Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/311

 B I L

B I N

its deck raii'ed from head to fterii, half a foot above the plat- board. Oxan. Diet. Math. p. 272.

BILATERAL cognation, denotes kinlhip, or kindred, on both fides ; that of the father as well as mother. See Cognation, Cycl.

Such is the relation of brothers, fitters. Bilateral ftands con- trad iftinguilhed to unilateral^ Hmtung. Exerc. Jur. Civ. 5. c. 12. p. 41-

BILBOWS, at fea, a punifliment anfweringtothe flocks at land. Gulll Gent. Dic~t. p. 3. in voc. See Stocks.

BILCOCK, in zoology, a name given by fome to the water rail, a bird of the moor-hen kind, but fmaller than the common moor-hen. See Rollus.

BILE, in natural hiftory and medicine. See Gall, Suppl, and Bile, Cycl.

BiLIMBI, in natural hiftory, the name of an Eaft-Indian tree, very famous throughout that part of the world for its ufes in medicine. European botanifts have called it malm indict fruflu pentagons, or the Indian apple-tree, with the five-cor nered fruit.

It feldom grows to above twelve feet high, and is not common wild, even in the Eaft-Indies, but is carefully cultivated in gardens, where it flowers all the year round. Bont, Med. Lid. The juice of the root is drank as a cure for fevers. The leaves boiled, and made into a cataplafm with rice, are famed in all forts of tumors, and the juice of the fruit is ufed in almoft all external heats, dipping linen rags in it, and applying them to the parts. And the fame is drank, mixed with arrack, cure diarrhoeas; and the dried leaves, mixed with betle leaves, and given in arrack, are faid to promote delivery. The fruit is pleafant to the tafte, when fully ripe, and is common'y eaten ; when fmaller, and unripe, it makes a very pleafant pickle.

BILINGUIS, (Cycl.) $iyxvr&, properly denotes a perfon, who has two tongues in his mouth ; an inftance of which is given by Dolaeus. Bonet. Medic. Septent. 1. 5. §. 25. c. 1. p. 30L Cajl. Lex. Med. p. 104 See Tongue, Cycl. and Suppl.

Bilinguis is alfo ufed for a perfon who fpeaks two languages, which wis formerly reputed a kind of prodigy. Gal. 1. 2. Diff. Pulf. c. 5. Cajl. Lex. Med. p. 2(14. voc. Diglottos.

BILIOUS fevers, a term ufed by medical writers to exprefs fuch fevers as arife from an immediate effufion of the bile. Thefe often arife from violent fits of anger in the patient. Of this nature are the cholerica feb> is, and caufus. See Fever, Cycl. mid Suppl. and Causus, Suppl.

BILL, [Cycl.) in phyfiology, is a cartilaginous fubftance covered with a ikin or cutis, which forms the beak, or rojlrum, of birds. See Bird, Cycl. and Suppl. The bill does the office of teeth in fome birds; alfo of wea-

cut in two, and half given to the borrower* and the other half ftitched to the pledge; that, upon comparing them together again, the borrower may receive his goods on paying the money ftipulated. Savar. Diet. Coram. T. 1. p. 343-

Crows Bill, rofirum corvi, among chemifts, the beginning of the philofopher's ftone, difcovered by the blackncfs of the mat- ter, called alfo the crow's bead. Libav. Opp. T. 2. p. 205: Cajl. Lex. Med. p. 642. voc. Rojhum.

Bills of mortality are accounts of the numbers of births and burials within a certain diftricf, every week, month, quarter, or year. SeeMoRTALiTY, CycL

In this fenfe We fay weekly bills, monthly bills, quarterly, and y.arly bills. Phil Tranf. N° 143. p. 21. The London bills of mortality, which were the firft, arecom- pofed by the company of parim clerks, and exprefs the num- ber of chriftenings of each fex, and the number of deaths from each difeafe.

From the breflaw bills Dr. Halley has endeavoured to eftimate the degrees or proportions of mortality at different ages, and from thence to fettle thevalue of annuities on lives. Vid. Phil. Tranf. N° 196. p. 597, and 654. See Annuity, Cycl. and SufpL

Sir William Petty, and Capt. Grant, have publifhed obferva- tions on the kills of mortality of London. The former of thefe authors has done the fame on thofe of Dublin. Phil. Tranf. N° 143. p. i\, feq.

Dr Sprengel gives a comparifon of the bills of mortality of feveral cities and countries in Europe. Phil. Tranf. N° 3S01 p. 44. Item, N° 381. p 25. Item, N° 4-0. p. 365.

B1LLARD, in ichthyology, an EngHfn name for the young fifti of the coal fifth, or rowling pollack, up to a certai n fize, as the cod to a certain fize is called a codling. Wi:lughby\ Hift. Pifc. p. 169.

B1LLES, in traffick, a name given firft by the French, and af- terwards by other nations, to the maffes of raw fteel, or fuch as has been tempered for fale, and is ready to be wrought into tools, c3V. This in working lofes its temper, but it recovers it again by plunging it into cold water.

BILLETS (Cycl.) are to be three feet long, and the band 24 inches round. Moor, Math. Comp. c. 2. p. 16.

