FOOTNOTE:

[1] The suffix _-phile_, Greek [Greek: philein], to love, prefer, is

in scientific terminology frequently applied to substances that

exhibit such preference for particular stains or reagents, the names

of which form the first part of the word.

BLOOD-LETTING. There are certain morbid conditions when a patient may

obtain marked relief from the abstraction of a certain amount of blood,

from three or four ounces up to twenty or even thirty in extreme cases.

This may be effected by venesection, or the application of leeches, or

more rarely by cupping (q.v.). Unfortunately, in years gone by,

blood-letting was used to such excess, as a cure for almost every known

disease, that public opinion is now extremely opposed to it. In certain

pathological conditions, however, it brings relief and saves life when

no other means would act with sufficient promptness to take its place.

Venesection, in which the blood is usually withdrawn from the

median-basilic vein of the arm, has the disadvantage that it can only be

performed by the medical man, and that the patient's friends are

generally very much opposed to the idea. But the public are not nearly

so prejudiced against the use of leeches; and as the nurse in charge can

be instructed to use these if occasion arises, this is the form of

blood-letting usually practised to-day. From one to twelve leeches are

applied at the time, the average leech withdrawing some two drachms of

blood. Should this prove insufficient, as much again can be abstracted

by the immediate application of hot fomentations to the wounds. They

should always be applied over some bony prominence, that pressure may be

effectively used to stop the haemorrhage afterwards. They should never

be placed over superficial veins, or where there is much loose

subcutaneous tissue. If, as is often the case, there is any difficulty

in making them bite, the skin should be pricked at the desired spot with

the point of a sterilized needle, and the leech will then attach itself

without further trouble. Also they must be left to fall off of their own

accord, the nurse never dragging them forcibly off. If cold and pressure

fail to stop the subsequent haemorrhage, a little powdered alum or other

styptic may be inserted in the wound. The following are the main

indications for their use, though in some cases they are better replaced

by venesection, (1) For stagnation of blood on the right side of the

heart with constant dyspnoea, cyanosis, &c. In acute lung disease, the

sudden obstruction to the passage of blood through the lungs throws such

an increased strain on the right ventricle that it may dilate to the

verge of paralysis; but by lessening the total volume of blood, the

heart's work is lightened for a time, and the danger at the moment tided

over. This is a condition frequently met with in the early stages of

acute pneumonia, pleurisy and bronchitis, when the obstruction is in the

lungs, the heart being normal. But the same result is also met with as a

result of failure of compensation with back pressure in certain forms of

heart disease (q.v.). (2) To lower arterial tension. In the early stages

of cerebral haemorrhage (before coma has supervened), when the heart is

working vigorously and the tension of the pulse is high, a timely

venesection may lead to arrest of the haemorrhage by lowering the blood

pressure and so giving the blood in the ruptured vessel an opportunity

to coagulate. (3) In various convulsive attacks, as in acute uraemia.

BLOOD-MONEY, colloquially, the reward for betraying a criminal to

justice. More strictly it is used of the money-penalty paid in old days

by a murderer to the kinsfolk of his victim. These fines completely

protected the offender from the vengeance of the injured family. The

system was common among the Scandinavian and Teutonic races previous to

the introduction of Christianity, and a scale of payments, graduated

according to the heinousness of the crime, was fixed by laws, which

further settled who could exact the blood-money, and who were entitled

to share it. Homicide was not the only crime thus expiable: blood-money

could be exacted for all crimes of violence. Some acts, such as killing

any one in a church or while asleep, or within the precincts of the

royal palace, were "bot-less"; and the death penalty was inflicted. Such

a criminal was outlawed, and his enemies could kill him wherever they

found him.

BLOODSTONE, the popular name of the mineral heliotrope, which is a

variety of dark green chalcedony or plasma, with bright red spots,

splashes and streaks. The green colour is due to a chloritic mineral;

the red to haematite. Some coarse kinds are opaque, resembling in this

respect jasper, and some writers have sought to restrict the name

"bloodstone" to green jasper, with red markings, thus making heliotrope

a translucent and bloodstone an opaque stone, but, though convenient,

such a distinction is not generally recognized. A good deal of

bloodstone comes from India, where it occurs in the Deccan traps, and is

cut and polished at Cambay. The stone is used for seals, knife-handles

and various trivial ornaments. Bloodstone is not very widely

distributed, but is found in the basaltic rocks of the Isle of Rum in

the west of Scotland, and in a few other localities. Haematite (Gr.

[Greek: aima], blood), or native peroxide of iron, is also sometimes

called "bloodstone."

BLOOM (from A.S. _bloma_, a flower), the blossom of flowering plants, or

the powdery film on the skin of fresh-picked fruit; hence applied to the

surface of newly-minted coins or to a cloudy appearance on the varnish

of painting due to moisture; also, in metallurgy, a term used of the

rough billets of iron and steel, which have undergone a preliminary

hammering or rolling, and are ready for further working.

BLOOMER, AMELIA JENKS (1818-1894), American dress-reformer and women's

rights advocate, was born at Homer, New York, on the 27th of May 1818.

After her marriage in 1840 she established a periodical called _The

Lily_, which had some success. In 1849 she took up the idea--previously

originated by Mrs Elizabeth Smith Miller--of a reform in woman's dress,

and the wearing of a short skirt, with loose trousers, gathered round

the ankles. The name of "bloomers" gradually became popularly attached

to any divided-skirt or knickerbocker dress for women. Until her death

on the 30th of December 1894 Mrs Bloomer took a prominent part in the

temperance campaign and in that for woman's suffrage.

