characterized by licentiousness and revelry, and celebrated in ancient
Athens. In the processions were bands of Bacchantes of both sexes, who,
inspired by real or feigned intoxication, wandered about rioting and
dancing. They were clothed in fawn-skins, crowned with ivy, and bore in
their hands _thyrsi_, that is spears entwined with ivy, or having a
pine-cone stuck on the point. These feasts passed from the Greeks to the
Romans, who celebrated them with still greater dissoluteness till the
Senate abolished them, 187 B.C.
BACCHANTE (bak-an'te), a person taking part in revels in honour of Bacchus.
See _Bacchanalia_.
BACCHIGLIONE (b[.a]k-kil'y[=o]-n[=a]), a river of Northern Italy, rises in
the Alps, passes through the towns of Vicenza and Padua, and enters the
Adriatic near Chioggia, after a course of about 90 miles.
BACCHUS (bak'us; in Greek, generally _Dion[)y]sus_), the god of wine, son
of Zeus (Jupiter) and S[)e]m[)e]l[=e]. He first taught the cultivation of
the vine and the preparation of wine. To spread the knowledge of his
invention he travelled over various countries and received in every quarter
divine honours. Drawn by lions (some say panthers, tigers, or lynxes), he
began his march, which resembled a triumphal procession. Those who opposed
him were severely punished, but on those who received him hospitably he
bestowed rewards. His love was shared by several; but Ariadne, whom he
found deserted upon Naxos, alone was elevated to the dignity of a wife, and
became a sharer of his immortality. In art he is represented with the
round, soft, and graceful form of a maiden rather than with that of a young
man. His long waving hair is knitted behind in a knot, and wreathed with
sprigs of ivy and vine leaves. He is usually naked; sometimes he has a
loose mantle hung negligently round his shoulders; sometimes a fawn-skin
hangs across his breast. He is often accompanied by Silenus, Bacchantes,
Satyrs, &c. See _Bacchanalia_.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Farnell, _Cults of the Greek
States_; J. E. Harrison, _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_; Sir
J. G. Frazer, _The Golden Bough_.
BACCHYLIDES (bak-kil'i-d[=e]z), born in the Island of Cos, about the middle
of the fifth century B.C., the last of the great lyric poets of Greece, a
nephew of Simonides and a contemporary of Pindar. The extant remains of his
odes, hymns, paeans, &c., were augmented in 1897 by papyrus discoveries.
BACCIOCCHI (b[.a]t-chok'[=e]), Maria Anne Eliza Bonaparte, sister of
Napoleon, born at Ajaccio, 1777, died near Trieste, 1820; a great patroness
of literature and art. She married Captain Bacciocchi, who in 1805 was
created Prince of Lucca and Piombino. She virtually ruled these
principalities herself, and as Grand-Duchess of Tuscany she enacted the
part of a queen. She fell with the Empire.
BACCIO DELIA PORTA (b[.a]ch'[=o]). See _Bartolommeo_.
BACH (ba_h_), Johann Sebastian, one of the greatest of German musicians,
born in 1685 at Eisenach, died in 1750 at Leipzig. Being the son of a
musician he was early trained in the art, and soon distinguished himself.
In 1703 he was engaged as a player at the Court of Weimar, and subsequently
he was musical director to the Duke of Anhalt-Koethen, and afterwards held
an appointment at Leipzig. He paid a visit to Potsdam on the invitation of
Frederick the Great. As a player on the harpsichord and organ he had no
equal among his contemporaries; but it was not till a century after his
death that his greatness as a composer was fully recognized. His
compositions, many of which are pieces of sacred music, show great
originality. They include pieces, vocal and instrumental, for the organ,
piano, stringed and keyed instruments; church cantatas, oratorios, masses,
passion music, &c. More than fifty musical performers have proceeded from
this family. Sebastian himself had eleven sons, all distinguished as
musicians. The most renowned were the following:--Wilhelm Friedemann, born
in 1710 at Weimar, died at Berlin in 1784. He was one of the most
scientific harmonists and most skilful organists.--Karl Philipp Emmanuel,
born in 1714 at Weimar, died in 1788 at Hamburg. He composed mostly for the
piano, and published melodies for Gellert's hymns; he also wrote _The True
Manner of Playing the Harpsichord_.--Johann Christoph Friedrich, born at
Weimar, 1732, died in 1795, a great organist, is known also by the music he
published.--Johann Christian, born in 1735 at Leipzig, died in London,
1782, was a favourite composer and conductor with the English
public.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: P. Spitta, _Johann Sebastian Bach_; A. Pirro,
_L'Esthetique de Jean Sebastian Bach_.
