In correspondence with these four aspects of its subject, biology is
logically divisible into four chief subdivisions--I. MORPHOLOGY;
II. DISTRIBUTION; III. PHYSIOLOGY; IV. AETIOLOGY.
Various accidental circumstances, however, have brought it about that
the actual distribution of scientific work does not correspond with the
logical subdivisions of biology. The difference in technical methods and
the historical evolution of teaching posts (for in all civilized
countries the progress of biological knowledge has been very closely
associated with the existence of institutions for the diffusion of
knowledge and for professional education) have been the chief
contributory causes to this practical confusion. Details of the
morphology of plants will be found in the articles relating to the chief
groups of plants, those of animals in the corresponding articles on
groups of animals, while the classification of animals adopted in this
work will be found in the article ZOOLOGY. Distribution is treated of
under ZOOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION, PLANKTON, PALAEONTOLOGY and PLANTS:
_Distribution_. PHYSIOLOGY and its allied articles deal with the subject
generally and in relation to man, while the special physiology of plants
is dealt with in a section of the article PLANTS. Aetiology is treated
of under the heading EVOLUTION. But practical necessity has given rise
to the existence of many other divisions; see CYTOLOGY, for the
structure of cells; EMBRYOLOGY, for the development of individual
organisms; HEREDITY and REPRODUCTION, for the relations between parents
and offspring. (T. H. H.; P. C. M.)
BION, Greek bucolic poet, was born at Phlossa near Smyrna, and
flourished about 100 B.C. The account formerly given of him, that he was
the contemporary and imitator of Theocritus, the friend and tutor of
Moschus, and lived about 280 B.C., is now generally regarded as
incorrect. W. Stein (_De Moschi et Bionis aetate_, Tuebingen, 1893) puts
Bion, chiefly on metrical grounds, in the first half of the 1st century
B.C. Nothing is known of him except that he lived in Sicily. The story
that he died of poison, administered to him by some jealous rivals, who
afterwards suffered the penalty of their crime, is probably only an
invention of the author of the [Greek: Epitaphios Bionos] (see MOSCHUS).
Although his poems are included in the general class of bucolic poetry,
the remains show little of the vigour and truthfulness to nature
characteristic of Theocritus. They breathe an exaggerated
sentimentality, and show traces of the overstrained reflection
frequently observable in later developments of pastoral poetry. The
longest and best of them is the _Lament for Adonis_ ([Greek: Epitaphios
Adonidos]). It refers to the first day of the festival of Adonis (q.v.),
on which the death of the favourite of Aphrodite was lamented, thus
forming an introduction to the _Adoniazusae_ of Theocritus, the subject
of which is the second day, when the reunion of Adonis and Aphrodite was
celebrated. Fragments of his other pieces are preserved in Stobaeus; the
epithalamium of Achilles and Deidameia is not his.
Bion and Moschus have been edited separately by G. Hermann (1849) and
C. Ziegler (Tuebingen, 1869), the _Epitaphios Adonidos_ by H.L. Ahrens
(1854) and E. Hiller in _Beitraege zur Textegeschichte der griechischen
Bukoliker_ (1888). Bion's poems are generally included in the editions
of Theocritus. There are English translations by J. Banks (1853) in
Bohn's _Classical Library_, and by Andrew Long (1889), with Theocritus
and Moschus; there is an edition of the text by U.
Wilamowitz-Moellendorff in the Oxford _Scriptorum Classicorum
Bibliotheca_ (1905). On the date of Bion see F. Buecheler in
_Rheinisches Museum_, xxx. (1875), pp. 33-41; also G. Knaack in
Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopaedie_, s.v.; and F. Susemihl, _Geschichte
der griechischen Litteratur in der Alexandrinerzeit_, i. (1891), p.
233.
