rounded by saints, for the church of San Zaccheria, in Venice, which is still in its place and in good preservation, having been carried off to Paris, by Napoleon Bonaparte, and returned in 1815. There is another of the same subject at Castle Howard, the seat of the earl of Carlisle, and this Dr. Waagen declares to be the original work, in his "Art Treasures of Great Britain." Many more of his paintings are preserved in Venice, and other cities, several of which are in the galleries of Berlin. One of his last works was a Bacchanal; this he left incomplete, and it was finished by Titian. He has the honor of having taught 2 of the greatest of the Venetian painters, Titian, already named, and Giorgione. His coloring was of the same rich and voluptuous character; they only excelled him in grace and freedom of drawing. Giovanni Bellini died of old age, at the age of 90, and was buried in the same tomb with his brother Gentile, in the church of San Giovanni e Paolo. IV. LAURENTIO, an Italian anatomist, born at Florence, Sept. 3, 1643, died Jan. 8, 1704. He was patronized by the grand duke Ferdinand II., by whose aid he repaired to the university of Pisa, where he studied under the most distinguished masters of the time, being instructed in mechanics by Borelli, whose teachings he subsequently made great use of, in explaining, by mechanics, the phenomena of the living body. His acquirements were such that at 22 he gained the chair of philosophy and theoretical medicine. He held the chair of anatomy for over 30 years, and was regarded as a very brilliant professor, his lectures frequently securing the attendance of the grand duke. When 50 years of age, he abandoned his professorship, and returned to Florence. He made several valuable discoveries in anatomy, and wrote many works on medical subjects, as well as poems and discourses. V. VINCENZO, one of the most popular composers of modern times, born at Catania, in Sicily, Nov. 1 or 3, 1806, died Sept. 23, 1835. Before he was 20 years of age, he produced an opera at San Carlo, entitled Bianca e Fernando. In the following year, he wrote for La Scala, at Milan, I Pirata, which had immediate success, and La Straniera. He produced La Sonnambula at Naples, and this opera still maintains its great popularity. He successively wrote I Capuletti ed i Montecchi, which was first performed in Venice; Norma, which appeared at Milan, and I Puritani, for the Theatre Italien, in Paris. Nearly all his works are still frequently performed, and are of a character to charm a wide variety of the lovers of music. There is an exquisite sweetness and pathos in his compositions, which win upon the great mass of listeners.

BELLMAN, KARL MICKEL, a Swedish poet, called the Anacreon of Sweden, born at Stockholm, Feb. 4, 1740, died Feb. 11, 1795. He published religious poems, and a translation of the fables of Gellert, but acquired renown only by the songs which he was accustomed to im

provise at banquet-tables. Associated with the most brilliant and dissipated young men of the capital, he would pass the entire night singing improvisations to his friends, accompanying himself with the guitar, till he would fall down fainting. The best of his verses are thought never to have been written, but to have passed away with the joyous moment which gave them birth. The songs and idyls, which he published under the title of "Letters to Fredman," are peculiarly naïve, tender, and charming. His longest poem, the "Temple of Bacchus," is of an elegiac character, and marked by depth and brilliancy of thought. In 1829, a monument was erected at Stockholm, in honor of his genius, and a society named after him, the Bellman," celebrates there an annual festival in his memory.

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BELLOC, ANNE LOUISE SWANTON, a Frenchwoman of letters, born at La Rochelle, Oct. 1, 1799, the daughter of an Irish officer in the French service, named O'Keefe. She has earned an honorable livelihood by translating English and American works into French, and by writing educational works for the young, in which she is assisted by Mlle. Montgolfier, the daughter of the celebrated aëronaut. She has introduced to French readers the moral tales of Miss Edgeworth, several of Thomas Moore's poems, the travels of the two Landers in search of the course of the Niger, Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield," Miss Sedgwick's writings, and an essay of Dr. Channing, to which she prefixed an original life of the author. Her last work of which we have information, is a translation of Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin.”

