Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/419

BAR BARKER,, M.D., a distinguished chemist and physician, was born in Waterford in Ireland. He entered Trinity college, Dublin, and having obtained his degree in 1792, repaired to Edinburgh, then celebrated as the first medical school in Europe. There he passed some years in the study of his profession, and became acquainted with many distinguished men—amongst others, with Sir Walter Scott, with whose family he formed an intimate friendship. At this time he became a member of the Speculative Society, in which the late Lord Brougham took a leading part. When about to take his medical degree, he composed a thesis, "De invento Galvani," in which, previous to the discovery of the voltaic battery, he suggested the idea of the identity of the nervous fluid and dynamical electricity. Returning to his native city, he took an active part in establishing there the first fever hospital ever opened in Ireland. After a five years' residence in Waterford, he came to Dublin, where he took the degree of doctor of medicine in Trinity college, and in the year 1808 was elected to fill the chair of chemistry there, in the room of Dr. Percival, then lately deceased, and which he continued to occupy for many years, till succeeded by Dr. Apjohn. As a chemical lecturer, Dr. Barker was deservedly popular, and, by his hospital practice and clinical lectures, added much to the high character enjoyed by the medical school of Trinity college. In conjunction with Dr. Todd, Dr. Barker established the first medical journal that was published in Ireland. In 1804 he was elected senior physician to the Cork Street hospital, and published many able reports on fever, which are still quoted by Copland and other systematic writers on medicine. In 1820 Dr. Barker was appointed secretary to the general board of health in Ireland, and continued in that office till 1852. During that period he published many official reports on the state of fever, on county hospitals, and on infirmaries, which bear a high value, and formed the basis of many of the legislative enactments on those subjects. Dr. Barker, in conjunction with Dr. Cheyne, published in the year 1821 a work on "Epidemic Fevers in Ireland," 2 vols. 8vo., which holds a high place in standard medical literature; in 1826 he edited the Dublin Pharmacopœia, and published observations on the work, in which he was aided by Dr. Montgomery.—J. F. W.  BARKER,, often called ; born in that city in 1769; died in 1847; began his career by very attentively copying the Flemish and Dutch masters, especially Rembrandt and Ruysdael, and having acquired sufficient proficiency, executed several pictures of familiar character, amongst which are noted those of the "Woodman," and of "Old Tom." He also painted a large fresco in his house near Bath.—R. M.  BARKER,, better known as "the Wensleydale poet," was the only son of Thomas and Sarah Barker of East Wilton, Yorkshire, and was adopted and educated by the late Rev. W. Jones, vicar of that parish. His first publication was a copy of verses of considerable promise, "Stanzas on Cape Coast Castle." He subsequently produced some other small and casual works; but that which made his name most widely known in the north of England was his "Three Days, or History and Antiquities of Wensleydale," published in 1854. He was an active member of the Archæological Institute, and was mainly instrumental in saving from modern "restorations" three beautiful churches in the district of Wensleydale. His death happened at Leeds, April 10, 1855.—E. W.  BARKEY,, professor of theology at the Hague, was born in 1709, and died in 1788. He published "Museum Haganum," 1775-80; "Bibliotheca Bremensis nova," 1760-67; and "Bibliotheca Hagana," 1768-77  * BARKLY,, the son of the late Æneas Barkly, Esq., of Monteagle, Ross-shire, and an extensive West India merchant in London, was born in 1815. He was brought up to a mercantile life, but entered parliament in 1845 as M.P. for Leominster, which he continued to represent till 1849, when he was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of British Guiana, in succession to Sir H. Light. He was himself a large landed proprietor in that colony, and took the greatest pains to develop its internal resources, by reconciling contending factions, and more especially in respect of the sugar crops, by the reduction of the price of labour, by immigration, and by the introduction of railways. His evidence on British Guiana, given before the House of Commons, is most authentic and valuable. In 1853 he was promoted to the governorship of Jamaica, and at the same time created a K.C.B. (civil). In 1856 he was still further promoted by the late Sir W. Molesworth, during his brief but able administration of the colonies, who appointed him to succeed the late Sir Charles Hotham as captain-general and governor-in-chief of Victoria, where the ability of his administrative faculties is beginning to make itself felt (1859).