1826-1838. The death of the author before the completion of this work, was the cause of the comparative inaccuracy observable in the 3d and 4th volumes. The article 'Virgil,' for example, is omitted altogether.

One of the earliest attempts to reveal the authorship of anonymous works was the Theatrum Anonymorum et Pseudonymorum of Vincent Placcius, folio (Hamburg, 1708); to which Mylius added a supplement in 1740. So far as France is concerned, these have both been superseded by the admirable and well-known Dictionnaire des Ouvrages Anonymes et Pseudonymes of Barbier, 2d ed., 4 tom. 8vo (Paris, 1822-1827). Italy, too, has the Dizionario di Opere Anonime e Pseudonime di Scrittori Italiani of Melzi, vols. 1 and 2, 8vo (Milano, 1848-1852); and we may also mention here the Pseudonimia of Lancetti, 8vo (Milano, 1836), as the work of an Italian, though not confined to the authors of his native country. No work specially devoted to the anonymous and pseudonymous literature of Britain has yet been published; but it is understood that the present keeper of the Advocates' Library has been for some time engaged in collecting materials for this purpose. The most recent additions to this branch of B. are Weller's Maskirte Literatur der älteren und neueren Sprachen, 1ter Theil; Index Pseudonymorum, 8vo (Leip. 1856), 2ter Theil; Die falschen und fingirten Druckorte, 8vo (Leip. 1858). Bibliographies which describe treatises on special subjects are very numerous; we have only space to notice, the following; Lipenius, Bibliotheca Realis Theologica, 2 vols. folio (Francofurti, 1685); Bibliotheca Philosophica, 1682; Bibliotheca Medica, 1679: Bibliotheca Juridica, 1672-a new edition of the last of these was published at Leipsic in 1757, and supplements have been successively added by Scott, Senkenberg, and Madihn-Marvin's Legal Bibliography, 8vo (Philadelphia, 1847); Orme's Bibliotheca Biblica, 8vo (Edin. 1824); Fürst's Bibliotheca Judaica, 8vo (Leip. 1849-1851); Vater, Litteratur der Grammatiken, Lexica und Wörtersammlungen aller Sprachen der Erde, 2te Ausg. von B. Jülg, 8vo (Berlin, 1847); Upcott's Bibliographical Account of the Principal Works relating to English Topography, 3 vols. 8vo (Lond. 1818); Oettinger's Bibliographie Biographique Universelle, 8vo (Bruxelles, 1854); The Literature of Political Economy, by J. R. M'Culloch, Svo (Lond. 1845); Arithmetical Books from the Invention of Printing to the Present Time, by Augustus de Morgan, 12mo (Lond. 1847); the Biographia Dramatica, by Baker, Reed, and Jones, 3 vols. 8vo (Lond. 1812); and the Bibliotheca Anglo-poetica, 8vo (Lond. 1815).

As examples of other works not included in the above classification, we have only space to mention Van Praet's Catalogue des Livres Imprimés sur Vélin, 9 vols. 8vo (Paris, 1822-1828); Peignot's Dictionnaire des Livres condamnés au Feu, 2 vols. (Paris, 1806); and Martin's Bibliographical Catalogue of privately printed Books, 2d ed., 8vo (Lond. 1824). The student desiring further information, will find copious lists of works on B. in Watt's Bibliotheca,

and in Brunet's Manuel.

BIBLIO MANCY (Gr. ta biblia, the Bible, and manteia, divination), a mode of divination much practised during many ages, by opening the Bible, and observing the first passage which occurred, or by entering a place of worship and taking notice of the first words of the Bible heard after entering it. The application was often very fanciful, and depended rather upon the mere sound of the words than upon their proper signification, or the scope of the passage. Prayer and fasting were sometimes used as a preparation for a mode of consulting the divine oracles, than which nothing could be more

contrary to their purpose and spirit, and which was in harmony only with the notions and practices of heathenism. B. was prohibited, under pain of excommunication, by the Council of Vannes, 465 A.D., and by the Councils of Agde and Orleans in the next century. It continued, however, to prevail for many centuries thereafter, and is said to have been introduced into England at the Norman Conquest. It was essentially the same as the Sortes Virgiliana, the only difference being in the book employed.

the last century.

