showing a progressive increase in the numbers of the people, accompanied by an improvement as regards the duration of life.

The area of the prov. being 1653 sq. m., gives a pop. of 211 to the sq. m., which is somewhat below the average density of the kingdom, a fact which is attributable to its larger proportion of waste land.

North Brabant, in common with all the Dutch provs., and according to antient usage, has its particular States Assembly, the members of which are elected by the nobles, the towns, and the royal municipalities. This assembly meets annually as a matter of course, and more frequently if convoked by the King of Holland. Its functions are the regulation of local affairs, and the imposition of provincial taxes. BRABANT, SOUTH, the metropolitan prov. of the kingdom of Belgium, is bounded on the N. by the prov. of Antwerp; on the E. by Liege and Limburg; on the S. by Hainault and Namur; and on the W. by East Flanders. South Brabant lies between 50° 32′ and 51° 3′ N. lat., and between 3° 53′ and 5° 10' E. long.

South Brabant is politically divided into three deps. (arronds.)

Brussells, containing 2 towns and 118 communes.
Louvain,
Nivelles,

4 2

110

106

The principal towns are, Brussells, Hal, Louvain, Aerschot, Diest, Tirlemont, Nivelles, and Wavre.

Aarschot, or Aerschott, a small fortified town in the district of Louvain and prov. of S. Brabant, situated on the riv. Demer. This town was the capital of the barony of Aerschott in 1125; it was subsequently fortified by the Duke d'Aremberg, into whose possession it had passed. A part of the antient fortifications, called Aurelian's Tower, still exists in a state of ruin.

Aarschot, which in 1829 contained a pop. of 3615, has a municipal government, consisting of a burgomaster, 2 sheriffs (échevins), 9 councillors, a secretary, and a receiver. The town contains one commercial and two private schools, the former giving instruction to 35 and the latter to 230 children of both sexes. The principal branches of industry are those of brewing and distilling.

Aarschot is 4 m. W. from Montaign, 18 m. N.E. from Brussells, and 20 m. S.E. from Antwerp.

The area of the province amounts to 328,426 hectares (812,419 acres), of which 316,883 are cultivated or productive

The number of births in 1833 was

In towns
In country.

Males.

Females.

Total,

3,151

2,959

6,110

The deaths in the same year were

The average number of children born to every marriage is stated to be 4.68 throughout the prov., the average number for the whole of Belgium being 4.72. (For the state of education, number of electors and representatives, number of cattle, sheep, and horses, &c., see BELGIUM.) BRABANT, Agriculture of. Dutch or N. Brabant is naturally a poor barren country, part of which consists of sandy heaths, part of low marshes, neither of which are well adapted to cultivation. Industry has, in some measure, overcome these natural disadvantages, and the traveller will often admire fine crops of corn and flax, and neat plantations of tobacco on spots, which, a short time ago, were arid sands and barren heaths. Specimens of the natural soil often appear immediately adjoining the cultivated spots, and show the industry and perseverance of the inhabitants. The sands of Dutch Brabant and of the N. part of the prov. of Antwerp are much less susceptible of cultivation than those of E. Flanders. They are higher above the natural waters, and are more impregnated with carbonates and oxides of iron; hence they are more apt to burn and require much lime, which is not found in the neighbourhood, to correct the natural qualities. In many places the soil resembles the most barren spots of Bagshotheath in England. Where the rivers have deposited a rich alluvial loam the land is very fertile, but it is generally situated so low, and so subject to be flooded, that it requires a great expense to protect it by dykes, and it is mostly left in the state of meadows.

The N. part of Austrian Brabant, now called the Province of Antwerp, especially that part which lies N. of that city, is almost entirely of the same barren nature. It is only in the neighbourhood of Antwerp that there is any appearance of fertility, and this is to be ascribed solely to the abundance of manure which the town affords, and the demand for all kinds of vegetables for its market.

The S. part of this prov., towards Malines, improves as you advance, and gradually loses that very flat appearance which distinguishes the Netherlands. The surface is more undulating, and there are some rich loamy fields in the valleys, and woods on the eminences.

