(1887), and the largely autobiographical Authentic Biography, by his son and son-in-law (1888). Beechey, SIR WILLIAM, R. A., born at Burford, Oxfordshire, in 1753, entered the Royal Academy as a student in 1772, and devoted himself chiefly to portrait-painting. In 1793 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy; and in 1798 he received the honour of knighthood, and was made a Royal Academician, for his picture of the Cavalry Review in Hyde Park by George III., which is reckoned his best work. Beechey now received the patronage of the royal family and court. Among his portraits are those of Lord Nelson, Sir William Hamilton, Lord St Vincent, Lord Cornwallis, John Kemble, and Mrs Siddons. Beechey was not a painter of the first rank, but his portraits are generally characterised by easy attitude and naturalness of expression. He died at Hampstead, 28th January 1839. His son, FREDERICK WILLIAM, born in London in 1796, entered the navy at the age of ten. In 1818 he took part under Franklin in a scientific voyage of polar discovery; and the services he rendered with his pencil during this voyage gained a grant of £200 from parliament. In 1819 he was engaged in another arctic expedition under Parry; and in 1821 rendered further important services to science by his exploration of part of the north coast of Africa, of which the results were published in 1828. In 1825 he received a commission to proceed by the Pacific Ocean and Behring Strait to the Polar Sea, in order to communicate, if possible, with Franklin, who was to make the journey overland from North America. The explorers did not meet, although at one time they were within 150 miles of each other. Beechey returned in 1828, and in 1831 published a narrative of his voyage. Port Clarence and Port Grantley, to the south-east of Cape Prince of Wales, were discovered by him in 1827. He was made Rear-admiral of the Blue in 1854, having in 1843 published his Voyage of Discovery towards the North Pole. He died 29th November 1856.

Bee-eater (Meropida), a family of birds nearly allied to kingfishers. Numerous forms occur, widely distributed in Africa, India, Moluccas, and Australia, and are well known for their bee-eating propensities and bright plumage. The Common Beeeater (Merops apiaster) very rarely occurs in Britain,

Common Bee-eater (Merops apiaster).

but is an exceedingly abundant summer visitor in Southern Europe. Even Aristotle speaks of its ravages among the bees, which the bird seizes on its swallow-like flight, or by watching beside the hives. They excavate long holes which honeycomb the banks of rivers like the Don and Volga.

These nests are sometimes 10 feet deep, and the wearing away of the rather long bill testifies to the amount of labour which they expend to secure the safety of the young. These are often seen sunning themselves at the openings of the holes, tumbling back when alarmed by the approach of reptilian or other enemies. When the flowers wither and the bees cease to work, the birds migrate southwards, and breed again in Africa, where Livingstone has described their excavations on the banks of the Leeba. Their bright, predominantly green plumage is often used to decorate ladies' hats, and they have further some practical importance on account of their destructiveness to bees, which is compensated to some extent, however, by their ravages among wasps and other insects. The Hottentots watch their flight in order to find the bee-nests.

Beef. See CATTLE, FOOD.

African perching birds, nearly related to the starBeef-eater (Buphaga), a small genus of lings. The name Ox-pecker is more accurately descriptive of their habit of feeding on the larvae of gadflies and the like, which they find on the backs of cattle, camels, rhinoceroses, and other large animals. Livingstone notes how the sharp eyesight of the South African Buffalo Birds (B. africana) make them useful sentinels to the cattle herds, and the same has been observed in regard to the rhinoceros. Their habit of devouring the insect pests, which they generally do without irritation to the infested animals, is evidently convenient and pleasant both for themselves and the cattle.

