BELL. 14 tons; that of the Roman Catholic cathedral at Montreal (cast 1847), 13 tons; Great Peter,' Great Bell at Moscow. placed in York Minster 1845, 10 tons; Great Tom' at Lincoln, 5 tons; Great Bell of St Paul's, 5 tons-See an interesting article on Bells in the Quarterly Review for September 1854. From old usage, bells are intimately connected with the services of the Christian church-so much so, that apparently from a spirit of opposition, the Mohammedans reject the use of bells, and substitute for them the cry of the Imaum from the top of the mosques. Associated in various ways with the ancient ritual of the church, bells acquired a kind of sacred character. They were founded with religious ceremonies (see Schiller's ode), and consecrated by a complete baptismal service; received names, had sponsors, were sprinkled with water, anointed, and finally covered with the white garment or chrisom, like infants. This usage is as old as the time of Alcuin, and is still practised in Roman Catholic countries. Bells had mostly pious inscriptions, often indicative of the wide-spread belief in the mysterious virtue of their sound. They were believed to disperse storms and pestilence, drive away enemies, extinguish fire, &c. A common inscription in the middle ages was: Fanera plango, fulgura frango, Sabbata pango, Excito lentos, dissipo ventos, paco cruentos. Among the superstitious usages recorded to have taken place in old St Paul's Church in London, was the 'ringinge the hallowed belle in great tempestes or lightninges' (Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. ii.). From this superstition possibly sprang the later notion, that when the great bell of St Paul's tolled (which it does only on the death of a member of the royal family, or a distinguished personage in the city) it turned all the Beer sour in the neighbourhood—a fancy facetiously referred to by Washington Irving in the SketchBook. It would seem that the strange notion that bells are efficacious in dispelling storms, is by no means extinct. In 1852, the Bishop of Malta ordered the church-bells to be rung for an hour to allay a gale. Church-bells were at one time tolled for those passing out of the world. It was a prevailing superstition that bells had the power to terrify evil spirits, no less than to dispel storms; and the custom of ringing what was called the passing-bell, grew (we quote the writer in the Quarterly Review above referred to] out of the belief that devils troubled the expiring patient, and lay in wait to afflict the soul the moment when it escaped from the body.' The tolling of the passing-bell was retained at the Reformation; and the people were instructed that its use was to admonish the living, and excite them to pray for the dying.' But 'by the beginning of the 18th c., the passing-bell, in the proper sense of the term, had almost ceased to be heard. The tolling, indeed, continued in the old fashion; but it took place after the death, instead of before.' The practice of slowly and solemnly tolling church-bells at deaths, or while funerals are being conducted, is still a usage in various parts of the country, more particularly as a mark of respect for the deceased. There is another use of the bell in religion, called the pardon or ave bell, abolished among Protestants. The pardon-bell was tolled before and after divine service, for some time prior to the Reformation, to call the worshippers to a preparatory prayer to the Virgin Mary before engaging in the solemnity, and an invocation for pardon at its close. Bishop Burnet has recorded the order of a Bishop of Sarum, in 1538, concerning the discontinuance of the custom. It runs thus: "That the bell called the pardon or ave bell, which of longe tyme hathe been used to be tolled three tymes after and before divine service, be not here. after in any part of my diocesse any more tollyd.' The ringing of the curfew-bell, supposed to have been introduced into England by William the Conqueror, was a custom of a civil or political nature, and only strictly observed till the end of the reign of William Rufus. Its object was to warn the public to extinguish their fires and lights at eight o'clock in the evening. The eight o'clock ringing is still continued in many parts of England and Scotland. As the liberty of public worship in places of meeting by themselves was yielded to dissenters, by the various governments of Europe, only with reluctance, the use of bells in chapels as a summons to divine service is not allowed except in the more enlightened countries. Speaking on this subject as referring to England, Lord Chief-justice Jervis, in giving judgment on a case tried at the Croydon assizes in 1851, says: With regard to the right of using bells in places of worship at all, by the common law, churches of every denomination have a full right to use bells, and it is a vulgar error to suppose that there is any distinction at the present time in this respect.' Throughout England and Scotland, however, comparatively few dissenting places of worship possess bells-still fewer have steeples. In towns and villages, the places of worship connected with the established church are commonly distinguished by some kind of belfry or bell-cote