of its inventor, it does not follow that they tend to produce the same propensities in others.'

Dr. Beddoes has, with great candor as well as judgment, pointed out a few of the imperfections of this doctrine. 1. He observes, that, as Dr. Brown' assumes, that a certain portion of excitability is originally assigned to every living system, by his very assumption, he denies its continual production, subsequent diffusion, and expenditure.' Dr. Beddoes thinks that the brain is destined to secrete a successive supply of this principle. 2. He next objects against the Dr's

weakness. In youth and manhood the excitability is yet entire, the stamina are strong: the powerful stimuli are applied, and high passions prevail : these are the periods of vigor, and the era of inflammatory disease. In old age the stamina are worn, the excitability is exhausted, the common stimuli have lost their power, and the system begins to decline; we have weakness of body, imbecility of mind, and asthenic diseases. We may, last of all, have recourse to more generous diot, and raise the stimulant powers by substituting wine to water, or brandy to wine; thus perhaps excitement may be a while sup-uniformity of operation in stimulants.'' Heat ported, and life prolonged; but in a few years, these also fail. This doctrine farther teaches, that the body is never moved but by exciting powers. None but stimuli affect our system. Health is the due operation of stimuli on a well regulated excitability, producing a moderate excitement, and a pleasant sensation; moving the whole system with a just degree of power, and giving all the functions their due energy and tone. Asthenic disease, disease of debility or of weakness, is the result of stimuli applied in a low degree, or of the system less easily excited. Sthenic disease, or disease of strength, is the result of stimuli applied in too great a degree, or of a system too susceptible of excitement. The first is depression of excitement below the healthy state it produces languid motions and functions; and requires excitement for its cure. The second is a strong state of the system, wound up to too high a pitch of excitement. It is an exuberance of health and strength. It is marked by violent movements, and is cured by abstraction of stimuli. Thus are all our maladies either diseases of weakness or of excessive strength, and this is the foundation of the Brunonian scale, which has for its middle point health; below that are arranged the diseases of weakness; above it the diseases of excessive strength: and, in both divisions of the scale, diseases are so arranged, that the worst forms are set off at the greatest distance from the middle point, to mark them as the widest deviations from the healthy

state.

The Brunonian system,' says Dr. Beddoes, 'has been frequently charged with promoting intemperance; the objection is serious, but the view given of its principles shows it to be groundless. No writer has insisted so much upon the dependence of life upon external causes, or so strongly stated the inevitable consequences of excess and there are no means of promoting morality upon which we can rely, except the knowledge of the true relations between man and other beings or bodies. For by this knowledge we are directly led to shun what is hurtful, and pursue what is salutary. It may be said that the author's life disproves the justness of this representation. His life, however, only shows the superior power of other causes, and of bad habits in particular; and I acknowledge the little efficacy of instruction when bad habits are formed. Its great use consists in preventing their formation, for which reason, popular instruction in medicine would contribute to the happiness of the human species. But though the principles of the system did not correct the propensities

and wine (he justly observes) can never act in
the same manner, for no person is intoxicated
by heat.' He adds, had it been once allowed
by Brown, that the different constituent parts of
the body bear a different relation to the same
agents, he must have admitted the operation of
specific stimulants to an unlimited extent.' On
the subject of Predisposition to Disease, he ob-
serves that though facts have been noted, the
principle lies involved in total obscurity. Brown
does not purposely elude the difficulty, but his
principles lead him beside it; and we may doubt
whether the term predisposition ought in strict
propriety to have appeared in his Elements; for
predisposition is with him a slight disease, dif-
fering only in degree from that into which the
person predisposed falls.' 4. There are several
other opinions,' he adds, ' which, in a complete
revisal of the Brunonian system, would require
particular examination, such as his doctrine con-
cerning hereditary diseases,' which Brown denies
the existence of, the peculiar state of sthenic
inflamation, and the nature of the passions.' 5.
And in a note upon Brown's preface, he styles
the Dr's opinion, that nearly all the diseases of
children depend on debility, a gross and
dangerous error,' though he admits that thou-
sands of them are cut off at an early period of
life, and tens of thousands kept languishing in
misery, by asthenic diseases, for want of he
necessaries of life.' This admission of Dr. Bed-
does might have superseaed his criticism.
Brown did not say all diseases of children were
asthenic. But if thousands and tens of thousands
are, they may be surely said to be nearly all such.
Neither Dr. Brown nor any man in his senses
would prescribe stimulants in croup, peripneu-
mony, or the first stage of hooping cough;
though we have known the most speedy and
effectual cures performed by opium in this last
disease, after the sthenic diathesis was gone.

