Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 Part 34

Soon after the adoption of the Australian ballot in Great Britain, it was introduced in Canada, but no serious agitation was begun for a similar system in the United States until 1885. In 1887 bills for the Australian ballot were actively urged in the legislatures of New York and Michigan, although neither became law. A Wisconsin law of that year, regulating elections in cities of over 50,000 population, incorporated some features of the Australian system, but the first complete law was enacted by Ma.s.sachusetts in 1888. This Ma.s.sachusetts statute provided for the printing and distribution of ballots by the state to contain the names of all candidates arranged alphabetically for each office, the electors to vote by marking the name of each candidate for whom they wished to vote. At the presidential election of 1888 it was freely alleged that large sums of money had been raised on an unprecedented scale for the purchase of votes, and this situation created a feeling of deep alarm which gave a powerful impetus to the movement for ballot reform. In 1889 new ballot laws were enacted in nine states: two states bordering on Ma.s.sachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island; four states in the middle-west, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota; two southern states, Tennessee and Missouri; and Montana, in the far west. The Connecticut law, however, marked but little improvement over former conditions, since it provided only for official envelopes in which the unofficial party ballots should be voted. The Indiana law provided for a single or "blanket" ballot, but with the names of candidates arranged in party-groups, and a method of voting for all of the candidates in a party-group by a single [v.03 p.0281] mark. Michigan and Missouri also adopted the party-group system. The other states followed the Ma.s.sachusetts law providing for a blanket ballot with the candidates arranged by offices.

The new ballot system had its first practical demonstration at the Ma.s.sachusetts election of 1889, and its success led to its rapid adoption in many other states. In 1890 ballot laws were pa.s.sed in seven states: Vermont, Mississippi, Wyoming and Was.h.i.+ngton provided for the Ma.s.sachusetts plan, although Vermont afterwards adopted the system of party-groups, which Maryland used from the first. The New York and New Jersey laws of 1890, however, only provided for official ballots for each party, and allowed ballots obtained outside of the polling-booths to be used. In 1891 seventeen additional states and two territories adopted the Australian ballot system. All of these provided for a blanket ballot; but while the Ma.s.sachusetts arrangement was adopted in Arkansas, Nebraska, New Hamps.h.i.+re, North and South Dakota, Kentucky, Texas and Oregon, the system of party groups was followed in Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. California had the Ma.s.sachusetts arrangement of names, but added on the ballot a list of party names, by marking one of which a voter would cast his vote for all of the candidates of that party. Pennsylvania placed all the candidates not in a party-group in alphabetical order.

Iowa adopted the Australian ballot system in 1892; Alabama and Kansas in 1893; Virginia in 1894; Florida in 1895; and Louisiana and Utah in 1896. In 1895, too, New York adopted the blanket ballot in place of separate party ballots, but arranged the names of candidates in party columns. The only state to abandon the blanket ballot after once adopting it was Missouri which in 1897 returned to the system of separate ballots, with no provision for booths where the ballot might be marked in secret. (See the article, "Present Status of the Ballot Laws," by Arthur Ludington in _Amer. Pol.

Science Rev._ for May 1909.)

Owing to the large number of officials chosen at one time in American elections, the form and appearance of the ballot used is very different from that in Great Britain. At the quadrennial presidential election in New York state, for example, the officers to be voted for by each elector are thirty-six presidential electors, one congressman, state-governor, lieutenant-governor and five other state officers, a member for each house of the state legislature, several judges, a sheriff, county-clerk and other county officers. The column with the list of the candidates of each party for all of these offices is 2 to 3 ft. in length; and as there are often eight to ten party-tickets in the field, the ballot-paper is usually from 18 to 20 in. in width. Each voter receives one of these "blanket" ballots on entering the polling-place, and retires to a booth to mark either a party column or the individual candidates in different columns for whom he wishes to vote. Where, as in Ma.s.sachusetts, the names of candidates are arranged by offices instead of in party-lists, every voter must mark the name of each individual candidate for whom he wishes to vote. Connecticut, New Jersey, Missouri, North and South Carolina, Georgia and New Mexico use the system of separate party ballots. (See also VOTING, VOTING MACHINES, ELECTION, REPRESENTATION.)

[1] For a description of Grote's card-frame, in which the card was punctured through a hole, and was thus never in the voter's hands, see _Spectator_, 25th February 1837.

