The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 72

BHOD-PA, name given to the aborigines of Thibet, and applied by the Hindus to all the Thibetan peoples.

BHOPAL' (952), a well-governed native state in Central India, under British protection, with a capital city (70) of the same name; under a government that has been always friendly to Britain.

BHUTAN (20), an independent state in the Eastern Himalayas, with magnificent scenery; subsidised by Britain; has a government like that of Thibet; religion the same, though the people are at a low stage of civilisation; the country exports horses, musk, and salt.

BIAF'RA, BIGHT OF, a large bay in the Gulf of Guinea, in W. Africa; includes several islands, and receives into it the waters of the Calabar rivers.

BIARD, AUGUSTE FRANcOIS, French _genre_ painter, born at Lyons; journeyed round the world, sketching by the way; was successful in rendering burlesque groups (1800-1882).

BIARRITZ, a bathing-place on the Bay of Biscay, 6 m. SW. of Bayonne; became a place of fas.h.i.+onable resort by the visits of the Empress Eugenie.

BIAS, one of the seven wise men of Greece, born at Priene, in Ionia; lived in the 6th century B.C.; many wise sayings are ascribed to him; was distinguished for his indifference to possessions, which moth and rust can corrupt, and thieves break through and steal.

BIBLE, THE (i. e. the Book _par excellence_, and not so much a book as a library of books), a collection of sacred writings divided into two parts, the Old Testament and the New; the Old, written in Hebrew, comprehending three groups of books, the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa, bearing on the religion, the history, the inst.i.tutions, and the manners of the Jews; and the New, written in Greek, comprehending the Four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles. The Old Testament was translated into Greek at Alexandria by 72 Jews, 280 B.C., and is known as the Septuagint; and the whole book, Old and New, was translated into Latin in a grotto near Bethlehem by St. Jerome, A.D.

385-404, and is known as the Vulgate, after which the two came to be regarded by the Church as of equal divine authority and as sections of one book. It may be permitted to note that the Bible is written throughout, not in a speculative or a scientific, but a spiritual interest, and that its final aim is to guide men in the way of life. The spirit in which it is composed is the spirit of conviction; its essence, both in the root of it and the fruit of it, is faith, and that primarily in a moral power above, and ultimately a moral principle within, both equally divine. The one principle of the book is that loyalty to the divine commands is the one foundation of all well-being, individual and social.

BIBLIA PAUPERUM (i. e. Bible of the Poor), a book consisting of some 50 leaves, with pictures of scenes in the Life of Christ, and explanatory inscriptions, printed, from wooden blocks, in the 15th century, and before the invention of printing by movable types.

BIBULUS, a colleague of Julius Caesar; a mere cipher, a _faineant_.

BICeTRE, a hospital, originally a Carthusian monastery, in the S.

side of Paris, with a commanding view of the Seine and the city; since used for old soldiers, and now for confirmed lunatics.

b.i.+.c.haT, MARIE FRANcOIS XAVIER, an eminent French anatomist and physiologist; physician to the Hotel-Dieu, Paris; one of the first to resolve the structure of the human body into, as "Sartor" has it, "cellular, vascular, and muscular tissues;" his great work "Anatomie Generale appliquee a la Physiologie et a la Medecine"; died at 31 (1771-1802).

BICKERSTAFF, ISAAC, an Irish dramatist of 18th century, whose name was adopted as a _nom de plume_ by Swift and Steele.

BICKERSTETH, EDWARD, English clergyman; author of several evangelical works, and one of the founders of the Evangelical Alliance (1786-1850).

BICKERTON, SIR RICHARD, vice-admiral, served in several naval engagements, and died commander-in-chief at Plymouth in 1792.

BIDDERY WARE, ware of tin, copper, lead, and zinc, made at Bidar, in India.

BIDDING PRAYER, an exhortation to prayer in some special reference, followed by the Lord's Prayer, in which the congregation joins.

BIDDLE, JOHN, a Socinian writer in the time of Charles I. and the Commonwealth; much persecuted for his belief, and was imprisoned, but released by Cromwell; regarded as the founder of English Unitarianism; author of a "Confession of Faith concerning the Holy Trinity"

(1615-1662).

BIDPA, or PILPA, the presumed author of a collection of Hindu fables of ancient date, in extensive circulation over the East, and widely translated.

BIELA'S COMET, a comet discovered by Biela, an Austrian officer, in 1826; appears, sometimes un.o.bserved, every six years.

BIELEFELD (39), a manufacturing town in Westphalia, with a large trade in linen, and the centre of the trade.

BIELU'KA, with its twin peaks, highest of the Altai Mountains, 11,100 ft.

BIENNE, LAKE OF, in the Swiss canton of Berne; the Aar is led into it when in flood, so as to prevent inundation below; on the sh.o.r.es of it are remains of lake-dwellings, and an island in it, St. Pierre, the retreat of Rousseau in 1765.

BIFRoST, a bridge in the Norse mythology stretching from heaven to earth, of firm solidity and exquisite workmans.h.i.+p, represented in the rainbow, of which the colours are the reflections of the precious stones.

BIGELOW, ERASTUS BRIGHAM, American inventor of weaving machines, born in Ma.s.sachusetts (1814-1879).

BIG-ENDIANS, a name given to the Catholics, as Little-endians is the name given to the Protestants, in the imaginary kingdom of Lilliput, of which the former are regarded as heretics by the latter because they break their eggs at the big end.

BIGGAR, a town in Lanarks.h.i.+re, birthplace of Dr. John Brown and of the Gladstone ancestry.

BIGLOW, imaginary author of poems in the Yankee dialect, written by James Russell Lowell.

BIj.a.pUR', city in the presidency of Bombay, once the capital of an extensive kingdom, now deserted, but with remains of its former greatness.

BILBA'O (50), capital of the Basque prov. of Biscay, in Spain; a commercial city of ancient date, famous at one time for its steel, specially in Queen Elizabeth's time, when a rapier was called a "bilbo."

BILDERDIJK, WILLEM, Dutch poet, born at Amsterdam (1756-1831).

BILE, a fluid secreted from the blood by the liver to aid in digestion, the secretion of which is most active after food.