Dr.

Some have asserted that Dr. Brown borrowed the first idea of his doctrine from some hints thrown out by his then intimate friend Dr. Cullen; but Dr. Beddoes, after quoting the passage from Cullen's Institutions (parag. cxxx.), where excitement is mentioned, shows plainly that when Dr. Cullen wrote it, his thoughts were turned from a living body to an electrical machine,' and that his idea of excitement has therefore nothing in common with that of Brown.'-Others have affirmed, that Dr. Brown only revived the old doctrine of the Methodic sect, and that Themison was the discoverer, and Thessalus and Soranus the improvers, of the doctrine now called Brunonian. But nothing can be more distant from the

truth than this. The methodic doctrine of stricture and relaxation bears no analagy to Brown's definitions of sthenic and asthenic diseases; and the doctrine of spasm itself is not more opposite to the Brunonian system, than Themison's notion of a third class of diseases, which partook of both stricture and relaxation. The truth is incontrovertible, that the discovery, such as it is, is wholly Brown's own. Dr. Darwin suggested an ingenious modification of this system; but the system itself has, of late, been almost entirely abandoned by medical men.

BRUNSFELSIA, in botany, a genus of the monogynia order, and pentandria class of plants. CAL. five-toothed, angular; coR. a long tube: CAPS. berried, one-celled, many-seeded. Two species, both natives of the West-Indies.

BRUNSVIGIA, in botany, a genus of plants class hexandria, order monogynia, natural order narcissi; essential characters, COR. superior, having six deep segments: CAFS. turbinate,

with three membranous wings: SEED. numerous and pointed. The species are, 1. B. multiflora, broad-leaved brunsvigia. 2. B. marginata, red edged brunsvigia. 3. B. radula, rasp-leaved brunsvigia. 4. B. striata, striated brunsvigia. These are all natives of the Cape of Good Hope.

BRUNSWICK, a duchy of Germany, in the former circle of Lower Saxony, and having for its boundaries Luneburg on the north, Westphalia on the west, the duchy of Hesse on the south, and Magdeberg, Anhalt, and Halberstadt, on the east. It is sometimes considered in two distinct parts: the principality of Wolfenbuttle, and the county of Blankenburg, containing altogether about 1452 square miles, and a population of 208,700 persons, or nearly 144 persons to each square mile, and is, in its civil government divided into two cities and six districts, which, with their extent, population, and chief towns, have been thus exhibited ;

Population.
56,593

---

Chief Towns.
Wolfenbuttle
Helmstadt

32,880

19,841

Langelsheim

1452

Brunswick and Wolfenbuttle are cities, ranking as distinct districts, the former containing a population of 29,050, and the latter 6,800 inhabitants. A late survey gives the following distribution of the surface of this duchy.

