516 BRAZIL-W OOD. 
special favour and considerable tenderness of 
treatment till they become confirmed in consti- 
tutional strength. Other preventatives of a gen- 
eral kind, exerting a protecting influence against 
all or several of the causes, are the giving of salt 
to young sheep, especially when suddenly shifted 
from fresh to dry food,—the erection of stells of 
sufficient capacity to suit the needs of a flock,— 
and especially the prompt and plentiful supply of 
succulent food,—turnips, whenever they can be 
obtained, and at least some oil-cake along with 
hay. In fact, the want of.turnips upon upland 
store-farms, and the profusion of them for sheep- 
feeding upon champaign mixed farms, is a fact 
which of itself affords nine-tenths of a complete 
explanation of the phenomenon, that braxy is.ab- 
solutely desolating among the hills, and is rarely 
witnessed upon the plains. The Ettrick Shep- 
herd pronounces turnips “an infallible antidote 
against the progress of the malady;” and Mr. 
Carmichael says, “Turnips are so beneficial to 
hoggs, besides improving the soil, and requiring 
less extent of pasture-ground, that every store- 
master should attempt the raising of them ; even 
one half-acre of good turnips to every twenty 
hoggs, with a few rations of hay, are excellent 
preventives of braxy.”—Muackenzie on the Diseases 
of Sheep.—Hogg’s Shepherds Guide—W. Hogg’s 
Prize Hssay on Braxy in the Transactions of the 
Highland Society —Paper by Mr. Carmichael in 
Quarterly Journal of Agriculture—A Lammer- 
muir Farmer's Treatise on Sheep—Spooner on 
Sheep.—Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society 
of England. 
BRAZIL-WOOD. A red, dye-wood obtained 
from different species of Czesalpinia growing in 
the Brazils in South America and in the West 
Indies. Several varieties are known in com- 
merce. 1. The proper brazil-wood, said to be de- 
rived from Cesalpinia echinata ; and sometimes 
called Pernambuco or Fernambuca-wood from the 
province of Brazil, where it is collected. 2. The 
Brasiletto, obtained from C. Braziliensis and Oris- 
ta, which grows in Jamaica and other parts of the 
West Indies. The former is the most highly va- 
lued. 3. The Sappan or Sampfen wood, obtained 
from C, Sappan, possesses properties analogous to 
those of the brasiletto ; as does also 4. Nicaragua 
or peachwood. Brazil-wood is nearly inodorous, 
has a slightly sweetish taste, and a pale red co- 
lour, when newly cut, but which becomes deeper 
by exposure to air. It is hard, and heavier than 
water, to which latter it imparts its colouring 
matter. It contains, besides a colouring matter 
called drasilzn, an essential oil, having the taste 
and odour of pepper, free acetic acid, acetates, 
and other salts. A decoction of brazil-wood pro- 
duces a red precipitate with protochloride of tin, 
and a dark violet with sulphates of copper and 
iron. The principal use of Brazil-wood is in dye- 
ing; ared lake is prepared from it. It is also 
an ingredient of red ink. Its colours are but of 
little permanency, fading by the influence of air 
BREAD. 
* 
and light. ‘Soap and alkali change them into a 
dark blue or purple. 
BRAZING. The soldering together of edges 
of iron, copper, brass, &c., with an alloy consist- 
ing of brass and zinc, sometimes with a little tin 
or silver. The surfaces to be thus united must 
be filed perfectly bright, and not be soiled with 
the fingers or in any other way. The granular 
or nearly pulverulent alloy is usually wetted 
with a paste of ground borax and water, applied 
in this state, dried, and then exposed carefully to 
bright ignition at a clear forge fire. Some work- 
men enclose the part to be soldered in a elay 
lute, but others prefer leaving it uncovered, that 
they may see when the solder has flowed freely, 
and entered into all the seams. 
‘BREAD. A food prepared from. the meal. or 
flour of the cerealia, by kneading it together with 
water into a dough, and exposing it.to the action 
of heat, or baking it. There are two principal 
kinds of bread, fermented or leavened, and unfer- 
mented or unleavened. For the fermented or: lea- 
vened bread, the dough is first made, to undergo 
a kind of fermentation by the addition of leaven 
or dough, which is already in a fermenting state, 
or of yeast. The first is more uncertain and slow, 
and is apt. to impart a sour.taste. The panary 
fermentation seems to be an. alcoholic fermenta- 
tion of the same nature as that of saccharine 
matters, by which alcohol and carbonic acid are 
generated, which latter remains enclosed in small 
bubbles by the toughness of.the gluten, and 
thereby raises the dough. ‘The latter is then 
again kneaded over with some fresh flour, mould- 
ed or shaped into different forms, and after hav- 
ing been kept for a short time in a warm place 
to induce a new fermentation, by which they 
swell up to about double their original size, they 
are then baked or subjected to the action of heat 
in an oven, by which they still more enlarge by 
the dilatation of the enclosed carbonic acid, and 
become light and porous. Along with carbonic 
acid traces of alcohol are at the same time pro- 
duced, but not in sufficient quantity to be worth 
collecting for economical purposes. By the pan- 
ary fermentation not only a portion of the amy- 
lum passes into the saccharine state, and from 
thence into carbonic acid and alcohol, but.a mu- 
ual action seems at the same time to take place 
between the rest of the amylum and the gluten, 
by which they lose their tenacious and glutinous 
character, and become more palatable and digest- 
ible. This change is still more increased by the 
subsequent baking, which puts a stop to all fur- 
ther fermentation or change by exposure to the 
elevated temperature and the evaporation of a 
great portion of the water. Good fermented 
‘bread can therefore only be made of such flour as 
contains a sufficient quantity of gluten, other- 
wise the bread becomes heavy, unpalatable, and — 
| indigestible. Wheaten flour affords, in this point, — 
_the best bread, and more or less of it is generally | 
: added to other kinds of flour for fermented bread. 
