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* BIRTHS. 115 BISCHOFF. tlioy form 2 or 3 per cent, of the total, this should be remembered in comparing returns. It is a matter of gieat regiet that no eom- prchensive phin is adopted in the L'niled States. Massachusetts was the first State to undertake registration, and many other States have fol- lowed. The returns are far from complete. The birth-rate is expressed by the ratio of births to 1000 of population. Rtissia is stipposed to have a rate of 49 per 1000. Hungary, with 44, is the highest for countries having registra- tion, tiermany has 38: England and Wales, 34; France, about 24. The census of 1890 estimated that in the United States the rate among im- migiants as 38.29; native parents, 20.35: ne- groes, 29.07 : the total average being 20.08. In all civilized lands about 1050 boys are born to 1000 girls. The birth-rate is influenced by social and eco- nomic conditions, war, famine, abundance, etc. In all countries the rate decreases among the well-to-do. The city makes its influence felt in a decreasing rate. (See Illegitimacy.) The physiological and social laws governing the birth-rate are as yet but little understood. Consult: Richard Mayo-Smith. l<tatistics and Sociologti (New York. 1895) : for England, the reports of the Registrar-General : for Germany, Jahrbiich der dcutschen Stiidtc: for France, Le- vasseur, La population frattcaise, 3 vols. (Paris, 1889-92) ; for Austria-Hungary, ['iir/oriscJies sta- listisches Jahrbiich and Osterrcichisches statis- tischi ft nntidhiich ; for Italy, Annuario staiislico. BIRTHWORT. See Aristolochia. BIS (Lat., twice). In music, a term which denotes that the passage over which it is placed is to be played twice, or repeated. Such passages generally have a slur or bow over them, and the word 1)1*' written below it, thus: gr^ BISAYA, be-za'ya. See Visata. BISCACHA, bis-ka'cha. See Vizcacha. BIS'CAY ( Sp. Biscaya, Vizcaya, a Spanish province named after the Basques), Bay of (the Roman Sinus Aquitanicus or Gallicus Oceanus, and the French (lolfe de Gascogne). A portion o! the Atlantic Ocean .sweeping in along the northern shores of the Spanish Peninsula in an almost straight line from Cape Ortegal to Saint .lean de Luz, at the western foot of the Pyrenees, and thence curving along the west shores of France northiar(l to the western extremity of Brittany and northwestward to the island of Ouessant. Its extreme width and length are about 400 miles each. The whole of the south coast is bold and rocky, in some places rising to a height of several hundred feet, and broken by inlets, some of which form safe and commodious harbors. From the mouth of the Adour to the Gironde, the shore presents a totally different aspect, being low and sandy, with numerous la- goons, the embouchures of these two rivers form- ing the only harbors. For 200 miles north of the Gironde the coast is still low, but marshy instead of .sandy, and from the peninsula of (^uiberon westward it is moderately elevated and rocky in some places. The rivers falling into the bay on the Spanish shores are unimportant. On the coast of France it receives, through the riv- ers Loire, Charente, Garonne (the estuary of which is called the Gironde), and Adour, the waters of about one-half the surface of the whole countr)'. Its chief ports are GijOn, Santander, Bilbao, San Sebastian, and Pasajes in Spain; and Bayonne, Bordeau.x, Rochefort, La Rochelle, Nan- tes, and Lorient in France. Its chief islands — which are all situated north of the Gironde — are Belle-He, Re. Xoirmoutier, and OK'ron. Naviga- tion is rendered difficult and dangerous by the prevalence of northwest winds, and by the exist- ence of the violent Rennet's current. The depth of the bay ranges from 100 feet or less along the shore to more than 10,000 feet in the central part. The height to which the tides rise is Iiardly exceeded anywhere. BISCEGLIE, be-shil'lya (anciently, Lat. Vi- giiiw). A city in south Italy, tm the Adriatic, 21 miles northwest of Bari. The harbor admits vessels of small burden only. The principal build- ings are the cathedral, two churches, dating from the Twelfth Century, a dilapidated Norman cas- tle, and the palaces of the old families. In the country, which produces excellent wine and cur- rants, there are many magnificent villas. During the Crusades Bisceglie was famous for the hos- pital founded by Bohemond for pilgrims, of which some ruins still exist (Map: Italv, L 6). Population, in 1881, 24,000; in 1901, 30,385. BISCHOF, bish'of (Ger., bishop), Karl-Gus- TAV CiiRisrupn (1792-1870). A German chem- ist and geologist. He was born in Nuremberg, and in 1822 became professor of chemistry and mineralogy at Bonn. He obtained the prize of the Scientific Society of Holland for his treatise on internal terrestrial heat, and published in England, in connection with it, Researcties on the Internal Heat of the Globe (London, 1841), which was followed by a number of papers on connected geological subjects. The results of his researches (1837-40) on inflammable gases in coal-mines, and on safety-lamps, appeared in the Edinburgh ycic Philosophical Journal and other periodicals. His chief work, Lehrbuch der chcm- ischcn und physil;alischcn Geologic (3d ed., Bonn. 1863-66), is an important contribution to tlie study of the physical and chemical problems of geology, BISCHOF, ]Marie. See Braxdt, Mabian^-e. BISCHOFF, .JcsEPir Edvahd Koxbad; pen- naiiic, Koiinul von Bolanden (1828 — ). A Ger- man novelist. He was horn at Niedergailliach and after studying at the Catholic Theological Seminary at Munich was ordained a priest at Speyer in 1852. Afterwards he retired from the ministry to devote his entire attention to literary work. His publications consist of his- torical novels and romances attacking the Ref- ormation, the political and literary movements of the Eighteenth Century, and the i)rogress of contemporary science. His best-known works are: Franz con Hickingcn (1859): Historieche ?iovellc>i iiber Friedrich II. von Prcusscn und seine Zeit (1872) ; .4n<;e/a (1872) ; Oustai- Adolf (1867-70) ; Die Bartholonuiusnacht (1879) ; Die Hocialdcmokraten und ihre Viiter (1894); Deutsche Kulturbildcr (1803-94); and Otto der Grossc (1898). Consult article by Keiter. "Kon- rad von Bolanden," in Unsere Zeit, Vol. 1. (Leip- zig, 1876). BISCHOFF, TiiEODou Lidwig Wilhelm (1807-S2). A German anatomist and i)hysiolo- gist. lie was born in Hanover, and l)ccame pro- fessor of anatomy at Ueidi^llicrg in 1836. From Heidelberg he removed, in 1844, to the University