Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th Edition Brequigny Louis Georges O

Chapter 48

Chapter 483,111 wordsPublic domain

BROCKTON, a city of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., about 20 m. S. of Boston, and containing an area of 21 sq. m. of rolling surface. Pop. (1870) 8007; (1880)13,608; (1890) 27,294; (1900) 40,063, of whom 9484 were foreign-born, including 2667 Irish, 2199 English Canadians and 1973 Swedes; (1910, census) 56,878. It is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway. Brockton has a public library, with 54,000 volumes, in 1908. By popular vote, beginning in 1886 (except in 1898), the liquor traffic was prohibited annually. The death-rate, 13.18 in 1907, is very low for a manufacturing city of its size. Brockton is the industrial centre of a large population surrounding it (East and West Bridgewater, North Easton, Avon, Randolph, Holbrook and Whitman), and is an important manufacturing place. Both in 1900 and in 1905 it ranked first among the cities of the United States in the manufacture of boots and shoes. The city's total factory product in 1900 was valued at $24,855,362, and in 1905 at $37,790,982, an increase during the five years of 52%. The boot and shoe product in 1905 was valued at $30,073,014 (9.4% of the value of the total boot and shoe product of the United States), the boot [v.04 p.0625] and shoe cut stock at $1,344,977, and the boot and shoe findings at $2,435,137--the three combined representing 89.6% of the city's total manufactured product. In 1908 there were 35 shoe factories, including the W.L. Douglas, the Ralston, the Walkover, the Eaton, the Keith and the Packard establishments, and, in 1905, 14,000,000 (in 1907 about 17,000,000) pairs of shoes were produced in the city. Among the other products are lasts, blacking, paper and wooden packing boxes, nails and spikes, and shoe fittings and tools. The assessed valuation of the city rose from $6,876,427 in 1881 to $37,408,332 in 1907. Brockton was a part of Bridgewater until 1821, when it was incorporated as the township of North Bridgewater. Its present name was adopted in 1874, and it was chartered as a city in 1881. Brockton was the first city in Massachusetts to abolish all grade crossings (1896) within its limits.

BROCKVILLE, a town and port of entry of Ontario, Canada, and capital of Leeds county, named after General Sir Isaac Brock, situated 119 m. S.W. of Montreal, on the left bank of the St Lawrence, and on the Grand Trunk, and Brockville & Westport railways. A branch line connects it with the Canadian Pacific. It has steamer communication with the St Lawrence and Lake Ontario ports, and is a summer resort. The principal manufactures are hardware, furnaces, agricultural implements, carriages and chemicals. It is the centre of one of the chief dairy districts of Canada, and ships large quantities of cheese and butter. Pop. (1881) 7609; (1901) 8940.

BROD, a town of Croatia-Slavonia, in the county of Pozega, on the left bank of the river Save, 124 m. by rail S.E. by E. of Agram. Pop. (1900) 7310. The principal Bosnian railway here crosses the river, to meet the Hungarian system. Brod has thus a considerable transit trade, especially in cereals, wine, spirits, prunes and wood. It is sometimes called Slavonisch-Brod, to distinguish it from Bosna-Brod, or Bosnisch-Brod, across the river. The town owes its name to a ford (Servian _brod_) of the Save, and dates at least from the 15th century. Brod was frequently captured and recaptured in the wars between Turkey and Austria; and it was here that the Austrian army mustered, in 1879, for the occupation of Bosnia.

BRODERIP, WILLIAM JOHN (1789-1859), English naturalist, was born in Bristol on the 21st of November 1789. After graduating at Oxford he was called to the bar in 1817, and for some years was engaged in law-reporting. In 1822 he was appointed a metropolitan police magistrate, and filled that office until 1856, first at the Thames police court and then at Westminster. His leisure was devoted to natural history, and his writings did much to further the study of zoology in England. The zoological articles in the _Penny Cyclopaedia_ were written by him, and a series of articles contributed to _Fraser's Magazine_ were reprinted in 1848 as _Zoological Recreations_, and were followed in 1852 by _Leaves from the Note-book of a Naturalist_. He was one of the founders of the Zoological Society of London, and a large collection of shells which he formed was ultimately bought by the British Museum. He died in London on the 27th of February 1859.

