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 444: BECSE BED AND BEDSTEAD plating with gold or silver by the humid pro- cess, such as electrotyping, are only so many va- rious applications of electro-chemistry. Many of his researches relate to the electric con- ductibility of metals, galvanometers, the elec- tric properties of tourmaline, atmospheric elec- tricity, the effects produced by vegetation, the electro-magnetic balance, capable of measuring with exactness the intensity of electric cur- rents, and to the use of marine salt in agri- culture. Among his principal works are : Traite experimental de Velectricite et du magnetisme (7 vols., Paris, 1834-'40; new ed., 2 vols., 1855); Traite de physique dans sea rapports avec la chimie (2 vols., 1842-'4) ; Traite de Velec- tricite et du magnetisme (2 vols., 1855-'6) ; and Resume de VhMoire de Pelectricite et du magnetisme (1858). II. Alexandra Edmond, son of the preceding, born in Paris, March 24, 1820. He was assistant professor of natural sciences at the museum, and afterward professor at the conservatoire des arts et metiers. In 1853 he was appointed professor of physical sciences. In 1863 he was elected member of the academy as successor of Despretz. He discovered a chlo- ride of silver which will receive and retain the colored impressions of light, so that the colors of the rainbow may now be fixed in the daguer- reotype in all varieties of hue ; but they can only be retained in obscurity, as they gradually disappear when long exposed to light. In 1862 he published IStudes sur ^exposition de Londres, the phosphoroscope of his invention having attracted much attention at the London exposition of 1861. He assisted his father in his later works. III. Louis Alfred, brother of the preceding, born in Paris in 1814, died in 1862. He was a physician and a professor in the faculty of Paris, and author of many valu- able treatises. His Semeiotique des urines (1841) won a prize from the academy ; and a second edition of Des applications de Velec- tricite d la therapeutique medicale was pub- lished in 1861. BECSE. I. Old (Hung. d-Secse), a market borough of 8. Hungary, hi the county of Bacs, on the right bank of the Theiss, 25 m. N. N. E. of Neusatz; pop. in 1870, 14,058. It carries on a considerable trade in corn. II. New ( Uj- ecse), a market borough and steamboat sta- tion in the county of Torontal, on the left bank of the Theiss, about 4J m. E. of the preceding ; pop. in 1870, 7,193, and with the immediately adjoining village of Franyova, 14,423. It is one of the greatest corn markets in the Aus- tro-Hungarian monarchy. BECSKEREK. I. Great (Hung. Nagy-Bectlce- relc), a town of 8. Hungary, capital of the county of Torontal, on the Bega, 47 m. S. W. of Temesvar; pop. in 1870, 19,666. It has a Roman Catholic and a Greek church, a gym- nasium, and a college of Piarists. The princi- pal trade is in agricultural produce and cattle. II. Little (Hung. Kis-BecsTcerelc), a village of Hungary, in the county and 10 m. N. W. of Temesvar; pop. about 3,000. It is in a fine agricultural district, famous for its sheep, and has a trade in wool and honey. BED AND BEDSTEAD. The articles of furni- ture devised by the people of different nations to secure comfort in reclining for sleep, natu- rally vary widely with various degrees of civil- ization, with differences of climates, dwell- ings, and national characteristics. Savages stretch themselves on the ground or on piles of leaves, or make rough preparations for sleep by spreading skins probably the first approaches of primitive nations toward a more elaborate bed. The native of the tropics sleeps in a hammock, or on a cool, thin mat of grass. The East Indian at night unrolls his light portable charpoy, or mattress, which in the morning is again rolled together and car- ried away. The Japanese lie upon matting, with a singular and to the European most uncomfortable wooden neck rest in the place of a pillow. The Chinese use low bedsteads, often elaborately carved, and supporting only mats or quilted coverlets. They, too, use for a pillow a peculiar kind of wooden frame, gener- ally of bamboo. In the north of China the bed- ding is laid in winter upon raised platforms of masonry, which are gently warmed by a small furnace underneath. The nations of continen- tal Europe generally use the French bedstead, without a canopy above it, and with mattresses of various materials, sheets, coverlets, feather pillows, &c. A peculiarity of the German beds is their shortness ; besides this, the bed clothing always consists in part of a large down pillow or upper mattress, which, spread over the person, is supposed to answer the purpose of all other ordinary bedclothing combined. Often this is the only covering furnished ; in the houses of the poorer classes and in small country inns this is almost always the case ; but all the ordinary hotels of the towns have learned to add to it, in beds intended for for- eigners at least, sheets, blankets, and other cov- erings. In England, the old "four-poster " bed- stead, an immense piece of furniture, having a canopy supported over it by posts at the corners, still forms the pride of many country