Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/617

BIE In 1812 Bierey founded the Singing Institute at Breslau, which continued in operation till 1816. He was appointed director of the opera in this city in 1824, but resigned the office in 1828, together with that which he had first filled in Breslau, and which he had discharged for twenty years with always increasing esteem. The personal vexations which induced him to give up his engagements, induced him also to quit the city, and it was not till after he had spent several years in Leipzig and other places that he returned to Breslau. He wrote many operas and operettas, which obtained universal popularity throughout Germany. They are distinguished by facility and comic power, are praised likewise for marked character, especially shown in the concerted pieces, and are admired for their spirited instrumentation. He composed also some sacred music for Prince Nicolas Esterhazy in Vienna, and for the funeral of Weiss in Leipzig, which is of a higher order; besides several pieces for orchestra and military bands, and a great number of songs for one and for several voices. A book on thorough bass by Bierey is well considered.—G. A. M.  BIERKANDER,, a Swedish agriculturist, was born in 1735, and died in 1795. While he devoted attention to the cultivation of plants, he officiated as a clergyman at Grefback. He was a member of the Stockholm Academy, and wrote on the transpiration of plants, on their diseases, on generation, on the opening of flowers, and on the stations of plants.—J. H. B.  BIERLING,, a German theologian, was born in 1709, and died in 1755. He was professor of logic, metaphysics, and theology at Rinteln. His principal work is entitled "Fasciculus Dissertationum Logicarum."  BIERNACKI,, a Polish agriculturist, was born at Kalisch in 1778. He studied at the university of Frankfort-on-the-Oder. After acquiring a knowledge of agriculture by travelling, he returned to Kalisch, and established a model farm. During the Polish revolution in 1831, he occupied the important office of minister of finance, and on the fall of Warsaw he emigrated to France.—J. H. B.  BIERNATZKI,, a German author, was born at Elmshorn in Holstein, 17th October, 1795, and died at Friedrichstadt, 2d May, 1840. He was a poor minister of a still poorer parish on the small island of Nordstrandishmoor, one of the so-called Halligen on the western coast of Holstein, of which he has given a graphic description in his novel "Die Hallig, oder die Schiffbrüchigen auf dem Eilande in der Nordsee." His collected works, consisting of sermons, tales, and poetry, were published at Altona, 1844, in 8 vols.—K. E.  BIESMANN,, a German jesuit, professor of rhetoric and moral philosophy at Dusseldorf, and author of "Lux Oratoria, seu brevis et clara totius Rhetoricæ Compositio," was born in 1639.  BIESTER,, born at Lübeck, 17th November, 1749; died at Berlin, 20th February, 1816, was one of the originators and editors of the Berlinische Monatsschrift, and keeper of the royal library at Berlin.—K. E.  BIET,, a French missionary, born in the diocese of Senlis in 1620, accompanied to Cayenne a body of colonists sent to occupy that island in 1652 by a company who had obtained the cession of it from government. The expedition was unsuccessful, hunger and disease having cut off the greater part of the colonists; and Biet returned to Paris, where he published an interesting account of Cayenne in 1664.—J. S., G. <section end="617H" /> <section begin="617I" />BIET,, abbe of Saint Leger de Soissons, was born at the close of the seventeenth century. He gained a high reputation as an antiquary, and his dissertation, "Pour la veritable époque de l'établissement fixe des Francs dans les Gaules," was awarded the prize by the Academy of Soissons, and was published in 1736. It is to be regretted that Biet did not continue his researches on this subject, which have, however, been taken up and completed by Frerel and Augustin Thierry. Biet died on the 29th of October, 1767.—J. F. W. <section end="617I" /> <section begin="617J" />BIETT,, a French physician of Swiss extraction, was born at Scamf in the canton des Grisons, in the year 1784, but when four years of age, removed with his father into France, and resided at Clermont-Ferrand. He studied for a time at the hospital of Clermont, and afterwards went to Paris, where he attached himself to Alibert. He took his doctor's degree at Paris in 1814, and in 1815 was appointed visiting physician at the hospital Saint-Louis, at that time filled with soldiers suffering from typhus; in this dangerous position he boldly did his duty, although no fewer than eleven of his pupils were struck down by the terrible disease with which they were thus brought in contact. In 1819, being appointed physician to the above