Under the plough

Under garden culture

In meadows

Pasture land

Woods and plantations
Fish-ponds and lakes

its descent from Azo I., marquis of Este, in Italy, who died in 964. It consists of two branches, the Brunswick Luneburg, and that of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle; the head of the former being the king of Great Britain and Hanover, and of the Eng. Acres. latter the duke of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle, the 291,575 ruling prince of Brunswick, who holds the 16,752 twelfth place in rank among the princes of the 42,049 empire. In the modern arrangement of the 207,751 German states it has its place in the third class. 284,423 Brunswick, the capital, is composed of five 2,217 towns, viz. the Old Town, the New, the Hagan The most valuable are the mineral productions or Burg, the Old Wieck, and the Sack, which of the duchy, particularly its iron, the mines of make it a large place, but the houses are almost which, with the marble and timber, are the chief all built of wood. There are several churches, basis of its revenue. The northern part is flat, one of which is an ancient Gothic building, but but the southern district a mountainous region, the appearance of its antiquity is almost absorbed forming the thickest part of the Hartz, and large- by modern repairs. It is a fortified place, but ly covered with forests. The lower tracts, besides not of much strength. The inhabitants carry abundance of timber, and metals, produce on a considerable trade with Bohemia. Brunsvarious kinds of grain. The rivers are the wick mum is well known in England; a small Weser, the Ocker, the Innerste, and the Leine. sort of which is the common drink of the inhabiThe principal exports, rye, wheat, wool, linen, tants of the city. Here spinning-wheels are said rape-seed, hops, vitriol, sulphur, zinc, and a few to have been invented. The buildings most deother articles, amount to two millions and a serving of notice here, are the cathedral of St. half of Rix-dollars annually. The imports are Blasius, with the tombs of deceased members wine, sugar, tea, and coffee. The inhabitants of the royal family; the Graue-Hof, the resiare principally Lutherans; the whole of the dence of the duke, originally a monastery, the Catholics and Calvinists being only estimated at public wine cellars, the exchequer, the meetingbetween 3000 and 4000. About 3000 men house of the diet, the mint, the opera-house, the includes the whole military establishment. The new town-house, and the arsenal. The Collegium annual revenue arising from taxation is about Carolinum was founded in 1745, and affords in£170,000 a year, but, in addition to this, the struction in the languages, arts, sciences, and prince has a yearly income of about £210,000, polite exercises. Here are also two other acadefrom his patrimonial domains. mies. The manufactures beside mum, are wool, yarn, linen, porcelain, pasteboard, and paperhangings The great Brunswick fairs rank next

The illustrious house of Brunswick has been one of the most distinguished in history, and traces

to those of Leipsic and Frankfort. Between 1807 and 1814, Brunswick was the capital of the department of the Ocker, in the kingdom of Westphalia. It is seven miles north of Wolfenbuttle, and forty-seven W.N.W of Magdeburg. BRUNSWICK, a maritime county of North Carolina, America.

BRUNSWICK, formerly the best built town in the above county, and one that carried on the most extensive trade; but having been burnt down in the year 1780, by the British, it has never since recovered.

BRUNSWICK, a town of New Jersey, United States of America, is situated on the south-west bank of the Rariton river. It contains about 2500 inhabitants, most of whom are Dutch. The commodious wooden bridge across the Rariton river, is about 200 paces long, and the only object worth notice. The part over the channel is contrived to draw up, and on each side is a footway, with rails and lamps. It carries on a considerable trade, and is eighteen miles north-east of Princetown, sixty north-east from Philadelphia, and thirty-five south-west from New York.

BRUNSWICK, a town of the United States, in Cumberland county, district of Maine, contains about 1400 inhabitants, and lies thirty miles north-east of Portland, and 151 north-east of Boston.

BRUNSWICK, a town of the United States, the chief town of Glynn county, Georgia, is situated at the mouth of Turtle river, in Simon's sound. It has a safe and capacious harbour. From its advantageous situation, and the fertility of the back country, it promises to be a most commercial and flourishing place. It is sixty miles S.S.W from Savannah, and 110 south-east from Louisville.

BRUNSWICK New, one of the four British provinces in North America, bounded on the south by the bay of Fundy, on the west by the United States, and part of Lower Canada, on the north by Chaleur bay, and on the east by the gulf of St. Lawrence. Its chief towns are St. John's the capital, Fredericktown, St. Andrews, and St. Ann, the present seat of government. The rivers, St. John's, Magegadavick, or eastern river, Dicwasset, St. Croix, Merrimichi, Petitcodiac, Memramcook; all, the three last excepted, falling into Passamaquoddy bay. St. John's river opens a vast extent of fine woody country, the pines of which are said to be the best yielded in America. The Passamaquoddy is surrounded with noble meadows. See AMERICA, BRITISH. BRUNSWICK GREEN. This is an ammoniacomuriate of copper, much used for paper-hangings, and on the continent in oil-painting. See COPPER.

