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and burns with a clear yellow light. It unites with alkalies and earths, forming salts called benzoates, which are unimportant, except the benzoate of iron, which, from its insolubility, affords a convenient means of separating iron from its solutions, so as to ascertain its quantity, and also of obtaining it free from manganese, which forms with the acid a soluble salt. (See Benzoin.)

BENZOIN is a solid, fragile, vegetable substance, of a reddish-brown color. In commerce, two varieties are distinguished, viz. the common and the amygdaloidal; the latter containing whitish tears, of an almond shape, diffused through its substance. It is imported from Sumatra, Siam and Java, and is found, also, in South America. Benzoin is obtained from the tree called styrax benzoin, and perhaps from some others. On making incisions into the bark, it flows out in the form of a balsamic juice, having a pungent taste, and an agreeable odor. The pure balsam consists of two principal substances, viz. a resin, and a peculiar acid termed benzoic (q. v.), which is procured from the mass by sublimation. It is soluble in water. This acid is found, also, as a constituent principle in storax and the balsams of Tolu and Peru: it exists in the urine of cows, camels, and even of young children. It is sometimes found in a crystalline form on the pods of the vanilla. Benzoin is not soluble in water, but is readily dissolved in alcohol, by the aid of a gentle heat. The tincture thus made is used in pharmacy. A small quantity of this tincture, dropped into water, forms a white, milky fluid, which is used in France as a cosmetic, under the name of lait virginal. The gum is a principal ingredient of the common court plaster. The acid, as well as the gum, is employed in medicine: they are stimulating, and act more particularly upon the pulmonary system; whence they are used in asthma and chronic catarrh.

BÉRANGER, Pierre, Jean de; a lyric poet, of that class which, in modern literature, is almost peculiar to the French, called chansonnier; born Aug. 19, 1780; educated by his grandfather, a poor tailor; was destined for the printing business, when his talents for poetry excited attention. Lucien Bonaparte became the patron of the amiable poet, who gave zest to his social songs by allusions to the politics of the day. The imperial censors spared him; the royal suppressed his songs, which, for this reason, were read and sung with the greater eagerness. In

1822, he was condemned to imprisonment for 13 months, and deprived of a small office in the royal university. This process increased his reputation. The last edition of the Chansons de P. J. de Béranger, (1 vol., Paris, 1829, 24mo.,) contains the happiest specimens of wit, humor, gayety, satire, and flashes of sublime poetry, which place him by the side of the most distinguished chansonniers of France-Blot, Collé and Panard. B. ascends with singular ease from the lower sphere of poetry to a high and noble enthusiasm, and the rapidity of the transition produces a striking effect. We would refer the reader to his beautiful verses entitled Mon Ame. He was never a flatterer of Napoleon when money or titles were to be gained by flattery, and has never reviled him since reviling has been a means of rising. He is a truly national poet, and Benjamin Constant has said of him, Béranger fait des odes sublimes, quand il ne croit faire que de simples chansons (Béranger makes sublime odes, when he thinks he is making simple songs). Dec. 11, 1828, B. was sentenced, by the court of correctional police, to pay 10,000 francs (about 1800 dollars), and to undergo nine months' imprisonment, for having attacked the dignity of the church and of the king in his poems the Guardian Angel, Coronation of Charles the Simple, and Gerontocracy. His songs are at once a storehouse of gayety and satire, and a record of the history of his time; and happy is that nation which can boast of so excellent and national a poet. He often sings of wine, and we recollect no other great modern, poet who has written a series of songs on this subject, except Göthe, in his Buch des Schenken, one of the 12 books of the Westöstlicher Divan. The difference between them is striking. Göthe mixes philosophical reflections and praises of the liquor with a boldness which borders on temerity, while B. is gay almost to extravagance. We doubt whether B.'s poems in translation would ever give a fair idea of the original, because their beauty consists, in a great measure, in the delicacy and pungency of the expression, which could hardly be transferred to another language.

