pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
BIRKENHEAD, or Berkenhead, Sir John, a political author of note, was born about the year 1615. Being recommended to Dr William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury, he became his secretary; in which office he showed such capacity and diligence, that the archbishop, by his diploma, created him master of arts in 1639; and in the [7:4:650] year following, by letter commendatory from the same prelate, he was chosen probationer fellow of All-Souls College. This obliged him to reside constantly at Oxford; and on King Charles I. making that city his head-quarters during the civil war, our author was selected to write a kind of journal in defence of the royal cause, by which he gained great reputation. By his majesty’s recommendation, he was chosen reader in moral philosophy; and this employment he held till 1648, when he was expelled by the parliament visitors. He afterwards retired to London, where he wrote several poetical pieces; and having adhered steadily to his principles, he acquired the title of the “loyal poet,” and suffered several imprisonments. While he lived thus in obscurity he published some very satirical compositions, mostly levelled against the republican grandees, and written with great poignancy. Upon the restoration of King Charles II. our author, in reward of his loyalty, was created, on the king’s letters sent for that purpose, doctor of the civil law by the university of Oxford; and in that quality, as an eminent civilian, he was consulted by the convocation on the question, Whether bishops ought to be present in capital cases? He was about the same time elected to serve in parliament for Wilton in the county of Wilts. He was knighted in November 1662; and upon Sir Richard Fanshaw’s going in a public character to the court of Madrid, he was appointed to succeed him as master of requests. He lived afterwards in credit and esteem, and received various favours froι⅛the court; which, however, drew upon him some very severe attacks from those who opposed the court. Mr Wood has treated him with great severity; but his memory has been vindicated by others, particularly by Dryden, Langbaine, and Winstanly. He died in Westminster, on the 4th December 1679, and was interred in St Martin’s in the Fields.
BIRMINGHAM, a large town of the hundred of Hem-lingford, in the county of Warwick, 109 miles from London. It stands on the verge of the two counties of Worcester and Salop, so that some of the villages, which may be fairly considered as suburbs to Birmingham, arc in reality in those counties. It consists of two parishes, has no corporation, but is governed by two officers called bailiffs, because their predecessors were such to the lords of the manor of Birmingham before any town was built upon it. The appearance of Birmingham is by no means prepossessing; most of the streets are narrow and crooked, and the houses, though respectable, are in general upon a small scale. There are no public buildings deserving of notice; and from the nature of the extended manufactories, mostly carried on by machinery kept in motion by steam, the whole has rather a gloomy and cloudy look. It is by the rapid progress that the town has made in the arts, by its extension, by the increased opulence of the inhabitants, and by the vast augmentation of its population, that Birmingham is to be estimated. These have risen with the improvements of the navigable canals, and of the roads, by which fuel and the metals are brought at a cheap rate to the workshops of the manufacturers, and the heavy goods made are conveyed at similar low rates to the distant places of consumption. It would be more difficult to say what is not, than what is made here, in articles of iron, silver, gold, copper, brass, steel, mixed metals, glass, wood, horn, ivory, and stone. It has been called the toyshop of Europe; but although the smallest trinkets are prepared, it nevertheless produces the heaviest articles, even anchors, cannon, and chain-cables. In spite of the smoke and steam of the engines, this town is remarkably healthy; and the deaths in proportion to the number of inhabitants are fewer than in the other large places, London, Liverpool, and Manchester. The places of worship are numerous; those of diversion or amusement few. The town is well and cheaply supplied with provisions and with corn, chiefly through the means of the canals. The inhabitants at different periods have been as follows, viz. in 1801, 73 θ7θ. in 1811, 85,753; and in 1821, 106,722.
BIRNBAUM, a circle in the Prussian government of Posen, formerly a part of Poland. It is extended over 543 square miles, or 347,520 acres, and comprehends five cities or towns, and 150 villages, with 26,923 inhabitants. The northern part is sandy and woody, but the southern is moderately fertile. The chief place, which gives its name to the circle, stands on the river Warthe, near a lake, and contains 2010 inhabitants, of whom one fourth are of the Jewish nation.
