B II A 
/ Dished willi a sort of transverse joint, or in- 
ternal cartilage, which admits of a peculiar 
kind of motion in this part. 
It is a gentle and good-natured animal ; it 
feeds chiefly on vegetables and milk, is fond 
of apples, and does not willingly eat animal 
food, except of a very tender nature, as mar- 
row, which it readily sucked from a bone pre- 
sented to it. Its motions are not, as in the 
two former species, slow and languid, but 
moderately lively ; and it appears to have a 
habit of turning itself round and round every 
now and then, as if for amusement, in the 
manner of a dog when lying down to sleep. 
It is said to have a propensity to burrowing 
under the ground. 
BRAG, a game at cards, wherein as many 
may partake as the cards will supply; the 
eldest hand dealing three to each person at 
one time, and turning up the last card all 
round. This done, each- gamester puts down 
three stakes, one for each card. 1’he first 
stake is won by the best card turned up in 
the dealing round, beginning from the ace, 
king, queen, knave, and so downwards. 
When cards of the same value are turned up 
to two or more of the gamesters, the eldest 
hand gains ; but it is to be observed that the 
ace of diamonds wins, to whatever hand it is 
turned up. 
The second stake is won by what is called 
the brag, which consists in one of the game- 
sters challenging the rest to produce cards 
equal to his: now it is to be observed, that a 
pair of aces is the best brag, a pair of kings 
the next, and so on ; and a pair of any sort 
wins the stake from the most valuably single 
card. In this part consists the great diver- 
sion of the game; for, by the artful manage- 
ment of the looks, gestures, and voice, it fre- 
quently happens that a pair of lives, treys, 
or even duces, out-brags or induces the hold- 
er to throw up a higher pair, and even some 
pairs royal, to the no small merriment of the 
company. The knave of clubs is here a prin- 
cipal favourite, making a pair with any other 
card in hand, and with any other two cards a 
pair royal. 
The third stake is won by the person who 
first makes up the cards in bis hand one-and- 
thirty; each dignified card going for ten, 
and drawing from the pack, as usual in this 
game. 
~ 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. 
BRAIN. See Anatomy. 
BRAN, the skins or husks of corn, espe- 
cially wheat ground, separated from the corn 
bv a sieve or boulter. It is of wheat bran that 
starch-makers make their starch, The dyers 
reckon bran among, the not-colouring drugs, 
and use it for making what they call the sour 
waters, with which they prepare their dyes. 
BRAN CHILE, 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 lamprey, are furnish- 
ed with these organs of respiration, which are 
always eight in number, four on each side the 
throat. That next the heart is always 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 
Vol. I. 
B H A 
lamina, in form of a semicircle, for the most 
part; and on its convex side stand the leaves 
or lamella’, like so many sickles. The whole 
convex part of the lamella; is beset with hairs, 
which are longest near the base, and decrease 
gradually as they approach towards the point. 
There are also hairs on the concave side of 
the lamella?, but shorter than the others, and 
continued only to its middle. The convex 
side of one lamina is lilted into the concave 
side of the next superior one ; and all of them 
are connected together by means of a mem- 
brane, which reaches from their base half-way 
their height, where it grows thicker, and in 
some measure resembles a rope. The rest 
of the lamina is free, and terminates in a 
very fine and llexible point. The use of these 
gills seems to be to receive the blood pro- 
truded from the heart into the aorta, and con- 
vey it intj the extremities of the lamellae; 
whence being returned by veins, it is distri- 
buted over the body of the fish. 
BRANCH [ARlJ M foramina, apertures 
of the gills. In most fishes there is only one 
aperture ; in the cartilaginous ones, these 
apertures are ten in number, five on each 
side; and in the lamprey there are no less 
than fourteen of these apertures, seven on 
each side. 
Cetaceous fishes have no aperture of this 
kind; and the reason seems to be because 
they are furnished with lungs. 
BRANCH IDAS, in Grecian antiquity, 
priests of the temple of Apollo, which was at 
Didymus in Ionia. 
BRANCH 10 STEGI, in ichthyology, one 
of the five general orders of fishes into which 
they were formerly divided: the rays of the 
fins are bony : they have no bones or ossicula: 
in the branchia: or gills. 
BRANDY, a spirituous and inflammable 
liquor, extracted from wine and other liquors 
by distillation. 
