Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/467

* BBAILLE. 413 BRAINERD. •writing for the blind. See BuND, Education OF TUK. BBAIN. See Nervous System. BRAIN, Diseases of the. These consist of disturlnmoes of the circulation: inflammations following infection, injury, etc.; hemorrhages, degenerations, scleroses, softening, malforma- tions, and disorders called functional because no anatomical lesion is found after death that is regarded as due to the disorder or causative of it. A few of the common diseases of the brain will be considered. Anamia and hyprrcrmia of the brain are conditions, rather than diseases, and are considered here for convenience' sake. In the latter there is an excessive amount of blood in the cranial cavity, in the former there is too small an amount of blood in the vessels of the brain. Ana?mia may be due to arterial disease, kidney disease, syphilis, wasting diseases, hemor- rhages, faulty digestion, or fright. Its sjmptoms are faintness, vertigo, confusion of mind, and nausea. Hypera-mia is caused by the use of alcoholic beverages, by injury, sunstroke, pro- longed mental overwork or worry, or by obstruc- tion to the return of blood from the brain. The symptoms are headache, vertigo, insomnia, ring- ing in the ears, confusion of ideas or inability for mental application. These conditions require careful expert treatment. Abscess of the brain is an acute suppurative inflammation of a small part of the brain-substance, with a production of pus. It is caused by infection by pus-germs fiom middle ear or mastoid di.scase, by an injury, by the presence of a tumor of the brain, or by infectious diseases, such as diphtheria, typhoid fever, smallpox, la grippe, etc. Paralysis gener- ally occurs, with headache, vomiting, and de- lirium. Trephining is the only treatment. 'Soft- ening of the brain' is the common (erroneous) term for any form of mental disease in which there is failure of mental power; and especially for general paralysis of the brain, in which in reality a hardening occurs. True softening fol- lows embolism (q.v.) or thrombosis (q.v.), in which the blood-supply is cut off from a part of the brain, which generally becomes red or yel- low, dies and softens, and may be absorbed or may go on to the production of abscess. Soften- ing causes marked mental changes resembling those of dementia, and sometimes paraly- sis. Brain-palsies of children are either paralysis of one side of the body, or of both sides of the body, or of both lower extremities. The lesions are in the upper motor segments of the hemi- spheres of the brain, and are due to injuries or disease of the mother during pregnancy, injury of the child during birth, or injuries or infec- tious fevers in very early childhood. Wasting of the paralyzed limbs occurs as the children grow, with the production of contracted muscles, clenched hands or club feet. Brain fever is a popular and erroneous term which is generally applied to meningitis, though used for other af- fections and conditions without intelligence. Inflammation of the brain is al-so an erroneous term, signifying usually abscess of the brain, or necrosis and microbinsis due to injury and in- fection, or even meningitis. Tumors may be either tubercle, syphiloma, glioma or sarcoma, or other less common forms, as all varieties of new growths may be found in the brain. They are all rare. They generally cause intense and constant headache, vomiting, with or without nausea, ver- tigo, changes in sensation, convulsive movements of upper or lower extremity or of face without loss of consciousness, deterioration of sight and some mental defect. Treatment depends upon the variety of tumor and its location. Tuber- cular or syphilitic tumors are the most favor- able, as regards possibility for treatment. See Apopijjxy; Aphasia; Coxcussion of the Br.ix; EMnoLLSM; TuKoiinosis; Epilepsy; Paralysis; Sclekosis; Syphilis. BRAIN'ARD, David Legge (1856—). An American explorer; born in Norway, Herkimer County, N. Y., and educated in the common schools and the State Normal School. He en- listed as a private in the United States Army in 1876, and served in Indian campaigns under Gen. Nelson A. Miles. In 1881 he was first sergeant of the Lady Franklin Bay expedition under Lieutenant (now General) A. W. Greely, and was a member of the partv of three wlio (on May 15, 1882) reached the" latitude of 83° 24' 30". This remained the highest latitude reached by explorers for thirteen years, and the most northern known point of land for eighteen years. Upon his return he became a sergeant in the Signal Seri'ice, and afterwards was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Second United States Cavalry, He served in the Alaskan Government relief expedition in 189", was made a colonel in the subsistejice department of the United States in 1898, and went to the Philippines in 1900 as major, in that department, in the regular army. Subsequently he became purchasing Commissary for the army, with headquarters in New York City. BRAINARD, Joh.n- Gabdiner Calkins (1796- 1828). An American poet and editor, born in New London, Conn., October 21. 1796, He was graduated at Yale in 1815; studied law; prac- ticed at Middletown, Conn,; but in 1822 went to Hartford to edit the Connecticut Mirror, which he brought into general notice bv his literary contributions, especially ballads. "After five years, failing health obliged him to give up his editorship, and after brief retirement in Long Island he returned to New London to die, continuing poetic composition to the last. He had collected his poems in 1825. A full edition, hiterary Remains, with a biographical sketch, was made by John G. Whittier, his suc- cessor as editor of the Min-or, in 1832, It passed through three editions in ten years, but his facile verse is now almost forgotten. Brainard died in New London, September 26, 1828, BRAINE-LE-COMTE, brSnle-koNt' (an- ciently, Lat, Brcnnia Comitis). A town in the Province of Ilainaut, Belgium, 19 miles south- west of Brussels (Map: Belgium, C 4), It for- merly belonged to the monks of Saint Watidru at ^fons, from whom it was bought by Count Bald- win in 1158. It has an old church of the Thir- teenth Century; cotton and corn mills, dye-works breweries, and stone-quarries. A very fiiiequality of flax is grown in the district. Population, in 1899, 8891. BRAINERD, hrfiu'erd. A citv and eountv- seat of Crow Wing County, Minn., I3G miles north by west of Saint Paul: on the east bank of the Mississippi River, and on the Northern Pacific and the Minnesota and International rail- roads (Map: Minnesota, D 4). The Northern Pacific has here large machine, car, and other