BRAZIER (from the Fr. _brasier_, which comes from _braise_, hot charcoal), a metal receptacle for holding burning coals or charcoal, much used in southern Europe and the East for warming rooms. Braziers are often elegant in form, and highly artistic in ornamentation, with chased or embossed feet and decorated exteriors.
BRAZIL, or BRASIL, a legendary island in the Atlantic Ocean. The name connects itself with the red dye-woods so called in the middle ages, possibly also applied to other vegetable dyes, and so descending from the _Insulae Purpurariae_ of Pliny. It first appears as the _I. de Brazi_ in the Venetian map of Andrea Bianco (1436), where it is found attached to one of the larger islands of the Azores. When this group became better known and was colonized, the island in question was renamed Terceira. It is probable that the familiar existence of "Brazil" as a geographical name led to its bestowal upon the vast region of South America, which was found to supply dye-woods kindred to those which the name properly denoted. The older memory survived also, and the Island of Brazil retained its place in mid-ocean, some hundred miles to the west of Ireland, both in the traditions of the forecastle and in charts. In J. Purdy's _General Chart of the Atlantic_, "corrected to 1830," the "Brazil Rock (high)" is marked with no indication of doubt, in 51° 10' N. and 15° 50' W. In a chart of currents by A.G. Findlay, dated 1853, these names appear again. But in his 12th edition of Purdy's _Memoir Descriptive and Explanatory of the N. Atlantic Ocean_ (1865), the existence of Brazil and some other legendary islands is briefly discussed and rejected. (See also ATLANTIS.)
BRAZIL, a republic of South America, the largest political division of that continent and the third largest of the western hemisphere. It is larger than the continental United States excluding Alaska, and slightly larger than the great bulk of Europe lying east of France. Its extreme dimensions are 2629 m. from Cape Orange (4° 21' N.) almost due south to the river Chuy (33° 45' S. lat.), and 2691 m. from Olinda (Ponta de Pedra, 8° 0' 57" S., 34° 50' W.) due west to the Peruvian frontier (about 73° 50' W.). The most northerly point, the Serra Roraima on the Venezuela and British Guiana frontier (5° 10' N.), is 56 m. farther north than Cape Orange. The area, which was augmented by more than 60,000 sq. m. in 1903 and diminished slightly in the boundary adjustment with British Guiana (1904), is estimated to have been 3,228,452 sq. m. in 1900 (A. Supan, _Die Bevölkerung der Erde_, Gotha, 1904). A subsequent planimetric calculation, which takes into account these territorial changes, increases the area to 3,270,000 sq. m.