Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/615

BID even if he did not make an unscrupulous use of them. A bill, renewing the charter of the bank, which had passed both houses of congress, was negatived by President Jackson in 1832. The public deposits were removed from the bank the following year; and in 1834, the lower house of congress resolved, by a considerable majority, that the bank ought not to be rechartered, and the public deposits should not be restored. It thus became apparent that its affairs, as a national institution, must be wound up. But Mr. Biddle was not yet foiled; with characteristic pertinacity, he succeeded, by the payment of a very large bonus, in inducing the state of Pennsylvania to recharter the bank, with an increased capital, under the name of the United States Bank of Pennsylvania. This step was an injudicious one; being now a mere state bank, without the power of establishing branches in the other states, it could no longer use its immense capital with advantage, or control the domestic exchanges. It was thus tempted to incur extraordinary risks, and to engage in enterprises not of a legitimate banking character. It embarked in cotton speculations and stock-jobbing. The consequences were inevitable; its capital was wasted, and in 1841, it sunk into hopeless insolvency. Mr. Biddle had retired from its management two years before; but the calamity was generally imputed to his rash councils and injudicious proceedings, and he felt keenly the consequent loss of reputation. He died at his country seat near Philadelphia, February 27, 1844. Though his career was an unfortunate one, in private life he was much esteemed, and his public spirit and commanding talents might have earned for him an enviable name, if circumstances had not made him a leader in a deplorable controversy.—F. B.  BIDET,, a French agriculturist, was born in 1709, and died at Rheims on 15th February, 1782. He wrote a work on the "Nature and the Culture of the Vine."  BIDING,, a French Hebraist, professor of oriental languages at Metz, was born in 1775. He studied at the university of Frankfort-on-the-Maine. His principal work, an exposition of the principles of Hebrew reading, with remarks on pronunciation, punctuation, &c., was published at Metz in 1816, under the title of "Sepher im Lamikra."  BIDLOO,, a celebrated Dutch anatomist, was born at Amsterdam on the 12th March, 1649, and died at Leyden in April, 1713. He early showed a great taste for literature, but was prevailed upon by his parents to follow the profession of medicine. After serving for some time as a surgeon in the army, he obtained a chair of anatomy at the Hague in 1688, and six years afterwards was invited to Leyden, where he became professor of anatomy and surgery. About this period he was also appointed physician to William III. of England. Bidloo appears to have enjoyed a much higher reputation than he deserved. His surgical works are of little value, but he has the merit of having combated the celebrated hypothesis of the existence of a nervous fluid, in which he exhibited much talent; proving that the nerves are not hollow, as was supposed, but that they consist of a great number of minute filaments. His most important work, entitled "Anatomia corporis humani," &c., which was published at Amsterdam in 1685, contains one hundred and five folio plates, executed by G. de Lairesse, and these, although by no means perfect, constitute the principal merit of the work, which was long prized on their account. These plates are also remarkable for another reason. Cowper, the celebrated English anatomist, is said to have obtained three hundred copies of them from a Dutch printer, and having altered the name, and attached different explanations to them, published them in his own name. Bidloo, justly resenting this conduct, laid claim to the plates in a tract entitled, "Gulielmus Cowper citatus coram tribunali societatis Angliæ," published at Leyden in 1700. He was also the author of several other works upon various subjects of anatomy and surgery, and a volume of his opuscula appeared in 1715, two years after his death.—W. S. D.  BIDLOO,, a Dutch botanist, brother of the preceding, practised as an apothecary at Amsterdam. He published a catalogue of medicinal plants cultivated in the Amsterdam garden, and a treatise "De Re Herbaria."  BIDOU,, a French physician, born at Écos, Eure, on the 9th August, 1769. After pursuing his studies for some time in his native country, he visited Edinburgh and Dublin in 1790, and on his return to France attended the medical courses in the university of Paris, where he took his doctor's degree in 1805. He died in Paris on the 8th August, 1824. His only works are, "Dissertatio Medica de febre generatim," 1805, and "Reflexions Pratiques sur les Maladiès de la peau appelées dartres," Paris 1821.