9. s'instruire des tremblements de terre de la Suisse, principalement pour l'année 1755, avec quatre Sermons prononcées a cette occasion," 1756, 8vo. 5. The same "Memoires," published separately, 1757, 8vo, and much enlarged, a work embracing all that was known before on the subject, and enriched with many candid and able illustrations by the author. 6. "Le Philanthrope," 1758, 2 vols. 12mo, 7." Recherches sur les langues anciennes et modernes de la Suisse, et principalement du pays de Vaud," 1758, 8vo. 8. A translation of Derham's Astro-theology; and of Bullinger's Confession of Faith, both in 1760. "Museum," 1763. 10. "Dictionnaire Universel des Fossiles propres, et des Fossils accidentels," 1763, 2 vols. 8vo. FF. "Recueil de divers traités sur l'histoire naturelle de la Terre et des Fossiles," 1766, 4to. 12. "Morale de l'Evangile," 1775, 7 vols. 8vo. 13. "Le Thevenon, ou les Journees de la Montagne, 1777, 12mo, 1780, 2 vols. 8vo. 14. "Essai philosophique et moral sur le Plaisir," 1778, 12mo, an excellent work, which, from the account given of it in the Monthly Review, seems highly deserving of a translation. 15. Le solitaire du Mont-Jure, recreations d'un philosophe," 1782, 12mo. The time of this writer's death is not ascertained, but he was considerably advanced in years at the period of this last publication. ' BERTRAND (JOHN BAPTIST), a French physician, and member of the academy of Marseilles, was born at Martigue in Provence, July 12, 1670. He was at first intended for the church, and went through a theological course, but his inclination leading him to medicine, he studied the same at Montpellier. After having practised for some time in his native country, he removed with his family to Marseilles. His three colleagues at the HotelDieu of that city having withdrawn their services during the contagious fever of 1709, he remained alone to prescribe for the poor sufferers, and escaped without an attack, which probably encouraged him to show the same zeal during the plague in 1720. On this occasion, however, he saw almost his whole family fall a sacrifice to their humane care of the sick, and was himself attacked with the disorder, but at length recovered, and the government, in consideration of his services, granted him a pension, which he enjoyed until his death, Sept. 10, 1752. He was a 1 Biog. Univ.-Month. Rev. vol. LVIII, Ᏼ Ꭼ Ꭱ Ꭲ Ꭱ Ꭺ N D. 169 man of amiable temper, disinterested, kind and ingenuous. He wrote, 1. "Relation historique de la Peste de Marseille," Lyons, 1721, 12mo. 2. Lettres sur le mouvement des Muscles et sur les Esprits Animaux." 3. "Reflexions sur le systeme de la Trituration," published in the Journal de Trevoux. 4. "Dissertation sur l'air maritime," Marseilles, 4to, &c.1 BERTRANDI (JOHN AMBROSE MARIA), an eminent anatomist and surgeon, was born at Turin, Oct. 18, 1723. His father, who was only a poor phlebotomist and barber, contrived to give him an education, and intended to bring him up to the church, which was thought most likely to afford him a maintenance, but one of their friends Sebastian Klingher, then professor of surgery, induced him to study that branch, in which he soon evinced great talents. He was only twenty-two when he read a dissertation on Ophthalmography, on which Haller and Portal bestowed the highest praise. The celebrated Bianchi connected himself with him, but after a few years their friendship was interrupted by the literary disputes which took place between Bianchi and Morgagni, and Bertrandi preferring what he thought truth to a friendship which was of great importance to him, was obliged to leave Bianchi. In 1747 he was elected an associate of the college of surgery, and the same year published his "Dissertation on the Liver," which, Haller says, contains many useful observations. In 1752, the king, Charles Emmanuel, offered to bear his expenses to Paris and London. He accordingly went to Paris, where he increased his knowledge and practice of the art of surgery, and in consequence of his two papers read in the academy, "De Hydrocele," and "De hepatis abscessibus qui vulneribus capitis superveniunt," was admitted as a foreign member. In 1754 he went to London, and lodged for a year with sir William Bromfield, our late eminent surgeon, during which time, as at Paris, he studied hospital practice, and cultivated the acquaintance of men of science. On his return to Turin, the king founded for his sake a new professorship of practical surgery and anatomy, and at Bertrandi's request, built a handsome. amphitheatre in the hospital of St. John. He was afterwards appointed first surgeon to the king, and professor of chemistry in the university. Surgery now, which had Biog. Universelle. been practised in Piedmont only by regimental surgeons, began to wear a new face; and a literary society, which was afterwards completely established under the title of the "Royal Academy of Sciences," began now to hold its meetings, and Bertrandi contributed some valuable papers to the first volume of their Memoirs. His principal publication was his "Trattato delle operazioni di Chirurgia," Nice, 1763, 2 vols. 8vo, which was afterwards translated into French and German. He was employed on a treatise on anatomy and a comparative history of ancient and modern surgery, when death deprived science and humanity of his valuable labours, in 1765, in his forty-second year. His works already published, and his posthumous works, edited by Penchienati and Brugnone form 13 vols. 8vo. ' BERULLE (PETER), an eminent cardinal, was born in 1575, at the chateau de Serilli, near Troyes in Champagne, of a noble family, and having embraced the ecclesiastical state, distinguished himself early in life by his piety and his learning. He got great reputation in the famous conference