BERBERS; the name of a people spread over nearly the whole of Northern Africa. From their name the appellation of Barbary is derived. (See Barbary States.) They are considered the most ancient inhabitants of that country. Their different tribes are scattered over the whole

space intervening between the shores of the Atlantic and the confines of Egypt; but the different branches of mount Atlas are their principal abode; while to the south they are bounded by the Negro states on the edge of the great Sahara, or Desert. For most of what we know of them, we are indebted to Leo Africanus and the Arabian writers, whose statements are corroborated by Hornemann (q. v.) and captain Lyon, who have visited them in our own days. Much information concerning them is yet wanted. Where they live by themselves, and are not spread among the Arabians and other people of the Barbary states, they manifest very little cultivation,-warlike nomades, without written laws, and exhibit the chief traits which characterize all the African nations. They are extremely abstinent. Their language is a matter of much curiosity for the philologist. It has many points of resemblance with the Teutonic languages. (See Adelung's Mithridates, vol. 3., 5th part, page 42 et seq., and the article, in volume 2, new series, p. 438 et seq. of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society.) We know, from trustworthy accounts, that Mr. Hodgson, attached to the American consulate-general at Algiers, has sent to an eminent scholar of the U. States communications concerning the Berber language, which will add much to the knowledge already possessed of that dialect. (For further information respecting the Berbers, see Lyon's Travels in Northern Africa, Langle's translation of Hornemann's Travels in Africa, and almost all the works which treat of the north of Africa.) It appears from the Berber language, that the first inhabitants of the Canary islands were of the Berber

race.

BERBICE; a district of Guiana, formerly belonging to the Dutch, but ceded to Great Britain in 1814; watered by the river Berbice, the Canje, and others. It extends from Abarry creek, on the west, to Courantine river on the east, along the coast, about 150 miles. The towns are New Amsterdam, the capital, and Fort Nassau. The productions are sugar, rum, cotton, coffee, cocoa and tobacco. The coast is marshy and the air damp. Population, in 1815, 29,959; of whom 550 were whites, 240 people of color, and 25,169 slaves.

BERCHTESGADEN; a market-town in the Salzburg Alps, in the kingdom of Bavaria, with 3000 inhabitants; famous for the salt mines in its neighborhood, the salt

work Frauenreith, and the aqueducts which conduct the salt water to the works called Reichenhall. The rock-salt does not appear here in large, solid masses, but in small pieces mixed with clay. Fresh water is let into the mines, and, having been saturated with salt, is carried into large reservoirs, from which, at the works of Frauenreith, 130,000 cwt. of salt are annually obtained. A large part of the water is conducted to Reichenhall. At this place a large salt-spring was discovered in 1613, and, on account of a deficiency in wood required in the preparation of the salt, the water was conveyed, by means of an aqueduct, to Traunstein, 20 miles distant. Another aqueduct, 35 miles long, from Reichenhall to Rosenheim, was completed in 1809, and, in 1817, these were again brought into communication with B. in a most admirable way. The first machine, which raises the brine coming from B. 50 feet high, is near this place. From hence, it runs in pipes 3500 feet, with a fall of 17 feet only, into the second reservoir. A hydraulic machine, invented by von Reichenbach, here lifts the salt water 311 feet high, in iron pipes 934 feet long. The water then runs in pipes 7480 feet, with 37 feet fall, to a valley, over which it is led in iron pipes, 1225 feet long, and, after running 12,073 feet farther, it falls into the third reservoir. Here is a second hydraulic machine, which lifts the water to a perpendicular height of 1218 feet, in pipes 3506 feet long; and hence it flows, in pipes 73,000 feet long, to Reichenhall The pipes running from B. to Reichenhall amount to 104,140 feet. From Reichenhall to Siegsdorf there is but one aqueduct for the salt water intended for Traunstein and Rosenheim, 94,800 feet long. From Siegsdorf to Traunstein the brine flows without an aqueduct. In Traunstein, 140,000 cwt. are annually produced. The other part of the brine flows in pipes, 78,000 feet long, to Rosenheim, which produces annually 180,000 cwt. of salt. The water required to work the numerous machines is brought from places many of which are 16-19,000 feet distant.

