Book: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4

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[Illustration: A, leaf of Butterwort (_Pinguicula vulgaris_) with left
margin inflected over a row of small flies. (After Darwin.) B, glands from
surface of leaf by which the sticky liquid is secreted and by means of
which the products of digestion are absorbed.]

BUTTERWORT, the popular name of a small insectivorous plant, _Pinguicula
vulgaris_, which grows in wet, boggy land. It is a herb with a rosette of
fleshy, oblong leaves, 1 to 3 in. long, appressed to the ground, of a pale
colour and with a sticky surface. Small insects settle on the leaves and
are caught in the viscid excretion. This, like the excretion of the sundew
and other insectivorous plants, contains a digestive ferment (or enzyme)
which renders the nitrogenous substances of the body of the insect soluble,
and capable of absorption by the leaf. In this way the plant obtains
nitrogenous food by means of its leaves. The leaves bear two sets of
glands, the larger borne on usually unicellular pedicels, the smaller
almost sessile (fig. B). When a fly is captured, the viscid excretion
becomes strongly acid and the naturally incurved margins of the leaf curve
still further inwards, rendering contact between the insect and the
leaf-surface more complete. The plant is widely distributed hi the north
temperate zone, extending into the arctic zone.

BUTTERY (from O. Fr. _boterie_, Late Lat. _botaria_, a place where liquor
is stored, from _butta_, a cask), a place for storing wine; later, with a
confusion with "butter," a pantry or storeroom for food; especially, at
colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, the place where food other than meat,
especially bread and butter, ale and wines, &c., are kept.

BUTTMANN, PHILIPP KARL (1764-1829), German philologist, was born at
Frankfort-On-Main in 1764. He was educated in his native town and at the
university of Goettingen. In 1789 he obtained an appointment in the library
at Berlin, and for some years he edited _Speners Journal_. In 1796 he
became professor at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium in Berlin, a post which he
held for twelve years. In 1806 he was admitted to the Academy of Sciences,
and in 1811 was made secretary of the Historico-Philological Section. He
died in 1829. Buttmann's writings gave a great impetus to the scientific
study of the Greek language. His _Griechische Grammatik_ (1792) went
through many editions, and was translated into English. His _Lexilogus_, a
valuable study on some words of difficulty occurring principally in the
poems of Homer and Hesiod, was published in 1818-1825, and was translated
into English. Buttmann's other works were _Ausfuehrliche griechische
Sprachlehre_ (2 vols., 1819-1827); _Mythologus_, a collection of essays
(1828-1829); and editions of some classical authors, the most important
being _Demosthenes in Midiam_ (1823) and the continuation of Spalding's
_Quintilian_.

[v.04 p.0891] BUTTON (Fr. _bouton_, O. Fr. _boton_, apparently from the
same root as _bouter_, to push), a small piece of metal or other material
which, pushed through a loop or button-hole, serves as a catch between
different parts of a garment, &c. The word is also used of other objects
which have a projecting knob-like character, _e.g._ button-mushrooms, the
button of an electric bell-push, or the guard at the tip of a fencing foil;
or which resemble a button in size and shape, as the button of metal
obtained in assaying operations. At first buttons were apparently used for
purposes of ornamentation; in _Piers Plowman_ (1377) mention is made of a
knife with "botones ouergylte," and in Lord Berner's translation of
_Froissart's Chronicles_ (1525) of a book covered with crimson velvet with
"ten botons of syluer and gylte." While this use has continued, especially
in connexion with women's dress, they began to be employed as fastenings at
least as early as the 15th century. As a term of comparison for something
trivial or worthless, the word is found in the 14th century. Buttons of
distinctive colour or pattern, or bearing a portrait or motto, are often
worn, especially in the United States, as a decoration, or sign of
membership of a society or of adherence to a political party; among the
most honoured of such buttons are those worn by members of the military
order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, organized in 1865 by
officers who had fought in the Civil War. Chinese officials wear a button
or knob on their hats as a mark of rank, the grade being denoted by its
colour and material (see MANDARIN).

