OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bakócz, Tamás, Cardinal

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​BAKÓCZ, TAMÁS, Cardinal (1442–1521), Hungarian ecclesiastic and statesman, was the son of a wagoner, adopted by his uncle, who trained him for the priesthood and whom he succeeded as rector of Tétel (1480). Shortly afterwards he became one of the secretaries of King Matthias I., who made him bishop of Gyor and a member of the royal council (1490). Under Wladislaus II. (1490–1516) he became successively bishop of Eger, the richest of the Hungarian sees, archbishop of Esztergom (1497), cardinal (1500), and titular patriarch of Constantinople (1510). From 1490 to his death in 1521 he was the leading statesman of Hungary and mainly responsible for her foreign policy. It was solely through his efforts that Hungary did not accede to the league of Cambrai, was consistently friendly with Venice, and formed a family compact with the Habsburgs. He was also the only Magyar prelate who seriously aspired to the papal throne. In 1513, on the death of Julius II., he went to Rome for the express purpose of bringing about his own election as pope. He was received with more than princely pomp, and all but succeeded in his design, thanks to his extraordinary adroitness and the command of an almost unlimited bribing-fund. But Venice and the emperor played him false, and he failed. He returned to Hungary as papal legate, bringing with him the bull of Leo X. proclaiming a fresh crusade against the Turks. But the crusade degenerated into a jacquerie which ravaged the whole kingdom, and much discredited Bakócz. He lost some of his influence at first after the death of Wladislaus, but continued to be the guiding spirit at court, till age and infirmity confined him almost entirely to his house in the last three years of his life. Bakócz was a man of great ability but of no moral principle whatever. His whole life was a tissue of treachery. He was false to his benefactor Matthias, false to Matthias’s son János Corvinus (q.v.), whom he chicaned out of the throne, and false to his accomplice in that transaction, Queen Beatrice. His rapacity disgusted even an age in which every one could be bought and sold. His attempt to incorporate the wealthy diocese of Transylvania with his own primatial province was one of the principal causes of the spread of the Reformation in Hungary. He left a fortune of many millions. His one redeeming feature was a love of art; his own cathedral was a veritable Pantheon.
See Vilmos Fraknoi, Tamás Bakócz (Hung.) (Budapest, 1889).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Balakirev, Mili Alexeivich

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​BALAKIREV, MILI ALEXEIVICH (1836– ), Russian musical composer, was born at Nijni-Novgorod on the 31st of December 1836. He had the advantage as a boy of living with Oulibichev, author of a Life of Mozart, who had a private band, and from whom Balakirev obtained a valuable education in music. At eighteen, after a university course in mathematics, he went to St Petersburg, full of national ardour, and there made the acquaintance of Glinka. Round him gathered César Cui (b. 1835), and others, and in 1862 the Free School of Music was established, by which, and by Balakirev’s personal zeal, the modern school of Russian music was largely stimulated. In 1869 Balakirev was appointed director of the imperial chapel and conductor of the Imperial Musical Society. His influence as a conductor, and as an organizer of Russian music, give him the place of a founder of a new movement, apart even from his own compositions, which though few in number are remarkable in themselves. His works consist largely of songs and collections of folk-songs, but include a symphony (first played in England in 1901), two symphonic poems (“Russia” and “Tamara”), and four overtures, besides pianoforte pieces. His orchestral works are of the “programme-music” order, but all are brilliant examples of the highly coloured, elaborate style characteristic of modern Russian composers, and developed by Balakirev’s disciples, such as Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Baku (government)