BION, of Borysthenes (Olbia), in Sarmatia, Greek moralist and
philosopher, flourished in the first half of the 3rd century B.C. He was
of low origin, his mother being a courtesan and his father a dealer in
salt fish, with which he combined the occupation of smuggling. Bion,
when a young man, was sold as a slave to a rhetorician, who gave him his
freedom and made him his heir. After the death of his patron, Bion went
to Athens to study philosophy. Here he attached himself in succession to
the Academy, the Cynics, the Cyrenaics and the Peripatetics. One of his
teachers was the Cyrenaic Theodorus, called "the atheist," whose
influence is clearly shown in Bion's attitude towards the gods. After
the manner of the sophists of the period, Bion travelled through Greece
and Macedonia, and was admitted to the literary circle at the court of
Antigonus Gonatas. He subsequently taught philosophy at Rhodes and died
at Chalcis in Euboea. His life was written by Diogenes Laertius. Bion
was essentially a popular writer, and in his _Diatribae_ he satirized
the follies of mankind in a manner calculated to appeal to the
sympathies of a low-class audience. While eulogizing poverty and
philosophy, he attacked the gods, musicians, geometricians, astrologers,
and the wealthy, and denied the efficacy of prayer. His influence is
distinctly traceable in succeeding writers, e.g. in the satires of
Menippus. Horace (_Epistles_, ii. 2. 60) alludes to his satires and
caustic wit (_sal nigrum_). An idea of his writings can be gathered from
the fragments of Teles, a cynic philosopher who lived towards the end of
the 3rd century, and who made great use of them. Specimens of his
apophthegms may be found in Diogenes Laertius and the florilegium of
Stobaeus, while there are traces of his influence in Seneca.
See Hoogvliet, _De Vita, Doctrina, et Scriptis Bionis_ (1821);
Rossignol, _Fragmenta Bionis Borysthenitae_ (1830); Heinze, _De
Horatio Bionis Imitatore_ (1889).
BIOT, JEAN BAPTISTE (1774-1862), French physicist, was born at Paris on
the 21st of April 1774. After serving for a short time in the artillery,
he was appointed in 1797 professor of mathematics at Beauvais, and in
1800 he became professor of physics at the College de France, through
the influence of Laplace, from whom he had sought and obtained the
favour of reading the proof sheets of the _Mecanique celeste_. Three
years later, at an unusually early age, he was elected a member of the
Academy of Sciences, and in 1804 he accompanied Gay Lussac on the first
balloon ascent undertaken for scientific purposes. In 1806 he was
associated with F.J.D. Arago, with whom he had already carried out
investigations on the refractive properties of different gases, in the
measurement of an arc of the meridian in Spain, and in subsequent years
he was engaged in various other geodetic determinations. In 1814 he was
made chevalier and in 1849 commander, of the Legion of Honour. He failed
in his ambition of becoming perpetual secretary of the Academy of
Sciences, but was somewhat consoled by his election as a member of the
French Academy in 1856. He died in Paris on the 3rd of February 1862.
His researches extended to almost every branch of physical science, but
his most important work was of an optical character. He was especially
interested in questions relating to the polarization of light, and his
observations in this field, which gained him the Rumford medal of the
Royal Society in 1840, laid the foundations of the polarimetric analysis
of sugar.
Biot was an extremely prolific writer, and besides a great number of
scientific memoirs, biographies, &c., his published works include:
_Analyse de la mecanique celeste de M. Laplace_ (1801); _Traite
analytique des courbes et des surfaces du second degre_ (1802);
_Recherches sur l'integration des equations differentielles partielles
et sur les vibrations des surfaces_ (1803); _Traite de physique_ (1816);
_Recueil d'observations geodesiques, astronomiques et physiques
executees en Espagne et Ecosse_, with Arago (1821); _Memoire sur la
vraie constitution de l'atmosphere terrestre_ (1841); _Traite
elementaire d'astronomie physique_ (1805); _Recherches sur_ _plusieurs
points de l'astronomie egyptienne_ (1823); _Recherches sur l'ancienne
astronomie chinoise_ (1840); _Etudes sur l'astronomie indienne et sur
l'astronomie chinoise_ (1862); _Essai sur l'histoire generale des
sciences pendant la Revolution_ (1803); _Discours sur Montaigne_ (1812);
_Lettres sur l'approvisionnement de Paris et sur le commerce des grains_
(1835); _Melanges scientifiques et litteraires_ (1858).