South Brabant, which begins a little to the S. of Malines, presents a much more varied aspect, and possesses a much greater extent of good soil. A line may be drawn from W. to E. through Aerschot and Diest, along which there are some very fertile loams producing fine crops without much labour; as also towards Louvain and Tirlemont. These loamy soils, which are neither very light nor very stiff, predomi nate in all the valleys throughout the province, varying in quality and depth, and covering many rising grounds which barely deserve the name of hills. The higher grounds are covered with a poorer and more sandy stratum of no great depth, as is evident from the fine trees which grow upon them, and show plainly that there is a good soil be

VOL. V.-2 R

when it is observed that the finer breed is more profitable than the old. The horses are large and strong, and on the whole fully equal to the general run of farm horses in England. They might be much improved by a cross with the more active Yorkshire or Lanarkshire horses. Most of the Belgian horses have a great defect in the form of their hips and in the croup, which falls suddenly towards the tail, which is called in England being goose-rumped.

The sheep are of a very inferior kind, long in the leg, with coarse wool and hanging ears. A few good Leicesters and improved Cotswold sheep have been introduced, and will probably improve the native breed. The fleece of a very fine ram imported from England being sorted and combed was exhibited in 1835 at Brussells at the annual exhibition of the industrious products of the country, and excited universal admiration for the length and fineness of the staple, and especially for the quantity of the wool. The whole fleece when shorn weighed twenty pounds, and of this nine pounds of fine long dressed wool was obtained.

The Belgian pigs are similar to the French, and nearer to the shape of greyhounds than of pigs, with long sharp snouts, and very long legs, the whole body being in the form of an arch of a circle, and very thin. A better breed has however been introduced, and, from the naturally prolific nature of the animal, will soon spread and supersede the old breed. There is a general spirit of agricultural improvement amongst landed proprietors in the country which the government is anxious to encourage.

The implements of husbandry used in Brabant are few and of the simplest kind. They use the excellent Flemish swing plough, which they call a foot plough, as it is also called in some parts of England, in contradistinction to a wheel plough. At the same time they also retain the old and heavy turn wrest plough, with a shifting coulter and mould board, as may be still seen in Kent and Sussex; yet they allow that the light Flemish plough does the work as well in the stiffest soils, and requires less force. It is surprising that two instruments so very opposed to each other in principle should be used on the same farm and in the same kind of soil, but the turn wrest plough is the indigenous instrument. and requires less skill in the plough man: the Flemish plough is of later introduction, and the prejudices against anything new are not yet totally overcome. The plough is universally drawn by horses two abreast, driven in reins. Very few ox teams are seen. The land, in general, is not so neatly tilled as in Flanders, Scotland, or the best agricultural counties in England. There is not the same attention to the straightness and equality of the furrows in ploughing. The harrows are triangular, with wooden tinos set at an angle of 45°, which may scratch the surface but cannot penetrate to any depth. A heavy iron drag to tear up the clods, and bring deeply-lying roots to the surface is much wanted, but is not in use any where, as far as we could observe in a tour through this province. A stone roller is used, set in a triangular frame, which drags on the ground, and serves to break the clods, and is a simple useful instrument, of which we annex a figure. The triangle A B C

A

C

drags on the ground before the roller, and the horse draws by the hook B. A winnowing machine with a fly and sieves is the only additional instrument in general use.

