ALBINUS, BERNARD SIEGFRIED. 



ALBOIN. 



90 



the surname Groot, or Grot. He was born at Lauingen, in Siiabia, 

 according to some in 1205, according to others in 1193. In 1222 he 

 entered the order of Dominicans. During a long series of years he 

 gave public lectures at Cologne, which were frequented by the prin- 

 cipal scholars of the age; and he filled many places of trust and 

 dignity. He was however unambitious of worldly honours, and he 

 resigned even a bishopric which was forced upon him by the Pope, 

 that he might enjoy the retirement of his cell, teach, and compose 

 books. He died in 1280. His works form 21 volumes in folio, and 

 are devoted to logic, physics, metaphysics, and theology. 



There is great difficulty in classifying the works of Albertus, so as 

 to obtain a correct estimate of his system, owing to his having been 

 more a man of great erudition than a comprehensive and coherent 

 thinker. He had read more than he had thoroughly digested ; his 

 mind in some measure broke down beneath the extent and variety of 

 his learning. He had a taste for information of every kind ; but the 

 multiplicity of inquiries into which this universality prompted him 

 to enter, rendered it impossible for him to retain them except by the 

 mere formal memory. When any branch of science was mentioned, 

 his tenacious memory recalled what the authors he had read delivered 

 concerning it, their arrangement, and manner of dividing the subject. 

 He had a vigilant and sharp eye to the phenomena of external nature, 

 and a singular talent for clear exposition. His style and manner are 

 too formal ; the logical framework is pedantically ostentatious ; but 

 what he knows himself he makes clear to others. 



All that we know of Albertus as an author or as a man is calculated 

 to inspire us with respect for him. If his writings do not evince the 

 subtle intellect of his scholar Thomas Aquinas, or the comprehensive 

 genius of hU master Aristotle, they evince an enthusiastic love of 

 knowledge, an extraordinary power of persevering labour, and a pure 

 and elevated disposition. Though frequently called to take part in 

 public business, both civil and ecclesiastical, he was free from 

 ambition ; his cloister-cell was his favourite abode ; adding to his 

 store of knowledge, and communicating it to others, his favourite 

 occupations. Yet such was his reputation for integrity, that laymen 

 selected him as umpire in disputes with dignitaries of the church who 

 were his personal friends, and popes consulted him even when the 

 interests of his order might have been supposed to bias his opinion. 

 When, in addition to these qualities, his influence in promoting the 

 progress of knowledge in Europe is taken into account, his being the 

 first to present the students of the middle ages with an encyclopaedia 

 of knowledge, it is easy to enter into the feelings of those who 

 bestowed upon him the name of ' Great.' There are not many 

 among those to whom that abused epithet has been applied who have 

 so well deserved it. 



(Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Difftuion of Utefal 

 Knowledge.) 



ALBINUS, BERNARD SIEGFRIED, oue of the most celebrated 

 anatomists of the 18th century, was born at Frankfurt, in the year 

 1697. His father was professor of the practice of medicine in the 

 University of Frankfurt, but subsequently filled the chair of anatomy 

 at Leyden, then the most celebrated school of medicine in Europe. 

 The position of his father afforded him the advantage of studying 

 " om his early youth under the greatest masters of the age Boerhaave, 

 ' luysch, and Rao. In 1718 he went to Paris to study at the hospitals, 

 but in the following year was recalled to Leydeu to take the office of 

 reader in anatomy and surgery. In 1721, on the death of his father, 

 he was" unanimously elected to the professorship of those sciences, 

 and for more than twenty years from that time he entirely devoted 

 himself to the study and teaching of them. In 1745 he was chosen 

 professor of therapeutics, and he remained in this office till his death 

 in 1770. 



Bernard Siegfried Albinus, though the best anatomist of his time, 

 was not a great discoverer. The knowledge of many single facts is 

 due to his investigations; but he was not the author of any important 

 principle in anatomy or physiology. His merit consists in the accuracy 

 with which he investigated all the subjects of his study, the clearness 

 and completeness of his descriptions, and the cara which he bestowed 

 on the delineation of the various structures of the body. In all these 

 he was unequalled ; and he thus contributed more than any of his 

 predecessors to render descriptive anatomy an exact science. The 

 commencement of that close study of anatomy by which it is now 

 nearly perfected in its adaptation to surgery may be traced in the 

 publication of his works. The engraving* of the bones and muscles, 

 by Vandelaar, have never been surpassed in fidelity, and have rarely 

 been equalled in beauty of execution. They are said to have cost 

 Albinus 30,000 florins, for the artist lived several years under his roof, 

 and many of the first engravings were destroyed for trivial inaccuracies 

 or defects. (For a lUt of the works of Albinus, see Watt's ' Biblio- 

 theca Britannica,' vol. i. p. 11, :.) 



