OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Birdwood, Sir George Christopher Molesworth

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​BIRDWOOD, SIR GEORGE CHRISTOPHER MOLESWORTH (1832– ), Anglo-Indian official and writer, son of General Christopher Birdwood, was born at Belgaum, in the Bombay presidency, on the 8th of December 1832. He was educated at Plymouth grammar-school and Edinburgh University, where he took his M.D. degree. Entering the Bombay Medical Service in 1854, he served in the Persian War of 1856–57, and subsequently became professor at the Grant Medical College, registrar of the university, curator of the museum, and sheriff at Bombay, besides acting as secretary of the Asiatic and Horticultural societies. His work on the Economic Vegetable Products of the Bombay Presidency reached its twelfth edition in 1868. He interested himself prominently also in the municipal life of the city, where he acquired great influence and popularity. He was obliged by ill-health in 1868 to return to England, where he entered the revenue and statistics department of the India Office (1871–1902). Whilst engaged there he published important volumes on the industrial arts of India, the ancient records of the India Office, and the first letter-book of the East India Company. He devoted much time and energy to the encouragement of Indian art, on various aspects of which he wrote valuable monographs, and his name was identified with the representation of India at all the principal international exhibitions from 1857 to 1901. (See Journal of Indian Art, vol. viii. “The Life and Work of Sir George Birdwood.”) His researches on the subject of incense (Trans. Linn. Soc. xxvii., 1871; Ency. Brit. 9th ed., “Incense,” 1881; revised for the present edition by him), a good example of his mastery of detail, have made his historical and botanical account of this subject a classic. Nor can his lifelong association with journalism of the best sort be overlooked. From boyhood he was a diligent contributor of special information to magazines and newspapers; in India he helped to convert the Standard into the Times of India, and edited the Bombay Saturday Review; and after his return to London he wrote for the Pall Mall, Athenaeum, Academy, and Times; and with Chenery, the editor of The Times, and others he took the initiative (1882) in celebrating the anniversary of Lord Beaconsfield’s death as “Primrose Day” (April 19). He kept up his connexion with India by constant contributions to the Indian press; and his long friendships with Indian princes and the leading educated native Indians made his intimate knowledge of the country of peculiar value in the handling of the problems of the Indian empire. In 1887 he was created a K.C.I.E.; and, besides being given his LL.D. degree by Cambridge, he was also made an officer of the Legion of Honour and a laureate of the French Academy.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Birch, Samuel

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​BIRCH, SAMUEL (1813–1885), English Egyptologist and antiquary, was born on the 3rd of November 1813, being the son of the rector of St Mary Woolnoth, London. From an early age he manifested a tendency to the study of out-of-the-way subjects, and after a brief employment in the Record Office obtained in 1836 an appointment in the antiquities department of the British Museum on account of his knowledge of Chinese. He soon extended his researches to Egyptian, and when the cumbrous department came to be divided he was appointed to the charge of the Egyptian and Assyrian branch. In the latter language he had assistance, but for many years there was only one other person in the institution—in a different department—who knew anything of ancient Egyptian, and the entire arrangement of the department devolved upon Birch. He found time nevertheless for Egyptological work of the highest value, including a hieroglyphical grammar and dictionary, translations of The Book of the Dead and the Harris papyrus, and numerous catalogues and guides. He further wrote what was long a standard history of pottery, investigated the Cypriote syllabary, and proved by various publications that he had not lost his old interest in Chinese. Paradoxical in many of his views on things in general, he was sound and cautious as a philologist; while learned and laborious, he possessed much of the instinctive divination of genius. He died on the 27th of December 1885.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Birch-Pfeiffer, Charlotte

