079 



BOWERBANK, JOHN SCOTT. 



BRAYLEY, EDWARD WEDLAKE, F.S.A. 



930 



Switzerland, and in March 1798 the republic of Bern was overthrown, 

 ho fonud it advisable to quit Switzerland, and for three years was the 

 guei-t at Copenhagen of the husband of Friderika Brun, a Danish lady 

 \vcll known iu German literature, to whom he had been introduced by 

 Matthiason. It was not till 1802 that he returned to his native 

 country, when he fixed his residence at Geneva, and continued to 

 rei-ide there for thirty years, entirely remote from political and 

 devoted to literary life. From that time he most generally adopted 

 the French language in his published writings in the place of German. 

 His time was paused iu making tours of pleasure, including repeated 

 visits to Italy ; in publishing different works, which sustained if they 

 dll not increase his reputation; and in a constant round of society, in 

 which hi* company was much sought for. Lord Byron, who saw him 

 at Madame de Stael's at Coppet iu 1816, says in a letter to Rogers, 

 which is published by Moore, " Bonstetten is a fine and very lively old 

 man, and much esteemed by his compatriots ; he is also a litterateur of 

 good' repute, and all his friends have a mania of addressing to him 

 volumes of letters Matthi^son, Miiller the historian, &c." " There 

 is no creature I can compare to Byron," wrote Bonstetten at the same 

 time to Matthisson ; ' his voice sounds like music, and his features are 

 those of an angel, only that a little demon of fine sarcasm pierces 

 through but even that is half good natured." A volume of letters from 

 Bonstetten to Mattbisson was published in 1827, and two volumes to 

 Frederika Brun in 1829-30 all animated, if not profound, and con- 

 taiuiug a constant stream of literary information and anecdote. In 

 1S32 there appeared in French a volume of 'Souvenirs,' written by 

 Bonstetten in 1831, in his eighty-sixth year, and in which he intended 

 to give a sketch of some of the distinguished persons he had known, of 

 whom, he said, he counted more than eighty before 1773, including, 

 among others who have been already mentioned, the Pope Ganganelli, 

 Charl. s Edward (the last of the Stuarts), the Countess Albany, 

 Gorilla the celebrated improvisatrice, &c. : the 'Souvenirs' were not 

 completed. Bonstetten was carried off by death on the 3rd of 

 February 1832. 



The more important works of Bonstetten, which have not been 

 already mentioned, are ' Ueber N at ionalbildung ' (the nearest trans- 

 lation of which is perhaps ' On National Character'), 2 vols., 1802; 

 ' Voyage sur la scene du dernier livre de l'Ene"ide ' (Travels on the 

 Scene of the last Book of the ^Eneid, followed by some observations 

 on modern Latium), 1813 ; ' Recherches, &c.' (Researches on the Nature 

 and Laws of the Imagination), 2 vols., 1807; 'Etudes del'homme' 

 (Studies on Man), 2 vols., 1821 ; and ' L'Homine du midi et 1'homme 

 du nord' (The Man of the South and the Man of the North), 1824. 

 Even his metaphysical works have a sort of autobiographical character 

 stamped upon them by the degree to which they are based on observa- 

 tions which could only be collected by a man of his peculiar circum- 

 stances of life. A collection of his smaller writings in German was 

 published at Copenhagen between 1799 and 1801, in 4 vols. The whole 

 deserve to be better known in England. 



*BOWEKBANK, JOHN SCOTT, a distinguished English naturalist, 

 waa born on the 14th of July 1797, at Lime-street, Bishopsgate, 

 London, where his father carried on the business of a distiller. At 

 the age of fourteen he acquired a taste for the study of botany, which, 

 taking hiui into the country round about London, led him to feel a 

 general interest in the objects of natural science by which he was sur- 

 rounded. At this time there existed in Spitalfields an association 

 which, under the name of the Mathematical Society, brought together 

 the men of superior intelligence at the east-end of London. Of this 

 society young Bowerbank became a member at the age of eighteen. 

 His energy and intelligence soon made him a leading member, and he 

 delivered before the society courses of 1. ctures on Systematic Botany 

 and the Anatomy and Physiology of Plants. He continued a member 

 of this society till it effected a junction with the Koyal Astronomical 

 Society, and he is one of many who still look back to the scientific and 

 social me etings of the Spitalfields Mathematical Society as the source 

 of their subsequent intellectual life and activity. 



Although Mr. Bowerbank has, till within the last few years of his 

 life, been engaged in business, he has found time to make very im- 

 portant original observations, to publish many valuable scientific 

 works and papers, to collect together one of the most valuable 

 geological museums in the country, and to devote a large amount of 

 time to the work of our tuore important scientific societies. He is an 

 example, of one of those men of whom England Las so much reason to 

 be proud, who, whilst actively engaged in commercial pursuits have 

 obtained the highest honours in the fields of scientific reseai'ch. Mr. 

 Bowerbank's original researches have most of them been made by means 

 of the microscope. He has always been amongst the first in this country 

 to expend his ample means on the newest and most recent improve- 

 ments of the microscope, and was one of the founders of the society 

 established in London for pi-omoting the use of that instrument. One 

 of his earliest literary contributions to science was a paper ' On the 

 Circulation of the Blood in Insects,' in which he was the first to point 

 out the true nature of this function amongst that class of animals. 

