Bode

a. [A.S. bodian, bodigean, gebodian, from bod, a command, me age, or edict; radically the same as bid; Ger. gebot, a command, from bieten, to offer.] To utter; to tell; to announce; to portend; to foreshow; to presage; to be the omen of. "This bodes some strange eruption to our state."-Shaks. -v.i. To foreshow; to presage. "Sir, give me leave to say, whatever now The omen prove, it boded well to you."-Dryden. Bode'ga, in California , a post-village and township of Sonoma co., on Bodega Bay, 62 m. N.W. by N. of San Francisco.; pop . 1,407. Bode'ful, a . Ominous; foreshadowing; portending. Bode'ment, n. Portent; omen; prognostic. (o.) "This foolish, dreaming, superstitious girl, Makes all these bodements ."-Shaks. Bo'denham, in Tenne ee , a post-village of Giles co., about 70 m. S.S.W. of Nashville. Bode's Law of the Distances. ( Astron .) This law, as it is termed, expre es a very curious relation among the distances of the several planets of our solar system from the sun; and of the satellites from their primaries. It is wholly empirical, i. e., we know no physical origin or cause for it; neverthele , and not with- standing the existence of exceptions or irregularities, it a uredly does point to some conditioned arrangement in our system. - I. With regard to the planets and the sun, the law may be presented as follows: Write the names of the planets in a line and under each place the number 4. Beneath the 4 under Mercury place 0; be- neath the 4 under Venus write 3; beneath the 4 under the Earth write twice 3; beneath the 4 under Mars four times 3; then eight times 3, and so on. Add their sev- eral columns as below: Mer. Ven. Earth. Mars . 4 0 Ast. Jup . Sat. Uran. Nep. 4 4 48 96 192 IMG:content-0679.jpg:[graphic] 4 3 4 IMG:content-0680.jpg:[blocks in formation] 4 6 12 16 4 24 3-9 4 28 52 100 196 7-3 10 15-2 27-4 52 95-4 192 4 384 388 300 The numbers in the lower line are the actual distances of the planets from the sun, on the scale that the earth's distance is 10. The general conformity is too great to result from accident. The existence of the Asteroids at distance 27.4 was predicted by Olbers, through consideration of Bode's Law, because of the gap between Mars and Jupiter. The grand breach of the Law is in the case of Neptune, a breach which might be explained if we knew the cause or physical origin of the Law itself. II. A principle of order quite corresponding, although in its indices somewhat different, may be traced IMG:content-0681.png:[blocks in formation] There is considerable irregularity in case of the last three satellites; but is it not some compensation, that the lately discovered satellite, Hyper i on or the Seventh, might have been suspected to exist as well as the Asteroids, because of the gap between the sixth and eighth as indicated by this Law? Of the satellites of Uranus it would be premature at present to conclude anything. Bodice, Boddice, ( bod'dis ,) n. Something worn round the body or waist; specifically, a woman's corset or stays. "Her bodice half-way she unlac'd."-Prior. -v. a. To lace or fasten a bodice, or stays. "Round her little waist was, Comfortably boddiced. Thackeray. Bo'die, or Bo'die's Bluff, in California , a mining village of Mono co., 9 m. W. of Aurora, Nevada. Bodied, ( bod'id ,) a. Having a body; as, a full - bodied wine.