Chapter 6

1Alabarch or Arabarch (Gr.ἀλαβάρχης, orἀραβάρχης), the name of the head magistrate of the Jews in Alexandria under the Ptolemaic and Roman rules.

BERENICE,an ancient seaport of Egypt, on the west coast of the Red Sea, in 23° 56′ N., 35° 34′ E. Built at the head of a gulf, theSinus Immundus, or Foul Bay, of Strabo, it was sheltered on the north by Ras Benas (Lepte Extrema). The port is now nearly filled up, has a sand-bar at its entrance and can be reached only by small craft. Most important of the ruins is a temple; the remnants of its sculptures and inscriptions preserve the name of Tiberius and the figures of many deities, including a goddessof the emerald mines. Berenice was founded by Ptolemy II. (285-247B.C.) in order to shorten the dangerous Red Sea voyages, and was named in honour of his mother. For four or five centuries it became the entrepot of trade between India, Arabia and Upper Egypt. From it a road, provided with watering stations, leads north-west across the desert to the Nile at Coptos. In the neighbourhood of Berenice are the emerald mines of Zabara and Saket.

BERESFORD, LORD CHARLES WILLIAM DE LA POER(1846- ), British admiral, second son of the 4th marquess of Waterford, was born in Ireland, and entered the “Britannia” as a naval cadet in 1859. He became lieutenant in 1868, and commander in 1875. In 1874 he was returned to parliament as Conservative M.P. for Waterford, retaining his seat till 1880, and he was already known in this period as a gallant officer, with a special interest in naval administration. In 1875-1876 he accompanied the then prince of Wales on his visit to India as naval A.D.C.; from 1878 to 1881 he was commander of the royal yacht “Osborne.” He was in command of the gunboat “Condor” in the Mediterranean when the Egyptian crisis of 1882 occurred; and he became a popular hero in England in connexion with the bombardment of Alexandria (July 11), when he took his ship close in to the forts and engaged them with such conspicuous gallantry that the admiral ordered a special signal “Well done, Condor!” He was promoted captain for his services, and, after taking an active part in the re-establishment of order in Alexandria, he served again in Egypt on Lord Wolseley’s staff in the expedition of 1884-85, commanding the naval brigade at Abu Klea, Abu Kru and Metemmeh, and, with the river steamer “Safieh,” rescuing Sir C. Wilson and his party, who had been wrecked on returning from Khartum (Feb. 4, 1885). In November 1885 he was again returned to parliament as member for East Marylebone (re-elected 1886), and in Lord Salisbury’s ministry of 1886 he was appointed a lord of the admiralty. The press agitation in favour of a stronger navy was now in full swing, and it was well known that in Lord Charles Beresford it had an active supporter; but very little impression was made on the government, and in 1888 he resigned his office on this question, a dramatic step which had considerable effect. In the House of Commons he advocated an expenditure of twenty millions sterling on the fleet, and the passing of the Naval Defence Act in 1889 was largely due to his action. At the end of 1889 he became captain of the cruiser “Undaunted” in the Mediterranean, and when this ship was paid off in 1893 he was appointed in command of the steam reserve at Chatham, a post he held for three years. In 1897 he became rear-admiral, and again entered parliament, winning a by-election at York; he retained his seat till 1900, but was mainly occupied during these years by a mission to China on behalf of the Associated Chambers of Commerce; he published his bookThe Break-up of Chinain 1899. In 1902 he was returned to parliament for Woolwich, but resigned on his appointment to command the Channel squadron (1903-1905); in 1905 he was given the command of the Mediterranean fleet, and from 1906 to 1909 was commander-in-chief of the Channel fleet; in 1906 he became a full admiral. At sea he had always shown himself a remarkable disciplinarian, possessed of great influence over his men, and his reputation as one who would, if necessary, prove a great fighting commander was second to none; and, even when serving afloat and therefore unable to speak direct to the public, he was in the forefront of the campaign for increased naval efficiency. During the administration (1903-1910) of Sir John Fisher (seeFisher, Baron) as first sea lord of the admiralty it was notorious that considerable friction existed between them, and both in the navy and in public a great deal of party-spirit was engendered in the discussion of their opposing views. When Lord Charles Beresford’s term expired as commander-in-chief in March 1909 he was finally “unmuzzled,” and the attack which for some years his supporters had made against Sir J. Fisher’s administration came to a head at a moment coinciding with the new shipbuilding crisis occasioned by the revelations as to the increase of the German fleet. He himself came forward with proposals for a large increase in the navy and a reorganization of the administrative system, his first step being a demand for an inquiry, to which the government promptly assented (May) in the shape of a small Committee under the prime minister. Its report (August), however, gave him no satisfaction, and he proceeded with his public campaign, bitterly attacking the ministerial policy. In January 1910, at the general election, he was returned as Conservative M.P. for Portsmouth; but meanwhile Sir John Fisher’s term of office came to an end, and in his successor, Admiral Sir Arthur Knyvet Wilson (b. 1842), the navy obtained a first sea lord who commanded universal confidence.

