particularly three actions at Serbraxos, in May 1771. In each of them Bruce acted a considerable part; and, for his valiant conduct in the second, received as a reward from the king a chain of gold of 184 links; each link weighing 3 dwts., or somewhat more than 24 lbs. troy, in all. At Gondar, after these engagements, he again earnestly entreated to be allowed to return home, which was long resisted: but his health at last giving way, from the anxiety of his mind, the king consented to his departure, on condition of his engaging by oath to return to him in the event of his recovery, with as many of his kindred as he could engage to accompany him. After a residence of nearly two years in that wretched country, he left Gondar, Dec. 16th, 1771, taking the dangerous way of the desert of Nubia, in place of the most easy road of Masuah, by which he entered Abyssinia. He was induced to take this route from his experience of the savage temper of the naybe of Masuah. Arriving at Teawa, 21st March 1772, he found the sheik Fidele, at Atbara, the counterpart of the naybe of Masuah in every bad quality. By his intrepidity and prudence, however, and by making good use of his foreknowledge of an eclipse of the moon, which happened on the 17th of April, he was permitted to depart next day, and arrived at Senaar on the 20th. At this miserable and inhospitable place he was detained upwards of four months. This delay was occasioned by the illany of those who had undertaken to supply him with money; but at last, by disposing of 178 links of his gold chain, the well-earned trophy of Serbraxos, he was enabled to make preparations for his dangerous journey through the deserts of Nubia. He left Senaar on the 5th of September, and arrived on the third of October at Chendi, which he quitted on the 20th, and travelled through the desert of Gooz, to which village he came October 26th. On the 9th of November he left Gooz, and entered upon the most dreadful and dangerous part of his journey, the perils attending which he has related with a power of pencil not unworthy of the greatest masters. All his camels having perished, he was under the necessity of abandoning his baggage in the desert, and with the greatest difficulty reached Assouan upon the Nile, November 29th. After some days rest, having procured fresh camels, he returned into the desert and recovered his baggage, among which was a quadrant, of three feet radius, supplied by Louis XV. from the Military Academy at Marseilles, by means of which noble instrument, now deposited in the museum at Kinnaird, Mr. Bruce was enabled with precision and accuracy to fix the relative situations of the several remote places he visited. On the 10th of January 1773, after more than four years absence, he arrived at Cairo, where, by his manly and generous behaviour, he so won the heart of Mahomet Bey that he obtained a firman, permitting the commanders of English vessels belonging to Bombay and Bengal, to bring their ships and merchandise to Suez, a place far preferable, in all respects, to Jidda, to which they were formerly confined. Of this permission, which no European nation could ever before acquire, many English vessels have already availed themselves;

and it has proved peculiarly useful both in public and private despatches. Such was the worthy conclusion of his memorable journey through the desert-a journey, which, after many hardships and dangers, terminated in obtaining this great national benefit. At Cairo, Mr. Bruce's earthly career had nearly been concluded by a disorder in his leg, occasioned by a worm in the flesh. This accident kept him five weeks in extreme agony, and his health was not re-established till a year afterwards, at the baths of Poretta in Italy. On his return to Europe, Mr. Bruce was received with all the admiration due to so exalted a character. After passing some time in France, particularly at Montbard, with his friend the Comte de Buffon, by whom he was received with much hospitality, he at last revisited his native country from which he had been upwards of twelve years absent. On his return public curiosity was highly excited to sec a narrative of his travels; but this was retarded by various circumstances.

At last, however, he found leisure to put his materials in order; and in 1790 his long expected work appeared in five large quarto volumes, embellished with many plates, maps, and charts. The work has been criticised and the author accused of vanity, and even of falsehood; some even asserted that he had never seen Abyssinia; but later travellers have confirmed most of his statements, which they themselves had not believed when first made by him. To one objection, the account which he gives of his prediction of an eclipse-the time of which, by some strange mistake, refers to Britain-no answer we believe was ever made. The story, indeed, seems to be taken from a similar occurrence which happened to Columbus.