BELLONA, the Roman goddess of war. She is sometimes styled the colleague, sometimes the sister, sometimes the wife, of Mars. She was worshipped as the deity whose peculiar province it was to inspire mortals with invincible valor and enthusiasm. Her temple stood in the Campus Martius, near the circus of Flaminius, and was of great political importance in the days of the republic. The priests of Bellona were called Bellonarii, and as often as they sacrificed to their goddess they were obliged to lacerate their arms or legs, that they might be able to offer upon her altar a portion of their own blood. The humanity of later times, however, did away, in a great measure, with this practice. The 24th day of March in every year was the principal day of her worship, and that day was distinguished in the Roman Fasti by the title of dies sanguinis.

BELLOT, JOSEPH RENÉ, a French naval officer, born in Paris, March, 1826, lost off Cape Bowden, Aug. 18, 1853. He was a midshipman in the siege of Vera Cruz in 1838, and a lieutenant in 1851, when he obtained permission to serve as a volunteer in the English expedition sent out in search of Sir John Franklin, and commanded by Captain Belcher, R. N. The bravery and good conduct of the young man were remarkable, and a strait which he discovered has been named after him. On his return

home he again sought and obtained leave to join the Inglefield expedition. On one occasion, when Inglefield was absent, he offered to carry some despatches to Sir Edward Belcher, by a journey over the ice. Being overtaken by a storm, the ice on which he was, with 2 of his companions, was severed from the land. He went to the other side of the hummock to reconnoitre, and was never seen again. A monument to his memory has been erected at Greenwich hospital. His own diary, which was published in 1855, furnishes the best narrative of his adventures and enterprises.

BELLOWS, an instrument contrived for propelling air through a pipe. It is employed for blowing fires, supplying air to ventilate mines, filling the pipes of an organ with wind, and for other purposes. The use of this apparatus may be traced back to a very early period. It is spoken of by Jeremiah, vi. 29, and by Ezekiel, xxii. 20. When Homer describes the forging of the iron shield of Achilles, he speaks of the furnace into which the materials were thrown being blown by 20 pairs of bellows (pura). From the remarks of Plautus in his Fragmenta, and of Virgil in the Georgics, it would appear that bellows of the ancients were made wholly of leather. The first account we have of wooden bellows is by Henry, bishop of Bamberg, in Bavaria, in 1620, when one named Pfannenschmidt (bellows smith) commenced the manufacture of them in the Hartz forest, and by his success excited the jealousy of those of the same trade in the place. His art was disclosed only to his son, and during the present century his great-grandson had still the monopoly of the forest. These data are furnished by Professor Alexander, of Baltimore, in his report upon the manufacture of iron. He is disposed, however, on the authority of Beckmann, to give the credit of their invention to Hans Losinger, an organist, of Nuremberg, in 1550. Among many primitive nations of Asia and Africa, this machine is still employed in its simplest form for blowing by hand the fires of rudely constructed furnaces, probably of the same form as those in use in the times of Homer and of the Jewish prophets. As ordinarily constructed, the instrument consists of two similar plates of wood connected by a strip of leather fastened around their edges, which with the plates completely encloses a chamber for air, and is so made that the plates may be made to approach and recede by folding and unfolding the feather. In the lower plate is fixed a valve opening inward, through which the air enters as the plates are separated, and which closes as they are brought together, forcing the air to seek some other outlet. This is provided in a tube of small area compared to that of the valve, so that the air is made to rush outward with great velocity. As the action of this machine is to give an intermittent blast, it has been improved by introducing a third plate, attached to the lower one as this was to the upper, thus making a double bellows. The two

lower plates have valves opening upward, and the pipe or nozzle for the exit of the air is in the upper of the two chambers. The middle plate is worked up and down by a lever arm, and weights are placed upon the top of the bellows to force out the air continuously, and others are suspended from the bottom board to keep the lower chamber distended with air. A circular form is sometimes given to the plates or boards, and the air chamber surrounded by the leather is cylindrical. When shut together, it is very compact and portable, which renders it a convenient form for portable forges. The inhabitants of Hindostan make use of such bellows for blowing their small iron furnaces. A man sits down between two of them, and with one hand upon each works them alternately up and down, producing a tolerably continuous blast, but of small capacity and force. The Chinese bellows is a simple contrivance for forcing air with any desired pressure, and is upon the same principle with the large blowing machines now in general use. It is a square wooden box or pipe, with a piston-rod working in one end, and carrying a closely fitting piston, by the movement of which the air is pushed through a smaller pipe in the other end. On the reverse motion the air enters through valves and refills the box.The useful effect of the bellows is in exciting combustion, by furnishing a continuous stream of oxygen in the fresh supplies of air, and in removing by the force of the blast those products of combustion which ordinarily exclude the approach of the air and impede the continuation of the process. Its power of rapidly exciting vivid combustion and intense heat is well seen in the action of the smith's bellows in common use. Excepting for some small operations for metallurgic purposes, and for other objects not requiring either a large volume or great pressure of air, the ancient bellows is now for the most part replaced by more efficient apparatus, as the so-called blowing machines and fan-blowers, descriptions of which will be found under BLOWING MACHINES.