Many varieties of buttons are used on clothing, but they may be divided
into two main classes according to the arrangement by which they are
attached to the garment; in one class they are provided with a shank which
may consist of a metal loop or of a tuft of cloth or similar material,
while in the other they are pierced with holes through which are passed
threads. To these two classes roughly correspond two broad differences in
the method of manufacture, according as the buttons are composite and made
up of two or more pieces, or are simply shaped disks of a single material;
some composite buttons, however, are provided with holes, and simple metal
buttons sometimes have metal shanks soldered or riveted on them. From an
early period buttons of the former kind were made by needlework with the
aid of a mould or former, but about 1807 B. Sanders, a Dane who had been
ruined by the bombardment of Copenhagen, introduced an improved method of
manufacturing them at Birmingham. His buttons were formed of two disks of
metal locked together by having their edges turned back on each other and
enclosing a filling of cloth or pasteboard; and by methods of this kind,
carried out by elaborate automatic machinery, buttons are readily produced,
presenting faces of silk, mohair, brocade or other material required to
harmonize with the fabric on which they are used. Sanders's buttons at
first had metal shanks, but about 1825 his son invented flexible shanks of
canvas or other substance through which the needle could pass freely in any
direction. The mechanical manufacture of covered buttons was started in the
United States in 1827 by Samuel Williston, of Easthampton, Mass., who in
1834 joined forces with Joel and Josiah Hayden, of Haydenville.

The number of materials that have been used for making buttons is very
large--metals such as brass and iron for the cheaper kinds, and for more
expensive ones, gold and silver, sometimes ornamented with jewels, filigree
work, &c.; ivory, horn, bone and mother-of-pearl or other nacreous products
of shell-fish; vegetable ivory and wood; glass, porcelain, paper, celluloid
and artificial compositions; and even the casein of milk, and blood. Brass
buttons were made at Birmingham in 1689, and in the following century the
metal button industry underwent considerable development in that city.
Matthew Boulton the elder, about 1745, introduced great improvements in the
processes of manufacture, and when his son started the Soho works in 1767
one of the departments was devoted to the production of steel buttons with
facets, some of which sold for 140 guineas a gross. Gilt buttons also came
into fashion about the same period. In this "Augustan age" of the
Birmingham button industry, when there was a large export trade, the
profits of manufacturers who worked on only a modest scale amounted to
L3000 and L4000 a year, and workmen earned from L2 to L4 a week. At one
time the buttons had each to be fashioned separately by skilled artisans,
but gradually the cost of production was lessened by the adoption of
mechanical processes, and instead of being turned out singly and engraved
or otherwise ornamented by hand, they came to be stamped out in dies which
at once shape them and impress them with the desired pattern. Ivory buttons
are among the oldest of all. Horn buttons were made at Birmingham at least
by 1777; towards the middle of the igth century Emile Bassot invented a
widely-used process for producing them from the hoofs of cattle, which were
softened by boiling. Pearl buttons are made from pearl oyster shells
obtained from various parts of the world, and after being cut out by
tubular drills are shaped and polished by machinery. Buttons of vegetable
ivory can be readily dyed. Glass buttons are especially made in Bohemia, as
also are those of porcelain, which were invented about 1840 by an
Englishman, R. Prosser of Birmingham. In the United States few buttons were
made until the beginning of the 19th century, when the manufacture of metal
buttons was started at Waterbury, Conn., which is now the centre of that
industry. In 1812 Aaron Benedict began to make ivory and horn buttons at
the same place. Buttons of vegetable ivory, now one of the most important
branches of the American button industry, were first made at Leeds, Mass.,
in 1859 by an Englishman, A.W. Critchlow, and in 1875 commercial success
was attained in the production of composition buttons at Springfield, Mass.
Pearl buttons were made on a small scale in 1855, but their manufacture
received an enormous impetus in the last decade of the 19th century, when
J.F. Boepple began, at Muscatine, Iowa, to utilize the unio or "niggerhead"
shells found along the Mississippi. By 1905 the annual output of these
"fresh-water pearl" buttons had reached 11,405,723 gross, worth $3,359,167,
or 36.6% of the total value of the buttons produced in the United States.
In the same year the mother-of-pearl buttons ("ocean pearl buttons")
numbered 1,737,830 gross, worth $1,511,107, and the two kinds together
constituted 44% of the number, and 53.9% of the value, of the button
manufactures of the United States. (See _U.S.A. Census Reports, 1900,
Manufactures_, part iii. pp. 315-327.)

