268 B It E 
subquadrangular, drawn to a point at both 
ends. The whole plant is very smooth, ten- 
der, juicy, and glaucous. Native of the south 
of France, and the mountains of Piedmont. 
B RAULS, Indian cloths with blue and 
white stripes : they are otherwise called tur- 
bans, because they serve to cover those or- 
naments of the head, particularly on the coast 
of Africa. 
BRAWN, the flesh of a boar soused or 
pickled; for which end the boar should be 
old ; because the older he is, the more horny 
will the brawn be. 
The method of preparing brawn is as fol- 
lows : the boar being killed, it is the flitches 
only, without the legs, that are made brawn ; 
the bones of ' which are to be taken out, and 
then the flesh sprinkled with salt, and laid in a 
tray, that the blood may be drawn off: then it 
is to be salted a little, and rolled up as hard as 
possible. The length of the collar of brawn, 
should be as much as one side of the boar will 
bear ; so that when rolled up, it may be nine 
or ten inches diameter. 
The collar being thus rolled up, is to be 
boiled in a copper, or large kettle, till it is so 
tender, that yon can run a straw through it: 
then set it by, till it is thoroughly cold, and 
put it into the following pickle. To every 
gallon of water, put a handful or two of salt, 
and as much wheat bran : boil them together, 
then (Rain the bran as clear as you can from 
the liquor : and when the liquor is quite cold, 
put thf brawn into It. 
BRAZED, in heraldry, a term serving to 
describe three eheverons, one clasping an- 
other. 
BRAZIER, amartificer who makes kettles, 
pans, candlesticks, and other kitchen utensils 
in brass. Some of the articles manufactured 
*>y the working brazier are beaten out with the 
hammer,, and united in their several parts by 
solder: others are cast, but those which are 
cast belong more properly to the business of 
the founder, excepting the polishing and fi- 
nishing, which require the art of the brazier. 
BRAZING, the soldering or joining two 
pieces of iron together by means of thin plates 
of brass, melted between the pieces that are 
to be joined. If the work is very fine, as 
when two leaves of a broken saw are to be 
brazed together, they cover it with pulve- 
rized borax, melted with water, that it may 
incorporate with the brass powder, which is 
added to it : the piece i- then exposed to the 
lire without touching the coals, and heated 
till the brass is seen to run. 
BREACH, in fortification, a gap. made in 
any part of the works of a town by the can- 
non or mines, of the besiegers, in order to 
make an attack upon the "place. To make 
the attack more difficult, the besieged sow 
the breach vvith crow-feet, or stop it with 
chevaux-de-frize. 
A practicable breach is that where the men 
may mount and make a lodgment, and ought 
to be 15 or 20 fathoms wide. The besiegers 
make their way 'to it by covering themselves 
with gabions, earth-bags, &c. 
Breach, in a legal sense, is where a per- 
son breaks through the condition of a bond 
or covenant, on an action upon which the 
breach must be assigned; and this assign- 
ment must not be general but particular, as 
in an action of covenant for not repairing 
houses, it ought to be assigned particularly 
what is the v/ant of reparation ; and in such 
BRE 
certain manner -that the defendant may take 
an issue. ✓ 
BREAD, panis, a mass of dough, kneaded 
and baked in an oven. See Baking. 
Bread-room, in a ship, that destined to 
hold the bread or biscuit. The boards of 
the bread-room should be well joined and 
caulked, and even lined with tin plates or 
mats. It is also proper to warm it well with 
charcoal for several clays before the biscuit 
is put into it ; since nothing is more injurious 
to the bread than moisture. 
BREAK, in the art of war, or to break 
ground, is to open the trenches before a 
place. 
BREAKERS, a name given to those bil- 
lows that break violently over rocks lying 
under the surface of the sea. They are dis- 
tinguished both by their appearance and 
sound, as they cover that part of the sea 
with a perpetual foam, and produce a hoarse 
and terrible roaring, very diliferent from what 
the waves usually have in a deeper bottom. 
When a ship is unhappily driven among 
breakers, it is hardly possible to save her ; 
as every billow that heaves her upward serves 
to dash her down with additional force, when 
it breaks over the rocks or sands beneath it. 
BREECHINGS, in the sea-language, the 
ropes with which the great guns are lashed 
or fastened to the ship’s side. 
They are thus called, because made to 
pass round the breach of the gun. 
BREEZE, a shifting wind, that blows from 
sea or land for some certain hours in the day 
or night. 
