or Mammae**, in Anatomy. See Anatomy Index.

The breasts are usually two; though we also meet with instances of trimamia or women with three breasts*, and even some with four, all yielding milk alike†.

**BREAST-Hooks**, in Ship-Building, are thick pieces of timber incurvated into the form of knees, and used to strengthen the fore-part of the ship, where they are placed at different heights directly across the stem, so as to unite it with the bows on each side. The breast-hooks are strongly connected to the stem and hawse-pieces by tree-nails, and by bolts driven from without through the planks and hawse-pieces, and the whole thickness of the breast-hooks, upon whose inside those bolts are forelocked or clinched upon rings. They are usually about one-third thicker, and twice as long, as the knees of the decks they support.

**BREAST-Plate**, in antiquity, a piece of armour worn to defend the breast, originally believed to be made of hides, or hemp, twisted into small cords, but afterwards made of brass, iron, or other metals, which were sometimes so exquisitely hardened, as to be proof against the greatest force.

**BREAST-Plate**, in Jewish antiquity, one part of the priestly vestments anciently worn by the high-priests. It was a folded piece of the same rich embroidered stuff of which the ephod was made; and it was set with twelve precious stones, on each of which was engraven the name of one of the tribes. They were set in four rows, three in each row; and were divided from each other by little golden squares or partitions in which they were set. The names of these stones, and that of the tribes engraven on them, as also of their disposition on the breast-plate, are as follows:

| Sardine | Emerald | Ligare | Beryl | |---------|---------|--------|-------| | Reuben | Judah | Gad | Zebulon |

| Topaz | Sapphire | Agate | Onyx | |--------|----------|-------|------| | Simon | Dan | Asher | Joseph |

| Carbuncle | Diamond | Amethyst | Jasper | |-----------|---------|----------|--------| | Levi | Naphtali| Issachar | Benjamin |

This breast-plate was fastened at the four corners; those on the top to each shoulder by a golden hook or ring at the end of a wreathed chain; and those below, to the girdle of the ephod, by two strings or ribbons, which had likewise two rings and hooks.

This ornament was never to be severed from the priestly garment; and, it was called the memorial, to put the high-priest in mind how dear those tribes ought to be to him, whose names he wore on his breast. It is also called the breast-plate of judgment, because it had the divine oracle of Urim and Thummim annexed to it. See URIM AND THUMMIM.

**BREAST-Plate**, in the manege, the strap of leather that runs from one side of the saddle to the other, over the horse's breast, in order to keep the saddle tight, and hinder it from sliding backwards.

**BREAST-Work**, in Fortification, the same with PARAFET.