BUTTRESS (from the O. Fr. _bouteret_, that which bears a thrust, from
_bouter_, to push, cf. Eng. "butt" and "abutment"), masonry projecting from
a wall, provided to give additional strength to the same, and also to
resist the thrust of the roof or wall, especially when concentrated at any
one point. In Roman architecture the plans of the building, where the
vaults were of considerable span and the thrust therefore very great, were
so arranged as to provide cross-walls, dividing the aisles, as in the case
of the Basilica of Maxentius, and, in the Thermae of Rome, the subdivisions
of the less important halls, so that there were no visible buttresses. In
the baths of Diocletian, however, these cross-walls rose to the height of
the great vaulted hall, the tepidarium, and their upper portions were
decorated with niches and pilasters. In a palace at Shuka in Syria,
attributed to the end of the 2nd century A.D., where, in consequence of the
absence of timber, it was necessary to cover over the building with slabs
of stones, these latter were carried on arches thrown across the great
hall, and this necessitated two precautions, viz. the provision of an
abutment inside the building, and of buttresses outside, the earliest
example in which the feature was frankly accepted. In Byzantine work there
were no external buttresses, the plans being arranged to include them in
cross-walls or interior abutments. The buttresses of the early Romanesque
churches were only pilaster strips employed to break up the wall surface
and decorate the exterior. At a slightly later period a greater depth was
given to the lower portion of the buttresses, which was then capped with a
deep sloping weathering. The introduction of ribbed vaulting, extended to
the nave in the 12th century, and the concentration of thrusts on definite
points of the structure, rendered the buttress an absolute necessity, and
from the first this would seem to have been recognized, and the
architectural treatment already given to the Romanesque buttress received
[v.04 p.0892] a remarkable development. The buttresses of the early English
period have considerable projection with two or three sets-off sloped at an
acute angle dividing the stages and crowned by triangular heads; and
slender columns ("buttress shafts") are used at the angle. In later work
pinnacles and niches are usually employed to decorate the summits of the
buttresses, and in the still later Perpendicular work the vertical faces
are all richly decorated with panelling.

BUTYL ALCOHOLS, C_4H_9OH. Four isomeric alcohols of this formula are known;
two of these are primary, one secondary, and one tertiary (see ALCOHOLS).
Normal butyl alcohol, CH_3.(CH_2)_2.CH_2OH, is a colourless liquid, boiling
at 116.8 deg., and formed by reducing normal butyl aldehyde with sodium, or by
a peculiar fermentation of glycerin, brought about by a schizomycete.
Isobutyl alcohol, (CH_3)_2CH.CH_2OH, the butyl alcohol of fermentation, is
a primary alcohol derived from isobutane. It may be prepared by the general
methods, and occurs in fusel oil, especially in potato spirit. It is a
liquid, smelling like fusel oil and boiling at 108.4 deg. C. Methyl ethyl
carbinol, CH_3.C_2H_5.CHOH, is the secondary alcohol derived from n-butane.
It is a strongly smelling liquid, boiling at 99 deg.. Trimethyl carbinol or
tertiary butyl alcohol, (CH_3)_3.COH, is the simplest tertiary alcohol, and
was obtained by A. Butlerow in 1864 by acting with zinc methyl on acetyl
chloride (see ALCOHOLS). It forms rhombic prisms or plates which melt at
25 deg. and boil at 83 deg., and has a spiritous smell, resembling that of camphor.

