BLINDAGE-BLINDWORM. may not become poets, but they may learn to understand and enjoy poetry. To cite Homer and Milton as blind poets, is utterly beside the question; they enjoyed years of light, and became poets ere darkness fell on them. The B. man's other senses cannot compensate for the one gone; but they may do double duty, and grow keener by use. His judgment, his reason, his intelligence, his passions of love, admiration, and curiosity, if shattered by the blow which deprives him of sight, are not destroyed. They may be quickened, roused, and cherished into new life, and he will surely find that God has still left to the B. man a thousand avenues of pleasure, wisdom, and inward light, which will yield true and golden fruit. BLI'NDAGE. When a besieged town has little or no bomb-proof shelter, screens are sometimes used called B., made of timber and earth; or of trees inclined towards each other, or placed in an inclined position against walls. BLIND COAL. See ANTHRACITE. BLINDNESS may arise from any cause intercepting the rays of light on their way to the optic nerve, or from disease of the optic nerve, or of that part of the brain connected with it. B. may vary in degree; it may exist from birth, or be the result of extreme old age. It may only be present during the day or the night, or a few weeks of the year, or it may be permanent. Congenital B. is generally from some deficient development of the nervous apparatus, and is detected by the child being indifferent to light, and throwing its head from side to side. Occasionally, but very rarely, the power of vision is subsequently developed. Amaurosis has been already described. Opacity of the vitreous humour, or of the crystalline lens-the latter is generally known as cataract —causes B., which comes on gradually. The patient with cataract can see best in the evening, or when the pupil is dilated, as then some rays of light are able to enter by the side of the opacity. The B. from cataract is seldom so complete as to prevent the person from distinguishing day from night, or from being aware of opaque bodies passing between him and the light (see CATARACT). Opacities of the cornea, if extensive, or in the axis of vision, produce some degree of B., whether they are on or in its substance. In general, these are irremediable; but if there is a spot, an artificial pupil may be made. Some years ago, Mr. Bowman, of London, met with a case in which the opacity consisted of a layer of phosphate and carbonate of lime: he removed it, and restored the vision, which had been totally lost for several years. Night B. is a rare condition, in which a person finds, towards evening, that objects are becoming less and less distinct, and at last that he is totally blind. This may occur without previous warning, and cause great alarm, but next morning he finds that his sight is restored. This is repeated every night, but at last the eyes become weak during the day also, and may finally become amaurotic. This strange affection may be epidemic; it has attacked bodies of troops exposed to great fatigues and the glare of the sun's rays. If there are no symptoms of disease within the brain, recovery generally results from protecting the eyes from the light, entire repose, such remedies as correct any constitutional defect in the individual attacked, and repeated blistering. Day B. is characterised by inability to see in a bright light; the subjects of it see more than usually well at night, but during the day have to be led about. Captives who have been long immured in dark cells are often affected with it, as a galley-slave mentioned by Larrey, who had for thirty-three years been shut up in a subterraneous dungeon, and when liberated could only see by night. The structural causes of B. will be better understood when the eye (q. v.) is described, when it will be seen that advances in our knowledge of its anatomy have enabled surgeons to restore sight in cases which, some years ago, would have been considered hopeless; but it can never be too strongly impressed, especially on the young, that overwork wears out the eyes, whatever be the pursuit, and that, without being wholly dark, a degree of blindness may be induced, such as to render the eyes useless for practical purposes. This condition, asthenopia or weak sight, is frequently met with in young lads with sedentary occupations, students, dressmakers; and, says Dr. Mackenzie of Glasgow, 'what may be called the hot-house education of modern times is a fruitful source of it.' The only cure is avoiding the evident causes. BLI'NDNESS, COLOUR. See COLOUR BLINDNESS. Blindness. BLI'NDSTORY, another name for the triforium (q. v.), the second or middle arcade in the wall which