BLOOMFIELD, MAURICE (1855- ), American Sanskrit scholar, was born on

the 23rd of February 1855, in Bielitz, Austrian Silesia. He went to the

United States in 1867, and ten years later graduated from Furman

University, Greenville, South Carolina. He then studied Sanskrit at

Yale, under W.D. Whitney, and at Johns Hopkins, to which university he

returned as associate professor in 1881 after a stay of two years in

Berlin and Leipzig, and soon afterwards was promoted professor of

Sanskrit and comparative philology. His papers in the _American Journal

of Philology_ number a few in comparative linguistics, such as those on

assimilation and adaptation in congeneric classes of words, and many

valuable "Contributions to the Interpretation of the Vedas," and he is

best known as a student of the Vedas. He translated, for Max-Muller's

_Sacred Books of the East_, the Hymns of the Atharva-Veda (1897);

contributed to the Buhler-Kielhorn _Grundriss der indo-arischen

Philologie und Altertumskunde_ the section "The Atharva-Veda and the

Gopatha Brahmana" (1899); was first to edit the Kaucika-Sutra (1890),

and in 1907 published, in the Harvard Oriental series, _A Vedic

Concordance_. In 1905 he published _Cerberus, the Dog of Hades_, a study

in comparative mythology.

BLOOMFIELD, ROBERT (1766-1823), English poet, was born of humble parents

at the village of Honington, Suffolk, on the 3rd of December 1766. He

was apprenticed at the age of eleven to a farmer, but he was too small

and frail for field labour, and four years later he came to London to

work for a shoemaker. The poem that made his reputation, _The Farmer's

Boy_, was written in a garret in Bell Alley. The manuscript, declined by

several publishers, fell into the hands of Capell Lofft, who arranged

for its publication with woodcuts by Bewick in 1800. The success of the

poem was remarkable, over 25,000 copies being sold in the next two

years. His reputation was increased by the appearance of his _Rural

Tales_ (1802), _News from the Farm_ (1804), _Wild Flowers_ (1806) and

_The Banks of the Wye_ (1811). Influential friends attempted to provide

for Bloomfield, but ill-health and possibly faults of temperament

prevented the success of these efforts, and the poet died in poverty at

Shefford, Bedfordshire, on the 19th of August 1823. His _Remains in

Poetry and Verse_ appeared in 1824.

BLOOMFIELD, a town of Essex county, New Jersey, U.S.A., about 12 m. W.

of New York, and directly adjoining the city of Newark on the N. Pop.

(1900) 9668, of whom 2267 were foreign-born; (1905, state census)

11,668; (1910), 15,070. Area, 5.42 sq. m. Bloomfield is served by the

Erie, and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railways, and by several

electric lines connecting with Newark, Montclair, Orange, East Orange

and other neighbouring places. It is a residential suburb of Newark and

New York, is the seat of a German theological school (Presbyterian,

1869) and has the Jarvie Memorial library (1902). There is a Central

Green, and in 1908 land was acquired for another park. Among the town's

manufactures are silk and woollen goods, paper, electric elevators,

electric lamps, rubber goods, safety pins, hats, cream separators,

brushes and novelties. The value of the town's factory products

increased from $3,370,924 in 1900 to $4,645,483 in 1905, or 37.8%. First

settled about 1670-1675 by the Dutch and by New Englanders from the

Newark colony, Bloomfield was long a part of Newark, the principal

settlement at first being known as Wardsesson. In 1796 it was named

Bloomfield in honour of General Joseph Bloomfield (1753-1823), who

served (1775-1778) in the War of American Independence, reaching the

rank of major, was governor of New Jersey in 1801-1802 and 1803-1812,

brigadier-general in the United States army during the War of 1812, and

a Democratic representative in Congress from 1817 to 1821. The township

of Bloomfield was incorporated in 1812. From it were subsequently set

off Belleville (1839), Montclair (1868) and Glen Ridge (1895).

BLOOMINGTON, a city and the county-seat of McLean county, Illinois,

U.S.A., in the central part of the state, about 125 m. S.W. of Chicago.

Pop. (1890) 20,484; (1900) 23,286, of whom 3611 were foreign-born, there

being a large German element; (1910 census) 25,768. The city is served

by the Chicago & Alton, the Illinois Central, the Cleveland, Chicago,

Cincinnati & St Louis, and the Lake Erie & Western railways, and by

electric inter-urban lines. Bloomington is the seat of the Illinois

Wesleyan University (Methodist Episcopal, co-educational, founded in

1850), which comprises a college of liberal arts, an academy, a college

of law, a college of music and a school of oratory, and in 1907 had 1350

students. In the town of NORMAL (pop. in 1900, 3795), 2 m. north of

Bloomington, are the Illinois State Normal University (opened at

Bloomington in 1857 and removed to its present site in 1860), one of the

first normal schools in the Middle West, and the state soldiers'

orphans' home (1869). Bloomington has a public library, and Franklin and

Miller parks; among its principal buildings are the court house, built

of marble, and the Y.M.C.A. building. Among the manufacturing

establishments are foundries and machine shops, including the large

shops of the Chicago & Alton railway, slaughtering and meat-packing

establishments, flour and grist mills, printing and publishing

establishments, a caramel factory and lumber factories. The value of the

city's factory products increased from $3,011,899 in 1900 to $5,777,000

in 1905, or 91.8%. There are valuable coal mines in and near the city,

and the city is situated in a fine farming region. Bloomington derives

its name from Blooming Grove, a small forest which was crossed by the

trails leading from the Galena lead mines to Southern Illinois, from

Lake Michigan to St Louis, and from the Eastern to the far Western

states. The first settlement was made in 1822, but the town was not

formally founded until 1831, when it became the county-seat of McLean

county. The first city charter was obtained in 1850, and in 1857 the

public school system was established. In 1856 Bloomington was the

meeting place of a state convention called by the Illinois editors who

were opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill (see DECATUR). This was the

first convention of the Republican party in Illinois; among the

delegates were Abraham Lincoln, Richard Yates, John M. Palmer and Owen

Lovejoy. The city has been the residence of a number of prominent men,

including David Davis (1815-1886), an associate justice of the United

States Supreme Court in 1862-1877, a member of the United States Senate

in 1877-1883, and president _pro tempore_ of the Senate in 1881-1883;

Governor John M. Hamilton (1847-1905), Governor Joseph W. Fifer (b.

