BEAUMONT, JEAN BAPTISTE ELIE DE, French geologist, born in Calvados; became secretary to the Academy of Sciences; was joint-editor of a geological map of France.  He had a theory of his own of the formation of the crust of the earth (1798-1874).

BEAUREGARD, PIERRE GUSTAVE TOUTANT, American Confederate general, born at New Orleans; adopted the cause of the South, and fought in its behalf (1818-1893).

BEAUREPAIRE, a French officer, noted for his noble defence of Verdun against the Prussians; preferred death by suicide to the dishonour of surrender (1748-1792).

BEAUSOBRE, ISAAC, a Huguenot divine, born at Poitou; fled to Holland on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, settled in Berlin, and became a notability in high quarters there; attracted the notice of the young Frederick, the Great that was to be, who sought introduction to him, and the young Frederick “got good conversation out of him”; author of a “History of Manichaeism,” praised by Gibbon, and of other books famous in their day, a translation of the New Testament for one (1659-1738).

BEAUTIFUL PARRICIDE, BEATRICE CENCI (q. v.).

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, the hero and heroine of a famous fairy tale.  Beauty falls in love with a being like a monster, who has, however, the heart of a man, and she marries him, upon which he is instantly transformed into a prince of handsome presence and noble mien.

BEAUVAIS (19), capital of the dep. of Oise, in France, 34 in.  SW. of Amiens, an ancient town, noted for its cathedral, its tapestry weaving, and the feat of Jeanne-Hachette and her female following when the town was besieged by Charles the Bold.

BEAUVAIS, a French prelate, born at Cherbourg, Bishop of Senez, celebrated as a pulpit orator (1731-1790).

BEAUVILLIER, a statesman, patron of letters, to whom Louis XIV. committed the governorship of his sons; died of a broken heart due to the shock the death of the dauphin gave him (1607-1687).

BEBEK BAY, a fashionable resort on the Bosphorus, near
Constantinople, and with a palace of the sultan.

BECCAFUMI, DOMENICO, one of the best painters of the Sienese school, distinguished also as a sculptor and a worker in mosaic (1486-1550).

BECCA`RIA, CAESARE BONESANA, MARQUIS OF, an Italian publicist, author of a celebrated “Treatise on Crimes and Punishments,” which has been widely translated, and contributed much to lessen the severity of sentences in criminal cases.  He was a utilitarian in philosophy and a disciple of Rousseau in politics.

BECHE-DE-MER, a slug, called also the trepang, procured on the coral reefs of the Pacific, which is dried and eaten as a dainty by the Chinese.

BECHER, JOHANN JOACHIM, chemist, born at Spires; distinguished as a pioneer in the scientific study of chemistry (1635-1682).

BECHSTEIN, a German naturalist, wrote “Natural History of Cage Birds” (1757-1822).