Book: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4
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Various >> Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4
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BUTLER, SAMUEL (1835-1902), English author, son of the Rev. Thomas Butler,
and grandson of the foregoing, was born at Langar, near Bingham,
Nottinghamshire, on the 4th of December 1835. He was educated at Shrewsbury
school, and at St John's College, Cambridge. He took a high place in the
classical tripos of 1858, and was intended for the Church. His opinions,
however, prevented his carrying out this intention, and he sailed to New
Zealand in the autumn of 1859. He owned a sheep run in the Upper Rangitata
district of the province of Canterbury, and in less than five years was
able to return home with a moderate competence, most of which was
afterwards lost in unlucky investments. The Rangitata district supplied the
setting for his romance of _Erewhon, or Over the Range_ (1872), satirizing
the Darwinian theory and conventional religion. _Erewhon_ had a sequel
thirty years later (1901) in _Erewhon Revisited_, in which the narrator of
the earlier romance, who had escaped from Erewhon in a balloon, finds
himself, on revisiting the country after a considerable interval, the
object of a topsy-turvy cult, to which he gave the name of "Sunchildism."
In 1873 he had published a book of similar tendency, _The Fair Haven_,
which purported to be a "work in defence of the miraculous element in our
Lord's ministry upon earth" by a fictitious J.P. Owen, of whom he wrote a
memoir. Butler was a man of great versatility, who pursued his
investigations in classical scholarship, in Shakespearian criticism,
biology and art with equal independence and originality. On his return from
New Zealand he had established himself at Clifford's Inn, and studied
painting, exhibiting regularly in the Academy between 1868 and 1876. But
with the publication of _Life and Habit_ (1877) he began to recognize
literature as his life work. The book was followed by three others,
attacking Darwinism--_Evolution Old and New, or the Theories of Buffon, Dr
Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck as compared with that of Mr C. Darwin_ (1879);
_Unconscious Memory_ (1880), a comparison between the theory of Dr E.
Hering and the _Philosophy of the Unconscious_ of Dr E. von Hartmann; and
_Luck or Cunning_ (1886). He had a thorough knowledge of northern Italy and
its art. In _Ex Voto_ (1888) he introduced many English readers to the art
of Tabachetti and Gaudenzio Ferrari at Varallo. He learnt nearly the whole
of the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_ by heart, and translated both poems (1898
and 1900) into colloquial English prose. In his _Authoress of the Odyssey_
(1897) he propounded two theories: that the poem was the work of a woman,
who drew her own portrait in Nausicaa; and that it was written at Trapani,
in Sicily, a proposition which he supported by elaborate investigations on
the spot. In another book on the _Shakespeare Sonnets_ (1899) he aimed at
destroying the explanations of the orthodox commentators.
Butler was also a musician, or, as he called himself, a Handelian, and in
imitation of the style of Handel he wrote in collaboration with H. Festing
Jones a secular oratorio, _Narcissus_ (1888), and had completed his share
of another, _Ulysses_, at the time of his death on the 18th of June 1902.
His other works include: _Life and Letters_ (1896) of Dr Samuel Butler, his
[v.04 p.0888] grandfather, headmaster of Shrewsbury school and afterwards
bishop of Lichfield; _Alps and Sanctuaries_ (1881); and two posthumous
works edited by R.A. Streatfeild, _The Way of All Flesh_ (1903), a novel;
and _Essays on Life, Art and Science_ (1904).
See _Samuel Butler, Records and Memorials_ (1903), by R.A. Streatfeild, a
collection printed for private circulation, the most important article
included being one by H. Festing Jones originally published in _The Eagle_
(Cambridge, December 1902).
BUTLER, WILLIAM ARCHER (1814-1848), Irish historian of philosophy, was born
at Annerville, near Clonmel in Ireland, probably in 1814. His father was a
Protestant, his mother a Roman Catholic, and he was brought up as a
Catholic. As a boy he was imaginative and poetical, and some of his early
verses were remarkable. While yet at Clonmel school he became a Protestant.
