writing with points so as to render it practicable and convenient, and not long afterward it was introduced into the royal institute, although no account of it was published till 10 years later. It was subsequently adopted in most of the continental schools, and a little later in the United States, where it continues, with some modifications, in successful use. The signs of the original system are 43 in number, embracing the entire alphabet, all the diphthongs, and marks of punctuation. Ten fundamental signs form the basis of all the rest. These signs, representing the first 10 letters of the alphabet and the 10 Arabic numerals, are as follows: A B C I D 2 3 4 : .: O 5 6 7 8 By placing one point under the left side of each fundamental sign, the second series is formed, comprising the next 10 letters. By placing two points under each fundamental sign, the third series, comprising U, V, X, Y, Z, C (C soft), É, À, È, U, is formed. By placing one point under the right side of the fundamental signs, the fourth series, embracing Â, £, Î, Ô, U, E, I, U, CE, W, is formed. Three supplementary signs represent I, Æ, and Ò. The marks of punctuation are the fundamental signs placed two lines below. The system has been applied to musical notation in such a manner as to make the reading and writing of music much easier for the blind than for those who see. The seven notes are represented by the last seven of the fundamental signs, and each of these notes may be written in seven different octaves by merely prefixing a sign peculiar to each octave, and thus the necessity of designating the key of each musical sentence in the ordinary way is avoided. The mode of writing is very simple. The apparatus consists of a board with a surface grooved horizontally and vertically by lines one eighth of an inch apart. Over this board a frame is fitted like that of the common map delineator, and one or more sheets of paper being placed over the board, the points are made with a bodkin, through a slip of perforated tin, , which contains all the changes used in the system. As the sheet must be reversed to be read, the writing should be from right to left, that it may be read from left to right. Of course, several copies may be made by one operation. For many years books have been printed in points in various countries. See BLIND. HUMAN FIG. 1. HEAD AND NECK, SECTION FROM FRONT TO BACK. marrow; 4, 1, Wind-pipe; 2. Larynx; 3, Spinal Pharynx; 5, Tongue or Hyoid bone; 6, Epiglottis; 7, Tongue; 8, Hard palate; 9. Soft palate; 10, Bridge of the nose; 11, Frontal cavity; 12, Sphenoid cavity; 13, Nasal cavity; 14, Skin of the skull; 15, Bony skuli; 16, Hypophisis; 17, Corpus callosum; 18, Septum lucidum; 19. Straight sinus; 20, Cerebellum; 21, Cerebrum, right hemisphere; 22, Lobes of the Medulla; 23, Pons Varolii; 24, Medulla Oblongata; 25, Zone of the Epistropheus; 26, Vertebræ; 27, Spinal continuation of the Vertebræ. FIG. 2. BRAIN, CROSS-SECTION FROM LEFT TO RIGHT. 1, Thalamus; 2, Skull; 3. Cerebral membrane; 4, Cerebral hemisphere; 5. Lateral ventricle; 6, Optic lobe; Septum lucidum; 8, Longitudinal sinus; 9, Great longitudinal fissure; 10. Corpus callosum; 11, Median cerebral cavity: 12, Cerebral hemisphere; 13, Gray matter; 14, White matter; 15, Corpora Albicantia. FIG. 3. BRAIN VIEWED FROM ABOVE. 1, Occipital convolution; 2, Occipital lobe; 3, Inner Brain, that portion of the nervous system contained, for the most part, within the skull. It is usually divided into two parts. The larger mass is termed the cerebrum, the smaller, the cerebellum; from the lower end of the cerebrum the medulla oblongata tapers down into the spinal cord. The brain is, as it were, the great central station of the nervous system. From the surface of the entire body nerve fibres pass into the spinal cord, up the cord and into the brain; these carry impressions of all kinds touch, taste, sight, hearing, pain, temperature, etc. from the surface to the brain. Starting in the brain mass itself there is a corresponding series of fibres that run down into the medulla and spinal cord, out into the nerves and end in some muscle or organ of special character. There are literally thousands of incoming fibres, thousands of outgoing fibres and millions of minute cells in direct association with these fibres. Thus it may be seen that the brain is merely a collection of nerve ganglion cells and their associated fibres, both of which have a characteristic appearance as seen by the naked eye; that portion of the brain that preponderates in cells is the "gray matter," and that portion richer in fibres is the "white matter.» Cerebrum.