self, or continuing his flight, he was obliged to surrender at Ratkau, on the 6th of November. This, however, he would not do, until permission had been granted him to add the following clause to the instrument, that "the capitulation was offered to him by the prince of Pontecorvo, and that he accepted it only from want of ammunition, provisions and forage." B. was now a prisoner of war; but he was soon exchanged for the French general Victor, and, immediately after his arrival at Königsberg, placed at the head of a corps, and sent by water to Swedish Pomerania, to share in the defence of Stralsund, and to assist the efforts of the Swedes. After the peace of Tilsit, he labored in the department of war at Königsberg and Berlin. He then received the chief military command in Pomerania, but, at the instigation of Napoleon, was afterwards, with several other distinguished men, dismissed from the service. In the campaign of 1812, when the Prussians assisted the French, he took no part; but no sooner did Prussia rise against her oppressors, than B., already 70 years old, engaged in the cause with all his former activity. He was appointed commander in chief of the Prussians and the Russian corps under general Winzingerode, which, at a later period, was separated from him. His heroism in the battle of Lützen (May 2, 1813) was rewarded by the emperor Alexander with the order of St. George. The battles of Bautzen and Haynau, those on the Katzbach (see Wahlstadt) and at Leipsic, added to his glory. On the Katzbach, B. defeated the army of marshal Macdonald, and delivered all Silesia. His army now received the name of the Silesian. Napoleon himself endeavored in vain to check the old general of hussars, as he called

him.

Oct. 3, B. crossed the Elbe at Wartenburg. This bold step compelled the great Bohemian army under Schwartzenberg, and the northern army under the crown-prince of Sweden, to act with more spirit. The great battle of Leipsic approached. Oct. 16, he gained a signal advantage over marshal Marmont, at Möckern, forcing his way as far as the suburbs of Leipsic. On the 18th, in connexion with the crown-prince of Sweden, he contributed greatly to the defeat of the enemy, and, on the 19th, his troops made the first assault upon Leipsic. His promptitude and peculiar manner of attacking had already, in the beginning of the campaign, procured him from the Russians the name of marshal Forward.

From that time it became his name of honor throughout the whole German territory. Jan. 1, 1814, with the Silesian army, which now consisted of two Prussian, two Russian, one Hessian and one mixed corps, he crossed the Rhine at Kaub, took possession of Nancy on the 17th, gained, Feb. 1, the battle of La Rothière, and pushed forward towards Paris. His detached corps were, however, checked by Napoleon; yet B., though with a great loss, effected his retreat towards Chalons. He then crossed the Aisne at Soissons, joined the northern army, obtained, March 9, a victory over Napoleon at Laon, and, in connexion with Schwartzenberg, at the close of the month, pressed forward to Paris. The day of Montmartre crowned this campaign, and, March 31, B. entered the capital of France. His king, in remembrance of the victory which he had gained near Wahlstadt, made him prince of Wahlstadt, with a suitable income. In England, whither he followed the allied monarchs, in June of the same year, he was received by the people with enthusiasm. The university of Oxford conferred on him the degree of doctor of laws. He afterwards lived on his estates in Silesia till 1815, when the chief command was again committed to him, and he led his army into the Netherlands. June 15, Napoleon threw himself upon him, and B., on the 16th, was defeated at Ligny. In this engagement, his horse was killed, and he was thrown under his body. After this unfortunate, yet honorable day, the true greatness of the field-marshal and his army became apparent. In the battle of the 18th, B. arrived, at the most decisive moment, upon the ground, and, taking Napoleon in the rear and flank, gained, in union with Wellington, the great victory of Belle Alliance, or Waterloo. (q. v.) He refused the proffered armistice, and forced Paris to surrender; opposing, with energy, on this second conquest of the capital, the system of forbearance practised on the former occasion. As he was already a knight of all the military orders of Europe, the king of Prussia, to reward his new services, created a new order expressly for him. After the peace of Paris, the prince retired to his estates. Aug. 26, 1819, the anniversary of the battle on the Katzbach, the hero received at Rostock, his native place, an honor which is seldom bestowed in Germany. The whole body of his countrymen, the inhabitants of Mecklenburg, united to erect a monument commemorating his glory,