Later he entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he had a brilliant career.
He specially devoted himself to literature and metaphysics, and was noted
for the beauty of his style. In 1834 he gained the ethical moderatorship,
newly instituted by Provost Lloyd, and continued in residence at college.
In 1837 he decided to enter the Church, and in the same year he was elected
to the professorship of moral philosophy, specially founded for him through
Lloyd's exertions. About the same time he was presented to the prebend of
Clondahorky, Donegal, and resided there when not called by his professorial
duties to Dublin. In 1842 he was promoted to the rectory of Raymochy. He
died on the 5th of July 1848. His _Sermons_ (2 vols., 1849) were remarkably
brilliant and forceful. The _Lectures on the History of Ancient
Philosophy_, edited by W. Hepworth Thompson (2 vols., 1856; 2nd ed., 1 vol.
1875), take a high place among the few British works on the history of
philosophy. The introductory lectures, and those on the early Greek
thinkers, though they evidence wide reading, do not show the complete
mastery that is found in Schwegler or Zeller; but the lectures on Plato are
of considerable value. Among his other writings were papers in the _Dublin
University Magazine_ (1834-1837); and "Letters on Development" (in the
_Irish Ecclesiastical Journal_, 1845), a reply to Newman's famous _Essay on
the Development of Christian Doctrine_.
See _Memoir of W.A. Butler_, prefixed by Rev. J. Woodward to first series
of _Sermons_.
BUTLER, SIR WILLIAM FRANCIS (1838- ), British soldier, entered the army as
an ensign in 1858, becoming captain in 1872 and major in 1874. He took part
with distinction in the Red River expedition (1870-71) and the Ashanti
operations of 1873-74 under Wolseley, and received the C.B. in 1874. He
served with the same general in the Zulu War (brevet lieut.-colonel), the
campaign of Tel-el-Kebir, after which he was made an aide-de-camp to the
queen, and the Sudan 1884-85, being employed as colonel on the staff 1885,
and brigadier-general 1885-1886. In the latter year he was made a K.C.B. He
was colonel on the staff in Egypt 1890-1892, and brigadier-general there
until 1892, when he was promoted major-general and stationed at Aldershot,
after which he commanded the southeastern district. In 1898 he succeeded
General Goodenough as commander-in-chief in South Africa, with the local
rank of lieutenant-general. For a short period (Dec. 1898-Feb. 1899),
during the absence of Sir Alfred Milner in England, he acted as high
commissioner, and as such and subsequently in his military capacity he
expressed views on the subject of the probabilities of war which were not
approved by the home government; he was consequently ordered home to
command the western district, and held this post until 1905. He also held
the Aldershot command for a brief period in 1900-1901. Sir William Butler
was promoted lieutenant-general in 1900. He had long been known as a
descriptive writer, since his publication of _The Great Lone Land_ (1872)
and other works, and he was the biographer (1899) of Sir George Colley. He
married in 1877 Miss Elizabeth Thompson, an accomplished painter of
battle-scenes, notably "The Roll Call" (1874), "Quatre Bras" (1875),
"Rorke's Drift" (1881), "The Camel Corps" (1891), and "The Dawn of
Waterloo" (1895).
BUTLER, a borough and the county-seat of Butler county, Pennsylvania,
U.S.A., on Conoquenessing Creek, about 30 m. N. of Pittsburg. Pop. (1890)
8734; (1900) 10,853, of whom 928 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 20,728.