BELLOWS, HENRY WHITNEY, D. D., an American clergyman, pastor of All Souls' church in New York, born in Boston, June 11, 1814, graduated at Harvard college in 1832, entered the divinity school at Cambridge in 1834, where he completed his course in 1837. He was ordained pastor of the first Congregational church in New York, Jan. 2, 1838. He was the principal originator of the "Christian Inquirer," a Unitarian newspaper of New York, in the year 1846, and was the principal writer for its columns until the middle of 1850. His publications consist chiefly of pamphlets and discourses, perhaps 25 in number, the most conspicuous of which are his "Phi Beta Kappa Oration," 1853, and his noted defence of the drama, 1857. In 1854 he received the degree of D. D. from Harvard university. He continues pastor of the parish over which he was first ordained, although his people have twice chang

ed their place of worship, and now occupy the edifice known as All Souls' church. He is a ready extempore speaker and a popular lecturer. His tastes and convictions lead him to intimate relations with artists, and engage him often in questions of a social and philanthropic character. He has spoken and published his views freely upon the prominent topics of the day, and inclines to deal with current interests rather than with scholastic studies. His occasional contributions to the reviews, and especially the "Christian Examiner," are marked by independence of thought and boldness of expression. The latest work which has brought him prominently before the public is his course of lectures on the "Treatment of Social Diseases," delivered before the Lowell institute in Boston, in 1857.

BELLOWS FALLS, a village in Rockingham township, Windham co., Vt., on the Connecticut river, so called from several rapids and cataracts occurring there. The whole descent is about 44 feet. These are the falls concerning which Peters, in his history, relates that the water becomes so hardened by pressure between the rocks, that it is impossible to penetrate it with an iron bar. It was formerly a famous place for spearing salmon from the rocks, as they attempted to force a passage. A canal with locks has been cut around the falls, through the solid rock. The river is here crossed by a bridge, 212 feet long, built in 1812. The scenery is romantic, and various interesting minerals are found in the vicinity. The village contains several mills and manufactories, and is remarkable for its handsome dwellings.

BELLOY, PIERRE DE, a French jurist and politician, was born at Montauban, in Brittany, about 1540; the date of his death is unknown. He espoused the cause of Henry IV., against the league; and having given great offence to the Guises by a work which he published in 1584, asserting the king's independence of the pope, he was arrested and thrown into the Bastile, where he was imprisoned 2 years, when Henry IV. appointed him advocate-general to the parliament of Toulouse.

BELLUNO (anc. Bellunum, or Belumum), a walled city in the north of Italy, on the river Piave; pop. 10,700. It contains a cathedral planned by Palladio, several churches, a hospital, schools, and a public library, and is supplied with water through a fine aqueduct. Large fairs are held here in February and April, and the inhabitants are extensively engaged in the manufacture of silk, leather, earthenware, and hats, and in the timber trade with Venice. The title of duke of Belluno was conferred by Napoleon on Marshal Victor.

BELMAS, Louis, bishop of Cambrai, France, born Aug. 11, 1757, at Montréal, in Aude, died July 21, 1841, at Cambrai. By rendering allegiance to the civil power he drew upon himself the condemnation of Rome, and even after retracting, on occasion of the coronation of Na

poleon, his oath to the constitution, he failed to regain the confidence of the Vatican. On this account Cambrai did not become an archbishopric during his life. In 1841 he created a sensation among the journalists of Paris, by his charge to the clergy on the question of the obligations due to political authorities. He was the last bishop of France, previous to the now existing concordat.