BIBLIOMA'NIA, or book-madness, is a word Greek to express recently formed from the the passion for rare and curious books, which has manifested itself to such an extent during While the ordinary collector is satisfied with the possession of works which are valuable either on account of their established reputation, or as assisting him in his literary or professional pursuits, the bibliomaniac is actuated by other motives. With him utility is of secondary importance, rarity being the first and great requiThus even a common book becomes valuable in his eyes, if it be one of a few copies thrown off on vellum or on large paper, or if it has been bound by Derome, Bozerian, Lewis, or Payne; and for the same reason, he sometimes prefers an inferior to a better article. The fac-simile reprint of the Giunta edition of Boccaccio's Decameron (Florence 1527) fetches hardly as many shillings as the original does pounds, yet the great distinguishing difference between them is, that the former is the handsomer and more correct of the two.

site.

The formation of complete sets of such books as the Elzevir Republics (see ELZEVIR), or of the works of a single author, provided they be scarce, is a favourite pursuit with many. The editions of the classics most prized by collectors are those of the Elzevirs and of the Foulises (q. v.). The original editions of Defoe's numerous productions are eagerly sought for at present.

B. seems to have reached its climax at the sale

of the library of the Duke of Roxburghe in 1812. Amongst the treasures which that library contained, was the only perfect copy, known to exist, of the first, or at least the first dated edition of Boccaccio's Decameron (Venice, Christ. Valdarfer, 1471). After a spirited competition with Lord Spencer, this volume was purchased by the Marquis of Blandford for the sum of £2260, the highest price perhaps ever paid for a single book. When the collection of the marquis came under the hammer in 1819, Lord Spencer secured this precious tome at the large yet more moderate cost of £918, 15s. It is now, we believe, in his lordship's library at Althorp.

One of the results of the Roxburghe sale was the establishment of the Roxburghe Club, the object of which was to reprint, for the use of the members only, works hitherto unedited, or of extreme rarity. The example thus set was speedily followed by the Bannatyne and Maitland Clubs in Scotland, and by many more in other parts of the kingdom. Some of these are defunct, and others are in a moribund

state. It remains to be seen in what new form the

B. of the present day will develop itself.

BICANE'RE, capital of the protected state of the same name in Rajpootana, India, is situated in a singularly desolate tract, 1175 miles to the northwest of Calcutta, in lat. 28° N., and long. 73° 22' E. Pop. about 60,000. It is surrounded by a battlemented wall of 3 miles in circuit; and from a distance presents a magnificent appearance, but inside, the people are found to be extremely filthy. Immediately to the north-east is a detached citadel, of which the rajah's residence occupies the greater part.-The state of which B. is the capital, lies in

lat. 27° 30'-29° 55′ N., and long. 72° 30'-75° 40′ E., thus measuring, in its extremes, 160 miles by 200. It contains 17,676 square miles, with an estimated population of 539,250. The Rajpoots are the predominant race; but the Jauts form the great body of the inhabitants. Though the people find their principal resource in pasturage, yet water appears to be remarkably scarce. In the whole territory, there is not one perennial stream; while wells, as precarious and scanty as they are brackish and unwholesome, average perhaps 250 feet in depth; even the lakes or sirrs, which the periodical rains leave behind them, are generally saline, yielding, in fact, at the close of the dry season, a thick crust of salt. But the peculiar feature of the country is the range of its temperature. In the beginning of February, ice is formed on the ponds; and in the beginning of May, the thermometer stands at 123° F. in the shade. Again, in the beginning of November, according to Elphinstone's experience, each period of 24 hours, according as the sun was above or below the horizon, presented such extremes of heat and cold as often to be fatal to life.

BICE (Ger. Beis, Ital. Biadetto), the name of two pigments of a blue and green colour respectively, known to artists from the earliest times-blue B. as mountain blue, ongaro, azzuro di terra, &c.; and green B. as chrysocolla, Hungarian green, verde de Miniera, verde de Spagna, verdetto, &c. Green B. is now usually called malachite green and mountain green. Both are native carbonates of copper, but are also prepared artificially. In its native state, however, B. is more durable, and in the case of mountain green especially, much more brilliant. Artificial blue B. is known as Hambro' blue, mineral blue, &c.; artificial green B., as mountain green, Paul Veronese green, and emerald green.

BICEPS (double-headed) is the muscle which gives a full appearance to the front of the arm. Above, it consists of two portions or headswhence its name-one being attached to the coracoid process of the scapula, the other to the margin of the depression on that bone which lodges the head of the humerus. The former is the short, the latter, the long head of the biceps. They unite to form a fleshy belly, which terminates in a rounded tendon.

The B. tendon is inserted into the tubercle of the radius (see ARM). Before passing to this insertion, it gives off an expansion (see SPONEUROSIS), which separates the median basilic vein from the brachial artery in the situation generally selected for venesection. The action of the B. is rapidly to bend the forearm, and also to supinate the hand.