1840); and Adlai Ewing Stevenson (b. 1835), a Democratic representative

in Congress in 1875-1877 and 1879-1881, and vice-president of the United

States in 1893-1897. Bloomington's prosperity increased after 1867, when

coal was first successfully mined in the vicinity.

In the _Transactions_ of the Illinois State Historical Society for

1905 may be found a paper, "The Bloomington Convention of 1856 and

Those Who Participated in it."

BLOOMINGTON, a city and the county-seat of Monroe county, Indiana,

U.S.A., about 45 m. S. by W. of Indianapolis. Pop. (1890) 4018; (1900)

6460, including 396 negroes; (1910) 8838. It is served by the Chicago,

Indianapolis & Louisville and the Indianapolis Southern (Illinois

Central) railways. Bloomington is the seat of the Indiana University

(co-educational since 1868), established as a state seminary in 1820,

and as Indiana College in 1828, and chartered as the State university in

1838; in 1907-1908 it had 80 instructors, 2051 students, and a library

of 65,000 volumes; its school of law was established in 1842, suspended

in 1877 and re-established in 1889; its school of medicine was

established in 1903; but most of the medical course is given in

Indianapolis; a graduate school was organized in 1904; and a summer

school (or summer term of eleven weeks) was first held in 1905. Dr

David Starr Jordan was the first president of the university in

1885-1891, when it was thoroughly reorganized and its curriculum put on

the basis of major subjects and departments. The university's biological

station is on Winona Lake, Kosciusko county. Among the manufactures of

Bloomington are furniture and wooden ware. There are valuable limestone

quarries in the vicinity. The city was first settled about 1818.

BLOOMSBURG, a town and the county-seat of Columbia county, Pennsylvania,

U.S.A., on Fishing Creek, 2 m. from its confluence with the Susquehanna,

and about 40 m. S.W. of Wilkes-Barre. Pop. (1890) 4635; (1900) 6170 (213

foreign-born); (1910) 7413. It is served by the Delaware, Lackawanna &

Western, the Philadelphia & Reading, and the Bloomsburg & Sullivan and

the Susquehanna, Bloomsburg & Berwick railways (the last two only 30 m.

and 39 m. long respectively); and is connected with Berwick, Catawissa

and Danville by electric lines. The town is built on a bluff commanding

extensive views. Among the manufactures of Bloomsburg are railway cars,

carriages, silk and woollen goods, furniture, carpets, wire-drawing

machines and gun carriages. Iron ore was formerly obtained from the

neighbouring hills. The town is the seat of a state normal school,

established as such in 1869. Bloomsburg was laid out as a town in 1802,

became the county-seat in 1846, and was incorporated in 1870.

BLOUNT, CHARLES (1654-1693), English author, was born at Upper Holloway

on the 27th of April 1654. His father, Sir Henry Blount (1602-1682), was

the author of a _Voyage to the Levant_, describing his own travels. He

gave his son a careful education, and is said to have helped him in his

_Anima Mundi; or An Historical Narration of the Opinions of the Antients

concerning Man's Soul after his Life, according to unenlightened Nature_

(1679), which gave great offence by the sceptical views expressed in it.

It was suppressed by order of the bishop of London, and even burnt by

some over-zealous official, but a re-issue was permitted. Blount was an

admirer of Hobbes, and published his "Last Sayings" (1679), a pamphlet

consisting of extracts from _The Leviathan. Great is Diana of the

Ephesians, or the Original of Idolatry, together with the Political

Institution of the Gentiles' Sacrifices_ (1680) attracted severe

criticism on the ground that in deprecating the evils of priestcraft

Blount was attacking Christianity itself. His best-known book, _The Two

First Books of Philostratus concerning the Life of Apollonius

Tyaneus_ ... (1680), is said to have been prohibited in 1693, chiefly on

account of the notes, which are stated by Bayle (note, _s.v.

Apollonius_) to have been taken mainly from a MS. of Lord Herbert of

Cherbury. Blount contributed materially to the removal of the

restrictions on the freedom of the press, with two pamphlets (1693) by

"Philopatris," mainly derived from Milton's _Areopagitica_. He also laid

a successful trap for the censor, Edmund Bohun. Under the name of

"Junius Brutus" he wrote a pamphlet entitled "King William and Queen

Mary Conquerors." The title-page set forth the theory of the justice of

title by conquest, which Blount knew to be agreeable to Bohun. It was

duly licensed, but was ordered by the House of Commons to be burnt by

the common hangman, as being diametrically opposed to the attitude of

William's government on the subject. These proceedings showed the

futility of the censorship, and hastened its overthrow.

Blount had fallen in love with his deceased wife's sister, and, in

despair of overcoming her scruples as to the legality of such a

marriage, shot himself in the head. He survived for some time, refusing

help except from his sister-in-law. Alexander Pope asserted (_Epilogue

to the Satires_, Note, i. 124) that he wounded himself in the arm,

pretending to kill himself, and that the result was fatal contrary to

his expectations. He died in August 1693.