BELMONT, an eastern county of Ohio, separated from Virginia by the Ohio river, and covering an area of 520 square miles. Indian, Wheeling, Captina, and McMahon creeks are the principal streams. The surface is uneven, frequently rising into hills, and the soil is excellent. Coal is found in large quantities. Cattle and horses are raised in great number. In 1850 the agricultural products amounted to 854,771 bushels of corn, 359,339 of wheat, 360,040 of oats, 16,397 tons of hay, 1,652,598 lbs. of tobacco, and 612,238 of butter. There were 74 churches, 3 newspaper offices, and 4,008 pupils in the public schools. Pop. 34,600. Capital, St. Clairsville.

BELMONTE, or BELMONT, a village in La Fayette county, Wisconsin, and formerly the seat of the territorial government. In the vicinity of this place 3 mounds, about 100 feet in height, rise up from the prairie; one of them is called the Belmont mound.

BELMONTE, or RIO JEQUITINHONHA, a river in the province of Bahia, Brazil. It is formed by the confluence of the Araçuahi and Jequitinhonha, flows N. E., and empties into the Atlantic.

BELMONTET, LOUIS, a French literary man, born at Montauban in 1799. In 1830 he edited the Tribune newspaper, opposed the accession of Louis Philippe, and predicted his downfall and a second revolution in a bold pamphlet addressed to Chateaubriand, for which he was arrested. In 1839 he established, together with Messrs. Laffitte and Mauguin, a manufactory, in which the men were to share the benefits with the em ployers. In Feb. 1851, he was accused of having planned a Bonapartist movement against the legislative assembly, but the charge was abandoned. He occupied the position of superintendent of the Tontine from 1842 to 1852, when he became a member of the legislative assembly. He is the author of many fiery republican odes, and a volume of philosophical poems entitled Les nombres d'or (1846) was characterized by Béranger and Lamennais as a bréviaire des belles ames. In his youth he became a member of the carbonari association. When Napoleon's remains arrived at Paris, he received from the prince de Joinville a piece of the coffin, in acknowledgment of the verses addressed to him on that occasion. In 1836 Louis Napoleon stood godfather to his first-born son, and among his latest productions is a cantate Napoléonienne.

BELOE, WILLIAM, an English clergyman and author, born at Norwich, in 1756, died April 11, 1817. His friends discovering in him evi

dences of superior talent, he was sent to Dr. Samuel Parr, then principal of an academy in Middlesex, and graduated at Cambridge in 1779. He then assisted Dr. Parr in a school at Norwich. Soon after he obtained the curacy of Earlham, and afterward became vicar. Finding the income derived from his employment insufficient, he removed to London, and for several years occupied himself by writing for the periodicals of the day. During the American revolution he used his pen freely in the cause of the colonies; but in the French revolution he advocated other views. In company with Archdeacon Nares, he commenced the publication of the "British Critic," in which he acknowledged the fallacy of his previous opinions. In 1804 he accepted the assistant librarianship of the British museum, which he held but a short time, being deprived of it on account of a loss sustained by the institution through his mistaken kindness to an unworthy applicant. He published several translations from the Greek and Latin, beside a great variety of miscellaneous productions. His translation of Herodotus (4 vols. 8vo, 1791) retains its reputation to the present day.

BELOIT, a township and village of Rock county, Wisconsin. The village of Beloit, situated on both sides of Rock river, and very near the southern boundary of the state, was settled about the year 1837, and incorporated in 1845. It is built on a beautiful plain, from which the ground rises abruptly to a height of 50 or 60 feet, affording excellent sites for residences. It is the seat of Beloit college, founded in 1846, and is noted for its broad, handsome streets, and for its fine churches; the Congregational church, constructed of gray limestone, is said to be one of the most beautiful in the state. The village is well supplied with water power, has a flourishing trade, and, in 1855, contained several manufactories of woollen goods, of reapers and fanning mills, of scales, of carriages, an iron foundery and machine shop, 3 flouring mills, beside 1 or 2 newspaper offices, several seminaries, 3 hotels, a bank, and more than 40 stores. It is the point of intersection of 2 railroads, the Racine and Mississippi, and the Beloit and Madison, the former of which extends from Lake Michigan to Rockton in Illinois, and the latter from Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, to the Galena and Chicago railroad, 18 miles beyond Beloit. A fertile prairie, the largest in the state, lies on the eastern side of Rock river. Pop. in 1855, 4,247.

