Where one and the same broker is employed by both seller and buyer, bought and sold notes rendered in the old form provide the necessary memorandum of the contract. Where two brokers are employed, one by the seller and one by the buyer, sometimes one drops out as soon as the terms are negotiated, and the other makes out, signs and sends to the parties the bought and sold notes. The latter then becomes the agent of both parties for the purpose of signing the statutory memorandum, and the position is the same as if one broker only had been employed. On the other hand, if one broker does not drop out of the transaction, each broker remains to the end the agent of his own principal only, and neither becomes the agent of the other party for the purpose of signing the memorandum. In such a case it is the usual practice for the buyer's broker to send to the seller's broker a note of the contract,—"I, acting on account of A. B. [or, "of my principal,"], have this day bought from you, acting on account of C. D. [or, "of your principal"],"—and to receive a corresponding note from the seller's broker. Thus each of the parties receives through his own agent a memorandum signed by the other party's agent. These contract notes are usually known as, and serve the purpose of, "bought" and "sold" notes. In all the above three cases the broker's duty of compliance with all formalities necessary to make the contract of sale legally enforceable is performed, [v.04 p.0630] and both parties obtain a written memorandum of the contract upon which they can sue.

The broker, on performing his duty in accordance with the terms upon which he is employed, is entitled to be paid his "brokerage." This usually takes the form of a percentage, varying according to the nature and conditions of the business, upon the total price of the goods bought or sold through him. When he guarantees the solvency of the other party, he is said to be employed upon del credere terms, and is entitled to a higher rate of remuneration. In some trades it is the custom for the selling broker to receive payment from the buyer or his broker; and in such case it is his duty to account to his principal for the purchase money. A broker who properly expends money or incurs liability on his principal's behalf in the course of his employment, is entitled to be reimbursed the money, and indemnified against the liability. Not having, like a factor, possession of the goods, a broker has no lien by which to enforce his rights against his principal. If he fails to perform his duty, he loses his right to remuneration, reimbursement and indemnity, and further becomes liable to an action for damages for breach of his contract of employment, at the suit of his principal.

Relations between Broker and Third Party.—A broker who signs a contract note as broker on behalf of a principal, whether named or not, is not personally liable on the contract to the third party. But if he makes the contract in such a way as to make himself a party to it, the third party may sue either the broker or his principal, subject to the limitation that the third party, by his election to treat one as the party to the contract, may preclude himself from suing the other. In this respect the ordinary rules of the law of agency apply to a broker. Generally, a broker has not authority to receive payment, but in trades in which it is customary for him to do so, if the buyer pays the seller's broker, and is then sued by the seller for the price by reason of the broker having become insolvent or absconded, he may set up the payment to the broker as a defence to the action by the broker's principal. Brokers may render themselves liable for damages in tort for the conversion of the goods at the suit of the true owner if they negotiate a sale of the goods for a selling principal who has no title to the goods.

The Influence of Exchanges.—The relations between brokers and their principals, and also between brokers and third parties as above defined, have been to some extent modified in practice by the institution since the middle of the 19th century in important commercial centres of "Exchanges," where persons interested in a particular trade, whether as merchants or as brokers, meet for the transaction of business. By the contract of membership of the association in whose hands is vested the control of the exchange, every person on becoming a member agrees to be bound by the rules of the association, and to make his contracts on the market in accordance with them. A governing body or committee elected by the members enforces observance of the rules, and members who fail to meet their engagements on the market, or to conform to the rules, are liable to suspension or expulsion by the committee. All disputes between members on their contracts are submitted to an arbitration tribunal composed of members; and the arbitrators in deciding the questions submitted to them are guided by the rules. A printed book of rules is available for reference; and various printed forms of contract suited to the various requirements of the business are specified by the rules and supplied by the association for the use of members. In order to simplify the settlement of accounts between members, particularly in respect of "futures," i.e. contracts for future delivery, a weekly or other periodical settlement is effected by means of a clearing-house; each member paying or receiving in respect of all his contracts which are still open, the balance of his weekly "differences," i.e. the difference between the contract price and the market price fixed for the settlement, or between the last and the present settlement prices.

As all contracts on the market are made subject to the rules, it follows that so far as the rules alter the rights and liabilities attached by law, the ordinary law is modified. The most important modification in the position of brokers effected by membership of such an exchange is due to the rule that as, between themselves, all members are principals, on the market no agents are recognized; a broker employed by a non-member to buy for him on the market is treated by the rules as buying for himself, and is, therefore, personally liable on the contract. If it be a contract in futures, he is required to conform to the weekly settlement rules. If his principal fails to take delivery, the engagement is his and he is required to make good to the member who sold to him any difference between the contract and market price at the date of delivery. But whilst this practice alters directly the relations of the broker to the third party, it also affects or tends to affect indirectly the relations of the broker to his own principal. The terms of the contract of employment being a matter of negotiation and agreement between them, it is open to a broker, if he chooses, to stipulate for particular terms; and it is the usual practice of exchanges to supply printed contract forms for the use of members in their dealings with non-members who employ them as brokers, containing a stipulation that the contract is made subject to the rules of the exchange; and frequently also a clause that the contract is made with the broker as principal. In addition to these express terms, there is in the contract of employment the term, implied by law in all trade contracts, that the parties consent to be bound by such trade usages as are consistent with the express terms of the contract, and reasonable. On executing an order the broker sends to his client a contract-note either in the form of the old bought and sold notes "I have this day [bought / sold] for you," or, when the principal clause is inserted, "I have this day [sold to / bought] from you." These are not bought and sold notes proper, for the broker is not the agent of the third party for the purpose of signing them as statutory memoranda of the sale. But they purport to record the terms of the contract of employment, and the principal may treat himself as bound by their provisions. Sometimes they are accompanied by a detachable form, known as the "client's return contract note," to be filled in, signed and returned by the client; but even the "client's return contract note" is retained by the client's own broker, and is only a memorandum of the terms of employment. The following is a form of contract note rendered by a broker to his client for American cotton, bought on the Liverpool Cotton Exchange for future delivery. The client's contract note is attached to it, and is in precisely corresponding form.

AMERICAN COTTON

Delivery Contract Note.

Liverpool,................

M................

DEAR SIRS,

We have this day.............. to/from you .............. lb American Cotton, net weight, to be contained in .............. American Bales, more or less, to be delivered in Liverpool, during .............. on the basis of .......... per lb for ............ on the terms of the rules, bye-laws, and Clearing House regulations of the Liverpool Cotton Association, Limited, whether endorsed hereon or not.

The contract, of which this is a note, is made between ourselves and yourselves, and not by or with any person, whether disclosed or not, on whose instructions or for whose benefit the same may have been entered into. Yours faithfully,

...................

The contract, of which the above is a note, was made on the date specified, within the business hours fixed by the Liverpool Cotton Association, Limited.

......... per cent to us.

Please confirm by signing and returning the contract attached.

The above form of contract note illustrates the tendency of exchanges to alter the relations between the broker and his principal. The object of inserting in the printed form the provision that the contract is made subject to the rules of the [v.04 p.0631] Liverpool Cotton Association is to make those rules binding upon the principal, and if he employs his broker upon the basis of the printed form, he does bind himself to any modification of the relations between himself and his broker which those rules may effect. The object of the principal clause in the above and similar printed forms is apparently to entitle the broker to sell to or buy from his principal on his own account and not as agent at all, thus disregarding the duty incumbent upon him as broker of making for his principal a contract with a third party.

It is not possible, except very generally, to state how far exchanges have succeeded in imposing their own rules and usages on non-members, but it is probably correct to say that in most cases if the question came before the courts, the outside client would be held to have accepted the rules of the exchange so far as they did not alter the fundamental duties to him of his broker. On the other hand, provisions purporting to entitle the broker in disregard of his duties as broker himself to act as principal, would be rejected by the courts as radically inconsistent with the primary object of the contract of brokerage and, therefore, meaningless. But it is undoubtedly too often the practice of brokers who are members of exchanges to consider themselves entitled to act as principals and sell on their own account to their own clients, particularly in futures. The causes of this opinion, erroneously, though quite honestly held, are probably to be looked for partly in the habit of acting as principal on the market in accordance with the rules, partly in the forms of contract notes containing "principal clauses" which they send to their clients, and perhaps, also, in the occasional difficulty of effecting actual contracts on the market at the time when they are instructed so to do.