BACHARACH (b[.a]_h_'[.a]-r[.a]_h_), a small place of 2000 inhabitants on
the Rhine, 12 miles S. of Coblenz. The vicinity produces excellent wine,
which was once highly esteemed. The view from the ruins of the castle is
one of the sublimest on the Rhine.
BACH'ELOR, a term applied anciently to a person in the first or
probationary stage of knighthood who had not yet raised his standard in the
field. It also denotes a person who has taken the first degree in the
liberal arts and sciences, or in divinity, law, or medicine, at a college
or university; or a man of any age who has not been married.--A _knight
bachelor_ is one who has been raised to the dignity of a knight without
being made a member of any of the orders of chivalry such as the Garter,
the Thistle, or the Bath.
BACHELOR'S BUTTONS, the double-flowering buttercup (_Ranunculus acris_),
with white or yellow blossoms, common in gardens.
BACHIAN (b[.a]ch'[.a]n), one of the Molucca Islands, immediately S. of the
equator, S.W. of Gilolo; area, 800 sq. miles. It is ruled by a native
sultan under the Dutch.
BACHMUT (b[.a]_h_-moet'), a town in the Ukraine, government of
Ekaterinoslav, with a trade in cattle, tallow, &c., and coal and rock-salt
mines. Pop. 20,000.
BACILLA'RIA, a genus of microscopic algae, belonging to the class
Diatomaceae, the siliceous remains of which abound in cretaceous, tertiary,
and more recent geological deposits.
BACIL'LUS. See _Bacteria_.
BACK, Admiral Sir George, eminent English Arctic discoverer, born 1796,
died 1878. He accompanied Franklin and Richardson in their northern
expeditions, and in 1833-4 headed an expedition to the Arctic Ocean through
the Hudson Bay Company's territory, on which occasion he wintered at the
Great Slave Lake, and discovered the Back or Great Fish River.
BACKERGUNGE. See _Bakarganj_.
BACKGAM'MON, a game played by two persons upon a table or board made for
the purpose, with pieces or men, dice-boxes, and dice. The table is in two
parts, on which are twenty-four black and white spaces called points. Each
player has fifteen men of different colours for the purpose of distinction.
The movements of the men are made in accordance with the numbers turned up
by the dice.
BACKHAUS, Wilhelm, one of the greatest living pianists, born at Leipzig in
1884. At the age of twenty-one he was appointed a professor at the Royal
College of Music, Manchester. This position, however, he soon gave up, and
since 1905 has devoted his time to concert tours.
BACKHUYSEN (b[.a]k'hoi-zn), Ludolf, a painter of the Dutch school,
particularly celebrated for sea pieces, born in 1631, died 1709. His most
famous picture is a sea piece which the burgomasters of Amsterdam
commissioned him to paint as a present to Louis XVI. It is still at Paris.
BACKWARDA'TION, a stock exchange term signifying the rate paid by a
speculative seller of stock for the privilege of carrying over or
continuing a bargain from one fortnightly account to another, instead of
closing it on the appointed day.
BACNINH, a town of Tongking, on the Red River, fortified and containing a
French garrison, being in an important strategic position. Pop. 7000.
BA'CON, Anthony, elder brother of the celebrated Lord Chancellor, was born
in 1558 and died in 1601. He was a skilful politician, and much devoted to
learned pursuits. He became personally acquainted with most of the foreign
literati of the day, and gained the friendship of Henri IV of France.
Francis Bacon dedicated to him the first edition of the _Essays_.
