The tendency of the currents in the channel opposite Brighton is to drive the shingle eastward, and within the memory of man large portions of the coast have thus been destroyed. To prevent this erosion the whole sea-frontage of the town at the east end is protected by a great sea-wall, which was built between 1827 and 1838. It is a mile long, 60 feet high, and 23 feet thick at the base, and cost £100,000. The beach is further ribbed from north to south by various “groynes,” or jetties, one of which, constructed of concrete in 1867, at a cost of £5000, stretches about 250 feet into the sea. There are two piers which serve as promenades. The first, an elegant chain fabric commenced by Sir S. Brown, R.N., in 1822, was opened to the public in the following year. It is 1136 feet in length and 15 feet in width, the four cast-iron columns on which it is suspended being supported by stone buttresses based on oaken piles driven into the solid chalk. The cost was £30,000, and in 1836 an additional expenditure was necessary to repair the damage inflicted by a great storm in November of that year, which was within a little of destroying the structure altogether. A new pier further to the west was opened in 1866. Its total length is 1115feet,andit affords accommodation for2000 people. The town is well supplied with water by the corporation waterworks, and by an artesian well, 1285 feet deep, at Warren Farm, the boring of which lasted from 1858 to 1862. The sewage is effectively removed by an intercepting sewer 5 miles in length, which discharges into the sea 2 miles east of the parish boundary. Since the opening of the Brighton railway in 1841 the town has developed wonderfully; but, with the exception of the railway works, no manufacturing establishment exists, and no tall chimneys are seen. Owing to the absence of a natural harbour the commerce of the place is insignificant, but the mackerel and herringfisheries are carried on by about 120 boats. The races, which are held in August to the north and north-east of the town, and the great volunteer reviews, which of late years have drawn many thousands to the neighbouring downs, add considerably to the local trade. The town is governed by a mayor, thirteen aidermen, and a council. It returns two members to parliament.

Brighton, originally Brighthelmstoue, plainly derives its name from some Saxon Brighthelm, but who or what he was there seems no means of discovering. The present contracted form of the word came into general use only in the end of the 18th century, but it iβ sometimes found in the documents of the time of Charles II. At the time of the Conquest Brighton was a small fishing village, and the lordship of the manor was bestowed by the Conqueror on his nephew William de Warrenne, who received as rent from the fishermen 4000 herrings. In 1513 it was burnt by the French under Messire Pregent, whom the English chronicles call Prior John; and in 1545 it was again greatly damaged by Claude d’Annebalte, the admiral of Francis I. At that time it is represented as a quadrangular town of four or five streets. There were then no defences, but in 1558 a small circular fort was erected by Elizabeth. The town seems to have rapidly recovered its prosperity, for in 1579 it possessed 80 fishing-boats, with 400 fishermen and 10,000 nets. The whole Elizabethan town, however, has been destroyed by the sea, which in 1699 swept away 160 houses, and in 1703 and 1706 did almost as much damage. The modern reputation of Brighton is due to Dr Richard Russell, a native of Lewes, who resided there in 1750, and wrote a book on the advantages of sea-bathing, which led a number of people of high rank—-among others the dukes of Cumberland and Marlborough— to place themselves under his direction. The Prince Regent followed, and the fortunes of Brighton were made. Bedford Square was commenced in 1810, and the building of Kemp Town took place between 1821 and 1830. A charter of incorporation was granted in 1854. In 1761 the population was only about 2000; in 1801 it had risen to 7339, by 1841 to 48,567, and by 1851 to 69,673. In 1861 there were 77,693 inhabitants in the municipal borough, and 87,317 within the parliamentary limits, the number of houses being respectively 12,727 and 13,983, while in 1871 the municipal borough nad a population of 90,011, inhabiting 14,438 houses, and the parliamentary borough 103,758, with 16,284. See Lower’s History of Sussex, 1870, and papers in the Sussex .Archaeological Collections.

