The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 74

BISCAY, BAY OF, a bay in the Atlantic, extending from Cape Ortegal, in Spain, to Cape Finisterre, in France, and 400 m. broad, of depth varying from 20 to 200 fathoms, and, under SW. winds particularly, one of the stormiest of seas.

BISCHOF, KARL GUSTAV, chemist, born at Nuremberg, professor at Bonn; experimented on the inflammable power of gas (1792-1870).

BISCHOFF, THEODOR LUDWIG WILHELM, distinguished biologist, born at Hanover; made a special study of embryology; was professor of Anatomy at Heidelberg, of Physiology at Giessen, and of both at Munich (1807-1882).

BISHOP, originally an overseer of souls, eventually an overseer of churches, especially of a district, and conceived of by High-Churchmen as representing the apostles and deriving his powers by transmission from them.

BISHOP, SIR HENRY ROWLEY, an English composer, born in London, composer and director of music in Covent Garden Theatre for 14 years; produced 60 pieces, of which "Guy Mannering," "The Miller and his Men,"

are still in favour; was for a brief s.p.a.ce professor of Music in Edinburgh University, and eventually held a similar chair in Oxford (1786-1855).

BISHOP OF HIPPO, St. Augustine, as once in office there.

BISHOP-AUCKLAND (10), a market-town 9 m. SW. of Durham, where the bishop of Durham has his residence, a palatial structure; it has coal-mines close by; manufactures machinery and cotton goods.

BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO (188), an archipelago formerly called New Britain, NE. of New Guinea; under the protectorate of Germany.

BISMARCK-SCHoNHAUSEN, EDUARD LEOPOLD, PRINCE VON, born at Schonhausen; woke up into civil life by the events of 1848; took a bold stand against revolutionary ideas and measures; conceived the idea of freeing the several States of Germany from foreign control, and welding them into one under the crown of Prussia. Summoned in 1862 by King William to be his political adviser, his influence was at first distrusted, but the annexation of Sleswig-Holstein by force of arms in 1863 raised him into general favour. His next feat, the humiliation of Austria at Koniggratz in 1866, and the consequent erection of a German Confederation, with Prussia at its head, made him the idol of the nation.

His treatment of Napoleon III. provoked the latter into a declaration of war, and to an advance on the part of the French against Berlin. To the surprise of nearly all Europe, the Germans proved to be a nation of soldiers, marshalled as army never was before, and beat the French ignominiously back from the Rhine. Count Bismarck had the satisfaction of seeing the power of France, that still threatened, as well as that of Austria, helpless at his feet, the German empire restored under a Hohenzollern king, and himself installed as chancellor of the monarch he had served so well. Nothing he did after this--though he reformed the coinage, codified the law, established protection, increased the army, and repressed Socialism--equalled this great feat, and for this a grateful nation must ever honour his name. If he ceased to be chancellor of Germany on the accession of William II., it was because the young king felt he would have a freer hand with a minister more likely to be under his control (1815-1898).

BISSA'GOS, a group of some 20 volcanic islands off the coast of Senegambia, with a large negro population; yield tropical products, and belong now to Portugal.

BISSEN, a Danish sculptor, born in Sleswig; a pupil of Thorwaldsen; intrusted by him to finish a statue he left unfinished at his death; he produced some fine works, but his best known are his "Cupid Sharpening his Arrow" and "Atalanta Hunting" (1798-1868).

BITHUR, a town on the right bank of the Ganges, 12 m. above Cawnpore, where Nana Sahib lived, and concocted the conspiracy which developed into the mutiny of 1857.

BITHYNIA, a country in the NW. of Asia Minor, anciently so called; the people of it were of Thracian origin.

BITLIS (25), a high-lying town in Asiatic Turkey, 62 m. W. of Van; stands in a valley 8470 ft. above, the sea-level, with a population of Mohammedans and Armenians.

BITUMEN, an inflammable mineral substance, presumably of vegetable origin, called Naphtha when liquid and light-coloured, Petroleum when less fluid and darker, Maltha when viscid, and Asphalt when solid.

