BRER BEETHOVEN. 



471 



rant how far the beer of the antients resembled the 

 modern article. The word beer may most naturally 

 be derived from bibere, to drink. 



BEER, Michael, sometimes called Michael Berr, a 

 learned Jew in Paris, born at Nancy, in 1784, was 

 the first of his religion who pursued the profession of 

 an advocate in France. His success in this career 

 was brilliant ; but he soon gave himself up exclu- 

 sively to literature, and received the honour, never 

 l>efore conferred on a Jew, of being admitted into 

 (he learned academies of France. He was elected a 

 member of the royal society of antiquaries, of the 

 philotechnic society, of the academies of Nancy, 

 Strasburg, Nantes, and Gottingen. Napoleon invited 

 him, in 1807, to the assembly of Jews, who were to 

 advise concerning the amelioration of the condition 

 of that people ; and the general sanhedrim for France 

 and Italy chose him their secretory. At the erection 

 of the kingdom of Westphalia, on account "of his 

 knowledge of the language of the country, he receiv- 

 ed an appointment in the ministry of the interior, 

 and, afterwards, was appointed to a corresponding 

 office in the French ministry : he also delivered a 

 course of lectures on German literature in the Athe- 

 naeum of Paris. Among his numerous works is an 

 Eloge tie Charles J'illcrs. i 



SEEKING, Vitus, captain in the Russian navy, was 

 born at Horsens, in Jutland. Being a skilful seaman, 

 lie was employed by Peter the Great in the navy es- 

 tablished at Cronstadt. His talents, and the un- 

 daunted courage displayed by him in the naval wars 

 against the Swedes, procured him the honour of be- 

 ing chosen to command a voyage of discovery in the 

 sea of Kamtschatka. He set out from St Petersburg, 

 Feb. 5, 1725, for Siberia. In the year 1728, he ex- 

 amined the northern coasts of Kamtschatka as far as 

 lat. 67 18' N., and proved that Asia is not united to 

 America. It remained, however, to be determined 

 whether the hind opposite to Kamtschatka was, in 

 reality, the coast of the American continent, or 

 merely islands lying between Asia and America. 

 June 4, 1741, he sailed, with two ships, from Och- 

 otsk, and touched the north-western coast of America, 

 between lat. 35' and 69 N. Tempests and sickness 

 prevented him from pursuing his discoveries : he was 

 cast on a desolate island, covered with snow and ice, 

 where he grew dangerously sick, and died, Dec. 8, 

 1741. The straits between Asia and America have 

 received the name of Beering's straits (also called 

 Aniari), and the island on which he died that of 

 Bvering's island. (See Mailer's Voyages et Decouv. 

 faites par les Russes, Amsterdam, 1766.) 



BEKRING'S ISLAND ; an island in N. Pacific ocean, 

 about 90 miles long, and 25 to 30 wide ; Ion. 163 

 12' to 164" 12' E. ; lat. 54 45' to 56" 10' N. Nei- 

 ther thunder nor the aurora borealis have ever been 

 observed here. The, island has springs of excellent 

 water, and beautiful cataracts. No animals are 

 found here but ice-foxes, seals, sea-bears, sea-lions, 

 sea-cows, &c. No wood grows here, but several 

 kinds of plants are seen. The island is uninhabited. 

 It was discovered by Vitus Beering in 1741. It is 

 sometimes classed with the Aleutian chain. 



BEERING'S STRAITS ; the narrow sea between the 

 north-west coast of North America and the north- 

 east coast of Asia ; 39 miles wide in the nar- 

 rowest part ; Ion. 168 15' to 169 20' W. ; lat. 65" 

 4(y to 65 5s!' N. There is a remarkable similarity 

 in the portions of both continents north of the strait : 

 both are without wood ; the coasts are low, but, far- 

 ther from the sea, they rise and form considerable 

 mountains. The depth, in the middle of the straits, 

 is from twenty- nine to thirty fathoms ; towards the 

 land, the water on the Asiatic side is deeper. Captain 

 Vancouver, who visited these shores in 1740, gave 



this name to the straits, in honour of Vitus Beering, 

 because he believed that Beering anchored there 

 Some have also called these straits Cooke's straits. 



