Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/71

 BEENSTEIN

BEKTHELOT

of Comparative Anatomy (1891) and wrote several biological works. In his Some Neglected Factors of Evolution (1911) he speaks of the &quot; intellectual dreams &quot; of the Churches as &quot; frightful nightmares to those who wake up and think rather than feel.&quot; D. Nov., 1907.

BERNSTEIN, Aaron, Jewish writer. B. 1812. Ed. Berlin. He was destined for the synagogue, but he turned to science and letters, and in 1834, under the pseu donym of A. Eebenstein, published a trans lation of The Song of Songs. He wrote also works on philosophy and science, and a few novels. He was conspicuous in the democratic Eationalist activity in Germany in the forties. D. Feb. 12, 1884.

BERNSTEIN, Edward, German poli tician. B. Jan. 6, 1850. Ed. High School, Berlin. He was a bank clerk from 1866 to 1878, and private secretary from 1878 to 1880. He joined the Social Demo cratic Party in 1872, and was expelled from Germany. Bernstein lived in Switzerland in 1878-88, and at London 1888-1901. Eeturning to Germany in 1901, he has since 1902 been Deputy for Breslau in the Eeichstag and a leader of the Minority group. Bernstein rejects the theories of Karl Marx, and follows the Kantian philo- sophy (but not theology). He is an Agnostic.

BERT, Paul, M.D., D.Sc., French states man. B. Oct. 17, 1833. Ed. Auxerre and Paris (law and science). After teaching zoology for some years at Bordeaux, he in 1869 succeeded Claude Bernard as pro fessor of physiology at the Sorbonne. In 1875 he won the Grand Prize of the Academy of Science. In 1871 Gambetta offered him the position of Prefect of the North. In 1874 he entered Parliament, and, as he had discarded all religion since his youth, became one of the most powerful opponents of the clericals. As Minister of Public Instruction he in 1884 secured secular education in the schools of France. 69

He urged the Government to disestablish the Church and purchase all ecclesiastical buildings. In 1886 he was made Governor- General of French Indo-China. His Eation- alism is best seen in his Morale des Jesuites (1880) and Le Clericalisme (1900). D. Dec. 11, 1886.

BERTANI, Agostino, M.D., Italian poli tician. B. Oct. 19, 1812. Ed. Pavia. He sacrificed his medical practice for his politi cal views, and was exiled for taking part in the 1848 rebellion against Austria and the Papacy. He supported the Garibaldian campaign, and became secretary of the Provisional Government at Naples, repub lican member of Parliament, and one of the founders of the Democratic League. Bertani was a strenuous and thorough anti-clerical. D. Apr. 30, 1886.

BERTHELOT, Professor Pierre Eugene Marcellin, D.Sc., founder of organic chem istry. B. Oct. 25, 1827. Ed. College Henri IV. In 1859 Berthelot was appointed professor of chemistry at the School of Pharmacy, and his great work, Chimie organique fondee sur la synthese (2 vols., 1860), which he was then writing, is regarded as the basis of modern organic chemistry. In 1865 a chair of organic chemistry was created for him at the College de France. He was admitted to the Academy of Sciences in 1873. He was also General Inspector of Public Instruction (1876), Senator (1881), Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour (1886), Minister of Public Instruction (1887), and Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences (1889). Berthelot was an Honorary Associate of the Eationalist Press Association, and as ardent for the spread of Eationalism as he was distin guished in science. He would listen to no compromise whatever with religion. See his Science et Morale (1897) and Science et Libre Pensee (1905). In a letter addressed to the Eome Congress of Freethinkers in 1904 he scorns &quot; the poison vapours of superstition &quot; and longs for a &quot; reign of

70