BILGE

BILE. (Lat. bills; said to be derived from bis, twice, and lis, contention, as being the supposed cause of anger and dispute.) A fluid secreted in the liver, of a yellow colour, and a nauseous taste, compounded of sweet and bitter; it sinks in water, and mixes with it in all proportions; it is slightly alkaline, and feels soapy, it contains a peculiar bitter principle, which has been called picromel, and a little free soda and saline matters. Accorcflng to Berzelius, the solid constituents of bile amount to about one tenth of its weight. BILGE. The lower or flat part of the bottom of a ship on which she rests when aground. — Bilge of a cask, the middle part between the ends, in which the bunghole is placed. BILGED. Having the bottom stove in. BILGE WATER. The water that collects in the bottom, by leakage or otherwise. It has usually a peculiar and offensive smell. When a ship is tight the bilge water when pumped up is dark; in a leaky ship, it comes up quite clear..,., ^ BI'LIARY CALCULI. Are concretions which form in the gall-bladder (gall stones) or bile-ducts. They are generally composed of a peculiar crystalline fatty matter, which has been called cholesterine. BILL. A legislative measure introduced into parliament is so called until it has acquired the force of law bv receiving the royal a ent. Bills are either public or private; a distinction founded rather on usage and precedent, than on any exact definition. The immediate parliamentary consequence of the distinction is the payment of certain fees to the officers of the house, which are due by custom on private bills. According to Hatsell, this difference between private and public bills was recognised as long ago as 1607. It is a general rule of parliamentary proceeding, that the same bill or question cannot be twice offered in the same se ion. But at every stage of a bill, the whole of it is supposed to be before the house; and consequently if words have been inserted by way of amendment, the sense of the house may again be taken respecting them at a subsequent stage. See Parliament. BILL OF SALE. In Law, a contract under seal, by which a man pa es his interest in goods and chattels to another, and which does not require either valuable consideration or actual transfer of tne goods to support it, as between the vendor and vendee; although as between the vendee and the vendor's creditors the absence of such consideration and transfer would in general be held indicative of fraud, and invalidate the contract. BILL OF HEALTH. A certificate or instrument, signed by proper authorities, delivered to the masters of ships at the time of their clearing out from all ports or places suspected of being infested by particular disorders, certifying the state of health at the time that such ships sailed. Bills of health are of three kinds— cfean,/o«/, and suspected, which are self-explanatory terms. BILL OF LADING. A memorandum, subscribed by the master of a ship, acknowledging the receipt of goods intrusted to him for trauM^iortation, and binding himself (under certain exceptions) to deliver them to the person to whom they are addre ed, in good condition, for a certain remuneration or freightage. Of bills of lading there are usually triplicate copies; one for the party transmitting the goods, another for the person to whom the goods are addre ed, and the third for the master. BILL OF EXCHANGE. See Exchange. BILL OF RIGHTS. In Law, the declaration delivered by the two houses of parliament to the Prince of Orange, February 13. 1688, at the period of his succe ion to the British throne; in which, after a full specification of various acts of James II. which were alleged to be ill^al, the rights and privileges of the people were a erted. BI'LLET. In Heraldry, a bearing of which the origin is very uncertain; represented of an oblong square form, sometimes showing the thickne , and always with a flat surface. Billetty, or semee of billets, signifies that the escutcheon or charge is strewed over with these bearings, without regard to particular number or station. BI'IiLlON. In Numeration, denotes a million of millions, and is expre ed by 1,0000,0000,0000. The French use the same word to denote a tliousand millions. The term is probably a contraction of bis and million; whence the English signification, a million of millions, appears more according to analogy. Thus biquadratic means the square of a square, or the product of two quadratics. BILLS OF MORTALITY, are accounts of the number of births and burials within a certain district in every week, month, quarter, or year. These were first compiled in London, after the great plague of WXi; and ten vears afterwards began to be returned weekly. Several of the parishes now included within the metropolis (as Marylebone and Pancras) are not within the bills ot mortality. See Mortality. BI'LOBATE. (Lat.bis,lobus,a/o6e.) When a part is divided into two lobes, or obtuse proce es. 146 BINOCLE. BILO'CULAR, (Lat. bis, locula, a