Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/369

BAE , general, towards the year 60. Sextus Cæsar appointed him to the command of the Roman troops in the civil war.—J. S., G.  BAECK,, a distinguished Swedish physician, the contemporary and intimate friend of Linnæus, was born in 1713, and died in 1795. His knowledge of medicine was very extensive; he became first physician to the king, and president of the council of medicine, and was created a knight of the order of the Polar star. Linnæus has applied his name to a genus of plants (Baeckea). On the death of Linnæus, Baeck was selected by the Academy of Sciences of Stockholm, to write an obituary notice of that great naturalist; and he did the same kind office for the memory of Hasselquist and Olaüs Celsius. He also published memoirs upon subjects of natural history, principally in the Transactions of the Swedish Academy.—W. S. D.  BAECK or BAEX,, a French theologian, born at Utrecht in 1562; died in 1619. Of his writings, which are chiefly controversial, the most important is entitled, "L'Adversaire des mauvais catholiques."  * BAEHR,, professor ordinary and principal librarian of Heidelberg, was born at Darmstadt, 13th June, 1798. He studied at Heidelberg under Creuzer, and soon distinguished himself as a classical scholar. His principal works are his edition of Herodotus, and his "Geschichte der Römischen Literatur," which was followed by three continuations, viz., "Die Christlichen Dichter und Geschichtschreiber Roms," 1836; "Die Christlichrömische Theologie nebst einem Anhange über die Rechtsquellen," 1837; and "Geschichte der Römischen Literatur im Karolingischen Zeitalter," 1840. He has published numerous minor philological works, dissertations, and renews, and is the editor of the Heidelberger Zahrbücher.—K. E.  BÆHRENS, J. E. F., a German writer on agriculture, author of a work entitled "System der Natürlichen und Künstlichen Dungemittel für Praktische Landwirthe, mit Hinsicht auf Englische Landwirthschaft," was born in 1760, and died in 1830. In that work, a part of which, as the title implies, is devoted to a consideration of English agriculture, he insisted on the necessity for employing artificial manures.—J. S., G.  BAELI,, born at Milazzo in Sicily in 1639; a historian and a poet. His principal work is "Il Siciliano Veridico," or the History of Messina. Was living in 1707.  BÆNG or BÆNGIUS,, a Danish or Norwegian geographer of the seventeenth century; author of "Descriptio Urbis Christianæ in Norwegia," 1651.  BÆNA,, a Portuguese writer, author of two valuable works, illustrative of the history and geography of Para; died in 1851. He held the rank of colonel in an artillery corps, established in the province to which his works refer. Their titles are—"Compendio das eras do Para," 1838, and "Ensaio Corografico sobre a Provincia do Para," 1839. <section end="369H" /> <section begin="369Inop" />* BAER,, a distinguished living Russian naturalist, was born in the province of Esthonia, on the 17th February, 1792. He was early led accidentally to the study of botany, and for some years applied himself sedulously to this science, devoting to it every leisure moment that he enjoyed whilst at the high school of Revel, to which he was sent in 1808. The turn of his mind thus leading him to the investigation of nature, Von Baer went in 1810 to study medicine at Dorpat, where he remained until 1814. The instructions of the distinguished professors who filled the medical chairs at Dorpat during this period, such as Ledebour, Parrot, and especially Burdach, were of the greatest service to Von Baer, developing in his mind that spirit of investigation which has since led him to such important and brilliant results. On leaving the university of Dorpat, Von Baer, finding that Russia as it then was, presented but indifferent prospects to the naturalist, turned to Germany, where he continued his studies, supporting himself at the same time by the practice of his profession. During his sojourn in Germany, he studied comparative anatomy under Döllinger of Würzburg; and amongst his other acquaintances was Nees von Esenbeck, whose principles appear to have had much influence upon the direction of his mind. In 1817, however, the great naturalist's desire to devote himself to science, was to a certain extent fulfilled; for in this year, his old teacher, Burdach, having become professor of anatomy and physiology at Königsberg, invited Von Baer to join him there as prosector. In 1819, he was appointed extraordinary professor of zoology, and soon afterwards professor of that science, and received permission to found a zoological museum in Königsberg; in 1826 he undertook the direction