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two-ccHcd. Sitifs very many, roundirti, affixed to the difle- 

 piment. 



Eir. Char. diL turbinate, five-toothed. Cor. tube flioit, 

 with a villofe mouth ; iarj globofc, inferior, two-celled, 

 many-feedcd. 



Species, i. B. gubnen/is. Aublet. Guian. 180. t. ^9. 

 Tliis is a fhrub fix or feveii feet high, and the tiiiekiich of 

 the human arm ; branches oppofite, knotty, tomentofe ; 

 leaves oppofite, ovate, acuminate, and tomentofe underneath ; 

 petioles (hort, convex beneath, channelled above ; ftipules 

 ftem-clafpinj^, two lobcd ; flowers in terminating racemes ; 

 corolla white. Found by Aublet in the wood ot Aroura, 

 in Guiana, flowering and fruiting in the month of June. 

 Martyn. 



BERTIN, Nicholas, in Biography, an hiftorical painter, 

 ■was born at Paris in 1667 ; and after ftu'^ying under fome 

 of the principal artifts, and gaining, at the age of 18 years, 

 the prize of merit in the academy, was fent to Rome for 

 further improvement, where he acquired a good tafte for 

 eompofition, and in Lombardy he completed his knowledge 

 of colouring. Some time after his return to Paris, he was 

 made academician in 1703, and profeflbr in 1705. His 

 drawing was corrcft ; his invention ready in all forts of fub- 

 jects ; and he painted in a llrong, plenfing, and finiflied ftyle. 

 He was much employed by Lewis XIV.; and his perform- 

 ances were valued and fought after by foreigners. He ex- 

 celled more in fmall works than great ones ; and from this 

 circumdance, and fome others, he was referred only to the 

 fecond rank of artifts. Among his moft confiderable per- 

 formances we mav reckon the cieling rt the chateau of Plef- 

 ■fis St. Pierre, the fubjeft of which was the adoration of the 

 Magi, and an hiftorical eompofition, reprefenting the bap- 

 tifm of the eunuch of the queen of Candacc, by St. Philip. 

 His temper was referved, and he was much addifted to reli- 

 gion. He died at Paris in 1736. Pilkington. Gen. Biog. 



BERTIN, Joseph, Exupere, was born at Tremblay, 

 in the department of Rennes, June 28th 1712. Hav- 

 ing gone through the ufual courfe of ftudy, in anatomy, 

 phvfiology, and theraupeutics, he was created dotlor in 

 medicine at Paris, in 1 740. The following year he pub- 

 lifhed " Non datur imaginationis maternx in fcetum ac- 

 tio," combating an opinion, which had long prevailed, that 

 the imagination of the mother had the power of mark- 

 ing and disfiguring the fatus in utero. His next produdtion, 

 which is much commended by Hallcr, is a treatife on " Of- 

 teology," in 4 vols. l2mo. The bones of the head are 

 defcribed more exactly and minutely, Haller fays, than in 

 any other work extant. About the fame time, he had a long, 

 but not very interefting difpute, with Monf. Ferrein, on the 

 formation ol the voice. In the 3'ear 1764, he joined Meflrs. 

 L,e Bas, Petit, and others, in defending the caufe of Ma- 

 dame Rennc, who had been delivered of a male child ten 

 months and twenty days after the deceafe of her hufband, 

 and who wiflied to get the child acknowledged as his. Ber- 

 lin, with his coadjutors, endeavoured to eftablilb as a prin- 

 ciple, that there is no fixed term for the birth of the child, 

 and that, according as the conltitution of the parents was 

 more or lefs vigorous, a greater or kfs portion of time might 

 be required for the perfection of the fcctus. A child might 

 be ripe, and fit for the birth, they maintained, at the end 

 of the feventh month, if the parties enjoyed great ftrerglh 

 of Gonllitution ; or in an oppofite (late of them, it might 

 require ten, eleven, twelve, or more months, to fit it for ex- 

 clufion. This doflrine was attempted to be ellabliflied by 

 recurring to a great number of cafes and obfervations, 

 and to the decifions of the courts, of which they produced 

 feveral, legitimating children, fuppofed to have been born in 



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tbe eleventli or twelfth month after conception. Recourfe 

