Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/651

Rh the loss of two mountain train guns. This disaster was soon retrieved by General Tombs, and the Bhutias were compelled to sue for peace, which was concluded on the llth November 1865. The Bhutan Government formally ceded all the eighteen Dwars of Bengal and Assam, with the rest of the territory taken from them, and agreed to liberate all kidnapped British subjects. As the revenues of Bhutan mainly depended on these Dwars, the British Government, in return for these concessions, undertook to pay the Deb and Dharm Raj 4s annually, subject to the condition of their continued good behaviour, an allowance beginning at 2500 and rising gradually to a maximum of twice that amount. Since that time nothing of importance has occurred, and the annexed territories have settled down into peaceful and prosperous British districts.  BIAFRA, a tract of country on the coast of Western Africa, on a bay or bight of the same name. Lander, in descending the Niger, arrived in the Bight of Biafra, and thus left no doubt that the system of inter-ramified river-channels, extending from Benin to Biafra, constitutes the delta of that river. The Bight of Biafra, or Mafra, is the most eastern part of the Gulf of Guinea, between Capes Formosa and Lopez ; it contains the islands of Fernando Po, Prince s, and St Thomas s.  BIANCHINI,, a learned Italian astronomer and antiquary, was born at Verona in 1662, of a noble and ancient family. He was educated at Padua, and de voted himself especially to mathematics and classics. In 1G34 he went to Rome, and was made librarian to Cardinal Ottoboni, afterwards Pope Alexander VIII. He was made canon of Sta Maria de la Rotonda, and afterwards of St Lorenzo in Damaso. His first work seems to have been a treatise directed against the Copernican system ; it was published about 1680. In 1697 appeared the first and only volume of his Universal History, coming down to the close of the Assyrian empire. His later works, with the exception of the Hesperi et Phosphori nova Phenomena, a series of observations on Venus, were chiefly upon the ruins excavated on the Via Appia and Mount Palatine. He died in 1729.  BIARRITZ, a watering-place in the south of France, in the department of Basses-Pyre ne es, on the sea-coast about n ve miles south-west of Bayonne. From a mere fishing village, with a few hundred inhabitants, in the beginning of the century, it rose rapidly into a place of importance under the patronage of the late emperor Napoleon III. and the empress, with whom it was a favourite resort. Excellent bathing-ground is afforded by the Vieux Port and the various sheltered bays into which the cliffs of this part of the co?t are carved by the swell of the Atlantic ; and the irregukr eminences and promontories supply attractive sites for the erection of villas. The climate is delightful and bracing ; and the bareness of the neighbourhood has been considerably relieved by fir ( plantations. Except the ruins of tb.e castle of Atalaye, the lighthouse of Port Hart, the Villa Eugenie, erected for the empress in 1855-1856, the new French church, the English Protestant church, and the casino, there is no building with special claim to notice; the bathing establishments, cafes, and hotels are matters of course, but these are at least not unworthy the famo of the town. Since 1863, when it was decided that the construction of a new port was a matter of public utility, large sums of money have been expended in the attempt to form a satisfactory breakwater, but the severity of the winter storms has frequently interrupted the work. The permanent population of Biarritz, according to the census of 1871, was 3164; and the autumn visitors are estimated at from 12,000 to 15,000. See Russell, Biarritz and the Basque Countries, 1873.  BIAS, a native of Priene, one of the seven sages of Greece, was the son of Teutamns, and flourished about the middle of the 6th century B.C. He was one of the most eloquent speakers of his time, and is celebrated as having never used his talents for purposes of mere gain, but as having devoted them to the service of the injured and oppressed. Many stories are told illustrative of the nobility of his character in this and other respects. Ac cording to one of these, when his native town was taken by an enemy, and the inhabitants were carrying off what ever seemed to each most valuable, one of them, observing Bias without any burden, advised him to follow his example. &quot; I am doing so,&quot; said he, &quot; for I carry all my valuables with me.&quot; His fellow-citizens honoured him with a splendid funeral, and dedicated to him a sanctuary which they called Teutamium. He is said to have written an heroic poem on the affairs of the lonians, in order to show them how they might be most prosperous. A great number of the short, pithy, ethical sayings or apophthegms character istic of the Greek sages are ascribed to Bias. Of these a few specimens may be given &quot; Be slow to enter on an undertaking, but when you have begun, persevere to the end;&quot; &quot;Know, and then act;&quot; &quot;Hear much, speak little ; &quot; &quot; Do not praise an unworthy man on account of his wealth;&quot; &quot;Take (i.e., gain your end) by persuasion, not by force ; &quot; &quot; He is unfortunate who cannot bear mis fortune ; &quot; &quot; So order your affairs as if your life were to b3 both long and short.&quot; Bias is the author of the famous and often imitated reproof to the impious sailors, who in the midst of a tempest were calling on the gods &quot; Be quiet,&quot; said he, &quot; lest the gods discover that you are here.&quot; (Diog. Laert., i. 82-88 ; Stobseus, Floril. ; Mullach, Frag. Ph. Grose., i. 203, sqq.)  BIBERACH, a town of Wiirtemberg, in the circle of the Danube, a capital of a bailiwick 23 miles S.S.W. of Ulm. It is situated on the River Riss, a small tributary of the Danube, partly on level ground and partly on hills, and still has a somewhat mediaeval appearance from the remains of its ancient walls and towers. Its principal church dates from the 12th century, and it possesses a hospital with very extensive endowments. The main objects of its varied industry are toys, cloth goods of different kinds, lace, paper, and leather ; and there are also bell-foundries and breweries. In the neighbourhood is the watering- place called Jordansbad. Biberach appears as a village in the 8th century, and in the 15th it became a free imperial city. During the Thirty Years War it underwent various vicissitudes, and was for a good while held by the Swedes. In 1707 it was captured and put to ransom by the French, who afterwards, in 1796 and 1800, defeated the Austrians in the neighbourhood. In 1803 the city was deprived of its imperial freedom and assigned to_ Baden ; and in 1806 it was transferred to Wiirtemberg. Biberach is the birthplace of the sculptor Natter and the painter Neher ; and Wieland, who was born at the neighbouring village of Oberholzheim, spent a series of years in the town.  BIBIRINE, or, an alkaloil obtained from the bark and fruit of the greenheart tree, Nectandra Rodicei, called bibiru or sipiri in Guiana, where the tree grows. The alkaloid was discovered about the year 1835 by Hugh Rodie, a surgeon resident in Demerara, who found it possessed great efficacy as a febrifuge, and it was recommended by him as a substitute for quinine. The sulphate of bibirine has a place in the British phar macopoeia, and is in considerable use in medicine as a bitter tonic and febrifuge. Bibirine has been shown by Walz to be apparently identical with an alkaloid obtained from the common box, Huxus sempervirens, called buxine, and this opinion is to some extent confirmed by Dr Fliicki- ger. The sulphate of bibirine found in commerce is a dark brown substance in thin translucent scales.