BATHOS

a Greek word meaning depth, now used to signify a ludicrous sinking from the sublime to the mean in poetry. This application of the word was introduced by Swift, who, in his Art of Sinking in Poetry, opposes the bathot to the mblime. BATH-STONE, one of the three kinds of ooUtic limestone, which is extensively used in building, and is BO callod from being found in tlie neighbourhood of Bath. This member of the oolite formation has been called the great oolite, and it is of oonsiderablp thickne . When it is just quarried it is soft, but it a soon becomes hard on exposure to the atmosphere. It is, however, not very durable, and buildings for which it is used after no very long time begin to crumble away.