BILBAO. for building merchant vessels, and in the vicin- ity are iron and copper mines. The Nervion has been dee[)en('d so as to be navigable by vessels dravin<; twenty-two feet, and at pres- ent Bilbao is one of the most important trading ports of Spain. The imports consist chiefly of cotton and woolen manufactures, colonial pro- duce, fish, jute, spirits, hardware, machinerj-. railway materials, etc. : and the exports consist of wool, iron, fruits, oil. Hour and grains, wines, madder, minerals, liqiuuice, etc. The women here do almost all the heavy porterage. Bilbao owes its present prosperity to the iron-mines which stand on the left bank of the Xervion. Their valuable deposits were known to exist from the earliest times, but the mines have only been worked within the last decades of the Nineteenth Century. Bilbao was founded in the year 1300 by Diego Lopez de Haro, under the name of Behao, i.e. 'the fine fort,' and, being well situated and little disturbed by the civil wars of Spain, it soon attained great prosperity. In the Fifteenth Century it was the seat of the most authoritative commercial tribunal in Spain. It suffered severely in the wars with France, first in 1795, and again in 1808, when 1200 of its inhabitants were slaughtered in cold blood. Population, in 1897, 74.100. BIL 'BERRY. See Hicklebebbt. BIL'BILIS. An old Ccltiberian city of Spain, about two miles east of the modern town of Calatayud, in the Province of Saragossa. It is chiefly celebrated as the birthplace of the poet Martial, but is also famed for its highly tem- pered steel blades. Under the Romans Bilbilis was a municipal tovu with the surname of Augusta. BIL'BOES. See Iboxs. BILDERDIJK, bll'drr dik. Willem (1755- 1831). A Dutch poet, philologist, and philoso- pher. He was born in Amsterdam, September 7, 1755, studied law in Leyden, and then prac- ticed it at The Hague. In 1795 he was exiled as an anti-Revolutionist, and went to London and Brunswick, after a discreditable love affair with Kathcrina Schweikhardt, redeemed later (1802) by marriage. Kathcrina was herself author of a narrative |)oem liodrigo the Goth, and of graceful I'ocms for Chitdren. On Bilder- dijk's return to Holland (1800) King Louis made him librarian and patronized him in vari- ous ways, but he was rather overweening and ungrateful, and at last, refusing to live in Am- sterdam, went to Leyden (1817), where he lec- tured on history till 1827. Bilderdijk's industry was indefatigable. While in Germany he trans- lated Os^iait and wrote Country Life and Patri- otic Lore for Orange. After his return he wrote The Disease of Genius, Lcyden's Battle, several dramas, and his poetic masterpiece, The Destrue- iion of the First World. His entire production approaches 100 volumes. His poetry had no deep sentiment, and never caught the romantic in- spiration. In politics he stood, in later years, almost alone as an ultra-conservative. His greatness lies in a mastery of language that no Dutch ])oet since Huygens had approached. Bil- derdijk's IVorfcs are collected in 15 vols. (1856- 59). Consult Gorter, Bilderdijk (Amsterdam, 1871). BILE (Lat. hilis, bile, anger). A fluid se- wetcd by the liver. It is golden-red in man, 68 BILGE. green in herbivorous, brownish-yellow in car- niAorous animals. The primary cells of the liver (the hepatic cells) separate the bile from the blood of the jiortal vein, and discharge it into small diuts, which unite to form larger ones, and eventually the right and left hepatic ducts. The latter unite to form the common hepatic duct, which is soon joined by that of the gall- bladder (the cystic duet). This junction forms the common bile-duct, which pierces the second part of the duodenvnn, and, running obliquely in its walls for a short distance, opens on its mucous surface. Between twenty and fifty ounces of bile are secreted daily, principally within an hour after eating, and to some extent during the intervals of digestion. Some bile remains stored in the gall-bladder, where it be- comes viscid and of darker color. If it becomes solidified, gall-stones are the result, causing great pain as they pass through the gall-duct. Bile passes into the intestine and assists in the diges- tion of fats, stimulates the peristaltic motion of the intestine, and disinfects the contents of the large intestine. If the escape of the bile into the intestine be prevented by swelling of the part by the duodenum where the common bile- duct empties, the bile is carried by the blood into various parts of the body, causing jaundice (q.v.). Bile is composed of water, fat, resinoid acids (glycocholic and taurocholic) , mucus, various salts, and soda. Its specific gravity is 1.020. It has a bitter taste and a peculiar strong odor. The bile of salt-water fish contains potash, while that of land and fresh-water animals contains soda. See Calcuhs; Digestion; Jaundice; and Liver. BILFINGEB, bil'fing-er, or BTJLFINGER, bvil'fing-er, Georg Bebnhard (1G93-1750). A German mathenuitician and philosophei of the Leibniz-Wolflian school. He was a son of a Lutheran minister of Kannstatt, Wiirttemberg, and, like several others of his family, was born with twelve fingers and twelve toes. He studied at Halle under Wolff, became professor of phi- losophy in 1721, and of mathematics also in 1724. In 1725. on WoHT's recommendation, he obtained a professorsliip in Saint Petersburg, whence he was recalled in 1731. He gained the prize (1000 crowns) offered by the Academy of Science of Paris for a solution of the prob- lem of the cause of gravity. Later in life he was a privy councilor at Stuttgart, and greatly advan<'ed the interests of public in- struction and agriculture. Among his numer- ous works, the most important is Dilucidntiones philosoiihirw de Deo. in which he expounded minutely and defended against its opponents Wolff's division of metaphysics into four branches. BILGE (akin to bulge, a rounded protuber- ance, Lat. bulga, a leathern bag). That portion of the bottom of a ship which is nearer horizon- tal than vertical. The bend in the frames which joins the bilge to the side is called the turn of the bilge. If the turn of the bilge is sharp, the vessel is said to have a hard bilge; if rounding, to have an rasg bilge. If the bilge frames amid- ships run nearly horizontal, the ship is said to have ven- little dead rise: if they incline upward at quite an angle as they leave the keel, she has considerable ilrad rise. When a vessel .strikes the ground with such force as to cause seriou.s
