BILLON-BILSA.

erly surrounded by walls, which have now disappeared, its commerce and manufactures also have declined, though earthenware is manufactured. So early as 1455, a university was founded at B., which a century later passed into the hands of the Jesuits, and was governed by them until the suppression of their order. Pop. (1886) 4,112.

BILLON, billon (see BULLION): an alloy of copper and silver, in which the copper predominates; often used, especially in Germany (till superseded by the imperial nickel coinage) for the smaller denominations of money. Thus the North German Silber groschen, in value more than an English penny, was of B., and was about the size of an English fourpenny silver-piece. B., besides affording facili ties for counterfeits, is dirty and inelegant.

BILLOW, n. bil'lö [Dan. bölge; Sw. bolja; Dut, bolghe, a wave of the sea: comp. Gael. bolgach, swollen-from bolg, a belly]: a very large wave or surge of the sea: V. to swell or rise into large waves; to surge. BIL'LOWING, imp. BIL'LOWED, pp. -lod. BIL'LOWY, a. -lo-, full of billows; 3welling into great waves..

BILLS OF MORTALITY: accounts of the births and deaths within a certain district. In London, these bills were commenced 1592, during the plague; but they were not continued uninterruptedly until the occurrence of another plague 1603, from which period, up to the present time, they have been continued, usually from week to week. See Wharton's Law Dictionary, and Knight's London.

BILMA, bilma: town of the Sahara, central Africa: lat. 18° 40′ n., long. 14° e., on an oasis called the Wady Kawas, on the route between Murzuk and Lake Tsad. It is the cap. of the Tibu country, and important as a restingplace of caravans crossing the desert. Dates grow abundantly here; and large quantities of salt are collected from lakes in the vicinity for export to Bornu and Sudan.

BILOBATE, a. bi-lōbāt [L. bis, twice; Gr. lobos, the ear-lap or lower part of the ear]: having two lobes.

BILOCULAR, a. bi-lõk'ü-ler [L. bis, twice; loculus, a little place]: in bot., containing two cavities or cells; having two compartments.

BILSA, or BHILSA, bil'sa: town of India, in Malwa, in the territory of Gwalior, Scindia's dominions, on the right bank of the Betwa, 188 m. s. from Gwalior, 32 m. n.e. from Bhopal. It is on an elevated mass of trap rock, and has a fort enclosed by a stone wall, and furnished with square towers and a ditch. Outside the walls are some spacious streets, and many good houses. B. was taken from the Hindus by Samsuddin Altamsh, sovereign of Delhi, 1230; and after several times changing hands between Hindu and Mussulman masters, was finally incorporated with the empire of Delhi by Akbar, 1570. B. and the pergunnah of which it is the capital are said to yield a revenue of 325,000 rupees. The finest tobacco produced in India is from a small piece of land, about three acres, near Bilsa. Its superiority is said to be entirely owing to careful cultivation.

BILSTON-BIMETALLISM.

There is at B. a brass cannon, of beautiful workmanship, said to have been made by order of Jehangir, 19 ft. in length, with a bore of 10 inches. Pop. (1891) 10,000.

BILSTON, bils ton: town in s. Staffordshire, on rising ground about 3 m. s.e. of Wolverhampton. It forms a part of the parliamentary borough of Wolverhampton. It has extensive iron and coal mines, iron smelting works, ironfoundries for making machinery, besides works for manufacturing tin-plate goods, japanned and enamelled wares, nails, wire, screws, and coarse pottery. It is the centre of the hardware trade, and consequently a very busy place. Fine sand, adapted for metal-casting, is found here. Pop. (1881) 22,730; (1891) 23,453.

BIMA, be ma: seaport in Sumbawa, one of the Sunda Isles; cap. of a state of the same name; lat. 8° 30' s., long. 119° e. It is on a bay of the n. coast, being 100 m. to the e. of Sumbawa, a town feudally dependent on its sultan. Its chief exports are horses and timber.

BIMACULATE, bi-mük'ü-lāt: having two spots.

BIMAH, be ma: river of India, a branch of the Kistnah (q.v.), rises in the table-land of the dist. of Poona, in the presidency of Bombay, 3,090 ft. above the level of the sea, and flowing s.e., falls into the Kistnah, in n. lat. 16° 24', c. long. 77° 20', after a course of more than 500 miles.

BIMANOUS, a. bi-ma' nus [L. bis, twice; manus, the hand]: having two hands; two-handed. BIMA NA, n. plu. -mană, in some zoological systems, the first order of Mammalia (q.v.), an order containing the human species alone-the apes and monkeys being quadrumanous or four-handed: see MAN. Others reject this order altogether, protesting against this classification of man with brutes, and maintaining that the distance between him and them is too great to be represented as that between two orders in one class, or even between two classes of a zoological system. However, in assigning a place in this manner to man among animals, naturalists of course consider exclusively or chiefly his animal nature and bodily frame. The name B. has reference to the hands (q.v.) which terminate his anterior limbs; monkeys and lemurs, having opposable thumbs in all the four extremities, may be regarded as having four hands, although much less perfect than the human (see QUADRUMANA); but none of the inferior animals are two-handed, as man is.