separates the body from the aisles of a church. It is so called obviously as opposed to the clearstory or clerestory (q. v.), the third and uppermost arcade, the apertures of which admitted light into the church, while the apertures of the triforium were dark-obscuræ fenestræ, as they are termed by Gervase of Cantebury. The B., which giate churches, served to give access to the various is most common in cathedral, conventual, and colleparts of the building, and to suspend tapestry and banners on high holidays. Viewed aesthetically, the gloom of the B. contrasts we with the lustre of the clerestory. BLI'NDWORM (Anguis fragilis), a small reptile, which, although it has commonly been ranked among serpents by naturalists, in consequence of agreement in general form, exhibits remarkable points of difference from the true serpents, and constitutes one of an interesting series of links by which they are connected with lizards. Mr. Gray has therefore recently united this, and other nearly allied genera, with the Scink and Seps family of saurian reptiles under the name of Saurophidia (Lizard-serpents), amongst which the gradation from the lizard to the serpent structure is marked by the more and by the more and more complete disappearance of limbs, and the increasing elongation of the BLISTERED STEEL-BLOCK. The most common blister in use is made of cantharides (q. v.) or Spanish fly (Cantharis vesicatoria). Cantharides, mixed with a convenient proportion of lard and wax, form the blistering ointment of ordinary use; the only objection to this preparation being, that if applied too long it produces distressing affections of the urinary bladder. In young children and very thin-skinned persons, a layer of silver paper, or thin gauze wet with vinegar, may be laid between the blister and the skin. But under no circumstances should a blister be left long upon children, as it may produce sores which are apt to take on an unhealthy action, and are difficult to heal. admit of that dilatation of the gape which charac-, or from some organ where it may do permanent terises true serpents. The common B. is the only mischief, to some more superficial part of the body. species of this genus known in Britain. It is found also in almost all parts of Europe. In some districts of Britain it is plentiful; in others, it is very rare or even unknown. It is a perfectly inoffensive creature, although it has very generally been persecuted by the ignorant as extremely venomous. Its teeth are so small that even when it attempts to bite, which it only does upon much irritation, it cannot pierce the skin. No species of the group to which it belongs has poison-fangs. It is very timid, and when alarmed, contracts itself forcibly, and then becomes remarkably brittle, so as to be easily broken in two by a blow or by an attempt to bend it. This character of fragility is found also in other animals of this group. The name B. has apparently originated in a mistake caused by the smallness of the eyes, which, however, are very quick and brilliant. Another common name, Slow-worm, is more accurately characteristic. The length varies from 11 to 15 inches, and sometimes even exceeds this; the thickness is almost equal throughout, the tail is blunt at the end; the scales are small, and nearly equal; the tongue is notched at the extremity, but not bifid as in snakes; the colour is generally silvery gray, a dark line runs along the back, and frequently rows of dark spots along the sides. The food of the B. consists of slugs and insects. It retires in autumn under masses of decayed wood and leaves, or into soft dry soil. It changes its skin. It is viviparous (ovoviviparous), the number of young varying from 7 to 12 or 13 at a birth. The name B. is sometimes given to Cæcilia (q. v.). BLI'STERED STEEL is the variety of steel employed in the manufacture of files, tools, and other articles generally comprehended under the term hardware. The B. S. is prepared by a process of cementation, which consists in heating bars of malleable iron in fire-brick or stoneware boxes, along with cement powder. The latter is made up of 9 parts of charcoal, and 1 part of common salt and wood ashes; and this mixture is first placed in the bottom of the boxes to the depth of about an inch, then the bars of iron, more cement, another series of bars, and so on till the box is nearly full, when the remaining space is filled up with cement-powder, and above all there is placed a three-inch layer of damp sand. The box is then gradually heated to redness, at which temperature it is kept for six or eight days, when the process is complete. When the bars of iron are taken out of the cementation box, they are found covered with blisters