c.; his health giving way, he fell into
poverty, but was rescued by a public subscription and a pension; Michael
survived him 32 years (1798-1842).

BANKS, SIR JOSEPH, a zealous naturalist, particularly in botany; a
collector, in lands far and wide, of specimens in natural history; left
his collection and a valuable library and herbarium to the British
Museum; president of the Royal Society for 41 years (1744-1820).

BANKS, THOMAS, an eminent English sculptor, born at Lambeth; first
appreciated by the Empress Catharine; his finest works, "Psyche" and
"Achilles Enraged," now in the entrance-hall of Burlington House; he
excelled in imaginative art (1735-1805).

BANNATYNE CLUB, a club founded by Sir Walter Scott to print rare
works of Scottish interest, whether in history, poetry, or general
literature, of which it printed 116, all deemed of value, a complete set
having been sold for L235; dissolved in 1861.

BAN`NOCKBURN (2), a manufacturing village 3 m. SE. of Stirling, the
scene of the victory, on June 24, 1314, of Robert the Bruce over Edward
II., which reasserted and secured Scottish independence; it manufactures
carpets and tartans.

BAN`SHEE, among the Irish, and in some parts of the Highlands and
Brittany, a fairy, believed to be attached to a family, who gave warnings
by wailings of an approaching death in it, and kept guard over it.

BANTAM, a chief town in Java, abandoned as unhealthy by the Dutch;
whence the Bantam fowl is thought to have come.

BANTING SYSTEM, a dietary for keeping down fat, recommended by a Mr.
Banting, a London merchant, in a "Letter on Corpulence" in 1863; he
recommended lean meat, and the avoidance of sugar and starchy foods.

BANTRY BAY, a deep inlet on the SW. coast of Ireland; a place of
shelter for ships.

BANTU, the name of most of the races, with their languages, that
occupy Africa from 6 deg. N. lat. to 20 deg. S.; are negroid rather than negro,
being in several respects superior; the name, however, suggests rather a
linguistic than an ethnological distinction, the language differing
radically from all other known forms of speech--the inflection, for one
thing, chiefly initial, not final.

BANVILLE, THEODORE DE, a French poet, born at Moulins; well
characterised as "_Roi des Rimes_," for with him form was everything, and
the matter comparatively insignificant, though, there are touches here
and there of both fine feeling and sharp wit (1823-1891).