BET 



BI 



of the sulphuret of tin found in Corn- 

 wall, from the appearance of bronze or 

 bell-metal which it possesses, in conse- 

 quence of its containing copper pyrites. 



BENGALEE YEAR. This appears 

 to have been once identical with the 

 Hegira; but the solar computation having 

 subsequently been adopted, of which the 

 years exceed those of the Hegira by 11 

 days, it has lost nearly 11 days every 

 year, and is now about 9 years later, the 

 year 1245 of the Hegira having com- 

 menced in July, 1829, and the Bengalee 

 year 1236 having begun 13th April of the 

 same year. The number 593 must be 

 added to bring this to the Christian era. 



BENZOIC ACID. Flowers of Ben- 

 jamin. An acid exhaled from benzoin, 

 dragon's blood, and other resins, by 

 heat. 



BENZO'IN. Asa dulcis. A balsam 

 which exudes from incisions made in the 

 Styrax Benzoin, or Benjamin-tree. 



BE'NZOYL. BenzoUe or benzule of 

 several English chemical writers. The 

 hypothetical radical of a series of com- 

 pounds, including benzoic acid, from 

 which it derives its name, and the 

 essence or volatile oil of bitter almonds. 



BE'RBERIN. A crystalline substance 

 of a fine yellow colour, derived from the 

 bark of the barberry root ; used as a dye 

 stuff. 



BERG, or ICE BERG {herg, Swedish, 

 mountain). A mountain of ice, met with 

 in the Polar Seas. Flat sheets of wide- 

 spread ice are called fields ; and small 

 portions, floes, from their being found 

 floating. 



BE'RGMEHL. Literally, Mountain 

 meal; an earth, so named in Sweden, 

 resembling fine flour, and celebrated for 

 its nutritious qualities. It is found to 

 be composed entirely of the shells of 

 loricated animalcules, which having accu- 

 mulated at the bottom of the waters in 

 which the living animals are found, form 

 a stratum of considerable thickness. 



BE'RYL. A variety of the emerald; a 

 mineral or gem, usually of a green colour 

 of various shades, passing into honey- 

 yellow and sky-blue. When coloured 

 green by oxide of chromium, it forms 

 the true emerald, and when colourless 

 and transparent, aqua marina. 



Chryso-b^yl {xpvao^, gold). One of the 

 finest of the gems, consisting of glucina 

 and alumina. 



BE'TELGEUSE. A star of the first 

 magnitude in the southern constellation 

 Orion. 

 51 



BE'ZOAR {pdd-zahr, Persian, a de- 

 stroyer of poison). A morbid concretion 

 formed in the bodies of land animals. 

 Such are the hog-bezoar, found in the 

 stomach of the wild boar in India ; the 

 bovine bezoar, found in the gall-bladder 

 of the ox, common in Nepaul ; the camel- 

 bezoar, found in the gall-bladder of the 

 camel, and much prized as a yellow paint 

 by the Hindoos ; and the goat-bezoar, 

 produced from animals of the goat kind, 

 capra gazella. The Greek term for this 

 species of concretion is, cegagropila, lite- 

 rally, mountain-goat ball. 



BI, BINUS (bis, twice). Two; a pair. 

 Also a prefix of certain saline compounds, 

 into which two proportions of acid enter 

 for one of base, as bi-arseniate. 



1. Biarticulate. Having two articuli, 

 or joints, as applied to the antennae, or 

 to the abdomen of certain insects. 



2. Biauriculate. Having two auricles 

 of the heart, as the mammalia, birds, 

 reptiles, and most bivalve mollusca. 



3. Bicarbonates. Salts containing a 

 double proportion of carbonic acid gas. 



4. Bicongregate. Bigeminate, or ar- 

 ranged in two pairs, as the leaflets of 

 mimosa unguis cati. 



5. Bicrenate. Doubly crenate; when 

 the crenate toothings of leaves are them- 

 selves crenate. 



6. Bidentate. Two-toothed, as applied 

 to the fruit or achenia of bidens. 



7. Biennial. Enduring throughout two 

 years and then perishing : as plants which 

 bear only leaves the first year ; leaves, 

 flowers, and fruit the second year, and 

 then die. 



8. Bifarious. Arranged in two rows, 

 not necessarily opposite to each other; 

 in this particular, the term is differenced 

 from distichous. 



9. Bifoliolate. When two folioles or 

 leaflets are developed at the same point 

 at the end of the petiole, as in zygophyl- 

 lum fabago. The term is synonymous 

 with conjugate. 



10. Biforines. Minute oval bodies 

 found in the leaves of some araceous 

 plants. WTien placed in water, they dis- 

 charge innumerable spicula? from each 

 extremity, until they become entirely 

 emptied. 



11. Bifurcate. Twice-forked, as ap- 

 plied to the inflorescence of stellaria, 

 and synonymous with dichotomous. 



12. Bijugous. In two pairs, as applied 

 to the leaflets of a pinnate leaf. 



13. Bilabiate. Having two lips, as 

 applied to a calyx which has its sepals 



D2 