Shortly before his death a collection of his pamphlets and private

papers was printed with a preface by Charles Gildon, under the title

of the _Oracles of Reason_. His _Miscellaneous Works_ (1695) is a

fuller edition by the same editor.

BLOUNT (or BLUNT), EDWARD (b. 1565?), the printer, in conjunction with

Isaac Jaggard, of _Mr William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories and

Tragedies. Published according to the true Originall Copies_ (_1623_),

usually known as the first folio of Shakespeare. It was produced under

the direction of John Heming (d. 1630) and Henry Condell (d. 1627), both

of whom had been Shakespeare's colleagues at the Globe theatre, but as

Blount combined the functions of printer and editor on other occasions,

it is fair to conjecture that he to some extent edited the first folio.

The Stationers' _Register_ states that he was the son of Ralph Blount or

Blunt, merchant tailor of London, and apprenticed himself in 1578 for

ten years to William Ponsonby, a stationer. He became a freeman of the

Stationers' Company in 1588. Among the most important of his

publications are Giovanni Florio's Italian-English dictionary and his

translation of Montaigne, Marlowe's _Hero and Leander_, and the _Sixe

Court Comedies_ of John Lyly. He himself translated _Ars Aulica, or the

Courtier's Arte_ (1607) from the Italian of Lorenzo Ducci, and

_Christian Policie_ (1632) from the Spanish of Juan de Santa Maria.

BLOUNT, THOMAS (1618-1679), English antiquarian, was the son of one

Myles Blount, of Orleton in Herefordshire. He was born at Bordesley,

Worcestershire. Few details of his life are known. It appears that he

was called to the bar at the Inner Temple, but, being a zealous Roman

Catholic, his religion interfered considerably with the practice of his

profession. Retiring to his estate at Orleton, he devoted himself to the

study of the law as an amateur, and also read widely in other branches

of knowledge. He died at Orleton on the 26th of December 1679. His

principal works are _Glossographia; or, a dictionary interpreting the

hard words of whatsoever language, now used in our refined English

tongue_ (1656, reprinted in 1707), which went through several editions

and remains most amusing and instructive reading; _Nomolexicon: a law

dictionary interpreting such difficult and, obscure words and terms as

are found either in our common or statute, ancient or modern lawes_

(1670; third edition, with additions by W. Nelson, 1717); and _Fragmenta

Antiquitatis: Ancient Tenures of land, and jocular customs of some

mannors_ (1679; enlarged by J. Beckwith and republished, with additions

by H.M. Beckwith, in 1815; again revised and enlarged by W.C. Hazlitt,

1874). Blount's _Boscobel_ (1651), giving an account of Charles II.'s

preservation after Worcester, with the addition of the king's own

account dictated to Pepys, has been edited with a bibliography by C.G.

Thomas (1894).

BLOUNT, SIR THOMAS POPE (1649-1697), English author, eldest son of Sir

Henry Blount and brother of Charles Blount (q.v.), was born at Upper

Holloway on the 12th of September 1649. He succeeded to the estate of

Tittenhanger on his mother's death in 1678, and in the following year

was created a baronet. He represented the borough of St Albans in the

two last parliaments of Charles II. and was knight of the shire from the

revolution till his death. He married Jane, daughter of Sir Henry

Caesar, by whom he had five sons and nine daughters. He died at

Tittenhanger on the 30th of June 1697. His _Censura celebrorum authorum

sive tractatus in quo varia virorum doctorum de clarissimis cujusque

seculi scriptoribus judicia traduntur_ (1690) was originally compiled

for Blount's own use, and is a dictionary in chronological order of what

various eminent writers have said about one another. This necessarily

involved enormous labour in Blount's time. It was published at Geneva in

1694 with all the quotations from modern languages translated into

Latin, and again in 1710. His other works are _A Natural History,

containing many not common observations extracted out of the best modern

writers_ (1693), _De re poetica, or remarks upon Poetry, with Characters

and Censures of the most considerable Poets_ ... (1694), and _Essays on

Several Occasions_ (1692). It is on this last work that his claims to be

regarded as an original writer rest. The essays deal with the perversion

of learning, a comparison between the ancients and the moderns (to the

advantage of the latter), the education of children, and kindred topics.

In the third edition (1697) he added an eighth essay, on religion, in

which he deprecated the multiplication of ceremonies. He displays

throughout a hatred of pedantry and convention, which makes his book

still interesting.

See A. Kippis, _Biographia Britannica_ (1780), vol. ii. For an account

of Blount's family see Robert Clutterbuck. _History and Antiquities of

the County of Hertford_ (1815), vol. i. pp. 207-212.

BLOUNT, WILLIAM (1749-1800), American politician, was born in Bertie

county, North Carolina, on the 26th of March 1749. He was a member of

the Continental Congress in 1783-1784 and again in 1786-1787, of the

constitutional convention at Philadelphia in 1787, and of the state

convention which ratified the Federal constitution for North Carolina in

1789. From 1790 until 1796 he was, by President Washington's

appointment, governor of the "Territory South of the Ohio River,"

created out of land ceded to the national government by North Carolina

in 1789. He was also during this period the superintendent of Indian

affairs for this part of the country. In 1791 he laid out Knoxville

(Tennessee) as the seat of government. He presided over the

constitutional convention of Tennessee in 1796, and, on the state being

admitted to the Union, became one of its first representatives in the

United States Senate. In 1797 his connexion became known with a scheme,

since called "Blount's Conspiracy," which provided for the co-operation

of the American frontiersmen, assisted by Indians, and an English force,

in the seizure on behalf of Great Britain of the Floridas and Louisiana,

then owned by Spain, with which power England was then at war. As this

scheme, if carried out, involved the corrupting of two officials of the

United States, an Indian agent and an interpreter, a breach of the

neutrality of the United States, and the breach of Article V. of the

treaty of San Lorenzo el Real (signed on the 27th of October 1795)

