirit of true romance and a feeling for the beauty of the antique, as in "Theseus and the Minotaur" (1847), "Lapitha and Centaur" (1848), and numerous minor works now very highly valued. Barye was no less successful in sculpture on a small scale, and excelled in representing animals in their most familiar attitudes. As examples of his larger work we may mention the Lion of the Column of July, of which the plaster model was cast in 1839, various lions and tigers in the gardens of the Tuileries, and the four groups—War, Peace, Strength, and Order (1854). In 1852 he cast his bronze "Jaguar devouring a Hare." The fame he deserved came too late to the sculptor. He was made professor at the museum in 1854, and was elected to the Academy of Fine Arts in 1868. He died on the 25th of June 1875. The mass of admirable work left to us by Barye entitles him to be regarded as the greatest artist of animal life of the French school, and as the creator of a new class of art which has attracted such men as Frémiet, Peter, Cain, and Gardet, who are regarded with justice as his worthiest followers.
Authorities.—Emile Lamé,Les Sculpteurs d'animaux; M. Barye(Paris, 1856); Gustave Planche, "M. Barye,"Revue des deux mondes(July 1851); Théophile Silvestre,Histoires des artistes vivants(Paris, 1856); Arsène Alexandre, "A. L. Barye,"Les Artistes célèbres, ed. E. Muntz (Paris, 1889) (with a bibliog.); Charles DeKay,Life and Works of A. L. Barye(1889), published by the Barye Monument Assoc. of New York; Jules Claretie,Peintres et sculpteurs contemporains(1882); Roger Ballu,L'Œuvre de Barye(1890); Charles Sprague Smith,Barbizon Days(1903).
(H. Fr.)
BARYTES,a widely distributed mineral composed of barium sulphate (BaSO4). Its most striking feature and the one from which it derives its name barytes, barite (from the Greekβαρύςheavy) or heavy spar, is its weight. Its specific gravity of 4.5 is about twice as great as that of salt and of many other colourless, transparent and glassy minerals not unlike barytes in general appearance. The mineral is usually found in a state of considerable chemical purity, though small amounts of strontium and calcium sulphates may isomorphously replace the barium sulphate: ammonium sulphate is also sometimes present, whilst clay, silica, bituminous matter, &c., may be enclosed as impurities.
Crystal forms of barytes.
Crystals of barytes are orthorhombic and isomorphous with the strontium and lead sulphates (celestite and anglesite); they are usually very perfectly developed and present great variety of form. The simplest are rhomb-shaped tables (fig. 1) bounded by the two faces of the basal pinacoid (c) and the four faces of the prism (m); the angle between the prism-faces (mm) is 78° 23′, whilst that betweencandmis 90°. The mineral has a very perfect cleavage parallel to the facescandm, and the cleavage surfaces are perfectly smooth and bright. The crystals of prismatic habit represented in figs. 2 and 3 are bounded by the domesdandfand the basal pinacoidc; fig. 4 is a plan of a still more complex crystal. Twinning is represented only by twin-lamellae, which are parallel to the planesmandfand are of secondary origin, having been produced by pressure.
Crystals of barytes may be transparent and colourless, or white and opaque, or of a yellow, brown, bluish or greenish colour. Well developed crystals are extremely common, but the mineral occurs also in a granular, earthy, or stalactitic condition. It is known as cawk in the Derbyshire lead mines. The "crested" or "cock's comb" barytes occurs as rounded aggregations of thin lamellar crystals.
Barytes is of common occurrence in metalliferous veins, especially those which yield ores of lead and silver; some of the largest and most perfect crystals of colourless barytes were obtained from the lead mines near Dufton in Westmorland. It is found also in beds of iron ore, and the haematite mines of the Cleator Moor district in west Cumberland have yielded many extremely fine crystals, specimens of which may be seen in all mineral collections. In the neighbourhood of Nottingham, and other places in the Midlands, barytes forms a cementing material in the Triassic sandstones; amber-coloured crystals of the same mineral are found in the fuller's earth at Nutfield in Surrey; and the septarian nodules in London Clay contain crystals of barytes as well as of calcite. Crystals are found as a rarity in the amygdaloidal cavities of igneous rocks.
