[1] The term binocular (from the Lat. _bini_, two at a time, and
_oculi_, eyes) was originally an adjective used to describe things
adapted for the simultaneous use of both eyes, as in "binocular
vision," "a binocular telescope or microscope"; now "a binocular" is
used as a noun, meaning a binocular microscope, a field-glass, &c.
[2] The first part appeared in 1838.
BINOMIAL (from the Lat. _bi-, bis_, twice, and _nomen_, a name or term),
in mathematics, a word first introduced by Robert Recorde (1557) to
denote a quantity composed of the sum or difference to two terms; as a +
b, a - b. The terms trinomial, quadrinomial, multinomial, &c., are
applied to expressions composed similarly of three, four or many
quantities.
The _binomial theorem_ is a celebrated theorem, originally due to Sir
Isaac Newton, by which any power of a binomial can be expressed as a
series. In its modern form the theorem, which is true for all values of
n, is written as
n.(n-1)
(x + a)^n = x^n + nax^(n-1) + ------- a squaredx^(n-2)
1.2
n.(n-1).(n-2)
+ -------------a cubedx^(n-3) ... + a^n.
1.2.3
The reader is referred to the article ALGEBRA for the proof and
applications of this theorem; here we shall only treat of the history of
its discovery.
The original form of the theorem was first given in a letter, dated the
13th of June 1676, from Sir Isaac Newton to Henry Oldenburg for
communication to Wilhelm G. Leibnitz, although Newton had discovered it
some years previously. Newton there states that
m m - n m - 2n
(p + pq)^(m/n) = p^(m/n) + -- aq + ----- bq + ------ cq ... &c.,
n 2n 3n
where p + pq is the quantity whose (m/n)th power or root is required, p
the first term of that quantity, and q the quotient of the rest divided
by p, m/n the power, which may be a positive or negative integer or a
fraction, and a, b, c, &c., the several terms in order, e.g.
m (m - n)
a = p^(m/n), b = -- aq, c = ------- bq, and so on.
n 2n
In a second letter, dated the 24th of October 1676, to Oldenburg, Newton
gave the train of reasoning by which he devised the theorem.
"In the beginning of my mathematical studies, when I was perusing the
works of the celebrated Dr Wallis, and considering the series by the
interpolation of which he exhibits the area of the circle and
hyperbola (for instance, in this series of curves whose common base or
axis is x, and the ordinates respectively (1 - xx)^(0/2), (1 - xx)^1/2,
(1 - xx)^(2/2), (1 - xx)^(3/2), &c), I perceived that if the areas of
the alternate curves, which are x, x - (1/3)x cubed, x - (2/3)x cubed +
(1/5)x^5, x - (3/3)x cubed + (3/5)x^5 - (1/7)x^7, &c., could be
interpolated, we should obtain the areas of the intermediate ones, the
first of which (1 - xx)^{1/2} is the area of the circle. Now in order to
[do] this, it appeared that in all the series the first term was x;
that the second terms (0/3)x cubed, (1/3)x cubed, (2/3)x cubed, &c., were in
arithmetical progression; and consequently that the first two terms of
all the series to be interpolated would be
(1/2)x cubed (3/2)x cubed (5/2)x cubed
x - -----, x - -------, x - -------, &c.
3 3 3
"Now for the interpolation of the rest, I considered that the
denominators 1, 3, 5, &c., were in arithmetical progression; and that
therefore only the numerical coefficients of the numerators were to be
investigated. But these in the alternate areas, which are given, were
the same with the figures of which the several powers of 11 consist,
viz., of 11 deg., 11¹, 11 squared, 11 cubed, that is, the first 1; the second, 1, 1;
the third, 1, 2, 1,; the fourth 1, 3, 3, 1; and so on. I enquired
therefore how, in these series, the rest of the terms may be derived
from the first two being given; and I found that by putting m for the
second figure or term, the rest should be produced by the continued
multiplication of the terms of this series
m - 0 m - 1 m - 2
----- x ----- x ----- ..., &c ...
