Petersburg Memoirs ; and his separately published works are (1.) Dissertatio Inaugur. Phys. Med. de Respirations, Basil., 1721, 4to; (2.) Positiones Anatomico-Botanicce, Basil., 1721, 4to (3.) Exercitationes qucedam Mathematicce, Venetiis, 1724, 4to ; (4.) Hydrodynamica, Argentorati,
1738, 4to.
V. John Bernoulli, the youngest of the three sons of John Bernoulli, was born at Basel on the 18th May 1710. He studied law and mathematics, and, after travelling in France, was for five years professor of eloquence in the university of his native city. On the death of his father he succeeded him as professor of mathematics. He was thrice a successful competitor for the prizes of the Academy of Sciences of Paris. His prize subjects were, the capstan, the propagation of light, and the magnet. He enjoyed the friendship of Maupe. tuis, who died under his roof while on his way to Berlin. He himself died in 1790. His two sons, John and James, are the last noted mathe maticians of the family.
VI. Nicholas Bernoulli, cousin of the three preceding, and son of Nicholas Bernoulli, one of the senators of Basel, was born in that city on the 10th October 1G87. He visited England, where he was kindly received by Newton and Halley (Com. Phil. ep. 199), held for a time the mathematical chair at Padua, which Galileo had once filled, and was successively professor of logic and of law at Basel, where he died on the 29th of November 1759. He was editor of the Ars Conjectandi of his uncle James. His own works are contained in the Ada Eruditorum, the Giornale de Letterati d ltalia, and the Cornmercium Philosophieum.
VII. John Bernoulli, grandson of the first John Bernoulli, and son of the second of that name, was born at Basel on the 4th December 1744. He studied at Basel and at Neufchatel, and when thirteen years of age took the degree of doctor in philosophy. At nineteen he was appointed astronomer royal of Berlin. Some years after, he visited Germany, France, and England, and subse quently Italy, Kussia, and Poland. On his return to Berlin he was appointed director of the mathematical de partment of the academy. Here he died on the 10th July 1807. His writings consist of travels and astronomi cal, geographical, and mathematical works. In 1774 he published a French translation of Euler s Elements of Algebra. He contributed several papers to the Academy of Berlin.
VIII. James Bernoulli, younger brother of the pre ceding, and the second of this name, was born at Basel on the 17th October 1759. Having finished his literary studies, he was, according to custom, sent to Neufchatel to learn French. On his return he studied law and took a degree. This study, however, did not check his heredi tary taste for geometry. The early lessons which he had received from his father were continued by his uncle Daniel, and such was his progress in the exact sciences that at the age of twenty-one he was called to undertake the duties of the chair of experimental physics, which his uncle s advanced years rendered him unable to discharge. He afterwards accepted the situation of secretary to Count de Brenner, which afforded him an opportunity of seeing Germany and Italy. In Italy he formed a friend ship with Lorgna, professor of mathematics at Verona, and one of the founders of the Italian society for the encouragement of the sciences. He was also made corre sponding member of the Royal Society of Turin ; and, while residing at Venice, he was, through the friendly representation of Fuss, admitted into the Academy of St Petersburg. In 1788 he was named one of its mathe matical professors. In the following year he married a daughter of Albert Euler, son of the illustrious Ealer. This marriage was soon tragically dissolved by the death of the husband, who was drowned while bathing in the Neva in July 1789. Several of his papers are contained in the first six volumes of Nova Ada Acad. Scien. Imper. Petropol., in the Ada Helvetica, in the Memoirs of the Academies of Berlin and Turin, and in his brother John s publications. He also published separately some juridical and physical theses, and a German translation of Memoires du Philosophy de Merian.
BEROSUS was a Chaldean priest who lived in the time of Alexander the Great and his immediate successors. He translated the history of his native country, Babylonia, into the Greek language, and dedicated the work to one of the Greek kings of Syria named Antiochus. His work is principally known through the fragments of Polyhistor and Apollodorus, two writers in the 1st century before the Christian era, who are quoted by Eusebius and Syncellus.
The work of Berosus professed to commence with the creation of the universe, and the history was carried down to his own time. A few quotations at second or third hand, and the bare outlines of his system of chronology, are all that has been transmitted to us through the copyists of Berosus ; but the close connection throughout between his story and the Bible, and the knowledge that he drew his information from the records of Babylonia, have always invested these fragments with great importance, an importance which has been increased of late, since the discovery of several cuneiform inscriptions confirming different parts of his history.
The history of Berosus first described the chaos before the creation, presided over by the female Thalatth or Omoroca (the chaotic sea), called Tiamat and Tisallat in the inscriptions ; she was destroyed by Belus, and then the gods created the heavens and the earth. After this ho gave the chronology of the Babylonian kingdom as follows:—
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Years. 10 kings before the flood 432,000. 86 kings after the flood 34,080 or 33,091. 8 Median kings 224, or 234, or 190. 1 1 other monarchs (number lost, in margin 48.) 49 Chaldean kings 458. 9 Arabian kings 245. 45 other kings 526. After these reigned in Chaldea, Pul.
The later part of the scheme of Berosus is lost, but detached extracts are quoted by some ancient historians.
In comparing the notices of Berosus with the Baby lonian and Assyrian inscriptions, considerable difficulty is met with on account of the deficient information on both sides. The absence of chronological landmarks in the in scriptions, and the doubts as to the length of the third and fourth periods of Berosus, are serious difficulties in the way of the chronology, but in the absence of more satis factory information the list of Berosus must be taken as the framework of Babylonian chronology.
The first period of Berosus, reaching from the creation to the flood, is said to have included 10 reigns and 432,000 years. The last two of these names are the only ones found with any certainty in the cuneiform inscrip tions, these are Ubara-tutu and Adra-hasis, the Otiartes and Xisuthrus of Berosus. The deluge, which closed this period, is described in Berosus, and in the cuneiform in scriptions of the Izdubar legends.
and a period of 34,080 or 33,091 years, the number is uncertain, and certainly unhistorical. It is probable that the later sovereigns of this period were historical, and some of the names which are preserved are ordinary Baby
lonian compounds. Three names in a fragment of Baby-
