BIS 
parifh. The church is very large and fpacious, and, on 
account of its fituation, may be feen feveral miles round. 
Here is a free-fchool for boys, and a donation for clothing 
fix widows yearly. The canal, that unites the Thames 
with the Severn, runs through this parifh ; and on the 
verge of it commences that wonderful exertion of art and 
labour, a tunnel, which conveys the water of the canal 
two miles five furlongs under ground. Their majefties 
honoured this fiupendous undertaking with a vifit in An- 
guft, 1788. Billey is diftant from London ninety-leven 
miles, Gloucefter ten, Painfw.ick four, Hampton three, 
and Cheltenham 12. It has no market; but two large 
annual fairs, chiefly for ftieep, viz. May 4, and Novem¬ 
ber i2. Hampton, or Minchinhampton, is its poll-town 
and market. . 
BIS'MARCK, a town of Germany, in the circle of 
Upper Saxony, and Old Mark of Brandenburg: twelve 
miles well of Stendal. 
BISME'O, or Bixmea, a town of Africa, in the coun¬ 
try of Algiers : twenty-five miles well of Algiers. 
BISMIL'LAH, f. [Arab, in the name of God.] The 
term with which Mahomet begins his koran, and with 
which (in imitation of their prophet) the Mahometans are 
wont to preface deeds, patents, &c. It is a compound 
word, of if, in; ifm, a name; and allah, God. It is alfo 
ufed among the Arabs as a word of invitation to eat. 
BIS'MUTH, f. \_bifmvt, Ger.] One of the femi-metals, 
of a yellovvifh or reddilh white colour, little fnbject to 
change in the air. It is fomewhat harder than lead, and 
is fcarcely, if at all, malleable ; being eaiily broken, and 
even reduced to powder, by the hammer. The internal 
face, or place of fradture, exhibits large fliining plates, 
difpofed in a variety of politions ; thin pieces are confider- 
ably fonorons. At a temperature not exceeding the 460th 
degree of Fahrenheit, it melts ; and its ipecific gravity 
when fufed, according to BrilTon, is 9’8227. Its lurface 
becomes covered with a greenilh grey or brown calx. A 
Ilronger heat than the above ignites it, and caufes it to 
burn with a fmall blue flame; at the fame time that a 
yellovvifh calx, known by the name of flowers of bifmuth, 
is driven up. This calx appears to rife in confequence of 
the combultion ; for it is very fixed, and runs into a 
greenilh glafs when expofed to heat alone. Bifmuth ur¬ 
ged by a llrong heat in a clofed veifel, fublimes entire. 
This femi-metal cryflallizes very diftindlly when gradual¬ 
ly cooled. It is varioufly affedled by acids. The vitriolic 
acid has a flight adlion upon it when it is concentrated 
and boiling. Vitriolic acid air is exhaled, and part of the 
bifmuth is converted into a white calx. A fmall portion 
combines with the vitriolic acid, and affords a deliquelcent 
fait, in the form of fmall needles. The nitrous acid dif- 
folves bifmuth with the greateft rapidity and violence; 
at the fame time that much heat is extricated, and a large 
quantity of nitrous air efcapes. The folution, when faflu- 
rated, affords cryftals as it cool's ; the fait detonates weak¬ 
ly, and leaves a yellow calx "behind, which efflorefces in 
the air. Upon dilfolving this fait in water, it renders 
that fluid of a milky white, and lets fall a calx of the 
fame coloifr. The nitrous folution of bifmuth exhibits 
the fame property when diluted wdth water, moll of the 
metal falling down in the form of a white calx, called 
magiftery of bifmuth. This precipitation of the nitrous 
folution, by the addition of water, is the criterion by 
which bifmuth is diflinguilhed from all other metals. The 
magiffery or calx is a very white and fubtile powder; 
when prepared by the addition of a large quantity of wa¬ 
ter, it is ufed as a paint for the complexion, and is thought 
gradually to impair the (kin. The liberal ufe of any paint 
for the (kin feems indeed likely to do this ; but there is 
reafon to fufpedl, from the refemblance between the ge¬ 
neral properties of lead and bifmuth, that the calx of this 
femi-metal may be attended w ith all (he bad effects which 
the calces of lead are known to produce. This pigment 
for the Ikin is deflroyed by fulphureous vapours; and even 
the animal perfpiration will convert, it into metal, and 
Yol. III. No. 117. 
BIS 69 
snake the ffcin look of a bad colour. The bair-dreffers, 
when they are defirous of converting tire hair into a black 
colour, linear it with a pomatum made of the magiftery 
of bifmuth. The marine acid does not readily all upon 
bifmuth. It is neceffary that the acid lhould be concen¬ 
trated, and kept a long time in digeftion upon it ; or that 
it lhould be diddled from the femi-metal. The refidue, 
when walhed with water, affords a faline combination, 
which does not eaiily cryftallize, but may be fublimed in 
the form of a foft fufible fait, called butter of bifmuth. 
The marine folution likewife affords a precipitate of calx 
by tlie addition of water. Marine acid feizes the calx of 
bifmuth, when added to its folution in nitrous acid, and 
forms a compound of fparing folubility, which falls to the 
bottom. Alkalis likewife precipitate its calx ; but not of 
fo beautiful a white colour as that afforded by the aflfu- 
fion of pure water. The white powder, mixed up with 
the white of an egg, and applied to turned wood, makes 
it look as if it had been filvered, after being well dried, 
and rubbed over with a hard polilher. It amalgamates 
with mercury, and forms a fluid alloy ; whence lome un¬ 
principled druggifts mix it with that metal ; a fraud 
which lhould be prohibited, becaufe it almoll always re¬ 
tains a portion of arfenic. This property, however, of 
amalgamating with mercury, renders it of great advan¬ 
tage in filveringof glafles, by anamalgumof tin, bifmuth, 
and mercury, whence it obtained the name of tin glafs. 
Its various folutions form fympathetic inks, which are 
more or lefs curious, on account of the facility with 
which they are made vilible. See Ink, Sympathetic. 
The effedls of earths and alkalis upon bifmuth, in the 
dry way, have been little attended to. Nitre calcines it, 
with ftrarcdy any perceptible detonation. Sal ammoniac 
is not decompoled by bifmuth in the metallic Hate, al¬ 
though its calx readily combines with the marine acid of 
that fair, and difengages the volatile alkali. Sulphur 
unites with bifmuth by fufion, and forms a biueilh grey 
brilliant mals, of a needle-formed texture. Bifmuth unites 
with mod metallic fubftances, and renders them in general 
more fufible. When calcined with the imperfect metals, 
its glafs diffolves them, and produces the fame effect as 
lead in cupellation; in which procefs it is even laid to be 
preferable to lead. It is ufed in the compofition of pew¬ 
ter, in the fabrication of printers types, and in various 
other metallic mixtures, where a hard firm texture is de- 
fired. Bifmuth is found native in many places ; and may 
be analyfed in the humid way by folution in nitrous acid, 
and precipitation by the addition of water, which throws 
down one hundred and thirteen grains of calx for every 
hundred of metallic bifmuth. It is likewife found in the 
calciform ftate ; and mineralized by fulphur, of a grey 
colour, refembling galena, but heavier. There is a grey 
bifmuth ore of the arfenicated kind, with a ftriated form, 
found at Helfingland in Sweden, and at Annaberg in 
Germany. Another of the fame kind, with variegated 
colours of red, blue, and yellowifh-grey, at Schneeberg 
in Saxony. At Mifnia in Germany, and at Gillebeck in 
Norway, it is alfo found ftriated with green fibres, like an 
amianthus. At Georgenftadt in Germany, and at Anna¬ 
berg in Saxony, it is intermixed with reddifh-yellow fliining 
particles, called by the French Mines de Bifmuth Tigreas. 
The minera bifmuthi arenacca, mentioned by Wallerius and 
Bomare, belongs alfo to the fame kind of arfenicated 
ores. Bifmuth is eafily feparable, in the dry.way, from 
its ores, on account of its great fufibility. It is ufual, in 
the procetfes at large, to throw the bifmuth ore into a fire 
of wood ; beneath which a hole is made in the ground to 
receive the metal, and defend it from calcination. The 
fame procefs may be imitated in the fmall way, in the 
examination of the -ores of this metal ; nothing more 
being neceffary than to expofe it to a moderate heat in a 
crucible, with a quantity of reducing flux ; taking care, 
at the fame time, to perform the operation as fpeedily as 
poflible, that the bifmuth may be neither calcined nor 
volatilized. For the.procefles, Ice Chemistry. 
T SfSNAGAR', 