- The larger brain mass, the cerebrum, consists of two symmetrical halves, the hemispheres, separated above by the great longitudinal fissure and held together at the bottom of the fissure by a firm band of fibres, the callosum, and at the base by the cerebral peduncles, which unite below to form part of the pons, and the medulla. All of the fibres passing to and fro go up and down in the peduncles, septhe hemispheres is divided by fissures into sevarating into each hemisphere. The surface of eral larger areas and a number of smaller ones. Thus in the lower side there is a large fissure, the fissure of Sylvius, below it there are three lobes, the first, second, and third temporal lobes. Running from the great longitudinal fissure, making an angle of about 65° with the Sylvian fissure, the second most marked fissure, that of Rolando, is found. This divides off an anterior region in which the first, second, and third frontal convolutions are to be found. Immediately around the fissure of Rolando are grouped the anterior and posterior parietal lobes, and at the back end of the hemispheres the occipital lobes are situated. All of these lobes are divided into smaller areas by the fissures, the chief end subserved by these fissures being to BRAIN. parietal convolution; 4, Left cerebral hemisphere; 5, Inner frontal convolution; 6, Right cerebral hemisphere; 7, Frontal lobe; 8, Longitudinal fissure; 9, Median frontal convolution; 10, Occipital centre convolution; 11, Frontal centre convolution; 12, Outer frontal convolution; 13, Outer parietal convolution; 14, Median parietal convolution. FIG. 4. BASE OF THE BRAIN. 1, Eleventh or spinal accessory nerve; 2, Right hemisphere of cerebellum: 3, Twelfth or hypoglossal nerve; 4, Ninth or glosso-pharyngeal nerve; 5, Eighth or auditory nerve; 6, Seventh or facial nerve; 7, Medulla Oblongata; 8, Fifth or trigemenus (trifacial) nerve; 9, Central lobe; 10, Fourth or trochlear nerve; 11, Sixth or abduceus nerve; 12, Pons Varolii; 13, Right frontal lobe of the cerebrum; 14, Lobes of the medulla; 15, Optic chiasm; 16. Second or optic nerve; 17, Left frontal lobe; 18. First or olfactory nerve; 19, Sylvian fissure; 20, Third or ocula-motor nerve; 21, Tenth or pneumogastric nerve; 22, Left hemisphere of the Cerebellum. increase the amount of outside surface of the hemispheres and thus make room for the enormous number of cells that are located in this outermost gray layer, the cortex. A further function seems to be expressed by this division into lobes and convolutions, namely, a localization of function, a concentration of energy as it were, certain types of brain activity being regulated in certain brain areas. Thus it is assumed that the main function of the frontal lobes is largely that of the reasoning faculties and higher intellectual processes. It is very well established that the cells in the cortex that are grouped up and down both sides of the fissure of Rolando are the cells that govern the motor acts of the body; irritate these, and muscular convulsions in certain groups will occur; destroy them by accident or disease, and paralysis, or loss of muscular function, will result. The localization for certain muscle groups, such as those for the head, arm, eyes, leg, etc., are very well known. In the occipital lobes, particularly in certain areas about the angular gyrus, are the centres for sight memories. Their destruction may result in mind blindness (see APHASIA). In much the same manner the memories of sound are located in the temporal convolutions, and there are a large number of areas thus localized. These different areas are all brought into connection, the one with the other, by hosts of fibres, and as already indicated the two hemispheres of the cerebrum are connected by thousands of fibres that are in the callosum. Thus in the adult normal cerebrum all parts of the cortex are brought into close connection with one another and with the other half of the cerebrum; the connections with the cerebellum and with the cord are established as well. The richness of association is an index of the education and intelligence of the individual. These cortical connections are not a helter-skelter, hit-or-miss system; they are all carefully laid down, constituting the human brain one of the most remarkable "switchboards" ever made. Modern anatomy is busy unraveling all the fibres and bundles of fibre tracts, and it will not be many years before the map of the brain will be as well known as that of New York. When that time arrives many unknown problems of nervous and mental disease will be solved and the hideous secrets of the insanities will be laid bare. In addition to the cortical ganglionic masses of cells, there are a number of similar masses of cells located within the substance of the brain mass. These are subsidiary stations, as it were, for many of the fibre tracts going to and coming from the cortex. These are the caudate and lenticular nuclei, the optic-thalamus, and a number of smaller ones. Cerebellum.-The cerebellum, or little brain, is situated behind and almost beneath the cerebrum, which partly overlaps it. It is attached to the brain stem by peduncles and its connections with the cerebral centres and those of the cord are many and complex. In minute structure the cerebellum has a number of characteristic features by which it may be recognized under the microscope, but fundamentally the nerve cells are similar, the interstitial connective tissue is the same in kind as in the cerebrum and the blood vessels, veins, and lymphatics have similar properties. Membranes.