BALLOU, HOSEA (1771-1852), American Universalist clergyman, was born in Richmond, New Hamps.h.i.+re, on the 30th of April 1771. He was a son of Maturin Ballou, a Baptist minister, was self-educated, early devoted himself to the ministry, became a convert to Universalism in 1789, and in 1794 became a pastor of a congregation at Dana, Ma.s.sachusetts. He preached at Barnard, Vermont, and the surrounding towns in 1801-1807; at Portsmouth, New Hamps.h.i.+re, in 1807-1815; at Salem, Ma.s.sachusetts, in 1815-1817; and as pastor of the Second Universalist Church in Boston from December 1817 until his death there on the 7th of June 1852. He founded and edited _The Universalist Magazine_ (1819; later called _The Trumpet_) and _The Universalist Expositor_ (1831; later _The Universalist Quarterly Review_); wrote about 10,000 sermons, many hymns, essays and polemic theological works; and is best known for _Notes on the Parables_ (1804), _A Treatise on Atonement_ (1805) and _Examination of the Doctrine of a Future Retribution_ (1834); in these, especially the second, he showed himself the princ.i.p.al American expositor of Universalism. His great contribution to his Church was the body of denominational literature he left. From the theology of John Murray, who like Ballou has been called "the father of American Universalism," he differed in that he divested Universalism of every trace of Calvinism and opposed legalism and trinitarian views.

Consult the biography by Thomas Whittemore (4 vols., Boston, 1854-1855) and that by Oscar F. Safford (Boston, 1889); and J. C. Adams, _Hosea Ballou and the Gospel Renaissance_ (Boston, 1904).

His grand-nephew, HOSEA BALLOU (1796-1861), born in Halifax, Vermont, on the 18th of October 1796, preached to Universalists in Stafford, Connecticut (1815-1821); and in Ma.s.sachusetts, in Roxbury (1821-1838) and in Medford (1838-1853); and in 1853 was elected first president of Tufts College at Medford, serving in that office until shortly before his death, which took place at Somerville, Ma.s.sachusetts, on the 27th of May 1861. He was the first (1847) to urge the necessity of a Universalist denominational college, and this did much towards the establishment of Tufts. He was a.s.sociated with the elder Hosea Ballou in editing _The Universalist Quarterly Review_; edited an edition of Sismondi's _History of the Crusades_ (1833); and wrote the _Ancient History of Universalism_, down to A.D. 553 (1829; 2nd ed., 1842).

MATURIN MURRAY BALLOU (1820-1895), son of the first Hosea, was a pioneer in American ill.u.s.trated journalism, edited _Gleason's Pictorial_ and _Ballou's Monthly_ and many collections of quotations, and in 1872 became editor-in-chief of the _Boston Daily Globe_, of which he was one of the founders. He wrote a life of his father (1860), and a _History of Cuba_ (1854).

b.a.l.l.sTON SPA, a village and the county-seat of Saratoga county, New York, U.S.A., about 7 m. S. of Saratoga Springs. Pop. (1890) 3527; (1900) 3923; (1910 U.S. Census) 4138. It is served by the Delaware & Hudson railway, and is connected with Saratoga Springs, Albany, and Schenectady by electric lines. There are several manufacturing establishments, among which are one of the largest manufactories of paper-bags in the United States and a large tannery. It is, however, as a popular summer resort that b.a.l.l.ston Spa is best known. Many fine chalybeate and other springs rising through solid rock from a depth of about 650 ft. furnish a highly effervescent water of considerable medicinal and commercial value. The village has the b.a.l.l.ston Spa public library, the Saratoga county law library and the Saratoga county court house. b.a.l.l.ston Spa, which was named in honour of the Rev. Eliphalet Ball, an early settler, was settled about 1787 by the grandfather of Stephen A. Douglas, and was incorporated in 1855.

See E. F. Prose, _Centennial Hist. of b.a.l.l.ston Spa_, 1908.

BALLYCASTLE, a seaport and watering-place on the north coast of Co. Antrim, Ireland, in the north parliamentary division, situated on a bay of the same name opposite Rathlin Island. Pop. (1901) 1481. It is connected with the Northern Counties (Midland) railway at Ballymoney by the Ballycastle light railway. The town consists of two divisions, about a quarter of a mile apart and connected by a fine avenue. Towards the close of the 18th century Mr Hugh Boyd, obtaining the estate, devoted himself to the extension and improvement of the town, establis.h.i.+ng manufactures, endowing charities and building churches; and succeeded in producing a temporary vitality. Upwards of 150,000, including a large government grant, is said to have been expended upon the pier and harbour; but the violence of the sea overthrew the one and the other became filled with sand. To the east of the town are the remains of Bonamargy Abbey, the burial-place of many of the MacDonnell family. The Carey brook, by the side of which the abbey stands, was formerly called the Margy, and on its waters according to tradition dwelt the four children of Lir, changed to swans by their step-mother until St Columba released them from enchantment. (See P. W. Joyce, _Old Celtic Romances_.) With this well-known romance is connected the wide-spread belief in Ireland of ill-fortune following the killing of a swan.