executed by Schadow in Berlin. B. died, after a short illness, at his estate of Kriblowitz, in Silesia, Sept. 12, 1819, aged almost 77 years. June 18, 1826, a statue of bronze was erected to him, in Berlin, 12 feet in height, modelled by Rauch, and cast by Le Quine and Reisinger. B. was not so eminent for military science as for ability in action. He himself often acknowledged this, when he was praising the merits of Gneisenau, to whose assistance he was greatly indebted. In battle, however, he had the eye of a falcon. His simplicity, good-nature and bravery endeared him to his soldiers, who loved him like a father. His addresses and proclamations are distinguished for their brevity, precision and simplicity, forming a striking contrast to the high-sounding French proclamations of the time. (See Bluecher's Lebensbeschreibung (Blücher's Life), by Varnhagen von Ense, Berlin, 1827.)

BLUE. (See Color.)

Blue, Prussian; a coloring matter, of a pure dark-blue color, a dull fracture, inodorous and insipid, insoluble in water, spirits of wine or ether; it is soluble only by the action of corrosive alkalies. The discovery of this color was accidentally made, in 1704, by Diesbach, a manufacturer of colors, who, with the intention of precipitating the coloring matter from cochineal, with which alum and vitriol of iron were dissolved, procured some alkali from the laboratory of Dippel. This alkali, which Dippel had been heating with some animal matter, produced a beautiful blue precipitate. Dippel, discovering that the alkali had acquired this power of forming a blue precipitate of iron on account of its mixture with animal oil, soon learned to prepare it in a more simple way, since all animal substances, and even all vegetables, which contain much azote, will give the same result. It is, however, necessary, that all the materials should be perfectly pure, since the purification would be too expensive. The addition of alum gives to this blue more body and a brighter color. This blue substance is a prussiate of iron (52 parts red oxyde of iron, and 48 of prussic acid). The alumine added amounts to from 20 to 80 per cent.; but the greater the quantity, the poorer is the quality of the blue.

BLUEBIRD (Sylvia sialis, Wils.; saricola sialis, Bonaparte). This beautiful little bird is one of the earliest messengers of spring, and is occasionally seen as early as the month of February, in mild seasons. The middle of March is the ordi

nary time of mating, when the male bluebird is observed to be extremely devoted to the female, and shows the ardor of his attachment by every attention in his power, by the rapturous animation of his song, and the angry jealousy with which he repels the approaches of a rival. The nest of the former year is then repaired, and the female begins to lay her eggs, usually five, sometimes six, of a pale-blue color. Two or three broods are raised in a season, the youngest of which are taken care of by the male, while the mother is still attending to the nest. The principal food of this species is insects, especially large beetles, and other hard-wing or coleopterous bugs, to be found about dead or rotting trees: berries, persimmon, and the seeds of various plants, are also discovered in their stomachs. Large and numerous tape-worms infest their bowels, and they are also exceedingly annoyed by vermin externally. Wilson says, that, in this respect, they are more plagued than any other bird, except the woodcock. The spring and summer song of the bluebird is a soft and often-repeated warble: in the month of October, his song changes to a single plaintive note. About the middle of November, the bluebirds disappear, though, occasionally, one or two may be seen during the winter, in mild weather. The manners of this species are so gentle, and they render so much service by the destruction of insects, that they are always regarded with favor by the farmer. The male bluebird is six inches and three quarters long, with very full and broad wings. All the upper parts are of a rich sky-blue, with purple reflections: the bill and legs are black. The female is easily known by the duller cast of the plumage on the back, and by the red on the breast not descending so low as in the male, and being much fainter. The bluebird inhabits the whole of the U. States, also Mexico, Brazil, Guiana and the Bahama islands.-Wilson states that "nothing is more common, in Pennsylvania, than to see large flocks of these birds, in the spring and fall, passing at considerable heights in the air, from the south in the former, and from the I have seen, north in the latter season. in the month of October, about an hour after sunrise, 10 or 15 of them descend from a great height, and settle on the top of a tall, detached tree, appearing, from their silence and sedateness, to be strangers and fatigued. After a pause of a few minutes, they began to dress and arrange their plumage, and continued so employ

ed for 10 or 15 minutes more; then, on a few warning notes being given, perhaps by the leader of the party, the whole remounted to a vast height, steering in a direct line for the south-west."

