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south of France in the eighth century Beziers was taken by 

 them, and from them by Charles Martel, who dismantled 

 the fortifications. Again recovering from the disasters of 

 war, the town nourished under the Carlovingian kings of 

 France, and in the tenth century it had viscounts of its 

 own, who, however, admitted the bishops of Beziers to a 

 part of the temporal jurisdiction of the city. These viscounts 

 were vassals of the counts of Barcelona, who became in 

 course of time kings of Aragon. 



In the thirteenth century Beziers attained the height of its 

 prosperity, though it had suffered severely in the prece- 

 ding century in a quarrel between the townspeople and 

 their viscounts. When the opinions of the Albigenses 

 spread they were embraced by many of the people of 

 Beziers ; and when the crusade against that unhappy sect 

 took place, this town was one of those on which the storm 

 of fanatic persecution fell. In 1209 it was attacked by the 

 Catholic army, and after a valiant resistance was carried by 

 assault, and the capture was succeeded by a general mas- 

 sacre. It was on this occasion that Arnaud, abbot of 

 Citeaux, legate of the pope, being asked by his comrades 

 among the besiegers how they should know the Catholics, 

 replied ' Kill all God will know his own.' 



Within a few years of this calamity, the remainder of the 

 former inhabitants who had escaped by flight, or had been 

 absent at the time of the assault, recommenced building 

 the town; it rose again from its ruins, and was in 1247 

 ceded by the last Viscount to St. Louis, King of France. 

 But the wars of England and France, in the fourteenth cen- 

 tury, brought new disasters : the fortifications were ruined, 

 and repaired, and ruined again. In the religious wars of 

 the sixteenth century, Beziers was again involved ; and in 

 the reign of Louis XIII., having embraced the party of his 

 brother Gaston, duke of Orleans, it fell into the hands of the 

 king, whoordered the citadel to be demolished. (Malte-Brun ; 

 Expilly, Dictionnaire des Gaules.) 



The situation of this town is of almost unequalled beauty. 

 From the hill on which it is situated the view extends over 

 a valley where the pale leaf of the olive mingles with the 

 massive verdure of the mulberry. Orchards, gardens, and 

 vineyards, interspersed with country houses, extend along 

 the banks of the Orb. On another side, eight or nine 

 locks of the Canal du Midi rise successively one above 

 the other, and form by the waters which escape from 

 them a magnificent series of cascades. The town, which 

 is surrounded by an old wall, flanked with towers, is tole- 

 rably well built. The former cathedral of St. Nazaire 

 (Nazarius), an ill-proportioned building, has an organ sus- 

 tained by some singular bearded figures, whose appear- 

 ance is somewhat ambiguous, as they have been taken by 

 some for satyrs, while others represent them as doctors of 

 law. The terrace in front of the cathedral is remarked for 

 the beauty of its prospect ; another terrace or ' belveder,' on 

 or near the site of the citadel, has also a fine prospect. There 

 are some remains of an amphitheatre ; but this, with the ex- 

 ception of one or two inscriptions, is the only relic of Roman 

 antiquity which has survived the repeated devastations of 

 the town. There is an old figure of stone in one of the 

 streets, which it was usual to dress up once a year. It was 

 said to represent an ancient captain, Peire Peerue, who, 

 when the town was taken by the English, defended one 

 street (the Rue Francoise) against them. This figure is now 

 called Pepesuc. Its origin and meaning are unknown. 



Before the revolution, Beziers had, besides its cathedral, 

 a collegiate church, which had been in very antient times 

 the cathedral, and was afterwards attached to a Benedictine 

 abbey ; five parish churches ; an abbey of ths order of St. 

 Augustin ; a college of the Jesuits; monasteries for Domi- 

 uicans, Recollets, Carmelites, Augustinians, Capuchins, 

 and Minims; and nunneries for nuns of the orders of St. 

 Clara and of the Holy Ghost, for Visitandines and Ursulines. 

 There were besides two hospitals and a seminary for priests. 



The manufactures of Beziers consist of silk stockings, 

 fine cloth, and druggets. There are also tan-yards, a glass- 

 house, paper-mills, and distilleries. The product of its 

 looms, together '.vith the agricultural produce of the sur- 

 rounding country, wine, brandy, oil, and silk, furnish the 

 chief articles of trade. The population of the town in 1 832 

 was 14,76.3, of the commune 16,769. 



The town has a subordinate court of justice (tribunal de 

 premiere instance) and a tribunal de commerce, or court for 

 tlie settlement of commercial disputes ; a college or high 

 school, a library, an agricultural society, and a theatre. 



Provisions are abundant and cheap, ar.d the town is coil 

 sidered to ofl'er several temptations to an epicure. There is 

 a communication daily by the Canal du Midi with Toulouse. 

