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blems of liberty, expedition, readiness, swiftness, and fear. They are more honourable bearings than fishes, because they participate more of air and fire, the two noblest and highest elements, than of earth and water. Birds must be borne in coatarmour, as is best fitting the propriety of their natural actions of going, sitting, stand ing, flying, &c. Birds that are either whole footed, or have their feet divided, and yet have no talons, are said to be membered; but the cock, and all birds of prey with sharp and hooked beaks and talons, for encounter or defence, are termed armed. In the blazoning of birds, if their wings be not displayed, they are said to be borne close; as, he beareth an eagle, &c. close.

BIRTH. See MIDWIFRY.

BIRTH, or BIRTHING, in the sea-language, a convenient place to moor a ship in; also a due distance observed by ships lying at anchor, or under sail; and a proper place aboard for a mess to put their chests, &c. is called the birth of that mess.

BISCUIT, sea, is a sort of bread much dried, to make it keep for the service of the sea. It was formerly baked twice, or oftener, and prepared six months before the embarkation. It will keep good a whole year.

The process of biscuit-baking for the British navy is as follows, and it is equally simple and ingenious. The meal, and every other article, being supplied with much certainty and simplicity, large lamps of dough, consisting merely of flour and water, are mixed up together; and as the quantity is so immense as to preclude, by any common process, a possibility of kneading it, a man manages, or, as it is termed, rides a machine, which is called a horse. This machine is a long roller, apparently about four or five inches in diameter, and about seven or eight feet in length. It has a play to a certain extension, by means of a staple in the wall, to which is inserted a kind of eye, making its action like the machine by which they cut chaff for horses. The lump of dough being placed exactly in the centre of a raised platform, the man șits upon the end of the machine, and literally rides up and down throughout its whole circular direction, till the dough is equally indented; and this is repeated till it is sufficiently kneaded; at which times, by the different positions of the lines, large or small circles are described, according as they are near to or distant from the wall,

The dough in this state is handed over to a second workman, who slices it with a prodigious knife; and it is then in a proper state for the use of those bakers who attend the oven. These are five in number; and their different departments are as well calculated for expedition and correctness, as the making of pins, or other mechanical employments. On each side of a large table, where the dough is laid, stands a workman; at a small table near the oven stands another; a fourth stands by the side of the oven, to receive the bread; and a fifth to supply the peel. By this arrangement the oven is as regularly filled, and the whole exercise performed in as exact time, as a military evolution. The man on the further side of the large table moulds the dough, having previously formed it into small pieces, till it has the appearance of muffins, although rather thinner, and which he does two together, with each hand; and as fast as he accomplishes this task, he delivers his work

over to the man on the other side of the table, who stamps them with a docker on both sides with a mark. As he rids himself of this work, he throws the biscuits on the smaller table next the oven, where stands the third workman, whose business is merely to separate the different pieces into two, and place them immediately under the hand of him who supplies the oven, whose work of throwing, or rather chucking, the bread upon the peel, must be so exact, that if he looked round for a single moment, it is impossible he should perform it correctly. The fifth receives the biscuit on the peel, and arranges it in the oven; in which duty he is so very expert, that though the different pieces are thrown at the rate of seventy in a minute, the peel is always disengaged in time to receive them separately.

As the oven stands open during the whole time of filling it, the biscuits first thrown in would be first baked, were there not some counteraction to such an inconvenience. The remedy lies in the ingenuity of the man who forms the pieces of dough, and who, by imperceptible degrees, proportionably diminishes their size, till the loss of that time, which is taken up during the filling of the oven, has no more effect to the disadvantage of one of the biscuits than to another.

So much critical exactness and neat activity occur in the exercise of this labour, that it is difficult to decide whether the

palm of excellence is due to the moulder, the marker, the splitter, the chucker, or the depositor; all of them, like the wheels of a machine, seeming to be actuated by the same principle. The business is to deposit in the oven seventy biscuits in a minute; and this is accomplished with the regularity of a clock; the clack of the peel, during its motion in the oven, operating like the pendulum.

