Class groups and Brauer groups

LetF be a global field,n a positive integer not divisible by the characteristic ofF. Then there exists a finite extensionE ofF whose class group has a cyclic direct summand of ordern. This theorem, in a slightly stronger form, is applied to determine completely, on the basis of the work of Fein and Schacher, the structure of the Brauer group Br(F()) of the rational function fieldF(t). As a consequence of this, an additional theorem of the above authors, together with a note at the end of the paper, imply that Br(F(t)) ≊ Br(F(t ₁, ···,t _n)), wheret ₁, ···,t _n are algebraically independent overF.