550 



BISSET BITUMEN. 



ofDrBisset's military knowledge, that he ordered 

 him to attend the siege of Bergen- op-/o<>in, ;in<l JMVC 

 dm- attention daily to the progress of both the ;i(i;ick 

 and the di -fence, in order to form a journal of the 

 whole proceedings. His journals duly illustrated 

 with plans, were daily deli\cred to lord John Mur- 

 ray, who forwarded tin MI every second or third day, 

 to the duke, who was then at .\Iae-trirlit, at the head 

 of the allied army, observing the motions of the 

 1'rench army under marshal Saxc. His royal high- 

 ness was pleased to express his approbation, by re- 

 commending Dr Bisset to the duke of Montagu, then 

 master-general of the ordnance, who honoured him 

 with a warrant as engineer extraordinary to the bri- 

 gade of engineers ; lie was at the same time promoted 

 to a lieutenancy in the army. At the end of the war, 

 ln-inij placed on half-pay, he had full leisure to pursue 

 his studies in fortification, and also to visit the prin- 

 cipal specimens of the art upon the continent. The 

 result was his " Essay on the Theory and Construc- 

 tion of Fortifications," which appeared in 1751, in 

 8vo. His attention hieing now disengaged from this 

 pursuit, he resumed his original profession, and, for 

 the sake of a salubrious air, which was necessary to 

 his weakly constitution, retired to practise at the 

 village of Skelton, in Cleveland, Yorkshire, where 

 he spent all the remainder of his life. In 1755, when 

 the Seven Years' \Var was impending, he published 

 a " Treatise on the Scurvy, with remarks on the Cure 

 of Scorbutic Ulcers," which he dedicated to viscount 

 Ansou, and the other lords of the admiralty. In 

 1762. appeared his " Essay on the Medical Constitu- 

 tion of (Jreat Britain," which he inscribed to his friend 

 Sir John Pringle. In 1766, he published, at New- 

 castle, a volume of " Medical Essays and Observa- 

 tions," and a few years before his death, he deposited, 

 in the library of the infirmary at Leeds, a manuscript 

 of medical observations, in octavo, and extending to 

 nearly seven hundred pages. Dr Bisset also presented 

 a manuscript treatise on fortification to the prince of 

 Wales (afterwards George IV.) ; which was deposited 

 in his royal highness's private library. These, with 

 a small published treatise on naval tactics, and a few 

 political papers, constituted the whole of the intel- 

 lectual exertions of this distinguished man ; who died 

 at Knayton, near Thirsk, in May 1791, aged seventy- 

 five years. 



BISSET, Robert ; a native of Scotland, educated at 

 Edinburgh, for the clerical profession. He took the 

 degree of LL.D., and became a schoolmaster at 

 Chelsea ; but, not succeeding in that occupation, he 

 employed himself in writing for the press. His chief 

 productions are, a History of the Reign of George 

 III., 6 vols. 8vo ; the Life of Edmund Burke, 2 vols. 

 8vo ; and an edition of the Spectator, with lives of 

 the authors, 6 vols. He died in 1805, aged 46. 



BITAUBE, Paul Jeremiah ; born in Konigsberg, in 

 Prussia, 1732, of French parents. He translated 

 Homer into French. In consequence of this transla- 

 tion, and the recommendation of d'Alembert, he was 

 elected a member of the academy at Berlin. Fre- 

 deric II., king of Prussia, favoured him much, and 

 allowed him to stay a long time in France, to finish 

 several translations from the German into French. 

 Among his translations is one of Goethe's Hermann 

 and Dorothea. Napoleon conferred marks of favour 

 on him. He died in 1808. His works appeared in 

 9 vols., Paris, 1804. 



BITHYMA ; a country in Asia Minor, lying on the 

 Pontus Euxinus, the Thracian Bosphorus and the 

 Propontis, and bounded on the south by Phrygia. In 

 early times, it was called Bebrycia, from the Bebry- 

 cians, who inhabited it. Before the time of Croesus, 

 B. was an independent state, under its own princes. 

 After the death of Prusias I., in the war against 



Croesus, it fell into the p^^er of the Lydians, B. C. 

