Biafra
BIGHT OF, a large bay on the W. coast of Africa, at the head of the Gulf of Guinea, between Capes Formosa and Lopez. The principal rivers flowing into it are the Niger, the New and Old Calabar rivers, the Rio del Rey, the Kamerun, and the Gaboon; its islands are Fernando Po (Spanish), and St. Thomas' and Prince's Islands (Portuguese). Opposite Fernando Po are the Kameruns.
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Biarritz
a watering-place and noted winter resort in France; on the Bay of Biscay in the department of the Basses-Pyrénées; 4 miles S. W. of Bayonne. Pop. about 20,000.
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Bias
one of the seven sages of Greece; a native of Priene, in Ionia; celebrated for his practical knowledge and strict regard to justice. He flourished about 500 b. c.
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Biberach
a town of Württemberg, delightfully situated on the Riss, 23 miles S. S. W. of Ulm. It contains a monument to Wieland, who was born in the neighborhood. There are manufactures of machinery, artificial flowers, leather, bells, children's toys, etc. Pop. about 9,000. Here, in 1796, Moreau won a great victory over the Austrian General Latour, and in 1800, Saint Cyr defeated the Austrian General Kray. Biberach fell into the possession on of Baden in 1802, but four years afterward was ceded to Württemberg.
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Bible Christians
a Christian sect, called also Bryanites. It was founded by William O'Bryan, a Wesleyan local preacher in Cornwall, England, in 1815. In 1829 he left the body he had formed.
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Bible Oath
an oath sworn upon formed in 1806. the Bible.
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Bible of the Devil
This was without doubt a grimoire (q.v.) or some such work. But Delancre says that the Devil informed sorcerers that he possessed a bible consisting of sacred books, having a theology of its own, which was dilated upon by various professors. One great magician, continues Delancre, who was brought before the Parliament of Paris, avowed that there dwelt at Toledo sixtythree masters in the faculty of Magic who took for their text-book the Devil's Bible.
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Biblical Criticism
the science which has for its objects (1) to decide which books are entitled to have a place in the Scripture canon, and (2) to bring the text of these canonical books to the utmost possible degree of purity. In prosecuting the first of these aims, the Biblical critic must not be confounded with the Christian apologist; the function of the former is a strictly judicial one, while the office of the latter is that of an advocate. One important subject of investigation is as to what Old Testament books were recognized as divine by the ancient Jewish Church or Synagogue; as also what New Testament books were at once and universally welcomed by the early Christian Church, and what others were for a time partially rejected, though they ultimately found acceptance everywhere. Biblical Criticism has received its highest development in the hands of German scholars, who attacked its problems with an energy and destructiveness which, for a time, threatened to leave little of the authority or authenticity of the text. reaction from these In recent years a radical methods has set in, and while scholars recognize the necessity of applying the laws of criticism to the sacred texts, there is a pronounced disposition, founded on archæological and philological researches, to leave the authority of the of the texts unimpaired, unless there is unquestioned reason for disputing it.
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Bibliography
the science or knowledge of books, their authorship, the dates of their first publication, and of the several editions they have gone through, with all other points requisite for literary history. This, it will be perceived, is not the meaning of the word in Greek. The Greek term generated the French bibliographie, with the meaning (identical with neither the Greek nor the English one) of acquaintance with ancient writings and skill in deciphering them. About A. D. 1752 the modern sense of the word was arising, though the old one still held its ground. Finally, in 1763, the publication of De Bure's "Bibliographie Instructif" established the new me meaning, and gave the deathblow to the old one. It was not the first book which had appeared on literary history, Conrad Gesner's "Bibliotheca Universalis," containing a catalogue of all the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin books he knew, had long preceded it, having appeared in 1545.
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Bibliomancy
A method of discovering whether or not a person was innocent of sorcery, by weighing him against the great Bible in the Church. If the person weighed less than the Bible, he was innocent. (See Witchcraft .)
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Bibliomania
the passion of the book miser, which impels to the gathering and hoarding of books without regard to their literary value or practical utility; or, in its nobler aspects, in Andrew Lang's phrase, the "love of books for their own sake, for their paper, print, binding, and for their associations, as distinct from the love of literature." The word in English is modern, having been introduced from France about 1750.
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Bibracte
a town of ancient Gaul; was the capital of the Ædui, whom Cæsar once defeated; the modern Autun.
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Bicarbonate
a name given to the acid carbonates of potassium (KHCO₂), sodium (NaHCO3), ammonium (NH4.- HCO₂), etc. Also a carbonate dissolved in water containing carbonic acid gas, as carbonate of calcium thus dissolved, reprecipitated on boiling. Bicarbonate of potassium, KHCO3, is obtained by passing CO2 gas through a saturated aqueous solution of K₂CO₃ (potassium carbonate). It crystallizes in colorless rhombic non-deliquescent crystals, which are soluble in four times their weight of water. It does not give a precipitate with BaCl2 in the cold. Bicarbonate of potassium is a direct antacid, and is employed in the treatment of acute rheumatism and for removing uric acid from the system.
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Bice
the name of two colors used in painting, one blue, the other green, and both native carbonates of copper, though inferior kinds are also prepared artificially.
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Biceps
in anatomy, muscles having two heads or origins. Three muscles the human body have this name applied to them. One is the biceps humeri, or biceps internus humeri, and a second the biceps extensor, both of which are in the arm, and the biceps femoris, which is the straight muscle of the thigh. In botany applied to papilionaceous corollas, which have the claws of the two petals composing the keel distinct instead of united. BICÊTRE (bē-sāt're), a village of France, 1 mile from Paris, where, in the reign of Charles V., a large builddisabled ing was erected for disabled soldiers, destroyed in the wars under Charles VI. It was rebuilt by Louis XIII., and was used as a military asylum until the Hôtel des Invalides was established at Paris. It was afterward used as a hospital.
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