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​BAKU, a government of Russian Transcaucasia, stretching along the west coast of the Caspian Sea from 41° 50′ to 38° 30′ N. lat., and bounded on the W. by the government of Elisavetpol and the province of Daghestan, and on the S. by Persia. It includes the Kuba plain on the north-east slope of the Caucasus; the eastern extremity of that range from the Shad-dagh (13,960 ft.) and the Bazardyuz (14,727 ft.) to the Caspian, where it terminates in the Apsheron peninsula; the steppes of the lower Kura and Aras on the south of the Caucasus, and a narrow coast-belt between the Anti-Caucasus and the Caspian. The last-mentioned region lies partly round the Kizil-agach Bay, opening to the south. Area of government, 15,172 sq. m. Both slopes of the Caucasus are very fertile and well irrigated, with fine forests, fields of rice and other cereals, and flourishing gardens. The steppes of the Kura are also fertile, but require artificial irrigation, especially for cotton. In addition to agriculture and cattle-breeding, the vine and mulberry are extensively grown. The Apsheron peninsula is dry and bare of vegetation; but within it are situated the famous petroleum wells of Baku. These, which go down to depths of 700 to 1700 ft., yield crude naphtha, from which the petroleum or kerosene is distilled; while the heavier residue (mazut) is used as lubricating oil and for fuel, for instance in the locomotives of the Transcaspian railway. Whereas in 1863 the output was only 5500 tons of crude naphtha, in 1904 it amounted to 9,833,600 tons; but business was much injured by a serious fire in 1905. The oil-fields lie around the town of Baku: the largest, that of Balakhany-Sabunchi-Romany (6 sq. m.), is 81/2 m. north of the town; that of Bibi-Eybat, is 31/2 m. south; the “black town” (Nobel’s) is 2 m. south-east; and beyond the last names is the “white town” (Rothschild’s). The lighter oil is conveyed to Batum on the Black Sea in pipes, and is there shipped for export; the heavier oils reach the same port and the ports of Novorossiysk and Poti, also on the Black Sea, in tank railway-cars. At Surakhani, 13 m. east of the town, is the now disused temple of the Parsee fire-worshippers, who were attracted thither by the natural fountains of inflammable gas.
The government is divided into six districts, the chief towns of which are Baku (the capital of the government), Geok-chai (pop. 2247 in 1897), Kuba (15,346), Lenkoran (8768), Salyany (10,168), in district of Jevat, and Shemakha (20,008). The population numbered 828,511 in 1897, of whom the major part were Tatars; other races were Russians, the Iranian tribes of the Tates (89,519) and Talysh (34,994), Armenians (52,233) and the Caucasian mountaineers known as Kurins.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Balaghat

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​BALAGHAT (i.e. “above the ghats or passes,” the highlands), a district of British India in the Nagpur division of the Central Provinces. The administrative headquarters are at the town of Burha. The district contains an area of 3132 sq. m. It forms the eastern portion of the central plateau which divides the province from east to west. These highlands, formerly known as the Raigarh Bichhia tract, remained desolate and neglected until 1866, when the district of Balaghat was formed, and the country opened to the industrious and enterprising peasantry of the Wainganga valley. Geographically the district is divided into three distinct parts:—(1) The southern lowlands, a slightly undulating plain, comparatively well cultivated and drained by the Wainganga, Bagh, Deo, Ghisri and Son rivers. (2) The long narrow valley known as the Mau Taluka, lying between the hills and the Wainganga river, and comprising a long, narrow, irregular-shaped lowland tract, intersected by hill ranges and peaks covered with dense jungle, and running generally from north to south. (3) The lofty plateau, in which is situated the Raigarh Bichhia tract, comprising irregular ranges of hills, broken into numerous valleys, and generally running from east to west. The highest points in the hills of the district are as follows:—Peaks above Lanji, 2300 or 2500 feet; Tepagarh hill, about 2600 ft.; and Bhainsaghat range, about 3000 ft. above the sea. The principal rivers in the district are the Wainganga, and its tributaries, the Bagh, Nahra and Uskal; a few smaller streams, such as the Masmar, the Mahkara, &c.; and the Banjar, Halon and Jamunia, tributaries of the Nerbudda, which drain a portion of the upper plateau. In the middle of the 19th century the upper part of the district was an impenetrable waste. About that time one Lachhman Naik established the first villages on the Paraswara plateau. But a handsome Buddhist temple of cut stone, belonging to some remote period, is suggestive of a civilization which had disappeared before historic times. The population in 1901 was 326,521, showing a decrease of 15% in the decade, due to the effects of famine. A large part of the area is still covered with forest, the most valuable timber-tree being sal. There are few good roads. The Gondia-Jubbulpore line of the Bengal-Nagpur railway traverses the Wainganga valley in the west of the district. The district suffered very severely from the famine of 1896–1897. It suffered again in 1900, when in April the number of persons relieved rose above 100,000.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Baku (town)