BLUE RIDGE; one of the ranges of the Alleghany or Appalachian mountains, which extends from the river Hudson to Georgia, and intersects the state of Virginia from N. E. to S. W., dividing it into two parts, nearly equal. The great limestone valley extends along the N. W. side of this range. The most elevated summits of the Blue Ridge are the peaks of Otter, in Bedford county, Virginia.

BLUE-STOCKING; a pedantic female; one who sacrifices the characteristic excellences of her sex to learning. The origin of this name, in England, is thus given by Boswell, in his Life of Johnson: "About this time (1780), it was much the fashion for several ladies to have evening assemblies, where the fair sex might participate in conversation with literary and ingenious men, animated with a desire to please. These societies were denominated blue-stocking clubs, the origin of which name was as follows:-One of the most eminent members of these societies was Mr. Stillingfleet, who always wore blue stockings. Such was the excellence of his conversation, that his absence was felt as a great loss, and it used to be said, We can do nothing without the blue stockings; and thus, by degrees, the title was established."-In Germany, bluestocking (blau-strumpfe) signifies a traitor, a slanderer, an infamous lover, &c., and the term, in that country, is said to be derived from the blue stockings formerly worn by procurers.

BLUMAUER, Aloysius, a poet, and famous parodist, born at Steyr, in Austria, above the Ens, in 1755, studied in his native city, entered (1772) into the order of the Jesuits in Vienna, lived there privately, after the abolition of his order, till he was appointed censor, which place he resigned in 1733, and took the establishment of the bookseller Graeffer, in which he had been concerned since 1786. He died in 179. By his Æneid travestied, he distinguished himself as a burlesque poet. It is a poetical farce, rich in burlesque wit and droll contrasts. These qualities are also to be found in several others of his numerous poems, Some of them are full of animation, and are written in a pure, manly style. At times, his wit is vulgar, his language incorrect and prosaic. A collection of his works appeared at Leipsic, 1801–3,8 vols,

BLUMENBACH, John Frederic, doctor. This profound naturalist is, at present, one of the first ornaments of the univer sity at Gottingen, where he has lectured, for 50 years, with unabated industry, on natural history, physiology, osteology, comparative anatomy, pathology, and ti e history of medical literature, to very numerous audiences. He has written on almost all these sciences with acuteness, method and precision. His works bear the stamp of his peculiar genius, and some of them have been several times published. His masterly, but, at present, somewhat antiquated Handbuch der Naturgeschichte (Compendium of Natural History) was published, in 1825, for the 11th time. Of his Handbuch der Phyrinlogie (Compendium of Physiology) there is an English translation, the second edition of which (1818) is also remarkable for being the first book ever printed by mechanical power.-B. was born at Gotha, May 11, 1752; studied in Jena and Gottingen, where he received his degree of doctor of medicine, Sept. 19, 1775. In 1776, he was appointed director of the cabinet of natural curiosities belonging to the university, and professor extraoni.nary of medicine, and, in 1778, ordmary professor of the same. In 17833, he undertook a literary journey to Switzerland, and, at a later period, one to England, where the attentions of the celebrated sir Joseph Banks were particularly serviceanble to him. He possesses an excels at collection of books and engravings illustrating natural history, and numerous spe cimens of natural curiosities. The corces tion of skulls is not, perhaps, equalled in the world. On this collection is founded his Collectio Craniorum dirers. gent. lustr., with engravings, of which six numbers (Göttingen, 1790–1-20) have appeared. Schnader called a newly-discovered species of plants after his name, Blumenbachia insignis. The 50th anniversary of his professorship in the univer sity of Gottingen was celebrated Feb. 2 1826.