BEET (beta vulgaris) is a well known valuable suc- 

 culent root, which is cultivated in our kitchen gar- 

 dens, and grows wild in several countries of the south 

 of Europe. There are two principal varieties of 

 beet, one of which is of a deep red or purple colour, 

 and the other is white, crossed with bands of red. 



Red beet is principally used at table, in salad, 

 boiled, and cut into slices, as a pickle, and sometimes 

 stewed with onions ; but if eaten in great quantity, 

 it is said to be injurious to the stomach. The beet 

 may be taken out of the ground for use about the 

 end of August, but it does not attain its full size and 

 perfection till the month of October. When good, 

 it is large, and of a deep red colour, and, when 

 boiled, is tender, sweet, and palatable. It has late- 

 ly been ascertained, that beet roots may be substi- 

 tuted for malt, if deprived of the greater part of their 

 juice by pressure, then dried, and treated in the same 

 manner as the grain intended for brewing. The beer 

 made from the oeet has been found perfectly whole- 

 some and palatable, and little inferior to that prepared 

 from malt. 



From the white beet the French, during the late 

 wars in Europe, endeavoured to prepare sugar, that 

 article, as British colonial produce, having been pro- 

 hibited in France. For this purpose, the roots were 

 boiled as soon as possible after they were taken from 

 the earth. When cold, they were sliced, and after- 

 wards the juice was pressed oat, and evaporated to 

 the consistence of sirup. The sugar was obtained 

 from this sirup by crystallization. 110 pounds weight 

 of the roots yielded 41^ pounds of juice, which, on 

 further evaporation, afforded somewhat more than ^ 

 pounds of brown sugar ; and these, by a subsequent 

 operation, produced 4 pounds of well-grained white 

 powder sugar. The residuum, together with the 

 sirup or molasses which remained, produced, after 

 distillation, 3 quarts of rectified spirit, somewhat si- 

 milar to rum. But many subsequent experiments, 

 both in France and in Prussia, have tended to prove, 

 that sugar can never be advantageously manufactured 

 from the beet upon a large scale, it yielding, upon a 

 fair average, biirely enough to defray the expenses ot 

 making. The leaves of the beet, when raised in a 

 richly-manured soil, have been found to yield a con- 

 siderable quantity of pure nitre, proceeding, in all 

 probability, from the decomposition of the animal 

 matter contained in the manure ; but this, like the 

 sugar of the root, will probably never pay the expen- 

 ses of cultivation, which will also increase rather than 

 diminish ; so that it may be considered valuable, at 

 present, only as an esculent plant. The French, 

 however, and other European nations, still persevere 

 in manufacturing beet sugar, and make great quan- 

 tities of it, although it can never supersede the use of 

 common sugar, unless its production be encouraged 

 by bounties and prohibitions. 



BEETHOVEN, Louis von, born in Bonn, 1772, was 

 the son of a man who had been a tenor singer in that 

 place (according to another account, in Fayolle's 

 Dictionary of Musicians, a natural son of Frederic 

 William II., king of Prussia). His great talent for 

 music was early cultivated. He astonished, in his 

 eighth year, all who heard him, by his execution on 

 the violin, on which he was in the habit of perform- 

 ing, with great diligence, in a little garret. In his 

 eleventh year, he played Bach's Wohl Temperirtes 

 clavier, and, in his thirteenth, composed some sonatas. 

 These promising appearances of great talent induced 

 the then reigning elector of Cologne, to send him, in 

 1792, in the character of his organist, and at his ex- 

 pense, to Vienna, that he might accomplish him elf 



