B R I 



B R I 



him mod credit, was his " Nouvelles Olifcrvntions fur la 

 Cataracle," 'Ruirnay, 1706, i2mo. continued in 1 70S, by 

 " Suite (les Obfervations I'lir la CatarafteJ' Ho was the lirlb 

 who demoiiiliMtcil, that the catarart is b dileafe of the cry- 

 ihiUine lens. I.afiiier, and Qiiarrc, who Iv.-ld the fame opi- 

 iiimi, had not diffeclud any eyes, alTcrted witli the difeafe, 

 or publilhed any thing upon the fiibjecl; ; neverthelefs, the 

 College of Surgeons at Paris rcfufed to give BrilTeau the 

 credit of the difcovery. " Obfcrvationi faites par M. B." 

 1 2mo. I 706. Thefe are all on furgical fubjcfts. He cured a 

 fuldier of a wound in the fl<u!l, through which a portion of 

 brain had elcaped. Two earlier publications by him were 

 " DilTertations on Bleeding," and on " Sympathetic Mo- 

 tions."' Haller. Bib. Med. et Chirurg. 



BxissiiAU, Michael, fon of Peter, and born at Tournay, 

 was admitted member of the college of phyficians there in 

 16 )6. He thence removed to Dowiiv, where he was made 

 firlt profed'or in medicine, and phyfician to the military hof- 

 pital. He wrote li:-; chirurgical obfervations, which are 

 printed with palfins' works in furgery and anatomy. Haller. 

 Bib. Anat. Elov Diel. Hill. 



BRISSOIDES, in A'u.H/w./ mjlory. See Echinus. 

 BRISSON, Barnabas, in L'io-^niji/.y, ari eminent French 

 lawyer and man of letters, was the defcendant of a refpedlable 

 family at Fontenai-le-Compte, in Poitou, and entered at the 

 bar of the parliament at Paris. His reputation was fuch, 

 that Henry HI. advanced him to feveral honourable offices, 

 and in jjSo, to the poll of prelident ii tyiortlcr ; and conceiv- 

 ing very highly of his talents and learning, employed him in 

 various negotiations, and fcnt him as his embafl'ador to Eng- 

 land. Upon his return he commiffioned him to make a col- 

 leclionof all his own ordinances, and thofe of his predeceflbrs, 

 which he completed with great expedition. The principal of 

 his other learned works are : " De Vtrbornm, qux ad Jus 

 pertinent, Significatione," fol. ; " De Formulis tt Solemni- 

 bus Populi Romani Verbis," fol. Paris, 15SJ, a work of 

 authority and frequently cited ; " De Regio Perfarum 

 Principatu," 1580, frequently printed, and lall at Stralburg, 

 in 1710, with the notes of Sylburg and Lederlin ; " De Jure 

 Connubiorum Liber lingularis," Paris, Svo. 1564; "Opera 

 Varia," 4to. 1606. The termination of Biiifon's life was 

 difallrous ; for having continued at Paris, during its fR'ge 

 by Flenry IV. in ; ^^^t), he was compelled by the league to 

 alfume the place ot lirll prefident of the parliament, inllead 

 of Achilles de Harlay, then a prifoner in, the BalUlle. In 

 confequence of his official conduiil, the faction of fiy.teen 

 brought an accufation againll him and fome others, m.embers 

 of the parliament; and he was hanged in November, I '591. 

 Several perfons were afterwards pmiidied for the concern 

 they had in his death. His public principles are varioully 

 reprefented ; fome extolling hira as a good citizen, others re- 

 prelenting hira as a man of ambition, who fell a victim to 

 his delire of riling to confequence bv means of faftion. 

 Nouv. Dirt. Hill. 



Bars son, St., in Geography, a town of France, in the 

 department of the Loiret, and dillrift of Gien ; 4 miles S. 

 of Gien. 



BRISSOT, Peter, in Biography, was born atFontenai le 

 ComtCjin theyear 147S, and made doftor in medicine atParis, 

 in I 514. He now went to Lilbon, where he was foon diilin- 

 guiflied for his fupcrior learning, and ability in his profcffion. 