Billet, billette, in the French cuftoms, a little fign in form of a cafk, hung up at places where toll is to be paid, to advertife paffengers and carriages, that ere they advance farther, the dues are to be paid to the king, or the lord who is charged with the care of repairing the highways. Trcv. Diet, Univ; T. 1. p. 1044.

BILLETING of foldier s, is the lodging or quartering them in the houfes of the inhabitants of a place.

pons of offence. In the parrot kind it is hooked, and ferves BILUR, in natural hiftory, a name given by many of the Ara.

to climb, and catch hold of boughs withal a. The upper bill of this bird is filled with rows of crofs bars ; and the under ■ hill, which is much fhorter, {huts within the upper, and ! draws againft the roof of the mouth ; by which means a kind of maftication is effected, before the meat panes into the '■ craw b. The phcenicopter s bill is a true hyperbola, pointed at the end like a (word ; and what is remarkable, the upper bill of this bird moves in eating, the lower being fixed, which is the contrary of what is found in all other kinds c . The wood- pecker's bill is ftrontr, and fharp enough to dig holes, and build in the heart of the hardeft timber d . [ a Grezu, Muf. Reg. Societ. p. 57, feq. b Phil. Tranf. N° 211. p. 155. c Grew, Ioc. cit. p. 67. d Phil. Tranf. N° 35c, p. 5C9.] See Phoe- nicopterus and Picus.

In the'ifland of Fero, a fixed reward is given for the bills of ravenous birds : All watermen are obliged to bring a certain number yearly to the country courts, at the feaft of St. O- laus ; when they are thrown into a heap, and burnt in tri- umph a. Plott gives divers inftances of monftrous irregulari- ties in the bills of birds ; particularly of a raven, whofe man- dibles crofted each other, the lower chap turning upwards, and the upper downwards b. [ a Ba>thol. Act Med. Hojfn. T. 1. p. 89. b Plott, Nat. Hift. Stafford, c. 7. §. 14. Item,

§.2.J

Bill, in commerce — Lumbard Bills are inftruments of an uncommon kind and figure, ufed in Italy and Flanders, and of late alfo in France ; confuting of a piece of parchment, cut to an acute angle about an inch broad at top, and termi ■ nating in a point at bottom ; chiefly given, where private per- fons are concerned in the fitting out a fhip on any long voyage.

The manner is thus : The party, who is defirous to be con- cerned in the cargo or venture, carries his money to the mer- chant, who fits out the fbjn, where it is entered down in a regifter ; at the fame time the merchant writes down on a piece of parchment, upwards of an inch broad, and feven or eight inches long, the name of the lender, and the fum lent, which being cut diagonal wife, or from corner to corner, each party retains his half. On the return of the veffel, the lender brings his moiety to the merchant, which being com- pared with the other, he receives his dividend accordingly Much the fame is practifed in Holland by thofe who lend money on pledges : The name of the borrower, and the fum, are written on a like flip of parchment, which is

bian writers to a gem, which, tho* they often mention, yet they have no where given us a defcription of. Some have imagined it the onyx, and others the beryl ; but it appears more probably to have been a fpecies of cryftal; probably the pebble cryftal of the Eaft-Indiesj which is confiderably finer than the common fprig cryftal, and is often fold under the name of the white faphire ; tho' confiderably inferior, both in luftre and hardnefs, to the true white faphire. The only rea- fon that people have had for fuppofing the bilur to be the be- ryl, is, that the names feem eafily formed out of one another, by the tranfpofing of fome of the letters ; but as the Arabians have always defcribed this as a clear, colourlefs ftone, this will not bear. The medical writers of that nation, Avifenna and others, have compared the fine pellucid, and colourlefs fal armoniac to this ftone : They f&y it was colourlefs as wa- ter, and refembled the bilur. The author of the Nubian geo- graphy feems to have been well acquainted with this ftone, but he has left us no defcription of it ; he only fays, that it was found in the ifland of Serandib, and that the largeft ftones of it were found there.

Some of the people moft /killed In the oriental languages, in- terpret the fobam of the bible to be the fame with the bilur; and fay, that both thefe words exprefs only the onyx ; but a3 there can be no refemblance between a variegated ftone, and a clear, uniform, and pellucid fait, it is plain from this alone, that the onyx was not the bilur. It is to be obferved, that this fal armoniac, of which this is fpoken, is not the common factitious fubftance, now known under that name ; but the foflil fait, fince called fal gemma. See the article Sal Ammo- niacum- BINDER, (Cycl ) in a general fenfe. Sec Binding. Binder, in a more particular (enfe, denotes a perfon whofe pro- feffion is to bind books. See BooK-binding, Cycl. The antient book-binders were called ghtinaiores, as their chief bufinefs was to faften together a number of leaves of the papy- rus with glue, Este. Pitifc. Lex. Antiq. T. 1. p. 877. in voc. glutinatores.

The tools ufed by the modern book-binders are, a folding-ftick, hammer, block, prefs, needle, and knife for cutting, beftdes gilding tools.

There were only two binders allowed in all Paris, with two gilden, under the name of illuminers, till the invention of printing, whereby books were publifthed. In i68t\, the book- binders were feparated from the bookfellers, and erected into a

company