The biscuits thus baked are kept in repositories, which receive warmth from being placed in drying lofts over the ovens, till they are sufficiently dry to be packed into bags, without danger of getting mouldy; and when in such a state, they are then packed into bags of a hundred weight each, and removed into storehouses for immediate

use.

The number of bake-houses belonging to the victualling-office at Plymouth are two, each of which contains four ovens, which are heated twenty times a day, and in the course of that time bake a sufficient quantity of bread for 16,000 men.

The granaries are large, and well constructed; when the wheat is ground, the flour is conveyed into the upper stories of the bake-houses, whence it descends through a trunk in each immediately into the hands of the workmen.

The bake-house belonging to the victualling-office at Deptford consists of two divisions, and has twelve ovens, each of which bakes twenty shoots daily (Sundays excepted); the quantity of flour used for each shoot is two bushels, or 112 pounds, which baked produce 102 pounds of biscuit. Ten pounds are regularly allowed on each shoot for shrinkage, &c. The allowance of biscuit in the navy is one pound for each man per day, so that one of the ovens at Deptford furnishes bread daily for 2,040

men.

BISCUTELLA, in botany, a genus of the Tetradynamia Siliculosa class and order. Natural order of Siliquosæ Cruciformes. Essential character; silicle compressed flat, rounded above and below, two-lobed; calyx, leaflets gibbous at the base. There are 6 species; of which B. auriculata, in a wild state rises about a foot in height, but, in a garden, grows nearly two feet high, dividing into several branches; the flowers are produced at the end of the branches, in loose panicies, and are of a pale yellow colour; the nectareous gland is very large, and, consequently, the calyx

is bagged out very much at bottom. Native of the south of France and Italy.

sæ.

BISERRULA, in botany, a genus of the Diadelphia Decandria class and order. Natural order Papilionaca, or LeguminoEssential character; legume two-celled, flat; partition contrary. There is but one species; viz. B. pelecinus, bastard hatchet vetch, an annual plant, which grows naturally in Italy, Sicily, Spain, and the South of France.

BISHOP, a prelate, or person conse crated for the spiritual government of a diocese.

Whether the distinction of bishops from mere priests or presbyters was settled in the apostolical age, or introduced since, is much controverted. It is certain, that in the New Testament the names of bishops and priests are used indiscriminately; but tradition, the fathers, and the apostolical constitutions make a distinction. From this last consideration bishops are conceived as the highest ecclesiastical dignities, the chief officers in the hierarchy, or economy of church-government, as the fathers and pastors of the faithful, the successors of the apostles, and, as such, the superiors of the church of Christ.

Upon the vacancy of a bishop's see in England the king grants his conge d'elire to the dean and chapter, to elect the person whom, by his letters missive, he hath appointed; and if they do not make the election in twenty days they are to incur a premunire. The dean and chapter having made their election accordingly, the archbishop, by the king's direction, confirms the bishop, and afterwards consecrates him by imposition of hands, according to the form laid down in the Common Prayer Book. Hence we see that a bishop differs from an archibishop in this, that an archbishop with bishops consecrates a bishop, as a bishop with priests consecrates a priest; other distinctions are, that an archbishop visits a province, as a bishop a diocese; that an archbishop convocates a provincial synod, as a bishop a diocesan one; and that the archbishop has canonical authority over all the bishops of his province, as a bishop has over the priests of his diocese.

The jurisdiction of a bishop of the church of England consists in collating benefices, granting institutions, commanding inductions, taking care of the profits of vacant benefices for the use of the successors, consecrating churches and chapels, ordaining priests and deacons, confirming after bap

tism, granting administrations, and taking probates of wills; these parts of his function depend upon the ecclesiastical law. By the common law he is to certify to the judges concerning legitimate and illegitimate births and marriages; and to his jurisdiction, by the statute law, belongs the licensing of physicians, surgeons, and school masters, and the uniting of small parishes, which last privilege is now peculiar to the Bishop of Norwich.