BRACCIA'NO, LAGO DI, a lake in the Roman state, the antient Sabatinus, about 17 m. N.W. of Rome. It is of a circular form, about 18 m. in circuit, and lies at the foot of the ridge called Mount Cimino. It is almost entirely surrounded by hills, except to the S., where it borders on the wide unwholesome plain which slopes down to the To the S.E. the lake has an outlet in the riv. Arrone, which flows into the sea at Maccarese. On its S.W. bank the castle of Bracciano rises with its old embattled walls and towers, on a rock projecting into the lake, with the vil. built at the foot of the castle, and containing about 1500 inh., with several iron-works and a paper manufactory. Brac

sea.

ciano was, in the middle ages, an important fief of the Orsini family, who sold it afterwards to the Odescalchi, of whom the estate, with the ducal title attached to it, was purchased a few years since by the banker Torlonia for the sum of 2,200.000 francs. The banks of the lake of Bracciano are well cultivated, and planted with vines and other fruit trees: there are several little towns in its neighbourhood, such as Anguillara, Oriolo, Manziana, &c. The lake is not very deep, and it abounds with fish and fine eels. (Tournon, Etudes Statistiques sur Rome.)

BRACCIOLINI, PO'ĜGIO, son of Guccio Bracciolini, a notary, was born in 1380, at Terranuova, in the Floreque territory. He studied Latin at Florence, under Giovanni da Ravenna, a disciple of Petrarch; and afterwards Greek under Chrysoloras, a learned Byzantine emigrant. About 1402 Poggio went to Rome, where Boniface IX. employed him in the pontifical chancellery, as apostolic secretary or writer of the papal letters. Boniface having died in October, 1404, his successor Innocent VII., continued Poggio in his office, which he held for about half a century under eight successive Popes. Poggio availed himself of the favour of Innocent to obtain an employment in the apostolic chancellery for his friend and school-fellow Leonardo Bruni, of Arezzo. The friendship between these two distinguished scholars continued till death. Innocent having died in 1406, was succeeded by Gregory XII., who was soon after deposed by the Council of Pisa, and replaced by Alexander V. This was the period of the great Western schism. [BENEDICT, ANTIPOPE. In the midst of these distractions Poggio withdrew to Florence, where he pursued his literary studies, and found a patron in Niccolò Nicoli, a wealthy Florentine, noted for his love of learning and his encouragement of the learned. When John XXIII. was elected Pope, Poggio returned to his duties of pontifical secretary, and as such he accompanied the Pope to the Council of Constance in 1414. At Constance he applied himself to the study of Hebrew: and in his excursions into the adjoining countries he visited the Abbey of St. Gall, and other monasteries, where he had the good fortune to discover the MSS. of several classical works, which were considered as lost, or of which only imperfect copies existed. He complains, as Boccaccio had done before him, of the monks taking no care of the litera y treasures which they possessed, and allowing the valuable MSS. to rot in cellars and dungeons unfit even for condemned criminals. The monastic orders had long since greatly degenerated from their industrious and praiseworthy predecessors of the earlier centuries. Poggio found, among other MSS., copies of Quintilian's Institutions, of Vegetius, Silius Italicus, Ammianus Marcellinus, Columella, Asconius Pedianus's Commentaries upon some of Cicero's Orations, the Argonautics of Valerius Flaccus, several Comedies of Plautus, &c. Continuing his researches after his return to Italy, either by himself or through his friends, he found at Monte Casino a copy of Frontinus de Aquæductibus, he procured from Cologne the 15th book of Petronius Arbiter, and from a monastery at Langres several of Cicero's Orations, which had been considered as lost. Poggio either purchased the MSS., or transcribed them, or pointed them out to persons wealthier than himself. He repeatedly complains, in his works, of the want of encouragement from the great, both clerical and lay. His friends, Bartolommeo da Montepulciano and Cinzio, of Rome, assisted him by their own exertions, and Nicoli by his liberality. It is worth observing, as a corrective to the frequent querulousness of literary men, that at no epoch were scholars in greater estimation than in the 15th century in Italy, as is sufficiently proved by the honours and important offices conferred by the princes of that country on Poggio, Leonardo Bruni, Guarino of Verona, Filelfo, Valla, Beccatelli of Palermo, commonly called il Panormita,' George of Trebisond, Pontano, Biondo, and others, simply on account of their literary merit.