or blebs on the surface. The chemical changes that occur during the heating are, that the almost pure malleable iron absorbs and combines with about 1 per cent. of carbon, which is retained in the steel, while a small amount of carbon, combining with a trace of oxygen in the iron, forms carbonic oxide (CO), which, escaping from the iron bar, occasions the blisters or blebs. When malleable iron is converted into B. S., it becomes more fusible, ceases to be fibrous in texture, and when a bar is snapped across, it exhibits a close fine-grained metal. Cast Steel (q. v.), Tilted Steel (q. v.), and Shear Steel (q. v.), are prepared from blistered steel. BLI'STERING FLIES. See CANTHARIDES. BLI'STERS are medicinal agents which, when applied to the skin, raise the cuticle into small vesicles filled with serous fluid. They are applied either in the form of plasters or in a fluid state, as suits the convenience of the person or part, and have for their object the establishing of a counterirritation or diversion of inflammatory action from a part in which it cannot be reached by remedies, Mustard (Sinapis nigra) is frequently used, but seldom left on sufficiently long to produce blistering. Tincture of cantharides, croton oil, and strong liquor ammoniæ, tartar emetic ointment, and many others are used in practice. If the occasion for the blister passes off, the vesicles should be pricked, and their fluid contents allowed to trickle away, the vesicated surface being then dressed with some cold cream or lard. But if it should appear desirable to promote a discharge from the skin, the raised cuticles may be snipped off, and the blister either applied again at intervals, or some stimulating ointment as the savine (Juniperus sabina) made use of. Great cleanliness should be observed in dressing the part. Of late years, B. have been much used for the dispersion of glandular tumours, and are also applied over the surfaces of indolent ulcers, with the view of increasing the vascularity of the part. For old diseases of joints, B. ought to be placed at a little distance from the affected joint. BLOCH, MARCUS ELIESER, a celebrated ichthyologist, born of poor Jewish parents, at Anspach, in Bavaria, 1723. He was allowed to grow up in extreme ignorance. At 19, he had read nothing except a few useless rabbinical treatises. About that age, however, he became assistant to a Jewish surgeon at Hamburg, where he took the opportunity of learning German and Latin. A slight knowledge which he had acquired of anatomy inspired him with an extraordinary desire to study that science thoroughly. For this purpose he went to Berlin, and devoted himself to it and other branches of natural history with indefatigable zeal. He took the degree of Doctor of Medicine at Frankfort-on-the-Oder; and returned to Berlin to practise his profession, where he died 6th August 1799. His great work is the Allgemeine Naturgeschichte der Fische (12 vols., Berlin, 1782-1795, with 432 coloured plates), long the most comprehensive work on ichthyology, and still valuable especially for its pictures. His Systema ichthyologra iconibus CX illustratum, which was left in an unfinished state, was published by Schneider (Berlin, 1801). After his death, his collection of fishes was purchased by government, and forms a part of the Berlin zoological museum. BLOCK, in the rigging of a ship, is an important part of the apparatus necessary for raising sails and yards, tightening ropes, &c. The B. comprises both the frame or shell, and the pulley or pulleys contained within it. In seamen's language, a tackle includes the rope as well as the B. through which it works. The uses of blocks are very numerous on shipboard; and to subserve these uses, they are distributed about the masts, yards, sails, and ropes. They vary greatly in size, shape, power, and desig nation; but nearly every B. comprises a shell or wooden exterior, a sheave or wheel on which the BLOCKADE. rope runs, a pin or axle on which the sheave turns, and a strap (of rope or iron) to fasten the B. to any particular station (see PULLEY). A single B. contains only one sheave; a double B., two; and so on. Besides the designation of blocks according to the number of sheaves they contain (single, double, treble, fourfold), ships' blocks receive numerous other names-such as bee-B., cut-B., cheek-B., clew-garnet B., clew-line B., &c. Some of these names depend on the kind of service, others on the place of fixing; while the rest are examples of the odd nomenclature adopted by seamen. Block-making.