B R I 



k»uel)-iii thfin of ilie cure of luei venerea. Hallcr Bih. 

 McJ. Eloy i)ia. Hill. 



I'.RIOANTINE, a fmall, light, flat, open vcfTcl, wliicli 

 goes both with lails and oars, and is citlier tor lighting or 

 giving cliace. 



It has uf'ii'.lly twelve or fifteen benches on a liJc for the 

 rowers, a inmi and an oar to each bench. 15ri2:anliMts are 

 principally nfed hy the Coriairs, all the hands aboard benig 

 loldicr^, .-.lid each having iiis mufquet ready UiuiL-r hii oar. 

 but the ttim is generally iiftd for a merchaiit-fliii) with 

 two rralU, though manners of different nations r.pply it to 

 a peculiar fort of veffcl of their own marine. Among 

 Engliih feamen the ngging of a brigantine or brig is little 

 diflercOt from the lore and main mails of a fliip, the braces 

 of the fails on the main-mad leading forward. The aftcr- 

 main-lhroud mull be fcrvcd from the mall-head to the dead- 

 eye, to prevent its being chafed by the main-boom and gafF. 

 The after-b.ick-ftay is fitted with a tackle, that it may be 

 (lackcned when the maii:-fail jibes, or is bowfed forward by 

 the b'join-penc'ent and tackle. Liigs carry no main-yard, 

 but a crofs-jack-vard. 



BRIGANTINUS L.'vcus, m j^ncknl Gecgmphy, a lake 

 of Rhcctia, now the lake of Conllance, whitli fee. 



BRIGANTIUM, or Brigantia, a town of Rhoctia, 

 fcated on the precedmg lake, now Bregentz ; which fee. — 

 Alfo, a town of Gallia Narbonnenfis,"E. N. E. of Salinas, 

 in the c nitry of the Catnriges, near the pafs into Italy 

 acrofs the Alps, rtckoned in the times of the Romans 

 among the cities of the fecond order, and exhibiting in the 

 infcriptions, and medals of gold, iilver, and copper, which 

 have been found in its vicinity, traces of its ancient impor- 

 tance, now Briangon ; which fee — Alfo, a town of Hif- 

 pania Citerior, feated at the bottom of a fmall gulf, north of 

 Magnus Portus, and near it, now Betancos ; which fee. 



BRIGE-BoTE, Vjt.ioc-Lote, or Brigh-Zo/c, in j^micnt 

 Laiu lln.'ers, fignifies a being freed from contributing to 

 the reparation of bridges. See Pontage. The word is 

 formed of the Saxon iri^, airid^r, and io/e, compenfalion. It 

 IS fonietimes alto written brugh-bole, or hruch-hote. 



BRIGEUM, in /Inchr.i Geography, a town of Spain, to- 

 wards the S. W. of ARurica. 

 BRIGES. SeeBK.OANTEs. 

 BRIGEUIL, in Geography, a town of France, in the 



'^nl^Tnn ' ^^ "^''""''' ^ "'''^' ^- °^ MontmoriUon. 

 BKIGGb, HiiNRV, m Biography, a celebrated mnthe- 

 maticiaii, was born at Warley Wood, near Halifax, iu York- 

 ih.re,^ about the year 1556; and admitted a fcholar of St 

 John s college, m the univertity of Cambridge, in ic-o- 

 w_here he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts in i 58., tliat 

 of Mailer, ,n 15.S5, and was chofen fellow of his colle-e in 

 r' II J' /"f""^<^ '^"'ly «as the mathematics, in w°hich 

 he excelled, fo that n. 1592 he was appointed examiner and 

 efturer in that faculty, and foon after reader of the phvfic- 

 leetures, founded by Dr. Linacre. Upon the fettlement of 

 Greniam college, ni London, he was chofen the tiril pro- 

 tc lor of geometry, in 1596 ; and at this time he conftrutl- 

 liLVr 1 7 ^>''^™'"'"5.\t»'^ '"-%ht of the pole from the 

 magnctical declination ; which table was publifhed in Dr. 

 ^t""Vl" ' "^=,\%-te," and by^M. Blondeville 

 « h.s "Iheoncjncsofthefevcn Planets;" London, 1602 

 r.m.= ^^l -^ f commenced an acquaintance with Mr. 

