pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
BLENDE, in Mineralogy, the sulphuret of zinc, and by much the most common ore of that metal. In its crystalline form, its colour and appearance, this mineral varies extremely. The most common varieties, certainly, are brown or black, but a fine, oil-green, transparent species occurs at Schemnitz in Hungary; another of a rich hyacinth red colour is met with at Klapruck in Transylvania; and a third in botrioidal concretions, having a white fibrous structure, is found near Fowey in Cornwall. The fibrous blende of Prziham in Bohemia ^possesses, after a fresh fracture, a lustre almost metallic, and is peculiar, from the portion of cadmium with which it is associated. The crystalline form of blende is tessellar, and often presents the faces of the dodecahedron, to which figure the larger cleavable varieties are easily reducible by mechanical division. The surfaces of the crystals are extremely resplendent, and have at times a strong adamantine lustre. They yield to the knife, are rather brittle, and possess a specific gravity equal to 4∙07. Blende, according to Thomson and Berthier, is composed of
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When strongly heated in the oxidating flame of the blow-pipe, it gives off vapours of zinc, which form a coating on the charcoal; but it does not melt. It is soluble in nitric acid, during which process sulphuretted hydrogen is disengaged. Some varieties are phosphorescent in the dark when rubbed, and present that phenomenon even although the experiment be repeated under water. The sulphuret of zinc occurs both in primitive and secondary rocks, and is an almost constant accompaniment in the veins of lead, iron, and copper, associated with quartz, calcareous spar, or barytes. Great quantities of blende are found in Derbyshire and Cornwall, at Alston Moor and Lead Hills, at Klapruck in Transylvania, and. Freyberg in Saxony; in Hungary, Bohemia, Silesia, and the Hartz. It is used in some places for obtaining the zinc in combination with it, but is otherwise an unimportant ore.
BLENHEIM, a village of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, situated in long. 2. 30. E. lat. 48. 40. N. This village is remarkable for the defeat of the French and Bavarians in 1704, by the English and their confederates under Prince Eugene and the Duke of Marlborough. See Britain. Blenheim House, a princely mansion erected for the Duke of Marlborough at Woodstock, near Oxford, as a testimony of national gratitude, and, with the manor of Woodstock, settled on the duke and his heirs, in consideration of the eminent services performed by him, and more especially of the decisive victory he had gained at Blenheim over the French forces under Marshal Tallard. The sum of L.500,000 was voted by parliament for the purchase of the manor of Woodstock, and the erection of this edifice, which has generally been considered a very heavy monument of public gratitude.
BLENNY. See Ichthyology, Index.
BLETCHINGLEY, a parish and borough in the hundred of Tandridge, in the county of Surrey, twenty miles from London. It is situated on a rising ground at the foot of a range of chalk hills. It has no market. The inhabitants amounted in 1801 to 1344, in 1811 to 1243, and in 1821 to 1187.
BLETONISM, a supposed faculty of perceiving and indicating subterraneous springs and currents by means of sensation. The term is derived from a Μ. Bleton, who for some years excited attention by his being supposed to possess the faculty in question. But the faculty and its possessor are now alike forgotten.
BLIGHT, a disease incident to plants, and affecting them variously, the whole plant sometimes perishing by it, and sometimes only the leaves and blossoms, which are scorched and shrivelled up, whilst the rest remains green and flourishing. See Plants, Diseases of.
BLINDING, a species of corporal punishment anciently inflicted on thieves, adulterers, perjurers, and others, and from which the ancient Christians were not exempt. Sometimes a mixture of lime and vinegar, or merely scalding vinegar, was poured into the eyes till their balls were consumed; sometimes a rope was twisted round the head till the eyes started out. In the middle ages, the punishment of destroying or putting out the eyes was exchanged for that of irretrievably injuring or impairing the sight; which was effected by holding a red-hot iron dish or bason before the eyes till their humours were dried up and their coats shrivelled.
BLINDNESS, a privation of the sense of sight, arising from a want of the organs of vision, or an involuntary obstruction of their functions. See Blind. Total Blindness is that state in which all sight or perception even of light is wanting, as in the case of those who are said to be stone-blind.
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Partial Blindness is that state in which some faint glimmering of sight is left, as is the case with those who have ripe cataracts, and who are never so blind but they can discover day from night.

