Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/356

BAC almoner of a regiment at Warsaw, fellow of the Royal Society of London, and, finally, chief of a printing establishment at Constantinople. He wrote "Nova Æstus Marini Theoria."—J. S., G.  BACICCIO. See.  BACILLUS, a Roman prætor, lived in the second half of the first century before the Christian era. In a fit of despair, in consequence of the refusal of Cæsar to place him at the head of a province, he committed suicide. It is possible that this may be the same person as Babullius, whose death, according to Cicero, took place at the same date.  * BACK,, a naval officer in the British service, and highly distinguished as an arctic explorer and navigator, is a native of Stockport in Cheshire, where he was born in 1796. Entering the navy as midshipman in 1808, he served during that and the following year on the French and Spanish coasts, assisting in several of the warlike operations carried on during the contest then in progress between France and Britain. At the destruction of the guns and signal-posts of Baignio, he was made prisoner and sent to France, where he remained until 1814. Upon regaining his liberty, Mr. Back was employed for a time on the Dutch coast, and afterwards on the Halifax station. In the beginning of 1818, we find him entering on that course of adventure in the arctic regions which forms the most distinguishing feature in his career, and which subsequently led to his receiving in 1839 the honour of knighthood. The first of Sir George Back's experiences in arctic discovery was acquired in 1818, when he served as admiralty-mate under Lieutenant (afterwards Sir John) Franklin, appointed to the command of the Trent, one of the two vessels which constituted the expedition of Captain Buchan, undertaken at the instance of the British government in that year. The Dorothea and Trent left England in the spring of 1818, and were compelled to return, after encountering many perils, in the autumn of the same year. This voyage is more particularly referred to elsewhere. (See .) In the following year, we again find Mr. Back associated with Franklin, whom he accompanied in each of the perilous land journies made by that officer through the northerly regions of the American continent—the first between the years 1819-22, and the second in 1825-27. The narrative of the former of these expeditions (see ) constitutes one of the most exciting tales of perils encountered, and hardships endured, that the records of discovery present. During a great portion of two successive years, the whole party were for months together in imminent danger of starvation; their ultimate safety being in a great measure due to Mr. Back's almost unexampled powers of endurance. His journey of more than eleven hundred miles, performed on foot, in snow shoes, and during the depth of winter, between Fort Enterprise (the winter quarters of the party) and Fort Chipewyan—often without food for several days in succession—is a memorable instance of heroic devotion to the cause in which he and his companions were engaged. In Franklin's second land journey. Lieutenant Back (his promotion to that rank having taken place in 1821) again shared the fortunes of his friend, passing two successive winters at Fort Franklin, upon the shore of the Great Bear Lake. During the period of this expedition, his promotion as commander took place, 1825. Back returned to England in 1827, and an interval of between five and six years occurred before his next appearance upon the scene of arctic adventure. In 1833 he undertook the command of an expedition fitted out for the purpose of obtaining information respecting Captain John Ross and his companions, who had then been absent from England, in the prosecution of discovery in the polar seas, for a period of nearly four years. (See .) The course which it was determined that the searching-party should take, consisted in a land journey from the western coast of Hudson Bay to the banks of the Great Slave Lake; and thence, in a north-easterly direction, to the nearest shores of the polar sea. Captain Back was accompanied upon this occasion by Dr. Richard King, who filled the post of surgeon and naturalist to the expedition. Fort Reliance, near the eastern extremity of Great Slave Lake (lat. 62° 47´, long. 109°), was made the head-quarters of the party, and there Back and his companions passed the two successive winters of 1833-34 and 1834-35. In the interval, during the summer and autumn of 1834, our hero discovered, and traced to its outlet in the polar sea, after a course of between five and six hundred miles through a ragged and "iron-ribbed" country, the Thlew-ee-choh, or Great Fish river—since more generally known by the name of its discoverer. The hardships endured, and