—W. S. D.  BIDWILL,, a successful botanist, was the son of James G. Bidwill, a merchant of Exeter. He examined particularly the botany of New Zealand and Australia, and contributed many important plants to the gardens and herbaria of Britain. He was appointed commissioner of crown lands at the Wide-bay district; there he continued to prosecute his botanical pursuits. His name is commemorated in Sir William Hooker's Araucaria Bidwilli, the bunya-bunya tree of north-east Australia, the seeds of which are used as food by the natives. He died in 1853, at Tinana, in the 38th year of his age, of a disease brought on by his exploring exertions.—J. H. B.  BIE,, born in 1594, pupil of Wouter Abts, and Schoof, painter to Louis XIII., master of Abts. He was born at Lierre, and studied six years at Rome. He died about 1640, leaving a son who wrote a poem on the painters. His colour was so delicate, that he frequently painted on jasper, agate, porphyry, and gold plate, as Abts had done before him. He painted miniatures and figures for cardinals, &c. His best work is the picture of St. Eloy, the patron of goldsmiths at St. Gomer, Lierre.—W. T. <section end="615H" /> <section begin="615I" />* BIEDENFELD,, a German novelist and miscellaneous writer, was born at Karlsruhe in 1788. From 1811-14 he held an office in the administrative service of Baden, and afterwards was manager of various theatres. His writings are very numerous.—K. E. <section end="615I" /> <section begin="615J" />* BIEDERMANN,, a distinguished German writer, was born at Leipzig, September 25, 1812. After having studied philosophy in his native town and at Heidelberg, he began lecturing at Leipzig, and was appointed professor extraordinary in 1838. The liberal opinions, however, which he professed, both in his lectures and writings, soon involved him in a contest with government. In 1845 legal proceedings were instituted against him, and though he was acquitted, yet he was no longer allowed to lecture on political subjects. In 1848 he was elected a member of the Frankfort national assembly, where he acted as one of the secretaries, and afterwards was chosen one of the vice-presidents: he seceded from the assembly on May 26, 1849. He then became a deputy to the Saxon diet, and resumed his lectures until 1853, when he was again prosecuted and dismissed from office. He now removed to Weimar, where he undertook the management of the Weimarische Zeitung. His principal works are—"Fundamental philosophie;" "Wissenschaft und Universität," 1838; "Die Deutsche Philosophie von Kant bis auf unsere Zeit," 2 vols.; "Vorlesungen über Socialismus und sociale Fragen;" "Erinnerungen aus der Paulskirche," &c. Among the periodicals which he originated and edited deserve to be noticed, the Deutsche Monatschrift für Literatur und öffentliches Leben, started in 1842, and afterwards transformed into a quarterly in 1846, under the title Unsere Gegenwart und Zukunft; the Herold, a weekly paper, 1844-47.—K. E. <section end="615J" /> <section begin="615K" />BIEDERMANN,, a German jesuit, professor of philosophy at Dillingen, and afterwards of theology at Rome, was a native of Suabia. He wrote "Comico-Tragediæ Sacræ X.," and a number of other works equally dull. Died in 1639. <section end="615K" /> <section begin="615L" />BIEDERMANN,, a learned German, born at Naumburg in Saxony, in 1705. He was appointed rector of the academy of his native town in 1741, where he applied himself diligently to the duties of his office, delivering many learned discourses, several of which, especially those on the Hebrew language, were afterwards collected, and published in Leipzig in 1751, under the title of "Otia Literaria." He was transferred from the rectorship of his own town to that of Freiberg, where he continued till his death in 1772. He also wrote several works on numismatology, and on other subjects.—J. F. W. <section end="615L" /> <section begin="615M" />BIEDERMANN,, a German, author of "A Genealogy of the Counts of Franconia," Erlangen, 1746. <section end="615M" /> <section begin="615Zcontin" />BIEHL,, a Danish authoress of considerable reputation, born 2nd June, 1731, at Copenhagen, where her father was secretary of the Society of Arts. Her works are very numerous, principally designed for the stage, and consist of comedies, tragedies, operas, oratorios, &c. She wrote also four volumes of moral tales, "Moralske Fortællinger," and three volumes of letters; besides which, she translated Don Quixote from the Spanish into her native tongue, and various <section end="615Zcontin" />