It is served by the Pennsylvania, the Baltimore & Ohio, the Buffalo,
Rochester & Pittsburg, and the Bessemer & Lake Erie railways, and is
connected with Pittsburg by two electric lines. It is built on a small hill
about 1010 ft. above sea-level, and commands extensive views of the
surrounding valley. The Butler County hospital (1899) is located here. A
fair is held in Butler annually. Oil, natural gas, clay, coal and iron
abound in the vicinity, and the borough has various manufactures, including
lumber, railway cars (especially of steel), paint, silk, bricks,
plate-glass, bottles and oil-well tools. The value of the city's factory
products increased from $1,403,026 in 1900 to $6,832,007 in 1905, or
386.9%, this being much the greatest rate of increase shown by any city in
the state having in 1900 a population of 8000 or more. Butler was selected
as the site for the county-seat of the newly-formed county in 1802, was
laid out in 1803, and was incorporated in the same year. The county and the
borough were named in honour of General Richard Butler, a soldier in the
War of Independence and leader of the right wing of General St Clair's
army, which was sent against the Indians in 1791 and on the 4th of November
was defeated, Butler being killed in the engagement.
BUTLER (through the O. Fr. _bouteillier_, from the Late Lat. _buticularius,
buticula_, a bottle), a domestic servant who superintends the wine-cellar
and acts as the chief male servant of a household; among his other duties
are the conduct of the service of the table and the custody of the plate.
The butler of a royal household was an official of high rank, whose duties,
though primarily connected with the supply of wine for the royal table,
varied in the different courts in which the office appears. In England, as
superintendent of the importation of wine, a duty was payable to him (see
BUTLERAGE AND PRISAGE); the butlership of Ireland, _Pincerna Hiberniae_,
was given by John, king of England, to Theobald Walter, who added the name
of Butler to his own; it then became the surname of his descendants, the
earls, dukes and marquesses of Ormonde (see BUTLER, family, above).
BUTLERAGE AND PRISAGE. In England there was an ancient right of the crown
to purveyance or pre-emption, _i.e._ the right of buying up provisions and
other necessities for the royal household, at a valuation, even without the
consent of the owner. Out of this right originated probably that of taking
customs, in return for the protection and maintenance of the ports and
harbours. One such customs due was that of "prisage," the right of taking
one tun of wine from every ship importing from ten to twenty tuns, and two
tuns from every ship importing more than twenty tuns. This right of prisage
was commuted, by a charter of Edward I. (1302), into a duty of two
shillings on every tun imported by merchant strangers, and termed
"butlerage," because paid to the king's butler. Butlerage ceased to be
levied in 1809, by the Customs Consolidation Act of that year.
BUTO, the Greek name of the Egyptian goddess Uto (hierogl. _W'zy.t_),
confused with the name of her city Buto (see BUSIRIS). She was a
cobra-goddess of the marshes, worshipped especially in the city of Buto in
the north-west of the Delta, and at another Buto (Hdt. ii. 75) in the
north-east of the Delta, now Tell Nebesheh. The former city is placed by
Petrie at Tell Ferain, a large and important site, but as yet yielding no
inscriptions. This western Buto was the capital of the kingdom of Northern
Egypt in prehistoric times before the two kingdoms were united; hence the
goddess Buto was goddess of Lower Egypt and the North. To correspond to the
vulture goddess (Nekhbi) of the south she sometimes is given the form of a
vulture; she is also figured in human form. As a serpent she is commonly
twined round a papyrus stem, which latter spells her name; and generally
she wears the crown of Lower Egypt. The Greeks identified her with Leto;
this may be accounted for partly by the resemblance of name, partly by the
myth of her having brought up Horus in a floating island, resembling the
story of Leto and Apollo on Delos. Perhaps the two myths influenced each
other. Herodotus describes the temple and other sacred [v.04 p.0889] places
of (the western) Buto, and refers to its festival, and to its oracle, which
must have been important though nothing definite is known about it. It is
strange that a city whose leading in the most ancient times was fully
recognized throughout Egyptian history does not appear in the early lists
of nome-capitals. Like Thebes, however (which lay in the 4th nome of Upper
Egypt, its early capital being Hermonthis), it eventually became, at a very
late date, the capital of a nome, in this case called Phtheneto, "the land
of (the goddess) Buto." The second Buto (hierogl. _'Im.t_) was capital from
early times of the 19th nome of Lower Egypt.
