Butler, William Archer, M.A., was born at Annesvillc, Ireland, 1*14, and brought up a Romanist. Convinced of the errors of Rome, he became a Protes- tant, and entered Trinity College, Dublin, where his eminent talents were so conspicuous that in 1837, wdien a professorship of Moral Philosophy was established, he was appointed to the chair. His lectures were great- ly applauded, and his pulpit talents and zeal at the same time gave him great popularity. He died in
1848. After his death appeared Sermons, Devotional and Practical, with Memoir by Woodward (Dublin,
1849, 1850, 2 vols.; Phil. 2 vols. 12mo) :— Letters on Development, in Reply to Newman (Dublin, 1850, 8vo; 2ded. Cambridge, 1858, 8vo) :— Lectures on History of Philosophy (Dublin and Cambridge, 1856, "_' vols. 8vo; Phil. 1857, 2 vols, liino). The sermons are among the best that have been printed in the last 30 years. On his work on 1>< a lopm nt, see. Lon Ion Review, Oct. 1859.
Buts. Sec Linen.
Butter is the rendering in the Auth. Vers, of nx*2n, chemah' (after the Sept. fiovrvpov, Vulg. bw tyru'm), wherever it occurs (in Job xxix, 6, the form is iTQH; in Psa.lv, 21, it is PSWrra, machamaothT) ; but critics agree that usually, at least, it signifies cur- il'i d milk ( from an obsolete root, fran, chamah, to grow thick). Indeed, it may be doubted whether it denotes butter in any place besides Dent, xxxii, 14, "butter of kine," and Prov. x\x, :!:;, "the churning of milk bringeth forth butter," as all the other texts will apply better to curdled milk than to butter. In Gen. xviii, 8, "butter and milk" are mentioned among the things which Abraham se( before his heavenly guests (comp. Judg. v, 25; 2 Sun. xvii, 29). Milk is generally of- fered to travellers in Palestine in a curdled or sour state, ulebben," thick, almost like butter (comp. Josc- phus's rendering in Judg. iv, 19, ya\a 5u(p9op6c f)Sn). In Deut. xxxii, 15, we find among the blessings which Jeshurun had enjoyed milk of kine contrasted with milk of sheep. The two passages in Job (xx, 17 ; xxix, 8) where the «r>nl cht mah occurs are also best satisfied by rendering it milk; and the same may be said of Psa. Iv, 21, which should be compared with Job xxix, (i. [n Prov. xxx, 33, Gesenius thinks that cheesi is meant, the associated word ""*- signifying pressun rather than "churning." Jarchi (on Gen. xviii, 8) explains chemah to be cream, and Vitringa and Eitzig give this meaning to the word in Isa. vii, 15 22. See Milk.
Butter was, however, doubtless much in use among the Hebrews, and WO may be SUTC that it '.\as prepared in the same manner as at this day among the Arabs
BUTTEliWOUTH
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and Syrians. Butter was not in use among the Greeks and Romans except for medicinal purposes, but this fact is of no weight as to its absence from Palestine. Robinson mentions the use of butter at the present da)' (Bib. Res. ii. 127), and also the method of churning (ii, 180; iii, 315); and from this we may safely infer that the art of butter-making was known to the ancient in- habitants of the land, so little have the habits of the people of Palestine been modified in the lapse of cen- turies. Burckhardt (Travels in Arabia, i, 52) men- tions the different uses of butter by the Arabs of the Hejaz. The milk is put into a large copper pan over a slow fire, and a little leben or sour milk (the same as the curdled milk mentioned above), or a portion of the dried entrails of a lamb, is thrown into it. The milk then separates, and is put into a goat-skin bag, which is tied to one of the tent poles, and constantly moved backward and forward for two hours. The buttery substance then coagulates, the water is pressed out, and the butter put into another skin. In two days the butter is again placed over the fire, with the addi- tion of a quantity of burgoul (wheat boiled with leaven and dried in the sun), and allowed to boil for some time, during which it is carefully skimmed. It is then found that the burgoul has precipitated all the foreign substances, and that the butter remains quite clear at the top. This is the process used by the Bed- ouins, and it is also the one employed by the settled people of Syria and Arabia. 'Ihe chief difference is that, in making butter and cheese, the townspeople em- ploy the milk of cows and buffaloes, whereas the Bed- ouins, who do not keep these animals, use that of sheep and goats. The butter is generally white, of the color and consistence of lard, and is not much relished by English travellers. It is eaten with bread in large quantities by those who can afford it; not spread out thinly over the surface as with us, but taken in mass with the separate morsels of bread. See Foon. The butter of the Hebrews, such as it was, might have been sometimes clarified and preserved in skins or jars, as at the present day in Asia, and, when poured out, resembles rich oil (Job xx, 17). By this process it acquires a certain rancid taste, disagreeable, for the most part, to strangers, though not to the natives. All Arab food considered well prepared swims in but- ter, and large quantities of it are swallowed indepen- dently. The place of butter, as a general article of food in the East, was supplied in some measure by the vegetable oil which was so abundant. Butter and hone}- were used together, and were esteemed anions the richest productions of the land (Isa. vii. 15); and travellers toll us that the Arabs use cream or newbut- tei mixed with honev as a principal delicacy. See Oil.