attempt to surprise Montreal, Brown co-operated with him, but was fortunate enough to escape, while his leader was captured. The next December, Major Brown joined Arnold and Montgomery before Quebec. While leading a party of them up the Mohawk to the relief of General Schuyler in 1780, he fell into an ambuscade of loyalists and Indians, was defeated and slain.—F. B.
BROWN, Rev. John, a Scotch divine, compiler of several works of a highly useful kind, was born at Carpow in the parish of Abernethy, Perthshire, in 1720. He lost both his parents while young, and with the exception of one month at Latin, he never received instruction in the learned languages from any master; yet, besides becoming a proficient in that tongue, he acquired a critical knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, could read and translate French, Italian, Dutch, and German, and understood Arabic, Persic, Syriac, and Ethiopic. His reading was most extensive, particularly in history and divinity. He joined the Secession church, which had then recently come into existence; and after a brief attendance at the divinity hall of that denomination, obtained license as a preacher. The year following he accepted an invitation from a congregation in Haddington to become their pastor, and in 1768 became professor of divinity to the Secession church. He continued to hold conjointly the offices of minister and professor till his death, which took place in 1787, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. The works by which he is best known are his "Dictionary of the Bible," and his "Self-Interpreting Bible." This last has had a most extensive sale, and is still in great demand both in this country and in America. He left an autobiography, from which most of the notices of him which have appeared have been compiled. An enlarged and well-written memoir of him by his son, William Brown, M.D., was published by Oliphant & Sons, Edinburgh, 1857.—W. M'K.
BROWN, John, M.D., the founder of the "Brunonian" system, was born at Dunse in Berwickshire in 1737. His reputation, such as it was, belongs to the past. He divided, in his famous system, all diseases into sthenic and asthenic; in the first of these, the excitability, which he considered the source of life, was increased, while in the second, it was diminished. The treatment to be adopted for the cure of all, except the simple sthenic affections, was to stimulate. Accordingly he prescribed rich diet, wine, and spirits in large quantities; and, as the physicians of that day probably erred in the opposite direction, it is not strange that, for a while. Brown obtained with the public, always too credulous in medical matters, a high reputation. Although decried by the profession, there can be no doubt that at one period the Brunonian system was popular in Scotland. Towards the end of last century, it had extended its influence over the whole continent of Europe, and in Germany its author was designated the "Medical Luther." A close examination of its claims to confidence, only shows how utterly baseless the fabric was on which a man like Brown succeeded for a while in building up a spurious fame. His private life was most unhappy. Indebted to the celebrated Cullen for rescue from starvation, he abused and vilified his best friend, and it seems certain that he was finally compelled to leave Edinburgh under circumstances which present his moral perceptions in a very unfavourable point of view. He removed to London, where he died in 1788. No one who attentively studies the Brunonian system can come to any other conclusion than that it was an ingeniously-contrived scheme of quackery, and the medical biographer of the present day is compelled to class its author with Paracelsus and Hahnemann. At the same time it cannot be denied that Brown possessed talents, which, if properly directed, might have raised him to an honourable position in his profession. It need hardly be added, that the system which bears his name has long been without a follower.—J. B. C.