between the United States and Spain, by which each power agreed not to

incite the Indians to attack the other, Blount was impeached by the

House of Representatives on the 7th of July 1797, and on the following

day was formally expelled from the Senate for "having been guilty of

high misdemeanor, entirely inconsistent with his public trust and duty

as a senator." On the 29th of January 1798 articles of impeachment were

adopted by the House of Representatives. On the 14th of January 1799,

however, the Senate, sitting as a court of impeachment, decided that it

had no jurisdiction, Blount not then being a member of the Senate, and,

in the Senate's opinion, not having been, even as a member, a civil

officer of the United States, within the meaning of the constitution.

The case is significant as being the first case of impeachment brought

before the United States Senate. "In a legal point of view, all that the

case decides is that a senator of the United States who has been

expelled from his seat is not after such expulsion subject to

impeachment" (Francis Wharton, _State Trials_). In effect, however, it

also decided that a member of Congress was not in the meaning of the

constitution a civil officer of the United States and therefore could

not be impeached. The "conspiracy" was disavowed by the British

government, which, however, seems to have secretly favoured it. Blount

was enthusiastically supported by his constituents, and upon his return

to Tennessee was made a member and the presiding officer of the state

senate. He died at Knoxville on the 21st of March 1800.

For a defence of Blount, see General Marcus J. Wright's _Account of

the Life and Services of William Blount_ (Washington, D.C., 1884).

BLOUSE, a word (taken from the French) used for any loosely fitting

bodice belted at the waist. In France it meant originally the loose

upper garment of linen or cotton, generally blue, worn by French workmen

to preserve their clothing, and, by transference, the workman himself.

BLOW, JOHN (1648-1708), English musical composer, was born in 1648,

probably at North Collingham in Nottinghamshire. He became a chorister

of the chapel royal, and distinguished himself by his proficiency in

music; he composed several anthems at an unusually early age, including

_Lord, Thou hast been our refuge; Lord, rebuke me not_; and the

so-called "club anthem," _I will always give thanks_, the last in

collaboration with Pelham Humphrey and William Turner, either in honour

of a victory over the Dutch in 1665, or--more probably--simply to

commemorate the friendly intercourse of the three choristers. To this

time also belongs the composition of a two-part setting of Herrick's

_Goe, perjur'd man_, written at the request of Charles II. to imitate

Carissimi's _Dite, o cieli_. In 1669 Blow became organist of Westminster

Abbey. In 1673 he was made a gentleman of the chapel royal, and in the

September of this year he was married to Elizabeth Braddock, who died in

childbirth ten years later. Blow, who by the year 1678 was a doctor of

music, was named in 1685 one of the private musicians of James II.

Between 1680 and 1687 he wrote the only stage composition by him of

which any record survives, the _Masque for the Entertainment of the

King: Venus and Adonis_. In this Mary Davies played the part of Venus,

and her daughter by Charles II., Lady Mary Tudor, appeared as Cupid. In

1687 he became master of the choir of St Paul's church; in 1695 he was

elected organist of St Margaret's, Westminster, and is said to have

resumed his post as organist of Westminster Abbey, from which in 1680 he

had retired or been dismissed to make way for Purcell. In 1699 he was

appointed to the newly created post of composer to the chapel royal.

Fourteen services and more than a hundred anthems by Blow are extant. In

addition to his purely ecclesiastical music Blow wrote _Great sir, the

joy of all our hearts_, an ode for New Year's day 1681-1682; similar

compositions for 1683, 1686, 1687, 1688, 1689, 1693 (?), 1694 and 1700;

odes, &c., for the celebration of St Cecilia's day for 1684, 1691, 1695

and 1700; for the coronation of James II. two anthems, _Behold, O God,

our Defender_, and _God spake sometimes in visions_; some harpsichord

pieces for the second part of Playford's _Musick's Handmaid_ (1869);

_Epicedium for Queen Mary_ (1695); _Ode on the Death of Purcell_ (1696).

In 1700 he published his Amphion Anglicus, a collection of pieces of

music for one, two, three and four voices, with a figured-bass

accompaniment. A famous page in Burney's _History of Music_ is devoted

to illustrations of "Dr Blow's Crudities," most of which only show the

meritorious if immature efforts in expression characteristic of English

music at the time, while some of them (where Burney says "Here we are

lost") are really excellent. Blow died on the 1st of October 1708 at his

house in Broad Sanctuary, and was buried in the north aisle of

Westminster Abbey.

BLOW-GUN, a weapon consisting of a long tube, through which, by blowing

with the mouth, arrows or other missiles can be shot accurately to a

considerable distance. Blow-guns are used both in warefare and the chase

by the South American Indian tribes inhabiting the region between the

Amazon and Orinoco rivers, and by the Dyaks of Borneo. In the 18th

century they were also known to certain North American Indians,

especially the Choctaws and Cherokees of the lower Mississippi. Captain

Bossu, in his _Travels through Louisiana_ (1756), says of the Choctaws:

"They are very expert in shooting with an instrument made of reeds about

7 ft. long, into which they put a little arrow feathered with the wool

of the thistle (wild cotton?)." The blow-guns of the South American

Indians differ in style and workmanship. That of the Macusis of Guiana,

called _pucuna_, is the most perfect. It is made of two tubes, the inner

of which, called _oorah_, is a light reed 1/2 in. in diameter which

often grows to a length of 15 ft. without a joint. This is enclosed, for

protection and solidity, in an outer tube of a variety of palm

(_Iriartella setigera_). The mouth-piece is made of a circlet of

silk-grass, and the farther end is feruled with a kind of nut, forming a

sight. A rear open sight is formed of two teeth of a small rodent. The

length of the _pucuna_ is about 11 ft. and its weight 1-1/2 lb. The

arrows, which are from 12 to 18 in. long and very slender, are made of

ribs of the cocorite palm-leaf. They are usually feathered with a tuft

of wild cotton, but some have in place of the cotton a thin strip of

bark curled into a cone, which, when the shooter blows into the

_pucuna_, expands and completely fills the tube, thus avoiding windage.