BACON, Francis, Baron Verulam, Viscount St. Albans, and Lord High
Chancellor of England, was born at London in 1561, died at Highgate in
1626. His father, Nicholas Bacon, was Keeper of the Great Seal under Queen
Elizabeth. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1575 was
admitted to Gray's Inn. From 1576 to 1579 he was at Paris with Sir Amyas
Paulet, the English ambassador. The death of his father called him back to
England, and being left in straitened circumstances he zealously pursued
the study of law, and was admitted a barrister in 1582. In 1584 he became
member of Parliament for Melcombe Regis, and soon after drew up a _Letter
of Advice_ to Queen Elizabeth, an able political memoir. In 1586 he was
member for Taunton, in 1589 for Liverpool. A year or two after he gained
the Earl of Essex as a friend and patron. Bacon's talents and his
connection with the Lord-Treasurer Burleigh, who had married his mother's
sister, and his son, Sir Robert Cecil, First Secretary of State, seemed to
promise him the highest promotion; but he had displeased the queen, and
when he applied for the attorney-generalship, and next for the
solicitor-generalship (1595), he was unsuccessful. Essex endeavoured to
indemnify him by the donation of an estate in land. Bacon, however, forgot
his obligations to his benefactor, and not only abandoned him as soon as he
had fallen into disgrace, but without being obliged took part against him
on his trial, in 1601, and was active in obtaining his conviction. He had
been chosen member for the county of Middlesex in 1593, and for Southampton
in 1597, and had long been a Queen's Counsel. The reign of James I was more
favourable to his interest. He was assiduous in courting the king's favour,
and James, who was ambitious of being considered a patron of letters,
conferred upon him in 1603 the honour of knighthood. In 1604 he was
appointed King's Counsel, with a pension of L60; in 1606 he married; in
1607 he became Solicitor-General, and six years after Attorney-General.
Between James and his Parliament he was anxious to produce harmony, but his
efforts were without avail, and his obsequiousness and servility gained him
enmity and discredit. In 1617 he was made Lord-Keeper of the Seal; in 1618
Lord High Chancellor of England and Baron Verulam. In this year he lent his
influence to bring a verdict of guilty against Raleigh. In 1621 he was made
Viscount St. Albans. Soon after this his reputation received a fatal blow.
A new Parliament was formed in 1621, and the Lord Chancellor was accused
before the House of bribery, corruption, and other malpractices. It is
difficult to ascertain the full extent of his guilt; but he seems to have
been unable to justify himself, and handed in a 'confession and humble
submission', throwing himself on the mercy of the Peers. He was condemned
to pay a fine of L40,000, to be committed to the Tower during the pleasure
of the king, declared incompetent to hold any office of State, and banished
from Court for ever. The sentence, however, was never carried out. The fine
was remitted almost as soon as imposed, and he was imprisoned for only a
few days. He survived his fall a few years, during this time occupying
himself with his literary and scientific works, and vainly hoping for
political employment. In 1597 he published his celebrated _Essays_, which
immediately became very popular, were successively enlarged and extended,
and translated into Latin, French, and Italian. The treatise on the
_Advancement of Learning_ appeared in 1605; _The Wisdom of the Ancients_ in
1609 (in Latin); his great philosophical work, the _Novum Organum_ (in
Latin), in 1620; and the _De Augmentis Scientiarum_, a much enlarged
edition (in Latin) of the _Advancement_, in 1623. His _New Atlantis_ was
written about 1614-7; _Life of Henry VII_ about 1621. Various minor
productions also proceeded from his pen. Numerous editions of his works
have been published, by far the best being that of Messrs. Spedding, Ellis,
and Heath, 1857-9 (reprinted, 1879-90). Bacon was great as a moralist, a
historian, a writer on politics, and a rhetorician; but it is as the father
of the inductive method in science, as the powerful exponent of the
principle that facts must be observed and collected before theorizing, that
he occupies the grand position he holds among the world's great ones. His
moral character, however, was not on a level with his intellectual,
self-aggrandizement being the main aim of his life. We need do no more than
allude to the preposterous attempt that has been made to prove that Bacon
was the real author of the plays attributed to Shakespeare, an attempt that
only ignorance of Bacon and Shakespeare could uphold and
tolerate.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Spedding, _Life and Letters of Francis Bacon_;
R. W. Church, _Bacon_ (in English Men of Letters Series); Sir Sidney Lee,
_Great Englishmen of the Sixteenth Century_; J. M. Robertson, _Short
History of Free-thought_.
BACON, John, English sculptor, born 1740, died 1799. Among his chief works
are two groups for the interior of the Royal Academy; the statue of Judge
Blackstone for All Souls College, Oxford; another of Henry VI for Eton
College; the monument of Lord Chatham in Westminster Abbey; and the statues
of Dr. Johnson and Mr. Howard in St. Paul's Cathedral.
BACON, Sir Nicholas, father of Francis Bacon, Lord-Keeper of the Great
Seal, born 1510, died 1579. Henry VIII gave him several lucrative offices,
which he retained under Edward VI. He lived in retirement during the reign
of Mary, but Queen Elizabeth appointed him Lord-Keeper for life. He was the
intimate friend of Lord Burleigh, a sister of whose wife he married, and by
her became the father of the great Chancellor.