BIMARGINATE, bi-mâr'jin-āt: double bordered. BIMEDIAL, a. bi-mē'di-al [L. bi, two; medius, middle]: in geom, made up of the sum of two medial lines.

BIMEMBRAL, a. bi-měm'bral [L. bis, twice; membra, members]: having two members. (Said chiefly of sentences.)

BIMENSAL, a. bi-měn'sul [L. bis, twice; mensis, a month]: occurring once in two months.

BIMETALISM: the use of a double metallic standard in currency with a fixed relative value for each of the two metals (gold and silver).

Money performs three functions: (1) it is a medium of

BIMETALISM.

exchange to transfer value; (2) it is a standard of values; (3) it is used as a standard for debts long due.

The strongest argument in favor of B. is that it furnishes a more uniform standard for deferred debts-that third use of money above mentioned, which has hitherto been but inadequately met by every system of coinage that has yet been devised. But the opponents of B. claim that this can be better obtained by creating a legal unit or standard from the prices of an adequate number of staple articles, so that a long standing debt would at maturity be paid with the same purchasing power which was in vogue when it was borrowed; and that such a multiple standard would take away all reason for B. The bimetalic system had its origin in France, and dates from the Revolution. Most countries have tried the system, and its opponents have attributed to it great hardships and losses to the people, caused by the never-ceasing fluctuations and alterations in its ever varying standard of value. See BULLION: MONEY, ETC.

Germany introduced a single gold standard by the statutes of 1871, Dec. 4, and 1873, July 9. England has had it since 1816. In both countries, token coins of other metals are legal tender for small amounts only. In the Latin Monetary Union, consisting of France, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland, this composite system has actually prevailed since 1874, and the treaty of 1885 stipulates that the same shall continue at least five years after 1886, Jan. 1. Gold is the principal standard also in Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Holland. The United States established a double standard in 1792. The act of 1834 changed the legal rate from 1:15 to 1:16; and the weight of gold coin was diminished proportionally, and the standard of coinage thus debased. We had actually a gold currency, 1853 to 1861, Dec. 31, when specie payments were suspended. The law of 1873 practically demonetized silver. The law of 1878 restored its legal tender character.

The price of silver 1873-93 fluctuated greatly. Notwithstanding the purchases under the Bland-Allison act of 1878 and the Sherman' act of 1890 (the latter compelling the purchase of 54,000,000 ounces per year), the price declined to a point unprecedentedly low. This affected European trade with silver-using countries of the East, and confronted the United States with the problem of maintaining its silver at par. On the initiative of the United States a conference met at Brussels 1892, 'to secure an agreement among the chief commercial countries of the world looking to international B., or failing in this, some action on the part of European countries looking to a larger use of silver as currency.' The effort to secure international B. failed utterly, and the single gold standard remains (1894) prevalent in Europe. At the same time Great Britain and other countries showed anxiety to escape from the evils of monetary fluctuation. The problem was complicated by the closing of the Indian mints to the free coinage of silver (1893, June 26), and by the repeal of silver purchases under the Sherman law (1893, Nov. 1). See SILVER, FREE COINAGE OF.

BIMONTHLY-BINAURAL

BIMONTHLY, a. bi-munth'li [L. bis, twice, and month]: strictly, every two months, or during two months; but used now to signify twice a month': see BIENNIAL.

BIN, or BINN, n. bìn [AS. bin, a manger, a hutch: Ger. benne, a sort of basket: Sw. binge, a heap-lit., a heap]: a large wooden box or chest with a lid, used for corn or flour, etc.; a compartment in a wine cellar.

BIN [L. bini, two by two]: a prefix meaning double; by twos; of two; another form of bis, twice.

BINAB, be-nab': town of Persia, province of Azerbijan, charmingly situated on the banks of the Sofi Chai (a feeder of Lake Urumiyah), in the midst of orchards and vineyards, about 55 m. s.s. w. of Tabriz. The streets are very clean, many of them having a stream of pure water flowing down the centre. B. forms a dependency of Marághah, paying 4,000 tómáns of revenue, and furnishing a quota of 400 men to the Azerbijan army. B. contains abt. 1,500 houses.

BINARY, a. bi'ner-i [F. binaire, binary-from mid. L. binarius, consisting of two things-from L. bini, two by two]: consisting of two. or two parts; dual; in astron., applied to double stars; in chem., applied to compounds consisting of two elements; N. constitution of two. BINATE, a. bi nat, growing in pairs, double.