BIRON, Armand de Gontault, Lord of, marshal of France, and a celebrated general in the sixteenth century, who signalized himself by his valour and conduct in several sieges and battles. He was made grand-master of the artillery in 1569; and so much was he respected, or rather feared, on account of his well-known bravery, that nobody dared to assault him at the massacre of St Bartholomew. He was the first who declared for Henry IV., brought a part of Normandy under his subjection, and dissuaded him from retiring to England or Rochelle. He was killed by a cannon-ball, at the siege of Epernay, on the 26th of July 1592. Biron was a sort of universal scholar; and used to carry a pocket-book, in which he wrote down every thing that appeared remarkable. This gave rise to a proverb very much used at court: when a person happened to say any thing uncommon, they told him, “You have found that in Biron’s pocket-book.”
BIROTA, or Birotum, in Roman Antiquity, a kind of vehicle, so denominated from its moving upon two wheels. It carried about 200 pounds weight, and was drawn by three mules.
BIRR, or Parsons Town, a market-town of Ireland, situated upon the Little Brosna river. It is the capital of King’s County, and few inland towns of Ireland are equally thriving. The streets are well built; and in the centre of an extensive square is a pedestrian statue of Vv illianf Duke of Cumberland, son of George IL, erected in 1747. Here are capacious barracks, two breweries, two distilleries, two tanneries, and several flour-mills. The population amounts to 5406. It is distant from Dublin 86 miles west-south-west.
BIRRUS, in Roman Antiquity, a cloak made of woollen cloth, and worn by the soldiers. Also a robe anciently worn by the priests or bishops.
BIRTH, in Midwifery, signifies the same with delivery.

Birth is also used for a person’s descent; and he is said to be high or low according to the circumstances 0 his ancestry.

Birth, or Berth, the station in which a ship rides at anchor, either alone or in a fleet, or the distance between the ship and any adjacent object, comprehending the extent of the space in which she ranges at the length of her cables. It also signifies the room, apartment, or place allotted to one or more of a ship’s company.

BiRrn∙Day, the anniversary return of the day on which a person was born. The ancients were religious in tue celebration of birth-days, and thence drew omςns of tl felicity of the coming year. The manner of celebrating birth-clays was by wearing a splendid dress; displaying a sort of rings peculiar to that day; offering sacrifices 0. wine and frankincense, the men to their genius, the women to Juno; giving suppers, and treating their friends an clients, who in return made them presents, wrote and sung their panegyrics, and offered vows and good wishes for t frequent happy returns of the same day. The birth-da; of emperors were also celebrated with public sports, fea≈>t s> [7:4:651]vows, and medals struck on the occasion. But the ancients, it is to be observed, had other sorts of birth-days besides the days on which they were literally born. The day of their adoption was always reputed as a birth-day, and celebrated accordingly. The emperor Hadrian, we are told, observed three birth-days; the day of his nativity, that of his adoption, and that of his inauguration. In those times it was held, that men were not born only on those days when they first came into the world, but also on those when they arrived at the chief honours and commands in the commonwealth, particularly the consulship. Hence Cicero, in his oration Ad Quirites, after his return from exile, says, A parentibus, id quod necesse erat, parvus sum procreatus; a vobis natus sum consularis. Birth-days with us are commonly occasions of feasting, jollity, and congratulation.
BISACCIA, a city in the Principato-Ulteriore of the kingdom of Naples. It is a bishopric in conjunction with St Angelo, and contains 5340 inhabitants.
BISACUTA, in the middle-age writers, an axe with two edges, which cuts either way; or a missile weapon pointed at both ends. Walsingham represents the securis bisacuta as peculiar to the Scottish nation.
BISCARA, a town in the territory of Algiers, capital of the southern province of Zaab. The district is inhabited by a rude, stout race, who repair to Algiers, and seek the meanest and hardest employments, as sweeping chimneys, cleaning the streets, &c., and having gained a little money, return to their native territory. Biscara contains a castle, on which a few guns are mounted. The place is situated 150 miles S. S. E. of Algiers.