Artificially prepared crystals of barytes may be obtained by allowing a solution of a soluble barium salt to diffuse slowly into a solution of a soluble sulphate. Barium chloride is present in some natural waters, and when this is the case the interaction of sulphates results in a deposition of barytes, as has occurred in the pipes and water-boxes of the Newcastle-on-Tyne coal mines.
Commercially, barytes is used in the preparation of barium compounds, as a body for certain kinds of paper and cloth, and as a white pigment ("permanent white"). The finely powdered and washed mineral is too crystalline and consequently of insufficient opacity to be used alone as a paint, and is therefore mixed with "white lead," of which material it is also used as an adulterant.
(L. J. S.)
Barytocalcite crystal.
BARYTOCALCITE,a rare mineral found only at Alston Moor in Cumberland, where it occurs as diverging groups of white transparent crystals lining cavities in the Mountain Limestone.The crystals belong to the monoclinic system and are usually prismatic or blade-shaped in habit. The hardness is 4, and the sp. gr. 3.65. There are perfect cleavages parallel to the prism faces inclined at an angle of 73° 6′, and a less perfect cleavage parallel to the basal plane, the angle between which and the prism faces is 77° 6′; the angles between these three cleavages thus approximate to the angles (74° 55′) between the three cleavages of calcite, and there are other points of superficial resemblance between these two minerals. Chemically, barytocalcite is a double salt of barium and calcium carbonates, BaCa(CO3)2, thus differing from the orthorhombic bromlite (q.v.) which is an isomorphous mixture of the two carbonates.
(L. J. S.)
BARYTONE,orBaritone(Ital.baritono, from Gr.βαρύτονος, deep sounding), a musical term for the male voice whose range lies between those of the tenor and of the bass—a high bass rather than a low tenor; also the name of an obsolete stringed instrument like the viola da Gamba, and of the small B♭or C saxhorn.
BASALT,in petrology, one of the oldest rock names, supposed to be derived from an Ethiopian wordbasal, signifying a stone which yields iron; according to Pliny, the first basalts were obtained in Ethiopia. In current usage the term includes a large variety of types of igneous rock belonging to the basic subdivision, dark in colour weathering to brown, and comparatively rich in magnesia and iron. Some basalts are in large measure glassy (tachylites), and many are very fine grained and compact; but it is more usual for them to exhibit porphyritic structure, showing larger crystals of olivine, augite or felspar in a finely crystalline groundmass. Olivine and augite are the commonest porphyritic minerals in basalts, the former green or yellowish (and weathering to green or brown serpentine), the latter pitch-black. Porphyritic plagioclase felspars, however, are also very common, and may be one or two inches in length, though usually not exceeding a quarter of an inch; when fresh they are dark grey with smooth lustrous cleavage surfaces; when decomposed they become turbid, and assume grey or greenish shades. Basaltic lavas are frequently spongy or pumiceous, especially near their surfaces; and, in course of time, the steam cavities become filled with secondary minerals such as calcite, chlorite and zeolites. Another characteristic of this group of rocks is the perfection with which many of them show prismatic or columnar jointing, a structure often called "basaltic jointing."
The minerals of basaltic rocks have a fairly uniform character throughout the whole group. In microscopic section the olivine is pale green or colourless, and is very frequently more or less altered to serpentine. The secondary mineral begins to form upon the surfaces and along the cracks of the olivine, gradually producing a mesh-work in the interstices of which small kernels of olivine remain; and when the process is completed the mesh structure persists in the resulting pseudomorph, giving a clear indication as to its history. The augite is mostly brown, often with a purplish tinge, hardly at all dichroic, but frequently showing zonal or hour-glass structure, and various types of twinning. It weathers to chlorite, uralite, calcite, &c. The plagioclase felspar, if fresh, is transparent and appears simple in ordinary light, but when polarized breaks up into a series of bars of different colours owing to its complex twinned structure. Practically all varieties of this mineral from anorthite to albite are known to occur in basalt, but by far the commonest species are bytownite and labradorite. Weathering destroys the limpid character of the fresh mineral, producing turbid pseudomorphs containing epidote, calcite, white micas, kaolin, &c. When these minerals occur as phenocrysts their crystalline outlines may be very perfect (though, especially in the olivine, corrosion and partial resorption may give rise to rounded or irregular forms).
