in a natural manner, and without deluging the stomach with irritating mixtures; cod-liver oil, fusel oil and spirits containing it, are also beneficial in many forms simulating phthisis. The name bronchitis is popularly given to disease of the follicles of the mucous membrane of the air passages, generally above the bronchial division of the trachea; the disease thus named is more familiarly known as "clergyman's sore throat," from the fact that this class of public speakers is particularly subject to it. It may affect the nose, posterior fauces, or larynx, and is properly called catarrh, pharyngitis, laryngitis, tracheitis, and even bronchitis, according to the part of the air-passages affected; the seat of the disease is originally in the follicles of the membrane, and it may therefore be called folliculitis. In the incipient stages, as found in the pharynx, there is rarely any troublesome cough; but the abundant secretion of the follicles causes an incessant hawking to clear the throat from the tenacious mucous. It is more common in men than in women, in the proportion of 3 to 1. In many cases there is a complication of chronic bronchitis, with the expectoration of a characteristic opaque matter mingled with the transparent mucus. When the follicles of the larynx and trachea are involved, a cough comes on, attended with free viscid sputa from the beginning, in this differing from phthisis; there is also great mental depression, contrasting strongly with the neverceasing hope of the consumptive. In case of ulceration of the follicles, the cough is paroxysmal and severe; if the epiglottis be affected, there is difficulty of swallowing, with pain and sometimes dyspnoea. The disease may descend into the stomach, causing a form of dyspepsia, which yields to the internal administration of the nitrate of silver. Though the system may be implicated, the disease is essentially local, and is best treated by topical applications, and especially by means of the nitrate of silver. Dr. Horace Green, of New York, has been mainly instrumental in bringing to the notice of the American profession the remarkable effects of the nitrate of silver in this and kindred complaints, proving its efficacy and safety in cases heretofore considered beyond the reach of art. Inhalations of medicated vapors are also of great service. In a special treatise on the subject, Dr. Green has given the symptoms, course, and treatment of this disease, illustrated by numerous cases, showing its termination in complaints resembling consumption, unless arrested by suitable remedies.

BRÖNDSTED, PEDER OLUF, a Danish archaologist, born near Horsen, province of Jutland, Nov. 17, 1780, died from a fall of his horse, in Copenhagen, June 26, 1842. He explored Greece in 1810 in company with other savants, received on his return in 1813 an appointment as professor at the Copenhagen university, and in 1818 that of agent of his government at Rome. Having obtained the latter appointment with a view to promote his archæological labors, he afterward

explored Sicily and the Ionian islands, visited France and England, and on his final return to Copenhagen in 1832 he officiated as director of the royal cabinet of antiquities, as professor, and lastly as rector of the university. He left a large number of writings, prominent among which is his work on his travels and investigations in Greece (2 vols. Paris, 1826 and 1830). BRONGNIART. I. ALEXANDRE THÉODORE, a French architect, born in Paris, Feb. 15, 1739, died there June 6, 1815. He was the son of an apothecary, and was destined to become a physician. After continuing the study of medicine for a time, however, he turned his attention to the study of art. Having become familiar with the exact sciences as a preparation for his medical education, he was well prepared to study architecture, and his taste led him to adopt that profession. He became the pupil of Boulée, an architect of some repute for building private residences of a splendid kind, although his name is not connected with the building of any monumental structure. Brongniart became an adept in the same line, and in 1773 commenced a career of success which only ended with his life. At that time few public buildings were erected in Paris, but immense activity was manifested in the construction of palatial private residences. Brongniart constructed the hôtel du petit palais d'Orléans, and the adjoining hôtel of Madame de Montesson. He also built the hôtel Bondy, better known as the hôtel Frascati, in the rue Richelieu. Many of these splendid residences are now being demolished to make room for buildings of a more commercial and productive character. The hôtel Osmond, the hôtel Monaco, and many of the splendid houses on the new boulevards, and the avenues leading from the hôtel des Invalides to the Ecole militaire in Paris, were constructed by Brongniart. He also built the convent of the Capuchin monks, with its church, in the chaussée d'Antin, now transformed into the Bourbon college. Being a man of taste as well as science, he was much consulted by rich families, in all their architectural and other improvements in the distributions of their parks and gardens. He designed and laid out the park of Maupertuis, described for its charms in the poem of Delille on "Gardens." He also made numerous designs for ornaments, vases, and furniture, both for private establishments and for the government. At the age of 38 Brongniart was elected member of the academy of architecture, and he was also the of ficial architect of many chartered companies and public bodies, but it was only toward the end of his career that he was appointed architect of the Bourse and of Père la Chaise. II. ANTOINE LOUIS, chemist, brother of the preceding, died in Paris, Feb. 24, 1804. He was apothecary to Louis XVI., professor at the college of pharmacy, and afterward professor of chemistry applied to the arts. He was the colleague of the celebrated Fourcroy at the lyceum of the republic, and also at the jar