BICÊTRE, originally the name of a very old castle, situated on a little eminence in the neighbourhood of Paris, and commanding one of the finest views of the city, the Seine, and the environs. In 1632, it was destroyed, because it had become a hiding-place of thieves. Afterwards, it was rebuilt by Louis XIII., and made a hospital for old soldiers. When Louis XIV. had built the Hôtel Royal des Invalides, the B. was made a civil hospital for septuagenarians. It also serves as a prison for 2000 culprits, mostly condemned to the galleys, as well as a hospital for incurable lunatics. Wool-spinning and glass-polishing are carried on in the building. There is a well sunk in the rock to the depth of 183 feet.

BICHAT, MARIE FRANC. XAVIER, one of the most famous anatomists and physiologists, whose discoveries make an epoch in biology, was born at Thoirette, in the department of Ain, France, November 11,1771. He studied chiefly in Paris under Desault,

who adopted him as his son, and whose surgical works he edited. In 1797, he began giving lectures on anatomy, along with experimental physiology and surgery, and in 1800 was appointed physician in the Hôtel-dieu. Two years after, July 22, 1802, he fell a victim to intense and unremitting labour, before he had completed his thirty-first year. He was the first to simplify anatomy and physiology by reducing the complex structures of the organs to the simple or elementary Tissues (q. v.) that enter into them in common. This he has done in his Anatomie Générale (2 vols., Par. 1801, often reprinted). In his Recherches Physiologiques sur la Vie et la Mort (Par. 1800), he develops another luminous idea-the distinction between the organic and the animal life.

BICKERSTAFF, ISAAC, author of numerous comedies and light musical pieces produced under Garrick's management, which had at one time a great popularity, was born in Ireland about the year 1735, and became page to Lord Chesterfield, who was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1746. B. afterwards became an officer of marines, but was dismissed the service for some discreditable offence. Nothing is certainly known regarding his after-life, nor the time of his death, which would seem to have taken place on the continent. His best known pieces are, The Maid of the Mill; The Padlock; He would if he could; Love in a Village; The Hypocrite; and The Captive.

BICKERSTETH, REV. EDWARD, an influential clergyman of the Church of England, was born at Kirkby Lonsdale, in Westmoreland, March 19, 1786. He commenced life as a post-office clerk; and afterwards, having served an apprenticeship to a London attorney, established a lucrative solicitor's business in Norwich. Here, he took great interest in all meetings of a religious nature, and soon became so deeply impressed with the importance of religious truth, that he resolved to devote himself to the ministry. Being admitted to orders, he was sent by the Church Missionary Society to re-organise their mission stations in Africa. Having most satisfactorily accomplished his mission, B. was, on his return, appointed secretary to the Church Missionary Society, and continued to discharge the duties of the office with an unwearied energy and devotion that won for himself a high reputation and extensive influence, as well as great prosperity for the institution he represented, until 1830, when he resigned on acceptance of the rectory of Watton, in Hertfordshire. Here, until his death, which took place February 24, 1850, he took an active part in promoting, both by tongue and pen, almost every work having for its object the spread of religious truth whether at home or abroad. B. belonged to what is known as the Evangelical section of the Church of England, and took a decided part against the endowment of Maynooth, and in opposition to the spread of Tractarianism in his own church. He was also one of the founders of the Evangelical Alliance. Of his religious writings-which were extensive, and which have been collected in 16 vols. (Lond. 1853)—the most popular are, A Help to the Study of the Scriptures (written before he was ordained), The Christian Student, and A Treatise on the Lord's Supper. B. also edited a work called The Christian Family Library, which extended to 40 or 50 vols.

BIDASSO'A, a river which, rising in Spain, forms the boundary between that country and France, and falls into the Bay of Biscay at Fuenterabia. The treaty of the Pyrénées was concluded on an island in its mouth in 1659. The B. was the scene of several conflicts during the Spanish campaign.

northern side.

BIDDING PRAYER is a form of exhortation, always concluding with the Lord's Prayer, enjoined by the 55th canon of the Anglican Church, in 1603, to be used before all sermons and homilies. Except in cathedrals and the university churches, it is now but seldom used. The term 'B.' is from the Saxon 'Bede,' signifying a prayer. The form is of extreme antiquity, and we have a similar one in the Apostolical Constitutions (q. v.), the original of which was probably that used in the Church of Antioch. It was anciently used for the communicants or believers after the dismissal of the catechumens, and was pronounced by the deacon, each petition beginning with the words: 'Let us pray for -' and the people responding at the end of each with 'Kyrie Eleeison,' or some such words.

