Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/292

 BEL

BEL

faid of the fall of our firft parents ; where by the devil's tempt- ing them, we are only to understand) that they finned after the fame manner as the devil had done, by following their own luffs. ffence alio he accounts for the temptation of our Sa- viour, where it was not the devil meddled wiih him, but that Chrifl reprefented to himfelf a feries of corrupt defires, as if be was tempted by them. By the combat of Michael with Satan, recited by Jude, he underffands a difpute between two doef ors of the church ; one of whom drove to have the body of Mofes produced, that it might be the object of worfhip, which the other oppofed ; or perhaps one contended for the obfervance of the mofaic law, and the other for its rejection. As to witches and conjurors, he afferts, that by thofe in fcriptureare notto be meant men who, in confequence of a compact with the devil, were afliffed by him to perform wonders, but philofophers (killed in the fecrets of nature ; and, in virtue thereof, enabled to do things, which palled the vul- gar comprehenfion ; and who only feigned to have a com- merce with fpirits to conceal their art, and conciliate more admiration.

For the ftories of perfons poffeffed, if there be anything more in them than ficfion, that they arife from melancholic dif- eafes, and other latent powers of nature ; that as to difeafes, feveral are called in fcripture by the name of devils, from whom thefe were fard to be freed, who were reftored to health : laftly, he attributes all either to impofture, or to the errors of our external, or internal fenfes ; and accumulates inftances, to fhew that men have often thought they faw or heard, what they did not fee or hear. Vid. Budd. Elem. Phil.Theor. P. 5. c. 2. §. 1-12.

BEL, in botany, the name of a plant called by fome the auu- mis eapparis, or caper cucumber. This plant is very imper- fectly defcribed to us ; and we find among the Arabian wri- ters, that the fruit was called by this name as well as the whole plant. Avifenna, who gives the fulleft account we have of it, fays that it was an Indian plant, refembling in growth the common cucumber plant, but bearing a fruit like the caper; he tells us that this fruit was the only part of the plant ufed in medicine, and that it was very hot and bitter, being fome- what like ginger in the fiery heat of the tafte, and in qualities hot and dry in the fecond degree, as they exprefs'd it; or, ac- cording to Diofcorides in_the third. Serapio tells us, that it was brought from the Indies ; and fecms to make it of the fame kind with the plant fel, treating in the fame chapter of the three plants iel, fel, and fel, as three things of much the fame kind ; he fays they were all hot and drying, and all brought from the Eaft-Indies.

Rafes tells us that the fcl was a fruit with a thick rind or co- vering on it, like a hazel nut ; and that within this fhell there was contain'd a kernel of an oleaginous and fat nature, and refembling the mix pirn, or pine kernels. Avifenna tells us, that the fruit bel refembles the capers ; and it is plain, that what they meant by the name eapparis was not unlike in fhape to the hazel-nut, to which the fruit/^/is compar'd ; for Theo- phraftus fpeaking of the ben-nut, compares it to the caper- fruit, and Diofcorides to the hazel-nut. Thefe authors both knew the fruit they defcribe very well, as well as thofe things to which they liken it ; and it is certain, that they would not have compar'd it to two things that were unlike one to the o- ther. This cafual obfervation is not unneceffary, as it gives force to the defcription of Avifenna, who is fuppos'd to have meant fomething elfe by the word capers. It is certain, that his defcription is a very odd one, as it Hands in the common in- terpretation, where he is made to call the iel an Indian cu- cumber, with a fruit like the capers ; but all that he means is, that it is a climbing plant, refembling the cucumber in leaves. See Fel.

BELEMNITES, or Eelenites, in natural hiftory, a kind of fi- gured ftone, ufua!lyhollow,anda little tranfparent, fhapedfome- what like an arrow, formed of fmall ftriae or threads, radiating from the axis to the furface of the ftone ; and which when burnt, or rubbed againft one another, or fcraped with a knife, yields an odour like rafped horn. See its figure reprefented in Tab. of Foflils, Clafl". ic. Vid. Plot, Nat. Hift. Oxford, c. 5. §. 39. p. 94. Vater. Phyf. Exper. P. 2. §. 5. c. 8. p. ■mq. Cajl. Lex. Med. p. 101. The word is formed from the Greek, ^pov, arrow. The belemnites is otherwife denominated daclylus, or daelylus idzus, on account of its bearing a refemblance to the figure of a finger ; by the antients, lyneurius lapis, or lapis lyneis, as being fuppofed to be generated of the urine of the lynx. Mer- cat. Mctalloth. arm. 9. Ioc. 25. c. 30. p. 280. Vater. Phyf.Eper. P. 2. §. 5. c. 8. p. 419.

Among us, popularly, the thunderbolt ', or thunder-ftone b , as hiving been fuppofed to fall in time of thunder. — [" Phil. Tranf. N° 314. p. 78. b Woodw. Catal. foreign FolT p. 8.] Dr. Plot will not allow the appellation lymurius to have been given ft on account of this fuppofed origin from the urine of that beaft, but from the unpleafant fmell it has when burned or brmfed, hke the urine of cats, or fuch like rammifh crea- tures whereof the lynx perhaps may be one •. But he is nulraken ; Ovid has a paffage, which fhews apparently the ienle of the antients on the urine of the lynx ' —["Pitt, lib cit. §. 42. p. 95. <> Ovid. Met. 1. tc.