Coal-seams, formerly extensively worked, and from an unknown [v.03 p.0282]

period of antiquity, appear in the cliffs towards Fair Head, and the fisheries are important. The coast-scenery and the view from the hill of Knocklayd are notable.

BALLYMENA, a town of Co. Antrim, Ireland, in the mid parliamentary division, on the Braid, an affluent of the Maine, 2 m. above their junction. Pop. of urban district (1901) 10,886. It is 33 m. N.N.W. of Belfast on the Northern Counties (Midland) railway. Branch lines run to Larne and to Parkmore on the east coast. The town owes its prosperity chiefly to its linen trade, introduced in 1733, which gives employment to the greater part of the inhabitants. Brown linen is a specialty. Iron ore is raised in the neighbourhood. Antiquities in the neighbourhood are few and the present buildings of Ballymena Castle and Galgorm Castle are modern. Gracehill, however, a Moravian settlement, was founded in 1746.

BALLYMONEY, a market town of Co. Antrim, Ireland, in the north parliamentary division, 53 m. N.N.W. from Belfast by the Northern Counties (Midland) railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 2952. The Ballycastle railway joins the main line here. The trade of the town is prosperous, brewing, distilling and tanning being carried on, besides the linen manufacture common to the whole county. Soap, candles and tobacco are also manufactured, and the town is a centre for local agricultural trade. Near the neighbouring village of Dervock (4 m. N.) is a cottage shown by an inscription to have been the home of the ancestors of William McKinley, president of the United States.

BALLYMOTE, a market town of Co. Sligo, Ireland, in the south parliamentary division, 14 m. S. of Sligo by the Midland Great Western railway. Pop.

(1901) 997. It is a centre for some agricultural trade and has carriage-building works. There are remains of a strong castle, built by the powerful earl of Ulster, Richard de Burgh, in 1300, and the scene of hostilities in 1641 and 1652. Ruins are also seen of a Franciscan foundation attributed to the 13th century; it was a celebrated seat of learning and an extant memorial of the work of its monks is the _Book of Ballymote_ (_c._ 1391) in the possession of the Royal Irish Academy, a miscellaneous collection in prose and verse of historical, genealogical and romantic writings. There are also, near the town, ruins of a house of the Knights of St John (1303).

BALLYSHANNON, a seaport and market-town of Co. Donegal, Ireland, in the south parliamentary division, at the mouth of the Erne; on the Bundoran branch of the Great Northern railway. Pop. (1901) 2359. The river is here crossed by a bridge of twelve arches, which connects the town with the suburb of The Port. Below the bridge the river forms a beautiful cascade, 150 yds. wide, with a fall at low water of 16 ft. Here is the salmon leap, where the fish are trapped in large numbers, but also a.s.sisted to mount the fall by salmon-ladders. The fisheries are of great value, and there is an export trade to England in salmon, which are despatched in ice. The harbour is a small exposed creek of Donegal Bay, and is only accessible to small vessels owing to a bar. Previous to the Union Ballyshannon returned two members to the Irish parliament and it was incorporated by James I. There are slight remains of a castle of the O'Donnells, earls of Tyrconnell, where the English, on attempting to besiege it, were defeated and lost heavily in their retreat across the river, in 1597. There are numerous raths or encampments in the vicinity and other remains. Coolmore, 3 m.

N.W., is a bathing-resort.

BALM, a fragrant herb, _Melissa officinalis_, of the Deadnettle order (_l.a.b.i.atae_) with opposite, ovate, crenulated leaves, which are wrinkled above, and small white or rose-spotted flowers. It is a native of central and southern Europe; it is often grown in gardens and has become naturalized in the south of England and grows apparently wild as a garden escape in North America. The name is from the Greek [Greek: melissa], the plant being visited by bees. b.a.s.t.a.r.d Balm is an allied plant, _Melittis Melissophyllum_, a southern European species, found in the south and south-west of England.

