er a les exchanges ou bullion ...
argent en plate, vessel d'argent, &c."; and apparently it is connected with
_bouillon_, the sense of "boiling" being transferred in English to the
melting of metal, so that _bullion_ in the passage quoted meant
"melting-house" or "mint." The first recorded instance of the use of the
word for precious metal as such in the mass is in an act of 1451. From the
use of gold and silver as a medium of exchange, it followed that they
should approximate in all nations to a common degree of fineness; and
though this is not uniform even in coins, yet the proportion of alloy in
silver, and of carats alloy to carats fine in gold, has been reduced to
infinitesimal differences in the bullion of commerce, and is a prime
element of value even in gold and silver plate, jewelry, and other articles
of manufacture. Bullion, whether in the form of coins, or of bars and
ingots stamped, is subject, as a general rule of the London market, not
only to weight but to assay, and receives a corresponding value.

BULLOCK, WILLIAM (c. 1657-c. 1740), English actor, "of great glee and much
comic vivacity," was the original Clincher in Farquhar's _Constant Couple_
(1699), Boniface in _The Beaux' Stratagem_ (1707), and Sir Francis Courtall
in Pavener's _Artful Wife_ (1717). He played at all the London theatres of
his time, and in the summer at a booth at Bartholomew Fair. He had three
sons, all actors, of whom the eldest was Christopher Bullock (c.
1690-1724), who at Drury Lane, the Haymarket and Lincoln's Inn Fields
displayed "a considerable versatility of talent." Christopher created a few
original parts in comedies and farces of which he was the author or
adapter:--_A Woman's Revenge_ (1715); _Slip_; _Adventures of Half an Hour_
(1716); _The Cobbler of Preston_; _Woman's a Riddle_; _The Perjurer_
(1717); and _The Traitor_ (1718).

BULLROARER, the English name for an instrument made of a small flat slip of
wood, through a hole in one end of which a string is passed; swung round
rapidly it makes a booming, humming noise. Though treated as a toy by
Europeans, the bullroarer has had the highest mystic significance and
sanctity among primitive people. This is notably the case in Australia,
where it figures in the initiation ceremonies and is regarded with the
utmost awe by the "blackfellows." Their bullroarers, or sacred "tunduns,"
are of two types, the "grandfather" or "man tundun," distinguished by its
deep tone, and the "