with bells. The ringing of these for divine service on Sundays, and on other occasions, forms the theme of many poetical allusions. The lines of Cowper will occur to recollection : How soft the music of those village bells, On all that belongs to the playing of bells in belfries, the inventive genius of the Netherlands long since arrived at proficiency. In some of the church-towers of that country, the striking, chiming, and playing of bells is incessant; the tinkling called chimes usually accompanies the striking of the hours, half-hours, and quarters; while the playing of tunes comes in as a special divertisement. In some instances, these tuneplaying bells are sounded by means of a cylinder, on the principle of a barrel-organ; but in others, they are played with keys by a musician. The French apply the term carillons to the tunes played BELL-BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE. on bells; but in England, it is more usual to give the term carillons to the suites of bells which yield this kind of music. In this last sense, the tower of Les Halles, a large building at Bruges, is allowed to contain the finest carillons in Europe. There is a set of music-bells of this kind in the steeple of St Giles's Church, Edinburgh. On these, tunes are played for an hour daily at certain seasons by a musician, who has a small salary from the civic corporation. in the dark; and hung on cows, goats, or sheep, these animals can be easily found in the woods, or on the mountains. The charming poetical allusion of Gray And drowsy tinklings lull the distant foldswill be called to remembrance. In some parts of England, as many as eight small bells, forming an octave, are attached to the harness of wagon-horses; and the sounds produced are very pleasant. The attaching of bells in a fanciful manner to riding and sleigh-horses is common in some parts of Europe and America. The term bell is infused in much of our conversa tional phraseology. To bear the bell,' is a phrase which we previously attempted to explain. At one period, a silver bell was the prize in horse-races in England, and the winning horse was said to bear A less probable explanation is, away the bell. Many of the church-towers in London are provided with peals of bells, the ringing of which is a well-known practice. Eight bells, which form an octave or diatonic scale, make the most perfect peal. The variety of changes or permutations of order that can be rung on a peal, increases enormously with the number of bells: 3 bells allow 6 changes; 4 bells, 24; 12 bells give as many as 479,001,600 changes. The ringing of peals differs entirely from tolling a distinction not sufficiently recognised in that the phrase originated in the custom of one of those places where an ordinary ringing of bells is the most forward sheep in a flock carrying a bell. made to suffice alike for solemn and festive occa-Hence, at least, bell-wether of the flock,' a phrase sions. The merry peal almost amounts to an English applied disparagingly to the leader of a party. The national institution. It consists in ringing the peal old fable, in which a sagacious mouse proposes that in moderately quick time, and in a certain order, a bell shall be hung on the neck of the cat, so that without interruption, for the space of an hour. all the mice may be duly warned of her approach, Merry peals are rung at marriages (if ordered), and has given rise to the well-known phrase of "belling at other festive events, the ringers being properly the cat.' Any one who openly and courageously paid, according to use and wont. The English appear does something to lower the offensive pretensions to be fond of these peals, and the associations which of a powerful and dangerous person, is said to bell they call up. They actually make bequests to endow periodical peals in their parish church-towers; leaving, for example, so much money to ring a merry peal for an hour on a certain evening of the week, or to commemorate victories, or some other subjects of national rejoicing, in all time coming. One of the most celebrated peals of bells in London is that of St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, which form the basis of a proverbial expression meant to mark emphatically a London nativity-Born within the sound of Bow-bells.' Brand speaks of a substantial endow ment by a citizen for the ringing of Bow-bells early every morning to wake up the London apprentices. The ringing of bells in token of merriment is an old usage in England, as we learn from Shakspeare: Get thee gone, and dig my grave thyself, Sometimes, in compliment to a newly opened The custom of hanging bells on the necks of horses, cows, and other animals, was in use by the Romans, and survives till our own day. Hung on the necks of horses, the bells give notice of approach the cat.' The hanging of bells in dwelling-houses, and ringing them by means of wires from the different apartments, is quite a modern invention; for it was not known in England in the reign of Queen Anne. Lately, Now, the use of room-bells is universal. there has been a great improvement in domestic bell-hanging. Instead of traversing the apartments, and turning and winding by means of cranks, the