-Ships' blocks were made by hand until about 80 years ago. But mere workers in wood could not produce them; it required unusual skill and practice to fashion the several pieces, and put them together so as to possess the requisite strength and facility in working. The trade was either carried on alone, or in conjunction with mast-making. More than 1400 such blocks were required for one of the old 74's, and a proportionate number for vessels of larger or smaller size. α Various forms of Ships' Blocks : a, long-tackle block; b, clew-line block; c, double block. other forms, according to the circumstances of each case. The rest of the besieging force remains under cover in villages, or in a temporary camp, ready to repel any sortie attempted by the besieged. The whole purpose in view is to prevent the besieged from receiving supplies of any kind, in order that, when the food or the ammunition is exhausted, they may be compelled to surrender. Fortresses situated on steep and rocky eminences, difficult to conquer by bombardment or assault, may often be reduced by B.; because the roads or paths for the reception of supplies are few, and can be watched by a small number of troops. Towns situated on a plain are less frequently invested. If the inhabitants be numerous and commercial, they will soon be impatient of the restraint produced by a B., and may compel or induce the governor to adopt a plan opposed to his wishes as a soldier. If, however, a resistance be determined on, the governor sends out of the town as many noncombatants as possible; all the stores are collected in bomb-proof receptacles; economy is observed in the consumption of food; all the people within the walls are placed under military rules; and the governor endeavours, by frequent sorties, to prevent the besiegers from making too close an investment of the place. Blockading, in a naval sense, is the prevention of the entrance or exit of the enemy's ships at a particular port. It occurs sometimes as an auxiliary to military operations by land; but on others it is limited to a maritime investment. BLOCKA'DE, in international Law, is the means, In 1781, a Mr. Taylor began to make the sheaves in time of war, of rendering intercourse with an and shells of blocks by a process which he had enemy's port unlawful on the part of neutrals; and invented. He made all the blocks for the royal it is carried into effect by an armed force (ships of navy until the expiration of his patent rights. The war), which blocks up and bars export or import Admiralty then commenced the manufacture on to or from the place blockaded. This right is detheir own account. In 1801, Mr. (afterwards Sir) scribed by all writers on the law of nations as clear Mark Isambard Brunel submitted to the Admi- and incontrovertible, having its origin in the soundest ralty a working-model of a very beautiful system principles of maritime jurisprudence, sanctioned by of machinery for block-making; it was accepted, the practice of the best times. It is explained: and the inventor engaged to set up the apparatus on the reasonable theory, that if a potentate or at Portsmouth. So intricate was the machinery, government lays siege to a place, or simply blockades and so great the difficulty in procuring the several it, such potentate or government has a right to. working-parts from the machinists of those days, prevent any other power, or representative or subject that it was not until the year 1808 that the system of such power, from entering, and to treat as an was put into effective operation. It was then, how- enemy any one who attempts to enter the blockaded ever, so perfect, that very few additions or improve-place, or in any way assist the besieged, for such a ments have since been needed. The machinery made person opposes the undertaking, and contributes to blocks more accurately than they had ever been the miscarriage of it. made by hand, and with the aid of ordinary work- Lord Stowell laid it down that there are two sorts men only. It could effect £50,000 worth of work of B.-one by the simple fact only, the other by a in a year, or 140,000 blocks, by the assistance of ten notification accompanied with the fact. In the men attending the machine. Duplicate machinery former case, when the fact ceases-otherwise than was made for Chatham. Brunel received £20,000 by accident or the shifting of the wind-there is for his invention and for his personal superin- immediately an end of the B.; but where the fact tendence until the machinery was brought into is accompanied by a public notification from the working-order; this sum was money well laid out, government of a belligerent country to neutral for the machine saved to the country more than governments, the B. must be supposed to exist till £20,000 a year, in the busy warlike period from it has been publicly repealed. This notification 1808 to 1815. The