BISCAY, a province of the north of Spain. It is bounded on the north by the sea, on the east by Guipuscoa, on the south by Alava, and on the west by Burgos; and it extends over 1272 square miles. By the last authentic census the population was found to amount to 112,371; but it is said to have increased in the thirty years that have since elapsed, in spite of the suffering during the war from 1808 to 1814. The province of Biscay enjoyed a degree of freedom not extended to the other parts of Spain, and its inhabitants seem to be inspired with more of the spirit of industry and adventure than is common in that country. The Biscayans are evidently of a distinct race, as both their features, manners, and language demonstrate; and are probably of Celtic origin. Biscay is a very mountainous district, the air is pure, and both the winters and summers are temperate. The agriculture is confined to a few fertile spots, and is mostly conducted by small proprietors, who have little or no assistance in their work from cattle, but dig instead of ploughing the soil; yet the province yields corn sufficient, with the aid of chestnuts, to supply its inhabitants. The fisheries do, however, largely contribute to their sustenance. The chief manufacturing industry is applied to iron, which is made of an excellent quality, and converted into the various objects of agricultural and domestic use. The rural inhabitants live much more in lone and scattered houses than in villages or hamlets, and it contains but few towns. The capital is Bilboa.
BISCEGLIA, a city and bishopric in the province of Bari, and kingdom of Naples. It is situated on the seashore, and has no water but that collected during rains, and preserved in cisterns. It contains 10,590 inhabitants. 1he harbour is frequented only by small vessels.
BISCHOFSHEIM, a city, the chief of a bailiwick of the same name, in the duchy of Baden, on the river Tauber, containing 2000 inhabitants. The bailiwick comprehends three cities or towns, eighteen villages and hamlets, an d 16,200 inhabitants.
BISCHOP, or Biskop, John de, an artist, born at the Hague in 1646. He is spoken of with commendation as a painter, and his drawings from the great masters are held in estimation by the curious. In these he had succeeded so happily as to preserve with the greatest exactness the style of the painter whose pictures he copied. But he is most generally known as an engraver; and his works in this line are numerous. They are chiefly etchings, harmonized with the graver; and though slight, yet free, spirited, and pleasing. He worked chiefly at Amsterdam, where he died in 1686, at the age of forty.
BISCUIT, or Biskuit, a kind of bread prepared by the confectioners, of fine flour, eggs, and sugar, and rose or orange water; or of flour, eggs, and sugar, with aniseeds and citron peel, baked again and again in the oven, in tin or paper moulds. There are divers sorts of biscuit, as seed-biscuit, fruit-biscuit, long-biscuit, round-biscuit, Naples-biscuit, sponge-biscuit, &c.

Sea-JBiscνιτ is a sort of bread much dried by passing the oven twice, to make it keep for sea service. For long voyages they bake it four times, and prepare it six months before the embarkation. It will keep good a whole year. To preserve sea-biscuit from insects, Mr Hales advises to make the fumes of burning brimstone pass through the casks full of bread. Biscuit may be likewise preserved a long time by keeping it in casks well caulked, and lined with tin.

The ancients had their biscuit prepared after the like manner and for the like use as the moderns. The Greeks called it αοτος διnvgος, or bread put twice to the fire. The Romans gave it the name of panis nauticus. Pliny denominates it vetus aut nauticus panis tusus atque iterum coctus; by which it appears that, after the first baking, they ground or pounded it down again for a second. By writers of the middle ages it is called paximas, paximus, and panis paximatus. Among the Romans we also meet with a kind of land-biscuit for the camp service, called buccellatum, sometimes expeditionalis annona, which was baked much; but to make it lighter for carriage, and less liable to corrupt, the coction was continued till the bread was reduced one fourth of its former weight.
BISHOPING, a term among horse-dealers, to denote the sophistications used to make an old horse appear young, or a bad one seem good.
BISHOPRIC, the district over which a bishop’s jurisdiction extends, otherwise called a diocese.
BISIGNANO, a city and the see of a bishop, in the province of Calabria Citeriore, in the kingdom of Naples, containing 9100 inhabitants.
