Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/579

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
BER
543
BER

Acta Petropolitana, the Transactions of the Royal Academy of Berlin, the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, and other Transactions and periodicals. Some of them have been reprinted in a separate form. His Éloge for the Academy of Sciences was written by Condorcet, and a notice of his life by Lacroix.

Bernoulli, John, third and youngest son of John Bernoulli, was born at Bâle on the 18th of May, 1710. Having studied law and mathematics, and travelled for a short time in France, he was appointed professor of rhetoric at Bâle in 1743. In 1748 he succeeded his father as professor of mathematics, and held that chair until his death, in his eighty-first year, on the 17th of July, 1790. He was a foreign associate of the French Academy of Sciences; and it has been remarked, that from the election of his father and uncle into that body in 1699 to his own death, the name of Bernoulli continued in the list of their members for ninety-one years. He was a member also of the Academy of Berlin. Three of his memoirs were crowned by the French Academy of Sciences. He left two sons, John and James.

Bernoulli, John, elder son of the foregoing, was born at Bâle on the 4th of December (or, according to some authorities, the 4th of November), 1744. Having studied at Bâle and at Neufchâtel, he obtained, in 1757, at the age of thirteen, from the university of Bâle, the degree of doctor of philosophy, reading an inaugural thesis "On the History of Inoculation with the Smallpox" (De Historiâ Variolarum Insitionis), which subject he illustrated by his own case. In 1763, at the age of nineteen, he was appointed astronomer-royal at Berlin. Having obtained permission to travel, he made a series of journeys through most of the principal countries of Europe, which he described in very voluminous works. From 1779 till his death, which occurred in his sixty-third year, on the 10th of July, 1807, he resided at Berlin, in the capacity of director of the mathematical department of the academy. He was a member of the Academies of St. Petersburg and Stockholm, and of the Royal Society of London. His writings abound in the Memoirs of the Academy of Berlin, and in mathematical and astronomical periodicals. His travels in Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Prussia, Russia, and Poland, were published independently.

Bernoulli, James, brother of the preceding, second son of the second, and grandson of the first John Bernoulli, was born at Bâle on the 17th October, 1759. He was educated there and at Neufchâtel, and at the university of Bâle he took the degree of bachelor of laws, reading a thesis, "De Sublimi." He acted, as has been already stated, as the substitute of his uncle Daniel in the chair of physics for a few years previously to the death of the latter, and was one of the candidates for the vacant professorship; but the lot (by which such appointments were decided) proving unfavourable, he travelled for a time in Germany and Italy as secretary to the count de Brenner. In 1788 he obtained the appointment of professor of mathematics at St. Petersburg, where, in 1789, he married the daughter of Albert Euler, son of the celebrated Leonard Euler. A few months afterwards, on July 30, 1789, in his thirtieth year, he died suddenly while swimming in the Neva. He was a member of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg, of the Physical Society of Bâle, and of the Royal Society of Turin. His writings may be found in the Nova Acta Petropolitana, the Acta Helvetica, and the Memoirs of the Academies of Berlin and Turin.—W. J. M. R.

BERNOULLI, Jerome, son of an eminent pharmacopolist of Bâle, was born in 1745. Having studied with credit at the gymnasium and the university of Bâle, he became his father's partner. His leisure was employed in the study of natural history, and especially of mineralogy. He was at one time elected president of the council of Bâle . He died in 1829, at the age of eighty-four, bequeathing a very valuable and extensive collection of minerals to the museum of his native city.—(Weiss, in Biog. Univ.)—W. J. M. R.

* BERNSTEIN, Georg Heinrich, a German orientalist, was born at Kospoda near Jena, 12th January, 1787. After having completed his studies at the university of Jena, he began lecturing; was appointed professor-extraordinary of oriental languages at Berlin; joined the Prussian army in 1813-14; and afterwards received a chair at Breslau. He has published several works and dissertations on the Sanscrit, Arabic, and Syriac languages—"Szafi-Eddin," Leipzig, 1816; "De initiis et originibus Religionum in Oriente Dispersarum," &c.—K. E.