BOA; the name of a genus of reptiles belonging to Cuvier's tribe of serperis proper; having the tympanic bone of pedicle of the lower jaw movable, which is itself almost always suspended to another bone analogous to the mastoid, attached to the skull by muscles and hijaments, which contribute to its mobity, The branches of this jaw are not unaiel, and those of the upper jaw are attached to the intermaxillary bone only by lu ments, so that these animals can dissie

capable of vast extension; and, by a succession of wonderful muscular contractions, the rest of the body is gradually drawn in, with a steady and regular motion. As the mass advances in the gullet, the parts through which it has passed resume their former dimensions, though its immediate situation is always betrayed by external protuberance.-As already mentioned, the species of boa are peculiar to the hot parts of South America, though nothing is more common than the error of confounding the great serpents of India, Africa, &c., with the proper boa. According to the researches of Cuvier, all the boa, at present well determined, are natives of the new continent. The great serpents of the old continent belong to the genus python (Daud.), and will be treated of under that title. It is nevertheless true, that Pliny has spoken of the huge serpents of India, and afterwards of large serpents of Italy, which were called boo, thus named from the circumstance of their being at first fed with cow's milk.-Among the most celebrated species is the boa constrictor (L.), distinguished by a large chain, formed alternately of large, blackish, irregular hexagonal spots, with pale, oval spots, notched at their two extremities, along the back. This is the largest species, and is usually confounded, by casual observers, with the python Tigris of the old world. The B. cenchris (L.), and the B. scytale, et musina (L.), attain to nearly an equal size with the constrictor (from 20 to 30 feet long), and are all natives of the torrid and marshy regions of America. The other species are of smaller size, and some do not much exceed that of the largest common snakes. We cannot reflect upon the natural history of these great reptiles, without being struck with their peculiar adaptation to the situations in which they are commonly most abundant. In regions bordering on great rivers, which, like the Orinoco, &c., annually inundate vast tracts of country, these serpents live securely among the trees with which the soil is covered, and are capable of enduring very protracted hunger without much apparent suffering or diminution of vigor. Noxious as such districts are to human life, they teem with a gigantic and luxuriant vegetation, and are the favorite haunts of numerous animals, preyed upon, and, to a certain degree, restricted in their increase, by the boa. As their prey come within their reach, they require no deadly apparatus of poison to produce their destruction, since nature has endowed them with

the mouth sufficiently to swallow bodies larger than themselves. Their palatic arches partake of this mobility. In the species of this tribe not possessed of venthe branches of the upper and lower aw, throughout their entire length, as well as the palate bones, are armed with pointed, recurved, solid and permanent beth, forming four nearly equal rows above, and two below.-The genus boa comprises all those serpents which, in adtion to the preceding characters, have the scuta on the under part of the tail singe: a hook on each side of the vent; the prehensile; the body compressed and largest in the middle, and with small sales, at least on the posterior part of the bad-The species properly belonging this genus are among the largest of the serpent tribe, some of them, when grown, being 30 and even 40 feet long. Though destitute of fangs and venen, nature has endowed them with a deee of muscular power which renders them terrible. Happily, they are not comon in situations much frequented by mankind, but are chiefly found in the ast marshy regions of Guiana, and other hot parts of the American continent. Although sufficiently active when fasting or hungry, they become very sluggish and inert after having gorged their prey, which time they are most easily deroyed. In order to obtain their food, the of largest size attach themselves to the trunk or branches of a tree, in a situato likely to be visited by quadrupeds for the sake of pasture or water. There the serpent swings about in the air, as if a branch or pendent of the tree, until se luckless animal approaches; then, suddenly relinquishing its position, swift as lightning he seizes the victim, and coils body spirally round its throat and chest, , after a few ineffectual cries and struges, the animal is suffocated, and expires. la producing this effect, the serpent does t merely wreathe itself around its prey, her places fold over fold, as if desirous of adding as much weight as possible to the scular effort: these folds are then radually tightened with enormous force, and speedily induce death. The animals this destroyed by the larger boa are deer, dogs, and even bullocks. The prey is then prepared for being swallowed, which the creature accomplishes by pushing the labs into the most convenient position, and then covering the surface with a glutous saliva. The reptile commences the act of deglutition by taking the muzzle of the prey into its mouth, which is

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muscular strength surpassing that of almost every other creature, in proportion to their size. Once fairly involved in the crushing folds of the constrictor, the strength of the strongest man would not prove of the slightest avail; indeed, from the ease with which larger and more powerful creatures are put to death by these serpents, it is evident that any number of unarmed men would act very unwisely to provoke a combat with enemies endowed with powers of such dreadful energy.