The symptoms to which the condition gives rise are usually of a severe character. Pain in the back, vomiting, and febrile disturbance commonly usher in the attack. Dropsy, varying in degree from slight puffiness of the face to an accumulation of fluid sufficient to distend the whole body, and to occasion serious embarrassment to respiration, is a very common accompaniment. The urine is reduced in quantity, is of dark, smoky, or bloody colour, and exhibits to chemical reaction the presence of a large amount of albumen, while, under the microscope, blood corpuscles and casts, as above mentioned, are found in abundance.

This state of acute inflammation may by its severity destroy life, or, short of this, may by continuance result in the establishment of one of the chronic forms of Bright’s disease. On the other hand an arrest of the inflammatory action frequently occurs, and this is marked by the increased amount of the urine, and the gradual disappearance of its albumen and other abnormal constituents; as also by the subsidence of the dropsy and the rapid recovery of strength.

Of chronic Bright’s Disease there are several forms, named according to the structural changes undergone by the kidneys. The most frequent of these is the large white kidney, which is the chronic form of the desquamative nephritis above mentioned.

Another form of chronic Bright’s disease is the waxy or amyloid kidney, due to the degenerative change which affects first the blood-vessels and subsequently also the tubular structures of the organ. This condition is usually found associated with some chronic ailment of an exhausting character, such as disease of bones and other scrofulous affections, or with a generally enfeebled state of health. It is marked by the passage of large quantities of albuminous urine, and is frequently accompanied with general dropsy, as also with diarrhoea and consequent loss of strength. A third form of chronic Bright’s disease is the contracted kidney, depending on the condition known as cirrhosis, in which the kidneys become reduced in bulk, but dense in texture, from an abnormal development of their connective tissue and relative atrophy of their true structure. This form of the disease, which is commonly, though not exclusively connected with a gouty constitution, is apt to escape detection in its earlier stages from the more obscure character of the symptoms, there being less albuminuria and less dropsy than in the other varieties. Its later progress, however, enables it to be readily recognized. Dimness of vision, due to a morbid condition of the retina, and also hypertrophy of the heart leading to fatal apoplexy, are frequent accompaniments of this form of the disease.

A fourth variety of chronic Bright’s disease is described by authors on the subject, viz., fatty degeneration of the kidneys, occasionally occurring in old age and in connection with a similar degeneration of other organs.

The kidneys being among the most important excretory organs of the body, it follows that when their function is interrupted, as it is alike in acute and chronic Bright’s disease, serious results are apt to arise from the retention in the economy of those effete matters which it is the office of the kidneys to eliminate. The blood being thus contaminated, and at the same time impoverished by the draining away of its albumen from the kidneys, is rendered unfit to carry on the processes of healthy nutrition; and, as a consequence, various secondary diseases are liable to be induced. Inflammatory affections within the chest are of frequent occurrence, but the most dangerous of all the complications of Bright’s disease are the nervous symptoms which may arise at any stage, and which are ascribed to the effects of uraemic poisoning.

In the treatment of acute Bright’s disease, good results are often obtained from local depletion, from warm baths, and from the careful employment of diuretics and purgatives. Chronic Bright’s disease is much less amenable to treatment, but by efforts to maintain the strength and improve the quality of the blood by strong nourishment, and at the same time by guarding against the risks of complications, b'fe may often be prolonged in comparative comfort, and even a certain measure of improvement be experienced.

See Report on Medical Cases, by Richard Bright, London, 1827; On Granular Degeneration of the Kidneys, by Robert Christison,

M. D., Edinburgh, 1839; Diseases of the Kidney, by Dr G. Johnson,

London, 1866; Practical Treatise on Urinary and Renal Diseases, by Wm. Roberts, M.D., London, 1865; On the Pathology and Treatment of Albuminuria, by W. H. Dickinson, M.D., London, 1868; Practical Treatise on Bright's Diseases of the Kidneys, by T. Grainger Stewart, M.D., Edin. 1871. (J. 0. A.)