BERNSTEIN, Johann Gottlieb, a German surgeon, and writer on surgery, born at Berlin in 1748, was first surgeon at Ilmenau; then, in 1796, assistant at the hospital at Jena; and went in 1806 with Loder to Halle, as an assistant in the clinical institute. On his return to Berlin in 1810, he became a member of the medical college, and professor of medicine; but in 1821 went to live with his son at Neuwied, and died in 1835. His principal writings are his "New Surgical Lexicon." published at Leipzig in 1783 and 1786, and at Gotha in 1787; "Practical Manual for Surgeons," 3 vols., at Leipzig in 1790, with additions in 1792, of which the 5th edition, in four volumes, appeared at the same place in 1818-20.—W. S. D.

BERNSTORFF, Andr. Peter, count von, cousin of J. H. Ernst, and who was in many respects still more serviceable to Denmark, was born 28th August, 1735, at Gartow, in the duchy of Brunswick Lüneburg, where his father, who was Hanoverian provincial councillor, possessed an estate. Having completed his university education at Leipzig and Göttingen, and made an extensive tour through Switzerland, France, and Italy, he entered the service of the Danish government as chamberlain. In 1767 he was, together with his cousin, elevated to the rank of count, and in 1769 elected privy councillor, and also, on Struensee's entrance into the ministry, received his dismissal. On Struensee's disgrace he was likewise recalled, and shortly afterwards became minister of state. He it was, in 1773, who brought about the exchange of the Guttorp portion of Holstein for Oldenburg and Delmenhorst, and also the renewal of the friendly relationship between England and Denmark, besides, in October, 1778, making the first proposal to Sweden of an armed neutrality. When, however, in 1780, he could not bring his views into accordance with those of the dowager Queen Juliana and the minister Guldberg, he resigned his office only to be replaced in his former position four years afterwards. He supported the introduction of a new system of finance, and made preparations for the abolition of vassalage in Schleswig and Holstein which took place after his death. He was also a stedfast supporter of civil liberty, and expressed himself unreservedy against every infringement of the liberty of the press. On this subject he said, "The liberty of the press is a great good; the advantages resulting from it far outweigh any disadvantages of its abuse. It is the inalienable right of every civilized nation, and a government which limits its freedom depreciates itself." Hence the press during his influence in the government was perfectly free, and Denmark became at the same time an asylum for freedom of thought throughout Germany. Always a zealous supporter of the internal advantages of his country, as well in her military operations, her manufactures, her shipbuilding, or agriculture, his death, which took place 21st June, 1797, caused a universal sorrow. Frederick VI., then crown prince, visited him on his deathbed daily during his illness, and formed one of the procession, with his sons, at his interment.—M. H.

BERNSTORFF, Christian Gunther, count von, son of the preceding, privy councillor, minister of state, and minister of foreign affairs, was born 3rd April, 1769, at Copenhagen, and received a very careful education under the paternal roof. On the completion of his studies, he was sent to Berlin as Danish plenipotentiary; later he went in the same capacity to Stockholm. After the death of his father in 1797, he was appointed minister of foreign affairs, in which capacity he did not, however, maintain the reputation of his father. It was in consequence of his obstinacy in arming the neutral merchant-ships of Denmark that his country was placed in the most painful position with respect to England. In 1810, having resigned his office of prime minister, he was sent as ambassador to the court of Vienna, where, in 1814, he was present at the congress as Danish plenipotentiary. After this he went to Berlin in the same capacity, whilst his brother succeeded him in Vienna. In 1818 he entered the Prussian ministry as head of the department for foreign affairs. He attended the congresses of Aix-la-Chapelle, Karlsbad, Vienna, Trappeau, Laibach, and Verona. As a member of the Prussian ministry, he still more firmly attached himself to the reactionary system of the German monarchs, and freely declared that there should be no admission in south Germany of a constitutional government. He retired from public life in the year 1831, and died 28th March, 1835.—M. H.

BERNSTORFF, Joh. Hartvig Ernst, count von, a Danish minister and privy councillor, "the oracle of Denmark," as Frederick the Great called him, was born at Hanover, 13th May, 1712. He received through his cousin, Andr. Gottleb von