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 BASCHI ' BASE BALL 355 Maritza, in the eyalet of Adrianoplo, 20 m. TV. N. W. of Philippopolis. It contains 4,000 or 5,000 houses, about three fourths of which are occupied by Mohammedan and one fourth by Bulgarian Christians. The town has 18 mosques, 5 churches, and a yearly fair lasting from the beginning of June to the middle of August. Rice culture and the trade in that article are important branches of industry. There are also warm springs and baths. BiSCIII, Slatteo, an Italian Franciscan, foun- der of the Capuchins, died in Venice in 1552. He was a Minorite friar of the convent of Mon- tefalcone, when he declared that St. Francis had appeared to him in a vision, and com- manded him to introduce into the order the same costume which the saint had worn in life, namely, a robe of flannel, of a chestnut color, tied with a cord for a girdle, a short flannel cloak, and a large hood. Pope Clement VII. accepted the revelation, and gave Baschi anil those who wished to imitate him permission to form a separate congregation, which soon took the name of Capuchins (capote, a hood). Baschi met with much opposition from his brethren, and was for a short time imprisoned ; but he finally became the first general of the Capuchin branch of the Franciscans. BASCOM, Henry Bidleman, D. I >.. LL. I >., an American clergyman, bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church South, born May 27, 1796, in Hancock, Delaware co., N. Y., died in Louisville, Sept. 8, 1850. Before the age of 18 he receiv- ed license to preach, and was admitted to the Ohio conference. After several years of hard work on frontier circuits, he was transferred to the Tennessee conference in 181 6> returned to the Ohio conference in 1822, and in 1823, through the influence of Henry Clay, was elected chaplain of the house of representatives at Washington. In 1824 he was stationed at Pittsburgh, in 1825 was made conference mis- sionary, and from 1827 to 1828 was president of Madison college, Uniontown, Penn. From 1829 to 1831 he served as agent of the coloni- zation society, and then was appointed to the chair of moral science and belles-lettres in Augusta college, Kentucky, where he remained till 1841. He declined the presidency of Lou- isiana college and of the Missouri university to accept that of Transylvania college, Kentucky (1842). He was the author of the celebrated protest of the southern delegates to the general conference against the action of the majority in the case of Bishop Andrew (1844), was also a member of the convention of southern delegates held in Louisville, Ky., in May, 1845, and drew up the report of the committee on the organi- zation of the church South. After serving as editor of the " Quarterly Review " of the M. E. church South (1846-'50), and chairman of the board of commissioners to settle the con- troversy between the northern and southern divisions of the church, ho was elected to the episcopal office a short time before his death. His works (4 vols. 8vo, Nashville, 1850 and 1856) comprise sermons, addresses, lectures, and es- says on infidelity, mental and moral science, moral and political philosophy, &c., and "Meth- odism and Slavery," a defence of the southern branch of the church. As a pulpit orator, Dr. Bascom was singularly fervid and powerful, and the fame of his eloquence was scarcely surpassed by that of any other public speaker in church or state. His biography has been written by the Rev. M. M. Henkle (12mo, Nash- ville, 1854). BASCOM, John, an American scholar and au- thor, born at Genoa, N. Y., May 1, 1827. He is a graduate of Williams college and of An- dover theological seminary, and has been since 1855 professor of rhetoric in the former insti- tution. He has published a treatise on "Polit- ical Economy" (1861); "Treatise on ^Esthet- ics " (1862) ; " Text Book of Rhetoric " (1865) ; "Elements of Psychology" (1869); and "Sci- ence, Philosophy, and Religion " (1871), a series of lectures delivered before the Lowell insti- tute, Boston, in the winter of 1869-'70. BASE, in chemistry, a term used with several applications, varjing according to the view taken of the constitution of compounds. As originally used in the exposition of the dualistic hypothesis, it signified the electro-positive ox- ide, sulphide, &c. ; but in the new unitary hy- pothesis it must be applied to those electro- positive elements or compound radicals which can be substituted for the hydrogen of acids. Alkalies and some other metallic oxides were formerly regarded as comprising all the strictly defined bases ; but to these are now added a large class of organic substances existing in plants, which with acids form salts, and may be separated by the greater affinity of the acid for stronger bases. These vegetable bases or alkaloids consist of oxygen, hydrogen, and car- bon, in combination with a certain proportion of nitrogen. The constant presence of this ele- ment has led to the supposition that the salifi- able properties of these compounds may be at- tributed to it. The vegetable bases are usually in white crystals. The few animal bases or alkalies are volatile, liquid, and of oily consis- tency. The medicinal properties of plants re- side in the bases extracted from them. A crystal of aconitine contains the concentrated strength of numerous plants of the monkshood ; and one of morphia combines that of a large quantity of opium, as one of quinine does of Peruvian bark. (See ALKALI, ALKALOID, and SALTS.) BASE BALL, an athletic game played in the United States, where it has, as a national amusement, a prominence almost equal to that attained by cricket in England. It has reached its present importance only within the last 10 or 15 years, though it was long before played in some parts of the country, and is indeed probably derived from an old English game called "rounders." It is played with a hard ball, composed of yarn tightly wound around a piece of vulcanized rubber, and a round wooden bat not more than 42 inches in length.