ALBITTE, ANTOINE LOUIS, one of the most violent Jacobins of 

 the French revolution, and afterwards a humble satellite of the Emperor 

 Napoleon I. At an early age the violence of his principles procured 

 hi* election as a member of the Legislative Assembly for the depart- 

 ment of the Lower Seine, in September, 1791. His profession was 

 that of an advocate, which he carriud on at Dieppe. On the morning 

 after tin memorable 10th of August, 1792, he and his colleague Sera 

 :d and carried the resolution that every statue of a king should 



be destroyed, and a statue of Liberty erected in its stead. He was 

 sent in September with Lecointre-Puyraveau to the department of the 

 Lower Seine, to disarm suspected persons, and deport the priests who 

 refused to take the oath. He executed his commission with great 

 severity, and in return was elected by the department to the National 

 Convention. Here he was of the number of those who voted, on the 

 21st of December, against allowing Louis XVI. counsel on his trial, 

 and shortly afterwards for putting him to death. On the 23rd of 

 March, 1793, he carried the decreo that emigrants taken prisoners in 

 foreign countries should be massacred, whether found with or without 

 arms. In Paris he was always the ardent opponent of the Girondins, 

 and the proposer or supporter of the most violent measures ; but it 

 was in the country, and as commissioner to the armies of the republic, 

 in which he attained the military rank of adjutant-general, that his 

 atrocities were carried farthest. He wag present in this character at 

 the siege of Lyon, and at the partial demolition of that city after its 

 capture, at the operations of Carteaux against the insurgents of the 

 south, and at the opening of the siege of Toulon, where he made the 

 acquaintance of Bonaparte, which was useful to him in after-life. His 

 cruelty was accompanied with luxury and avarice : at Bourg he is said 

 to have bathed every inoruin; in the milk that was brought for the 

 consumption of the town. His success and his excesses seem at this 

 time almost to have turned his brain : he amused himself by having 

 the pope, the king of England, &c., guillotined in effigy ; and when one 

 day at the Theatre Franjais, the pit applauded the hemistich in 

 Chenier's ' Caius Gracchus,' which may be translated " Let us have 

 laws, not blood," he rose in auger, and vociferating imprecations on the 

 audience, shouted out, " Let us have blood, not laws." On the fall of 

 Robespierre numerous denunciations of his conduct were sent in to 

 the Convention from the departments, and one from the adminis- 

 trators of the district of Bourg was referred to a committee. Albitte, 

 thus pressed by danger, joined in a conspiracy to re-establish the reign 

 of terror, which burst out in the insurrection of the first of Prairial 

 in the year 3 (the 20th of May, 1795), one of the most terrible days of 

 the whole revolution. It was on this occasion that the insurgents 

 broke into the Convention, compelled that assembly to pass several 

 decrees at the point of the sword ; and after murdering Ferand, one of 

 the members, presented his head on a pike to the president Boissy 

 d'Anglas. After a desperate contest in the hall of the Convention, 

 the insurgents were defeated and driven out ; and the legislative body 

 revoked the decrees it had passed under the influence of force, and 

 voted, at the proposal of Tallien, the instant arrest of the members 

 who had dared to bring them forward, or to countenance the conduct 

 of the insurgents. Albitto was ably defended by his younger brother 

 Jean Louis, also a representative of the Lower Seme, who, on this 

 occasion, broke through a course of habitual inaction ; the decree for 

 his arrest was nevertheless passed, but it was found that during the 

 confusion he had escaped. He was condemned in default of appear- 

 ance ; his colleagues were sentenced to death, and committed suicide 

 in a body to avoid the guillotine. Albitte remained concealed till the 

 general amnesty for revolutionary offences issued on the 26th October, 

 1795 (the 4th Brumaire, year 4), soon after which he was appointed 

 by the Directory municipal commissary at Dieppe. On the overthrow 

 of the Directory by Bonaparte, he became a warm partisan of his old 

 acquaintance, who rewarded his zeal by naming him sub-inspector of 

 reviews, a post which ho maintained during the imperial government. 

 He accompanied Napoleon I. in this capacity in the invasion of Russia, 

 and died of cold, fatigue, and hunger, on the retreat from Moscow, on 

 the 25th December, 1812. It is said that he maintained existence 

 during three days with the remains of a flask of brandy, which in his 

 last moments he shared with one of his unfortunate companions, cue 

 only act of benevolence that is recorded in his history. (Abridged 

 from the Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion of 

 Uieftd Knowledge.) 



ALBOIN, one of those northern princes who established kingdoms 

 in Italy upon the ruins of the Roman empire. He was the sou of 

 Audoin, king of the Lombards [LONGOBAUDS], who, about the middle 

 of the "ith century, were settled in, Pannonia. Here they became 

 engaged in hostilities with the rival monarchy of the Gepidte ; and in 

 the early stage of this contest, Alboin, then a youth, signalised his 

 courage, strength, and skill in arms ; and the prince of the Gepidte fell 

 by his hand. After his accession to the Lombard throno ho became 

 enamoured of Rosamond, daughter of Cunimond, king of the Gepidse, 

 and sister of him whom he had slain, and sought her in marriage. His 

 suit being rejected, he carried her off by force. The Gepidso, supported 

 by a Roman army, were strong enough to compel the restoration of 

 ! the princess. But the love or resentment of Alboin led to the renewal 

 f of hostilities : he obtained the assistance of the Avars ; the Gepida;, 

 abandoned by the Romans, were defeated with great slaughter (A.D. 566), 

 and their name and uatiou passed away. Cunimond fell by the hand 

 of Alboin ; and Rosamond became the bride of the victor, whose savago 

 temper led him to fashion the skull of the deceased monarch into a 

 drinking-cup, loug_preserved as a trophy by the Lombard princes. 



In the year 568 Alboin led the Lombards into Italy, and overran 

 the whole inland district, to the gates of Rome and Ravenna, without 

 meeting an army in the field. Milan opened its gates on the 4th of 

 September, 569. Before Pavia he was detained more than three 

 years ; and, in anger, he vowed to put all the inhabitants to the sword. 



