Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/586

BER was born in 1748 at. Annecy in Savoy. He studied medicine at Turin, and having taken his degree, repaired to Paris where he rapidily attained distinction as a chemist, and, through the influence of the duke of Orleans, was appointed director of the government dye-works. He was the first to detect Lavoisier's error in pronouncing oxygen the sole acidifying agent. The Revolution soon called him to a more conspicuous field of action. France, attacked on all sides by powerful enemies, and deprived of all supplies of saltpetre, iron, and steel, was in the utmost peril. Berthollet's talent was equal to the emergency. He rapidly pointed out the means of extracting saltpetre from the soil, and of forming artificial nitre beds. He also succeeded in establishing iron and steel works, and thus supplied the patriotic armies with the requisites of war. Soon after he incurred the displeasure of Robespierre, by refusing to pronounce that certain brandy supplied to the troops had been poisoned, and narrowly escaped with his life. In 1795 we find him engaged in reorganizing the Institute. Soon afterwards he made the acquaintance of Napoleon, who became for a short time his pupil, and employed him to select the scientific men who were to accompany the expedition to Egypt. In that country he shared with cheerfulness all the dangers and privations of the army, and was one of the few who returned along with Napoleon. Honours were showered upon him, and he was raised to the peerage with the title of count. He generally resided at Arcueil near Paris, where he formed a small but most important scientific society. His fellow-members were La Place, Biot, Gay Lussac, Thenard, Decandolle, Humboldt, Collet-Descotils, and his son A. B. Berthollet. This society had published three volumes of its Transactions, when it was broken up by the mental derangement and suicide of the younger Berthollet. This misfortune was followed by others. His patron. Napoleon, was no longer in power, his pension was suspended, and his health began to decline. After prolonged sufferings, endured with exemplary fortitude, he died on November 6, 1822. Amongst his chemical labours the discovery of the bleaching properties of chlorine must not be forgotten. His "Elements of the Art of Dyeing" remained for a long time a standard work, until gradually superseded by more recent investigations. His "Chemical Statics" (Statique Chimique) will always remain invaluable from the truly philosophic spirit which it displays, even though some of its positions are no longer tenable. In this work he combats the doctrine of Bergmann, that "affinity" could be calculated by observing the order of decompositions, and proves that the entire theory of fixed elective affinities is in fact chimerical.—J. W. S.  BERTHOLON,, a French medical man, was born at Lyons in 1742, and died on 21st April, 1800. He was professor of physics at Montpellier, and afterwards professor of history at Lyons. He devoted his attention specially to electricity, and published numerous works on the subject. He wrote upon the electricity of the human body in health and disease, the electricity of plants and of meteors, on lightning conductors, and on fermentation in wine-making.—J. H. B.  BERTHOT or BERTHAUD,, a French theologian of the first half of the sixteenth century, professor at Dijon, and afterwards principal of the college of Navarre, published "Judicium Pauperum" and "Dialectica Progymnasmata," &c.  BERTHOT,, a French writer, born at Vaux-sous Tobigny, 1758; died 1832. A friend to the Revolution, but an enemy to its excesses, he experienced the persecution of the ultra party. Author of a "History of the Revolution," Paris, 1792-1803, 18 vols., 18mo.  BERTHOUD,, an ingenious mechanician, born at Neufchatel in Switzerland in 1725. He came to Paris in 1745, and acquired celebrity as a watch and clock maker. Ten years previous to the invention of marine chronometers by Harrison, he constructed several which were found to answer the purpose almost perfectly. He was a member of the Institute and of the Royal Society of London.—J. S., G.  * BERTHOUD,, born at Cambray in January, 1804, son of a printer; he early attracted attention by his poetical talents, obtaining a prize from the college of his native city. Repairing in due time to the capital, he became connected with some leading literary periodicals, to which he supplied tales of fiction, under the quasi-English nom de plume of Sir Henry. The reason for so quaint a title is to be found in the splenetic and misanthropic character of his first stories, a character suited of course, according to French traditions, to the suicidally disposed John Bull. Happily his better nature was drawn out by a weekly publication, Le Musee des Familles, which demanded a healthier description of writing; and in setting aside the English knight of the rueful countenance, M. Berthoud approximated nearer to the true English nature than he suspected. Taking the authentic histories of famous painters and sculptors, he presented them in the midst of their families, illustrating some anecdote of their home way of life, combining fact with consistent fiction in a very charming manner. He has also written anecdotes of animals in a tone so agreeably sentimental as to prove, that the assumed misanthropic Sir Henry fitted him as little as the supposed English prototype.—J. F. C.  BERTI,, a learned Italian theologian and miscellaneous writer, born at Lucca, 1686; died 1752. After entering the church, he devoted himself to history, belles-lettres, and particularly poetry. He taught rhetoric at Naples for three years; he afterwards was librarian to the marquis del Vasto. He filled several important functions in his order; and wrote a great number of historical tracts and commentaries.—J. G.  BERTI,, an Italian theologian, born at Serravezza in Tuscany in 1696; died at Pisa in 1766. He was successively assistant to the general of the Augustine order at Rome, librarian at Florence, and professor of ecclesiastical history at Pisa. His principal works are—"De Theologicis Disciplinis;" "De Reb. Ges. St. Aug," &c.; and "Historia Eccles." <section end="586H" /> <section begin="586I" />BERTI,, an Italian litterateur, born at Venice, 1741; died 1813. He was professor of rhetoric at Parma. Author of "Esopo volgarizzato per uno da Siena," Parma, 1811. <section end="586I" /> <section begin="586Jnop" />BERTIE,, an English gentleman, who married during Queen Mary's reign Catherine, Baroness Willoughby of Eresby and duchess dowager of Suffolk, and with her was obliged to take refuge on the continent from the persecution with which they were threatened as influential protestants. After enduring many hardships at Santon, a town of Cleves, where they first resided, and subsequently at Wesel and at Weinheim, they received a generous invitation from the king of Poland to settle in his dominions. On their arrival at Frankfort they were nobly received by the king, and to their great content established in the earldom of Kroze in Samogitia, the revenues of which they enjoyed till the death of Mary. A curious old ballad, published in the reign of Elizabeth, reprinted in 1738 and again in 1806, commemorates their misfortunes. It is entitled, "The most rare and excellent History of the Duchess of Suffolk and her Husband's, Richard Bertie's Calamities, to the time of Queen Dido."