A stockbroker is a broker who contracts for the sale of stocks and shares. Stockbrokers differ from brokers proper chiefly in that stocks and shares are not "goods," and the requirement of a memorandum in writing, enacted by the Sale of Goods Act 1893, does not apply. Hence actions may be brought by the principals to a contract for the sale of stocks and shares although no memorandum in writing exists. For instance, the jobber, on failing to recover from the buyer's broker the price of shares sold, by reason of the broker having failed and been declared a defaulter, may sue the buyer whose "name was passed" by the broker. The employment of a stockbroker is subject to the rules and customs of the Stock Exchange, in accordance with the principles discussed above, which apply to the employment of brokers proper. A custom which is illegal, such as the Stock Exchange practice of disregarding Leeman's Act (1867), which enacts that contracts for the sale of joint-stock bank shares shall be void unless the registered numbers of the shares are stated therein, is not binding on the client to the extent of making the contract of sale valid. But if a client choose to instruct his broker to buy bank shares in accordance with that practice, the broker is entitled to be indemnified by his client for money which he pays on his behalf, even though the contract of sale so made is unenforceable. For further information the reader is referred to the article STOCK EXCHANGE and to the treatises on stock exchange law.

An insurance broker is an agent whose business is to effect policies of marine insurance. He is employed by the person who has an interest to insure, pays the premiums to the underwriter, takes up the policy, and receives from the underwriter payment in the event of a loss under the policy. By the custom of the trade the underwriter looks solely to the broker for payment of premiums, and has no right of action against the assured; and, on the other hand, the broker is paid his commission by the underwriter, although he is employed by the assured. Usually the broker keeps a current account with the underwriter, and premiums and losses are dealt with in account. It is only in the event of the underwriter refusing to pay on a loss, that the broker drops out and the assured sues the underwriter direct. Agents who effect life, fire or other policies, are not known as insurance brokers.

Ship-brokers are, firstly, "commission agents," and, secondly, very often also ships' managers. Their office is to act as agents for owners of ships to procure purchasers for ships, or ships for intending purchasers, in precisely the same manner as house-agents act in respect of houses. They also act as agents for ship-owners in finding charterers for their ships, or for charterers in finding ships available for charter, and in either case they effect the charter-party (see AFFREIGHTMENT).

Chartering brokers are customarily paid by the ship-owner, when the charter-party is effected, whether originally employed by him or by the charterer. Charter-parties effected through brokers often contain a provision—"21/2% on estimated amount of freight to be paid to A B, broker, on the signing of this charter-party, and the ship to be consigned to him for ship's business at the port of X [inserting the name of the port where A B carries on business]." The broker cannot sue on the charter-party contract because he is not a party to it, but the insertion of the clause practically prevents his right from being disputed by the ship-owner. When the broker does the ship's business in port, it is his duty to clear her at the customs and generally to act as "ship's husband."

A bill-broker was originally an agent who, for a commission, procured for country bankers the discounting of their bills in London. But the practice arose of the broker guaranteeing the London banker or financier; and finally the brokers ceased to deposit with the London bankers the bills they received, and at the present day a bill-broker, as a rule, buys bills on his own account at a discount, borrows money on his own account and upon his own security at interest, and makes his profit out of the difference between the discount and the interest. When acting thus the bill-broker is not a broker at all, as he deals as principal and does not act as agent.

AUTHORITIES.—Story, Commentaries on the Law of Agency (Boston, 1882); Brodhurst, Law and Practice of the Stock Exchange (London, 1897); Gow, Handbook of Marine Insurance (London, 1900); Arnould, On Marine Insurance, edited by Messrs Hart & Simey (1901); J.R. Dos Passos, Law of Stock-Brokers and Stock Exchanges (New York, 1905).

(L. F. S.)

BROMBERG, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Posen, 32 m. by rail W.N.W. from the fortress of Thorn, 7 m. W. from the bank of the Vistula, and at the centre of an important network of railways, connecting it with the strategical points on the Prusso-Russian frontier. Pop. (1900) 52,082; (1905) 54,229. Its public buildings comprise two Roman Catholic and three Protestant churches, a Jewish synagogue, a seminary, high grade schools and a theatre. The town also possesses a bronze statue of the emperor William I., a monument of the war of 1870-71, and a statue of Benkenhoff, the constructor of the Bromberg Canal. This engineering work, constructed in 1773-1774, by command of Frederick II., connects the Brahe with the Netze, and thus establishes communication between the Vistula, the Oder and the Elbe. The principal industrial works are iron foundries and machine shops, paper factories and flour mills; the town has, moreover, an active trade in agricultural and other products. In view of its strategical position, a large garrison is concentrated in and about the town. Bromberg is mentioned as early as 1252. It fell soon afterwards into the hands of the Poles, from whom it was taken in 1327 by the Teutonic Order, which held it till 1343, when the Poles recaptured it. Destroyed in the course of these struggles, it was restored by Casimir of Poland in 1346, and down to the close of the 16th century it continued to be a flourishing commercial city. It afterwards suffered so much from war and pestilence that about 1772, when the Prussians took possession, it contained only from five to six hundred inhabitants. By the treaty of Tilsit it was transferred to the duchy of Warsaw; in 1813 it was occupied by the Russians, and in 1815 was restored to Prussia.

BROME, ALEXANDER (1620-1666), English poet, was by profession an attorney, and was the author of many drinking songs and of satirical verses in favour of the Royalists and against the Rump. He published in 1661 Songs and other Poems, containing songs on various subjects, followed by a series of political songs; ballads, epistles, elegies and epitaphs; epigrams and translations. Izaak Walton wrote an introductory eclogue for this volume in praise of the writer, and his gaiety and wit won for him the title of the "English Anacreon" in Edward Phillips's Theatrum Poetarum. Brome published in 1666 a translation of Horace by himself and others, and was the author of a comedy entitled The Cunning Lovers (1654). He also edited two volumes of Richard Brome's plays.

BROME, RICHARD (d. 1652), English dramatist, was originally a servant of Ben Jonson, and owed much to his master. The development of his plots, the strongly marked characters and the amount of curious information to be found in his work, all show Jonson's influence. The relation of master and servant developed into friendship, and our knowledge of Brome's personal character is chiefly drawn from Ben Jonson's lines to him, prefixed to The Northern Lasse (1632), the play which made Brome's reputation. Brome's genius lay entirely in comedy. He has left fifteen pieces. Five New Playes (ed. by Alex. Brome, 1652?) contained Madd Couple Well Matcht (acted 1639?); [v.04 p.0632] Novella (acted 1632); Court Begger (acted 1632); City Witt; The Damoiselle or the New Ordinary. Five New Playes (1659) included The English Moor, or The Mock Marriage; The Love-Sick Court, or The Ambitious Politique; Covent Garden Weeded; The New Academy, or The New Exchange; and The Queen and Concubine. The Antipodes (acted 1638, pr. 1640); The Sparagus Garden (acted 1635, pr. 1640); A Joviall Crew, or the Merry Beggars (acted 1641, pr. 1652, revised in 1731 as an "opera"), and The Queenes Exchange (pr. 1657), were published separately. He collaborated with Thomas Heywood in The late Lancashire Witches (pr. 1634).

See A.W. Ward, History of English Dramatic Literature, vol. iii. pp. 125-131 (1899). The Dramatic Works of Richard Brome ... were published in 1873.



BROMELIACEAE, in botany, a natural order of Monocotyledons, confined to tropical and sub-tropical America. It includes the pine-apple (fig. 1) and the so-called Spanish moss (fig. 2), a rootless plant, which hangs in long grey lichen-like festoons from the branches of trees, a native of Mexico and the southern United States; the water required for food is absorbed from the moisture in the air by peculiar hairs which cover the surface of the shoots. The plants are generally herbs with a much shortened stem bearing a rosette of leaves and a spike or panicle of flowers. They are eminently dry-country plants (xerophytes); the narrow leaves are protected from loss of water by a thick cuticle, and have a well-developed sheath which embraces the stem and forms, with the sheaths of the other leaves of the rosette, a basin in which water collects, with fragments of rotting leaves and the like. Peculiar hairs are developed on the inner surface of the sheath by which the water and dissolved substances are absorbed, thus helping to feed the plant. The leaf-margins are often spiny, and the leaf-spines of Puya chilensis are used by the natives as fish-hooks. Several species are grown as hot-house plants for the bright colour of their flowers or flower-bracts, e.g. species of Tillandsia, Billbergia, Aechmea and others.

BROMINE (symbol Br, atomic weight 79.96), a chemical element of the halogen group, which takes its name from its pungent unpleasant smell ([Greek: bromos], a stench). It was first isolated by A.J. Balard in 1826 from the salts in the waters of the Mediterranean. He established its elementary character, and his researches were amplified by K.J. Loewig (1803-1890) in Das Brom und seine chemischen Verhaltnisse (1829). Bromine does not occur in nature in the uncombined condition, but in combination with various metals is very widely but sparingly distributed. Potassium, sodium and magnesium bromides are found in mineral waters, in river and sea-water, and occasionally in marine plants and animals. Its chief commercial sources are the salt deposits at Stassfurt in Prussian Saxony, in which magnesium bromide is found associated with various chlorides, and the brines of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, U.S.A.; small quantities are obtained from the mother liquors of Chile saltpetre and kelp. In combination with silver it is found as the mineral bromargyrite (bromite).

