BEETHOLLET
BESANT
reason " (quoted in Dr. J. B. Wilson s Trip
to Rome, p. 158). D. Mar. 18, 1907.
BERTHOLLET, Claude Louis, Count
de, French chemist. B. Dec. 9, 1748. Ed. Turin. He settled at Paris in 1772, and was appointed professor of chemistry at the Ecole Normale. Berthollet was one of the scientific men who accompanied Napoleon to Egypt, and the Emperor made him Count and Senator. Louis XVIII confirmed his title, but he avoided the political world during the period of reaction and devoted himself to his science. He made a number of important discoveries (including that of the composition of ammonia) in theoretical science and in the application of chemistry to industry, and he traced the laws of affinity and greatly improved chemical terminology. Berthollet was a grave, high-minded man, always loyal to the Eationalism of the revolutionary period in which he had been educated. D. Nov. 6, 1822.
BERTI, Professor Domenico, Ph.D.,
Italian philosopher and statesman. B. Dec. 17, 1820. Ed. Turin. In 1846 he became professor of methodology at Novara, and in 1849 professor of paedagogy at Turin University. In the following year he entered the Camera, founded the Italian Education Society, and was appointed professor of moral philosophy at Turin University. He was Eeferendary of the State Council (1860-62), General Secretary of the Board of Trade (1862-64), Minister of Public Instruction (1866-67), professor of philosophy at Eome University (1871-77), Minister of Agriculture and Commerce (1881-84), Vice-President of the Camera (1884), and Chancellor of the Order of the Crown of Italy (1889). Berti was a liberal Theist or Pantheist, a warm admirer of Giordano Bruno, and throughout his dis tinguished career a moderate progressist and anti-clerical. D. Apr. 21, 1897.
BERTILLON, Alphonse, French crimi- nologist. B. Apr. 22, 1853. He was
71
appointed Chief of the Identification Office
in the Paris Prefecture de Police, and his-
brilliant work culminated in the establish
ment, in 1879, of the famous Bertillon
system of measurement, which was adopted
in most other countries. The English
police adopted it in 1896. Bertillon, who
shared his father s advanced views, wrote
a number of works on anthropology and
criminology. D. Feb. 13, 1914.
BERTILLON, Professor Louis Adolphe, French anthropologist, father of the preceding. B. Apr. 1, 1821. Ed. Paris. He was physician to the Mont- morency Hospital from 1854 to 1860, then professor of demography at the Paris School of Anthropology and head of the Municipal Statistical Bureau. He wrote many works on medicine and anthropology. Wheeler quotes him writing to Bishop Dupanloup : " You hope to die a Catholic ; . I hope to die a Freethinker " (Diet, of Freethinkers). D. Feb. 28, 1883.
BERWICK, George, M.D., surgeon. Dr. Berwick was a surgeon in the service of the East India Company from 1828- to 1852. After his retirement he wrote Awas-i-hind (1861), which he describes as " a solution of the true source of Chris tianity." He wrote also Forces of the Universe (1870) and, under the pseudonym of " Presbyter Anglicanus," published several pamphlets in Scott s series. D. 1872.
BESANT, Sir Walter, novelist. B. Aug. 14, 1836. Ed. London (King s Col lege) and Cambridge (Christ s College), From 1861 to 1867 he was senior professor at the Eoyal College of Mauritius. On his return to London he devoted himself to- fiction, especially to romances of London life. He founded the Society of Authors in 1884, and was knighted in 1895. Besant took a great interest in social reform, and he was largely instrumental in the estab lishment of the People s Palace in East London. In his Autobiography (pp. 280- 72