machinery itself is too compli- it is the duty of the belligerent country to make cated to be described except at a length incompatible immediately. His lordship also explained that, on with the limits of this work; but it may be stated the question of B., three things must be proved: in a general way, that the system is made up chiefly 1st, The existence of an actual B.; 2d, The knowof saws and lathes, combined with great ingenuity, ledge of the party; and 3d, Some act of violation, The blocks are made of elm, and the sheaves of either by going in or coming out with a cargo lignum vitæ; the pins are of iron, carefully pre-laden after the commencement of blockade. On pared to avoid friction as much as possible. this last point, the time of shipment is very BLOCKA'DE, in military tactics, is an operation material; for although it might be hard to refuse for capturing an enemy's town or fortress, without a neutral liberty to retire with a cargo already a bombardment or regular siege. The attacking party throws up works on the neighbouring heights and roads; these works may be redoubts, for 200 or 300 men each, raised around at distances of 1000 or 1500 yards asunder; or they may assume laden, and by that act already become neutral property, yet, after the commencement of a B., a neutral cannot be allowed to interfere in any way to assist the exportation of the property of the enemy. After the commencement of a B., a neutral is no BLOCKHOUSE-BLOIS. longer at liberty to make any purchase in that port. But the most essential element is actual B., and this state of things can only be proved to the satisfaction of a court of justice by the ships stationed on the spot to maintain the B. using their force for that purpose. A B., therefore, is only to be considered as actually existing when there is a power to enforce it. To be valid, a B. must be accompanied by actual investment of the place, and it may be more or less rigorous, either for the purpose of watching the operations of the enemy, or, on a more extended scale, to cut off all access of neutral vessels to that interdicted place, which is strictly and properly a B.; for the former is, in truth, no B. at all, as far as neutrals are concerned. But to be binding on neutrals, it ought to be shewn that they have knowledge, or may be presumed to know of the B.; and this knowledge may arise in two ways either by such a public and formal notification as we have already described, or by the notoriety of the fact. Yet it is at all times most convenient that the B. should be declared in a public and distinct manner, instead of being left to creep out from the consequences produced by it; and the effect of such notification to the neutral government is clearly to include all the individuals subject to the latter. ditch, d; and e, a mass of earth to cover the roof. The loopholes for musketry are shewn at the side. The defence is usually by musketry. If opposed to infantry only, single rows of trunks of trees either upright or horizontal, make a very good B., loopholed at intervals of about three feet ; and if there be earth enough quickly obtainable, by digging a ditch or from any other source, to embank it all round and to cover the roof, it will bear a great deal of rough usage. If opposed to artillery, the B. requires to be formed with double rows of trunks three feet apart, with well-rammed earth between them. The American backwoodsmen build blockhouses with great quickness and efficiency; several of these, with a curtain or continuous wall of stockading, may be made to enclose a large space, capable of accommodating a great number of defenders and of repelling a considerable hostile force. The base of a wind-mill, on a hill, has in European countries often formed a good blockhouse. A regular B. should have a ditch, not only to supply earth, but to keep the enemy from approaching near enough to fire the timber of the blockhouse. There must be, at least, four feet of well-rammed earth on the roof, to resist the effect of artillery. Such a structure without a roof is not a B., it is simply a stockade. BLO'CK-PRINTING. various See PRINTING. The breach of B. may be either by coming out of BLO'CKSBERG, the name given to the blockaded port, or going in; such breach, how-mountains and hills in Germany, but pre-eminently ever, may sometimes be excusable. It has been decided that intoxication on the part of the master of a ship will not be received as an excuse. The breach of B. subjects the property so employed to confiscation; there is no rule of the law of nations more established than this, and it is universally acknowledged by all civilised governments. The violation of B. by the master, however, affects the ship, but not the cargo, unless the cargo is the property of the same owner, or unless the owner of the cargo is cognizant of the intended violation. On the proclamation of peace, or from any political or belligerent cause, the continuance of the investment may cease to be necessary, and the B. is then said to be raised. The blockading force then retires, and the port is open as before to all other nations.-Sce the law on the subject of this article extremely well stated in A Manual of the Law of Maritime Warfare, by William Hazlitt and Henry Philip Roche, Barristers-at-law, 1854; see, also, ORDERS IN COUNCIL, BRITISH. BLO'CKHOUSE is to a temporary fortification what a tower is to one that is permanent. In a wooded country, it is easily and quickly made, and the enemy cannot readily bring guns to bear upon it; on flat open ground it is less useful. The B. is always a covered defence, unlike a battery; sometimes with only one story, sometimes with two, of Mountains, and, indeed, of the north of Germany. to the Brocken, the highest point of the Harz haunt of the witches, where they celebrate the night According to the popular belief, it is the favourite of the 1st of May, Walpurgisnacht (q. v.), with wild orgies. Almost all mountains thus haunted, are known to have been famous places of sacrifice in the ages of paganism. BLO'CK-SHIP, is a ship of war too old or too slow in sailing to render efficient service in action out at sea, but useful as a defence in great ports and naval arsenals. At the present time, when war-steamers are coming more and more into use, some of the old sailing men-of-war are nearly valueless except as block-ships. At the beginning of 1859 the English block-ships were about ten in number; at the present time there is a still greater number available for no other purpose. BLOCK TIN is an inferior variety of tin. When the metal is reduced from its ores, it is first poured into moulds, and the ingots thus procured are heated to incipient fusion in a reverberatory furnace, when the pure tin first fuses, and is withdrawn; and the less pure tin which is left behind being melted at a higher temperature, is poured into moulds, and is known as block tin. See TIN. BLOIS, a town of France, capital of the department of Loire-et-Cher, has a remarkably fine situation on the acclivity of a hill, and is built chiefly on the right bank of the Loire, over which there is here a good stone bridge. It is about 35 miles south-west of Orleans, on the railway between that place and Tours. The houses, in the upper part of the town especially, are mean and ill built, and the streets are crooked and narrow, but they are kept clean by water from the public fountains, which are supplied by a splendid aqueduct, supposed to have been constructed by the Romans.. B. has a handsome cathedral; but its chief glory is its old castle, which has been the scene of many interesting historical events. Louis XII. was born in it, and under its roof Charles, Duc d'Alençon, and Margaret of Anjou, and Henri IV. and Margaret of Valois were married, Here also were sometimes held the courts of François I, Henri II., Charles IX., and Henri III. Here also BLOMFIELD-BLOOD. the Duc de Guise and his brother were murdered, by order of Henri III., on the 23d December 1588. Isabella, queen of Charles VI., here found a retreat; it served as a prison for Mary de' Medici; Catharine de' Medici died within its walls; and Maria Louisa here held her court in 1814, after Paris had capitulated. B. is a place of great antiquity. Stephen, who usurped the crown of England on the death of Henry I., was a son of one of the counts of B., by Adela the daughter of William the Conqueror. B. is an archbishop's see, has a tribunal of commerce, a communal college, a public library of 20,000 vols., a botanic garden, &c., and manufactures of porcelain and gloves, with a trade ia brandy, wine, and wood. Pop. 13,552. BLOM'FIELD, CHARLES JAMES, Bishop of London, a learned and influential prelate of the Church of England, was born in 1786, at Bury St. Edmund's, in Suffolk, where his father was schoolmaster. Being well grounded by his father in the classics, B. went to Cambridge, where he took high honours. After he had filled several curacies, the Bishop of London appointed him his chaplain, in recognition of his acknowledged philological and theological acquirements. Shortly after, he was called to the living of St. Botolph; in 1824, he was made Bishop of Chester; and in 1828, he was promoted to the see of London, on the translation of Bishop Howley to Canterbury. B.'s reputation for classical scholarship rests chiefly on his editions of Callimachus (Lond. 1815), and of several of the dramas of Eschylus. In connection