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and seven of homicide, thirty-three cases of theft and rob- 

 bery without personal violence, and one case of wounding 

 in an affray. It was computed that in these fifty-eighi 

 cases there were 298 persons criminally concerned, of whom 

 287 were apprehended and brought to trial. In addition to 

 these there were 1276 persons apprehended for minor 

 offences in the same year. 

 BIRCH TREE. [See BETULA.] 

 BIRCH, THOMAS, an historical and biographical 

 writer, was born in London, Nov. 23rd, 1 705. His parents 

 were members of the Society of Friends, and his father car- 

 ried on the trade of a coffee-mill maker, for which business 

 the son was designed, but the strong desire which he dis- 

 played for reading and study overruled this intention. On 

 the assurance, that if permitted to indulge in his favourite 

 pursuits, he would not render the change in his mode of life 

 burdensome to his father, he was allowed to take his own 

 course, and for several years he acted as teacher in different 

 schools. At each new engagement he endeavoured to ob- 

 tain introduction into a school which afforded him superior 

 opportunities for study ; and in all of them he sedulously 

 applied to the pursuit of knowledge, stealing many hours 

 from sleep for this purpose. His efforts were not without 

 success, and in his twenty-fourth year being qualified to 

 take orders, he was ordained in the Established Church 

 without having attended either of the universities, a circum- 

 stance at that time much less frequent than at present. He 

 married in the same year in which he was ordained, and lost 

 his wife in less than twelve months after their marriage. 



Being recommended "to the notice of lord-chancellor 

 Hardwicke, then attorney-general, this individual never 

 lost sight of him, and he owed to this recollection his ad- 

 vancement in the church. In 1734 he was elected a fellow 

 of the Royal Society, and in 1 752 he became one of its se- 

 cretaries. In 1 753 the university of Aberdeen conferred 

 upon him the distinction of doctor in divinity; and he re- 

 ceived a similar honour in the same year from Herring, 

 Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr. Birch was most active and 

 indefatigable in his literary pursuits. Distinguished by un- 

 wearied industry, rather than by acuteness and discrimina- 

 tion, he accumulated in the course of his life a vast mass 

 of materials of great value to those who possess a superior 

 understanding without the doctor's spirit of laborious re- 

 search. The first work of importance in which he was en- 

 |ML"-d was the ' General Dictionary, Historical and Cri- 

 tical.' It consisted of ten volumes in folio, and included a 

 new translation of Bayle, besides a vast quantity of new 

 matter. The first volume appeared in 1 734, and the last 

 in 1741. In 1742 he published Thurloe's State Papers,' 

 in seven volumes folio. He published ' Lives of Archbishop 

 Tillotson, and the Hon. Robert Boyle,' in a separate form, 

 and edited new editions of their works ; also a new edition 

 of Milton's Prose Works, and the Miscellaneous Works of 

 Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1 744 he commenced a series of bio- 

 graphical memoirs of illustrious persons of Great Britain, 

 for a work published in folio by Mr. Howbraken and Mr. 

 Vertue, two artists. Each memoir was accompanied by an 

 engraving of the individual to whom it related. The work 

 was published in numbers ; the first volume was completed in 

 1747, and the second in 1752. In the list of his historical works 

 are, ' An Inquiry into the share which King Charles I. had 

 in the transactions of the Earl of Glamorgan ;' 'A View of the 

 Negotiations between the Courts of England, France, and 

 Brussels, from 1592 to 1617, from original documents.' 

 The same volume contained a 'Relation of the State of 

 France, with the character of Henry IV.' In 1753 he pub- 

 lished ' Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, from 

 1581 to her death.' In 1760, a ' Life of Henry Prince of 

 Wales, eldest son of King James I.' His last biographical 

 work was ' Letters, Speeches, Charges, and Advices of Lord 

 Chancellor Bacon.' A Sermon which was preached before 

 the College of Physicians, in 1749, appears to be the only 

 discourses of his which has been printed. Besides his 

 multifarious labours for the press, he transcribed a great 

 number of volumes in the Lambeth library. He also 

 maintained an extensive correspondence. His biographer 

 remarks, that Dr. Birch's habit of early rising alone en- 

 abled him to get through so much work. He found time 

 in addition for the enjoyments of society. Dr. Birch was 

 killed by a fall from his horse, between London and Hamp- 

 gtead, Jan. 9th, 1766. He bequeathed his library and MSS. 

 to the British Museum, of which he was a trustee. The re- 

 mainder of his property, amounting only to about 50C/., he 



left to be invested in Government Securities, the interest to 

 be applied in increasing the stipends of the three assistant 

 librarians at the British Museum. 