See Herodotus ii. 155; _Zeitschr. f. aegyptische Sprache_ (1871), I; K.
Sethe in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopaedie_, _s.v._ "Buto"; D.G. Hogarth,
_Journal of Hellenic Studies_, xxiv. I; W.M.F. Petrie, _Ehnasya_, p. 36;
_Nebesheh and Defenneh_.
(F. LL. G.)
BUTRINTO, a seaport and fortified town of southern Albania, Turkey, in the
vilayet of Iannina; directly opposite the island of Corfu (Corcyra), and on
a small stream which issues from Lake Vatzindro or Vivari, into the Bay of
Butrinto, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea. Pop.(1900) about 2000. The town,
which is situated about 2 m. inland, has a small harbour, and was formerly
the seat of an Orthodox bishop. In the neighbourhood are the ruins of the
ancient _Buthrotum_, from which the modern town derives its name. The ruins
consist of a Roman wall, about a mile in circumference, and some remains of
both later and Hellenic work. The legendary founder of the city was
Helenus, son of Priam, and Virgil (_Aen._ iii. 291 sq.) tells how Helenus
here established a new Trojan kingdom. Hence the names _New Troy_ and _New
Pergamum_, applied to Buthrotum, and those of _Xanthus_ and _Simois_, given
to two small streams in the neighbourhood. In the 1st century B.C.
Buthrotum became a Roman colony, and derived some importance from its
position near Corcyra, and on the main highway between Dyrrachium and
Ambracia. Under the Empire, however, it was overshadowed by the development
of Dyrrachium and Apollonia. The modern city belonged to the Venetians from
the 14th century until 1797. It was then seized by the French, who in 1799
had to yield to the Russians and Turks.
BUTT, ISAAC (1813-1879), Irish lawyer and Nationalist leader, was born at
Glenfin, Donegal, in 1813, his father being the Episcopalian rector of
Stranorlar. Having won high honours at Trinity, Dublin, he was appointed
professor of political economy in 1836. In 1838 he was called to the bar,
and not only soon obtained a good practice, but became known as a
politician on the Protestant Conservative side, and an opponent of
O'Connell. In 1844 he was made a Q.C. He figured in nearly all the
important Irish law cases for many years, and was engaged in the defence of
Smith O'Brien in 1848, and of the Fenians between 1865 and 1869. In 1852 he
was returned to parliament by Youghal as a Liberal-Conservative, and
retained this seat till 1865; but his views gradually became more liberal,
and he drifted away from his earlier opinions. His career in parliament was
marred by his irregular habits, which resulted in pecuniary embarrassment,
and between 1865 and 1870 he returned again to his work at the law courts.
The result, however, of the disestablishment of the Irish Church was to
drive Butt and other Irish Protestants into union with the Nationalists,
who had always repudiated the English connexion; and on 19th May 1870, at a
large meeting in Dublin, Butt inaugurated the Home Rule movement in a
speech demanding an Irish parliament for local affairs. On this platform he
was elected in 1871 for Limerick, and found himself at the head of an Irish
Home Rule party of fifty-seven members. But it was an ill-assorted union,
and Butt soon found that he had little or no control over his more
aggressive followers. He had no liking for violent methods or for
"obstruction" in parliament; and his leadership gradually became a nullity.
His false position undoubtedly assisted in breaking down his health, and he
died in Dublin on the 5th of May 1879.
BUTT. (1) (From the Fr. _botte_, _boute_; Med. Lat. _butta_, a wine
vessel), a cask for ale or wine, with a capacity of about two hogsheads.
