Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/493

Rh tiuually at work, lie is said to have accelerated his death by over-exevtion upon the processes of bronze-casting. He died in 1551. (Vasari, ed. Lemonnier, x. 176-197; Ugurgieri, Pompe Sanese ; G. Milanesi, Documenti, &c.)  BECCARIA,, a celebrated writer on the principles of jurisprudence and national economy, was born at Milan in the year 1735. He was educated in the Jesuit College at Parma, and showed at Srst a great fondness and aptitude for mathematics. The study of Montesquieu seems to have directed his attention towards economical questions; and his first publication (in 1762) was a tract on the derangement of the currency in the Milanese states, with a proposal for its remedy. Shortly after, in conjunction with his friends the Verris, he formed a literary society, and began to publish a small journal, in imitation of the Spectator, called II Caffe. In 1764 Beccaria published his brief but justly celebrated treatise Dei Delitti e delle Pene (&quot; On Crimes and Punishments &quot;). The weighty reasonings of this work were expounded with all the additional force of a clear and animated style. It pointed out distinctly and temperately the grounds of the right of punishment, and from these principles deduced certain propositions as to the nature and amount of punishment which should be inflicted for any crime. The book had a surprising success. Within eighteen months it passed through six editions. It was translated into French by Morellet in 1766, and published with an anonymous commentary by Voltaire. An English translation appeared in 1768, and other countries followed the example. Many of the reforms in the penal codes of the principal European nations are traceable to Beccaria s treatise. In November 1768 the marquis was appointed to the chair of public law and economy, which had been founded expressly for him at the Palatine College of Milan. His lectures on political economy, which are based on strict utilitarian principles, are in marked accordance with the theories of the English school of economists. They are published in the collection of Italian writers on political economy (Scrittori Classici Italianl, vols. xi. and xii.) In 1771 Beccaria was made a member of the supreme economic council; and in 1791 he was appointed one of the board for the reform of the judicial code. In this post his labours were of very great value. He died in 1793. A notice of his life will be found prefixed to his lectures, referred to above.  BECCARIA,, a distinguished electrician and practical astronomer, was born at Mondovi on the 2d of October 1716, and entered the religious order of the Pious Schools in 1732. He became professor of experimental physics, first at Palermo and then at Rome, and was appointed to a similar situation at Turin in 1748. lie vas afterwards made tutor to the young princes de Chablais and de Carignan, and continued to reside principally at Turin during the remainder of his life. In May 1755 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London, to which he afterwards communicated several papers relating to his favourite pursuits. He died on the 27th of May 1781. Beccaria s name is associated with no great discovery in physical science ; but he did much, both in the way of experiment and exposition, to spread abroad the researches of Franklin and others in the science of electricity. His own experiments, which were skilfully conducted, demonstrated a number of curious facts bearing on the relations of electricity to meteorological phenomena, to chemical action, and to some other points which have been since more thoroughly investigated. His principal work was the treatise Dell Elettricismo, 4 rtificiale e Naturale t 1753, which was translated into English in 1776. He also contributed a number of papers to the Philosophical Transactions. In 1759 he was commissioned to measure an arc of the meridian in the neighbourhood of Turin. The result, which he published in the Gradus Taurinensis, 1774, is not now considered perfectly correct.  BECCLES, a market-town and municipal borough, in the county of Suffolk, on the right bank of the River Waveney, 32 miles N.N.E. of Ipswich. It consists of several streets, is well built, and contains a fine old parish church, enlarged and repaired in 1859, several dissenting chapels, a free school, founded in the reign of James I., a free grammar school, a handsome town-hall, a custom house, and a corn exchange. Malting is carried on to some extent; and by means of the river, which is navigable from Yarmouth, a considerable trade in coals and produce is carried on. The incorporation of the town dates from 1584. Population in 1871, 4844.  BECERRA,, a distinguished Spanish painter and sculptor, was born at Balza in 1520. He studied at Rome, it is said under Michel Angelo, and assisted Vasari in painting the hall of the Concelleria. He also contributed to the celebrated anatomical plates of Valverde. After his return to Spain he was extensively employed by Philip II., and decorated many of the rooms in the palace at Madrid with frescoes. He also painted altar pieces for several of the churches, most of which have been destroyed. His fame as a sculptor almost surpassed that as a painter. His best work was a magnificent figure of the Virgin, which was destroyed during the French war. Becerra died in 1570. The most competent judges assign to him the chief share A in the establishment of the fine arts in Spain.  BECHE-DE-MER, or, an important food luxury among the Chinese, Japanese, and other Eastern peoples, connected with the production of which a very considerable commerce exists in the Eastern Archipelago, the coasts of New Guinea, and generally on the coral reefs of the Pacific. It consists of several species of echinoderms, generally referred to the genus Holothuria ; but very many varieties, widely distributed in Eastern seas, are prepared and sold in Chinese and Japanese markets. The creatures, which exist on coral reefs, have bodies from 6 to 15 inches long, shaped like a cucumber, hence a name they receive, sea cucumbers. The skin is sometimes covered with spicules or prickles, and sometimes quite smooth, and with or without &quot;teats&quot; or ambulacral feet disposed in rows. Five varieties are recognized in the commerce of the Pacific Islands, the finest of which is the &quot; brown with teats,&quot; which are worth, at the place of their preparation, 30 per ton. The large black, which come next in value, bring 25 per ton; the small black 20, red bellied 15, and white 12. The finest of these sell for as much as 100 per ton in China, where they are used in the gelatinous soups, which form an important article of food in that empire. The preparation of the creatures when caught is very simple. They are boiled for about twenty minutes, after which they are split up and gutted, when they are ready for drying. The drying is conducted in large sheds on hurdles placed above a brisk fire. The dried Beches-de- mer being very hygrometric, it is necessary that they be immediately packed up and shipped on the conclusion of the drying process ; and unless they are thoroughly dry decomposition sets in rapidly and destroys the entire cargo.  BECHER,, a celebrated chemist, born at Spire in 1635. His father, a Lutheran clergyman, died while he was very young, and the boy was compelled to support himself by teaching. He was a diligent student, and acquired a very extensive acquaintance with chemistry and allied sciences. In 1666, after having travelled through some parts of Europe, he was made professor of medicine at Mentz. He then removed to Munich, where he superintended the magnificent laboratory. His some what turbulent and unbending disposition obliged him to leave Bavaria, and he proceeded to Vienna, where he gained 