BRINVILLIERS 183 BRISSOT like or leaflike feet. It is about % of an inch long. Similar forms live in brine vats in various parts of the world. BRINVILLIERS (bran-ve-ya'), MA- RIE MARGUERITE, MARQUISE DE, a notorious French poisoner, born about 1630; was the daughter of Dreux d'Aubray, Lieutenant of Paris, and re- ceived a careful education. In 1651, she was married to the Marquis, and formed an improper attachment to St. Croix, a young cavalry officer. The latter was imprisoned in the Bastille, and there learned from Exili, an Italian, the com- position of poisons, which art he after- ward taught to his mistress. They then commenced a series of poisonings, the first victim being the Marquise's father, then her two brothers and her sister, with a view to the ultimate possession of their fortunes. She fled, but was ar- rested at Liege, and beheaded, in 1676. BRIQUETTE (bre-kef), French for "small brick." A briquette is simply an admixture of coal dust with pitch, molded under pressure and heat, the pitch or some similar substance being introduced to form the cementing material. BRISBANE, the capital, a seaport and chief seat of trade of Queensland, Australia, situated about 500 miles N. of Sydney, in Moreton District. It stands about 25 miles from the mouth of a river of its own name, which falls into Moreton Bay, and it is divided into the four divisions of North Brisbane, South Brisbane, Kangaroo Point, and Fortitude Valley. Pop. about 145,000. Brisbane possesses broad and handsome streets, and some fine buildings, among the chief of which are the Houses of Legislature, which cost £100,000, the postoffice, tele- graph office, the viceregal lodge, and the Queensland National Bank. It is the seat of an Anglican and of a Roman Catholic bishop. There are some 50 churches, the chief being the two cathe- drals; and several daily and weekly newspapers are published. The export trade, which is large, includes gold, wool, cotton, sugar, tallow, and hides; and the imports, most of the articles in use among a thriving community. Regular steam communication is kept up with the other Australian ports, as well as with London (11,295 miles), and there is an extensive system of wharfs on both sides of the river. Brisbane was settled as a penal sta- tion, in 1825, by Sir T. Brisbane, Gov- ernor of New South Wales. In 1836 the town comprised the houses of the com- mandant and other officers, barracks, a tread mill, stores, etc. Three years late» the convict settlement was broken up. In 1842, the colony was opened to free settlers. The Brisbane river rises in the Burnett Range, and receives the Bremer and other rivers before its en- trance into Moreton Bay, below the town of Brisbane. The Victoria lattice girder bridge (1,080 feet long), connecting North and South Brisbane, was de- stroyed by a flood, in 1893, which laid half of South Brisbane in ruins. BRISBANE, ARTHUR, an Ameri- can editor; born in Buffalo, N. Y., in 1864. His education was a public school one, supplemented by a residence of five years in France and Germany. He en- tered upon a newspaper career as a re- porter for the New York "Sun." Later he became editor of the "Evening Sun," from which he went to a similar posi- tion on the "World." In 1897 he be- came editor of the New York "Evening Journal" and the brilliancy of his edi- torial writing soon made him a national figure. BRISEIS (bri-se'is), a girl of Lyrnessus, called also Hippodamia. When her country was taken by the Greeks, she fell to the share of Achilles in the division of the spoils. Agamem- non afterward took possession of her, and Achilles thereupon made a vow to absent himself from the field of battle at Troy. This incident Homer make? one of the chief features of his "Iliad." BRISSON, EUGENE HENRI, a French politician and journalist, born in Bourges, July 31, 1835. He entered the Chamber of Deputies, in 1871, and won much attention by urging amnesty for the Communists and other political offenders. He became one of the fore- most members of the Radical party. He was elected President of the Chamber, in 1881, and became premier in 1885. He was re-elected to the Presidency of the Chamber in 1894, and, in 1895, he re- tired from the ministry and was a con- spicuous candidate for the Presidency of France. In 1898 he again accepted the premiership, but his cabinet was soon overthrown on the army question. He was President of the Houst of Deputies in 1906. BRISSOT (bre-s6'), JEAN PIERRE (also called Brissot de Warville), a French political writer, born in 1754. In 1780, he published his "Theories des Lois Criminelles," and two years later "Bib- liotheque des Lois Criminelles." During the Revolution he made himself known as one of the leaders of the Girondist party. Brissot, like most of his party, died by the guillotine in 1793.
