B I S
B I S
Hippocrates has written exprefsly on the feven months birth *, mgt iirra.^r.vs. in two books, the firft of which, as now extant, i-s held fpurious. The fecond is commented on by Galen. mp arretpivm fyetyM.*. — [ a Vid. Fabric. Bibl Grasc.
L 2. c. 24* T. 1. p. 851, and 853. b Fabric, ibid. 1. 4. c.
'7- T - 3- P 53 2 - E.fofition of Birth, among the antient?, was where a new- born infant is expofed or caft-away, and left to the mercy of the flirt-comer, who may either take and bring it up, or fuf- ftx it to perifh. See Exposing of children. Ger. Nodt has a treatife exprefs on the fubjerr. y alius Pan- ks, five de partu expofitione & nece apud veteres, Lugd. Bat. 1710, 4.C0, Suppefitim of Birth, partus fi/ppofitlo, in the civil law, is a crime, for which accufation may be intented by thofe who have inte- reft therein, and is puniihcd with death, like the crimen faff, cr forgery. Trcv. Di£t. Univ. T. 4. p. 2070. Supfrejfion of Birth, partus fppreffw, is the crime of a woman, who endeavours, by medicines, to dcflroy or hinder the birth of a child ; or, after its being born, hides, expofes, or even ftrangles it. "BiBLTH-day, the anniveriary return of the day whereon a perfon was born.
This anfwers to what the antients called ym&hnv, gencthllon, natalis die;, nataUtius die-, natalitia, and, in the middle age, genctalius.
The antients placed a good deal of religion in the celebration of birth-days $ and took omens from thence of the felicity of the coming year. We meet with birth days of the gods, em- perors, great men, poets, and even private perfons. What is more, the birth-days of cities, as Rome and Conftantinople, were celebrated with great pomp by the inhabitants a . Vir- gil's birth day was he-Id very irxietly by the wits and poets who fiicceeded him. Pliny afiures us, that Silius did it with more fblemnity than he did his own b — [ a Struv. Ant. Rom. c. q. p. 4^0, feq. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. 7. p. 240, feq. voc. natalis.
- Piin. Epift. 1. 3. ep. 7. Fabric. Bibl, Lat. 1. 1. c. 12. T. 1.
p. 271.]
The manner of celebrating birth-days was by a fplendid drefs; wearing a fort of rings peculiar to that day ; offering facrt- fices, the men to their genius, of wine, frankincenfe ; the women to Juno ; giving fuppers, and treating their friends and clients ; who, in return, made them prefents, wrote and fung their panegyrics, and offered vows and good withes for the frequent happy returns of the fame day. Struv. Ant. Rom. c. 1. p. 91 & 113, feq. It. c. 9. p. 450, feq. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. 2. p. 249, feq. Cah. Lex. Jur. p. 605. voc. natales. Fabric. Bibl. Lat 1. z. c. 22. T. r. p. 615. The birth-days of emperors were alfo celebrated with public fports, feafts, vows, and medals ftruck on the occafion. Du Cange, Diif. de Infer. RL\\ Numif. p. 31. Strut*. Ant. Rom. c. 9. p 442.
But the antients, it is to be obferved, had other forts 0? birth-
- £?)tf befides the days on which they were born. The day of
their adoption was always reputed as a birth-day, and celebrated accordingly.
The emperor Adrian, we are told, obferved three birth-days; viz. the day of his nativity, of his adoption, and his inaugu- ration. Goldajl. Not. ad Hadrian. Refp. & Refer, ap. Fabric. Bibl. Grsec. 1. 6. c. 6. T. 12. p. 541.
In thofe times it was held, that men were not born onJv on thofe days when they firft came into the world, but on thofe alfo when they arrived at the chief honours and command in the commonwealth, c. gr. the confulate. Hence that of Cicero in Ills oration ad qulrites, after hisreturn from exile : A parcn- tibus id quod T.ecefje erat, parvus fum procreatu:, a volis natus fum confularis.
Add, that thofe who returned from banifhment, were alfo con- sidered as being born again, rcnafci, and ever after called the fcy of their return their birth-day. Thus Cicero to Atticus ; Dicmque natalem reditus met cura, id in tuts adibus amamiffhnis again tecum, & cum meis. Turneb. adverf. 1; 3. c. 4. Calv. Lex. Jur. p. 605. in voc. ncifi.
Cenforinus has a treatife de die naiali, addreffed to Q^ Cerel- lius, as a compliment on his birth-day. Vid. Fabric. Bibl. Lat. I. 3.C. 4. T..2. p. 45- BmTH-days cf the faints and martyrs, natales fan.lorum, denote the days of their deaths. Du Cange, Gloff. Lat. T. 3. in voc. natales.
In reality, natalis among the antients was not reftrained to birth-days, but extended to all feaft-days. Hence it is we meet with natalis foils, nntalis calicis, natalis ecclefia, natalis reliquiatum, &c Trev. DicE Univ. T. 4. p, 32. in voc. Birth-_/?«, the-fame with original fin. Benn. Meth. Stud. 39
Art. p. 67. See Original^, Cycl. Birth tvort, in botany, the Englifh name of the plant arijlolo-
chia. See Aristolochia. BIS, in botany, a name given by fome old writers to the napel- lus, or monks-hood ; and by others to the cicuta, or hem- lock. SeeNAPELLUs and Cicuta.