 As he read the Greek fathers in medicine, in their original lan- 

 guage, he was very free in his cenfnies on the Arabian writers, 

 who hadfo'mutilated,and disfigured theGreek text,astomake 

 it extremely difiicult to difcover the authors' opinions, in their 

 ti-aTiflations. Th'S freedom excited the indignation of the 

 followers of the Arabjans, which blazed out with great fury, 



2 



on BrifTot's publiHung, in i.'',25, " De V^cna fccarida turn in 

 pleurilide, turn in aliis vifccrum inllamniationibus, libelhis 

 npologeticus," Paris, 4to. As he maintained, in th'S work, 

 that blood might bo drawn from the lidc a.TeClcd in pleurify, 

 which was contrary to the then prevailing opinion, he wa3 

 conlidered as an innovator, and treated as a man holdinjr 

 herelichl opinions. The work was reprinted in I ';;3, with 

 fome additions by the author, and in \6ii, by R. Morcau, 

 with other pieces on the fame fubjedl. Haller. Bib. Med'. 



Brissot, Jami;s-Pi-.ti;r, one of the principal agents 

 in tl'.e late French revolution, and head of a party dif- 

 tinguillicd by his name, was the fon of a " traitcur," 

 cr mailer of an eating-houfe, and born in 1754 at Char- 

 tres, in the Orleannois. The circumllanccs of his father 

 enabled him to give his children a good education ; and 

 James Peter was dcllined for the bar. But having ferved 

 live years as a clerk, with a view to the profcffion of tlie 

 law, he abandoned the pi-ofecution of it witli dif^ud, and. 

 determined to devote himfclf to literature and the fcicnces. 

 At this time, he formed an acquaintance with fome Englifii 

 travellers, learned their language, and pcrufid fome Engiifll 

 books; and to thefe cii'cinnllaiicc;; he attributes the eha- 

 racier and fortune ot his future lif.'. Attached, as he pro- 

 feffes hin:felf to have been, to the language and cuiloms of 

 England, he changed the appellation of " de Ouarville," 

 which he derived from that of a village wlicre his father 

 podefTed fome landed property, dcfigned for him, into " de 

 Warville," after the Iv^glidi orthography ; and he is thus 

 denominated in his writmgs. As he had incurred his fa- 

 ther's difpleafure by rehuquifhing the profefTion of the law, 

 his refouices failed him ; and he was indebted to the bounty 

 of his friends for thofe fupplies, which enabled him to pro- 

 fecute his lludies at Paris, which he continued to do for 

 two years. At the clofe of tiiis period, he entered into an 

 engagement with the proprietor of a popular paper, entitled 

 " Le Courier de I'Europe," and printed at Boulogne, which 

 was committed to his fuperintendcnce. When tliis paper 

 was difcop.tinued by the interference of government, Briiibt 

 returned to Paris; and foon after, viz. in 1780 and 1781, 

 he affuraed, in a more direft and regular manner than he had 

 hitherto done, the profeffion of an author. Revolting, as 

 he lays, from the iuflant in which he began to refleft, 

 againll religious and poLtical tyranny, he determined to de- 

 vote his whole life to the extirpation, both of the one and 

 the other ; but as the former had fallen under the reiterated 

 llrokcs of Roufleai', Voltaire, Diderot, and d'Alembert, 

 he had the vanity to think, that the demolition of the latter 

 was an honour referved for himfclf. In this work, he feems 

 to have engaged with principles and views, retmbling 

 thofe of his prcdeceflors ; and that his intention might not 

 be milundcrllood, he avows his purpofe to dellroy that po- 

 litical idol, which, under the name of " Monarchy," prac- 

 tifed the mod violent defpotifm ; and, in order the more 

 effcdually to ac-omphlh his aim, he began widt an attack 

 on certain abufcs in government, which needed reforma- 

 tion, and which, with judgment and moderation, miglit 

 have been correfted, without deftroying government ulelf. 

 Accordingly, he began witli direiJling the attention of his 

 countrymtn to the fubjeft of criminal jurifprudence ; aiid, 

 with this view,, he pnblifhed, in 1780, his " Th'a)ry, of 

 criminal Laws," in 2 vols. Svo,. which was foon folkowed 

 by two difcourfes on colLiteral fubfcCls, whicli gained the 

 prize in 1782 at the academy cf Chalons-fur-Marnc. He 

 alfo began a work, which was- afterwards completed ia 10. 

 Vols, entitled " A philofophical Librai-y ot t!ie criminal 

 I.,aw3 1" and he publi/lied a volume " Concerning Truthj" 

 and " Thoughts ou llie Means of attaining Troth in all the 



iiranctieu. 