Another kind of arrow is furnished with fibres of bark fixed along the

shaft, imparting a rotary motion to the missile, a primitive example of

the theory of the rifle. The arrows used in Peru are only a few inches

long and as thin as fine knitting-needles. All South American blow-gun

arrows are steeped in poison. The natives shoot very accurately with the

_pucuna_ at distances up to 50 or 60 yds.

The blow-gun of the Borneo Dyaks, called _sumpitan_, is from 6 to 7 ft.

long and made of ironwood. The bore, of 1/2 in., is made with a long

pointed piece of iron. At the muzzle a small iron hook is affixed, to

serve as a sight, as well as a spear-head like a bayonet and for the

same purpose. The arrows used with the _sumpitan_ are about 10 in. long,

pointed with fish-teeth, and feathered with pith. They are also

envenomed with poison.

Poisoned arrows are also used by the natives of the Philippine island of

Mindanao, whose blow-pipes, from 3 to 4 ft. long and made of bamboo, are

often richly ornamented and even jewelled.

The principle of the blow-gun is, of course, the same as that of the

common "pea-shooter."

See _Sport with Rod and Gun in American Woods and Waters_, by A.M.

Mayer, vol. ii. (Edinburgh, 1884); _Wanderings in South America_, &c.,

by Charles Waterton (London, 1828); _The Head Hunters of Borneo_, by

Carl Bock (London, 1881).

BLOWITZ, HENRI GEORGES STEPHAN ADOLPHE DE (1825-1903), Anglo-French

journalist, was born, according to the account given in his memoirs, at

his father's chateau in Bohemia on the 28th of December 1825. At the age

of fifteen he left home, and travelled over Europe for some years in

company with a young professor of philology, acquiring a thorough

knowledge of French, German and Italian and a mixed general education.

The finances of his family becoming straitened, young Blowitz was on the

point of starting to seek his fortune in America, when he became

acquainted in Paris with M. de Falloux, minister of public instruction,

who appointed him professor of foreign languages at the Tours Lycee,

whence, after some years, he was transferred to the Marseilles Lycee.

After marrying in 1859 he resigned his professorship, but remained at

Marseilles, devoting himself to literature and politics. In 1869

information which he supplied to a legitimist newspaper at Marseilles

with regard to the candidature of M. de Lesseps as deputy for that city

led to a demand for his expulsion from France. He was, however, allowed

to remain, but had to retire to the country. In 1870 his predictions of

the approaching fall of the Empire caused the demand for his expulsion

to be renewed. While his case was under discussion the battle of Sedan

was fought, and Blowitz effectually ingratiated himself with the

authorities by applying for naturalization as a French subject. Once

naturalized, he returned to Marseilles, where he was fortunately able to

render considerable service to Thiers, who subsequently employed him in

collecting information at Versailles, and when this work was finished

offered him the French consulship at Riga. Blowitz was on the point of

accepting this post when Laurence Oliphant, then Paris correspondent of

_The Times_, for which Blowitz had already done some occasional work,

asked him to act as his regular assistant for a time, Frederick Hardman,

the other Paris correspondent of _The Times_, being absent. Blowitz

accepted the offer, and when, later on, Oliphant was succeeded by

Hardman he remained as assistant correspondent. In 1873 Hardman died,

and Blowitz became chief Paris correspondent to _The Times_. In this

capacity he soon became famous in the world of journalism and diplomacy.

In 1875 the duc de Decazcs, then French foreign minister, showed Blowitz

a confidential despatch from the French ambassador in Berlin (in which

the latter warned his government that Germany was contemplating an

attack on France), and requested the correspondent to expose the German

designs in _The Times_. The publication of the facts effectually aroused

European public opinion, and any such intention was immediately

thwarted. Blowitz's most sensational journalistic feat was achieved in

1878, when his enterprise enabled _The Times_ to publish the whole text

of the treaty of Berlin at the actual moment that the treaty was being

signed in Germany. In 1877 and again in 1888 Blowitz rendered

considerable service to the French government by his exposure of

internal designs upon the Republic. He died on the 18th of January 1903.

_My Memoirs_, by H.S. de Blowitz, was published in 1903.

BLOWPIPE, in the arts and chemistry, a tube for directing a jet of air

into a fire or into the flame of a lamp or gas jet, for the purpose of

producing a high temperature by accelerating the combustion. The

blowpipe has been in common use from the earliest times for soldering

metals and working glass, but its introduction into systematic chemical

analysis is to be ascribed to A.F. Cronstedt, and not to Anton Swab, as

has been maintained (see J. Landauer, _Ber_. 26, p. 898). The first work

on this application of the blowpipe was by G. v. Engestrom, and was

published in 1770 as an appendix to a treatise on mineralogy. Its

application has been variously improved at the hands of T.O. Bergman,

J.G. Gahn, J.J. Berzelius, C.F. Plattner and others, but more especially

by the two last-named chemists.