(2) (A word common in Teutonic languages, meaning short, or a stump), the
thick end of anything, as of a fishing-rod, a gun, a whip, also the stump
of a tree. (3) (From the Fr. _but_, a goal or mark, and _butte_, a target,
a rising piece of ground, &c.), a mark for shooting, as in archery, or, in
its modern use, a mound or bank in front of which are placed the targets in
artillery or musketry practice. This is sometimes called a "stop-butt," its
purpose being to secure the ground behind the targets from stray shots. The
word is used figuratively of a person or object at which derision or abuse
are levelled.
BUTTE, the largest city of Montana, U.S.A., and the county-seat of Silver
Bow county. It is situated in the valley of Deer Lodge river, near its
head, at an altitude of about 5700 ft. Pop. (1880) 3363; (1890) 10,723;
(1900) 30,470, of whom 10,210 were foreign-born, including 2474 Irish, 1518
English-Canadians, and 1505 English; (1910 census) 39,165. It is served by
the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, the Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget
Sound, the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific, and the Oregon Short Line railways.
Popularly the name "Butte" is applied to an area which embraces the city,
Centerville, Walkerville, East Butte, South Butte and Williamsburg. These
together form one large and more or less compact city. Butte lies in the
centre of the greatest copper-mining district in the world; the surrounding
hills are honey-combed with mines, and some mines are in the very heart of
the city itself. The best known of the copper mines is the Anaconda. The
annual output of copper from the Butte district almost equals that from all
the rest of the country together; the annual value of copper, gold and
silver aggregates more than $60,000,000. Although mining and its allied
industries of quartz crushing and smelting dominate all other industries in
the place, there are also foundries and machine shops, iron-works, tile
factories, breweries and extensive planing mills. Electricity, used in the
mines particularly, is brought to Butte from Canon Ferry, 75 m. to the N.;
from the plant, also on the Missouri river, of the Helena Power
Transmission Company, which has a great steel dam 85 ft. high and 630 ft.
long across the river, and a 6000-h.p. substation in Butte; and from the
plant of the Madison River Power Company, on Madison river 71/2 m. S.E. of
Norris, whence power is also transmitted to Bozeman and Belgrade, Gallatin
county, to Ruby, Madison county, and to the Greene-Campbell mine near
Whitehall, Jefferson county. In 1910 Butte had only one large smelter, and
the smoke nuisance was thus abated. The city is the seat of the Montana
School of Mines (1900), and has a state industrial school, a high school
and a public library (rebuilt in 1906 after a fire) with more than 32,000
volumes. The city hall, Federal building and Silver Bow county court house
are among the principal buildings. Butte was first settled as a placer
mining camp in 1864. It was platted in 1866; its population in 1870 was
only 241, and for many years its growth was slow. Prosperity came, however,
with the introduction of quartz mining in 1875, and in 1879 a city charter
was granted. In the decade from 1890 to 1900 Butte's increase in population
was 184.2%.
BUTTE (O. Fr. _butte_, a hillock or rising ground), a word used in the
western states of North America for a flat-topped hill surrounded by a
steep escarpment from which a slope descends to the plain. It is sometimes
used for "an elevation higher than a hill but not high enough for a
mountain." The butte capped by a horizontal platform of hard rock is
characteristic of the arid plateau region of the west of North America.
[Illustration: Plant of _Ranunculus bulbosus_, showing determinate
inflorescence.]
BUTTER (Lat. _butyrum_, [Greek: bouturon], apparently connected with
[Greek: bous], cow, and [Greek: turos], cheese, but, according to the _New
English Dictionary_, perhaps of Scythian origin), the fatty portion of the
milk of mammalian animals. The milk of all mammals contains such fatty
constituents, and butter from the milk of goats, sheep and other animals
has been and may be used; but that yielded by cow's milk is the most
savoury, and it alone really constitutes the butter of commerce. The milk
of the various breeds of cattle varies widely in the proportion of fatty
matter it contains; its richness in this respect being greatly influenced
by season, nature of food, state of the animals' health and other
considerations. Usually the cream is skimmed off the surface of the milk
for making butter, but by some the churning is performed on the milk itself
without waiting for the [v.04 p.0890] separation of the cream. The
operation of churning causes the rupture of the oil sacs, and by the
coalescence of the fat so liberated butter is formed. Details regarding
churning and the preparation of butter generally will be found under DAIRY
AND DAIRY FARMING.