 (Reichard's Road-Booh.) 



Beziers has produced several men of eminence; among 

 them are Jean Barbeyrac, a Protestant, whose family 

 quitted France upon the revocation of the edict of Nantes ; 

 Paul Pellisson Fontanier, an historical writer of some note, 

 who endured a long imprisonment in the Bastile, in the 

 time of Louis XIV., for his fidelity to his employer Fouquet, 

 superintendent of the finances ; Paul Riquet, the projector 

 and engineer of the great Canal du Midi, one of the most 

 wonderful works of its time ; and Jean Jacques Mairan 

 de Dortous, an astronomer of note in the early part of the 

 last century. 



This place was formerly the see of a bishop, a suffragan 

 of the Archbishop of Narbonne ; his diocese extended 

 over a small part of Languedoc, now included in the diocese 

 of Montpellier. The origin of the bishopric is antient : one 

 of the possessors of it sat in the first council of Aries in 314, 



Beziers is the capital of an arrondissement, compre- 

 hending 260 square miles, or 166,400 acres, and containing 

 12 cantons and 97 communes: the population in 1832 

 was 1 23,647. The environs of the town are well cultivated ; 

 they yield lead, coal, and marble. There are also somd 

 mineral waters. (Malte-Brun ; Robert, Dictionnaire G&o- 

 graphique ; Dtctionnaire Universel de la France, fyc.) 



BEZOARS. The most probable etymology of the word 

 bezoar is from the Persian Pad-za.hr, i. p. ' expelling poison, 

 the expeller of poison:' the stone bears this and other de- 

 signations of similar import in Persian: e. g. Bad-zahr, 

 which seems to be a corruption of Pad-zahr. The word 

 pad means ' relieving, curing, removing (disease),' and 

 zaJir is ' poison.' Bezoars are substances found in various 

 parts, but chiefly in the intestines, of land animals, and 

 which were regarded as antidotes to all poisons, as well as 

 supposed to possess other extraordinary virtues. Hence any 

 substance which possessed, or was thought to possess, im- 

 portant qualities, was termed bezoardic, to indicate its value. 

 Bezoars are either natural or artificial : but even the na- 

 tural ones, being the result of disease, are not invariably 

 met with in the animals which produce them. Their rarity, 

 as well as the preternatural virtues ascribed to them, contri- 

 buted to make them prized ; on which account they have 

 sometimes been sold for ten times their weight of gold. 

 Those which were most esteemed came from the east and 

 were the earliest used. The most highly-valued of these 

 was obtained from the stomach of the Capra Aegagrus, or 

 wild goat of Persia. This was called by way of eminence 

 Lapis Bezoar Orientalis. The greater number of bezoars 

 are procured from ruminating animals, and in many in- 

 stances they are nothing more than some portion of their 

 food agglutinated into a ball by the secretions of the intes- 

 tinal canal. Similar formations are sometimes found in the 

 human stomach or intestines, especially in persons who live 

 much upon vegetable or farinaceous food. (See Monro On 

 the Morbid Anatomy of the Gullet, &c.) The bezoars from 

 the west, called also American, are chiefly obtained from 

 the Auc/ienia Lama and Auchenia Vicuua, Illig. These 

 have been analyzed by Proust, and found chiefly to consist 

 of phosphate of lime. (See Ann. de Chimie, vol. i. p. 197.) 

 The oriental and some other bezoars were analyzed by 

 Fourcroy and Vauquelin. (See Ann. du Museum d'Hint. 

 Nat. i. 93, iv. 334.) 



Bezoars, though still esteemed in the east, have long 

 fallen into merited disuse in Europe. Various artificial 

 bezoars were often fraudulently substituted for the genu- 

 ine; but these are not to be confounded with certain 

 metallic preparations, chiefly of tin, silver, mercury, and 

 lead, the composition of which was well known, and only 

 designated bezoars from their power in curing diseases ; 

 these, if employed in the present day, are designated by- 

 other names, and will be noticed under the heads of the 

 metals and their preparations. 



The Bezoardicum animate was the name giv en to flic- 

 heart and liver of vipers, which, with other disgusting arti- 

 cles, were once used in medicine, but are now laid aside. 



BHADRINATH, a town in northern Hindustan, situ- 

 ated on the west side of the river Alacananda, in 30 43' N. 

 lat., 79 39' E. long. Bhadrinath derives all its importance 

 from its temple, which contains idols that are the objects of 

 great reverence all through India. It is stated that the 

 pilgrims and religious mendicants who annually visit this 



NO. 250. 



[THE PENNY CYCLOPEDIA.] 



VOL. IV. 3 A 



