South America and Tierra del Fupgo, and mak-
ing a cruise round the world (1831-3(3), under
conunand of Capt. Robert Fitzroy, R.X. Charles
Darwin was the naturalist of the expedition.
BEAK, or BEAK'HEAD'. A brass prow fl.xed at the head of the ancient galleys, to pierce the enemy's vessel by ramming. The term was applied later to a .small platform at the fore part of the upper deck. It is now applied to the [jart forward of the forecastle, or knee of the head, which is fastened to the stem and is supported by the main knee. In modern ironclads this is strengthened and armored, having a considerable projection beyond the stem to provide for ram- ming. See Ram, Marine.
BEAL, Samuel (182.5-89). An Oriental scholar, and the first Englishman to translate di- rect from the Chinese the early records of Bud- dhism, thus throwing light also upon Indian his- tory. He was born at Davenport and graduated from Trinity College. Cambridge, in 1847. After filling several curacies, he became a chaplain in the Royal Navy. He was on the Sybille during the China War of 1856-.58, and also visited .Japan. In 1857 he printed for private circulation a pamphlet showing that the Tycoon of Yedo, with whom foreigners had made treaties, was not the real Emperor of .Japan. He retired from the navy in 1877, and was elected to the chair of Chinese in the University College in London. His reputation was established by his series of •works which traced the travels of the Chinese Buddhist pilgrims in India from the Fifth to the Seventh Century, a.d., and by his books on Bud- dhism, which have become classics. Among his works are: The Travels of /fiuiig-Yiin and Fa- Eieii (1869): The Caiena of Buddhist Hrriptures from the Chinese (1872); The Romantic Legend of Buddha (1876); Texts from the Buddhist Canon, Dhammaprida (1878); Buddhism in China (1848); and Si-Yu-Ki, Buddhist Reeords of the yfestern World, 2 vols. (1884); a Life of Bud- dha, from the Chinese version of a Sanskrit origi- nal (Vol. XIX. of The Sacred Books of the East]; and the Life of Uienen-Tsiang (1888), the great Chinese Buddhist pilgrim. He catalogued the set of books in the Buddhist Canon as known in Ja])an — a work of enormous proportions, sent to England by the Mikado's junior premier, Iwa- kura.
BEAL, William .Jame.s (1833—). An American botanist, born at Adrian, Mich. He graduated at the University of Michigan in 1859, and at the Lawrence Scientific School in 1865; and in 1870 was appointed professor of botany at the Michigan Agricultural College. In 1880-82 he was first president of the Society for the Pro- motion of Agricultural Science. He is the au- thor of Grasses of Xorth America ( 1886 et seq. ); The y'etv Botany (1881); and Seed Dispersal (1898).
BEALE, Lionel Smith (1828—). An Eng- lish physiologist and microscopist. He was pro- fessor in the University of London, but resigned in 1893. He was physician to the King's College Hospital for forty years, and was elected emeri- tus professor of medicine in 1896. He has writ- ten in opposition to Darwin's theories. Among his works are: Boiv to Work with the Micro- scope (1857); The Structure and Growth of the Tissues of the Body (1861); Protoplasm (1869); Life Theories: their Influence on Religious Thought (1871); Urinary Deposits and Calcu- lous Disorders (1868); Our Morality and the Moral Question (1886); Life and Vital Action in Health and Disease (1875). BEAM (AS. beam, Ger. hauni, tree). In engineering and architecture, a long piece of wood, stone, or metal used in a horizontal posi- tion to support a weight. Timber beams are usu- ally rectangular in section, and may consist of one large piece of timber or of several smaller pieces joined, butted, or spiked together. Beams of steel or iron may be a single-rolled steel shape, such as an I-beam, or they may be composed of a number of suitable steel shapes riveted together to form a single structure. ( See Steel Shapes; Girders.) The term also has many special tech- nical applications, as the beam of a weighing scale, the weaver's beam, the beam of a plow. In
BEAMS. 1, I-beam: 2, Chaiinel-beaiu: 3, Deck-beam; 4, Box-beam, ship-building the beams are the strong, trans- verse pieces of timber, iron, or steel, stretching across a ship from side to side to support the decks and retain the ship's sides at their proper distance. For this reason the term is used to de- note the widest part of a vessel's hull. The ends of a vessel's beams are supported by clamps and knees, and the centre by stanchions. The beams are given a crown in order that the decks may have a slight convexity to shed water. A built- iip beam is formed of smaller beams, notched, scarfed, and bolted together. Cellular beams are formed of wrought-iron plates riveted together with angle-irons in the form of longitudinal cells, with occasional cross - stubs. Composite beams are composed of wood and metal, or of two difl'erent metals. Kerfed beams have slits in one side, made by saws, in order to facilitate bending the beam in that direction.
On the beam is an expression applied to any point or object at right angles to the keel, and is known as on the starboard, or port, beam, accord- ing to the side of the ship. On the weather beam is on the weather side of the ship, and on the lee beam is on the lee side. Forward or abaft the beam is the bearing of any object when seen in advance of, or astern of, a bearing on the beam. On her beam ends is the position of a ship that heels over so much to one side that her beams ap- proach a vertical position; hence, to be on one's beam ends is to he tlirown or lying on the ground, or to be in bad circumstances. Beam also means the oscillating lever of a steam-engine vibrating about a centre, and forming the medium of com- munication between the piston-rod and the crank- shaft; also called working-beam or walking-beam,,
BEAM. The English translation for a number of Heljrew words. It refers to the beam of a building (II. Kings vi. 2, 5; II. Chron. iii. 7; Song of Songs i. 17; I. Kings vi. 9, and else- where); but in Judges xvi. 14 the reference is to