Manufacture.—The chief centres of the bromine industry are Stassfurt and the central district of Michigan. It is manufactured from the magnesium bromide contained in "bittern" (the mother liquor of the salt industry), by two processes, the continuous and the periodic. The continuous process depends upon the decomposition of the bromide by chlorine, which is generated in special stills. A regular current of chlorine mixed with steam is led in at the bottom of a tall tower filled with broken bricks, and there meets a descending stream of hot bittern: bromine is liberated and is swept out of the tower together with some chlorine, by the current of steam, and then condensed in a worm. Any uncondensed bromine vapour is absorbed by moist iron borings, and the resulting iron bromide is used for the manufacture of potassium bromide. The periodic process depends on the interaction between manganese dioxide (pyrolusite), sulphuric acid, and a bromide, and the operation is carried out in sandstone stills heated to 60 deg. C., the product being condensed as in the continuous process. The substitution of potassium chlorate for pyrolusite is recommended when calcium chloride is present in the bittern. The crude bromine is purified by repeated shaking with potassium, sodium or ferrous bromide and subsequent redistillation. Commercial bromine is rarely pure, the chief impurities present in it being chlorine, hydrobromic acid, and bromoform (M. Hermann, Annalen, 1855, 95, p. 211). E. Gessner (Berichte, 1876, 9, p. 1507) removes chlorine by repeated shaking with water, followed by distillation over sulphuric acid; hydrobromic acid is removed by distillation with pure manganese dioxide, or mercuric oxide, and the product dried over sulphuric acid. J.S. Stas, in his stoichiometric researches, prepared chemically pure bromine from potassium bromide, by converting it into the bromate which was purified by repeated crystallization. By heating the bromate it was partially converted into the bromide, and the resulting mixture was distilled with sulphuric acid. The distillate was further purified by digestion with milk of lime, precipitation with water, and further digestion with calcium bromide and barium oxide, and was finally redistilled.

_Characters._—Bromine at ordinary temperatures is a mobile liquid of fine red colour, which appears almost black in thick layers. It boils at 59 deg. C. According to Sir W. Ramsay and S. Young, bromine, when dried over sulphuric acid, boils at 57.65 deg. C., and when dried over phosphorus pentoxide, boils at 58.85 deg. C. (under a pressure of 755.8 mm.), forming a deep red vapour, which exerts an irritating and directly poisonous action on the respiratory organs. It solidifies at -21 deg. C. (Quincke) to a dark brown solid. Its specific gravity is 3.18828 (0/4 deg.), latent heat of fusion 16.185 calories, latent heat of vaporization 45.6 calories, specific heat 0.1071. The specific heat of bromine vapour, at constant pressure, is 0.05504 and at constant volume is 0.04251 (K. Strecker). Bromine is soluble in water, to the extent of 3.226 grammes of bromine per 100 grammes of solution at 15 deg. C., the solubility being slightly increased by the presence of potassium bromide. The solution is of an orange-red colour, and is quite permanent in the dark, but on exposure to light, gradually becomes colourless, owing to decomposition into hydrobromic acid and oxygen. By cooling the aqueous solution, hyacinth-red octahedra of a crystalline hydrate of composition Br.4H_2O or Br_2.8H_2O are obtained (Bakhuis Roozeboom, _Zeits. phys. Chem._, 1888, 2. p. 449). Bromine is readily soluble in chloroform, alcohol and ether.

Its chemical properties are in general intermediate between those of chlorine and iodine; thus it requires the presence of a catalytic agent, or a fairly high temperature, to bring about its union with hydrogen. It does not combine directly with oxygen, nitrogen or carbon. With the other elements it unites to form bromides, often with explosive violence; phosphorus detonates in liquid bromine and inflames in the vapour; iron is occasionally used to absorb bromine vapour, potassium reacts energetically, but sodium requires to be heated to 200 deg. C. The chief use of bromine in analytical chemistry is based upon the oxidizing action of bromine water. Bromine and bromine water both bleach organic colouring matters. [v.04 p.0633] The use of bromine in the extraction of gold (_q.v._) was proposed by R. Wagner (_Dingler's Journal_, 218, p. 253) and others, but its cost has restricted its general application. Bromine is used extensively in organic chemistry as a substituting and oxidizing agent and also for the preparation of addition compounds. Reactions in which it is used in the liquid form, in vapour, in solution, and in the presence of the so-called "bromine carriers," have been studied. Sunlight affects the action of bromine vapour on organic compounds in various ways, sometimes retarding or accelerating the reaction, while in some cases the products are different (J. Schramm, _Monatshefte fur Chemie_, 1887, 8, p. 101). Some reactions, which are only possible by the aid of nascent bromine, are carried out by using solutions of sodium bromide and bromate, with the amount of sulphuric acid calculated according to the equation 5NaBr + NaBrO_3 + 6H_2SO_4 = 6NaHSO_4 + 3H_2O + 6Br. (German Patent, 26642.) The diluents in which bromine is employed are usually ether, chloroform, acetic acid, hydrochloric acid, carbon bisulphide and water, and, less commonly, alcohol, potassium bromide and hydrobromic acid; the excess of bromine being removed by heating, by sulphurous acid or by shaking with mercury. The choice of solvent is important, for the velocity of the reaction and the nature of the product may vary according to the solvent used, thus A. Baeyer and F. Blom found that on brominating orthoacetamido-acetophenone in presence of water or acetic acid, the bromine goes into the benzene nucleus, whilst in chloroform or sulphuric acid or by use of bromine vapour it goes into the side chain as well. The action of bromine is sometimes accelerated by the use of compounds which behave catalytically, the more important of these substances being iodine, iron, ferric chloride, ferric bromide, aluminium bromide and phosphorus. For oxidizing purposes bromine is generally employed in aqueous and in alkaline solutions, one of its most important applications being by Emil Fischer (_Berichte_, 1889, 22, p. 362) in his researches on the sugars. The atomic weight of bromine has been determined by J.S. Stas and C. Marignac from the analysis of potassium bromide, and of silver bromide. G.P. Baxter (_Zeit. anorg. Chem._ 1906, 50, p. 389) determined the ratios Ag: AgBr, and AgCl: Ag Br.

Hydrobromic Acid.—This acid, HBr, the only compound of hydrogen and bromine, is in many respects similar to hydrochloric acid, but is rather less stable. It may be prepared by passing hydrogen gas and bromine vapour through a tube containing a heated platinum spiral. It cannot be prepared with any degree of purity by the action of concentrated sulphuric acid on bromides, since secondary reactions take place, leading to the liberation of free bromine and formation of sulphur dioxide. The usual method employed for the preparation of the gas consists in dropping bromine on to a mixture of amorphous phosphorus and water, when a violent reaction takes place and the gas is rapidly liberated. It can be obtained also, although in a somewhat impure condition, by the direct action of bromine on various saturated hydrocarbons (e.g. paraffin-wax), while an aqueous solution may be obtained by passing sulphuretted hydrogen through bromine water. Alexander Scott (Journal of Chem. Soc., 1900, 77, p. 648) prepares pure hydrobromic acid by covering bromine, which is contained in a large flask, with a layer of water, and passing sulphur dioxide into the water above the surface of the bromine, until the whole is of a pale yellow colour; the resulting solution is then distilled in a slow current of air and finally purified by distillation over barium bromide. At ordinary temperatures hydrobromic acid is a colourless gas which fumes strongly in moist air, and has an acid taste and reaction. It can be condensed to a liquid, which boils at -64.9 deg. C. (under a pressure of 738.2 mm.), and, by still further cooling, gives colourless crystals which melt at -88.5 deg. C. It is readily soluble in water, forming the aqueous acid, which when saturated at 0 deg. C. has a specific gravity of 1.78. When boiled, the aqueous acid loses either acid or water until a solution of constant boiling point is obtained, containing 48% of the acid and boiling at 126 deg. C. under atmospheric pressure; should the pressure, however, vary, the strength of the solution boiling at a constant temperature varies also. Hydrobromic acid is one of the "strong" acids, being ionized to a very large extent even in concentrated solution, as shown by the molecular conductivity increasing by only a small amount over a wide range of dilution.

Bromides.—Hydrobromic acid reacts with metallic oxides, hydroxides and carbonates to form bromides, which can in many cases be obtained also by the direct union of the metals with bromine. As a class, the metallic bromides are solids at ordinary temperatures, which fuse readily and volatilize on heating. The majority are soluble in water, the chief exceptions being silver bromide, mercurous bromide, palladious bromide and lead bromide; the last is, however, soluble in hot water. They are decomposed by chlorine, with liberation of bromine and formation of metallic chlorides; concentrated sulphuric acid also decomposes them, with formation of a metallic sulphate and liberation of bromine and sulphur dioxide. The non-metallic bromides are usually liquids, which are readily decomposed by water. Hydrobromic acid and its salts can be readily detected by the addition of chlorine water to their aqueous solutions, when bromine is liberated; or by warming with concentrated sulphuric acid and manganese dioxide, the same result being obtained. Silver nitrate in the presence of nitric acid gives with bromides a pale yellow precipitate of silver bromide, AgBr, which is sparingly soluble in ammonia. For their quantitative determination they are precipitated in nitric acid solution by means of silver nitrate, and the silver bromide well washed, dried and weighed.

