Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Athens-BOI

BIB
B I A-
the loss of two mountain train guns. This disaster was
soon retrieved by General Tombs, and the Bhutias were
compelled to sue for peace, which was concluded on the
11th November 1865. The Bhutan Government formally
ceded all the eighteen Dw&rs of Bengal and Assam, with
the rest of the territory taken from them, and agreed to
liberate all kidnapped British subjects. As the revenues of
Bhutan mainly depended on these DwArs, the British
Government, in return for these concessions, undertook to
pay the Deb and DhArm KAjAs annually, subject to the
condition of their continued good behaviour, an allowance
beginning at £2500 and rising gradually to a maximum of
twice that amount. Since that time nothing of importance
has occurred, and the annexed territories have settled
down into peaceful and prosperous British districts.
BIAFRA, a tract of country on the coast of Western
Africa, on a bay or bight of the same name. Lander,
in descending the Niger, arrived in the Bight of Biafra,
and thus left no doubt that the system of inter-ramified
river-channels, extending from Benin to Biafra, constitutes
the delta of that river. The Bight of Biafra, or Mafra, is
the most eastern part of the Gulf of Guinea, between
Capes Formosa and Lopez ; it contains the islands of
Fernando Po, Prince’s, and St Thomas’s.
BIANCHINI, Francis, a learned Italian astronomer
and antiquary, was born at Verona in 1662, of a noble
and ancient family. He was educated at Padua, and de¬
voted himself especially to mathematics and classics. In
1684 he went to Rome, and was made librarian to Cardinal
Ottoboni, afterwards Pope Alexander VIII. He was made
canon of Sta Maria de la Rotonda, and afterwards of St
Lorenzo in Damaso. His first work seems to have been a
treatise directed against the Copernican system; it was
published about 1680. In 1697 appeared the first and
only volume of his Universal History, coming down to the
close of the Assyrian empire. His later works, with the
exception of the Hesperi et Phosphori nova Pheenomena, a
series of observations on Venus, were chiefiy upon the
ruins excavated on the Via Appia and Mount Palatine.
He died in 1729.
BIAS, a river of India, one of the five great streams of
the PanjAb, rises in the Bhotang Pass at the head of the
Kulu valley, at an elevation of 13,000 feet above the sea.
It flows southwards, traversing the Kulu valley for 75
miles, then turning westward passes through the native
state of Mandf, and after a winding course of about 125
miles enters the KAngrA district at Mfrthal, a few miles
north of BAijnAth. Thence it runs nearly due west, drain¬
ing and fertilizing the KAngrA valley throughout its whole
length, till, finding a break in the SiwAlik hills, it turns
sharply southwards and debouches upon the plains of the
PanjAb. From this point it runs nearly due south-west
until its junction with the Satlej, about 30 miles above
Ferozpur. In its course through the PanjAb it skirts the
districts of GujrAt, Amritsar, and LAhor to the north, and
HoshiArpur and Jallandhar to the south. Length of the
BiAs from its rise to its junction with the Satlej, 350 miles.
The levels show a fall for the first 75 miles of 60 feet per
mile; throughout the Mandf state, 40 feet; and from
Mfrthal to the Satlej, a distance of 150 miles, 10'06 feet
per mile. In its passage through the plains the BiAs
flows along a broad and sandy bed, its northern bank
being well defined, but the south bank sloping and shallow.
There can be but little doubt that at no distant period the
BiAs flowed in a different channel, and emptied itself into
the ChenAb, near MultAn. The old bed is clearly trace¬
able in the LAhor, Montgomery, and Multan districts.
According to native tradition, the river deserted its old
bed in Sambat 1807, or 1750 a.d.
BIAS, a native of Priene, one of the seven sages of
633
Greece, was the son of Teutamus, and flourished about
the middle of the 6th century b.c. He was one of the
most eloquent speakers of his time, and is celebrated as
having never used his talents for purposes of mere gain,
but as having devoted them to the service of the injured
and oppressed. Many stories are told illustrative of the
nobility of his character in this and other respects. Ac¬
cording to one of these, when his native town was taken
by an enemy, and the inhabitants were carrying off what¬
ever seemed to each most valuable, one of them, observing
Bias without any burden, advised him to follow his example.
“ I am doing so,” said he, “ for I carry all my valuables
with me.” His fellow-citizens honoured him with a splendid
funeral, and dedicated to him a sanctuary which they
called Teutamium. He is said to have written an heroic
poem on the affairs of the lonians, in order to show them
how they might be most prosperous. A great number of
the short, pithy, ethical sayings or apophthegms character¬
istic of the Greek sages are ascribed to Bias. Of these a
few specimens may be given—“ Be slow to enter on an
undertaking, but when you have begun, persevere to the
end;” “Know, and then act;” “Hear much, speak
little;” “Do not praise an unworthy man on account of
his wealth;” “Take (7.e., gain your end) by persuasion,
not by force;” “He is unfortunate who cannot bear mis¬
fortune;” “ So order your affairs as if your life were to be
both long and short.” Bias is the author of the famous
and often imitated reproof to the impious sailors, who in
the midst of a tempest were calling on the gods—“ Be
quiet,” said he, “ lest the gods discover that you are here.”
(Diog. Laert., i. 82-88 ; Stobseus, Floril. ; Mullach, Frag.
Ph. Groec., i. 203, sqq.)
BIBERACH, a town of Wurtemberg, in the circle of the
Danube, a capital of a bailiwick 23 miles S.S.W. of Ulm.
It is situated on the River Riss, a small tributary of the
Danube, partly on level ground and partly on hills, and
still has a somewhat mediaeval appearance from the remains
of its ancient walls and towers. Its principal church dates
from the 12th century, and it possesses a hospital with
very extensive endowments. The main objects of its
varied industry are toys, cloth goods of difterent kinds,
lace, paper, and leather; and there are also bell-foundries
and breweries. In the neighbourhood is the watering-
place called Jordansbad. Biberach appears as a village in
the 8th century, and in the 15th it became a free imperial
city. During the Thirty Years’ War it underwent various
vicissitudes, and was for a good while held by the Swedes.
In 1707 it was captured and put to ransom by the French,
who afterwards, in 1796 and 1800, defeated the Austrians
in the neighbourhood. In 1803 the city was deprived
of its imperial freedom and assigned to Baden; and in
1806 it was transferred to Wurtemberg. Biberach is the
birthplace of the sculptor Natter and the painter Neher;
and Wieland, who was born at the neighbouring village
of Oberholzheim, spent a series of years in the town.
BIBIRINE, or Bebeerine, an alkaloid obtained from
the bark and fruit of the greenheart tree, Nectandra
Rodicei, called bibiru or sipiri in Guiana, where the tree
grows. The alkaloid was discovered about the year 1835
by Hugh Rodie, a surgeon resident in Demerara, who
found it possessed great efficacy as a febrifuge, and it
was recommended by him as a substitute for quinine.
The sulphate of bibirine has a place in the British phar¬
macopoeia, and is in considerable use in medicine as a
bitter tonic and febrifuge. Bibirine has been shown by
Walz to be apparently identical with an alkaloid obtained
from the common box, Buxus sempervirens, called buxine,
and this opinion is to some extent confirmed by Dr Fliicki-
ger. The sulphate of bibirine found in commerce is a
dark brown substance in thin translucent scales.
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