374 BASTIA The father at common law was not bound to provide for a bastard child, but by the statutes provision is made for compelling the father to give security for the maintenance of a child, so as to prevent its becoming a charge upon the parish. In the United States important modi- fications have been made in respect to the rights of illegitimate children. In most of the states a bastard may take by inheritance as heir or next of kin of the mother, and the mother may inherit from her illegitimate child ; but, with a few exceptions, the common law rule that the intermarriage of the putative father and mother does not legitimate a child born before the marriage still obtains. The provisions of the English statutes in respect to compelling the father to give security for the maintenance of a child have been generally adopted in this country, the object being, in general, only to indemnify the town or county from the charge of the child as a pauper. BASTIA, a seaport town on the N. E. coast of the island of Corsica, 66 m. N. N. E. of Ajaccio; pop. about 20,000. It is built in the shape of an amphitheatre, on a mountain ; has narrow angular streets, and is defended by Bastia. modern forts. It has a small but convenient harbor, is the chief commercial citv of Corsica, and the seat of its highest courts. The in- habitants carry on a trade in skins, wine, oil, wax, and fruits. Bastia was founded in 1380, by the Genoese, Leonel Lomellino. In 1745 the English took it, but were compelled to sur- render it in the following year. In 1748 it suc- cessfully defended itself against the Anstrians and the Piedmontese. After the union of Cor- sica with France, in 1768, the English held it for a short time, and in 1794, under Admiral Hood, they took the city after a long siege. BASTIAN, Adolph, a German traveller, born in Bremen, June 26, 1826. He is the son of a merchant, was educated as a physician, and in 1851 went to Australia as the surgeon of a sail- BASTIAN ing vessel. He travelled in South America, the West Indies, the United States, China, In- dia, and South Africa, and afterward made a journey through Burmah, Siam, Java, the Phi- lippines, Japan, and China, returning to Europe through Asiatic Russia. Since 1868 he has been director of the ethnographical collection in the Berlin museum. In 1869 he established the Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, the organ of the Berlin anthropological and ethnological so- ciety. His principal works are : Die Volker des Oestlichen Asiem (6 vols., Leipsic and Jena, 1866-'71) ; Afrikanische Reisen (Bremen, 1 859) ; Der MenscJi in der Geschichte (3 vols., Leipsic, 1860); Beitrage zur vergleichenden Psychologic (Berlin, 1868); Sprachveryleichende Studien, besonders atifdem Gebiete der indoehinesischen Sprachen (Leipsic, 1870); and Die Rechtvcer- haltnisse der verschiedenen VolJcer der Erde (Berlin, 1872), a learned contribution to com- parative ethnology. BASTIAN, H. ( liarltim, an English physician and physiologist, born atTruro, April 26, 1837. After a brilliant course of study he was admit- ted member of the royal college of surgeons in 1860, in 1860-'63 was assistant curator in the anatomical and patho- logical museum of Uni- versity college, Lon- don, and in 1864-'6 as- sistant medical officer to the Broadmoor crim- inal lunatic asylum. In 1866 he became as- sistant physician and lecturer in St. Mary's hospital ; in 1867, pro- fessor of pathological anatomy in University college, and assistant physician to the hos- pital ; in 1868, assis- tant physician to the hospital for the para- lyzed and epileptic ; and in 1871 physician to University college hospital. In 1871 he published "The Modes of Origin of Lowest Organisms," and in 1872, " The Beginnings of Life " (2 vols.). He has also contributed many valuable papers to various medical and philosophical journals. Dr. Bastian, the youngest member of the royal society, has gained an excellent reputation as a general pathologist, and is an authority on the pathology of the nervous system. The study of the microscopical character of the blood in acute diseases led him to question ac- cepted views in regard to the lowest forms of life and their mode of origin, and he has prose- cuted the investigation of this subject with such zeal and originality that he is now re- garded as at the head of the school of hetero- genists or believers in the doctrine of sponta- neous generation.