BALMACEDA, JOSe MANUEL (1838-1891), president of the republic of Chile, was born in Santiago in 1838. His parents were wealthy, and in his early days he was chiefly concerned in industrial and agricultural enterprise. In 1865 he was one of the representatives of the Chilean government at the general South American congress at Lima, and after his return obtained great distinction as an orator in the national a.s.sembly. After discharging some diplomatic missions abroad, he became successively minister of foreign affairs and of the interior under the presidency of Senor Santa Maria, and in the latter capacity carried compulsory civil marriage and several other laws highly obnoxious to the clergy. In 1886 he was elected president; but, in spite of his great capacity, his imperious temper little fitted him for the post. He was soon irreconcilably at variance with the majority of the national representatives, and on the 1st of January 1891 he sought to terminate an intolerable situation by refusing to convoke the a.s.sembly and ordering the continued collection of the taxes on his own authority. This led to the Chilean Civil War of 1891, which ended in the overthrow of Balmaceda, who committed suicide on the 18th of September, the anniversary of his elevation to the presidency.

BALMAIN, a town of c.u.mberland county, N.S.W., Australia, on the western sh.o.r.e of Darling Harbour, Port Jackson, 2 m. by water from Sydney and suburban to it. Pop. (1901) 30,881. It is the home of great numbers of the working cla.s.ses of Sydney and some of the largest factories and most important docks are situated here. Saw-mills, iron foundries, chemicals, gla.s.s and soap works, s.h.i.+pbuilding yards and a cocoanut-oil factory in connexion with the soap-manufacture at Port Sunlight, England, are among the chief industrial establishments. Balmain became a munic.i.p.ality in 1860.

BALMERINO, JAMES ELPHINSTONE, 1st BARON (_c._ 1553-1612), Scottish politician, was the third son of Robert, 3rd Lord Elphinstone (d. 1602).

Rising to power under James VI. he became a judge and a royal secretary; he accompanied the king to London in 1603 and was made Lord Balmerino, or Balmerinoch, in 1604. In 1605 he became president of the court of session, but his ardour for the Roman Catholic religion brought about his overthrow.

In 1599 on the king's behalf, but without the king's knowledge, he had sent a letter to Clement VIII. in which he addressed the pope in very cordial terms. A copy of this letter having been seen by Elizabeth, the English queen asked James for an explanation, whereupon both the king and the secretary declared it was a forgery. There the matter rested until 1608, when the existence of the letter was again referred to during some controversy between James and Cardinal Bellarmine. Interrogated afresh Balmerino admitted that he had written the compromising letter, that he had surrept.i.tiously obtained the king's signature, and that afterwards he had added the full t.i.tles of the pope. In March 1609 he was tried, attainted and sentenced to death, but after a brief imprisonment he was released and he died at Balmerino in July 1612.

Balmerino's elder son JOHN (d. 1649) was permitted to take his father's t.i.tle in 1613. In 1634 he was imprisoned for his opposition to Charles I.

in Scotland, and by a bare majority of the jury he was found guilty of "leasing-making" and was sentenced to death. But popular sympathy was strongly in his favour; the poet Drummond of Hawthornden and others interceded for him, and after much hesitation Charles pardoned him.

Balmerino, however, did not desist from his opposition to the king. A chief among the Covenanters and a trusted counsellor of the marquess of Argyll, he presided over the celebrated parliament which met in Edinburgh in August 1641, and was one of the Scottish commissioners who visited England in 1644. He died in February 1649 and was succeeded as 3rd lord by his son JOHN (1623-1704), who in 1669 inherited from his uncle James the t.i.tle of Lord Coupar. John's son JOHN, 4th Lord Balmerino (1652-1736), was a lawyer of some repute and, although a st.u.r.dy opponent of the Union, was a Scottish representative peer in 1710 and 1713. John's son ARTHUR (1688-1746) who became 6th Lord Balmerino on the death of his half-brother John in January 1746, is famous as a Jacobite. He joined the partisans of James Edward, the Old Pretender, after the battle of Sheriffmuir in November 1713, and then lived for some time in exile, returning to Scotland in 1733 when his father had [v.03 p.0283] secured for him a pardon. He was one of the first to join Charles Edward in 1745; he marched with the Jacobites to Derby, fought at Falkirk and was captured at Culloden. Tried for treason in Westminster Hall he was found guilty, and was beheaded on the 11th of August 1746, behaving both at his trial and at his execution with great constancy and courage. On his death without issue his t.i.tles became extinct.