BERCHTOLD, Leopold, count, born in 1758, devoted his life to the relief of the wretched. He spent 13 years in travelling through Europe, and 4 in travelling through Asia and Africa, to assuage human misery. The results of his experience are contained in his Essay to direct and extend the Inquiries of patriotic Travellers (London, 1789, 2 vols.) He

wrote several pamphlets on the means of reforming the police, which he caused to be printed in different European countries, at his own expense, and to be distributed gratis. His prize-questions gave rise to many pamphlets and treatises on the means of saving the drowned and the seemingly dead. He offered a prize of 1000 florins for the best treatise on beneficent institutions, and was himself the founder of many. From 1795 to 97, he travelled through Asiatic and European Turkey, chiefly for the purpose of counteracting the ravages of the plague. At a later period, he was engaged in making vaccination more extensively known. During the famine that raged in the Riesengebirge (Giant mountains), from 1805 to 1806, he procured corn and other provisions from distant regions. He fitted up the palace Buchlowitz on his estate Buchlau in Moravia, as an hospital for the sick and wounded Austrian soldiers. Here this patriot and philanthropist was carried off by a contagious nervous fever, July 26, 1809.

BERCY; a village on the Seine, at its confluence with the Marne, in the neighborhood of Paris. The Parisian wine-merchants have here their stores of wine, wine-vinegar, distilled liquors, &c.; so that the intercourse between B. and the capital is extremely active. It is increased also by several important tanneries, sugarrefineries and paper-mills. A large palace, Le grand Bercy, was built by Levau at the close of the 17th century. The park which belongs to it, containing 900 acres, was planted by Lenôtre. M. de Calonne was for some time in possession of it. The present possessor is M. de Nicolai.

BERENGARIUS, or BERENGER, of Tours, a teacher in the philosophical school in that city, and, in 1040, archdeacon of Angers, is renowned for his philosophical acuteness as one of the scholastic writers, and also for the boldness with which, in 1050, he declared himself against the doctrine of transubstantiation, and for his consequent persecutions. He was several times compelled to recant, but always returned to the same opinion, that the bread in the Lord's supper is merely a symbol of the body of Christ, in which he agreed with the Scotchman John Erigena (called Scotus). The Catholics ranked him among the most dangerous heretics. He was treated with forbearance by Gregory VII, but the scholastics belonging to the party of the great Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, were

irritated against him to such a degree, that he retired to the isle of St. Cosmas, in the neighborhood of Tours, in the year 1080, where he closed his life at a great age, in pious exercises (1088). On the history of this controversy, which has been very much misrepresented by the Benedictines, new light has been shed by Lessing, in his Berengar (1770), and by Staudlin, who has likewise published the work of B. against Lanfranc. This B. must not be confounded with Peter Berenger of Poitiers, who wrote a defence of his instructer Abelard.

BERENHORST, Francis Leopold von ; one of the first of the writers by whom the military art has been founded on clear and certain principles. He was a natural son of prince Leopold of Dessau, and was born in 1733. In 1760, he became the adjutant of Frederic II. After the seven years' war, he lived at Dessau. He died in 1814.

BERENICE (Greek, a bringer of victory). 1. This was the name of the wife of Mithridates the Great, king of Pontus. Her husband, when vanquished by Lucullus, caused her to be put to death (about the year 71 B. C.), lest she should fall into the hands of his enemies. Monima, his other wife, and his two sisters, Roxana and Statira, experienced the same fate.-2. The wife of Herod, brother to the great Agrippa, her father, at whose request Herod was made king of Chalcis, by the emperor Claudius, but soon died. In spite of her dissolute life, she insinuated herself into the favor of the emperor Vespasian and his son Titus. The latter was, at one time, on the point of marrying her.-3. The wife of Ptolemy Euergetes, who loved her husband with rare tenderness, and, when he went to war in Syria, made a vow to devote her beautiful hair to the gods, if he returned safe. Upon his return, B. performed her vow in the temple of Venus. Soon after, the hair was missed, and the astronomer Conon of Samos declared that the gods had transferred it to the skies as a constellation. From this circumstance, the seven stars near the tail of the Lion are called coma Berenices (the hair of Berenice).