din des plantes, in Paris. During a portion of the revolutionary period, before he obtained his professorship of chemistry, he was apothecary to the army. He wrote much in the journals of science in his day, and published some important papers on chemistry: among others, "An Analytical Table of the Combinations and Decompositions of Different Substances; or, Explanatory Methods of the science" (Paris, 1778). III. ALEXANDRE, chemist and geologist, the son of the architect, born in Paris in 1770, died there in 1847. He was early trained to scientific pursuits, and at the age of 20, on returning from a visit to England, he was occupied in studying the best means of improving the art of enamelling in France. He was afterward engaged in the medical department of the army, and on returning home in 1801, was appointed director of the manufactory of porcelain at Sèvres. In 1807 he composed a treatise on mineralogy, which was a standard work on the subject. He was also appointed professor of mineralogy at the garden of plants, and much of his time was spent in the study of zoology, with Cuvier and other celebrated naturalists. He undertook the classification of reptiles, and described the trilobites, a very singular family of fossil crustaceans, differing widely from all the living forms of the present day. Cuvier was then occupied in the study of the fossil remains of extinct types, and Brongniart assisted him greatly by exploring and explaining the geological formation of Montmartre and its fossil treasures; their joint labors being published in the celebrated Description géologique des environs de Paris. He travelled over the northern and southern parts of Europe, exploring every region; and was the first to give the world an accurate chronological account of the different superficial strata of the earth's crust in various parts of the globe. He was elected member of the academy of sciences in 1815, and was connected with the progress of the physical sciences in nearly all their branches during 40 years. In 1845 he published a treatise on the fictile arts (Traité des arts céramiques), which is deemed the most perfect work of the kind ever published. IV. ADOLPHE THEOPHILE, a botanist, son of the preceding, born in Paris, Jan. 14, 1801. He first studied medicine, and received his diploma of doctor of medicine in 1826; but afterward turned his attention to the physiology of plants and antediluvian phytology. In 1834 he was elected a member of the academy of sciences, as successor to Desfontaines; and in 1839 professor of botany at the museum of natural history in Paris. His researches have been various, and his works are numerous. BRONN, HEINRICH GEORG, a German naturalist and professor at the university of Heidelberg, born March 3, 1800, the author of many valuable publications on various branches of natural science. Among his more recent works is one on general zoology (1850); and a 3d and enlarged edition of one of his most important

productions, Lethaa geognostica, which was originally published in 1834, appeared 1850-'56. BRONNER, JOHANN PHILIPP, a German writer on wines, born in 1792, a resident of Wiessloch, near Heidelberg, the author of 9 distinct treatises on the various wines of Europe, travelled extensively in order to familiarize himself with the best methods of cultivating the vines, and holds the position of councillor on matters of agriculture to the grand duke of Baden. He possesses a remarkable collection of the different specimens of grapes, one of which is known under the name of the Bronner grape.

