Bran
the skins or husks of ground maize, wheat, rye, or other grain, separated from the flour. The outer skin, or coarse bran, is very indigestible, owing to the presence of a layer of silica. The inner skins, called pollards, are more nutritious, containing fro from 12 to 15 per cent. of nitrogenous matter, matter, and from 20 to 30 per cent. of starch. Unless, however, they are ground very finely, they are apt to set up irritation of the bowels and diarrhea. Though rich in nitrogen, bran appears to possess but little nutritive power. It may be of use to those who are well fed, and need a laxative. It is largely employed in the feeding of horses and cattle, and in brightening goods during the processes of dyeing and calico printing.
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Branch
that part of a plant which is produced from a lateral leaf bud on the primary axis or stem. It is looked upon as part of the stem, and not as a distinct organ. A branch generally produces secondary branches, and these give rise to minor ramifications, called branchlets or twigs. The different modes in which branches spring from the stem give rise to the various forms of trees; such as pyramidal, spreading, and weeping.
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Branchia
the gills of fishes and various other inhabitants of water. They are the apparatus for enabling the animal to extract oxygen from the water, instead of being dependent on the atmosphere.
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Branchiopoda
Cuvier's first order of the sub-class entomostraca. The genera included under it, such as cyclops, cypris, apus, limnadia, branchipus, etc., are now generally ranked under several orders, viz., copepoda, ostracoda, and phyllopoda. It is also a division or "legion" of the sub-class entomostraca. It includes the orders cladocera, phyllopoda and trilobita, perhaps with mesostoma.
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Branchiostoma
Costa's name for the very anomalous genus of fishes now called amphioxus.
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Branco
RIO, a river of northern Brazil, which rises in the Parima Mountains, on the very borders of Venezuela; and, after a S. course of about 400 miles, joins the Rio Negro, of which it is the principal tributary, on its way to the Amazon.
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Brandegee
FRANK BOSWORTH, United States Senator from Connecticut; born in New London, in 1864. He studied at Yale, from which he graduated in 1885. He chose the profession of law and was admitted to the bar in 1888. In that year he was elected to the Connecticut General Assembly, and was made Speaker of that body in 1899. In 1902 he was elected a Representative to the Fifty-seventh Congress and re-elected for the two following terms. He was elected as United States Senator, May 9, 1905; re-elected Jan. 20, 1909, and again on Nov. 3, 1914. He was active in affairs relating to Mexico and took an active stand in opposing ratification of the Versailles Peace Treaty.
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Brandeis
LOUIS DEMBITZ, an American jurist; born in Louisville, Ky., in 1856. He studied in German schools abroad and also at Harvard University. He was admitted to the bar in 1878. From 1879 to 1916, he practiced law in Boston, where he built up a large clientage and achieved a reputation as a lawyer of remarkable learning and acumen. He was counsel in many cases of national interest, being usually on the side of the public where large corporate interests were concerned. In freight rate cases, eight-hour law controversies, and matters of wage dispute, he has been prominent and he has often been called on to act as arbitrator. He was nominated as a justice of the Supreme Court by President Wilson in 1916, and was confirmed in the face of considerable opposition. He was the first Hebrew to sit on the Supreme Court bench. He was active in the Zionist movement, and in 1920 went to Europe to attend a conference on that question.
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Brandenburg
a province of Prussia, surrounded mainly by Mecklenburg and the provinces of Pomerania, Posen, Silesia, and Prussian Saxony. The soil consists in many parts of barren sands, heaths, and moors; yet the province produces much grain, as well as fruits, hemp, flax, tobacco, etc., and supports many sheep. The forests are very extensive. The principal streams are the Elbe, the Oder, the Havel, and the Spree. Berlin is located in Brandenburg. Area 15,400 square miles, population about 4,000,000, including the city of Berlin. The Old Mark of Brandenburg was bestowed by the Emperor Charles IV. on Frederick of Hohenzollern, and is the center round which the Kingdom of The town of Branden- Prussia grew. burg is on the Havel, 35 miles W. S. W. of Berlin. It is divided into three parts -an old town, a new town, and a cathedral town-by the river, and has considerable manufactures, including silk, woolens, leather, etc. Pop. about 55,000.
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Brandes
GEORG (bran'des), a Danish literary critic of Jewish family, born in Copenhagen, Feb. 4, 1842, where he graduated at the university in 1864. Several books on athletic and philosophic subjects brought on him a charge scepticism, which was not removed by of an epoch-making series of lectures, published under the title, "The Great Tendencies of Nineteenth-Century Literature" (1872-1875). His "Danske Digtere," a masterpiece of psychological analysis, appeared in 1877; but the hostility of his enemies induced him in the same year to leave Denmark, and settle in Berlin, where he published biographies of Lasalle (1877), and Lord Beaconsfield (1879). In 1882 he returned to Copenhagen, his countrymen having guaranteed him an income of 4,000 crowns, with the one stipulation that he should deliver public lectures on literature. His later works include "Den Romantiske Skole i Frankrig" (1882); a biography of Ludvig Holberg (1885), and a valuable study of Shakespeare, published in an English translation in 1899; "Main Currents of 19th Century Literature" (1906).
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Branding
an ancient mode of punishment by inflicting a mark on an offender with a hot iron. It is generally disused under the English civil law, but has been employed to punish deserters. It is not, however, now done by a hot iron, but with ink, gunpowder, or some other preparation, so as to be visible and permanent. The mark is the letter "D," affixed on the left side two inches below the armpit .
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