BITZIUS, a Swiss author, composed stories of Swiss life under the _nom de plume_ of Jeremias Gotthelf, fascinating from their charming simplicity and truth; he is much admired by Ruskin; was by profession a Protestant pastor, the duties of which he continued to discharge till his death (1797-1854).

BIZERTA (10), a seaport of Tunis, northernmost town in Africa, 38 m.

NW. of the capital, with an excellent harbour.

BIZET, GEORGES, an operatic composer, born at Paris; his greatest work "Carmen"; died of heart-disease shortly after its appearance (1838-1875).

BJoRNSEN, a Norwegian author, born at Kvikne; composed tales, dramas, and lyrics, all of distinguished merit and imbued with a patriotic spirit; his best play "Sigurd the b.a.s.t.a.r.d"; an active and zealous promoter of liberalism, sometimes extreme, both in religion and politics; his writings are numerous, and they rank high; his songs being highly appreciated by his countrymen; _b_. 1832.

BLACK, JOSEPH, a celebrated chemist, born at Bordeaux, of Scotch parents; the discoverer of what has been called latent heat, but what is really transformed energy; professor of Chemistry, first in Glasgow, then in Edinburgh, where his lectures were very popular; his discoveries in chemistry were fruitful in results (1728-1799).

BLACK, WILLIAM, novelist, born in Glasgow; started life as a journalist in connection with the _Morning Star_; has written several novels, over 30 in number, about the West Highlands of Scotland, rich in picturesque description; the best known and most admired, "A Daughter of Heth," the "Madcap Violet," "Macleod of Dare," "The Strange Adventures of a Phaeton," and "A Princess of Thule." "But when are you going to write a book, Mr. Black?" said Carlyle to him one day (1841-1898).

BLACK ART, name given to the presumed power of evoking evil spirits.

BLACK a.s.sIZE, a plague at Oxford in 1557, which carried off 300 victims; caught at the a.s.size from the prisoners under trial.

BLACK DEATH, a name given to a succession of fatal epidemics that devastated the world from China to Ireland in the 14th century, believed to be the same as the Oriental plague, though attended with peculiar symptoms; the most serious was that of 1348, which, as is reckoned, stripped England alone of one-third of its inhabitants.

BLACK FOREST (488), a wooded mountain chain 4000 ft. high (so called from the black pines that cover it), which runs parallel with the Rhine, and E. of it, through Wurtemberg and Baden, from the Swiss frontier to Carlsruhe; is remarkable for its picturesque scenery and its mineral wealth; it possesses many health resorts, as Baden-Baden and Wildbad, where are mineral springs; silver, copper, cobalt, lead, and iron are wrought in many places; the women and children of the region make articles of woodwork, such as wooden clocks, &c.

BLACK FRIARS, monks of the Dominican order; name of a district in London where they had a monastery.

BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA, a confined apartment 13 ft. square, into which 146 English prisoners were crammed by the orders of Surajah Dowia on the 19th June 1756; their sufferings were excruciating, and only 23 survived till morning.

BLACK LANDS, lands in the heart of Russia, extending between the Carpathians and the Urals, const.i.tuting one-third of the soil, and consisting of a layer of black earth or vegetable mould, of from 3 to 20 ft. in thickness, and a chief source, from its exhaustless fertility, of the wealth of the country.

BLACK MONDAY, Easter Monday in 1351, remarkable for the extreme darkness that prevailed, and an intense cold, under which many died.

BLACK PRINCE, Prince of Wales, son of Edward III., so called, it is said, from the colour of his armour; distinguished himself at Crecy, gained the battle of Poitiers, but involved his country in further hostilities with France; returned to England, broken in health, to die (1330-1376).

BLACK ROD, GENTLEMAN USHER OF, an official of the House of Lords, whose badge of office is a black rod surmounted by a gold lion; summons the Commons to the House, guards the privileges of the House, &c.

BLACK SAt.u.r.dAY, name given in Scotland to Sat.u.r.day, 4th August 1621; a stormy day of great darkness, regarded as a judgment of Heaven against Acts then pa.s.sed in the Scottish Parliament tending to establish Episcopacy.