BRA 



BRA 



materials than shells, glass, beads, and 

 the like. 



BRACHLEUS, in anatomy a name 

 given to two muscles, which are flexors 

 of the cubitus, and distinguished by the 

 appellation of externus and interims. See 

 ANATOMY: 



BRACHMANS, a sect of Indian philo- 

 .sophers, known to the ancient Greeks by 

 the name of Gymnosophists. The ancient 

 Brachmans lived upon herbs and pulse, 

 and abstained from every thing that had 

 life in it. They lived in solitude, without 

 matrimony, and without property: and 

 they wished ardently for death, consider- 

 ing life only as a burden. The modern 

 Brachmans make up one of the casts or 

 tribes of the Banians. They are the 

 priests of that people, and perform their 

 office of praying and reading the law with 

 several mimical gestures, and a kind of 

 quavering voice. They believe, that, in 

 the beginning, nothing but God and the 

 water existed, and that the Supreme Be- 

 ing, desirous to create the world, caused 

 the leaf of a tree, in the shape of a child 

 playing with its great toe in its mouth, to 

 float on the water. From its navel there 

 issued out a flower, whence Brama drew 

 his original, who was entrusted by God 

 with the creation of the world, and pre- 

 sides over it with an absolute sway. They 

 make no distinction between the souls of 

 men and brutes, but say the dignity of 

 the human soul consists in being placed 

 in a better body, and having more room 

 to display its faculties. They allow of 

 rewards and punishments after this life ; 

 and have so great a veneration for cows, 

 that they look on themselves as blessed, 

 if they can but die with the tail of one of 

 them in their hand. They have preserv- 

 ed some noble fragments of the know- 

 ledge of the ancient Brachmans. They 

 are skilful arithmeticians, and calculate, 

 with great exactness, eclipses of the sun 

 and moon. They are remarkable for 

 their religious austerities. One of them 

 has been known to make a vow, to wear 

 about his neck a heavy collar of iron for 

 a considerable time : another to chain 

 himself by the foot to a tree, with a firm 

 resolution to die in that place : and 

 another to walk in wooden shoes stuck 

 full of nails on the inside. Their divine 

 worship consists chiefly of processions, 

 made in honour of their deities. They 

 have a college at Banara, a city seated on 

 the Ganges. 



BRACHURUS,the name of a genus of 

 animalcules, with tails shorter than their 

 bodies, and no visible limbs. 



VOL.11. 



BRACHYGLOTTIS,in botany, a genus 

 of the Syng-^hesia Superflua class and or- 

 der. Receptacle naked ; down feathery ; 

 calyx cylindrical, simply equal; florets of 

 the disk five-clef t. There are two spe- 

 cies, natives of the South Sea Islands. 



BRACHYGRAPHY, the art of short- 

 hand-writing. See SHORT-HAXD. 



BRACKETS, in a ship, the small knees, 

 serving to support the galleries, and com- 

 monly carved. Also the timbers that 

 support the gratings in the head are call- 

 ed brackets. 



BRACKETS, in gunnery, are cheeks 

 of the carriage of a mortar; they are made 

 of strong planks of wood, of almost a 

 semicircular figure, and bound round 

 w r ith thick iron plates; they are fixed to 

 the beds by four bolts, which are called 

 bed-bolts ; they rise up on each side of 

 the mortar, and serve to keep her at any 

 elevation, by means of some strong iron 

 bolts, called bracket-bolts, which go 

 through these cheeks or brackets. 



BRADLEJA, in botany, so named from 

 Richard Bradley, F. R. S. first professor of 

 botany at Cambridge, a genus of Monoe- 

 cia Monadelphia class and order. Essen- 

 tial character : male calyx none ; corol 

 petals six, nearly equal ; filaments three, 

 with three twin anthers, female calyx 

 none: corol six-parted, three parts inte- 

 rior^ germ superior, with six to eight 

 stigmas ; capsules six-celled, six-valved ; 

 seeds solitary. There are three species, 

 B. sinica, Chinese bradleja, is a shrub with 

 leaves recembling the annona, but not of 

 a lucid surface. The fructifications pro- 

 ceed from the axils of the leaves. The 

 fruits or seed vessels are compressed, 

 small or bilocular, striated and hard. B. 

 zeylanica, is a Ceylonese shrub. B. glo- 

 chidium, is a shrub which grows in the 

 islands of the Southern or Pacific Ocean. 



BRADLEY (DR. JAMES,) a celebrated 

 English astronomer, the third son of Wil- 

 liam Bradley, was born at Sherborne, in 

 Gloucestershire, in the year 1692. He 

 went to Oxford, and was admitted a com- 

 moner of Baliol College, March 15, 1710, 

 where he took the degree of bachelor the 

 14th of October, 1714, and of master of 

 arts the 21st of January, 1716. His 

 friends intending him for the church, his 

 studies were regulated with that view ; 

 and as soon as he was of a proper age to 

 receive holy orders, the Bishop of Here- 

 ford, who had conceived a great esteem 

 for him, gave him the living of Bridstow, 

 and soon after he was inducted to that of 

 Landewy Welfry, in Pembrokeshire. 



He was nephew to Mr. Pound, a gen- 



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