BLIGHT’S DISEASE, a disease in the kidneys, due to several diseased conditions of the organ, so called from Dr. Richard Bright, who first investigated its nature.

BRIL BROTHERS, MATTHEW AND PAUL, landscape painters, born at Antwerp; employed in the 16th century by successive Popes to decorate the Vatican at Rome; of whom Paul, the younger, was the greater artist; his best pictures are in Rome.

BRILLAT-SAVARIN, a French gastronomist, author of “Physiologie du Gout,” a book full of wit and learning, published posthumously; was professionally a lawyer and some time a judge (1755-1825).

BRIN`DISI (15), a seaport of Southern Italy, on the Adriatic coast; has risen in importance since the opening of the Overland Route as a point of departure for the East; it is 60 hours by rail from London, and three days by steam from Alexandria; it was the port of embarkation for Greece in ancient times, and for Palestine in mediaeval.

BRINDLEY, JAMES, a mechanician and engineer, born in Derbyshire; bred a millwright; devoted his skill and genius to the construction of canals, under the patronage of the Duke of Bridgewater, as the greatest service he could render to his country; regarded rivers as mere “feeders to canals” (1716-1772).

BRINK, JAN TEN, a Dutch writer, distinguished as a critic in the department of belles-lettres; b. 1834.

BRINVILLIERS, MARQUISE DE, notorious for her gallantries and for poisoning her father, brother, and two sisters for the sake of their property; was tortured and beheaded; the poison she used appears to have been the Tofana poison, an art which one of her paramours taught her (1630-1676).  See AQUA TOFANA.

BRISBANE (49), capital of Queensland, on the Brisbane River, 25 m. from the sea, 500 m.  N. of Sydney, is the chief trading centre and seaport of the Colony; it has steam communication with Australian ports and London, and railway communication with Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide; prosperity began when the colony was opened to free settlement in 1842; it was dissociated from New South Wales and the city incorporated in 1859.

BRISBANE, ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES, a naval officer of distinction under Lords Hood and Nelson; captured in 1796 Dutch warships, three ships of the line among them, in Saldanha Bay, and in 1807 the island of Curacoa; was made governor of St. Vincent (1769-1829).

BRISBANE, SIR JAMES, naval officer, brother of the preceding, served under Lord Howe and under Nelson at Copenhagen (1774-1829).

BRISBANE, SIR THOMAS MACDOUGALL, British general, a man of science and an astronomer, born near Largs, Ayrshire; saw service as a soldier; was appointed governor of New South Wales to the profit of the colony; gave name to the capital of Queensland; catalogued over 7000 stars; succeeded Scott as president of the Royal Society (1773-1860).

BRISE`IS, a young virgin priestess, who fell to the lot of Achilles among the spoil of a victory, but whom Agamemnon carried off from him, whereupon he retired to his tent and sullenly refused to take any further part in the war, to its prolongation, in consequence, as Homer relates, for ten long years; the theme of the “Iliad” being the “wrath of Achilles” on this account, and what it led to.