Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/804

BRO in 1813, and the results of the two were published at Milan in 1814 in two quarto volumes, under the title of "Trattato di Conchiliologia fossile Subapennina." This is Brocchi's chief work, and the one on which his reputation must rest. With the fall of the French empire, Brocchi's official position in Milan also came to an end, and his tendencies were too much in favour of democratic forms of government to lead him to expect anything from the Austrian s; he accordingly lived in a private station for several years, occupying himself principally with mineralogical investigations in various parts of Italy, and occasionally publishing his results in the Bibliotheca Italiana, and other journals. One of his most important works published at this period is his memoir "Dello stato fisico del suolo di Roma," 1820. In 1821 he was recommended to the viceroy of Egypt as director of mines, and after obtaining the requisite practical knowledge by a journey through Carinthia, he sailed for Alexandria in September, 1822. He arrived in Cairo on the 1st December in this year, and left it again on the 30th of that month, with a large caravan, to make an exploration of the southern parts of the kingdom, from which he only returned to Cairo in May, 1824. In 1825 he made a second expedition into Abyssinia, travelling through the most fearful heat, and returned in June, 1826, but only as far as Chartum, where he and several others of his party were carried off by fever and dysentery. His papers and valuable collections of minerals, &c., were left by him to the library of his native town of Bassano; but they were lost when already within the harbour of Trieste, and thus the results of his laborious African expeditions, from which, considering the quality of his previous works, much valuable information might have been expected, have been almost totally lost to science.—W. S. D.  BROCHANT DE VILLIERS,, a distinguished French mineralogist, born at Villiers, near Nantes, in 1774. He studied mineralogy under Werner at Freiberg in 1797 and 1798. In 1804 he became professor of mineralogy in Pegai, and in 1815 in Paris. He died in the latter city in 1840. His best work is his "Traité élémentaire de minéralogie suivant les principes de Werner," Paris, 1801 and 1802.—W. S. D.  BROCK,, chief magistrate of Guernsey, born in 1762, deserves honourable mention for the intelligence and zeal with which, in the long period of his public life, he promoted all measures calculated to develope the industry and resources of the island. He was successful in obtaining from government redress of commercial grievances weighing heavily on local enterprise, and in maintaining against an arbitrary decision of Lord-Chief-Justice Tenterden the right of his countrymen to be tried in the local courts. He died in 1842.  BROOKES,, a German poet, was born at Hamburg in 1680, and died in 1747. He studied law at Halle, travelled in Switzerland, Italy, and Holland, and afterwards held several important offices in his native town. By his celebrated work, "Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott," Hamburg, 1721-48, 9 vols., he gave a religious turn to German poetry, and may be considered as a forerunner of Klopstock and Kleist. He also wrote the text of a highly-successful oratorio, and published a classical translation of Thomson's Seasons.—K. E.  BROCKMANN,, an eminent German actor, was born at Gratz, Styria, in 1745, and died at Vienna in 1812. His father was unable to give him an education, but bound him apprentice to a barber. The boy, however, ran away, and joined a band of rope-dancers, and afterwards another of strolling players, till 1771, when he was engaged at the Hamburg theatre by the celebrated Schröder. Under Schröder's guidance he gradually became a favourite of the public, and so accomplished a tragedian, that he was compared to Lekain and Garrick. Perhaps his most brilliant part was Hamlet, which in 1778 he performed during twelve successive nights at Berlin, with such an unparalleled success, that a medal was struck in his honour. (See "Schink Über Brockmann's Hamlet," Berlin, 1778.) In the same year he was permanently engaged at the Vienna Burgtheater, of which he afterwards was appointed manager. He has also written several dramatic pieces.—K. E.  * BRODHEAD,, an American historian, born at Philadelphia, January 2, 1814. In 1839 the legislature of New York authorized the appointment of an agent to procure and transcribe documents in Europe relating to the history of the state; and Mr. Brodhead was appointed to this agency. He employed three years in searching the government archives of Holland, France, and England, and brought home the fruits of his researches in 1844. The valuable papers have been printed, under the authority of the New York legislature, in ten large quarto volumes. From 1846 to 1849 Mr. Brodhead was secretary of legation under Mr. Bancroft, then American minister to England. On his return to America, he began the work which had long occupied his thoughts, "A History of the State of New York," the first volume of which, embracing the Dutch period from 1609 to 1664, was published in 1853. It is intended to bring down the history to the present day.  BRODIE,, Bart., F.R.S. and D.C.L., serjeant-surgeon to the queen, was born at Wiltshire in 1783. Having devoted himself earnestly to the study of practical surgery, he was at a comparatively early period appointed surgeon to St. George's hospital; and since the death of Sir Astley Cooper, who was his friend as well as his rival, he occupied the first position as a consulting surgeon in London. His practice for many years prior to his death was extremely lucrative. Sir B. Brodie's reputation does not rest so much upon his operative skill as upon his powers of diagnosis, and upon his knowledge of the advantageous effects of constitutional treatment in surgical affections. He was a prolific writer. Early in his career he made a series of most interesting and valuable observations on the action of poisons, and he published various works on surgical science, all of which are of high authority. Prominent among them stands his "Treatise on Diseases of the Joints," which will in all time coming be a standard authority. At an after period he turned his attention to psychological science, and his essays on that subject display a powerful mind. Sir Benjamin had the rare honour of being serjeant-surgeon to three British monarchs. He died on the 21st of October, 1862.—J. B. C.  BRODIE,, advocate, the author of "A History of the British Empire, from the accession of Charles I. to the Revolution," including a particular examination of Hume's statement relative to the English government. This work, published in Edinburgh in the year 1822, was written professedly to expose grave faults in Hume's brilliant history of the Stuart dynasty. The charges preferred against the historian range themselves under three categories—malversation and misprision of facts; laxity of habit in research; and servility to royalistic prejudices. Mr. Brodie has adduced voluminous evidence, obtained upon personal examination of records in the Advocates' library, Edinburgh, in the Lambeth and Bodleian libraries, and in the British museum. The work contains a mass of historical information collated with scrupulous care and some judgment from reliable sources.—G. H. P. <section end="804H" /> <section begin="804Zcontin" />BRODIE,, born in Wiltshire in 1778; died in 1854; the elder brother of Sir B. Brodie, Bart. This learned and accurate conveyancer was a pupil of C. Butler, and was called to the bar at the inner temple in 1815, having begun practice, as was usual at that period, under the bar, some years before. He was one of the real property commissioners of 1828, in which capacity he prepared the bill for abolishing fines and recoveries, the ancient expedients of the courts to get rid of entails on landed property, and to pass the freehold interests therein of married women. A fine was the accommodation of a suit concerning land brought on an imaginary title anterior to the interest to be displaced. The compromise was recognized by the court, and the sanctity of its records precluded challenge of their truth. A recovery was in like manner a fictions suit originally brought on a supposed disposition with warranty of title, by the tenant in tail, who in his turn alleged warranty to himself by another (the crier of the court), who, when called to prove title, undertook, but failed to do so. Upon this, judgment was given against the tenant in tail, and for him over against the crier; and for the nominal recompense thus obtained the estate in tail was done away, and a new fee-simple asserted. The scheme of assurances substituted for these solemn mockeries, was in case of a fine, to have a deed executed by the husband and wife. As in the case of a fine, there was a form of private examination of the latter by the court or courts to ascertain her freedom of action in the transaction; so the substitute is required to be acknowledged by her before commissioners after a like examination. For the recovery was substituted a deed of disposition by the tenant in tail enrolled in chancery. And as a tenant in tail whose enjoyment in possession of his estate was suspended by a prior estate for life in another, could not alone have suffered a recovery; so to insure the like duration to the entail, the <section end="804Zcontin" />