1 2 3
This rule I therefore applied to the series to be interpolated. And
since, in the series for the circle, the second term was (1/2x cubed)/3, I
put m = 1/2.... And hence I found the required area of the circular
segment to be
1/2x cubed (1/8)x^5 (1/16)x^7
x - --- - -------- - ---------, &c. ...
3 5 7
And in the same manner might be produced the interpolated areas of
other curves; as also the area of the hyperbola and the other
alternates in this series (1 + xx)^(0/2), (1 + xx)^1/2, (1 + xx)^(2/2),
&c. ... Having proceeded so far, I considered that the terms (1 -
xx)^(0/2), (1 - xx)^(2/2), (1 - xx)^(4/2), (1 - xx)^(6/2), &c., that
is 1, 1 - x squared, 1 - 2x squared + x^4, 1 - 3x squared + 3x^4, - x^6, &c., might be
interpolated in the same manner as the areas generated by them, and
for this, nothing more was required than to omit the denominators 1,
3, 5, 7, &c., in the terms expressing the areas; that is, the
coefficients of the terms of the quantity to be interpolated (1 -
xx)^1/2 or (1 - xx)^(3/2), or generally (1 - xx)^m will be produced by
the continued multiplication of this series
m - 1 m - 2 m - 3
m x ----- x ----- x ----- ... &c.
2 3 4
The binomial theorem was thus discovered as a development of John
Wallis's investigations in the method of _interpolation_. Newton gave no
proof, and it was in the _Ars Conjectandi_ (1713) that James Bernoulli's
proof for positive integral values of the exponent was first published,
although Bernoulli must have discovered it many years previously. A
rigorous demonstration was wanting for many years, Leonhard Euler's
proof for negative and fractional values being faulty, and was finally
given by Niels Heinrik Abel.
The _multi_- (or _poly_-) _nomial theorem_ has for its object the
expansion of any power of a multinomial and was discussed in 1697 by
Abraham Demoivre (see COMBINATORIAL ANALYSIS).
REFERENCES.--For the history of the binomial theorem, see John
Collins, _Commercium Epistolicum_ (1712); S.P. Rigaud, _The
Correspondence of Scientific Men of the 17th Century_ (1841); M.
Cantor, _Geschichte der Mathematik_ (1894-1901).
BINTURONG (_Arctictis binturong_), the single species of the viverrine
genus _Arctictis_, ranging from Nepal through the Malay Peninsula to
Sumatra and Java. This animal, also called the bear-cat, is allied to
the palm-civets, or paradoxures, but differs from the rest of the family
(_Viverridae_) by its tufted ears and long, bushy, prehensile tail,
which is thick at the root and almost equals in length the head and body
together (from 28 to 33 inches). The fur is long and coarse, of a dull
black hue with a grey wash on the head and fore-limbs. In habits the
binturong is nocturnal and arboreal, inhabiting forests, and living on
small vertebrates, worms, insects and fruits. It is said to be naturally
fierce, but when taken young is easily tamed and becomes gentle and
playful.
BINYON, LAURENCE (1869- ), English poet, born at Lancaster on the 10th
of August 1869, was educated at St Paul's school, London, and Trinity
College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate prize in 1890 for his
_Persephone_. He entered the department of printed books at the British
Museum in 1893, and was transferred to the department of prints and
drawings in 1895, the _Catalogue of English Drawings in the British
Museum_ (1898, &c.) being by him. As a poet he is represented by _Lyric
Poems_ (1894), _Poems_ (Oxford, 1895), _London Visions_ (2 vols.,
1895-1898), _The Praise of Life_ (1896), _Porphyrion and other Poems_
(1898), _Odes_ (1900), _The Death of Adam_ (1903), _Penthesilea_ (1903),
_Dream come true_ (1905), _Paris and Oenone_ (1906), a one-act tragedy,
and _Attila_, a poetical drama (1907); as an art critic by monographs on
the 17th-century Dutch etchers, on John Crome and John Sell Cotman,
contributed to the _Portfolio_, &c. In 1906 he published the first
volume of a series of reproductions from William Blake, with a critical
introduction.