BERESFORD, William, baron, duke of Elvas and marquis of Campo Mayor, for the ability and courage which he displayed in the war of Portugal against France, is ranked among the distinguished generals of Great Britain. He organized the Portuguese army, and also the militia of the country, in so excellent a manner, that they could vie with the

best soldiers of the combined armies in the wars of the peninsula. In 1810, B. gained a victory over Soult, at Albufera. In 1812, he commanded under Wellington, and took an important part in the victories at Vittoria, Bayonne and Toulouse. He made his entrance into Bordeaux, March 13, 1814, with the duke of Angoulême. May 6, he was raised to the rank of baron by the king of England, and, soon after, sent to Brazil, whence he returned to England in 1815. The prince regent of Portugal made him generalissimo of the Portuguese armies. He had scarcely arrived at Lisbon, when he was sent, by the English government, on an important mission to Rio Janeiro. The rigor with which he punished a conspiracy of general Freyre against the British army and the regency, in Lisbon (1817), rendered him odious to the Portuguese military. He was, therefore, dismissed by the cortes in 1820. He then went again to Brazil, afterwards to England, and, in Dec., 1826, appeared anew in Lisbon, at the head of the English forces sent to aid in quelling the rebellion. BEREZINA; a river in the Russian province of Minsk, rendered famous by the passage of the French army under Napoleon, Nov. 26 and 27, 1812. Admiral Tschitschakoff, with the Moldavian army, forced his way from the south, to join the main army, which, after Borizoff had been retaken, was to assist the army led by Witgenstein from the Dwina, and, in this manner, cut off Napoleon from the Vistula. Napoleon was, therefore, obliged to make the greatest efforts, notwithstanding immense difficulties occasioned by the nature of the country, the climate, and the critical situation of his troops, to reach Minsk, or, at least, the B., and to pass it earlier than the Russians. To effect this, it was necessary to sacrifice a great part of the baggage and artillery, Nov. 25. After the advanced guard of the Moldavian army had been repelled to Borizoff, by Oudinot, and the bridge there burnt by them, early in the morning of Nov. 26, two bridges were built near Sembin, about two miles above Borizoff, an undertaking the more difficult, because both banks of the river were bordered by extensive morasses, covered, like the river itself, with ice not sufficiently strong to afford passage to the army, while other passes were already threatened by the Russians. Scarcely had a few corps effected their passage, when the greater part of the ariny, unarmed and in confusion, rushed in crowds

upon the bridges. Discipline had long before disappeared. The confusion increased with every minute. Those who could not hope to escape over the bridges sought their safety on the floating ice of the Berezina, where most of them perished, while many others were crowded into the river by their comrades. In this fatal retreat, the duke of Reggio (Oudinot) led the advanced guard, with the Poles under Dombrowsky in front; the rear guard was formed by the corps of the duke of Belluno. Nov. 27, at noon, the dear-bought end was gained, and the army, leaving the road to Minsk, took that of Wilna to Warsaw, with the hope of providing for their necessities in Wilna.-Besides the multitudes who were obliged to remain beyond the B., the division of Partouneaux, which formed the rear guard, was also lost. It was intrusted with the charge of burning the bridges in its rear, but it fell into the hands of the enemy. According to the French bulletins, only a detachment of 2000 men, who missed their way, was taken; according to the Russian accounts, the whole corps, 7500 men and 5 generals.

BERG; a duchy of Germany; bounded on the north by the duchy of Cleves, on the east by the county of Mark and Westphalia, on the south by the Westerwald, and on the west by the Rhine. It belonged, formerly, to the elector of Bavaria, but has been included, since 1815, in the grand-duchy of the Lower Rhine, which belongs to Prussia. It contains 1188 square miles, with 983,000 inhabitauts. There are mines of iron, copper, lead and quicksilver; but the principal objects of attention are the manufactures, which render it one of the most populous and flourishing countries in Germany: of these, the principal are iron, steel, linen, woollen, cotton and silk. The extent of the manufactures of B. is, in a great measure, owing to the multitude of skilful workmen whom the fury of the Spaniards, in the war against the Netherlands, forced to leave their country. The richest fled to London and Hamburg, the poorer sort, which included a great proportion of the manufacturers, to the neighboring Berg. At a later period, when Louis XIV revoked the edict of Nantes, many of the most industrious of the French Protestants fled also to this duchy, which thus became the most manufacturing part of Germany. Elberfeld is the most important of the manufacturing places of B. Another reason of the great prosperity of this country is, that it

