163 



BISHOPRIC. 



BISMUTH. 



170 



members. The bishop may ordain Prussian clergymen, on their 

 signing the Augsburg Confession, and adopting the Prussian liturgy ; 

 and Englishmen, on their subscribing to our articles arid liturgy. He 

 is the legal protector of all Protestants of every denomination against 

 the Turkish government. The Act 5 Viet. c. 6, was passed to enable 

 the archbishops of Canterbury and York, and such bishops as they 

 might select, to consecrate a foreign bishop. 



At the present time there are twenty-four bishops of the Protestant 

 Episcopal Church of the United States of America. In this Church 

 the superior powers of church government are vested in a General or 

 Nati< in.il Convention, which meets triennially. The Convention con- 

 sists of two houses. The bishops sit as a body in their own right, and 

 form a separate House. The lower House is composed of lay and 

 clerical delegates. Each diocese is represented by four laymen and 

 four of the clergy, who are elected by local Diocesan Conventions. 

 The lay members of the Diocesan Conventions are elected by their 

 respective congregations or vestries. The general Convention, amongst 

 other things, has the power of revising old, or making new canons. It 

 hears and determines charges against bishops ; receives and examines 

 testimonials from Diocesan Conventions recommending new bishops, 

 and decides upon their appointment; without the certificate of the 

 General Convention, a bishop cannot be consecrated. The title assumed 

 by a bishop in the United States is " Right Reverend." 



The bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States 

 have no particular province or district. Their time is chiefly spent in 

 attending the different annual conferences of the Church. 



The Roman Catholic hierarchy in the United States is composed of 

 one archbishop, fifteen bishops, and five coadjutors. The first Roman 

 Catholic bishop in the United States was consecrated in 1790. 



The Pope is the bishop of the Christian Church of Rome, and claims 

 to be the successor of St. Peter, of whom it is alleged that he was the 

 first bishop of that Church, and that to him there was a peculiar 

 authority assigned, not only over all the inferior pastors or ministers of 

 the Church, but over the rest of the apostles, indicated to him by the 

 delivery of the keys. The whole of this, the foundation of that 

 superiority which the bishop of Rome has claimed over all other 

 bishops, has furnished matter of endless controversy ; and it does not 

 appear that there is any sufficient historical authority for the allegation 

 that St. Peter did act for any permanency as the bishop of that Church, 

 or for the six or seven persons named as successively bishops of that 

 Church after him. It seems more probable that the superiority enjoyed 

 by the bishop of Rome at a very early period over other bishops (which 

 was not universally acknowledged, and was strenuously opposed by 

 our own Welsh bishops), resulted from his position in the chief city of 

 the world, and the opportunities which he enjoyed of constant access to 

 those in whom the chief temporal authority was vested. , 



England and Wales was, soon after the Reformation, divided by the 

 Roman Catholic Church into " Districts," over each of which a bishop 

 was placed, who was a bishop in partilm. [BISHOP.] But in 1850, in 

 consequence of a rescript issued by the Pope, a complete hierarchy was 

 directed to be formed in Great Britain. England has, therefore, been 

 divided into the archbishopric of Westminster, and the bishoprics of 

 Southwark, Hexham, Beverley, Liverpool, Salford, Shrewsbury, Newport 

 and .Munevia, Clifton, Plymouth, Nottingham, Birmingham, and North- 

 ampton. This assumption created considerable agitation ; and in 

 August, 1851, the Ecclesiastical Titles Assumption Bill (14 & 15 Viet. 

 c. 60) was passed, by which all briefs or rescripts of the pope conferring 

 any such jurisdiction or title was declared void ; any person publishing 

 mich bull or rescript, or acting on it, or assuming the title of archbishop 

 or bishop of any city or place within the United Kingdom, was rendered 

 liable to a penalty of 100J., to be recovered in a court of law, but only 

 with the consent of, or by, the Attorney-General in England or Ireland, 

 and the Lord Advocate in Scotland. There has been no conviction 

 under this Act. 



In Scotland there are three Roman Catholic bishops, but there they 

 continued to be bishops i partihus ; they are the Bishop of Limyra 

 for the Eastern district, the Bishop of Castabala for the Western 

 district, and the Bishop of Germanicia for the Northern district. 



The Roman Catholic hierarchy in Ireland consists of four arch- 

 n and twenty-four bishops. In the Charitable Donations (Ireland) 

 Act (748 Viet. c. 97) the Roman Catholic prelates were designated 

 fur the first tune since the Reformation by their episcopal titles, which 

 are taken from the same sees as those of the English Church, except 

 v, which is not included among the English sees. They had 

 been referred to in the bill, when first brought in, as " any person in 

 the said Church [of Rome] of any higher rank or order," &c. ; and, on 

 the pn>]H.-ition of the government, this was altered to " any archbishop 

 nr binhop, or other person in holy orders, of the Church of Rome." In 

 December, 1844, a royal commission was issued constituting the Board 

 of Charitable Bequests in Ireland, and the two Roman Catholic arch- 

 Kish'ips and bishop who were appointed members of the Bond were 

 styled " Most Reverend " and " Right Reverend," and had precedency 

 according to their i |.i-. opal rank ; but they were only styled archbishop 

 MI- lii -'Imp with tln-ir proper n. lines, not with the addition of any see. 



It if stated in a recent authority that the number of Roman Catholic 

 archbishops in Europe is 108, and of bishops 469; and that there are 

 ;ii other part* of the world ; making a total of 731 bishops. 

 In France there are 14 archbishops, and GO bishops. 



The Eastern or Greek Church is also framed in an episcopal form 

 and order, and the sees are very numerous. 