In the groundmass, or second generation of crystal, not only are the ingredients smaller, but their crystals are less perfect; yet in many basalts small lath-shaped felspars and minute prisms of augite, densely crowded together, form the matrix. With these there may be a greater or less amount of brown, isotropic glass. Olivine rarely occurs as an ingredient of the groundmass. In the vitreous basalts sometimes very few crystallized minerals are observable; the greater part of the rock is a dark brown glassy material, almost opaque even in the thinnest sections, and generally charged with black grains of magnetite, skeleton crystals of augite or felspar, spherulites, perlitic cracks, or steam vesicles. In other basaltic rocks no glassy material appears, but the whole mass is thoroughly crystallized; rocks of this nature are generally known to British petrologists as dolerites (q.v.). Till recent years it was widely believed by continental geologists that the pre-Tertiary basalts differed so fundamentally from their Tertiary and recent representatives that they were entitled to be regarded as a distinct class. For the older rocks the names anamesite, diabase porphyrite,diabas-mandel-stein, or melaphyre were used, and are still favoured by many writers, to indicate varieties and states of more or less altered basalts and dolerites, though no longer held to differ in any essential respects from the better preserved basalts. Still older is the termtrap, which is derived from a Swedish word meaning "a stair," for in many places superposed sheets of basalt weather with well-marked step-like or terraced features. This designation is still used as a general term for the whole suite of basaltic rocks by many geologists and travellers (e.g.trap-dikes, the "traps" of the Deccan).
In the early years of the 19th century a great controversy convulsed the geological world as to the origin of the older basalts or "floetz-traps." Werner, the Saxon mineralogist, and his school held them to be of aqueous origin, the chemical precipitates deposited in primeval seas, but Hutton and a number of French geologists maintained that they were really volcanic rocks emitted by craters now extinct (seeGeology:Historical).
Of the less common minerals of basalt, a few may be mentioned. Black hornblende, dark brown in thin sections, and often corroded, is not uncommon, especially in intrusive basalts. Hypersthene occurs also, usually replacing olivine. Black mica (biotite) is not infrequently to be seen. Sapphire, garnet and zircon are rare. Minerals of the felspathoid group occur in a large number of basaltic rocks; nepheline and leucite are the most common, but haüyne is occasionally present. If nepheline entirely replaces felspar, the rock is known as nepheline-basalt; if the replacement is only partial the term nepheline-basanite is used. Similarly there are leucite-basalts and leucite-basanites. The nepheline is in small six-sized prisms, and usually cannot be detected with the unaided eye. Even with the help of the microscope nepheline basalts are not always easy to determine, as the crystals may be exceedingly small and imperfect, and they readily decompose into analcite and zeolites. In some cases only the presence of an anisotropic substance, with weak double refraction and readily attacked by acids (the so-called "nephelinitoid"), can be made out. This substance may be imperfectly crystallized nepheline, or a peculiar glass which is rich in soda. Most nepheline basalts are fine grained, very dark coloured rocks, and belong to the Tertiary period. They are fairly common in some parts of Germany and occur also in Tripoli, Asia Minor, Montana, Cape Verde Islands, &c. Leucite-basalts contain small rounded crystals of leucite in place of plagioclase felspar. Rocks of this group are well known in the Eifel, and other volcanic districts in Germany, also in Bohemia, Italy, Java, Montana, Celebes, &c. The minerals haüyne, nosean, sodalite and melilite tend to occur with some frequency in nepheline and leucite-basalts, though rare in ordinary basalts. Melilite, a lime-alumina-silicate, is characteristic of certain very basic rocks, the melilite-basalts. It is pale yellow or colourless in thin sections, and yields peculiar and characteristic dark blue polarization colours. This rare group of rocks is known to occur in Bohemia, Swabia and South Africa. Perofskite, in small dark brown cubic crystals, is a constant accessory in these rocks. The augite is usually violet coloured, and shows zonal and hour-glass structures. Green augite may occur in the nepheline-basalts, and aegerine (soda-iron-augite) is occasionally found in them.
