EMBRA´SURE, in fortification, an opening in the breastwork or parapet of a battery or fortress, to admit of a gun being fired through it.
EMBROI´DERY (O. Fr. _embroder_, from _bord_, border), figured work in gold, or silver, or silk thread, wrought by the needle, upon cloths, stuffs, or muslins. In embroidering stuffs a kind of stretching-frame is used, because the more the piece is stretched the easier it is worked. The art was common in the East in very ancient times. The Jews appear to have acquired it from the Egyptians; Homer makes frequent allusion to it; and Phrygia was celebrated for its embroidery, which was in great demand at Rome. The Nineveh mural reliefs in the British Museum show Assyrian robes with floral ornaments, and a relief (now in the Louvre, Paris) from the palace of Darius I shows Persian robes with embroidery. The Anglo-Saxons had a Continental reputation, and from the eleventh to the sixteenth century the art of pictorial needlework was of the highest importance both as a recreation and as an industry. Embroidery is commonly divided into two classes: white embroidery applied to dress and furniture, in which the French and the Swiss excel; and embroidery in silk, gold, and silver, chiefly in demand for ecclesiastical vestments. The Chinese, Hindus, Persians, and Turks excel in such work.--Cf. Christie, _Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving_.
EMBRUN ([.a]n-br[.u]n), a picturesque walled town, France, department Hautes-Alpes, on a rocky eminence on the Durance. It was sacked successively by Vandals, Huns, Saxons, and Moors, by the Protestants in 1573, and by the Duke of Savoy in 1692. It has a fine cathedral. Pop. 3556.
EM´BRY, an immature organism, especially in the earlier stages of development from the fertilized ovum onwards. The embryo of a mammal (except in the egg-laying duck-bill and spiny ant-eater), which develops internally, is known as a _foetus_. The dormant plantlet in a seed is also known as an embryo.
EMBRYOL´OGY, the branch of biology concerned with the fertilization of the ovum and its development into the adult. Aristotle and Galen made some observations on the subject, as regards animals, while Harvey and his successors considerably advanced our knowledge, but as a distinct and important subject embryology only dates from the nineteenth century. In the course of its development an organism repeats the evolution of its group in an abbreviated fashion, thus furnishing a clue to its actual affinities. The subject also throws light on the problems of heredity.