BALMeS, JAIME LUCIANO (1810-1848), Spanish ecclesiastic, eminent as a political writer and a philosopher, was born at Vich in Catalonia, on the 28th of August 1810, and died there on the 9th of July 1848. Having attacked the regent Espartero and been exiled he founded and edited on his return the _El Pensamiento de la Nacion_, a Catholic and Conservative weekly; but his fame rests princ.i.p.ally on _El Protestantismo comparado con el Catolicismo en sus relaciones con la Civilisacion Europea_ (3 vols., 1842-1844, 6th edition, 1879; Eng. trans. London, 1849), an able defence of Catholicism on the ground that it represents the spirit of obedience or order, as opposed to Protestantism, the spirit of revolt or anarchy. From the historical standpoint it is of little value. The best of his philosophical works, which are clear expositions of the scholastic system of thought, are the _Filosofia Fondamental_ (4 vols., 1846, Eng. trans. by H. F. Brownson, 2 vols. New York, 1856), and the _Curso de Filosofia Elemental_ (4 vols., 1847), which he translated into Latin for use in seminaries.

See A. de Blanche-Raffin, _Jacques Balmes, sa vie et ses ouvrages_ (Paris, 1849); and E. Bullon Fernandez, _Jaime Balmes y sus oberas_ (Madrid, 1903).

BALMORAL CASTLE (Gaelic, "the majestic dwelling"), a private residence of the British sovereign, in the parish of Crathie and Braemar, Aberdeens.h.i.+re, Scotland, on the right bank of the Dee (here spanned by a fine suspension bridge), 9 m. W. of Ballater and at a height of 900 ft. above the sea. The property formerly belonged to the Farquharsons of Inverey, from whom it was acquired by Sir Robert Gordon, whose trustees disposed of the lease in 1848 to the prince consort, by whom the whole estate was purchased in 1852 and bequeathed to Queen Victoria. The castle is built of granite in the Scots baronial style, with an eastern tower 100 ft. high commanding a superb view--Ballochbuie and Braemar to the W., Glen Gairn to the N., Lochnagar and the beautiful valley of the Dee to the S. On Craig Gowan (1319 ft.), a hill 1 m. to the south, have been erected memorial cairns to Queen Victoria, the prince consort, Princess Alice and other members of the royal family of Great Britain. The parish church of Crathie (1903), replacing the kirk of 1806, is 1 m. to the W., and about 2 m. farther west stands Abergeldie Castle, another Highland royal residence, an ancient building to which modern additions have been made, inhabited by King Edward VII. when prince of Wales, and after his accession to the throne used as a shooting-lodge.

BALNAVES, HENRY (1512?-1579), Scottish politician and reformer, born at Kirkcaldy about 1512, was educated at St Andrews and on the continent, where he adopted Protestant views. Returning to Scotland, he continued his legal studies and in 1538 was appointed a lord of session. He married about the same time Christian Scheves, and in 1539 was granted the estate of Halhill in Fife, after which he is generally named. Before 1540 he was sworn of James V's. privy council, and was known as one of the party in favour of the English alliance and of an ecclesiastical reformation. He is also described as treasurer to James (_Letters and Papers_, 1543, i. 64), but the regent Arran appointed him secretary in the new government of the infant Queen Mary (January 1543). He promoted the act permitting the reading of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue, and was one of the commissioners appointed to arrange a marriage treaty between the little queen and the future Edward VI. In London he was not considered so complaisant as some of the other commissioners, and was not made privy to all the engagements taken by his colleagues (_ib._ i. 834). But Beton "loved him worst of all," and, when Arran went over to the priestly party, Balnaves was, in November 1543, deprived of his offices and imprisoned in Blackness Castle.

Thence he was released by the arrival of Hertford's fleet in the following May, and from this time he became a paid agent of the English cause in Scotland. He took no part in the murder of Beton, but was one of the most active defenders of the castle of St Andrews. He received 100 from Henry VIII. in December 1546, was granted an annuity of 125 by Protector Somerset in 1547 and was made English paymaster of the forces in St Andrews. When that castle surrendered to the French in July Balnaves was taken prisoner to Rouen. Somerset made vain efforts to procure his release and continued his pension. He made himself useful by giving information to the English government, and even Mary Tudor sent him 50 as reward in June 1554. Balnaves also busied himself in writing what Knox calls "a comfortable treatise of justification," which was found in MS. with a preface by Knox, among the reformer's papers, and was published at Edinburgh in 1584 under the t.i.tle _The Confession of Faith_.

