the combination. He was knighted in 1887. He died at Westacre, Newcastle-on-Tyne, March i 1917.
BROWNING, JOHN M. (1854- ), American inventor, was
born at Ogden, Utah, in 1854, of Mormon parentage. His father was a gunsmith. The son, from childhood, displayed remarkable talent for invention. In 1879 he secured his first patent for a breech-loading single-shot rifle. He made 600 of these guns in his Ogden shop before selling the patent to the Remington Company. He designed many types of sporting firearms such as the Remington autoloading shotguns and rifles; the Winchester
repeating shotguns,, single-shot and repeating rifles; the Stevens
rifles; and the Colt automatic pistols. From all these he drew
large royalties. In 1890 a machine-gun of his design, but known
as the Colt, was adopted by the U.S. army. He always
avoided publicity and in no case required that his invention bear
his name. In one establishment alone was his name used, the
Fabrique Nationale at Liege, Belgium, which fell into the hands
of the Germans at the beginning of the World War, in 1914.
Browning had shortly before been made a chevalier de 1'Ordre de
Leopold and decorated by King Albert, on the occasion of the
completion of the millionth Browning, automatic pistol at
Liege. He later developed two types of machine-gun which were
adopted by the United States in 1918 for use in the World War.
One of these guns on test fired 39,000 rounds before breakage
developed. In lieu of royalties, which would have amounted to
some $10,000,000, he accepted from the U.S. Government a
lump sum of $1,500,000.
BRUCE, SIR DAVID (1855- ), British bacteriologist, was born at Melbourne May 29 1855. He was educated at Stirling
high school and Edinburgh University, where he took his
degree of M.B. in 1881. He entered the R.A.M.C. in 1883,
and from 1884 to 1889 served in Malta and Egypt. His stay in
Malta was marked by his researches into the origin of Malta
fever, and in 1887 he discovered the micro-organism of this
disease, propounding the theory that it was spread by the use
of goats' milk (see 17.514). In 1889 he became assistant pro-
fessor of pathology at Netley, and in 1894 went to South Africa,
where he remained until 1901, serving throughout the South
African War. In 1902 he became a member of the Army Advisory
Board, a post which he retained until 1910. For many years
Bruce conducted researches into the origin of sleeping-sickness,
and in 1894 he discovered the micro-organism not only of that
disease but also of nagana (tsetse fly disease), and the method of
their dissemination. In 1903 he went to Uganda as director of
the Royal Society's commission for the investigation of sleeping-
sickness, and in 1904 proceeded to Malta to carry on further
investigations into Malta fever, returning to Uganda in 1908.
In every case a great advance in the study of tropical medicine
was the result. From 1911 to 1914 he was in Nyasaland, investi-
gating the possible connexion between human -and cattle dis-
eases, and in 1914 became commandant of the Royal Army
Medical College, holding the post till 1918. Bruce, who was
knighted in 1908, was created K.C.B. in 1918 and retired in 1919.
He published many papers on tropical diseases.
BRUCE, SIR GAINSFORD (1834-1912), English judge, was born in 1834. He graduated at Glasgow University and was
called to the bar in 1859. He joined the northern and afterwards
the north-eastern circuit, and during 1869-1882 reported Admi-
ralty and ecclesiastical cases for the Law Reports. His strength lay
in Admiralty law, and he made several contributions to its
literature, notably an edition of Williams and Bruce's Admiralty
Practice, and the 4th edition of Maude and Pollock on Shipping.
He was recorder of Bradford during 1877-92, and successively
solicitor-general (1879) and attorney-general (1886) to the
county palatine of Durham. A Conservative in politics, he
represented Holborn in Parliament from 1888 till he was raised
to the bench in 1898. He was made a privy councillor on his
retirement in 1904. He died at Bromley, Kent, Feb. 24 1912.
BRUGES, Belgium (see 4.678). Pop. 53,595 in 1914. In 1914, 685 vessels of 316,000 tons entered the port, and just prior
to the World War the improvement of transport between the
town and Zeebrugge promised to restore its former prosperity.
The Hotel de Louis de Gruthuuse (who was given the title of Count of Winchester by Edward IV.) was converted into a museum of antiquities about 1890.