BUTTERCUP, a name applied to several species of the genus _Ranunculus_
(_q.v._), characterized by their deeply-cut leaves and yellow, broadly
cup-shaped flowers. _Ranunculus acris_ and _R. bulbosus_ are erect, hairy
meadow plants, the latter having the stem swollen at the base, and
distinguished also by the furrowed flower-stalks and the often smaller
flowers with reflexed, not spreading, sepals. _R. repens_, common on waste
ground, produces long runners by means of which it rapidly covers the
ground. The plants are native in the north temperate to arctic zones of the
Old World, and have been introduced in America.
BUTTERFIELD, DANIEL (1831-1901), American soldier, was born in Utica, New
York. He graduated at Union College in 1849, and when the Civil War broke
out he became colonel of the 12th New York militia regiment. On the 14th of
May 1861 he was transferred to the regular army as a lieutenant-colonel,
and in September he was made a brigadier-general U.S.V. He served in
Virginia in 1861 and in the Peninsular campaign of 1862, and was wounded at
Games' Mill. He took part in the campaign of second Bull Run (August 1862),
and in November became major-general U.S.V. and in July 1863 colonel U.S.A.
At Fredericksburg he commanded the V. corps, in which he had served since
its formation. After General Hooker succeeded Burnside, Butterfield was
appointed chief of staff, Army of the Potomac, and in this capacity he
served in the Chancellorsville and Gettysburg campaigns. Not being on good
terms with General Meade he left the staff, and was soon afterwards sent as
chief of staff to Hooker, with the XI. and XII. corps (later combined as
the XX.) to Tennessee, and took part in the battle of Chattanooga (1863),
and the Atlanta campaign of the following year, when he commanded a
division of the XX. corps. His services were recognized by the brevets of
brigadier-general and major-general in the regular army. He resigned in
1870, and for the rest of his life was engaged in civil and commercial
pursuits. In 1862 he wrote a manual of _Camp and Outpost Duty_ (New York,
1862). General Butterfield died at Cold Spring, N.Y., on the 17th of July
1901.
A _Biographical Memorial_, by his widow, was published in 1904.
BUTTERFIELD, WILLIAM (1814-1900), English architect, was born in London,
and educated for his profession at Worcester, where he laid the foundations
of his knowledge of Gothic architecture. He settled in London and became
prominent in connexion with the Cambridge Camden Society, and its work in
the improvement of church furniture and art. His first important building
was St Augustine's, Canterbury (1845), and his reputation was made by All
Saints', Margaret Street, London (1859), followed by St Alban's, Holborn
(1863), the new part of Merton College, Oxford (1864), Keble College,
Oxford (1875), and many houses and ecclesiastical buildings. He also did
much work as a restorer, which has been adversely criticized. He was a keen
churchman and intimately associated with the English church revival. He had
somewhat original views as to colour in architecture, which led to rather
garish results, his view being that any combination of the natural colours
of the materials was permissible. His private life was retiring, and he
died unmarried on the 23rd of February 1900.
BUTTERFLY AND MOTH (the former from "butter" and "fly," an old term of
uncertain origin, possibly from the nature of the excrement, or the yellow
colour of some particular species; the latter akin to O. Eng. _mod_, an
earth-worm), the common English names applied respectively to the two
groups of insects forming the scientific order Lepidoptera (_q.v._).
BUTTER-NUT, the product of _Caryocar nuciferum_, a native of tropical South
America. The large nuts, known also as saowari or suwarow nuts, are the
hard stone of the fruit and contain an oily nutritious seed. The genus
_Caryocar_ contains ten species, in tropical South America, some of which
form large trees affording a very durable wood, useful for shipbuilding.
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