Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/255

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
*
223
*

BOECKH. 223 BOEHM VON BAWERK. the subject by Bratuscheck (1877; 2d ed., KIuss- iiinnn, 1880). This is still the most important work in its fieUi. His Opusciila till 7 vols., ( ISr)8-74). He died in Berlin, August 3, 1SG7. BOEDRO'MIOS (Ilelp-giver). An epithet of Apollo, the orii;in of which is assigned to vari- ous events of tireek history. Fi'ora this epithet was derived the name of the third Attic month, Boedromion, eorres])onding to portions of Sep- tember and October, on the 7th day of which the festival Boedroniia was celebrated in honor of Apollo. BOEHLEB, be'ler, Peter (1712-75). A Mo- ravian bishop. He was born at Franlcfort-on- the-Main, Germany: studied at Jena, and in 1737 was ordained as a iloravian minister by Count Zinzendorf (q.v. ). On his way to Amer- ica, where he had been sent as a missionary to Carolina and Georgia, he stopped in England, and there became acquainted with John and Charles 'esley, over whom he had a powerful influence. He worked among the negroes in Georgia, and among the Germans in South Caro- lina, some of whom he ultimately transferred to Bethlehem, Pa. For a year Boehler labored as missionary to the Indians. He then went to Europe, and returned with a large number of Moravian colonists. This addition to the grow- ing community at Bethlehem caiised the found- ing of Xazareth, near the original towni. In 1742 Boehler was appointed bisliop of the Mora- vian churches in America, England, Ireland, and Wales. While on a parochial visit to his new charge he died in London. Consult T. P. Lock- wood, The Memorials of the Life of Peter Boeh- ler (London, 1868). BOEHM, bem, He.n-rt (1775-1875). An Auicrican Methodist minister. He was born in Lancaster County, Pa., and became a preacher in 1800. He was an intimate friend and asso- ciate of Bishop Asbury. and gieatly contributed to the extension of Jlethodisra. particularly among the German-speaking people of Pennsyl- vania. BOEHM, Sir Joseph Edg.r (18.34-00). An English sculptor. He was bom in Vienna, but was educated in England, and lived there from 1862. He made careful study of the Elgin mar- bles and of copies of old masters in the galleries of the British JIuseum. In 1S50 he won the first imperial prize in Vienna, and be gained a de- servedly nigh reputation in England. In 1881 he was elected a memlier of the Koyal Academy. Among his works are the colossal statue of Queen Victoria at Windsor, and statues of .John Bun- yan at Bedford, of Lord John Russell in West- minster Hall. London, of the Duke of Wellington at Hyde Park Corner, and of Thomas Carlyle on the Thames Embankment. Of the Carljle, Eus- kin, in his Notes for 1875. said: "Here is a piece of vital and essential sculpture; the re- sult of sincere skill, spent carefully on a subject worthv of care." BOEHM-BAWERK, bem' bii'verk. See BoKUM ON B.^WKliK. BCEHME'RIA (after the German naturalist Biihnier). A genus of plant-s of the natural or- der Urticacesp. The fibres of a number of spe- cies are used for making ropes, twine, nets, sew- ing-thread, and cloth, and some of them appear likely to acquire much economical and commer- cial importance. The commercially important species now known are Boehmeria nivea and Boekmeiia tcnacissima, the latter being often considered as merely a variety of the former. Jl'rhiiieriu nirea grows in temperate and sub- tropical regions, while the variety flourishes in sub-tropical and tropical covmtries. It yields a great part of the fibre employed in China in the manufacture of the beautiful fabric known as China-grass cloth (q.v.). It is a perennial her- baceous plant, with broad ovate leaves, which are wliite and downy beneath, and is of the general habit though destitute of the stinging powers of the nettles. It is carefully cultivated l)y the Chinese, by whom it is called fehoit ma. It is proj)agated either by seeds or by parting the roots. It loves shade and moisture. Three crops are obtained in the season, new shoots springing up after it has been cut. Great atten- liim is bestowed upon the preparation of the fibre. This is extracted by hand stripping, by boiling the stalks in water or some chemical solution, or by machinery. Machine methods have so far not met with unqualified success. On the ot'.ier hand, the first-named two ways of extracting the fibre are more or less intricate and involve a large amount of hand-labor. As a consequence, the bulk of the fibre is produced in China and India, where cheap labor is plenti- ful. To Beehmeria nivea properly belongs the name China gi-ass; ramie or rhea should be retained for the plant which Dr. Roxburgh strongly reconmiended to attention about the beginning of the Nineteenth Century under the name of Urtica tenaeissima (see Ramie). An al- lied species, ^iIlebrUllnra ititeijrifolia, is common in Xepal, Sikkim, and other parts of the Hima- laya, to an elevation of ."iOOO feet above the sea. It is not cultivated, but often overruns abandoned fields. It grows to a height of 6 or S feet, and varies from tJie thickness of a quill to that of the thumb. The plant is cut down for use when tlie seed is formed, the bark is then peeled oft', dried in the sun for a few days, boiled with wood-ashes for four or five hours, and beaten with a mallet to separate the fibres, which are called pooah or pocc. and also klenki or jienki. When properly prepared, the fibre is quite equal to the best Euro])ean flax. The fibres of a number of coarser species are employed in difTeient parts of the East Indies for making ropes. The cultivation of Bwhmeria nivra has been introdiiced into the southern part of the L'nited States, and with the invention of satisfactory methods of decortication and de- gumming it will doubtless prove an important industry. Bwhmeria cijlindriea is indigenous in the United States, occurring as an annual in waste places from Canada to Florida and west- ward. See Royle, Fibrous Plants of India (Lon- don. 1805) ; Dodge, Descriptive Catalogue of Use- ful Fibre Plants (Washington, 1897). BOEHM VON BAWERK, bem fin bii'vCrk, EuGi: (1851 — ). An .ustrian political econo- mist. He was born in Briinn, Moravia, February 12, 1851, was educated at the University of Vi- enna, and from 1872 to 1870 continued his study of political economy in Heidelberg, Leipzig, and Jena, under Knies, Roscher, and llildebrand. lie held for a short time a place in the Austrian Jlinistry of Finance, lectured in 1880 at the Uni- versity of Vienna, but was called thence to the University of Innsbruck, where he renuiined till 1880. He then entered once more the Govern-