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feudal, in regard to the temporalities annexed to their bishoprics;by writ, as being summoned by writ to parliament; and by patentand creation. Accordingly they have the precedence of allother barons, and vote as barons and bishops; and claim all theprivileges enjoyed by the temporal lords, excepting that they can-not be tried by their peers, because, in cases of blood, theythemselves cannot pass upon the trial, for they are prohibited bythe canons of the church to be judges of life and death. Theyhave the title of Lords, and Right Reverend Fathers in God ”.Besides two archbishops, there are 24 bishops in England ; ex-clusive of the bishop of Sodor and Man. The bishops of London ,Durham, and Winchester, take the precedence of the other bi-shops, who rank after them according to their seniority of conse-cration. In Ireland there are four archbishops, and eighteen bishops;in Scotland , before the present presbyter.an establishment, therewere two archbishops, and twelve bishops. There is now also abishop in Nova Scotia, and another in Canada. The Church ofEngland admits the different orders of bishop, priest, and deacon,as most agreeable to the Scriptures, and the usage of the primitivechurch.
Bishop and his Clerks, in geography, some little islandsandrocks on the coast of Pembrokeshire, near St. David’s in Wales ,which are very dangerous to mariners.
BISHOPRIC , [biscoprice, Saxon,] the diccesc of a bishop:the district over which the jurisdiction of a bishop extends.
Bishop’s Court, an ecclesiastical court , held in the cathedral©f each diocese, the judge whereof is the bishop’s chancellor,who judges by the civil and canon law; and it the diocese belarge, he has his commissaries in remote parts, who bold what theycall consistory courts, for matters limited to them by their com-mission.
BISIGNANO, a town of Naples, in Calabria .
BISILIQUOUS, in botany, having the seeds contained in twopods, proceeding from one flower.
BIS RET. See Biscuit.
BISMILLAH, [Bisem Allah, Arab .] a solemn form used bythe Mohammedans in the beginning of their MSS. signifying inthe name of God .
BISMUTH, in oryctology, a genus of the class metals. SeeMineralogy. Bismuth is of a reddish-white colour, and almostdestitute of taste and smell. It is composed of broad brilliantplates adhering to each other. The figure of its particles, accord-ing to Hauy, is an octahedron, or two four-sided pyramids appliedbase to base. Its hardness is 7. Its specific gravity is 9,8277.When heated to the temperature of 4600, it melts; and if theheat be much increased, it evaporate?, and may be distilled overin close vessels. When allowed to cool slowly, and when theliquid metal is withdrawn, as soon as the surface congeals it cry-stallizes in parallelepipeds, which cross eacli other at right angles.When exposed to the air, it soon loses its lustre, but scarcly un-dergoes any other change. It is not altered when kept underwater. When bismuth is raised to a strong red heat, it takes fire,and burns with a faint blue flame, and emits a yellow smoke. !When this is collected, it is a yellow powder, not volatile, whichhas been called yellow oxide of bismuth. When bismuth is dis-solved in nitric acid, if water be poured into the solution, a whitepowder precipitates, which was formerly called magistery of bis-muth, and at present white oxide of bismuth. According to theexperiments of Klaproth , it is composed of 81,3 parts bismuthand 17,7 of oxygen. This oxide is used as a paint under thename of pearl white. The oxides of bismuth are very easilyconverted into glass; for that reason bismuth is sometimes used illthe process of cupellation instead of lead. It was first proposedfor that purpose by Dufay in 1727, and his experiments wereafterwards confirmed by Pott. These oxides are easily reducedwhen heated with charcoal or other combustible bodies; for theaffinity between bismuth and oxygen is but weak. Bismuth hasnot been Combined with carbon or hydrogen, neither does it seemcapable of combining in any notable proportion with phosphorus.Sulphur combines readily with bismuth by fusion. The sulphuretof bismuth is of a blueish-grev colour, and crystallizes into beau-tiful tetrahedral needles. It is composed of 85 parts of bismuthand 15 sulphur. Bismuth combines with almost all the metals,but few ot its alloys are much used.
B1SNAGAR, formerly a very large and powerful kingdom of |Asia, comprehending the kingdoms of Kanara, Messowr, Travan- i
core, Madura, Marava, and Tanjour. It has also the name ofNarsinga from one of its rajahs or kings.