No oxides of bromine have as yet been isolated, but three oxy-acids are known, namely hypobromous acid, HBrO, bromous acid, HBrO_2, and bromic acid, HBrO_3. Hypobromous acid is obtained by shaking together bromine water and precipitated mercuric oxide, followed by distillation of the dilute solution _in vacuo_ at low temperature (about 40 deg. C.). It is a very unstable compound, breaking up, on heating, into bromine and oxygen. The aqueous solution is light yellow in colour, and possesses strong bleaching properties. Bromous acid is formed by adding bromine to a saturated solution of silver nitrate (A. H. Richards, _J. Soc Chem. Ind._, 1906, 25, p. 4). Bromic acid is obtained by the addition of the calculated amount of sulphuric acid (previously diluted with water) to the barium salt; by the action of bromine on the silver salt, in the presence of water, 5AgBrO_3 + 3Br_2 + 3H_2O = 5AgBr + 6HBrO_3, or by passing chlorine through a solution of bromine in water. The acid is only known in the form of its aqueous solution; this is, however, very unstable, decomposing on being heated to 100 deg. C. into water, oxygen and bromine. By reducing agents such, for example, as sulphuretted hydrogen and sulphur-dioxide, it is rapidly converted into hydrobromic acid. Hydrobromic acid decomposes it according to the equation HBrO_3 + 5HBr = 3H_2O + 3Br_2. Its salts are known as bromates, and are as a general rule difficultly soluble in water, and decomposed by heat, with evolution of oxygen.

Applications.—The salts of bromine are widely used in photography, especially bromide of silver. For antiseptic purposes it has been prepared as "bromum solidificatum," which consists of kieselguhr or similar substance impregnated with about 75% of its weight of bromine. In medicine it is largely employed in the form of bromides of potassium, sodium and ammonium, as well as in combination with alkaloids and other substances.

Medicinal Use.—Bromide of potassium is the safest and most generally applicable sedative of the nervous system. Whilst very weak, its action is perfectly balanced throughout all nervous tissue, so much so that Sir Thomas Lauder Brunton has suggested its action to be due to its replacement of sodium chloride (common salt) in the fluids of the nervous system. Hence bromide of potassium—or bromide of sodium, which is possibly somewhat safer still though not quite so certain in its action—is used as a hypnotic, as the standard anaphrodisiac, as a sedative in mania and all forms of morbid mental excitement, and in hyperaesthesia of all kinds. Its most striking success is in epilepsy, for which it is the specific remedy. It may be given in doses of from ten to fifty grains or more, and may be continued without ill effect for long periods in grave cases of epilepsy (grand mal). Of the three bromides in common use the potassium salt is the most rapid and certain in its action, but may depress the heart in morbid states of that organ; in such cases the sodium salt—of which the base is inert—may be employed. In whooping-cough, when a sedative is required but a stimulant is also indicated, ammonium bromide is often invaluable. The conditions in which bromides are most frequently used are insomnia, epilepsy, whooping-cough, delirium tremens, asthma, migraine, laryngismus stridulus, the symptoms often attendant upon the climacteric in women, hysteria, neuralgia, certain nervous disorders of the heart, strychnine poisoning, nymphomania and spermatorrhoea. Hydrobromic acid is often used to relieve or prevent the headache and singing in the ears that may follow the administration of quinine and of salicylic acid or salicylates.

BROMLEY, SIR THOMAS (1530-1587), English lord chancellor, was born in Staffordshire in 1530. He was educated at Oxford University and called to the bar at the Middle Temple. Through family influence as well as the patronage of Sir Nicholas Bacon, the lord keeper, he quickly made progress in his profession. In 1566 he was appointed recorder of London, and in 1569 he became solicitor-general. He sat in parliament successively for Bridgnorth, Wigan and Guildford. On the death of Sir Nicholas Bacon in 1579 he was appointed lord chancellor. As an equity judge he showed great and profound knowledge, and his judgment in Shelley's case (q.v.) is a landmark in the history of English real property law. He presided over the commission which tried Mary, queen of Scots, in 1586, but the strain of the trial, coupled with the responsibility which her execution involved upon him, proved too much for his strength, and he died on the 12th of April 1587. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

See Foss, Lives of the Judges; Campbell, Lives of the Lord Chancellors.

BROMLEY, a municipal borough in the Sevenoaks parliamentary division of Kent, England, 101/2 m. S.E. by S. of London by the South Eastern & Chatham railway. Pop. (1901) 27,354. It lies on high ground north of the small river Ravensbourne, in a well-wooded district, and has become a favourite residential locality for those whose business lies in London. The former palace of the bishops of Rochester was erected in 1777 in room [v.04 p.0634] of an older structure. The manor belonged to this see as early as the reign of Ethelbert. In the gardens is a chalybeate spring known as St Blaize's Well, which was in high repute before the Reformation. The church of St Peter and St Paul, mainly Perpendicular, retains a Norman font and other remains of an earlier building. Here is the gravestone of the wife of Dr Johnson. Bromley College, founded by Bishop Warner in 1666 for "twenty poor widows of loyal and orthodox clergymen," has been much enlarged, and forty widows are in receipt of support. Sheppard College (1840) is an affiliated foundation for unmarried daughters of these widows. In the vicinity of Bromley, Bickley is a similar residential township, Hayes Common is a favourite place of excursion, and at Holwood Hill near Keston are remains of a large encampment known as Caesar's Camp. Bromley was incorporated in 1903, and is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 4703 acres.



BROMLITE, a member of the aragonite group of minerals. It consists of an isomorphous mixture of calcium and barium carbonates in various proportions, (Ca, Ba) CO_3, and thus differs chemically from barytocalcite (_q.v._) which is a double salt of these carbonates in equal molecular proportions. Being isomorphous with aragonite, it crystallizes in the orthorhombic system, but simple crystals are not known. The crystals are invariably complex twins, and have the form of doubly terminated pseudo-hexagonal pyramids, like those of witherite but more acute; the faces are horizontally striated and are divided down their centre by a twin-suture, as represented in the adjoining figure. The examination in polarized light of a transverse section shows that each compound crystal is built up of six differently orientated individuals arranged in twelve segments. The crystals are translucent and white, sometimes with a shade of pink. Sp. gr. 3.706; hardness 4-41/2. The mineral has been found at only two localities, both of which are in the north of England. At the Fallowfield lead mine, near Hexham in Northumberland, it is associated with witherite; and at Bromley Hill, near Alston in Cumberland, it occurs in veins with galena. The species was named bromlite by T. Thomson in 1837, and alstonite by A. Breithaupt in 1841, both of which names, derived from the locality, have been in common use.

(L. J. S.)

BROMPTON, a western district of London, England, in the south-east of the metropolitan borough of Kensington. Brompton Road, leading south-west from Knightsbridge, is continued as Old Brompton Road and Richmond Road, to join Lillie Road, at which point are the District and West London railway stations of West Brompton. The Oratory of St Philip Neri, commonly called Brompton Oratory, close by the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Brompton consumption hospital and the West London or Brompton cemetery are included in this district, which is mainly occupied by residences of the better class. (See KENSINGTON.)

BROMSGROVE, a market town in the Eastern parliamentary division of Worcestershire, England, 12 m. N.N.E. of Worcester, with a station 1 m. from the town on the Bristol-Birmingham line of the Midland railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 8418. It lies in a pleasant undulating district near the foot of the Lickey Hills, to surmount which the railway towards Birmingham here ascends for 2 m. one of the steepest gradients in England over such a distance. There remain several picturesque half-timbered houses, dating from 1572 and later. The church of St John is a fine building, Perpendicular and earlier in date, picturesquely placed on an elevation above the town, with a lofty tower and spire. There are a well-known grammar-school, founded by Edward VI., with university scholarships; a college school, a literary institute, and a school of art. Birmingham Sanatorium stands in the parish. Cloth was formerly a staple of trade, but manufactures of nails and buttons are now pre-eminent, while the river Salwarpe works a number of mills in the neighbourhood, and near the town are carriage works belonging to the Midland railway.

