BIDENS.

:

Beer-marigold Water-hem. In botany, a genus of the class syngenesia, order polygamia æqualis. Receptacle chaffy, fiat; seeds angular; down, consisting of from two to four erect awns rough backwards; calyx nearly equal, invested with leaves; corol with sometimes a radiating floret or two. Twenty species scattered over the globe of which b. tripartita, with floscular flowers, the outer leaves of the calyx longer than the flower, is found in the marshes and other watery places of our own country; as is also b. cerusca with flowers sometimes radiate drooping; leaves lanceolate, coarsely serrate, nearly united at the base.

BIDEʼNTAL. a. (bidens, Latin.) Having two teeth (Swift).

BIDENTAL, in antiquity, a place struck with a thunderbolt, and on that account consecrated to the gods, and forbidden to be trod on. Bidental only differed from puteal, as in the latter the thunderbolt was supposed to be hidden, or buried with ceremony under the ground. The fall of lightning, or a thunderbolt, on any place, was judged by the Romans an indication that Jupiter demanded it for himself.

BIDENTALES, in Roman antiquity, were priests instituted to perform certain ceremonies and expiations when lightning fell on any place. Their principal office was the sacrificing a sheep of two years old, which in Latin is called bidens; from whence the place struck with lightning got the name of bidental. BIDENTATUS, a species of cerambyx that inhabits South America.

BIDENTES, in the middle ages, sheep of the second year.

BIDENTI SIMILIS, in botany See SIE

GESBECKIA.

BIDING. s. (from bide.) Residence; habitation (Rowe).

BIDLOO (Godfrey), a celebrated anatomist. He was born at Amsterdam, in 1649, and having gone through his studies, took his degree of M.D. In 1688, he was appointed professor of anatomy, at the Hague, which he quitted for the same station at Leyden, in 1694. Afterwards king William appointed him his first physician, and on his death, in 1702, he returned to Leyden, where he died in 1713. There was published at Leyden, in 1710, a collection of his poems, in low Dutch. BIEEZ, a town of Poland, in Crecowia,

BIELOGORO, a strong town of Turkey in Europe, in Bessarabia. Lat. 46. 20 N. Lon. 30. 10 E.

BIELSKOI, a town of Russia, in the government of Smolensko. Lat. 55. 40 N. Lon. 33. 5 E.

BIENNE, a town of Swisserland, on a lake of the same name, at the foot of Mount Jura. Lat. 47. 11 N. Lon. 7. 10 E. This little town is capital of a small republic of the same name, having about 6000 inhabitants. Coxe's Switzerland, vol. ii. p. 152.

See

BIENNIAL ROOT (Binnis). In botany. Enduring two years, and then perishing. In biennial plants a root and leaves are formed during the first year, and in the second the fructification is completed.

BIER, a wooden machine for carrying the bodies of the dead to be buried. The word comes from the French biere, which signifies the same. It is called in Latin feretrum, a ferendo.-Among the Romans the commop bier, whereon the poorer sort were carried, was called sandapila; that used for the richer sort, lectica, lectica funebris, sometimes lec tus. The former was only a sort of wooden chest, vilis arca, which was burnt with the body: the latter was enriched and gilded for pomp. It was carried bare, or uncovered, when the person died a natural and easy death; when he was much disti pred or distorted, it was concealed from the view.

BIER is more particularly used for the machine on which the bodies of saints are placed in the church to rest, and exposed to the veneration of the devout. This is called in middle-age writers lectus, feretrum, lectica, and loculus.

BIESTINGS, s. (byrzing, Saxon.) The first milk given by a cow after calving (Dryden). See BEESTING.

BIFARIOUS. a. (bifarius, Latin.) Two

fold.

BIFARIOUS LEAVES (liferia folia). In botany. Pointing two ways; or, coming out only on opposite sides of a branch.

Bifariously hairy, stem or branch. When the hairs between any two joints come out on the front and back; and in the two adjoining internodes, on the right and left sides. BIFEROUS PLANTS. Bearing twice ia a year. Common in hot climates. 66 Biferique rosaria pasti." Virg.

