Bastia (ba˙s-tē´a˙), the former capital of the Island of Corsica, upon the N.E. coast, 75 miles N.E. of Ajaccio, on a hill slope; badly built, with narrow streets, a strong citadel, and an indifferent harbour; with some manufactures, a considerable trade in hides, soap, wine, oil, pulse, &c. Pop. 29,412.
Bas´tian, Adolf, German traveller and ethnologist, born in 1826, died in 1905. His travels embraced various parts of Europe, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Australia and New Zealand, Southern and Western Africa, Egypt, Arabia, India, South-Eastern Asia, the Asiatic Archipelago, Japan, China, Mongolia, Siberia, &c. His numerous writings throw light on almost every subject connected with ethnology or anthropology, as well as psychology, linguistics, non-Christian religions, geography, &c. Some of his chief works are: Die Völker des östlichen Asien (Peoples of Eastern Asia); Ethnographische Forschungen; Ideale Welten; Die Völkerkunde u. der Völkerverkehr; &c.
Bas´tian, Henry Charlton, English physician and biologist, born at Truro in 1837, died on 17th Nov., 1915. He was educated at Falmouth and at University College, London, where he was assistant curator in the museum from 1860 to 1863. He obtained the degree of M.A. in 1861 from the University of London, graduating subsequently in medicine at the same university (M.B. 1863, M.D. 1866). From 1864 to 1866 he was a medical officer in Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, and in 1866 was appointed lecturer on pathology and assistant physician in St. Mary's Hospital. In 1867 he became professor of pathological anatomy in University College, subsequently he was also professor of clinical medicine, and in the period 1887-95 he occupied the chair of medicine and clinical medicine. Apart from numerous contributions to medical and other periodicals, and to Quain's Dictionary of Medicine, he published The Modes of Origin of Lowest Organisms (1871); The Beginnings of Life (1872); Evolution and the Origin of Life (1874); Lectures on Paralysis from Brain Disease (1875); The Brain as an Organ of Mind (1880); which has been translated into French and German; The Nature and Origin of Living Matter; Evolution of Life; Origin of Life; &c.
Bastiat (ba˙s-tē-a˙), Frédéric, French economist, advocate of free-trade, and opponent of protection, born at Bayonne 1801, died at Rome 1850. He became acquainted with Cobden and the English free-traders, whose speeches he translated into French. Whilst combating protectionism, Bastiat was also an opponent of socialism. His chief works are: Sophismes Économiques (1846); Propriété et Loi; Justice et Fraternité (1848); Protectionisme et Communisme (1849); Harmonies Économiques (1849).
Bastien-Lepage (ba˙s-tyan˙-lė-päzh), Jules, French painter, born 1848, died 1884. He studied at Paris under Cabanel, and about 1874 began to attract some notice as a realistic painter of subjects connected with the country and everyday life, among his first pictures of note being Song of Spring, Portrait of My Grandfather, and The First Communion. Among his most important works are The Hayfield, The Potato Harvest, Portrait of Mme Sarah Bernhardt, The Beggar, and The Forge.—Cf. Marie Bashkirtsev, Journal Intime; Arnic, J. Bastien-Lepage, lettres et souvenirs.
Bastille (ba˙s-tēl´), a French name for any strong castle provided with towers, but as a proper name the State prison and citadel of Paris, which was built about 1370 by Charles V. It was ultimately used chiefly for the confinement of persons of rank who had fallen victims to the intrigues of the Court or the caprice of the Government. (See Cachet, Lettres de.) The capture of the Bastille by the Parisian mob, 14th July, 1789, was the opening act of the
Revolution. On that date the Bastille was surrounded by a tumultuous mob, who first attempted to negotiate with the Governor, Delaunay, but when these negotiations failed, began to attack the fortress. For several hours the mob continued their siege without being able to effect anything more than an entrance into the outer court of the Bastille; but at last the arrival of some of the Royal Guard with a few pieces of artillery forced the Governor to let down the second drawbridge and admit the populace. The Governor was seized, but on the way to the Hotel de Ville he was torn from his captors and put to death. The next day the destruction of the Bastille commenced. Not a vestige of it exists, but its site is marked by a column in the Place de la Bastille.—Bibliography: François Ravaisson, Les Archives de la Bastille; Arnold, Histoire de la Bastille; Bingham, The Bastille; Funck-Brentano, The Bastille; M.J. de Staal, La Bastille sous la Régence (edited by Funck-Brentano).
Bastina´do, an Eastern method of corporal punishment, consisting of blows upon the soles of the feet, applied with a bamboo cane.
Bas´tion, in fortification, a large mass of earth, faced with sods, brick, or stones, standing out from a rampart, of which it is a principal part. A bastion consists of two flanks, each commanding and defending the adjacent curtain, or that portion of the wall extending from one bastion to another, and two faces making with each other an acute angle called the salient angle, and commanding the outworks and ground before the fortification. The distance between the two flanks is the gorge, or entrance into the bastion. The use of the bastion is to bring every point at the foot of the rampart as much as possible under the guns of the place.
Bast´wick, John, English physician and ecclesiastical controversialist, born in 1593, died 1654. He settled at Colchester, but, instead of confining himself to his profession, entered keenly into theological controversy, and was condemned by the Star Chamber for his books against Prelacy: Elenchus Religionis Papisticæ, Flagellum Pontificis, and The Letanie of Dr. J. Bastwick. With Prynne and Burton he was sentenced to lose his ears in the pillory, to pay a fine of £5000, and to be imprisoned for life. He was released by the Long Parliament, and entered London in triumph along with Prynne and Burton. He appears to have continued his controversies with the Independents and others to the very last.