Perpetual Blindness is that which remains alike under all the diversity of seasons, times, and ages.

Transient Blindness is that which in due time gives way of itself; as that of whelps, which continues for several days, sometimes nine, rarely twelve, after they are littered. The Nogais Tartars, according to Father Duban the Jesuit, who lived amongst them, are born blind, and open not their eyes till several days after birth.

Periodical Blindness is that which comes and goes by turns, according to the season of the moon, the time of day, and the like.

Diurnal Blindness is called hemeralopia. Nocturnal Blindness, called also nyctalopia, is that which ensues on the setting of the sun in persons who see perfectly in the day, but become quite blind as night approaches. (See Pliil. Trans. No. 159, p. 560; and a singular case related by Dr Samuel Pye in the Medical Observe and Inquir. vol. i. p. 111.)

Blindness in horses. See Farriery.
BLINDS, or Blindes, in the art of war, a sort of defence commonly made of oziers, or branches interwoven, and laid across between two rows of stakes, about the height of a man, and four or five feet asunder. They are used particularly at the heads of trenches when these extend in front towards the glacis, and serve to shelter the workmen, and to prevent their being overlooked by the enemy.
BLINKS, among ancient sportsmen, denoted boughs broken down from trees, and thrown in the way where deer were likely to pass, to hinder their running, or rather to mark which way a deer ran, and thus to guide the hunter in pursuit.
BLISSINGEN, a fortified city on the south side of the island of Walchercn, in the province of Friesland. It is defended by the forts Ramnekins, Montebello, and St Hillary, and contains a dock-yard and naval storehouses. The civil inhabitants are 4800. Long. 3. 28. 16. E. Lat. 51. 26. 37. N.
BLOATING, a puffing up or inflation of the exterior habit of the body, arising from an increase of the adipose substance. It is the same with what physicians call an emphysema.
BLOCK, an instrument or machine of wood, chiefly employed in the rigging and other parts of a ship, by means of which a facility is given to the hoisting up or lowering down of the masts, yards, and sails, or to the moving of any great weight, as guns, anchors, bales, casks, and the like. It is, in fact, a modification of the pulley, and the names may almost be considered as synonymous.

There is nothing in the appearance of a block which, to an unpractised eye, would seem to require any stretch of mental ingenuity or of manual dexterity to manufacture. It is a machine apparently so rude in its structure, and so simple in its contrivance, that the name was probably given to it from its general resemblance to a log of wood, as is obviously the case with a butcher’s block, a barber’s block, the block of the executioner, &c. Of the two constituent parts of a ship’s block, the external shell and the internal sheave, every carpenter might make the one, and every turner the other; and yet, when blocks were made by the hand, it seldom happened that the several parts were adjusted to each other with sufficient accuracy, or that a strict uniformity was observed in the various sorts and [7:4:704] sizes, without which they cannot be expected to work with that degree of ease and truth which is so desirable, and even necessary, in the important office they are designed to fulfil in the rigging and other parts of a ship.

Block, in the mechanical arts, a large piece of solid wood, on which to fasten work, or to fashion it; strength and stability being the requisite properties. In this sense, we say a chopping block, a sugar-finer s block, a smith s block, and the like.

Block, among cutters in wood, is a form made of peartree, box, or other hard and close-grained wood, free from knots, on which they cut their figures in relief, with knives, chisels, and other implements.

Block is applied to a piece of marble as it comes out of the quarry, and before it assumes any form from the hand of a workman.