The

The

Beef-eater, a term now applied jocularly to certain functionaries belonging to the Yeomen of the Guard (q.v.), who, ever since the time of Henry VII., at whose coronation they made their first appearance, 30th October 1485, have formed part of the train of royalty, attending the sovereign at royal banquets and other state occasions. Tower Warders are a distinct corps from the Yeomen of the Guard, and had their origin in the reign of Edward VI., when fifteen of the Warders were sworn in as Extraordinary Yeomen of the Chamber. They received liveries like the Yeoman of the Guard in ordinary, but are distinguished from them by the absence of the cross-belt. costume has varied somewhat during the four centuries; a slight alteration was made in 1858; and in 1885 a cloth hat was given to be worn with the undress uniform of the Tower Warders. Their costume has had much to do with their attractiveness to sight-seers. The word has of late been usually regarded as a corruption of buffetier (Fr.), or beaufetier, one who attends the buffet or sideboard. It would thus be an instance of what Latham calls foreign words simulating a vernacular origin;' like sparrow-grass for aspara gus, ancient for ensign. But Skeat holds that beefeater is simply eater of beef, a servant or dependant, and quotes eaters (from Ben Jonson) and powderbeef lubbers used in a similar sense. See T. Preston's Yeomen of the Guard (2d ed. 1887).

Beef-tea is a light and pleasant article of diet, obtained from the flesh of the ox. It is best made as follows: A pound of lean beef is cut into small pieces and placed in a closed jar with a pint of cold water; after an hour the jar is allowed to stand for another hour in a pan of gently boiling water; the contents are then strained through a coarse sieve. A much more concentrated beef-tea may be made by placing the meat in a jar without water and simmering it as above for two or three hours. Salt is then added according to taste. Either of these processes removes from the meat almost all its salts and extractive matters, with a proportion of its albumen and gelatine.

BEEF-WOOD

Beef tea is popularly supposed to contain all the nourishment of the meat from which it is made. This is a great mistake; for though the substances which give the beef its flavour are extracted, far the larger part of the nutritious albumen and gelatine remain in the tasteless and hardly digestible residue more complex processes are required to obtain highly nutritious extracts from meat. It is, however, of great value in the treatment of invalids, for the nutritious elements which it does contain are, so far as they go, in a digestible form; it is, moreover, a pleasant stimulant, a relish which may enable a sick person with poor appetite to eat other food with enjoyment, and a suitable vehicle for the administration of more nutritious material, for example, some of the easily absorbed 'peptones' or 'infants' foods' in the market. It must always be borne in mind that beef-tea alone has not a high value as a food, and that the increased sense of strength and well-being often following its administration is due to a stimulating more than to a nourishing effect, and is therefore transient and sometimes harmful. Moreover, in some diseases, particularly gout and kidney-disease, it is usually injurious. Mutton, treated in a similar manner, yields a broth or tea which is not so easily digested, and is hurtful to persons of weak stomach, especially if the fat be not skimmed off from the liquid. A knuckle of veal affords a similar broth or tea; but it is not so light as beeftea, and, moreover, gelatinises on cooling. A broth or tea prepared from a young chicken is, of all decoctions of animal matter, the most readily digested, and is specially suitable for invalids, where great irritability of the stomach exists.

Beef-wood. See CASUARINA.

Beehive Houses. The beehive plan of construction is a primitive method of throwing a roof of dry-stone masonry over a chamber of the same. In building with hewn stones and mortar, a stoneroofed chamber would be vaulted on the principle of the arch; but in primitive building with undressed stones and without mortar, the method was adopted of setting inward each successive course of the upper part of the side walls, until the space to be

in the chambered cairns or barrows of Britain and Ireland; and as these have been shown by their contents to belong to the stone age, it is therefore the earliest method of constructing a roof of which we have extant evidence in the British Isles. It is also the usual style of the basement chambers of the Brochs, or so-called 'Pictish towers' of Scotland, which belong to the iron age. In the early Christian period, many of the small churches and oratories of the Celtic Church in Scotland and Ireland were still constructed in the same primitive manner; and the dwellings of the monks in early Celtic monasteries have been termed 'beehive houses,' from their being almost invariably built of dry stone and roofed in this manner. In some districts of Ireland, as in Kerry, the remains of beehive houses, called by the country-people cloghauns, are still abundant. They are not connected with ecclesiastical sites, but seem to have been the common dwellings of the inhabitants at some time probably not extremely remote, but now unknown. O'Flaherty, mentioning the cloghauns of West Connaught in 1684, describes them as buildings of stone, brought to a roof without any manner of mortar to cement them, some of which would hold forty men on their floor, and which were so ancient that nobody knew how long ago any of them were made. In the Western Isles of Scotland there are many remains of beehive houses of quite recent date. Captain Thomas saw forty or fifty in a limited area of the island of Lewis in 1857; and Dr Mitchell records in 1880 that not more than from twenty to thirty were then inhabited. These, however, were not the permanent dwellings of the people, but the huts of their summer shiel ings, erected usually on grassy spots in the glens to which they proceed with their cattle, and remain making butter and cheese in July and August, during which time,' says Captain Thomas, they dwell in these circular stone-roofed houses called bothan, or in timber-roofed ones called airidhena.'