See also R.A. Streatfeild, _Two Poets of the New Century_ (1901), and
W. Archer, _Poets of the Younger Generation_ (1902).
BIO-BIO, a river of southern Chile, rising in the Pino Hachado pass
across the Andes, 38 deg. 45' S. lat., and flowing in a general
north-westerly direction to the Pacific at Concepcion, where it is 2 m.
wide and forms an excellent harbour. It has a total length of about 225
m., nearly one half of which is navigable.
BIO-BIO, an inland province of southern Chile, bounded N., W. and S.
respectively by the provinces of Concepcion, Arauco and Malleco, and E.
by Argentina. It has an area of 5246 sq. m. of well-wooded and
mountainous country, and exports timber to a large extent. The great
trunk railway from Santiago S. to Puerto Montt crosses the western part
of the province and also connects it with the port of Concepcion. The
capital, Los Angeles (est. pop. 7777 in 1902) lies 151/2 m. E. of this
railway and is connected with it by a branch line.
BIOGENESIS (from the Gr. [Greek: bios], life, and [Greek: genesis],
generation, birth), a biological term for the theory according to which
each living organism, however simple, arises by a process of budding,
fission, spore-formation of sexual reproduction from a parent organism.
Under the heading of ABIOGENESIS (q.v.) is discussed the series of steps
by which the modern acceptance of biogenesis and rejection of
abiogenesis has been brought about. No biological generalization rests
on a wider series of observations, or has been subjected to a more
critical scrutiny than that every living organism has come into
existence from a living portion or portions of a pre-existing organism.
In the articles REPRODUCTION and HEREDITY the details of the relations
between parent and offspring are discussed. There remains for treatment
here a curious collateral issue of the theory. It is within common
observation that parent and offspring are alike: that the new organism
resembles that from which it has come into existence: in fine,
biogenesis is homogenesis. Every organism takes origin from a parent
organism of the same kind. The conception of homogenesis, however, does
not imply an absolute similarity between parent and organism. In the
first place, the normal life-cycle of plants and animals exhibits what
is known as alternation of generations, so that any individual in the
chain may resemble its grand-parent and its grand-child, and differ
markedly from its parent and child. Next, any organism may pass through
a series of free-living larval stages, so that the new organism at first
resembles its parent only very remotely, corresponding to an early stage
in the life-history of that parent. (See EMBRYOLOGY, LARVAL FORMS and
REPRODUCTION.) Finally, the conception of homogenesis does not exclude
the differences between parent and offspring that continually occur,
forming the material for the slow alteration of stocks in the course of
evolution (see VARIATION AND SELECTION). Homogenesis means simply that
such organism comes into existence directly from a parent organism of
the same race, and hence of the same species, sub-species, genus and so
forth.
From time to time there have been observers who have maintained a belief
in the opposite theory, to which the name heterogenesis has been given.
According to the latter theory, the offspring of a given organism may be
utterly different from itself, so that a known animal may give rise to
another known animal of a different race, species, genus, or even
family, or to a plant, or vice versa. The most extreme cases of this
belief is the well-known fable of the "barnacle-geese," an illustrated
account of which was printed in an early volume of the Royal Society of
London. Buds of a particular tree growing near the sea were described as
producing barnacles, and these, falling into the water, were supposed to
develop into geese. The whole story was an imaginary embroidery of the
facts that barnacles attach themselves to submerged timber and that a
species of goose is known as the bernicle goose. In modern times the
exponents of heterogenesis have limited themselves to cases of
microscopic animals and plants, and in most cases, the observations that
they have brought forward have been explained by minuter observation as
cases of parasitism. No serious observer, acquainted with modern
microscopic technical methods, has been able to confirm the explanation
of their observations given by the few modern believers in
heterogenesis. (P. C. M.)