wires are carried directly upward in small tubes in the walls to the garret: thence from a row of cranks, they descend together to their respective bells, which are hung in one of the lower passages. In the larger hotels of the United States, wires from the several apartments operate on a single bell, at the same time developing a number on a board corresponding to the number of the room where attendance is required. This ingenious contrivance, which has been introduced into one of the large hotels in Paris, saves the perplexity which would ensue from some hundreds of bells. BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE. The excommunication by B., B., and C. is a solemnity belonging to the Church of Rome. The officiating minister pronounces the formula of excommunication, consisting of maledictions on the head of the person anathe matised, and closes the pronouncing of the sentence by shutting the book from which it is read, taking a lighted candle and casting it to the ground, and tolling the bell as for the dead. This mode of excommunication appears to have existed in the western churches as early as the 8th c. Its symbolism may be explained by quoting two or three sentences from the conclusion of the form of excommunication used in the Scottish Church before the Reformation: Cursed be they from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot. Out be they taken of the book of life. And as this candle is cast from the sight of men, so be their souls cast from the sight of God into the deepest pit of hell. Amen.' The rubric adds: And then the candle being dashed on the ground and quenched, let the bell be rung.' So, also, the sentence of excommunication against the murderers of the Archbishop of Dublin in 1534: 'And to the terror and fear of the said damnable persons, in sign and figure that they be accursed of BELL OF A CAPITAL-BELL, SIR C. God, and their bodies committed into the hands of Satan, we have rung these bells, erected this cross with the figure of Christ; and as ye see this candle's light taken from the cross and the light quenched, so be the said cursed murderers excluded from the light of heaven, the fellowship of angels, and all Christian people, and sent to the low darkness of fiends and damned creatures, among whom everlasting pains do endure.' BELL OF A CAPITAL is the capital of a pillar denuded of the foliage, in which case it resembles the form of a bell reversed. BELL ROCK, or INCH CAPE, a reef of old red sandstone rocks in the German Ocean, 12 miles south east of Arbroath, and nearly opposite the mouth of the Tay. The reef is 2000 feet long; at spring-tides, part of it is uncovered to the height of four feet; and for 100 yards around, the sea is only three fathoms deep. It was formerly a fruitful cause of shipwreck, and, according to tradition, the abbot of Aberbrothwick (Arbroath) placed a bell on it, fixed upon a tree or timber, which rang continually, being moved by the sea, giving notice to the saylers of the danger.' This tradition has been embodied by Southey in his well-known ballad of The Inchcape Rock. A light-house, on the plan of the Eddystone one, and a fine example of engineering skill, was completed on the reef in 1811, and a revolving light exhibited. The structure is 115 feet high, is 42 feet in diameter at base, and 23 at top, is solid for the first 30 feet upwards, 15 feet of which is under water at high tide, and cost upwards of Section of Bell Rock £60,000. published a tractate on education, recommending BELL, SIR CHARLES, an eminent surgeon, whose discoveries in the nervous system have given him a European fame, was born at Edinburgh in 1778, and while a mere youth, assisted his brother John (afterwards noticed) in his anatomical lectures and demonstrations. In 1797, he was admitted a member of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons, and soon after appointed one of the surgeons of the Royal Infirmary. In 1806, he proceeded to London, and for some years lectured with great success on anatomy and surgery at the academy in Great Windmill Street. Admitted, in 1812, a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, he was elected one of the surgeons of the Middlesex Hospital, in which institution he delivered clinical lectures, and raised it to the highest repute. To obtain a knowledge of gunshot wounds, he twice relinquished his London engagements the first time after the battle of Corunna in 1809, when he visited the wounded landed on the southern coasts of England; the other, after the battle of Waterloo, when he repaired to Brussels, and was put in charge of a BELL, ANDREW, D.D., author of the 'Madras hospital with 300 men. In 1824, he was appointed System of Education,' was born at St Andrews in senior Professor of Anatomy and Surgery to the Royal 1753, and educated at the university of that place. College of Surgeons, London, and subsequently a Subsequently, he took orders in the Church of Eng- member of the council. On the establishment of the land; and after residing for some time in British London University, now University College, in 1826, America, was appointed one of the chaplains at Fort B. was placed at the head of their new medical St George, Madras. While