While Poggio was staying at Constance, he witnessed the trial and execution, by the sentence of that council, of Jerome of Prague, on the charge of heresy. He gives a most vivid account of that deplorable transaction, in a letter to his friend Leonardo Bruni, which has been often quoted by subsequent historians. Poggio was evidently moved by the constancy and the eloquence of the defence of the Bohemian reformer; and his own knowledge of the corruptions of the Roman church at that time made him, if not openly advocate Jerome's cause, at least ommiserate his fate in terms so strong, that his more rudent friend

Poggio continued in his office during Martin's pontificate, pursuing at the same time his researches after MSS. and antiquities, for which latter object he made excavations at Ostia, and other parts of the Campagna. He also made Latin translations of the first six books of Diodorus Siculus, and of Xenophon's Cyropædia. Eugenius IV. having, in 1431, succeeded Martin V., was soon after obliged by a popular rebellion to remove his court to Florence. Then came the controversies between the Pope and the Council of Basil, which lasted during the rest of Eugenius's pontificate, till his death in 1447. The greater part of this time was spent by Poggio at Florence, or at a country-house he had purchased in the Val d' Arno, some say with the produce of some classical MSS. which he sold. He gives in his letters a description of this residence, which he had adorned with statues and other remains of antiquity, that he had collected in various places. He wrote there several works, among others his Discourse on the Unhappiness of Princes, which he dedicated to Thomas of Sarzana, afterwards Pope Nicholas V., and his virulent invectives against Filelfo, who had attacked the character of Poggio's friend Nicoli. In these invectives the most horrible charges are brought against Filelfo, which however must not be taken literally, for it was the practice of Italian scholars in that as well as in the following ages, to abuse one another without any very strict regard to truth. When the two fierce disputants became reconciled, Poggio wrote a sort of disavowal of his former accusations, which is found at the end of the invectives. In 1435 Poggio married Selvaggia, of the family of Buondelmonte, of Florence, a young and handsome lady, with whom he lived happily. While making up his mind to his marriage, he wrote a dialogue on the question,-An seni sit uxor ducenda? From that time Poggio reformed his life, which had been before rather licentious. In 1437 he published a selection of his letters, written in Latin, like all the rest of his works, according to the fashion of that age. His friend Leonardo Bruni dying in 1444, Poggio composed a Funeral Oration to his memory. He wrote also other Funeral Orations,-for Cardinal Zabarella, who died at the Council of Constance; for the Cardinal Santa Croce, a patron of letters; for Lorenzo de' Medici, brother of the great Cosmo; for Cardinal Sant Angelo, who fell in the battle of Varna against the Turks, &c. His friend Nicholas V., being raised to the pontifical throne in 1447, Poggio, who had returned to Rome and resumed the duties of his office, addressed to the new pontiff an eloquent oration, of mixed eulogy and advice on the duties and dangers of his exalted station,-Oratio ad summum Pontificem Nicolaum V. He did not however forget his own interest, for at the end he speaks of himself as a veteran in the papal court, where he had lived for the space of forty years, and certainly with less emolument than might have been justly expected by one who was not entirely destitute of merit or of learning.' Nicholas, who was not displeased at Poggio's frankness, made him liberal presents. To this time belongs Poggio's treatise De Varietate Furtunæ, one of his best works, which presents a good view of Italian politics at the beginning of the 15th century, an interesting sketch of the remains of antient Rome in Poggio's time, and a curious account of the travels of the Venetian, Niccolò Conti, in the east, He also wrote Dialogus adversus Hypocrisin, in

Having now access to the archives of Florence, he undertook a history of that republic,-Historia Florentina, lib. viii., which embraces the period from 1350 to 1455. It was translated into Italian by his son Jacopo, and printed in 1476, and afterwards republished in a more correct and improved form by Serdonati, Florence, 1598. The Latin text was not published till 1715, by Recanati, who prefixed to it a biography of the author. Poggio has been charged with marked partiality for his countrymen in his history. Another deficiency is noted by a grave authority, Machiavelli, who, in the preface to his own history, observes that both Poggio and Leonardo Bruni, two excellent historians, had diligently described the wars between Florence and the other states and princes, but with regard to the civil contentions of the republic, its internal factions and their results, they had been either silent or extremely laconic in their account, either because they fancied them beneath the dignity of history, or perhaps because they were afraid of offending the relatives and descendants of persons who had figured in those transactions.'

Poggio died at Florence in 1459, and was buried with great honours in the church of Santa Croce, near his friend Leonardo Bruni. A statue of him by the sculptor Donatello is in the duomo or cathedral.

Poggio was one of the most distinguished scholars of the epoch of the revival of literature, and one of those who contributed most to the spreading of that revival. His long life, the offices of trust which he filled, his travels, his extensive correspondence, his multifarious learning, all contribute to render him one of the most remarkable writers of the fifteenth century. His works, especially his Orations and his Epistolæ, are remarkable for their eloquence and fluency of style, though their language does not equal in classic purity that of Poliziano and some other latinists of the following age. His sentiments are noted for their independence and frankness; even in his addresses to the great, his language, though courtly, is free from flattery. He had an ample share of Florentine causticity of humour, and his invectives are virulent and outrageous beyond the limits of all decency and justice; this was however the fault of the generality of his contemporaries. But he could also be a staunch friend as well as a violent enemy. Even as a monitor he could divest himself of all unbecoming asperity, as he proved by his reproof to Beccatelli, on the occasion of the latter having written an infamous book called the Hermaphrodite, which was burnt in various towns of Italy by the public executioner. While Valla and others charitably wished that the author had shared the fate of his book, Poggio wrote to the Panormita, expressing his regret at seeing such a production from the pen of one capable of better things, reminding him that he was a Christian living among Christians, and not among the worshippers of the heathen gods, and exhorting him to apply himself in future to graver and more becoming studies."

The works of Poggio have never been properly collected. The Basil edition, Poggii Opera,' 1538, wants many of them, and is also typographically incorrect. The dialogue against Hypocrisy, which was published separately at Lyons in 1679, had appeared before in a collection called Fasciculus rerum expetendarum et fugiendarum, Cologne, 1535. The treatise De Varietate Fortuna' was printed first at Paris, in 1723, with fifty-seven inedited letters. But most of his letters still remain inedited and scattered about different libraries. A great number of them exist in the Riccardiana at Florence, which contain many curious particulars of his life and times. The Advocate Tonelli has made good use of them for his Italian translation of Shepherd's clever Life of Poggio, Florence, 1825. Poggio's funeral oration for Cardinal Zabarella, which he delivered before the council of Constance, in 1417, has been published separately, 'Oratio in funere Francisci Zabarellæ, habita in Concilio Constantiensi, anno 1417, Padua, 1655. But most of his other orations remained inedited. He also translated from the Greek, Lucian's 'Dialogue on the Ass,' which is printed in the Basil edition of his works. The miscellany called 'Poggiana,' by Lenfant, 1720, which professes to give an abstract of his life, opinions, &c., is full of errors. Poggio's 'Facetime' have gone through many editions.

Poggio's son Jacopo was a man of learning, but after being in his youth the friend of the Medici, he conspired with the Pazzi against Lorenzo, and being seized after the murder of Giuliano, was publicly hanged in 1478.

BRACELET. [ARMILLA.]

BRACHE LYTRA (Entomology), according to Mr. Stephens's arrangement of insects, forms the sixth division of the order Coleoptera. M. Latreille, however, places this tribe of insects as the second family of the Pentamerous Coleoptera. The insects of this section (which is by Linnæus called Staphylinus) may be distinguished by the elongate form of the body and the shortness of the wingcases, which in most instances scarcely cover one-third of the length of the abdomen: their maxillæ are furnished with only one palpus. The apex of the abdomen is provided with two vesicles, which can be protruded at the will of the

animal.

The habits of the Brachelytra are very various, but the greater number of the species are found in putrid animal or vegetable substances, upon which they feed; some are carnivorous. The shortness of the wing-cases probably allows of a greater flexibility in the body.

