Chapter XVIII: Part 18

BILNEY, THOMAS (d. 1531), English martyr, was born at or near Norwich. The exact date of his birth is uncertain, but at all events it was not before 1495. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, graduating LL.B. and taking holy orders in 1519. Finding no satisfaction in the mechanical system of the schoolmen, he turned his attention to the edition of the New Testament published by Erasmus in 1516. "Immediately," he records, "I felt a marvellous comfort and quietness." The Scriptures now became his chief study, and his influence led other young Cambridge men to think along the same lines. Among his friends were Matthew Parker, the future archbishop of Canterbury, and Hugh Latimer. Latimer, previously a strenuous conservative, was completely won over, and a warm friendship sprang up between him and Bilney. "By his confession," said Latimer, "I learned more than in twenty years before." In 1525 Bilney obtained a licence to preach throughout the diocese of Ely. He denounced saint and relic worship, together with pilgrimages to Walsingham and Canterbury, and refused to accept the mediation of the saints. The diocesan authorities raised no objection, for, despite his reforming views in these directions, he was to the last perfectly orthodox on the power of the pope, the sacrifice of the mass, the doctrine of transubstantiation and the authority of the church. But Wolsey took a different view. In 1526 he appears to have summoned Bilney before him. On his taking an oath that he did not hold and would not disseminate the doctrines of Luther, Bilney was dismissed. But in the following year serious objection was taken to a series of sermons preached by him in and near London, and he was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower. Arraigned before Wolsey, Warham, archbishop of Canterbury, and several bishops in the chapter-house at Westminster, he was convicted of heresy, sentence being deferred while efforts were made to induce him to recant, which eventually he did. After being kept for more than a year in the Tower, he was released in 1529, and went back to Cambridge. Here he was overcome with remorse for his apostasy, and after two years determined to preach again what he had held to be the truth. The churches being no longer open to him, he preached openly in the fields, finally arriving in Norwich, where the bishop, Richard Nix, caused him to be arrested. Articles were drawn up against him by Convocation, he was tried, degraded from his orders and handed over to the civil authorities to be burned. The sentence was carried out in London on the 19th of August 1531. A parliamentary inquiry was threatened into this case, not because parliament approved of Bilney's doctrine but because it was alleged that Bilney's execution had been obtained by the ecclesiastics without the proper authorization by the state. In 1534 Bishop Nix was condemned on this charge to the confiscation of his property. The significance of Bilney's execution lies in the fact that on essential points he was an orthodox Roman Catholic.

See _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII._ vols. iv.-v.; Foxe's _Acts and
Monuments_; Gairdner's _History of the Church_; Pollard's _Henry
VIII_. (A. F. P.)

BILOXI, a city of Harrison county, Mississippi, U.S.A., in the south part of the state, on Biloxi Bay, a branch of the Mississippi Sound, which is a part of the Gulf of Mexico. By rail it is 80 m. N.E. of New Orleans and 61 m. S.E. of Mobile, Alabama. Pop. (1880) 1540; (1890) 3234; (1900) 5467 (949 being negroes and 455 foreign-born); (1910) 7988. The city is served by a branch of the Louisville & Nashville railway, and by an electric railway extending to Bay St Louis, through Gulfport (pop., 1900, 1060; 1910, 6386), 13 m. S.W., the port of entry of the Pearl River customs district, whose exports, chiefly timber, lumber, naval stores and charcoal, were valued at $8,392,271 in 1907. Biloxi is both a summer and a winter resort, particularly for the people of New Orleans and Mobile, and has a fine beach, extending for about 12 m. around its peninsula, and bordered by an automobile drive; along the beach are some attractive residences, hotels and boarding houses, and several sanatoriums. The city's principal industries are the canning of oysters, shrimp, fish, figs and vegetables, and the manufacture of fertilizers and flour. A beautiful thin faience with remarkable metallic glazes is made here. The municipality owns the water-works, the water being obtained from artesian wells. Pierre le Moyne d'Iberville (1661-1706) in 1699 built Fort Maurepas across the bay from the present city; and the settlement there, called Biloxi after the Biloxi Indians, was the first to be established by the French in this region. In 1702 this post, known as Old Biloxi, was abandoned, and the seat of government was removed to the Mobile river. In 1712 a settlement was made on the present site, being the first permanent settlement within what is now the state of Mississippi. Many of the early settlers were French Canadians, who came down the Mississippi to join the new colony. Biloxi was again the capital from 1719 until 1722. It was incorporated as a village in 1872, and was chartered as a city in 1896.

