BERLOTY, BONAVENTURE. — French Jesuit and scientist, b. at Lyons on 25 March 1856, d. at Ksara on 10 Oct. 1934. He entered the religious life in 1874. He had taught physical-mathematical sciences in the Catholic faculties of Angers and Lyons when, at the age of fifty, he was entrusted with the task of founding in Syria an observatory attached to the University of St Joseph in Beirut. He established it at Ksara in 1907, and after the devastation of the World War, he restored and expanded it in 1919–20, devoting himself chiefly to seismological and meteorological work. Indeed, in 1920 B. was appointed director of the official meteorological service of Syria and rendered valuable services in this field.
BIBL.: Bollettino della Soc. sismologica italiana, 33 (1935), pp. 76–79.