BARTH, or Bart, Jean, son of a fisherman of Dunkirk, was born in 1651 and died in 1702. He served, when young, in the Dutch navy, but when war broke out between Louis XIV. and Holland, he entered the French service. He gained great distinction in the Mediterranean, where he held an irregular sort of commission, not being then able from his low birth to receive a command in the navy. His success was so great, however, that he was made a lieutenant. He rose rapidly to the rank of captain, and then to that of admiral. The peace of Ryswick put a close to his active service. Many anecdotes are narrated of the courage and bluntness of the uncultivated sailor, who became the popular hero of the French naval service. (Richer, Vie de Jean Bart, 1780, and many editions since; Vanderest, Histoire de Jean Bart.}

In 1774 he was created joint chancellor of the university, with the certainty of succeeding singly to the office on the death of the colleague, which happened in 1786. He afterwards took the degree of doctor in civil law, and was appointed counsellor to the Supreme Court of Aids at Montpellier. In 1780 he was induced to fix his residence in Paris, having been nominated consulting physician to the king, with a brevet of counsellor of state, and a pension of a hundred louis. Honours were now heaped upon him; he was admitted free associate to the Academies of Sciences and of Inscriptions, and appointed first physician to the duke of Orleans, in the room of Tronchin. His reputation increased in proportion as his merits were displayed on a wider theatre. He practised as a physician at Paris for nearly ten years, and received the most flattering testimonials of public approbation.

The outbreak of the French Revolution compelled Barthez to leave Paris. He lost considerable part of his fortune, and retired to Carcassonne, where he devoted himself to the study of theoretical medicine. It was in this retreat that he gave to the world his Nouvelle Mécanique des Mouvemens de V Homme et des Animaux, which appeared in 1798.

On the re-establishment of the College of Medicine at Montpellier, Barthez was naturally looked upon as the person most likely to revive its former fame. But age and infirmity operated to dissuade him from resuming the laborious office of teacher, and he was accordingly nominated honorary professor. In 1802 he received several marks of favour from the new government under Bonaparte; he was nominated titular physician to the Government, and afterwards consulting physician to the emperor, and member of the Legion of Honour.

His Traitement des Maladies Goutteuses, in two vols. 8vo, appeared in 1802, and he afterwards occupied, himself in preparing for the press a new edition of his Elémens de la Science de ΓHomme, of which he just lived to see the publication. His health had been declining for some years before his death, which took place soon after his removal to Paris, on the 15th of October 1806, in the 72d year of his age. He bequeathed his books and manuscripts to Μ. Lordat, who, in consequence, published two volumes of Consultations de Medicine, Paris, 1810, 8vo, to which he prefixed a preface of his own. Another posthumous work of Barthez, the Traité dτι Beau, preceded by some account of his life, was edited in 1807 by his brother, Μ. Barthez de Marmorières.

Barthez has enjoyed a much higher reputation on the Continent than in England, where, indeed, his writings are comparatively little known. His principal work is the Nouveaux Élémens de la Science de l ’ Homme, in which he unfolds his doctrine of the vital principle, or formative force. He was one of the strongest opponents of the theory which would explain the phenomena of life by physical or chemical laws. (See Lordat, Exposition de la doctrine médicale de P. J. Barthez, 1818.)

BARTHOLINUS, Thomas, a physician, son of the above, was born at Copenhagen in 1619. He studied medicine at Leyden for three years (1637-40). He then travelled into France, and resided two years at Paris and Montpellier, in order to improve himself under the distinguished physicians of those universities; after which he visited Italy, remained three years at Padua, and then went to Basel, where he obtained the degree of doctor in philosophy. Returning to Copenhagen, he was appointed professor of mathematics in 1647, and next year was nominated to the chair of anatomy, for which he was better qualified. This he held for thirteen years, distinguishing himself by several observations respecting the lacteal and lymphatic vessels, shortly after their discovery by Olaus Rudbeck. His close application, however, having affected his health, he resigned his chair in 1661, and retired to a little estate at Hagestaed, near Copenhagen, where he hoped to spend the remainder of his days in peace; but his house having been burnt in 1670, his library, with all his books and manuscripts, was consumed. In consideration of this loss the king appointed Bartholinus his physician, with a handsome salary, and exempted his land from all taxes; the University of Copenhagen also chose him for their librarian; and, in 1675, he was honoured with a seat in the grand council of Denmark. He died on the 4th of December 1680. He wrote Anatomia Gaspardi Bartholini Parentis, novis Observationibus primum locupletata, 8vo; De Monstris in Natura et Medicina, 4to; Schedion de Armillis Veterum, praesertim Danorum, 8vo; and several other works.