BIOGRAPHY (from the Gr. [Greek: bios], life, and [Greek: graphae],
writing), that form of history which is applied, not to races or masses
of men, but to an individual. The earliest use of the word [Greek:
biographia] is attributed to Damascius, a Greek writer of the beginning
of the 6th century, and in Latin _biographia_ was used, but in English
no earlier employment of the word, "biography" has been traced than that
of Dryden in 1683, who uses it to describe the literary work of
Plutarch, "the history of particular men's lives." It is obvious that
this definition is necessary, for biography is not the record of "life"
in general, but of the life of a single person. The idea of the
distinction between this and history is a modern thing; we speak of
"antique biography," but it is doubtful whether any writer of antiquity,
even Plutarch, clearly perceived its possible existence as an
independent branch of literature. All of them, and Plutarch certainly,
considered the writing of a man's life as an opportunity for
celebrating, in his person, certain definite moral qualities. It was in
these, and not in the individual characteristics of the man, that his
interest as a subject of biography resided.
The true conception of biography, therefore, as the faithful portrait of
a soul in its adventures through life, is very modern. We may question
whether it existed, save in rare and accidental instances, until the
17th century. The personage described was, in earlier times, treated
either from the philosophical or from the historical point of view. In
the former case, rhetoric inevitably clouded the definiteness of the
picture; the object was to produce a grandiose moral effect, to clothe
the subject with all the virtues or with all the vices; to make his
career a splendid example or else a solemn warning. The consequence is
that we have to piece together unconsidered incidents and the accidental
record of features in order to obtain an approximate estimate. We may
believe, for instance, that a faithful and unprejudiced study of the
emperor Julian, from the life, would be a very different thing from the
impression left upon us by the passions of Cyril or of Theodoret. In
considering what biography, in its pure sense, ought to be, we must
insist on what it is not. It is not a philosophical treatise nor a
polemical pamphlet. It is not, even, a portion of the human contemporary
chronicle. Broad views are entirely out of place in biography, and there
is perhaps no greater literary mistake than to attempt what is called
the "Life and Times" of a man. In an adequate record of the "times," the
man is bound to sink into significance; even a "Life and Times" of
Napoleon I. would be an impossible task. History deals with fragments of
the vast roll of events; it must always begin abruptly and close in the
middle of affairs; it must always deal, impartially, with a vast number
of persons. Biography is a study sharply defined by two definite events,
birth and death. It fills its canvas with one figure, and other
personages, however great in themselves, must always be subsidiary to
the central hero. The only remnant of the old rhetorical purpose of
"lives" which clearer modern purpose can afford to retain is the
relative light thrown on military or intellectual or social genius by
the achievements of the selected subject. Even this must be watched with
great care, lest the desire to illuminate that genius, and make it
consistent, should lead the biographer to glose over frailties or
obscure irregularities. In the old "lives" of great men, this is
precisely what was done. If the facts did not lend themselves to the
great initial thesis, so much the worse for them. They must be ignored
or falsified, since the whole object of the work was to "teach a
lesson," to magnify a certain tendency of conduct. It was very difficult
to persuade the literary world that, whatever biography is, it is not an
opportunity for panegyric or invective, and the lack of this perception
destroys our faith in most of the records of personal life in ancient
and medieval times. It is impossible to avoid suspecting that Suetonius
loaded his canvas with black in order to excite hatred against the Roman
emperors; it is still more difficult to accept more than one page in
three of the stories of the professional hagiographers. As long as it
was a pious merit to deform the truth, biography could not hope to
flourish. It appears to have originally asserted itself when the
primitive instinct of sympathy began to have free play, that is to say,
not much or often before the 17th century. Moreover, the peculiar
curiosity which legitimate biography satisfies is essentially a modern
thing; and presupposes our observation of life not unduly clouded by
moral passion or prejudice.
