Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/725

BOR medica at Pavia; born in that town in 1761; died in 1824. His reputation as a practitioner brought him crowds of patients even from Lombardy and Piedmont. He maintained the doctrine of Rasori with respect to the division of medicines into stimulant and depressing; but shortly before his death ordered his dissertations on that subject to be burned, as inconclusive if not erroneous.—J. S., G.  BORDAZAR DE ARTARU,, a learned Spanish printer, born at Valencia in 1671; died in 1744. Author of works on Spanish orthography, &c.—J. G.  BORDE,, a native of Pevensey, Sussex, was educated at Oxford, and became a Carthusian monk in the convent of that order in London, but quitted the monastic life, and adopted the study of medicine. To gratify his "rambling head and inconstant mind," says Anthony A'Wood, he travelled through Christendom, and even penetrated into Africa, an arduous undertaking in the sixteenth century. In 1532 we find him settled at the university of Montpellier in France, where he took the degree of doctor of physic. Returning to England, he settled first at Pevensey, and afterwards at Winchester, where he practised with such success as to be appointed one of the court physicians. He also enjoyed the favour of the king's vicar-general, Cromwell. His "inconstant" mind, however, involved him in pecuniary difficulties, and he died a prisoner in the Fleet in 1549. To a considerable share of learning, professional and general. Dr. Borde added the austerities of a monk, and the wit and humour of a buffoon. He was a voluminous author, considering the age in which he lived. Amongst his works of a medical character, may be named his "Breviarie of Helthe," "Compendyouse Regimente, or Dietary of Helthe," and a treatise on "Urines;" whilst those of a non-professional kind include "The Principles of Astronomicall Prognosticatyons," "The Boke of the introduction of Knowledge," "The Mylner of Abingdon"—probably based upon one of Chaucer's tales—and "The Merrye Tales of the wise men of Gotham." The "Boke of Knowledge" has been reprinted in modern times as a literary curiosity. It is in black letter, adorned with rude but spirited cuts. It is dedicated to the Princess (afterwards Queen) Mary, and professes "to teache a man to speake parte of all maner of languages, and to knowe the usage and fashion of all maner of countreys, and to knowe for the most parte all maner of coynes of money," &c. By perambulating the country, and attending at the fairs and popular revels, he gained the soubriquet of "merry-andrew"—a name which has since become a "household word" in the English language. The "Merry Tales of the Wise Men of Gotham" are said to have been written to ridicule the proceedings of Lord Dacre, the abbot of Lewes, and another ecclesiastic, at a meeting held at Gotham, one of that nobleman's manor-houses near Pevensey. The "Tales" have been appropriated, in recent times, to the village of Gotham in Nottinghamshire; and no less an authority than Mr. J. O. Halliwell has given countenance to that supposition, which is proved to be erroneous by the internal evidence of the stories—which point to a maritime, and not an inland village, as their birthplace—and also by the local traditions of Pevensey.—E. W.  BORDE,, a French poet and litterateur, born at Lyons in 1711; died in 1781. On coming to Paris he became intimate with Rousseau, whose paradoxes he afterwards ridiculed. It is no doubt to his connection with Voltaire that we are to attribute the infidel productions that he subsequently regretted having written.  BORDE,, sometimes written , a musical essayist and composer, was born at Paris in 1734, where he was guillotined, July 22, 1794. He was a pupil of Rameau for composition, and of Dauvergne for the violin. He was born of a rich family, to which circumstance, and to his boundless self-confidence, he owed opportunities and preferments that he would never have gained by his talent. He was appointed first valet to Louis XV., which office he lost on the death of the king. He was a great speculator, and almost as great a loser; but it was his boast, that whatever embarrassments threatened him at night, his wit would help him to means to meet them before morning. On the breaking out of the Revolution he retired to Normandy; but, imprudently returning to Paris, he was seized as a royalist and suffered accordingly. He produced several comic operas, more remarkable for their success than for their merit, the first of which, "Gilles Garçon Peintre," was written in 1758. He is still better known by his "Essai sur la Musique ancienne et moderne," and some other didactic works, cited by Burney, which are, however, little to be commended.