BRONCHIECTASIS (Gr. [Greek: bronchia], bronchial tubes, and [Greek: ektasis], extension), dilatation of the bronchi, a condition occurring in connexion with many diseases of the lungs. Bronchitis both acute and chronic, chronic pneumonia and phthisis, acute pneumonia and broncho-pneumonia, may all leave after them a bronchiectasis whose position is determined by the primary lesion. Other causes, acting mechanically, are tracheal and bronchial obstruction, as from the pressure of an aneurism, new growth, &c. It used to be considered a disease of middle age, but of late years Dr Walter Carr has shown that the condition is a fairly common one among debilitated children after measles, whooping cough, &c. The dilatation is commonly cylindrical, more rarely saccular, and it is the medium and smaller sized tubes that are generally affected, except where the cause is mechanical. The affection is usually of one lung only. Emphysema is a very common accompaniment. Though at first the symptoms somewhat resemble those of bronchitis, later they are quite distinctive. Cough is very markedly paroxysmal in character, and though severe is intermittent, the patient being entirely free for many hours at the time. The effect of posture is very marked. If the patient lie on the affected side, he may be free from cough the whole night, but if he turn to the sound side, or if he rises and bends forward, he brings up large quantities of bronchial secretion. The expectoration is characterized by its abundance and manner of expulsion. Where the dilatation is of the saccular variety, it may come up in such quantities and with so much suddenness as to gush from the mouth. It is very commonly foetid, as it is retained and decomposed in situ. Dyspnoea and haemoptysis occasionally occur, but are by no means the rule. If pyrexia is present, it is a serious symptom, as it is a sign of septic absorption in the bronchi, and may be the forerunner of gangrene. If gangrene does set in, it will be accompanied by severe attacks of shivering and sweating. Where the disease has lasted long, clubbing of fingers and toes is very common. The diagnosis from putrid bronchitis is usually fairly easily made, but at times it may be a matter of extreme difficulty to distinguish between this condition and a tuberculous cavity in the lung. Nothing can be done directly to cure this disease, but the patient's condition can be greatly alleviated. Creosote vapour baths are eminently satisfactory. A mechanical treatment much recommended by some of the German physicians is that of forced expiration.

BRONCHITIS, the name given to inflammation of the mucous membrane of the bronchial tubes (see RESPIRATORY SYSTEM: Pathology). Two main varieties are described, specific and non-specific bronchitis. The bronchitis which occurs in infectious or specific disorders, as diphtheria, influenza, measles, pneumonia, &c., due to the micro-organisms observed in these diseases, is known as specific; whereas that which results from extension from above, or from chemical or mechanical irritation, is known as non-specific. It is convenient to describe it, however, under the chemical divisions of acute and chronic bronchitis.

Acute bronchitis, like other inflammatory affections of the chest, generally arises as the result of exposure to cold, particularly if accompanied with damp, or of sudden change from a heated to a cool atmosphere. The symptoms vary according to the severity of the attack, and more especially according to the extent to which the inflammatory action spreads in the bronchial tubes. The disease usually manifests itself at first in the form of a catarrh, or common cold; but the accompanying feverishness and general constitutional disturbance proclaim the attack to be something more severe, and symptoms denoting the onset of bronchitis soon present themselves. A short, painful, dry cough, accompanied with rapid and wheezing respiration, a feeling of rawness and pain in the throat and behind the breast bone, and of oppression or tightness throughout the chest, mark the early stages of the disease. In some cases, from the first, symptoms of the form of asthma (q.v.) known as the bronchitic are superadded, and greatly aggravate the patient's suffering.

[v.04 p.0635] After a few days expectoration begins to come with the cough, at first scanty and viscid or frothy, but soon becoming copious and of purulent character. In general, after free expectoration has been established the more urgent and painful symptoms abate; and while the cough may persist for a length of time, often extending to three or four weeks, in the majority of instances convalescence advances, and the patient is ultimately restored to health, although there is not unfrequently left a tendency to a recurrence of the disease on exposure to its exciting causes.

When the ear or the stethoscope is applied to the chest of a person suffering from such an attack as that now described, there are heard in the earlier stages snoring or cooing sounds, mixed up with others of wheezing or fine whistling quality, accompanying respiration. These are denominated dry sounds, and they are occasionally so abundant and distinct, as to convey their vibrations to the hand applied to the chest, as well as to be audible to a bystander at some distance. As the disease progresses these sounds become to a large extent replaced by others of crackling or bubbling character, which are termed moist sounds or rales. Both these kinds of abnormal sounds are readily explained by a reference to the pathological condition of the parts. One of the first effects of inflammation upon the bronchial mucous membrane is to cause some degree of swelling, which, together with the presence of a tough secretion closely adhering to it, tends to diminish the calibre of the tubes. The respired air as it passes over this surface gives rise to the dry or sonorous breath sounds, the coarser being generated in the large, and the finer or wheezing sounds in the small divisions of the bronchi. Before long, however, the discharge from the bronchial mucous membrane becomes more abundant and less glutinous, and accumulates in the tubes till dislodged by coughing. The respired air, as it passes through this fluid, causes the moist rales above described. In most instances both moist and dry sounds are heard abundantly in the same case, since different portions of the bronchial tubes are affected at different times in the course of the disease.

Such are briefly the main characteristics presented by an ordinary attack of acute bronchitis running a favourable course. The case is, however, very different when the inflammation spreads into, or when it primarily affects, the minute ramifications of the bronchial tubes which are in immediate relation to the air-cells of the lungs, giving rise to that form of the disease known as capillary bronchitis or broncho-pneumonia (see RESPIRATORY SYSTEM: Pathology; and PNEUMONIA). When this takes place all the symptoms already detailed become greatly intensified, and the patient's life is placed in imminent peril in consequence of the interruption to the entrance of air into the lungs, and thus to the due aeration of the blood. The feverishness and restlessness increase, the cough becomes incessant, the respiration extremely rapid and laboured, the nostrils dilating with each effort, and evidence of impending suffocation appears. The surface of the body is pale or dusky, the lips are livid, while breathing becomes increasingly difficult, and is attended with suffocative paroxysms which render the recumbent posture impossible. Unless speedy relief is obtained by successful efforts to clear the chest by coughing and expectoration, the patient's strength gives way, somnolence and delirium set in and death ensues. All this may be brought about in the space of a few days, and such cases, particularly among the very young, sometimes prove fatal within forty-eight hours.

Acute bronchitis must at all times be looked upon as a severe and even serious ailment, but there are certain circumstances under which its occurrence is a matter of special anxiety to the physician. It is pre-eminently dangerous at the extremes of life, and mortality statistics show it to be one of the most fatal of the diseases of those periods. This is to be explained not only by the well-recognized fact that all acute diseases tell with great severity on the feeble frames alike of infants and aged people, but more particularly by the tendency which bronchitis undoubtedly has in attacking them to assume the capillary form, and when it does so to prove quickly fatal. The importance, therefore, of early attention to the slightest evidence of bronchitis among the very young or the aged can scarcely be overrated.

Bronchitis is also apt to be very severe when it occurs in persons who are addicted to intemperance. Again, in those who suffer from any disease affecting directly or indirectly the respiratory functions, such as consumption or heart disease, the supervention of an attack of acute bronchitis is an alarming complication, increasing, as it necessarily does, the embarrassment of breathing. The same remark is applicable to those numerous instances of its occurrence in children who are or have been suffering from such diseases as have always associated with them a certain degree of bronchial irritation, such as measles and whooping-cough.

One other source of danger of a special character in bronchitis remains to be mentioned, viz. collapse of the lung. Occasionally a branch of a bronchial tube becomes plugged up with secretion, so that the area of the lung to which this branch conducts ceases to be inflated on inspiration. The small quantity of air imprisoned in the portion of lung gradually escapes, but no fresh air enters, and the part collapses and becomes of solid consistence. Increased difficulty of breathing is the result, and where a large portion of lung is affected by the plugging up of a large bronchus, a fatal result may rapidly follow, the danger being specially great in the case of children. Fortunately, the obstruction may sometimes be removed by vigorous coughing, and relief is then obtained.

With respect to the treatment of acute bronchitis, in those mild cases which are more of the nature of a simple catarrh, little else will be found necessary than confinement in a warm room, or in bed, for a few days, and the use of light diet, together with warm diluent drinks. Additional measures are however called for when the disease is more markedly developed. Medicines to allay fever and promote perspiration are highly serviceable in the earlier stages. Later, with the view of soothing the pain of the cough, and favouring expectoration, mixtures of tolu, with the addition of some opiate, such as the ordinary paregorics, may be advantageously employed. The use of opium, however, in any form should not be resorted to in the case of young children without medical advice, since its action on them is much more potent and less under control than it is in adults. Not a few of the so-called "soothing mixtures" have been found to contain opium in quantity sufficient to prove dangerous when administered to children, and caution is necessary in using them.

From the outset of the attack the employment of fomentations, or especially a turpentine stupe, gives great relief, and occasionally in the non-specific form this treatment, combined with a good dose of calomel and salts, may render the attack abortive. Some relief is always obtained by inhalations, and theoretically, an acute specific bronchitis should be successfully treated by inhalation of antiseptic and soothing remedies. In practice, however, it is found that the strength cannot be sufficiently strong to destroy the bacteria in the bronchial tubes. However, much relief is obtained from the use of steam atomizers filled with an aqueous solution of compound tincture of benzoin, creosote or guaiacol. A still more practicable means of introducing volatile antiseptic oils is the globe nebulizer, which throws oleaginous solutions in the form of a fine fog, that can be deeply inhaled. Menthol, eucalyptol and white pine extract are some of the remedies that may be tried dissolved in benzoinol, to which cocaine or opium may be added if the cough is troublesome.

