Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/705

BXJENOS AYRES. 627 BUFFALO. to capture it during the Seventeentli Century, and in 1776 it became the capital of the new viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata or Buenos Ayres. After driving out the Enijlish. who had taken the city by surprise, in 18U(i. the inhabi- tants repelled another aitack in tlic following year. The congress whioli jiroclainied the inde- |)endence of the country from Spain on May 22, ISIO, met here, and the city became capital of tile Republic of the United Provinces of the River Plata in 182G. The port was blockaded by the French and English in 184.5. After the strug- gle between Rosas and I'rquiza in 1851, Buenos Ayres seceded from the Republic, and till 1859 formed, with the surrounding province, a sepa- rate State. Since that time the city has been part of the confederation, and. liy a decree of 1880. has been definitely made the capital of Argentina and is divided from the province bear- ing its name. In 1871 the city suffered a ter- rible epidemic of yellow fever. Consult: Txirner. Argentine and the Argen- tines (New York, 1892) ; Bureau of the Ameri- can Republics. Handbook of Argentine Republic, Bulletin 61 (Washington, 1892); Anuario esta- distico de la eiudad de Buenos Aires; Curtis, "Buenos Avres." in The Vhautauquan, Vol. XXIX. (Meadville. Pa., 1899). BUENOS AYRES, Uxiver-sitt of (Univer- i-idad Xaeiondl dc Buenos Aires). The largest educational institution in South America. It had, in 1900, some 2665 students. Its faculties include law and government, mathematics, science, and philosophy. BUFARIK, biTo'fa-rek'. See BouFF.RlK. BUFF, bfTTTf, Heineich (1805-78). A German physicist and chemist. He was born at Rodel- lieim, near Frankfort, and studied at the uni- versities oP Gijttingen and Giessen (under Lie- big), and with Gay-Lussac in Paris. He was for many years professor of physics at the Uni- versity of Giessen. His principal works are the following: Grund:^iige des chemischen Teils der Xaturlehre (18.32) ; Grundriss der Experiniental- physik (1853) ; Lehrbuch der physikalisehen und theoret ischen Chemie, in collaboration with Kopp and Zaniminer, as Vol. I. of Otto's well-known Lehrbuch der Chemie (3d ed. 1885). He was associated with Liebig in founding (1847) the celebrated Jahresiericht iiber die Fortschritte der Chemie. BUFFALMACCO, boo'fal-niiik'ko. BuoK.- Mico. The adopted name of Buonamico Chris- tofani, an Italian painter of the Florentine School, who is supposed to have lived in the Fourteenth Century. He is reported by Vasari to have been a pupil of Andrea Tafi, and to have executed the splendid frescoes in the hall of the Campo Santo in Pisa, illustrating the Passion, as well as a number of paintings in Bologn.a and Assisi. He is mentioned in the novels of Boccaccio and Sacehetti ; and, in the absence of reliable information concerning him, is believed by many to have been a mythical figure. BUFFALO (Sp. biifalo, Med, Lat. bufalus, Lat. buhiilus, wild ox, from Gk. pui-^a'/Mr^ bouba- los, a species of African ant<?lope). Properly, an ox of the restricted bovine genus Bubalus, and specifically Bubalus buffelus. of India. The word, however, has been broadly applied not only to many heavy oxen, such as those of Africa, and to the American bison (»ee Bison), but also to certain large antelopes (see Buiialis, to which, perhaps, it originally belonged), and to other large ruminants: thus the city of Buffalo. N. Y., probably derives its name through a misnomer by early wanderers of the wapiti. The bullaloes (irojier form a group of o.en "chieHy character- i/.ecf by their more or less llattened and angulated luuns. which incline upward and backward, with an inward curve toward their tips, and are placed before the . . . vertex of the skull." The type is the Indian or Water Buffalo, of which small wild herds still exist in many parts of India, the finest belonging to Assam and Burma. This animal, called by the natives 'arnee' (Hind., masc. arna, fcm. ami), is the largest of w'ild cattle, standing 6 feet high at the withers, and having a spread of horns sometimes exceed- ing 6 feet. It is bluish-black, nearly hairless, and frequents swampy jungles, where it is re- garded as exceedingly dangerous, as it will charge a man entirely unprovoked, and when, perhaps, its presence is unsuspected. A band forming a circle, with lowered heads, around the cows and calves defy the bear or tiger, and a, lone bull has been known to vanquish a tiger in single combat; combats between them have been a favorite sport among Indian princes. This buflalo has long been domesticated, first on the Indian plains, whence it was carried elsewhere in prehistoric times. It is highly valued in Malaya, China, and Japan, especially where rice is cul- tivated, and the earabao of the Philippines is only a variety of it. It reached Kgypt very long ago, but subsequently to the era of the nioini- ments and picture-writings; and it has gone far up the Nile, and will probably be carried much farther into the swamjiy region now opening to civilization, becau.se of its usefulness in soft, wet lands, and its fondness for coarse aquatic vegetation in preference to dry and more costly forage. It has long been used, also, in the Niger Valley. It was introduced into Italy later than Roman times, and thrives in the Pontine marshes on the pestilential Maremma ; and it plays an important part in western Asia, Turkey, Hungary, and southeastern Spain. "The buffalo loves mud and moist ground." says Hornaday (Two Years in the Jungle), "and nature has pro- vided these broad splay feet to prevent the ani- mal from sinking too deeply in the mud. He carries his head precisely like a camel, low down, with nose thrust far forward . . . and to look at the whole head one would say that the beast was created with especial reference to running rapidly through very thick brush," It is said to be far more powerful than the ox. and capable of dragging or carrying a far heavier load. The female yields a much greater (luantity of milk than a cow, and of excellent quality, from which the ghee or semi-lluid butter of India is made. The hide is greatly valued for its strength and durability, but the flesh is very inferior to that of the ox. See Catti.e. The African Buffaloes are of two species, the South African or Cape Buffalo [Bubalus caffer) , which also extends northeasterly to Abyssinia; and the West -frican species (Bubalus pumiius) . These may be separable into several distinct sjiecies or varieties. The ty|iic;il and well-known South African buffalo is nearly the equal in size of the Indian one. and like it has a bluish black hide, in old age almost completely li:iirless. Its horns, however, are somewhat