Tax on Birth.-In 1694 an act was passed in England for "granting to His Majesty certain rates and duties upon marriages, births and burials, upon bachelors and widowers for the term of five years, for carrying on the war against France with vigour." The taxes were graduated, rising from four shillings on the burial of the humblest person to £50 in the case of a duke or duchess. The duty on births varied according to the rank of the parents. A duke paid £30 on the birth of an eldest son, and £25 for every other child; a baronet or knight, £5 for an eldest son, and £1 each for other children. An archbishop or bishop, or a doctor of divinity, law or physic paid £1 for every child; a gentleman having a personal estate of £600 or a real estate worth £50 per annum, paid ten shillings on the birth of each child. Every other person not receiving alms paid a tax of two shillings on the birth of each child. This measure, however, was only temporary, and passed for revenue purposes solely.

See also articles ILLEGITIMACY; INFANTICIDE; LEGITIMACY AND LEGITIMATION; POPULATION; SUCCESSION; OBSTETRICS, &c. BIRUNI (ABU-R-RAIḤĀN MUHAMMAD AL-BIRŪNI] (973-1048), Arabian scholar, was born of Persian parentage in Khwarizm (Khiva), and was a Shi'ite in religion. He devoted his youth to the study of history, chronology, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy and medicine. He corresponded with Ibn Sina (see AVICENNA), and the answers of the latter are still preserved in the British Museum. For some years he lived in Jurjān, and then went to India, where he remained some years teaching Greek philosophy and learning Indian. In 1017 he was taken by Maḥmud of Ghazni to Afghanistan, where he remained until his death in 1048. His Athär ul-Bakiya (Vestiges of the Past) was published by C. E. Sachau (Leipzig, 1878), and a translation into English under the title The Chronology of Ancient Nations (London, 1879). His History of India was published by C. E. Sachau (London, 1887), and an English translation (2 vols., London, 1888). Other works of his, chiefly on mathematics and astronomy, are still in manuscript only.

See C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (Weimar, 1898), vol. i. pp. 475-476. (G. W. T.) BISALTAE, a Thracian people on the lower Strymon (Struma; Karasu, "black water "), in the district between Amphipolis and Heraclea Sintica on the east and Crestonice on the west. They also made their way into the peninsulas of Acte and Pallene in the south, beyond the river Nestus in the cast, and are even said to have raided Cardia. Under a separate king at the time of the Persian wars, they were annexed by Alexander I. (498-454 B.C.) to the kingdom of Macedonia. At the division of Macedonia into four districts by the Romans after the battle of Pydna (168) the Bisaltae were included in Macedonia Prima (Livy xlv. 29). Their country was rich in figs, vines and olive trees; the silver mines in the mountain range of Dysorum brought in a talent a day to their conqueror Alexander. The Bisaltae are referred to by Virgil (Georgics, iii. 461) in connexion with the treatment of the diseases of sheep. The fact that their eponymus is said to have been the son of Helios and Ge points to a very early settlement in the district.

See Smith's Dict. of Greek and Roman Geography: M. Ihm in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyclopadie, iii. part i. (1897); W. Tomaschek, Die alten Thraker (Vienna, 1893); and for the coins of the Bisaltic kings, B. V. Head, Historia Numorum, p. 178.

BISCAY (Vizcaya), a maritime province of northern Spain; bounded on the N. by the Bay of Biscay, E. by Guipúzcoa, S by Álava and W. by Burgos and Santander. Pop. (1900) 311,361, area, 836 sq.m. A small strip of isolated territory within the borders of Biscay, on the west, is officially included in the province of Santander. Biscay is one of the Basque Provinces, and its name is occasionally employed as geographically equivalent to Basque, in that case including the three provinces of Biscay proper, Guipúzcoa and Álava. The coast-line, which extends from Ondarroa to a short distance east of Castro Urdiales, is bold and rugged, and in some places is deeply indented. The surface of the country is for the most part very mountainous, being traversed towards the south by the great Cantabrian chain; but at the same time it is diversified with numerous narrow valleys and small plains. Some of the mountains are almost entirely