Brandy is prepared in many of the wine 
countries of Europe, and with peculiar ex- 
cellence in Languedoc, in Anjou, and other 
parts of the south of France, whence is the 
Comae brandy. In distilling brandv, the 
strong heavy wines are preferred. It is ex- 
pected that all wines used for this purpose 
should yield at least one-sixth of their quan- 
tity of spirit. The apparatus is composed of 
three parts: the alembic, or boiler, the capi- 
tal fitted on the top of the boiler to receive 
the spirituous vapour, and a worm immersed 
in cold water, in which the vapour is con- 
densed, and flows out in the form of distilled 
spirit. In general, the slower the process, 
and the smaller the stream of spirit from the 
worm-pipe, Uhe finer and better is the brandy. 
That part of the spirit which comes over first 
lias the strongest, richest, and highest fla- 
vour. See Alcohol. 
Brandy is naturally clear and colourless as 
water. The different shades of colour which 
it lias in commerce arise partly from the 
casks in which it is kept, hut chiefly from the 
addition of burnt sugar, saunders wood, and 
other colouring matters that are intentionally 
added by the manufacturer, and which are 
neither of advantage nor disadvantage to the 
quality of the spirit. 
Besides the brandy made of wine, there is 
some also made of beer, cyder, syrups, sugar, 
molasses, fruit, grain, &c. : however, these 
are not properly called brandy, but go under 
the general denomination of spirits, 
H 
B R A 20A 
BRAS) 1.-yvooy, or Brazil-wood, an 
American wood of a red colour, and very 
heavy. It is denominated variously, accord- 
ing to the places whence it is brought: thus 
we have brasil from Femambuco, Japan, La- 
mon, &c. See C?esalpina. 
This wood must be chosen in thick pieces, 
close, sound, without any bark on it, and such 
as, upon splitting, of pale becomes reddish, 
and, when chewed, has a saccharine taste. It 
is much used in turned work, and takes a 
good polish ; but its chief use is in dying. 
When the sulphuric acid is added slowly 
to a fresh watery decoction of Brasil wood, a 
small quantity of red precipitate falls down, 
and the liquor becomes yellow. Nitric acid 
produces a similar change ; but the liquor is 
orange. Most of the other acids product 
red precipitates. The alkalies restore in part 
the colour of the liquor. The action ot the 
solutions of tin and of alum is the most im- 
portant. Alum gives a fine red precipitate 
in great abundance; and in this manner a 
fine crimson lake and carmine are sometimes 
prepared, which consist of alumina, united 
with the natural colour of the wood. Nitro- 
muriat of tin, added to the decoction, sepa- 
rates the whole of the colouring matter, which 
falls down in great abundance, united with 
the oxide of tin, and the liquor remains co- 
lourless. The solutions of iron blacken Bra- 
zil wood, manifesting the presence of gallic 
acid. 
The colour of Brazil wood, though very 
beautiful, is fugitive, and is readily darkened 
and rendered purple by alkalies, or by soap 
that contains an alkali. When it is used by 
dyers, they employ acids and tin to fix the 
colour. 
BRASS is a factitious metal made of cop- 
per and zinc, in proper proportions. It is of 
a beautiful yellow colour, more fusible than 
copper, and not so apt to tarnish. It is mal- 
leable, and . so .ductile that it may be drawn 
out into wire. Its density is greater than the 
mean density of the two metals. By calcu- 
lation it ought to be 7.(>3 neariv, whereas it 
is actually 8.39; so that its density is in- 
creased by about 1 - J Oth. The antients do 
not seem to have known accurately the diffe- 
rence between copper, brass, and bronze. 
They considered brass as only a more valu- 
able kind of copper, and therefore used the 
word to denote either. They called cop- 
per (ts cyprium, afterwards cyprium ; and 
this in process of time was concerted into 
cuprum , 
The method of preparing brass is as fol- 
lows : The zinc having been calcined and 
ground fine as flour, is mixed with fine char- 
coal, and incorporated, by means of water, 
into a mass : this being done, about seven 
pounds of zinc is put into a melting-pot that 
will contain about a gallon, and over that 
about five pounds of copper; this pot is let 
down into a wind-furnace, where it remains 
for eleven hours, in which time it is convert- 
ed into brass. The metal then is cast, either 
into plates or lumps; forty -five pounds of 
crude zinc will produce thirty pounds when 
calcined or burnt. Sometimes brass-shruff is 
used instead of copper; but that is not al- 
ways to be procured in quantities sufficient, 
it being no other than a collection of old 
brass. 
Pure brass is not malleable, unless when it 
is hot ; for when it is cold it will break ; and 