BERESFORD, JOHN(1738-1805), Irish statesman, was a younger son of Sir Marcus Beresford, who, having married Catherine, sole heiress of James Power, 3rd earl of Tyrone, was created earl of Tyrone in 1746. After the death of the earl in 1763, Beresford’s mother successfully asserted her claimsuo jureto the barony of La Poer. John Beresford, born on the 14th of March 1738, thus inherited powerful family connexions. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, was called to the Irish bar, and entered the Irish parliament as member for Waterford in 1760. His industry, added to the influence of his family, procured his admission to the privy council in 1768, and his appointment as one of the commissioners of revenue two years later. In 1780 he became first commissioner of revenue, a position which gave him powerful influence in the Irish administration. He introduced some useful reforms in the machinery of taxation; and he was the author of many improvements in the architecture of the public buildings and streets of Dublin. He was first brought into conflict with Grattan and the popular party, in 1784, by his support of the proposal that the Irish parliament in return for the removal of restrictions on Irish trade should be bound to adopt the English navigation laws. In 1786 he was sworn a member of the English privy council, and the power which he wielded in Ireland through his numerous dependants and connexions grew to be so extensive that a few years later he was spoken of as the “king of Ireland.” He was a vehement opponent of the increasing demand for relief of the Roman Catholics; and when it became known that Lord Fitzwilliam was to succeed Lord Westmorland as lord lieutenant in 1795 for the purpose of carrying out a conciliatory policy, Beresford expressed strong hostility to the appointment. One of Fitzwilliam’s first acts was to dismiss Beresford from his employment but with permission to retain his entire official salary for life, and with the assurance that no other member of his family would be removed. Beresford immediately exerted all his influence with his friends in England, to whom he described himself as an injured and persecuted man; he appealed to Pitt, and went in person to London to lay his complaint before the English ministers. There is little doubt that the recall of Lord Fitzwilliam (q.v.), which was followed by such momentous consequences in the history of Ireland, was, as the viceroy himself believed, mainly due to Beresford’s dismissal. There had been a misunderstanding on the point between Pitt and Fitzwilliam. The latter, whose veracity was unimpeachable, asserted that previous to his coming to Ireland he had informed the prime minister of his intention to dismiss Beresford, and that Pitt had raised no objection. Pitt denied all recollection of any such communication, and on the contrary described the dismissal as “an open breach of the most solemn promise.”1In a letter to Lord Carlisle, justifying his action, Fitzwilliam mentioned that malversation had been imputed to Beresford. Beresford sent a challenge to Fitzwilliam, but the combatants were interrupted on the field and Fitzwilliam then made an apology.

When Lord Camden replaced Fitzwilliam in the viceroyalty in March 1795, Beresford resumed his former position. On the eve of the rebellion in 1798 his letters to Lord Auckland gave an alarming description of the condition of Ireland, and he counselled strong measures of repression. When first consulted by Pitt on the question of the union Beresford appears to have disliked the idea; but he soon became reconciled to the policy and warmly supported it. After the union Beresford continued to representWaterford in the imperial parliament, and he remained in office till 1802, taking an active part in settling the financial relations between Ireland and Great Britain. He died near Londonderry on the 5th of November 1805. John Beresford was twice married: in 1760 to a foreign lady, Constantia Ligondes, who died in 1772; and, secondly, in 1774 to Barbara Montgomery, a celebrated beauty who figures in Sir Joshua Reynolds’s picture of “The Graces.” He had large families by both marriages. His son, John Claudius, kept a riding school in Dublin, which acquired an evil reputation as the chief scene of the floggings by which evidence was extorted of the conspiracy which came to a head in 1798. He took a prominent part in the Irish House of Commons, where he unsuccessfully moved the reduction of the proposed Irish contribution to the imperial exchequer in the debates on the Act of Union, of which, unlike his father, he was to the last an ardent opponent.

SeeCorrespondence of the Right Hon. John Beresford, edited by W. Beresford (2 vols., London, 1854); Edward Wakefield,An Account of Ireland(2 vols., London, 1812); Earl Stanhope,Life of William Pitt(4 vols., London, 1861); W.E.H. Lecky,History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, vols. iii., iv., v. (5 vols., London, 1892).

(R. J. M.)

1Stanhope,Life of Pitt, ii, 301.

BERESFORD, WILLIAM CARR BERESFORD,Viscount(1768-1854), British general and Portuguese marshal, illegitimate son of the first marquess of Waterford, was born on the 2nd of October 1768. He entered the British army in 1785, and while in Nova Scotia with his regiment in the following year lost the sight of one eye by a shooting accident. He first distinguished himself at Toulon in 1793, receiving two years later the command of the 88th regiment (Connaught Rangers). In 1799 his regiment was ordered to India, and a few months later Beresford left with Sir David Baird’s expedition for Egypt, and was placed in command of the first brigade which led the march from Kosseir across the desert. When, on the evacuation of Egypt in 1803, he returned home, his reputation was established. In 1805 he accompanied Sir David Baird to South Africa, and was present at the capture of Cape Town and the surrender of the colony. From South Africa he was despatched to South America. He had little difficulty in capturing Buenos Aires with only a couple of regiments. But this force was wholly insufficient to hold the colony. Under the leadership of a Frenchémigré, the chevalier de Timers, the colonists attacked Beresford, and at the end of three days’ hard fighting he was compelled to capitulate. After six months’ imprisonment he escaped, and reached England in 1807, and at the end of that year he was sent to Madeira, occupying the island in the name of the king of Portugal. After six months in Madeira as governor and commander-in-chief, during which he learnt Portuguese and obtained an insight into the Portuguese character, he was ordered to join Sir Arthur Wellesley’s army in Portugal. He was first employed as commandant in Lisbon, but accompanied Sir John Moore on the advance into Spain, and took a conspicuous part in the battle of Corunna (seePeninsular War). In February 1809 Beresford was given the task of reorganizing the Portuguese army. In this task, by systematic weeding-out of inefficient officers and men, he succeeded beyond expectation. By the summer of 1810 he had so far improved themoraland discipline of the force that Wellington brigaded some of the Portuguese regiments with English ones, and at Busaco Portuguese and English fought side by side. Beresford’s services in this battle were rewarded by the British government with a knighthood of the Bath and by the Portuguese with a peerage.