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​BIRCH-PFEIFFER, CHARLOTTE (1800–1868), German actress and dramatic writer, was born at Stuttgart on the 23rd of June 1800, the daughter of an estate agent named Pfeiffer. She received her early training at the Munich court theatre, and in 1818 began to play leading tragic rôles at various theatres. In 1825 she married the historian Christian Birch of Copenhagen, but continued to act. From 1837 to 1843 she managed the theatre at Zürich. In 1844 she accepted an engagement at the royal theatre in Berlin, to which she remained attached until her death on the 24th of August 1868. Her intimate knowledge of the technical necessities of the stage fitted her for the successful dramatization of many popular novels, and her plays, adapted and original, make twenty-three volumes, Gesammelte dramatische Werke (Leip. 1863–1880). Many still retain the public favour. Her novels and tales, Gesammelte Novellen und Erzählungen, were collected in three volumes (Leip. 1863–1865).
Her daughter, Wilhelmine von Hillern (b. 1836), born at Munich, went on the stage, but retired upon her marriage in 1857. After 1889 she lived in Oberammergau and won a reputation as a novelist. Her most popular works are Ein Arzt der Seele (1869, 4th ed. 1886); and Die Geier-Wally (1883), which was dramatized and translated into English as The Vulture Maiden (Leip. 1876).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Birdsnesting

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​BIRDSNESTING, a general term for the pursuit of collecting and preserving birds’ eggs, with or without the nests themselves. The nests and eggs of wild birds are nowadays protected by local laws almost everywhere in both Great Britain and the United States. By law they may be taken for scientific purposes only, by special licence. In order not to interfere seriously with breeding it is customary to take but one egg from a nest, and, if the nest itself be taken, to wait until the young birds have left it. Every egg, unless “hard-set,” should be blown as soon as removed from the nest. This is done by opening a small hole in its side by means of a drill with a conical head, manufactured for the purpose, a minute hole for the insertion of the drill-head having first been made in the shell with a needle, which is then used to stir up the contents, so that they shall flow easily. A blow-pipe with a curved mouth is then inserted, the egg is held hole downwards, and the contents blown out. The old-fashioned method of making two holes in the egg is thus superseded. Should the egg be “hard-set” a somewhat larger hole is made and its edges reinforced with layers of paper pasted round them. Minute forceps are then introduced and the embryo cut into pieces small enough to pass through the hole. The inside of the egg is then rinsed out with clean water, and also before being placed in the cabinet, with a solution of corrosive sublimate, which prevents decay and consequent discoloration of the inner membrane. Finally the egg is placed with the hole downwards upon a sheet of white blotting-paper to dry. The authentication of the eggs is the most important duty of an egg-collector, next to identifying the specimens. According to some the best method is to mark with a fine pen on the egg itself the variety, scientific name, locality of nest, date of taking and the initials of the collector, as well as a reference to his note-book or catalogue. Others advocate keeping the authentication separate with only a numbered reference on the egg itself. Eggs should not be transported in bran or sawdust, but in strong wool-lined boxes. The best cabinets are fitted with drawers, pulled out to inspect the eggs, but at other times closed to preserve them from the light, which is injurious to their delicate colouring. When an entire nest is taken it should be disinfected with hyposulphite of soda or insect-powder.
See Birdnesting and Bird-Skinning, by E. Newman (London, 1888); The Young Collector’s Handbook of British Birds’ Nests and Eggs, by W. H. Bath (London, 1888); Birds’ Nests, Eggs and Egg-Collecting, by R. Kearton (London, 1890); British Birds’ Eggs and Nests, by J. C. Atkinson (London, 1898); Nests and Eggs of North American Birds, by Ernest Ingersoll (1880–1881).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Birch, Thomas