BILSTON, a market town of Staffordshire, England, 21/2 m. S.E. of Wolverhampton and 124 N.W. of London, in the Black Country. Pop. of urban district (1901) 24,034. It is served by the Great Western railway, and by the London & North-Western at Ettingshall Road station. In the vicinity are very productive mines of coal and ironstone, as well as sand of fine quality for casting, and grinding-stones for cutlers. Bilston contains numerous furnaces, forges, rolling and slitting mills for the preparation of iron, and a great variety of factories for japanned and painted goods, brass-work and heavy iron goods. Though retaining no relics of antiquity, the town is very ancient, appearing in Domesday. The parish church of St Leonard, dating as it stands mainly from 1827, is on the site of a building of the 13th century. Bilston suffered severely from an outbreak of cholera in 1832. The town is within the parliamentary borough of Wolverhampton.

BILTONG, a South African Dutch word (from _bil_, buttock, and _tong_, tongue), for sun-dried strips of antelope or buffalo meat.

BIMANA (Lat. "two-handed"), a word first used by the naturalist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach to distinguish the order of man from Quadrumana or other mammals. The term was popularized by Cuvier, and the majority of writers followed him in its adoption. In 1863, however, Huxley in his _Man's Place in Nature_ demonstrated that the higher apes might fairly be included in Bimana. Again and again it has been proved that the human great toe can be by constant practice used as a thumb; artists exist who have painted pictures grasping the brush with their toes, and violinists have been known to play their instruments in the same manner. Among many savage races there is developed a remarkable power of foot-grasp, which in a lesser degree is often so noticeable among sailors. Haeckel calls attention to the fact that a baby can hold a spoon with the big-toe as with a thumb. Man, in a word, is potentially quadrumanous.

BIMETALLISM. The very general employment of both gold and silver for currency purposes (see MONEY) has given rise to serious practical difficulties which have in turn led to keen theoretical discussion as to the proper remedies to be employed. Though every arrangement under which two metals form the money of a region may be described as "bimetallism," the term--as often happens in economics--has received a specialized meaning. It denotes a system under which the two metals are freely received by the mint and are equally available as legal tender. The last clause implies the establishment of a definite ratio in value between the two metals (e.g. 1 oz. of gold = 151/2 oz. of silver) so that the title "rated bimetallism" may be given to it, in contradistinction to the "unrated bimetallism" which exists wherever two metals circulate together, but have their relative values determined, not by law, but by "the higgling of the market." Further, the inventor of the term--H. Cernuschi in 1869--regarded it as properly applicable to an international arrangement by which a number of states agree to adopt the same ratio, rather than to the use of the two metals by a single country, which may be described as national bimetallism. International bimetallism is at all events the form which has attracted attention in recent times, and it is certainly the most important.

Regarded from the historical point of view it appears that the failure of separate countries to maintain the two metals in circulation was the cause which produced the idea of bimetallism as an international system. We find first the upholders of a national double standard, as in France and the United States, and these are followed by the advocates of bimetallism set up by a combination of countries. The theoretical considerations which underlie the controversy between the supporters and the opponents of bimetallism find their appropriate place in the article MONEY, as does also the earlier history of the double standard. The circumstances that have led to the prominence of the bimetallic question and the principal events that have marked the course of the movement form the subject of this article.

In the earlier years of the 19th century, when the monetary disturbances that resulted from the Revolutionary wars had ceased, we find France (1803) and the United States (1792) with the double standard legally established. England, on the other hand, had in 1816 accepted by law the _gold standard_, which had come into use in the 18th century. Silver formed the currency of the other European countries. The great discoveries of gold in California (1848) and Australia (1851) brought about the displacement of silver by gold in France, and the continuance of gold as the principal currency metal in the United States, where by the law of 1834 it had been somewhat over-rated (1:16), as compared with the ratio adopted in France (1:151/2), and had therefore expelled most of the silver previously in circulation. Between 1848 and 1860 over L100,000,000 of gold was coined in France, while an equivalent amount of silver was exported, principally to the East.

At this time the weight of economic and official opinion was very decidedly in favour of the single gold standard as the best system. In 1865 the Latin Union was established, in which the French currency system was adopted and was followed by the international conference of 1867 in Paris (see MONETARY CONFERENCES), when gold was unanimously accepted as the standard for the proposed international system to be produced by coordinating the various currencies with that of the Latin Union.