The bothan are seldom larger than 10 feet in diameter; a row of stones is placed across the interior for a seat, on one side of which is the fire, and on the other the sleeping place. Many of the older ones, however, have several chambers, each with its beehive roof. Captain Thomas considers them a survival of the Scotic type of the earliest artificial dwelling. Beehive constructions of various types and periods are described and figured in Dr Arthur Mitchell's Past and Present, Dr Joseph Anderson's Scotland in Early Christian and Pagan Times, and Lord Dunraven's Sketches of Irish Architecture. Huts of beehive shape, but of light materials, are used by various savage peoples.

The

Beelzebub (god of flies'), the form of Baal worshipped by the Philistines at Ekron. Greeks also had Zeus Apomyios' or Myiagros' ('disperser of flies'), doubtless a god of flocks and herds. As the heathen deities were all regarded as demons by the Jews, the name Beelzebub became, in course of time, commonly applied to the chief of evil spirits, and in this sense it is employed in the Gospels. The more correct reading of the word is Beelzebul, variously explained as lord of the dwelling,' 'lord of the dunghill.' See BAAL.

Beer and Brewing. Beer is the popular term applied to an infusion of malted barley which has been boiled with hops and afterwards undergone fermentation. Like other alcoholic beverages, it possesses great historical antiquity and interest. Egyptian manuscripts written at least 3000 years before the Christian era show conclusively that even at that primitive period the manufacture of an intoxicating liquor from barley or other grain was extensively carried out in Egypt. Pliny also records in his time the regular use of a fermented drink, made from 'corn and water,' in

all the districts of Europe with which he was acquainted. In Britain, little was known about beer before the Roman conquest, the beverages then being chiefly mead and cider. With the improvements in agriculture, however, which followed the conquest, we learn that ale was made from barley and other grain, although differing somewhat from its latter-day representative. By the aid of biology and chemistry, the product has vastly improved within recent years; and it has become the general beverage of many of the leading nationalities of the world. In considering the various processes employed in the different stages of its modern manufacture, it may be best to take them up in their natural sequence, as the ordinary reader may in that way be the better able intelligently to follow. Firstly, then, as the crude basis in brewing, we have to consider the barley. The barleys used at the present day are very various, and many countries are called upon to contribute to the contents of the modern brewer's barns; but practically speaking, the barleys used may be divided into two distinct classes-viz. heavy barleys, weighing from 54 to 58 lb. per bushel, and light barleys, weighing from 48 to 52 lb. They have all their special virtues or drawbacks according to the vicissitudes of the seasons-some being specially serviceable one season, and utterly useless another. And of course the skill of the brewer is displayed in selecting and blending each season in his mash-tuns only those barleys that produce a malt yielding the proper proportions of extractive matter that will, after being boiled with hops and fermented, give him a sound, bright, and delicately flavoured beer. This is a matter requiring somewhat elaborate practical and chemical experimental preliminary examination (beyond the ordinary judgment of experience), and it is impossible to enter into it in detail here. One remark may, however, be made generally on the choice of brewing barleys; they should be thoroughly well and equally ripened, well 'got' or harvested, and as far as possible presented to the brewer in the perfect husk or envelope with which nature has furnished the kernel. Ancient and modern modes of thrashing and dressing to a greater or less extent damage both the husk and the kernel, and thus at the very threshold introduce one of the causes of disease. Whenever the grain is broken or bruised, it is liable to be attacked when moist by a variety of moulds which lead to more or less serious disaster.

