B I Z 



475 



B L A 



heart-shaped leaves, and clusters of purplish flowers, which 

 are succeeded by capsules of a heart-shaped form, covered 

 with stifflsh bristles, and opening into two valves which con- 

 tain, attached to their middle, a number of seeds covered 

 with a soft, sticky, vermilion-coloured rind. It is the 



[Bixa Orellana.] 



1, a flower seen from beneath ; 2, a petal ; 3, an ovary with style and stigma ; 

 4, a seed cut vertically, showing the embryo ; 5, a ripe fruit. 



latter which furnishes the arnotto of commerce. Accord- 

 ing to Fee, this substance is obtained by heaping up the 

 seeds in water for several weeks or months, and afterwards 

 pressing them, when the colouring matter separates and is 

 afterwards precipitated in the water. Or the pulp is sepa- 

 rated by washing and maceration, and the colouring matter 

 precipitated by the aid of an acid, and caught upon fine 

 sieves. Independently of the use of arnotto for staining 

 cheese and butter, the Indians paint their persons with it, 

 and thus, it is said, destroy the subcutaneous vermin with 

 which they are infested. It acts as a purgative taken in- 

 ternally ; but its reputed powers as an antidote to the poison 

 of the cassava are imaginary. 



BIYSK, BUSK, or BISKAYA-KREPOST, the chief 

 town of a circle of the same name in the Siberian province 

 of Tomsk, and the principal fortress of the Kolyvan line of 

 defences: it is situated upon the Biya, not far from its 

 junction with the Katunya, and contains about 2100 inha- 

 bitants. It lies, according to Stein, in 52 30' N. lat., and 

 84 50' E. long. The Biya (a word signifying master) Hows 

 out of Lake Telezkoe or Altin-Nor, i. e. the Golden Lake, 

 in the province of Kolyvan, and, after a course of about 140 

 miles, forms a junction with the Katunya (wife or woman), 

 and is thence designated the Ob for the remainder of their 

 united course. The sources of the Biya lie in Soongary, a 

 Chinese province in Mongolia. 



BIZ A HI, PETER, a considerable poet and historian 

 of the sixteenth century, was born at Sasso-ferrato, near 

 Ancona, in Umbria or Spoleto, within the estates of the 

 Church. He was one of those who, having embraced the 

 doctrines of the Reformation, were forced to leave their 

 native country to escape the cruelties which followed on the 

 establishment of the Inquisition in the Popedom. After 

 spending some time at the court of London, he went to 

 Scotland, where he was honourably received by Queen Mary 



and the Earl of Murray, who had then the chief direction 

 of the government. Bizari informs us that Mary presented 

 him with a chain of gold ; and he has addressed one of his 

 works to that princess. (Varia Opusc. fol. 28 A.) At what 

 time he was in Scotland does not precisely appear ; but in a 

 poem inscribed Ad Jacobum Stuardum Scoticum, he cele- 

 brates the victory which that nobleman gained over the 

 Earl of Huntly, in such terms as to lead to the inference 

 that he was then in Scotland. (Ibid. fol. 93 A.) The battle 

 of Corrichie, in which Huntly fell, was fought in October. 

 1562. 



Andrew Melville, the celebrated Scottish reformer, when 

 at the University of St. Andrew's, was introduced to Bizari, 

 who expressed his high opinion and warm regard for him in 

 a dodecastichon of elegant Latin poetry, which, with several 

 of Bizari's minor poems, is inserted in Gruter's Delicice 

 Poetarum Italorum. 



Mackenzie (Lives of Scots Writers, .vol. iii. p. 99), and, 

 after him, Chalmers (Biographical Dictinnanj), have con- 

 founded Bizari with a person whom they describe as Peter 

 or Patrick Bissat, Bisset, or Bissart, born and educated in 

 Scotland, and afterwards professor of the canon law in the 

 University of Bologna, and the author of ' P. Bissarti opera 

 omnia, viz. Poemata, Orationes, Lectiones feriales, et lib. de 

 Irregularitate,' Venetiis, 1565. Chambers (Biographical 

 Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, vol. i. p. 209, Glasgow, 

 1835) follows his predecessors in their blunders, and gravely 

 tells us that the said Peter or Patrick Bissat or Bissart was 

 ' a descendant of Thomas Bissat or Bissart, who was Earl of 

 Fife in the reign of David II.' Now it is true that in that 

 reign the widowed Countess of Fife espoused a Sir Thomas 

 Bysset, who thereupon had a charter from the crown of the 

 earldom of Fife, to be held by him and his heirs male 

 through the countess, but the knight died without such 

 issue. 



Bizari was the author of several works of merit : 1 . ' Varia 

 Opuscula,' containing various tracts and speeches, and two 

 books of poems, published at Venice in 1565. 2. ' A History 

 of the War in Hungary, with a narrative of the principal 

 events in Europe from 1564 to 1568,' Lyons, 1569 : this 

 work was afterwards translated by the author from the 

 Italian, in which it first appeared, into Latin, and published 

 in 1573. 3. ' An Account of the War of Cyprus between 

 the Venetians and Selim of Turkey,' in Latin, Bale, 1573 ; 

 Antwerp, 1583. 4. 'Epitome Insignium Europse Histori- 

 arum,' Bale, 1573. 5. ' Annals of Genoa, from 1573 to 

 1579,' published in Latin at Antwerp the latter year. 6.' Rei- 

 publicse Genuensis leges novaa, nunc in lucem editao,' 

 1 576 : this work was reprinted by Graevius in his ' Thesaurus 

 Antiq. Halite,' torn. i. ; as was also 7. ' Dissertatio de 

 Universe Reipublicse Genuensis statu et administratione,' 

 Antwerp, 1579. 8. ' A History of Persia,' in Latin, 1583 ; 

 in speaking of which, Boxornius calls Bizari ' gravissimum 

 rerum Persicarum scriptorem.' 9. Giacobilli, in his ' Catal. 

 Script. Prov. Umbriso,' makes mention of another work of 

 Bizari's, entitled ' De Moribus Belgicis.' 



(See Mazzuchelli, Gli Scrittori d Italia, torn. iv. p. 1 295 ; 

 Tiraboschi, Storia della Lilteratura Italiana, torn. xi. 

 p. 1009; Verdier, Bibl. Francoise, torn. v. p. 236 ; Diet. 

 Univ. Historique; and M'Crie's Life of Melville, vol. i. 

 pp. 1C,, 17.) 



BLACK. [See COLOURS, or LIGHT.] 



BLACK-JACK, a name by which zinc-blende is com- 

 monly known to the English miners. 



BLACK LEAD. [See PLUMBA'GO.] 



BLACK PIGMENTS. [See CARBON; CHARCOAL, 

 ANIMAL.] 



BLACK, JOSEPH, a physician and an eminent che- 

 mical philosopher, was born in France on the banks of the 

 Garonne in the year 1728. His father, John Black, who 

 resided chiefly at Bordeaux, was a native of Belfast in 

 Ireland, but of a Scotch family, as was also his mother. 



In the year 1740, when he was twelve years old, Joseph 

 Black was sent to Belfast, that he might have the benefit 

 of a British education, and six years afterwards he was 

 sent to the University of Glasgow, where he continued 

 his studies with great assiduity and success, devoting his 

 attention chiefly to physical science. Having chosen the 

 profession of medicine, he went to complete his medical 

 studies to Edinburgh in 1750 or 1751, having previously 

 had the advantage of attending Dr. Cullen's lectures on 

 chemistry at Glasgow. This science, in which he was des- 

 tined to act so important a part, strongly excited his atten- 



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