Bedaub

a. To daub over; to besmear; to soil with anything thick or dirty. THREE YEARS, at least, are pa ed in oblivion, in a state of unconscious sleep, stretched lethargically in bed, not only wasting the oil of life in unprofitable repose, but, by exce of inaction, weakening the frame, and impairing it for the responsible duties it is left to perform. That the bed is the nece ary vehicle for the great natural medicine of life, -sleep, no one will deny. It is against the abuse of the bed that the few remarks we have to make are advanced, - against the manner in which it is made to minister to luxurious ease, and encourage indolent and enervating habits, and the wanton sacrifice of time to which the bed ministers from being made so sensually soft and tempting. Were our beds more simply fashioned, and made of articles more conducive to health, the hours now wasted in idlene or sleep would be most materially abridged, and beneficially improved. The modern bed of luxury is so near in all its features to the couch of Morpheus, as fabled by the Roman poet, that, with its downy feathers, deep and sweeping curtains, it seems le the instrument to bodily rest and repose than the courted residence of profound oblivion. As a general rule, feather beds are more hurtful than beneficial, by absorbing all the animal impurities given off by the body in sleep, and afterwards returning them to the sleeper; and when it is remembered how many years a feather bed is used before its feathers are cleaned and purified, it seems a marvel that more injurious effects are not the consequence. The bed should stand with the head to the wall, in the centre of the room, raised two feet from the floor; the bottom should be made of laths instead of ticking, as admitting a freer circulation; a couple of mattre es, the top one made of horse-hair and cotton, or wool, or instead, what is better, the French spring mattre , will be found more conducive to health and rest than a feather or down bed. The curtains should never be close drawn round the entire bed, and the top of the bed should be open. Children, as a rule, should never sleep on feather beds, or be closely surrounded by curtains. For the invalid, numerous contrivances have been invented, in the shape of beds in which both air and water have been employed as a sustaining medium; of the latter, one of the most useful is made by filling a series of cylinders of vulcanized India rubber (like bolsters) with water, and confining them together by cords, which, with a sheet and blanket over all, makes a light, elastic bed, which has the advantage of accommodating itself to every motion of the patient's body. - See REST, and SLEEP. (Geol.) A layer; a stratum. - See STRATUM. (Gunnery.) See MORTAR-BED. (Masonry.) The beds of a stone are the two surfaces which generally intersect the face of the work in horizontal lines, or in lines nearly so; the higher surface is called the upper -bed, and the lower the under-bed. In the general run of walling, they are the two surfaces which are placed level in the building. - In cylindrical vaulting, the beds of a stone are those two surfaces which intersect the intrados of the vault, in lines parallel to the axis of the cylinder. - In conical vaulting, with an horizontal axis, they are those two surfaces, which, if produced, would intersect the axis of the cone. The bed of a slate is the lower side placed in contiguity with the boarding or the rafters. A bed - moulding is that portion of a cornice which is situated immediately below the corona. IMG:content-0573.png:[blocks in formation] ( Law .) The channel of a stream; the part between the banks worn by the regular flow of the water. From bed and board. See DIVORCE. Bed, v . a . To lay in a place of rest or security; as, to bed a stone. "Your bedded hairs, like life in excrements, Start up, and stand on end."-Shaks. "Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaub'd in blood."- Shaks. Bedazzle, v . a . To dazzle greatly; to confound the sight by too strong a light; to make dim by lustre. "My mistaken eyes, That have been so bedazzled by the sun."- Shaks.