In the spring of 1811 Wellington was compelled to detach Beresford from the Portuguese service. The latter was next in seniority to General (Lord) Hill who had gone home on sick leave, and on him, therefore, the command of Hill’s corps now devolved. Unfortunately Beresford never really gained the confidence of his new troops. At Campo Mayor his light cavalry brigade got out of hand, and a regiment of dragoons was practically annihilated. He invested Badajoz with insufficient forces, and on the advance of Soult he was compelled to raise the siege and offer battle at Albuera. His personal courage was even more than usually conspicuous, but to the initiative of a junior staff officer, Colonel (afterwards Viscount) Hardinge, rather than to Beresford’s own generalship, was the hardly-won victory to be attributed. Beresford then went back to his work of reorganizing the Portuguese army. He was present at the siege of Badajoz and at the battle of Salamanca, where he was severely wounded (1812). In 1813 he was present at the battle of Vittoria, and at the battles of the Pyrenees, while at the battle of the Nivelle, the Nive and Orthez he commanded the British centre, and later he led a corps at the battle of Toulouse. At the close of the Peninsular War he was created Baron Beresford of Albuera and Cappoquin, with a pension of £2000 a year, to be continued to his two successors.

In 1819 the revolution in Portugal led to the dismissal of the British officers in the Portuguese service. Beresford therefore left Portugal and placed the question of the arrears of pay of his army before the king at Rio Janeiro. On his return the new Portuguese government refused to allow him to land, and he accordingly left for home. On arriving in England he turned his attention to politics, and strongly supported the duke of Wellington in the House of Lords. In 1823 his barony was made a viscounty, and when the duke of Wellington formed his first cabinet in 1828 he gave Beresford the office of master-general of the ordnance. In 1830 Beresford retired from politics, and for some time subsequently he was occupied in a heated controversy with William Napier, the historian of the Peninsular War, who had severely criticised his tactics at Albuera. On this subject Wellington’s opinion of Beresford is to the point. The duke had no illusions as to his being a great general, but he thought very highly of his powers of organization, and he went so far as to declare, during the Peninsular War, that, in the event of his own death, he would on this ground recommend Beresford to succeed him. The last years of Beresford’s life were spent at Bedgebury, Kent, where he had purchased a country estate. He died on the 8th of January 1854.

BEREZINA,a river of Russia, in the government of Minsk, forming a tributary of the Dnieper. It rises in the marshes of Borizov and flows south, inclining to east, for 350 m. (250 m. navigable), for the most part through low-lying but well-wooded country. As a navigable river, and forming a portion of the canal system which unites the Black Sea with the Baltic, it is of importance for commerce, but is subject to severe floods. It was just above Borizov that Napoleon’s army forced the passage of the Berezina, with enormous losses, on the 26th-28th of November 1812, during the retreat from Moscow.

BEREZOV. a town of Asiatic Russia, in the government of Tobolsk, 700 m. N. of the city of that name, situated on three hills on the left bank of the Sosva, 26 m. above its mouth in the Ob, in 63° 55′ N. lat. and 65° 7′ E. long. It has more than once suffered from conflagrations—for example, in 1710 and 1808. Prince Menshikov, the favourite of Peter the Great and Catherine I., died here an exile, in 1729. In 1730 his enemy and rival, Prince Dolgoruki, was interned here with his family; and in 1742 General Ostermann was sent to Berezov with his wife and died there in 1747. The yearly mean temperature is 25° Fahr., the maximum cold being 4.7°. It has a cathedral, near which lie buried Mary Menshikov, once betrothed to the tsar Peter II., and some of the Dolgorukis. There is some trade in furs, mammoth bones, dried and salted fish. Pop. (1897) 1073.

BEREZOVSK,a village of east Russia, in the government of Perm, on the eastern slope of the Urals, 8 m. N.E. of Ekaterinburg. It is the centre of an important gold-mining region (5 m. by 2½) of the same name. The mines have been known since 1747. The inhabitants also manufacture boots, cut stone and carry on cabinet-making.