BRODHEAD, JOHN ROMEYN (1814-1873), American historical scholar, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 2nd of January 1814, the son of Jacob Brodhead (1782-1855), a prominent clergyman of the Dutch Reformed Church. He graduated at Rutgers College in 1831, and in 1835 was admitted to the bar in New York City. After 1837, however, he devoted himself principally to the study of American colonial history, and in order to have access to the records of the early Dutch settlements in America he obtained in 1839 an appointment as attaché of the American legation at the Hague. His investigations here soon proved that the Dutch archives were rich in material on the early history of New York, and led the state legislature to appropriate funds for the systematic gathering from various European archives of transcripts of documents relating to New York. Brodhead was appointed (1841) by Governor William H. Seward to undertake the work, and within several years gathered from England, France and Holland some eighty manuscript volumes of transcriptions, largely of documents which had not hitherto been used by historians. These transcriptions were subsequently edited by Edward O'Callaghan (vols. i.-xi. incl.) and by Berthold Fernow (vols. xii.-xv., incl.), and published by the state under the title _Documents relating to the Colonial History of New York_ (15 vols., 1853-1883). From 1846 to 1849, while George Bancroft was minister to Great Britain, Brodhead held under him the post of secretary of legation. In 1853-1857 he was naval officer of the port of New York. He published several addresses and a scholarly _History of the State of New York_ (2 vols., 1853-1871), generally considered the best for the brief period covered (1609-1690). He died in New York City on the 6th of May 1873.

BRODIE, SIR BENJAMIN COLLINS, 1st Bart. (1783-1862), English physiologist and surgeon, was born in 1783 at Winterslow, Wiltshire. He received his early education from his father; then choosing medicine as his profession he went to London in 1801, and attended the lectures of John Abernethy. Two years later he became a pupil of Sir Everard Home at St George's hospital, and in 1808 was appointed assistant surgeon at that institution, on the staff of which he served for over thirty years. In 1810 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, to which in the next four or five years he contributed several papers describing original investigations in physiology. At this period also he rapidly obtained a large and lucrative practice, and from time to time he wrote on surgical questions, contributing numerous papers to the Medical and Chirurgical Society, and to the medical journals. Probably his most important work is that entitled _Pathological and Surgical Observations on the Diseases of the Joints_, in which he attempts to trace the beginnings of disease in the different tissues that form a joint, and to give an exact value to the symptom of pain as evidence of organic disease. This volume led to the adoption by surgeons of measures of a conservative nature in the treatment of diseases of the joints, with consequent reduction in the number of amputations and the saving of many limbs and lives. He also wrote on diseases of the urinary organs, and on local nervous affections of a surgical character. In 1854 he published anonymously a volume of _Psychological Inquiries_; to a second volume which appeared in 1862 his name was attached. He received many honours during his career. He attended George IV., was sergeant-surgeon to William IV. and Queen Victoria, and was made a baronet in 1834. He became a corresponding member of the French Institute in 1844, D.C.L. of Oxford in 1855, and president of the Royal Society in 1858, and he was the first president of the general medical council. He died at Broome Park, Surrey, on the 21st of October 1862. His collected works, with autobiography, were published in 1865 under the editorship of Charles Hawkins.

His eldest son, Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, 2nd Bart. (1817-1880), was appointed professor of chemistry at Oxford in 1865, and is chiefly known for his investigations on the allotropic states of carbon and for his discovery of graphitic acid.