All bishops of England are peers of the realm, except the Bishop of Man, and as such sit and vote in the House of Lords; they are barons in a three-fold manner, tiz. feudal, in regard to the temporalities annexed to their bishoprics; by writ, as being summoned by writ to parliament; and lastly, by patent and creation; accordingly they have the precedence of all other barons, vote as barons and bishops, and claim all the privileges enjoyed by the temporal lords, excepting that they cannot be tried by their peers, because, in cases of blood, they themselves cannot pass upon the trial, for they are prohibited by the canons of the church to be judges of life and death.

BISHOP'S court, an ecclesiastical court, held in the cathedral of each diocese, the judge whereof is the bishop's chancellor, who judges by the civil and canon law; and if the diocese be large he has his commissaries in remote parts, who hold what they call consistory courts for matters limited to them by their commission.

BISHOPRIC, the district over which a bishop's jurisdiction extends, otherwise called a diocese.

In England there are twenty-four bishoprics and two archbishoprics; in Scotland none at all; in Ireland eighteen bishoprics and four archbishoprics; and in Popish countries they are still more numerous.

BISMUTH, one of the brittle and easily fused metals. The ores of this metal are very few in number, and occur chiefly in Germany. This, in some measure, accounts for the ignorance of the Greeks and Arabians, neither of whom appear to have been acquainted with bismuth. The German miners, however, seem to bave distinguished it at a pretty early period, and to have given it the name of bismuth; for Agricola describes it under that name as well known in Germany, and considers it as a peculiar metal. The miners gave it also the name of tectum argenti; and appear to have considered it as silver beginning to form, and not yet completed. Mr. Pott collected in his

dissertation on bismuth every thing respecting it contained in the writings of the alchymists. Beccher seems to have been the first chemist who pointed out some of its most remarkable properties. Bismuth is of a reddish white colour, and almost destitute both of taste and smell. It is composed of broad brilliant plates adhering to each other. The figure of its particles, according to Hauy, is an octahedron, or two foursided pyramids, applied base-to base. Its specific gravity is 9.82. When hammered cautiously, its density, as Muschenbroeck ascertained, is considerably increased. It is not therefore very brittle: it breaks, however, when struck smartly by a hammer, and consequently is not maleable. Neither can it be drawn out into wire. Its tenacity, from the trials of Muschenbroeck, appears to be such, that a rod th of an inch in diameter is capable of sustaining a weight of nearly 29 lbs. When heated to the temperature of 476° it melts; and if the heat be much increased it evaporates, and may be distilled over in close vessels. When allowed to cool slowly, and when the liquid metal is withdrawn as soon as the surface congeals, it crystallizes in parallelopipeds, which cross each other at right angles. When kept melted at a moderate heat, it becomes co. vered with an oxide of a greenish grey or brown colour. In a more violent heat it is volatile, and may be sublimed in close vessels; but, with the access of air, it emits a blue flame, and its oxide exhales in a yellowish smoke, condensible by cold bodies. This oxide is very fusible; and is convertible by heat into a yellow transparent glass. Sulphuric acid acts on bismuth, and sulphurous acid is disengaged. A part of the bis. muth is dissolved, and the remainder is changed into an insoluble oxide. Nitric acid dissolves bismuth with great rapidity. To one part and a half of nitric acid, at distant intervals, add one of bismuth, broken into small pieces. The solution is crystallizable. It is decomposed when added to water; and a white substance is precipitated, called magistery of bismuth, or pearlwhite. This pigment is defective, inasmuch as it is liable to be changed by sulphuretted hydrogen, and by the vapours of putrifying substances in general. Muriatic acid acts on bismuth. The compound, when deprived of water by evaporation, is capable of being sublimed, and affords a soft salt, which deliquesces into what has been improperly called butter of bismuth. Bismuth is capable of forming the basis of a sympathetic ink.