- Surrounding the entire brain mass and extending down over the spinal cord there are three coverings. These are an outside strong and thick dura mater, and two inside delicate membranes, the arachnoid and pia mater. Cavities. The brain is not a solid organ. It is really a flattened-out expansion of nervous tissue peculiarly grouped about a central cavity. This central cavity at one time was as simple almost as the space occupied by the graphite in a lead pencil, but in the adult brain there are lateral ventricles, third and fourth ventricles, all of which are too complicated to be described here. The ventricles contain a fluid, the cerebrospinal fluid, which also bathes the outside of the brain. The cavities of the brain are continuous with the central cavity of the spinal cord. This modern conception of the brain as a complicated automatic switchboard may be elaborated to any amount of detail. If one should trace, however, the path of a single impulse from the outside world, be it one of sight, smell, taste, touch, pain, etc., one would trace it, say for pain-first from the point of contact, for instance, of the finger, whence the special nerves of sense would carry it to the spinal cord; here it travels up a definite tract in the cord (for the upward paths of the passages of sensations and the downward ones of messages to act are as definitely known as are the railroads from New York to Chicago); from the cord it passes into the medulla, still in a well-defined path, where only it and its kind travel (about here the fibre tract crosses to the opposite side of the medulla); then through the pons, through the cerebral peduncles, up to the secondary centres, to the cerebellum and the sensory area in the cortex, which is supposed to be situated just behind the motor area. As soon as the sensory impulse reaches the cortex it is felt as pain and referred to the spot in the skin in contact with the irritant. Immediately in the perception of pain, so intimate are the connections of the sensory areas with the motor areas from these motor cells a conscious impulse is flashed down another series of fibres, down the peduncles to the medulla (where the fibres also mostly cross to the opposite side), down the spinal cord, out on a motor nerve to the muscle to cause a muscular act of pulling the hand away from the harmful irritant. This is the long, conscious series. There may also have been a shorter reflex cycle whereby the impulse passed to the spinal cord and an immediate motor connection was made that caused a quick jerking away of the hand, even before the perception of the sensation had taken place. This is the reflex cycle. See REFLEX ACT. The study of the comparative anatomy and most enchanting departments of human knowphysiology of the nervous system is one of the ledge. To trace the gradual development of this the entire body, from its simplest terms of "prointricate and marvelously adjusted regulator of toplasm irritability" through the isolated ganglionic masses in such animals as the starfish, the gradual chaining of one mass to another as in the worms and insects, thus bringing a certain relation of one part to another, up to the fusion of different ganglionic masses to form a chief mass. the brain, and secondary masses, the spinal cord this is a story of so many chapters and volumes that it cannot even be sketched here; but it is very certain that the gradual evolution of the nervous system shows the extreme complexity of man's activities. Although throughout the entire series, nerve cells are alike, it is only in the great multiplicity of co-ordinations and connections that man's brain differs from the nervous system of a jellyfish or a worm. It is only in the animal series beginning with Amphioxus that a distinct brain mass commences to be seen. But from this point forward the modification in form, size, and complexity is gradual. While man has the most complex brain, he has not the heaviest brain, although in comparison with his size it is the heaviest. The brain of man is usually heavier that that of woman, although at birth and at the age of 14 the female brain is heavier. Taller and heavier persons have usually heavier brains. Weight of brain, however, has no direct relationship with intelligence, as idiots' brains are known that have weighed as much as those of many of the ablest of men. Intellectual capacity, as already said, consists in the great multiplicity of nerve cell connections. In which connection it might also be added that the shape and size of the outside skull bears no constant relation to the shape and size of the inside brain. Cuvier's brain weighed 84 ounces, Gambetta's only 39 ounces. While it is true that a number of celebrated men of recognized brain power have had large brains, there are many more of equal capacity whose brain weights have not been remarkable. Also see MOTOR AREA; MOTOR CO-ORDINATION; NERVOUS SYSTEM; SPEECH CENTRES; TASTE AREAS. Consult: Barker, The Nervous System' (1901); Schäfer, Physiology) (1900). SMITH ELY Jelliffe, Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases.) Brain, Diseases of. These are so many and so diverse that a general article cannot readily be written upon them. In general they may be divided into: (1) Developmental defects. These are considered under idiocy, imbecility (qq.v.), etc. (2) Acute infections in which the brain itself or its surrounding membranes are attacked by some form of bacterium, such as the influenza bacillus, the pneumoccus, that ordinarily is the main cause of pneumonia, the typhoid organism, or certain forms of