BISLEY, a market-town in the hundred of the same name, in the county of Gloucester, 103 miles from London. It is situated in the vale of Chalford, where the manufacture of broad cloth is extensively conducted. The Stroud Canal, which unites the Thames and Severn, passes through the parish. The market has gone to decay. The inhabitants amounted in 1801 to 4227, in 1811 to 4757, and in 1821 to 5421.
BISMILLAH, a solemn form used by Mahommedans at the beginning of all their books and other writings, signifying, “In the name of the most merciful God.”
BISMUTH, in Mineralogy, one of the semi-metals, is of a silver white colour, much inclined to red, and liable to tarnish; generally occurs massive or lamellated, sometimes, though rarely, crystallized; is brittle when cold, but, on being heated, may be hammered into plates; at the comparatively low temperature of 476° it melts, and on cooling crystallizes. In close vessels, at a temperature of about 30° Wedgewood, it sublimes, emits copious fumes of the oxide of bismuth, burns with a bluish white flame, and, in the end, by increasing the heat, runs into a greenish coloured glass. Native bismuth is found in considerable quantity in some of the silver and cobalt mines of Bohemia and Saxony, also at Wheal Sparnon, near Redruth, in Cornwall, and at Carrockfell in Cumberland. In a native state its specific gravity is 9∙737, but after fusion considerably lower. It is attacked with difficulty by muriatic or sulphuric acid, but is readily soluble in nitric. Its great fusibility renders it a useful compound m the formation of several metallic alloys, as in the fabrication of printers’ types, and the composition of pewter. Eight parts of bismuth, five of lead, and three of tin, constitute what is called Newton’s metal, from its discoverer, which melts at the heat of boiling water, and may be fused over a candle in a piece of stiff paper without burning the paper. Plumbers’ solder consists of one part of bismuth with five of lead and three of tin. With an equal weight of lead, it forms a brilliant white alloy, much harder than Lad, and more malleable than bismuth, though ductile; and if the proportion of lead be increased, it is rendered still more malleable.

BISNAGAR. See Bijanagur.
BISOMUM, or Disomum, in Roman Antiquity, a tomb for two dead bodies, or the ashes of two. The ancients frequently buried two, three, or four bodies in the same sepulchre, disposed side by side; and hence the sepulchres of the primitive Christians had the words bisomi, trisomi, quadrisomi, &c. inscribed on them, to indicate the number of bodies deposited in them.
BISON. See Ornithology, Index.
BISSAO. See Bissagos.
BISSAT, Peter, professor of canon law in the university of Bologna, in Italy, was descended from the earls of Fife in Scotland, and born in that county in the reign of James V. He was educated at St Andrews, from which he removed to Paris; and, having spent some time in that university, proceeded to Bologna, where he commenced doctor of laws, and was afterwards appointed professor of canon law. He continued in that honourable employment several years with great reputation, and died in the year 1568. He is said to have been not only a learned civilian, but an excellent poet, orator, and philosopher. Patricii Eissatti Opera omnia, includingjnoemato, orationes, lectiones feriales, &c. Lib. de Irregularitate, &c. were published at Venice in 1565, 4to.
BISSEXTILE, in Chronology, a year consisting of 366 days, being the same with our leap-year.
BISSOLEE, a district of Hindostan, in the province of Lahore, belonging to the scheiks, extending along the west side of the Ravey river, and situated between the thirty-second and thirty-third degrees of N. latitude. The country is covered with high hills, which extend with little variation to Cashmere. The chief town is Bissolee, which is situated on the north-west side of the Ravey river. It is fortified, and commands the entrance into the northern hills. It is seventy-three miles north-east from Lahore. Long 74. 52. E. Lat. 32. 22. N. Bissolee is also the name of a ruined town in the province of Delhi.
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 handle like a knife, and others crooked, with the sharp edge on the inside.
BISTRE, among painters, signifies the burnt oil extracted from the soot of wood. It is of a brown transparent colour, having much the same effect in water-painting, where alone it is used, as brown pink in oil.