here, he was intrusted school. He delivered the general opening lecture by the directors of the East India Company with in his own section, and followed it by a regular the management of an institution for the education course of characteristic lectures on physiology; but of the orphan children of the European military. soon resigned, and confined himself to his extensive The arduous character of his new duties compelled practice, which was chiefly in nervous affections. him to reflect seriously on the best means of fulfilling In 1831, he was one of the five eminent men in them. As he found it impossible to obtain the science knighted on the accession of William IV., services of properly qualified ushers, he at length the others being Sir John Herschel, Sir David resorted to the expedient of conducting the school Brewster, Sir John Leslie, and Sir James Ivory. In by the aid of the scholars themselves. Hence origi- 1836, he was elected Professor of Surgery in the nated the far-famed system of 'Mutual Instruction' university of Edinburgh. He was a fellow of the (q. v.). After superintending the institution for Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, and a seven years, the state of his health forced him to member of some other learned bodies. Author of return to Europe. On his departure, he received various works on surgery and the nervous system, a most flattering testimonial from the directors and editor, jointly with Lord Brougham, of Paley's of the school. In 1797, after his arrival in Eng- Evidences of Natural Religion, B. was one of the eight land, B. published a pamphlet entitled An Experi- distinguished men selected to write the celebrated ment in Education, made at the Male Asylum of Bridgewater Treatises, his contribution being on Madras; suggesting a System by which a School The Hand, its Mechanism and Vital Endowments, or Family may teach itself under the Superintend- as evincing Design (1834). He died suddenly, ence of the Master or Parent. This pamphlet attracted little attention, until Joseph Lancaster, a dissenter, commenced to work upon the system, and succeeded in obtaining for it a large measure of public recognition. In 1803, Lancaster also April 30, 1842. Among his principal works are: 13 BELL. of Expression in Painting, plates (Lond. 1806, 4to); posthumous edition, much enlarged, entitled The Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression as connected with the Fine Arts (Lond. 1844, 8vo); A System of Operative Surgery, 2 vols. (Lond. 1807 -1809; 2d ed. 1814); Dissertation on Gunshot Wounds (Lond. 1814, 2 vols. 8vo); Anatomy and Physiology of the Human Body, 3 vols. (1816); various papers on the nervous system, which originally appeared in the Philosophical Transactions; Exposition of the Natural System of the Nerves of the Human Body (1824); Institutes of Surgery (Edin. 2 vols. 1838, 12mo); Animal Mechanics, contributed to the Library for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1828); Nervous System of the Human Body, 1830, 4to complete edition (Edin. 1836, 8vo), BELL, JOHN, of Antermony, a celebrated Asiatic traveller, born in the west of Scotland in 1691, studied for the medical profession. In 1714, he went to St Petersburg, and soon after was appointed physician to an embassy from Russia to Persia. In 1719, he was sent upon another to China, through Siberia. In 1737, he was sent on an embassy to Constantinople, and afterwards settled for some years in the Turkish capital as a merchant. 1747, he returned to Scotland, and died at Antermony, July 1, 1780. His Travels from St Petersburg to various Parts in Asia, in 2 vols. 4to, were published by subscription at Glasgow in 1763. From its simplicity of style, the work has been described as the best model, perhaps, for travel-writing in the English language.' In BELL, JOHN, an eminent surgeon, second son of BELL, GEORGE JOSEPH, an eminent lawyer, the Rev. William Bell, an Episcopal minister in brother of the above, was born at Edinburgh 26th Edinburgh, was born in that city, May 12, 1763. March 1770, and passed advocate in 1791. Acknow- He studied under the celebrated Black, Cullen, and ledged one of the greatest masters of commercial Monro secundus; and while attending the anatomy jurisprudence of his time, and in particular of that classes of Dr Monro, first conceived the idea of department of it which relates to the laws of bank-teaching the application of the science of anatomy to ruptcy, he was, in 1822, appointed Professor of Scots practical surgery. He commenced, in 1786, lecturLaw in Edinburgh University; and in 1823, a mem- ing at Edinburgh on surgery and anatomy, and in ber of the commission for inquiring into Scottish judicial proceedings. Subsequently, he was member of a commission to examine into and simplify the mode of procedure in the Court of Session. On the report, drawn up by B., was founded the Scottish Judicature Act, prepared by him, which effected many important changes in the forms of process in the superior courts of Scotland; the jury court being abolished as a separate judicature, and conjoined with the Court of Session. Appointed in 1831 one of the clerks of the Court of Session, he was, in 1833, chairman of the Royal