There never, perhaps, existed a man better qualified for the hazardous enterprize he undertook than Mr. Bruce. His person was of the largest size, his height exceeding six feet, and his bulk and strength proportionally great. He excelled in all corporeal accomplishments, being a hardy, practised, and indefatigable swimmer, trained to exercise and fatigue of every kind, and his long residence among the Arabs had given him a more than ordinary facility in managing the horse. In the use of fire-arms he was unerring; and his dexterity in handling the spear and lance on horseback was also uncommonly great. He was master of most languages, understanding the Greek perfectly; and was so well skilled in Oriental literature, that he revised the New Testament in the Ethiopic, Samaritan, Hebrew, and Syriac, making many useful notes and remarks on difficult passages. He had applied from early youth to mathematics, drawing, and astronomy: and had acquired some knowledge of physic and surgery. His memory was astonishingly retentive, his judgment sound and vigorous. He was dexterous in negociation, a master of public business, animated with the warmest zeal for his king and country, a physician in the camp or city, a soldier and horseman in the field, while at the same time his breast was a stranger to fear, though he took every precaution to avoid danger. Of his learning and sagacity, his delineation of the course of Solomon's fleet from Tarshish to Ophir, his account

of the cause of the inundations of the Nile, and his comprehensive view of the Abyssinian history, afford ample proofs. He was preparing a second edition of his travels for the press, when he died, April 27th, 1794, in consequence of a fall down his own stairs, in the sixty-sixth year of his age.

BRUCE (Robert), son of the earl of Carrick, being competitor with Baliol for the crown of Scotland, lost it by the arbitration of Edward I. of England, for generously refusing to hold that crown as dependent on him, which his ancestors had left him independent.

BRUCE (Robert), grandson of the preceding, when Baliol broke his agreement with Edward, was easily persuaded to side with him against Baliol, upon promise that he would settle him on the throne. Having contributed much to the breaking of Baliol's party, he demanded the accomplishment of king Edward's promise, who is said to have given him this answer: 'What! have I nothing else to do but to conquer kingdoms for you?' He, however, recovered his crown, defeated the English in several battles, raised the glory of the Scots, and extended their dominions. See SCOTLAND.

BRUCEA, in botany, a genus of the tetrandria order, belonging to the diocia class of plants.

BRUCHHAUSEN, a county of Westphalia, lying on the Weser, in Hanover, near the territory of Bremen. It is composed of the two towns of the Old and New Bruchhausen, each with a town and bailiwic. They are about four miles asunder, and between five and six miles west of the town of Hoya.

BRUCHSAL, the head of a district in the circle of the Pfinz and Enz, in the grand duchy of Baden, is situated on the Salza. It is well built, especially the suburbs of St. Peter and St. Paul, and has seven churches. The population is about 6000. The principal public buildings and institutions are the elegant castle, formerly the residence of the bishop, a Catholic academy, founded in 1803, the town-house, and hospital. It is eleven miles south-east of Spires, and fifteen south of Heidelberg.

BRUCHUS, in zoology, a genus of insects belonging to the order of coleoptera. The specific character of this insect is, body black; antennæ filiform, testaceous; feelers equal, filiform; lip pointed; thighs unarmed; head prominent; thorax tapering before; shells striate; species twenty-seven; scattered over the globe, of which the B. seminarius is the only one traced in our own country, and inhabiting our flowers. The other principal species are; 1. B. bactris, with smooth elytra, a hoary body, and the hind part of the thighs oval. It frequents the palmtrees of Jamaica. 2. B. gleditsiæ, with striated elytra, of the same length with the belly, a pitchcolored body, and green feelers. It is a native of America. 3. B. granarius, has black elytra; the fore-feet are red, and the hind-feet are dentated. It infests the seeds of plants in different parts of Europe. 4. B. pecticornis, with combshaped feelers longer than the body. It is a native of Barbary and China. 5. B. pisi, has gray elytra, interspersed with white spots, and a white

fundament with two black spots. It is a native of North America, and destroys whole fields of peas. It is now found in several of the southern parts of Europe, where it does great injury to the corn. 7. B. theobroma, with whitish elytra, interspersed with black points. It frequents the theobroma or chocolate-trees in the East Indies.

BRUCIA, or BRUCINE, a new vegetable alkali, lately extracted from the bark of the false angustura, or brucia antidysenterica, by M.M. Pelletier and Caventou. Its taste is exceedingly bitter, acrid, and durable in the mouth. When administered in doses of a few grains, it is poisonous, acting on animals like strychnia, but much less violently. It is not affected by the air. The dry crystals fuse at a temperature a little above that of boiling water, and assume the appearance of wax. At a strong heat it is resolved into carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, without any trace of azote. It combines with the acids, and forms both neutral and supersalts.