Up to Oct. 10 1914, Bruges was the headquarters of the British force that was first ' sent to Belgium after the out- break of the World War. The town remained some 20 m. behind the German front at Dixmude and was at first of little military importance, but with the growth of submarine warfare and the abandonment of Ostend as a naval base, it became important as a place for the assembling of parts of submarines brought overland from Germany. Capt. Fryatt, of the steam packet " Brussels," was shot in the cavalry barracks of the rue Longue on July 27 1916. The town remained in the hands of the Germans until Oct. 19 1918.
BRUNNER, HENRY (1840-1915), German historian (see
4.685), published in 1909 Geschichle der englischen Rechtsquellen im Grundriss. In 1913 he issued a sixth edition of Grundzuge d-r deutschen Rechtsgeschichte. He died in 1915.
BRUNNER, SIR JOHN TOMLINSON, 1ST BART. (1842-1919),
British chemist, was born at Everton near Liverpool Feb. 8
1842, the son of a schoolmaster of Swiss nationality. Edu-
cated in his father's school he entered a Liverpool merchant's
office in 1857, and in 1873 established, with the distinguished
chemist Ludwig Mond (see 18.693), the alkali works at North -
wich which became the largest in the world. He was a member
of several royal commissions, represented Northwich in Parlia-
ment during 1885-6 and again from 1887 to 1909, was created
a baronet in 1895 and a privy councillor in 1906. His public
benefactions, especially to Northwich and Runcorn, were numer-
ous, and he also gave largely to Liverpool University. He died
at Chertsey July 1 1919.
BRUNTON, SIR THOMAS LAUDER, BART. (1844-1916),
British physician, was born at Hiltonshill, Roxburgh, March
14 1844. He was educated at Edinburgh, where he grad-
uated M.B. in 1866 and M.D. in 1868, also studying for
short periods at Leipzig, Berlin, Vienna and Paris. In 1870 he
was appointed assistant physician to St. Bartholomew's hospital,
with which he was connected for the rest of his life, both as
physician and lecturer. One of his most noteworthy discoveries
was the introduction of nitrate of amyl for the relief of angina
pectoris (1867). In 1886 he was a member of the commission
which investigated the Pasteur discoveries, and in 1889 went to
Hyderabad on the invitation of the Nizam to conduct experi-
ments on the results of the administration of chloroform. He
was knighted in 1900 and created a baronet in 1908. Lauder
Brunton published various valuable works, including A Text-
Book of Pharmacology, Materia Medica and Therapeutics (1892);
Lectures on the Action of Medicines (1897) and Therapeutics of
the Circulation (1908). He died in London Sept. 16 1916.
BRUSSELS, Belgium (see 4.692). The pop. of the city proper in 1920 was 156,924, showing a decrease since 1910 of 39,645, due to the expropriation and demolition of houses for public improvements. The total pop. of Greater Brussels (comprising ten suburbs and including the recently annexed suburb of Laeken) was 831,396 on Jan. i 1920. The most populous suburbs at the same date were Schaerbeek 108,590, Ixelles 91,956, Molenbeek, 77,708, St. Gilles 69,716, Laeken 43,729, Forest 32,926.
The various areas composing the city having certain interests in common, notably the maintenance of police and charitable services, a Conference des bourgmestres, on which 15 communes were represented, was instituted in 1909, but subsequently the unification of areas was resisted by the greater number of the larger communes. A law of April 2 1921, however, initiated by the burgomaster, Adolphe Max, decreed the annexation to Brussels proper of the communes of Laeken, Haeren, and Neder Overheembeek, as well as part of Molenbeek, and a small part of Schaerbeek, in order to facilitate the construction of the proposed new outer port which the authorities wished to bring entirely within area of the city proper. As a result, the area of the city proper has more than tripled; it covers 3,286 hectares 94 ares instead of 1,071 hectares 95 ares, and includes an additional pop, of about 4,000.
During 1910-21 Brussels underwent considerable transformation. The old harbour basins were filled in in 1910; the Isabelle quarter of the city, situated between the rue Royalc and the Place Royale,