BIFID, two-cleft, or cloven. Leaf, perianth, as in utricularia, stigma. See CLEFT. BITLOROUS PEDUNCLE (pedunculus biflorus). Two-flowered, or bearing two flowers.

BIFOLD. a. (from binus, Lat. and fold.) Twofold; double (Shaks.).

BIFO'RMED. a. (biformis, Latin.) Compounded of two forms or bodies.

(Bifur

BIFURCATED. In anatomy. cus; from bis, twice, and furca, a fork.) A vessel, or nerve, is said to bifurcate when it divides into two branches; thus the bifurca. tion of the aorta, &c.

BIFURCATION. s. (from binus and furca.) Division into two (Brown).

BIG. a. (bug, Danish, the belly.) 1. Having comparative bulk (Spectator). 2. Great in bulk, large (Thomson). 3. Teeming; pregnant (Waller). 4. Full of something Addison). b. Distended; swoln (Shaksp.). 6. Great in air and mien; proud (Ascham). 7. Great in spirit; brave (Shaksp.).

BIG, in botany. See HORDEUM. BIGA, in Roman antiquity, a chariot drawn by two horses abreast. Chariot races, with two horses, were introduced into the Olympic games in the 93d Olympiad : but the invention was much more ancient, as we find that the heroes in the Iliad fight from chariots of that kind.

BIGAMIST. s. (bigamus, low Latin.) One that has committed bigamy (Ayliffe). BIGAMY properly signifies being twice married; but with us is used as synonymous to polygamy, or having a plurality of wives at once. Such second marriage, the former husband or wife being alive, is simply void, and a mere nullity, by the ecclesiastical law of England; and yet the legislature has thought it just to make it felony, by reason of its being so great a violation of the public economy and decency of a well-ordered state. For polygamy can never be endured under any rational civil establishment, whatever specious reasons may be urged for it by the eastern nations, the fallaciousness of which has been fully proved by many sensible writers: but in northern countries the very nature of the climate seems to declain against it; it never having obtained in this part of the world, even from the time of our German ancestors, who, as Tacitus informs us, "prope soli barbarorum singulis uxoribus contenti sunt." It is therefore punished by the laws both of ancient and modern Sweden with death. And in Britain it is enacted by statute 1 Jac. I. c. 11, that if any person being married, do afterwards marry again, the former husband or wife being alive, it is felony, not within the benefit of clergy. The first wife in this case shall not be admitted as an evidence against her husband, because she is the true wife; but the second may, for she indeed is no wife at all: and so, tice versa, of a second husband. This act makes an exception to five cases, in which such second marriage, though in the three first it is void, is yet no felony. 1. Where either party hath been continually abroad for seven years, whether the party in England hath notice of the other's being alive or no. 2. Where either of the parties has been absent from the other seven years within this kingdom, and the remaining party hath had no knowledge of the other's being alive within that time. 3. Where there is a divorce (or separation a mensa et thoro) by sentence in the ecclesiastical court. 4. Where the first marriage is declared absolutely void by any such sentence, and the parties loosed a vinculo. Or, 5. Where either of the parties was

under the age of consent at the time of the first marriage.

BIGARELLA, in botany. See PRUNUS. BIGASTER. In anatomy. (Bigaster; from bis, twice, and gaster, a belly.) A name given to muscles which have two bellies.

BIGATI, in antiquity, a kind of ancient Roman silver coins, on one side whereof was represented a biga, or chariot drawn by two horses. The bigatus was properly the Roman denarius, whose impression, during the times of the commonwealth, was a chariot drawn by Victory.

BIGBE'LLIED. a. (from big and belly.) Pregnant (Shakspeare).

BIGE MINATE LEAF. (folium bigeminum.) In botany, twin-fork. With. A decompounded leaf, having a dichotomous or forked petiole, with several folioles or leaflets at the end of each division.

BIGGLESWADE, a town in Bedfordshire, with a market on Wednesday, one of the greatest in England for barley. Lat. 52. 6 N. Lon. 0. 21 W.

BIGGIN. s. (beguin, French.) A child's cap (Shakspeare).

BIGHT, among seamen, denotes one roll or round of a cable or rope, when coiled up. BIGLY. ad. (from big.) Tumidly; haughtily; with a blustering manner (Dryden).