Having selected the barley, the next thing is to prepare it for the mash-tun, or in other words to transform it into malt. This is done by steeping the barley in water in iron cisterns with a perforated draining gutter in the bottom, for a period of from 72 to 96 hours, according to the condition and character of the barley. The water is run off and renewed every 24 hours in order to keep it sweet and fresh. At the end of the steeping period the water is thoroughly drained off, and the barley cast on to the malting floor, and the process of germination watched with the greatest care. In cold weather the saturated grain is kept from 12 to 18 inches thick for the first 24 or 36 hours. As soon as the growth begins, the floor' is thinned out, and the thickness must now be regulated by the rate of growth. The changes of atmospheric temperature have to be constantly noted and compensated for by the thickening or the thinning of the floors,' and by letting in or shutting out the colder or the warmer outside air. In all well-regulated malt-barns provision is made for an abundant supply of fresh air, as this is essential to sound and regular growth; and when under proper control, it should be judiciously used to equalise and regulate

the growth of the malt. The use of further water on the floors is necessary in order to stimulate the growth, and this is applied by means of a sprinklingpan, which is simply a species of watering-pan specially designed for the purpose. In this way a gentle or a heavy shower can be administered to the floor as the maltster may think fit. The process of growth goes on for various periods according to the varying temperature and the kind and quality of the barley. În mild weather about ten days may be stated as the average period from steep to kiln, and in cold weather about twelve days. It is, however, important to have the growth gradual and at a comparatively low temperature, because the chemical change or modification that is brought about by the progress of the acrospire (the future blade) over the cruder material of the kernel is the main object of malting; and if this growth is irregular, or allowed to proceed at too high a temperature, then you have the apparent requisite growth without the corresponding work done. Lighter barleys malt and mature faster than the heavier varieties; and the maltster must study the peculiarities of each variety, and work it accordingly.

The malt being satisfactorily finished on the floor, is then removed to the drying kiln (fig. 1),

Kilns

A, upper drying floor; B, under or finishing floor, where it is kept for three or four days. are large square buildings varying in height (according as they are single or double storied), with wire-cloth floors, an ample ventilator on top, and an open fire underneath. Most kilns have only one drying floor; but those of recent construction have two floors, the one seven feet above the other. The fresh malt is laid on the top floor (A) for two days, and then lowered to the under or finishing floor (B), to be succeeded on the top by another fresh supply. The advantage and economy of this method will be apparent, and American brewers are adopting three stories instead of two. The heat is gradually applied until the moisture is driven out of the malt, when the temperature is further increased to 170°-190° F., and after being kept for some hours at that point, the malt is removed to the store to await the summons to the mash-tun. The chemical change that takes place during malting is not great, and the operation may therefore be regarded as the preliminary preparation of the

barley for the revolutionary changes in the mashtun. The next step is to crush the malt in order to make it amenable to the action of hot water. This is usually done by an ordinary pair of steel rolls (E, fig. 2); but in large breweries two pairs are at work, the one crushing the small, and the other the large grains. The crushed malt, or 'grist' as it is now called, is then conveyed by means of an elevator (F) to hoppers (G) placed in a position to command all the mash-tuns (I) in the mash-house. At the bottom of each hopper is a shoot, placed immediately above the external mixing or mashing machine (H), which consists of a short cylinder, with a shaft having a number of attached arms and screwpropeller revolving inside. There are two apertures at one end for the admission of the hot water and the grist respectively, while the

other end is left open to allow the free exit of the mash. When the operation of mashing commences, the hot water is turned on, and the shoot of the hopper partially opened to allow the grist to come in contact with the water, and the mixture or mash passes out into the tun with the consistency of ordinary porridge. In most breweries there are also internal mashingmachines in the mashtub. These machines serve the same purpose as the external ones, and consist of a series of rakes worked by means of a shaft under the tun. When mashing is conducted by means of the internal arrangement alone, then the whole or greater portion of the mashing liquor is run into the tun, the machinery set in motion, and the grist gradually added.