 was alfo had to the liillories of monftrous births, to (he\v 

 the aberr:ition9 of nature. Thefe arguments and cafes were 

 ably and juJiciuufly oppofed by M. Louis. The cafes ad- 

 duced by his antagonilh were fliewn to be defeftive in evi- 

 dence, and though he admitted that the time of geftation in 

 women, as well as in animnls, might be protrntled for a few 

 days, yet he much doubted wlu-ther, in any inftance, it had 

 been extended to the end of the tenth month, or at the moft 

 to more than two or three days beyond that term. In fup- 

 port of this opinion, he cited the authority of fome of the 

 ablefl philofophers, phyficians, and la«7crs ; andthccocrt, 

 according to this determination, declared the child to be il- 

 legitimate. Though the court in this decifioa were proba- 

 bly influenced by the peculiar circumilances of the cafe, the 

 hufband being 76 years of age at the time of his death, and 

 for the lafl month in fuch a Hate as to be incapable of per- 

 forming the conjugal rites, yet the arguments and authori- 

 ties adduced by M. Louis, mull have had great weight with 

 them, and well deferve to be had recourfe to in deciding on 

 general principles, what is the I'.tmoft term to which a wo- 

 man may cany a living child. M. Bertin w.i.r author of fe- 

 veral differtations, principally on anatomical fuhjects, which 

 were publifiied in tlie Memoirs of the Royal Academy of 

 Sciences, and other phllofopiiical and medical journals and 

 tranfaftions ; the titles aad accounts of which are given by 

 Haller, in his Bib. Anatom. 



BERTINORO, in Geography, a town of Italy, in the 

 flate of the church, the fee of a bifhop, fuffragan of Ra- 

 venna ; feated on a hill, and defended by a citadel, 15 miles 

 fouth of Ravenna. 



BERTIUS, Peter, in Biography, an eminent geogra- 

 pher, was born at Bcrveren, a village in Flanders, in 1565, 

 and acquired the knowledge of the learned languages in Eng- 

 land. Having travelled through Germany, and other coun- 

 tries, he fettled at I^eyden, where he became profeffor of 

 philofuphy ; but after occup}ing this poft for 26 years, he 

 was expelled for joining the Arminian party. Upon his ex- 

 pulfion, he migrated to Paris, where he abjured the proteft- 

 ant religion in 1620, and was made cofmographer to the 

 king, and profeffor-royal extraordinary of mathematics. 

 Hediedin 1629. His principal works are " Theatn;ni Geo- 

 graphi;e Veteris," Amft. 2 vols. fol. 1618, 1619; which 

 is a colleftion of the works of almoft all the ancient geo- 

 graphers, illullrated by notes, and efteemed a valuable pub- 

 lication ; " Introduftio in univerfam Geographiam ;" " Com- 

 ment. Rerum Germanic, lib. iii." Amft. i2nio. 1635, con- 

 taining a good defcription of Germany, and a map of the 

 empire of Charlemagne ; " Notitia Epifcopatuum Gallioe," 

 Par. iol. 1625 ; " De Aggeribus et Pontibus," Par. Svo. 

 1629. The works above enumerated are held in high elli- 

 mation by geographers. We may add " Illuftr. Virorum 

 Epill. Select, fuperiori fa^culo fcript. vel a Belgis vel ad Bel- 

 gas," 8vo. 1617. Bertius alfo wrote feveral pieces in the 

 controverfy between the Gomarifts and Arminians, and pub- 

 Ijlbed difcourfes on various occafions. Nouv. liift. Hilh 



BERTON Ro AD, \n Geography, lies within Dalkcy ifland, 

 at the fouth point of the entrance into Dublin bay, Ireland. 



BERTONA, Bertonia, Berthona, Barton, or 

 BtRTOM, properly denotes that part of a country farm 

 where the barns and other inferior offices ftand, and wherein 

 the cattle are foddered, and other bufinefs is managed. 

 Berlon is alio ufed to fignify a farm, as diltinft from a ma- 

 nor. Du-Cange. In fome parts of the well of England, 

 they call a great farm a bertori, and a fmall one a living. 

 Hence alfo iertonarii was anciently ufed for thofe we \iovr 

 call farmers, or tenants of bertons. 



BERTON- 



