to remark, that shoes or boots, thus prepared, ought not to be worn till they have become perfectly dry and elastic; as, in the contrary case, the leather will be too soft, and wear out much sooner than even the common kind.
BORAGE, the Common, or Borago officinalis, L. a native plant, frequently found growing in waste lands, and upon old walls; it is rough, and clothed with small prickly hairs; has alternate leaves, and bears blue spreading flowers in June and July. See With. 230, and Engl. Bot. 36.
The flowers of the borage are much frequented by bees, and the plant itself may be used as a culinary vegetable, or as an ingredient in lettuce-salad, to which it imparts an agreeable flavour. The whole of this plant abounds with nitrous particles, which may be easily obtained by elixation; for after evaporating the lixivium to a proper consistence, and allowing it to stand in a cool place, crystals will be formed, which deflagrate upon the fire, and possess all the properties of salt-petre.
BORAX, in chemistry, a salt produced in the mountains of Thibet, in Asia, both naturally and artificially by evaporation.
The borax imported from China is purer than that of Thibet, and is found in a natural state in small masses of irregular crystals, of a faint white colour. Beside the vitrescible earth, which is an essential principle of borax, it contains copper and the marine acid, but no traces of the vitriolic. It has also been clearly proved by experiments, that borax consists of fossil alkali, in some degree neutralized by a peculiar salt. When dissolved and crystalized, it forms small transparent masses; and the refiners have a method of shooting it into large crystals, which, however, in many respects differ from, and are inferior to, the genuine salt.
Borax is useful in metallurgy, for soldering; in the fusion of vitrifiable earths, with which it forms glass; as well as in several other chemical processes; and dyers frequently employ it for giving a gloss to silks.
Its medical properties have not been sufficiently investigated. Mr. Bisset recommends a weak solution of this salt in water, for healing aphthous crusts, or the thrush in the mouth and fauces of children. A small quantity of it, powdered and mixed with sugar, is often applied for the same purpose. We are not acquainted with a more balsamic application to sore nipples, or chapped lips and hands in frosty weather, than a few grains of borax dissolved in warm water, with the addition of a little pure honey.
BOTANY, that part of natural history which relates to plants or vegetables.
This pleasing science had the misfortune of being, from its infancy, considered merely as a branch of medicine; and while the naturalist was employed in discovering the virtues of plants, the knowledge of their organization was in a great measure neglected.
In consequence of this erroneous idea of botany, the study of it was for a long time confined to medicinal plants; which were searched for with a view to discover remedies.
On the revival of letters, instead of investigating plants in the garden of Nature, they were studied only in the writings of Pliny and