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​BIRCH, THOMAS (1705–1766), English historian, son of Joseph Birch, a coffee-mill maker, was born at Clerkenwell on the 23rd of November 1705. He preferred study to business, but as his parents were Quakers he did not go to the university. Notwithstanding this circumstance, he was ordained deacon in the Church of England in 1730 and priest in 1731. As a strong supporter of the Whigs, he gained the favour of Philip Yorke, afterwards lord chancellor and first earl of Hardwicke, and his subsequent preferments were largely due to this friendship. He held successively a number of benefices in different counties, and finally in London. In 1735 he became a member of the Society of Antiquaries, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, of which he was secretary from 1752 to 1765. In 1728 he had married Hannah Cox, who died in the following year. Birch was killed on the 9th of January 1766 by a fall from his horse, and was buried in the church of St Margaret Pattens, London, of which he was then rector. He left his books and manuscripts to the British Museum, and a sum of about £500 to increase the salaries of the three assistant librarians.
Birch had an enormous capacity for work and was engaged in a large number of literary undertakings. In spite of their dulness many of his works are of considerable value, although Horace Walpole questioned his “parts, taste and judgment.” He carried on an extensive correspondence with some of the leading men of his time, and many of his letters appear in Literary Anecdotes of the 18th Century (London, 1812–1815) and Illustrations of the Literary History of the 18th Century (London, 1817–1858) by J. Nichols, in the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, vol. iii. (London, 1780–1790), and in Boswell’s Life of Johnson. Birch wrote most of the English lives in the General Dictionary, Historical and Critical, 10 vols. (London, 1734–1741), assisted in the composition of the Athenian Letters (London, 1810), edited the State Papers of John Thurloe (London, 1742) and the State Papers of W. Murdin (London, 1759). He also wrote a Life of the Right Honourable Robert Boyle (London, 1744); Inquiry into the share which King Charles I. had in the transactions of the Earl of Glamorgan for bringing over a body of Irish rebels (London, 1756); Historical view of Negotiations between the Courts of England, France and Brussels 1592–1617 (London, 1749); Life of Archbishop Tillotson (London, 1753); Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth from 1581 (London, 1754); History of the Royal Society of London (London, 1756–1757); Life of Henry, Prince of Wales (London, 1760), and many other works. Among the papers left at his death were some which were published in 1848 as the Court and Times of James I. and the Court and Times of Charles I.
See W. P. Courtney in the Dictionary of National Biography, vol. v. (1886); A. Kippis, Biographia Britannica (London, 1778–1793); Horace Walpole, Letters (London, 1891).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bird's-Eye

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​BIRD’S-EYE, a name applied to various small bright flowers, especially those which have a small spot or “eye” in the centre. The primula is thus spoken of, on account of its yellow centre, also the adonis, or “pheasant’s eye,” and the blue veronica, or germander speedwell. The word is also applied to a sort of tobacco, in which the stalks (of a mottled colour) are cut up together with the leaves. From a similar sense comes the phrase “bird’s-eye maple,” a speckled variety of maple-wood, or the “bird’s-eye handkerchief” mentioned in Thackeray’s novels.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Dagupan

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​DAGUPAN, a town and the most important commercial centre of the province of Pangasinán, Luzon, Philippine Islands, on a branch of the Agno river near its entrance into the Gulf of Lingayen, 120 m. by rail N.N.W. of Manila. Pop. (1903), 20,357. It is served by the Manila & Dagupan railway. Dagupan has a healthy climate. It is the chief point of exportation for a very rich province, which produces sugar, indigo, Indian corn, copra, and especially rice. There are several rice mills here. Salt is an important export, being manufactured in salt water swamps and marshes throughout the province of Pangasinán (whose name, from asin, “salt,” means “the place where salt is produced”). In these marshes grows the nipa palm, from which a liquor is distilled—there are a number of small distilleries here. Dagupan has a small shipyard in which sailing vessels and steam launches are constructed. The principal language is Pangasinán.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Dahl, Vladimir Ivanovich

