Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/865

BENNETT. yearly. He was frequently accused of utter lack of conviction. James Parton wrote, in 1867, that "His paper is generally read and its proprietor universally disapproved." It may at least be said that his civic principle was not lofty, who declared: "We have never been in a minority, and we never shall be." Consult Parton, Famous Americans of Recent Times (Boston, 1867). BENNETT,  (1812-75). An English physician and physiologist. He was born in London, and entered the University of Edinburgh in 1833, where J. H. Balfour, Edward Forbes and John Reid were among his fellow students. After his graduation, in 1837, he studied two years in Paris, where he founded the Parisian Medical Society, and became its first president. On his return to Edinburgh in 1841 he published his famous treatise on Cod-Liver Oil as a Therapeutic Agent in Certain Forms of Gout, Rheumatism, and Scrofula. The remedial properties of this oil had long been known to the fishermen of Scotland, and had been prescribed by physicians in the Manchester Infirmary. But it was not until the publication of Dr. Bennett's pamphlet (1841), and that of Dr. C. J. B. Williams (1848), that the drug was generally introduced. As lecturer on histology at Edinburgh, Dr. Bennett was the first to give systematic instruction in this subject. He was also one of the pioneers in the employment of the microscope in clinical pathology. In 1848 he was the unanimous choice for the office of professor at the Institute of Medicine in Edinburgh, and he held this position until his resignation in 1874. The remarkable decrease in the mortality of pneumonia was also due to his efforts, and was largely the result of his revelation of the dangers attending the so-called antiphlogistic method of treating this disease. He published in all 105 papers and memoirs, most of them of great importance. Especially celebrated among his larger works are the Clinical Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Medicine (5th ed., 1868). Six editions of this work were, prior to 1875, published in the United States alone, and translations of it have been made in French, Russian, and Hindu. BENNETT,  (1820-90). An English poet. He was born at Greenwich, where he continued the business of his father, who was a watchmaker. His first productions were published anonymously in 1843 and 1845. They were followed by Poems (1850); Verdicts (1852); War Songs (1855); Queen Eleanor's Vengeance, and Other Poems (18.57); Baby May (1859); Songs for Sailors (1872); Sea Songs (1878); Songs for Soldiers (1879); Prometheus the Fire Giver (1877): The Lark; Songs, Ballads, and Recitations for the People (1885). BENNETT, Sir  (1816-75). An eminent English pianist and composer, born at Sheffield. He studied under Holmes, Potter, and Crotch in the Royal Academy, London; attracted the notice of Mendelssohn at the Dusseldorf Musical Festival in 1836; appeared with success at Leipzig in the winters of 1837-38 and 1838-39; and was received with great applause when he returned to London. In 1838 he was elected member of the Royal Society of Musicians. He visited Germany again in 1842, and became well acquainted with both Mendelssohn and Schumann. He had a prominent share in the foundation of the Bach Society in 1849; was appointed conductor of the Philharmonic Society in 1855, succeeding Richard Wagner; and in the following year was elected professor of music at Cambridge. In 1868 he was appointed principal of the Royal Academy of Music, and was knighted in 1871. He stood foremost among contemporaneous English musicians, was a pianist of the first rank, and a composer of exquisite grace and refinement. His principal works are: "The May Queen," a cantata; the overtures "The Naiads," "Wood Nymphs," "Parisina," and "Paradise and the Peri": the oratorio, "The Woman of Samaria"; music to the "Ajax" of Sophocles; four concertos for pianoforte, and a symphony. BENNETT'S GAZELLE, ga-zel'. See. BEN NEVIS (Gael., probably ben, mountain + nivis, snow, Lat. nix, gen. nivis, snow; cf. Sp. Sierra Nevada, snowy range, and Engl. Snowdon = snow + down). The highest mountain in Great Britain, in Inverness-shire, Scotland (Map: Scotland, D 3). It has a height of 4406 feet, with a precipice of 1500 feet on the northeast side. Granite and gneiss form the base of the mountain, which exceeds 24 miles in circumference; the upper part is composed of porphyry. A road leads to the summit, where a meteorological observatory was erected in 1883. BENNEWITZ, bën’nῐ-vits, or BIENEWITZ, Peter. See. BENNEWITZ VON LOEFEN, fon le'fcn,  (1820-95). A German landscape painter, born at Thorn, and educated by W. Schirmer in Berlin and Albert Zimmermann in Munich. He selected his subjects almost entirely from the scenes of northern Germany, its simple villages, monotonous plains, and bleak stretches of coastland. Of his numerous works the following are especially noteworthy: "Wood Path," "Village in Brandenburg," "Autumn Fog," "Outlook on Baltic Sea," "On the Heath," "Beech Wood on Rügen." BENNIGSEN, ben'niK-sen, , Count (1745-1826). A Russian general. He was born in Brunswick and entered the Russian service in 1773, and distinguished himself in the wars against the Turks, in Poland, and at Derbend in Persia. Bennigsen was one of the leaders of the conspiracy against the Emperor Paul (1801). He fought with considerable success in the battle of Pultusk (1806), and held the chief command in the obstinate and murderous struggle at Eylau (1807). In 1812 Bennigsen commanded the Russian centre at Borodino, and gave his voice for fighting a second battle before the walls of Moscow. Before the French began their retreat he gained a brilliant victory over Murat at Taratino, October 18. Differences with Kutusoff, who would not adopt Bennigsen's plan to prevent the French from crossing the Beresina, made him retire from the army; but after Kutusoff's death he took the command of the Russian army of reserve, which entered Saxony in July, 1813, and fought victoriously at the battle of Leipzig. He was created a count by Emperor Alexander on the field. He participated in the pursuit of the French