of civility by them ; wherever they go they are furround- 
ed with women, who wafh their feet, and welcome them 
with the moft obliging expreflions. The government of 
Brafil is in the viceroy, who has two councils, one fdr 
criminal, the other civil, affairs ; in both of which lie pre- 
fides. The governors jire appointed for three years, and 
this term is prolonged at will. Each diflridl has a particular 
judge, from whole fentence an appeal may be carried to 
the fuperior tribunals of Rio Janeiro or Lifbon. Laf, o. 
to 35. S. Ion. 16. 30. to 37. 30. W. Ferro. 
BRA'SIL-\VOOD,yi a colouring wood ufed in the pro- 
ceffes of dying. It grows fpontaneoudy in the Braftls in 
South America, in the jfle of France, Japan, and other 
warm countries. Its texture is confiderably hard, capable 
of a good polilh, and fo heavy that it finks in water. Its 
colour is pale when newly cut; but it becomes deeper by 
expofttre to the air. The various fpecimens differ in the 
intenfity of their colour ; but the heavied is reckoned the 
mod valuable. It has a fweetifh tafte when chewed, and 
is diftinguiflied from red fanders, or fandal, by its property 
of giving out its colour with water, which this lad does 
not. From the Bralil-wood of Panantbuco is extracted, 
by means of acids, a very excellent carmine. See the ar¬ 
ticle Dying. 
BR •'\SI'LIAN-STONE, in mineralogy, a fpecies di- 
ftinguiihed by its flexibility, and hence denominated elajlic- 
jtone, or elajlic-marblc. Of this very rare and curious follil, 
the baron de Dietrich read a description before the Royal 
Academy of Sciences at Paris, in January 1784. Since 
then a fpecimen, in the poffetlion of the late lord Garden- 
don, has been examined by Dr. Hutton, and defcribed in 
the third volume of'the Tranfablions of the Royal So¬ 
ciety of Edinburgh, for 1795. It was twelve inches long, 
rive broad, and half an inch thick. When fupported at 
both ends, in a horizontal pofltion, its middle funk more 
than a quarter of an inch. The done had a porous or fpun- 
gy texture, refembling a compreffed dratum of fnow. Its 
tranfverfe feClion (hewed no traces of a fibrous or lami¬ 
nated druChtre, and nothing heterogeneous in its compo- 
fition: it feemed to confid entirely of pure tranfparent 
quartz. On fplitting it longitudinally, however, it (hewed 
decidedly a foliated dratification; and clofe infpedtion, af- 
fifled by experiment, detedled fpecular tranfparent plates 
of mica, nicely bedded in quartoze matter. Hence Dr. 
Hutton derives an explication of the Angular property of 
the Brafilian done. He confiders ‘ the particles of quartz, 
which have little cohefion, as being bound together by 
thefe thin plates of mica ; and thefe connecting plates be¬ 
ing flexible, this allows a certain motion of the rigid par¬ 
ticles among themfelves, without a fraClure or general fe- 
paration of the done.’ In faCt, the principle is the fame 
with that on which depends the flexibility of timber, and 
different follils of the amianthus kind. Thofe bodies c-on- 
fifl of parallel fibres, feebly cohering together, but of 
great tenacity in the direction of their length. The mod 
brittle fubdances bend freely when divided into filaments 
or thin plates; and this facility of flexure we may con- 
cifely explain: for the protraction of the convex fide be¬ 
yond the concave is manifellly proportional to the curva¬ 
ture and to the interval between thefe concentric arcs, and 
confequently that curvature mud, in the prefent cafe, be 
greatly increafed, in order to produce the meaftireof dif- 
tenfion among the particles which neceffarily precedes a 
general rupture. Dr. Hutton conjectures that the Brafi- 
lian done had originally been attendant on Alpine lime- 
ftones, and confolidated by calcareous fpar; and that the 
conglutinating fubdance was, in the lapfe of ages, dif- 
folved by the penetrating influence of a humid atmo- 
fphere. This fuppodtion is countenanced by the report, 
that the Solitary mineral was actually found lying cxpofed 
on the foil. It probably requires a rare concurrence of 
circumflances to produce the Brafilian done : but other 
(tones may exift that poffefs the fame property, though in 
a much lower degree. Of this kind is th r fltllfltn or ge- 
JtdtJlein ot the Swedes and Germans, employed by them 
BRA 
for building furnaces, and compofed, according to Cron- 
fiedt, of quartz and mica ; fince to fuftain the alternations 
of heat and cold, and the fudden and partial expanfions 
and contractions thereby produced, it mud admit of mo¬ 
derate flexure. The marble tables preferved in the Borg- 
liefe Palace at Rome, tinder the name of Pictra Elajlica, 
belong alfo to the fame fpecies. See Marble. A large 
fpecimen of this elafiic (tone may be feen in the Leverian 
Mufeum, in London. 