BISMETHYL, Bismuthethyl [ORGAXOMETALLIC BODIES.] 



BISMUTH (Bi). This metal occurs in nature either in the free 

 state, as native bismuth, or as oxide, carbonate, sulphide, or telluiicle. 

 Native bismuth, which furnishes almost all the metal employed in the 

 arts, is found in the clay-slate and gneiss formations, generally asso- 

 ciated with silver, lead, zinc, cobalt, or nickel, and containing variable 

 quantities of arsenic and iron. It crystallises in cubes and octohedra, 

 and in arborescent forms derived from these, its colour being a very 

 light grey inclining to red. Native bismuth is found in Cumberland 

 and Cornwall, but its principal source is Schneeberg, in Saxony, where 

 it accompanies the silver and cobalt ore. The extraction of native 

 bismuth from the matrix is conducted at Schneeberg as follows : The 

 fragments of rock richest in the metal are reduced to pieces about the 

 size of a hazel nut. It is then introduced into a series of cast-iron 

 tubes, arranged parallel to one another in an inclined position. Each 

 end of every tube is closed by a plate of clay, a hole being left at the 

 bottom of the lower clay-plate of every tube for the egress of the 

 melted metal. On bringing the tubes to a white heat, the metal flows 

 out and falls into cast-iron cups, which are kept sufficiently hot to 

 retain the bismuth in a state of fusion. From these cups the bismuth 

 is ladled into ingot moulds. In order to free the ruetal from arsenic 

 and iron, with which it is contaminated, it is submitted to a fresh 

 fusion with nitrate of potash ; the foreign metals are thereby oxidised, 

 and dissolve in the slag. If a crucible full of fused bismuth be 

 allowed to cool slowly, the solid crust which forms on its surface be 

 broken through, and the still fluid portion be poured out, the inner 

 surface of the solidified portion is found covered with crystals of 

 bismuth, of the cubic and derived forms, of great regularity. The 

 iridescence which such bismuth shows, is owing to the edges of the 

 successively -formed layers of metal not being in one plane. On 

 solidifying from a state of fusion, bismuth undergoes an expansion of 

 about jVof its volume; this property renders the alloys of bismuth (to 

 which it imparts the same peculiarity) of great value for taking sharp 

 castings, as in the manufacture of type ; for such an alloy, at the 

 moment of solidification, is forced into the minutest crevices of the 

 mould. Cast bismuth has the specific gravity 9'86 ; but after being 

 submitted to enormous pressure, its density is diminished to 9'65. 

 Bismuth is so brittle as scarcely to admit of extension under the 

 hammer. It melts at 497 F., when heated alone ; but it depresses 

 the melting point of many metals with which it is alloyed. The solder 

 used for pewter consists of 1 part of bismuth, 5 of lead, and 1 of 

 tin. Fusible metal, which melts at 199 F., contains 5 parts of 

 bismuth, 3 of lead, and 2 of tin. A similar alloy, of higher melting 

 point, is sometimes employed to form safety-plugs for boilers. 



There is some uncertainty respecting the atomic weight of bismuth, 

 and consequently as to the composition of its oxides, &c. The analogy 

 between bismuth and antimony makes it probable that these two 

 metals combine with oxygen in the same proportion. According to 

 this, the protoxide of bismuth is BiO 3 , and the equivalent of the 

 metal between 213 and 210. 



There is probably no lower oxide of bismuth than the teroxide. 

 When the metal oxidises in moist air, or when it is made to form the 

 positive pole of a battery in a solution of a fixed alkali, it becomes 

 covered with coatings of oxide of various colours. On treating the 

 film so formed with hydrochloric acid, it is converted into metallic 

 bismuth and teroxide. 



Teroxide of bismuth, (BiO s ) is produced when air has access to melted 

 bismuth. Most salts of the teroxide, as the nitrate and carbonate, 

 when heated, give off their acids, and leave the teroxide in the form of 

 a dark orange-yellow powder, which becomes nearly white on cooling. 

 The hydrated teroxide is precipitated as a white powder by decom- 

 posing a soluble salt of bismuth by a fixed alkali or by ammonia. If, 

 however, the chloride be employed, the precipitated bismuth contains 

 chlorine, probably in the form of oxychloride. 



The teroxide of bismuth combines with various proportions of acids ; 

 of the salts resulting from such combination, those which contain most 

 acid are more soluble than those which contain an excess of base. 

 Most of the solutions of the acid bismuth salts are decomposed by 

 water, less soluble basic salts being formed, and in most cases precipi- 

 tated, owing to their inferior solubility. This property is of much 

 value as a test for bismuth. Teroxide of bismuth combines with 

 sulphuric acid in four proportions. The tersulphate (Bi0 3 3S0 3 ) is 

 formed when metallic bismuth is heated with oil of vitriol, sul- 

 phurous acid and sulphur being at the same time liberated ; the 

 tersulphate of bismuth so formed is a white mass which is decom- 

 posed by water into a salt which dissolves, and which contains more 

 acid than the tersulphate, but whose composition is undetermined, 

 though it may be obtained as acicular crystals by evaporation ; and the 

 mmuuiitljjitate (BiO 3 S0 3 ), an insoluble white powder, which becomes 

 yellow on heating. The same monosulphate may also be formed by 

 dissolving the teroxide in sulphuric acid, and evaporating and gently 

 igniting the solution. The tiisitljikate (BiO,2SO 3 + 3HO) separates out 

 in the crystalline form on decomposing the acid nitrate of bismuth 

 with sulphuric acid ; it is decomposed by water. Hydrated teroxide 

 of bismuth combines with sulphurous acid, and gives rise to a white 

 nsoluble sulphite, which gives up its acid on ignition. 



