BRA
Tranf. N a 67. p. 2061; »> Hift. Acad. Scieric. an. 1709. p. 14. c Hook, Pofthum. Works, p. 140. See Memory. We find great diverfities in refpecl: of figure, ftru£ture, bulk, i$c. in the brains of different animals. The brains are divided into two parts', with an interval between, as is well known to mountebanks, who, in virtue thereof, fometimes raife an opi- nion of their skill in the vulgar, by running a pin through the middle of a cock's head, without damage to the bird. Mem. Nat. Hift. Anim. p. 237.
Through the whole bird kind, the cortical part of the brain is extremely over-proportioned to the medullary ; ten times more in proportion than in men; add, that it is ufually alfo fmooth, and witiiout finuofities d . Dr. Willis, who diffedted a great variety of brains, obferved a near refemblance between the brains of men and quadrupeds, and between thofe of birds and fifties c . [ d Id. ibid. « Willis., Anat. Cerebr. c. 5. Blaf App. ad Veiling. P. 21. c 5. p. 510.J
In man, the brain bears a larger proportion to the body than in other animals f ; being fometimes found to weigh four or five pounds s.— [ f Vetcr. Phyf. Exper. P. 2. fee. 7. c. 14. p. 599. e Blaf. Not. ad Veiling, c. 14. p. 214.J Vefalius obferves, that the human brain exceeds in bignefs three oxens brains ; whence he infers, that as animals excel in the largenefs of the brain, fo they do likewife in the principal faculties of the foul : but this inference will hardly hold good h . The French academifts, from the fmallnefs of the brain of a lion, and largenefs of that of a calf, infer, that a fmal! brain is rather a mark of cruelty and fiercenefs than ftupidity, and a large brain a mark ot mildnefs, focialky, and, if we may fo call it, humanity, rather than of wit '. — [ h Ray, Wifd. Great. P. 1. p. 365. * Vid. Mem. for Nat. Hift. Anim. p. ;, feq. Phil. Tranf. N° 28. p. 537.]
In reality, the brain of a fea fox, for all its cunning, is found exceedingly little k ; and that of the camelion fcarce half fo big as the globe of the eye ! . The brain of a bear is found four times as big as that of a lion m ; yet we doubt, whether the rule laid down by the academifts will every where hold ; the chamois, or rupicapra, has a large brain ", but the dromedary, a patient and peaceful beaft, a very fmal! one ; the whole ce- rebrum and cerebellum fcarce rrieafuring fix inches °.-[ k Mem. for Nat. Hift. Anim. p. 72. ' Id. ibid. p. 26. •» Id. ibid. pi 46. n Jd. ibid. p. 144. ° Id. ibid. p. 41.] The brain is fubject to divers diforders, as wounds, contufions, depreflions p, conftipatiom , inflammations r , petrifactions s , disruptions, tjfe. — [ p Vid. Phil. Tranfact. N" 228. p. 533. Bserb. Aphor. §. 268. 1 Hift. Acad. Scienc. an. 17 10. p. 52. l Id. ibid. an. \">%i. p. 41. * Id. ibid. an. 1703. p. 32.J In the Med. Eft". Edinb. T. 2. p. 24;. we have an account of two ounces of the brain thrown by the force of coughing through a cicatrix of the fkull.
A watery brain appears to be the caufe of the epilepfy u ; and an extremely dry or rigid one, of the phrenzy w : at Ieafr, thefe have been found to be the ftates of the brain, in difTecti- ons of perfons affected with thofe difeafes. Paracelfus even attributes leprofies, confumptions and jaundices, to diforders of the brain x . — [ u Hift. Acad. Scienc. an. 17C5. p. 63, 70. w Mem. Acad. Scienc. an. 1706. p. 662. * Cajl. Lex. Med. p. r?9-
Bartholin fpeaks of divers extraneous bodies found in the brain ; particularly a point of a dart, an inch long, which re- mained there, without much inconvenience, fourteen years, and was at length expelled by fuppuration at the fauces. Bar- thai Aft, Med. Hafn. T. 2. Art. 13?.
Anatomifts, in their figure and defcriptions of the brain, only reprefent the cavities which are feen upon feparating the hemi- fpheres, and taking away the corpus callofum, without obferv- ing that the crura fornicis fink down, and then turn forwards on each fide of the medulla oblongata, in cavities which are extended far forwards, under the commonly known anterior ventricles. In thefe inferior cavities, the crura fornicis are of a beautiful. form, refembling a white filk worm, or fea-horfe ; on which account they were called hippocampi by Julius Csefar Arantius, who is the only author that has given any defcrip- tion of them, till lately Mr. Du Vernoy has revived them, by an exact defcription and delineation. He obferves likewife, that the feptum Uicidum between the anterior ventricles, has a cavity between the two lamella? of which it is compofed, in which he has often found water; and that the internal fide of the feptum is made rough, by a great many fmall grains and pupillulse. See Comment Acad. Petrop. 1". 4. p. 130. Some are of opinion, that the motion of the brain is owing; to the air entering by the olfactory nerves into the ventricles of the brain \ which air, rarefied by the heatj lofes its fpring, and is expelled by the elaftic contracting dura mater. Med. Eff. Edinb. Abr. Vol.2, p. 48 c
See further concerning the brain in anatomical and medical writers, particularly Steno, Ridley, Willis, and Vieuflens, who have treatifes exprefs on this ftibje£. Phil. Tranfadt. N° 215. p 32. Item, N J 51. p. 1034. Cafi. Lex. Med. p. 159. Some, with Diemorbroeck, conteft ail poflibility of life without a brain; alleging, that, in the inftances of the contrary given by anatomifts, the brain, which is fometimes fmall and obfeure enough, had been overlooked y. In reality, a fmall portion of brain is fufficient for the purpoles of life. M. Du Ver-
BRA
hey gives an iriftance of an ox, whofe brain was wholly petri- fied, except in iomc few places where it flill remained foft ; yet the bead was fat and vigorous. Bartholin gives a fimilar cafe, of an ox in Sweden, whofe whole brain was petrified, but the bcaft was weak and lean. The difference we may fup- pole to have arifen from that fmall part, which, in the former, retained its natural ftate, and fupplicd the office of the whole, in this view, Fontenellc takes the bulk of brain in animals for a wife provifion of nature againft accidents of this kind. The medulla oblongata alfo appears to be lodged there, as a rcfuurce in cafe of defects of brain '.— [7 Vid. Phil. TranfaS.
