Brownstone
a reddish-brown sand-stone popular shortly after the Civil War as a building material. Block after block of the residence section of New York immediately below Central Park is built largely of brown sandstone from the quarries of Connecticut and New Jersey . Under the action of frost it has shown a tendency to split into layers, and is not so popular as formerly. This is the stone to which Holmes refers as evidence of social standing: Little I ask; my wants are few; I only wish a hut of stone, (A very plain brown stone will do,) That I may call my own;-- And close at hand is such a one, In yonder street that fronts the sun. A similar stone of excellent quality is quarried at several points in the vicinity of Lake Superior in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The red color is due to an iron stain. The adoption of steel construction and tiling has done much to diminish the demand for this fine building stone. See Sandstone ; Quarry
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
Brownsville
city, port of entry, and county-seat of Cameron co., Tex.; on the Rio Grande and the Rio Grande and St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexican railroads, opposite Matamoras, Mexico. It contains the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the Convent and Academy of the Incarnate Word, a United States Government building, and National banks; and has a large trade with Mexico. In the suburbs is Fort Brown, a garrisoned United States post. In May, 1846, Brownsville was occupied and fortified by a small body of United States troops, who maintained their position in the face of a heavy bambardment that lasted for 160 hours; and in November, 1863, it was taken from the Confederates by a Federal army under General Banks. Pop. (1910) 10,517; (1920) 11,791.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Brucea
a genus of plants belonging to the order xanthoxylaceæ (xanthoxyls). The green parts of B. sumatrana are intensely bitter. B. antidysenterica contains a poisonous principle called brucia. The bark of another species is bitter, and has qualities like those of quassia simarouba. B. ferruginea is from Abyssinia.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Bruchsal
a town of Baden, 25 miles S. of Heidelberg. It was the residence of the prince-bishops of Spires from the 11th century, but lost its importance until it became a considerable railway center. The Grand- Duke of Baden has a fine palace here. Pop. about 15,000.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Bruchus
a genus of beetles belonging to the section tetramera, and the family rhyncophora or curculionidæ. The antennæ are 14-jointed, and are filiform, serrate or pectinated, not geniculated as in the more normal curculionidæ. It contains small beetles which deposit their larvæ in the germs of leguminous plants, and, when hatched, devour their seed. B. pisi is destructive to the garden ca.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Brucine
or BRUCIA (named from the plant B. antidysenterica, from which it is derived), an alkaloid found along with strychnine in nux vomica; also in false Angostura bark.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Brugg
a town in the Swiss canton of Aargau, on the right bank of the Aar, and near the mouth of the Reuss, 36 miles E. S. E. of Basel by rail. Near it is the site of Vindonissa, the chief Roman station in Helvetia; and it was also the cradle of the house of Hapsburg, whose ruined castle, founded in 1020, crowns a wooded height 2 miles from the village. Nearer is the abbey of Königsfelden (1310; converted in 1872 into an asylum), in the vaults beneath which are interred many of the members of the Austrian royal family.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Brugsch
HEINRICH KARL (brögsh), a German Egyptologist, born in Berlin, Feb. 18, 1827. He early devoted himself to the study of Egyptian antiquities, and resided a number of years in Egypt, being for some time in the employment of the Egyptian Government, by which he was created a Bey, and latterly a Pasha. His "History of Egypt from the Monuments" has been translated into English. He died in Berlin, Sept. 11, 1894.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Bruhesen, Peter Van
A Dutch doctor and astrologer who died at Bruges, in 1571. He published in that town in 1550 a Grand and Perpetual Almanack in which he scrupulously indicated by the tenets of judicial astrology the correct days for bathing, shaving, hair-cutting and so forth. The work caused offence to a certain magistrate of Bruges who plied the tonsorial trade, with the result that there appeared against Bruhesen's volume another Grand and Perpetual Almanack, with the flippant subtitle a scourge for empirics and charlatans. This squib was published by a rival medico, François Rapaert, but Peter Haschaerts, a surgeon, and a protagonist of astrological science, warmly defended Bruhesen in his Astrological Buckler.
Only in An Encyclopaedia of Occultism
Bruillant
One of the actors mentioned in the Grand Saint Graal. He it was who discovered the Grail Sword in Solomon 's ship, and with it slew Lambor. For this use of the holy sword, however, the whole of Britain suffered, for no wheat grew, the fruit trees bare no fruit, and there was no fish in the sea. Bruillant himself was puuished with death.
Only in An Encyclopaedia of Occultism
Bruise
or CONTUSION, signifies an injury inflicted by a blow or sudden pressure, in which the skin is not wounded, and no bone is broken or dislocated. Both terms, and especially the latter, are employed in surgery to include all such injuries in their widest range, from a black eye to a thoroughly crushed mass of muscle. 14-Vol. II-Cyc BRUNAÏ With regard to treatment, simple and not very severe bruises require little treatment, but the rest necessary for the avoidance of pain; but the removal of the swelling and discoloration may be hastened by the application of various local stimulants, which seem to act by accelerating the circulation through the bruised part, and promoting the absorption of the effused fluid. Tinture of arnica has a great reputation; but experiments have made it very doubtful whether it is any more efficacious than simple spirit of the same strength. A solution of sulphurous acid, and hazeline and other preparations of the American witch-hazel are of more value. They should be kept constantly applied to the bruised part on lint or cotton wool. Bruises of a more severe nature, as when there is much breaking or crushing of the tissues, must, of course, at once be placed in the hands of a surgeon.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia