BEE 
texture and IeFs foluble than mutton, is equally alkale- 
fcent, perfpirable, and nutritious: and, if. in the fouthern 
countries it is not efleemed fo, it is on account of its im¬ 
perfection there. 
Beef, adj. Confiding of the flefh of black cattle.— If 
you are employed in marketing, do not accept of a.treat 
of a beef (leak from the butcher. Swift. 
Beef Ai.amode, in cookery, beef well beaten, larded, 
and ftewed with lemon, pepper, mulhrooms, white wine. See. 
Beef-Eater, _/! [from beef and eat, becaufe the com¬ 
mons is beef when on waiting. Mr. Steevens derives- it 
thus : beefcater may cojne from beaufetier, one who attends 
at the tide-board, which was anciently placed in a beaufet. 
The. bufinefs of the beef-eaters was, and perhaps is (till, 
to attend the king at meals. ] A yeomen of the guard. 
Beef Island, a fmall ifiand near the coaft ot Ameri¬ 
ca, in the bay of Campeachy. Lat. 18.20. N. Ion. 75. 
15. W. Ferro. 
Beef-witted, adj. [from beef and ®i/.] Dull; ftu- 
pid ; heavy-headed.— Beef-witted lord. Shakcfpeare. 
BEELE,/. a kind of pick-axe, ufed by the miners for 
feparating the ores from the rocks in which they lie : this 
inftrument is called a lubber by the miners of Cornwall. 
BEE'LIKE, a town of Germany, in the circle of the 
Lower Rhine, and duchy of Weftphalia, four miles weft 
of Rlmden, and ten eaft-north-eaft of Arenlberg;. 
BEE'MOL,yi [of mollis, Lat. loft.] In mtific, a flat 
note, a half note.—There be intervenient in the rife of 
eight, intones, two beemols, or half notes; fo as, if you 
divide the tones equally, the eight is but feven whole and 
equal notes. Bacon. 
BEEM'STER, a great drained marfh or lake of North 
Holland. It was formerly a large lake, covering a great 
extent of country, which by the induftry of the Holland¬ 
ers, who have drained the water, is converted into excel¬ 
lent pafture. 
BEEN, \_beon, Sax.] The participle preterite of To Be : 
Enough that virtue fill’d the fpace between, 
Prov’d by the ends of being to have been. Pope. 
BEER, /. [bir, Wellh ; of bibo, Lat. to drink.] Liquor 
made of malt and hops. It is diftinguilhed from ale, ei¬ 
ther by being older or fmaller : 
Flow, Welfted! flow, like thine infpirer, beer\ 
Though ftale, not ripe; though .thin, yet never clear; 
So fweetly mawkifit,.and fo fmoothly dull; 
Heady, not ftrong; and foaming, though not full. Pope. 
Beer may be made from any farinaceous grain, though 
it is produced moft generally front barley. It is, properly 
fpeaking, the wine of barley. The meals of any of thefe 
grains being extracted by a fufficient quantity of water, 
and remaining at reft in a degree of heat requiiite for the 
fpirituous fermentation, naturally undergo this fermenta¬ 
tion, and are changed into a vinous liquor. But, as all 
thefe matters render the water mucilaginous, fermentation 
proceeds flowly and imperfectly in fuch liquors. On the 
other fide, if the quantity of farinaceous matter be fo di- 
miniflied that its extraCt or decoCtion may have a conve¬ 
nient degree of fluidity, this liquor will be impregnated 
with fo fmall a quantity of fermentable matter, that the 
beer or wine of the grain will be too weak, and have too 
little tafte. Thefe inconveniences are therefore remedied 
by preliminary operations, which the grain is made to un¬ 
dergo. See the articles Brewing and Malt. 
Foreigners have framed divers abfurd conjectures to ac¬ 
count for the excellency of the Britifh beer, and its fupe- 
riority to that of other countries, even of Bremen, Mens, 
and Roftock. We may juftly attribute the excellency of 
our beer to the quality of our malt and water, and the Ikill 
of our brewers in preparing it. 
When beer, by any accident, becomes four, it may be 
reftored divers ways; as by fait made of the allies of bar- 
ley-ftraw put into the vefiel, and ftirred ; or by three or 
four handfuls of beech-aflies thrown into the velfel, and 
llirred; or, where the liquor is not very four, by a little 
Vol. II. No. 107. ' 
BEE 8 53 
put in a bag, without flirting: chalk calcined, oyfter- 
ihells, egg-ftiells, burnt fea-fliells, crab’s eyes, alkalized 
coral, &c. do the fame, as they imbibe the acidity, and 
unite with it into a fweetnefs. Beer, it is (aid, may be kept 
from turning four in fiummer by hanging into the velfel a 
bag containing a new-laid egg pricked full of pin-holes ; 
feme laurel-berries, and barley-grains; or by a new-laid 
egg and walnut-tree leaves. Glauber commends his fal mira- 
bile and fixed nitre, put into a linen bag, and hung on the 
top of the calk fo as to reach the liquor, not only for re¬ 
covering four beer, but preferving and ftrengthening it. 
Laurel-berries, their fkin being peeled off', will keep beer 
from deadnefs; and beer already dead may be rellored by 
impregnating it with fixed air. Beer tailing of the cafk 
may be freed from it by putting a handful of wheat in a 
bag, and hanging it in the velfel. 
Beer, among weavers, is nineteen ends of yarn, run¬ 
ning all together out of the trough, the length of the clot];. 
BEER'ALSTON, a fmall borough-town in the county 
of Devon, and within a mile of the navigable river Ta¬ 
mer. It is governed by a portreeve, who is always the 
returning-officer for members to ferve in parliament; it 
fends two members. In Beeralfton is a large tree, un¬ 
der which the court is held for choofing the portreeve, 
town-officers, and members of parliament. Although an 
ancient borough by prefeription, the right of fending mem¬ 
bers was not reftored to them until 27 Eliz. The right of 
election is in thofe who have land in the borough, and pay 
threepence acknowledgement to the lord. The church is 
about two miles and a half diftant from the town, by the 
fide of the river Tavy. In the parilh of Beeralfton are 
four filver-mines, belonging to Chriftopher Gullet, Efq. 
which produce a large quantity of lilver : he has alfo a 
commodious fmelting-houfe. Beeralfton is fix miles from 
Taviftock, fourteen from Plymouth, and 212 from Lon¬ 
don. It has a market weekly on Saturday. 
BEER'ING’s BAY, a bay on the weft coaft of North 
America, in the North Pacific Ocean. Lat. 59. 18. N. 
Ion. 22i.o. E. Greenwich. 
Beering’s Island, an ifland in the North Pacific O- 
cean, about ninety miles long, and from twenty-five to 
thirty wide. It is thirty leagues weft of Kamtfchatka. 
Lat. 54. 45. to 56. 10. N. Ion. 18 r. to 182. E- Ferro. 
Beering’s Straits, the narrow fea between the weft 
coaft of North America and the eaft coaft of Ana, thir¬ 
teen leagues wide. 
BEER'OTH, a village of Judea, fituated at the foot of 
Mount Gabaon, feven miles from CElia or Jerufalem, on 
the road to Nicopolis. Jerome. 
BEERSHE'BA, [ystfma Heb. of ns3 a well, and 
he fware, or njnavr an oath; the well of an oath,] The 
name of a place in Canaan. 
BEES'ENSTADT a town of Germany, in the circle 
of Upper Saxony, and county of Mansfeld, fix miles eaft 
of Eifzleben. 
BEES'KOW, a town of Germany, in the circle of Up¬ 
per Saxony, and uckermark of Brandenburgh, and capital 
of a lordfliip to which it gives name, fituated on the Spree. 
A cloth manufacture is carried on in the town, which is 
fixteen miles fouth-weft of Frankfort-on-the Oder, and 
thirty-four eaft-fouth-eaft of Berlin. 
BEES'I.EN, a town of Germany, in the circle of Weft, 
phalia, and county of Lingen, feven miles fouth-fouth-eaft 
of Lingen. 
BEEST'INGS, or Breasting s,f. a term ufed by the 
country people for the firft milk taken from a cow after 
calving. The beeftings are of a thick confidence, and 
yellow colour, feemingly impregnated with fulphur. Dr. 
Morgan imagines them peculiarly fitted and intended by 
nature to cleanfe the young animal from the recrements 
gathered in its ftomach and inteftines during its long ha¬ 
bitation in utero. The like quality and virtue he fuppofes 
in women’s firft milk after delivery ; and hence infers the 
necelfity of the mother’s fuckling her own child, rather 
than committing it to a nurfe whole firft milk is gone. 
10II BEET. 
