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Mr. Stifling has given the defctiptipn of a water-bellows, or machine to blow fire by the fall of water. Vid. Phil. Tranf. N° 475- §• 19.
We are alfo told of a new fort of bellows to work in vacuo c . Some have even pretended to effedl a perpetual motion by a new-contrived bellows d . — [ c Boyle, Phil. Work, abridir. T. 2. p. 503. d Phil. Tranf. N° 182. p. 138] Smiths and founders bellows, whether fingle or double, are wrought by means of a rocker, with a firing or chain fattened thereto, which the workman pulls. The bellows pipe is fitted into that of the tewel. One of the boards is fixed, fo as not to play at all. By drawing down the handle of the rocker, the moveable board rifes, and, by means of a weight on the top of the upper board, finks again. Vid. Moxon, Mechan. Exerc. Smither. p. 2.
The bellows of forges and furnaces of mines ufually receive their motion from the wheels of a water-mill. Others, as the bellows of enamellers, are wrought by means of one or more fteps or treddles under the workman's feet. Vid. Hough. Collea. T. 2. p. 223.
Laftly, the bellows of organs are wrought by a man called the blower ;' and in fmall organs by the foot of the plaver. Butchers have alfo a kind of blaft or bellows of a peculiar make, by which they bloat or blow up their meat when killed, in or- der to piecing or parting it the better. Savar. Dia. Comm. T. 2. p. 1570.
.Scot-Bellows, <pyWl«ps arawi, occur in Herodotus for thofe ap- plied by the Scythians to the genitals of mares, in order to diftend the uterus, and, by this comprcfiion, make them yield a greater quantity of milk. Vid. Charh. OEcon. Anim. ex. 3. §. 9. Caftel. Lex. Med. p. 588. b.
Acofta fays, that the metal of the Peruvian mines of Porco is eafily refined with bellows; but that of the mines of Potofi can- not be fufed with them, hut only by the breath of their fmall furnaces built upon the fides of mountains, and directed where the wind lies. Vid. Boyle's Works abridg. Vol. 1. p. 170.
BEhlAJGA~/lone, in natural hiftory, the name of a calculus of ftone found in the belluga, a large fifh, accounted a fpecies of fturgeon, and called by Artedi acotpetrfer tubereulis earens. This ftone is of various fhapes and fizes ; but its moft ufual figure is either globular or oval, often fomewhat flatted, and marked with feveral deprefiions. It is of a yellowifh white colour, and of a fmooth and naturally polifhed furface ; and it is found from the fize of a pigeon's egg to that of a goofe. They are ufually compact, ponderous, and folid, not friable, but requiring a ftrong blow to break them. They yield eafily to the law ; but this defaces their internal texture, which is naturally very elegant and regular. The ftones confift of fe- veral concentric coats, firmly adhering to one another, formed about a nucleus, which generally appears to be fome heteroge- neous fubftance.
But another very obvious circumftance there is in its ftru£ture, which makes it greatly different from all other ftones of this kind, that is, its radiated firucfure, it being compofed of a number of regular and even ftriae running from the centre to the circumference, reprefenting, both in colour and form, the flakes of the terra foliata tartari, or the ftriated fpiculae of an- timony.
The fifh is much like the fturgeon in fhape ; but its fnout is lborter and thicker. The skin upon the back is light-grey, and on the belly white, and without fcales. Its flefh is whiter than veal, and more delicious than fturgeon. Of its row or fpawn is made cavear ; and fome of them are fo large as to yield two hundred weight of it. The fifh is very common and very large in the Volga, near the city of Aftracan. It has been caught there thirty-fix feet long, and eighteen thick. It is alfo found in the Don, and other rivers, and in the Baltic and Cafpian feas. See Accipenser.
It is not certainly known in what part of this fifh the ftone is found, Stralenbcrg fays it is in the head and ftomach ; fome authors fay in the air-bladder ; others in a particular bag near the anus \ and others in other places. It is found in both fexes, but moft frequently in the male ; and is found in fifh of all ages and fizes. It is far from being common, however ; for in a thoufand fifties, there fometimes is not found one ftone. It is hence evident, that thefe ftones are no natural part of the fifh ; but are mere morbid concretions, like the bezoar-ftones in the animal which produces them, or like the ftones in hu- man bladders. The fituation of the parts in which it is found, and other circumftances, may allot it its particular appearances.
If the ftone be fcraped to powder, and fprinkled upon a hot iron, it gives a faint, urinous fmell, and calcines into a light, infipid, grayifh earth.
The people about the Volga efteem it greatly, and account it to have great virtues : they fay it promotes delivery ; and give it conftantly in cafes of the ftone, and diforders of the urinary parts. Its dofe is from ten grains to a dram. Phil. Tranf. N° 4S3.