composed of naked calcareous rock, but most of them were formerly covered to their summits with forests of oaks, chestnuts or pine trees, now destroyed to provide fuel. Holly and arbutus are common, and furze and heath abound in the poorer parts. The only river of any size is the Nervion, Ansa or Ibaizabal, on which Bilbao is situated; the others, which are numerous, are merely large mountain streams. The climate is rather inclement and variable; but the thermometer seldom drops below freezingpoint, nor does snow fall frequently in winter except on the highest summits. The rainfall is on an average greater than in any province except those of the extreme north-west. The soil, though not very fertile, except in some of the valleys and sheltered hillsides, produces wheat, maize, barley, rye, flax, grapes, peaches, apples and other fruits. The mountainous slopes of Biscay are studded with the traditional Basque caserio, or farmhouse, in which the peasantry live on the métayer system, dividing the profits of the soil with absentee landlords. The farms are generally small, and are for the most part tilled by manual labour. The fisheries are actively prosecuted along the coast by a hardy race of fishers, who were the first of their craft in Europe to pursue the whale, formerly abundant in the Bay of Biscay. Cod, bream, tunny and anchovy are the principal fish taken. The fishing fleet consists of several hundred boats, manned by nearly 5000 men and boys. Biscay is very rich in minerals. Iron of the finest quality is found in almost every part, and forms a main article of export. At the beginning of the 20th century an average of about 5,000,000 tons was produced every year, and many large foundries were at work. Lead and zinc are mined in much smaller quantities, alum and sulphur are also present, and marble, lime and sandstone are abundant. Another very important industry is the manufacture of dynamite and other explosives at Baracaldo, closely connected with the mining interests. There are also potteries, paper, soap and shoe factories, flour mills and breweries, and the many mineral springs and spas are frequented by people from all parts of Spain. The mining and industrial interests of Biscay were very materially communication of every kind. The provincial and parish roads, assisted by the quick and important development of means of kept up by the local government, are excellent. No province in Spain had at the beginning of the 20th century such a complete network of railways, all built since 1870.

Bilbao (pop. 83,306), the capital and principal port, and Baracaldo (15,013), an important industrial town, are described in separate articles. Sestao (10,833) is the only other town of more than 10,0co inhabitants; the port of Bermeo (9061) is the chief fishing station; Durango (4319), on the river of the same name, was founded by the early kings of Navarre in the 10th century, obtained the rank of a countship in 1153, and contains one of the oldest churches in the Basque Provinces, San Pedro de Tavira; Guernica (3250), a picturesque village on the river Mondaca, was until 1876 the meeting-place of the provincial parliament. The deputies assembled under an old oak-tree, celebrated by the Basque poet, José Maria Iparraguirre, in a song which is regarded by the Spanish Basques almost as a national anthem. For the history of the Basques, see BASQUE PROVINCES; for their origin, language and customs, sce BASQUES. The inhabitants of Biscay are intelligent, enterprising and well-educated; and, owing to the uniformly high birth-rate, low death-rate, and very slight loss by emigration, their numbers increased rapidly during the latter part of the 19th century, until in 1900 the density of population (372-4 per sq. m.) was greater than in any other Spanish province.

BISCAY, BAY OF (Fr. Golfe de Gascogne; Sp. Golfo de Vizcaya), an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean; bounded on the E. and N.E. by France, as far as the island of Ushant, and on the S. by Spain as far as Cape Ortegal. The Bay of Biscay is the Sinus Aquitanicus, Sinus Cantabricus or Cantaber Oceanus of the Romans; hence it is sometimes known as the Cantabrian Sca. Its modern English name is a corrupt form of the Spanish Vizcaya. The bay forms a fairly regular curve, broken on the French seaboard only by the estuaries of the Loire, Garonne, Adour and other rivers. The rugged Spanish coast is indented by many

fjord-like inlets, especially in the west, where navigation is sometimes difficult and dangerous; but its rivers are comparatively unimportant. The exposed position of the bay, and the diversity of its currents, have rendered it notorious for its storms. BISCEGLIE (perhaps anc. Natiolum), a seaport and episcopal see of Apulia, Italy, on the E.S.E. coast, in the province of Bari, from which it is distant 21 m. by rail. Pop. (1901) 30,885. Two towers, one some 90 ft. high, of a once strong Norman castle still remain; the cathedral belongs to the same period. The church of S. Margherita, founded in 1197, has fine canopied Gothic tombs of the Falcone family.

BISCHOFSWERDA, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, on the Wesenitz, and at the junction of the DresdenGörlitz and Bischofswerda-Zittau railways in the governmental district of Bautzen. Pop. (1905) 7465. There are cloth, artificial flower, and cigar factories, glass-works, potteries, and in the neighbourhood large granite quarries. It is famous as the scene of a battle, on the 12th of May 1813, between the French and the Allies after Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. It was the residence of Benno, bishop of Meissen, in the 11th century, and the "Bishop's Road" still runs from here to Meissen.

BISCHWEILER, a town of Germany, in the imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine, district of Lower Alsace, 23 m. by rail N. by E. from Strassburg. Pop. (1900) 7897. It has manufactures of jute and machinery, brewing and iron-founding.

BISCUIT (pronounced according to the old spelling "bisket," a Fr. form from Lat. bis, twice, and coctum, cooked, in reference to the original method of preparation; cf. Ital. biscotto, Sp. bizcocho, &c.), a form of unvesiculated bread (q.v.), which is made in thin cakes of various shapes and baked in such a way as to be crisp and short. In the United States of America biscuits of this kind are usually called crackers, but the word biscuit is used there, as also in the north of England, for vesiculated bread baked in little flat loaves or cakes. Earthenware, porcelain, &c., which has undergone its first baking and is ready to be glazed is also known as biscuit or bisque.