385

drain off through the perforated false bottom. The operation of 'sparging, or washing out the extract, now proceeds at the same time as the running off, and is accomplished by means of a rotatory copper pipe (K), perforated on alternate sides, which distributes a gentle and continuous shower of hot water equally over the surface of the mash. When the sparging is finished, the waste liquor in the tun is drained off, leaving behind the well-known feeding material, draff or brewer's grains. The extract, or 'wort' as it is

Great importance is attached to the 'initial' temperature of the mash, but there are so many considerations which regulate its range (within reasonable limits), that they cannot be entered into in detail. They are briefly quality, kind, and condition of malt, variety and character of beer to be brewed, and the relative thickness or thinness of mash. It is also a general practice to raise the temperature of the whole mass by the admission of hot liquor at the bottom of the tun a short time after the first mash. Speaking generally, about 150° F. is the average striking temperature with the English and Scotch systems. As soon as the mash is finished, the tun is carefully covered up to prevent as much as possible any loss of heat during the period of infusion. And now an extraordinary transformation process goes on inside the mash-tun through the action of a soluble albuminoid or unorganised ferment in the malt, known as diastase, which possesses the power of converting the modified starch of the malt into malt-sugar and dextrine. Although this change or conversion takes place very rapidly, the mash is usually allowed to stand for about two hours, when the taps at the bottom of the tun are opened to allow the extract to

now termed, is received into an intermediate vessel (L), and either pumped or run direct into the coppers (M), where it is briskly boiled for about two hours with its allotted portion of hops.

was

Hops. It is the female flower of the plant that is used by the brewer, and it is difficult to say how long he has appropriated it to his special purpose. It was certainly known in very ancient times, and Pliny mentions in his Natural History that the Germans preserved ale with hops. Coming to our own country, there is no doubt the hop was known in England before the Conquest, and passages in contemporary writers show that some use made of the plant by the Saxons in their primitive process; but the date of its practical introduction for brewing (judging again from contemporary writers) was most probably the middle of the 15th century. The hops exert a purifying, a preservative, and an aromatic influence over the wort. The tannin precipitates the excess of albuminous matter, thus ridding it of a certain source of after trouble, while other constituents of the hop in different ways play their preservative part.

From the copper, the wort passes into the hopback or drainer (N)-a vessel provided with a perforated false bottom, through which the wort

are

drains on to the cooler, leaving the hops behind in the back. In many breweries the wort is forced by means of a pump (P) from the drainer to the cooler, but this is not necessary when the site and construction of the brewery allow of the wort running by gravitation from the mash-house to the fermenting-worm. The cooler (Q) is a large shallow vessel constructed of fine metal plates, but since the introduction of improved refrigera tors, it does not occupy the important place it once did in the breweries of this country-those good old times when brewers had to sit up all night waiting on the evening breeze to perform the functions of the cold-water pipe. Coolers are now much reduced in size, and in some cases abolished altogether, the wort being run direct from the hop-back through the refrigerators. Refrigerators (R), though varying slightly in form, are all similar in principle. They consist of a series of flat copper tubes or pipes, with cold water circulating through them, while the hot wort circulates outside, and gets gradually cooled as it passes each alternate set. The wort and the water circulate in opposite directions, so that the gradually cooling wort is always meeting with colder water in its passage through the refrigerator. As the wort passes directly from the refrigerator to the fermenting. tuns (S), the flow must be regulated in accordance with the temperature at which you wish to pitch' or start your fermentation. The pitching heat is a point of pre-eminent practical importance, as upon it depends, to a great extent, the success of the fermentation that is to ensue. Every fermentation must be kept within certain bounds, and if the initial control is lost, it can never be altogether recovered. From 55° F. for strong beers, up to 61° F. for weak beers, is a fair range of pitching temperature, while the quantity of liquid yeast added to start the fermentation varies from 6 lb. to 1 lb. per barrel according to quality of beer and vitality of yeast. Immediately on the addition of the yeast the fermentative action is set up, and in a few hours the surface of the liquid is covered with a brownish cream, which gradually increases in volume owing to the rapid multiplication of the yeast-cells. These are buoyed up by the escaping gas until the yeasty head rises to a height of 2 or 3 feet, and carbonic acid gas is given off in great abundance. During the first 12 hours the fermentation proceeds slowly, but after that period the vigour increases, accompanied by a rapid rise in temperature, and correspondingly rapid decrease in the specific gravity of the liquid. After about 40 hours the contents of the fermenting-tun are generally run off into some intermediate vessel to regulate and control the finish of the fermentation. All settling vessels are provided internally with a series of pipes called attemperators (T), through which cold water can be passed in such quantity as may be necessary to cool the beer to its normal racking temperature. In Burton the beer is pumped into large casks called 'unions,' while in Scotland it is generally finished in large square vessels called 'settling'-squares ( U ).