of Fontainbleau, where du Perron contended with du Plessis-Mornay, called the pope of the Huguenots. He was sent by Henry IV. to whom he was chaplain, into Spain, for the purpose of bringing some Carmelites to Paris, and it was by his means that this order flourished so much in France. Some time afterwards he founded the Congregation of the Oratory of France, of which he was the first general. This new institution was approved by a bull of pope Paul V. in 1613, and has always been reckoned by the catholics a great service done to the church. In that gregation, according to the expression of Bossuet, the members obey without dependance, and govern without commanding; their whole time is divided between study and prayer. Their piety is liberal and enlightened, their knowledge useful, and almost always modest. Urban VIII. rewarded the merit of Berulle by a cardinal's hat. Henry IV. and Louis XIII. vainly strove to make him accept of considerable bishoprics; on Louis's telling him that he should employ the solicitation of a more powerful advocate than himself (meaning the pope) to prevail upon him to accept the bishopric of Leon, he said, "that if his majesty continued to press him, he should be obliged to quit his kingdom." This cardinal came over with Henrietta I Biog. Universelle. Maria, queen of Charles I. to England, as her confessor, to the court of which he endeared himself by the sanctity of his morals, and the extreme propriety of his behaviour, although his errand had afterwards its weight in encreasing the fatal unpopularity of the royal family. He died suddenly, Oct. 2, 1629, aged fifty-five, while he was celebrating the sacrament, and had just repeated the words, "hanc igitur oblationem," which gave occasion to the following distich: 66 Cœpta sub extremis nequeo dum sacra sacerdos "In vain the reverend pontiff tries The heaven-devoted victim falls." St. Francis de Sales, Cæsar de Bus, cardinal Bentivoglio, &c. were among his friends and the admirers of his virtues. An edition of his controversial and spiritual works, published in 1644, 2 vols. folio, was reprinted in 1647, 1 vol. folio, by father Bourgoing, third general of the oratory. His life was written in French, by the abbé Cerisi, Paris, 1646, 4to, and in Latin by Doni d'Attichi, afterwards bishop of Autun, 1649, 8vo, and lastly by Carrac-' cioli, Paris, 1764, 12mo. BERYLLUS, bishop of Bostra in Arabia, flourished about the year 230. After he had for a long time governed his see with great prudence and fidelity, he fell into several new and uncommon opinions, asserting that Christ before his incarnation had no proper subsistence, nor any divinity, but that of the Father residing in him. The bishops being assembled in order to dissuade him from this error, and having had several conferences with him upon that subject, Origen was desired to engage in the dispute, which he did with such success, that Beryllus immediately retracted his opinion. He wrote several treatises and epistles, particularly to Origen, in which he returned him thanks for the pains which he had taken in recovering him from his errors. Eusebius tells us, that he left behind him several monuments of an elegant genius; by which Henry Valesius in his notes upon that passage supposes that he means the hymns and poems which Beryllus probably wrote. 1 Biog. Universelle.-Dupin.—Moreri.-Perault's "Hommes Illustres."— Gen. Dict.-Seward's Anecdotes. There was extant in St. Jerom's time, the dialogue between Origen and our bishop, in which the latter was convinced of his erroneous notions; and this seems to be the same work which is mentioned by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History, where he tells us, that there were extant at that time the acts of Beryllus and the synod assembled upon his account, in which were inserted the questions of Origen urged against him, and the whole series of the conference between them. ' BESIERS (MICHAEL), a canon of St. Sepulchre's at Caen, and a member of the academies of Caen and Cherburgh, was born at St. Malo, and died at Caen, Dec. 1782. He published, 1. "Chronologie historique des baillis et des gouverneurs de Caen," 1769, 12mo. 2. "Histoire sommaire de la ville de Bayeux," 1773, 12mo. 3. "Memoires historiques sur l'origine et le fondateur de la collegiale du St. Sepulcre a Caen, avec le catalogue de ses doyens." 4. Various dissertations in the literary Journals, in D'Expilly's" Dictionnaire de France," and in that of the nobility, &c. * 2 BESLER (BASIL), a botanist, who was born in 1561, at Nuremberg, where he carried on the business of an apothecary, and died there in 1629, is entitled to notice chiefly for having published the most beautiful botanical work that had then appeared, the celebrated "Hortus Eystettensis," Nuremberg, 1613, folio. It contains a description and plates of the greater part of the plants which the bishop of Aichstædt, John Conrad de Gemmingen, a liberal patron of the arts, had cultivated in his gardens and orchards on mount St. Willibald, on the top of which is his episcopal seat. This work, executed with uncommon magnificence, at the expence of the bishop, made a new era in the history both of botany and engraving. It is illustrated by three hundred and sixty-five plates of the atlas folio size, descriptive of one thousand and eighty-six plants, the first, after the "Phytobasanos" of Columna, that were engraved on copper, all botanical engravings being formerly on wood. They are in general well designed, but do not point out the parts of fructification, and are classed only according to the seasons. Basil Besler had the care of this work, and although he was deficient in literature, and was not even 1 Gen. Diet-Cave.-Lardner's Works.-Dupin.-Moreri. 2 Biog. Universelle. |