BER 
!b E U 
1)y ike sentence of a judge. A benefice is 
vacated de jure, when the person enjoying it 
is guilty of certain crimes expressed in those 
laws, as heresy, simony, &c. A benefice is 
vacated dc- facto as well as de jure, by the. 
natural death or tire resignation of the in- 
cumbent; which resignation may be either 
express, or tacit, as when lie engages in a 
state, See. inconsistent with it, a-, among the 
Romanists, by mar ying, entering into a reli- 
gious order, or the like. A benefice becomes 
vacant by the sentence of a judge, by way 
of punishment for certain crimes, as concu- 
binage, perjury, &c. 
iu the church of England there are 1071 
benefices under 10/. per annum; 1467 from 
10 to 20 ; 1126 from 20 to 30; 1049 from 30 
to 40; 884 from 40 to 50; and there are 5597 
livings under 50/. per annum. It must be 
500 years before every living can be raised 
to 60/. a-} ear by queen Anne’s bounty, and 
339 years before any of them can exceed 50/. 
a-year. On the whole, these are above 11,000 
church preferments in England, exclusive of 
bishoprics, deaneries, canonries, prebends, 
priest-vicars, lay-vicars, secondaries, &c. 
belonging to cathedrals, or choristers, or even 
curates to well beneliced clergymen. Bene- 
fices began about A. D. 500. 
BENlSH days, among the Egyptians, a 
term of three days of the week, which are 
days of less ceremony in religion than the 
other four. 
BENZOIN, a dry and solid resin, brought 
to us in masses of various sizes from 'the East 
Indies, particularly from the kingdom of Siam, 
and the islands of Java and Sumatra. It is 
very brittle, and breaks vitreous. When 
rubbed, it emits a fragrant odour, and when 
heated sufficiently, lets tire benzoic acid es- 
cape, it is soluble in alkohol, but insoluble 
in water. It is used chiefly to perfume apart- 
ments, and benzoic acid is extracted from it. 
It has not been examined by any modern che- 
mist. Its specific gravity is 1.092. It is con- 
sidered as a compound of resin and benzoic 
acid. See Styrax, and for benzoic acid see 
Chemistry. 
BER AMS, a coarse cloth, all made with 
cotton-thread, which comes from the East 
Indies, and particularly from Surat. 
BERBER IS, the barbery, or pipperidge 
bush. A genus of the monogynia order, and 
hexandria class of plants: the characters of 
which are ; the calyx consists of six leaves ; 
the petals are six, with two glands at the 
ungues; it has no stylus; and the berry con- 
tains two seeds. The species are four : 
1. Berberis erotica, with a single flower in 
each footstalk, is at present very rare in Bri- 
tain ; the plants being tender whilst young, 
and most ol them killed by severe frost. This 
never rises more than three or four feet high 
in England ; but sends out many stalks from 
the root, which are strongly armed with 
spines at every joint : the leaves are produ- 
ced without order, and are shaped like those 
of the narrow-leaved box-tree; the flowers 
come out from between the leaves, each 
having a slender footstalk; but they are not 
succeeded by fruit in Britain. 
2. Berberis illicifolia, with leaves like the 
ho 'm oak. 
3. Berberis Sibirica, a very small shrub, 
scarcely a span in height. 
4. Berberis vulgaris, the common barber- 
ry, which grows naturally in hedges in many 
parts of England; but is also cultivated in 
gardens, on account of its fruit, which is 
pickled. It rises to the height of eight or 
ten feet, with many stalks, which have a 
white bark, yellow on the inside. The llow- 
eis come out from the w ings of the leaves in 
small ramose bunches like those of the cur- 
rant-bush, and are of a yellow colour: these 
are succeeded by oval fruit, which are at first 
green, but when ripe turn to a fine red colour. 
The flow evs appear in May, and the fruit 
ripens in September. There are two. or 
three varieties of this shrub, which by some 
have been taken for distinct species; one is 
the barberry without stone ; another, the bar- 
berry with white fruit; and a third is called 
by 4 ournefort taller eastern barberry, with a 
black sweet fruit. Of these Mr. Miller ob- 
serves, that the first certainly depends on the 
age of the plant, because the suckers taken 
from those bushes commonly produce fruit 
with stones. The second, he suys, seldom bears 
any fruit ; the leaves are of a lighter green 
colour, and the bark of the stalks are whiter, 
than those of the common kind. The third 
appears to be the same with the common sort, 
excepting the colour and flavour of its fruit, 
which can never indicate a specific difference. 
The berries, which are so acid that birds will 
not feed upon them, are moderately astrin- 
gent ; and have been given with success in 
bilious fluxes, and diseases proceeding from 
heat, acrimony, and thinness of the juices. 