When the fermentation is finished and the beer so far settled' or freed from suspended yeast, it is racked into casks, and stored in the cellars until ready for consumption. This period varies with the character and kind of ale; local mild ales being fit for use in about a week; pale ales, in two to four months; while strong and export ales require ten to fifteen months to fit them for the market. With all export and pale ales, a quantity of the finest hops is added to the casks as they are filled. This greatly improves the flavour and the keeping and clearing qualities of the beer. Various theories have been advanced at

successive periods in explanation of the phenomenon of fermentation, but that of Pasteur holds the field. Recent researches in molecular physics doubtless give some support to Nägeli's molecularphysical theory, but it is far from satisfactory. On the other hand, Pasteur's beautiful theory of alcoholic fermentation is at once scientific and rational. He has clearly proved that it is a vital phenomenon caused by the living yeast-cell, out of contact with free oxygen, attacking and breaking down the maltose molecules of the wort to satisfy its own requirements. In further support of this theory, Pasteur and Muntz have proved beyond question, that the cells of plants (morphologically similar to yeast-cells), when deprived of the requisite supply of free oxygen by being placed in an atmosphere of carbonic acid gas, give rise to the ordinary products of vinous fermentation. The cells attack the sugar already formed in the plant, depriving it of its oxygen, and producing alcohol and carbonic acid in the same way as yeast does in any saccharine solution. See FERMENTATION.

The yeast-ferment belongs to the lower order of Fungi, and when added to beer-wort, it assimilates the free oxygen, then attacks the sugar, decomposing it into alcohol and carbonic acid, with a number of minor products, such as succinic acid, glycerine, &c. The simple form of rearrangement may be thus represented":

Pasteur's researches have further enabled him to expose and to explain the insidious and destructive working of some of the wild ferments and bacteria which occasionally play such havoc with the produce of the brewery.

Nothing has yet been said regarding the watersupply of the brewery, and although it comes in last, it is by no means the least important element in the process. Absolutely pure water is essential to the successful brewing of all beers, and for high quality keeping ales it is also necessary that it should possess considerable permanent hardness. This is the case with the Burton and Edinburgh wells, hence their product is deservedly held in high repute.

The

We have not in describing the mashing said anything about the substitutes that are used to partially replace the malt extract, but since Mr Gladstone's Inland Revenue Act of 1880, they have become so general as to decidedly deserve mention. They consist either of a preparation of raw grain, or some variety of brewing sugar. raw grain consists of specially prepared rice or maize. meal, and while such a substitute may be used in the mash to the extent of 5 to 10 per cent. for ordinary beers, it cannot be used with the same degree of freedom for fine pale or export ales. The ordinary brewing sugars, manufactured mostly from rice and maize-meal by the action of heat and dilute acid, are perhaps the safest substitutes, provided a proper brand is secured; but nothing has yet been brought before the scientific brewer to take the place of malt extract which can compare or compete as a substitute' with O'Sullivan and Valentin's 'Dextrine Maltose.' It is manufactured from raw starch, like the sugars, by the action of dilute acid, but the transformation is checked just at the moment when the relative proportions of dextrine and maltose are similar to those found in normal malt wort. The moderate use of genuine substitutes for malt does not in any way diminish, but rather tends to promote the purity of the beer, and the prejudice against them is altogether misguided and mistaken. In some countries barley is discarded altogether in many cases; the native grain being used in its stead, producing naturally a