BERG(Ducatus Montensis), a former duchy of Germany, on the right bank of the Rhine, bounded N. by the duchy of Cleves, E. by the countship of La Marck and the duchy of Westphalia, and S. and W. by the bishopric of Cologne. Its area was about 1120 sq. m. The district was raised in 1108 to the rank of a countship, but did not become a duchy till 1380, after it had passed into the possession of the Jülich family. In 1423 the duchy of Jülich fell to Adolf of Berg, and in 1437 the countshipof Ravensberg was united to the duchies. The male line of the dukes of Jülich-Berg-Ravensberg became extinct in 1511, and the duchy passed by marriage to John III. (d. 1539), duke of Cleves and count of La Marck, whose male line became extinct with the death of John William, bishop of Münster, in 1609. Of the latter’s four sisters, the eldest (Marie Eleonore) was married to Albert Frederick, duke of Prussia, the second (Anna) to Philip Louis, count palatine of Neuburg, the third (Magdalena) to John, count palatine of Zweibrücken, and the fourth (Sybille) to Charles of Habsburg, margrave of Burgau. The question of the succession led to a prolonged contest, which was one of the causes of the Thirty Years’ War. It was settled in 1614 by a partition, under which Berg, with Jülich, was assigned to the count palatine of Neuburg, in whose line it remained till 1742, when it passed to the Sultzbach branch of the house of Wittelsbach. On the death of Charles Theodore, the last of this line, in 1799, Jülich and Berg fell to Maximilian Joseph of Zweibrücken (Maximilian I. of Bavaria), who ceded the duchies in 1806 to Napoleon. Berg was bestowed by Napoleon, along with the duchy of Cleves and other possessions, on Joachim Murat, who bore the title of grand-duke of Berg; and after Murat’s elevation to the throne of Naples, it was transferred to Louis, the son of the king of Holland. By the congress of Vienna in 1815 it was made over to Prussia.

See B. Schönneshöfer,Geschichte des Bergischen Landes(Elberfeld, 1895); Stokvis,Manuel d’histoire, &c.vol. iii. (Leiden, 1890-1893); and R. Göcke,Das Grossherzogtum Berg unter Joachim Murat, Napoleon Ierund Louis Napoleon, 1806-1813(Cologne, 1877).

BERGAMASK,orBergomask(from the town of Bergamo in North Italy), a clumsy rustic dance (cf. Shakespeare,Midsummer Night’s Dream, v. 360) copied from the natives of Bergamo, reputed to be very awkward in their manners.

BERGAMO(anc.Bergomum), a city and episcopal see of Lombardy, Italy, capital of the province of Bergamo, situated at the foot of the Alps, at the junction of the Brembo and Serio, 33½ m. N.E. of Milan by rail, and 26 m. direct. Pop. (1901) town, 25,425; commune, 46,861. The town consists of two distinct parts, the older Città Alta, upon a hill 1200 ft. above sea-level, strongly fortified by the Venetians, and the new town (Città Bassa) below, the two being connected by a funicular railway. The most interesting building of the former is the fine Romanesque church of S. Maria Maggiore, founded in 1137 and completed in 1355, with a baroque interior and some interesting works of art. Adjoining it to the north is the Cappella Colleoni, with a richly sculptured polychrome façade, and a modernized interior, containing the fine tombs of Bartolommeo Colleoni (c.1400-1475), a native of Bergamo, and his daughter Medea. The work was executed in 1470-1476 by Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, who was also employed at the Certosa di Pavia. The market-place (now Piazza Garibaldi) contains the Gothic Palazzo Vecchio or Broletto; close by are the cathedral (1614) and a small baptistery of 1340, rebuilt in 1898. The lower town contains an important picture-gallery, consisting of three collections of works of north Italian masters, one of which was bequeathed in 1891 by the art critic Giovanni Morelli. Bergamo has fine modern buildings and numerous silk and cotton factories. It also has a considerable cattle market, though its yearly Fiera di S. Alessandro (the patron saint) has lost some of its importance. Railways radiate from it to Lecco, Ponte della Selva, Usmate (for Monza or Seregno), Treviglio (on the main line from Milan to Verona and Venice) and (via Rovato) to Brescia, and steam tramways to Treviglio, Sarnico and Soncino.

The ancient Bergomum was the centre of the tribe of the Orobii; it became, after their subjection to Rome, a Roman municipality with a considerable territory, and after its destruction by Attila, became the capital of a Lombard duchy. From 1264 to 1428 it was under Milan, but then became Venetian, and remained so until 1797. Remains of the Roman city are not visible above ground, but various discoveries made are recorded by G. Mantovani inNot. Scav., 1890, 25.

(T. As.)

BERGAMOT, OIL OF,an essential oil obtained from the rind of the fruit of the Citrus bergamia. The bergamot is a small tree with leaves and flowers like the bitter orange, and a round fruit nearly 3 in. in diameter, having a thin lemon-yellow smooth rind. The tree is cultivated in southern Calabria, whence the entire supply of bergamot oil is drawn. Machinery is mostly used to express the oil from the fruit, which is gathered in November and December. The oil, which on standing deposits a stearoptene, bergamot camphor or bergaptene, is a limpid greenish-yellow fluid of a specific gravity of 0.882 to 0.886, and its powerful but pleasant odour is mainly due to the presence of linalyl acetate, orbergamiol, which can be artificially prepared by heating linalol with acetic anhydride. The chief use of bergamot oil is in perfumery. The word apparently is derived from the Italian town Bergamo. The name Bergamot, for a variety of pear, is an entirely different word, supposed to be a corruption of the Turkishbeg-armudi(= prince’s pear; cf. Ger.Fürstenbirn).