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​DAHL (or DALE), VLADIMIR IVANOVICH (1802–1872), Russian author and philologist, was born of Scandinavian parentage in 1802, and received his education at the naval cadets’ institution at St Petersburg. He joined the Black Sea fleet in 1819; but at a later date he entered the military service, and was thus engaged in the Polish campaign of 1831, and in the expedition against Khiva. He was afterwards appointed to a medical post in one of the government hospitals at St Petersburg, and was ultimately transferred to a situation in the civil service. The latter years of his life were spent at Moscow, and he died there on November 3 (October 22), 1872. Under the name of Kossack Lugansky he obtained considerable fame by his stories of Russian life:—The Dream and the Waking, A Story of Misery, Happiness, and Truth, The Door-Keeper (Dvernik), The Officer’s Valet (Denshchik). His greatest work, however, was a Dictionary of the Living Russian Tongue (Tolkovyi Slovar Zhivago Velikorusskago Yasika), which appeared in four volumes between 1861 and 1866, and is of the most essential service to the student of the popular literature and folk-lore of Russia. It was based on the results of his own investigations throughout the various provinces of Russia,—investigations which had furnished him with no fewer than 4000 popular tales and upwards of 30,000 proverbs. Among his other publications may be mentioned Bemerkungen zu Zimmermann’s Entwurf des Kriegstheaters Russlands gegen Khiwa, published in German at Orenburg, and a Handbook of Botany (Moscow, 1849).
A collected edition of his works appeared at St Petersburg in 8 volumes, 1860–1861.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Dahlgren, Karl Fredrik

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​DAHLGREN, KARL FREDRIK (1791–1844), Swedish poet, was born at Stensbruk in Östergötland on the 20th of June 1791. At a time when literary partisanship ran high in Sweden, and the writers divided themselves into “Goths” and “Phosphorists,” Dahlgren made himself indispensable to the Phosphorists by his polemical activity. In the mock-heroic poem of Markalls sömnlösa nätter (Markall’s Sleepless Nights), in which the Phosphorists ridiculed the academician Per Adam Wallmark and others, Dahlgren, who was a genuine humorist, took a prominent part. In 1825 he published Babels Torn (The Tower of Babel), a satire, and a comedy, Argus in Olympen; and in 1828 two volumes of poems. In 1829 he was appointed to an ecclesiastical post in Stockholm, which he held until his death. In a series of odes and dithyrambic pieces, entitled Mollbergs Epistlar (1819, 1820), he strove to emulate the wonderful lyric genius of K. M. Bellman, of whom he was a student and follower. From 1825 to 1827 he edited a critical journal entitled Kometen (The Comet), and in company with Almqvist he founded the Manhemsförbund, a short-lived society of agricultural socialists. In 1834 he collected his poems in one volume; and in 1837 appeared his last book, Angbåts-Sånger (Steamboat Songs). On the 1st of May 1844 he died at Stockholm. Dahlgren is one of the best humorous writers that Sweden has produced; but he was perhaps at his best in realistic and idyllic description. His little poem of Zephyr and the Girl, which is to be found in every selection from Swedish poetry, is a good example of his sensuous and ornamented style.
His works were collected and published after his death by A. J. Arwidsson (5 vols., Stockholm, 1847–1852).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Dahl, Hans

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​DAHL, HANS (1849– ), Norwegian painter, was born at Hardanger. After being in the Swedish army he studied art at Karlsruhe and at Düsseldorf, being a notable painter of landscape and genre. His work has considerable humour, but his colouring is hard and rather crude. In 1889 he settled in Berlin. His pictures are very popular in Norway.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Dahl, Michael

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​DAHL, MICHAEL (1656–1743), Swedish portrait painter, was born at Stockholm. He received his first professional education from Ernst Klocke, who had a respectable position in that northern town, which, however, Dahl left in his twenty-second year. His first destination was England, where he did not long remain, but crossed over to Paris, and made his way at last to Rome, there taking up his abode for a considerable time, painting the portraits of Queen Christina and other celebrities. In 1688 he returned to England, and became for some years a dangerous rival to Kneller. He died in London. His portraits still exist in many houses, but his name is not always preserved with them. Nagler (Künstler-Lexicon) says those at Hampton Court and at Petworth contest the palm with those of the better known and vastly more employed painter.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Dahlgren, John Adolf