A series of political and economic events speedily changed this situation. The Franco-German War (1870-71) deposed France from her leading position, and led to the establishment of a German gold currency with a different unit from the franc, accompanied by the demonetization of the silver currencies previously in use in the German states. The United States, where an inconvertible paper currency had been introduced during the Civil War, formally established the gold dollar as the standard coin (1873) and arranged for a return to specie payments (1878). At this time, too, the great production of gold which had marked the period 1850-1870 diminished, while very productive silver mines were discovered in the Pacific states of America. As a result of these combined influences the gold price of silver, which had risen a little during the height of the gold discoveries, began to fall rapidly, and the reverse process to that by which France had in the 'fifties acquired a gold currency came into operation. Silver, in accordance with _Gresham's Law_, was imported and offered for coinage. To obviate this the policy of limiting the coinage of silver (the _Limping Standard_) was adopted by the Latin Union. A further fall in the gold price of silver naturally resulted, and this made the position of Eastern trade and the finances of the Indian government insecure. American silver producers, and the German government, as holders of a large mass of demonetized silver, were also sufferers by the depreciation. The effect on public and official opinion was shown by the English parliamentary committee on the depreciation of silver (1876), the American silver commission of the same year, and the appearance of many works on the subject, most of them advocating the double standard. On the initiative of the United States an international monetary conference met in Paris in 1878, but though the necessity of keeping a place for silver in the money of the world was recognized, the proposal to adopt the double standard for general use was rejected by the European states. By the Bland-Allison Act (Feb. 1878) the United States had provided for the coinage of a certain amount of silver per month as a mode of keeping up the price of the metal, which notwithstanding fell to 48 pence per oz. in 1879. The prolonged depression of trade in America and Germany was attributed to the scarcity of money, due to what was described as "the outlawry of silver." By the joint action of France and the United States a fresh monetary conference was held in Paris in 1881, where the advocates of bimetallism were very strongly represented. After prolonged discussion no conclusion was reached, in consequence of the refusal of England and Germany to abandon the gold standard. Though an adjournment to the following year was resolved on, the conference did not reassemble, and the bimetallic movement took the form of agitation, carried on in each country. The English inquiry into the depression of trade (1885-1886) drew from the commission a recommendation for a fresh commission to investigate the relation of gold and silver. This latter body, appointed in 1886, obtained a great body of important evidence, and in 1888 closed its work by a report in which the views of the two sections of the commission were separately presented. Six members supported the existing gold standard and six were in favour of the bimetallic system. This inconclusive result was soon followed in the United States by the Sherman Act (1890), providing for a larger monthly coinage of silver. A temporary rise in the price of the metal was followed by a further fall, making the situation still more critical. A new monetary conference was summoned by the United States and met in Brussels in November 1892. To modify opposition the "desirability of increasing the use of silver" was the resolution proposed; the actual method being left open. This conference also proved abortive and adjourned to 1893, but like that of 1881 did not meet again.

International action having failed to secure any system of bimetallism, the United States and India sought to relieve their position by local legislation. The former repealed the Sherman Act, and the latter closed its mints to the free coinage of silver (1893). As these measures were opposed to bimetallism in that they restricted the use of silver, and were followed by a lower price for that metal than had ever been known, the agitation in the United States and Europe continued. In America it took the form of advocating the free coinage of silver by the United States without waiting for other countries; and in this shape made the principal issue at the presidential elections of 1896 and 1900, in each of which it was emphatically rejected.

A further attempt at securing international bimetallism was made by Senator Wolcott's commission in 1897. The American envoys, in concert with the French government, proposed to England (1) the reopening of the Indian mints, and (2) the annual purchase by England of L10,000,000 of silver. The French minister claimed further concessions which were regarded as inadmissible by the English government; but the fate of the mission was settled by the refusal of the Indian government to reopen its mints.

After the American election of 1900, bimetallism as a popular cause disappeared from view. The silver issue was withdrawn from the democratic platform in 1904, and the bimetallic movement died out in England.

Amongst the causes of this collapse the most important are: (1) the adoption of the gold standard by so many countries--Austria-Hungary (1892), Russia and Japan (1897), India (1899), Mexico (1904)-a movement which pointed to the complete triumph of gold in the future; (2) the great increase in the output of gold. Australia and South Africa so developed their gold mines as to bring the yield for 1906 to L81,000,000 as contrasted with the less than L20,000,000 of 1883. This growing supply removed all that dread of a "gold famine" which served as a popular argument with bimetallists. To these may be added (3) the knowledge that experience had brought of the difficulties surrounding any attempt to establish a common ratio where the interests of different countries are so opposed; and (4) the great expansion of trade and industry, concomitantly with the wider adoption of the gold standard. Therefore, to quote the words of perhaps the ablest advocate of bimetallism, "The outcome of the prolonged controversy ... appears to be that the commercial world will carry on its business principally and more and more on a gold basis, and that particular countries will endeavour in different ways to adjust their actual medium ... to the gold standard" (Nicholson, _Money and Monetary Problems_, 6th ed.).

Perhaps the principal service rendered by the many able minds engaged in the movement will prove to be the fuller development of the more difficult parts of monetary theory and the additional light thrown on the course of monetary history.