BERGEDORF,a town of Germany, in the territory of Hamburg, on the river Bille, 10 m. by rail E. by S. from the city. Pop. (1900) 23,728. It produces vegetables and fruit for the Hamburg markets, and carries on tanning, glass manufacture, brewing and brick-making. It received civic rights in 1275, belonged to Lübeck and Hamburg conjointly from 1420 to 1868, and in the latter year was purchased by Hamburg. The surrounding district, exceptionally fertile marshland, is known as Die Vierlande, being divided into four parishes, whence the name is derived.

BERGEN,a city and seaport of Norway, forming a separate county (amt), on the west coast, in lat. 60° 23′ N. (about that of the Shetland Islands). Pop. (1900) 72,179. It lies at the head of the broad Byfjord, and partly on a rocky promontory (Nordnaes) between the fine harbour (Vaagen) and the Puddefjord. Its situation is very beautiful, the moist climate (mean annual rainfall, 74 in.) fostering on the steep surrounding hills a vegetation unusually luxuriant for the latitude. Behind the town lie the greater and lesser Lungegaard Lakes, so that the site is in effect a peninsula. The harbour is crowded with picturesque timber-ships and fishing-smacks, and is bordered by quays. The principal street is Strandgaden, on the Nordnaes, parallel with the harbour, communicating inland with thetorvor marketplace, which fronts the harbour and contains the fish and fruit market. The portion of the city on the mainland rises in an amphitheatre. The houses, of wood or stucco, are painted in warm reds and yellows. On the banks of the lesser Lungegaard Lake is the small town park, and above the greater lake the pleasant Nygaards park, with an aquarium adjoining. Among the principal buildings are the cathedral (rebuilt in the 16th century), and several other churches, among which the Mariae Kirke with its Romanesque nave is the earliest; a hospital, diocesan college, naval academy, school of design and a theatre. An observatory and biological station are maintained. The museums are of great interest. The Vestlandske fishery and industrial museum also contains a picture gallery, and exhibition of the Bergen Art Union (Kunstforening). The Bergen museum contains antiquities and a natural history collection. The Hanseatic museum is housed in a carefully-preservedgaard, or store-house and offices of the Hanseatic League of German merchants, who inhabited the German quarter (Tydskenbryggen) and were established here in great strength from 1445 to 1558 (when the Norwegians began to find their presence irksome), and brought much prosperity to the city in that period. The Bergenhus and Fredriksberg forts defend the north and south entries of the harbour respectively. The first was originally built in the 13th century by King Haakon Haakonsson, and subsequently enlarged; and still bears marks of an English attack when a Dutch fleet was driven to shelter here in 1665. Near it are remains of another old fort, the Sverresborg. Electric trams ply in the principal streets.

Bergen is the birthplace of the poets Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754) and Johan Welhaven (1807-1873), of Johan Dahl the painter (1788-1857), of Ole Bull (1810-1880) and Edvard Grieg the musicians. There are statues to Holberg and Bull, and also to Christie, president of the Storthing (parliament) in 1815 and 1818.

Bergen ranks first of the Norwegian ship-owning centres, having risen to this position from fifth in 1879. The trade, however, is exceeded by that of Christiania. The staple export trade is in fish and their products: other exports are butter, copper ore and hides. The principal imports are coal, machinery, salt, grain and provisions. The manufactures are not extensive, but the preparation of fish products, shipbuilding, weaving and distillery, with manufactures of paper, pottery, tobacco and ropes are carried on. Bergen is an important centre of the extensive tourist traffic of Norway. Regular steamers serve the port from Hull and Newcastle (about 40 hours), from Hamburg, and from all the Norwegian coast towns. Many local steamers penetrate the fjords, touching at every village andgaard. Bergen is the nearest port to the famous Hardanger Fjord, and is the starting-point of a remarkable railway which runs through many tunnels and fine scenery towards Vossevangen or Voss. In 1896 a beginning was made with the continuation of this line through the mountains to connect with Christiania. In the first 50 m. from Voss the line ascends 4080 ft., passing through a tunnel 5796 yds. long.

Bergen (formerly Björgvin) was founded by King Olaf Kyrre in 1070-1075, and rapidly grew to importance, the Byfjord becoming the scene of several important engagements in the civil wars of subsequent centuries. The famous Hansa merchants maintained a failing position here till 1764. The town suffered frequently from fire, as in 1702 and 1855, and the broad open spaces (Almenninge) which interrupt the streets are intended as a safeguard against the spread of flames.

See Y. Nielsen,Bergen fra die äldste tider indtil nutiden(Christiania, 1877); H. Jager,Bergen og Bergenserne(Bergen, 1889).

BERGEN-OP-ZOOM,a town in the province of North Brabant, Holland, situated on both sides of the small river Zoom, near its confluence with the East Scheldt, 38½ m. by rail E. by N. of Flushing. It is connected by steam tramway with Antwerp (20 m. S.) and with the islands of Tholen and Duiveland to the north-west. Pop. (1900) 13,663. The houses are well built, the market-places and squares handsome and spacious. It possesses a port and an arsenal, and contains a fine town hall, with portraits of the ancient margraves of Bergen-op-Zoom, a Latin school, and an academy of design and architecture. The remains of the old castle of the margraves have been converted into barracks. The tower is still standing and is remarkable for its increase in size as it rises, which causes it to rock in a strong wind. The church contains a monument to Lord Edward Bruce, killed in a duel with Sir Edward Sackville, afterwards earl of Dorset, in 1613. There are numerous tile-works and potteries of fine ware; and a considerable trade is carried on in anchovies and oysters caught in the Scheldt. A large sugar-beet industry has also sprung up here in modern times.