difficulties surmounted, in the course of this undertaking, can only be appreciated by a perusal of Captain Back's own narrative of his achievement. The sufferings from cold during the first of the two winters passed at Fort Reliance were extreme—the thermometer falling on one occasion to 70° below zero. "Such, indeed, was the abstraction of heat, that with large logs of dry wood on the fire, I could not get the thermometer higher than 12° below zero. Ink and paint froze. The sextant cases and boxes of seasoned wood, principally fir, all split. The skin of the hands became dry, cracked, and opened into unsightly and smarting gashes, which we were obliged to anoint with grease. On one occasion, after washing my face within three feet of the fire, my hair was actually clotted with ice before I had time to dry it." The sensations produced by the intensity of cold were found to bear curious resemblance to those resulting from excessive heat. The hunters compared the sensation of handling their guns to that of touching red-hot iron. The main purpose for which the arctic land expedition of Captain Back had been undertaken, was rendered nugatory by the arrival from England during its progress, towards the close of the winter of 1833-34, of news of the safety of Captain Ross and his companions; but it was in an eminent degree serviceable to the cause of geographical discovery. Upon his return to England in the autumn of 1835, Back was promoted to the well-earned rank of post-captain. His period of repose from active duty was a brief one. In the following spring he was appointed to the command of the Terror, and sailed from the Orkneys upon a new expedition of discovery on the arctic shores, undertaken at the instance of the Royal Geographical Society. The narrative of this journey, from the pen of its commander, exhibits renewed instances of the dauntless fortitude and patient endurance by which British enterprise within the polar seas has been so conspicuously distinguished, and forms a thrilling record of perilous adventure. Becoming tightly frozen in the ice, off the shore of Southampton Island, at the northern extremity of Hudson Bay, in September, 1836, the Terror was drifted along with the frozen mass in various directions, and did not get released until July of the following year, when the injuries she had sustained made it absolutely necessary to seek a homeward passage across the Atlantic, which she miraculously accomplished in safety; putting into Lough Swilly, almost in a sinking state, in September, 1837. With this enterprise. Captain Back's career of active discovery closes. Shortly after his return, he received the medal of the Royal Geographical Society; and in 1839 had the honour of knighthood conferred upon him. During the interest so generally excited, within the subsequent period, by the melancholy fate of his early friend and companion in arctic adventure, Franklin, the opinion of Sir George Back has naturally been looked to with the deference due to practised experience, and to the matured judgment of a highly cultivated intellect.—W. H.  BACK,, a Dutch physician, born at Rotterdam in the beginning of the seventeenth century. He was the first to adopt and sustain Harvey's doctrine of the circulation of the blood. He published a work entitled "Dissertatio de Corde, in qua agitur de nullitate spirituum, de hæmatosi, de viventium calore," Rotterdam, 1648. The author denies in this work the existence of the nervous fluid, and refers all the operations of the nervous system to the action of vibrations.—E. L.  BACKER,, a historical and portrait painter of Amsterdam, was born in 1643, and died in 1686.  BACKEREEL,, of Antwerp, a landscape and figure painter of the Flemish school, born in 1572, died in the early part of the seventeenth century.  BACKER,, also called , a historical painter, born at Antwerp in 1530; died in 1560. He was one of the best colorists of the Dutch school, and excelled in the ordonnance and drapery of his works. He derived his surname from being employed to paint for the Italian picture-dealer Palermo, by whom he was actually worked to death.—R. M. <section end="356H" /> <section begin="356I" />BACKER,, born at Harlingen in 1608, a Dutch painter of history and portraits of considerable merit. He studied and worked mostly at Amsterdam, where he produced a large number of pictures, especially remarkable for the skilful treatment of the nude. He was exceedingly quick in his work, and an instance is quoted in which he began and finished, in one morning, a life-sized half-length portrait. Died 1651. <section end="356I" /> <section begin="356Zcontin" />BACKER,, a Prussian sculptor of the seventeenth century, a pupil and assistant to Schlutter; executed several of <section end="356Zcontin" />