Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/218

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for the ricliness of its sculpture and carving. Two of the squares of the town are ornamented, one with a statue of Bichat by David d Angers, and the other by an obelisk to the memory of General Joubcrt. The manufactures of the place consist of cloth, linen, hats, hosiery, horn combs, and pottery ; and there is an active trade in grain, cattle, horses, and wine. The early history of Bourg and its identification with any of the places recorded by the Roman writers have been matters of considerable dispute. In the earlier part of the Middle Ages it seems to have been called Tanum. liaised to the rank of a free town in the end of the 13th century, it was afterwards chosen by Amadous IV. of Savoy as the chief city of the province. In 1535 it passed to France, but was restored to Duke Philibert Emauuel, who in 1590 built a strong citadel, which after wards withstood a six months siege by the soldiers of Henry IV. The town was finally ceded to France in 1G01. In 1814 the inhabitants, in spite of the defenceless condi tion of their town, offered resistance to the Austrians, who put the place to pillage. Vaugelas the grammarian and Lalande the astronomer were both born at Bourg-en-

Bresse. Population in 1872, 12,912.

BOURGAS, Burghaz, or Borgas, called in the Middle Ages Pyrgos, a seaport town of Turkey in the province of Rumelia, situated on a bay of the Black Sea, to which it gives its name, about 70 miles N.E. of Adrianople, in 42 30 N. lat. and 27 30 E. It is neatly built, and has a large public square surrounded with stalls for the accom modation of 5 000 horses. Pottery and pipes are manufac tured with great taste from clay obtained in the neigh bourhood, and there is a considerable trade in grain, woollen stuffs, tallow, butter, cheese, rosewater, and other productions of the surrounding country. Not far distant is Litzin, a favourite summer watering-place. In 1825 the Russians besieged the town. The population is estimated at 5000.

BOURGELAT, Claude, who may be called the father of veterinary science, was born at Lyons in 1712, and died in 1799. He entered the profession of law, but abandoned it in disgust at having gained an unjust suit for a client. Embracing the military profession he served in the cavalry, and thus had ample opportunity of studying the diseases of animals. In 1772 he opened at Lyons a veterinary school, which soon became celebrated over Europe. His great success induced the Government to establish several similar institutions ; and Bourgelat was appointed to superintend the school established at Alfort, which became, and continues to be, the chief seat of veterinary science in France. Bourgelat was a member of the Academies of Sciences of Paris and of Berlin, and corresponded with some of the most eminent men of science of his time. His works on veterinary subjects ewe numerous and valuable ; perhaps the most important is the Traite de la conformation exterieure du cheval, de sa beaute et de ses def antes, 1776.

BOURGES, a city of France, formerly the capital of the province of Berry, and now the chief town of the depart ment of Cher, is situated about 100 miles S. of Paris, at the confluence of the Auron and Yevre, in 47 4 59" N. lat. and 2 32 E. long. The sixty watch-towers by which it was formerly defended have been removed, but it is still surrounded by ramparts laid out as promenades, and its streets are remarkable for the numerous specimens which they preserve of mediaeval architecture. The cathedral, which dates in its earlier portions from the 13th century, is regarded as one of the finest in France, and the Hotel do Ville, originally the house of Jacques Coour, the famous jeweller under Charles VII., is a splendid example of the florid style of the 15th century. The house of the Lallemant family, built about 1520, that of Cujas, the famous jurist, dating from the IGth century, and now used as barracks for the gendarmerie, and ths gate of Saint Ours, are also worthy of notice. The archiepiscopal palace, the great prison, and the grand seminaire, now converted into cavalry barracks, are the most important of the other buildings. There are also in the town a museum, a large public library, and a number of colleges. A certain amount of trade is carried on in grain, hemp, wood, skins, wool, arid cattle ; and cloth, leather, and cutlery are manufactured. There are also several breweries, and the nurseries in the neigh bourhood are famous. In 18G1 the city became the seat of a military arsenal, which is now of considerable import ance. The population, stated at 22,465 in 1851, amounted in 1872 to 27,377. Bourges occupies the site of the Gallic town of Avaricum> mentioned by Caesar as one of the most important of all Gaul. In 52 B.C., during the war of Vercingetorix, it was completely destroyed by the Roman conqueror, but under Augustus it rose again into importance, and was made the capital of Aquitania Prirna. In 252 A.D. it became the seat of a bishop, the first occupant of the see being Ursinus. Captured by the Goths in 475, it continued in their possession till about 507. During the English occupation of France in the 15th century it became the residence of Charles VII., who thus acquired the popular title of king of Bourges. In 1463 a university was founded in the city by Louis XL, which continued for centuries to be one of the most famous in France, especially in the depart ment of jurisprudence. On seven different occasions Bourges was the seat of ecclesiastical councils, the most important being the council of 1438, in which the Pragmatic Sanction of the Galilean Church was established, and that of 1528 in which the Lutheran doctrines were condemned.

BOURIGNON, Antoinette, a singular enthusiast of the 17th century, who excited considerable commotion by her religious doctrines, but whose name is now almost forgotten. She was born at Lille in the beginning of 1616 ; and her appearance as an infant was so deformed that the question of preserving her alive was seriously discussed. She manifested, while still very young, an extraordinary spirit of religious fervour, fostered, apparently, by her loneliness and the neglect of her parents. As she grew up this spirit increased in intensity. So few, it seemed to her, lived according to their professed Christian principles that she desired to be carried into the Christian countries. The unhappiness that she observed at home, from the severity of her father to her mother, gave her an invincible repugnance to marriage, so much so that when it was desired that she should marry at the age of twenty she fled from her father s house in disguise. Her disguise, however, was soon discovered, and having fallen into the hands of a soldier, she ran worse risks than if she had remained to face her destiny at home. Her autobiography dwells upon these and other similar events of her life, when her virtue underwent violent assault, which she was happily able to resist. She is said to have been " endowed with a wonder ful chastity, which remained unassailable by all force or enticement, and which not only preserved her own person pure, but diffused around her an ardour of continence."

Having been delivered from the hands of the soldier into

which she had fallen in her wanderings, she became known to the archbishop of Cambray, under whose sanction she established a small society of nuns. She soon, however, became restless in her new occupation, in which she does not seem to have been successful. The archbishop withdrew his countenance, and for a time she returned to her native country, where she is said to have " passed many years in privacy and in a great simplicity of life." On the death of her parents she became entitled to some fortune, which she at first declined, but afterwards took possession of. She seems then to have become the head of a hospital at Lille for some time (1653, etseq.), but scandal having broken

out in connection with it, she left and fled to Ghent (1662;