BINARY COMPOUND: see BINARY THEORY.

BINARY THEORY, bi'neri, in Chemistry: a theory taking cognizance of the mode of construction of salts. It assumes that all salts contain merely two substances, which either are both simple, or of which one is simple, and the other a compound acting as a simple body. The best and most familiar illustration of the binary theory is common salt or chloride of sodium (NaCl), which is composed of the metal sodium (Na) and the non-metal chlorine (Cl), and is at a glance seen to be a binary compound (a compound of two). In like manner, fluor-spar, or the fluoride of calcium (CaF), consists of the metal calcium (Ca) and the non-metal fluorine (F); iodide of potassium (KI), largely employed in photography, of potassium (K) and iodine (I); and bromide of silver (AgBr), also useful in photography, of silver (Ag) and bromine (Br). Considerable difficulty is experienced in including all salts under the binary theory, but in many cases the apparent difficulty may be (and has been) surmounted. But though the B. T. attracted much attention 1837-55, and was adopted by Liebig and many other chemists, it never met general acceptance, and has now been quite superseded. See ACIDS: SALTS: CHEMISTRY.

BINASCO, be-nus'ko: town of Lombardy, about 11 m. n.w. of Pavia. It is defended by a castle, where, 1418, Sep., Beatrice di Tenda, wife of the duke Filippo Maria, was beheaded by order of her husband, who unjustly suspected her of infidelity. Pop. abt. 1,000.

BINAURAL, a. bìn-aw'ral [L. binus, double; auris, the ear]: having a double ear-piece: N. a stethoscope having a double ear-piece.

BIN-BIRKILISA-BING.

BIN-BIRKILISA, bin-bēr-kil-lis-a' (One Thousand and One Churches): name of extensive ruins in the pashalic of Karamania, Asia Minor, 20 m. n.n. w. of the town of KarThe ruins consist chiefly of the remains of Byzantine churches, evidently of great antiquity.

aman.

BINCHÉ, bin keh, or bink: town of Belgium, province of Hainaut, on the Haine, about 10 m, e.s.e. of Mons. It is well built and walled, with a fine square, ornamented with a fountain, and has manufactures of leather, cutlery, pottery, glass, etc., and considerable trade in lace, paper, marble, and coal. Pop. (1884) 9,441.

BIND, v. bind [AS. and Goth. bindan, to bind or tie: Icel. binda, to bind or knot (see BUNCH)]: to tie together; to fasten; to confine or restrain; to oblige by a promise, an oath, or an agreement; to form or sew on a border; to render costive or hard. BIND'ING, imp.: N. the cover of a book, etc.: ADJ. obligatory. BOUND, pt. and pp. bound. BINDER, n. a person or thing that binds; the braid, band, or cord that confines the edges of a piece of cloth; a bandage. BINDERY, n. bind'er-i, a binder's workshop. To BIND TO, to attach to by service or obligation. To BIND OVER, to secure under a penalty that an appearance shall be made, or that an obligation be observed, as 'to bind over to keep the peace'-SYN. of 'bind': to tie; oblige; compel; constrain; coerce.

BIND, n. bind, or BINE, n. bin [Ger. bund, a bunch, a truss]: a miner's term for tough, argillaceous, or clayey shales.

BINDRABAN, bin'dra-bán': town on the right bank of the Jumna, in the dist. of Muttra and lieut.governorship of the N. W. Provinces. It is in lat. 27° 34' n., long. 77° 45' e; 823 m. n.w. of Calcutta, and 92 s. of Delhi. The performance of religious rites appears to be the principal business of the place. Crowds of pilgrims come from all parts of India, particularly in honor of Krishna; and, through the munificence of wealthy devotees, sacred edifices are constantly becoming more numerous and costly. Here, as at Benares, the immediate margin of the river is occupied by flights of steps, or ghauts, as they are called. These extend for about a mile along the bank, being constructed of red stone from Jeypore, nearly 150 m. distant. Pop. (1881) 21,467; almost exclusively Hindu; (1891) 31,611.

BIND WEED: see CONVOLVULUS.

BINE, n. bin, or BIND, n. bind [Icel. binda, to bind: Lith. pinnu, to wreathe, to plait: L. viněŭ, a vine]: the winding stem of a climbing plant,-thus, HOP-BINE, the shoots of hops. WOODBINE, the honeysuckle. BIND-WOOD, or BINWOOD, in Scot., the ivy. BINDWEEDS, wild plants with twining stems; convolvuluses; leafy plants of the genus Convolvulus, ord. Convol vulācěœ.

BINERVATE, a. bi-ner vat: in bot., two-nerved applied to leaves which have two raised nerves' or 'veins.'

BING, n. bing [Sw. binge; Icel. bingr, a heap: Icel. bunga, to swell: Scot. bing, a heap-perhaps connected