BRONTE, a town of Sicily, in the province of Catania, near the western base of Mt. Etna. It has a number of churches, convents, a seminary,manufactures of woollen and paper, and trade in wine, oil, silk, grain, and fruits. In 1799 the Neapolitan government conferred the title of duke of Bronte, with a revenue of about $18,700 per annum, upon Lord Nelson. The town suffered much from an earthquake in 1832. Pop. 9,200.

BRONTË, CHARLOTTE, an English novelist, the 3d in a family of 6 children, all daughters but one, born at Thornton, Yorkshire, April 21, 1816, died at Haworth, March 31, 1855. Her father, the Rev. Patrick Bronte, was a native of Ireland; at the age of 25 he entered St. John's college, Cambridge; took his degree nearly 4 years after; was ordained to a charge in Essex; removed into Yorkshire, and held for 5 years the curacy of Hartshead, where, in 1812, he wooed and married a small, delicate, plain woman, named Maria Branwell. Soon after the birth of his 2d daughter, he became curate of Thornton church, and, in 1820, minister of Haworth, where, the next year, he buried his wife. He was a kind, earnest, upright man, uniting much strength of character with an Irish inflammability of temper; subject to fits of intense wrath, which, however, when he could not hold in, he had a strange way of venting on inanimate objects, and always managed its explosions so that none should suffer by them. From his narrow means and high spirit, the little motherless flock were early inured to industry and self-denial; while, by the habits and circumstances of the place, they were in a remarkable degree cut off from the ordinary delights of childhood, and shut up to such as they could find or make among themselves. Their plainness of living set them, almost from the cradle, to a course of high thinking; even their childish prattle was of public affairs and public characters; theology, politics, literature, arguments of state, of war, of ethics, of art, were the material of their fireside sports and recreations. In 1824, Charlotte and 3 of her sisters, Maria, Elizabeth, and Emily, were put to a school at a place called Cowan's Bridge. The school had been lately established by a wealthy and benevolent clergyman, with a view to provide instruction for the daughters of clergymen of limited means. The situation proved to be unhealthy; the school

was in some respects not well managed; the founder, who also exercised the chief control, was so anxious, and so unwise in his anxiety, to make the pupils good, that he did not take sufficient care to make them happy. What with scant supplies, villanous cookery, and hard discipline, the poor girls suffered much. In the spring of 1825, a fever invaded the school, and laid its hand on many of the inmates. The Brontës escaped its touch, but the health of the two elder was so far impaired in other ways that they had to be taken home; and both of them died in the course of the summer. The bitter experiences of the place sank deep into the mind of Charlotte; their influence lives more or less in all her writings, but especially in the sombre fascination which broods over the pages of "Jane Eyre," the recollections of the school being largely drawn upon for the incidents and characters of that remarkable novel. In the autumn of 1825, Charlotte and Emily left the school, and for several years lived at home. Charlotte was now the oldest of the children, and her tendencies to a premature womanhood were much strengthened by the care which it became her duty to exercise over the younger members of the family. During these years, she seems to have spent much of her time in a severe, though self-imposed apprenticeship at writing, and the results survive in a large collection of manuscripts, written in a microscopic hand, and revealing such a development of mind, such a compass and facility of thought, as was perhaps never before witnessed in a girl of her age. In the winter of 1831, she was again put to school at a place called Roe Head, where she continued nearly 2 years. The teacher was a kind, motherly person, named Wooler. Here she was free from discomforts, save what grew from her intense craving for knowledge, the bitter recollections she brought to the place, and the tinge of despondency which seems to have been partly complexional with her; while her quick and powerful mind, her patient energy of character, her staid yet tender carriage, her affectionate and helpful temper, won her the respect of all, and settled her in some warm and lasting friendships. Of play, even at that early age, she seemed incapable; she was demure, tongue-tied with thought, intensely studious; often confounded her schoolmates by knowing things quite out of their range; sometimes exercised her genius in telling stories for their entertainment, when her fund of original and startling invention would transport the eager listeners with ecstasies of wonder and fear. In 1835, she reëntered the school as a teacher, and took her sister Emily along with her as a pupil; but it soon became evident that Emily could not live away from home, and so she changed places with the youngest sister, Anne. Charlotte did not take teaching easy; it was her nature, in whatever she did, to work with all her might; and the labor wore upon her health and spirits till she was forced to give it up. In 1838, we find her spending another

