The discharge of this duty, which he performed in a very thorough and satisfactory manner, cost him his life; for having occasion, towards the close of his investigation, to visit a feverish locality in a low part of the mountain range, he there laid the seeds of an illness which a few months later caused his death. In the meantime he had made a complete collection of the utensils, arms, &c., in use among the four aboriginal tribes of the Nilagiris, the Todas, Kotas, Kurumbas, and Irulas, and of the contents of many cairns and cromlechs, and had written the greater part of the rough draft of a report, which, completed and edited by his widow, who had been closely associated with him in his inquiries, was published in London by order of the secretary of state.
This report contains a very full account of each of the four tribes above mentioned, illustrated by drawings and photographs, and supplemented by a brief notice of some similar remains in other parts of India. Photographs of the men and women of the several tribes, of their villages, houses, temples, &c., are also given; as well as a vocabulary of the tribes, and descriptive catalogues of the ornaments, implements, &c., now in use. The book is a valuable record of intelligent and accurate research.
The Breeks Memorial School at Ootacamund, for the children of poor Europeans and Eurasians, was erected by public subscription shortly after his death as a memorial of his services to the Nilagiri community.
Breeks married in 1863 Susan Maria, the eldest surviving daughter of Colonel Sir William Thomas Denison, R.E., K.C.B., at that time governor of Madras. He left three sons and one daughter.
[Madras Civil List; South of India Observer newspaper, 13 and 20 June 1872; Breeks's Account of the Primitive Tribes and Monuments of the Nilagiris; personal recollections.]
BREEN, JAMES (1826–1866), astronomer, was the second son of Hugh Breen, senior, who superintended the lunar reductions at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. He was born at Armagh, in Ireland, 5 July 1826, was engaged at the age of sixteen as a calculator at Greenwich, and exchanged the post for that of assistant in the Cambridge Observatory in August 1846. In 1854 he published 'The Planetary Worlds: the Topography and Telescopic Appearance of the Sun, Planets, Moon, and Comets,' a useful little work suggested by discussions on the plurality of worlds, showing considerable acquaintance with the history of the subject, as well as the practical familiarity conferred by the use of one of the finest refractors then in existence. After twelve years' zealous cooperation with Challis, he resigned his appointment towards the close of 1858, and cultivated literature in Paris until 1860, when he went to Spain, and observed the total eclipse of the sun (18 July) at Camuesa, with Messrs. Wray and Buckingham of the Himalaya expedition. In the following year, after some months in Switzerland, he settled in London, and devoted himself to literary and linguistic studies, reading much at the British Museum, and contributing regularly, but for the most part anonymously, to the 'Popular Science Review' and other periodicals. He had made arrangements for the publication of a work on stars, nebulae, and clusters, of which two sheets were already printed, when his strength finally gave way before the ravages of slow consumption. He died at noon, 25 Aug. 1866, aged 40, and was buried with his father at Nunhead. He had been elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, 10 June 1862. Extracts from his observations at Cambridge 1851-8 appeared in the 'Astronomische Nachrichten' and 'Monthly Notices.' He calculated the orbits of the ξ double star Ursæ Majoris, assigning a period of 63.14 years; of Petersen's third (1850), and Brorsen's (1851, iii.) comets (Monthly Notices, x. 155, xxii. 158; Astr. Nach. No. 786). His observations of Donati's comet with the Northumberland equatorial were printed in the 'Memoirs of the R. A. Soc.' xxx. 68.
[Monthly Notices, xxvii. 104; R. Soc. Cat. Sc. Papers, i. 594.]
BREGWIN or BREGOWINE (d. 765), archbishop of Canterbury, the son of noble parents dwelling in the old Saxon land, came to England for the sake of the learning spread abroad here by Theodore and Hadrian. In this learning he is said to have excelled. He was elected archbishop in the presence of a large and rejoicing crowd, and was consecrated on or about St. Michael's day 759 (Flor. Wig. i. 57, ed. Thorpe; Anglo-Saxon Chron.; Eccl. Documents, iii. 397). In the account of the synod held at Clovesho in 798 there is a notice of a synod held by Bregwin, in which complaint was made of the unjust detention of an estate granted to Christ Church by Æthelbald of Mercia (Eccl. Documents, iii. 399, 512). A letter is extant addressed by Bregwin to Lullus, archbishop of Mentz, informing him of the death of the Abbess Bugge, or Eadburh (Epp. Bonif. ed. Jaffé, No. 113). From this letter it appears that Bregwin made the acquaintance of Lullus during a visit to Rome,