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​DAHLGREN, JOHN ADOLF (1809–1870), admiral in the U.S. navy, was the son of the Swedish consul at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ​and was born in that city on the 13th of November 1809. He entered the United States navy in 1826, and saw some service in the Civil War in command of the South Atlantic blockading squadron. But he was chiefly notable as a scientific officer. His knowledge of mathematics caused him to be employed on the coast survey in 1834. In 1837 his eyesight threatened to fail, he retired in 1838–1842, and in 1847 he was transferred to the ordnance department. In this post he applied himself to the improvement of the guns of the U.S. navy. He was the inventor of the smooth bore gun which bore his name, but was from its shape familiarly known as “the soda water bottle.” It was used in the Civil War, and for several years afterwards in the United States navy. Dahlgren’s guns were first mounted in a vessel named the “Experiment,” which cruised under his command from 1857 till 1859. They were “the first practical application of results obtained by experimental determinations of pressure at different points along the bore, by Colonel Bomford’s tests—that is by boring holes in the walls of the gun, through which the pressure acts upon other bodies, such as pistol balls, pistons, &c.” (Cf. article by J. M. Brooke in Hamersley’s Naval Encyclopaedia.) When the Civil War broke out, he was on ordnance duty in the Washington navy yard, and he was one of the three officers who did not resign from confederate sympathies. His rank at the time was commander, and the command could only by held by a captain. President Lincoln insisted on retaining Commander Dahlgren, and he was qualified to keep the post by special act of Congress. He became post-captain in 1862 and rear-admiral in 1863. He commanded the Washington navy yard when he died on the 12th of July 1870.
A memoir of Admiral Dahlgren by his widow was published at Boston in 1882. (D. H.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Dahl, Johann Christian

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​DAHL, JOHANN CHRISTIAN (1778–1857), Norwegian landscape painter, was born in Bergen. He formed his style without much tuition, remaining at Bergen till he was twenty-four, when he left for the better field of Copenhagen, and ultimately settled in Dresden in 1818. He is usually included in the German school, although he was thus close on forty years of age when he finally took up his abode in Dresden, where he was quickly received into the Academy and became professor. German landscape-painting was not greatly advanced at that time, and Dahl contributed to improve it. He continued to reside in Dresden, though he travelled into Tirol and in Italy, painting many pictures, one of his best being that of the “Outbreak of Vesuvius, 1820.” He was fond of extraordinary effects, as seen in his “Winter at Munich,” and his “Dresden by Moonlight;” also the “Haven of Copenhagen,” and the “Schloss of Friedrichsburg,” under the same condition. At Dresden may be seen many of his works, notably a large picture called “Norway,” and a “Storm at Sea.” He was received into several academic bodies, and had the orders of Wasa and St Olaf sent him by the king of Norway and Sweden.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Dahabeah

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​DAHABEAH (also spelt dahabīya, dahabīyeh, dahabeeyah, &c.), an Arabic word (variously derived from dahab, gold, and dahab, one of the forms of the verb to go) for a native passenger boat used on the Nile. The typical form is that of a barge-like house-boat provided with sails, resembling the painted galleys represented on the tombs of the Pharaohs. Similar state barges were used by the Mahommedan rulers of Egypt, and from the circumstance that these vessels were ornamented with gilding is attributed the usual derivation of the name from gold. Before the introduction of steamers dahabeahs were generally used by travellers ascending the Nile, and they are still the favourite means of travelling for the leisured and wealthy classes. The modern dahabeah is often made of iron, draws about 2 ft. of water, and is provided with one very large and one small sail. According to size it provides accommodation for from two to a dozen passengers. Steam dahabeahs are also built to meet the requirements of tourists.