A proposal, sometimes confounded with bimetallism, is that for a standard composed of both gold and silver, which is better described as the _Joint-standard_ or as _Symmetallism_.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-On the bimetallic side, Nicholson, _Money and Monetary
Problems_ (6th ed., 1903); F.A. Walker, _International Bimetallism_
(1896); Barbour, _The Theory of Bimetallism_ (1885); Lord Aldenham
(H.H. Gibbs), _A Colloquy on Currency_ (1900); and the numerous
pamphlets and leaflets of the Bimetallic League. Opposed to
bimetallism, Giffen, _The Case against Bimetallism_ (1892); Laughlin,
_History of Bimetallism in the United States_ (4th ed., 1897); Lord
Farrer, _Studies in Currency_ (1898), _The Gold Standard_
(1898)--papers issued by the Gold Standard Defence Assoc. Leonard
Darwin's _Bimetallism_ aims at a judicial summary. See also MONEY,
MONETARY CONFERENCES. (C. F. B.)

BIMLIPATAM, a town of British India, in the Vizagapatam district of Madras, on the sea-coast 18 m. N.E. of Vizagapatam. Pop. (1901) 10,212. It was formerly a Dutch factory, and is now the principal port of the district. The anchorage is an open roadstead protected to some extent by headlands with a lighthouse at Santapalli. Nearly half the sea-borne trade is conducted with foreign countries. The principal exports are oil-seeds, hides and jute.

BIN, a receptacle of various kinds, originally of wicker or basket work. The word appears in most European languages, of. M.L. and Ital. _benna_, Ger. _Benne_, &c.; etymologists trace the word to a root meaning "to plait." It survives in various connexions, e.g. dust-bin, wine-bin (for holding bottles), hop-bin, coal-bin, corn-bin.

BINAN, a town of the province of La Laguna, Luzon, Philippine Islands, on the W. shore of Laguna de Bay, about 20 m. S.S.E. of Manila. Pop. (1903) 9563. The town is surrounded by an extensive and extremely fertile plain which produces very large quantities of rice as well as a great variety of tropical fruits, and a ready market for these products is found in Manila whither they are shipped by boat. The language is Tagalog.

BINARY SYSTEM, in astronomy, a system composed of two stars revolving around each other under the influence of their mutual attraction. A distinction was formerly made between double stars of which the components were in revolution around each other, and those in which no relative motion was observed; but it is now considered that all double stars must really be binary systems.

BINCHOIS, EGIDIUS (d. 1460), an early 15th-century musical composer evidently named after his birthplace, Binche, near Mons. He was esteemed by contemporary and later theorists as second only to Dunstable and Dufay.

BINGEN (anc. _Vincum_ or _Bingium_), a town of Germany, in the grand-duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, 15 m. N.W. from Mainz, on the main line to Cologne. Pop. (1905) 9950. It is situated on the left bank of the Rhine opposite Ruedesheim, at the confluence of the Nahe (or Nava), which is crossed near its mouth by a stone bridge, attributed to Drusus, and certainly of Roman origin, and an iron railway bridge. On a height immediately to the south-east is the ruined castle of Klopp, on the site of a fortress founded by Drusus, and higher still the celebrated chapel of St Roch (rebuilt in 1895 after a fire), where thousands of pilgrims gather on the first Sunday after the 16th of August. Apart from its situation, which renders it a convenient place of tourist resort, the town itself presents but few attractions. There are a Protestant and three Roman Catholic churches, among the latter the parish church with a crypt dating from the 11th century, and a medieval town hall. It has a considerable commerce in wine, grain and cattle, and, new quays and a harbour having been recently constructed, does an extensive transit trade in coal and iron. A short way down the Rhine is the Bingerloch, a famous whirlpool, while about halfway between it and the town rises on a rock in the middle of the stream the _Maeuseturm_ (derived from _Muserie_, cannon), in which, according to legend, Archbishop Hatto II. of Mainz was in 969 eaten by mice (the legend being doubtless due to the erroneous derivation from _Maeuse_, mice). Another legend states that the Nibelung treasure is hidden hereabouts in the Rhine.

BINGERBRUeCK, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, at the confluence of the Nahe and the Rhine, lying just below Bingen, and at the junction of the main lines of railway--Mainz-Coblenz and Bingerbrueck-Metz. It has an extensive trade in the wines of the district. Pop. 2500.