QuiLfjuid vefca remifil Vertitur in lapides, et congelet acre taclo. Dr. Woodward, and a great many other authors, fuppofe the' bekmmtes to be a native foffil in its own proper figure; but it is more probably fuppofed by others to owe its prefent form to fome animal body ; and to be, iike the other form'd ftones, the eehinitee, tiff, a fubftance caff in a fhell. The i elcmnites, according to Klein, is one of the tubuli marl'- ni, never found with us in its recent ftate, but very frequent foffile, compos'd of a matter approaching to the nature of fpars, of a cylindroid figure, and compos'd of fevcral plates, each made up of a number of parallel Jlriar, having a flit in the manner of fome of the tubuli marini, running along its whole length, and a pervious cavity in the middle, in the larger end, frequently containing a concameratcd fhel], alto- gether refembling the tubuli cmcamerati in ftruflure, of a ihclly texture, and having a fiphunculus, or pipe of commu- nication between its feveral cells, in the manner of the Nautilus Graeortun, and otlier camerated fhells.

The long and narrow cavities in the center of the lower p: j rt of the ttUmmtx, arejudg'd by this author to be no other than continuations of the fiphunculus, or tubular procefies of the concameratcd fhell, found in the larger end of che bdemnite • and he imagines, not without fhew of reafon, that the funicu- lus of the filh that inhabits the camera; of the fhell, is conti- nued thro' this cavity to the end of thojbody, as in the nau- tili. Vid. Klein, de Tub. Marin, p. ij. The general diflribution of the be'emnitee is int 1 three kinds, the cylindric, conic, and fufiform. The cylindric do not taper to a point at the lower end, the conic are terminated by a point, and the fufiform are thicker in fome intermediate part than at either of the ends. Thefe are the mofl rare of all the kinds.

The ielemnitas are of feveral fhapes, fizes, and figures, but all of the fame determinate internal ftrufiure ; aiid"many of the figures in which we find this foffile, and which are fuppos'd effential to it, feem rather the effect of external accidents and injuries ; and its general natural figure feems to be conic. The belemnita are all form'd of feveral thin coats or crufts in- circling one another, and all of a ftriated texture; they have ufually a hollow in, or near the middle ; this is of a conic fhape, and is fometimes empty, but more frequently fill'd with earthy or ftony matter; and often with a marine fhell of the camerated kind, call'd by authors its alveolus. This fhell however is not found only in the bdemnites, but likewife loofc, and frequently of a much larger fize than we could expect to find belemnitx to be matrixes for. The infide of the cavity of the belemnites is alfo frequently found mark'd with parallel cir- cles, a ridg'd one and a furrow'd one, all adapted to the fhape of the concamerated fhell, which fo frequently makes its al- veolus. The bdemnita have ufually a fingle rima or chink, running down longitudinally in form of a ftrait crack, the whole length of the body, or nearly fo ; fometimes they have two or three of thefe cracks, but the additional ones ufually begin at the apex of the ftone, and run up but a little way. There are alfo fome of the bdemnita, which have no obfer- vable crack at all.

Befide the conic bdemnitis, there are fome cylindrick, or nearly fo, and fome are thickeff near the middle, or near one of the ends, and taper off to a fort of point at both. Some alfo are of intermediate figures between conic and cylindric, and fome are nearly orbicular; fome alfo taper off very gradually, others more abruptly, and fome have no obfervable cavity. There are befide thefe many other fi- gures, in which the belamitai are fometimes found, and thefe are by fome call'd fo many fpecies of the body ; but, till we are perfectly inform'd to what animal they have originally be- long'd, it is impoflible to fay which of all thefe are natural, and which accidental figures ; tho' it is plain, that many are of the latter kind, being owing to the breaking, or wearing down of the more known figures.

Of the conic belenmita, fome are nearly rounded ; but more ufually they are flatted on one fide, fometimes on two oppofite fides, and fometimes they are plainly crufh'd and crack'd by accidents, as other of the animal formed foflils fo frequently are. The belemnitai are of various fizes, from a quarter of an inch to eight inches in length ; and, tho' always of the fame matter and ftructure, they are of various degrees of colour ; fome be- ing of a fine amber colour, others blackifh, others blueifb, and fome grey ; others are of different degrees, of a darker or paler brown ; and they have all a very remarkable and difa- greeahle fmell, when fcrap'd to powder.

They are found in all forts of ftrata, fometimes in clay, fometimes loofe i.mong gravel, and often immers'd in beds of ftone; not unfrequentlyalfo they are bedded among loofe flints ; and fometimes they are cover'd with a cruft of fparry matter* feeming to have been form'd in the manner of many other of the foflils of the extr.ineous kind, in the place of the fhell, which receiv'd and gave form to the belemnites. Sometimes alfo tubuli marini, and (na]l fungitee or mycetites, with other marine produftions, both of the animal and vegetable kind, are found adhering to them, as they are to the common ma- rine bodies : but this in thefe is rare. The chop or chink in thefe bodies, in fome feems flight and fuperficial, but in others