Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 5, BUR-CHI

BUT [ 29 ] BUT
Butlerage ed to them by King John and Edward I. by a charter
*1 called charta mercatoria.
. Butlerage was originally the only cuflorn that was
payable upon the importation of wines, and was taken
and received by virtue of the regal prerogative, for the
proper ufe of the crown. But for many years paid,
there having been granted by parliament fublidies to
the kings of England, and the duty of butlerage not
repealed, but confirmed, they have been pleafed to
grant the fame way to fome noblemen, who by virtue
of fuch grant, are to enjoy the full benefit and advan¬
tage thereof, and may caufe the fame to be collefted
in the fame manner that the kings themfelves were for¬
merly wont to do.
BUTMENT. Butments of arches are the fame
with buttreffes. They anfwer to what the Romans call
fubh'cas, the French culees and butees.
Butments, or Abutments, of a bridge, denote the
two maflives at the end of a bridge, whereby the two
extreme arches are fuflained and joined with the there
on either fide.
BUTOMDS, the Flowering-rush, or Water-
gladiole. See Botany Index.
BUTRINTO, a port-town of Epirus, or Canina,
in Turkey in Europe, fituated oppofite to the ifland of
Corfu, at the entrance of the gulf of Venice. E.
Long. 20. 40. N. Lat. 39. 45.
BUTT is ufed for a veffel, or meafure of wine, con¬
taining two hogfheads, or 126 gallons j otherwife call¬
ed pipe. A butt of currants is from 1500 to 2200
pounds weight.
BUTTS, or Butt-ends, in the fea-language, are the
fore ends of all planks under water, as they rife, and
ure joined one end to another.—Butt-ends in great
fliips are moft carefully bolted ; for if any one of them
fhould fpring or give way, the leak would be very
dangerous and difficult to flop.
Butts, the place where archers meet with their
bows and arrows to fhoot at a mark, which is called
(hooting at the butts : (See Archery.)—Alfo butts
are the fhort pieces of land in arable ridges and fur¬
rows.
BUTTER, a fat undluous fubftance, prepared from
milk by beating or churning.
It was late ere the Greeks appear to have had any
notion of butter •, their poets make no mention of it,
and are yet frequently fpeaking of milk and cheefe.
The Romans ufed butter no otherwife than as a me¬
dicine, never as a food.
According to Beckman, the invention of butter be¬
longs neither to the Greeks nor the Romans. The
former, he thinks, derived their knowledge of butter
from the Scythians, the Thracians and Phrygians j and
the latter from the people of Germany.
The ancient Chriilians of Egypt burnt butter in
their lamps inflead of oil; and in the Roman churches,
it was anciently allowed, during Chriftmas time, to
burn butter inftead of oil, on account of the great con-
fumption of it otherwife.
Butter is the fat, oily, and inflammable part of the
milk. This kind of oil is naturally diftributed through
all the fubftance of the milk in very fmall particles,
which are interpofed betwixt the cafeous and ferous
parts, amongit which it is fufpended by a flight adhe-
fion, but without being dillblved. It is in the fame ftate Butter,
in which oil is in emulfions : hence the fame whitenefs ■Y“““
of milk and emullions *, and hence, by reft, the oily
parts feparate from both thefe liquors to the furface,
and form a cream. See Emulsion.
When butter is in the ftate of cream, its proper oily
parts are not yet fufficiently united together to form
a homogeneous mafs. They are ftill half feparated by
the interpofttion of a pretty large quantity of ferous
and cafeous particles. The butter is completely form¬
ed by pretling out thefe heterogeneous parts by means
of continued percuffion. It then becomes an uniform
foft mafs.
Frefli butter which has undergone no change, has
fcarce any fmell; its tafte is mild and agreeable $ it
melts with a weak heat, and none of its principles are
difengaged by the heat of boiling water. Thefe pro¬
perties prove, that the oily part of butter is of the na¬
ture of the fat, fixed, and mild oils obtained from many
vegetable fubftances by expreflion. See Oils.—The
half fluid confidence of butter, as of moft other con¬
crete oily matters, is thought to be owing to a con-
fiderable quantity of acid united with the oily part j
which acid is fo wrell combined, that it is not percep¬
tible while the butter is freffi and has undergone no
change •, but when it growrs old, and undergoes fome
kind of fermentation, then the acid is difengaged more
and more ; and this is the caufe that butter, like oils
of the fame kind, becomes rancid by age.
Butter is conftantly ufed in food, from its agreeable
tafte : but to be wholefome, it muft be very frefli and
free from rancidity, and alfo not fried or burnt •, other-
wife its acrid and even cauftic acid, being difengaged,
diforders digeftion, renders it difficult and painful, ex¬
cites acrid empyreumatic belchings, and introduces
much acrimony into the blood. Some perfons have
ftomachs fo delicate, that they are even affe£ted with
thefe inconveniences by frefti butter and milk. This
obfervation is alfo applicable to oil, fat, chocolate, and
in general to all oleaginous matteis.
For the making of butter, fee Agriculture Index.
The trade in butter is very confiderable. Some
compute 50,000 tons annually confumed in London.
It is chiefly made within 40 miles round the city.
Fifty thoufand firkins are faid to be fent yearly from
Cambridge and Suffolk alone : each firkin containing
561bs. Utoxeter in Staffordire is a market famous for
good butter, infomuch that the London merchants have
eftabliffied a fadlory there for that article. It is
bought by the pot, of a long cylindrical form, weigh¬
ing 141b.
Shower of BUTTER. Naturalifts fpeak of fhowers
and dews of a butyraceous fubftance. In 1695, there
fell in Ireland, during the winter and enfuing fpring,.
a thiek yellow dew, which had the medicinal properties
of butter.
Butter, among chemifts, a name given to feveral
preparations, on account of their confiftence refembling
that of butter •, as butter of antimony, &c. See Che¬
mistry Index.
BUTTER-Bur. See Tussilago, Botany 7W<?.y.
BuTTER-Milh, the milk which remains after the but¬
ter is produced by churning. Butter-milk is efteemedan
excellent food, in the fpring efpecially, and is particu¬
larly