BACON, Roger, an English monk, and one of the most profound and original
thinkers of his day, was born about 1214, near Ilchester, Somersetshire,
died at Oxford in 1294. He first entered the University of Oxford, and went
afterwards to that of Paris, where he is said to have distinguished himself
and received the degree of Doctor of Theology. About 1250 he returned to
England, entered the order of Franciscans and fixed his abode at Oxford;
but having incurred the suspicion of his ecclesiastical superiors, he was
sent to Paris and kept in confinement for ten years, without
writing-materials, books, or instruments. The cause seems to have been
simple enough. He had been a diligent student of the chemical, physical,
and mathematical sciences, and had made discoveries, and deduced results,
which appeared so extraordinary to the ignorant that they were believed to
be works of magic. This opinion was countenanced by the jealousy and hatred
of the monks of his fraternity. In subsequent times he was popularly
classed among those who had been in league with Satan. Having been set at
liberty, he enjoyed a brief space of quiet while Clement IV was Pope; but
in 1278 he was again thrown into prison, where he remained for at least ten
years. Of the close of his life little is known. His most important work is
his _Opus Majus_, where he discusses the relation of philosophy to
religion, and then treats of language, metaphysics, optics, and
experimental science. He was undoubtedly the earliest philosophical
experimentalist in Britain; he made signal advances in optics; was an
excellent chemist; and in all probability discovered gunpowder. He was
intimately acquainted with geography and astronomy, as appears by his
discovery of the errors of the calendar, and their causes, and by his
proposals for correcting them, in which he approached very nearly to
truth.--Cf. E. Charles, _Roger Bacon, sa vie, ses ouvrages, ses doctrines_.
[Illustration: Bacteria--Forms of cells
1. Coccus. 2. Bacillus. 3. Spirillum (vibrio). 4. Spirillum (spirochaete).]
BACTE'RIA (Gr. _bakt[=e]rion_, a rod), a general term applied to the lowest
visible forms of life; other names given are _germs_ or _microbes_. They
are divided into three classes: (1) _cocci_--these are minute spheres about
one twenty-five thousandth of an inch in diameter, arranged in chains or
clusters; (2) _bacilli_--these are straight rods about the breadth of a
coccus and two to four times as long; (3) _spirilla_--here there are two
forms; one is like a bacillus, but curved (spirillum proper or vibrio); the
other is a very fine spiral thread (spirochaete) often only half the
thickness of a vibrio and two to six times as long. Bacteria consist of
protoplasm surrounded by a membrane, and many show active movements; they
all multiply asexually by splitting, and so rapidly may the process occur
that 17,000,000 organisms or more may be formed from one bacterium in
twenty-four hours. The chief part played by bacteria in nature is to cause
putrefaction. They are found on all organic matter, and are therefore
omnipresent. When grown artificially (see _Bacteriology_) they usually
require organic matter for their food, and this they split up into simpler
chemical compounds, some of which are very poisonous to animals (toxins);
they can also split up sugars to produce various alcohols, acids, and
gases. When certain of the bacilli are starved, the living matter gathers
itself up into a spore surrounded by a very resisting membrane, and it can
survive for a long time in this condition. All ordinary bacteria, including
most of those which produce disease, can be killed by a few minutes'
boiling, but the sporing varieties (e.g. many putrefactive forms) withstand
much longer boiling--up to one and a half hours; they can also be killed by
chemical means (see _Disinfection_). Many bacteria are useful to man, and a
few give rise to disease (see _Germ Theory_).
[Illustration: BACTERIA
All the above are magnified 560 times.]
