Bridgman, Laura
brij'man, Laura (1829-1889), a noted American woman. At the age of two she was attacked by a fever and lost her sight, her hearing, and sense of smell. She may be described, therefore, as a blind deaf-mute. She is noted in the annals of education for the great ease with which she learned to sew, to knit, to read, and to write. She had a touch of marvelous delicacy. By placing her fingers against the lips of a speaker, she could understand what was said. She learned to write with rapidity and accuracy. Anyone whom she had ever met, she was able to recognize by the mere touch of the hand. She became well versed in geography, history, and literature. She became a teacher in a Boston Institute for the education of the blind. She carried on an extensive correspondence with the deaf-mutes throughout the world and was very happy in her work and friends. See Blindness ; Telephone
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Bridle
a head stall, bit, and bearing or riding rein, completing the head gear of a horse's harness. The modern bridle of Europe and America consists of the following pieces: The crown piece, the brow band, the cheek strap, the throat latch or lash, the rein, and the bit. Sometimes, also, there are a nose band, blinkers or blinders, and a hitching strap.
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Bridle Bit
a bit connected with a bridle. Such bits are seen in Assyrian and Egyptian paintings and sculptures, and subsequently mentioned by are Xenophon. Bridle bits may be classed under three heads: Snaffles, curb bits, and stiff bits. The snaffle has two bars, joined together in the middle of the mouth, and has rings at the end for the rein. It sometimes has cheek pieces to keep the ring from pulling into the mouth of the animal. The curb bit conmou sists of the following parts: Cheek pieces or branches, with eyes for the cheek straps and for the reins, and holes for the curb chain; a mouthpiece, uniting the cheek pieces and forming the bit proper; sometimes a bar uniting the lower ends of the branches; a curb chain. The elastic bit consists of a chain covered by closely coiled wire between the bit rings. Another form of elastic bit is made of twisted wire with a soft rubber covering.
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Bridlington Crag
a deposit belonging to the Newer Pliocene. It consists of sand and bluish clay, with fragments of various rocks. It contains mollusks, of which four species are extinct, natica occlusa, cardita analis, nucula cobboldiæ, and tellina obliqua; most of the remaining species are Arctic shells. It appears to have been deposited during the period of the greatest cold.
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Brief
from the Latin brevis, short, a brief or short statement or summary, particularly the summary of a client's case which the solicitor draws up for the instruction of counsel. A brief may also mean, in law, an order emanating law from the Superior Courts. A Papal brief is a sort of pastoral letter in which ter which concerns the party to whom of Laws, until they were many 1845 he obtained the appointment a select committee of the House on the Game Laws, and also one on the sub- India. A ject of cotton cultivation in strenumember of the Peace Society, he in ously opposed the war with Russia In 1855 he energetically de- 1854. nounced the Crimean War. Elected in 1857 for Birmingham, he seconded the reading of the motion against the second Conspiracy Bill, which led to the overi
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Briel
or BRIELLE, sometimes THE
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Brig of Dread, The
There is an old belief, alluded to by Sir Walter Scott, that the soul, on leaving the body, has to pass over the Brig of Dread, a bridge as narrow as a thread, crossing a great gulf. If the soul succeed in passing it he shall enter heaven, if he fall off he is lost.
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Brigade Major
a staff officer attached to the brigade to assist the officer by whom it is commanded.
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Brigadier
an abbreviation of brigadier-general. It is in common use in the armies of modern civilized nations, the forces being divided into brigades in charge of brigadiers.
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Brigadier-General
a military officer of intermediate rank, between a major-general and colonel. See a BREVET.
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Brigandine
a piece of defensive armor worn in the Middle Ages, consisting of thin jointed scales of plate, generally sewed upon linen or leather, the whole forming a coat or tunic.
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Brigands
a name originally given to the mercenaries who held Paris during King John's imprisonment (1358), and who made themselves notorious for their ill behavior. It was applied by Froissart to a kind of irregular foot soldiery, and from them was transferred to simple robbers; it is now used especially of such of these as live in bands in secret mountain or forest retreats. In Cuba, in 1888, political discontent was made the excuse for the brigandage origandage then rampa rampant in the island, where four provinces were on this account declared in a state of siege. Religious persecution also has encouraged brigandage; in Bosnia, which has always produced the most perfect specimens of bandits, it was formerly very common, the unhappy Christians, who were reduced by the Turks to the condition of serfs, frequently taking to the mountains in despair, and then wreaking vengeance on their oppressors. Generally speaking, in countries with a notably scanty population, which is yet in many districts as notably overcrowded, brigandage ge will be still in existence. V nce. Vigorous steps have been taken during the last 50 years to repress the practice, and in some coun-
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Brigantes
the most powerful of the old British tribes, inhabiting the country between the Humber and Roman wall. the
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Brigantine
a sailing vessel with two masts, the foremast rigged like a brig's, the main mast rigged like a schooner's. Called also hermaphrodite brig. a clergy-
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Brigham
a city of Utah, in Box Line and the Southern Pacific railroads. Elder co. It is on the Oregon Short It is the center of an important fruit are canning and cement factories, plangrowing and agricultural region. There ing mills, and lumber yards. The city has a public library and other public buildings. Pop. (1910) 3,685; (1920) 5,282. man, son of Jacob Bright, a Quaker cot-
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