Bernoulli, or BERNOULLI, was the name of a family that produced a succession of men who became famous over all Europe for the successful cultivation and extension of various branches of mathematical and physical science. The family originally resided in Antwerp, whence, in 1583, its attachment to the reformed religion drove it to seek an asylum in Frankfort. Afterwards the Bernoullis settled in Basel, where they achieved the highest professional honours. Eight of them became highly distinguished; but special mention can be made here only of the three most celebrated—James, John, and Daniel.
JAMES BERNOULLI was born at Basel, December 27, 1654, where he also died, August 16, 1705. He devoted his life to the study of mathematics, of which, in 1687, he became professor in the university of Basel, succeeding in that chair the distinguished Megerlin. His Conamen Novi Systematis Cometarum, an essay on comets, suggested by the appearance of the comet of 1680, and his essay De Gravitate Ætheris, both showed the influence of Descartes' philosophy. Besides a variety of memoirs on scientific subjects, he published no other work of importance. De Arte Conjectandi was a posthumous work concerning the extension of the doctrine of probabilities to moral, political, and economical subjects. His collected works were published in 2 vols. 4to, at Geneva, in 1744. Among his triumphs are to be recorded his solution of Leibnitz's problem of the isochronous curve, and his determination of the catenary. At his request, a logarithmic spiral was engraved on his tomb, with the motto, Eadem mutata resurgo.
JOHN BERNOULLI, brother of the preceding, was born at Basel, July 27, 1667. He and James were the first two foreigners honoured by being elected associates of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and they were also made members of the Academy of Berlin. John devoted himself to chemical as well as to mathematical science. In 1694 he took the degree of M.D., and soon after became professor of Mathematics at Groningen, whence he only removed to succeed his brother James in the university of Basel. His forte was pure mathematics, in which he had no superior in Europe in his day. He died January 1, 1748. The determination of the 'line of swiftest descent,' and the invention of the 'exponential calculus,' have been claimed as his achievements. His collected works were published at Geneva, in 4 vols. (1742).
DANIEL BERNOULLI, born at Groningen, February 9, 1700, died at Basel, March 17, 1782, was the second son of John. Like his father, he devoted himself to medicine as well as to mathematics. The family reputation early helped him to the professorship of Mathematics at St Petersburg, which he held for several years. Thence, however, he ultimately retired to Basel, much against the will of the czar. At Basel, he occupied in succession the chairs of Anatomy and Botany, and of Experimental and Speculative Philosophy. He published various works between 1730 and 1756, of which the chief are concerned with pneumatical and hydrodynamical subjects.