has been under the government of rich princes; and the smallness of its territory has often enabled it to remain a long time neutral, when all the other German states were desolated by war. The duchy of B. continued in the possession of the electors of Bavaria until 1806, when it was ceded to France, and bestowed by Napoleon on his brother-in-law Murat, under the title of the grand-duchy of Berg. There was at the same time added to it part of Cleves, the counties of Homburg, Bentheim-Steinfurt, Hortsmar, NassauDietz, Dillenburg, Hadamar, and a number of lordships and scattered bailiwicks and towns. On Murat's receiving the kingdom of Naples, Napoleon named his nephew Napoleon Louis, eldest son of the king of Holland, hereditary grandduke of Berg, with the condition that the country should be under the immediate management of the French government until the young prince should be of age. At the same time, the Prussian part of Munster and the county of Mark were annexed to it, and the whole was divided into the departments of the Rhine, the Ems, the Roer and the Sieg, having a population of 878,000 on 6908 square miles. At the congress of Vienna, in 1815, the whole was given to the king of Prussia.

BERG, BOOK OF. (See Symbolic Books.) BERGAMO, capital of the district of Bergamo (1150 square miles and 306,600 in habitants), in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, is situated on hills between the rivers Brembo and Serio, has a castle within the city, and another, called la capella, without it, besides two suburbs encircled by walls, and four others that are open, containing together 30,680 inhabitants. Amongst many distinguished men born here, is the famous Tiraboschi, the historian of Italian literature. B. exported, formerly, more than 1200 bales of silk, which produced, on an average, £150,000 sterling yearly. In 1428, the Bergamese put themselves under the republic of Venice. In 1796, Bonaparte took B., and it was subsequently made the capital of the department of the Serio, in the kingdom of Italy. Lon. 9° 38′ E.; lat. 45° 42 N. The city is the seat of a bishop and of the authorities of the district. It has an academy of painting and sculpture, a museum, an athenæum, a public library, several academies, many manufactories, especially of silk. There is, also, a small Protestant congregation in this city. -The comic characters, Arlechino, or Truffaldino, and Brighella, in the Italian

masqued comedy, are Bergamese, or affect the dialect of the country people in the neighborhood of this city.

BERGAMOTS are a variety of citron. It is said to have been produced at first by grafting a citron on the stock of a bergamot pear-tree. The fruit has a fine taste and smell, and its essential oil is in high esteem as a perfume.

BERGASSE, Nicholas; a statesman and author, born at Lyons, in 1750, where he was an advocate. He afterwards became advocate to the parliament of Paris. Here he showed his talents in the famous lawsuit of Beaumarchais (q. v,) with the banker Kornmann. Upon the breaking out of the revolution, he was chosen å member of the states-general by the city of Lyons, but abandoned his seat, even earlier than Mounier and Lally-Tollendal, a step which, both in his case and theirs, was universally condemned. During the reign of terror, his life was saved only by the events of the 9th of Thermidor. Since that time, B. has devoted himself to metaphysical speculations. He is distinguished among the modern French ideologists by a splendid style and richness of ideas. He is the author of Morale réligieuse, De l'Influence de la Volonté et sur l'Intelligence, and De la Propriété (1807). B. was also one of the most zealous adherents to the doctrine of Mesmer respecting animal magnetism. During the abode of the Russian emperor in Paris, 1815, this monarch paid him a visit.

BERGEN; a bishopric in the kingdom of Norway, that borders on Aggerhuus to the east, Drontheim to the north, Christiansand to the south, and the German ocean to the west; lon. 4° 45'-6° 55′ E.; lat. 59° 34′-62° 39′ N. It contains about 13,900 square miles, 57 parishes, 180 churches and chapels, 137,700 inhabitants, or nearly 10 to a square mile.—Bergen, the fortified capital, with a citadel (Bergenhuus), the largest city in Norway, is situated in lon. 5° 21′ E., lat. 60° 10 N., 180 miles N. of Stavanger, 270 S. W. of Drontheim, at the bottom of the bay of Waag, that stretches far into the country, forming a safe harbor, surrounded by high and steep rocks. The entrance, however, is dangerous. The wall of rocks also makes the access to the city on the land side difficult. The climate is comparatively mild, on account of the sheltered situation of the town. It is remarkable for frequent rains. B. is well built, yet several streets are crooked and uneven, on account of the rocks. The city contains 2200 houses, 18,000