BRUCKER (John James), a Lutheran clergyman, was born in 1696 at Augsburgh, and studied at Jena. In 1724 he became rector of Kaufbeueren, and was, in 1731, chosen a memher of the Berlin academy of sciences. He was afterwards pastor of St. Ulric's, and senior minister in his native city, where he died in 1770. He was the author of several works and tracts on philosophy, but his most important production is his Historia Critica Philosophiæ, four volumes, 4to. which appeared in 1744, and with great improvements, in six volumes, 4to. 1767. This work acquired the general approbation of the learned, as the most copious and methodical history of philosophy ever written.-A judicious abridgment of it was published by Dr. Enfield, in 1791, two volumes, 4to.

BRUCKNER (John), a literary divine of the Lutheran persuasion, settled at Norwich; was born in the island of Cadsand in 1726, and received his education at Leyden and Franeker, after which he became pastor of the Walloon congregation at Norwich until his death, in 1804. He was author of—1. Theorie du Systeme Animale, which has been translated into English, under the title of a Philosophical Survey of the Animal Creation, 1768; in this work is some anticipation of the sentiments of Mr. Malthus' famous Essay on Population. 2. Criticism on the Diversions of Purley, in which he discovers great knowledge of the various Gothic and Hebrew dialects. 3. Thoughts on Public Worship, in answer to Gilbert Wakefield. He also commenced a didactic poem in French verse on the principles of his Theorie.

BRUGES, a large and opulent city of the Netherlands, the capital of West Flanders, and, during the domination of the French, the chief town of the department of the Lys. It is situated in a spacious plain, intersected by a great number of canals, about six miles from the sea. Before the French Revolution it formed, with its territory, a separate district. No river passes near it, but the canals leading to Sluys and Ostend bring up, at high water, vessels of from 200 to 300 tons. The trade and manufactures of Bruges were once

BRUMAIRE, i. e. the foggy month, French, from brume, fog, the second month in the French revolutionary calendar. It began October 22d. and ended November 20th, consisting of thirty days.

BRU'MAL, adj. Lat. brumalis. Belonging to the winter.

About the brumal solstice, it hath been observed, even unto a proverb, that the sea is calm, and the winds do cease, till the young ones are excluded, and forsake their nests. Brown. BRUMALIS PLANTE, in botany, from bruma, winter; plants which flower in our winter; common about the Cape.

BRUMALIA, in Roman antiquity, festivals of Bacchus, celebrated twice a year; the first on the 12th of the kalends of March, and the other on the 18th of the kalends of November. They were instituted by Romulus, who during these feasts used to entertain the senate. Among other heathen festivals which the primitive Christians were much inclined to observe, Tertullian mentions the bruma or brumalia.

BRUMALIS, in ornithology, a species of emberiza, found in the north of Italy, the Brumal Bunting of Latham

BRUMOY (Peter), a learned Jesuit, born at Rouen, in 1668, distinguished by his talents for the belles lettres. His works are 1. A History of the Gallican Church, 6 vols; 2. Morale Chretienne, 12mo.; 3. Examen du Poeme sur la Grace; 4. La Vie de la Imperatrice Eleonora; 5. Theatre des Grecs, Contenant des Traductions et Analyses des Tragedies Grecques, des Discours et des Remarques Concernant la Theatre Grecque, 3 vols. 4to. This very valuable performance was translated into English by Mrs. Lenox, who received assistance from Dr. Johnson and other able writers; 6. History of the Revolutions of Spain, 3 vols. 4to. He died at Paris in 1742

BRUN, BRAN, BROWN, BOURN, BURN, are all derived from the Saxon boɲn, bouɲn, bɲunna, bunna; all signifying a river or brook.