The simplest and oldest form of blowpipe is a conical brass tube, about

7 in. in length, curved at the small end into a right angle, and

terminating in a small round orifice, which is applied to the flame,

while the larger end is applied to the mouth. Where the blast has to be

kept up for only a few seconds, this instrument is quite serviceable,

but in longer chemical operations inconvenience arises from the

condensation of moisture exhaled by the lungs in the tube. Hence most

blowpipes are now made with a cavity for retaining the moisture.

Cronstedt placed a bulb in the centre of his blowpipe. Dr Joseph Black's

instrument consists of a conical tube of tin plate, with a small brass

tube, supporting the nozzle, inserted near the wider end, and a

mouth-piece at the narrow end.

The sizes of orifice recommended by Plattner are 0.4 and 0.5 mm. A

trumpet mouth-piece is recommended from the support it gives to the

cheeks when inflated. The mode of blowing is peculiar, and requires some

practice; an uninterrupted blast is kept up by the muscular action of

the cheeks, while the ordinary respiration goes on through the nostrils.

If the flame of a candle or lamp be closely examined, it will be seen to

consist of four parts--(a) a deep blue ring at the base, (b) a dark cone

in the centre, (c) a luminous portion round this, and (d) an exterior

pale blue envelope (see FLAME). In blowpipe work only two of these four

parts are made use of, viz. the pale envelope, for oxidation, and the

luminous portion, for reduction. To obtain a good _oxidizing flame_, the

blowpipe is held with its nozzle inserted in the edge of the flame close

over the level of the wick, and blown into gently and evenly. A conical

jet is thus produced, consisting of an inner cone, with an outer one

commencing near its apex--the former, corresponding to (a) in the free

flame, blue and well defined; the latter corresponding to (d), pale blue

and vague. The heat is greatest just beyond the point of the inner cone,

combustion being there most complete. Oxidation is better effected (if a

very high temperature be not required) the farther the substance is from

the apex of the inner cone, for the air has thus freer access. To obtain

a good _reducing flame_ (in which the combustible matter, very hot, but

not yet burned, is disposed to take oxygen from any compound containing

it), the nozzle, with smaller orifice, should just touch the flame at a

point higher above the wick, and a somewhat weaker current of air should

be blown. The flame then appears as a long, narrow, luminous cone, the

end being enveloped by a dimly visible portion of flame corresponding to

that which surrounds the free flame, while there is also a dark nucleus

about the wick. The substance to be reduced is brought into the luminous

portion, where the reducing power is strongest.

Various materials are used as supports for substances in the blowpipe

flame; the principal are charcoal, platinum and glass or porcelain.

Charcoal is valuable for its infusibility and low conductivity for heat

(allowing substances to be strongly heated upon it), and for its

powerful reducing properties; so that it is chiefly employed in testing

the fusibility of minerals and in reduction. The best kind of charcoal

is that of close-grained pine or alder; it is cut in short prisms,

having a flat smooth surface at right angles to the rings of growth. In

this a shallow hole is made for receiving the substance to be held in

the flame. Gas-carbon is sometimes used, since it is more permanent in

the flame than wood charcoal. _Platinum_ is employed in oxidizing

processes, and in the fusion of substances with fluxes; also in

observing the colouring effect of substances on the blowpipe flame

(which effect is apt to be somewhat masked by charcoal). Most commonly

it is used in the form of wire, with a small bend or loop at the end.

The mouth blowpipe is unsuitable for the production of a large flame,

and cannot be used for any lengthy operations; hence recourse must be

made to types in which the air-blast is occasioned by mechanical means.

The laboratory form in common use consists of a bellows worked by either

hand or foot, and a special type of gas burner formed of two concentric

tubes, one conveying the blast, the other the gas; the supply of air and

gas being regulated by stopcocks. The _hot blast blowpipe_ of T.

Fletcher, in which the blast is heated by passing through a copper coil

heated by a separate burner, is only of service when a pointed flame of

a fairly high temperature is required. Blowpipes in which oxygen is used

as the blast have been manufactured by Fletcher, Russell & Co., and have

proved of great service in conducting fusions which require a

temperature above that yielded by the air-blowpipe.

For the applications of the blowpipe in chemical analysis see

CHEMISTRY: _Analytical_.

BLUCHER, GEBHARD LEBERECHT VON (1742-1819), Prussian general field

marshal, prince of Wahlstadt in Silesia, was born at Rostock on the 16th

of December 1742. In his fourteenth year he entered the service of

Sweden, and in the Pomeranian campaign of 1760 he was taken prisoner by

the Prussians. He was persuaded by his captors to enter the Prussian

service. He took part in the later battles of the Seven Years' War, and

as a hussar officer gained much experience of light cavalry work. In

peace, however, his ardent spirit led him into excesses of all kinds,

and being passed over for promotion he sent in his resignation, to which

Frederick replied, "Captain Blucher can take himself to the devil"

(1773). He now settled down to farming, and in fifteen years he had

acquired an honourable independence. But he was unable to return to the

army until after the death of Frederick the Great. He was then

reinstated as major in his old regiment, the Red Hussars. He took part

in the expedition to Holland in 1787, and in the following year became

lieutenant-colonel. In 1789 he received the order _pour le merite_, and

in 1794 he became colonel of the Red Hussars. In 1793 and 1794 he

distinguished himself in cavalry actions against the French, and for his

success at Kirrweiler he was made a major-general. In 1801 he was

promoted lieutenant-general.