BROWN, John, D.D., an eminent Scottish preacher and biblical expositor, grandson of John Brown of Haddington, was born in 1785 at Longridge, near Whitburn, where his father was minister of a congregation belonging to one of the dissenting communions, which subsequently associated to form the United Presbyterian church of Scotland. Having studied at Glasgow university, and afterwards at the divinity hall at Selkirk, he was settled minister at Biggar, whence, after labouring for twenty years, he was transferred to Edinburgh, where he officiated for more than thirty years as minister, first of Rose Street, and afterwards of Broughton Place church. During that long period he was known as a peculiarly gifted preacher. His clearness as an expositor, his fervour as a speaker, and his earnestness as a minister, combined with a peculiarly noble personal appearance, made him universally popular. But his fame must rest on his labours in connection with the science of scriptural exegesis. In 1835 he was appointed one of the professors in the theological seminary of the denomination to which he belonged, and in that position he did much to influence Scottish preaching, by introducing a taste for the study of biblical criticism. He has enriched the literature of exposition by many valuable works; but the influence he exerted on younger men, which is already to be traced in the increasing fame of some of our latest commentators, is of more account than anything he has written. Dr. Brown died on the 13th October, 1858, leaving behind him no common reputation for widely-extended benevolence, immense erudition, and rare diligence in that peculiar walk of literature which he adorned. His works are very numerous. We notice the following—"The Law of Christ respecting Civil Obedience, especially in the Payment of Tribute;" "Discourses and Sayings of our Lord Illustrated;" "Exposition of our Lord's Intercessory Prayer;" "The Resurrection of Life;" "Expository Discourses on the Epistles of Peter, and on the Epistles to the Galatians and Romans;" and a very large number of separate sermons and pamphlets.—J. B.
* BROUN, John Allan, an industrious and very successful meteorological and magnetic observer. He conducted for several years, the work at the observatory of Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane at Makerstoun, detecting there clear traces of the connection between lunar periods and magnetic variations. The results are published in several quarto volumes issued from the press of Neill & Company, Edinburgh. Mr. Broun has recently been placed at the head of the observatory at Travancore.—J. P. N.
BROWN, Nicholas, an eminent American merchant, was born in Providence, April 4, 1769. His character was one of singular excellence, and his great services in the cause of humanity entitle him to the highest honour. His most munificent pecuniary gifts were bestowed on the college of his native state, which his father and uncles had aided in founding, and which, in memory of his munificence, received the name of Brown University. The whole amount of his benefactions to this university is not less than 160,000 dollars, or £32,000. He died in 1841.—W. G.
BROWN, Peter, bishop of Cork and Ross, contemporary with Locke, whom he opposed in three works, published at London, 1728-33. It was against one of these, entitled "The Procedure, Extent, and Limits of Human Understanding," that Berkeley's Alciphron was directed.—J. D. E.
BROWN, Robert, one of the most distinguished botanists that Britain ever produced, was the son of a Scottish episcopalian clergyman, and was born at Montrose in 1773. He was educated at Marischal college, Aberdeen, and afterwards prosecuted his medical studies at Edinburgh, attending the lectures of Dr. Rutherford, at that time professor of botany in the university. He passed his examination at the College of Surgeons, and was appointed assistant-surgeon and ensign to a regiment of Scotch fencibles stationed in the north of Ireland, where he remained till the end of 1800, prosecuting his botanical studies with great zeal and success. About this time he became known to that great patron of science, Sir Joseph Banks, by whom Brown was recommended as naturalist to the expedition sent out by the admirality to explore the coast of Australia. Accompanying Captain Matthew Flinders in the ship Investigator, he proceeded to New Holland in 1801. In the same ship Mr. Ferdinand Bauer was sent as botanical draughtsman, and Mr. Good as gardener; and among the parties in the expedition were the eminent painter, William Westall, and Sir John Franklin, who was a midshipman at the time. The vessel reached King George's Sound, on the south-west of Australia, in 1802. During a residence of three weeks at this place. Brown collected 500 species of plants belonging to a peculiar local flora. He afterwards visited Port-Jackson, and botanized there for some time. In July, 1802, the survey of other parts of New Holland was commenced, more particularly the northern and north-eastern shores, the gulf of Carpentaria, and the Pelew, Wellesley, and Wessel's islands. The state of the ship, and the ill health of the crew, compelled the captain to proceed to Timor for provisions. The party then proceeded along the west and south coasts of Australia, and reached Port-Jackson on June 9, 1803, when the ship was condemned as not being sea-worthy. There had been a considerable mortality amongst the crew. While Cap-