When the bronchitis is of the capillary form, the great object is to maintain the patient's strength, and to endeavour to secure the expulsion of the morbid secretion from the fine bronchi. In addition to the remedies already alluded to, stimulants are called for from the first; and should the cough be ineffectual in relieving the bronchial tubes, the administration of an emetic dose of sulphate of zinc may produce a good effect.

During the whole course of any attack of bronchitis attention must be paid to the due nourishment of the patient; and during the subsequent convalescence, which, particularly in elderly persons, is apt to be slow, tonics and stimulants may have to be prescribed.

[v.04 p.0636] Chronic bronchitis may arise as the result of repeated attacks of the acute form, or it may exist altogether independently. It occurs more frequently among persons advanced in life than among the young, although no age is exempt from it. The usual history of this form of bronchitis is that of a cough recurring during the colder seasons of the year, and in its earlier stages, departing entirely in summer, so that it is frequently called "winter cough." In many persons subject to it, however, attacks are apt to be excited at any time by very slight causes, such as changes in the weather; and in advanced cases of the disease the cough is seldom altogether absent. The symptoms and auscultatory signs of chronic bronchitis are on the whole similar to those pertaining to the acute form, except that the febrile disturbance and pain are much less marked. The cough is usually more troublesome in the morning than during the day. There is usually free and copious expectoration, and occasionally this is so abundant as to constitute what is termed bronchorrhoea.

Chronic bronchitis leads to alterations of structure in the affected bronchial tubes, their mucous membrane becoming thickened or even ulcerated, while occasionally permanent dilatation of the bronchi takes place, often accompanied with profuse foetid expectoration. In long-standing cases of chronic bronchitis the nutrition of the lungs becomes impaired, and dilatation of the air-tubes (emphysema) and other complications result, giving rise to more or less constant breathlessness.

Chronic bronchitis may arise secondarily to some other ailment. This is especially the case in Bright's disease of the kidneys and in heart disease, of both of which maladies it often proves a serious complication, also in gout and syphilis. The influence of occupation is seen in the frequency in which persons following certain employments suffer from chronic bronchitis. Hirt has shown that the inhalation of vegetable dust is very liable to produce bronchitis through the irritation produced by the dust particles and the growth of organisms carried in with the dust. Consequently, millers and grain-shovellers are especially liable to it, while next in order come weavers and workers in cotton factories.

The treatment to be adopted in chronic bronchitis depends upon the severity of the case, the age of the patient and the presence or absence of complications. Attention to the general health is a matter of prime importance in all cases of the disease, more particularly among persons whose avocations entail exposure, and tonics with cod-liver oil will be found highly advantageous. The use of a respirator in very cold or damp weather is a valuable means of protection. In those aggravated forms of chronic bronchitis, where the slightest exposure to cold air brings on fresh attacks, it may become necessary, where circumstances permit, to enjoin confinement to a warm room or removal to a more genial climate during the winter months.

BRONCHOTOMY (Gr. [Greek: bronchos], wind-pipe, and [Greek: temnein], to cut), a medical term used to describe a surgical incision into the throat; now largely superseded by the terms laryngotomy, thyrotomy and tracheotomy, which indicate more accurately the place of incision.

BRONCO, usually incorrectly spelt BRONCHO (a Spanish word meaning rough, rude), an unbroken or untamed horse, especially in the United States, a mustang; the word entered America by way of Mexico.

BROeNDSTED, PETER OLUF (1780-1842), Danish archaeologist and traveller, was born at Fruering in Jutland on the 17th of November 1780. After studying at the university of Copenhagen he visited Paris in 1806 with his friend Georg Koes. After remaining there two years, they went together to Italy. Both were zealously attached to the study of antiquities; and congeniality of tastes and pursuits induced them, in 1810, to join an expedition to Greece, where they excavated the temples of Zeus in Aegina and of Apollo at Bassae in Arcadia. After three years of active researches in Greece, Broendsted returned to Copenhagen, where, as a reward for his labours, he was appointed professor of Greek in the university. He then began to arrange and prepare for publication the vast materials he had collected during his travels; but finding that Copenhagen did not afford him the desired facilities, he exchanged his professorship for the office of Danish envoy at the papal court in 1818, and took up his abode at Rome. In 1820 and 1821 he visited Sicily and the Ionian Isles to collect additional materials for his great work. In 1826 he went to London, chiefly with a view of studying the Elgin marbles and other remains of antiquity in the British Museum, and became acquainted with the principal archaeologists of England. From 1828-1832 he resided in Paris, to superintend the publication of his Travels, and then returned to Copenhagen on being appointed director of the museum of antiquities and the collection of coins and medals. In 1842 he became rector of the university; but a fall from his horse caused his death on the 26th of June. His principal work was the Travels and Archaeological Researches in Greece (in German and French, 1826-1830), of which only two volumes were published, dealing with the island of Ceos and the metopes of the Parthenon.

BRONGNIART, ADOLPHE THEODORE (1801-1876), French botanist, son of the geologist Alexandre Brongniart, was born in Paris on the 14th of January 1801. He soon showed an inclination towards the study of natural science, devoting himself at first more particularly to geology, and later to botany, thus equipping himself for what was to be the main occupation of his life—the investigation of fossil plants. In 1826 he graduated as doctor of medicine with a dissertation on the Rhamnaceae; but the career which he adopted was botanical, not medical. In 1831 he became assistant to R.L. Desfontaines at the Musee d'Histoire Naturelle, and two years later succeeded him as professor, a position which he continued to hold until his death in Paris on the 18th of February 1876.

Brongniart was an indefatigable investigator and a prolific writer, so that he left behind him, as the fruit of his labours, a large number of books and memoirs. As early as 1822 he published a paper on the classification and distribution of fossil plants (Mem. Mus. Hist. Nat. viii.). This was followed by several papers chiefly bearing upon the relation between extinct and existing forms—a line of research which culminated in the publication of the Histoire des vegetaux fossiles, which has earned for him the title of "father of palaeobotany." This great work was heralded by a small but most important "Prodrome" (contributed to the Grand Dictionnaire d'Hist. Nat., 1828, t. lvii.) which brought order into chaos by a classification in which the fossil plants were arranged, with remarkably correct insight, along with their nearest living allies, and which forms the basis of all subsequent progress in this direction. It is of especial botanical interest, because, in accordance with Robert Brown's discoveries, the Cycadeae and Coniferae were placed in the new group Phanerogames gymnospermes. In this book attention was also directed to the succession of forms in the various geological periods, with the important result (stated in modern terms) that in the Palaeozoic period the Pteridophyta are found to predominate; in the Mesozoic, the Gymnosperms; in the Cainozoic, the Angiosperms, a result subsequently more fully stated in his "Tableau des genres de vegetaux fossiles" (D'Orbigny, Dict. Univ. d'Hist. Nat., 1849). But the great Histoire itself was not destined to be more than a colossal fragment; the publication of successive parts proceeded regularly from 1828 to 1837, when the first volume was completed, but after that only three parts of the second volume appeared. Brongniart, no doubt, was overwhelmed with the continually increasing magnitude of the task that he had undertaken. Apart from his more comprehensive works, his most important palaeontological contributions are perhaps his observations on the structure of Sigillaria (Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. i., 1839) and his researches (almost the last he undertook) on fossil seeds, of which a full account was published posthumously in 1880. His activity was by no means confined to palaeobotany, but extended into all branches of botany, more particularly anatomy and phanerogamic taxonomy. Among his achievements in these directions the most notable is the memoir "Sur la generation et le developpement de l'embryon des Phanerogames" (Ann. Sci. Nat. xii., 1827). This is remarkable in that it contains the [v.04 p.0637] first account of any value of the development of the pollen; as also a description of the structure of the pollen-grain, the confirmation of G. B. Amici's (1823) discovery of the pollen-tube, the confirmation of R. Brown's views as to the structure of the unimpregnated ovule (with the introduction of the term "sac embryonnaire"); and in that it shows how nearly Brongniart anticipated Amici's subsequent (1846) discovery of the entrance of the pollen-tube into the micropyle, fertilizing the female cell which then develops into the embryo. Of his anatomical works, those of the greatest value are probably the "Recherches sur la structure et les fonctions des feuilles" (Ann. Sci. Nat. xxi., 1830), and the "Nouvelles Recherches sur l'Epiderme" (Ann. Sci. Nat. i., 1834), in which, among other important observations, the discovery of the cuticle is recorded; and, further, the "Recherches sur l'organisation des tiges des Cycadees" (Ann. Sci. Nat. xvi., 1829), giving the results of the first investigation of the anatomy of those plants. His systematic work is represented by a large number of papers and monographs, many of which relate to the flora of New Caledonia; and by his Enumeration des genres de plantes cultivees au Musee d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris (1843), which is an interesting landmark in the history of classification in that it forms the starting-point of the system, modified successively by A. Braun, A.W. Eichler and A. Engler, which is now adopted in Germany. In addition to his scientific and professorial labours, Brongniart held various important official posts in connexion with the department of education, and interested himself greatly in agricultural and horticultural matters. With J.V. Audouin and J.B.A. Dumas, his future brothers-in-law, he established the Annales des Sciences Naturelles in 1824; he also founded the Societe Botanique de France in 1854, and was its first president.