The leaves also are gratefully acid. The 
flowers are offensive to the smell when near, 
but at a distance their odour is extremely 
fine. An infusion of the bark in white wine 
is purgative. The roots boiled in ley, dye 
wool yellow. In Poland they dye leather of 
a most beautiful yellow with the bark of the 
root. The inner bark of the stems dyes linen 
of a fine yellow with the assistance of alum. 
This shrub should never be permitted to 
grow in corn-lands; for the ears of wheat that 
grow near it never fill, and its influence in 
this respect has been known to extend across 
a field of 300 or 400 yards. Cows, sheep, 
and goats, eat it : horses and swine refuse it. 
RERCliEROIT, or BERKCoiTs,a weight 
used at Archangel, and in all the Russian do- 
minions: it weighs about 364 pounds English 
avoirdupois weight. 
B ER DASH, a name formerly used in Eng- 
land foixjj certain kind of neck-dress; and 
hence a 'person who made or soid such neck- 
cloths, was called berdasher, from which is 
derived our word haberdasher. 
BERENGA1UANS, a religious sect of the 
1 1th century, which adhered to the opinion 
of Berengarius, who, even in those days, 
strenuously asserted, that the bread and wine 
in the Lord’s supper is 'not really and essen- 
tially, but only figuratively, changed into 
the body and blood of Christ. 
BERCrAMOT, the name of a fragrant es- 
sence extracted from a species of citron. As 
this oil exists pure in the peel, being simply 
deposited in small cells, the extraction is easy, 
euher by expression or distillation. The 
former is the best, as the oil is not liable to be 
altered by heat; but more is produced by 
distillation than by expression: by this mode 
• w o ounces of the oil have been obtained from 
two pounds of the peel. 
It is also the denomination of a coarse ta- 
pestry, manufactured with flocks of silk, wool, 
cotton, hemp, ox, cow, or goat’s hair, and 
B E It 215 
supposed to be invented by the people of' 
Bergamo. 
BERGESA, a genus of the class and or- 
der decandria monogynia. ’I lie essential 
character is, calyx five-parted ; petals five; 
berry subglobular, one-ceiied, w ith five seeds. 
'I here is one species, a leafy tree, with the 
bark of the alder ; a native of the East la- 
dies. 
BERGIA, a genus of the class and order 
decandria pentagynia. lhe essential cha- 
racter is, calyx five-parted ; petals five ; cap- 
sule one, globfllar, with swellings, five-celled, 
live-valved, valves resembling petals ; seeds 
many. 
'1 here are two species, the B. capensis 
and glomerata, both natives of the Cape. 
BERG BJ MOT, an assembly, or court, 
held upon a hill, in Derbyshire, for deciding 
controversies among the minefs. 
BERIBERI, a kind of palsy, common in 
the East Indies. The word, in the language 
of the country, signifies a sheep ; and was 
given by the natives to this distemper, tie- 
cause the patients, on throwing out their 
knees, and lifting up their legs, seem to imi- 
tate sheep in their walk. 
BERME, in fortification, a space of 
ground left at the foot of the rampart, cn the 
side next the country, designed to receive 
the rums of the rampart, and prevent the 
tilling up of the fosse. It is sometimes pal i- 
sadoed, for the more security ; and in Hol- 
land it is generally planted w ith a quickset 
hedge. It is also called liziere, relais, fore- 
land, vetraite, pas de souris, &c. 
BERNARDINES, an order of monks, 
founded by Robert abbot cf Moleme, and 
reformed by St. Bernard. They wear a 
white robe with a black scapulary ; and when 
they officiate, they are clothed with a large 
gown, which is all white, and with great 
sleeves, and a hoed of the same colour, 
d hey differ but very little from the Cister- 
cians. 
BERRY, a round fruit, for the most part 
soft, and covered with a thin skin, containing 
seeds in a pulpy substance ; but if it is 
harder, or covered with a thicker skin, it is 
called pomum, apple. 
BERTIESA, a genus of tire pentandria 
monogynia class and order. The essential 
character is, calyx turbinate, five-toothed ; 
corolla, tube short, with a villose mouth ; 
berry globose, inferior, two-celled, many- 
seeded. 
There is but one species, the B. Guiancn- 
sis, which the specific name announces to be 
a native of Guiana. The flower is white. 
BERYL, in natural history, called by our 
lapidaries aqua marina, is a pellucid gem of 
a bluish green colour, found in the East In- 
dies and about the gold mines of Peru, and 
especially in Siberia and Tartary, where its 
crystals are sometimes a foot long. 
1 he beryl, like most other gems, is met 
with both in the pebble and columnar form, 
but in the latter most frequently. In the 
pebble form it usually appears of a roundish 
but flatted figure, and commonly full of small 
flat faces, irregularly disposed. In the co- 
lumnar or crystalline form it always consists 
of hexangular columns, terminated by hex- 
angular pyramids. It never receives any 
admixture of colour into it, nor loses the 
blue .and green, but has its genuine tinge m 
the degrees from a very deep and dusky to 