BRAS'LAW, a city of Lithuania, in the palatinate of 
Wilna, on the fide of a lake, which communicates with 
the Dwina : feventy-fix miles north-north-eaft of Wilna, 
and 296 north-eaft of Warfaw. 
BRASPA'RS, a town of France, in the department of 
Finifterre, and chief place of a canton, in the didrict of 
Chateanlin : eight miles north-eaft of Chateaulin. 
BRASS, f. £bras , Sax. pres , Weldi.J An elegant yel¬ 
low-coloured compound metal, confiding of copperrom- 
bined with about one-third of its weight of zinc. The 
bed brafs is faid to be made by cementation of calamine, 
or the ore of zinc, with granulated copper. The fird for« 
matron of brafs, as we are affured by feripture, was prior 
to the flood, and difcovered even in the feventh genera¬ 
tion from Adam, (Gen. iv.) But tire ufe.of it was not, 
as is generally believed, previous to the knowledge of~ 
iron. They were both fird known in the fame generation, 
and fird wrought by the fame difeoverer. And the know¬ 
ledge of them mud have been equally carried over the 
world afterwards, with the fpreading of the colonies of 
the Noachidae. The ancient Britons, though acquainted 
from the remoted periods with the ufe of both thefe me¬ 
tals, remained long ignorant that they were to be obtain¬ 
ed in this idand. Before this difeovery they imported all 
their iron and brafs from the continent. In the earlied 
ages we find the weapons of war invariably framed of this 
factitious metal. 
Mr. Whitaker, in his Hidory of Mancheder, fuppofes, 
that, when the Britons derived their iron and brafs from 
the continent, they purchafed the latter at an eafier ex¬ 
pence than the former. Brafs being thus cheaper than 
iron, they neceffarily formed with it fome domedic as well 
as military implements. Be this as it may, the Britons had 
certainly brafs founderies erected among them, and minted 
money, and fabricated weapons, of brafs. In this condi¬ 
tion ot the works, the Romans entered the idand; and, 
feeing fo great a demand among the natives for this arti¬ 
cle, they would fpeedily indruCt them to difeover the 
materials of it among themlelves. This mud unavoida¬ 
bly have refulted from the conquedof the Romans. The 
power of furprifing their new (ubjeCts with fo unexpected 
a difeovery would naturally dimulate the pride of the Ro¬ 
man intellect. The veins of copper and calamine would 
be ealily found out by fuch experienced inquirers ; and the 
former metal is therefore didingnifhed among the WeUh, 
only by the Roman appellation of cyprium, koppr, or cop¬ 
per. Many ancient founderies of brafs appear to have 
been edablidted in the idand. Two have been difcovered 
in the (ingle county of Effex, and within a narrow portion 
of it at Fyfield and Danbury. And a third was placed 
upon Eaderly Moor in Yorkdiire, twelve miles to the 
north-wed of York, and in the neighbourhood of Ifurium 
or Aldborough. In the year 1721 it is remarked, in An- 
derfon’s Origin of Commerce, that the copper and brafs 
manufactories were fo confiderable in England as to de¬ 
ploy upwards of 30,000 perfons. 
Brafs, by long calcination, and without any mixture,' 
affords a fine blue or green colour for glafs; and, by cal¬ 
cining it with powdered brimdone,Njt adords a red, a yel¬ 
low, or a chalcedony, colour, according to the quantity 
and variations in tiling it; for the methods of which fee 
Glass. 
A patent for an improved method of making brafs was 
granted to Mr. James Emerfon, of Bitton in Glouceder- 
(hire, compofed of copper and fpelter. His method he 
dates as follows: —“ 1 , the faid James Emerfon, do hero- 
3 by 