hospital, Biett made a journey to England, where he attended the hospitals of London, and on his return, organized the treatment of out-patients at the hospital Saint-Louis, by which he was enabled to succour no less than six thousand patients annually. Under his directions, the baths of the hospital became a model establishment, and he also gave clinical lectures upon the diseases of the skin, which furnished at all events the foundation of the Traité des Maladies de la peau, published by his pupils, Cazenave and Schedel. Biett himself wrote little, except some articles in the Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales, and in the Dictionnaires de Medecine, and some papers in various medical journals. He died in Paris on the 3rd March, 1840.—W. S. D. <section end="617J" /> <section begin="617K" />BIÈVRE, N., marquis de, born at Paris, 1747; died at Spa, 1789, grandson of Georges Maréchal, first surgeon of Louis XIV. In 1783 he published the comedy of the "Séducteur:" it was thought to be above his powers, particularly as another of his theatrical pieces, "Les Réputations," was wholly unsuccessful. The scandal of the day ascribed the latter play to one of the royal family, who thought it beneath his dignity to write poetry in his own name, and from this cause was led to use Bièvre's. After Bièvre's death, a tragedy of his, "Vercingetorixe," was published, and also "Les amours de l'ange Lure et de la fée Lure." Bièvre's "Vers de Societé" are very lively and spirited.—J. A., D. <section end="617K" /> <section begin="617L" />BIEZELINGEN,, was born at Delft in 1558, and died in 1600. He was a portrait painter. When the great liberator of the Low Countries from the Spaniard, William the Silent, prince of Orange, was assassinated, he was employed to take the portrait from the corpse, which he did with great truth.—W. T. <section end="617L" /> <section begin="617M" />BIFFI,, a musician, was born at Cesano in Lombardy towards the middle of the sixteenth century. He was engaged as maestro di capella to Cardinal Andrea Battori, and relinquished this appointment for that of court composer to the duke of Wurtemburg, but returned to Italy in 1580. He was a very voluminous composer of madrigals, of which he printed many sets in Germany and Italy.—G. A. M. <section end="617M" /> <section begin="617N" />BIFFI,, an Italian poet, born at Milan in 1464. He opened a school at Milan for the children of the nobility, and devoted himself principally to the study of poetry. <section end="617N" /> <section begin="617O" />BIGARI,, a historical painter of Bologna. His works are still seen on palace and church walls. Date unknown. There was also a equally obscure. <section end="617O" /> <section begin="617P" />* BIGELOW,, an American botanist residing in Boston. He has published "American Medical Botany," and a Flora of Boston; the dates of publication extend from 1817 to 1840. <section end="617P" /> <section begin="617Q" />BIGEON,, a French physician, born on the 14th September, 1773, at La Villée, Côtes du Nord, studied at Rennes and Paris, at the latter of which places he received his doctor's degree in 1799. In 1805 he established himself at Dinan, where he continued to reside, and practised his profession until his death, which took place on the 26th April, 1848. His writings are rather numerous, but many of them relate principally to epidemics which visited the district of Dinan at various times. His inaugural dissertation is entitled, "Essai sur l'hémoptysie essentielle," and was partially reproduced in the Dictionnaire des Sciences Médicales. In 1812 he published "Observations qui prouvent que l'abus des remèdes . . . . est la cause la plus puissante de notre destruction prématurée," in which he opposes the too frequent use of bloodletting and aperients. A second edition of this work appeared in 1845, under the title of "Médecine Physiologique," &c., containing an analysis of nearly all the writings of the author, most of which have a similar tendency. In 1812 Bigeon also published "Recherches sur les propriétés Physiques chimiques et médicinales des eaux de Dinan," of which waters he was inspector, and a second work on the same subject in 1824.—W. S. D. <section end="617Q" /> <section begin="617R" />BIGGE,, a horticulturist, died in 1848. He was curator of the Cambridge botanic garden, became a fellow of the Linnæan Society in 1815, and contributed papers to the Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London. <section end="617R" /> <section begin="617S" />BIGI,, a Florentine painter, scholar of his brother, Francis, whom he survived. He flourished about 1530. <section end="617S" /> <section begin="617Zcontin" />BIGI,, generally called "Felix of the Flowers," flourished in Verona about 1780. He was born at Rome; but a <section end="617Zcontin" />