The sea-breeze which takes place in tro- 
.pical climates, is only sensible near the 
coasts; it commonly rises in the morning, 
about nine, proceeding slowly in a fine small 
black curl on the water, towards the shore ; 
it increases gradually till twelve, and dies 
about five. Upon its ceasing, the land- 
breeze commences, which increases till 12 
at night, and is succeeded in the morning by 
the sea-breeze again. 
In some countries, the sea-breezes appear 
only to be the efforts of the trade-wind, as at 
Barbadoes, and in many places between the 
tropics, where the general Wind, if not im- 
peded by mountains or islands, blows fresh 
in the day-time, but after sun-set, the terres- 
trial exhalations being precipitated, produce 
a new wind, which is not only able to make 
head against the trade-wind, but to repel it 
from their coasts. The sea-breezes do not 
all come from the same point of the com- 
pass, but from different points as the land 
lies. Breezes are more constant in summer 
than in winter, and more between the tropics 
than in the temperate zone. Breezes differ 
from the trade-winds, as the former occur 
daily, and are perceived only near the shore, 
whereas the latter are periodical at certain 
seasons, and blow at a distance from the 
land. 
BREHONS, hereditary judges belonging 
to the inferior provincial kings, and also to 
the nobles or chieftains, among the ancient 
Irish, by whom justice wa&administered, and 
controversies decided. 
BRENTA, a liquid measure used at 
Rome. 
BRENTUS, a genus of coleopterous in- 
sects, having the head protracted into a very 
long projecting snout, beyond the middle of 
which, the anteonx, which are moiniiform, 
B R E 
are inserted. There are several species, as 
the anchorago, Plate, Nat. Hist. fig. 03. bar- 
bicorn is, &c. 
BREST-SUMMERS, in timber-buildings, 
are pieces in the outward, into which the 
girders are framed : this, in the ground-floor, 
is called a cell ; and, in the garret-floor, a 
beam. 
BREST, or Breast, in architecture, a 
term sometimes used for the member of a 
column, more usually called torus. 
BRETHREN, and sisters of the free 
Spirit, an appellatiou assumed by a new sect 
which sprung up in the thirteenth century, 
and gained many adherents in Italy, France, 
and Germany. They derived their name 
from the words of St. Paul, Rom. viii. yer. 
1 — 14. They maintained that all things 
flowed by emanation from God ; and that by 
the power of contemplation, they were unit- 
ed to the Deity, and thereby acquired a glo- 
rious and sublime liberty, both from the lusts 
and the instincts of nature; hence they in- 
ferred that the person who was thus absorb- 
ed in the Deity, became a part of the God- 
head, and was the son of God in the same 
sense that Christ was. They treated with 
contempt all Christian ordinances, and all 
external acts of religion, as unsuitable to Use 
state of perfection at which they had ar- 
rived. 
BREVE, in law, is any writ directed to 
the chan cel lor, judges, sheriffs, or other of- 
ficers, whereby a person is summoned, or 
attached, to answer in the king’s courts, Ac. 
Breve perq.uirere, the purchasing of a 
writ or licence for trial in the king’s courts : 
whence comes the present usage of paying 
6s. 8d. fine to the king in suit, for monev 
due on bond, where the debt is 401. and of 
10s. where it is 1001, &c. 
Breve, in music, a note or character of 
time, in the form of a diamond, or square, 
without any tail, and equivalent to two mea- 
sures, or minims. 
BREVE!'', in the French customs, denotes 
the grant of some favour or donation frohi 
the king, in w hich sense it partly answers to 
our warrant, and partly to letters patent. 
BREVIARY, a daily office, or book of 
divine service, in the Romish church. It is 
composed of matins, lauds, first, third, sixth, 
and ninth vespers, and the compline, or post 
communio. 
The institution of the breviary is not very 
antient: there have been inserted in it the 
lives of the saints, full of ridiculous and ill 
attested stories, w hich gave occasion to va- 
rious reformations of it, by several councils, 
particularly those of Trent and Cologn ; by 
several popes, particularly Pius V. Clement 
Y1I1. and Urban VIII. also by several cardi- 
nals and bishops, each lopping off some ex- 
travagances, and bringing it nearer to the 
simplicity of the primitive offices. 
Originally every person was obliged to re- 
cite the breviary every day; but by degrees 
the obligation was reduced to the clergy 
only, who are enjoined under penalty of 
mortal sin and ecclesiastical censures, to re- 
cite it at home, when they cannot attend in 
public. In the 14th century there was -a 
particular reserve granted in favour of 
bishops, who were allowed on extraordinary 
occasions, to pass three days without re- 
hearsing the breviary. 
This office was originally called cursqs 