The distribution of basalts is world-wide; and in some placesthey occur in immense masses, and cover great areas. In Washington, Oregon, and Idaho many thousands of square miles are occupied by basaltic-lava flows. In the Sandwich Islands and Iceland they are the prevalent lavas; and the well-known columnar jointed basalts of Skye, Staffa, and Antrim (Giant's Causeway) form a southward extension of the Icelandic volcanic province, with which they are connected by the similar rocks of the Faeroe Islands. In the Deccan in India great basaltic lava fields are known; and Etna and Vesuvius emit basaltic rocks. In older geological periods they were not less common; for example, in the Carboniferous in Scotland.
(J. S. F.)
BASCOM, JOHN(1827- ), American educationalist and philosophical writer, was born at Genoa, New York, on the 1st of May 1827. He graduated at Williams College in 1849 and at the Andover Theological Seminary in 1855, was professor of rhetoric at Williams College from 1855 to 1874, and was president of the University of Wisconsin and professor of mental and moral philosophy there from 1874 to 1887. In 1887-1891 and in 1901-1903 he was lecturer in sociology, and in 1891-1901 professor of economics in Williams College. He retired in 1903. Among his publications may be mentioned:Aesthetics(1862);Philosophy of Rhetoric(1865);Science, Philosophy and Religion(1871);Philosophy of English Literature(1874);Philosophy of Religions(1876);Problems in Philosophy(1885);The New Theology(1891);Social Theory(1895);Evolution and Religion(1896);Growth of Nationality in the United States(1899); andGod and His Goodness(1901).
BASE.(1) (Fr.bas, Late Lat.bassus, low; cf. Gr.βαθύς) an adjective meaning low or deep, and so mean, worthless, or wicked. This sense of the word has sometimes affected the next, which is really distinct. (2) (Gr.βάσις, strictly "stepping," and so a foundation or pedestal) a term for a foundation or starting point, used in various senses; in sports,e.g.hockey and baseball; in geometry, the line or face on which a figure or solid stands; in crystallography,e.g."basal plane"; in surveying, in the "base line," an accurately measured distance between the points from which the survey is conducted; in heraldry, in the phrase "in base," applied to any figure or emblem placed in the lowest part of a shield.
In chemistry the term denotes a substance which combines with an acid to form a salt. In inorganic chemistry such compounds are almost invariably oxides or hydroxides, and water in eliminated during the combination; but in organic chemistry many compounds exist, especially ammonia derivatives, which directly combine with acids. Chemical bases are consequently antithetical to acids; and an acid is neutralized by a base with the production of a salt. They reverse certain colour reactions of acids,e.g.turn red litmus blue; this is termed an "alkaline reaction."
