chloropicrine, a compound of an extremely penetrating odour, will be found in the distillate, should picric acid be present in the beer, and may be distinctly recognised by its smell, Strychnine is never present in beer, except by accident, or for the purpose of poisoning. See STRYCHNINE. Tobacco is best indicated by the odour of the alcoholic extract of beer heated gently over a lamp. Beetroot-For composition of the ash of beetroot, see ASH. For beetroot-sugar, see SUGAR. Belladonna-See ATROPIA. Benzoic Acid-See ACID, BENZOIC. Benzole, Nitrate of-See NITRO-BEN ZOLE. Bilharzia Hæmatobia-A fluke-like parasite. It is bisexual. The body of the male is thread-shaped, round, white, and flattened anteriorly. The genital pore lies between the abdominal sucker and the commencement of the canalis gynæcophoris; the latter is a peculiar and distinctive canal for the reception of the female. The female is thin and delicate, having the genital pore and abdominal sucker in contact, and not being provided with a canal. In both sexes the oral sucker is triangular, the abdominal circular. This parasite was first discovered by Bilharz of Cairo, in the portal vein and in the bladder. It is especially prevalent on the banks of the Nile and at the Cape of Good Hope, inducing very serious symptoms, and even death. The main symptoms are usually referred to the urinary system, but the parasite is a great, if not the chief cause, of the dysentery preva lent in Egypt, the eggs of the distoma being found deposited in rows within the intestinal vessels, or beneath the exudations of the swollen mucous membrane. Dr. Harley has found the ova in the urine of persons at the Cape of Good Hope suffering from hæmaturia; and it is probable that the latter disease, so prevalent at the Cape, is there, in some degree, due to the distoma. The ap pearances after death from this parasite are various in the bowels, congestion, deposits upon the mucous membrane, and extensive ulcerations ; degeneration and atropy of the kidneys, dependent upon an infiltrated state of the ureters, and blocking of the portal vein from myriads of these parasites, are some of the most important pathological changes. Bioplasm-See GERMS. Births, Deaths, and Sickness Returns-By section 15 of the Order of the Local Government Board (Nov. 11, 1872), it is the duty of the medical officer of health to transmit quarterly, in forms provided by the Local Government Board, returns of sickness and death. The Board has lately addressed a circular to the different sanitary authorities, pointing out that the death returns may be obtained from the registrars, and suggesting that the sanitary authorities should remune rate them for their trouble. Returns in towns should be sent weekly, or even more frequently, to the medical officer of health. In rural districts, returns each month are found to answer every purpose, except there be a death from any infectious disease; it is then the duty of the registrar to transmit information at once. In most districts the registrars are paid on vaccination terms; that is, 2d. an entry. In a great many no returns can be obtained at all, from the apathy of the authorities. It is obvious that neither the sanitary authority nor the health officer is in a position to improve the health of his district, or to prevent the spread of contagious disease, without being kept constantly informed of the causes of death, and of the amount and nature of sickness. There can be little doubt that in the future it will be found convenient in certain places to make the nuisance inspector the registrar of births and deaths, the health officer the superintendent registrar. This course would, in some towns, be economical and advantageous. There is considerable difficulty in obtaining sickness returns. The sources appear to be the poor-law returns of medical relief, public medical institutions, benefit societies, sick clubs, and schools. Of all these, the only one supplemented by information from other that is in practical use is the poor-law returns, medical men concerning their private patients. Returns once obtained should be classified and calculated out in death rates per 1000 or 10,000, or sickness per 1000, &c. (See STATISTICS.) At the present time, however, death returns are made so loosely, especially in rural districts, that caution must be exercised in using them for scientific purposes. On carebe found that one street in a town or one fully examining death returns, it will often parish in a district shows a persistently high death rate, and this local information is perhaps the most valuable of all to a hygienist, as it indicates the dark spots calling for amendment. All sickness and death returns should be calculated quarterly, from the first day of the month to the last, and not to the quarter days. Likewise the yearly statistics should be made out, not from Christmas to Christmas, but from the 1st of January to the 31st of December. A very good form has been arranged by Dr. David Page of Westmoreland, by which the deaths occurring annually in a district may be summarised under their proper heads. A useful register of deaths and diseases has also been settled by Dr. Ogle, in which the returns can be posted up month by month. It is of great importance, in all combined districts, that the different registrars should use the same