The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 87

BRAXY, an inflammatory disease in sheep, due to a change in food from succulent to dry; and the name given to the mutton of sheep affected with it.

BRAY, a Berkshire village, famous for Simon Aleyn, its vicar from 1540 to 1588, who, to retain his living, never scrupled to change his principles; he lived in the reigns of Charles II., James II., William III., Queen Anne, and George I.

BRAZEN AGE, in the Greek mythology the age of violence, that succeeded the weak Silver Age. See AGES.

BRAZIL (14,000), the largest South American State, almost equal to Europe, occupies the eastern angle of the continent, and comprises the Amazon basin, the tablelands of Matto Grosso, the upper basin of the Paraguay, and the maritime highlands, with the valleys of the Parana and San Francisco. Great stretches of the interior are uninhabitable swamp and forest lands; forests tenanted by an endless variety of brilliant-plumed birds and insects; the coasts are often humid and unhealthy, but the upper levels have a fine climate. Almost all the country is within the tropics. The population at the seaports is mostly white; inland it is negro, mulatto, and Indian. Vegetable products are indescribably rich and varied; timber of all kinds, rubber, cotton, and fruit are exported; coffee and sugar are the chief crops. The vast mineral wealth includes diamonds, gold, mercury, and copper. Most of the trade is with Britain and America. The language is Portuguese; the religion, Roman Catholic; education is very backward, and government unsettled. Discovered in 1500, and annexed by Portugal; the Portuguese king, expelled by the French in 1808, fled to his colony, which was made a kingdom 1815, and an empire in 1822. The emperor, Pedro II., was driven out in 1889, and a republic established on the federal system, which has been hara.s.sed ever since by desultory civil war. The capital is Rio Janeiro; Bahia and Pernambuco, the other seaports.

BRAZIL-WOOD, a wood found in Brazil, of great value for dyeing red, the colouring principle being named Brasilin.

BRAZZA (22), an island in the Adriatic, belonging to Austria; is richly wooded; noted for its wines; yields marble.

BRAZZA, PIERRE SAVORGNAN DE, explorer, born in Rome; acquired land N. of the Congo for France, and obtained a governorship; _b_. 1852.

BREADFRUIT-TREE, a South Sea island tree producing a fruit which, when roasted, is used as bread.

BReAL, MICHEL, a French philologist, born at Landau; translator into French of Bopp's "Comparative Grammar"; _b_. 1832.

BReCHE-DE-ROLAND, a gorge in the dep. of the Haute-Pyrenees, which, according to tradition, Charlemagne's Paladin of the name of Roland cleft with one stroke of his sword when he was beset by the Gascons.

BRECHIN, a town in Forfarshire, W. of Montrose, on the S. Esk, with a cathedral and an old round tower near it, 85 ft. high, the only one of the kind in Scotland besides being at Abernethy.

BREDA (23), fortified town, the capital of N. Brabant; a place of historical interest; Charles II. resided here for a time during his exile, and issued hence his declaration prior to his restoration.

BREECHES BIBLE, the Geneva Bible, so called from its rendering in Gen. iii. 7, in which "ap.r.o.ns" is rendered "breeches."

BREECHES REVIEW, the _Westminster_, so called at one time, from one Place, an authority in it, who had been a leather-breeches maker at Charing Cross.

BReGNET, a French chronometer-maker, born at Neuchatel; a famous inventor of astronomical instruments (1747-1823).

BREHM, ALFRED EDMUND, German naturalist; his chief work "Ill.u.s.trirtes Thierleben" (1829-1884).

BREHON LAWS, a body of judge-created laws that for long formed the common law of Ireland, existed from prehistoric times till Cromwell's conquest. The origin of the code is unknown, and whether it was at first traditional; many ma.n.u.script redactions of portions exist still.

BREMEN (126), the chief seaport of Germany, after Hamburg; is on the Weser, 50 m. from its mouth, and is a free city, with a territory less than Rutlandshire. Its export and import trade is very varied; half the total of emigrants sail from its docks; it is the head-quarters of the North German Lloyd Steamship Company. Textiles, tobacco, and paper industries add to its prosperity; was one of the princ.i.p.al cities of the Hanseatic League.

BREMER, FREDRIKA, a highly popular Swedish novelist, born in Finland; "The Neighbours," "The President's Daughter," and "Strife and Peace," are perhaps her best stories; has been called the Jane Austen of Sweden.

BREMER, SIR JAMES, rear-admiral; distinguished in the Burmese and Chinese wars (1786-1850).

BREMERHAVEN, the port of Bremen, on the estuary of the Weser, founded for the accommodation of large vessels in 1830, with a large hospice for emigrants.

BRENDAN, ST., an Irish saint, born at Tralee, celebrated for his voyages in quest of "a land beyond human ken" and his discovery of "a paradise amid the waves of the sea"; founded a monastery at Clonfert; died in 577, in his ninety-fourth year.

BRENNER Pa.s.s, pa.s.s on the central Tyrolese Alps, 6853 ft. high, between Innsbruck and Botzen, crossed by a railway, which facilitates trade between Venice, Germany, and Austria.

BRENNUS, a Gallic chief, who, 300 B.C., after taking and pillaging Rome, invested the Capitol for so long that the Romans offered him a thousand pounds' weight of gold to retire; as the gold was being weighed out he threw his sword and helmet into the opposite scale, adding _Vae victis_, "Woe to the conquered," an insolence which so roused Camillus, that he turned his back and offered battle to him and to his army, and totally routed the whole host.

BRENTA, an Italian river; rises in the Tyrol, waters Ba.s.sano, and debouches near Venice.

BRENTANO, CLEMENS, poet of the romanticist school, born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, brother of Goethe's Bettina von Arnim; was a roving genius (1778-1849).

BRENTFORD, market-town in Middles.e.x, on the Brent, 10 m. W. of London, that figures in history and literature.

BRENZ, JOHANN, the reformer of Wurtemberg, and one of the authors of the Wurtemberg Confession, as well as a catechism extensively used (1499-1570).

BRESCIA (43), a city of Lombardy, on the Mella and Garza, 50 m. E.

of Milan; has two cathedrals, an art gallery and library, a Roman temple excavated in 1822, and now a cla.s.sical museum; its manufactures are woollens, silks, leather, and wine.

BRESLAU (335), the capital of Silesia, second city in Prussia; an important commercial and manufacturing centre, and has a first-cla.s.s fortress; is on the Oder, 150 m. by rail SE. of Frankfort; it stands in the centre of the Baltic, North Sea, and Danube trade, and has a large woollen industry and grain market; there are a cathedral, university, and library.

BRESSAY, one of the Shetland Isles, near Lerwick, with one of the best natural harbours in the world.

BREST (76), a strongly-fortified naval station in the extreme NW. of France; one of the chief naval stations in France, with a magnificent harbour, and one of the safest, first made a marine a.r.s.enal by Richelieu; has large shipbuilding yards and a.r.s.enal; its industries are chiefly related to naval equipment, with leather, waxcloth, and paper manufactures.

BReTON, JULES ADOLPHE, a French _genre_ and landscape painter, born at Courrieres, in Pas-de-Calais, 1827.