BRA'CHINUS, a genus of coleopterous insects belonging to the section truncatipennes; generic characters-body oblong, head and thorax comparatively narrow, the latter generally somewhat of a truncated heart shape; palpi and antennæ rather thick, the terminal joint of the former is slightly thicker than the basal joints, and has its apex truncated; mentum emarginate, and furnished with a small tooth-like process in the middle.

The Brachini possess a remarkable power of violently expelling from the anus a pungent acrid fluid; which, if the species be large, has the power of producing a discoloration of the skin similar to that caused by nitric acid. A loud report, considering the size of the insect, accompanies the expulsion of this fluid, which, being discharged, instantly

evaporates.

About five species of the genus Brachinus have been found in this country, of which B. crepitans is the most common; it is found under stones, and occurs plentifully in chalky districts. This species is rather less than half an inch long; the head, thorax, and legs are of a yellowish red colour; the wing-cases are greenish, or blue black. The antennæ are reddish, with the third and fourth joints black. Many of the species of Brachinus resemble the above in colour. The species of the genus Aptinus (a genus very closely allied and differing chiefly in being apterous) are generally of a yellow colour, having four black spots on the elytra; the head and thorax are also often more or less suffused with black; they are likewise of a larger size for the most part, and abound more particularly in warm climates.

(Rotifera) of his Infusoria, which forms his fifth and last class of the Zoophytes-in short, the class at the extreme end of the animal kingdom. De Blainville also brings them under the Rotifera, which form the first section of his Microzoaria heteropoda. The following is De Blainville's definition of the genus :—

Body more or less covered by a shell (or sheath), formed of one or two pieces, and more or less prolonged posteriorly by a caudiform abdomen, two tufts of vibratory cilia at the anterior extremity.

Savigny, Schweigger, Schrank, Bory de St. Vincent, Carus, have all contributed to throw light upon these microscopic creatures.

De Blainville thus writes in his Actinologie' (1834):In the impossibility under which we find ourselves of characterizing, by the particular disposition of their appendages, the genera, more or less numerous, which may be formed among the Microzoaria, we propose to extend to all the species, whose bodies are covered by a sort of shell of one or two pieces for a more or less considerable part of their extent, the denomination of Brachion, devised by Hill and adopted by Pallas and Lamarck **** We have already observed many species of this genus belonging to the different sections. Brachionus urceolaris of the first section is common in all stagnant fresh waters; it is very probably the Rotifera of Hill, Essay 13, p. 288, concerning which that author gives very interesting details that show it to be a true entomostracous animal. [ENTOMOSTRACA].

'The Corona of Corti belongs also, without doubt, to this section.

'We have also studied the Trichoda piscis of Müller, which is certainly a Brachion. We cannot conceive how Müller could say that it creeps after the manner of the Planaria, for it attaches itself by the extremity of its tail, and it travels as if it were provided with a great number of appendages under its shell.

'Brachionus ovalis has also been often presented to our observations. It has certainly two tufts of vibratory cilia before, and behind a pair of sufficiently long appendages, by the aid of which it is also able to fix itself. Its shell appeared to us to be bivalve; but of this we are not certain.

Brachionus patina we have seen once, and observed sufficiently well the particularities pointed out by Müller. It was in the water of one of the basins of the Jardin du Roi, containing an innumerable quantity of Entomostraca. 'Upon the whole, we are very much inclined to think that the Brachions are only the young states of Entomostraca, whose habits for the most part they have.'

Ehrenberg, who has distinguished himself by his luminous researches into the organization of the Infusoria in general, and of the rotatory animals in particular, states in his memoir upon them (1834) that he has already discovered in the latter,

1. A system of organs of nutrition, with all their details. 2. A double sexual system, observed in its entire develop

ment.

3. The probable existence of a very extensive vascular system.

4. Distinct internal muscles and ligaments, having a disposition and force corresponding with the external organs of locomotion.

Brachionus urceolaris, which led him to many of his discoveries, is thus illustrated by him :

b

[Brachionus urceolaris, highly magnified.]

a, rotary cilia; b, internal branchial organs; d, eye; e, pharynx and jaws;