BRUNSWICK (Ferdinand, duke of), a celebrated general of the last century, was born in 1721, and travelled in Holland, France, and Italy. Returning home in 1740, he entered the service of the king of Prussia, and soon distinguished himself in Silesia. After the rupture of the convention of Closterseven, he was employed by George II. in the command of the English and Hanoverian forces destined to act against the French. He now drove the enemy beyond the Rhine, and won, by a daring manœuvre, the

battle of Crevelt. Shortly after followed the famous victory of Minden, in which Lord George Sackville, who commanded the British and Hanoverian cavalry, was accused of standing aloof in the action. In 1762 Ferdinand drove the French out of the territory of Hesse: the peace of the following year terminated his career as a general, and he retired to Brunswick, where his death took place July 3rd, 1792.

BRUNSWICK LUNENBURG (Charles William Ferdinand, duke of), nephew of the preceding, and born at Brunswick in 1735, studied the art of war under his uncle and Frederic the Great of Prussia. When only twenty-two, he distinguished himself at the battle of Hastenbeck, and afterwards served with reputation. The king of Prussia employed him in a military capacity in 1770 and 1771; and in 1778 the war concerning the succession of Bavaria gave him an opportunity of establishing his fame. He succeeded to the duchy on the death of his father in 1780. In 1787 he conducted his memorable campaign in Holland, quieted its disturbances, and established for a time the preponderance of Prussia. The revolution now rising in France furnished him with fresh employment: in 1792 he was appointed to the command of the allied forces destined to act against France, with a view to liberate Louis XVI. Nothing could be more unfortunate than the result of this expedition; the duke resigned his command in the beginning of 1794. He once more took up arms against France in 1806, and received a wound, while in command of the Prussians at the battle of Auerstadt, of which he died at Altona, November 10th, 1806. In 1764 this prince married the princess Augusta of England, by whom he had three sons and four daughters. His eldest son and successor fell in the midst of his brave Brunswickers early in the battle, fought in 1815, near Waterloo. For a sketch of the life of his not less brave but unhappy daughter, Caroline, see CAROLINE.

BRUNSWICK-OELS (Frederick Augustus, duke of), younger brother of the preceding, was born in 1741 at Brunswick. Destined, from his station, to a military life, he had yet a strong predilection for the belles lettres; and, while acting as a general officer in the service of Prussia, distinguished himself by his literary acquirements. His productions, printed and circulated among his friends, but never published, were Critical Remarks on the Character and Actions of Alexander the Great; a Treatise on Great Men; The Thoughts of a Cosmopolite on Air Balloons; Military Instructions; A Discourse on Taking the Oath; Considerations on the Grandeur, &c. of Ancient Rome; An amusing Historical, Political, and Literary Journal; all in 8vo. and a History of the Military Life of Prince Frederick Augustus of Brunswick Lunenburg, 4to. His highness was an honorary member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. In 1792 he succeeded to the principality of Brunswick Oels, and died in 1805 at Weimar.

William Adolphus, another brother, belonged to the Academy at Berlin, and published a Translation of Sallust, a Discourse on War, and a Poem on the Conquest of Mexico, in French.

He served in the armies of the king of Prussia, and died of a fever in 1771, when about to join the Russian army.

BRUNT. Swed. branud, Belg. brand, from Goth. brenna. To burn; ardor; vehemence; shock; violence; blow; stroke.

which a catalogue is given in Gesner's Bibliotheque. He was very poor, subsisting almost entirely by the benefactions of his poetical patrons, and by presents from the abbots whose monasteries he described. The liberality of some abbots at Basil enabled him to buy a new suit of clothes; but when he found that appearing well dressed in the streets procured him respect from the vulgar, he tore his new finery to pieces, as slaves that had usurped their master's honors.' He was murdered in the forest of Schlingenbach Too feeble I to abide the brunt so strong. Spenser. gentlemen (it was supposed) against whom he between Rottemberg and Winsheim, by some

Erona chose rather to bide the brunt of war, than
Sidney,

venture him.

A wicked ambush, which lay hidden long
In the close covert of her guileful eyen,
Thence breaking forth, did thick about me throng,

The friendly rug preserved the ground, And headlong knight, from bruise or wound, Like feather-bed betwixt a wall,

God, who caused a fountain, at thy prayer, From the dry ground to spring, thy thirst to' allay After the brunt of battle. Milton. BRUNTON (Mary), an authoress of some repute, was the daughter of Colonel Thomas Balfour, and born in the island of Barra, Orkney, in 1778. She married, in her twentieth year, Dr. Alexander Brunton, minister of Bolton, near Haddington, and afterwards of Edinburgh. She wrote Discipline, and Self-Control, two very successful novels of the religious class, and died in 1818, leaving Emmeline, a tale, and other pieces, which have been published by Dr. B. with a sketch of her life.

