ological dictionary, which makes a part of the "Encyclopedie methodique," 3 vols. 4to. The abbé Barruel says, that when this work was first undertaken, some deference was still paid to religion, and Bergier thought it incumbent on him to yield to the pressing solicitations of his friends, lest the part treating of religion should fall into the hands of its enemies, but in this they were deceived. Bergier, indeed, performed his task as might have been expected; but in other parts of the work the compilers exceeded their predecessors in licentious sentiments, and at the same time availed themselves of the name of Bergier as a cloak. M. Barbier attributes to our author the sketch of Metaphysics inserted in the "Cours d'etude de l'usage de l'Ecole militaire." In all his works there is a logical arrangement and precision, and the only objection the French critics have is to his style, which is sometimes rather diffuse. He died at Paris, April 9, 1790. He was a member of the academy of Besançon, and an associate of that of inscriptions and belleslettres. 1 BERGIUS (JOHN HENRY LOUIS), a German writer, was born at Laaspa in 1718, and died in 1781. He published, 1. "Cameralisten Bibliothek," a complete catalogue of all books, pamphlets, &c. on the subjects of political economy, police, finances, &c. Nuremberg, 1765, 8vo. 2. "A Magazine of Police and Administration, in alphabetical order," Francfort, 1767, 1773, 8 vols. 4to. 3. "New Magazine of Police, &c." Leipsic, 1775-80, 6 vols. 4to. 4. "A collection of the principal German laws, relative to police and administration," Francfort, 4 vols. 1780-81. This last was continued by professor Beckmann of Gottingen.' BERGIUS (PETER JONAS), a physician and professor of natural history at Stockholm, and a member of the academy of sciences of that city, died in 1791. He wrote many works of considerable reputation. Having received from Grubb, the director of the Swedish India company, an herbal of plants collected at the Cape of Good Hope, he drew up a description of them, under the title of "Descriptiones plantarum ex Capite Bone Spei," Stockholm, 1767, 8vo, but generally quoted by the shorter title of "Flora Capensis." Bergius discovered several plants in that colony, which had escaped the knowledge of preceding bota Biog. Universelle.-Barruel's Memoirs of Jacobinism, vol. I. p. 67. nists, and established several genera, one of which he dedicated to Grubb, but this title was not generally adopted. He also published various memoirs on plants in the transactions of the societies of which he was a member, and, without ever travelling out of Sweden, found means to acquire a very accurate knowledge of the most rare exotics, and in compliment to his ski Linnæus consecrated to him a new genus by the name of Bergia. He wrote a vegetable "Materia medica," under the title of "Materia medica e regno vegetabili, sistens simplicia officinalia pariter atque culinaria," Stockholm, 1778, 8vo; 1782, 2 vols. 8vo; and in the Swedish, a treatise on fruit trees, 1780, and a historical work on the city of Stockholm in the fifteenth and sixteenth century.' BERGIUS (BENGTS or BENEDICT), brother of the preceding, a commissary of the bank of Stockholm, and a member of the academy, was born in 1725, and died in 1784. Being equally attached to the study of natural history, the brothers kept between them a very large garden, in which they cultivated rare plants, and which they bequeathed to the academy of Stockholm, with funds for a professorship of agriculture and gardening. The present professor is the celebrated Olaus Swartz. Benedict Bergius wrote various papers inserted among those of the academy, on the colour and change of colour of animals, on certain plants, the history of fishes, &c. and after his death appeared an ingenious treatise of his, in Swedish, on "Nicety in diet among all people," which was translated into German, and published by Reinold Forster and Sprengel at Halle, 1792.2 BERGLER (STEPHEN), was born at Hermanstadt, the capital of Transylvania, about 1680, and leaving his country in pursuit of employment, engaged with Fritsch, the opulent and spirited bookseller of Leipsic, as corrector of the press, but his turbulent and unsocial character having occasioned a dispute between him and Fritsch, he went to Amsterdam, where his intimate knowledge of Greek recommended him to the superintendance of Wetstein's edition of Homer, 1702, 2 vols. 12mo, and the magnificent edition of the Onomasticon of Pollux, 2 vols. fol. 1706. Bergler afterwards went to Hamburgh, where he assisted Fabricius in his Bibl. Græca, and his edition of Sextus Empiricus, Leipsic, 1718, folio. Returning then to Leipsic, he transcribed an ancient scholiast on Homer, published a new edition of Alciphron, with excellent notes, 1715, 8vo, and made some progress in an edition of Herodotus, in a new translation of Herodian, more literal than that of Politian,, and in an edition of Aristophanes, which was published by the younger Burmann in 1760, 2 vols. 4to. Amidst all these employments, he contributed several excellent papers to the Leipsic " Acta Eruditorum." It is to him likewise that we owe the Latin translation of the four books of Genesius on the Byzantine history, which is inserted in vol. XXIII. of that collection, published at Venice in 1733, but is not in the fine Louvre edition. For Fritsch, to whom he seems to have been reconciled, he translated a Greek work of Alexander Maurocordato, hospodar of Walachia, which was published, with the original text, under the title "Liber de officiis," Leipsic, 1722, 4to, and London, 1724, 12mo. For this he was so liberally rewarded by John Nicolas, prince of Walachia, and son to the author, that he determined to quit Leipsic, and attach himself to his patron. He went accordingly to Walachia, where the prince had a capital library of manuscripts, collected at a vast expence. Bergler found there the introduction and first three chapters of Eusebius's "Evangelical