happy and healthful season at home, turning her mind to all the offices of a daughter and elder sister, devoted, diligent, self-sacrificing, brave-hearted, apt-handed, ever resolute to make her own way in the world, unwearied in helping those to whom she was knit by ties of love and duty. The next year, she tried the work of governess, but fell into a hard, purseproud, uncongenial family, with a set of pampered and turbulent children, from whose patronage she soon withdrew, shattered in spirits and deeply disgusted. In 1841, she went out again as governess; this time her situation was much pleasanter; she met with kind and appreciative treatment; but the occupation was against the whole grain of her nature, a continual stifling of faculties and impulses strong as life. Her next plan was, that she and her two sisters should undertake an independent school, whereby they might maintain themselves together, and at the same time have leisure to try their hands at literary work. But they did not deem themselves sufficiently accomplished for such a task; and, as they could not afford the expense of a good English school, they hit upon the project of spending some time in a school on the continent, to qualify themselves for teaching.

The result was, that Charlotte and Emily went to Brussels in the winter of 1842. At the end of 6 months, they were induced to prolong their stay, by an invitation to take part in the teaching, and thus earn something toward paying their way. Emily did not remain quite a year; Charlotte spent nearly 2 years there, intensely active in all her faculties of mind, building herself up with solid and varied acquirements, comfortable in her associations, and cheerful in the intercourse of kind friends. In the summer of 1844, the arrangements were made for opening a school at Haworth; they sent out circulars, received many assurances of good wishes to the enterprise, waited month after month, but still no pupils came; and at last they despaired of success. During this period, and thenceforth, the sisters remained at home, dividing their time between household cares and literary labors. In 1846, they put forth a joint volume of poems, under the names of "Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell." The publication was at their own risk; the work met with little favor; the sales were very limited. Notwithstanding this failure, they did not yet despair of getting the public ear. They wrote each a prose tale, hoping the three would be published together. These were, "The Professor," by Charlotte; "Wuthering Heights," by Emily; and "Agnes Grey," by Anne; the names assumed in the volume of poems being still retained. latter 2 found a publisher; the first was everywhere refused, nor did it get before the public till since the author's death. It was under the weight of all this discouragement that the great, brave, noble little woman undertook the composition of "Jane Eyre," which was published in Oct. 1847. The work was not to be

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resisted; it rapidly made its way to a decided triumph; it was translated into most European languages, and dramatized in England and also in Germany under the title of the "Orphan of Lowood." Even her father knew nothing of what she had done, till she put the printed book into his hand, and told him it was her own work. This great and hard-won success was followed by afflictions as great. Emily died Dec. 19, 1848. The attachment of the 2 sisters was inexpressibly tender and deep. Charlotte's tears were scarce dry before they had to flow afresh. Anne, the youngest of this remarkable trio, in less than 6 months, followed Emily to the grave, May 28, 1849; her 2d novel, "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall," having been published the previous year. Miss Brontë's 2d novel, "Shirley," was given to the public in Oct. 1849. She took great pains with the work; still it hardly made good the expectations raised by "Jane Eyre." From the large use she made of local manners and traditions, the secret of the authorship soon transpired. The result was, she visited London; took her place among the literary stars of the time; underwent, without harm, the pains and perils of lionizing in the metropolis. She looked on life, and all its shams and fripperies, with the keen and earnest eye of simple truth; its vanities could not cheat her, and her fierce strugglings with the untowardness of fortune had left her no time to cultivate the arts of self-deception. Her "Villette," after being a long while on the stocks, but only worked at from time to time, in the intervals of a care-worn life and a faltering health, was at last finished and launched in the autumn of 1852. This story seems to have taken more or less of its shape and texture from the author's recollections of Brussels. In strength and originality of characterization it does not equal Shirley, but is perhaps more interesting and attractive as a whole. It met with almost unbounded applause.-About this time, Miss Bronte was surprised with a declaration of love from the Rev. Mr. Nicholls, her father's curate, who had known her long. His affection had nothing of flash about it; it was the slow and silent growth of years; it was deep, ardent, and tender. Her father, though having no objections to the man, objected to the match. She acquiesced in his judgment, and Mr. Nicholls resigned his curacy. It seems that by the spring of 1854, Mr. Bronte came to view the matter in a different light; an engagement was formed, Mr. Nicholls resumed the curacy, and the marriage took place the June following. The newly-married pair lived at the parsonage; to comfort and brighten her father's old age, was their joint service. The poor woman had at last reached a season of rest and joy; but the cup was to be snatched from her thirsty lip, ere she had more than fairly tasted of its sweetness.-A biography of this extraordinary woman has been given to the public by her friend, Mrs. Gaskell. It is a tale full of solemn and pathetic attraction. It is evident