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​BAKU, the chief town of the government of the same name, in Russian Transcaucasia, on the south side of the peninsula of Apsheron, in 40° 21′ N. and 49° 50′ E. It is connected by rail with the south Russian railway system at Beslan, the junction for Vladikavkaz (400 m.), via Derbent and Petrovsk, with Batum (560 m.) and Poti (536 m.) on the Black Sea via Tiflis. A long stone quay next the harbour is backed by the new town climbing up the slopes behind. To the west is the old town, consisting of steep, narrow, winding streets, and presenting a decidedly oriental appearance. Here are the ruins of a palace of the native khans, built in the 16th century; the mosques of the Persian shahs, built in 1078 and now converted into an arsenal; nearer the sea the “maidens' tower,” transformed into a lighthouse; and not far from it remains of ancient walls projecting above the sea, and showing traces of Arabic architecture of the 9th and 10th centuries. Beside the harbour are engineering works, dry docks and barracks, stores and workshops belonging to the Russian Caspian fleet. Besides the petroleum refineries the town possesses oil-works (for fuel), flour-mills, sulphuric acid works and tobacco factories. Owing to its excellent harbour Baku is a chief depot for merchandise coming from Persia and Transcaspia—raw cotton, silk, rice, wine, fish, dried fruit and timber—and for Russian manufactured goods. The climate is extreme, the mean temperature for the year being 58° F., for January 38°, for July 80°; annual rainfall 9.4 in. A wind of exceptional violence blows sometimes from the N.N.W. in winter. Pop. (1860) 13,381; (1897) 112,253; (1900) 179,133. The town is mentioned by the Arab geographer, Masudi, in the 10th century. From 1509 it was in the possession of the Persians. The Russians captured it from them in 1723, but restored it in 1735; it was incorporated in the Russian empire in 1806. In 1904–1905, ​in consequence of the general political anarchy, serious conflicts took place here between the Tatars and the Armenians, and two-thirds of the Balakhani and Bibi-Eybat oil-works were burned.
See Marvin, The Region of the Eternal Fire (ed. 1891) and J. D. Henry, Baku, an Eventful History (1906). (P. A. K.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bala

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​BALA, a market-town and urban district of Merionethshire, N. Wales, at the north end of Bala Lake, 17 m. N.E. of Dolgelley (Dolgellau). Pop. (1901) 1554. It is little more than one wide street. Its manufactures are flannel, stockings, gloves and hosiery (for which it was well known in the 18th century). The Tower of Bala (some 30 ft. high by 50 diameter) is a tumulus or “moat-hill,” formerly thought to mark the site of a Roman camp. The theological college of the Calvinistic Methodists and the grammar school (endowed), which was founded in 1712, are the chief features, together with the statue of the Rev. Thomas Charles, the distinguished theological writer, to whom was largely due the foundation of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Bala Lake, the largest in Wales (4 m. long by some 3/4 m. wide), is subject to sudden and dangerous floods, deep and clear, and full of pike, perch, trout, eel and gwyniad. The gwyniad (Caregonus) is peculiar to certain waters, as those of Bala Lake, and is fully described by Thomas Pennant in his Zoology (1776).
The lake (Llyn Tegid) is crossed by the Dee, local tradition having it that the waters of the two never mix, like those of Alpheus and the sea.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Balaguer, Victor