BIGNESS. s. (from big.) 1. Bulk ; greatness of quantity (Ray). 2. Size, whether greater or smaller (Newton).

BIGNONIA. Trumpet-flower: Scarlet jessmine. In botany, a genus of the class didynamia, order angiospermia. Calyx fivecleft, cup-shaped; corol with the orifice campanulate, five-cleft, swelling beneath; pod (silique) two-celled; seeds with membraneous wings. Fifty-five species, some natives of India, but the greater part of South America, which may be subdivided into the following sections:

A, with simple leaves.

B, with two leaves on each petiole.
C, with three leaves on a common stalk.
D, with leaves in finger-like divisions.
E, with leaves pinnate.
F, with leaves decompound.
G, leaves doubly pinnate.

In cultivating the bignonia, the seeds should be sown in pots filled with fresh earth, and plunged in a moderate hot-bed. When the plants arise, they should be gradually inured to the open air, and when they have acquired sufficient strength, be planted against a warm wall; protected in winter from the frosts by mats over the branches, and the roots be turned over. Those arranged A may in general be propagated by cuttings, which should be planted in pots in the spring, before the trees begin to push their shoots, and plunged into a moderate hot-bed. In the middle of the day the cuttings should be shaded, and often gently refreshed with water. When they have taken root, they should be gradually accustomed to the open air, and afterwards treated like

the seedling plants. The species under this arrangement are chiefly from Carolina, and form trees nearly twenty feet high in their natural climates.

BIGORRE, a country of France, in the province of Guyenne before the revolution, but now forming a part of the department of the Upper Pyrenees.

BIGOT, S. A man devoted unreasonably to a certain party; a blind zealot (Watts).

Camden relates, that the Normans were first called bigots, on occasion of their duke Rollo, who receiving Gissa, daughter of king Charles, in marriage, and with her the investiture of the dukedom, refused to kiss the king's foot in token of subjection, unless he would hold it out for that purpose: and being urged to it by those present, answered hastily, No by God;" whereupon the king, turning about, called him bigot; which name passed from him to his people.

It is observed by the late celebrated Edmund Burke, who possessed no inconsiderable knowledge of human nature, that In all persuasions, the bigots are persecutors; the men of a cool and reasonable picty are favourers of toleration; because bigots not taking the pains to be acquainted with the grounds of their adversaries tenets, conceive them to be so absurd and monstrous, that no man of sense can give into them in good carnest. For which reason, they are convinced that some oblique bad motive induces them to pretend to the belief of such doctrines, and to the maintaining them with obstinacy. This is a very general principle in all religious differences, and it is the corner-stone of all persecution." BIGOTED. a. (from bigot.) Blindly prepossessed in favour of something (Garth);

BIGOTRY. s. (from bigot.) 1. Blind zeal; prejudice (Watts). 2. The practice or tenet of a bigot (Pupe).

Of the terms prejudice, bigotry, candour, and liberality, Dr. Aikin, in his Letters to his Son, gives this happy exemplification. "When Jesus preached, Prejudice cried, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Crucify, crucity him! exclaimed Bigotry, Why, what evil hath he done?' remonstrated Candour. And Liberality drew from his words this inference, In every nation, he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.'"

.

BIGSWOLN. a. (from lig and swoln.) Turgid; ready to burst (Addison).

BIGUTTATUS, a species of dytiscus, described by Linnéus as a native of Europe.

BIJORE (the Bazira of Alexander), a province of Hindostan, bounded on the south by Paishawur, on the north by Kuttore, on the east by Sewad and Beneer, and on the west by Guznoorgul. Its dimensions are about 50 miles by 20.

BIJUGOUS LEAF. (folium bijugum.) In botany, a pinnate leaf having two pairs of

leaflets.

BILABIATE, or TWO-LIPPED COROL.

(ilabiata corolla.) As in pinguicula, and the class didynamia. See LABIATE.

BILA MELLATE STIGMA. (stigma bilamellatum.) In botany, the form of a flatted sphere, longitudinally bifid.