There is another very ancient example in the Ambrosian Liturgy; and St. Chrysostom alludes to such a form in one of his sermons. It must have been, and even now in its abridged shape still is, very impressive, allowing each individual to supply from his own thoughts special cases of necessity under the different heads. There is some resemblance between these B. Prayers and the Litany, and prayer for the church militant, now used in the Anglican

Church.

BIDDLE, JOHN, the founder of English Unitarianism, was born in 1615, at Wotton-under-Edge, in Gloucestershire, and, in 1632, entered Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took his degree of M.A. In 1641, he was elected master of the free school in the town of Gloucester, the duties of which function he discharged with such zeal, that the character of the institution was greatly improved; but having embraced certain opinions-which he printed for private circulation-in regard to the personality of the Holy Spirit, at variance with those held by the majority of Christians, he was thrown into jail, December 1645. Being at length summoned before the parliament at Westminster, on account of his heresy, he was formally tried, and condemned to imprisonment for five years. The famous Westminster Assembly of Divines undertook to 'settle' B.'s case, but unfortunately their arguments-as is usual in disputation-had only the effect of strengthening his previous convictions. In 1648, while still in prison, he published a Confession of Faith concerning the Holy Trinity, &c., which was followed by another tract containing the opinions of the Church Fathers on the same question. In consequence of this attempt to combat the orthodox doctrine, the Westminster Divines called upon the parliament to pass an act declaring the denial of the Trinity a crime punishable by death. The army, however, strange to say, proved on this occasion less cruel than the church, for it manifested such strong opposition that the act remained a dead-letter. Under the liberal rule of Cromwell, B. was released. He now commenced to gather a congregation of those

whom he had converted to his opinions—namely, that there was but one person, as there was but one nature, in the Godhead. The members were first called Bidellians, then Socinians, and finally assumed for themselves the name of Unitarians. Twice, however, after this, during the Commonwealth, B. suffered severely for his creed, and even the ironwas compelled to banish him to one of the Scilly Isles. Three years of imprisonment having elapsed, he was permitted to return, and continued to preach in London till the death of Cromwell, and also after the restoration, until June 1662, when he was again apprehended and fined in £100, and being unable to pay, was committed to jail, where he died in September of the same year. His personal character was highly esteemed by those who knew him.

In

BIDDLE, NICHOLAS, an American financier, born at Philadelphia in 1786, graduated at Princeton College, and became an energetic member of the legislature of Pennsylvania. In 1823, he was appointed president of the United States' Bank, and held that post till 1839. He conducted its affairs at first with great skill, integrity, and prudence; but, in 1838, the bank became insolvent, and in October of that year suspended cash-payments. The commercial panic and distress which at that time prevailed in the United States spread dismay far and wide, and involved multitudes in ruin. December 1841, the grand-jury for the county of Philadelphia made a presentment against B. and some others for entering into a conspiracy to defraud the stockholders of the bank of 400,000 dollars in 1836, and endeavouring to conceal the same by a fraudulent and illegal entry in 1841; the presentment, however, was never followed up. B. had considerable literary taste, and for some time edited The Philadelphia Portfolio, contributing many articles to its pages. By request of the president of the United States, he compiled from the original papers a History of Lewis and Clarke's Expedition to the Pacific Ocean; also The Commercial Digest, a volume put forth by congress. A number of his essays, speeches, &c., were published. He died in January

1844.

the town.

BI'DÉFORD, a seaport town of Devonshire, on both sides of the Torridge, near its confluence with the estuary of the Taw, 30 miles north-west of Exeter. A bridge of 24 arches, and 677 feet long, unites the two divisions of B., which has manufactures of ropes, sails, earthenware, and leather. These it exports, together with oak-bark, corn, flour, linens, woollens, iron, and naval stores. Pop. (1851) 5775. In 1857, 130 vessels, of 10,889 tons, belonged to the port; and in 1858, 1135 vessels, of 59,336 tons, entered and cleared it. Vessels of 500 tons can get up to the quay in the centre of Sir R. Granville, the naval hero and discoverer of Virginia, was born in Bideford. BIDPAI, or PILPAI, is the reputed author of a, collection of fables and stories which have been widely current both in Asia and Europe for nearly 2000 years, passing as a compendium of practical wisdom. Scarcely any book except the Bible has been translated into so many languages; and its history deserves attention as part of the history of human development. The researches of Colebrooke, Wilson, Sylvestre de Sacy, and Loiseleur des Longchamps (Essai sur les Fables Indiennes, 1838), have successfully traced the origin of the collection, its spread, and the alterations it has undergone among different nations. The ultimate source is the old Indian collection in Sanscrit, with the title Pantcha Tantra, i. e., 'Five Sections' (edited by Kosegarten, Bonn, 1848). An analytical account of the Sanscrit