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​BALAGUER, VICTOR (1824–1901), Spanish politician and author, was born at Barcelona on the 11th of December 1824, and was educated at the university of his native town. His precocity was remarkable; his first dramatic essay, Pepin el jorobado, was placed on the Barcelona stage when he was fourteen years of age, and at nineteen he was publicly “crowned” after the production of his second play, Don Enrique el Dadivoso. From 1843 to 1868 he was the chief of the Liberal party in Barcelona, and as proprietor and editor of El Conseller did much to promote the growth of local patriotism in Catalonia. But it was not till 1857 that he wrote his first poem in Catalan—a copy of verses to the Virgin of Montserrat. Henceforward he frequently adopted the pseudonym of “lo Trovador de Montserrat”; in 1859 he helped to restore the “Juegos Florales,” and in 1861 was proclaimed mestre de gay saber. He was removed to Madrid, took a prominent part in political life, and in 1867 emigrated to Provence. On the expulsion of Queen Isabella, he returned to Spain, represented Manresa in the Cortes, and in 1871–1872 was successively minister of the colonies and of finance. He resigned office at the restoration, but finally followed his party in rallying to the dynasty; he was appointed vice-president of congress, and was subsequently a senator. He died at Madrid on the 14th of January 1901. Long before his death he had become alienated from the advanced school of Catalan nationalists, and endeavoured to explain away the severe criticism of Castile in which his Historia de Cataluña y de la Corona de Aragon (1860–1863) abounds. This work, like his Historia politica y literaria de los trovadores (1878–1879), is inaccurate, partial and unscientific; but both books are attractively written and have done great service to the cause which Balaguer once upheld. As a poet he is imitative: reminiscences of Quintana are noticeable in his patriotic songs, of Zorrilla in his historical ballads, of Byron in his lyrical poems. He wrote too hastily to satisfy artistic canons; but if he has the faults he has also the merits of a pioneer, and in Catalonia his name will endure.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Denbigh

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​DENBIGH (Dinbych), a municipal and (with Holt, Ruthin and Wrexham) contributory parliamentary borough, market town and county town of Denbighshire, N. Wales, on branches of the London & North Western and the Great Western railways. Pop. (1901) 6438. Denbigh Castle, surrounding the hill with a double wall, was built, in Edward I.’s reign, by Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln, from whom the town received its first charter. The outer wall is nearly a mile round; over its main gateway is a niche with a figure representing, possibly, Edward I., but more probably, de Lacy. Here, in 1645, after the defeat of Rowton Moor, Charles I. found shelter, the castle long resisting the Parliamentarians, and being reduced to ruins by his successor. The chief buildings are the Carmelite Priory (ruins dating perhaps from the 13th century); a Bluecoat school (1514); a free grammar school (1527); an orphan girl school (funds left by Thomas Howel to the Drapers’ Co., in Henry VII.’s reign); the town hall (built in 1572 by Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, enlarged and restored in 1780); an unfinished church (begun by Leicester); a market hall (with arcades or “rows,” such as those of Chester or Yarmouth); and the old parish church of St Marcella. The streams near Denbigh are the Clwyd and Elwy. The inhabitants of Denbigh are chiefly occupied in the timber trade, butter-making, poultry-farming, bootmaking, tanning and quarrying (lime, slate and paving-stones). The borough of Denbigh has a separate commission of the peace, but no separate court of quarter sessions. The town has long been known as a Welsh publishing centre, the vernacular newspaper, Baner, being edited and printed here. Near Denbigh, at Bodelwyddan, &c., coal is worked.
The old British tower and castle were called Castell caled fryn yn Rhôs, the “castle of the hard hill in Rhôs.” Din in ​Dinbych means a fort. There is a goblin well at the castle. Historically, David (Dafydd), brother of the last Llewelyn, was here (aet. Edward I.) perhaps on a foray; also Henry Lacy, who built the castle (aet. Edward I.), given to the Mortimers and to Leicester (under Edward III. and Elizabeth, respectively).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Dendrocometes

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​DENDROCOMETES (so named by F. Stein), a genus of suctorian Infusoria, characterized by the repeatedly branched attached body; each of the lobes of the body gives off a few retractile tentacles. It is parasitic on the gills of the so-called freshwater shrimp Gammarus pulex.
For its conjugation see Sydney H. Hickson, in Quarterly Journ. of Microsc. Science, vol xlv. (1902), p. 325.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Denham, Dixon