BI'LANDER, s. (bilandre, Fr.) A kind of hoy, used for the carriage of goods (Dryd.). BILBERRY. s. (bil13, Saxon, a bladder, and berry.) Whortleberry. See VACCI

NIUM.

BILBO. s. (from Bilboa, where the best weapons are made.) A rapier; a sword (Shakspeare).

BILBOES. s. A sort of stocks used as a punishment at sea

BILBOA, the capital town of Biscay, in Spain. Its trade consists in wool, swordblades, and other manufactures in iron and steel. It is 180 miles N. of Madrid. Lat. 43. 23 N. Lon. 3. 10 W.

BILDESTON, a town of Suffolk, with a market on Wednesday. Lat. 32. 16 N. Lou. 0. 55 E.

BILDGE of a ship, the bottom of her floor, or the breadth of the place where the ship rests on when she is a-ground. Therefore, bildgewater is that which lies on her floor, and cannot go to the well of the pump: and bildgepumps, or burr-pumps, are those that carry off the bildge-water. They likewise say the ship is bildged, when she has some of her timber struck off on a rock or anchor, and springs a leak.

BILE. (According to Nævius, from bis iis, upon the supposition that bile is the cause of contention; according to others, from bullio, to boil, whence bullis, and from bullis, bilis.) A bitter fluid, secreted in the glandular substance of the liver; in part flowing into the intestines, and in part regurgitating into the gall-bladder. The secretory organ of this fluid is the vascular glomeruli, called the penicilli of the liver, which terminate in very minute canals, called biliary duets. (See LIVER.) The biliary ducts exonerate their bile into the ductus hepaticus, which conveys it into the ductus communis choledochus, whence it is in part carried into the duodenum. The other part of the bile regurgitates through the cystic duct (see GALL-BLADDER) into the gall-bladder for hepatic bile, except during digestion, cannot flow into the duodenum, which contracts when empty, and is the cause of this regurgitation. The branches of the vena porte contribute most to the secretion of bile; its peculiar blood, returning from the abdominal viscera, is supposed to be, in some respects, different from other venal blood, and to answer exactly to the nature of bile. It is not yet ascertained clearly whether the florid blood in the hepatic artery inerely nourishes the liver, or whether, at the same time, it contributes a certain principle, necessary for the formation of bile. It has been supposed by physiologists, that cystic bile was secreted by the arterious vessels of the gall-bladder; but the fallacy of this opinion is proved by making a ligature on the

eystic duct of a living animal. From what has been said, it appears that there are, as it were, two kinds of bile in the human body: 1. Hepatic bile, which flows from the liver in the duodenum: this is thin, of a faint retow colour, inodorous, and very slightly bitter, otherwise the liver of animals would not be eatable. 2. Cystic bile, which regurgitate from the hepatic duct into the gall-bladder, and there, from stagnating, becomes thicker, the aqueous part being absorbed by lymphatic vessels, and more acrid from concentration. Healthy bile is of a yellow green colour; of a plastic consistence, like thin oil, and when very much agitated, it froths like soap and water: its smell is fatuous, somewhat like musk, especially the putrefying or evaporated bile of animals: its taste is bitter. The constituent principles of bile are: water, spiritus rector (or aroma), a coagulable lymph, a resinous oil, and soda. Bile is accordingly a soap; and like other soaps, is successfully employed to remove grease from clothes, &c. When the resinous oil is in excess, so as not to be soluble in the bile, it becomes crystallized, forming the calculi or gall-stones of gallbladders; which on analysis evidently appear to owe their formation to this oily concrescible matter. The retardation, moreover, of this same matter in the pores or parenchymatous substance of the liver, is often the source of various hepatic diseases. The gall-bladder in mankind generally is capable of containing about an ounce. In the elephant, stag, all insects and worms, this reservoir is wanting; and consequently the bile they secrete passes at once into the intestinal canal. The direct and real use of the bile is not clearly asertained to this hour. It concurs, however, in producing the following effects: 1. In extreating the chyle from the chyme: thus chyle is never observed in the duodenum before the chyme has been mixed with the bile: and thus it is that oil is extricated from linen by the bile of animals. 2. By its acridity it excites the peristaltic motion of the intestines; hence the bowels are so inactive in persons with jaundice. 3. It imparts a yellow colour to the excrements; thus the white colour of the faces in jaundice, in which disease the flow of bile into the duodenum is entirely prevented. 4. It prevents the abundance of mucus and acidity in the primæ viæ; hence acid, pituitous, and verminous saburra are so frequent from deficient or inert bile.

