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mentalizing physiologist. It will be easily conceived that 

 a man who thought and acted not so much with the ra- 

 pidity as the impetuosity of Bichat must have fallen into 

 some errors in a science which was then comparatively in 

 its infancy. Of this he was himself not unconscious ; but 

 his errors are few ; the truths he struck out and made part 

 and parcel of the common mind are many and great. Time 

 and experience would have rectified the former and added 

 to the latter ; would have moderated his ardour, restrained 

 his imagination, matured his judgment, and made him, 

 what so many qualities combined to render him, a truly 

 great physiologist. The gratitude which posterity owes him 

 can never be unmixed with regret. The history of his brief 

 but intense life is pregnant with the most impressive lessons 

 to the future cultivators of his science. (M. F. R. Buisson, 

 Precis Histnrique sur M. F. X. Bichat, Paris, 1802.) 



BICZOW, or BIDSCHOW, a circle in the north-eastern 

 part of the kingdom of Bohemia, bounded on the north by 

 Prussian-Silesia, on the east by the circle of Konigingratz, 

 and on the west by that of Bunzlau, and occupying an area 

 of 981 square miles, nearly equal to that of Dorsetshire. 

 The northern districts of Biczow are occupied by the ' Rie- 

 sengebirge' (Giant mountains), on which, close upon the 

 Silesian borders, lies the ' Navoric meadow,' where the Elbe 

 takes its rise. This river flows through the northern part of 

 the circle as far only as Arnau, whence it takes a circuit 

 until it again touches the southern extremity of the circle : 

 the Czidlina traverses its centre from north to south, and 

 falls into the Elbe ; and that portion of Biczow which lies on 

 the western bank of this stream has in part an undulating 

 surface, though it is in general level and productive. The 

 mountainous and larger portion of the circle is dependent 

 on ils forests, pastures, and manufactures for its support ; 

 these manufactures consist of linens, woollens, cottons, glass, 

 and iron : it is also the principal seat of commercial dealings. 

 The open and level districts in the west and south are de- 

 voted to agriculture. It contains nine towns, nineteen 

 market-villages, and 610 villages. The majority of the in- 

 habitants, whose numbers are estimated at 248,500 (in 

 1817, 204,388), are of Bohemian extraction; the few of 

 German descent being located near the Silesian frontiers. 

 The chief town is New Biczow (Navy Biczow) on the Czid- 

 lina, which has a church and a synagogue, and about 3900 

 inhabitants ; but the provincial administration has its seat 

 at Gitshin (Gieyn), a walled town, delightfully situated on 

 the same river, where the princes of Trautmansdorf possess 

 a handsome residence, built by Wallenstein in 1610: it has 

 two churches, a public school, a military seminar)', and 

 about 3300 inhabitants. In the north lies Hohenelbe 

 (Wrchlaby), in the bosom of a picturesque valley, on the 

 Kibe, a manufacturing town with a population of about 

 3000 souls, and a castle surrounded by a deep ditch ; Arnau, 

 lower down on the same river, has about 1430 inhabitants, 

 wholly employed in weaving linens and cottons ; and at the 

 south-western extremity of the circle lies Podiebrad, with a 

 castle in which invalid officers are quartered, a public school, 

 and about 2840 inhabitants. East of this town stands 

 Chlumetz on the Czidlina, with about 2620 inhabitants. 

 The Counts Kinsky have a handsome residence here called 

 Karlskron, built in the shape of a crown, to which a park 

 full of game is attached. In the northern part of Bic- 

 zow, and on a ridge of the Giant mountains, lies Neuwald 

 or Neuwelt, a village containing extensive glass-works, be- 

 longing to the Counts Harrach : it is one of the largest esta- 

 blishments of the kind in the Austrian dominions. Near 

 this spot is the ' Navoric meadow,' before referred to, whence 

 the Elbe soon after falls down a cataract into the frightful 

 abyss termed the ' Elbgrund.' 