of the anatomical museum in Burdach's place. In the year 1819 he appears to have visited St. Peterburg for a time, but soon returned to Königsberg; and it was not until 1834, on his receiving the appointment of librarian to the Academy of Sciences of that city, that he took up his permanent abode there. Since that period he has been well known all over Europe, as one of the most active members of the Academy, and the most distinguished of Russian comparative anatomists and physiologists. The Russian government, rarely backward in recognizing and rewarding talent and industry, even in its scientific subjects, soon indicated its appreciation of Von Baer's powers by the numerous and important commissions conferred upon him, and as early as the year 1838, he received the honourable appointment of councillor of state. The numerous writings of Von Baer show his mind to be of the highest philosophical order, whilst, at the same time, we meet in many of them with traces of a curious dry humour, such as we should hardly expect to find in works of such a strictly scientific nature. The great number of important discoveries made known to the world by his memoirs, are the fruit of the most careful investigations, followed out with extraordinary tact; and although his mind appears never to have allowed itself to be led astray by preconceived ideas, or by a desire to generalise from insufficient data, it is astonishing how far his views have almost always been in advance of his age, and to how great an extent zoological science has gradually become assimilated by the united labours of many excellent observers, to the condition in which it must have existed many years before in the mind of the great Russian naturalist.

At a very early period. Von Baer occupied himself especially with the study of the reproduction and development of animals, subjects which before his time were but very imperfectly understood. His first work upon this interesting branch of science was his "Epistola de Ovi Mammalium et Hominis Genesi," published in Leipzig in 1827; and this was followed in 1828, by the first volume of a large work, "Uber die Entwickelungsgeschichte der Thiere" (on the Developmental History of Animals), of which the second volume did not appear till 1837; and in 1835, by his "Untersuchungen über die Entwickelungsgeschichte der Fische" (on the Development of Fishes). These works, with numerous papers on similar subjects, published by Von Baer in different scientific periodicals, in the Memoirs and Bulletins of the Academy of Saint Petersburg, and in the Nova Acta Academiæ Naturæ Curiosorum, opened up a new field of investigation, which other naturalists, in Germany especially, soon entered upon with great zeal, and these researches have gradually led to a vast change in the principles upon which philosophical zoology is founded. The knowledge of Von Baer, is, however, by no means confined to those strictly zoological subjects, from his investigation of which he has derived his most brilliant fame. The polar regions of the vast Russian empire appear always to have presented some singular attraction to his mind, and on his acquiring a high position in St. Petersburg, he made use of his opportunities to collect all the information available upon those interesting countries, consulting the numerous reports of Russian travels belonging to the ministry of Marine, settling various questions of climatology, the distribution of plants and animals, and hypsometric relations as far as the materials at his command would permit. These endeavours, which proved not only the zeal and energy shown by the Russian voyagers, but also the fitness of Von Baer to undertake the direction of further explorations, soon attracted the attention of the government, and in April, 1837, the emperor ordered that Von Baer should be furnished with funds to enable him to make a scientific expedition to the arctic shores. He left St. Petersburg at the end of May, and reached Archangel overland on the 6th of June; but after his arrival at that port, considerable time was lost in consequence of the vessel appointed for the service of the expedition being too small for the purpose, so that it was necessary to hire a larger one. Notwithstanding this delay, however. Von Baer succeeded in making valuable investigations, especially on the shores of Nova Zembla, the results of which prove, that the Fauna and Flora of that inhospitable land are far less scanty than might have been anticipated. The results of this voyage were communicated by Von Baer at various times to the Academy of St. Petersburg, and published in the Memoirs and Bulletins of that society.—W. S. D. <section end="369Inop" />