Bisnagar, the capital of the above kingdom, lies 250 milesN. W. of Madras.
B1SNAGUR, acity of Hindoostan, in the kingdom of Mysore,140 miles E. by S. of Goa.
BISNOW, or BISCIINOU, a sect of the Banians in the EastIndies. They believe in one God, whom they call Ram-Bam ,and that he has a wife; blit they admit of no inferior gods, ordeputies, as the sect of Samaratli do. Their wives do not burnthemselves after their husbands death, as is piactiscd by those ofthe Samaratli sect; but content themselves with perpetual widow-hood.
BISSAGOS, a cluster of islands on the coast of Negroland inAfrica . Their names are, Bulam, Cassuabac, LaGullinci, Gaze-gut, Calacha, and Oranguana, with some other small islands.
BISSAO, an island on the coast of Africa , a few leagues S. E.of the Gambia .
BISSENPOUR, a small district of Bengal, in the East Indies,which has preserved its independence. It lias been governedfrom time immemorial by a Bramin family of the tribe of Ra-jahputs.
HISSEXTIALIS, or BISSEXTIALIS OLLA, an ancientmeasure or vessel, containing 12 ounces, or swo sextaries.
I BISSEXTILE, [from bis and sell it is, Lat.] Leap-year; theyear in which the day, arising from six odd hours in eacli year, isintercalated; hence the bissextile year consists of 366 days. SeeChronology.
BISTORT, or KNOTGRASS, in botany. See Polygo-num.
BISTOURY, [bistouri, Fr.] a surgeon’s instrument used inmaking incisions, of which there are three sorts; the blade of thefirst turns like that of a lancet; but the straight bistoury has theblade fixed in the handle ; the crooked bistoury is shaped like thatof a half moon having the edge on the inside.
BISTRE, the burnt oil extracted from the soot of wood. It isof a brown transparent colour, having much the same effect in wa-ter-painting, where alone it is used, as brown pink in oil. Bistre maybe prepared with great ease in the following manner :—Take anyquantity of soot of dry wood, but let it be of beech wherever thatcan be procured. Put it into water in the proportion of 21b. to agallon ; and boil them half an hour: then after the fluid has stoodsome little time to settle, but while yet hot, pour olif the clearerpart from the earthy sediment at the bottom; and if on standinglonger, it form another earthy sediment, repeat the same method,but this should be done only while the fluid remains hot: then eva-porate the fluid to dryness; and what remains will be good bistre*if the soot was of a proper kind. The goodness of the bistre may beperceived by its warm deep brown colour, and transparancy whenmoistened with water.
B1STRICZ, a town and river of Transylvania .
BIT , or BEIT, in farriery, an essential part of a bridle. Itskinds are various. Tbe mtisrol, suallle, or watering-bit. The canon-mouthed, jointed in the middle. The canon with a tast mouth, allof a piece, only kneed in the middle to form a liberty or space forthe tongue: fit for horses too sensible or ticklish, and liable to becontinually bearing on tbe hand. The canon-mouth, with tbeliberty in form of a pigeon’s neck ; proper where a horse has toolarge a tongue. The canon with a port mouth, and an upset ormounting liberty; where a horse has a good mouth, but largetongue. The scatch-moulh, with an upset ; rude, but more se-cure than a canon mouth. The canon mouth with a liberty ; pro-per for a horse with a large longue, and round bars. 1 he mastica-dour, or slavering bit, &c. The several parts of a snaffle, or curb-bit, are the mouth piece, the cheeks and eyes, guard of the cheek,head of the cheeks, the port, the welts, the campanel or curband hook, the bosses, the bolsters and rabbets, the water-chains,the side-bolts, and rings, kirbles of the bit or curb, trench, top-rol, flap, andjieve. The importation of bits tor bridles is nowprohibited.
Bits, or Bitts, in ship-building, tbe name of two great timbers,usually placed abaft the manager, in the ships loof, through whichthe cross-piece goes : The use of it is to belay the cable thereof,while tbe ship is at anchor.
BITHYNIA, an acient kingdom of Asia, formerly known bythe names of Mysia , Mygdonia, Bebrycia, Mariandynia, and