BINGHAM, JOSEPH (1668-1723), English scholar and divine, was born at Wakefield in Yorkshire in September 1668. He was educated at University College, Oxford, of which he was made fellow in 1689 and tutor in 1691. A sermon preached by him from the university pulpit, St Mary's, on the meaning of the terms "Person" and "Substance" in the Fathers, brought upon him a most unjust accusation of heresy. He was compelled to give up his fellowship and leave the university; but he was immediately presented by Dr John Radcliffe to the rectory of Headbournworthy, near Winchester (1695). In this country retirement he began his laborious and valuable work entitled _Origines Ecclesiasticae_, or Antiquities of the Christian Church, the first volume of which appeared in 1708 and the tenth and last in 1722. His design, learnedly, exhaustively and impartially executed, was "to give such a methodical account of the antiquities of the Christian Church as others have done of the Greek and Roman and Jewish antiquities, by reducing the ancient customs, usages and practices of the church under certain proper heads, whereby the reader may take a view at once of any particular usage or custom of Christians for four or five centuries." Notwithstanding his learning and merit, Bingham received no higher preferment than that of Headbournworthy till 1712, when he was collated to the rectory of Havant, near Portsmouth, by Sir Jonathan Trelawney, bishop of Winchester. Nearly all his little property was lost in the great South Sea Bubble of 1720. He died on the 17th of August 1723.

BINGHAMTON, a city and the county-seat of Broome county, New York, U.S.A., in the south part of the state, on both banks of the north branch of the Susquehanna river, at the mouth of the Chenango river. Pop. (1880) 17,317; (1890) 35,005; (1900) 39,647, of whom 4272 were foreign-born; (1910), 48,443. It is an important railway centre, being served by the Delaware & Hudson, the Erie, and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railways; and an extensive system of electric railways connects it with the suburbs and neighbouring towns. Binghamton is picturesquely situated and has a number of parks, the most attractive of which are Ross Park of 100 acres, and Ely Park of 134 acres. Among the principal buildings are the city hall, the court-house, the post-office, the Binghamton city hospital, Stone opera-house, the Carnegie library (1904), the central high school, and a state armoury. Binghamton has also some fine office buildings. Among the city's educational and charitable institutions are the Lady Jane Grey school (for girls), St Joseph's academy, St Mary's home for orphans, the Susquehanna Valley orphan asylum, and a state hospital for the insane. Binghamton is a manufacturing centre of considerable importance, ranking twelfth in the state in 1905 in the value of factory products, $13,907,403, which was an increase of 32.0% over the value of the factory products in 1900; among its manufactures are tobacco, cigars, chewing tobacco and snuff (value in 1905, $2,879,217), patent medicines (value in 1905, $2,133,198), flour and grist mill products ($1,089,910), men's clothing ($833,835), and, of less importance, commercial and computing scales and time recorders, chemicals, distilled liquor, beer, fire-alarm apparatus, overalls, agricultural implements, wagons, electrical apparatus, refined oil, sheet metal, paper bags and envelopes, tacks and nails, window glass, glass-ware, clocks, whips and furniture (especially Morris chairs). In the village of Lestershire (pop. in 1910, 3775; incorporated in 1892), about 2 m. west, and in Endicott, another suburb, are large boot and shoe factories. The municipality owns and operates the water-works. When Binghamton was first settled, about 1787, it was known as Chenango Point. Its site was originally included in the so-called "Bingham Patent," a tract on both sides of the Susquehanna river owned by William Bingham (1751-1804), a Philadelphia merchant, who was a member of the Continental Congress in 1787-1788 and of the United States Senate in 1795-1801, being president _pro tempore_ of the Senate from the 16th of February to the 3rd of March 1797. In 1800 a village was laid out by an agent of Mr Bingham, and was named Binghamton. In 1834 it was incorporated as a village, and in 1867 was chartered as a city.

BINGLEY, a market town in the Otley parliamentary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, on the Aire, 51/2 m. N.W. of Bradford, on the Midland railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 18,449. The church of All Saints is good Perpendicular, though considerably restored. The large industrial population is engaged principally in the worsted and cotton manufacture. The neighbourhood is populous, but the natural beauty of the Aire valley is not greatly impaired.

BINIOU, or BIGNOU, a species of cornemuse or bagpipe, still in use at the present day in Brittany. The biniou is a primitive kind of bagpipe consisting of a leather bag inflated by means of a short valved insufflation tube or blow-pipe, a chaunter with conical bore furnished with a double reed concealed within the stock or socket (see BAG-PIPE), and seven holes, the first being duplicated to accommodate left- and right-handed players.

The scale of the biniou is usually [1] and the single drone is tuned to the lower octave of the first hole .

The more primitive biniou, still occasionally found in the remote districts of Cornouailles and Morbihan, has a chaunter with but five holes,[2] giving part of the scale of D, the drone being also tuned to D. The drone of the biniou is of boxwood, handsomely inlaid with tin, and has a single or beating reed hidden within the stock.