In the analysis of bile of oxen a very large proportion of water is discovered: according to Thenard, this fluid forms about seven eighths of the whole substance. From the experiments of Cadet and others, it appears that bile is composed of water, albumen, a peculiar resin, soda, sulphureted hydrogen, some neutral salts, and a small quantity of iron. Thenard, however, denies the existence of albumen as a constituent part of bile; and from a variety of experiments which he carefully made, he concludes that there are in 800 parts of bile 700 parts of water, 43 of oily

matter, 41 of a particular substance, 4 of animal substance (fibrin ?), 4 of soda, 3-2 of marine sait, 08 sulphate of soda, 2 phosphate of soda, 1-2 phosphate of lime, and 5 oxide of iron, besides a loss of of the whole quantity. The peculiar substance here mentioned has a flavour at once saccharine and acrid, somewhat resembling the juice of certain kinds of liquorice; and, when rendered pure, exhibits the following properties: It is slightly deliquescent, soluble in water and in alcohol, is not precipitated by acetite of common lead, though it is by the saturated acetite, and the precipitate is soluble in acetite of soda; it will not ferment with yeast, will give no ammonia by distillation, and is not affected by the presence of nut-gall; it dissolves the oily matter of bile, in the portion of three-fourths of itself. "Bile," he observes, "forms an interesting subject for a number of other researches; the varieties to be found in the several species of animals, and which a multitude of circumstances, particularly a morbid affection of the organ which secretes it, may modify; the calculi which are there formed, and are of a peculiar nature; the oleaginous and animal substances, and that particular matter, differing from all others hitherto known, will not fail to excite a lively interest." See his memoir in Nicholson's Journal, 8vo. vol. xii. p. 269.

BILEDULGERID, or BELAD AL JERID, (the country of dates.) A kingdom of Africa. It is almost of a square form, extending itself more than 80 leagues every way, from 28. 30 to 32. 50 north latitude, and from 6 to 12 degrees of west longitude. It is bounded on the north by the kingdom of Tunis, on the east by a ridge of lofty mountains which divide it from Tripoli and part of Gudamis, on the west by the countries of Zeb and Mczeb, and on the south by the province of Verghela. The whole country is barren, sandy, and mountainous, producing little or nothing besides dates, which grow here in such profusion, that the face of half the kingdom is covered over with date-trees, and from hence the whole country takes its name. The climate is hot and unhealthy: the people lean, swarthy, and shrivelled in their complexions; with their eyes inflamed, owing to the reflection of the sun-beams from the sand.

BILGE. See BILDGE.

BILIARY. a. (from bilis, Latin.) Belonging to the bile (Arbuthnot).

BILIARY CALCULI, or GALL-STONES, are concretions of bile formed in the gallbladder, or in the duct through which the bile passes into the intestinal canal. These concretions are of a very bitter taste, and are generally of a brown colour, so light as to float in water, and inflammable; they occasion the jaundice and other disorders; and are themselves supposed to be formed by the absorption of oxygen by the bile in its passage. Those of the human body have been examined by chemists, as well as the gall-stones of the ox, and both have been found to possess similar

properties. With respect to the latter, it is worthy of remark, says Fourcroy, that they are not found in the gall-bladder of the ox, unless after dry seasons, when there has been a want of fresh forage, and disappear again in spring and summer, when there is a plentiful supply of green, succulent vegetables. Butchers, he observes, know that these stones are found in the animals between November and March, and are not discoverable from March to November. Hence he infers the power of the saponacions juices of plants to dissolve the biliary calculi.

Of these concretions there are several kinds, divided by chemists into four varieties.