BRODIE, PETER BELLINGER (1815-1897), English geologist, son of P.B. Brodie, barrister, and nephew of Sir Benjamin C. Brodie, was born in London in 1815. While still residing with his father at Lincoln's Inn Fields, he gained some knowledge of natural history and an interest in fossils from visits to the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, at a time when W. Clift was curator. Through the influence of Clift he was elected a fellow of the Geological Society early in 1834. Proceeding afterwards to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he came under the spell of Sedgwick, and henceforth devoted all his leisure time to geology. Entering the church in 1838, he was curate at Wylye in Wiltshire, and for a short time at Steeple Claydon in Buckinghamshire, becoming later rector of Down Hatherley in Gloucestershire, and finally (1855) vicar of Rowington in Warwickshire, and rural dean. Records of geological observations in all these districts were published by him. At Cambridge he obtained fossil shells from the Pleistocene deposit at Barn well; in the Vale of Wardour he discovered in Purbeck Beds the isopod named by Milne-Edwards _Archaeoniscus Brodiei_; in Buckinghamshire he described the outliers of Purbeck and [v.04 p.0626] Portland Beds; and in the Vale of Gloucester the Lias and Oolites claimed his attention. Fossil insects, however, formed the subject of his special studies (_History of the Fossil Insects of the Secondary Rocks of England_, 1845), and many of his published papers relate to them. He was an active member of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Club and of the Warwickshire Natural History and Archaeological Society, and in 1854 he was chief founder of the Warwickshire Naturalists' and Archaeologists' Field Club. In 1887 the Murchison medal was awarded to him by the Geological Society of London. He died at Rowington, on the 1st of November 1897.

See Memoir by H. B. Woodward in _Geological Magazine_, 1897, p. 481 (with portrait).

BRODY, a town of Austria, in Galicia, 62 m. E. of Lemberg by rail. Pop. (1900) 17,360, of which about two-thirds are Jews. It is situated near the Russian frontier, and has been one of the most important commercial centres in Galicia, especially for the trade with Russia. But since 1879, when its charter as a free commercial city was withdrawn, its trade has also greatly diminished. Brody was created a town in 1684, and was raised to the rank of a free commercial city in 1779.

BROEKHUIZEN, JAN VAN [JANUS BROUKHUSIUS], (1649-1707), Dutch classical scholar and poet, was born on the 20th of November 1649, at Amsterdam. Having lost his father when very young, he was placed with an apothecary, with whom he lived several years. Not liking this employment, he entered the army, and in 1674 was sent with his regiment to America, in the fleet under Admiral de Ruyter, but returned to Holland the same year. In 1678 he was sent to the garrison at Utrecht, where he contracted a friendship with the celebrated Graevius; here he had the misfortune to be so deeply implicated in a duel that, according to the laws of Holland, his life was forfeited. Graevius, however, wrote immediately to Nicholas Heinsius, who obtained his pardon. Not long afterwards he became a captain of one of the companies then at Amsterdam. After the peace of Ryswick, 1697, his company was disbanded, and he retired on a pension to a country house near Amsterdam and pursued his classical and literary studies at leisure. His Dutch poems, in which he followed the model of Pieter Hooft, were first published in 1677; a later edition, with a biography by D. van Hoogstraten, appeared in 1712, the last edition, 1883, was edited by R.A. Kollewijn. His classical reputation rests on his editions of Propertius (1702) and Tibullus (1707). His Latin poems (_Carmina_) appeared in 1684; a later edition(_Poemata_) by D. van Hoogstraten appeared in 1711. The _Select Letters_ (_Jani Browkhusii Epistolae Selectae_, 1889 and 1893) were edited by J.A. Worp, who also wrote his biography, 1891. Broekhuizen died on the 15th of December 1707.

BRÖGGER, WALDEMAR CHRISTOFER (1851- ), Norwegian geologist, was born in Christiania on the 10th of November 1851, and educated in that city. In 1876 he was appointed curator of the geological museum in his native city, and assistant on the Geological Survey. He was professor of mineralogy and geology from 1881 to 1890 in the university of Stockholm, and from 1890 in the university of Christiania. He also became rector and president of the senate of the royal university of Christiania. His observations on the igneous rocks of south Tirol compared with those of Christiania afford much information on the relations of the granitic and basic rocks. The subject of the differentiation of rock-types in the process of solidification as plutonic or volcanic rocks from a particular magma received much attention from him. He dealt also with the Palaeozoic rocks of Norway, and with the late glacial and post-glacial changes of level in the Christiania region. The honorary degree of Ph.D. was conferred upon him by the university of Heidelberg and that of LL.D. by the university of Glasgow. The Murchison medal of the Geological Society of London was awarded to him in 1891.