The raw material chiefly used in biscuit manufacture is flour, but many other substances, such as butter, sugar, salt, various flavouring essences, &c., are also employed. The flour used by the biscuit-maker differs somewhat from that preferred by the bread-baker. In the main the bread-baker wants flour of some strength, that is to say, flour capable of absorbing a considerable proportion of water and of making a loaf of more or less volume. For biscuits flour strength is not such a desideratum, and as a matter of fact such moisture as is used to make the dough is largely evaporated by the oven; but, except for the commoner kind of biscuits, colour is most essential, as well as sweetness of flavour. In a large biscuit factory several hundred different kinds of biscuits are made, ranging from plain water biscuits to the daintiest fancy biscuits glistening in sugar and piping. The storage required for such an establishment is extensive, but lifts serve to handle both raw material and finished products with a minimum of labour. The flour used by a firm which has a reputation to maintain is sifted as a precaution against the presence of bits of string or other foreign bodies which will make their way into flour sacked by the most careful of millers, and like the butter, sugar and other raw materials, is carefully inspected and tested before being accepted. After blending it is run through a shoot or sleeve to the mixers, which may be of any type used in bakehouses (see BREAD). From the mixers or kneaders the dough is delivered on a flat table, or it may go direct to a pair of rolls. These consist of iron rollers with a reversing motion, between which the dough is rolled backwards and forwards into sheets of uniform thickness. The next stage

is the feeding of portions of this slab of dough to a cutting and panning machine. In details this apparatus differs as supplied by different makers, but the broad principle is the same in every case. The dough, after first passing through a pair of gauging rollers, which still further thin out the sheet and are capable of regulating its thickness with the utmost nicety, is received by an endless conveyor-band of webbing or similar material. By this band it is carried forward by intermittent motion to a set of punches or stamps which descend on it in quick succession, and serve to mould the surface and cut the edges to the required pattern. This operation completed, the moulded dough passes forward on the same endless band. The dough has now been cut into two distinct divisions, the moulded biscuits and the unworked portion which forms a continuous sheet of a sort of scrap. The latter is separated from the moulded dough, and is carried upwards by another band, which delivers it on a tray or box whence it is returned to the rollers to be reworked. The moulded dough intended for the oven is carried along by the first band and is gently deposited on trays of sheet iron or woven wire. These trays are taken from the machine by boys and placed on the travelling-chains at the oven, or the trays may be automatically moved forward by a travelling-band and placed on the oven. The oven used for biscuit-baking is quite unlike any bread oven. It is much longer and is provided with sets of endless chains moving in parallel lines, and travelling over sprocket-wheel terminals and intermediate supports. The chains have special attachments on which the trays of biscuits are rested, and thus pass them through the oven, and discharge them at the opposite end. Some ovens are provided with a sort of endless belt of iron plates on which the biscuits are placed. These travelling bands are used chiefly for ship and also for dog biscuits, but the most usual type is the oven in which trays are moved on the travelling chains already described. The exact rate of travel, or the time during which the biscuits are in the oven, can be easily adjusted by means of countershafts and leather belts running on cone pulleys fitted at the discharging end. The heat of the oven as well as the rate of travel is varied according to the kind of biscuit, some varieties requiring a gentle heat and a comparatively long sojourn in the oven, while others must be exposed to a fierce heat, but only for a few minutes. The ovens, fired by coke, may be 38 to 50 ft. in length. Their temperature is not generally raised above 500 degrees, but the speed of travel of the trays ranges between 3 and 25 minutes. The whole process of biscuit-making is thus rapid and continuous. The dough is kneaded in the mixers in a few minutes, and when discharged on the dough table is rapidly moulded into the required form by the cutter and panner. By means of endless bands the material is kept moving forwards, whether on the cutter or in the oven. For certain fancy biscuits special processes are used. Piping and sugar decoration is still necessarily done by hand, and the glaze on some fancy biscuits is imparted by spraying the moulded biscuit with very fine jets of fresh milk. Cracknels are made from a very stiff dough, and when cut out are thrown into coppers of boiling water. They speedily float to the top, remaining apart and not forming into groups. From these coppers they are taken out in trays pierced so as to drain off the water. Then they go into vats of cold water, from which they are again removed, and after being strained of their moisture are panned and baked in a fierce oven. (G. F. Z.)

BISECTRIX (fem. of Lat. bisector, from bi-, two, secare, to cut), in geometry, the same as bisector, i.e. a point which divides a line, or a line which divides an angle, into two equal parts; in crystallography it denotes the bisector of the angle between the optic axes.