BASTWICK, DR JoHN, born at Writtle, in Essex, in 1593, was a physician at Colchester, whose celebrity rests on his strong opposition to the Roman Catholic ceremonial. About 1633 he printed in Holland a Latin treatise, entitled Elenchus Religionis Papistime, with Flagellum Pontificis et Episcoporum Latialium ; and as the English prelates thought themselves aimed at, he was finedX1000 in the High Commission Court, excommunicated, and prohibited from practising physic, while his books were ordered to he burnt, and the author himself consigned to prison. Instead of recanting, however, he wrote Apologeticus ad Prcesules Anglicanos, and another book called The Litany, in which he exclaimed vehemently against the proceedings of that arbitrary court, and charged the bishops with an inclination to popery. I'ryune and Burton coming under the lash of the Star-chamber court at the same time, they were all censured as turbulent and seditious persons, and condemned to pay a fine of ..E3000 eaah, to be set in the pillory, to lose their ears, and to undergo imprisonment for life in remote parts of the kingdom. The parliament in 1640 reversed these proceedings, and ordered Bastwick a reparation of £5000 out of the estates of the commissioners and lords who had persecuted him. The civil commotions which ensued prevented his receiving this solatium for his sufferings ; but, in 1614, his wife had an allowance ordered for her own and her husband's maintenance. The place and time of his death are unknown. He seems in his later years to have shown bitter opposition to the Independents.

BAT, the common name of a well marked group of Mammals forming the order Cheiroptera (i.e., wing-handed), distinguished from all other members of their class by the possession of true organs of flight. Those consist of a delicate membrane stretching from limb to limb on both sides of the body, enclosing the greatly elongated digits of the hand, and in many cases extending beyond the posterior limbs so as to include the tail. Their whole structure bears evidence of special adaptation to the purpose of sustained flight, while their mode of progression on the ground is as awkward as their aerial movements are graceful. The eyes of the bat are usually small, but the organs of the other senses in most cases attain extraordinary development. The external ear is generally large, as in the Long-eared Bat of Britain (Plecotus auritus), in which it is equal to the entire length of the body. In the group to which the Horse-shoe Bats (I?hinolophus ferrum equinum) belong, the nose is surrounded with leaf-like appendages, the purpose of which is by no means well determined, but which, probably, are as useful to the organ of smelling as is the greatly elongated auricle to that of hearing. In all bats the wing-membrane affords a vast expansion of the sense of touch, which is of such exquisite delicacy that bats which have been deprived of their sight, and as far as possible of hearing and smelling, are yet able by it alone to fly about in perfect security, avoiding, with apparent ease, all the obstacles that may be placed in their way. By Pliny and other early naturalists the bat, although known to suckle its young, was placed among Birds, and was generally regarded as a creature of ill omen, a superstitious feeling by no means extinct at the present day. Virgil, in speaking of the Harpies, generally understood to have been bats, describes them as " dirte obscenxque volucres.' Our English ancestors formed a more correct estimate of the zoological position of these creatures as indicated by the name " flitter-mouse," still given to the bat in many parts of Britain. Bats are nocturnal or crepuscular in their habits, remaining suspended by day in the darkest recesses of woods and caverns, or in the most inaccessible parts of unfrequented buildings, and coming forth at twilight in search of food, This in the species found in Europe and America consists mainly of insects ; while one species at least, the Vampire of America, sucks the blood of other mammals, although its powers in this respect have probably been much exaggerated. The Fruit-eating Bats (Pteropus) are confined to the warmer regions of Asia and Africa, and among these are to be found the largest members of the order, thus the Kalong of Java (Pteropus jacanicus) measures 5 feet between the tips of its wings. In countries where the winter cold is sufficiently severe to cut off their usual sources of food, bats hibernate. Collecting in enormous numbers in their usual retreats and suspending themselves by their hind limbs, they become torpid, and remain so till the return of spring, bringing with it a revival of insect life, restores them to their wonted activity. About 130 species of bats are known, and these are widely distributed over every quarter of the globe, extending as far northward as latitude 60° ; all the larger forms, however, occur in the warmer regions of the earth. Bats are found in most of the islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, forming in many of them the only indigenous mammals, a fact readily explained when viewed in connection with their remarkable power of flight. Fossil remains of insectivorous Cheiroptera have been found in the Eocene and later Tertiary deposits. See MAMMALIA.