BRUN (Charles Le), was born in 1619, of a family of distinction in Scotland. His father was a statuary by profession. He discovered such an early inclination for painting, that his father being employed in the gardens at Seguier, the chancellor placed him with Simon Vouet an eminent painter. He was afterwards sent to Fontainebleau, to copy some of Raphael's pieces. He sent him next to Italy, and supported him there for six years. Le Brun, in his return, met with the celebrated Poussin, with whom he contracted a friendship which lasted as long as their lives. A painting of St. Stephen, which he finished in 1651, raised his reputation to the highest pitch. Soon after, the king made him his first painter, conferred on him the order of St. Michael, and spent two hours every day see him work, while he was painting the family of Darius at Fontainebleau. About 1662 he began his five large pieces of the history of Alexander the Great, in which he is said to have set the actions of that famous conqueror in a more glorious light than Quintus Curtius has done in his history. He procured several advantages for the royal academy of painting and

to

sculpture at Paris, and formed the plan of another for the students of his own nation at Rome. The king gave him the direction of all his works, particularly of his royal manufactory at the Gobelins, where he had a handsome house with a large salary. He was the author of two treatises; 1. On Physiognomy, and 2. On the Different Characters of the Passions. The pieces that gained him the greatest reputation were those which he finished at Fontainebleau, the great staircase at Versailles, and especially the grand gallery, which is the last of his works, and is said to have taken him up fourteen years. He died at Paris in 1690.

BRUNCK (Richard Francis Philip), a modern classical scholar and critic of the greatest reputation; he was a native of Strasburg, and educated by the Jesuits at Paris. He was made early in life a commissary at war and receiver of finances; but finally settled at Strasburg, and devoted all his leisure to the study of the Greek language. His Greek Anthology was first published at Strasburg in 1776, 3 vols. 8vo. ; and followed in 1779 by Selections from the works of Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, 2 vols. In 1780 appeared his edition of Apollonius Rhodius; and his Aristophanes in 1783. In 1785 he published an edition of Virgil; and in 1786 appeared the whole works of Sophocles, 2 vols. 4to. Brunck was now partially disturbed in his pursuits by the storms of the French Revolution, and became one of the first members of the popular associations at Strasburg. He was imprisoned at Besançon during the tyranny of Robespierre, on whose death he was liberated. In 1791 and 1801 our critic was under the necessity of selling portions of his fine library; which affected his composure to such a degree as to compel him to give up his Greek studies. He still, however, proceeded with the Latin poets; and in 1797 published a beautiful edition of Terence. He was preparing the works of Plautus for the press, when he died, June 1803.

BRUNDISIUM, or BRUNDUSIUM, in ancient geography, a town of Calabria, with the best harbour in Italy. It was a very ancient town, and belonged originally to the Salentines; but was taken by the Romans about A. A. C. 256. It is now called BRINDISI ; which see.

BRUNETT, n. s. Fr. brunette. A woman with a brown complexion.

Your fair women therefore thought of this fashion, to insult the olives and the brunettes. Addison.

BRUNIA, in botany, a genus of the monogynia order, and pentandria class of plants. The flowers are aggregate or clustered; the filaments inserted into the heels of the petals; the stigma is bifid; the seeds are solitary, and the capsule is bilocular. There are eight species, all Cape plants.

BRUNION, n. s. Fr. brugnon. A sort of fruit between a plum and a peach.

BRUNN, a circle and town of Moravia; the former, bounded by Bohemia on the north, and Austria on the south, contains about 1860 square miles, and a population of 299,960 individuals. Corn, flax, and large herds of cattle, are the chief produce. It also contains mines, medicinal springs, marble quarries, forges, alum-works and

glass-houses. Brunn is considered the capital of the kingdom, and has, besides the government offices, several large manufactures of fine woollen cloths and kerseymeres. It is well supplied with coals, water, and other requisites for these works, and was once fortified; but the trenches are now well filled with tanneries, rope-yards, dye-houses, &c. The principal buildings are the church, with an elegant spire covered with copper, the state-house, the town-house, and the palace of prince Lichtenstein. Near it, on the top of a hill, stands the fortress of Spielberg, now used as a state-prison. The town and suburbs contain about 24,000 inhabitants. Here are very large fairs for general commerce, held quarterly. Brunn is 100 miles south-east of Prague.

BRUNNEUS, in entomology, a species of pinus, and also the name of a species of curculio, cimex, cryptocephalus, coluber, asilus, and elater.

BRUNNICHIA, in botany, a genus of plants, class decandria, order tryginia: CAL. five-cleft: COR. none: CAPSULE one-celled, many-seeded, Species one, a Bahama plant.