Block, in Falconry, denotes the perch on which a bird of prey is kept. This must be covered with cloth.
BLOCKZIEL, a fortress of Overyssel, in the Netherlands, seated on the river Aa, at its junction with the Zuyder Zee. It has a port sufficient to contain 200 vessels, and serves to defend those ships that cross the sea. Its fortifications, which were considerable, have been allowed to fall to decay. The trade of the town is extensive. Long. 5. 52. E. Lat. 52. 45. N.
BLOIS, an arrondissement in the department of the Loire and the Cher, in France,'extending over 718 square miles, and comprehending ten cantons and 140 communes, with 103,051 inhabitants. The chief city, of the same name, is on the right bank of the Loire, raised in the form of an amphitheatre above the stream, over which is a most magnificent bridge of 950 feet in length. There is an ancient palace, the residence of the former monarchs of France, a Roman aqueduct, and several other public buildings of various dates. It contains 15,450 inhabitants, who chiefly trade in wine, brandy, and fire-wood. Long. L 14. 11. E. Lat. 47. 35. 20. N.
BLOND, Christopher le, a painter of portraits in miniature, and all kinds of subjects, on paper, was born in 1670. Very few circumstances relative to his education or life are mentioned by any writers till he became known at Rome in the year 1716, being at that time painter to the Count Martinetz, ambassador at the court of Rome. By the solicitation of Overbeke he was induced to go to Amsterdam, and in that city he was employed in painting small portraits for bracelets, rings, and snuff-boxes, of all which, although done in water-colours, the colouring was as lively and natural as if they had been painted in oil. But as he found his sight much impaired by the minuteness of his work, he discontinued water-colour painting, and attempted the use of oil with a reasonable degree of success. After he had resided for some years in the Low Countries he came to England, and set up a new method of printing mezzotinto plates in colours, so as to imitate the pictures of which they were copies. In this manner he executed in England several large plates, from pictures of the greatest masters, and disposed of the prints by lottery. But those who obtained the prizes, Mr Strutt says, appear not to have held them in any very great estimation. His method consisted in having several mezzotinto plates for one piece, each expressing different shades and parts of the piece in different colours. He was not, however, the original inventor of that manner of managing colours, but borrowed it from Lastman and others, who, with much greater regularity of morals, equal capacity, and more discreet conduct, had before undertaken it without success. Le Blond, whose head was continually full of schemes, next set on foot a project for copying the cartoons of Raphael in tapestry, and made drawings from the pictures for that purpose. Houses were built and looms erected at the Mulberry Ground at Chelsea; but the expenses proving too great, or the contributions not being equal to the first expectations, the scheme was suddenly defeated, and Le Blond disappeared, to the no small dissatisfaction of those who were engaged with him. He proceeded to Paris, where Basan informs us he resided in the year 1737, and where he died in 1740, in an hospital. Le Blond was also author of a treatise in French on ideal beauty. It was published in 1732, and has since been translated into English.
BLONDEL, David, a Protestant minister, distinguished by his skill in ecclesiastical and civil history, was born at Chalons-sur-Marne, and was admitted minister at a synod of the Isle of France in 1614. He wrote, 1. A Defence of the Reformed Churches of France; 2. A work against the Decretal Epistles; 3. De Episcopis et Presbyteris; and other pieces. Bayle informs us that he had a very singular way of studying. He lay on the ground, and had around him the books which he wanted for the work he was composing. He died in 1665, aged sixty-four.

Blondel, Francis, regius professor of mathematics and architecture, was employed in several negociations; arrived at the dignity of maréchal-de-camp and counsellor of state; and had the honour of being chosen to teach the dauphin of France mathematics. He was also made member of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and director of the Academy of Architecture. He died at Paris in 1688, aged sixty-eight. His principal productions were, 1. Notes on the Architecture otSavot; 2. A Course of Architecture and Mathematics; 3. The Art of Throwing Bombs; 4. A new Manner of Fortifying Places; 5. A Comparison between Pindar and Horace; and other works.
BLONDUS, Flavius, a historian born at Forli, in Italy, in 1388, was secretary to Eugenius IV. and other popes. He composed a great many books, and, amongst others, a History extending from the year 400 to 1440. He died in 1463.
BLOODSTONE, or Heliotrope, in Mineralogy, a chalcedony or agate of a deep green colour, with blood-red spots interspersed through it. Tartary and Siberia are its best known localities.
BLOSSOM, in a general sense, denotes the flower of any plant.

Blossom, in a more proper sense, is restricted to the flowers of trees which they put forth in the spring, as the forerunners of their fruit, and otherwise called their bloom. The office of the blossom is partly to protect, and partly to draw nourishment to, the embryo fruit or seed.