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​DENHAM, DIXON (1786–1828), English traveller in West Central Africa, was born in London on the 1st of January 1786. He was educated at Merchant Taylors’ School, and was articled to a solicitor, but joined the army in 1811. First in the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers, and afterwards in the 54th foot, he served in the campaigns in Portugal, Spain, France and Belgium, and received the Waterloo medal. In 1821 he volunteered to join Dr Oudney and Hugh Clapperton (q.v.), who had been sent by the British government via Tripoli to the central Sudan. He joined the expedition at Murzuk in Fezzan. Finding the promised escort not forthcoming, Denham, whose energy was boundless, started for England to complain of the “duplicity” of the pasha of Tripoli. The pasha, alarmed, sent messengers after him with promises to meet his demands. Denham, who had reached Marseilles, consented to return, the escort was forthcoming, and Murzuk was regained in November 1822. Thence the expedition made its way across the Sahara to Bornu, reached in February 1823. Here Denham, against the wish of Oudney and Clapperton, accompanied a slave-raiding expedition into the Mandara highlands south of Bornu. The raiders were defeated, and Denham barely escaped with his life. When Oudney and Clapperton set out, December 1823, for the Hausa states, Denham remained behind. He explored the western, south and south-eastern shores of Lake Chad, and the lower courses of the rivers Waube, Logone and Shari. In August 1824, Clapperton having returned and Oudney being dead, Bornu was left on the return journey to Tripoli and England. In December 1826 Denham, promoted lieutenant-colonel, sailed for Sierra Leone as superintendent of liberated Africans. In 1828 he was appointed governor of Sierra Leone, but after administering the colony for five weeks died of fever at Freetown on the 8th of May 1828.
See Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa in the years 1822–1824 (London, 1826), the greater part of which is written by Denham; The Story of Africa, vol. i. chap. xiii. (London, 1892), by Dr Robert Brown.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Denain

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​DENAIN, a town of northern France in the department of Nord, 8 m. S.W. of Valenciennes by steam tramway. A mere village in the beginning of the 19th century, it rapidly increased from 1850 onwards, and, according to the census of 1906, possessed 22,845 inhabitants, mainly engaged in the coal mines and iron-smelting works, to which it owes its development. There are also breweries, manufactories of machinery, sugar and glass. A school of commerce and industry is among the institutions. Denain has a port on the left bank of the Scheldt canal. Its vicinity was the scene of the decisive victory gained in 1712 by Marshal Villars over the allies commanded by Prince Eugène; and the battlefield is marked by a monolithic monument inscribed with the verses of Voltaire:—
“Regardez dans Denain l’audacieux Villars Disputant le tonnerre à l’aigle des Césars.”
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Dengue

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​DENGUE (pronounced deng-ga), an infectious fever occurring in warm climates. The symptoms are a sudden attack of fever, accompanied by rheumatic pains in the joints and muscles with severe headache and erythema. After a few days a crisis is reached and an interval of two or three days is followed by a slighter return of fever and pain and an eruption resembling measles, the most marked characteristic of the disease. The disease is rarely fatal, death occurring only in cases of extreme weakness caused by old age, infancy or other illness. Little is known of the aetiology of “dengue.” The virus is probably similar to that of other exanthematous fevers and communicated by an intermediary culex. The disease is nearly always epidemic, though at intervals it appears to be pandemic and in certain districts almost endemic. The area over which the disease ranges may be stated generally to be between 32° 47′ N. and 23° 23′ S. Throughout this area “dengue” is constantly epidemic. The earliest epidemic of which anything is known occurred in 1779–1780 in Egypt and the East Indies. The chief epidemics have been those of 1824–1826 in India, and in the West Indies and the southern states of North America, of 1870–1875, extending practically over the whole of the tropical portions of the East and reaching as far as China. In 1888 and 1889 a great outbreak spread along the shores of the Aegean and over nearly the whole of Asia Minor. Perhaps “dengue” is most nearly endemic in equatorial East Africa and in the West Indies. The word has usually been identified with the Spanish dengue, meaning stiff or prim behaviour, and adopted in the West Indies as a name suitable to the curious cramped movements of a sufferer from the disease, similar to the name “dandy-fever” which was given to it by the negroes. According to the New English Dictionary (quoting Dr Christie in The Glasgow Medical Journal, September 1881), both “dengue” and “dandy” are corruptions of the Swahili word dinga or denga, meaning a sudden attack of cramp, the Swahili name for the disease being ka-dinga pepo.
See Sir Patrick Manson, Tropical Diseases; a Manual of Diseases of Warm Climates (1903).