In 1557 Balnaves was permitted to return to Scotland and regain his property; probably it was thought that Mary Tudor's burnings would have cooled the ardour of his English affections, and that in the war threatening between two Catholic countries, Balnaves would serve his own.

The accession of Queen Elizabeth changed the situation, and Mary of Guise had reasons for accusing him of "practices out of England" (_Salisbury MSS._ i. 155). He took, in fact, an active part in the rising of 1559 and was commissioned by the Congregation to solicit the help of the English government through Sir Ralph Sadleir at Berwick. He was also selected one of the Scots representatives to negotiate with the duke of Norfolk in February 1560. In 1563 he was restored to his office as lord of session, and was one of those appointed by the General a.s.sembly to revise the _Book of Discipline_. He was one of Bothwell's judges for the murder of Darnley in 1567, and in 1568 he accompanied Moray to the York inquiry into Queen Mary's guilt. He resigned his judicial office in 1574, and died in 1579 at Edinburgh. He has been claimed as a Scots bard on the strength of one ballad, "O gallandis all, I cry and call," which is printed in Allan Ramsay's _Evergreen_ (2 vols. 1724-1727).

See _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII._ (1540-1545); Bain's and Thorp's _Cal. of Scottish State-Papers_; English _Domestic and Foreign Cals._; _Acts of Engl. Privy Council_; _Reg. P.C._, Scotland; _Reg. Great Seal of Scotland_; _Hamilton Papers_; _Border Papers_; Knox, _Works_; Burnet, _Reformation_; Froude, _Hist._

(A. F. P.)

BALNEOTHERAPEUTICS (Lat. _balneum_, a bath, and Gr. [Greek: therapeuein], to treat medically). The medical treatment of disease by internal and external use of mineral waters is quite distinct from "hydrotherapy," or the therapeutic uses of pure water. But the term "balneotherapeutics" has gradually come to be applied to everything relating to spa treatment, including the drinking of waters and the use of hot baths and natural vapour baths, as well as of the various kinds of mud and sand used for hot applications. The princ.i.p.al const.i.tuents found in mineral waters are sodium, magnesium, calcium and iron, in combination with the acids to form chlorides, sulphates, sulphides and carbonates. Other substances occasionally present in sufficient quant.i.ty to exert a therapeutic influence are a.r.s.enic, lithium, pota.s.sium, manganese, bromine, iodine, &c.

The chief gases in solution are oxygen, nitrogen, carbonic acid and sulphuretted hydrogen. Argon and helium occur in some of the "simple thermal" and "thermal sulphur waters." There are few doctors who would deny the great value of special bathing and drinking cures in certain morbid conditions. In the employment of the various mineral waters, many of the spas adopt special means by which they increase or modify their influence, _e.g._ the so-called "aromatic" or "medicated" baths, in which substances are mixed to exert a special influence on the skin and peripheral nerves.

Of these the "pine-needle" bath has the greatest repute; it is made by adding a decoction of the needles or young shoots of firs and pines. Fir wood oil (a mixture of ethereal oils) or the tincture of an alcoholic extract acts equally well. The volatile ethereal const.i.tuents are supposed to penetrate the skin and to stimulate the cutaneous [v.03 p.0284]

circulation and peripheral nerves, being eliminated later by the ordinary channels. Similar effects follow the addition to the bath of aromatic herbs, such as camomile, thyme, &c. For a full-sized bath 1 to 2 lb of herbs are tied in a muslin bag and infused in a gallon of boiling water; the juices are then expressed and the infusion added to the bath.

Astringent baths are prepared in a similar way from decoctions of oak bark, walnut leaves, &c. In many spas on the European continent baths are prepared from peat or mud mixed with hot mineral water. Mineral peat consists of decomposing vegetable soil that has been so long in the neighbourhood of the medicinal spring that it has undergone peculiar and variable chemical changes. This is mixed with the hot mineral water until the bath has the desired consistency, the effect on the patient being in almost direct proportion to the density. These baths vary greatly in composition. Mud baths are chiefly prepared from muddy deposits found in the neighbourhood of the springs, as at St Amand. They act like a large poultice applied to the surface of the body, and in addition to the influence of the temperature, they exert a considerable mechanical effect.

The pulse is accelerated some 6 to 12 beats a minute, the respiration number rises, and the patient is thrown into a profuse perspiration. They have very great value in gouty and rheumatic conditions and in some of the special troubles of women.

There are certain conditions in which mineral water treatment is distinctly contra-indicated. Advanced cardiac disease and cardiac cases with failure of compensation must pre-eminently be treated at home, not at a spa.