Blossom, or Peach-Coloured, in the manege, a term applied to a horse that has his hair white, but intermixed all over with sorrel and bay hairs. Such horses are so insensible and hard, both in the mouth and the flanks, that they are little valued; and, besides, they are apt to turn blind.
BLOSSOMING of Plants, the act of blowing, or putting forth flowers or blossoms, called also flowering. The pious blossoming of the Glastonbury thorn on Christmas-day morning, is a vulgar error, originating in this, that the plant, besides the usual blossoming in the spring, sometimes puts forth a few white transient blossoms in the middle of winter. With respect to the blossoming of the rose of Jericho on the same day, as it is commonly held in England, or in the time of midnight mass, as it is held in France, it is somewhat more than an error, being in reality a fraud on one side, and a superstition on the other. This rose, the leaves of which are only closed and shrivelled up in winter, will, at any time, upon its pedicle being set in water, expand and blossom a~new; because the pedicle being spongy, imbibes the fluid apace, and thus fills and swells out the shrivelled leaves.
BLOW, Dr John, a famous musician and composer, was born in 1648, at North Collingham, in the county of Nottingham, and was one of the first set of children after the Restoration, bred up under Captain Henry Cook. He was also a pupil of Hingeston, organist to Oliver Cromwell, and after that of Dr Christopher Gibbons. On the 16th day of March 1673, he was sworn one of the gentlemen of the chapel, in the room of Roger Hill; and in July 1674, upon the decease of Mr Pelham Humphrey, he was appointed master of the children of the chapel. In 1685 he was made one of his majesty’s private band; and in 1687 he was appointed almoner and master of the choristers of the cathedral church of St Paul. Blow was not a graduate of either university; but Archbishop Sancroft, in virtue of his own authority in that respect, conferred on him the degree of doctor in music. Upon the decease of Purcell in 1665, he became organist of Westminster Abbey. In the year 1699 he was appointed composer to his majesty, with a salary. Blow was a composer of anthems while a chapel-boy, and on the score of his merit was distinguished by Charles II. The king admired very much a little duet of Carissimi to the words Dite o cieli, and asked Blow if he could imitate it. Blow modestly answered he would try; and composed in the same measure, and on the same key of D with a minor third, that fine song, “Go, perjured man.” The Orpheus βritannicus of Purcell had been published by his widow soon after his decease, and contained in it some of that author’s finest songs. The favourable reception it met with induced Blow to publish, in the year 1700, a work of the same kind, entitled Amphion Anglicus, containing compositions for one, two, three, and four voices, with accompaniments of instrumental music, and a thorough bass figured for the organ, harpsicod, or theorbolute. In 1684 Dr Blow set to music an ode for St Cecilia’s day, the words by Mr Oldham. He also composed and published a collection of lessons for the harpsichord or spinet; and an ode on the death of Purcell, written by Mr Dryden. There are likewise extant of his composition sundry hymns printed in the Harmonia Sacra, and a great number of catches in the latter editions of the Musical Companion. He died in the year 1708, and lies buried in the north aisle of Westminster Abbey.
BLOWING, in a general sense, denotes an agitation of the air, whether performed with a pair of bellows, the mouth, a tube, or the like.

Blowing, among gardeners, denotes the action of flowers, in opening and displaying their leaves. In this sense, blowing is the same with flowering or blossoming.

The regular blowing season is in the spring, although [7:4:717]some plants have other extraordinary times and manners of blowing, as the Glastonbury thorn. Different flowers, also, as the tulip, close every evening, and blow again in the morning. Annual plants blow sooner or later according as their seeds are put in the ground; and hence the curious in gardening sow some every month in summer, to have a constant succession of flowers. The blowing of roses may be retarded by shearing off the buds as they are put forth.