In architecture the "base" is the lowest member of a column or shaft. In Egyptian and Greek architecture it is the raised slab in stone or cement on which the primitive timber column was placed, to keep it dry. Afterwards it was always reproduced in Egypt, even although the column, being in stone, no longer required it; a custom probably retained because, being of a much larger circumference than the lower part of the column, it gave increased stability. In Assyrian architecture, where it served to carry wooden posts or columns, it took the form of a large torus moulding with enrichments. In Persian architecture the base was much higher than in any other style, and was elaborately carved. In primitive Greek work the base consisted of the stone plinth as found in Crete and Tiryns, and of three small steps at Mycenae. In archaic Greek work it has already disappeared in the Doric order, but in the Ionic and Corinthian orders it is more or less richly moulded, the most elaborate examples being those found in the temple of Apollo at Branchidae in Milesia. For the contour of the mouldings seeOrders. The Roman orders all have the favourite design known as the Attic base. Romanesque bases were rude but vigorous copies of the old classic base, and were often decorated with projections or spurs (Fr.griffes) at the angles of the square dies, thus connecting them with the square base. In the Early English style, these spurs followed the conventional design of the period, and about the same time the mouldings were deeply sunk and occasionally cut downwards, so that they would have held water if used externally. Later, the base becomes less bold in treatment, but much more complex in its contours, and in the 15th century is given an unusual height with two stages, the lower one constituting a kind of plinth, which is sometimes known as the ground table, or the base course.
A Base Court(Fr.basse cour,i.e.the lower court), is the first open space within the gates of a castle. It was used for exercising cavalry, and keeping live stock during a siege. (SeeEnceinte).
The Base of a WallorGround Table, in architecture, is the mouldings round a building just above ground; they mostly consist of similar members to those above described and run round the buttresses. The flat band between the plinth and upper mouldings is frequently panelled and carved with shields, as in Henry VII. Chapel at Westminster.
BASE-BALL(so-called from the bases and ball used), the national summer sport of the United States, popular also throughout Canada and in Japan. Its origin is obscure. According to some authorities it is derived from the old English game of rounders (q.v.), several variations of which were played in America during the colonial period; according to other authorities, its resemblance to rounders is merely a coincidence, and it had its origin in the United States, probably at Cooperstown, New York, in 1839, when it is said, Abner Doubleday (later a general in the U.S. army) devised a scheme for playing it. About the beginning of the 19th century a game generally known as "One Old Cat" became popular with schoolboys in the North Atlantic states; this game was played by three boys, each fielding and batting in turn, a run being scored by the batsman running to a single base and back without being put out. Two Old Cat, Three Old Cat, and Four Old Cat were modifications of this game, having respectively four, six, and eight players. A development of this game bore the name of town-ball and the Olympic Town-Ball Club of Philadelphia was organized in 1833. Matches between organized base-ball clubs were first played in the neighbourhood of New York, where the Washington Baseball Club was founded in 1843. The first regular code of rules was drawn up in 1845 by the Knickerbocker Baseball Club and used in its matches with the Gotham Eagle and Empire clubs of New York, and the Excelsior, Putnam, Atlantic and Eckford clubs of Brooklyn. In 1858 the first National Association was organized, and, while its few simple laws were generally similar to the corresponding rules of the present code, the ball was larger and "livelier," and the pitcher was compelled to deliver it with a full toss, no approach to a throw being allowed. The popularity of the game spread rapidly, resulting in the organization of many famous clubs, such as the Beacon and Lowell of Boston, the Red Stockings of Cincinnati, the Forest City of Cleveland and the Maple Leaf of Guelph, but owing to the sharp rivalry between the foremost teams, semi-professionalism soon crept in, although in those days a man who played for a financial consideration always had some other means of livelihood, as the income to be derived from playing ball in the summer time was not enough to support him throughout the year. In spite of its popularity, the game acquired certain undesirable adjuncts. The betting and pool selling evils became prominent, and before long the game was in thorough disrepute. It was not only generally believed that the matches were not played on their merits, but it was known that players themselves were not above selling contests. At that time many of the journals of the day foretold the speedy downfall of the sport. A convention of those interested financially and otherwise in the game, was held in 1867 in Philadelphia, and an effort was made to effect a reformation. That the sport even then was by no means insignificant can be seen from the fact that in that convention some 500 organizations were represented. While the work done at the convention did not accomplish all that was expected, it did produce certain reforms, and the sport grew rapidly thereafter both in the eastern and in the middle western part of the United States. In the next five years theinterest in the game became so great that