BACTERIOLOGY, the branch of science which deals with the structure and
properties of bacteria. Though the existence of bacteria had been known
from the time when Leeuwenhock arranged lenses so as to form a microscope,
it was through the work of Pasteur that modern knowledge regarding the
group originated. Pasteur's discovery that yeasts are the cause of the
formation of alcohol from sugar was followed by his showing that bacteria
are responsible for other processes of a similar character, e.g. the
formation of vinegar from alcohol, the occurrence of the rancid change in
butter, &c. When he went on to prove that a bacterium was the cause of a
disease of silkworms, a stimulus was given to the germ theory of infection,
and bacteriology was thus early brought intimately into contact with
medical science. Another stimulus to bacteriological inquiry came from the
controversy on spontaneous generation, and Pasteur was one of those who
helped to establish the principle that the new development of living
things, as represented by bacteria, out of non-living matter does not take
place. This led to the inevitable deduction that all putrefactive processes
are due to bacteria. On this Lister founded his antiseptic treatment of
wounds, the practical effects of which focused attention on the important
part played by bacteria in human affairs. The modern science of
bacteriology really dates from 1877, when Koch proved that _Bacillus
anthracis_ is the cause of anthrax in cattle. The outstanding feature of
Koch's research was that in it, for the first time, methods were employed
whereby all extraneous organisms were excluded from the inquiry, and the
way was thus opened up for the study of the properties and effects of one
species of bacterium acting by itself. The chief aspects of his work were
as follows: (1) the determination of the temperatures at which bacteria are
killed; the knowledge of this enables investigators to render free from
living organisms their apparatus and the food materials (usually called
_media_) necessary to support bacterial life (this is called
_sterilization_); (2) the discovery that the insertion of a plug of
cotton-wool in the neck of a vessel (e.g. a flask or test-tube) before its
sterilization constitutes a sufficient filter, which prevents bacteria in
the outside air gaining access to its interior or to any food medium placed
in it for sterilization; (3) the elaboration of a series of media capable
of acting as food for all the commonly occurring bacteria; (4) the
introduction of a simple method of separating from one another bacterial
species which in nature are often growing side by side. This is effected by
making media containing a jelly (e.g. gelatine) which melts at a relatively
low temperature. The bacterial mixture is well diluted in the melted
medium, and this is poured out in a thin layer on a sterile glass plate and
allowed to set. Each individual bacterial cell can thus multiply apart from
neighbouring cells, and, it may be, in a few hours the resulting growth (a
'colony') is visible to the naked eye. A minute part of the colony is
picked off with a heated needle and placed on a mass of sterile medium. In
this way a 'pure culture' of each species present in the original mixture
can be obtained. Koch's work was chiefly concerned with disease bacteria,
and between 1880 and 1895 many such organisms were isolated in pure culture
and their properties investigated (see _Germ Theory of Disease_).
While in the evolution of knowledge the progress of bacteriology has been
most associated with that of medicine and surgery, the science has
fundamental relations with many other human interests, and the same methods
are used in investigating such relationships. The adaptation of these
methods on a commercial scale underlies all industrial processes concerned
in the preserving of milk and in the canning and bottling of meat and fruit
(apart from the addition of chemical preservatives). Since bacteriology
came into existence, many of the most primitive domestic procedures have
been improved and placed on a scientific basis. Thus, butter-making
involves a previous souring of the milk; this is due to bacterial action,
and standard mixtures of milk-souring bacteria are now regularly supplied
by the laboratory as 'starters' of the process. It is recognized that the
disorders of milk, e.g. 'ropiness', 'blue milk', &c., are due to certain
'wild' bacteria gaining access to the dairy. The ripening of such cheeses
as Gorgonzola and Stilton is due to bacteria and allied organisms, and here
again light has been shed on the 'diseases' of cheese by bacteriological
investigation. The pickling of foods by salt, or vinegar, or nitre, is due
to the action of these substances as antiseptics, and a similar principle,
aided by boiling, underlies the making of jams. Again, certain kinds of
bacteria which only flourish at high temperatures are responsible for the
heating of hay and corn stacks, and for the production of ensilage.
Bacteriology is also throwing important light on factors concerned in the
fertility of soils. For example, it has been shown that the little nodules
on the roots of plants of the pea tribe are caused by bacteria; these, in
growing, take up nitrogen from the air, and form compounds which promote
the growth of the plant on which they are parasites and remain to enrich
the soil when the plant dies. In short, there is no industry, which depends
on natural putrefaction being prevented or modified so as to stop at a
particular stage, which bacteriology cannot guide towards securing the most
perfect results.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Fischer, _The Structure and Functions of
Bacteria_; Abbot, _Principles of Bacteriology_; Muir and Ritchie, _Manual
of Bacteriology_; E. R. Stitt, _Practical Bacteriology_; P. H. Hiss and H.
Zinsser, _A Textbook of Bacteriology_.
BACTRIA'NA, or BACTRIA, a country of ancient Asia, south of the Oxus and
reaching to the west of the Hindu Kush. It is often regarded as the
original home of the Indo-European races. A Graeco-Bactrian kingdom
flourished about the third century B.C., but its history is obscure.
BACULI'TES, a fossil genus allied to the ammonites, characteristic of
cretaceous strata, having a straight tapering shell. See _Cephalopoda_.