I 
BRE 
exchanged for a moderately firm and slight- 
ly elastic consistence, anil a very spongy 
texture, in consequence of the alterations 
produced in the gluten by heat and mois- 
ture. Thirdly, the fecula or starch which 
was merely diffused through the dough, 
without being in any degree affected by the 
panary fermentation, is combined during 
the baking with a portion of water into a 
stiff jelly, like common starch when boiled 
with water, and thus render’s tire bread 
considerably more tr ansparent than dough, 
as well as nrore digestible. Rye and bar- 
ley are the only substances besides wheat 
that are capable of being made into bread, 
because they alone contain gluten enough 
to admit of being formed into a moderately 
tenacious paste with water. Even in these, 
however, the proportion of gluten is too 
small to afford light bread without the use 
of an acid ferment to disengage the proper 
quantity of carbonic acid ; so that they can 
never for the purpose of the baker be at 
all comparable to wheaten flour. 
Bread fruit tree. See Artocarpus. 
Bread nut tree. See Brosimum. 
Bread room, in a ship, that destined to 
hold the bread or biscuit. The boards of 
tire 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 days before the 
biscuit is put into it ; since nothing is more 
injurious to the bread than moisture. 
BREADTH, in geometry, one of the 
three dimensions of bodies, which, multi- 
plied into their length, constitutes a sur- 
face. 
BREAKERS, in maritime afiairs, a name 
given to those billows that break violently 
over rocks lying under the surface of the 
sea. They are easily distinguished 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 different from what the waves usually 
have in a deeper bottom. When a ship is 
driven among breakers it is hardly possible 
to save her, as every billow that heaves up- 
wards serves to dash her down with addi- 
tional force, when it breaks over tire rocks 
or sands beneath. 
BREAKING, in a mercantile stile, de- 
notes the not paying one's bills of exchange 
accepted, or other promissory notes, when 
due; and absconding to avoid the severity 
of one’s creditors. In which sense break- 
ing is the same thing with becoming bank- 
rupt. See Bankrupt. 
BRE 
Breaking bulk, in the sea language, is 
the same with unlading part of the cargo. 
BREAMING, in maritime affairs, bum- 
off the filth, such as grass, ooze, shells, or 
sea weed, from the ship’s bottom, which it 
has contracted by lying long in the harbour : 
it is performed by holding kindled furze, fag- 
gots, &c. which by melting the pitch that 
formerly covered it, loosens whatever filth 
may have adhered to the planks. The bot- 
tom is then covered anew. This operation 
may be performed either by laying the ship 
aground after the tide has ebbed from her, 
dr by docking, or careening. See Careen- 
ing. 
BREAST, in anatomy, denotes the fore- 
part of the thorax. See Anatomy. 
Breasts, two glandulous tumours, of a 
roundish oval figure, situated on the ante- 
rior, and a littie towards the lateral parts of 
the thorax. See Anatomy. 
Breast tcork, in military affairs, is an 
elevation thrown up around a fortified place, 
to conceal or protect the garrison, and 
which is at the same time so strong that 
the enemies’ shot cannot pierce it. The 
terms breast worK and parapet are fre- 
quently used without any distinction, but 
the former is more applicable in a general 
sense ; a parapet implying more immediately 
that breast work which is raised upon th« 
rampart of a fortified town. 
BRECCIA, a term employed by Italian 
statuaries to denote those kinds of marble 
which are really or apparently composed of 
angular fragments of marble, cemented to- 
gether by a posterior infiltration of calca- 
reous spar or marble. The French have 
adopted the term, and extended its mean- 
ing so as to include any strong mass com- 
posed of angular fragments consolidated by 
a cement. Hence they subdivide the term 
breche into calcareous, magnesian, silici- 
ous, and argillaceous, taking care to discri- 
minate it from amygdaloid or pondingere, 
(from the English pudding stone) by re- 
stricting the meaning of tips latter to stony 
masses, formed of rounded pebbles, imfaed- 
ed in a cement. 
BREDEMEYERA, in botany, a genus 
of the Diadelphia Gctandria : calyx three- 
leaved ; corolla papilionaceous ; banner two- 
leaved ; drupe with a two-celled nut. One 
species, viz. B. foribnnda. 
BREECH, of a gun, the distance from 
the hind part of the base ring to the begin- 
ning of the bore, and is always equal to tire 
thickness of the metal at the vent. 
BREECHINGS, in the sea language, the 