with Rennel, he published the Musa Cantabrigienses; and with Monk (1812) the Posthumous Tracts of Porson; and in 1814, the Adversaria Porsoni. He also published Lectures on the Acts of the Apostles. B. was exceedingly active in the superintendence of his diocese, and was a prime mover in the agitation for the erection of new churches. Under his presidency, more churches were erected in London than under any bishop since the Reformation. His conduct in regard to the controversies that latterly agitated his diocese was much animadverted on by both parties. He was accused at one time of leaning to Puseyism, and yet he proceeded against his clergy for alleged crypto-catholic practices. He died August 1857. which his master was contined. He wandered of the Arsenal at Paris. Blood Corpuscles highly magnified. BLOOD, the nutritive fluid of the tissues, consists of a fluid, the liquor sanguinis, in which float corpuscles or globules. The liquor sanguinis consists of water, in which are dissolved fibrine, albumen, chlorides of sodium and potassium, phosphates of soda, lime, and magnesia. There are also in the B. some fatty, and, what are called vaguely by chemists, extractive matters.' The corpuscles are of two kinds-white and red; the white are larger and less numerous than the red. They contain small molecules. The red, which seem to have their origin in the white or colourless corpuscles, are peculiar to vertebrate animals, and to them the B. owes its characteristic colour. They are flat disks, oval in birds, reptiles, and fishes, circular in man and most mammalia. They are concave on both sides, so that their edges are thicker than the centres, and hence the dark appearance of the latter under the microscope, which, for some time, led observers to believe that they possessed a nucleus. The size of a red corpuscle in man is from -- of an inch to BLOMMAERT, PHILIP, one of the most promi- of an inch. They are largest in reptiles. nent of living Flemish authors, was born in 1809. Those of that singular animal, the proteus, are 1In 1834, he published a volume of verse, characterised of an inch in long diameter, and can almost be by much simplicity and earnestness, but so inartistic seen with the naked eye. When examined by in form that it met with little success. He rendered the chemist, the red globules of the B. consist of better service to literature and to the patriotic about 312 parts in 1000 of solid matter, fatty cause by the publication (1836-1841) of Theophilus, and extractive, with a small quantity of mineral an old Flemish poem of the 14th c., and of the matters. They owe their colour to a mixture of Oude Vlaemische gedichte (Old Flemish Poems) of two distinct compounds, globuline and hæmatine, the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries. Both works are the former of which crystallises, on being separated, enriched with glossaries and learned annotations. into various forms. The B. crystals of man and B. shews a predilection for middle-age literature the carnivora have a prismatic form, whilst those generally, and has translated the Nibelungen into of the rat and mouse are tetrahedral, and those of Flemish iambics. His most important work is a the squirrel hexagonal.'-Carpenter. The following History of the Belgians (Brussels, 1849), in which is the formula of hæmatine: carbon, 44; hydrogen, he attempts to shew that the political destiny of 22; nitrogen, 3; oxygen, 6; and iron, 1. the Low Countries has ever been identical with that of Germany, and that it is with the latter country, and not with France, she should seek to ally herself. B. has also contributed extensively to several Belgian journals, especially to the Messager des Sciences Historiques. BLONDEL, a celebrated French minstrel of the 12th c., and the favourite of Richard the Lionheart, king of England, whom he accompanied to Palestine. When Richard, on his return, was seized and imprisoned by Leopold, Duke of Austria, B. (according to the exquisitely romantic myth of an oid chronicler) resolved to find out the place in 2800 * 1 The When drawn from the body, or if it has escaped in any way from the blood-vessels, B. undergoes some singular changes. The fibrine coagulates, or becomes solid, and in so doing, entangles the corpuscles, thus forming a clot (crassamentum); the water, still retaining the albumen and the saline matters, drains away, and is termed serum. rapidity with which this change takes place, the relative bulk of the serum and the clot, and the firmness of the latter, vary with c rcumstances; the more fibrine, the longer does the clot take to form. Moderate heat and exposure to the air favours it, cold and exclusion from their retards it; it is also |