enough that for her high achievements Miss Bronte was nowise indebted to any advantages commonly withheld from her sex. Toil and pain and sorrow were her portion; her life was one long wrestling match with the stubborn unkindness of circumstances. The only help she had was in being left to work her way unhelped; if she owed her success to any thing external, it was the having to overcome mountains of discouragement. And in all the relations of life she discovered a heart framed of the purest ore of womanhood; to the proper ministries of the daughter, the sister, the wife, the friend, the Christian, she was thoroughly faithful and true. Her great gifts of genius challenge our admiration; which it is sweet to give, because at the same time her hard lot challenges our pity, and her womanly virtues, our reverence. The secret of her power seems to lie in a prodigious faculty of labor, energized and directed by the heart and conscience of the woman. As an author, she touches various springs of interest with a bold, firm, masterly hand. Sterling good sense is the main staple of her stock in trade. Her mode of conceiving and working out character is eminently original and profound; while she anatomizes the human heart with the stern, unfaltering firmness of truth. Of humor she has very little, and that little is mainly of the caustic and pungent sort. She has a piercing and pregnant wit, which, however, rarely appears as a prominent, never as a separate element in her works. The subtler spells of fancy seem always amenable to her call; images of the ghastly, the dream-like, the shadowy, the mysterious, rise up at her bidding; the lonely raptures of pensive and solitary musing throng upon us in her scenes, and steal us from ourselves; indeed, whatever is adapted to work on the moral and imaginative forces, is strangely responsive to her invocations. But the great feature of her writing is its muscular intellectuality. Her adventurous plough dares the toughest soils, and forces its way through, upturning them from the bottom. Nor does she ever confound her sensations with her perceptions; hence we never catch her tormenting language in a spasmodic effort to translate the darkness of the one into the light of the other. The result of all which is, that her works have the solid, legitimate, durable interest of truth; she looks life square in the face, and depicts it fearlessly, as if she scorned all the illusive vanities of art.

BRONZE, an alloy consisting of proportions of copper and tin, which vary according to the purpose desired, to which lead, zinc, and silver also, are sometimes added for the purpose of giving greater brilliancy to the compound, or rendering it more fusible, the zinc being introduced in the form of brass. In some of the modern bronzes, brass is used instead of tin; these are then nothing more than brass, consisting of very large proportions of copper.

