Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/433

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BACON'S REBELLION.
369
BACTERIA.

himself, besides showing; gross favoritism, had exercised a virtual monopoly over the exceed- ingly profitable Indian trade. These facts com- bined to arouse a widespread feeling of discon- tent among the colonists: and this feeling was greatly intensified by the Governor's attitude toward the Indian outbreak in 1675, when he positively refused to take any effective measures to meet the threatened danger, but required, in- stead, that a certain number of forts be built with money to be raised by taxation. The Gov- ernor also prohibited the colonists from making any attacks on the Indians without his express orders. The Indian raids being renewed with especial violence early in 1676, and the forts proving to be altogether useless, 300 colon- ists assembled in disregard of the Governor's orders, and by acclamation chose Nathaniel Bacon as their leader. Though unable to pro- cure a regular commission, Bacon accepted the position, marched against the Susquehannoeks, and completely defeated them. On his return to Jamestown he was arrested, but soon afterwards was released on parole. The Governor, how- ever, gave undeniable evidence of double dealing, and obstinately refused to sign Bacon's commis- sion. Bacon thereupon marched upon James- town, captured it, and not only obtained a satisfactory commission as major-general, but also forced the Assembly to pass and the Gov- ernor to approve, a set of liberal acts which be- came known as 'Bacon's Laws,' and which tem- porarily reformed many of the worst abuses in the colony. Bacon then undertook a second expedition against the Indians, and in the battle of Bloody Run, near the present Richmond, again completely defeated them. The Governor, mean- while, tried to raise a force hostile to Bacon, and Bacon thereupon marched a second time against Jamestown, which he besieged, captured. and on September 19, destroyed. On October 26, while marching to meet a hostile force under Major Brent, Bacon died in Gloucester Comity, of an attack of dysentery. With his death the rebellion ended. Berkeley's bloody revenge upon Bacon's followers elicited from Charles II. the famous comment, "The old fool has put to death more people in that naked country than I did here for the murder of my father." The causes of the rebellion, which is now regarded as having been a forerunner of the Revolution, were mis- represented by the authorities at the time, and were greatly misunderstood by historians until the discovery of many new documents bearing on the subject about 1890. Most of these docu- ments have been published in the Virginia Maga- zine of History (Richmond, 1893-98). Consult an interesting and carefully written article by Edward Eggleston, entitled "Nathaniel Bacon, the Patriot of 1676," in the Century Magazine, Vol. XL. (New York, 1890), and the account in Fiske's Old Virginia and Her Neighbours (2 vols., Boston, 1897).


BA'CONTHORPE, BA'CON, or BACHO, ba'ku, John (?-1346). An English schoolman and philosopher, styled Doctor Resolutus, or 'The Resolute Doctor.' He was born at Bacons- thorpe (Norfolk). He entered the Carmelite Order, took his degrees as doctor of civil and canon law at the University of Paris, and from 1329 to 1333 was provincial of his order in England. He was the greatest of Carmelite scholars, and also the chief expositor of the doc-

trines of the Arabian philosopher Averroës. He wrote more than 120 works, widely read in the Middle Ages. Of them, many, including the Commentaria super Quatuor Libres Sententiarum (Paris, 1484), were published soon after the introduction of printing. Consult the critical works bv Aymers (Turin, 1667-69) and Zagalia (Ferrara and Parma, 1696-1706).


BACOOR, ba'ko-Gr'. A town of Luzon, Philip- pines, in the Province of Cavité. It is situated about 10 miles southeast of Cavité, and within a short distance of the bay (Map: Luzon, E 9). Population, over 13,000.


BACSÁNYI, bo'chan-ye, Janos (1763-1845). A Hungarian patriotic poet. He was born at Tapoleza, May 11, 1763, and died at Linz, May 12, 1845. His historical work, The Valor of the Magyars, first brought him into notice in 1785; and the same year he was appointed clerk in the treasury at Kaschau, where he soon after helped to found a periodical called the Magyar Museum. Bacsányi was at this time saturated with the spirit of the French Revolution, and the liberal tendency of his poems led to the confiscation of the Museum in 1792. Another liberal poem soon afterwards cost him his office. while his share in the conspiracy of Bishop Martinovich, in 1794, resulted in two years' imprisonment. When the French took Vienna in 1809, he translated Napoleon's proclamation to the Hungarians, and in consequence was forced to flee to Paris. After the Peace of Paris he was given up to the Austrian authorities, and had Linz assigned to him as a compulsory residence, but was allowed to receive his French pension until his death. Bacsányi exerted an important influence upon Hungarian literature, especially through his aesthetic writings in the Magyar Museum and elsewhere. He is remembered as one of the leading spirits of the 'Debreczin class' which sought to weld together the best elements of the contemporary rival schools, the classical and the popular, and thus paved the way for the modern academic period. Bacsányi was made a member of the Hungarian Academy in his eightieth year.


BACTE'RIA (plur. of Neo-Lat. bacterium; from Gk. §aKT-qpi.ov, bakterion, dimin. of pdKrpov, baktron, staff, stick). A name applied to vege- table organisms — the most minute organisms known. The name was given to the first-dis- covered of these bodies because of their shape, but is now used to designate this entire class of organisms, although many well-known bac- teria are not 'little rods' at all, but are round or oval in shape.

The first recorded observation of the bodies we now recognize as bacteria was made about the middle of the Seventeenth Century by Antony van Leeuwenhoek, a Holland lens-grinder, who reported his discoveries to the Royal Society of London in 1683. Continuing his investigations, Leeuwenhoek discovered the presence of bacteria in the mouth and in the intestinal evacuations; and it is interesting to note that there followed these discoveries a germ theory of disease no whit less far-reaching, if less accurate, than that which exists at the present day. In 1773 O. F. Müller established two genera, Monas and Vibrio. Not much progress was made, however, until about 1838, when Ehrenberg and Dujardin included bacteria in their investigations of