[Billington, Elizabeth], née Weichsel, a celebrated singer, born in London, of German descent; kept up her celebrity to the last; died at Venice in 1817.
[Bilney, Thomas], martyr, born in Norfolk, a priest who adopted the reformed doctrine; was twice arraigned, and released on promise not to preach, but could not refrain, and was at last burned as a heretic in 1531.
[Bilocation], the power or state, ascribed to certain of the saints, of appearing in two places at the same time.
[Bimetallism], the employment of two metals (gold and silver) in the currency of a country as legal tender at a fixed relative value, the ratio usually proposed being 1 to 15½.
[Bimini], a fabulous island with a fountain possessed of the virtue of restoring youth.
[Binet], a French littérateur, translator of Horace and Virgil (1732-1812).
[Bingen], a manufacturing and trading town on the left bank of the Rhine, in Grand-Duchy of Hesse Darmstadt, opposite which is the tower associated with the myth of Bishop Hatto.
[Bingham, Joseph], an English divine, born at Wakefield; author of "Origines Ecclesiasticæ," a laborious and learned work; lost his all in the South-Sea Scheme and died (1668-1723).
[Biogenesis], name of the theory that derives life from life, and opposed to [Abiogenesis] (q. v.).
[Biology], the science of animal life in a purely physical reference, or of life in organised bodies generally, including that of plants, in its varied forms and through its successive stages.