BROGLIE, DE, the name of a noble French family which, originally Piedmontese, emigrated to France in the year 1643. The head of the family, FRANÇOIS MARIE (1611-1656), then took the title of comte de Broglie. He had already distinguished himself as a soldier, and died, as a lieutenant-general, at the siege of Valenza on the 2nd of July 1656. His son, VICTOR MAURICE, COMTE DE BROGLIE (1647-1727), served under Condé, Turenne and other great commanders of the age of Louis XIV., becoming _maréchal de camp_ in 1676, lieutenant-general in 1688, and finally marshal of France in 1724.

The eldest son of Victor Marie, FRANÇOIS MARIE, afterwards DUC DE BROGLIE (1671-1745), entered the army at an early age, and had a varied career of active service before he was made, at the age of twenty-three, lieutenant-colonel of the king's regiment of cavalry. He served continuously in the War of the Spanish Succession and was present at Malplaquet. He was made lieutenant-general in 1710, and served with Villars in the last campaign of the war and at the battle of Denain. During the peace he continued in military employment, and in 1719 he was made director-general of cavalry and dragoons. He was also employed in diplomatic missions, and was ambassador in England in 1724. The war in Italy called him into the field again in 1733, and in the following year he was made marshal of France. In the campaign of 1734 he was one of the chief commanders on the French side, and he fought the battles of Parma and Guastalla. A famous episode was his narrow personal escape when his quarters on the Secchia were raided by the enemy on the night of the 14th of September 1734. In 1735 he directed a war of positions with credit, but he was soon replaced by Marshal de Noailles. He was governor-general of Alsace when Frederick the Great paid a secret visit to Strassburg (1740). In 1742 de Broglie was appointed to command the French army in Germany, but such powers as he had possessed were failing him, and he had always been the "man of small means," safe and cautious, but lacking in elasticity and daring. The only success obtained was in the action of Sahay (25th May 1742), for which he was made a duke. He returned to France in 1743, and died two years later.

His son, VICTOR FRANÇOIS, DUC DE BROGLIE (1718-1804), served with his father at Parma and Guastalla, and in 1734 obtained a colonelcy. In the German War he took part in the storming of Prague in 1742, and was made a brigadier. In 1744 and 1745 he saw further service on the Rhine, and in 1756 he was made _maréchal de camp_. He subsequently served with Marshal Saxe in the low countries, and was present at Roucoux, Val and Maastricht. At the end of the war he was made a lieutenant-general. During the Seven Years' War he served successively under d'Estrées, Soubise and Contades, being present at all the battles from Hastenbeck onwards. His victory over Prince Ferdinand at Bergen (1759) won him the rank of marshal of France from his own sovereign and that of prince of the empire from the emperor Francis I. In 1760 he won an action at Corbach, but was defeated at Vellinghausen in 1761. After the war he fell into disgrace and was not recalled to active employment until 1778, when he was given command of the troops designed to operate against England. He played a prominent part in the Revolution, which he opposed with determination. After his emigration, de Broglie commanded the "army of the princes" for a short time (1792). He died at Münster in 1804.

Another son of the first duke, CHARLES FRANÇOIS, COMTE DE BROGLIE (1719-1781), served for some years in the army, and afterwards became one of the foremost diplomatists in the service of Louis XV. He is chiefly remembered in connexion with the _Secret du Roi_, the private, as distinct from the official, diplomatic service of Louis, of which he was the ablest and most important member. The son of Victor François, VICTOR CLAUDE, PRINCE DE BROGLIE (1757-1794), served in the army, attaining the rank of _maréchal de camp_. He adopted revolutionary opinions, served with Lafayette and Rochambeau in America, was a member of the Jacobin Club, and sat in the Constituent Assembly, constantly voting on the Liberal side. He served as chief of the staff to the Republican army on the Rhine; but in the Terror he was denounced, arrested and executed at Paris on the 27th of June 1794. His dying admonition to his little son was to remain [v.04 p.0627] faithful to the principles of the Revolution, however unjust and ungrateful.