Advanced arterio-sclerosis, any form of serious organic visceral disease, advanced cirrhosis, pulmonary tuberculosis with a tendency to haemoptysis, much elevation of temperature or emaciation, are all entirely unsuited for this form of treatment. Serious organic nervous diseases, great nervous depression and old cases of paralysis are all contra-indicated. Any trouble, however suited in itself for spa treatment, must be considered inapplicable if complicated with pregnancy.

In advising balneotherapeutic treatment in any case, all the conditions and habits of the patient--pecuniary, physical and psychical--must be considered, as the spa must be fitted to the patient, not the patient to the spa. Besides the particular disease, the idiosyncrasy of the patient must be considered, the same morbid condition in different people requiring very different treatment. r.e.t.a.r.ded convalescence is a condition often treated at the spas, although hygienic surroundings, both mental and physical, are usually all that is necessary to ensure complete recovery.

After rheumatic fever, however, if the joints remain painful and the heart is dilated, the thermal gaseous saline water of Nauheim, augmented by Schott's resistance movements, will often appear to work wonders. Chronic rheumatism, where there is much exudation round a joint or incipient stiffness of a joint, may be relieved by hot thermal treatment, especially when combined with various forms of ma.s.sage and exercises. Simple thermal waters, hot sulphur springs and hot muriated waters are all successful in different cases. Chronic muscular rheumatism can also be benefited in a similar manner. Diseases of the nervous system are on the whole treated by these means with small success. Mental diseases other than very mild cases of depression should be considered inapplicable. Neurasthenics are sometimes treated at chalybeate or thermal muriated saline spas; but such treatment is entirely secondary to the general management of the case.

Neuralgic affections and the later stages of neuritis, especially when dependent on gout or rheumatism, are often relieved or cured. Abdominal venosity (abdominal plethora), a feature of obesity, glycosuria, &c., are extremely well fitted for this form of treatment. The alkaline sulphated waters, the bitter waters and the common salt waters can all be prescribed, and after a short course can be supplemented with various forms of active and pa.s.sive exercises. Diseases of the respiratory organs are far more suited for climatic treatment than for treatment by baths. Anaemia can usually be better or equally well treated at home, or by seaside residence or a sea voyage, though many physicians prescribe chloride of sodium waters, followed by a course of iron waters at some suitably situated spa.

In the anaemia dependent on malarial infection, the muriated or alkaline sulphated waters at spas of considerable elevation and combined with iron and a.r.s.enic are often very beneficial. Gravel and stone, if of the uric acid variety, can be treated with the alkaline waters, but the case must be under constant observation lest the urine become too alkaline and a deposition of phosphates take place on the already formed uric acid stone.

Gout is so variable both in cause and effect that much discrimination is required in its treatment. Where the patient is of "full habit," with portal stagnation, the sulphated alkaline or mild bitter waters are indicated, especially those of Carlsbad and Marienbad; but the use of these strong waters must be followed by a long rest under strict hygienic conditions. Where this is impossible, a milder course must be advised, as at Homburg, Kissingen, Harrogate, Wiesbaden, Baden-Baden, &c. For very delicate patients, and where time is limited, the simple thermal waters are preferable.

For radiant heat and light baths and electric baths of all kinds, see ELECTROTHERAPEUTICS; and for compressed air baths, AEROTHERAPEUTICS. (See also BATHS, THERAPEUTICS, and the articles on diseases.)

BALQUHIDDER (Gaelic, "the farm in the back-lying country"), a village and parish of Perths.h.i.+re, Scotland. Pop. of parish (1901) 605. The village lies 2 m. W. of the station of the same name on the Caledonian railway from Callander to Oban, and 27 m. N.W. of Stirling. It is situated at the east end of Loch Voil, a lake at the foot of the Braes of Balquhidder. The Maclaurins acquired the district as early as the 9th century and occupied it for several hundred years until ousted by the Macgregors, a neighbouring clan, who had repeatedly raided their lands, and in 1558 slew the chief and many of his followers. Balquhidder was the scene of some of the exploits of Rob Roy, who died there in 1734. His grave in the old kirkyard is marked by a stone ornamented with rude carving, executed probably centuries before his time. Another ancient stone is said traditionally to cover the grave of Angus, the Columban missionary, who was the first to carry on Christian work in this part of the Highlands.