BISZTRITZ, a district or circle in the Hungarian province of the Seven Mountains. It extends over 1025 square miles, or 656,000 acres, and contains one city and fifty-five villages. It is an elevated tract of land, forming a part of the range of the Carpathian Mountains, through which is the pass of Rodna into Buckovina. The climate is generally severe, and the summers late; but it produces corn, flax, and fuel, and industry is applied to the rearing of black-cattle. It is thinly inhabited. The capital, the only town, bears the same name. It contains several churches for the different sects, a provincial Latin school or gymnasium, 765 houses, and 4850 inhabitants. Long. 24. 26. 13. E. Lat. 47. 5. 46. N.
BITHYNIA, an ancient kingdom of Asia, formerly known by the names of Mysia, Mygdonia, Bebrycia, Mari-andynia, and Bithynia. It was bounded on the west by the Bosphorus Thracius and part of the Propontis, on the south by the river Rhyndacus and Mount Olympus, on the north by the Euxine Sea, and on the east by the river Parthenius. The chief cities were Myrlea, Nicoedia, Chalcedon, Heraclea, and Prusa.·
BITONTO, a city, the see of a bishop, in the province of Bari, in the kingdom of Naples, on the great road from Foggia to Bari. It contains, besides the cathedral, twenty, four churches, and 14,200 inhabitants, who export the excellent wine known by the name of Zagarello.
BITTER, an epithet given to all bodies of an opposite taste to sweetness.

Bitter, a sea-term, signifying any turn of the cable about the bits, so that it may be let out by little and little. When the ship is stopped by a cable, she is said to be brought up by a bitter; and that end of the cable which is wound about the bits is called the bitter end of the cable.
BITTERFELD, a circle in the Prussian government of Merseburg, in the province of Saxony, extending over 213 square miles, or 136,320 acres. It is a level and rather sandy district, watered by the Mulda and its tributary streams, producing no surplus production except wood, and an insufficient supply of corn for food. It contains five towns and eighty-four villages, with 5172 houses, and 30,445 inhabitants. The chief place, of the same name, is a fortified city on the river Leber, with one Lutheran church, and 2403 inhabitants.
BITTERN. See Ornithology, Index.
BITUMEN, in Mineralogy (^Mineral Pitch, Asphaltum^ Erdpeclι), the most perfectly inflammable mineral known. Of this there are three varieties, elastic, earthy, and slaggy; the first is distinguished by its softness and elasticity, which, however, it partly loses on exposure to the air; the second, by its dull earthy appearance, and softness sufficient to take an impression from the nail; and the third, from its more or less conchoidal fracture, corresponding to the degrees of lustre it possesses. The component parts of these, however, are the same; and except in appearance and consistency, they do not differ from the naphtha, petroleum, or mineral-oil, a fine colourless fluid, which is first inspissated, becomes brown, and is then changed into mineral pitch by exposure to the air. Bitumen is usually of a black or brownish hue, is easily inflammable, and burns with a bituminous smell, much smoke, and a clear flame; some varieties even melt at a higher temperature. In specific gravity it varies considerably, from 0 ’ 828 to 1∙160, according to its density; and in composition it is principally made up of bituminous oil, hydrogen gas, and charcoal. The elastic variety has been found principally in the Odin mine at Castleton, in Derbyshire; and from its property of taking up the traces of a pencil in the same manner as Indian rubber, it has obtained the appellation of mineral caoutchouc. The earthy species abounds in Trinidad, where it forms a lake said to be three miles in circumference, and where, when mixed with grease or common pitch, it is used for paying the bottoms of ships. It has also been met with in Persia, in Dalmatia, and in the Hartz. The slaggy variety, again, occurs, forming nodules in the lead mines of Matlock in Derbyshire, at Hurlet near Paisley, imbedded in sandstone in Albania, and in many parts of the continent. The more liquid varieties of this mineral admit of considerable application for illuminating, for fuel, in the manufacture of varnish, &c.; and some of the harder kinds may be cut into ornaments, in the same way as jet.
BIVALVES, a term sometimes used for such shells as consist of two pieces. It is also an appellation given by botanists to such pods or capsules as consist of two valve; inclosing the seeds.
BIUMBRES, in Geography, an appellation given to th( inhabitants of the torrid zone, by reason of their shadows being projected different ways at different seasons of the year. The biumbres are the same with those otherwise denominated amphiscii.