BRUNY'S ISLE, an island on the south-east coast of Van Diemen's land, of an irregular figure, and about thirty miles in length. On the east it is penetrated by Adventure Bay, and by Isthmus Bay on the west; the tides nearly meet on each side of the narrow intervening lands. From the mainland this island is separated by D'Entrecasteaux's channel, and has a beautiful sandy beach, of which the interior is covered with lofty trees, many of which seem peculiar to the island. Enormous rays are found here, weighing 300 or 400 pounds. Mosquitoes are numerous, and a species of large black`ant, which inflicts a very painful bite. Eagles, hawks, parroquets, and several kinds of crows, frequent the shore, where numbers of aquatic birds are taken. Kangaroos are also found here, and a singular species of the duck-billed ant eater. It is seventeen inches long, two inches high when walking, and covered by spines, just projecting above the skin. It is a sort of connecting link between birds and quadrupeds. The few inhabitants here are of similar tribes to those of Van Diemen's land, dark, and tattooed with fanciful elevated punctures. Both sexes go naked, and are very barbarous and treacherous. Long. 147° 29′ E., lat. 43° 21' S.

BRUSCHIUS (Gasper), a Latin historian and poet, born at Egra, in Bohemia, in 1518. He was devoted to literature from his childhood, and especially to poetry, in which he gained so much reputation, that he attained to the poetical crown, to the dignity of poet laureat, and of count palatine. He wrote with prodigious facility; and his verses are easy, and natural. He published Latin poems on various subjects; the History of the Bishops and Bishoprics of Germany; of German Monasteries; and many other works, of

was about to write something.

BRUSH', v. & n.
BRUSH'ER,

BRUSH'Y.

Swed. borst, Dan. bæerst, Fr. brosse. This in the sense of an instrument made with bristles of hair: but Goth. brask, bradska, Swed. bradska, Scot. brash, Bel. brusk, Fr. brusque, Ital. brusco. In this it signifies a sudden effort, a strenuous act, an assault. To brush, is with a brush either to clean, rub, or paint anything; to strike with quickness, to move with rapidity, or to fly over, to skim lightly. The adjective is used in the sense of rough or shaggy. A fox's tail is on this account called a brush.

The wrathful beast about him turned light, And him so rudely passing by, did brush With his long tail, that horse and man to ground did rush. Faerie Queene. If he be not in love with some woman, there is no believing old signs: he brushes his hat o' morning; what should that bode? Shakspeare.

Id.

Let grow thy sinews till their knots be strong,
And tempt not yet the brushes of the war.
Sir Henry Wotton used to say, that criticks were
like brushers of noblemen's cloathes.

Bacon.

Marvell.

Another bolder stands at push
With their old holy-water brush.
And from the boughs brush off the evil dew,
And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blue.

BRUSH, in electricity, denotes the luminous appearance of the electric matter issuing in a parcel of diverging rays from a point. Beccaria ascribes this appearance to the force with which the electric fluid, going out of a point, divides the contiguous air, and passes through it to that which is more remote.

BRUSH MAKING. This is done by folding the hair or bristle in two; and bringing it by means of a packthread, which is engaged in the fold, through the holes with which the wood is pierced all over, being afterwards fastened therein with glue. When the holes are thus filled, the ends of the hair are cut to make the surface even. The Chinese painter's brush consists of the stalk of a plant; whose fibres being fretted at both ends, and tied again, serve for a brush.

BRUSH, SHEARMEN'S, is made of wild boar's bristles; and serves to lay the wool or nap of cloth, after shearing it for the last time.

BRUSH, WIRE, is made of brass or iron wires instead of hair. These are used by silver-smiths and gilders, for scrubbing silver, copper, or brass, previous to gilding them.

BRUSH OF A FOX, among sportsmen, signifies his drag or tail.