The acid employed for this purpose must be one that does not act on paper, such as the acetic. Characters written with this solution become visible when exposed to sulphuretted hydrogen.

BISSECTION, in geometry, the division of a line, angle, &c. into two equal parts.

BISSEXTILE, or leap-year, a year consisting of 366 days, and happening every fourth year, by the addition of a day in the month of February, which that year consists of 29 days. And this is done to recover the 6 hours which the sun takes up nearly in his course more than the 365 days commonly allowed for it in other years.

The day thus added was by Julius Cæsar appointed to be the day before the 24th of February, which among the Romans was the 6th of the calends, and which on this occasion was reckoned twice; whence it was called the bissextile. By the statute De anno bissextile, 21 Hen. III. to prevent misunderstandings, the intercalary day and that next before it are to be accounted as one day.

To find what year of the period any given year is, divide the given year by 4, then if o remains it is leap year; but if any thing remain the given year is so many after leap year. But the astronomers concerned in reforming the calendar in 1582, by order of Pope Gregory XIII. observing that in 4 years the bissextile added 44 minutes more than the sun spent in returning to the same point of the ecliptic; and computing that in 133 years these supernumerary minutes would form a day; to prevent any changes being thus insensibly introduced into the seasons, directed that in the course of 400 years there should be three sextiles retrenched; so that every centesimal year, which is a leap year according to the Julian account, is a common year in the Gregorian account, unless the number of centuries can be divided by 4 without a remainder. So 1600 and 2000 are bissextile; but 1700, 1800, and 1900 are common years.

The Gregorian computation has been received in most foreign countries ever since the reformation of the calendar in 1582, excepting some northern countries, as Russia, &c. And by act of parliament passed in 1751, it commenced in all the dominions under the crown of Great Britain in the year following; it being ordered by that act that the natural day next following the 2nd of September should be accounted the 14th; omitting the intermediate 11 days of the common calendar. The supernume

rary day in leap years being added at the end of the month February, and called the 29th of that month.

BISTOURY, in surgery, an instrument for making incisions, of which there are different kinds, some being of the form of a lancet, others straight and fixed in the han dle like a knife, and others crooked with the sharp edge on the inside.

BISTRE, or BISTER, among painters, denotes glossy soot, pulverised and made into a kind of cakes with gum-water.

BIT, or BITTS, in ship-building, the name of two great timbers usually placed abaft the manger in the ship's loof, through which the cross-piece goes; the use of it is to belay the cable thereto while the ship is at anchor.

BITCH, the female of the dog kind. See CANIS.

BITTER, a sea term, signifying any turn of the cable about the bits, so as that the cable may be let out by little and little. And when a ship is stopped by a cable she is said to be brought up by a bitter. Also that end of the cable which is wound about the bits is called the bitter end of the cables.

BITTER principal. The bitter taste of certain vegetables appears to be owing to the presence of a peculiar substance, differing from every other in its chemical properties. It may be extracted from the wood of quassia, the root of gentian, the leaves of the hop, and several other plants, by infusing them for some time in cold water. The characters of this substance, originally described by Wether, have been attentively examined by Dr. Thomson, who enumerates them as follows. 1. When water thus impregnated is evaporated to dryness by a very gentle heat, it leaves a brownish yellow substance which retains a certain degree of transparency. For some time it continues ductile, but at last becomes brittle. Its taste is intensely bitter. 2. When heated it softens, swells, and blackens, then burns away without flaming much, and leaves a small quantity of ashes. 3. It is very soluble in water and in alcohol. 4. It does not affect blue vegetable colours. 5. It is not precipitated by the watery solution of lime, barytes, or strontites; nor is it changed by alkalies. 6. Tincture of galls, infusion of nut-galls, and gallic acid, produce no effect. 7. Of the metallic salts, nitrate of silver and acetate of lead are the only ones that throw it down. The precipitate by acetite of lead is very abundant; and

that salt, therefore, affords the best test for discovering the bitter principle when no other substances are present, by which also it is decomposed. From recent experiments of Mr. Hatchett, it appears that the bitter principle is formed, along with tan, by the action of nitric acid on indigo.