BUTYRIC ACID, C_4H_8O_2. Two acids are known corresponding to this formula,
_normal butyric acid_, CH_3.CH_2.CH_2.COOH, and _isobutyric acid_,
(CH_3)_2.CH.COOH. Normal butyric acid or fermentation butyric acid is found
in butter, as an hexyl ester in the oil of _Heracleum giganteum_ and as an
octyl ester in parsnip (_Pastinaca sativa_); it has also been noticed in
the fluids of the flesh and in perspiration. It may be prepared by the
hydrolysis of ethyl acetoacetate, or by passing carbon monoxide over a
mixture of sodium acetate and sodium ethylate at 205 deg. C. (A. Geuther,
_Ann._, 1880, 202, p.306), C_2H_5ONa + CH_3COONa + CO = H.CO_2Na +
CH_3.CH_2.CH_2.COONa. It is ordinarily prepared by the fermentation of
sugar or starch, brought about by the addition of putrefying cheese,
calcium carbonate being added to neutralize the acids formed in the
process. A. Fitz (_Ber._, 1878, 11 p. 52) found that the butyric
fermentation of starch is aided by the direct addition of _Bacillus
subtilis_. The acid is an oily liquid of unpleasant smell, and solidifies
at -19 deg. C.; it boils at 162.3 deg. C., and has a specific gravity of 0.9746 (0 deg.
C.). It is easily soluble in water and alcohol, and is thrown out of its
aqueous solution by the addition of calcium chloride. Potassium bichromate
and sulphuric acid oxidize it to carbon dioxide and acetic acid, while
alkaline potassium permanganate oxidizes it to carbon dioxide. The calcium
salt, Ca(C_4H_7O_2)_2.H_2O, is less soluble in hot water than in cold.

_Isobutyric acid_ is found in the free state in carobs (_Ceratonia
siliqua_) and in the root of _Arnica dulcis_, and as an ethyl ester in
croton oil. It may be artificially prepared by the hydrolysis of
isopropylcyanide with alkalies, by the oxidation of isopropyl alcohol with
potassium bichromate and sulphuric acid (I. Pierre and E. Puchot, _Ann. de
chim. et de phys._, 1873, [4] 28, p. 366), or by the action of sodium
amalgam on methacrylic acid, CH_2.C(CH_3).COOH. It is a liquid of somewhat
unpleasant smell, boiling at 155.5 deg. C. Its specific gravity is 0.9697 (0 deg.).
Heated with chromic acid solution to 140 deg. C., it gives carbon dioxide and
acetone. Alkaline potassium permanganate oxidizes it to
[alpha]-oxyisobutyric acid, (CH_3)_2.C(OH).COOH, whilst concentrated nitric
acid converts it into dinitroisopropane. Its salts are more soluble in
water than those of the normal acid.

BUXAR, or BAXAR, a town of India, in the district of Shahabad, Bengal, on
the south bank of the Ganges, and on the East Indian railway. Pop. (1901)
13,945. There is a dismantled fort of small size which was important from
its commanding the Ganges. A celebrated victory was gained here on the 23rd
of October 1764 by the British forces under Major (afterwards Sir Hector)
Munro, over the united armies of Shuja-ud-Dowlah and Kasim Ali Khan. The
action raged from 9 o'clock till noon, when the enemy gave way. Pursuit
was, however, frustrated by Shuja-ud-Dowlah sacrificing a part of his army
to the safety of the remainder. A bridge of boats had been constructed over
a stream about 2 m. distant from the field of battle, and this the enemy
destroyed before their rear had passed over. Through this act 2000 troops
were drowned, or otherwise lost; but destructive as was this proceeding, it
was, said Major Munro, "the best piece of generalship Shuja-ud-Dowlah
showed that day, because if I had crossed the rivulet with the army, I
should either have taken or drowned his whole army in the Karamnasa, and
come up with his treasure and jewels, and Kasim Ali Khan's jewels, which I
was informed amounted to between two and three millions."

