Beecher, Catharine (Esther) (b. Sept. 6, 1800, East Hampton, N.Y., U.S.—d. May 12, 1878, Elmira, N.Y.) U.S. educator who popularized and shaped a conservative movement to both elevate and entrench woman’s role in the domestic sphere. Daughter of the minister and temperance activist Lyman Beecher and sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher, she helped found the Hartford Female Seminary (1823) and other organizations devoted to women’s education. Her popular Treatise on Domestic Economy (1841) helped standardize domestic practices while reinforcing the belief that a woman’s proper place was in the home.
Beecher, Henry Ward (b. June 24, 1813, Litchfield, Conn., U.S.—d. March 8, 1887, Brooklyn, N.Y.) U.S. Congregational clergyman. The son of a minister, he was the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Catharine Esther Beecher. After graduating from Amherst College and later studying at Lane Theological Seminary, he served as pastor to congregations in Indi¬ ana. In 1847 he was called to Plymouth Church in Brooklyn. A famous ora¬ tor and one of the most influential preachers of his time, he opposed slavery and supported women’s suffrage, Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution,
and scientific biblical criticism. He gained unfavourable publicity in 1874 when he was put on trial for adultery, but he was acquitted and returned to his church.
bee-eater Any of about 25 species of brightly coloured birds (family Meropidae) that feed on bees, wasps, and other insects. They are found throughout tropical and subtropical Eurasia, Africa, and Australasia (one species occasionally reaches the British Isles). Bee-eaters range in length from 6 to 14 in. (15-35 cm).
Their bill is moderately long, slightly downcurved, and pointed. Their bril¬ liant plumage is usually predomi¬ nantly green, but many species are partially coloured with red, yellow, blue, or purple.
beef Flesh of mature cattle, as dis¬ tinguished from veal, the flesh of calves. The best beef is obtained from steers (castrated males) and heifers (female cows that have not calved). Tenderness and flavour are improved by aging; in one common method, the carcass is hung for about two weeks at approximately 36 °F (2 °C). The world’s primary beef pro¬ ducers and consumers are the U.S., the European Union, Brazil, China,
Argentina, and Australia. Grading standards are relatively uniform; in the U.S., grades range from prime and choice to utility and canner. Beef provides protein and B vitamins; it also contains saturated fat, an excess of which can contribute to heart disease and other health problems. Beef is not eaten by Hindus because of the sacred status of the cow.
beehive tomb or tholos \'tho-,las\ Large, beehive-shaped ceremo¬ nial tomb, sometimes built into the side of a hill. The Treasury of Atreus, a surviving tholos (c. 1300-1250 bc) of the Mycenaean civilization, is a pointed dome built up of stepped blocks of conglomerate masonry cut and polished to give the impression of a true vault. A small side chamber contained the burials, while the main chamber was probably reserved for ritual use.
beekeeping or apiculture Va-po-.kol-chorX Care and manipulation of honeybees to enable them to produce and store more honey than they need so that the excess can be collected. Beekeeping is one of the oldest forms of animal husbandry. Early efforts at collecting the honey required destroying the hive; modern beekeepers use an extractor that empties the cells of the honeycomb without damaging them. To collect honey, bee¬ keepers need a veiled helmet for protection, a tool for cutting comb, and a smoker for tranquilizing the bees. Maintaining the hive includes pro¬ tecting the colony against diseases, parasites, and predators.
beer Alcoholic beverage made usually from malted barley, flavoured with hops, and brewed by slow fermentation. Known from ancient times, beer was especially common in northern climates not conducive to grape cul¬ tivation for wine. It is produced by employing either a bottom-fermenting yeast, which falls to the bottom of the container when fermentation is completed, or a top-fermenting yeast, which rises to the surface. Lager beers (from lagern, “to store”), of German origin, are bottom-fermented and stored at a low temperature for several months; most are light in colour, with high carbonation, medium hop flavor, and alcohol content of 3-5% by volume. Top-fermented beers, popular in Britain, include ale, stout, and porter; they are characterized by a prominent head of released carbon dioxide, a sharper and more strongly hopped flavour than lagers, and an alcohol content of 4-6.5% by volume. See also malt.
Beer Hall Putsch or Munich Putsch \'puch\ (Nov. 8-9, 1923) Unsuccessful attempt by Adolf Hitler to start an insurrection in Germany against the Weimar Republic. On Nov. 8, 1923, Hitler and his men pushed
Leaf-cutting bee ( Anthidium)
M.W.F. TWEEDIE FROM THE NATURAL HISTORY PHOTOGRAPHIC AGENCY-EB INC.
Henry Beecher, photographed by Napoleon Sarony
THE GRANGER COLLECTION
Bee-eater (Merops api aster).
S.C. PORTER-BRUCE COLEMAN LTD.
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Beerbohm ► behaviour genetics I 189
their way into a right-wing political meeting in a Munich beer hall and obtained agreement that the leaders there should join in carrying the “revolution” to Berlin. The next day, some 3,000 Nazis marched toward the Marienplatz but were met by police gunfire. Hitler was subsequently sentenced to five years in prison for treason; he served only eight months, time he spent writing Mein Kampf.
Beerbohm, Sir (Henry) Max(imilian) (b. Aug. 24, 1872, London, Eng.—d. May 20, 1956, Rapallo, Italy) English caricaturist, writer, and dandy. His sophisticated drawings and parodies were unique in capturing, usually without malice, whatever was pretentious, affected, or absurd in his famous and fashionable contemporaries. His first literary collection, The Works of Max Beerbohm (1896), and his first book of drawings. Cari¬ catures of Twenty-five Gentlemen (1896), were followed by the charming fable The Happy Hypocrite (1897) and his only novel, Zuleika Dobson (1911), a burlesque of Oxford life. His story collection Seven Men (1919) is considered a masterpiece.
Beersheba City (pop., 1999 est.: 163,700), southern Israel. Historically it marked the extreme southern limit of Palestine, hence the biblical phrase “from Dan to Beersheba” (Dan is in far northern Israel). It fell to the Arabs in the 7th century and to the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. It was long a watering place for the nomadic Bedouin tribes of the Negev desert. Held by the British from 1917, it became part of Israel in 1948. It has since developed as the administrative, cultural, and industrial centre of the Negev.
Beery, Wallace (Fitzgerald) (b. April 1, 1885, Kansas City, Mo., U.S.—d. April 15, 1949, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. film and stage actor. He initially worked in the circus and later in the choruses of New York City theatrical productions. After playing the lead in The Yankee Tourist, he spent several years as a dramatic actor in touring and stock companies. He started his film career in 1913, first as a comedian in Mack Sennett’s Keystone comedies. He is best known for his performances as dim-witted, but endearing, toughs in such films as The Champ (1931, Academy Award), Min and Bill (1931), and Tugboat Annie (1933).
beeswax Commercially useful wax secreted by worker honeybees to make the cell walls of the honeycomb. A bee consumes an estimated 6-10 lbs (3-4.5 kg) of honey for each pound of the wax it secretes in small flakes from glands on the underside of its abdomen. After honey removal, the comb is melted to produce the beeswax, which ranges from yellow to almost black. It is used for candles (often for churches), artificial fruit and flowers, modeling wax, and as an ingredient of furniture and floor waxes, leather dressings, waxed paper, lithographic inks, cosmetics, and ointments.