And again he remarks:—“Bacteria prey upon morbid structure, and upon the substances resulting from the death of bioplasm (protoplasm). We ought not, therefore, to be surprised at their existence in disease. They are found in great numbers amongst pus-corpuscles which have ceased to live, and they grow and multiply with great rapidity in fluids which contain disease germs, as soon as these begin to lose their specific powers and to undergo decomposition.” See Germs.
BAD′′GER (băj′-ĕr). Syn. Me′les, L.; Blaireau, Fr.; Dachs, Ger. The ur′sus me′les (Linn.), one of the plantigrade carnivora, a burrowing nocturnal animal, common in Europe, Asia, and North America. Since the extirpation of the bear, the badger is the sole representative of the ursine family in our indigenous zoology. Its habits are “nocturnal, inoffensive, and slothful; its food consists of roots, earth-nuts, fruits, the eggs of birds, insects, reptiles, and the smaller quadrupeds; its noxious qualities are consequently few and of slight moment, and by no means justify the exterminating war unintermittently waged against it.” (Brande.) Its “muscular strength is great, its bite proverbially powerful; and a dog must be trained and encouraged to enter willingly into combat” with it. (Id.)
Uses, &c. The flesh of the badger is prized as food; the skin used for pistol furniture; the hair made into brushes. The American badger is commonly called the GROUND-HOG. The Cape badger produces HYRACEUM (which see).
BAD′IANE (-e-ăhn). [Fr.] Syn. Bad′ian, B.-seed. Star-anise seed.
BADI′′GEON (bă-dĭzh′ōne; băd′-e-zhŭn‡, or bă-dĭj′ŭn‡—Smart). Among operatives and artists, any cement used to fill up holes and to cover defects in their work. Among statuaries, a mixture of plaster and free-stone is commonly used for this purpose; among joiners and carpenters, a mixture of sawdust and glue, or of whiting and glue; and among coopers, one of tallow and chalk. The name is also given to a stone-coloured mixture used for the fronts of houses, and said to be composed of wood-dust and lime, slaked together, stone powder, and a little ochre, umber, or sienna; the whole being mixed up with weak alum water to the consistence of paint, and laid on in dry weather.
BAEL. [Nat.] Syn. Indian bael, Bel*; Bael, B. in′dicus, Be′la, B. in′dica, L. The œg′le marmelos (Correa; cratæva m., Linn.) one of the Aurantiaceæ (DC.). Dried half-ripe fruit imported from the E. Indies, under the name of Indian bael. Astringent and refrigerant; highly extolled in chronic dysentery, diarrhœa, English cholera, and relaxations generally. It is also used in bilious fevers, hypochondriasis, melancholia, &c. Root-bark, stem-bark, and expressed juice of the leaves, particularly the first, also used in the same cases in India. Ripe fruit fragrant and delicious; used, in the E. I., as a warm cathartic, and regarded as a certain cure for habitual costiveness. Mucus of the seeds used by painters as size; also as a cement. Unripe fruit used to dye yellow. It is generally administered under the form of DECOCTION or EXTRACT (which see).
BAGASSE′ (-găs′). [Fr.] The dry refuse stalks of the sugar cane as they leave the crushing-mill.—Used as fuel in the colonial sugar-houses.
BAGG′ING. The cloth or materials of which bags or sacks are made. In agriculture, applied to a method of reaping corn by a chopping, instead of a drawing cut. See Rats, &c.
BAHIA POWDER. See Araroba.
BAHR’S NON-POISONOUS MEDICAL SNUFF. A snuff largely advertised in the Berlin journals, composed chiefly of powdered galls. (Hager.)