BRA 



BRA 



whence it was afterwards taken, in tlie 

 year 1633, and placed in the Hall of the 

 Royal Academy at Copenhagen. 



BRAIL, or BRAILS, in a ship, are small 

 ropes made use of to furl the sails across ; 

 they belong only to the two courses and 

 the mizen-sail ; they are reeved through 

 the blocks, seized on each side the ties, 

 and come down before the sail, being at 

 the very skirt thereof fastened to the 

 cringles; their use is, when the sail is 

 furled across, to hale up its bunt, that it 

 may the more easily be taken up or let 

 fall. Hale up the brails, or brail up the 

 sail, that is, hale up the sail, in order to 

 be furled or bound close to the yard. 



BRAIN, in anatomy, that soft white 

 mass inclosed in the cranium or skull, in 

 which all the organs of sense terminate, 

 and in which the soul was formerly sup- 

 posed principally to reside. See ANA- 

 TOMY. 



The brain and nerves are the instru- 

 ments of sensation, and even of motion ; 

 for an animal loses the power of moving 

 a part the instant that the nerves which 

 enter it are cut. The brain and nerves 

 have a strong resemblance to each other; 

 and it is probable that they agree also in 

 their composition. But hitherto no at- 

 tempt has been made to analyse the 

 nerves. The brain consists of two sub- 

 stances, which differ from each other 

 somewhat in colour, but which, in other 

 respects, seem to be of the same nature. 

 The outermost matter, having some small 

 resemblance in coleur to wood-ashes, has 

 been called the cineritious part ; the in- 

 nermost has been called the medullary 

 part. Brain has a soft feel, not unlike 

 that of soap ; its texture appears to be 

 very close ; its specific gravity is greater 

 than that of water. When brain is kept 

 in close vessels, so that the external air is 

 excluded, it remains for a long time un- 

 altered. Fourcroy filled a glass vessel 

 almost completely with pieces of brain, 

 and attached it to a pneumatic apparatus; 

 a few bubbles of carbonic acid gas ap- 

 peared at first, but it remained above a 

 year without undergoing any farther 

 change. This is very far from being the 

 case with brain exposed to the atmo- 

 sphere. In a few days (at the temperature 

 of 60) it exhales'a most detestable odour, 

 becomes acid, assumes a green colour, 

 and very soon a great quantity of ammo- 

 nia makes its appearance in it. Experi- 

 ments show, that, exclusive of the small 

 proportion of saline ingredients, brain is 

 composed of a peculiar matter, differing 

 in many particulars from all other animal 

 substances, but having a considerable re- 



semblance in many of its properties to 

 albumen. Brain has been compared to a 

 soap ; but it is plain that the resemblance 

 is very faint, as scarcely any oily matter 

 could be extricated from brain by Four- 

 croy, though he attempted it by all the 

 contrivances which the present state of 

 chemistry suggested ; and the alkaline 

 portion of it is a great deal too small to 

 merit any attention. 



BRAKE, in naval affairs, the handle by 

 which a ship's pump is usually worked ; 

 it operates by means of two iron bolts 

 thrust through the inner end of it, one of 

 which rolling across two cheeks, in the 

 upper end of the pump, serves as a ful- 

 crum for the brake, supporting it between 

 the cheeks. The other bolt connects 

 the extremity of the brake to the pump 

 spear, which draws up the box or 

 piston charged with the water in the 

 tube. 



BRAN, the skins or husks of corn, es- 

 pecially wheat, ground, separated from 

 the flour by a sieve or boulter 



It is of wheat-bran that starch-makers 

 make their starch. The dyers reckon 

 bran among the non-colouring drugs, and 

 use itfor making, what they call, the sour 

 waters, with which they prepare their se- 

 veral dyes. 



BRANCH, in botany, an arm of a tree, 

 or a part, which, sprouting out from the 

 trunk, helps to form the head or crown 

 thereof. 



BRANCH is likewise a term used in ge- 

 nealogy and anatomy. Thus we say, the 

 branch of a family, the branch of an arte- 

 ry, the branch of a vein. 



BRANCHI^, gills, in the anatomy of 

 fishes, the parts corresponding to the 

 lungs of land animals, by which fishes 

 take in and throw out again a certain 

 quantity of water, impregnated with air. 

 All fishes, except the cetaceous ones and 

 the petromyzum, are furnished with these 

 organs of respiration ; which are always 

 eight in number, four on each side the 

 throat. That next the heart is the least, 

 the rest increasing in order as they stand 

 near the head of the fish. 



Each of these gills is composed of a 

 bony lamina, in form of a semicircle, for 

 the most part; and on its convex side 

 stand the leaves or lamellae, like so many 

 sickles. The whole convex part of the 

 lamellx is beset with hairs, which are 

 longest near the base, and decrease r-ra- 

 dually as they approach towards the 

 point. There are also hairs on the con- 

 cave side of the lamellx, but shorter than 

 the others, and continued only to its mid- 

 dle, 



