Wide as Bain's influence has been as a logician, a grammarian and a writer on rhetoric, his reputation rests on his psychology. At one with Johannes Müller in the conviction psychologus nemo nisi physiologus, he was the first in Great Britain during the 19th century to apply physiology in a thoroughgoing fashion to the elucidation of mental states. He was the originator of the theory of psycho-physical parallelism, which is used so widely as a working basis by modern psychologists. His idea of applying the natural history method of classification to psychical phenomena gave scientific character to his work, the value of which was enhanced by his methodical exposition and his command of illustration. In line with this, too, is his demand that psychology shall be cleared of metaphysics; and to his lead is no doubt due in great measure the position that psychology has now acquired as a distinct positive science. Prof. Wm. James calls his work the "last word" of the earlier stage of psychology, but he was in reality the pioneer of the new. Subsequent psycho-physical investigations have all been in the spirit of his work; and although he consistently advocated the introspective method in psychological investigation, he was among the first to appreciate the help that may be given to it by animal and social and infant psychology. He may justly claim the merit of having guided the awakened psychological interest of British thinkers of the second half of the 19th century into fruitful channels. He emphasized the importance of our active experiences of movement and effort, and though his theory of a central innervation sense is no longer held as he propounded it, its value as a suggestion to later psychologists is great. His autobiography, published in 1904, contains a full list of his works, and also the history of the last thirteen years of his life by W. L. Davidson of Aberdeen University, who further contributed to Mind (April 1904) a review of Bain's services to philosophy.
Works (beside the above):—Edition with notes of Paley's Moral Philosophy (1852); Education as a Science (1879); Dissertations on leading philosophical topics (1903, mainly reprints of papers in Mind); he collaborated with J. S. Mill and Grote in editing James Mill's Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind (1869), and assisted in editing Grote's Aristotle and Minor Works; he also wrote a memoir prefixed to G. Croom Robertson's Philosophical Remains (1894). (See Psychology and Association of Ideas.)
(W. L. D.)
BAIN, ANDREW GEDDES (1797-1864), British geologist, was a native of Scotland. In 1820 he emigrated to Cape Colony, and carried on for some years the business of a saddler at Graaf Reinet. During the Kaffir War in 1833-34 he took command of a provisional battalion raised for the defence of the frontier. Later he was engaged to construct a military road through the Ecca Pass, and displayed engineering talents which led to his being permanently employed as surveyor of military roads under the corps of Royal Engineers. This occupation created an interest in geology, which was fostered in 1837 by the loan of Lyell's Elements. He discovered the remains of many reptilia, including the Dicynodon, which was obtained from the Karroo Beds near Fort Beaufort and described by Owen. Devoting all his spare energies to geological studies, Bain prepared in 1852 the first comprehensive geological map of South Africa, a work of great merit, which was published by the Geological Society of London in 1856. He died at Cape Town in 1864.
Obituary by Dr R. N. Rubidge, in Geol. Mag. January 1865, p. 47; also Trans. Geol. Soc. S. Africa, vol. ii. part v., June 1896 (with portrait).
BAINBRIDGE, JOHN (1582-1643), English astronomer, was born at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in Leicestershire. He started as a physician and practised for some years, kept a school and studied astronomy. Having removed to London, he was admitted (November 6, 1618) a licentiate of the college of physicians, and attracted notice by a publication concerning the comet of 1618. Sir Henry Savile (1549-1622) thereupon appointed him in 1619 to the Savilian chair of astronomy just founded by him at Oxford; Bainbridge was incorporated of Merton College and became, in 1631 and 1635 respectively, junior and senior reader of Linacre's lectures. He died at Oxford on the 3rd of November 1643. He wrote An Astronomical Description of the late Comet (1619); Canicularia (1648); and translated Proclus' De Sphaera, and Ptolemy's De Planetarum Hypothesibus (1620). Several
manuscript works by him exist in the library of Trinity College, Dublin.
See Munk's College of Physicians, i. 175; Wood's Athenae (Bliss), iii. 67; Biographia Britannica, i. 419.
BAINBRIDGE, WILLIAM (1774-1833), commodore in the United States navy, was born on the 7th of May 1774 in Princeton, New Jersey. At the age of fourteen he went to sea in the merchant service, and was in command of a trading schooner at an early age. The American trading vessels of that period were supposed to be excluded by the navigation laws from commerce with the British West Indian Islands, though with the concealed or very slightly disguised assistance of the planters, they engaged in a good deal of contraband commerce. The war between France and Great Britain tended further to make the carrying trade of neutrals difficult. Bainbridge had therefore to expect, and when he could to elude or beat off, much interference on the part of French and British cruisers alike. He is said to have forced a British schooner, probably a privateer, which attacked him when on his way from Bordeaux to St Thomas, to strike, but he did not take possession. On another occasion he is said to have taken a man out of a British ship in retaliation for the impressment of an American seaman by H.M.S. "Indefatigable," then commanded by Sir Edward Pellew. When the United States navy was organized in 1798 he was included in the corps of naval officers, and appointed to the schooner "Retaliation." She was on one occasion seized by the French but afterwards released. As captain of the brig "Norfolk" of 18 guns, he was employed in cruising against the French, who were as aggressive against American commerce as the English. He was also sent to carry the tribute which the United States still condescended to pay to the dey of Algiers, in order to secure exemption from capture for its merchant ships in the Mediterranean—a service which he performed punctually, though with great disgust. When the United States found that bribing the pirate Barbary states did not secure exemption from their outrages, and was constrained at last to use force, he served against Algiers and Tunis. His ship, the "Philadelphia," ran aground on the Tunisian coast, and he was for a time imprisoned. On his release he returned for a time to the merchant service in order to make good the pecuniary loss caused by his captivity. When the war of 1812 broke out between Great Britain and the United States, Bainbridge was appointed to command the United States frigate "Constitution" (44), in succession to Captain Isaac Hull (q.v.). The "Constitution" was a very fine ship of 1533 tons, which had already captured the "Guerrière." Under Bainbridge she was sent to cruise in the South Atlantic. On the 29th of December 1812 he fell in with H.M.S. "Java," a vessel of 1073 tons, formerly the French frigate "Renommée" (40). She was on her way to the East Indies, carrying the newly appointed lieutenant-governor of Bombay. She had a very raw crew, including very few real seamen, and her men had only had one day's gunnery drill. The United States navy paid great attention to its gunnery, which the British navy, misled by its easy victories over the French, had greatly neglected. In these conditions the fate of the "Java" was soon sealed. She was cut to pieces and forced to surrender, after suffering heavy loss, and inflicting very little on the "Constitution." After the conclusion of the war with Great Britain, Bainbridge served against the Barbary pirates once more. During his later years he served on the board of navy commissioners. He died on the 28th of July 1833.
(D. H.)