BUXTON, JEDEDIAH (1707-1772), English arithmetician, was born on the 20th
of March 1707 at Elmton, near Chesterfield, in Derbyshire. Although his
father was schoolmaster of the parish, and his grandfather had been the
vicar, his education had been so neglected that he could not write; and his
knowledge, except of numbers, was extremely limited. How he came first to
know the relative proportions of numbers, and their progressive
denominations, he did not remember; but on such matters his attention was
so constantly riveted, that he frequently took no cognizance of external
objects, and when he did, it was only with reference to their numbers. He
measured the whole lordship of Elmton, consisting of some thousand acres,
simply by striding over it, and gave the area not only in acres, roods and
perches, but even in square inches. After this, he reduced them into square
hairs'-breadths, reckoning forty-eight to each side of the inch. His memory
was so great, that in resolving a question he could leave off and resume
the operation again at the same point after the lapse of a week, or even of
several months. His perpetual application to figures prevented the smallest
acquisition of any other knowledge. His wonderful faculty was tested in
1754 by the Royal Society of London, who acknowledged their satisfaction by
presenting him with a handsome gratuity. During his visit to the metropolis
he was taken to see the tragedy of _Richard III._ performed at Drury Lane
theatre, but his whole mind was given to the counting of the words uttered
by David Garrick. Similarly, he set himself to count the steps of the
dancers; and he declared that the innumerable sounds produced by the
musical instruments had perplexed him beyond measure. He died in 1772.

A memoir appeared in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for June 1754, to which,
probably through the medium of a Mr Holliday, of Haughton Hall,
Nottinghamshire, Buxton had contributed several letters. In this memoir,
his age is given as forty-nine, which points to his birth in 1705; the date
adopted above is on the authority of Lysons' _Magna Britannia_
(Derbyshire).

BUXTON, SIR THOMAS FOWELL (1786-1845), English philanthropist, was born in
Essex on the 1st of April 1786, and was educated at Trinity College,
Dublin, where, in spite of his early education having been neglected, hard
work made him one of the first men of his time, with a high reputation as a
speaker. In 1807 he married Hannah Gurney, sister of the celebrated
Elizabeth Fry. As his means were not sufficient to support his family, he
entered in 1808 the brewery of Truman, Hanbury & Company, of which his
uncles, the Hanburys, were partners. He devoted himself to business with
characteristic energy, became a partner in 1811, and soon had the whole
concern in his hands. In 1816 he brought himself into notice by his speech
on behalf of the Spitalfields weavers, and in 1818 he published his able
_Inquiry into Prison Discipline_. The same year he was elected M.P. for
Weymouth, a borough for which he continued to sit till 1837. In the House
of Commons he had a high reputation as an able and straightforward speaker,
devoted to philanthropic schemes. Of these plans the most important was
that for the abolition of slavery in the British colonies. Buxton devoted
his life to this object, and through defeat and opposition, despite the
attacks of enemies and the remonstrances of faint-hearted friends, he
remained true to it. Not till 1833 was he successful, and even then only
partially, for he was compelled to admit into the bill some clauses against
which his better judgment had decided. In 1837 he ceased to [v.04 p.0893]
sit in the House of Commons. He travelled on the continent in 1839 to
recruit his health, which had given way, and took the opportunity of
inspecting foreign prisons. He was made a baronet in 1840, and then devoted
himself to a plan for ameliorating the condition of the African natives.
The failure of the Niger expedition of 1841 was a blow from which he never
recovered. He died on the 19th of February 1845.

See _Memoir and Correspondence of Sir T.F. Buxton_ (1848), by his third
son, Charles Buxton (1823-1871), a well-known philanthropist and member of
parliament.