The word biniou or bignou (a Gallicized form), often erroneously derived from _bigno, se renfler beaucoup_--an etymology not supported by Breton dictionaries--is the Breton plural form of _benvek_, instrument, tool, _i.e. binviou, binvijou_.[3] The word is also found in the phrase, "_Sac'h ar biniou_" (a biniou bag), a bag used by weavers to hold their tools, spindles, &c. The biniou is still the traditional and popular instrument of the Breton peasants of Cornouailles and Morbihan, and is almost inseparable from the bombard (q.v.), which is no other than a survival of the medieval musette, hautbois or chalemie, formerly associated with the bag-pipe in western Europe (see OBOE). At all festivals, at the _pardons_, wedding feasts and threshing dances, the two traditional musicians or _sonneurs_ give out in shrill penetrating tones the ancient Breton _rondes_[4] and melodies.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See Victor Mahillon, _Catalogue descriptif_, vol. ii. (Ghent,
1896), p. 353, No. 1126; and Captain C.R. Day, _Descriptive Catalogue
of Musical Instruments_ (London, 1891), p. 62, No. 135.

[2] See N. Quellien, _Chansons et danses des Bretons_ (Paris, 1889),
p. 39, and note, where the description of the instrument is not
technical.

[3] See Le Gonidec, _Dictionnaire breton-francais_, ed. by T. Hersart
de la Villemarque; and N. Quellien, _op. cit_. p. 37, note.

[4] For examples of these see N. Quellien, _op. cit_. part ii.

BINMALEY, a town of the province of Pangasinan, Luzon, Philippine Islands, on the delta of the Agno river, about 5 m. W. of Dagupan, the north terminus of the Manila & Dagupan railway. Pop. (1903) 16,439. It has important fisheries, and manufactures salt, pottery, roofing (made of nipa leaves), and nipa wine. Rice and cocoanuts are the principal agricultural products of the town.

BINNACLE (before 18th century _bittacle_, through Span. _bitacula_, from Lat. _habitaculum_, a little dwelling), a case on the deck of a ship, generally in front of the steersman, in which is kept a compass, and a light by which the compass is read at night.

BINNEY, EDWARD WILLIAM (1812-1881), English geologist, was born at Morton, in Nottinghamshire, in 1812. He was articled to a solicitor in Chesterfield, and in 1836 settled at Manchester. He retired soon afterwards from legal practice and gave his chief attention to geological pursuits. He assisted in 1838 in founding the Manchester Geological Society, of which he was then chosen one of the honorary secretaries; he was elected president in 1857, and again in 1865. He was also successively secretary and president of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester. Working especially at the Carboniferous and Permian rocks of the north of England, he studied also the Drift deposits of Lancashire, and made himself familiar with the geology of the country around Manchester. On the Coal Measures in particular he became an acknowledged authority, and his _Observations on the Structure of Fossil Plants found in the Carboniferous Strata_ (1868-1875) formed one of the monographs of the Palaeontographical Society. His large collection of fossils was placed in Owens College. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1856. He died at Manchester on the 19th of December 1881.

BINNEY, HORACE (1780-1875), American lawyer, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 4th of January 1780. He graduated at Harvard College in 1797, and studied law in the office of Jared Ingersoll (1749-1822), who had been a member of the Constitutional convention of 1787, and who from 1791 to 1800 and again from 1811 to 1816 was the attorney-general of Pennsylvania. Admitted to the bar in Philadelphia in 1800, Binney practised with great success for half a century, and was recognized as one of the leaders of the bar in the United States. He served in the Pennsylvania legislature in 1806-1807, and was a Whig member of the National House of Representatives from 1833 until 1835, ably defending the United States Bank, and in general opposing the policy of President Andrew Jackson. His most famous case, in which he was unsuccessfully opposed by Daniel Webster, was the case of _Bidal v. Girard's Executors_, which involved the disposition of the fortune of Stephen Girard (q.v.). Binney's argument in this case greatly influenced the interpretation of the law of charities. Binney made many public addresses, the most noteworthy of which, entitled _Life and Character of Chief Justice Marshall_, was published in 1835. He also published _Leaders of the Old Bar of Philadelphia_ (1858), and an _Inquiry into the Formation of Washington's Farewell Address_ (1859); and during the Civil War he issued three pamphlets (1861, 1862 and 1865), discussing the right of _habeas corpus_ under the American Constitution, and justifying President Lincoln in his suspension of the writ.

See the _Life of Horace Binney_ (Philadelphia, 1904), by his grandson,
C.C. Binney.

