Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/759

BOU in the work of research, and seeks the causes of the events which he has to describe in the structure of society, the habits of the various peoples, and the influence of events. That portion of the work which relates to Spain has been translated into English by Miss Thomasina Ross. It is perhaps right to state here that Bouterwek's history, extensive as is its scope, forms only a part of a more extended work, namely, a history of arts and learning from their restoration down to the end of the eighteenth century, by different learned foreigners, forming a complete encyclopædia of the subject. Bouterwek died in Germany, August 9th, 1828.—E. W.  BOUTEUX,, an indifferent French painter, born at Paris in 1692. He professed history, and died professing it, in 1750, having wasted much paint.—W. T.  BOUTEVILLE,, seigneur de, sovereign count of Suxe in Navarre, the famous duellist, born in 1600. He was the son of Vice-Admiral Louis de Montmorency, distinguished for valour in the wars of the League. In these wars the younger Bouteville was also creditably known. At the siege of Montauban he narrowly escaped death from the explosion of a mine, being with difficulty extricated from the ruins. His love of adventure afterwards carried him to Holland, where he assisted a prince of Nassau in defending Breda against the Spaniards. On his return to France, he took part in the expedition of his cousin, the duke de Montmorency, against Rochelle. His passion for fighting, however, was not to be satisfied with the excitement of a campaign. He betook himself to the duel with a gusto which has rendered his name proverbial. It was his kingdom, and within it he would brook no rival. For any one to have a reputation for courage was enough provocation for this desperate swordsman. In defiance of arrests and decrees of banishment, he was incessantly at work with his sword and poniard. From Brussels, where he had taken refuge from the vengeance of parliament after dispatching two of his friends, the count de Thorigny, and the marquis de la Fiette, he went back to Paris to meet the marquis de Beuvron in the Place-Royale. On this occasion fortune deserted him—he could make nothing of his opponent. The by-play of their seconds, however, was not without result—one of the four was killed, and another dangerously hurt. Bouteville and his friend, the count des Chapelles, attempting to escape into Lorraine, were seized at Vitry, and brought back to Paris. In vain the pathetic voices of the dames of the court, Pompadour among the number, were raised on his behalf. The king's conscience would not allow him to listen. He was beheaded with des Chapelles, in June, 1627.—J. S., G.  BOUTILLIER,, a French dramatic author, born at Paris in 1745; died in 1811. Employed, as his father was, as doorkeeper at the opera, he manifested at an early period a lively taste for dramatic poetry, and in 1766 succeeded in bringing his own works before the public. He wrote a great number of comedies, lyric dramas, &c., but appears to have passed his latter days in indigence.—J. G.  BOUVARD,, first physician to Louis XIII., born at Montoire in 1572; died in 1658. He indulged his somewhat shrewish temper at the expense of the faculty of Paris, who had occasionally to resent his interference with their privileges; and also, it would almost appear, at the expense of his master, whom he is said to have bled forty-seven times, and dosed with upwards of two hundred potions in the space of a year. It is a question of some interest whether Richelieu entertained a favourable opinion of so severe a regimen.—J. S., G.  BOUVART,, born in 1767; died in June, 1843; one of the assistants at the Observatory of Paris; member of the French Board of Longitude and of the Academy of Sciences. Bouvart's labours were various and most important, although mainly confined within the sphere of calculating or practical astronomy. Laplace abandoned to him all researches of detail connected with his immortal work, the Mécanique Celeste. We owe him the determination of the parabolic orbits of eight comets, discovered by himself. He published in 1821 a quarto volume of astronomical tables, containing his tables of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. His labours on this last planet will ever be memorable. Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1781. Upon the ground of forty years' observations, which gave the places of the planet for nearly the half of one of its revolutions, Bouvart succeeded in constructing a normal elliptic orbit, apparently adequate to the phenomena; and he subsequently ascertained, at first with great satisfaction, that Uranus had been seen several times previous to 1781, and its places determined, although it was mistaken for a fixed star. In the hope that these previous observations would confirm his views as to the normal orbit, Bouvart applied his elements; but to his astonishment and vexation these proved wholly incompatible—the orbit satisfying the modern observations seemed to have no relation whatsoever with the ancient ones; nor could any orbit, capable of comprehending the ancient observations, be forced into conformity with the places determined since 1781. With the most conscientious care, he tested every hypothesis likely to solve the enigma; but he was compelled to the conclusion, that under the knowledge then existing of the solar system, it was inexplicable. Too sound an observer to indulge in new chimeras, he nevertheless ventured to suggest that we might not know the entire system, or that some other planet, yet undiscovered, might exist, the disturbing influence of which would explain the irregularities apparently attending the motions of Uranus. The instructed reader need not be reminded of that very brilliant recent achievement, by Adams and Leverrier, which has confirmed the guess of Bouvart. But Bouvart did more to forward the discovery of Neptune. The processes of the eminent geometers who determined Neptune's place, and so guided the telescope to that planet's retreat, required as their ground the elaborate calculations and tables of our Astronomer; and although Leverrier undertook the trouble of verifying these, it is no overstatement to allege, that Bouvart was his necessary precursor. His name, indeed, can never be dissociated from the labours that issued in a triumph so signal and rare.—Bouvart was long a collaborateur in editing the Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes, in which he inserted valuable tables; and we owe him besides very instructive notes to the translation by Caussin, of the work of the Arabian astronomer, Ibn-Junis.—J. P. N.  BOUVART,, a celebrated French physician, born at Chartres in 1717; died in 1787. Coming to Paris in 1736, he was appointed professor of physiology by the Faculty in 1747; and in the same year succeeded Burette in the chair of medicine in the college of France. In 1756 he resigned this last appointment, and declining the post of first physician to the king, which was offered him on the death of Senac, sought to divide his time between the demands of an extensive practice, and the education of his children. His manners were rough, and some of his colleagues in the faculty, who had occasionally suffered from his talent for sarcasm, accused him of professional s pleen, and even malice; but the popular idea of his character was more flattering, and probably more correct. It was founded on such anecdotes of him as the following:—Being somewhat puzzled with the case of a banker, he was led to inquire if the ailments of his patient could be traced to any emotional cause, and discovering that they dated from some pecuniary embarrassments, he deposited a note for thirty thousand francs on the mantelpiece of the sick man's chamber, remarking—"This time I am sure of my remedy." His principal works are—"Consultations contre la legitimité des naissances pretendues tardives," 1764; "De dignitate Medicinæ;" "De Experientiæ et Studii Necessitate in Medicina;" and an abridgment of his lectures at the college of France, entitled "De Recondita febrium intermittentium, tum remittentium Natura."—J. S., G.  BOUVENOT,, a French theologian and physician, born at Arbois in 1756. Renouncing the military profession for the ecclesiastical, he became one of the grand-vicars of the bishopric of Est, where he resided until deprived of his functions under the reign of terror. He then, on the advice of his friend, Corvisart, turned his attention to medicine, in which science he made rapid progress, and obtained the degree of doctor. His death occurred in 1830, at Sens, where he had practised as a physician for a number of years. <section end="759H" /> <section begin="759I" />BOUVET DE CRESSÉ,, born at Provins in 1772; died at Paris in 1839; first served in the army, then in the navy, where he distinguished himself, particularly in the engagement of the 1st June, 1794, between the French fleet commanded by Villaret Joyeuse and Howe's English squadron. On the peace of Amiens he fixed in Paris, where he set up a school. He published a good many books, mostly adapted for educational purposes, the names of which there is no object in recording. Among them was a Latin poem on the birth of the king of Rome (Napoleon II.)—J. A., D. <section end="759I" /> <section begin="759Zcontin" />BOUVET,, a French jesuit, one of the six missionaries whom Louvois, successor of Colbert, sent to China in <section end="759Zcontin" />