 James Urtier, afterward, primate of Ireland, which was 

 mamtauKd by a coi-refpondence for fcveral years. In one 

 t^llT'' 'r'^'f" '''- heinform'shim, tm h 

 rTlm I /l'7°''''^ '.''°"'/'"^ ""'^''-- invention of loga- 

 r thnis, lately difcovered ; which he explained m his lec- 

 tures, propohng an alteration ia the fcale of baron NapiJ, 



B R I 



from the hyperbolic form to that in which I iKould be the lo- 

 garithm of the ratio of 10 to i. This alteration was propofed 

 to the baron in a letter; and, in 1616, Briggs made a 

 journey to Scotland for the purpofe of converting with him 

 on the fubjcft ; and he repeated his vifit in the following 

 year. The rcfult of their conferences, which were conduAed 

 with fingular mutual rcfpeCt, was the adoption of his plan ; 

 fo that upon his return from the ftcond vilit, Briggs pub- 

 lifhed the " Chilias prima," or firft thoufand, of his lo'^a- 

 rlthms, in Svo. In 1 61 9, he was appointed the firft pro- 

 felTbr of geometry, at Oxford, in the intlitution founded by 

 fir Henry Savile ; and rtfigning his profcflbrfiiip at Grefliam 

 college, in 1620, he removed to Oxford, and fettled at 

 Merton college, where he was foon after incorporated mafler 

 of arts in that u<iivcrlity, and where he continued till his 

 death. Although his time was much occupied in the duties 

 of his office, and in the profecution of his labours on loga- 

 rithms, as well as other important fubjefts, he publifhed, in 

 \6ii, a fmall traft on the " North-well PafTage to the 

 South Sea," through the continent of Virginia and by Hud- 

 fon's bay, occafioned by his being a member of the compa- 

 11) trading to Virginia, and reprinted in vol. iii. of Purchas's 

 Pilgrims. His next performance was the extenfive and ela- 

 borate work, entitled " Arithmetica logarithmica," printed 

 at London, in 1624, folio; containing 30 chiliads of loga- 

 rithms from I to 20,oco, and from 90,000 to ico.ooo, 

 calculated to 14 places of fig-ures, befides the index. To 

 this work he prefixed a large difTertation on the nature, con- 

 ftruaion, and ufe of logarithms, and on the method offupply. 

 ing the intermediate numbers from 20,000 to 90,000. He 

 alfo completed a table of the logarithmic fines and tangents 

 for the whole quadrant, for every hundredth part of a degree, 

 to 14 places of figures, exclufively of the index, with a 

 con-efponding table of natural fines, to 15 places ; and of 

 tangents and fecants for the fame, to ten places. Thefe tables, 

 m which the intermediate logarithms of the numbers from 

 20,000 to 90,000 were fupplied by Mr. Adrian Vlacq, 

 of Targou, in Holland, were publifhed at Gouda, under his 

 care, m 1628; and a tranflation of this edition was pub- 

 lifhed at London, underthe title of " Logarithmicall Arith- 

 metike &c." in 16., i, folio. Mr. Briggs had conceived 

 the dcl.gn of illuflrating at large the ufe of logarithms in 

 the dottrine of fphencal triangles, and propofed to complete 

 It in two books ; but he lived to write only the firft ; leaving 

 the fecond to the care of his old friend Mr. Henry GellN 

 brand, who finifhed the work, and it was publifhed at Goii- 

 da, in 1633, foho, under the title of " Tiigonometria Bri- 

 tannica," fiv^e, " De Doarina Triangulornm, libri duo, 

 T f " Englifh tranfiation of it was publifhed in a folio 

 treatife by Mr. John Newton, in 1658, under the fame title. 

 In the execution of both thefe works, Mr. Briggs mani- 

 felted a very furprifing combination of alfiduous applica- 

 tion and inventive genius ; and furnifhed feveial important 

 ditcovenes in the mathematics, which have been ufnally re- 

 erred to a later period; fuel, as the binomial tluorem (which 

 leej; the differential method and conftruclion of tables bv 

 differences; the interpolation by differences; angular fec- 

 tions, &c. 5""-' ^>->- 



This eminent mathematician died January the 26th ir^,o, 

 u. Merton college, and was buried m the choir of the chapel 

 under the honorary monument of fir Henry Savile, having 

 over his grave only a plain ilone, with his n Jme inicnS on 

 Bri^^i''"T ; '" "Comment, de Vit. et Stud. H. 



l^nggii, London 1707, 4to. gives him the charader of a 

 n an of great probity, eafy and acceffible to all, free fiom 



ternng a Itudious retirement to ail the fplendid circumftances 



of 