BIRD CHERRY, one of our native wild fruits. [See 

 CERASUS.] 



BIRD-LIME, a glutinous vegetable product, obtained 

 principally from the inner bark of the holly, or from the 

 berries of the misletoe, but also from other plants. It is 

 prepared from the holly bark by bruisjng, long boiling in 

 water, and fermentation ; the mass is again boiled in water, 

 and evaporated to a proper consistence. In different coun- 

 tries various processes are employed. 



According to M. Bouillon Lagrange (Annul, de Chim. 

 56-24) the bird-lime of commerce is generally impure. 

 When properly prepared from the holly it is of a greenish 

 colour ; its smell resembles that of linseed oil ; its taste is 

 bitter; it is adhesive, tenacious, and may be drawn out 

 into threads. When dried by exposure to the air in thin 

 layers it becomes brown, is no longer viscid, and may be 

 reduced to powder ; when moistened with water its gluti- 

 nous property is not restored. 



Water does not dissolve bird-lime, hut separate* from it 

 some mucilage and extractive matter, and a little acetic 

 acid. The alkalis dissolve it, and so does sulphuric aether 

 very perfectly. Dilute acids soften it, and dissolve a por- 

 tion ; concentrated sulphuric acid blackens and carbonizes, 

 while nitric acid renders it yellow, converting a part of it 

 into oxalic and malic acids, and separates resin and wax ; 

 chlorine bleaches and hardens it; alcohol dissolves some 

 resin and acetic acid. 



When heated, bird-lime melts, swells, takes fire, and 

 burns rapidly, but without giving any smell similar to that 

 of burning gluten or animal matter. 



Bird-lime differs from gluten in containing free acetic 

 acid, in yielding mucilage and extractive matter, in the 

 great quantity of resin which nitric acid separates from it, 

 and in its solubility in aather, and not containing vegeto- 

 animal matter. 



M. Henry (Journal de Pharmacie, vol. x. p. 337) has par- 

 ;icularly examined the bird-lime yielded by the berries of 

 .he misletoe, which differs in some respects from that of 

 the holly. It consists of the peculiar glutinous matter, 

 much wax, and gum ; chlorophylle, with salts of potash, 

 ime, and magnesia, and also oxide of iron. It is indeed 

 irobable that no two plants yield precisely the same pro- 

 lucts. It is stated that before use bird-lime is mixed with 

 a considerable quantity of oil. 



BIRD OF PARADISE (zoology). With no family of 

 >irds has fiction been more busy than with the Birds nf 

 Paradise. From one fabulist to another came the tradition 

 losing nothing, as is usual with traditions, in its descent), 

 hat these ' gay creatures of the element' passed their whole 

 ;xistence in sailing in the air, where all the functions of 

 ife were carried on, even to the production of their eggs 

 and young. The dew and the vapours were said to be their 

 Dnly food, nor were they ever supposed to touch the earth 

 ill the moment of their death, never taking rest except by 

 suspending themselves from the branches of trees by the 

 shafts of the two elongated feathers which form a charac- 

 eristic of this beautiful race. The appellations of Lufft- 

 >ogel, Paradyss-vogel, Passaros de Sol, Birds of Paradise, 

 and God's Birds (to say nothing of Phoenix, a name which 

 was applied to one of them), kept up the delusion that 

 iriginated in the craft of the inhabitants of the eastern 

 :ountries where they are found; for the natives scarcely 

 ever produced a skin in former times from which they had 

 not carefully extirpated the feet. Nor was it only the ex- 

 reme elegance and richness of their feathers that caused 

 hese birds to be sought as the plume for the turbans of 

 iriental chiefs ; for he who wore that plume, relying irn- 

 >licitly on the romantic accounts of the life and habits of 

 he bird, and impressed with its sacred names, believed 

 hat he bore a charmed life, and that he should be invul- 

 nerable even where the fight raged most furiously. 



In vain did honest Pigafetta, who is supposed to have 

 >een the first who introduced these birds to the notice of 

 Europeans, represent them as being furnished with legs ; 

 n vain was the same truth attested by Marcgrave, John de 

 Laet, Clusius, Wormius, and Bontius (the last of whom 

 observes on their crooked claws, and even asserts that they 

 levour little birds, such as greenfinches), and referred to by 

 Hernandez, a fairy tale was not to be so put down. Al- 

 drovandus himself was deceived by the birds brought over 



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