Among the ancients, biography was not specifically cultivated until
comparatively later times. The lost "Lives" of Critias were probably
political pamphlets. We meet first with deliberate biography in
Xenophon's memoirs of Socrates, a work of epoch-making value. Towards
the close of the 1st century, Plutarch wrote one of the most fascinating
books in the world's literature, his _Parallel Lives_ of 46 Greeks and
Romans. In later Greek, the _Life of Apollonius of Tyana_ was written by
Philostratus, who also produced a _Lives of the Sophists_. In the 3rd
century, Diogenes Laertius compiled a _Lives of the Philosophers_, which
is of greater interest than a _Lives of the Sophists_ composed a hundred
years later by Eunapius. Finally in the 10th century, Suidas added a
biographical section to his celebrated _Lexicon_. In Latin literature,
the earliest biography we meet with is the fragment of the _Illustrious
Men_ of Cornelius Nepos. Memoirs began to be largely written at the
close of the Augustan age, but these, like the _Life of Alexander the
Great_, by Q. Curtius Rufus, were rather historical than biographical.
Tacitus composed a life of his father-in-law, Agricola; this is a work
of the most elegant and stately beauty. Suetonius was the author of
several biographical compilations, of which the _Lives of the Twelve
Caesars_ is the best-known; this was produced in the year 120. Marius
Maximus, in the 4th century, continued the series of emperors down to
Heliogabalus, but his work has not been preserved. The _Augustan
History_, finished under Constantine, takes its place, and was concluded
and edited by Flavius Vopiscus.
Biography hardly begins to exist in English literature until the close
of the reign of Henry VIII. William Roper (1496-1578) wrote a touching
life of his father-in-law, Sir Thomas More, and George Cavendish
(1500-1561?), a memoir of Cardinal Wolsey which is a masterpiece of
liveliness and grace. It is with these two works, both of which remained
in manuscript until the 17th century, that biography in England begins.
The lives of English writers compiled by John Bale (1495-1563) are much
more primitive and slight. John Leland (d. 1552) and John Pits
(1560-1616) were antiquaries who affected a species of biography. In the
early part of the 17th century, the absence of the habit of memoir
writing extremely impoverishes our knowledge of the illustrious authors
of the age, of none of whom there are preserved such records as our
curiosity would delight in. The absence of any such chronicle was felt,
and two writers, Thomas Heywood and Sir Aston Cokayne, proposed to write
lives of the poets of their time. Unfortunately they never carried their
plans into execution. The pioneer of deliberate English biography was
Izaak Walton, who, in 1640, published a _Life of Donne_, followed in
1651 by that of _Sir Henry Wotton_, in 1665 by that of _Richard Hooker_,
in 1670 by that of _George Herbert_, and in 1678 by that of _Dr Robert
Saunderson_. These five reprinted, under the title of _Walton's Lives_,
were not only charming in themselves, but the forerunners of a whole
class of English literature. Meanwhile, Fuller was preparing his
_History of the Worthies of England_, which appeared after his death, in
1662, and John Aubrey (1626-1697) was compiling his _Minutes of Lives_,
which show such a perfect comprehension of the personal element that
should underlie biography; these have only in our own days been
completely given to the public. Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury
(1583-1648), wrote a brilliant autobiography, first printed in 1764;
that of Anne Harrison, Lady Fanshawe (1625-1680), remained unknown until
1829. A very curious essay in biography is the memoir of Colonel John
Hutchinson, written by his widow, Lucy, between 1664 and 1671. Margaret
Lucas, duchess of Newcastle (1624?-1674), wrote her own life (1656) and
that of her duke (1667). The _Athenae Oxonienses_ of Anthony a Wood
(1632-1695) was a complicated celebration of the wit, wisdom and
learning of Oxford notabilities since the Reformation. In 1668 Thomas
Sprat (1635-1713) wrote a _Life of Cowley_, which was very much admired
and which exercised for many years a baneful influence on British
biography. Sprat considered that all familiar anecdote and picturesque
detail should be omitted in the composition of a memoir, and that moral
effect and a solemn vagueness should be aimed at. The celebrated funeral
orations of Jeremy Taylor were of the same order of eloquence, and the
wind of those grandiose compositions destroyed the young shoot of
genuine and simple biography which had budded in Walton and Aubrey.
