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90 BORBECK BORDEAUX metal used ; thus cobalt oxide gives a blue glass, chromium oxide a green glass, and so on. On this property depends its use not only in analytical chemistry, where it serves to deter- j mine certain metals before the blowpipe, but also in soldering. Borax is largely used in making strass, enamels, and some kinds of glass, and in vitreous pigments for glass and porcelain ; in glazing earthenware ; as a flux to reduce certain metals from their ores ; and in South America, under the name of quemawn, the crude substance is actually used in smelting copper. With shellac (in the proportions 1 to 5) it forms a varnish soluble in water, used in stiffening felt hats. With caseine it makes an adhesive substance that may be used instead of gum arabic. Borax is used instead of soap for washing the gum out of silk, instead of sal soda in the laundry, to cleanse the hair, and as a cosmetic. In printing and dyeing establish- ments it has been proposed to use it to fix the mineral mordants. Aqueous borax has been proposed as an agent for tho preservation of wood. In medicine it is employed for many diseases connected with the bladder and the uterus, and also as a wash for cutaneous erup- tions, canker in the mouth, and ringworm. It has the property of making cream of tartar, when boiled together with it, very soluble in water, and this soluble cream of tartar is often found a convenient preparation when large doses of this medicine are required. It is also used to expel cockroaches from closets and pantries, these insects seeming to have an antip- athy for it. BORBECK, a town of Rhenish Prussia, on the Ruhr, 4 m. N. W. of Essen ; pop. in 1871, 16,857. It has a castle, and is the seat of a nourishing iron industry ; in the vicinity are several coal mines. The place is rapidly increasing in popu- lation. BORDA, Jean Charles, a French mathematician, born at Dax, May 4, 1733. died in Paris, Feb. 20, 1799. He served as a young man both in the army and navy, and gave much study to the principles of projectiles and the construction of vessels. Chosen a member of the academy in 1756, he furnished to it several valuable contri- butions on these subjects. He was employed by the government in 1771 on expeditions to ascer- tain the value of chronometers in determining longitudes. He was sent on several geographical expeditions, and was one of the commissioners with Delambre and Mechain to determine the arc of a meridian as the basis of the metrical system of measures and weights. A new in- strument for measuring the inclination of the magnetic needle was invented by him, and he made important improvements in the reflecting circle for the accurate measurement of angles. He rose to the rank of major general of marines, serving as such in the American war of inde- pendence. He wrote several works on mathe- matics and navigation, and constructed loga- rithmic tables for the centesimal division of the quadrant. BORNE, Andrew, an English physician, born at Pevensey, Sussex, about 1500, died in Lon- don in April, 1549. He travelled in various parts of Europe and Africa, and finally settled down as a physician in England. It is said that he became fellow of the college of physi- cians in London, but he died insolvent in the Fleet prison. He wrote several works of a humorous character, and is said to have given rise to the phrase "merry Andrew," from his practice of making droll speeches at fairs and public gatherings, to attract the people. BORDEAUX (anc. Burdigala), a city and sea- port of France, capital of the department of Gironde, on the left bank of the river Garonne, 58 m. from its mouth, and 307 m. S. W. of Paris; pop. in 1866, 194,241. Long before the Christian era Burdigala was a commercial em-' porium, and the chief town of the Bituriges Vivisci, a Celtic nation of southern Gaul. In the 2d century Hadrian made it the metropolis of Aquitania Secunda. During the decline and after the fall of the Roman empire it suffered successively at the hands of the Goths, Vnn- dals, Saracens, and Normans. It was annexed to the Frankish kingdom by Clovis, and recon- quered from the Saracens by Charles Martel. On the final dissolution of the Carlovingian empire it became the capital of the duchy of Aquitaine. Eleanor of Aquitaine united it to France >y her marriage with Louis VII. ; but after her divorce she married Henry Plantage- net, afterward king of England (1164), thus subjecting the duchy to the English crown. From that period until the middle of the 15th century Bordeaux remained in the possession of the English, and in the 14th century the Black Prince made it the seat of his court. The city was the last to submit to Charles VII. of France, in 1453. Since that time the city has been substantially rebuilt, and now is architec- turally one of the finest in Europe. In the first revolution it was the headquarters of the Girondists, and suffered much during the reign of terror. Under Napoleon it was injured by the continental blockade, and toward the close of his reign became noted for its loyalty to Louis XVIII. In December, 1870, the delega- tion of the provisional government of France, consisting of Gambetta, Glais-Bizoin, and Cre- mieux, which during the first months of the siege of Paris had governed the provinces from Tours, established itself at Bordeaux ; and on Feb. 12, 1871, the national assembly of the French republic met there, removing to Ver- sailles in March. Besides the palace or amphi- theatre of Gallienus, very few remains of the Roman monuments are to be seen. Those of the middle ages have been better preserved; among these are the cathedral of St. Andr6, an imposing though irregular Gothic edifice, con- secrated in 1096 and completed in the 15th cen- tury ; the church of St. Michel, built about the 12th century; the church of Ste. Croix, built before the middle of the 7th century, and re- stored by Charlemagne ; the imperial college,