 560; into that of the Persians, B. C. 555 ; and into 

 that of Alexander, B. C. 33J. The restorer of the 

 Bithynian throne was Bias or Bas, a native prince, 

 at the court of one of whose successors, Prusias II., 

 Hannibal took refuge, and where he ended his life 

 by poison, 183 B. C. Nicomedes, the last king of 

 this race, bequeathed his kingdom to the Romans, 

 76 B. C. The famous cities of Nicomedia, Nie.-esi, 

 and Heraclea, were in B. In the llth century, I!. 

 was conquered by the Seljuks. In 1298, a nc\v 

 kingdom was founded there by the Oiioniaii Turks, 

 of which, in 1327, Prusa was the capital. 



BITSCH ; a city in the department of .the Mobile, 

 with 2.V)0 inhabitants, and a citadel on a hill ; by its 

 situation and the art of Carmontaigne, one of the 

 strongest places in France. 



BITTERN. A name commonly applied to sevcial 

 species of heron ; ardea, L. See Heron. 



BITUMEN ; the name of a species in mineralogy, the 

 individuals composing which have acquired several 

 distinct names, from their diversity in appearance 

 This depends chiefly upon their state of aggregation, 

 which forms an uninterrupted series from the perfectly 

 fluid to the solid condition. 



Naphtha, the most fluid variety, is nearly colour- 

 less, or of a yellowish tinge, transparent, and emits a 

 peculiar odour. It swims on water, its specific gra- 

 vity being from 0-71 to 0-84. It burns with a bluish - 

 white flame and thick smoke, and leaves no residue. 

 It consists of carbon, 82-20, and hydrogen, 14-80; 

 and, being the only fluid destitute of oxygen, it is 

 used to preserve those new metals in, which were 

 discovered by Sir H. Davy. It is found in Persia, in 

 the peninsula of Apcheron, upon the western shore 

 of the Caspian sea, where it rises through a marly 

 soil in the form of vapour, and, being made to flow 

 through earthen tubes, is inflamed for the purpose of 

 assisting in the preparation of food. It is collected 

 by sinking pits several yards in depth, into which 

 the naphtha flows. It is burned in lamps, by the 

 Persians, instead of oil. Near the village of Amiano, 

 in the state of Parma, there exists a spring which 

 yields this substance in sufficient quantity to illumi- 

 nate the city of Genoa, for which purpose it is em- 

 ployed. With certain vegetable oils, naphtha is said 

 to form a good varnish. 



The variety petroleum is much thicker than naph- 

 tha, resembling, in consistence, common tar. It has 

 a strong, disagreeable odour, and a blackish or red- 

 dish-brown colour. During combustion, it emits a 

 thick, black smoke, and leaves a little residue in the 

 form of a black coal. It is more abundant than the 

 first mentioned variety, from which it does not appear 

 to differ, except in being more inspissated. It occurs, 

 oozing out of rocks, in the vicinity of beds of coal, or 

 floating upon the surface of springs. In the Birman 

 empire, near Rainanghong, is a hill containing coal, 

 into which 520 pits have been sunk for the collection 

 of petroleum; and' the annual product of this mine is 

 400,000 hogsheads. It is used, by the inhabitants of 

 that country, as a lamp-oil, and, when mingled with 

 earth or ashes, as fuel. In the United States, it is 

 found abundantly in Kentucky, Ohio, and New York, 

 where it is known under the name of Seneca or G'e* 

 nesee oil. It is used as a substitute for tar, and as an 

 external application for the remedy of rheumatism 

 and chilblains. 



Maltha is a bitumen, still less fluid than petroleum, 

 from which it differs in no other respect. Its prin- 

 cipal locality is at Puy de la Pege, in France, where 

 it renders the soil so viscous, that it adheres strongly 

 to the foot of the traveller. It is also found in Persia 

 and in the Hartz. It is employed, like ta/ and pitch, 

 on cables and in chalking vessels: it is used, as well 