Blowing of Glass, one of the methods of forming the various kinds of work in the glass manufacture. It is performed by dipping the point of an iron blow-pipe in the melted glass, and blowing through it with the mouth, according to the dimensions of the glass to be blown. See Glass. Blowing of Tin denotes the melting its ore, after being first burnt to destroy the mundic.
BLUBBER denotes the fat of whales and other large sea-animals, of which train-oil is made. It is properly the adeps of the animal, and lies immediately under the skin, and over the muscular flesh. In the porpoise it is firm and full of fibres, and invests the body about an inch thick. In the whale its thickness is ordinarily six inches, but about the under lip it is found two or three feet thick. The whole quantity yielded by one of these animals ordinarily amounts to forty or fifty, sometimes to eighty or more, hundredweights.
BLUDENZ, a small city in the Austrian province of Tyrol, on the river Ill, containing about 1500 inhabitants.
BLUE, one of the seven colours into which the rays of light divide themselves when refracted through a glass prism. See the article Chromatics.
BLUE John, a name applied by the Derbyshire miners to the nodular variety of fluorspar from the Odin mine near Castleton, which in that part of England is turned into vases, and polished for various ornamental purposes.

Blue Vitriol, the sulphate of copper; a salt of a fine blue or bluish-green colour, containing 32∙13 per cent, of copper, 31*57 of sulphuric acid, and 36*30 of water. By surgeons it is employed as an escharotic and astringent, and in the arts it is turned to account in dyeing, printing of cotton, and the like. It owes its existence in nature to the decomposition of other minerals, particularly copper pyrites, and, after having undergone the process of purification, forms regular crystals of a blue colour. It reddens litmus paper, and is soluble in about four parts of cold and two of boiling water. Its chief localities are the Ram-melsberg near Goslar, in the Hartz; Anglesea in England; and Fahlun in Sweden.
BLUING, the act or art of communicating a blue colour to bodies.

Bluing of Metals is performed by heating them in the fire till they assume a blue colour. It is particularly practised by gilders, who blue their metals before they apply the gold and silver leaf.

Bluing of Iron, a method of beautifying that metal, sometimes practised for mourning buckles, swords, watch-springs, and the like. It is done thus: Take a piece of grindstone or whetstone, and rub hard on the work to take off the black scurf; then heat it in the firc, and as it grows hot the colour will change by degrees, becoming first of a light, then of a darker gold colour, and lastly blue. Sometimes also indigo and salad-oil are ground together, and the mixture rubbed on the work with a woollen rag while it is heating, after which it is left to cool of itself. Among sculptors we find mention made of bluing a figure of bronze, by which is meant the heating of it, to prepare it for the application of gold leaf; and it is so called because of the bluish cast the metal acquires in the operation.

BLUFF-Head, a term used among sailors. A ship is said to be bluff-headed that has an upright stern.
BLUNDERBUSS, a short fire-arm of a large calibre, widening towards the muzzle, and capable of containing a number of bullets at once.
BLUSHING, a suffusion or redness of the cheeks, excited by a sense of shame, or the consciousness of some failing or imperfection.

Blushing is supposed to be produced by a kind of sympathy between several parts of the body, occasioned by the same nerve being extended to them all. Thus the fifth pair of nerves being branched from the brain to the eye, car, muscles of the lips, cheeks, palate, tongue, and nose, a thing seen or heard that is shameful covers the cheeks with blushes, driving the blood into the minute vessels there dispersed, and also affecting the eye and ear in a similar manner. For the same reason it is, that a savoury thing seen or smelled affects the glands and parts of the mouth; that if any thing pleasing be heard, it affects the muscles of the face with laughter; and that if it be melancholy, it affects the glands of the eyes, and occasions weeping.
BO, a cluster of six or seven islands in the Eastern Seas, lying east-south-east of the southern extremity of Gilolo. They are inhabited, and supply navigators with cocoa-nuts. Long. 126. 25. E. Lat. 1. 27. S.
BOA. See Reptilia, Index.
BOAD, a town of Hindostan, in the province of Orissa, on the south side of the river Mahanuddy. It is possessed by an independent zemindar; and, like all the neighbouring towns and villages, it is fenced with bamboos, [7:4:721]to protect the inhabitants and their cattle from the wild beasts. It is 55 miles south-south-east of Sumbulpoor. , Long. 84. 18. E. Lat. 20. 50. N.