"il'J- I20 ' * VkL Mem - Acad. Scienc. an. 1703. p. 3 14. Hift. p. 3?, feq.] v
The brains of birds were a great delicacy among the antients, who yet never touched thofe of other animals ■. Some vainly prefenbe hares brains, as a remedy againft difficult dentition b . Among the Greeks, calves brains were ufed as a fort of charm to excite love =._[ . Pi,ij c . Lex. Autiq. T. I. p. 40c. voc. Lerebella. •> Jtmck. Corripi Med. Tab. 116. p. ;sc. 'Pott:. Archa;ol. I.4. c. 10. p. 253.]
Brains micro/apical/;- examined.— The accurate Mr. Lewenhoek examined, on feveral occafions, the brains of different creatures by his microfcope ; as that of the Indian hen, the lheep, the ox, the fparrow, ifc. He could there always diftinguifli mul- titudes of veftels fo extremely fmall, that if a globule of blood (a million whereof exceed not a grain of (and in bignefs) were divided into five hundred parts, thole parts would be too large to pafs into fuch vefTeis. He obferved alfo, that thefe veliels in the brain of a fparrow, were as large as in that of an ox ; and argues from thence, that there is really no other difference between the brain of a large animal and that of a fmall one, but only that the one contains a much greater number- of thefe veffels than the others, and that the globules of the fluid pafling through them, are in all animals of the fame file. Baket'i Microfcope, p. 146.
In examining the brain of feveral forts of fowls, particularly the turky, what is commonly called the cortical part of the brain, confifts of a very clear and tranfparent oily matter, which would be much better denoted by the term vitreous than cortical, but a great number of fmall blood -vefTeis arc found fpread through every part of this j and where a fmall parcel of It is cut for a microfcopic examination, there flows a fmal! glo- bule of a pellucid fluid from it. The particles of the fluid which circulates through thefe veffels muft be extremely mi- nute; and Mr. Lewenhoek thinks, that if one of the fmall globules of our blood were divided into five hundred parts, each part would be too big to pafs; yet there is a circulation carried on through them, and that of a red fluid ; for when- ever they lie three or four together, without any intervening matter, the congeries of them always appears red. The medullary part of the brain of the fame animal appears like a fifher's net, between all the meihes of which there is placed a very pliable ball-like fubftance, which changes its figure into a round or oval, according as the mefhes happen to be pulled or relaxed : thefe balls feemed to confift of a clear and watery fluid, contained in a cafe or capfule of a membranous matter Philof. Tranf. N> 168. p. 884.
Abfcefsofthe Brain. See Imposthumation.
Fungus of the Brain. See Funcus.
BRAKE, in the country language, denotes a place where female fern grows; and fometimes the fern itfeif. Ruff. Di<3. T. 1. in voc. See Fe r n.
Brake is alfo ufed for a farrier's inftrument, otherwife called barnacles. See Barnacles. The word alfo occurs for a baker's treading trough.
Brake, in the hempen manufacture, denotes a wooden toothed implement, wherewith to bruife and break the bun of hemp, and feparats it from the rind.
There are two kinds of brakes ufed in the drefling of hemp, viz. an open and wide toothed, or nicked brake, and a clofe and (fraight brake ; the firft fcrving to cruill the bun, the latter to beat it forth. When the hemp is braked, they proceed to fwingle it. Hough. Collect T. 2. N° 348. p. 352. Di&. Ruft. T. 1 . voc. Drying.
Brake of a Pump, fignifics the handle whereby it is wrought. Guill. P. 3. in voc. Botel, Sea Dial. 4. p. q6.
BRAMA, Bream, in ichthyology, a river fifh of the leather- mouthed kind, efleemed a fpecies of carp, and called by the ge- nerality of authors cyprinus latus.
It is a very broad and thin fifh ; the head is fmall, the back of it bread and flat, and the back rifing from the head and tail to- ward the middle, like that of a hog ; the fide-lines are turned into a fort of arched figure near their origin at the gills, and run much nearer the belly than the back. When the fifh is full grown; its fides are of a yeliowifh hue, and its bellv red- difh ; the fcales are large, and ftriated downwards '; the mouth is very fmall for the fize of the fifh, and has no teeth. It lives in ponds, and rivers of flow current, and fometimes grows to more than two feet in length, and is not accounted a delicate or fine flavoured fifh. JVillughby, Hift. Pifc. p. 24S. Gefner. dePifc. p. 376.
Brama Saxatilis, in zoology, the name of a fea-fifli, refemb- ling the common frclh-water bream in fhape, but growing to three or four feet long. Its eyes are large ; its fnout of a pale
red,