Speculum metal of reflecting telescopes is a bronze composition, which is the whitest, hardest, most brilliant, and brittle of all the bronze alloys. It consists of 100 parts tin and 215 of copper. Bell-metal is a bronze, which is usually composed of 78 parts copper and 22 of tin. This is also the composition of the Chinese gongs, which are forged under the hammer, the alloy being rendered malleable, after casting, by plunging it at a cherry-red heat into cold water; the plate is kept in shape by confining it between two disks of iron. Cannon metal consists of 90 to 91 parts in 100 of copper, and the rest of tin. The strength of this compound is stated by Dr. Thomson to be that of malleable iron. Antique bronze consisted of copper 87-88, and tin 12-13 parts in 100; there being no zinc, it was distinct from brass. The best French bronze consists of copper 91, tin 2, zinc 6, and lead 1. In combining the metals to produce the best alloys, the objects to be attained are the most perfect chemical union of the ingredients, with the production of a fusible compound, that shall easily flow into and retain the form of the minutest parts of the mould. Unless this chemical combination takes place, a separation of the metals is liable to occur during the cooling, as was noticed during the casting of the column of the Place Vendôme in Paris, mentioned in the article ALLOY. The difficulty of retaining the compound of the same composition is also increased by the tendency of the ingredients to oxidize when in the melted state-the tin more rapidly than the copper. The effect of this is not only to change the proportions of the metals, but also to introduce particles of the oxides, which do not combine with the rest, but produce spots and stains upon the surface of the casting. Tin has the effect of rendering the alloy harder and more fusible, and less liable to be affected by oxidation. The dark olive hue which bronze acquires by exposure, is hastened by the application of oxidizing washes, and different shades may be given according to the chemical qualities of the wash employed. Some extract the tin from the surface, and leave the copper in excess, and others remove the copper and leave the tin most prominent.-Among the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians, the manufacture of bronze articles was very extensively carried on. Their taste for statuary in this material was cultivated to a degree not attained by the moderns. The wealth of some cities was estimated by the number of their statues. In Athens alone no less than 3,000 statues have been found, and in Rhodes, Olympia, and Delphi many more. The famous colossuses were cast of this alloy. The names of many of the ancient artists are still celebrated, and their groups of statuary continue to be our models. The alloy was employed by them for purposes to which we apply the harder metals, as in some periods for their arms and armor, medals, and even their surgical instruments, a set of which was discovered

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at Pompeii. By them it was regarded as a sacred metal, and endowed with mysterious powers of driving away evil spirits. laws were inscribed on tables of bronze, and upon bronze coins alone were placed the words moneta sacra. The Phoenicians were the first known workers of it; they made it into plates, which were nailed together; and they also cast it solid, and cored. The Egyptians appear to have had the art of hardening it; as a chisel of bronze was found in one of their quarries, which had apparently been used for cutting porphyry, the marks of the chisel, and trace of the metal being left in the stone. Its temper, however, had disappeared, and its edge, when applied to the rock, was immediately turned. Had they the art of softening the rock, or of hardening the alloy? The Athenian sculptor, Myron, employed it of a pale color and unknown composition, in the 5th century. The Corinthian bronze is supposed to have been suggested by the accidental fusing of metals at the burning of Corinth, 146 B. C. It was of 3 colors, white, yellow, and the last not known. The antique liver-colored cinque cents, and the Florentine bronze, are of the same shade, approaching a dull reddish brown.-The operation of casting bronze statues requires no little skill and experience. Large figures are usually cast in several pieces, which are afterward fitted together. The mould is prepared of a mixture of clay and sand, which receives its shape from the impress of a waxen figure of the exact form desired. The preparation of wax, which should be full an inch thick, is melted out as the mould is heated, dried and hardened. If the article is to be cast in one piece, the different parts of the mould are accurately fitted together, and many little channels are opened through its external part, to admit the liquid metal into all its portions. Bronze casting has been successfully practised in this country at several establishments. That most noted for statues, ornaments, and cannon, is the foundery of the Messrs. Ames, at Chicopee, Mass. The equestrian statue of Washington in Union square, New York, is one of their most successful productions.

BRONZING, the process of covering articles of wood, clay, plaster, metals, ivory, &c., with compositions which give to them the appearance of bronze. These compositions vary in their ingredients, and the process also, with the articles to be coated. An application is first made of size or oil-varnish, into which when nearly dry a metallic powder is rubbed, or this may be previously mixed with the varnish. This powder is most commonly a preparation called gold powder, prepared as follows: Gold leaf is ground together with honey upon a stone. When thoroughly mixed, and the particles of gold completely reduced, the preparation is stirred up in water, and washed until the honey is entirely removed. The gold which settles is then