BIBLIA PAUPERUM (i. e.  Bible of the Poor), a book consisting of some 50 leaves, with pictures of scenes in the Life of Christ, and explanatory inscriptions, printed, from wooden blocks, in the 15th century, and before the invention of printing by movable types.

BIBULUS, a colleague of Julius Caesar; a mere cipher, a faineant.

BICETRE, a hospital, originally a Carthusian monastery, in the S. side of Paris, with a commanding view of the Seine and the city; since used for old soldiers, and now for confirmed lunatics.

BICHAT, MARIE FRANCOIS XAVIER, an eminent French anatomist and physiologist; physician to the Hotel-Dieu, Paris; one of the first to resolve the structure of the human body into, as “Sartor” has it, “cellular, vascular, and muscular tissues;” his great work “Anatomie Generale appliquee a la Physiologie et a la Medecine”; died at 31 (1771-1802).

BICKERSTAFF, ISAAC, an Irish dramatist of 18th century, whose name was adopted as a nom de plume by Swift and Steele.

BICKERSTETH, EDWARD, English clergyman; author of several evangelical works, and one of the founders of the Evangelical Alliance (1786-1850).

BICKERTON, SIR RICHARD, vice-admiral, served in several naval engagements, and died commander-in-chief at Plymouth in 1792.

BIDDERY WARE, ware of tin, copper, lead, and zinc, made at Bidar, in India.

BIDDING PRAYER, an exhortation to prayer in some special reference, followed by the Lord’s Prayer, in which the congregation joins.

BIDDLE, JOHN, a Socinian writer in the time of Charles I. and the Commonwealth; much persecuted for his belief, and was imprisoned, but released by Cromwell; regarded as the founder of English Unitarianism; author of a “Confession of Faith concerning the Holy Trinity” (1615-1662).

BIDPAI, or PILPAI, the presumed author of a collection of Hindu fables of ancient date, in extensive circulation over the East, and widely translated.

BIELA’S COMET, a comet discovered by Biela, an Austrian officer, in 1826; appears, sometimes unobserved, every six years.

BIELEFELD (39), a manufacturing town in Westphalia, with a large trade in linen, and the centre of the trade.

BIELU`KA, with its twin peaks, highest of the Altai Mountains, 11,100 ft.

BIENNE, LAKE OF, in the Swiss canton of Berne; the Aar is led into it when in flood, so as to prevent inundation below; on the shores of it are remains of lake-dwellings, and an island in it, St. Pierre, the retreat of Rousseau in 1765.

BIFROeST, a bridge in the Norse mythology stretching from heaven to earth, of firm solidity and exquisite workmanship, represented in the rainbow, of which the colours are the reflections of the precious stones.

BIGELOW, ERASTUS BRIGHAM, American inventor of weaving machines, born in Massachusetts (1814-1879).

BIG-ENDIANS, a name given to the Catholics, as Little-endians is the name given to the Protestants, in the imaginary kingdom of Lilliput, of which the former are regarded as heretics by the latter because they break their eggs at the big end.