BELOOCHISTAN, or BELUDSHISTAN (anc. Gedrosia and Drangiana), a country of Àsia, between lat. 24° 50′ and 30° 20′ N., long. 57° 40' and 69° 18′ E.; bounded N. by Afghanistan, E. by Sinde, S. by the Indian ocean, and W. by the Persian desert; area about 160,000 sq. m.; capital Kelat; pop. 2,700,000. The general aspect of the country is mountainous; but toward the shore of the Arabian sea on the south, and toward Persia on the west, there are extensive

districts of barren plain. The Hala mountains on the E. and N. E., running from the mouths of the Indus to the Solyman mountains, include a quantity of comparatively fertile land, of valley and upland plain, in which the inhabitants raise the grains and fruits of a tropical climate; but the remainder of the country is a wilderness, unfit for habitation. A strip of land to the east of the Hala chain, which, although within the Indus valley, belongs to Beloochistan, is very fertile, growing cereals and rich crops of jowarree (a grain much in demand in northern India), and various tropical productions. But the land here is low and swampy, to which indeed it owes its fertility, and though more numerously inhabited than the other regions, is the most unhealthy of the whole. On the N. E. boundary are situated the famous mountain passes, the Bolan and the Molan or Gundwana pass. These are the direct road to Kelat and the only means of communicating with the interior of the country from the plains of N. W. India. The eastern provinces or districts are Sarawan, Kelat, Cutch-Gundava, and Jhalawan. On the south along the seashore is the district of Loos, and on the west Mekran, the ancient Gedrosia. The inhabitants of Beloochistan consist of 2 great varieties, the Belooches and the Brahooees, which are subdivided into other tribes, and these again into families. Their origin is uncertain, but they are probably a race of mixed Tartar and Persian descent. They themselves claim to belong to the earliest Mohammedan conquerors of central Asia, and are zealous Soonnees, tolerating an unbeliever rather than a Sheeah. Polygamy is allowed. In their nomade habits they closely resemble Tartars or Bedouins, living in tents of felt or canvas, and wearing a woollen cloth on their heads, with woollen or linen outer coats. Their women enjoy a share of freedom. They are of spare but active forms, practise arms and warlike exercises for amusement. The Brahooees speak a dialect more resembling those of the Punjaub, and are shorter and stouter built than the Belooches. They have a somewhat better character in the matter of rapine and plunder than the others. They are said to be hospitable and observant of pledges and promises. The government is under various heads, of which the khan of Kelat is leader in time of war, and a kind of feudal chief in peace. Formerly Beloochistan was subject to Persia and afterward to Afghanistan, but in the latter part of the last century the tribes shook off their dependence on the Afghans. At the time of the British expedition into Afghanistan the British forced the Bolan pass. The Belooches harassed the troops considerably; and in 1840 an expedition was sent against Kelat to chastise them, which was done effectually, but no permanent occupation was made.

BELP, a Swiss village, canton of Bern. On the south side of the village is the Belpberg, a mountain 2,940 feet high, remarkable for its numerous petrifactions.