BARTHÉLEMY, Jean Jacques, a celebrated French writer, was born on the 20th January 1716, at Cassis, a little seaport on the shores of the Mediterranean. He was educated, first at the college of the Oratory in Marseilles, and afterwards at that of the Jesuits in the same city. While completing the course of study requisite for the church, which he intended to join, he devoted much attention to Oriental languages, in which he became very proficient. After assuming the ecclesiastical habit, he resided with his family at Aubagne, and during this period of his life was introduced by his friend, Μ. Cary of Marseilles, to the study of classical antiquities, particularly in the department of numismatics. In 1744 he repaired to Paris, carrying with him a letter of introduction to Μ. Gros de Boze, perpetual secretary of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Letters, and keeper of the medals. He became assistant to De Boze, and on the death of the latter in 1753, was appointed his successor. In the following year he was enabled to pay a visit to Italy, and spent some time in that country, inspecting its rich treasures of classical remains. While on his journey he made the acquaintance of the French ambassador, Μ. de Stainville, afterwards due de Choiseul, and of his wife. The minister conceived a great regard for Barthélemy, and on his accession to power loaded the scholar with benefits. In 1759 he gave him a pension on the archbishopric of Albi; in 1765 he conferred on him the treasurership of St Martin de Tours, and, in 1768, made him secretarygeneral to the Swiss guards. In addition to these sources of revenue, the abbé enjoyed a pension of 5000 livres on the Mercure de France. His income, which was thus considerable, was well employed by him; he supported and established in life three nephews, and gave largely to indigent men of letters. In 1789, after the publication of lιis great work, he was elected a member of the French Academy, one of the highest honours to which a French author aspires. During the troubled years of the Revolution, Barthélemy, from his position and habits, took no share in any public affairs. Yet he was informed against and arrested as an aristocrat. So great, however, was the respect felt for his character and talents, that the Committee of Public Safety were no sooner informed of the arrest, than they gave orders for his immediate release. Barthélemy died soon after, on the 30th April 1795.

The great work on which Barthélemy’s fame rests appeared in 1788, and was entitled Voyage du jeune Anacharsis en Grèce, dans le milieu du quatrième siècle avant l'ère Chrétienne. He had begun it in 1757, and, during an uninterrupted succession of thirty years, occupied his leisure hours in bringing it to maturity. The hero, a young Scythian, descended from the famous philosopher Anacharsis, whose name he bears, is supposed to renair to Greece for instruction in his early youth, and after making tue tour of her republics, colonies, and islands, to return to his native country and write this book in his old age, after the Macedonian hero had overturned the Persian empire. In the manner of modern travellers, he gives an account of the customs, government, and antiquities of the country he is supposed to have visited; a copious introduction supplies whatever may be wanting in respect to historical details; whilst various dissertations on the music of the Greeks, on the literature of the Athenians, and on the economy, pursuits, ruling passions, männere, and customs, of the surrounding states, supply ample information on the subjects of which they treat. The author, indeed, is not profound; and the young Scythian seldom penetrates much below the surface. But his remarks are commonly judicious, and to considerable erudition he unites singular skill in the distribution of his materials, and a happy talent for presenting his subject in the most agreeable and attractive form. The assumed character is so admirably sustained throughout, that we can scarcely persuade ourselves we are not perusing a book of real travels, and communing with an actual personage who has recorded his observations and experience for the instruction and improvement of his countrymen. Modern scholarship has superseded most of the details in the Voyage, but the author himself did not imagine his book to be a register of accurately ascertained facts; he rather intended to afford to his countrymen, in an interesting form, some knowledge of Greek civilization. The Charicles of Becker is a more recent attempt in a similar direction, but, though superior in scholarship, it wants the charm of style which is the principal quality in the Anacharsis.