BRE 



ERE 



quantity of bread is to be made at once, 

 this is impracticable. See BAKING. 



The changes produced upon dough by 

 baking are very remarkable, nor can they 

 in any degree be attributed to evapora- 

 tion, since the loss of weight never ought 

 to exceed - 1 -, and is very often not great 

 er than ^. In the first place, the pro- 

 gress of fermentation is entirely stopped: 

 the bread may be kept for several days 

 without experiencing any alteration, and 

 the first sign of spontaneous change is its 

 becoming mouldy. Secondly, the tena- 

 cious ductility of the dough and its com- 

 pact texture are exchanged for a mode- 

 rately firm and slightly elastic consist- 

 ence, and a very spongy texture, in con- 

 sequence of the alterations produced in 

 the gluten by heat and moisture. Third- 

 ly, the fecula, or starch, which was merely 

 diffused through the dough, without be- 

 ing in any degree affected by the panary 

 fermentation, is combined during the bak- 

 ing with a portion of water into a stiff 

 jelly, like common starch when boiled 

 with water, and thus renders the bread 

 considerablymore transparent than dough, 

 as well as more digestible. Rye and bar- 

 ley are the only substances, besides wheat, 

 that are capable of being made into bread, 

 because they alone contain gluten enough 

 to admit of being formed into a moderate- 

 ly tenacious paste with water. Even in 

 these, however, the proportion of gluten 

 is too small to afford light bread without 

 the use of an acid ferment, to disengage 

 the proper quantity of carbonic acid ; so 

 that they can never, for the purpose of 

 the baker, be at all comparable to wheat- 

 en flour. 



B E AD fruit-tree. See ARTOCARPUS. 

 BREAD nut-tree. See BaosniuM. 

 BREAD room, in a ship, that destined to 

 hold the bread or biscuit. The boards of 

 the bread room should be well joined and 

 eaulked, and even lined with tin plates or 

 mats. It is also proper to warm it well 

 with charcoal for several days before the 

 biscuit is put into it ; since nothing is 

 more injurious to the bread than mois- 

 ture. 



BREADTH, in geometry, one of the 

 three dimensions of bodies, which, multi- 

 plied into their length, constitutes a sur- 

 face. 



BREAKERS, in maritime affairs, a 

 mme given to those billows that break 

 violently over rocks lying under the sur- 

 face of the sea. They are easily distin- 

 guished, loth by the:r -inpr-arance and 

 sound, as they qover that part of the sea 



with a perpetual foam, and produce a 

 hoarse and terrible roaring, very different 

 from what the waves usually 'have in a 

 deeper bottom. When a ship is driven 

 among breakers, it is hardly possible to 

 save her, as every billow that heaves up- 

 wards serves to dash her down with ad- 

 ditional force, when it breaks over the 

 rocks or sands beneath. 



BREAKING, in a mercantile style, de- 

 notes the not paying one's bills of ex- 

 change accepted, or other promissory 

 notes, when due ; and absconding, to 

 avoid the severity of one's creditors. In 

 which sense, breaking is the same 'hing 

 with becoming bankrupt. See BANK- 

 RUPT. 



BREAKING bulk, in the sea language, 

 is the same with unlading part of the 

 cargo. 



BREAMING, in maritime affairs, burn- 

 ing off the filth, such as grass, ooze, shells, 

 or sea-weed. from the ship's bottom, which 

 it has contracted by lying long in the har- 

 bour : it is performed by holding kindled 

 furze, faggots, &c. which, by melting the 

 pitch that formerly covered it, loosens 

 whatever filth may have adhered to the 

 planks. The bottom is then covered 

 anew. This operation may be performed 

 either by laying the ship aground, after 

 the tide has ebbed from her, or by dock- 

 ing, or careening. See CAREENING. 



BREAST, in anatomy, denotes the fore 

 part of the thorax. See ANATOMY. 



BREASTS, two glandulous tumours, of 

 a roundish oval figure, situated on the an- 

 terior, and a little towards the lateral parts 

 of t ! ie thorax. See ANATOMY. 



BKJ.AST -work, in military affairs, is an 

 elevation thrown up around a fortified 

 place, to conceal or protect the garrison, 

 and which is at the same time so strong, 

 that the enemies' shot cannot pierce it. 

 The terms breast work and parapet are 

 frequently used without any distinction; 

 but the former is more applicable in a ge- 

 neral sense ; a parapet implying more 

 immediately that breast work which is 

 raised upon the rampart of a fortified 

 town. 



BRECCIA, a term employed by Italian 

 statuaries, to denote those kinds of mar- 

 ble which are really or apparently com- 

 posed of angular fragments of marble, 

 cemented together by a posterior infiltra- 

 tion of calcareous spar or marble. The 

 French have adopted the term, and ex- 

 tended its meaning, so as to include any 

 strong mass composed of angular frag- 

 ments consolidated by a cement. Hence 

 they subdivide the term breche in calca- 