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BELSHAM, THOMAS, an English Unitarian divine and author, born in Bedford, April, 1750, died at Hampstead, Nov. 11, 1829. His father, who was a dissenting minister, educated him at the dissenters' academy, at Daventry, of which institution he became principal in 1781, holding the office for 8 years, and also preaching at Daventry. In 1789, abandoning the Calvinistic belief, he became minister of a Unitarian congregation, and settled in 1805 as pastor of Essex-street chapel, London, where the remaining 24 years of his life were spent. Mr. Belsham wrote a great deal in assertion and vindication of Unitarianism, including a reply to Mr. Wilberforce's "Practical View;" Evidences of the Christian Revelation;" and a "Translation of the Epistles of Paul the Apostle, with an Exposition and Notes." Among his contributions to general literature, his "Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind and of Moral Philosophy" (in which, with David Hartley, he resolves all mental phenomena into the association of ideas), is best known.-WILLIAM, a historical writer, and brother of the above, was born in 1752, and died Nov. 17, 1827, at Hammersmith. He was a whig in politics, and well acquainted with the leaders of that party. In 1789 he commenced his literary course by publishing, in 2 vols., "Essays, Historical, Political, and Literary." To these succeeded essays on various subjects, chiefly political, and several works which appeared between 1793 and 1801, and were finally reproduced in a collective edition of 12 vols. octavo, in 1806, as a "History of Great Britain to the Conclusion of the Peace of Amiens." This large work, tinged through out with a liberal spirit, somewhat rare at the period it appeared in, abounds in facts industriously collected, though not very felicitously reproduced in the author's own words.

BELSHAZZAR, the last king of the Chaldean dynasty. At his court the prophet Daniel was a favorite during the captivity. His dreams and the hand-writing on the walls of his palace, interpreted by Daniel, are familiar, as well as the tragic end of his kingdom (B. C. 538), conquered by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus.

BELSUNCE, HENRI FRANÇOIS XAVIER DE, & celebrated French Jesuit, born in Perigord, Dec. 4, 1671, died at Marseilles, June 4, 1755. At an early age he became a member of the order of Jesuits, was made grand vicar of Agen, and in 1709 bishop of Marseilles. During the pestilence which devastated his see in 1720-21, Belsunce was untiring in his devotion, and displayed charity and unselfishness to a degree that drew upon him the encomiums of all Europe. He is especially referred to in Pope's "Essay on Man." In consideration of his services at this period, he was offered the bishopric of Laon, and also the archbishopric of Bordeaux, but refused both, preferring to remain with those to whom he had so long rendered himself necessary. In his later years he

became involved in disputes with the Jansenists, whom he attacked with much zeal. He founded a Jesuit college which bears his name; he published several writings against Jansenism.

BELTEIN, or BELTANE, a kind of festival, still celebrated in parts of Ireland and Scotland on the 1st of May, and supposed to be as old as the remotest period of druidical supremacy. The name signifies the fire of Bel or Baal, and the custom was probably an offshoot and remnant from the oriental worship of Baal, or the sun. To the beltein may be referred the practice of lighting fires on midsummer eve in England, in honor of the summer solstice.

BELTIRS, a small tribe of Tartars, dwelling in Siberia, along the banks of the Abakan. They are a barbarous and heathen race, never burying their dead, but suspending them from trees in secluded places. Their practice of polygamy, and their refusal to abandon it, is said to have been the chief obstacle to their conversion to Christianity.

BELTS. In machinery, belts of curried leather passing over metal or wooden pulleys are used instead of gearing, when the shafts to be connected are far apart. Belts are in general used between parallel shafts, and when it is requisite that the shafts should turn in opposite directions the belt is crossed. The diameters of the pulleys are made in the inverse ratio to the number of revolutions desired. In some machines it is necessary to modify the velocity of a shaft without stopping the motion; in such cases conical drums are substituted for pulleys, the apex of each drum being opposed to the basis of the other, so that the belt once cut of the proper length to embrace both drums in their central parts answers for all the other portions of the drum. The belt in this arrangement has to be guided by a fork. When the shafts are not parallel, and their axes produced intersect each other, the only way to connect them by belts is to use a third shaft, with which both are connected. When the shafts are neither parallel nor in the same plane, they can be connected by a belt, but there is only one place on each shaft for the pulleys. These must be at the ends of a straight line perpendicular at the same time to both axes. There is only one such line. This theoretical place has to be corrected in each particular case according to the diameters of the pulleys, by taking care that the belt arrives square on each pulley, no matter how obliquely it leaves the other. As a consequence of this unavoidable correction, the motion of the shafts cannot be reversed without keying the pulleys in other places.-Belts are made of leather, India-rubber, iron wire, or gutta percha. Leather is in general use, and considered the most economical, but it must be well protected against water and even moisture. A careful attendant will make a belt last 5 years, which otherwise would last but 1 or 2. Millions are yearly wasted in this way by carelessness. India-rubber is praised by a few manufacturers and con