From this time forth, for more than half a century, English biography
became a highly artificial and rhetorical thing, lacking all the salient
features of honest portraiture. William Oldys (1696-1761) was the first
to speak out boldly; in 1747, in the preface to the _Biographia
Britannica_, he pointed out "the cruelty, we might even say the impiety,
of sacrificing the glory of great characters to trivial circumstances
and mere conveniency," and attacked the timid and scrupulous
superficiality of those who undertook to write lives of eminent men,
while omitting everything which gave definition to the portrait. In 1753
the _Lives of the Poets_, which bore the name of Theophilus Cibber
(1703-1758), but was mainly written by Robert Shiels (d. 1753), gave a
great deal of valuable information with regard to the personal
adventures of our writers. Dr Johnson's _Life of Savage_ (1744), though
containing some passages of extreme interest, was a work of imperfect
form, but Mason's _Life and Letters of Gray_ (1774) marks a great
advance in the art of biography. This was the earliest memoir in which
correspondence of a familiar kind was used to illustrate and to expand
the narrative, and Mason's _Gray_ is really the pioneer of almost all
modern English biography. For the first time it was now admitted that
letters to intimate friends, not written with a view to publication,
might be used with advantage to illustrate the real character of the
writer. Boswell, it is certain, availed himself of Mason's example,
while improving upon it, and in 1791 he published his _Life of Dr Samuel
Johnson_, which is the most interesting example of biography existing in
English, or perhaps in any language.
As soon as the model of Boswell became familiar to biographers, it could
no longer be said that any secret in the art was left unknown to them,
and the biographies of the 19th century are all more or less founded
upon the magnificent type of the _Life of Johnson_. But few have even
approached it in courage, picturesqueness or mastery of portraiture. In
the next generation Southey's lives of _Nelson_ (1813) and _John Wesley_
(1820) at once became classics; but the pre-eminent specimen of early
19-century biography is Lockhart's superb _Life of Sir Walter Scott_
(1837-1838). The biographies of the 19th century are far too numerous to
be mentioned here in detail; in the various articles dedicated to
particular men and women in this Encyclopaedia, the date and authorship
of the authoritative life of each person will in most cases be found
appended. Towards the close of the century there was unquestionably an
excess, and even an abuse, in the habit of biography. It became the
custom a few years or even months after the decease of an individual who
had occupied a passing place in the eyes of the public, to issue a
"Life" of him; in many cases such biography was a labour of utter
supererogation. But the custom has become general, and it is very
unlikely, notwithstanding the ephemeral interest of readers in the
majority of the subjects, that it will ever go out of fashion, for it
directly indulges both vanity and sentiment. What is true of Great
Britain is true, though in less measure, of all other modern nations,
and it is not necessary here to deal with more than the early
manifestations of biography in the principal European literatures.
To Switzerland appears due the honour of having given birth to the
earliest biographical dictionary ever compiled, the _Bibliotheca
Universalis_ of Konrad Gesner (1516-1565), published at Zuerich in Latin,
Greek and Hebrew, from 1545 to 1549. A very rare work, by a writer of
the greatest obscurity, the _Prosopographia_ of Verdier de Vauprivas,
published at Lyons in 1573, professed to deal with the lives of all
illustrious persons who had flourished since the beginning of the world.
In medieval and renaissance France there existed numerous memoirs and
histories, such as those of Brantome, into which the lives of great men
were inserted, and in which a biographical character was given to
studies of virtue and valour, or of the reverse. But the honour of being
the earliest deliberate contribution to biography is generally given to
the _Acta Sanctorum_, compiled by the Bollandists, the first volume of
which appeared in 1653. This was the first biographical dictionary
compiled in Europe, and its publication produced a great sensation. It
was confined to the lives of saints and martyrs, but in 1674 Louis
Moreri, in his _Grand Dictionnaire_, included a biographical section of
a general character. But the earliest biographical dictionary which had
anything of a modern form was the celebrated _Dictionnaire historique et
critique_ of Pierre Bayle, in 1696; the lives in this great work,
however, are too often used as mere excuses for developing the
philosophical and controversial views of the author; they are
nevertheless the result of genuine research and have a true biographical
view. The _Dictionnaire_ was translated into English in 1734, and had a
wide influence in creating a legitimate interest in biography in
England.
