BERTHA € custom of his time, went always into battle unharnessed, his fury serving him instead of defensive armor. By the daughter of King Swafurlam, whom he had slain in battle, he had 12 sons, who inherited the name of Berserker along with his warlike spirit. BERTHA, the name of several fa- mous women of the Middle Ages, half historical, half fabulous. St. Bertha, whose day is kept on July 4, was the beautiful and pious daughter of Chari- bert. King of the Franks, who, having married (560 A. D.) ^thelbert, King of Kent, became the means of his conver- sion, and of the spread of Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons. In the ro- mances of the Charlemagne cycle, there figures a Bertha, called also Berthrada with the Big Foot, as the daughter of Count Charibert of Laon, wife of Fepin the Little and mother of Charlemagne. In the romances of the "Round Table," again. Bertha is the name of a sister of Charlemagne, who makes Milo d'An- glesis the father of Roland. Better known is Bertha, daughter of Burk- hard, Duke of the Allemanni, and wife of Rudolf II., King of Burgundy beyond Jura, who, after Rudolf's death (937), acted as regent for her infant son, Kon- rad; she afterward married Hugo, King of Italy; and died toward the close of the 10th century. BERTHELOT, PIERRE EXJGilNE MARCELLIN (ber-tel-6') , a French chemist, born in Paris, Oct. 25, 1827; early studied chemistry, and in 1859 was appointed Professor of Organic Chem- istry in the Superior School of Phar- macy. In 1865 a new chair of organic chemistry was organized for him in the College of France. In 1870 he was elected president of the scientific com- mittee of defense, and during the siege of Paris was intrusted with the manu- facture of ammunition and guns, and especially dynamite and nitro-glycerine. In 1878 he became president of the com- mittee on explosives, which introduced smokeless powder. His labors also led to the discovery of dyes extracted from coal tar. He received the decoration of the Legion of Honor in 1861 ; Commander in 1879, and Grand Officer in 1886. In 1889 he was elected Permanent Secretary of the Academy of Sciences. His works include "Chimie organique fondee sur la synthese" (1860) ; "Lemons sur les prin- cipes sucres" (1862) ; "Lecons sur I'lso- merie" (1865) ; "Traite elementaire de chimie organique" and "Sur la force de la poudre et des matieres explosives" (1872-1889) : "Les Origines de I'al- chimie" (1885) ; "Collection des anciens BERTILLON alchimistes grecs" (1888) ; "Chimie des anciens" (1889) ; etc. He died March 18, 1907. BERTHIER, ALEXANDRE (bert- ya'), Prince of Neuchatel and Wag- ram, bom in Versailles in 1753. He served as officer of a regiment of dra- goons in the American Revolutionary War. During the French Revolution he became commandant of the National Guard at Versailles, and exerted him- self to check the excesses of the popu- lace. During the Reign of Terror he served under Lafayette, and afterward under Bonaparte, in his first Italian campaign. From this time he accom- panied Napoleon in all his campaigns as chief of staff. In 1803 he married a Bavarian princess. In 1805 he was cre- ated a marshal of the empire, grand huntsman of the empire, and chief of the first cohort of the Legion of Honor. In 1806 he became Prince of Neuchatel, and in 1809 Prince of Wagram. In 1810 he officiated as Napoleon's proxy in the marriage of Maria Louisa. On the res- toration of Louis XVIII. he accepted the situation of captain of one of the companies of the gardes-de-corps. On the return of Napoleon he retired to Bamberg, where he died March 20, 1815. BERTHOLLET (ber-tol-a'), CLAUDB LOUIS, COUNT, a French chemist, was born in Savoy, Dec. 9, 1748, and studied medicine at Turin. He afterward set- tled in Paris, was admitted a member ci the Academy of Sciences, and made a professor at the Normal School. He ac- companied Napoleon to Egypt; and, dur- ing the empire, was made a Senator and an officer of the Legion of Honor. He deserted his patron in the days of misfortune and received the title of Count from Louis XVIII. His principal work is "Essai de statique chimique" (1803). He died Nov. 6, 1822. BERTHOLLETIA, named after CJount Berthollet, a genus of plants belonging to the order lecythidacess. The only spe- cies is a large tree, growing 100 feet high, with a diameter of two feet, found in the forests which fringe the Orinoco, It has yellowish white flowers. The fruit is the size of a man's head, with four cells and six or eight nuts. These are called Brazil, or, from the place where they are shipped, Para nuts. They are eatable and furnish a bland oil used by watchmakers and artists. At Para the fibrous bark of the tree is used m place of oakum. BERTILLON, ALPHONSE (ber-te- yon'), a French anthropologist, born in Paris in 1858; is widely noted as the