His son, EDOUARD CONSTANT BIOT (1803-1850), after amassing a competence
from railway engineering, turned to the study of Chinese subjects, and
published _Causes de l'abolition de l'esclavage ancien en occident_
(1840); _Dictionnaire des noms anciens et modernes des villes et des
arrondissements compris dans l'empire chinois_ (1842); _Essai sur
l'histoire de l'instruction publique en Chine et de la corporation des
lettres_ (1847); _Memoire sur les colonies militaires et agricoles des
chinois_ (1850).
BIOTITE, an important rock-forming mineral belonging to the group of
micas (q.v.). The name was given by J.F.L. Hausmann in 1847 in honour of
the French physicist, J.B. Biot, who in 1816 found the magnesia-micas to
be optically uniaxial or nearly so. The magnesia-micas are now referred
to the species biotite and phlogopite, which differ in that the former
contains a considerable but widely varying amount of iron. Biotite is an
orthosilicate of aluminium, magnesium, ferrous and ferric iron,
potassium and basic hydrogen, with small amounts of calcium, sodium,
lithium, fluorine, titanium, &c., and ranges in composition between (H,
K)2(Mg, Fe)4(Al, Fe)2(SiO4)4 and (H, K)2(Mg, Fe)2Al2(SiO4)3.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
Like the other micas, it is monoclinic with pseudo-hexagonal symmetry
(figs. 1, 2) and possesses a perfect cleavage in one direction (c).
Biotite is, however, readily distinguished by its darker colour, strong
pleochroism, and small optic axial angle. The colour is usually
dark-green or brown; thick crystals are often deep-black and opaque. The
absorption of light-rays vibrating parallel to the cleavage is much
greater than of rays vibrating in a direction perpendicular thereto, and
in dark-coloured crystals the former are almost completely absorbed. The
angle between the optic axes is usually very small, the crystals being
often practically uniaxial; an axial angle of 50 deg. has, however, been
recorded in a dark-coloured biotite. The specific gravity of biotite is,
as a rule, higher than that of other micas, varying from 2.7 to 3.1
according to the amount of iron present. The hardness is 21/2 to 3.
Several varieties of biotite are distinguished. By G. Tschermak it is
divided into two classes, _meroxene_ and _anomite_; in the former the
plane of the optic axis coincides with the plane of symmetry, whilst in
the latter it is perpendicular thereto. Meroxene includes nearly all
ordinary biotite, and is the name given by A. Breithaupt in 1841 to the
Vesuvian crystals; on the other hand, anomite (named from [Greek:
anomos], "contrary to law") is of rare occurrence. Haughtonite and
siderophyllite are black varieties rich in ferrous iron, and
lepidomelane (from [Greek: lepis], a scale, and [Greek: melas], black)
is a variety rich in ferric iron. In barytobiotite and manganophyllite
the magnesia is partly replaced by baryta and manganous oxide
respectively. Rubellane, hydrobiotite, pseudobiotite, and others are
altered forms of biotite, which is a mineral particularly liable to
decomposition with the production of chlorites and vermiculites.
Biotite is a common constituent of igneous and crystalline rocks; in
granite, gneiss and mica-schist it is often associated with muscovite
(white mica), the two kinds having sometimes grown in parallel position.
In volcanic rocks, and in nearly all other kinds of igneous rocks with
the exception of granite, biotite occurs to the exclusion of the
muscovite. In the dyke-rocks known as mica-traps or mica-lamprophyres
biotite is especially abundant. It is also one of the most
characteristic products of contact-metamorphism, being developed in
sedimentary and other rocks at their contact with granite masses. In the
ejected blocks of crystalline limestone of Monte Somma, Vesuvius, the
most perfectly developed crystals of biotite (figs. 1, 2), or indeed of
any of the micas, are found in abundance, associated with brilliant
crystals of augite, olivine, humite, &c.
Although biotite (black mica) is much more common and widely distributed
than white mica, yet it is of far less economic importance. The small
size of the sheets, their dark colour and want of transparency render
the material of little value. Large, cleavable masses yielding fine
smoky-black and green sheets, sufficiently elastic for industrial
purposes, are, however, found in Renfrew county, Ontario. (L. J. S.)
