AZZARA, Joseph Felix Nicholas de, a celebrated Spanish naturalist. He was born in 1731, at Barbanales, a village near Barbastro, in the province of Aragon. He discovered an early disposition towards the arts and sciences, which was directed and stimulated by his near relation the celebrated painter Mengs. He entered into the military service at an early age, and in the capacity of officer passed to South America, and resided many years in different parts of the province of Buenos Ayres. Here he indulged his disposition for the study of zoology, and lived many years in some of the most sequestered parts, making collections and drawings of the various animals of that extensive country. The latter, with descriptions, were at length published at Paris in 1801. When here-turned from South America, he was employed in the diplomatic department, and appointed ambassador to Pope Clement XII., by which he was brought into contact with Buonaparte, who was then occupied in the conquest of Italy. He became much attached to that conqueror, and obtained the appointment of ambassador to him from the court of Madrid. Amidst the shifting politics of that court, he seems to have been, in his latter years, the frequent victim of its indecision. He was at one time recalled suddenly, then banished to Barcelona, again appointed to the embassy, and again as suddenly deprived of it. These vexations affected him, and are said to have hastened his death. He died in Paris on the 26th of January 1804.

B.

Ε> the second letter, and first consonant, in all known -ŋ? alphabets, excepting the Ethiopic, where it occupies the ninth place. It is a labial and mute, representing the compression of the lips, and consequently incapable of being uttered or pronounced without the aid of a vowel, or a forcible expiration equivalent in effect to vocality. I his letter has a near affinity to the other labials, with which, indeed, it is interchangeable according as the compression of the lips, which it primarily indicates, is modified by simultaneous expiration; and hence, although its ordinary power or effect is intermediate between the smooth and easy sound of P, and the rough aspirations of PH, F, and V, yet, in the articulation of many languages, it is habitually confounded with one or other of the letters of the same class, and, in the same language at different times, is frequently interchanged with its cognate consonants. Thus βο<fxω in Greek becomes paseο ⅛ Latin; γ ∣ λβος, gilvus; βp>μω, fremo; πυζ,ος, buxus; aμφω, ambo ; φάλαινα, balaena ; βpaμβaς, triumphus ; and so in many other instances. Again, in Latin, the B of the olden time, and of the inscriptions, passes into V in a subsequent age; while, on the other hand, the P of the antique orthgraphy is commuted into B in that of amore recent date. Hence we have abacus for ababus, ave for abe, vixit for lixit, er^ v<ztus for curbatus, and hundreds of other analogous instances in Gruter, Reinesius, Funccius, Gorius, Dempster, Fréret, and Lanzi, not to mention the Monumenti degli pioni, and similar works; while Poplius for Publius, Ρ°Ρ^ licus for Publicus, Poplicola for Publicola, are of frequent occurrence in the inscriptions and other elder monument 8 of the Latin language. This letter is also sometimes inserted in the middle of compound words for the sake c