BINNEY, THOMAS (1798-1874), English Congregationalist divine, was born of Presbyterian parents at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1798, and educated at an ordinary day school. After spending seven years in the employment of a bookseller he entered the theological school at Wymondley, Herts, now incorporated in New College, Hampstead. In 1829, after short pastorates at Bedford (New Meeting) and Newport, Isle of Wight, he accepted a call to the historic Weigh House chapel, London. Here he became very popular, and it was found necessary to build a much larger chapel on Fish Street Hill, to which the congregation removed in 1834. An address delivered on the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone was published, with an appendix containing a strong attack on the influence of the Church of England, which gave rise to a long and bitter controversy. Throughout his whole career Binney was a vigorous opponent of the state church principle, but those who simply classified him as a narrow-minded political dissenter did him injustice. His liberality of view and breadth of ecclesiastical sympathy entitle him to rank on questions of Nonconformity among the most distinguished of the school of Richard Baxter; and he maintained friendly relations with many of the dignitaries of the Established Church. He continued to discharge the duties of the ministry until 1869, when he resigned. In 1845 he paid a visit to Canada and the United States, and in 1857-1859 to the Australian colonies. The university of Aberdeen conferred the LL.D. degree on him in 1852, and he was twice chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales.

Binney was the pioneer in a much-needed improvement of the forms of service in Nonconformist churches, and gave a special impulse to congregational psalmody by the publication of a book entitled _The Service of Song in the House of the Lord_. Of numerous other works the best-known is his _Is it Possible to Make the Best of Both Worlds?_ an expansion of a lecture delivered to young men in Exeter Hall, which attained a circulation of 30,000 copies within a year of its publication. He wrote much devotional verse, including the well-known hymn "Eternal Light! Eternal Light!" His last sermon was preached in November 1873, and after some months of suffering he died on the 24th of February 1874. Dean Stanley assisted at his funeral service in Abney Park cemetery.

BINOCULAR INSTRUMENT, or briefly BINOCULAR,[1] an apparatus through which objects are viewed with both eyes. In this article only those instruments will be considered in which solid objects or _objects in space_ are viewed; reference should be made to the article STEREOSCOPE for the instruments in which _plane_ representations are offered to both eyes. The natural vision is such that different central projections of the objects are communicated to both eyes; the difference of the two perspective representations arises from the fact that the projection centres are laterally separated by an interval about equal to the distance between the eyes (the inter-pupillary distance). Binocular instruments should aid the natural spatial or stereoscopic vision, or make it possible if the eyes fail. If the objects be so far distant that the two perspectives formed by the naked eye are no more distinguished from each other, recourse may be had to binocular telescopes and range-finders; and if the objects be so small that, in order to observe details on them, we must bring our eyes so close to the objects that they cannot accommodate the images, recourse may be had to binocular microscopes and magnifying glasses.

The construction of binocular instruments dates back over several centuries, and has now been brought to great perfection. The subject of their theory and history has been exhaustively treated by M. von Rohr, _Die binokularen Instrumente_ (Berlin, 1907), the first publication to present a complete account of these instruments.

Telescope.

_Binocular Instruments for Observation only._--The first binocular telescope, consisting of two telescopes placed side by side, was constructed in 1608 by Johann Lipperhey, the inventor of the ordinary or Dutch telescope. The subject was next taken up by the monks. The Capuchin Antonius Maria Schyrlaeus (Schyrl) de Rheita (1597-1660) described in 1645 the construction of double terrestrial telescopes. Greater success attended the efforts of the Capuchin Cherubin d'Orleans, who flourished at about the same time, and constructed large double telescopes of the Dutch type of high magnification, for use in war, and smaller instruments of lower magnification; these instruments were provided with mechanism for adjusting to the interval between the eyes of the observer (fig. 1). After these discoveries the subject received no more attention until the 19th century; no improvements of these instruments are recorded in the literature of the second half of the 18th century.

The re-invention of the Dutch binocular telescope apparently dates from 1823, and is to be assigned to the Viennese optician, Johann Friedrich Voigtlaender (1779-1859); but the credit of having placed these instruments on the market probably belongs to J.P. Lemiere in Paris, who, in 1825, took out a French patent for an improvement of the Dutch double telescope. Lemiere's instruments were furnished with a common focusing arrangement, and the adapting to the inter-pupillary distance was effected by turning the two parallel telescopes round their common axis. The development of this instrument was studied by opticians for the remainder of the first half of the 19th century; the last improvement apparently was made by P.G. Bardou in 1854, and by H. Helmholtz in 1857 when he described the telestereoscope (fig. 2) with telescopic magnification. By utilizing the telescope with prism-inversion, devised in 1851 by Ignazio Porro (1795-1875), A.A. Boulanger succeeded in producing a binocular of an entirely new type in 1859 (fig. 3). But he overlooked the possibility of increasing the distance between the objectives; Camille Nachet introduced this improvement in 1875, but his instruments did not meet with much popularity. This was probably due to the fact that, at this time, the manufacture of the glass for the prisms was too difficult; this was overcome by E. Abbe, after the founding of the glass-works at Jena, who effected, independently of his predecessors, the wider separation of the objectives (fig. 4), and increased it in the telestereoscope (fig. 5), or relief telescope, in a manner nearly approaching to Helmholtz's proposal.