BRUNO, i. e. Brown, Ital. the Latin name assumed by the late Dr. Brown, in his Elementa Medicine; whence the epithet Brunonian.

BRUNO, Giordano, a dominican, born at Nolo, in Naples. About A. D. 1582 he began to call in question some of the tenets of the Romish church, which obliged him to retire to Geneva: but after two years stay there, he expressed his aversion to Calvinism in such a manner that he was expelled the city. After having staid some time at Lyons, Toulouse, and Paris, he came to London, and continued two years in the house of M. Castleneau the French ambassador. He was very well received by queen Elizabeth and the politer part of the court. His principal friends were Sir Philip Sidney and Sir Fulk Greville. With these, and some others of their club, Bruno held assemblies; and, at Sir Philip's request, he composed his Spaccio della Bestia Trionfante, which was printed in 8vo. 1584 and dedicated to that gentleman. This work, which is remarkable for nothing but its impiety, we are told in the Spectator, No. 389, sold at an auction in London for £30. From England he went to Wirtemberg, and thence to Prague, where he printed some tracts, in which he openly discovered his atheistical principles. After visiting some other towns in Germany, he made a tour to Padua; where he was apprehended by the inquisition, tried, condemned, and, refusing to retract, was burnt at the stake in Rome, February 9th, 1600.

BRUNONIAN SYSTEM, a system of medicine, discovered by the late Dr. Brown, and explained at large in his Elements of Medicine. It differs so widely from all former systems of that science, and made so extensive an impression on the medical world at the time of its appearance, that we think it consistent with propriety to delineate it under its own title. The following will give a sufficient view of its outlines, to such as are unacquainted with it: and for its minutiae we must refer to the Dr's own works, and those of Dr. Beddoes, Dr. Jones, &c.

The human body, particularly the system of solids it consists of, is a form of living matter,

whose characteristics are sensation and motion. The capability of being affected by external powers is termed excitability; the agents, stimuli, or exciting powers; the result excitement. Without this property (excitability), the body would be dead inert matter: By this property, it becomes living matter; by this property, called into action by the exciting powers, it becomes a living system. While the stimuli act on the excitability with a sufficient degree of power, then is the pleasant sensation of health; when they raise the excitement above this point, or depress it below it, disease takes place: when the stimuli cease to act, or the system to feel their power, death ensues. Excitability is a property of living matter, peculiar and inherent, but it is a property which Dr. Brown did not pretend to explain. He left it as Sir Isaac Newton did his Attraction, as a property not to be investigated. Of this energy or power, there is assigned to every living system, at the commencement of life, a certain quantity or proportion; but its quantity differs in each, and in the same body it is found to change, for the excitability, according to circumstances, may be abundant, increased, accumulated, superfluous, exhausted, consumed, &c. The stimuli, or exciting powers, are of two classes: external and internal. The external stimuli are heat, light, sound, air, and motion; food, drink, medicines, and whatever else is taken into the body, not excepting poisons and contagions. The internal are the functions of the body, the blood, the secretions, muscular exertion, and finally the powers of the mind, as sensation, passion and thought. Dr. Beddoes, we know not for what reason, ranks the blood and secreted fluids' among the external stimuli. Excitement is Life; the natural movements of the machine, and the functions resulting from these, as sensation, reflection, and voluntary motion; which, as they immediately flow from the exciting powers, are vigorous when they are strong, languid when they are weak, and cease when they are taken away entirely. Thus our body is continually moved by external agents, and life is a forced state. The frame has an unceasing tendency to dissolution, which is opposed only by the incessant application of exciting powers; which are the sources of life, and which being partially or completely withdrawn are immediately followed by disease or death. It is also a principle of this doctrine, that 'all stimuli by acting on the excitability exhaust it.' Ou awaking we feel a new power of excitement in every object around us; we are refreshed in the morning, and languid at night, and our whole life is an alternation of motion and rest, of action and sleep, of apathy and pleasure, of wasting our excitability by day in labor or enjoyment, and of recruiting it by night by the abstraction of all stimulant powers. The same philosophy extends to the duration of life: in childhood, excitability is abundant in quantity, as being little exhausted; but it is low in power, because the tender stamina, and accumulated excitability of children, can neither suffer nor support high excitement. Their excitability is so abundant, that they are easily supported by weak diet and low exciting powers, and therefore most of their diseases are diseases of