I. Those of an oval form, which are composed of a white substance appearing like spermacet, crystallized in bright plates or striæ. They are generally about the size of a sparrow's egg, though sometimes as large as a pigeon's; and seldom more than one is contained in the gall-bladder at a time. When heated to a degree much higher than that of boiling water it softens and melts, but crystallizes again as it cools. It is insoluble in water, but heated alcohol, oil of turpentine, nitric acid, and the alkalies, have the power of dissolving it.

II. Those of a round, or polygonal form, which are generally very numerous, the gallbladder being often filled with them. Their colour is brownish, though often grey externally. They are formed of concentric layers of a substance resembling inspissated or thickened bile, with a nucleus of white crystalline matter at the centre.

III. Those compounded of the two preceding kinds; and these are still more numerous than the former.

IV. Small, dark-coloured, brittle concretions sometimes occur in the gall-bladder, which differ from the rest in not being soluble in alcohol or oil of turpentine, and in not flaming when heated, but become red and are changed into a substance like charcoal. Dr. Bostock remarks that, though the crystalline matter of biliary calculi has been compared to adipocire and to spermaceti, it differs from both in many important circumstances.

The chemists who have examined with most attention these calculi and the bile are, Cadet, Fourcroy, Ramsay, and Vauquelin.

BILIARY DUCT. Ductus biliosus. The very vascular glomeruli, which compose almost the whole substance of the liver, terminate in very small canals, called biliary ducts, which at length form one trunk, the ductus hepaticus. Their use is to convey the bile, secreted by the liver, into the hepatic duct.

BILINGSGATE. s. Ribaldry; foul language (Pope).

BILINGUOUS. a. (bilinguis, Lat.) Having, or speaking, two tongues.

BILIOUS. a. (from bilis, Latin.) Consisting of bile; partaking of bile (Garth).

BILIOUS. A term very generally made use of, to express diseases which arise from too copious a secretion of bile.

To BILK. v. n. (Filaicun, Gothick.) To cheat; to defraud (Dryden).

BILL. s. (bile, Saxon.) The beak of a fowl (Carew).

The form of the bills or elongated horny processes or mandibles of birds varies so greatly, that they afford the most permanent character by which these creatures may be arranged. The phoenicopter's bill is a true hyperbola, pointed at the end like a sword; and, what is remarkable, the upper bill of this bird moves in eating, the lower being fixed; which is contrary to what is observed in all other kinds.

BILL. S. (bille, Saxon.) A kind of hatchet with a hooked point (Temple).

BILL. S. (billet, French.) 1. A written paper of any kind (Shakspeare). 2. An account of money (Bacon). 3. A law presented to the parliament (Bacon). 4. An act of parliament (Atterbury). 5. A physician's prescription (Dryden). 6. An advertisement (Dryden).

Some of these acceptations of the word must be spoken of a little more particularly.

BILL, in law, a declaration in writing, expressing either some wrong the complainant has suffered from the defendant, or a fault committed by the person complained of against some law or statute. This bill is sometimes exhibited to justices at the general assizes, by way of indictment, or referred to others having jurisdiction; but is more generally addressed to the lord chancellor.

BILL, in commerce, denotes a security for money under the hand and sometimes seal of the debtor, without any condition or forfeiture in case of non-performance; in which it is distinguished from a bond or obligation.

BILL OF ENTRY, an account of the goods entered at the custom-house, both inwards and outwards.

BILL OF EXCHANGE, is a security origi nally invented among merchants in different countries for the more easy remittance of money from the one to the other, which has since spread itself into almost all pecuniary transactions. It is an open letter of request from one man to another, desiring him to pay a sum named therein to a third person on his account; by which means a man at the most distant part of the world may have money remitted to him from any trading country. If A lives in Jamaica, and owes B who lives in England 10007.; should C be going from England to Jamaica, he may pay B this 10007. and take a bill of exchange drawn by B in England upon A in Jamaica, and receive it when he comes thither. Thus does B receive his debt, at any distance of place, by transferring it to C; who carries over his money in paper-credit, without danger of robbery or loss. In common speech, such a bill is frequently called a draught; but a bill of exchange is the more legal as well as mercantile expression. The person, however, who writes this letter is called, in law, the drawer; and he to whom it is written, the drawee; and the third person or negociator to whom it is payable (whether