—G. A. M.  BORDENAVE,, a French surgeon, born at Paris in 1728. In 1746 he passed through a campaign in Flanders; and on his return became professor of physiology in the college of surgery, and member of several learned societies; he was also appointed director of the Royal Academy of Surgery, and sheriff of the city of Paris. He died in 1782. Of his writings, the principal is his "Essai sur la Physiologie," Paris, 1756, of which new editions appeared in 1764 and 1787. Bordenave also published a translation of Haller's Elements of Physiology, and communicated numerous memoirs to the Royal Academy of Surgery, among which those relating to the diseases of the maxillary sinus are especially deserving of notice.—W. S. D.  BORDER. See.  BORDESSOULLE,, comte de, a French general, born at Luzeret (Indre) 4th April, 1771; died 4th October, 1837. He commenced a military career of extraordinary brilliancy at the age of eighteen in the second regiment of chasseurs à cheval, served under the most renowned French generals, and took part in innumerable battles and sieges, in all of which he distinguished himself by his energy, courage, and conduct. After the restoration he became as devoted to the new regime as he had been to that of Napoleon. He attained gradually to the highest military rank, and was elevated to the peerage, 9th October, 1823. He died of diseases occasioned by the numerous wounds he had received on various occasions on the field of battle.—G. M. <section end="725H" /> <section begin="725Zcontin" />BORDEU,, a distinguished French physician of the eighteenth century, the eldest son of Antoine de Bordeu, who also practised medicine with some reputation, was born at Iseste in Béarn, on the 22d February, 1722. He studied medicine at Montpellier, where he took his degree as doctor in 1743. In 1744 he became demonstrator of anatomy at Pau, but returned to Montpellier within a year, and there taught anatomy and midwifery. In 1746 he visited Paris, where he attended the lectures of the most celebrated men of his day, and studied the practice of medicine in the hospitals. During his stay in Paris he published some letters, which obtained him the title of intendant of the mineral waters of Aquitaine, and in this capacity he left Paris for Pau in 1749. In 1752 we find him again in Paris, where he published his "Recherches Anatomiques sur les différentes positions des glandes et sur leur action," in this year. In this remarkable work Bordeu first showed his power; and as he not only attacked the principles held by the faculty of Paris, but displayed a great command of raillery it is not astonishing that he made both friends and enemies by its publication. In 1754 Bordeu was appointed physician to the Hôpital de la Charité, and advanced rapidly towards the high position due to his assiduity and talents. In 1786 he published his "Recherches sur le Pouls," a work which placed him in the first rank of French physicians, but at the same time gave a great impetus to the intrigues which were set on foot for his injury. These were of a most scandalous nature, consisting of attacks upon his private character, wholly unsupported by any reliable evidence, and continued with disgraceful malignity, especially by Bouvart, for three or four years. The question was then put an end to by a decree of the parliament, acquitting him of all charges, and suppressing all the memoirs written against him. A second decree of the 6th August, 1764, reinstated him in his rights and prerogatives, of which the faculty of Paris had deprived him. During all this period, notwithstanding the war of words that was incessantly raging round him, and the disgraceful means adopted to bring about his ruin, Bordeu was constantly engaged in study, and even published some valuable memoirs in the Journal de Médecine. In 1767, he published his "Recherches sur le tissu muqueux et l'organe cellulaire," which is said to have given Bichat the idea of his Anatomie Générale; and in 1775 he brought out the first volume of his "Recherches sur les maladies Chroniques," a fine and valuable work, of which the second volume was published, with a life of the author, by Roussel, in the year 1801 (vii.), Bordeu having died in 1776. The services rendered by Bordeu to the progress of medical science were very great. Shaking off the trammels of the systems at that time almost universally adopted by medical men, most of which were of an absurd nature, he gives us in his various works the results of numerous observations, collected with rare assiduity, during a constant attendance alike upon <section end="725Zcontin" />