cocci. These diseases are discussed under the heads, encephalitis, meningitis, cerebral abscess, epidemic cerebro-spinal meningitis (qq.v.). (3) Acute and chronic poisoning, including delirium tremens in alcoholism (q.v.), toxic manias (q.v.), etc. (4) Diseases of the blood vessels of the brain. Here is to be classed the general disease apoplexy. This is really three different diseases due to cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral thrombosis, or cerebral embolism. These are discussed here. In all, the symptoms are much alike, as similar areas in the brain may be affected by each. In hemorrhage there is a bursting of one of the cerebral blood vessels, with pouring out of blood into adjacent brain tissue and destruction. A certain blocking of the artery also results. In thrombosis, the walls are diseased and a soft mass collects on the inside of the blood vessel in the brain and blocks it up. This shuts off the circulation in a certain area supplied by the artery and there is degeneration in that area with softening perhaps and cyst formation. In embolism some foreign body from some other part of the arterial system is swept into a blood vessel of the brain and blocks it up. In all three forms of apoplexy the attack may be very slight, if the cause is slight, a temporary loss of consciousness, or a paralysis in one limb, or a hemiplegia that is transitory-these may be all that is noted. But the usual attack of apoplexy is much more severe. The patient is rendered unconscious, the face is purple or congested, there may be voiding of urine and feces, the breathing is slow and snoring in character, the pulse is usually slowed to 50, and often soft and full; nausea and vomiting and lowered temperature may also occur. The pupils may be dilated and the eyes may appear crossed. There is usually noted a difference in the two sides of the face, one side of the body is different from the other, and on lifting the limbs there is a change in their resistance. The patient may remain in this condition and die very soon, or he may have a rising temperature for a week and then die, or he may recover consciousness to find that one entire side of his body is paralyzed, or incapable of being moved by the will. If the right side is involved the patient usually has defects in his speech (aphasia, q.v.). After a few days, this paralysis may pass away, but it usually persists for life in some form or other. Almost invariably the paralyzed limbs improve greatly; at first the leg and later the arm, and the improvement may be very great so that only a slight trace of what was a disabling affliction remains. The shades and variations in symptoms and in the outcome are numberless. The treatment of an attack of apoplexy requires prompt attention. Heat to the extremities, mustard bath to the feet, absolute quiet, removal of constricting bands about the neck, placing the patient on the non-paralyzed side, in many cases blood-letting; these are the generally recognized things to do. The outlook is always serious. Hemorrhage is apt to occur in those over 50, thrombosis in those affected with syphilis, and may occur at any age, embolism usually accompanies some infectious disease, such as pneumonia, rheumatism, scarlet fever, childbirth fever, etc.; and may affect old or young (see DIPLEGIA; HEMIPLEGIA; MONOPLEGIA). (5) Accident or injury to the brain. These may occasion various forms of hemiplegia: diplegia, particularly in the injuries of childbirth; epilepsy, etc. (6) Tumors of the brain (see TUMOR). (7) Organic disease of the brain functions. Here the various in- Editor Journal of Nervous and Mental Brain Fever. See BRAIN, DISEASES OF. Brainard, David Legge, American soldier and explorer: b. Norway, N. Y., 1856. Entering the United States army in 1876 he served in Indian campaigns and subsequently accompanied the Greely Arctic expedition 1881-2. He was sergeant in the signal service, served in the Alaskan relief expedition in 1897 and went to the Philippines in 1900 as a major in the subsistence department of the regular army. Brainard, John Gardiner Calkins, American poet and journalist: b. New London, Conn., 21 Oct. 1796; d. 26 Sept. 1828. After graduation at Yale in 1815 he studied law and practised at Middletown, Conn. In 1822 he went to Hartford and edited the Connecticut Mirror, in which many of his early poems appeared. In 1827 he was forced by failing health to resign his editorship. For a time he resided on Long Island, whence he returned to New London to end his days. He issued a volume of poems in 1825, a second and fuller edition of which, under the title of Literary Remains,' was published in 1832, with a biographical sketch by John Greenleaf Whittier. Braine, Daniel Lawrence, American naval officer: b. New York, 18 May 1829; d. 30 Jan. 1898. He entered the United States navy in 1846 and became a rear admiral. He served with distinction through the Mexican and Civil wars. In 1873 he obtained the surrender by Spain of 102 survivors of the Virginius pris oners. Braine-le-Comte, brän-le-kont, Belgium, a small and ancient town of the province of Hainaut, about 20 miles southwest of Brussels. It contains a handsome church, founded in the 13th century, and a large well-built château. The Southern