? Obs. [f. burras, obs. form of BORAX (see quot. 1688).] See quots.
1676. J. Cooke, Marrow of Surg. (ed. 4), 2. Those [Instruments] needful to be carried about are … Incision-knife, Burras-Pipe and Stitching-Quill both in one.
1678. Phillips, Burras-pipe, a certain Instrument derived originally from the Goldsmiths, and now also used in Chyrurgery, to keep corroding Powders in, as Vitriol, burnt Allum, Præcipitate, &c.
[1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 259/2. Terms of Art used by the Gold-smiths. Charging, is to lay on the place to be soldered both Soder and Burras. Ibid., III. 308/2. Founders Tools. The Borax Box; of some termed a Borace Box; but more vulgarly a Burras Box, is a Brass or Copper Box with a Pipe in the side, in which bruised Borax is put, to scratch it by little and little out of the Knobbed Pipe, on the place intended to be Soddered.]
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Burras-pipe, an instrument used by goldsmiths, consisting of a copper box, with a spout, having teeth like a saw; sometimes also used by surgeons for the application of certain solid medicines by inspersion.
1721–1800. in Bailey as in Phillips; hence in Johnson and mod. Dicts.
