BIRIBI, or Cavagnole, a French game of chance, prohibited by law since 1837. It is played on a board on which the numbers 1 to 70 are marked. The players put their stakes on the numbers they wish to back. The banker is provided with a bag from which he draws a case containing a ticket, the tickets corresponding with the numbers on the board. The banker calls out the number, and the player who has backed it receives sixty-four times his stake; the other stakes go to the banker. In the French army “to be sent to Biribi” is a cant term for being sent to the disciplinary battalion in Algeria.
BIRJEND, the capital of Káïn, a sub-province of Khorasan in Persia, in 32° 53′ N. 59° 10′ E., and at an elevation of 4550 ft. Pop. about 25,000. It is situated 328 m. from Meshed by the direct road, in a fertile valley running east and west, of which the southern boundary is a lofty range of barren hills known as Kuh i Bakeran. Through the valley runs the Khusp river, which loses itself in the desert towards the west; it is, however, generally dry. The water-supply of the town and of the 70 or 80 villages under its jurisdiction is very scanty. On the east of the town at the foot of a hill stands a dilapidated fort. Birjend has six good caravanserais, a college and some mosques; post and telegraph offices were established there in 1902.
BIRKBECK, GEORGE (1776-1841), English physician and philanthropist, was born at Settle in Yorkshire on the 10th of January 1776. He early evinced a strong predilection for scientific pursuits; and in 1799, after graduating as doctor of medicine, he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy at the Andersonian Institution of Glasgow. In the following year he delivered, for the benefit of the working-classes, a gratuitous course of scientific lectures, which were continued during the two following years and proved eminently successful. He removed to London in 1804, and there he endeavoured to prosecute his philanthropic schemes, at first without much encouragement, but ultimately with marked success. In 1823 he contributed to found the Mechanics’ Institute, the name of which was afterwards changed to Birkbeck Institution or College, in honour of its founder. He was appointed director of the institute, which he had originally endowed with the sum of £3700, and held the office till his death on the 1st of December 1841. The sphere of usefulness of the institution was gradually enlarged, and an enlargement of the buildings was carried out in 1883-1885. The college now holds day and evening classes in many of the sciences, in literature, languages and art.
BIRKENFELD, a town of Germany, capital of the principality of the same name, on the Zimmerbach, 25 m. S.E. of Trier and on the main line of railway from Bingerbrück to Neunkirchen. Pop. 2500. Close by, on an eminence, lie the ruins of the castle of Birkenfeld, dating from the 14th century, once the residence of the counts palatine of Zweibrücken. The town has an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, a grand-ducal high school and a hospital. Besides brewing and tanning, its industries include the manufacture of tobacco and chicory. There is also a considerable trade in cattle.
The Principality of Birkenfeld is hilly and well-forested; agriculture prospers on the cleared lands, and fruit is grown in the valley of the Nahe, the principal stream. Ironstone and roofing slates are quarried, and there is some industry in agate-polishing and the manufacture of trinkets. The principality has an area of 312 sq. m. and a population (1900) of 43,409, chiefly Protestants. It is formed out of the former lordships of Dachstuhl and Oberstein, of part of the ancient countship of Sponheim, and sections of the duchy of Jülich, which were granted to the grand-duke of Oldenburg by the congress of Vienna in 1815. It is entirely an enclave in Prussian territory, and though it is represented in the Oldenburg diet, it is governed by a separate Regierungskollegium, consisting of a president and two members, who are responsible to the Oldenburg ministry.