Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/428

196] BUR Lastly;, it deserves to be noticed, that burnet increases the quantity of milk in cows, and produces go- >d butter : — it is likewise maintained, that the mutton of sheep fed on it, is more juicy, better coloured, and flavoured, than that from any other food ; while it not only cures the rot in sheep, but also recovers such as have scowered. Burnet - Saxifrage. See Anise. BURNING, the action of fire on fuel, the minute parts of which are thereby put into violent com- motion, so that some of these par- ticles assume the nature of fire, and escape, while the. remain,' er is ei- ther dissipated in the form of va- pour, or reduced to ashes. There are many instances on record, of persons who have been burnt to death by fires kindled in their own bodies : but such individuals gene- rally had long indulged to excess in spirituous liquors. Bur/jung, in surgery, denotes the application of the actual cautery, or a red hot instrument, to the part affected. In the Mogul em- pire, the natives cure, or pretend to cure the colic, by applying a ring, red hot, to the patient's na- vel y and among the. Japanese, the practice of burning constitutes nearly the whole of the healing art. It is, however, certain, that several very extraordinary cures have been performed bv burning : and the an- cients frequently had recourse to this remedy, with singular advan- tage. Burning-Glass, or burning mirror, a machine by which the sun's rays are collected into a point, and thus their force and effect con- siderably increased, so as to con- sume objects within its reach. There are two kinds of burninsr BUR glasses, namely, convex and con- cave. Those of the convex form are lenses, which, by acting ac- cording to the laws of refraction, incline the rays of light towards the axis, and unite them in a point, or focus. The concave ones are mirrors, or reflectors, whether made of polished metal, or silvered glass ; which, by the laws of re- flection, throw back die rays into a point before the glass. These instruments are undoubt- edly of very ancient origin : the most celebrated were those of Ar- chimedes and Proclusj by the former of which the fleet of Mar- cellus was destroyed, at the dis- tance of a bow-shot. In modern times, there have been several in- ventions of this kind, remarkable for their large diameter, and pow- erful effects ; the principal of which are those of Magi ne, of Sepatala, Settala, and Buffon - y the latter of whom made one that consisted of 400 mirrors, which reflected all their rays to one point, and with this he could melt lead and tin, at the distance of 140 feet. Sir Isaac Newton presented a burning-glass to the Royal Socie; . , which consisted of seven concave glasses, so placed that all their foci join in one physical point. This instrument virtifies brick or tile in one second, and melts gold in half a minute. Burning of Land, or Bura- laiting, a practice, long employed in agriculture, but now nearly abandoned. It is performed by cutting off the turf of the ground, piling it in heaps to dry, and after- wards burning it to ashes, which are spread over the bare surface and ploughed in. Many consider it as a vt-ry profitable method of dressing, for it need only be used on