Latterly, a species of B. has been introduced into England, called the Elizabethan bed. In point of size, it resembles the four-poster, but it hits only two tall posts, with a canopy and curtains at the head, leaving more than_ half of the B. exposed. The tent B. is an inferior kind of four-poster; it has a semicircular light frame roof, and light calico curtains. A more novel variety of bedsteads are those made of iron or brass, formed like open couches, which have come into very general employment. The cold and humid climate of the British islands, independently of the habits of the people, has greatly influenced the form of the B.; for although it may be more wholesome to sleep without than with curtains, it has been difficult to make the practice of doing so gen eral, particularly during the winter and spring months. In the humbler class of rural cottages in Scotland, there still lingers the old custom of sleeping in wooden bedsteads with sliding doors. This box variety of B. is considered as unfavorable to ventilation, hut it is the only kind of sleeping-place which is endurable where there are damp earthen floors and imperfect ceilings. Its use is disappearing in the progress of cottage improve ment.
In old times in England, beds were formed with straw instead of wool, hair, or feathers, as at present; hence the phrase of a "lady in the straw," signifying that she is being confined. By the humbler classes in the rural districts, straw is still used for
beds, and also ticks stuffed with chaff. According to an old superstition, no person could die calmly on a B. of feathers of game birds.
For invalids, there have been invented air-beds and water-beds, which are now in use, and justly appreciated. See Ant-13EDs, also WATER-BED.
BED, or STRATIllf, is a layer of sedimentary rock of similar materials, and of some thickness, together so as to be quarried and lifted in single blocks. Beds are often composed of many tine laminm or plates. The laminae are the results of intermis sions in the supply of materials, produced by such causes as the ebb and flow of the tide, river-floods, or the more or less turbid state of the water under which they were deposited. When the intervals between the supply of materials were short, the numer ous lamina) closely adhere, and form a bed cut off from the superior deposit, by the occurrence of a longer interval, during which the bed became consolidated more or less before the next was deposited. When the lamination is obscure, or not distinct from the stratification, it would seem to indicate that the materials had been supplied without any intermission.