BUXTON, a market town and fashionable health-resort in the High Peak
parliamentary division of Derbyshire, England, on the London &
North-Western and Midland railways, 36 m. N.W. by N. of Derby. Pop. of
urban district (1901) 10,181. It occupies a high position, lying between
1000 and 1150 ft. above sea-level, in an open hollow, surrounded at a
distance by hills of considerable elevation, except on the south-east side,
where the Wye, which rises about half a mile away, makes its exit. The old
town (High Buxton) stands a little above the new, and consists of one wide
street, and a considerable market-place with an old cross. The new town is
the richer portion. The Crescent is a fine range of buildings in the Doric
style, erected by the duke of Devonshire in 1779-1788. It contains hotels,
a ballroom, a bank, a library and other establishments, and the surrounding
open grounds are laid out in terraces and gardens. The Old Hall hotel at
the west end of the Crescent stands on the site of the mansion built in
1572 by the earl of Shrewsbury in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, which was
the residence of Mary queen of Scots when she visited the town. The mineral
waters of Buxton, which have neither taste nor smell, are among the most
noted in England, and are particularly efficacious in cases of rheumatism
and gout. There are numerous public and private baths, the most important
of which are those in the establishment at the eastern end of the Crescent.
The springs supply hot and cold water at a very short distance from each
other, flowing at the rate of 60 gallons a minute. The former possesses a
uniform temperature of 82 deg. Fahr., and the principal substances in solution
are bicarbonate of calcium, bicarbonate of magnesium, chloride of sodium,
chloride of magnesium and silica acid. There is also a chalybeate spring
known as St Anne's well, situated at the S.W. corner of the Crescent, the
water of which when mixed with that of the other springs proves purgative.
The Devonshire hospital, formerly known as the Bath Charity, is a
benevolent institution, supported by voluntary subscriptions. Every year
some thousands of poor patients are treated free of cost; and the hospital
was enlarged for their accommodation, a dome being added which is of
greater circumference than any other in Europe. In 1894 the duke of
Devonshire erected a handsome pump-room at St Anne's well. The Buxton
season extends from June to October, and during that period the town is
visited by thousands, but it is also popular as a winter resort. The Buxton
Gardens are beautifully laid out, with ornamental waters, a fine
opera-house, pavilion and concert hall, theatre and reading rooms. Electric
lighting has been introduced, and there is an excellent golf course. The
Cavendish Terrace forms a fine promenade, and the neighbourhood of the town
is rich in objects of interest. Of these the chief are Poole's Hole, a vast
stalactite cave, about half a mile distant; Diamond Hill, which owes its
name to the quartz crystals which are not uncommon in its rocks; and Chee
Tor, a remarkable cliff, on the banks of the Wye, 300 ft. high. Ornaments
are manufactured by the inhabitants from alabaster and spar; and excellent
lime is burned at the quarries near Poole's Hole. Buxton is an important
centre for horse-breeding, and a large horse-fair is held annually.
Although the annual rainfall, owing to the situation of the town towards
the western flank of the Pennine Hills, is about 49 in., the air is
particularly dry owing to the high situation and the rapidity with which
waters drain off through the limestone. The climate is bracing and healthy.

The waters were known and used by the Romans, but to a limited extent, and
no remains of their baths survive. Roman roads connected the place with
Derby, Brough in Edale and Manchester. Buxton (Bawdestanes, Bue-stanes),
formed into a civil parish from Bakewell in 1895, has thus claims to be
considered one of the oldest English spas. It was probably the "Bectune"
mentioned in Domesday. After the departure of the Romans the baths seem to
have been long neglected, but were again frequented in the 16th century,
when the chapel of St Anne was hung round with the crutches of those who
were supposed to owe their cure to her healing powers; these interesting
relics were destroyed at the Reformation. The baths were visited at least
four times by Mary queen of Scots, when a prisoner in charge of George,
earl of Shrewsbury, other famous Elizabethan visitors being Lord Burleigh,
the earl of Essex, and Robert, earl of Leicester. At the close of the 18th
century the duke of Devonshire, lord of the manor (whose ancestor Sir Ralph
de Gernons was lord of Bakewell in 1251), spent large sums of money on
improvements in the town. In 1781 he began to build the famous Crescent,
and since that time Buxton has steadily increased in favour as an inland
watering-place. In 1813 a weekly market on Saturday and four annual fairs
were granted. These were bought by the local authorities from the duke of
Devonshire in 1864.

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