Microscope.

The first binocular microscope was invented by the previously mentioned Father Cherubin, whose instrument consisted of two inverting systems, and consequently gave a totally wrong impression of depth, i.e. depressions appeared as elevations, and vice versa, or, as we must say after Charles Wheatstone, it presented a pseudoscopic impression; this quality, however, was not recognized by the microscopists of the time. The instrument subsequently fell into complete neglect for nearly two centuries, to be revived in 1852 by Charles Wheatstone, who has stated that he had previously studied the problem; the publication of his views in his second great paper "On Binocular Vision,"[2] in the _Phil. Trans._ for 1852, undoubtedly stimulated the investigation of this instrument, which was carried on with zeal and success more especially in England and the United States. In 1853 the American J.L. Riddell (1807-1867) devised his binocular microscope, which contained the essentials of Wheatstone's pseudoscope. F.H. Wenham, another constructor, did not at first succeed in avoiding the pseudoscopic effect, but, by the application of _refracting_ dividing prisms, he subsequently arrived at orthoscopic representations and continued the development of the different methods for producing micro-photographic stereograms; this was effected in the first case by placing a diaphragm over one half of the objective for each exposure, and in the second case by a suitable direction of the illuminating pencil (fig. 6). Of greater benefit, however, for stimulating interest in binocular microscopes, was his invention of _reflecting_ dividing prisms (fig. 7). Other experiments, begun by Powell and Lealand, and developed with greater skill by Wenham, were concerned with the binocular vision of identical images. Such an impression could not possibly be stereoscopic, and these experiments led to the construction of a non-stereoscopic binocular microscope. Of the other workers in this field mention may be made of Alfred Nachet, who in 1853, and subsequently in 1863, brought forward two forms of binocular microscope.

The earliest stages of the development of the binocular microscope had been always confined to those instruments with _one_ objective, in the immediate neighbourhood of which the systems for dividing the pencil were placed. At a later date attempts were made to separate the two halves of the objective by modifying the eye-piece; this led to the construction of stereoscopic eye-pieces, initiated by R.B. Tolles, E. Abbe and A. Prazmowski. Of special importance is the work of Abbe; although, as he himself has stated, his methods accidentally led to the Wenham system, he certainly was far above his predecessors in his theoretical treatment of the problem, and in the perspicuity and clearness of his explanation. To him is also due the re-establishment of the instruments, which Wenham had abandoned by reason of too great technical difficulties (fig. 8). The newest form of the binocular microscope is very similar to the oldest form in which two completely separated tubes were employed. The inventor, H.S. Greenough, employs two systems for setting up the image, in order to avoid the pseudoscopic effect. After experiments in the Zeiss works, the erecting of Porro's prisms simultaneously permitted a convenient adaptation to the eye-distance of the observer.

Simple microscope.

The first binocular magnifying glass or simple microscope (German, _Lupe_) was devised by J.L. Riddell in 1853; in this instrument (fig. 9) the pencil of light is transmitted to the eyes by means of two pairs of parallel mirrors. Of the many different improvements mention may be made of A. Nachet's. H. Westien made use of two Chevalier-Bruecke's simple microscopes with their long working distances in order to form an instrument in which the curvature of the image was not entirely avoided. Mention may also be made of the binoculars of K. Fritzsch (formerly Prokesch) and E. Berger.

_Binocular Instruments for Range-finding._--For measuring purposes binocular telescopes with parallel axes are the only types employed. The measurement is effected by adjoining to the space or interval to be measured some means of measurement defined; for example, by a fixed scale which extends into the space, or by a movable point (_Wandermarke_). This instrument shows a transition to the stereoscope, inasmuch as the scale or means of measurement is not directly observed, but to each eye a plane representation is offered, just as in the stereoscope; the space to be measured, on the other hand, is portrayed in exactly the same way as in the double telescope. The method for superposing the two spaces on one another was deduced by Sir David Brewster in 1856, but he does not appear to have dealt with the problem of range-finding. The problem was attacked in 1861 by A. Rollet; later, in 1866, E. Mach published a promising idea, and finally--independently of the researches of his predecessors--Hektor de Grousilliers, in partnership with the Zeiss firm (E. Abbe and C. Pulfrich), constructed the first stereoscopic range-finder suitable for practical use. (O. Hr.)

FOOTNOTES:

[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.