BOADICEA; queen of the Iceni, in Britain, during the reign of Nero. Having been treated in the most ignominious manner by the Romans, she headed a general insurrection of the Britons, attacked the Roman settlements, reduced London to ashes, and put to the sword all strangers, to the number of 70,000. Suetonius, the Roman general, defeated her in a decisive battle, and B., rather than fall into the hands of her enemies, put an end to her own life by poison.

oars.

from the shore to ships in the roads.-A felucca is a large passage-boat, used in the Mediterranean, with from 10 to 16 banks of oars.-Scow is an American word, signifying a large, flat-bottomed, heavy boat, about 30 feet long, and 12 wide. In some parts of the U. States, it is called a gondola. (See Canoe, Galley, &c.)

BOAT; properly, a vessel propelled by In a more extensive sense, the word is applied to other small vessels, which differ in construction and name, according to the services in which they are employed. Thus they are light or strong, sharp or flat-bottomed, open or decked, &c., according as they are intended for swiftness or burden, deep or shallow water, &c.-The barge is a long, light, narrow boat, employed in harbors, but unfit for sea. The long-boat is the largest boat belonging to a ship, generally furnished with sails, and is employed for cruising short distances, bringing heavy articles on board, &c.-The launch is more flat-bottomed than the long-boat, which it has generally superseded.-The pinnace resembles a barge, but is smaller.-The cutters of a ship are broader and deeper than the barge or pinnace, and are employed in carrying light articles, passengers, &c. on board.-Yawls are used for similar purposes, and are smaller than cutters. A gig is a long, narrow boat, used for expedition, and rowed with six or eight oars.-The jolly-boat is smaller than a yawl, and is used for going on shore. A merchant-ship seldom has more than two boats, a long-boat and a yawl.A wherry is a light, sharp boat, used in a river or harbor, for transporting passengers.-A punt is a flat-bottomed boat, chiefly used for one person to go on shore from small vessels.-A skiff is a small boat, like a yawl, used for passing rivers. -A Moses is a flat-bottomed boat, used in the West Indies for carrying hogsheads

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni, whose name alone, as Mazzuchelli justly says, is equivalent to a thousand encomiums, was the son of a Florentine merchant. His family came, originally, from Certaldo, a village in Tuscany; whence he gives himself the appellation da Certaldo. He was the offspring of an illicit connexion which his father formed, while on a visit of business, at Paris, and was born in that city, 1313. He early removed to Florence, where he began his studies, and, even in childhood, discovered a decided fondness for poetry. In his 10th year, his father put him under the care of a merchant, to be educated in his business. With him he returned to Paris, and remained there six years, without acquiring any fondness for his profession. His residence of eight years at Naples was equally ineffectual to this purpose. Instead of attending to trade, he formed the closest intimacy with several learned men of Florence and Naples, who had been drawn thither by that patron of the arts, king Robert. There is nothing to prove that he shared in the favor of the prince; but he enjoyed the particular affection of a natural daughter of his, for whom he composed many pieces in prose and verse, and to whom he often pays homage under the name of Fiammetta. Placed in fortunate circumstances, with a lively and cheerful disposition, of a soft and pleasing address, the favored lover of a king's daughter, he regarded with more aversion than ever the station for which he had been intended. The fondness of the princess for poetry; his own intimacy with scientific and literary men; the tomb of Virgil, near Naples, which he used to visit in his walks; the presence of Petrarch, who was received with the highest distinction at the court of Naples, and who went from that city to Rome, to be crowned with the poetic laurel; the intimacy which had arisen between the two poets;-all operated powerfully on B., to strengthen and fix his natural inclination for poetry and literature. After living two years at Florence with his father, he returned to Naples, where he was very graciously received by the queen Joanna. It is thought that