Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/385

 B R I

B R O

cient, according to the account of the people of the place, to yield fait for the whole kingdom ; but it is under the govern- ment of certain lords and regulators, who, that the market may nut be overftocked, will not fuft'cr more than a certain quantity of the fait to be made yearly. Rays Engl. Words, p. 42. See the article Pit.

Erine-^.V. See the article Salt.

BRINEK, or Brineti, in aftronomy, the bright ftar in the conftellatton Lyra ; more frequently called Lucida Lyra. Wolf. Lex. Math. p. 17 2 ~ Vital. Lex. Math. p. 88.

BRINGER-///>, in the military art, is ufed for the Iaft man of a file. Seethe article File, Cycl.

BRINGING in a hor/e, in the manege, is the keeping down his nofe, when he boars, and tofles it up to the wind. A horfc is brought in by a ftrong hard branch. Guilt, Gent. Diet. P. 1. in voc.

BRISKET, that part of a horfe extended from the two moul- ders to the bottom of the cheft.

In which fenfe, the word amounts to the fame with the French poitral, or portrait. Trev. Diet. Univ. T. 4. p. 7?7- voc. Poitral.

BRISSOIDES, in natural hiftory, the name of one of the ge- nera of the echini marini ; the diftinguifhing characters of thefe are, that they are of an oval figure, and have their backs frriated, not furrowed, and their rays fmooth, not mark- ed with ridges. Of this genus there are two known (pedes ; 1. A flat one, called by fume the cranium. 2. A high one, called by fome the amygdala, and ufually found foflile, and immerfed in flint. KleinSy Echin. p. 36.

BRISSUS, in natural hiftory, the name of a genus of the echini marini ; the characters of which are, that they are of an oval figure, and have the aperture for the anus on one of the fides of the fuperficies ; their back is fmooth and even, not fur- rowed, but on the vertex they have feveral very elegant cre- nated and dotted lines. Their bafe is as if cut off on the end neareft the mouth, and is not flat as in the fpatangi, but raifed in the manner of a cumion. Kleins, Echin. p. 34.

BRISTLE, a thick glofly kind of hair, wherewith the fwine kind more especially are covered.

The name is fometimes alfo applied to the quills of porcupines 3 , and the muftaches or whifkers of cats b. — [ a Mem. Nat. Hift. Anim. p. 147. b Hook.WLicrog. p. 157. J Hogs brijlles are hard, tranfparent, horny fubftances, of a prilmatical figure, without any appearance of cavit es or pores in them, difcoverable even by the microfcope. Cats brijlles have a large folid pith in the middle. Hook, lib. cit. Obf. 20. p. 157.

Bristle Dice, a fort of falfe dice, furnifhed with a piece of hog's brijlle ftuck in the corners, or other places, to hinder their falling on certain fides, and make them run high or low at pleafure. Compl. Gameft. p. 11.

BRISTOL Water. See the article Water.

BRITANNIC Plague, a name given by fome writers to the fweating ficknefs. Lang. Epift. Med. V, 1. ep, 19. p. 83. See the article Sudor, Cycl.

BRITANNIC A, in the materia medica of the antients, the name of a plant defcribed as having leaves of a dark colour, very large, and in fhape refembling thofe of the common wild- dock, but fome what hairy and of an aftringent tafte ; the root fmall and flender, and the ftalk not large. This is the defcrip- tion of Diofcorides % who attributes to its infpiffated juice great virtues as an aftringent, and a remedy for ulcers of the mouth and tonfils ; and Pliny b acquaints us of its prodigious efficacy in a diftemper attending the army of Germanicus, who, when they hzd croffed the Rhine, encamped in a place where there was only one fpring of water, the drinking of which affected them in a terrible manner in their mouths, and made their teeth drop out, and that the phyficians, who called the d'tfeafejromacace and fcelatyrbe, were at length directed to a remedy by the Frifians who were in their camp, which was the herb britannica. — [ * Diofcor. 1. 4. c. 2. b Pliny, I. 25.

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The virtues attributed to this plant are obferved by the later phyficians, to agree very well with thofe of the hydrolapa- thum majus, or great water-dock, a plant produced very a- bundantly with us, but at prefent neglected in the practice of phyfic ; and Muntingius, who has written profefledly of the britannica of the antients, is perfuaded that this is the'trueand genuine plant. He by no means countenances the opinion of its having its name from the ifland of Britain, but deduces it from a very expreffive phrafe in the Frifian language, in which Irit fignifiesto confolidate, to;? a tooth, and fV« loofc ; fo that it plainly had its name from its virtues of fattening the teeth, when loofened in the mouth by di {temperature. Every part of the herb is powerfully aftringent, and the root, which is its raoft efficacious part, is very ferviceable in haemor- rhages of all kinds, and in whatever difordcrs the cold aftrin- gents are required in. It is faid alfo to be very ufeful in ner- vous complaints ■> and is very powerful in the cure of quinfeys, inflammations of the tonfils, and almoft all the difor-dcrs of the mouth and throat, and is by fome efteemed a fpecific in the fcurvy.

Its leaves are ftyptic, and bitter to the tafte, and ftrike a ftrong red upon blue paper j the root has the fame effect, but in a Suppl. Vol. I.

more remifs degree. The bark of it is of a flcfh-colour, arid flreakcd, and the heart of a pale yellow. Experience con- firms its efficacy in fome diforders of the mouth ; the chewing it in a morning having been found an effectual remedy for the bleeding of the gums. Muntingius de vera Herba Britan. 'I here is no doubt but that the real plant is our water-docks but the commentators on the Greek phyficians, and the authors who have written fince, and have borrowed the greateft part of their knowledge from them, have occafioned great perplexities to their readers, by fuppofing that the britannica and betonica were the fame plant; whereas one was a dock, and the other the plant we c&Mferratula, orfaw-wort; this being, according to Pliny, the name given in Italy to the plant called betonica by the Gauls. Apuleius fays, that the cejlrmn of the Greeks is the fame with the betonica or britannica, called alfo penthro- orophos and priorites j and Neophytus, in his Herbal, has col- lected together an account under the article betonia, which be- ing partly taken from Diofcorides's account of the betonica, partly from his defcription of the britannica, and partly front fome other authors accounts of the /errata or ferratula, is a medley hiftory that contradicts itfelf, and can be applied to no plant at all. Pliny fays, that the betonica has leaves very large, and like the dock. Every one may fee how little this agrees with the character of the true betonica, which the fame author faysis the /errata ; and that it is plain, that he took this part of his account from Diofcorides's defcription of the britannica.

BRITE, or Bright, in hufbandry ; wheat, barley, or other gram, is faid to brite, when it grows over ripe and matters. Diet. Ruft. in voc.

BRITISH Language, the fame with the Welch.

The antient Brit'ift), or Cambro-Briiijh, is a dialect of the Cel- tic a . Some pretend, but with no probability, that the Britijh is formed immediately from the Teutonic b . ' Cooper abfurdly enough calls the Entjlim language the Britijh '.— £■ Vid. Rozvl. Mon. Ant. feet. 6. p. 33, & 42. " Skin. Etym. in Pref. p. 1 2, & 18. 'Ferteg. Reflit. Dec. Intell. pref. 7 3. J

BRIT FLE Bodies. Seethe article Brittleness.

BRITTLENESS, in natural philofophy, that quality of bodies by which they are foon and eafiiy broken by prcflure or par- cuflion. It fluids oppofed to tenacity. Mem. Acad. Berlin. 1745. p. 47. See the article Tenacity. Brittle bodies are extremely hard ; the leaft percuflion exerts a force on them equivalent to thegreatcft preffure, and maycon- fcquently eafiiy break them. This effect is particularly re- markable in glafs fuddenly cooled, the brittlene/s of which is thereby much encreafed. Ibid. See the article Phial. Tin, though in itfelf tough, gives a brittlene/s to all the other metals when mixed therewith. Boyle, Phil. Works, Abr. T. 3. p. 428. See the article Tin.

The brittlene/s of glafs feems to arife from the heterogeneity of the parts whereof it is compofed, fait and fand, which can ne- ver bind intimately together. Hilt. Acad. Scienc. an. 1708. p. 26. See the article Glass.

In timbers, brittlene/s feems to be connected with durahlenefs ; the more brittle any fort of wood is, the more lairing it is found. Thus it is, oak is of fo long duration, while beech and birch, as being tough, prefently rot, and are of little fervice for building. Grew, Anat. of Veget. 1. 3. c. 7, §. 10. p. 139. See the article T'imber.

Brittleness of the hoof, in horfes. See the article Hoof.

BRIZ A, in the Linnsean fyftem of botany, the name of that kind of grafs called the tremula, or quaking grafs, by other authors. This makes a diftinct genus of plants, the characters of which are, that the glume contains many flowers, and is bivalve and open; the flowers are collected in it into a fmall hcart-faihion- ed two rowed fpike ; the valves are all heart-fafhioncd, con- cave, and equal in fize. The flower is bivalve; the inferior valve is of the fame fize and fhape with the cup ; the upper is extremely fmall, plain, flat, and roundifh,and fhuts up the bo- fom of the others. The ilamina arc three filaments ; the an- thers are oblong ; the germen of the piitillum is round ifli; the ftyles are two in number, bent, and very flender ; the ftiw- mata are plumofe, or feathered. The flower contains the feed, which, at a proper time, it afterwards gaping open fuffers to fall to the earth. The feeds arc fingle, or one to each flower - they are of a roundlfh figure, compreffed, and very fmall.

Briza, in the materia medica, a name ufed for the grain of the zea monococcos, or St. Peter's corn. Dales Pharm. p. 261.

BRIZE, in the country language, a fort of ground which has lain long untilled. Diet. Rult. T. 1. in voc.

B:uze, or Brise, in navigation. See the article Breeze.

BRixE-vents, or ~B~R.iSE-vents, a kind of fhelters ufed bygardi- ners, who have not walls on the north-fide, to keep the cold winds from damaging their melon beds.

Brize-vents are inclofures fix or feven feet high, and an inch thick, made of ftraw, fupported by ftakes fixed into the ground, and props acrofs both infide and outfide, faflened to- gether with willow-twigs or iron-wire. Diet. Ruft.T, r. in voc.

BROACH, Brocha, in middle age writers, denotes an awl or bodkin. Among us, broach is chiefly ufed for a fteel inftrti- ment wherewith to open holes in metals. It is fometimes alfo applied to a ftick on which thread or yarn is wound ; and, in the north, to a fort of wooden needles ufed in knitting cer- tain coarfe things. Savar. Diet. Comm. T. 1. p. 486.

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