BROUS'SA, or Bouiesi, the ancient Prusa, where the kings of Bithynia usually resided, situated in lat. 27° n., long. 40° e.. at the foot of .'Aft. Olympus, in Asia Minor. Prusa is said to have been built by Prusias, king of Bithynia, who waged war with Crcesus or Cyrus. Seifeddulat, of the race of Hamadan, took it in 336 of the Hegira, but it was retaken by the Greek emperor in 947 A.D. In 1356, Oman. son of Othman, the second emperor of Turkey, captured it, and made it the capital of his empire, and it continued so until the taking of Constantinople by Mohammed II. in 1453.
B. is most pleasantly situated, facing a beautiful and luxuriant plain, covered for many miles with plantations of mulberry-trees. The city and suburbs are about 6 m. in circumference. The town is divided from the eastern suburb by a deep channel or vale, over which there are several bridges. one of them—with shops on each side—being 90 paces long and 16 broad. The streets are remarkably clean, and the bazaars very good, being supplied with European goods from Constantinople. Tho pop. of B. amounts to 73,000 souls, of whom about 11,000 are Armenians. • It contains a great number of mosques, some of which arc very fine buildings. The silks of B are much esteemed in the European markets, and great quantities are exported every year to France, Constantinople. and Smyrna, The inhabitants manufacture a kind of silk. like satin, mostly striped, which is used for the under-garment of the oriental dress; also a. material from silk and fax used chiefly for shirts; and a sort of gauze, called " bnin juke," which is mach worn by the Turkish ladies for under-garments. A great quail tity of British manufactured goods, such as Manchester "twists," "gray calicoes," "prints," "zebras," etc., are imported into B., the goods beinglamled at Constantinople, and thence conveyed overland to Broussa. It is the official residence of a Turkish pasha, and the seat of a Turkish tribunal. B. is subject to frequent earthquakes. In ancient times, it was famous for its thermal baths, or "royal waters," as they were called, which still exist.
BItOlISSAIS, FRANcois JOSEPH VICTOR, the founder of the school of medicine, was b. at St. Malo, Dec. 17, 1772, and in early life, after studying at Dinon, served for a time first in the navy, and then in the army. In 1820, he was appointed first professor at
the military hospital of Val-de-Grace. In 1832, he became professor of general pathology and therapeutics in the faculty of medicine in Paris, and afterwards was made a mem ber of the institute. He died at his country residence at Nov. 17, 1638. In 1S41, a statue was erected to his memory in the court of Val-de-Grace. B.'s peculiar views are ably explained in his chief works—the llistoire des Pidegma.sies au Inflammations Ultrota'ques (1808), and Examen de la Doctrine Medicate generalement adoptee (1816), which assert the following principles: that life is sustained only by excitation; that this exci tation may be either too strong ($urezeitation) or too weak (adynamie), the latter case, however, being far less frequent than the former. These abnormal conditions of surex citation and adynamie at first manifest themselves in a specific organ of the body; but afterwards, by sympathy, are extended to other organs; that is, all diseases are originally local, and become general only by sympathy of the several organs. The organs most subject to disease are the stomach and bowels, and therefore gastro-enteritis (Inflamma tion of the stomach and the intestines)is the basis of pathology; consequently, B. resorted to local phlebotomy—especially the application of numerous leeches to the region of the abdomen—as a remedy in fevers and various diseases. His theory and practice gained many adherents in France, who took the name of the "physiological school." But a more exact knowledge of physiology has demonstrated that the views of B. were one sided and exaggerated. Yet they have not been without use in pathology, as they have led to a more careful study of pathological anatomy and physiological sympathies, and to a more exact observation of the so-called specific morbid processes of which the exis tence was denied by B. and his followers. Montegre, :Notice Illstorigue sur la 17e, les TrUe(121.2', et les Opinions de Broussais.-11is son, CASIMIR B., born 1S03, professor at Val de-Grace (1833), was a zealous adherent of the Broussais system, and is the writer of a work, Hygiene-Monde, based on phrenology.