For accounts of his life and work see Bull. de la Soc. Geol. de France, 1876, and La Nature, 1876; the Bulletin de la Soc. Bot. de France for 1876, vol. xxiii., contains a list of his works and the orations pronounced at his funeral.

(S. H. V.*)

BRONGNIART, ALEXANDRE (1770-1847), French mineralogist and geologist, son of the eminent architect who designed the Bourse and other public buildings of Paris, was born in that city on the 5th of February 1770. At an early age he studied chemistry, under Lavoisier, and after passing through the Ecole des Mines he took honours at the Ecole de Medecine; subsequently he joined the army of the Pyrenees as pharmacien; but having committed some slight political offence, he was thrown into prison and detained there for some time. Soon after his release he was appointed professor of natural history in the College des Quatre Nations. In 1800 he was made director of the Sevres porcelain factory, a post which he retained to his death, and in which he achieved his greatest work. In his hands Sevres became the leading porcelain factory in Europe, and the researches of an able band of assistants enabled him to lay the foundations of ceramic chemistry. In addition to his work at Sevres, quite enough to engross the entire energy of any ordinary man, he continued his more purely scientific work. He succeeded Hauey as professor of mineralogy in the Museum of Natural History; but he did not confine himself to mineralogy, for it is to him that we owe the division of Reptiles into the four orders of Saurians, Batrachians, Chelonians and Ophidians. Fossil as well as living animals engaged his attention, and in his studies of the strata around Paris he was instrumental in establishing the Tertiary formations. In 1816 he was elected to the Academy; and in the following year he visited the Alps of Switzerland and Italy, and afterwards Sweden and Norway. The result of his observations was published from time to time in the Journal des Mines and other scientific journals. Wide as was the range of his interests his most famous work was accomplished at Sevres, and his most enduring monument is his classic Traite des arts ceramiques (1844). He died in Paris on the 7th of October 1847.

His other principal works are :—Traite elementaire de mineralogie, avec des applications aux arts (2 vols., Paris, 1807); Histoire naturelle des crustaces fossiles (Paris, 1822); Classification et caracteres mineralogiques des roches homogenes et heterogenes (Paris, 1827); the Tableau des terrains qui composent l'ecorce du globe, ou Essai sur la structure de la partie connue de la terre (Paris, 1829); and the Traite des arts ceramiques (1844). Brongniart was also the coadjutor of Cuvier in the admirable Essai sur la geographie mineralogique des environs de Paris (Paris, 1811); originally published in Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. (Paris, xi. 1808).

BRONN, HEINRICH GEORG (1800-1862), German geologist, was born on the 3rd of March 1800 at Ziegelhausen near Heidelberg. Studying at the university at Heidelberg he took his doctor's degree in the faculty of medicine in 1821, and in the following year was appointed professor of natural history. He now devoted himself to palaeontological studies, and to fieldwork in various parts of Germany, Italy and France. From its commencement in 1830 to 1862 he assisted in editing the Jahrbuch fuer Mineralogie, &c., continued as Neues Jahrbuch. His principal work, Lethaea Geognostica (2 vols., Stuttgart, 1834-1838; 3rd ed. with F. Roemer, 3 vols., 1851-1856), has been regarded as one of the foundations of German stratigraphical geology. His Handbuch einer Geschichte der Natur, of which the first part was issued in 1841, gave a general account of the physical history of the earth, while the second part dealt with the life-history, species being regarded as direct acts of creation. The third part included his famous Index Palaeontologicus, and was issued in 3 vols., 1848-1849, with the assistance of H. von Meyer and H. R. Goeppert. This record of fossils has proved of inestimable value to all palaeontologists. An important work on recent and fossil zoology, Die Klassen und Ordnungen des Thier-Reichs, was commenced by Bronn. He wrote the volumes dealing with Amorphozoa, Actinozoa, and Malacozoa, published 1859-1862; the work was continued by other naturalists. In 1861 Bronn was awarded the Wollaston medal by the Geological Society of London. He died at Heidelberg on the 5th of July 1862.

BRONSART VON SCHELLENDORF, PAUL (1832-1891), Prussian general, was born at Danzig in 1832. He entered the Prussian Guards in 1849, and was appointed to the general staff in 1861 as a captain; after three years of staff service he returned to regimental duty, but was soon reappointed to the staff, and lectured at the war academy, becoming major in 1865 and lieut.-colonel in 1869. During the war of 1870 he was chief of a section on the Great General Staff, and conducted the preliminary negotiations for the surrender of the French at Sedan. After the war Bronsart was made a colonel and chief of staff of the Guard army corps, becoming major-general in 1876 and lieut.-general (with a division command) in 1881. Two years later he became war minister, and during his tenure of the post (1883-1889) many important reforms were carried out in the Prussian army, in particular the introduction of the magazine rifle. He was appointed in 1889 to command the I. army corps at Koenigsberg. He died on the 23rd of June 1891 at his estate near Braunsberg. Bronsart's military writings include two works of great importance—Ein Rueckblick auf die taktischen Ruckblicke (2nd ed., Berlin, 1870), a pamphlet written in reply to Captain May's Tactical Retrospect of 1866; and Der Dienst des Generalstabes (1st ed., Berlin, 1876; 3rd ed. revised by General Meckel, 1893; new ed. by the author's son, Major Bronsart von Schellendorf, Berlin, 1904), a comprehensive treatise on the duties of the general staff. The third edition of this work was soon after its publication translated into English and issued officially to the British army as The Duties of the General Staff. Major Bronsart's new edition of 1904 was reissued in English by the General Staff, under the same title, in 1905.

BRONTE, CHARLOTTE (1816-1855), EMILY (1818-1848), and ANNE (1820-1849), English novelists, were three of the six children of Patrick Bronte, a clergyman of the Church of England, who for the last forty-one years of his life was perpetual incumbent of the parish of Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Patrick Bronte was born at Emsdale, Co. Down, Ireland, on the 17th of March 1777. His parents were of the peasant class, their original name of Brunty apparently having been changed by their son on his entry at St John's College, Cambridge, in 1802. In the intervening years he had been successively a weaver and schoolmaster in his native country. From Cambridge [v.04 p.0638] he became a curate, first at Wethersfield in Essex, in 1806, then for a few months at Wellington, Salop, in 1809. At the end of 1809 he accepted a curacy at Dewsbury, Yorkshire, following up this by one at Hartshead-cum-Clifton in the same county. At Hartshead Patrick Bronte married in 1812 Maria Branwell, a Cornishwoman, and there two children were born to him, Maria (1813-1825) and Elizabeth (1814-1825). Thence Patrick Bronte removed to Thornton, some 3 m. from Bradford, and here his wife gave birth to four children, Charlotte, Patrick Branwell (1817-1848), Emily Jane, and Anne, three of whom were to attain literary distinction.

In April 1820, three months after the birth of Anne Bronte, her father accepted the living of Haworth, a village near Keighley in Yorkshire, which will always be associated with the romantic story of the Brontes. In September of the following year his wife died. Maria Bronte lives for us in her daughter's biography only as the writer of certain letters to her "dear saucy Pat," as she calls her lover, and as the author of a recently published manuscript, an essay entitled The Advantages of Poverty in Religious Concerns, full of a sententiousness much affected at the time.

Upon the death of Mrs Bronte her husband invited his sister-in-law, Elizabeth Branwell, to leave Penzance and to take up her residence with his family at Haworth. Miss Branwell accepted the trust and would seem to have watched over her nephew and five nieces with conscientious care. The two eldest of those nieces were not long in following their mother. Maria and Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily, were all sent to the Clergy Daughters' school at Cowan Bridge in 1824, and Maria and Elizabeth returned home in the following year to die. How far the bad food and drastic discipline were responsible cannot be accurately demonstrated. Charlotte gibbeted the school long years afterwards in Jane Eyre, under the thin disguise of "Lowood," and the principal, the Rev. William Carus Wilson (1792-1859), has been universally accepted as the counterpart of Mr Naomi Brocklehurst in the same novel. But congenital disease more probably accounts for the tragedy from which happily Charlotte and Emily escaped, both returning in 1825 to a prolonged home life at Haworth. Here the four surviving children amused themselves in intervals of study under their aunt's guidance with precocious literary aspirations. The many tiny booklets upon which they laboured in the succeeding years have been happily preserved. We find stories, verses and essays, all in the minutest handwriting, none giving any indication of the genius which in the case of two of the four children was to add to the indisputably permanent in literature.