BIPARTITE (from the Lat. _bi-_, two, and _partire_, to divide). In a
general sense, the word means having two corresponding parts or in
duplicate. In geometry, a bipartite curve consists of two distinct
branches (see PARABOLA, figs. 3, 5). In botany, the word is applied to
leaves divided into two parts near the base. A _bipartient factor_ is a
number whose square exactly divides another number. In zoology, the
_Bipartiti_ was a name given by P.A. Latreille to a group of carnivorous
_Coleoptera_.
BIPONT EDITIONS, the name of a famous series of editions, in 50 volumes,
of Greek and Latin classical authors, so called from Bipontium, the
modern Latin name of Zweibruecken or Deux-Ponts in Bavaria, where they
were first issued in 1779. Their place of publication was afterwards
transferred to Strassburg.
See Butters, _Uber die Editiones Bipontinae_ (1877).
BIQUADRATIC (from the Lat. _bi-, bis_, twice, and _quadratus_, squared).
In mathematics, the biquadratic power or root of a quantity is its
fourth power or root (see ALGEBRA); a biquadratic equation is an
equation in which the highest power of the unknown is the fourth (see
EQUATION: _Biquadratic_).
BIQUINTILE (from Lat. prefix _bi-_, twice, _quintilis_, fifth), the
aspect of two planets which are distant from each other twice the fifth
part of a great circle, i.e. 144 deg.. It was one of the new aspects
introduced by Kepler.
BIRBHUM, a district of British India in the Burdwan division of Bengal,
situated in the Gangetic plain and partly on the hills, being bounded on
the south by the river Ajai. The administrative headquarters are at
Suri, which is the only town in the district. The area comprises 1752
sq. m. The eastern portion of the district is the ordinary alluvial
plain of the Gangetic delta; the western part consists of undulating
beds of laterite resting on a rock basis, and covered with small scrub
jungle. The Ajai, Bakheswar and Mor or Maurakshi, are the principal
rivers of the district, but they are merely hill streams and only
navigable in the rains. In 1901 the population was 902,280, showing an
increase of 13% in the decade. The principal industry is the spinning
and weaving of silk, chiefly from tussur or jungle silkworms. There are
also several lac factories. The loop-line of the East Indian railway
runs through the district, with a junction at Nalhati for Murshidabad.
_History._--Birbhum in the early part of the 13th century was a Hindu
state, with its capital at Rajnagar or Nagar. In the course of the
century it was conquered by the Pathans and formed part of the Pathan
kingdom of Bengal. At the beginning of the 18th century it appears as a
kind of military fief held under the nawab of Murshidabad by one
Asadullah Pathan, whose family had probably been its chieftains since
the fall of the Pathan dynasty of Bengal in 1600. It passed into British
possession in 1765, but the East India Company did not assume its direct
government until 1787, when that course became necessary. In the
interval it had been a prey to armed bands from the highlands of Chota
Nagpur, with whom the raja was unable to cope, and who practically
brought the trade of the Company in the district to a standstill. The
two border principalities of Birbhum and Bankura were accordingly united
into a district under a British collector, being, however, separated
again in 1793. By 1789, after considerable trouble, the marauders were
driven back into their mountains, and since that time (except during the
Santal rising of 1855) the district has been one of the most peaceful
and prosperous in India.
See _Imperial Gazetteer of India_ (Oxford, 1908), vol. viii. _s.v_.
BIRCH, SAMUEL (1813-1885), English Egyptologist and antiquary, was born
on the 3rd of November 1813, being the son of the rector of St Mary
Woolnoth, London. From an early age he manifested a tendency to the
study of out-of-the-way subjects, and after a brief employment in the
Record Office obtained in 1836 an appointment in the antiquities
department of the British Museum on account of his knowledge of Chinese.