IlELLULA-for, in ichthyology, a name given by Paulus Jo- vius to that fpecies of the ray-fifh, which was called by the old Greek and Latin writers bos marhms, and by the later authors raja oxyrynehus. It is diftinguifhed by Artedi by the name of the variegated ray, with ten prickly tubercles on the middle of the back. 1
BELLY, in a general fenfe, denotes the whole abdomen or that region of the body contained between the feptum tranfvef - fum, the hypochondria, and pubes. Caft. Lex. Med. p. „« See Abdomen, Cycl. and Suppl. "
Phyficians recite inftances of women with enormous bellies. commonly miftaken for pregnancies.— A French nun, durin,, eighteen years, had a le/ly fo enormous, that when the walked" Uie was forced to have two other religious going behind to bear ir up. On opening her, there was found a vaft cyftis or bag, full of divers matters, extended from her navel to her knees. Mem. Acad. Scienc. tyio. p. 50. The bi s -bellieel woman at Haman in Shronfliire got her livin« thuty years by making a fhow of her belly. It reached up to her chin. When fhe iat, fhe fupported its weight on a (tool placed before her. The reft of her body was emaciated in proportion to the tumidity of this. On 'opening her there were thirteen gallons of water taken out of the duplicates of the peritonaeum. Phil. Tranf. N° 348. p. 452.
Belly is alfo ufed, in a more confined fenfe, for the inteflines alone, as containing the faeces. CaJI. Lex. p. 740. a. In this fenfe it is we fpeak of the loofenefs or coftivenefs of the belly, &c.
Belly is alfo ufed fometimes for a pregnant woman. Ceh Lex. Jund. p. 934.
In this fenfe we arc to underftand the phrafe anions civil law- yers, to put the belly in poflemon of an eftate.
Belly is alfo ufed in (peaking of the bodies of beafts. Thus' we fay a light billy, meaning a (lender or lank one: a cow belly, that where the ribs being unable to hold the vifcera, they prefs downwards, and bulge difagreeably. Feeding horfes with grafs, ormudihay, and few oats, makes them grow cow-bellied \ It is a maxim, that horfes which
are hght-belhed, and firey, foon deftroy themfelves b
[ > Farr. Dia. p. 60. ' Id. ibid. p. 59.J The belly of a horfe fhould be of an ordinary bignefs, except m draught horfes, where the larger the better, provided it be round, and well inclofed within the ribs ; rather extending upon the fides than downwards. Thofe horfes are apt to be cow-bellied, which having ftreight ribs, are great feeders Ruft. Difl. T. 1. in voc.
The belly is fometimes alfo denominated the body, cheft, gut or flank. b '
A horfe is faid to be thick-bellied, well bodied or flanked, when he has large, long, and well-made ribs, neither too nar- row, nor too flat. A horfe again is faid to have no belly, or body, or to be thin-flanked, when his ribs are too narrow or fhort, and the flank turns up; fo that his body looks flank- lefs, like a greyhound. Such horfes are called by the French eflracs, and generally prove fine and tender, not fit for travel- ling or fatigue, unlefs they feed very heartily. Coach-horfes are rejeaed when they are not well-bellied, or well-bodied, but narrow or thin-gutted, fcemingto have the fkin of their flanks ftitched on their ribs. But a hunter is not the worfe liked for being light- bellied. Horfes pained, or weak in their hind-quarters, are commonly light-bellied. Such as have painful fcratches in their hind-legs, are found to lofe their bellies extremely.
Belly of a fiiufcle, in anatomy, denotes the body thereof ; as contradiftinguifhed from the two extremities, or tendons. Heijler, Comp. Anat. §. 305. See Muscle. From the conditions of this, mufcles are divided into mono- gaftric, or fingle bellied, and digafrric, or double bellied. Phil. Tranf. N° 258. p. 378.
Lower « will have all the mufcles to be digaftric, or double bellied ; in which he is feconded by Hoffman ', and others. — [ = Lower, de Corde, c. 1. ' Hoffm. in Difli an. ad Horn. Microc. p. 252.]
Dragon's Belly, venter draconis, is ufed by fome aftronomers to denote the point in a planet's orbit, wherein it has its greateft latitude, or is fartheft diftant from the ecliptic ; more frequently called its limits. Vital. Lex. Math. p. 519.- Wolf. Lex. p. 1451. Ozan. Dia. Math. p. 40S.
BELOAR, a name given by fome to a ftone s otherwife called widuris. See Widuris.
BELONE, in zoology, a name by which fome of the old natu- ralifts have called the acus Oppiani, called in Englifh the horn- fifli, or gar-fifli. Willugh. Hift. Fife. p. 281. See Acus.
BEL'F, Baltbeus, properly denotes a kind of military girdle, ufually of leather, wherewith the fword or other weapons are fuftained. Aquin, Lex. Milit. T. 2. p. no, feq. Belts are known among the antient and middle-age writers by divers names, as £«wi, 'Cup*, zona, cingulum, reminicttlum, rinea, or ringa, and baldrellus. Pott. Archaeol. Graec. 1. 3. a 4. T. 2. p. 28. Pitife. Lex. Antiq. T. I. p. 248 & T. 2. p. 1152. Du Cange, T. 4. p. 857, 61 2. & T. 1. p. 444. The belt was an effential piece of the antient armour ; info- much that we fometimes find it ufed to denote the whole ar- mour. Pott. loc. cit. See Arms, Cyel. In later ages, the belt was given a perfon when he was raifed to knighthood : whence it has alfo been ufed as a badce or mark of the knightly order. Cab. Lex. Jurid. p. 1 09. The denomination belt is alfo applied to a fort of bandages in ufe among furgeons, (sic. See Bandage.
Thus