printed form. Many of these have been suggested. Dr. Thursfield's is as follows, and is as good as any. It is entitled "District Registrar's Form of Return of Deaths to Medical Officers of Health;" and the information given is arranged under the following heads :-Return of Deaths from the District, from the day of day of 1875: (1) No. of Entry in Register; (2) Name; (3) Age; (4) Sex; (5) Condition of Life;* (6) Date; (7) Locality; † (8) Cause of Death. to the The biscuits averaged 20 grammes each in weight, therefore the above would be contained in about five biscuits. Good ship-biscuits should be well baked, of a good colour, and steeped in water, should thoroughly soften down. They should also be free from weevils. Liebig's extract of meat, mixed with baked The instructions given to the district registrars flour, forms a valuable and pleasant biscuit. upon the covers of the books of forms are as follows:-"Under ordinary circumstances, one of these forms should be filled up, and sent in to the medical officer of health for the district, at the end of each month. On the occasion of any first death in a locality from any of the diseases enumerated below (the principal zymotic diseases), an immediate return should be sent in, and also on the occurrence of any subsequent group of deaths in the same locality from the same cause. During epidemics, special directions will be given by the medical officer of health for sending in returns." Biscuits (derived from two French words, meaning twice cooked)-Of biscuits there are a great variety, and made of various substances, such as meat, arrowroot, charcoal, &c. The simplest biscuits consist merely of flour and water. Biscuits contain but little water, hence, bulk for bulk, they are more nutritious than bread. Three-fourths of a pound are usually taken to equal one pound of bread; and from the smallness of their bulk they are easily transported. The continuous use of them is attended with many disadvantages; they become difficult of digestion, and it has been found that men do not thrive if kept to this diet for any length of time. Biscuits are deficient in fat, and should therefore, when eaten, be combined with some * Deaths of illegitimate children under twelve months of age should be entered as such. This entry should in all cases include the name of the parish, in addition to the exact locality. This should be a complete copy of the same entry on the medical attendant's certificate of death, or if uncertified, should be entered as such. A biscuit, made by Mr. Gail Borden of Galveston, Texas, contains equal parts of meat extract and dried flour (made in Papin's digester). A biscuit like this was largely used during the American war. The inventor represents that 10 lbs. will last a man for fourteen days, or at the rate of 112 ounces a day; but this statement, like most of the statements made by the sanguine introducers of such preparations, is clearly an exaggeration. The biscuit, after being pow dered, is soaked in cold water for a few minutes, then boiled for twenty or thirty minutes, and after being flavoured, makes a good soup. A biscuit of charcoal has been prepared by Mr. Bragg of London, well known as "Bragg's charcoal biscuit." This has been found a very valuable preparation for patients suffering from flatulence, indigestion, foulness of breath, &c. The consumption of biscuits in this country is doubtless very large, though probably not so great as in France. A few years since, the manufacture of a favourite biscuit called 'Rheims" amounted to more than 18,000 dozen a day, and the yearly consumption in Paris alone was 2,555,000 dozen. Adulterations.-Carbonate of ammonia has been added to biscuits to increase the bulk of the paste; carbonate of lead has occasionally been recognised (but only in small quantities), and chloride of ammonia has been detected. The analysis of biscuits, in order to detect adulteration, may be conducted as follows: Burn in a little platinum dish 1 gramme of | the biscuit until the ash is white; the ash should be very minute in quantity: 1 gramme of a Huntley & Palmer's lunch-biscuit only left 007 grammes of ash. If the ash is excessive, it may be tested in the usual way for mineral matters which may have been added to increase the weight. The fat may be estimated by treating 1 gramme with dry ether, then evaporating the ether down in a platinum dish by floating the dish first in warm water, then drying on the water-bath. The nitrogen is best estimated by combustion with oxide of copper; but as the nitrogenous matter in biscuit is mostly soluble, it may also be determined by the ammonia process. See AMMONIA. Sir Robert Bell, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Sir Nicholas Barham, sergeant-at-law, two sheriffs, one knight, five justices of the peace, and most of the jury: "above 600 sickened in one night, and the day after, the infectious air being carried into the next village, sickened there an hundred more." In July and August no less than 510 persons perished, who either had been present at the trial, or who had caught it from those who had attended the court. The third black assize occurred at Exeter in 1586. "Certaine poore Portingals," about 38 in number, had been captured at sea by Barnard Drake, and "cast into the deepe pit and stinking dungeon." They had, it seems, suffered