BITTER salt, native, in mineralogy, is of a greenish white, or smoke-grey colour. It occurs sometimes in earthy, sometimes in mass, and often in capillary crystals. When earthy it is without lustre, but when crystallised its lustre is between silky and vitreous. It consists of sulphate of magnesia, more or less mixed with iron and allumina, and probably some sulphat of allumina. It is found on the surface of decomposing argillaceous schistus, and sometimes of lime-stone.

BITTERN. See ARDEA.

BITTERN, in salt-works, the brine remaining after the salt is concreted: this they ladle off that the salt may be taken out of the pan, and afterwards put in again; when being farther boiled it yields more salt.

BITTERSPATH, in mineralogy, is greyish, or greenish white, passing into asparagus green. It occurs: 1. disseminated or crystallised in rhomboids, or perfect or truncated at the solid angles; 2. short, somewhat oblique, tetrahedral prisms, often bevelled at the edges; 3. compressed hexaedrons. It is composed of

Carbonate of lime.............. 52
magnesia........ 45
Oxide of iron and manganese 3

100

BITUMEN, in chemistry. The term bitumen has often been applied by chemists to all the inflammable substances that occur in the earth; but this use of the word is now so far limited, that sulphur apd millite are most commonly excluded. It would be proper to exclude amber likewise, and to apply the term to those fossil bodies only which have a certain resemblance to oily and resinous substances, Bituminous substances may be subdivided into two classes, namely, bituminous oils, and bitumens, properly so called. The first set possess nearly the properties of volatile oils, and ought, in strict propriety, to be classed with these bodies; but as the chemical properties of bitumens have not yet been investigated with much precision, it is deemed rather premature to separate them from each other. The second set possess properties peculiar

to themselves. Only two species of bituminous oils have been hitherto examined by chemists. Others indeed have been mentioned; but their existence has not been sufficiently authenticated. These two species are called petroleum, and maltha, or seawax the first is liquid, the second solid. See PETROLEUM and MALTHA.

The true bituminous substances may be distinguished by the following properties :--They are either solid, or of the consistence of tar: their colour is usually brown or black: they have a peculiar smell, or at least acquire it when rubbed: this smell is known by the name of the bituminous odour: they become electric by friction, though not insulated: they melt when heated, and burn with a strong smell, a bright flame, and much smoke: they are insoluble in water and alcohol, but dissolve most com

monly in ether, and in the fixed and volatile oils: they do not dissolve in alkaline leys, nor form soap: acids have little action on them the sulphuric scarcely any: the nitric, by long and repeated digestion, dissolves them, and converts them into a yellow substance, soluble both in water and alcohol, and similar to the product formed by the action of nitrous acid on resins. The bitumens at present known may be reduced to three; namely, asphaltum, mineral tar, and mineral caoutchouc. Bitumen has been found also united to a resinous compound, in a curious substance first accurately examined by Mr. Hatchett, to which he has given the name of retinasphaltum. United to charcoal in various proportions, it constitutes the numerous varieties of pit-coal, so much employed in this country as fuel. The asphaltum found in Albania is supposed to have constituted the chief ingredient of the Greek fire. Asphaltum is seldom absolutely pure; for when alcohol is digested on it, the colour of the liquid becomes yellow, and by gentle evaporation a portion of petroleum is separated. Mineral tar seems to be nothing else than asphaltum, containing a still greater proportion of petroleum. When alcohol is digested on it, a considerable quantity of that oil is taken up; but there remains a black fluid substance, like melted pitch, not acted upon by alcohol, and which therefore appears to possess the properties of asphaltum, with the exception of not being solid. By exposure to the air, it is said gradually to assume the state of asphaltum.

BIVALVES, one of the three general classes of shell-fish, comprehending all those,

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