Demonstration," hitherto undiscovered, and sent a copy of them to Fabricius, by whom they were printed in his " Delectus argumentorum," Hamburgh, 1725, 4to. On the death of the prince, however, Bergler being without support, went to Constantinople, where he died in 1746, after having, it is said, embraced Mahometanism. He was a most accomplished scholar in Greek and Latin, and an accurate editor; but his unsteady turn and unsocial disposition procured him many enemies, and even among his friends he was rather tolerated than admired.' BERGMAN (SIR TORBERN), a celebrated chemist and natural philosopher, was born March 20, 1735, at Catharineberg in Westgothland. His father was receiver-general of the finances, and had destined him to the same employment; but nature had designed him for the sciences, to which he had an irresistible inclination from his earliest years. His first studies were confined to mathematics and physics, and all efforts that were made to divert him from VOL. V. 1 Biog, Universelle.-Saxii Onomasticon, E science having proved ineffectual, he was sent to Upsal with permission to follow the bent of his inclination. Linnæus at that time filled the whole kingdom with his fame. Instigated by his example, the Swedish youth flocked around him; and accomplished disciples leaving his school, carried the name and the system of their master to the most distant parts of the globe. Bergman, struck with the splendour of this renown, attached himself to the man whose merit had procured it, and by whom he was very soon distinguished. He applied himself at first to the study of insects, and made several ingenious researches into their history; among others into that of the genus of tenthredo, so often and so cruelly preyed on by the larvæ of the ichneumons, that nestle in their bowels and devour them. He discovered that the leech is oviparous, and that the coccus aquaticus is the egg of this animal, from whence issue ten or twelve young. Linnæus, who had at first denied this fact, was struck with astonishment when he saw it proved. "Vidi et obstupui!" were the words he pronounced, and which he wrote at the foot of the memoir when he gave it his sanction. Mr. Bergman soon distinguished himself as an astronomer, naturalist, and geometrician; but these are not the titles by which he acquired his fame. The chair of chemistry and mineralogy, which had been filled by the celebrated Wallerius, becoming vacant by his resignation, Mr. Bergman was among the number of the competitors; and without having before this period discovered any particular attention to chemistry, he published a memoir on the preparation of alum, that astonished his friends as well as his adversaries; but it was warmly attacked in the periodical publications, and Wallerius himself criticised it without reserve. The dispute, we may suppose, was deemed of high importance, since the prince Gustavus, afterwards king of Sweden, and then chancellor of the university, took cognizance of the affair, and after having consulted two persons, the most able to give him advice, and whose testimony went in favour of Bergman, he addressed a memorial, written with his own hand, in answer to all the objections urged against the candidate, to the consistory of the university and to the senate, who elected him agreeably to his highness's wishes. Bergman had now to satisfy the hopes that were conceived of him; to justify the opinion of those who recommended him; to fill the place of Wallerius; and to put envy to silence; nor was he unsuccessful in any of these attempts. He did not follow the common track in the study of chemistry. As he had received the lessons of no master, he was tainted with the prejudices of no school. Accustomed to precision, and having no time to lose, he applied himself to experiments without paying any attention to theories; he repeated those often which he considered as the most important and instructive, and reduced them to method, an improvement till then unknown. He first introduced into chemistry the process by analysis, which ought to be applied to every science; for there should be but one method of teaching and learning, as there is but one of judging well. These views have been laid down by Mr. Bergman in an excellent discourse, which contains, if we may use the phrase, his profession of faith in what relates to the science. It is here that he displays himself without disguise to his reader, and here it is of importance to study him with attention. The productions of volcanoes had never been analysed when Messrs. Ferber and Troil brought a rich collection of them into Sweden, at the sight of which Mr. Bergman conceived the design of investigating their nature. He examined first of all the matters least altered by the fire, and the forms of which were still to be discerned; he followed them in their changes progressively; he determined, he imitated their more complicated appearances; he knew the effects which would result from the mixture and decomposition of the saline substances which are found abundantly in these productions. He discovered such as were formed in the humid way; and then in his laboratory he observed the process of nature; that combat of flames and explosions; that chaos in which the elements seem to clash and to confound one another, unveiled themselves to his eyes. He saw the fire of volcanoes kindled in the midst of pyritical combinations, and sea-salt decomposed by clays; he saw fixed air disengaged from calcined calcareous stones, spreading upon the surface of the earth, and filling caverns in which flame and animal life are equally extinguished; he saw the sulphureous acid thrown out in waves, convert itself into the vitriolic by mere contact with the air; and distilling through the rocks, from the alun veins of the solfatara. He saw the bitumens as they melted; the inflammable and sulphureous airs exhaling; and the waters become mineral and impregnated with the fire and vapours of those stu |