 This was published in the first volume of the ' Entomological Maga- 

 zine.' In the fourth volume of the same journal, a further paper on 

 the ' Circulation of the Blood and the distribution of the Trachea in 

 -Ckrysopa Per/a,' was published. Insects furnished also the material 

 for another microscopic paper 'On the Scales of the Wings of the 



Lepidoptera,' published in the fifth volume of the 'Entomological 

 Magazine.' 



The interpretation of the history of the earth's surface by means of 

 its extinct animal and vegetable life, has been from an early period a 

 favourite study with Mr. Bowerbauk. His earliest investigations were 

 made in the London clay, and were repaid by the discovery of a large 

 number of new forms of plants and parts of plants. These were pub- 

 lished in his ' History of the fossil fruits and seeds of the London 

 Clay.' This work was published with figures in 1840. 



In natural history Mr. Bowerbank's attention has been especially 

 devoted to the family of sponges. These bodies standing on the 

 limits of the animal and vegetable kingdom, had been neglected by 

 both botanists and zoologists. Through his researches large numbers 

 of new forms have been brought to light, and the nature of the vital 

 functions they perform, and the structure of their tissues, thoroughly 

 investigated. HU papers on this subject are very numerous. In the 

 first volume of the ' Transactions of the Microscopical Society ' are 

 two papers, one 'On three new species of Sponges,' and a second ' On 

 the Keratose or Horny Sponges of commerce.' The study of the 

 history of sponges in time, and the past representatives of modern 

 forms, led him to the conclusion that the flints found so abundantly 

 in the chalk formation are most of them fossilised sponges. His 

 views on this subject, although they have been strongly controverted, 

 were published in the sixth volume of the ' Transactions of the Geolo- 

 gical Society,' with the title ' On the Siliceous bodies of the Chalk, 

 Greensaud, and Oolites." In this paper he maintains that flints and 

 other siliceous bodies have been formed by the direct depo.-it of silica 

 upon organic bodies at the bottom of the sea. He applied this view 

 also to the formation of agates in a paper published in the third 

 volume of the 'Proceedings of the Geological Society,' 'On Moss 

 Agates, and other siliceous bodies." Whatever may be the difl'ereuce 

 of opinion on this subject, no more feasible views than those of Mr. 

 Bowerbauk have yet been brought forward. He is now engaged on a 

 great work on the British Sponges, which is to contain illustrations and 

 descriptions of every species. 



His purely geological papers have been numerous, and are published 

 in the ' Transactions of the Geological Society," the ' Magazine of 

 Natural History," and other places. In his geological researches he 

 has constantly had in view the formation of a museum that should 

 illustrate the typical and rarer forms of extinct animals. This museum 

 is freely opened to the geological student, and is at present deposited 

 in a building attached to his house in Highbury-grove, Islington. 

 Anxious to extend a knowledge of the fossils of the British islands, he 

 founded the Palseontographical Society, the object of which was to 

 give descriptions and accurate representations of all known British 

 fossils. This society was started in 1848, and has produced a series of 

 works unrivalled for the beauty of their illustrations aud the exhaustive 

 nature of the letter-press descriptions accompanying them. Mr. 

 Bowerbank was also one of the early founders, aud is treasurer, of the 

 Royal Society, and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical, Linuaean, 

 Zoological, Microscopical, Entomological, and Royal Astronomical 

 Societies. 



*BRANDE, W.- T., a distinguished chemist, was born about 1780. 

 Early in life he devoted himself to chemical studies, and in 1813, having 

 previously been for some time the assistant, was appointed successor to 

 Sir Humphry Davy as professor of chemistry to the Royal Institu- 

 tion of Great Britain. He retired from this position in 1852, and holds 

 now the post of honorary professor of chtmistry. He was also for 

 many years professor of chemistry and materia medica to the Society 

 of Apothecaries. His earlier publications were devoted to chemical 

 subjects. In 1817 he published an 'Outline of Geology.' A second 

 edition of this work appeared in 1829. In 1819 he published a 

 'Mauual of Chemistry.' This work met with a speedy sale, and new 

 editions have been twice published. Iu 1831 he also published a work 

 entitled ' Elements of Chemistry.' In 1839 he produced a 'Dictionary 

 of Materia Medica.' He also edited the ' Dictionary of Sciences, Lite- 

 rature, and the Arts,' usually known as Brande's Dictionary. From 

 1816 to 1850 he delivered every year a course of lectures on chemistry 

 to medical students at the Royal Institution. The lectures were pub- 

 lished in the 'Lancet' about the year 1830. A course of lectures 

 which was delivered at the Royal Institution on the application of 

 chemistry to the arts was reported aud published by Dr. Scoffern iu 

 1854. In addition to these larger works, Mr. Brando has be-m cou- 

 star*ly producing papers, tables, and smaller works on the subject 

 of cuemistry, so that his name is iudissolubly connected with the 

 progress of chemistry in this country during the first half of t.L 

 nineteenth century. 



BRAYLEY, EDWARD WEDLAKE, F.S.A., a laborious and 

 accurate topographer, was born in London (in the parish of Lambetl 

 Surrey), in the year 1773. He was apprenticed to one of the most 

 eminent practitioners of the art of enamelling, but having from 

 early age been stroi>gly addicted to literary pursuits, he graduallj 

 abandoned that business as a means of life, and devoted himself, a fev 

 years after attaining his majority, to the more congenial occupations of 

 professional literature. His acquaintance with Mr. Brittou [BuiTTON, 

 JOHN] had commenced before the expiration of his apprenticeship, 

 and he also being desirous of exchanging a servile occupation for the 

 pursuits of literature and the fine arts, the two young aspirants were 