BALRAMPUR, a town of British India near the river Rapti, 28 m. from Gonda, in the Gonda district of the United Provinces. Pop. (1901) 16,723. It gives its name to one of the largest _talukdari_ estates in the province. The raja, Sir Drigbijai Singh K.C.S.I., was conspicuously loyal during the Mutiny, and was rewarded with accessions of territory and hereditary privileges. His death in 1882 gave rise to prolonged litigation and the estate was thrown into chancery. The income is estimated at 120,000, paying a revenue of 46,000. Numerous schools and hospitals are supported.

Balrampur contains a large palace, a handsome modern temple and an Anglo-vernacular school.

BALSAM (from Gr. [Greek: balsamon], through Lat. _balsamum_, contracted by popular use to O. Fr. _basme_, mod. Fr. _bame_; Eng. balm), a term properly limited to such resins or oleo-resins as contain benzoic acid or cinnamic acid or both. Those balsams which conform to this definition make up a distinct cla.s.s, allied to each other by their composition, properties and uses. Those found in commerce are the balsam of Peru, balsam of Tolu, liquid storax and liquidambar. _Balsam of Peru_ is the produce of a lofty leguminous tree, _Myroxylon Pereirae_, growing within a limited area in San Salvador, Central America and introduced into Ceylon. It is a thick, viscid oleo-resin of a deep brown or black colour and a fragrant balsamic odour.

It is used in perfumery. Though contained in the pharmacopeias it has no special medicinal virtues. _Balsam of Tolu_ is produced from _Myroxylon toluiferum_. It is of a brown colour, thicker than Peru balsam, and attains a considerable degree of solidity on keeping. It also is a product of equatorial America, but is found over a much wider area than is the balsam of Peru. It is used in perfumery and as a const.i.tuent in cough syrups and lozenges. _Liquid storax_ or _styrax preparatus_, is a balsam yielded by _Liquidambar orientalis_, a native of Asia Minor. It is a soft resinous substance, with a pleasing balsamic odour, especially after it [v.03 p.0285] has been kept for some time. It is used in medicine as an external application in some parasitic skin diseases, and internally as an expectorant. An a.n.a.logous substance is derived from _Liquidambar Altingia_ in Java. _Liquidambar balsam_ is derived from _Liquidambar styraciflua_, a tree found in the United States and Mexico. It contains cinnamic acid, but not benzoic acid.

Of so-called balsams, entirely dest.i.tute of cinnamic and benzoic const.i.tuents, the following are found in commerce:--_Mecca balsam_ or _Balm of Gilead_, from _Commiphora opobalsamum_, a tree growing in Arabia and Abyssinia, is supposed to be the balm of Scripture and the [Greek: balsamon] of Theophrastus. When fresh it is a viscid fluid, with a penetrating odour, but it solidifies with age. It was regarded with the utmost esteem among the nations of antiquity and to the present day it is peculiarly prized among the people of the East. For _balsam of copaiba_ see COPAIBA. Under the name of _wood oil_, or _Gurjun balsam_, an oleo-resin is procured in India and the Eastern Archipelago from several species of _Dipterocarpus_, chiefly _D. turbinatus_, which has the odour and properties of copaiba and has been used for the same purposes. Wood oil is also used as a varnish in India and forms an effective protection against the attacks of white ants. _Canada balsam_ or _Canada turpentine_ is the oleo-resin yielded by _Abies balsamea_, a tree that grows in Canada and the northern parts of the United States. It is a very transparent substance, somewhat fluid when first run, but thickening considerably with age, possessed of a delicate yellow colour and a mild terebinthous odour. It contains 24% of essential oil, 60% of resin soluble in alcohol, and 16% of resin soluble only in ether. Its chief uses are for mounting preparations for the microscope and as a cement for gla.s.s in optical work.

The garden balsam is an annual plant, _Impatiens balsamina_, and the balsam apple is the fruit of _Momordica balsamina_, nat. order Cucurbitaceae.

BALSHAM, HUGH DE (d. 1286), English churchman, appears first as sub-prior of the monastery of Ely. On the death of William of Kilkenny in 1256 the monks elected him bishop of Ely, to the annoyance of Henry III. who had handed over the temporalities of the see to John de Waleran. The election was confirmed by the pope in 1257 and Hugh set to work to repair the harm done to the diocese by the intruder. In 1280 the bishop obtained a charter allowing him to replace the secular brethren residing in his hospital of St John at Cambridge by "studious scholars"; a second charter four years later entirely differentiated these scholars from the brethren of the hospital, and for them Hugh de Balsham founded and endowed the college of Peterhouse.