it was decided to send a representation of American base-ball players to England; and two clubs, the Bostons, who were the champions that year, and the Athletics, former champions, crossed the Atlantic and played several exhibition games with each other. While successful in exciting some interest, the trip did not succeed in popularizing base-ball in Great Britain. Fifteen years later two other nines of representative American base-ball players made a general tour of Australia and various other countries, completing their trip by a contest in England. This too, however, had little effect, and later attempts to establish base-ball in England have likewise been unsuccessful. But in America the game continued to prosper. The first entirely professional club was the Cincinnati Red Stockings (1868). Two national associations were formed in 1871, one having jurisdiction over professional clubs and the other over amateurs. In 1876 was formed the National League, of eight clubs under the presidency of Nicholas E. Young, which contained the expert ball-players of the country. There were so many people in the United States who wanted to see professional base-ball that this organization proved too small to furnish the desired number of games, and hence in 1882 the American Association was formed. For a time it seemed that there would be room for both organizations; but there was considerable rivalry, and it was not until an agreement was made between the two organizations that they were able to work together in harmony. They practically controlled professional base-ball for many years, although there were occasional attempts to overthrow their authority, the most notable being the formation in 1890 of a brotherhood of players called the Players' League, organized for the purpose of securing some of the financial benefits accruing to the managers, as well as for the purpose of abolishing black-listing and other supposed abuses. The Players' League proved not sufficiently strong for the task, and fell to pieces. For some years the National League consisted of twelve clubs organized as stock companies, representing cities as far apart as Boston and St Louis, but in 1900 the number was reduced to eight, namely, Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, Pittsburg, Philadelphia and St Louis. Certain aggressive and dissatisfied elements took advantage of this change to organize a second great professional association under the presidency of B. B. Johnson, the "American League," of eight clubs, six of them in cities where the National League was already represented. Most of the clubs of both leagues flourish financially, as also do the many minor associations which control the clubs of the different sections of the country, among which are the Eastern League, the American Association, Western League, Southern Association, New England League, Pacific League and the different state leagues. Professional base-ball has not been free from certain objectionable elements, of which the unnecessary and rowdyish fault-finding with the umpires has been the most evident, but the authorities of the different leagues have lately succeeded, by strenuous legislation, in abating these. Of authorities on base-ball, Henry Chadwick (d. 1908) is the best known.
Amateur base-ball, in its organized phase, is played mostly by school and university clubs as well as those of athletic associations. The first college league was formed in 1879 and comprised Harvard, Princeton, Amherst, Brown and Dartmouth, Yale joining a year later. The Eastern College League, with Columbia, Harvard, Princeton and Yale, followed in 1887. This was afterwards dissolved and at present the most important universities of the eastern states are members of no league, although such organizations exist in New England and different parts of the west and south. Amateur base-ball has progressed along the same lines as professional, although the college playing rules formerly differed in certain minor points from those of the professional leagues.
The following is a general description of the field and of the manner in which the game is played, but as the game has become highly complicated, situations may arise in playing in which general statements do not strictly hold. Any smooth, level field about 150 yds. long and 100 yds. broad will serve for a base-ball ground. Upon this field is marked out with white chalk a square, commonly called the diamond, smooth, like a cricket pitch, the sides of which measure 30 yds. each, and the nearest corner of which is distant about 30 yds. from the limit of the field. This corner is marked with a white plate, called the home-base or plate, five-sided in shape, two of the sides being 1 ft. long and that towards the pitcher 17 in. At the other three corners and attached to pegs are white canvas bags 15 in. square filled with some soft material, and called, beginning at the right as one looks towards the field, first-base, second-base and third-base respectively. The lines from home-base to first, and from home to third are indefinitely prolonged and called foul-lines. The game is played by two sides of nine men each, one of these taking its turn at the bat while the other is in the field endeavouring, as provided by certain rules, to put out the side at bat. Each side has nine turns, or innings, at bat, unless the side last at bat does not need its ninth innings in order to win; a tie at the end of the ninth innings makes additional innings necessary. A full game usually takes from 1½ to 2 hrs. to play. Three batsmen are put out in each innings, and the side scoring the greatest number of runs (complete encircling of the bases without being put out) wins. A runner who is not put out but fails to reach home-base does not score a run, but is "left on base."