Bergen-op-Zoom is a very old town, but little is known of its early history beyond the fact that it was taken by the Normans in 880. In the 13th century it became the seat of Count Gerhard of Wesemael, who surrounded it with walls and built a castle. By the end of the 15th century it had become one of the most prosperous towns of Holland, on account of its fisheries and its cloth-trade. In 1576 the town joined the United Netherlands, and was shortly afterwards fortified. In 1588 it was successfully defended against the duke of Parma by an English and Dutch garrison commanded by Colonel Morgan, and in 1605 it was suddenly attacked by Du Terail. In 1622 the Spaniards, under Spinola, made another attempt to take the town, but were forced to abandon the enterprise after a siege of ten weeks and the loss of 1200 men. Towards the end of the 17th century the fortifications were greatly strengthened by Coehoorn, and in 1725 they were further extended. In 1747, however, the town was taken by the French, under Marshal Löwendahl, who surprised it by means of a subterranean passage. Restored at the end of the war, it was again taken by the French under Pichegru in 1795. The English, under Sir Thomas Graham, afterwards Lord Lynedoch, in March 1814 made an attempt to take it by acoup de main, but were driven back with great loss by the French, who surrendered the place, however, by the treaty of peace in the following May.

The lordship of Bergen-op-Zoom appears, after the definite union of the Low Countries with the Empire in 924, as an hereditary fief of the Empire, and the succession of its lords may be traced from Henry (1098-1125), who also held Breda. In 1533 it was raised to a margraviate by the emperor Charles V., and was held by various families until in 1799 it passed, through the Sultzbach branch of the Wittelsbachs, to the royal house of Bavaria, by whom it was renounced in favour of the Batavian republic in 1801.

BERGERAC,a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Dordogne, on the right bank of the Dordogne, 60 m. E. of Bordeaux on the railway to Cahors. Pop. (1906) town, 10,545; commune, 15,623. The river is rendered navigable by a large dam and crossed by a fine bridge which leads to the suburb of La Madeleine. Apart from a few old houses in the older quarter by the river, the town contains no monuments of antiquarian interest. There is a handsome modern church built in the middle of the 19th century. Bergerac is the seat of a sub-prefect and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce and a communal college. Wine of fine quality is grown in the district and is the chief source of the commerce of the town, which is mainly carried on with Libourne and Bordeaux. There is trade in grain, truffles, chestnuts, brandy and in the salmon of the Dordogne. The town has flour-mills, iron-works, tanneries, distilleries and nursery-gardens, and it has manufactures of casks and of vinegar. There are quarries of millstone in the vicinity. In the 16th century Bergerac was a very flourishing and populous place, but most of its inhabitants having embraced Calvinism it suffered greatly during the religious wars and by the revocation of the edict of Nantes (1685). It was in 1577 the scene of the signing of the sixth peace between the Catholics and Protestants. Its fortifications and citadel were demolished by Louis XIII. in 1621.

BERGHAUS, HEINRICH(1797-1884), German geographer, was born at Kleve on the 3rd of May 1797. He was trained as a surveyor, and after volunteering for active service under General Tauenzien in 1813, joined the staff of the Prussian trigonometrical survey in 1816. He carried on a geographical school at Potsdam in company with Heinrich Lange, August Petermann, and others, and long held the professorship of applied mathematics at the Bauakademie. But he is most famous in connexion with his cartographical work. His greatest achievement was thePhysikalischer Atlas(Gotha, 1838-1848), in which work, as in others, his nephewHermann Berghaus(1828-1890) was associated with him. He had also a share in the re-issue of the greatStieler Handatlas(originally produced by Adolf Stieler in 1817-1823). and in the production of other atlases. His written works were numerous and important, includingAllgemeine Länder- und Völkerkunde(Stuttgart, 1837-1840),Grundriss der Geographie in fünf Bückern(Berlin, 1842),Die Völker des Erdballs(Leipzig, 1845-1847),Was man van der Erde weiss(Berlin, 1856-1860), and various large works on Germany. In 1863 he publishedBriefwechsel mit Alexander van Humboldt(Leipzig). He died at Stettin on the 17th of February 1884.

BERGK, THEODOR(1812-1881), German philologist, was born at Leipzig on the 22nd of May 1812. After studying at the university of his native town, where he profited by the instruction of G. Hermann, he was appointed in 1835 to the lectureship in Latin at the orphan school at Halle. After holding posts at Neustrelitz, Berlin and Cassel, he succeeded (1842) K.F. Hermann as professor of classical literature at Marburg. In 1852 he went to Freiburg, and in 1857 returned to Halle. In 1868 he resigned his professorship, and settled down to study and literary work in Bonn. He died on the 20th of July 1881, at Ragatz in Switzerland, where he had gone for the benefit of his health. Bergk’s literary activity was very great, but his reputation mainly rests upon his work in connexion with Greek literature and the Greek lyric poets. HisPoetae Lyrici Graeci(1843. 5th ed. 1900, &c.), andGriechische Litteraturgeschichte(1872-1887, completed by G. Hinrichs and R. Peppmüller) are standardworks. He also edited Anacreon (1834), the fragments of Aristophanes (1840), Aristophanes (3rd ed., 1872), Sophocles (and ed., 1868), a lyric anthology (4th ed., 1890). Among his other works may be mentioned:Augusti Rerum a se gestarum Index(1873);Inschriften römischer Schleudergeschosse(1876);Zur Geschichte und Topographie der Rheinlande in römischer Zeit(1882);Beiträge zur römischen Chronologie(1884).

