Many events connected with the history of Walachia took place in the neighbourhood of Braila. In 1475 Stephen the Great, having dethroned the voivode Radu, burned the town. In 1573 another Moldavian prince took the city by storm, and massacred the Turkish garrison. In 1659 it was again burned by the Walachian prince Mircea, and for the time the Turks were expelled, but afterwards returned. In the latter part of the 18th century Braila was several times captured by the Russians, and in 1770 it was burned. By the peace of Bucharest (1812) the Turks retained the right of garrisoning Braila. In 1828 it was gallantly defended by Soliman Pasha, who, after holding out from the middle of May until the end of June, was allowed to march out with the honours of war. At the peace of Adrianople (1829) the place was definitely assigned to Walachia; but before giving it up, the grand-duke Michael of Russia razed the citadel, and in this ruinous condition it was handed over to the Walachians. Braila was the spot chosen by the Russian general Gorchakov for crossing the Danube with his division in 1854. On the banks of the Danube, a little above the city, are some remains of the piles of a bridge said by a very doubtful tradition to have been built by Darius (c. 500 B.C.).
BRAIN (A.S. _braegen_), that part of the central nervous system which in vertebrate animals is contained within the cranium or skull; it is divided into the great brain or cerebrum, the hind brain or cerebellum, and the medulla oblongata, which is the transitional part between the spinal cord and the other two parts already named. Except where stated, we deal here primarily with the brain in man.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Dura Mater and Cranial Sinuses.
1. Falx cerebri. 2. Tentorium. 3,3. Superior longitudinal sinus. 4. Lateral sinus. 5. Internal jugular vein. 6. Occipital sinus. 6'. Torcular Herophili. 7. Inferior longitudinal sinus. 8. Veins of Galen. 9 and 10. Superior and inferior petrosal sinus. 11. Cavernous sinus. 12. Circular sinus which connects the two cavernous sinuses together. 13. Ophthalmic vein, from 15, the eyeball. 14. Crista galli of ethmoid bone.]