—E. W.  BARKOK,, a Mameluke sultan of Egypt, founder of the Circassian or Borgite dynasty. He wrested the throne from the last of the Baharites, or Tartars, about the year 1382. In the early part of his reign, which extended over seventeen years, he was harassed by successive seditions, and had to defend his frontiers against the incursions of neighbouring princes; but was latterly distinguished as a patron of the arts, and also of letters, for which he did much by founding a college at Cairo.—J. S., G.  BARKOV,, a Russian writer of some note, especially for his translations. He was translator to the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg. He died in 1768.—J. F. W.  * BARKOW,, a German physiologist and anatomist, was born in the year 1798 at Trent, in the Isle of Rugen. He studied for a short time at Greifswald, and in 1816 proceeded to Berlin, where, by the advice of Rosenthal and Rudolphi, he devoted himself to the study of anatomy. In 1821 he became prosector in Greifswald, and five years after this, prosector and extraordinary professor of medicine in the university of Breslau, where he was appointed ordinary professor in 1835. From an early period Barkow paid great attention to the anatomy and physiology of monsters and abortions, his dissertation on entering upon his prosectorship at Greifswald being entitled, "Commentatio Anatomico-physiologica de Monstris duplicibus verticibus inter se junctis;" whilst he has given us the results of his further investigations upon this curious and interesting subject in his "Monstra animalium duplicia per anatomen indagata," etc., forming two quarto volumes, illustrated by fifteen plates, published at Leipzig in 1830 and 1836. Barkow is also the author of numerous medical, anatomical, and physiological papers, published in various journals, and in the Acta Academiæ Naturæ Curiosorum, besides two or three independent works on the arteries and nerves, and one on the torpidity of animals. The latter appeared at Berlin in 1846.—W. S. D. <section end="419H" /> <section begin="419I" />BARKSDALE,, born at Winchcomb in Gloucestershire in 1609, and educated at Abingdon and Merton college, and Gloucester hall (now Worcester college), Oxford. In 1637 he was appointed master of the Hereford grammar-school, and after the Restoration, the king gave him the living at Naunton in Gloucestershire, which he held till his death in 1688. He was a man of varied accomplishments, but his works, which were numerous,. attract no attention now.—J. B., O. <section end="419I" /> <section begin="419J" />BARKYAROC or BARKIAROKH, fourth Seljookian sultan of Persia, succeeded his father, Malek-Shah, about the year 1092. He died in 1104, at the age of twenty-five. His short reign was distracted by tumults, arising from the opposition of his uncles and brothers.—J. S., G. <section end="419J" /> <section begin="419K" />BARLAAM, a celebrated monk of the order of St. Basilius, was a native of Seminaria in Calabria, and lived in the first half of the fourteenth century. The ornament of his order in philosophy and science as well as theology, he visited, for the purpose of acquainting himself with the Greek language, Ætolia, Thessalonica, and finally Constantinople, where he so won the favour of Andronicus the Younger, as to be appointed to an abbacy in the capital. In 1339 he was employed on an unsuccessful mission to the papal court of Avignon, his object being to recommend a union of the Greek and Latin churches. On his return, he injured his reputation by entering into controversy with the ridiculous sect of the Hesychastæ, and, to escape their clamours, was at length obliged to depart for Italy. Clement VI. gave him the bishopric of Geraci. Besides many controversial works, he wrote "Ethicæ secundum Stoicos Libri ii." and ", sive Arithmeticæ Algebraicæ Libri vi."—J. S., G. <section end="419K" /> <section begin="419Zcontin" />BARLÆUS,, a modern Latin poet, born at Antwerp in 1584. He was first professor of logic in the university of Leyden, but lost his chair on account of his defence of the Arminians, when their opponents gained the ascendancy in the synod of Dort. He next studied physic, and took a doctor's degree at Caen. In 1631 he was appointed by the magistrates of Amsterdam to the chair of philosophy in their university, which he held till his death in 1643. His works are numerous and somewhat miscellaneous, stretching over the fields of <section end="419Zcontin" />