HisKleine philologische Schriftenhave been edited by Peppmüller (1884-1886), and contain, in addition to a complete list of his writings, a sketch of his life. See Sandys,Hist. of Class. Scholiii. 146 (1908).

BERGLER, STEPHAN,German classical scholar, was born about 1680 at Kronstadt in Transylvania. The date of his death is uncertain. After studying at Leipzig, he went to Amsterdam, where he edited Homer and theOnomasticonof Julius Pollux for Wetzstein the publisher. Subsequently, at Hamburg, he assisted the great bibliographer J.A. Fabricius in the production of hisBibliotheca Graecaand his edition of Sextus Empiricus. He finally found a permanent post in Bucharest as secretary to the prince of Walachia, Alexander Mavrocordato, whose workΠερὶ τῶν καθηκόντων(De Officiis) he had previously translated for Fritzsch, the Leipzig bookseller, by whom he had been employed as proof-reader and literary hack. In the prince’s library Bergler discovered the introduction and the first three chapters of Eusebius’sDemonstratio Evangelica. He died in Bucharest, and was buried at his patron’s expense. According to another account, Bergler, finding himself without means, drifted to Constantinople, where he came to an untoward end (c. 1740). He is said to have become a convert to Islam; this report was probably a mistake for the undisputed fact that he embraced Roman Catholicism. Bergler led a wild and irregular life, and offended his friends and made many enemies by his dissipated habits and cynical disposition. In addition to writing numerous articles for the LeipzigActa Eruditorum, Bergler edited the editio princeps of the Byzantine historiographer Genesius (1733), and the letters of Alciphron (1715), in which seventy-five hitherto unpublished letters were for the first time included.

BERGMAN, TORBERN OLOF(1735-1784), Swedish chemist and naturalist, was born at Katrineberg, Vestergötland, Sweden, on the 20th of March 1735. At the age of seventeen he entered the university of Upsala. His father wished him to read either law or divinity, while he himself was anxious to study mathematics and natural science; in the effort to please both himself and his father he overworked himself and injured his health. During a period of enforced abstinence from study, he amused himself with field botany and entomology, to such good purpose that he was able to send Linnaeus specimens of several new kinds of insects, and in 1756 he succeeded in proving that, contrary to the opinion of that naturalist,Coccus aquaticuswas really the ovum of a kind of leech. In 1758, having returned to Upsala, he graduated there, and soon afterwards began to teach mathematics and physics at the university, publishing papers on the rainbow, the aurora, the pyroelectric phenomena of tourmaline, &c. In 1767 Johann Gottschalck Wallerius (1709-1785) having resigned the chair of chemistry and mineralogy, Bergman determined to become a candidate, though he had paid no particular attention to chemistry. As evidence of his attainments he produced a memoir on the manufacture of alum, but his pretensions were strongly opposed, and it was only through the influence of Gustavus III., then crown prince and chancellor of the university, that he gained the appointment, which he held till the end of his life. He died at Medevi on Lake Vetter on the 8th of July 1784. Bergman’s most important chemical paper is hisEssay on Elective Attractions(1775), a study of chemical affinity. In methods of chemical analysis, both by the blowpipe and in the wet way, he effected many improvements, and he made considerable contributions to mineralogical and geological chemistry, and to crystallography. He also made observations of the transit of Venus in 1761, and published aPhysical Description of the Earthin 1766.

His works were collected and printed in 6 vols. asOpuscula Physica et Chemicain 1779-1790, and were translated into French, German and English.

BERGSCHRUND(Ger.Berg, mountain;Schrund, cleft or crevice), a gaping crack in the upper part of a snowfield or glacier, near the rock wall, caused by the glacier moving bodily away from the mountain-side as the mass settles downwards. The crack is roughly parallel to the rock-face of the upper edge of the glacier basin, and extends downwards to the solid rock beneath the glacier where at the bottom of this huge crevasse there are blocks of ice, and large pieces of rock torn off by the lower portion of the glacier from the rock wall and floor.

BERGUES,a town of northern France, in the department of Nord, at the junction of the canal of the Colme with canals to Dunkirk and Furnes (in Belgium), 5 m. S.S.E. of Dunkirk by rail. Pop. (1906) 4499. The town has a belfry, the finest in French Flanders, dating from the middle of the 16th century and restored in the 19th century. The church of St Martin is a brick building of the 17th century in the Gothic style with a modern façade. The town hall, dating from the latter half of the 19th century, contains a municipal library and an interesting collection of pictures. The industries of the town include brewing and malting, and the manufacture of brushes and oil.

