B R O 



B R O 



pains, expence, and perfeverancrncccnary tocollcfl: and read 

 fuch a number of books in all languages, few of which are 

 either amufmg or iulh-u6tive, to whicii the firfl compiler of 

 a dictionary or a hiftory is condemned. Johnfon calls our 

 language a " multiform and chaotic dialedl ;" and the tech- 

 nical language ot niufic certainly merits thcfe titles more 

 than the terms of any other art or fcience. Brod'ard died in 

 1730,3170. 



BROSSE, Guv DE LA, great uncle to the celebrated 

 ftatefman M. Fagon, was born at Rouen, towards the end of 

 the fixtecntti century. Being much attached to botany, he 

 gave a piece of ground, in which the rudiments of the jar- 

 din royal des plantcs medicinales, at Paris, was laid. This 

 was, after much folicitation, enlarged, endowed, and an efta- 

 blidiment for the improverrent of botany formed, by cardi- 

 nal RicMitu, and de Brofie was appointed phyfician to the 

 king, Lewis XIII., and curator of the garden. This 

 was about the year 1626. He had been twelve years foli- 

 citing the tftablirnment, and feems to have fpent the re- 

 mainder of his life, which was extended to the year 1C41, 

 in improving it. His works, which all relate to his favourite 

 fubi -61;, are, " Deffein, du Jardin Royal pour la Culture des 

 Plantes Mediclnales, a Paris, avec i'Edit du Roy touchant 

 I'Etabliflement de ce Jardin en 1626." 8vo. " De la Na- 

 ture, Vertu et Utilitc des Plantes, et Deffein du Jardin Royal 

 de Medicine, Paris, 1628." This was afterwards, viz. in 

 1640, publilhed in folio, with 50 plates, which are much 

 commended. " Defcription du Jardin, &c. contenant la 

 Catalogue des Plantes, et le Plan du Jardin, 1636." Haller. 

 Bib. Botan. Eloy. Dift. Hift. 



Br'isse, or De Broche, Peter la, was born at a 

 town in Touraine, and educated to the praftiee of furgery, 

 in which he acquiied fo much celebrity, as to be called to 

 attend Philip III. of France; to whom, by his artful 

 management, he made himfelf fo ufeful, that he made him 

 his chamberlain, and entriifted to him the government of the 

 kingdom. Elated with this extraordinary fuccefs, he be- 

 came infolent to the peers, none of whom could get accefs 

 to the king but through him. Finding the queen was be- 

 come his enemy, as well as mod of the principal perfons in 

 the kingdom, with the view of ruining her with the king, 

 he took the horrid refolution of poifoning prince Lewis, 

 the elded fon of the king, by his former queen. This he 

 effefted in the year 1276, and then accufed the queen of 

 having committed the murder, in order to raife her fon to 

 the throne ; but the villainy of the man was dlfcovered by 

 the means, it is faid, of a nun ; and he was executed, to the 

 great joy of the country. 'I'he Itory is told by Henault, 

 in his Abrige Chronologiqne de I'Hiftoire de France. 