Commission to examine into the state of the law in general. He also prepared a bill for the establishment of a Court of Bankruptcy in Scotland. His principal works are-Commentaries on the Laws of Scotland, and on the Principles of Mercantile Jurisprudence (Edin. 1810, 4to; 5th ed. 1826, 2 vols. 4to); Principles of the Law of Scotland (Edin. 1829, 8vo; 4th ed. 1839, 8vo); and Commentaries on the Recent Statutes Relative to Diligence or Execution against the Movable Estate, Imprisonment, Cessio Bonorum, and Sequestration in Mercantile Bankruptcy (Edin. 1840, 4to). Died 23d September 1843. BELL, HENRY, the successful introducer of steamnavigation into Europe, fifth son of Patrick Bell, a mechanic, was born at Torphichen, Linlithgowshire, Scotland, April 7, 1767. After working three years as a stone-mason, he was, in 1783, apprenticed to his uncle, a mill-wright. He was instructed in shipmodelling at Borrowstounness, and completed his knowledge of mechanics with an engineer at Bell's Hill. Repairing to London, he was employed by the celebrated Mr Rennie. About 1790 he returned to Glasgow, and in 1808 removed to Helensburgh, where he kept the principal inn, and devoted himself to mechanical experiments. How far B. was anticipated by Fulton and others, in his application of steam to navigation, will be considered under the head of STEAM NAVIGATION. In January 1812, a small vessel, 40 feet in length, called the Comet, built under his directions, and with an engine constructed by himself, was launched on the Clyde with success-the first on European waters. Five years previously, on October 3, 1807, Mr Fulton, a Scottish engineer in America, had placed the first steam-boat on the Hudson. B. died at Helensburgh, November 14, 1830. A monument was erected to his memory at Dunglass Point on the Clyde. 1793 published the first volume of his Anatomy of the Human Body; in 1797, appeared the second volume; and in 1802, the third. A volume of anatomical drawings by himself, illustrative of the structure of the bones, muscles, and joints, was published in 1794; and another volume, illustrative of the arteries, with drawings by his brother, afterwards Sir Charles Bell, appeared in 1801. In 1798, B. passed some weeks at Yarmouth among the seamen of Lord Duncan's fleet wounded at Camperdown; and in 1800 he published a Memorial concerning the Present State of Military Surgery. His System of the Anatomy of the Human Body, and his Discourses on the Nature and Cure of Wounds (Edin. 1793-1795), were translated into German. A good classical scholar, he was distinguished alike for his great conversational powers and general information. Early in 1816, he was thrown from his horse, and, his health declining, he went to Paris, and thence proceeded to Italy. He died at Rome, of dropsy, April 15, 1820. Besides the works mentioned, he was the author of The Principles of Surgery, 3 vols. 4to, 1801-1807; new edition, edited by his brother, Sir Charles Bell, 1826. A posthumous work, entitled Observations on Italy, edited by Bishop Sandford of Edinburgh, was published by his widow. BELL, JOHN, an eminent sculptor, remarkable for rejecting the classical antique model, and following nature only in his works, born in Norfolk in 1800, first exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, in 1832, à religious group. His works are numerous, and of high and original merit. B.'s statues of Lord Falkland, exhibited in model at Westminster Hall, 1847, and Sir Robert Walpole, 1854, were commissioned for the new Houses of Parliament. One of his latest designs is a monument to the Guards who fell in the Crimea, executed in 1858. decorative art, he has also distinguished himself, having modelled many objects for the drawingroom table, combining the practical with the orna mental. B. is the author of a Free Hand Drawingbook, for the Use of Artisans. In BELL, ROBERT, an industrious and versatile literary writer, the son of a magistrate, was born at Cork, 10th January 1800, and when very young, obtained an appointment in a government department in Dublin. He was for a time editor of the government journal, The Patriot. In 1828, he removed to London, and was appointed editor BELL-BELLADONNA. of The Atlas newspaper. In 1839, in conjunc- bell-shaped flowers of a lurid purple colour, which tion with Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton and Dr are fully larger than those of the common harebell, Lardner, he started The Monthly Chronicle, a stalked and solitary in the axils of the leaves. It literary periodical, published by Longman & Co.; produces berries, of the size of a middle-sized cherry, and latterly was editor of it. In 1841, he retired from The Atlas. For Lardner's Cyclopædia, B. wrote The History of Russia, 3 vols., and The Lives of the English Poets, 2 vols. The last volume of Southey's Naval History, left unfinished by the author, was also written by him, as was the concluding volume of Mackintosh's History of England. At the London theatres, three five-act comedies have been produced by him. He is author, also, of The Ladder of Gold, a novel, 3 vols., 1850; Heart and Altars, a collection of tales, 3 vols.; Life of Canning; Outlines of China; Memorials of the Civil War, consisting