BBEAST. 451 BRECK. peroiis to allow the pus to remain; but wlien an openinfT is made into the abscess the incision must radiate from the nipple, so as to avoid di- vision of the milk-tubes. Besides inflammatory afTections, the female breast is also subject to tumors. See Titmoes. BREASTPLATE. In ancient armor, a plate of iron, steel, or other metal worn to protect the breast. At the end of the Twelfth Cen- tury the breastplate made its appearance in me- diaeval armor, as a thin phite of iron worn under the gambeson (q.v.). The custom of wearing it above the other defensive armor began in the Thirteenth Century, and was developed in the Fourteenth. The backplate, in like manner, was worn as a protection for the back. In modem armies the breast])Iate is represented by the front half of the cuirass worn by the cuirassiers in C<mtinental armies and by the Life-Guards and ITorsr-Ciuards in England. BREASTSUMMER, or BRESSXJMER. A beam or "summer' (q.v.) supporting the whole front of a building, in the same way in which a lintel supports the portion over an opening. They are seen in England and on the Continent of Europe, in old houses built partly of wood and partly of stone, brick, or mud. BREAST-WHEEL. See Wateb-Wheel. BREASTWORK. See Fortifications, and Tkexch. BREATH (AS. brceth, odor, smell, exhala- tion, OHG. bradatn, Ger. brodem, vapor, steam, exhalation). Offensive. The foul odor of breath may be due to a variety of causes, the most im- portant being as follows: (1) Digestive dis- turbance with constipation. A purge should be used, repeating till the tongue is clean. Indi- gestible food, as well as beer and distilled liquors, should be avoided, especially if gas be produced in the stomach. (2) Carious teeth, and (3) Food fermenting in the mouth. All cavities should be filled. Food should be picked from between the teeth carefully after each meal and the mouth thoroughly rinsed. The teeth should be brushed rooming and evening. (4) Catarrh of nose. In this case a warm nasal douche should be used three times a day, one-half ounce of liquid being employed each time, and the liquid being gently introduced into each nostril. E.xcellent results are obtained by thus using a mixture of part of I-abarraque's solution and twenty parts of warm water. (5) Catarrh of throat. "Gargle rfith hot water, and then apply with camel's-hair brush a coating of glycerite of tannin once a day to the back wall of the throat and the tonsils and the pillars of the fauces. Should these measures of relief of the nose and throat fail, a physician must be consulted. Dead bone or dead cartilage in the nasal cavity causes a most oflensive odor, and removal is the only treatment. Abscess in the socket of a tooth or in the soft tissues of the mouth must be relieved by a dentist or a surgeon. BREATHING. See Respiration. BREBEUF, bri'bef', Jeax de (1593-1649). A Jesuit missionary. He was born at Bayeu.x, northern France, March 2'), 1503, and was killed in the Huron country. March lO. 1040. He came to America with t'hamplain in 1020, and his labors were mainly among the Hurons, with vhose life and language he was verj- familiar. When the town of Saint Lotiis was taken by the Iroquois, Brebcuf and Lalemont, his associate, were made prisoners and tortured to death. It is said that Brebeuf's skull is preserved in the pediment of a silver bust in the convent of the hospital nuns in Montreal. Some of his writ- ings on the Huron language are preserved, and were translated by Albert Gallatin and pub- lished in the Memoirs of the American Anti- quarian Society, and soine of his letters by Carayon (Paris, 1870). See his account in the Jesuits' Relations, ed. Thwaites, Cleveland, O. BRECCIA, bre'cha (It., fragments of stone; cf. Fr. hreche, Eng. breach and break). In petrography, a mass composed of angular frag- ments of rocks cemented by mineral material. A brecciji may be formed in .a number of ways: (1) In the same way as a conglomerate (q.v.), except that the fragments are not rounded by water: (2) by the breaking of a rock into angular fragments by dynamic action, with subsequent ce7iipntation ; (3) angular blocks may be tlirown from volcanoes, which, after falling, become consolidated: (4) the surface of a lava flow may harden, break into angular fragments, and be ingulfed in the soft magma beneath, which on cooling yields a breccia; (5) in the intrusion of igneous rocks (q.v.), angular fragments brok- en from the walls may be caught in the molten mass of the intruded material; (6) some brec- cias have been formed by cementation of the loose angular fragments of talus slopes or screes. See Erosion; Talus. BRECHE DE ROLAND, bresh de r6'laN' (Fr. Roland's Breach). A defile in the Pyrenees forming a passage between France and Spain, at the Cirque de Gavarnie, a few miles west of Mont Perdu. According to the legend, Roland made the cleft in the rock with his sword Durandal in the fight at Roncesvalles. The pass is about 200 feet wide and has an elevation of 9000 feet. BRECHIN, breK"n. A town of Forfarshire, Scotland, on the South Esk, eight miles west of its junction with the sea at Montrose (Map: Scotland, F 3). Its chief architectural feature is a massive round tower of a character frequently met with in Ireland, but quite uncommon in Scot- land. The town is well lighted and has an excel- lent water-supply. The chief industries are spin- ning, bleaching, and the manufacture of linens and sailcloth. Population, parliamentary and municipal burgh, in 1901. 8941. Brechin was once a walled town. David 1. founded a cathe- dral and bishopric here in the Twelfth Century. The town was burned by Montrose in 1045. Con- sult Itegistrtim Episcopatus Brechiensis (2 vols., Aberdeen. 1850). BRECK, .Tames Lloyd (1818-76). An Ameri- can clergyman and educator. He was born in Philadelphia, graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1838, at the General Theological Seminary in 1841. and in the latter year joined a mission for work among the Indians in Wis- consin. Later he established the Protestant Epi-scopal Church schools at Faribault, Minn., and was engaged in organizing similar schools at ncnicia, Cal., when he died. BRECK, Saml-el (1834 — ). An American soldier, born at Middleborough, Mass. He grad- uated in 1855 at the United States Military Academy, served as lieutenant of artillery in the Seminole War, and from 1800 to 1801 was as-