great privations at sea, and in the prison had no change of raiment, but were left to lie on the bare ground. The appearance For estimation of the sugar, see SUGAR. of the prisoners, emaciated by hunger and The water is easily determined by putting weakened by disease, was distressing in the 1 gramme of the powdered substance in a extreme, some had to be led, others conveyed platinum dish and evaporating over the water-by hand-barrows. They were rested and exbath for three hours or more-in fact, until it ceases to lose weight; the difference in the weight before and after drying is the water. The starch and dextrine may be determined by the loss or by conversion into grape-sugar. See STARCH. Black Assizes-There are no less than six assizes on record in which an infectious fever was conveyed from the prisoners to the judges and jurymen and other people in the court, and hence from the fatality that attended them called black. The first was at Cambridge Lent assizes, in the reign of Henry VIII., 1522. It "broke out at the assize of Cambridge, when held in the castle there, in the time of Lent, 13 Henry VIII., 1521-22. For the justices there, and all the gentlemen, bailives, and others resorting thither, took such an infection that many of them died, and almost all that were present fell desperately sick, and narrowly escaped with their lives."-(WOOD's History and Antiquities of Oxford.) The second was the notorious black assize at Oxford, 1577. It was held at Oxford Castle on July 4th and two following days, for the trial of one Rowland Jenkes, arraigned and condemned for his seditious TOONG." ,, He was a bookbinder and a Roman Catholic, and though there were other prisoners, yet the account states that after judgment had been pronounced against him, "there arose amidst the people such a dampe that almost all were smouldered, very few escaping that were not taken at that instant."-(HOLINSHED.) Among those who were thus so suddenly affected were posed to the air for a little time; on being brought into court, they infected those present. The judge died, and the disease spread over the whole county, and was not extinguished until 1586. Out of one jury of twelve there died eleven, hence the disease must have been very fatal. In 1730 the fourth black assize was held at Taunton in Lent. "At the Lent assizes in Taunton in 1730, some prisoners who were brought thither from Ivilchester gaol infected the court, and Lord Chief Baron Pengelly, Sir James Sheppard, serjeant, John Pigot, Esq., sheriff, and some hundreds besides, died of the gaol distemper."-(HOWARD.) A fifth black assize occurred at Launceston, and is described by Huxham in his "Observations on the Air and Epidemic Diseases, 1742." The symptoms were evidently those of typhus. The sixth black assize was in 1750, at the Old Bailey. The sessions began on the 11th of May, and there happened to be more criminals and a greater crowd of people than usual. A hundred prisoners were put into two rooms, measuring 14 feet by 11 feet, and 7 feet high. Some others were put in the bail-dock. The court itself was very confined and narrow; an open window at the farther end of the court carried the infection from the reeking bodies of the prisoners to the bench and the body of the court. Sir Samuel Pennant, the Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Abney, and Baron Clarke, judges, and Sir Daniel Lambert, alderman, two or three counsel, and many others in the court were affected; and over forty, it is said, succumbed to the gaol-fever caught in this manner. The disease of the six black assizes is gene rally considered to have been typhus. Dr. Guy, however, thinks the Oxford outbreak may have been a malignant dysentery. See FEVER, TYPHUS. Black Death-A name given to a frightful pestilence which ravaged the whole of Europe and Asia in the 14th century. It appears, however, to have existed previous to that date under various names. The symptoms were analogous to those of plague, and by many physicians it is considered to be nothing more nor less than a variety of oriental plague. A careful study of the symptoms of the two diseases renders this, to say the least, doubtful. We are of Anglada's opinion, that it was a distinct species, and that now it no longer exists, having been rendered extinct by the general improvement of the habitations, the food, and the customs of the people. Black Jack-Burnt sugar, used to impart colour and bitterness to beverages, and specially used for adulterating coffee. It is sometimes called "coffee refined," and is generally sold in tin canisters. It is also used for colouring vinegar, brandy, and rum. shall have occasion again to refer to this article when treating of the adulterations of these various liquids. We with which water has been largely incorporated. Black Pudding-Made of the blood of the pig, mixed with groats and fat. It contains about 11 per cent. of nitrogenous matter. Blindness and Deaf Mutism-It is computed that there are 30,000 blind persons in this country, or 1 in every 1800, and that from various causes 1000 people become blind yearly. Of this number 13 per cent. are under 20 years of age, 17 per cent. under 40, and 23 per cent. under 60. In other words, blindness increases, as might be expected, with age. Thus 1 in every 3300 is blind over 20 years of age. 1 1 1 40 66 80 690, or