In Italian literature, biography does not take a prominent place until
the 15th century. _The Lives of Illustrious Florentines_, in which a
valuable memoir of Dante occurs, was written in Latin by Filippo
Villani. Vespasiano da Bistrici (1421-1498) compiled a set of
biographies of his contemporaries, which are excellent of their kind.
The so-called _Life of Castruccio Castracani_, by Machiavelli, is hardly
a biography, but a brilliant essay on the ideals of statecraft. Paolo
Giovio (1483-1552) wrote the lives of poets and soldiers whom he had
known. All these attempts, however, seem insignificant by the side of
the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini (1501-1571), confessedly one of
the most entertaining works of the world's literature. A great deal of
biography is scattered throughout the historical compilations of the
Italian renaissance, and the _Lives of the Artists_, by Giorgio Vasari
(1512-1574), is a storehouse of anecdotes admirably told. We find
nothing else that requires special mention till we reach the
memoir-writers of the 18th century, with the autobiographies of Count
Carlo Gozzi and Alfieri; and on the whole, Italy, although adopting in
the 19th century the habit of biography, has rarely excelled in it.
In Spanish literature Fernan Perez de Guzman (1378-1460), with great
originality, enshrined, in his _Generations and Likenesses_, a series of
admirable literary portraits; he has been called the Plutarch of Spain.
But, in spite of numerous lives of saints, poets and soldiers, Spanish
literature has not excelled in biography, nor has it produced a single
work of this class which is universally read. In Germany there is little
to record before the close of the 18th century.
In the course of the 19th century a new thing in biography was invented,
in the shape of dictionaries of national biography. Of these, the first
which was carried to a successful conclusion was the Swedish
(1835-1857), which occupied 23 volumes. This dictionary was followed by
the Dutch (1852-1878), in 24 volumes; the Austrian (1856-1891), in 35
volumes; the Belgian (which was begun in 1866); the German (1875-1900),
in 45 volumes; and others, representing nearly all the countries of
Europe. England was behind the competitors named above, but when she
joined the ranks a work was produced the value of which can hardly be
exaggerated. The project was started in 1882 by the publisher George
Smith (1824-1901), who consulted Mr (afterwards Sir) Leslie Stephen. The
first volume of the English _Dictionary of National Biography_ was
published on the 1st of January 1885, under Stephen's editorship. A
volume was published quarterly, with complete punctuality until
Midsummer 1900, when volume 63 closed the work, which was presently
extended by the issue of three supplementary volumes. In May 1891 Leslie
Stephen resigned the editorship and was succeeded by Mr Sidney Lee, who
conducted the work to its prosperous close, bringing it up to the death
of Queen Victoria. The _Dictionary of National Biography_ contains the
lives of more than 30,000 persons, and has proved of inestimable service
in elucidating the private annals of the British people. (E. G.)
BIOLOGY (Gr. [Greek: bios], life). The biological sciences are those
which deal with the phenomena manifested by living matter; and though it
is customary and convenient to group apart such of these phenomena as
are termed mental, and such of them as are exhibited by men in society,
under the heads of psychology and sociology, yet it must be allowed that
no natural boundary separates the subject matter of the latter sciences
from that of biology. Psychology is inseparably linked with physiology;
and the phases of social life exhibited by animals other than man, which
sometimes curiously foreshadow human policy, fall strictly within the
province of the biologist.
On the other hand, the biological sciences are sharply marked off from
the abiological, or those which treat of the phenomena manifested by
not-living matter, in so far as the properties of living matter
distinguish it absolutely from all other kinds of things, and as the
present state of knowledge furnishes us with no link between the living
and the not-living.