BIDASO'A, or VIDASOA, the name of a river in 

 Spain, which rises in the mountains surrounding the valley 

 of Baztan in Spanish Navarre. It is formed of two 

 streams, which descend from the mountains of Achuela 

 an 1 Aracan in the same valley, and are united between 

 the villages of Erranzii and Azpilcueta, the latter situ- 

 ated on ils right, and the former on its left bank. While 

 flowing through the valley it boars the name of Baztan- 

 zubi, and runs with a gentle current between numerous 

 n';at villages situated on its banks. The stream becomes 

 very narrow at the Garganta or passage of Ascape, just 

 before reaching the village of Oronoz, situated on its left 

 bunk. Increased by the numerous streams which descend 

 from the neighbouring mountains and How into it below 

 a bridge on the boundaries of Baztan and Bertizarana, it 



continues its course, inclining westwards, and then receives 

 the name of Bidasoa, a Basque word, meaning 'the way 

 to the West.' It then Hows due west through the valley*of 

 San Estevan-de-Lerin, and after receiving fresh supplies 

 from the mountains which surround the district of Cinco- 

 Villas, changes its direction northwards, and enters the pro- 

 vince of Guipuzcoa below Endarrasa. It then crosses the 

 universidad or district of Irun, which town is at a short 

 distance from its left bank. At that place it forms the 

 boundary between Spain and France. Not far from Irun 

 is the small island of Faisanes or Pheasants ; after which 

 the river, continuing its course towards the north, and 

 leaving on its left bank the town of Fuenterabia (Fons 

 rapidus) in Spain and Andaya or Endaye in France, enters 

 the ocean near Cape Higuer. Its whole course, measured 

 upon the best maps, without reckoning its windings, ap- 

 pears to be from forty to fifty miles. 



This river abounds in delicate fish, especially salmon, 

 more than 4000 of which are yearly sent to the markets of 

 Zaragoza, Madrid, and other places. 



Within the last two centuries the Bidasoa has been the 

 scene of important transactions more or less detrimental to 

 the welfare of the people who live south of its banks. In 

 1R60 the Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed in the small 

 island of Pheasants by Cardinal Mazarin on the part of 

 Louis XIII. of France, and by Count Don Louis de Haro 

 on that of Felipe IV. of Spain. A new boundary line, 

 drawn at Paris by the archbishop Pierre la Mavca or 

 Marque, in conjunction with the Spanish commissioners, 

 was fixed between France and Spain, by which the latter 

 nation lost the whole territory of Rousillon and Conllans in, 

 Catalonia. The Spanish king further renounced all claims 

 to his dominions in the Netherlands, promised to pardon 

 the revolted Catalonians, recognising expressly all their 

 laws and privileges as perpetually inviolable, and gave the 

 hand of his eldest daughter, the Infanta Maria Theresa, to 

 the dauphin, afterwards Louis XIV., on the express con- 

 dition that the French king should renounce, both for 

 himself and his successors, all claims to the Spanish throne. 

 Louis accepted the hand of the Spanish princess for his 

 son ; but however solemnly that treaty was celebrated, it 

 was violated by France, and a grandson of Louis and Maria 

 Theresa ascended the throne of Spain and abolished all 

 the privileges of the Catalonians, declared by both parties 

 to be inviolable. Ever since this time the cabinet of the 

 Tuileries has exercised over that of Madrid the influence 

 which it was the object of the treaty to prevent. 



In 1808 Ferdinand VII. crossed the Bidasoa on his way 

 to Bayonne, where he surrendered to the emperor of the 

 French all his dominions. In January, 1823, the Duke of 

 Angouleme crossed that river at the head of 100,000 men, 

 intrusted by the sovereigns forming the Holy Alliance 

 with a commission to destroy the representative govern- 

 ment in Spain, which three years before they had solemnly 

 acknowledged, and the constitution of Cadiz, which, assisted 

 by the joint efforts of the British and Peninsular troops, had 

 broken the ignominious yoke that Napoleon had placed on 

 their necks. (See Diccionario Geograftco Histurico de 

 Academia; Miriano.) 



BIDDLK, JOHN, styled the father of the English Uni- 

 tarians, was born in 1615, at Wotton-under-Edge in Glou- 

 cestershire, where his father carried on the trade of a 

 woollen-draper. Being sent to the grammar-school of his 

 native town, he gave such proofs of talent and proficiency 

 as attracted the notice of George, Lord Berkeley, who con- 

 ferred on him, at an earlier age than any other scholar, an 

 exhibition of 10/. per annum. Before he was fifteen, be- 

 sides a Latin oration on the death of a schoolfellow, which 

 was much praised for the classical purity of its diction, he 

 translated into English verse the eclogues of Virgil, and 

 the first two satires of Juvenal, which were afterwards 

 printed, In 1632, in his seventeenth year, he was sent to 

 the university of Oxford, having been admitted a student of 

 Magdalen Hall. Here he pursued his studies with much 

 success, and took his degree of bachelor of arts in 1638, 

 and that of master of arts in 1641. Previously to this, he 

 had declined an offer of the grammar-school in his native 

 town ; but, being now elected master of the free-school 

 in the crypt in the city of Gloucester, he accepted that 

 appointment, and performed its duties in a manner that 

 raised the character of the school, and made parents anxious 

 to place their sons under his care. His theological studies 

 meanwhile, were prosecuted with great ardour ; and carry 



NO. 253. 



[THE PENNY CYCLOPEDIA,] 



VOL. IV. 3 D 



