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BROWN UNIVERSITY
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BROWNING

stitutionality of Jefferson Davis's acts of conscription. Near the close of the war he was imprisoned for a time by the national government, but, being released, he resigned his governorship, and in 1866 visited Washington and urged his state to accept the issues of the struggle and comply with the pacific measures of reconstruction. This made him unpopular with the south and his Democratic friends, and for a while he joined the Republicans, only, however, to return at length to his own political fold. He was afterward a member of the United States senate. He left a considerable fortune, though he was a large benefactor of the Georgia University and of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville, Ky.

Brown University, an institution for the higher learning, belonging chiefly to the Baptist denomination, but nonsectarian, located at Providence, R. I. It was founded at Warren, R. L, in 1764, under the name of Rhode Island College, but was in 1770 removed to Providence and named after Nicholas Brown, a philanthropic merchant and legislator of the state, who contributed $100,000 to its endowment. It has about 80 instructors, and nearly 1,000 students are on its contemporary rolls. It has turned out over 4,500 graduates. The university buildings are extensive and include, besides a well-furnished library, an observatory equipped with one of the most powerful telescopes in America.

Brown-Sequard, Charles Edward (1818-04), Franco-American physician and physiologist, skilled in the treatment of nervous diseases, was born in the island of Mauritius, his father being a Philadelphian and his mother a French woman of the name of Sequard. He studied medicine in Paris, where he graduated an M.D. in 1840, afterwards gaining distinction by his important researches in neurology and by his experiments on the composition of the blood, on the muscular and nervous systems and on the spinal cord. From a professional post in London, he came to the United States, where he occupied the chair of physiology and pathology at Harvard (1864-68), returning in the latter year to Paris, where he lectured at the School of Medicine, and then spent five years (1873-78) as a practitioner in New York. Returning once more to Paris, he filled for a time the chair of experimental medicine at the College de France, won a notable prize awarded by the Academy of Sciences, and published several professional works, besides editing one or two medical journals. His more important publications include his lectures on the Physiology and Pathology of the Nervous System, Diagnosis and Treatment of the Lower Extremities and Lectures on Nervous Affections.

Browne, Charles Farrar, was born at Waterford, Me., April 26, 1834- He began life as a printer, then acted as a reporter for a weekly paper in Cincinnati. His first letter signed with the famous name Artemus Ward pretended to be from a traveling showman, and was published in a Cincinnati paper. He edited a humorous paper, Vanity Fair, in New York, gave humorous lectures and brought out Artemus Ward: His Book. He published three other volumes of the same nature, which were all successful in their line. His last years were spent in England, where he was a contributor to Punch. He died at Southampton, England, March 6, 1867.

Browne, Thomas Alexander (Rolf Boldrewood), the novelist, was born in London, August 6, 1826, went in early life to Australia and was educated at Sydney College. He led the life of a pioneer in Victoria, holding the position of police magistrate and warden of Goldfields until 1895. His sixteen novels, all written since 1888, deal with Australian life in some of its roughest as well as in its most civilized aspects, though Mr. Browne's style lends itself rather to vigorous than merely polite treatment.

Brown'ing, Elizabeth Barrett, a great English poet, was born at Carlton Hall, Durham, England, March 6, 1809. Her wonderful talents were early shown. At ten she could read Homer in the Greek, and at fourteen she wrote an epic on the Battle of Marathon. An early injury and the shock received from the death of her brother by drowning made her an invalid for the greater part of her life; but she wrote constantly and enjoyed the society and admiration of some of the greatest literary men of the day. Among her earlier poems is the fine lyric, The Cry of the Children, a noble outburst over the wrongs of young children employed in factories. In 1846 she married the poet, Robert Browning, and from that time made her home in Florence. Italy was then struggling to lift itself into an independent and united kingdom, and many of Mrs. Browning's finest poems were written in the interest of her "adopted country." Among the latter is Casa Guidi Windows, which takes the name from the building in which the authors lived. The translation of Prometheus Bound and the poem Aurora Leigh are among her finest efforts. She died June 30, 1861, and the city of Florence placed an inscribed tablet to her memory on the walls of Casa Guidi. Mrs. Browning has been described as "a soul of fire in a shell of pearl." But few of her sex have ever approached her in poetic genius.

Browning, Robert. It is unfortunate when the work of a gifted poet is the subject of controversy, for it delays general understanding and acceptance of his message. It is admitted to-day by many of Browning's warmest admirers that the early