He soon extended his researches to Egyptian, and when the cumbrous
department came to be divided he was appointed to the charge of the
Egyptian and Assyrian branch. In the latter language he had assistance,
but for many years there was only one other person in the
institution--in a different department--who knew anything of ancient
Egyptian, and the entire arrangement of the department devolved upon
Birch. He found time nevertheless for Egyptological work of the highest
value, including a hieroglyphical grammar and dictionary, translations
of _The Book of the Dead_ and the Harris papyrus, and numerous
catalogues and guides. He further wrote what was long a standard history
of pottery, investigated the Cypriote syllabary, and proved by various
publications that he had not lost his old interest in Chinese.
Paradoxical in many of his views on things in general, he was sound and
cautious as a philologist; while learned and laborious, he possessed
much of the instinctive divination of genius. He died on the 27th of
December 1885.
BIRCH, THOMAS (1705-1766), English historian, son of Joseph Birch, a
coffee-mill maker, was born at Clerkenwell on the 23rd of November 1705.
He preferred study to business, but as his parents were Quakers he did
not go to the university. Notwithstanding this circumstance, he was
ordained deacon in the Church of England in 1730 and priest in 1731. As
a strong supporter of the Whigs, he gained the favour of Philip Yorke,
afterwards lord chancellor and first earl of Hardwicke, and his
subsequent preferments were largely due to this friendship. He held
successively a number of benefices in different counties, and finally in
London. In 1735 he became a member of the Society of Antiquaries, and
was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, of which he was secretary
from 1752 to 1765. In 1728 he had married Hannah Cox, who died in the
following year. Birch was killed on the 9th of January 1766 by a fall
from his horse, and was buried in the church of St Margaret Pattens,
London, of which he was then rector. He left his books and manuscripts
to the British Museum, and a sum of about L500 to increase the salaries
of the three assistant librarians.
Birch had an enormous capacity for work and was engaged in a large
number of literary undertakings. In spite of their dulness many of his
works are of considerable value, although Horace Walpole questioned his
"parts, taste and judgment." He carried on an extensive correspondence
with some of the leading men of his time, and many of his letters appear
in _Literary Anecdotes of the 18th Century_ (London, 1812-1815) and
_Illustrations of the Literary History of the 18th Century_
(London, 1817-1858) by J. Nichols, in the _Bibliotheca Topographica
Britannica_, vol. iii. (London, 1780-1790), and in Boswell's _Life of
Johnson_. Birch wrote most of the English lives in the _General
Dictionary, Historical and Critical_, 10 vols. (London, 1734-1741),
assisted in the composition of the _Athenian Letters_ (London, 1810),
edited the _State Papers_ of John Thurloe (London, 1742) and the _State
Papers_ of W. Murdin (London, 1759). He also wrote a _Life of the Right
Honourable Robert Boyle_ (London, 1744); _Inquiry into the share which
King Charles I. had in the transactions of the Earl of Glamorgan for
bringing over a body of Irish rebels_ (London, 1756); _Historical view
of Negotiations between the Courts of England, France and Brussels
1592-1617_ (London, 1749); _Life of Archbishop Tillotson_ (London,
1753); _Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth from 1581_ (London,
1754); _History of the Royal Society of London_ (London, 1756-1757);
_Life of Henry, Prince of Wales_ (London, 1760), and many other works.
Among the papers left at his death were some which were published in
1848 as the _Court and Times of James I_. and the _Court and Times of
Charles I_.
See W.P. Courtney in the _Dictionary of National Biography_, vol. v.
(1886); A. Kippis, _Biographia Britannica_ (London, 1778-1793); Horace
Walpole, _Letters_ (London, 1891).
BIRCH (_Betula_), a genus of plants allied to the alder (_Alnus_), and
like it a member of the natural order _Betulaceae_. The various species
of birch are mostly trees of medium size, but several of them are merely
shrubs. They are as a rule of a very hardy character, thriving best in
northern latitudes--the trees having round, slender branches, and
serrate, deciduous leaves, with barren and fertile catkins on the same
tree, and winged fruits, the so-called seeds. The bark in most of the
trees occurs in fine soft membranous layers, the outer cuticle of which
peels off in thin, white, papery sheets.
[Illustration: From Strasburger, _Lerbuch der Botanik_.
_Betula alba._ 1, Branch with male (_a_) and female (_b_)
inflorescences; 2, bract with three male flowers; 3, bract with three
female flowers; 4, infrutescence; 5, fruit. (After Wossidlo.)]