Implements of the Game.—The ball, which is 9-9¼ in. in circumference and weighs 5-5¼ oz., is made of yarn wound upon a small core of vulcanized rubber and covered with white leather, which may not be intentionally discoloured. The bat must be round, not over 2¾ in. in diameter at the thickest part, nor more than 42 in. in length. It is usually made of ash or some other hard wood, and the handle may be wound with twine. Three-cornered spikes are usually worn on the players' shoes. The catcher and first-baseman (v. infra) may wear a glove of any size on one hand; the gloves worn by all other players may not measure more than 14 in. round the palm nor weigh more than 10 oz.
The Players.—The fielding side consists of (a) the pitcher and catcher, called the battery, (b) the first-baseman, second-baseman, third-baseman and short-stop, called infielders, and (c) the left-fielder, centre-fielder and right-fielder, called out-fielders.
The pitcher, who delivers the ball to the batsman, is the most important member of the side. In the act of pitching, which is throwing either over or underhand, he must keep one foot in contact with a white plate, called the pitcher's plate, 24 in. long and 6 in. wide, placed 60.5 ft. from the back of the home-base. Before 1875 the pitcher was obliged to deliver the ball with a full toss only, but about that time a disguised underhand throw, which greatly increased the pace, began to be used so generally that it was soon legalized, and the overhand throw followed as a matter of course. As long as the arm was held stiff no curve could be imparted to the flight of the ball in the air, but with the increase of pace came the possibility of doing this by a movement of the wrist as the ball left the hand, the twist thus given causing the ball, by the pressure on the air, to swerve to one side or the other, or downwards, according to the position of the hand and fingers as the ball is let go. The commonest of these swerving deliveries, and the first one invented, is the out-curve, the ball coming straight towards the batsman until almost within reach of his bat, when it suddenly swerves away from him towards the right, if he be right-handed. The other important curves are the incurve, shooting sharply to the left, and the drop, with their many variations, nearly every pitcher using some favourite curve. Change of pace, disguised as well as possible, is also an important part of pitching strategy, as well as variation of the delivery and the play upon the known weaknesses or idiosyncrasies of the batsman. Good control over the ball is a necessity, as four "balls" called by the umpire,—that is, balls not over the base, or over the base and not between the shoulder and knee of the batsman,—entitle the batsman to become a base-runner and take his first base. If the pitcher disregards the restrictions placed upon him by the rules (e.g.he may not, while in position, make a motion to deliver the ball to the batsman without actuallydelivering it, or to first-base, while that base is occupied by a runner, without completing the throw), he is said to have made a balk, which permits a base runner to advance a base. In fielding batted balls the pitcher takes all that come directly to him, especially slow ones which the other fielders cannot reach in time. One of his duties is to "back up" the first-baseman in order to stop balls thrown wide, and to cover first-base in place of the baseman whenever that player has to leave his base to field a ground ball. On occasion he also backs up other positions.
Thecatcherusually stands about 1 yd. behind the home plate, and he must never be more than 10 ft. behind the home plate when the pitcher delivers the ball to the batsman. He generally catches the ball from the pitcher before it strikes the ground, and, when a man of the opposing side has succeeded in getting to a base, must be on the alert to head this opponent off should he endeavour tostealthe next base,i.e.run to it while the pitcher is delivering the ball to the batsman. For this reason the catcher must be a quick, strong and accurate thrower. As the catcher alone faces the whole field, he is able to warn the pitcher when to throw to a base in order to catch a runnernappingoff the base, and by secretly signalling to the pitcher (usually by means of signs with his fingers) he directs what kind of a ball is to be pitched, so that he may be in the proper position to receive the ball, be it high or low, to left or right. Some pitchers, however, prefer to reserve their choice of balls and therefore do the signalling themselves. The catcher wears a mask, a breast-pad, and a large glove, without which the position would be a very dangerous one.