Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/759

BED OF JUSTICE. was derived solely from the Crown ; consequent- ly, when the King, the source of authority, was present, that whieli was delegated ceased. Ac- knowledging such a principle, the Parlement was logically incapable of resisting any demand that the King in a bed of justice might make, and decrees promulgated during a sitting of this kind were held to be of more authority than ordinary decisions of the Parlement. Monarehs were not slow to take advantage of this power to overawe any Parlement that exhibited signs of inde])endenee. The last bed of justice was held by Louis XVI. at Versailles, August 6, 1787.

BEDOS DE CELLES, bedfls' de sel, Dom Fr.vxc^'OIS (170(!-7!I). A French organ-builder and author, born at Caux, near Beziers. He was a Benedictine of the congregation of Saint Maur. and a, correspondent of the Paris Acad- emy of Sciences. One of the most skillful organ-builders of his time, he wrote an excellent treatise on L'art du facteur d'orpiies (4 vols., folio, 1760-78, with numerous engravings). He published also (inomonique pratique (1774), in exposition of the principles involved in the drawing of solar dials. The former work has by some wrongly been attributed to one Jean Fran- cois Monniot (died 1797), a Benedictine of Saint Germain des Pr&s.

BEDOTT', Widow. The pen name of the author of the ^VidoH^ Bedott Papers, Mrs. Fran- ces Miriam Whitcher.

BEDOUIN, bed'oo-en or -in (Ar. Bedwi, BadunU jd. Badiv'in, those of the desert). Atypical nomadic people, still found in their purity in the deserts of Central Arabia, where, in language, social life, and religion (outside of their profession of Islam), they retain much of primitive Semitism. They have also wandered over northern and northeastern Africa, northward to the Caucasus, and eastward beyond the borders of Persia, the niral and semi-urban conditions of parts of all these countries moditying not a little their desert-born peculiarities. Through the Berbers and Jloors, with whom they have mixed, the Bedouin have had an influence upon Spain and southern France, which, in the case of the latter country, is made much of sociologically by Desnioulins in his Les Francois d'aujourd'hui (Paris, 18!IS). In these migrations, much intermixture with other peoples has occurred. Their independence, spirit of liberty, sense of hospitality, restlessness, etc., all find expression in a rich fund of song and story where the dreamy and exaggerative imagination of the race has full play. Among the desert Arabs the Mufachara, or tribal song-duel, a sort of primitive arbitration court, was developed. The contrast and interrelations of desert and oasis, and the vicissitudes of migratory life, are reflected in the social and domestic institutions of the Bedouin. The worst side of their character, the love for pillage and destruction, evidenced from the earliest times, has gained them an unenviable reputation the world over as robbers par exceJleiwe. (See Semite-s.) Since Burckhardt, Notes on Bedouins and Wahabys (London, 1830), may be men- tioned Blunt, Bedmiin Tribes of the Euphra- tes (London, 1879), and the general works ou Arabia.

BEDREDDIN HASSAN, bed'red-den' hiis'- s4n. The hero of a humorous tale in the Ara- bian Nights. He is the handsome son of Noured- din Ali and the husband of the (jueen of Beauty. Spirited away from his family by a genius, he be- comes a pastry cook, but is reunited with his wife and son, through the agency of a cream- tart.

BED'SORE'. A sore on the hip, back, heel, etc., often a very troublesome complication of disease, to which a patient is liable when for a long time confined to bed, and is either unable or is not allowed to change his position. Bed- sores are due to lowered nerve energj' and pres- sure. Thus they are liable to occur in cases of continued fever, or any other prolonged debili- tating disorder, in paralysis, and in cases of fractvire. The skin, at certain projecting bony parts, chiefly about the region of the buttocks, or on the heel, is apt to inflame, ulcerate, and slough, from the continued pressure, especially if the patient is not kept perfectly clean — as, for example, when the evacuations and urine escape involuntarily. In a few of the cases the patient complains of a sense of discomfort at the parts. In all cases of prolonged supine posi- tion, the parts naturally pressed upon by the weight of the body should be carefully e.xamined every day. When a long confinement in bed is expected, attempts should be made to thicken the cuticle, and enable it to bear pressure better, by gently sponging the skin with a stimulant such as alcohol, and the patient should be put on an air-bed or a water-bed (q.v. ). If the part, when first seen, looks red and rough, further damage is often prevented by covering it with a piece of zinc-o.xide plaster and at once remov- ing local pressure by air-cushions specially con- structed for cases of this kind. If the case is one in which it is admissible, the patient should be made to alter his position frequently. Ex- coriations should be treated like any ulcers, with balsam of Peru, or iodoform and bismuth, or strapping with adhesive plaster.

BED'STRAW (GaUiim). A genus of plants belonging to the natural order Rubiacese, and distinguished by a small wheel-shaped calyx and a dry two-lobed fruit, each lobe containing a single seed. The leaves are whorled, and the flowers minute; but in many of the species the panicles are so large and many-flowered that they ornament the banks and other situations in which they grow. The species are very numerous, natives chiefly of the colder parts of the northern hemisphere, or of mountainous regions within or near the tropics. About 200 species are known, some of them very common weeds. Among these is the yellow bedstraw (Galium verum) — sometimes called Cheese Rennet, because it has the property of curdling milk, and is used for that purpose — a small plant with linear deflexed leaves and dense panicles of bright yellow flowers, very abundant on dry banks. The flowering tops, boiled in alum, afford a dye of a bright yellow color, much used in Iceland: and the Highlanders of Scotland have long been accustomed to employ the roots, and especially the bark of them, for dyeing yarn red. They are said to yield a red color fully equal to that of madder, and the cultivation of the plant has been attempted in England. The roots of other species of the same genus possess similar properties, as those of Galium trifidum, a species abundant in low, marshy grounds in