about of the 6347. According to M. Dufau, there are in France 3766 blind, or 1 in every 950; in Belgium there are 4117, or 1 in every 1000. In Denmark the proportion is 1 in 790, and in Nor "Black Jack" is also the name given by miners to blende, or the sulphide (sulphuret) of zinc. "Black Jack" is a name given to butter way 1 in every 500. are about equal; for instance, in Prussia, a few years since, there was 1 blind in every 1378 inhabitants, and 1 deaf mute in every 1269 inhabitants. Blindness increases as you go to the north-the numbers already given show this-while deaf mutism increases as the country is more or less elevated above the snow-line; therefore, mountainous regions present more examples than plains. With regard to the influence of age, deaf mutism is congenital, while blindness is frequently an accident occurring at any age, hence there are more youthful mutes than youthful blind people. It has been calculated in Prussia, that in 100 deaf mutes 70 are aged from 1 year to 30 years, and 30 above that age; whilst among 100 blind, the ages of 24 vary from 1 to 30 years, and 76 above that age. The preceding table was drawn up by M. Dufau. If we divide these 17 groups into 3 zones, thus (1) Northern region, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8 groups. we obtain the following facts: From this we gather the significant fact that blindness is distributed in France as in the northern hemisphere-i.e., in the central part we find the least number of blind people, and in the northern the greatest. We find also that in those French provinces which are considered as the least advanced, such as Poitou, Berry, Auvergne, &c., where the industrial movement has made but slow advances-where the industrial population is, in fact, placed under the most unfavourable conditions-the number of blind is still less than in the north; whilst in the principal centre of the industrial movement in France, from causes sufficiently evident, a large amount of blindness is to be met with. The large number of people who are blind in the southern region, confirms the principle we have previously enunciated. In considering the number of the deaf, Dufau divides these 17 groups into two divisions, an eastern, which consists of groups 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, and a western region, comprising groups 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 15. In the eastern region we find 1 in every 1081 of the inhabitants deaf mutes, while in the western division the amount is 1 in 1402. Thus we find that in all the mountainous regions of France the number of deaf mutes is nearly a third higher than in the flat country. We find also that there are more blind than deaf mutes in seven groups (viz., 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 12, 13), more deaf mutes than blind in five groups (viz., 8, 11, 14, 15, 16), and that the proportion is nearly the same in the five remaining groups. With regard to sex, it is well established that the masculine sex affected by either of these infirmities is greatly in excess of the female. Thus in Prussia there are 100 blind men to 87 blind women, and 100 deaf men to 76 female deaf mutes. Institutions for Educating the Blind.-There are twenty-seven institutions in England established for the purpose of educating the blind, two only giving attention to the higher branches of education, the others being mostly confined to the teaching of some manual trade and reading raised type. One of the two higher-class institutions is "The College for Blind Sons of Gentlemen, Worcester," founded in 1866, its object being to provide such an education as shall enable a blind man of good means to enter a university, and prepare himself for the professions open to him, or one of slender fortune to compete for a maintenance as a teacher of music and languages, or a translator. The Royal Normal College, founded in 1868, for talented children of the lower classes, is almost wholly eleemosynary, and gives a more liberal education than any other institution of the same class, while it pays the greatest attention to music and tuning as a means of gaining a livelihood. In France there is a large institution, in the charge of the State. At Würtemberg and Zurich, the institute for the blind has been combined with that for the reception of deaf mutes, who are found useful, as they act as guides to the blind. In short, in Europe and in America there are many valuable establishments created for the training and education of the blind. Blood-A corpusculated animal fluid, contained in a system of vessels called the circulatory system. In animals low down in the scale the blood is a colourless fluid, but in the vertebrate it is coloured (with one or two exceptions). The arterial blood is of a bright red, the venous of a dull purple colour. It is the most important of the animal fluids. Under the microscope, it is seen not to be homogeneous, but to consist of corpuscles in the form of a multitude of little flattened disks floating in fluid. These little disks are tolerably uniform in the same animal, both in shape and size, but differing in different species. In man they are round and concave, in birds and reptiles oval. Human blood has two kinds of corpuscles, the red averaging of an inch in diameter, the white a little larger. The white cor |