cell.) Having two cells. BIMA'CULATE. (Lat. bis, macula, « 5/>o^) When an animal, or part, is marked with two spots. BI'MANA. (Bimana, two-handed.) The term applied by Cuvier to the highest order of mammal i a, of which man is the tjrpe and sole genus. BIME'DIAL. In Geometry, when two lines commensurable only in power (for example, the diagonal and side of a square) are joined together, the sum is irrational with respect to either of the two lines, and is called by Euclid a bimedial. BI'NARY ARITHMETIC. (Fr. binaire, from bin us, dvMl, or hyttvos.) A species of arithmetic, proposed by Leibnitz, and founded on the shortest and simplest progre ion; namely, that which terminates with tlie second cipher. In the binary notation, therefore, only two characters are required, 1 and 0, the zero having the power of multiplying the number it follows by two, as in the common notation it multiplies by ten. The number one is represented by 1; two, by 10; three, by 11; four, by 100 -^five, by 101; six, by 110; seven, by 111; eight, by 1000; nine, by 1001; ten, by 1010, . This method of notation, though it may be applied with advantage in the investigation of some properties of nvunbers, would be inconvenient for common purposes, on account of the great number of characters required, even when the numbers to be expre ed are small. We will give an example from the Encyclopedic Method i que of the method of expre ing a number by the binary scale, and of finding the value of a number so expre ed. It is convenient to begin with forming a table of the powers of 2, namely, 20, 2', 2^, 2^, . They are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128. Suppose, now, it were required to expre the number 230 by the binary scale. Seek in the table the greatest power of 2 contained in 230; it is found to be 1 28, which is the 8th number in the table; hence the expre ion will contain 8 ciphers, and the first on the left hand is 1. Subtract 128 from 230, there remains 102; the highest power of 2 contained in this is 64, which is the.seventh number in the table. The second cipher will therefore be also 1. Subtract 64 from 102, and there remctins 38. But the sixth number in the table is 32, which is contained in 38; therefore the third cipher in the expre ion is still 1. Subtract 32 from 38, there remains 6; but the fifth number in the table is 16, which is not contained in 6; therefore the fourth cipher of the expre ion is 0. The fourth number in the table is 8, which is not contained in 6; therefore the fifth cipher must also be 0. The third number in the table is 4, which is contained in 6; therefore the sixth cipher will be 1. Subtracting 4 from 6 there remains 2; but the second number in the table is 2, therefore the seventh cipher is 1. The last difference is zero; therefore the last cipher in the expre ion is 0. Collecting all these results, we find the number 230 is expre ed in the binary scale by 111001 10. Next, suppose it were required to determine the value of the expre ion 110101 in the binary scale. As there are here six ciphers, we look for the sixth number in the above table, and find 32, which is the value of the first cipher. The following cipher represents the fifth number, and is consequently equal to 16. The third cipher is 0, and its value nothing. The fourth cipher corresponds to the third number in the table, and represents 4. The fifth cipher is 0, and its value nothing. The last cipher corresponds to the first number of the table, which is 1. The whole expre ion, therefore, 110,101, is equivalent to 32 + 16 -V- 4 -J- 1 = 53. It has been imagined, though on very slight grounds, that traces of the binary notation are discernible among the early monuments of China. For information on the subject of arithmetical scales, see Leslie's Philosophy of Arithmetic. BINARY MEASURE. (Lat. binarius, belonging to iu>o.) In Music, that in which the raising the hand or foot is equal to that of falling, usually called common time. The Italians are accustomed after a recitative to use the phrase a tempo giusto, to indicate that the measure is to be beat true and correct, which is otherwise conducted in the recitative in order to expre pa ion, . BI'NAT. (Lat. bis and nat us, born.) When two bodies of the same nature spring from the same point, as often happens in the segments of leaves. BIND. (Ger. binden, to fasten together.) In Music, the same as a ligature or tie for the purpose of grouping notes together. Bind. The indurated clay of coal mines. Binding in agriculture is tying up sheaves of corn. BINE'RVATE. (Lat. bis, nerva, a nerve.) In Entomology, when tlve wing of an insect is supported by only two nerves. Bl'NNACLE. The case or stand in which the steering compa is placed; it is fixed near the tiller or wheel. At night the compa is illuminated by a lamp placed over it. BI'NOCLE, or BINOCULAR TELESCOPE. (Lat. bin us, double, and oculus, the eye.) A telescope to which both eyes may be applied at once, and in which, conse  Page 160 Page 161