Railway branches off from this town, on the west side to Mons and Quiévrain, east to Namur and Charleroi. Among its manufactories are breweries, wire-works, dyeworks. oil,- cotton, and corn-mills. At one time it manufactured and dealt extensively in tin wares, but this branch of trade is almost if not entirely extinct. Pop. (1899) 8,891. Brainerd, David, a missionary to the Indians: b. Haddam, Conn., 20 April 1718; d. Northampton, Mass., 9 Oct. 1747 Early impressible by religious influences, he felt himself suddenly converted while taking a walk, 12 July 1739, and the same year entered Yale College to prepare himself for the ministry. Instead of graduating in the regular course he was expelled from the institution in 1742 for having said, in his zeal, of one of the tutors, that he had no more of the grace of God than a chair. He was, however, licensed in July as a preacher, and received an appointment from the society for the propagation of Christian knowledge, as missionary among the Indians near Stockbridge, Mass. He was ordained in 1744, and took up his work among the Indians at the forks of the Delaware in Pennsylvania, making two visits to the Indians of the Susquehanna. He met, however, with but little success, until, after a year, he went to reside among those at Crossweeksung, near Newark, N. J. Here he is said to have produced a great change among the savages, and to have baptized 78, of whom 38 were adults. Having worn out his health by his labors, he set out on a journey to Boston in the spring of 1747, and thence to Northampton, where he died after a short stay in the family of President Edwards, by whom his biography was soon afterward written. His published works are: Wonders of God Among the Indians,' and 'Grace Displayed.' Brainerd, Minn., a city and county-seat of Crow Wing County, 115 miles west of Duluth, situated on the east bank of the Mississippi River and on the Brainerd & N. R.R. It lies in a fertile farming region and trades in grain and other agricultural produce. Lumber and furs are also exported. Here are situated the extensive shops of the Northern P. R.R. There are foundries, flour-mills, a large saw-mill, etc. There is a United States signal service station, a hospital for employees of the Northern P. R.R., and another for lumbermen, a public park, waterworks, electric street railway, electric lighting plant, etc. The city is governed by a mayor, elected biennially, and a city council. Pop. (1900) 7,524. Brain'stone Coral, a madrepore of the genus Meandrina, so named from the general resemblance to the brain of man exhibited in its large rounded mass and numerous winding depressions. When the hemispherical mass is broken, the ridges which bound its furrows (each of which represents the place of a polyp) may be traced inward through its substance. Brain'tree, Mass., a town in Norfolk County, on the New York, N. H. & H. RR., 10 miles south of Boston. It contains the villages of South and East Braintree; is connected by electric street railroads with the principal neighboring towns and villages, and its industries include granite-quarrying, and the manufacture of rails, tacks, shoes, wool, rubber goods, fans, etc. John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and John Hancock were born in a part of Braintree now within the limits of Quincy. The town was settled about 1629 and was incorporated in 1640. Pop. (1900) 5,981. Braintree Resolutions, The. There were Mass., on 24 Sept. 1765, to its representative in instructions given by the town of Braintree, the Massachusetts General Court, Ebenezer Thayer, relative to his action in the matter of the Stamp Act. They were drawn by John Adams, one of a committee appointed by the Braintree town meeting for that purpose, accepted unanimously, and published in the Boston Gazette. Some 40 Massachusetts towns subsequently adopted them verbatim as their instructions to their own representatives; and John Adams says that Samuel Adams copied several paragraphs into his own draft for the Boston town-meeting. The resolutions declared the tax, even if legal, an unbearable burden and a vexatious interference with the business of a poor and sparsely settled province; that moreover, it was contrary to British common law, and the "foundation principles of the British constitution, that we should be subject to any tax imposed by the British Parliament, because we are not represented in that assembly in any sense, unless it be by a fiction of law"; that to put the cases in the decision of one judge without a jury was "an alarming extension of the power of courts of admiralty," and repugnant to the Great Charter itself, especially as the judges. held office only during the pleasure of the Crown, and moreover had a commission on the goods condemned. They enjoin the Braintree representative to "comply with no measures or proposals for executing the law, but "by all lawful means" obstruct it; to favor entering on the public records "the most clear and explicit assertion of our rights and liberties"; and- most significant of all-"to agree to no steps for the protection of the stamped paper or the stamp officers, because any addition to the laws for preserving the peace would only exasperate the people and endanger public tranquillity." |