BROSSES, Charles de, an eminent mathematician, 

 and man of letters, was born at Dijon in 1709 ; and pur- 

 fuing the line of profeflion for which his family had been 

 diftinguilTied, he became a counfellorof parliament in 17JO, 

 and a prcfident k morticr in 1741. As he was eminent for 

 his zeal and integrity, as well as for his talents, he was en- 

 truftcd with the conducl of many interelling tranfaftions, 

 and in confequence of prefenting the remonltrances of the 

 people to the throne, he fharcd the honourable difgrace in- 

 curred by many other worthy perfons in the reign of Lewis 

 XV. However, he afterwarils obtained diftinguifhing marks 

 of court approbation, by being appointed prcfident of the 

 parliament of Burgundy in 1 774. His intervals of leifure 

 vvere devoted to the purluits of literature and fcience ; and 

 in thefe his range was fo exteniive as to comprehend hiftory, 

 geography, mythology, antiquities, metaphylics, and lan- 

 guages. He was alio acquainted with a great number of 

 learned men, both at home and abroad, and was a member of 

 I 



various literary focieties. Buffon had been his fchool-fellow, 

 and regarded him from his youth as a genius of a fnpcrior 

 order. Befides being the author of feveral memoirs m the 

 coUcSions of the academies of Paris and Dijon, the Jour- 

 nal des Scavans, and the Diftionnaire Encyclopcdiquc, he 

 wrote the following feparate works : " Letters on the Dif- 

 covery of Herculancum," 1 750, Svo. ; " Hillory of Voyages 

 to the Southern Regions," 2 vols. 4to. 1756; in which' he 

 maintains the txillence of a fouthern continent, difproved 

 by the fubfequent voyages of the French and Englilb, at 

 lead within any acceftible latitudes: " On the \Voi(hip of 

 Fetiches, or a Parallel between Ancient Idolatry and that 

 of the People of Negroland," 1760, i2mo, ; a curious phi- 

 lofophical and mythological performance : " Trcalife on 

 the mechanical Formation of Languages," 2 vols. i2mo. 

 1761; ; in which he attempts to eltablifh a general etymolo- 

 gical fyftem, deduced from the fuppolition of a primitive 

 language, founded on the mechanical formation of articu- 

 late founds: " Hiftory of the Roman Republic in the 

 Courfe of the fevcnth Age of Rome, by Kalhift, partly 

 tranflated from the Original of that Author, and purtly 

 compofed and rodored from the fcattered Fragments of his 

 laft Works," 3 vols. 4to. 1777; and " Lettres Hiftoriqncset 

 Critiques fur I'ltalie," &c. 3 vols. Svo. Paris, I79y. In pri- 

 vatc and focial life he was no lefs amiable than refpeftable 

 in his public and literary charafier. He died at Paris, 

 May 7, 1777. Eloge par M. Muret. Nouv. Dift. Hift. 



BROS.SETTE, Claude de, was born at Lyons in 

 1671, firft entered among the Jefnits, and afterwards be- 

 came a lawyer. He was a member of the academy of 

 Lyons, and keeper of the public library in that city. His 

 works, befides fome profeflional performances, were " A 

 brief Hiftory of the Town of Lyons," and " A new hif- 

 torieal iMilogy of the Town of Lyons," 4to. 1711, both 

 elegantly written ; " Hiftoiical Elucidations of the Satires, 

 and other Works of Boileau Defpreaux," 2 vols. 4to. 1716, 

 often reprinted in various fizts ; and " A Commentary on 

 the Satires and other Works of Regnier," Svo. 1729. 

 Broffette correfpond-d with feveral literary perfons, parti- 

 cularly virith Rondeau and Voltaire. He died at Lyons in 

 i7-;6. Nouv. Diet. Hid. 



BROTCHET, in Ichthyology, one of the French fyno- 

 nyms of the garddi or fea-pike. See Esox Lucius. 



BROTERA, in Botany, a genus in the c\ii[% monadelphla 

 dodecandria, formed by Cavanilles for a plant found in New 

 Spain, which differs from his genus Dombeva, only in the 

 druifture of the capfule : but, as Bofc obferves, it agrees 

 in generic charafter, and ought to be united with Pentape- 

 tes Pha'nicea, the only fpecics for which Willdenow has pre- 

 ferved that Linn-ccan geiuis, the other two original fpecies 

 having been feparated from it to form a new genus, which 

 from their winged feeds is called Pterofpernnim. La Marck 

 not thinking the diderence in the drnfture of the capfule a 

 fuflicient generic diftind'tion, has abolidied the genus Dom- 

 beya of Cavanilles, Judien, Ventenat and Willdenow, and 

 has placed all its fpecies under the genus Pentapes, with the 

 original Pentapetes Phsenicea, ftill retaining Pterofpermum 

 as a diftinft gen\is. See Pentapetes, where the Brotera 

 of Cavanilleo will be defcribed. 



B ROTE ROD, in Geography, a town of Germany, in 

 the circle of Franconia,and county of Henntburg, belonging 

 to the landgrave of Heffe Cadcl; j miles N. of Schmalkaldeu. 

 BROTHEL. See Bawdy-Z^oj//" and Stews. 

 BROTHER, Fratcr, a term of relation between two 

 male children, . fprung from the fame father or mother, or 

 both. Scaliger and Voffius derive fratcr from ©jfsTuj, for 

 <f>f«Twp, which properly fignifies a perfon who draws vi-atcr in 



the 