At sixteen years of age—in 1831—Charlotte Bronte became a pupil at the school of Miss Margaret Wooler (1792-1885) at Roe Head, Dewsbury. She left in the following year to assist in the education of the younger sisters, bringing with her much additional proficiency in drawing, French and composition; she took with her also the devoted friendship of two out of her ten fellow-pupils—Mary Taylor (1817-1893) and Ellen Nussey (1817-1897). With Miss Taylor and Miss Nussey she corresponded for the remainder of her life, and her letters to the latter make up no small part of what has been revealed to us of her life story. Her next three years at Haworth were varied by occasional visits to one or other of these friends. In 1835 she returned to Miss Wooler's school at Roe Head as a governess, her sister Emily accompanying her as a pupil, but remaining only three months, and Anne then taking her place. The year following the school was removed to Dewsbury. In 1838 Charlotte went back to Haworth and soon afterwards received her first offer of marriage—from a clergyman, Henry Nussey, the brother of her friend Ellen. This was followed a little later by a second offer from a curate named Bryce. She refused both and took a situation as nursery governess, first with the Sidgwicks of Stonegappe, Yorkshire, and later with the Whites at Rawdon in the same county. A few months of this, however, filled her with an ambition to try and secure greater independence as the possessor of a school of her own, and she planned to acquire more proficiency in "languages" on the continent, as a preliminary step. The aunt advanced some money, and accompanied by her sister Emily she became in February 1842 a pupil at the Pensionnat Heger, Brussels. Here both girls worked hard, and won the goodwill and indeed admiration of the principal teacher, M. Heger, whose wife was at the head of the establishment. But the two girls were hastily called back to England before the year had expired by the announcement of the critical illness of their aunt. Miss Branwell died on the 29th of October 1842. She bequeathed sufficient money to her nieces to enable them to reconsider their plan of life. Instead of a school at Bridlington which had been talked of, they could now remain with their father, utilize their aunt's room as a classroom, and take pupils. But Charlotte was not yet satisfied with what the few months on Belgian soil had done for her, and determined to accept M. Heger's offer that she should return to Brussels as a governess. Hence the year 1843 was passed by her at the Pensionnat Heger in that capacity, and in this period she undoubtedly widened her intellectual sphere by reading the many books in French literature that her friend M. Heger lent her. But life took on a very sombre shade in the lonely environment in which she found herself. She became so depressed that on one occasion she took refuge in the confessional precisely as did her heroine Lucy Snowe in Villette. In 1844 she returned to her father's house at Haworth, and the three sisters began immediately to discuss the possibilities of converting the vicarage into a school. Prospectuses were issued, but no pupils were forthcoming.

Matters were complicated by the fact that the only brother, Patrick Branwell, had about this time become a confirmed drunkard. Branwell had been the idol of his aunt and of his sisters. Educated under his father's care, he had early shown artistic leanings, and the slender resources of the family had been strained to provide him with the means of entering at the Royal Academy as a pupil. This was in 1835. Branwell, it would seem, indulged in a glorious month of extravagance in London and then returned home. His art studies were continued for a time at Leeds, but it may be assumed that no commissions came to him, and at last he became tutor to the son of a Mr Postlethwaite at Barrow-in-Furness. Ten months later he was a booking-clerk at Sowerby Bridge station on the Leeds & Manchester railway, and later at Luddenden Foot. Then he became tutor in the family of a clergyman named Robinson at Thorp Green, where his sister Anne was governess. Finally he returned to Haworth to loaf at the village inn, shock his sisters by his excesses, and to fritter his life away in painful sottishness. He died in September 1848, having achieved nothing reputable, and having disappointed all the hopes that had been centred in him. "My poor father naturally thought more of his only son than of his daughters," is one of Charlotte's dreary comments on the tragedy. In early years he had himself written both prose and verse; and a foolish story invented long afterwards attributed to him some share in his sisters' novels, particularly in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. But Charlotte distinctly tells us that her brother never knew that his sisters had published a line. He was too much under the effects of drink, too besotted and muddled in that last year or two of life, to have any share in their intellectual enthusiasms.

The literary life had, however, opened bravely for the three girls during those years. In 1846 a volume of verse appeared from the shop of Aylott & Jones of Paternoster Row; "Poems, by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell," was on the title-page. These names disguised the identity of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte. The venture cost the sisters about L50 in all, but only two copies were sold. There were nineteen poems by Charlotte, twenty-one by Emily, and the same number by Anne. A consensus of criticism has accepted the fact that Emily's verse alone revealed true poetic genius. This was unrecognized then except by her sister Charlotte. It is obvious now to all.

The failure of the poems did not deter the authors from further effort. They had each a novel to dispose of. Charlotte Bronte's was called The Master, which before it was sent off to London was retitled The Professor. Emily's story was entitled [v.04 p.0639] Wuthering Heights, and Anne's Agnes Gray. All these stories travelled from publisher to publisher. At last The Professor reached the firm of Smith, Elder & Co., of Cornhill. The "reader" for that firm, R. Smith Williams (1800-1875), was impressed, as were also his employers. Charlotte Bronte received in August 1847 a letter informing her that whatever the merits of The Professor—and it was hinted that it lacked "varied interest"—it was too short for the three-volume form then counted imperative. The author was further told that a longer novel would be gladly considered. She replied in the same month with this longer novel, and Jane Eyre appeared in October 1847, to be wildly acclaimed on every hand, although enthusiasm was to receive a counterblast when more than a year later, in December 1848, Miss Rigby, afterwards Lady Eastlake (1809-1893), reviewed it in the Quarterly.

Meanwhile the novels of Emily and Anne had been accepted by T. C. Newby. They were published together in three volumes in December 1847, two months later than Jane Eyre, although the proof sheets had been passed by the authors before their sister's novel had been sent to the publishers. The dilatoriness of Mr Newby was followed up by considerable energy when he saw the possibility of the novels by Ellis and Acton Bell sailing on the wave of Currer Bell's popularity, and he would seem very quickly to have accepted another manuscript by Anne Bronte, for The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was published by Newby in three volumes in June 1848. It was Newby's clever efforts to persuade the public that the books he published were by the author of Jane Eyre that led Charlotte and Anne to visit London this summer and interview Charlotte's publishers in Cornhill with a view to establishing their separate identity. Soon after their return home Branwell died (the 24th of September 1848), and less than three months later Emily died also at Haworth (the 19th December 1848). Then Anne became ill and on the 24th of May 1849 Charlotte accompanied her to Scarborough in the hope that the sea air would revive her. Anne died there on the 28th of May, and was buried in Scarborough churchyard. Thus in exactly eight months Charlotte Bronte lost all the three companions of her youth, and returned to sustain her father, fast becoming blind, in the now desolate home at Haworth.

In the interval between the death of Branwell and of Emily, Charlotte had been engaged upon a new novel—Shirley. Two-thirds were written, but the story was then laid aside while its author was nursing her sister Anne. She completed the book after Anne's death, and it was published in October 1849. The following winter she visited London as the guest of her publisher, Mr George Smith, and was introduced to Thackerary, to whom she had dedicated Jane Eyre. The following year she repeated the visit, sat for her portrait to George Richmond, and was considerably lionized by a host of admirers. In August 1850 she visited the English lakes as the guest of Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, and met Mrs Gaskell, Miss Martineau, Matthew Arnold and other interesting men and women. During this period her publishers assiduously lent her books, and her criticisms of them contained in many letters to Mr George Smith and Mr Smith Williams make very interesting reading. In 1851 she received a third offer of marriage, this time from Mr James Taylor, who was in the employment of her publishers. A visit to Miss Martineau at Ambleside and also to London to the Great Exhibition made up the events of this year. On her way home she visited Manchester and spent two days with Mrs Gaskell. During the year 1852 she worked hard with a new novel, Villette, which was published in January of 1853. In September of that year she received a visit from Mrs Gaskell at Haworth; in May 1854 she returned it, remaining three days at Manchester, and planning with her hostess the details of her marriage, for at this time she had promised to unite herself with her father's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls (1817-1906), who had long been a pertinacious suitor for her hand but had been discouraged by Mr Bronte. The marriage took place in Haworth church on the 29th of June 1854, the ceremony being performed by the Rev. Sutcliffe Sowden, Miss Wooler and Miss Nussey acting as witnesses. The wedded pair spent their honeymoon in Ireland, returning to Haworth, where they made their home with Mr Bronte, Mr Nicholls having pledged himself to continue in his position as curate to his father-in-law. After less than a year of married life, however, Charlotte Nicholls died of an illness incidental to childbirth, on the 31st of March 1855. She was buried in Haworth church by the side of her mother, Branwell and Emily. The father followed in 1861, and then her husband returned to Ireland, where he remained some years afterwards, dying in 1906.