The common white or silver birch (_B. alba_) (see fig.) grows throughout
the greater part of Europe, and also in Asia Minor, Siberia and North
America, reaching in the north to the extreme limits of forest
vegetation, and stretching southward on the European continent as a
forest tree to 45 deg. N. lat., beyond which birches occur only in special
situations or as isolated trees. It is well known in England for its
graceful habit, the slender, grey--or white--barked stem, the delicate,
drooping branches and the quivering leaves, a bright, clear green in
spring, becoming duller in the summer, but often keeping their greenness
rather late into the autumn. The male and female flowers are borne on
separate catkins in April and May. It is a shortlived tree, generally
from 40 to 50 ft. high with a trunk seldom more than 1 ft. in diameter.
It flourishes in light soils and is one of the few trees that will grow
amongst heather; owing to the large number of "winged seeds" which are
readily scattered by the wind, it spreads rapidly, springing up where
the soil is dry and covering clearings or waste places.
The birch is one of the most wide-spread and generally useful of forest
trees of Russia, occurring in that empire in vast forests, in many
instances alone, and in other cases mingled with pines, poplars and
other forest trees. The wood is highly valued by carriage-builders,
upholsterers and turners, on account of its toughness and tenacity, and
in Russia it is prized as firewood and a source of charcoal. A very
extensive domestic industry in Russia consists in the manufacture of
wooden spoons, which are made to the extent of 30,000,000 annually,
mostly of birch. Its pliant and flexible branches are made into brooms;
and in ancient Rome the fasces of the lictors, with which they cleared
the way for the magistrates, were made up of birch rods. A similar use
of birch rods has continued among pedagogues to times so recent that the
birch is yet, literally or metaphorically, the instrument of school-room
discipline. The bark of the common birch is much more durable, and
industrially of greater value, than the wood. It is impermeable to
water, and is therefore used in northern countries for roofing, for
domestic utensils, for boxes and jars to contain both solid and liquid
substances, and for a kind of bark shoes, of which it is estimated 25
millions of pairs are annually worn by the Russian peasantry. The jars
and boxes of birch bark made by Russian peasants are often stamped with
very effective patterns. By dry distillation the bark yields an
empyreumatic oil, called _diogott_ in Russia, used in the preparation of
Russia leather; to this oil the peculiar pleasant odour of the leather
is due. The bark itself is used in tanning; and by the Samoiedes and
Kamchatkans it is ground up and eaten on account of the starchy matter
it contains. A sugary sap is drawn from the trunk in the spring before
the opening of the leaf-buds, and is fermented into a kind of beer and
vinegar. The whole tree, but especially the bark and leaves, has a very
pleasant resinous odour, and from the young leaves and buds an essential
oil is distilled with water. The leaves are used as fodder in northern
latitudes.
The species which belong peculiarly to America (_B. lenta, excelsa,
nigra, papyracea_, &c.) are generally similar in appearance and
properties to _B. alba_, and have the same range of applications. The
largest and most valuable is the black birch (_B. lenta_) found
abundantly over an extensive area in British North America, growing 60
to 70 ft. high and 2 to 3 ft. in diameter. It is a wood most extensively
used for furniture and for carriage-building, being tough in texture and
bearing shocks well, while much of it has a handsome grain and it is
susceptible of a fine polish. The bark, which is dark brown or reddish,
and very durable, is used by Indians and backwoodsmen in the same way as
the bark of _B. alba_ is used in northern Europe.
The canoe or paper birch (_B. papyracea_) is found as far north as 70 deg.