of the Fairfax correspondence, 2 vols.; Wayside Pictures through France, Belgium, and Holland. In 1854, he commenced an annotated edition of the English poets; and received from the king of the Belgians a gold medal, as a token of his majesty's sense of his services to literature. BELL, THOMAS, a distinguished naturalist, the son of a medical practitioner, was born at Poole, Dorsetshire, in 1792. In 1814, he went to London, and studied at Guy's Hospital, and in 1815, passed the College of Surgeons. In 1817, he commenced a course of annual lectures on dental surgery at Guy's Hospital, where he also for some time delivered lectures on comparative anatomy. He was one of the founders of, and a principal contributor to, The Zoological Journal, of which five volumes were published; also one of the members of the Zoological Club of the Linnean Society, afterwards incorporated with the Zoological Society. Elected in 1828 a Fellow of the Royal Society, in 1840 he was appointed its secretary. In 1836, he became Professor of Zoology in King's College, London. On the establishment of the Ray Society, in 1844, for the publication of rare and costly works on natural history, he was elected its first president. In 1853, he resigned the secretaryship of the Royal Society, on being elected president of the Linnean Society. He is author of a History of British Reptiles, in Van Voorst's series of British natural history, 1829; a History of British Quadrupeds, same series, 1836; and a History of the British Stalk-eyed Crustacea, same series, 1853. In 1833, he commenced a Monograph of the Testudinata. The article 'Reptiles,' in Darwin's Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle, was written by Bell. It has been the happy but deserved good-fortune of Professor Bell to become proprietor of the manor of Selborne, endeared to all naturalists by the observations of the celebrated Gilbert White. BELLA, a thriving town of Naples, in the province of Basilicata, with a population of between 5000 and 6000. BELLA, STEFANO DELLA, a famous Italian engraver, was born at Florence, 18th May 1610. He was intended for a goldsmith, but he soon left that calling, and devoted himself to engraving. He executed upwards of 1400 different works, of almost all subjects-battles, sea-pieces, landscapes, animals, &c. All are characterised by freedom and delicacy, and give evidence of high imagination on the part of the author, and also of much patient and careful manipulation. One of his most admired works is a view of the Pont-Neuf, Paris. He died 12th July 1664. BELLADONNA, DWALE, or DEADLY NIGHTSHADE (A'tropa Belladonna), a plant of the natural order Solanaceae (q. v.); an herbaceous perennial, growing up every year as a bush, from two to six feet high, with ovate entire leaves, and b Belladonna. a a, part of a branch with leaves and flowers; b, fruit, with persistent calyx, and which, when ripe, are of a shining black colour, and of a sweetish and not nauseous taste, although the whole plant has a disagreeable heavy smell. It is a native of the southern and middle parts of Europe, and is not uncommon in England, in the neighbourhood of towns and of ruins. All parts of the plant are narcotic and poisonous, and fatal consequences not unfrequently follow from the eating of its berries, which have an inviting appearance. Its roots have sometimes been mistaken for parsnips. Dryness of the mouth and throat, dilatation of the eyes, obscurity of vision, paralytic tremblings, loss of sensation, delirium, and stupor, are among the effects of poisoning by belladonna. When death takes place from this cause, corruption ensues with extraordinary rapidity. B. is, however, of great value in medicine, soothing irritation and pain, particularly in nervous maladies, and is administered both internally and externally, in the form of extract, tincture, ointment, and plaster, which are generally prepared from the dried leaves, sometimes from the root. It is particularly useful, from its power of dilating the pupil of the eye, and is constantly employed by oculists both for examinations and operations. It is also applied to the eye to diminish the sensibility of the retina to light. It has recently been recommended as a preventive of scarlet fever, apparently on the ground of its tendency, when administered in frequent small doses, to produce an eruption and an affection of the throat, somewhat similar to those characteristic of that disease; but the evidence of its utility for this purpose is not sufficient to warrant confidence.-The name B., i.e., Fair Lady, is supposed to have originated in the employment of the juice for staining the skin. The name Dwale is apparently from the same root with the French deuil, grief-an allusion to the same qualities which have obtained for the plant the appellation of Deadly Nightshade. Atropa is from Atropos, one of the Fates.-The other species of Atropa are South American. B. owes its active properties on the animal system to the presence of the alkaloid Atropine, accompanied by another alkaloid, Belladonnine. The alkaloid atropine is present in all parts of the plant, and in all the preparations. It is generally procured from the root of B., and then forms |