BIRTHRIGHT 41 BISHOP Year Estimated population as of July 1 Births Rate per 1,000 population 1915 1916 1917 1918 31,150,803 33,013,280 55,033,195 55,813,339 776,304 818,983 1,353,792 1,363,649 24.9 24.8 24.6 24.4 Birth-rates per 1,000 population. Country 1913 1917 1918 United Kingdom. . . . England and Wales. . 24.1 24.1 25.5 22-8 18.2 17.8 20.1 19.7 18.1 17.7 20.2 19.9 BIRTHRIGHT, any right or privilege to which a person is entitled by birth, such as an estate descendible by law to an heir, or civil liberty under a free con- stitution. See Primogeniture. BIRTHROOT, a name of trillium erec- tum and other American plants of the same genus, having roots said to be astringent, tonic, and antiseptic. BIRTH WORT, the English name of the plant genus aristolochui. Both the scientific and the English names arose from the belief that the species are of use as a medicine in childbirth. BIRTT, a kingdom of the Sudan, west- ern Africa, bounded on the E. by the Niger. The capital is Walata. BISBEE, a town of Arizona, in Cochise co., 30 miles S. of Tombstone. It is served by a branch line of the El Paso and Southwestern railroad, a feeder of the Southern Pacific, with which it con- nects at Benson. Its interests are min- eral, chiefly copper, gold, silver, and lead. It has a public library and two hospitals. Pop. (1910) 3,266; (1920> 9,205. BISCAY, or VIZCAYA, the most northerly of the Basque provinces of Spain, is bounded N. by the Bay of Bis- cay, E. and S. by its sister provinces, Guipuzcoa and Alava, and W. by San- tander. It has an area (very mountain- ous in the S.) of 836 square miles. Chief town, Bilbao. Pop. (1917) 380,668. BISCAY, BAY OF, that portion of the Atlantic Ocean which sweeps in along the N. shores of the Spanish Pen- insula in an almost straight line from Cape Ort3gal to St. Jean de Luz, at the W. foot of the Pyrenees, and thence curves N. along the W. shores of France to the island of Ushant. Its extreme width is about 400 miles, and its length much about the same. The depth of water varies from 20 to 200 fathoms, being greatest along the N. shores of Spain. The whole of the S. coast is bold and rocky, and great parts of the French shores are low and sandy. The bay receives numerous unimportant streams from the mountains of Spain, and, through the rivers Loire, Charente, Gironde, and Adour, the waters of half the surface of France. Its chief ports are Santander, Bilbao, and San Sebas- tian, in Spain; and Bayonne, Bordeaux, Rochefort, La Rochelle, and Nantes, in France. BISCHOFF, MOUNli, a post-town of Tasmania, 60 miles W. of Launceston, which owes its existence to the discovery here in 1872, by James Smith, of some of the richest tin mines in the world. Between 1884-1886 more than 20,000 tons of tin ore had been mined. The yield of pure tin from the ore is from 70 to 80 per cent. The mount takes its name from the chairman of a land company (1828). There is railway communication with Emu Bay, 45 miles distant. BISCUIT, in general language, thin flour cake which has been baked in the oven until it is highly dried. There are many kinds of biscuits, but the basis of all is flour mixed with water or milk. In fancy biscuits, sugar, butter, and flavoring ingredients are used. Plain biscuits are more nutritious than an equal weight of bread, but owing to their hardness and dryness, they should be more thoroughly masticated to insure their easy digestion. In pottery, articles molded and baked in an oven, preparatory to the glazing and burning. In the biscuit form, pot- tery is bibulous, but the glaze sinks into the pores and fuses in the kiln, forming a vitreous coating to the ware. BISHARIN, a race inhabiting Nubia, between the Nile and the Red Sea, some- what resembling the Bedouins, and liv- ing by pasturage. They are Moham- medans by religion; in character they are said to be cruel and treacherous. Personal property does not exist among them, the family or the tribe having the ownership. BISHOP, an ecclesiastical functionary in the apostolical churches. The term presbyteros was borrowed from the syn- agogue; etymologically it implied that, as a rule, the person so designated was pretty well advanced in life, while epis- kopos, borrowed from the polity of the Grecian states, pointed to the duty in- cumbent on him of overseeing the church. The qualifications of a New Testament bishop are given at length by St. Paul (1 Tim. iii: 1-7; Titus 1: 7-9). In the post-apostolic period a bishop was a church functionary superior to.
