Buffon, George Louis Leclerc
George Louis Leclerc (1707-1788), a celebrated French naturalist. Educated at Dijon for the law, but permitted by an intelligent father to follow his inclination for natural history. After traveling in England and Italy, Buffon was admitted to membership in the Academy, a French learned society, and, later, was appointed to a position in the royal garden and museum. Buffon conceived the project of a Natural History in French which should popularize the science. In this he succeeded. His history passed through several editions and was translated into foreign languages. Many condensed editions were sold. Buffon's Natural History in a single volume, with extended accounts of the cat, dog, and other domestic animals, was a household favorite in England and America fifty years ago. Scientific men have found fault with Buffon for inaccuracy, claiming that he preferred to write brilliantly rather than accurately, and certainly he was an entertaining writer. A complete edition of the history in French, 1749-1788, filled thirty-six volumes. His History of Quadrupeds is considered the best single part of the work. 2026 Editor's Note: Buffon was braver than the entry suggests. He argued that the earth was far older than the biblical few thousand years — he privately guessed millions — and was forced by the Sorbonne to publish a retraction he plainly did not mean. He also speculated that species change over time, laying groundwork Darwin would build on, and posed "Buffon's needle," a puzzle that founded geometric probability. (Ed: BR 2026-06-19)
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Bug (English name of the suborder h)
the English name of the suborder h heteroptera, one of two ranked under the order hemiptera or rhyncota. Most of the species essentially resemble the bed-bug, except that they have wings. Some suck the blood , of animals and others subsist on vegetable juices. Not a few species are beautiful, but many have the same unpleasant smell which emanates from the bed-bug. The unattractive form and manner of life of the bed-bug are too well known to require description. The eggs, which are white, are deposited in the beginning of summer. They are glued to the crevices of bedsteads or furniture, or to the walls of rooms. Before houses existed, the bug probably lived under the bark of trees.
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Bug (Name of two Russian rivers)
the name of two Russian rivers. The western Bug rises in the Republic of Ukraine, near Lemberg, and after a course of about 470 miles, forming, for the most way, the E. frontier of Poland, it joins the Vistula, near Warsaw. The eastern Bug, the Hypanis of the ancients, rises in Podolia, Republic of Ukraine, and flows 520 miles S. E. into the estuary of the Dnieper. They both played an important part during the World War, and their banks and the adjoining regions saw much and very heavy fighting.
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Bugbane
a name given in this country to cimicifuga, a plant of the order ranunculacea (crowfoots). It is called in England bugwort.
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Bugenhagen
JOHANN (bö'Genhä'Gen), a German reformer, friend and helper of Luther in preparing his translation of the Bible, born in 1485. He fled from his Catholic superiors to Wittenberg, in 1521, where he was made, in 1522, Professor of Theology. He effected the union of the Protestant free cities with the Saxons and introduced into Brunswick, Hamburg, Lübeck, Pomerania, Denmark, and many other places, the Lutheran service and church discipline. He translated the Bible into Low German (Lübeck, 1533); wrote an "Exposition of the Book of Psalms" and a "History of Pomerania." He died in 1558.
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Bugle
a palæarctic genus of labiatæ. The common bugle (A. reptans) is abundant in moist pastures and woods of Europe. Its flowers are generally blue, but white and purplish varieties are sometimes grown in flower borders. A. alpina is one of the beautiful flowers of the Swiss Alps.
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Bugle
a treble instrument of brass or copper, differing from the trumpet in having a shorter and more conical tube, with a less expanded bell. It is played with a cupped mouthpiece. In the original form it is the signal horn for the infantry, as the trumpet is for the cavalry.
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Bugloss
a popular name applied to a number of plants of the natural order boragineæ, and in particular to the alkanet. BÜHL, or BOULLE, unburnished gold, brass, or mother of pearl, worked into patterns for ornamenting furniture. Set as an ornament into surfaces of ebony or dark wood, or tortoise shell.
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Buguet
A French photographer who came to London in 1874 and there produced spirit photographs with considerable skill. Many persons claimed to recognise their friends in the spirit pictures, and even after Buguet had been arrested, and had confessed that he had resorted to trickery, there were yet a number of persons who refused to believe that he was a fraud, and thought that he had been bribed to confess trickery of which he was innocent. (See Spirit Photography .)
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Buhl
bul, a sort of inlaid work named for the famous French cabinetmaker of that name, 1642-1732. The term was applied originally to a pattern of highly polished brass, set with care in a surface of some other metal or of wood. It is now applied chiefly to inlaid work in veneer. Two sheets of wood of contrasting colors, as maple and black walnut, are glued together with an intermediate sheet of paper. A pattern, as of an ivy vine, is traced on one surface and cut out with a fine scroll saw running through both woods. The two woods are then split apart through the paper cleavage. If the sawing is true, the two ivy vines may exchange places. The light ivy vine fits in to the dark border, and the dark ivy fits into the light border. By gluing the two veneers to wooden backs and finishing, two pieces of inlaid wood, or buhl work are produced. This method is employed by makers of furniture and ornamental wood-work. See Furniture 2026 Editor's Note: The name is a French cabinetmaker's, usually spelled Boulle — the entry gives the German form. His brass-and-tortoiseshell marquetry for Louis XIV became so admired that "Boulle work" was copied for two centuries, and original pieces are now among the most valuable furniture in the world. (Ed: BR 2026-07-15)
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