There is, however, another fenfe of the word, very different from both thefe, in which it is ufed to exprefs an efculent plant. The phrafe bis alnil is frequent among the Arabian Suppj.. Vol. I.
writers ; and as alnil fignifies only of the river Nile, the whole name mould feem to exprefs the charaiter of fome poifonoua plant growing in the Nile. This, however, is by no means the fenfe in which it is received ; for we are told, that bis alnil fignifies a bulbous root of a fweet tafte, growing on the mountains about Damafcus, and in other parts of Syria, and eaten in the fpring by the people of the country thereabouts. It is certain, that this interpretation agrees very well with the hn(e in which all the Arabians have mentioned this plant; though it is difficult to underfland why they fhould give the name of a poifon to an efculent root, or the name of the river Nile to a plant growing on the mountains of Syria. See Bul- bus. Bis annual, a name given by botanifts to thofe plants, which or- dinarily do not flower till the fecond year. Dici. Ruft. in voc. blojfon:. BISA, or Biza, a coin in Pegu, current there for half a ducat. The denomination is alfo given to a kind of weight ufed in the fame country, equivalent to two Venetian pounds five ounces, or to three pounds nine ounces oi~ the fmaller weight of that city. Savar. Didf. Comm. T. 1. p. 3^0. BISACUTA, in middle-age writers, an ax with two edges, or which cuts either way a ; or a mifhve weapon, pointed at both ends a . — [ a Du Cange, Gloff. Lat. T. 1 . p. 562. b Aquin. Lex. Milit. T. 1. p. 130.J
We meet with fecuris bifacuta, irsAsxf; ^r^^, or hro**.®- «*V<. Walfingham reprefents the fecuris bifacuta as peculiar to the Sccttifh nation. See Battie-w. B!SARCA, in botany, a name ufed by fome authors for the
herb tarragon. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2. BISB./EA, # t rj3' lK , a feaft celebrated by the Meffapii, after the pruning of their vines, to obtain of the gods that they might grow again the better. Meurf Graec. Ferial Fafold. de Feft. Grace. 1. 12. c. 9. Schott. Lex Ant. p. 2zi. The word is formed from {3io$y, ufed by fome for a vine. BISCAIAN language denotes the Cantabrian, or antient language of Spain, being a branch of the Celtic, which firft gave way to the Romanfe. Greenw. Engl Gram, in Pref. p. 1 2, feq. BISCIA, in zoology, a name by which fome have called the acus, or, as we call it in Englifh, the tobaccopipe-fifh, the needle-fifh, or trumpet-fiih. IVillughby, Hift. Pile. p. 159. See the article Acus. BISCUTELLA, in botany, a name given by Linnaeus to a ge- nus of plants, called by Tourncfort and others thlafpidiuni. Linnm, Gen. Plant, p. 314. See Thlaspidium. BISELLIARII, or Biselliari, in antiquity, thofe who enjoyed the honour or privilege of the bifcllium. Pitefc. Lex. Ant. T. 1. p. 28c. See Bisellium.
The word occurs in antient infeription, Cn. Plaetorio Viro Augustali Biselliario. Grut. Corp. Infcrip. p. 1099. n. 2.
The honor bifellii appears to have been much the fame with what in France is called droit dc fauteuil ; and the bifelliarii thofe who, in public affemblies, enjoy this diftincfion of the fauteuil, while other perfons are obliged to ftand, or fit on benches, ftools, or ordinary chairs a . Scaliger, in his index to Gruter, miftook the bifelliarii for artificers who made thefe feats b ,— [ a Trev. Did. Univ. T. 1. p. 1050. b Parr, de Ling. Lat. 1. 4. Pitifc. Lex. Antiq. T. 1. p. 280, feq.] BISELLIUM, in antiquity, a kind of feat or chair, larger and richer than ordinary, big enough to hold two perfons, where- in to fit in courts, theatres, and other public affemblies. Grut. Corp. Infc. p. 475. n. 3.
Hence fome will have the honor bifellii, in an antient infeription in Gruter, to be underftood of the cella curulis, or curule chair; but others, with more probability, of a privilege granted by authority to well-deferving perfons of feeing the public fhews at theatres and amphitheatres in a chair more fplendid than thofe of the reft of the company a . Some fuppofe the magni- tude and capacity of the bifellium to have been fymbolical, and to have imported, that fuch perfons were worth two, or equi- valent to two others b . — [ a Du Cange, GlofL Lat. T. t. p. 563. » Chimentel. deHonor. Bifellii, c. 35, 36. Schott, Lex. Ant. p. 221. BISERULA, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, includ- ing xhtpelecinus of Tournefort, and the uUinquej errata of Ri- vinus. The characters are thefe: the perianthmrn is com- pofed of one leaf of a tubulated form, and lightly divided into five fegments at the edge; thefe ferments are pointed, and equal ; and the two upper ones ftand diftant : the flower is of the papilionaceous kind : the vexillum is large, bent back at the fides, roundifh, and afcending upwards : the alae are of an oblong oval figure ; they ftand free, and are fmaller than the vexiffum : the carina is of the length of the ate, and is ob- tufe, and afcends upwards : the ftamina are diadelphous fila- ments, included in the carina : the antherse are fmall : the germen of the piftil is oblong, and comprelTed : the ftyle is pointed, and placed upwards : the ftigma is fimple : the fruit is a large, (lender, flat, and bilocular pod, the partition which divides its cavity into two parts, running contrary-wife to the valves: the feeds are numerous, compreffed, and kidney- fhaped. Linnai, Gen. Plant, p, 359. Town. Inft. p. 234. Rivhi. c. 4. p. 122.
