Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/801

* BURSAR. 713 BURTON. larjrP. and in recent years there lias been a jireat deal of discussion of their inthience — whether or not the conditions under which they have been awarded are as favorable as they might l>e to the promotion of learning:. In a monastery the bursar would be the one who held ami disbursed the income. In this sense the office is still main- tained in Harvard University, where the bursar is a sort of sub-treasurer, charged with certain intramural duties, under the direction of the treasurer. BURSCHENSCHAFT, boTTr'shcn-shilft (Ger. Uursvhc, fellow, apprentice, student, from MHG. burse, purse; society, especially of students, with a common purse | . An association of student-s in the German universities to promote patriot- ism, morality, and love of liberty. The earli- est organization was at Jena in 1815, and its membership was chiefly made up of students who had fought in the War of Liberation. The idea spread to Tiibingen, Heidelberg, Halle, and Giessen. In 1817, the occasion of the three hundredth anniversary of Luther's initiation of the Reformation, a general gathering took place at the Wartbiirg, and the following year a con- stitution was adopted by delegates from fourteen universities. Black, red. and gold, since taken as the national colors of the new German Empire, were adopted as the colors of the association. The murder of Kotzebue by Sand, a fanatical student, in 1819, injured the movement for freedom in tJerniany and led to repressive measures, such as the Karlsbad Decrees (q.v. ), which required the suppression of the Burschen- schaft, but secret meetings were still held, and there was a revival of the organization in 1827. The Burschenschaft participated in the Liberal demonstration known as the Hambach Festival in 1832. A revolutionarj- attempt took place at J'rankfort-on-the-^Iain in 18.3.3, in which nearly 2000 students were implicated, and in nearly all of the German universities students were arrest- ed, imprisoned, and disfranchised. The ideals of the Burschenschaft were unattainable and vague; Imt they sened well at a trying time to keep alive the spirit of German imity. BUR'SERA'CEJE (Xeo-Lat. Bursera, from Joachim Burser, a German botanist). An order of dicotyledonous plants with 13 genera and more than 300 species, most of which occur in the tropics of both hemispheres, although a single species of Bursera is found in Florida. The species of this family are trees and shrubs with alternate— mostly compound — dot- ted leaves. The entire order is noted for the balsams and resins obtained from its repre- sentatives. The flowers are generally small, 4-5 parted, carpels 3-5, with usually 2 ovules in each. The fruit is a drupe or a capsule. The chief genera are Commiphora, Bursera, Bos- wellia, Canarium, and Protium. For some of their products see Elemi ; Myrrh ; Balsam; BdELLH M ; Ol.IRANrM; Fraxkixcexse. etc. BURSIAN, boor'se-an, KoXRAD (18.30-83). A German arch^ologist and classical philologist. He was born at Mutzschen, in Saxony, was edu- cated in Leipzig, and held professorships in the universities of Leipzig. Tiibingen, Zurich, .lena, and ^Iiinivh. His chief works are (leofiraphie run flrievhenlnnd (18(52-72) and flmrhichli' drr klassischen Philolofiie iu Deutxrhlniid (1883). He also founded (1873) and edited the Jahren- bciichl iihvr die Forlschritte dcr klassischen .17- terlli u mmiisscnxsc)iuft. BURStEM (Bi/riford's dwelling on the loam, AS. hini. (iir. I. thin. clay). A town of Stafford- shire, England, on the Trent and Mersey Canal, about 20 miles north-northwest of Stafford. It is in the pottery district (ilap: England. D 3). Its two jjrincipal buildings are the Wedgwood Memorial Institute, opened in 1870, and contain- ing an art school, a library, and a museum; and a fine town hall, erected in lSt;5. The town was incorporated in 1878. The abundance of coal and the variety of clays have made Hurslem. since the Seventeenth Century, one of the chief scats of the fictile manufacture. Porcelain and pottery of all kinds — Parian, iron, and stone ware, etc. — are produced on a large scale, as well as encaus- tic tiles. There is also a glass manufactory here. The town's sewage is disposed of by irrigation and the refuse by a destructor. It owns its gas- works, on which it makes a small annual profit; and its markets, which net about .$5000 annually. There are public baths. At Birche's Head, a mile and a half from Burslem, stands a large service reservoir of the Staffordshire Waterworks Com- pany, from which the town and neighborhood are supplied with excellent water. Population, in 185)1 . 32,000; in 1001, 38,800. Burslem was the native place of .Tosiah Wedg^vood (q.v.). BXTBT, Wii.i.iAM A. (I792-I858). An Ameri- can sureyor. He was born in Worcester, Mass., but in 1824 settled near Detroit, Mich. He be- came United States depity surveyor in 1S33, and in this capacity surveyed nearly the whole of northern Jlichigan (1840-47). He invented the solar compass, and in 1851 received the prize medal for it at the London Industrial Exhibition. He was judge of the Michigan Circuit Court, and as a member of the Legisla- ture in 1852 was prime mover in the construc- tion of the Sault Ste. Marie Canal. BTJR'TON (origin doubtful). A tackle used for special purposes. In rigged ships lop bur- tons are hooked to burton pendants hanging from the topmast-head. They are also used as additional supports to yards when the latter are rigged for hoisting hea'y weights and for other similar purposes. A sail-burton is a tackle for hoisting sails up to the yards for bending; the chief peculiarity is a runner, or guide-block, which is lashed to the lower block of the purchase and travels on the hauling part, thus preventing the tackle from twisting and the sail from .swaying about as it goes aloft. See Tackle. BURTON, .Toiix Hill (1809-81). A Scotch jurist, historian, and encydopa-dist, born in Aber- deen, August 22, 1809. He graduated at Maris- chal College, Aberdeen, studied law, and was admitted to the Edinburgh l)ar. but supported himself chiefly by literature. From 1833 he contributed articles on law, history, and politi- cal economy to the Westminster TfeVicic. literary sketches to Blaekwood's il(iria::ine, and also wrote for the Cyrlopcrdin of Vnit-ersal Biogra- phy, Waterson's Cyelopwdia of Vommeree, and Chambers's Kncyclopwdia. In 1854 he was re- lieved from monetary prccariousness by a gov- ernmental appointment. His most iinporUint original work is The History of Scotland, front Agricola's Invasion to the Uccotution of ItiSS (7 vols., 1867-70). A new edition, enlarged and