BERHAMPUR,a town of British India, the headquarters of Murshidabad district, in Bengal, situated on the left bank of the river Bhagirathi, 5 m. below Murshidabad city. Pop. (1901) 24,397. Berhampur was fixed upon after the battle of Plassey as the site of the chief military station for Bengal; and a huge square of brick barracks was erected in 1767, at a cost of £300,000. Here was committed the first overt act of the mutiny, on the 25th of February 1857. No troops are now stationed here, and the barracks have been utilized for a jail, a lunatic asylum and other civic buildings. A college, founded by government in 1853, was made over in 1888 to a local committee, being mainly supported by the munificence of the rani Svarnamayi. In the municipality of Berhampur is included the remnant of the once important, but now utterly decayed city of Cossimbazar (q.v.).

BERHAMPUR,a town of British India, in the presidency of Madras. Pop. (1901) 25,729. It is the headquarters of Ganjam district, and is situated about 9 m. from the sea. It is a station on the East Coast railway, which connects Calcutta with Madras. Berhampur had a military cantonment, sometimes distinguished as Baupur, containing a wing of a native regiment; but the troops have been transferred elsewhere. There is some weaving of silk cloth, and export trade in sugar. The college, originally founded by government, is now maintained by the raja of Kallikota. Silk-weaving and sugar-manufacture are carried on.

BERI-BERI,a tropical disease of the greatest antiquity, and known to the Chinese from an extremely remote period. It gradually dropped out of sight of European practice, until an epidemic in Brazil in 1863, and the opening up of Japan, where it prevailed extensively, and the investigations into the disease in Borneo, brought it again into notice. The researches of Scheube and Bälz in Japan, and of Pekelharing and Winkler in the Dutch Indies, led to its description as a form of peripheral neuritis (see alsoNeuropathology). The geographical distribution of beri-beri is between 45° N. and 35° S. It occurs in Japan, Korea and on the Chinese coast south of Shanghai; in Manila, Tongking, Cochin China, Burma, Singapore, Malacca, Java and the neighbouring islands; also in Ceylon, Mauritius, Madagascar and the east coast of Africa. In the Western hemisphere it is found in Cuba, Panama, Venezuela and South America. It has been carried in ships to Australia and to England. Sir P. Manson has “known it originate in the port of London in the crews of ships which had been in harbour for several months,” and he suggests that when peripheral neuritis occurs in epidemic form it is probably beri-beric.

The cause is believed by many authorities to be an infective agent of a parasitic nature, but attempts to identify it have not been entirely successful. It is “not obviously communicable from person to person” (Manson), but may be carried fromplace to place. It clings to particular localities, buildings and ships, in which it has a great tendency to occur; for instance, it is apt to break out again and again on certain vessels trading to the East. It haunts low-lying districts along the coast, and the banks of rivers. Moisture and high temperature are required to develop its activity, which is further favoured by bad ventilation, overcrowding and underfeeding. Another strongly supported hypothesis is that it is caused by unwholesome diet. The experience of the Japanese navy points strongly in this direction. Beri-beri was constantly prevalent among the sailors until 1884, when the dietary was changed. A striking and progressive diminution at once set in, and continued until the disease wholly disappeared. Major Ronald Ross suggested that beri-beri was really arsenical poisoning. A natural surmise is that it is due to some fungoid growth affecting grain, such as rice, maize or some other food stuff commonly used in the localities where beri-beri is prevalent, and among sailors. The conditions under which their food is kept on board certain ships might explain the tendency of the disease to haunt particular vessels. Dr Charles Hose is the principal advocate of this theory. Having had much experience of beri-beri in Sarawak, he associates it with the eating of mouldy rice, a germ in the fungus constituting the poison. But Dr Hose’s views as to rice have been strongly opposed by Dr Hamilton Wright and others.

The most susceptible age is from 15 to 40. Children under 15 and persons over 50 or 60 are rarely attacked. Men are more liable than women. Race has no influence. Previous attacks powerfully predispose.

The symptoms are mainly those of peripheral neuritis with special implication of the phrenic and the pneumogastric nerves. There is usually a premonitory stage, in which the patient is languid, easily tired, depressed, and complains of numbness, stiffness and cramps in the legs; the ankles are oedematous and the face is puffy. After this, pronounced symptoms set in rapidly, the patient suddenly loses power in the legs and is hardly able to walk or stand; this paresis is accompanied by partial anaesthesia, and by burning or tingling sensations in the feet, legs and arms; the finger-tips are numb, the calf muscles tender. These symptoms increase, the oedema becomes general, the paralysis more marked; breathlessness and palpitation come on in paroxysms; the urine is greatly diminished. There is no fever, unless it is of an incidental character, and no brain symptoms arise. The patient may remain in this condition for several days or weeks, when the symptoms begin to subside. On the disappearance of the oedema the muscles of the leg are found to be atrophied. Recovery is very slow, but appears to be certain when once begun. When death occurs it is usually from syncope through over-distension of the heart. The mortality varies greatly, from 2 to 50% of the cases. The disease is said to be extremely fatal among the Malays. After death there is found to be serious infiltration into all the tissues, and often haemorrhages into the muscles and nerves, but the most important lesion is degeneration of the peripheral nerves. The cerebrospinal centres are not affected, and the degeneration of the nerve-fibres is more marked the farther they are from the point of origin. The implication of the phrenic and pneumogastric nerves, and of the cardiac plexus, accounts for the breathlessness, palpitation and heart failure; that of the vaso-motor system for the oedema and diminution of urine, and that of the spinal nerves for the loss of power, the impairment and perversion of sensation. According as these nerves are variously affected the symptoms will be modified, some being more prominent in one case and some in another.

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