, so called from his birth having taken place abroad, son of Richard Bertie, succeeded his mother in the barony of Willoughby of Eresby in 1580. Among other employments which he owed to the favour of Elizabeth, was the command of the auxiliary force in the Low Countries, vacant by the recall of Leicester. Born in 1555; died in 1601.

, eldest son of Peregrine, godson of Queen Elizabeth, born in 1582, was a distinguished naval officer in the latter years of Elizabeth's reign, and a devoted cavalier in the parliamentary struggle with Charles I. He succeeded in the barony of Willoughby of Eresby in 1601, and as a descendant by his mother's side of the De Veres, earls of Oxford, inherited the office of lord high chamberlain. In 1628, after having been created earl of Lindsey, he was made admiral, and despatched with a fleet to the relief of Rochelle. Some years later he was raised to the dignity of lord high admiral. At the battle of Edgehill, 1642, he was wounded, and died from loss of blood.

, son of Robert, and his successor to the earldom of Lindsey, was, like his father, a zealous cavalier. Taken prisoner at the battle of Edgehill in an attempt to rescue his father, and afterwards wounded at Naseby, he was held in deserved estimation by his unfortunate sovereign. At the Restoration he was made a knight of the garter, and appointed one of the judges for the trial of the regicides. Died in 1666.

, fourth earl of Abingdon, a descendant of Montague Bertie. This eccentric nobleman, who excited the disgust of his brother peers by interminable and intemperate harangues in favour of democracy, and by the same means merited the commendation of patriot Wilkes, was educated at Geneva, and probably contracted there the peculiar bias which characterized his political life. He was the author of "Thoughts on the Letter of Edmund Burke, Esq., to the Sheriffs of Bristol." He died in 1799.—J. S., G. <section end="586Jnop" />