BRUSH'WOOD.

Teut. brusch, Fr. brusc, brosse, brossailles, Ital. brusca. Young trees, or branches that are stunted by cattle. See BROWSE

and RISEWOOD.

of the nobility are also elegant structures, mostly decorated with the finest paintings of the Flemish school. Of twenty public fountains which supply the city with water, some are elegantly executed and ornamented. The church of the Capuchins is one of the finest they possessed in Europe. Brussels has also a public library, containing 100,000 volumes; an academy of sciences, instituted in 1772, which holds its meetings in the library; a botanic garden, with more than 4000 exotics; a cabinet of curiosities; collection of paintings; &c. Besides, being the permanent abode of the hereditary prince, and the usual residence of the court of the Netherlands, the states-general of the kingdom meet here and at the Hague alternately. The magistracy is composed of a superior officer, a burgomaster, seven echevins, two treasurers, and a pensionary, besides nine councillors and three receivers.

Brussels has long been celebrated for its lace and carpets, of a superior manufacture. The former alone employs about 10,000 people. Silks and earthenware are also wrought, woollen and cotton stuffs of various kinds, and potash. Since the peace of 1814, its population has increased from 60,000 to 80,000, which includes a great number of English families. Brussels has also a respectable foreign trade, by means of the Scheldt, with which it is connected by a canal.

The environs of Brussels are well cultivated, and, striking along the whole southern line,

It smokes, and then with trembling breath she stretches the large forest of Soignies. The city blows,

Till in a cheerful blaze the flames arose.

With brushwood, and with chips, she strengthens these, And adds at last the boughs of rotten trees. Dryden. BRUSSELS, the capital of the southern provinces, and second town of the kingdom of the Netherlands, is a handsome city of South Brabant, situated partly on a gentle eminence, and partly on a plain watered by the Senne. It is stated to be seven English miles in circumference, and was formerly surrounded by a wall, ditch, and other fortifications; but these were demolished by Joseph II. and the ramparts are laid out in public walks. No town in Europe has finer walks. That part of the city on the hill has a very imposing appearance. The park is an immense square, laid out in regular walks, shaded with trees, and surrounded by the palaces, public offices, and houses of the great. In one of these walks, there is a fountain into which the czar Peter, when on a visit to this city, fell one evening after dinner, while strolling through the park; an event recorded on a marble tablet. In the lower town are many narrow streets of the character of all bustling towns; but the great market-place here is beautiful; and the public buildings are good specimens of the florid Gothic. The Hotel de Ville is a magnificent structure of this kind, with a spire of curious architecture, 364 feet high, and surmounted by a statue of St. Michael with the dragon, in gilt copper. The internal decorations of this edifice correspond with its external appearance. Some of the apartments are adorned with beautiful specimens of tapestry, representing the resignation of Charles V. Many of the churches and palaces

was the head-quarters of the British troops on the eve of the memorable battle of Waterloo; and, both before and after that glorious victory, was a scene of the deepest interest to every nation and country of Europe. The numerous tours, sentimental, descriptive, or of a mixed character, which the vanity or industry of its visitants has given the public, must have rendered the city and its scenery familiar to most of our readers.

Brussels was founded by St. Gery, bishop of Cambray, about the beginning of the seventh century, who commenced with a small chapel, built on an island formed by the Senne. The labors of the bishop, it is said, and the pleasantness of the situation, soon surrounded him with a considerable village; and in the year 900 both a market and a castle are found here. It received its walls and towers when, about the middle of the eleventh century, it became the residence of the dukes of Brabant. Subsequently the Austrian governors of the Netherlands resided here. In 1555 Charles V. here resigned his dominions to his son Philip; the chair of state which he used is still preserved. In 1695 Marshal Villeroy bombarded it for sixteen hours, when fourteen churches and 4000 houses became a prey to the flames. After the battle of Ramillies, the keys were resigned to the duke of Marlborough. The Elector of Bavaria made an unsuccessful attack upon this city in 1708; but it was taken by the French in 1746, and restored at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. It was first entered by the French revolutionary troops in 1792, about ten days after the battle of Jemappe; was afterwards evacuated, but again taken on the 10th of July, 1794, and kept till the general