Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/912

BERSIER. BERSIER, bar'syu', Eugene Arthur Francois (1831-89). A pulpit orator of the Reformed Church of France. He was born at Jlorges, near Geneva ; studied at Geneva, Gottingen, and Halle; and became a preacher in Paris in 1855. He died there November 19, 1889. He vas much admired as a preacher, and many of his sermons were published and translated into different languages. Besides these his publica- tions embrace Histoire du liynode de 1S~2 ( 1872 2 vols.) ; CoUgny avant les guerres de religion (1884, Eng. trans. 1885) ; La revocation; Projet de revision de la liturgie des eglises reformees de France (1888); Histoire d'une petite fille heureiise (1890) ; in English, Sertnons (London, 1881-1901, with personal sketch of the author 1885-91). Consult J. F. B. Tinling. Bersier's Pulpit: An Analysis of the Published Sermons of Pastor Eugene Bcrsier ( 1901 ).

BEESOT, bar'sci'. Pierre Ernest (1816-80). A French philosopher and publicist. He was born at Swegeres ( Charente-lnferieure ), studied ,at the Normal School, Paris, and later taught philosophy at Rennes, Paris, Bordeaux, Dijon, and Versailles. He refused to take the oath after the coup d'etat of 1851, and was dismissed from his post. In 1806 he entered the Academy of Jloral and Political Sciences, and in 1871 was appointed director of the Normal School. His works are profound, and are written in an ele- vated style. They include Essai stir la providence (1853), considered his most important work; Litterature et morale ( 1861 ), and Libre philoso- phic (1858). His educational reports are also of interest. Consult E. Seherer, Un moraliste ; etudes et pensces d'Ernest Bersot (1859).

BERT, bar, (1833-86). A French scientist and politician, born at Auxerre. He was professor of physiology in Bordeaux and afterwards in Paris, and was a member of the Academy of Sciences; was elected to the National Assembly in 1874, and was reelected in 1877, and became noted for extremely radical opinions. He advo- cated compulsory education, and endeavored to exclude all religious teachings from the schools. In the short-li%"ed Gambetta Cabinet (1881-82), he was Minister of Public Instruction. Bert car- ried out many broad and interesting investiga- tions in physiology, including researches on skin- grafting; oh the effects of increase and of dim- inution of atmospheric pressure upon the living organism : on respiration and asphyxia ; on the action of ansesthetics, and on the toxic properties of ox,ygen. He published numerous scientific works, among which may be noticed De la greffe onimale (1863) and La pression barometrique (1878). His Discours parlementaires were pub- lished in 1881. Consult Berillon, L'oeuvre sei- entifique de Paul Bert (Paris, 1887).

BERTEAUX, bar't6', H£l£na Hubert, Madame Leon (1828 — ). A French sculptor, born in Paris. She was the pupil of her father, the painter and engraver Pierre Hubert, and of Dumont, and exhibited first at the Salon of 1849, with a portrait statuette in plaster. She is the founder and president of the "Society de I'Union des Femmes Peintres et Sculpteurs," which since 1881 has held an annual exhibition in Paris. She received medals in 1864 and 1867, a second class in 1873, and a gold medal at the Exposition of 1989. Her most important works are: "Jeune fille au bain" (1873 — reexhibited 1876), statues for the fiu;ades of the New Tuileries, a public fountain at Amiens (1864); "Le Baptisme du Christ," at Notre Dame de Vineennes; "Saint Jlathieu et saint Laurent," at the Church of Saint Laurent in Paris ; and a number of portrait busts, including one of Francois Boucher, for the National Academy of Music.

BER'THA. The name of several women, real and legendary, of the Middle Ages. Saint Ber- tha, whose day is observed on July 4, was the beautiful and pious daughter of Charibert, King of the Franks. She married (a.d. 560) .^thel- bert. King of Kent, and became the means of his conversion and of the spread of Christianit.v among the Anglo-Saxons. In the romances of the Charlemagne cycle, a Bertha with the Big Foot figui-es as the daughter of Count Charibert of Laon, ^ife of Pepin the Short, and mother of Charlemagne. In the romances of the Round Table, another Bertha is a sister of Charlemagne and mother of the renowned Roland. Bertha, daughter of Burkhard. Duke of the Alemanni, and wife of Rudolph 11., King of T^ans-.Jurane Burgimdy, after her husband's death, in 937, acted as regent for her infant son, Conrad. Sub- sequently she married Hugo, King of Italy, and died toward the close of the Tenth Century. She enjoved the reputation of being an excellent housekeeper, and is represented on monuments of the times seated upon her throne with her spinnin>;-wheel b,y her side.

BERTHA. A character in the comedy The Beggar's Bush, by Fletcher, Massinger, and' Row- ley. She is stolen by the usurper Wolfert. but finally rescued by Vandunke, her supposed fa- ther, and restored to her possessions and lover. She disguises her identity under the name of Gertrude.

BERTHELOT, b.ar'tlo', (1827 — ). A French chemist. He was born in Paris. He received his education at the College Henri IV. and devoted himself to research in organic chemistrv. In 1854 he re- ceived his doctor's degree in science, on present- ing a remarkable thesis giving au account of his artificial repi'oduction of natural fats. The fact that fats are mixtures of glycerides, i.e. compounds of gl,ycerin with the so-called fatty acids, had been known since 1823, when Chev- reul effected the decomposition of fats into their chemical constituents. Berthelot, however, was the first to produce those important organic products s,vntheticall,y. In the same thesis he showed that glycerin, which is capable of com- bining with three equivalents of a monobasic acid, is an alcohol; and thus the idea of pol.v- atomic alcohols was first introduced into chem- istr,y. A large number of diatomic, triatomic — in general, polyatomic alcohols, have since been prepared, and form an important class of organic compounds. (See Alcohols.) In 1851 Berthe- lot became assistant to Balard at the Coll&ge de France ; in 1860 he was made professor of or- ganic chemistrv at the Ecole de Pharmacie, and in 1865 a new chair of chemistry was founded for him at the Coll6ge de France, where he has since lectured on theoretical chemistry. In 1873 he was elected member of the Institute, and in 1889 perpetual secretary of the Academy of Sci- ences. In 1876 he was made inspector-general of higher education: in 1881 a lifelong member of the Senate; in 1886-87 he was Minister of Public