N. on the American continent, but it becomes rare and stunted in the
Arctic circle. Professor Charles Sprague Sargent says: "It is one of the
most widely distributed trees of North America. From Labrador it ranges
to the southern shores of Hudson's Bay and to those of the Great Bear
Lake, and to the valley of the Yukon and the coast of Alaska, forming
with the aspen, the larch, the balsam poplar, the banksian pine, the
black and white spruces and the balsam fir, the great subarctic
transcontinental forest; and southward it ranges through all the forest
region of the Dominion of Canada and the northern states." It is a tree
of the greatest value to the inhabitants of the Mackenzie river district
in British North America. Its bark is used for the construction of
canoes, and for drinking-cups, dishes and baskets. From the wood,
platters, axe-handles, snow-shoe frames, and dog sledges are made, and
it is worked into articles of furniture which are susceptible of a good
polish. The sap which flows in the spring is drawn off and boiled down
to an agreeable spirit, or fermented with a birch-wine of considerable
alcoholic strength. The bark is also used as a substitute for paper. A
species (_B. Bhojputtra_) growing on the Himalayan Mountains, as high up
as 9000 ft., yields large quantities of fine thin papery bark,
extensively sent down to the plains as a substitute for wrapping paper,
for covering the "snakes" of hookahs and for umbrellas. It is also said
to be used as writing paper by the mountaineers; and in Kashmir it is in
general use for roofing houses.
BIRCH-PFEIFFER, CHARLOTTE (1800-1868), German actress and dramatic
writer, was born at Stuttgart on the 23rd of June 1800, the daughter of
an estate agent named Pfeiffer. She received her early training at the
Munich court theatre, and in 1818 began to play leading tragic roles at
various theatres. In 1825 she married the historian Christian Birch of
Copenhagen, but continued to act. From 1837 to 1843 she managed the
theatre at Zuerich. In 1844 she accepted an engagement at the royal
theatre in Berlin, to which she remained attached until her death on the
24th of August 1868. Her intimate knowledge of the technical necessities
of the stage fitted her for the successful dramatization of many popular
novels, and her plays, adapted and original, make twenty-three volumes,
_Gesammelte dramatische Werke_ (Leip. 1863-1880). Many still retain the
public favour. Her novels and tales, _Gesammelte Novellen und
Erzaehlungen_, were collected in three volumes (Leip. 1863-1865).
Her daughter, WILHELMINE VON HILLERN (b. 1836), born at Munich, went on
the stage, but retired upon her marriage in 1857. After 1889 she lived
in Oberammergau and won a reputation as a novelist. Her most popular
works are _Ein Arzt der Seele_ (1869, 4th ed. 1886); and _Die
Geier-Wally_ (1883), which was dramatized and translated into English as
_The Vulture Maiden_ (Leip. 1876).
BIRD, the common English name for feathered vertebrates, members of the
class _Aves_. The word in Old Eng. is _brid_ and in Mid. Eng. _byrd_ or
_bryd_, and in early uses meant the young or nestlings only. It is
partly due to this early meaning that the derivation from the root of
"brood" has been usually accepted; this the _New English Dictionary_
regards as "inadmissible." The word does not occur in any other Teutonic
language. As a generic name for the feathered vertebrates "bird" has
replaced the older "fowl," a common Teutonic word, appearing in German
as _Vogel_. "Bird," when it passed from its earliest meaning of
"nestlings," seems to have been applied to the smaller, and "fowl" to
the larger species, a distinction which was retained by Johnson. In
modern usage "fowl," except in "wild-fowl" or "water-fowl," is confined
to domestic poultry.
The scope of the anatomical part of the following article is a general
account of the structure of birds (_Aves_) in so far as they, as a
class, differ from other vertebrates, notably reptiles and mammals,
whilst features especially characteristic, peculiar or unique, have been
dwelt upon at greater length so far as space permitted. References to
original papers indicate further sources of information. For a
comprehensive account the reader may be referred to Prof. M.
Fuerbringer's enormous work _Untersuchungen zur Morphologie und
Systematik der Voegel_, 4to., 2 vols. (1888); H.G. Bronn's _Klassen und
Ordnungen des Thierreichs_, vol. vi., "Aves," Leipzig, completed 1893 by
Gadow; and A. Newton's _Dictionary of Birds_, London, 1896. For the
history of the classification of birds see the article ORNITHOLOGY,
where also the more important ornithological works are mentioned. EGG,
FEATHER (including Moult), MIGRATION, &c., also form separate articles
to which reference should be made. In this article (A) the general
anatomy of birds is discussed, (B) fossil birds, (C) the geographical
distribution of birds, (D) the latest classification of birds.