He was one of the leaders of the war party in Prussia in 1805-1806, and

served as a cavalry general in the disastrous campaign of the latter

year. At Auerstadt Blucher repeatedly charged at the head of the

Prussian cavalry, but without success. In the retreat of the broken

armies he commanded the rearguard of Prince Hohenlohe's corps, and upon

the capitulation of the main body of Prenzlau he carried off a remnant

of the Prussian army to the northward, and in the neighbourhood of

Lubeck he fought a series of combats, which, however, ended in his being

forced to surrender at Ratkau (November 7, 1806). His adversaries

testified in his capitulation that it was caused by "want of provisions

and ammunition." He was soon exchanged for General Victor, and was

actively employed in Pomerania, at Berlin, and at Konigsberg until the

conclusion of the war. After the war, Blucher was looked upon as the

natural leader of the patriot party, with which he was in close touch

during the period of Napoleonic domination. His hopes of an alliance

with Austria in the war of 1809 were disappointed. In this year he was

made general of cavalry. In 1812 he expressed himself so openly on the

alliance of Russia with France that he was recalled from his military

governorship of Pomerania and virtually banished from the court.

When at last the Napoleonic domination was ended by the outbreak of the

War of Liberation in 1813, Blucher of course was at once placed in high

command, and he was present at Lutzen and Bautzen. During the armistice

he worked at the organization of the Prussian forces, and when the war

was resumed Blucher became commander-in-chief of the Army of Silesia,

with Gneisenau and Muffling as his principal staff officers, and 40,000

Prussians and 50,000 Russians under his control. The autumn campaign of

1813 will be found described in the article NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS, and it

will here be sufficient to say that the most conspicuous military

quality displayed by Blucher was his unrelenting energy. The

irresolution and divergence of interests usual in allied armies found in

him a restless opponent, and the knowledge that if he could not induce

others to co-operate he was prepared to attempt the task in hand by

himself often caused other generals to follow his lead. He defeated

Marshal Macdonald at the Katzbach, and by his victory over Marmont at

Mockern led the way to the decisive overthrow of Napoleon at Leipzig,

which place was stormed by Blucher's own army on the evening of the last

day of the battle. On the day of Mockern (October 16, 1813) Blucher was

made a general field marshal, and after the victory he pursued the

routed French with his accustomed energy. In the winter of 1813-1814

Blucher, with his chief staff officers, was mainly instrumental in

inducing the allied sovereigns to carry the war into France itself. The

combat of Brienne and the battle of La Rothiere were the chief incidents

of the first stage of the celebrated campaign of 1814, and they were

quickly followed by the victories of Napoleon over Blucher at

Champaubert, Vauxchamps and Montmirail. But the courage of the Prussian

leader was undiminished, and his great victory of Laon (March 9 to 10)

practically decided the fate of the campaign. After this Blucher infused

some of his own energy into the operations of Prince Schwarzenberg's

Army of Bohemia, and at last this army and the Army of Silesia marched

in one body direct upon Paris. The victory of Montmartre, the entry of

the allies into the French capital, and the overthrow of the First

Empire were the direct consequences. Blucher was disposed to make a

severe retaliation upon Paris for the calamities that Prussia had

suffered from the armies of France had not the allied commanders

intervened to prevent it. Blowing up the bridge of Jena was said to be

one of his contemplated acts. On the 3rd of June 1814 he was made prince

of Wahlstadt (in Silesia on the Katzbach battlefield), and soon

afterwards he paid a visit to England, being received everywhere with

the greatest enthusiasm.

After the peace he retired to Silesia, but the return of Napoleon soon

called him to further service. He was put in command of the Army of the

Lower Rhine with General Gneisenau as his chief of staff (see WATERLOO

CAMPAIGN). In the campaign of 1815 the Prussians sustained a very severe

defeat at the outset at Ligny (June 16), in the course of which the old

field marshal was ridden over by cavalry charges, his life being saved

only by the devotion of his aide-de-camp, Count Nostitz. He was unable

to resume command for some hours, and Gneisenau drew off the defeated

army. The relations of the Prussian and the English headquarters were at

this time very complicated, and it is uncertain whether Blucher himself

was responsible for the daring resolution to march to Wellington's

assistance. This was in fact done, and after an incredibly severe march

Blucher's army intervened with decisive and crushing effect in the

battle of Waterloo. The great victory was converted into a success

absolutely decisive of the war by the relentless pursuit of the

Prussians, and the allies re-entered Paris on the 7th of July. Prince

Blucher remained in the French capital for some months, but his age and

infirmities compelled him to retire to his Silesian residence at

Krieblowitz, where he died on the 12th of September 1819, aged

seventy-seven. He retained to the end of his life that wildness of

character and proneness to excesses which had caused his dismissal from

the army in his youth, but however they may be regarded, these faults

sprang always from the ardent and vivid temperament which made Blucher a

dashing leader of horse. The qualities which made him a great general

were his patriotism and the hatred of French domination which inspired

every success of the War of Liberation. He was twice married, and had,

by his first marriage, two sons and a daughter. Statues were erected to

his memory at Berlin, Breslau and Rostock.

Of the various lives of Prince Blucher, that by Varnhagen von Ense

(1827) is the most important. His war diaries of 1793-1794, together

with a memoir (written in 1805) on the subject of a national army,

were edited by Golz and Ribbentrop (Campagne Journal 1793-4 von _Gl.

Lt. v. Blucher_).

BLUE (common in different forms to most European languages), the name of

a colour, used in many colloquial phrases. From the fact of various

parties, political and other, having adopted the colour blue as their

badge, various classes of people have come to be known as "blue" or

"blues"; thus "true blue" meant originally a staunch Presbyterian, the

Covenanters having adopted blue as their colour as opposed to red, the

royal colour; similarly, in the navy, there was in the 18th century a

"Blue Squadron," Nelson being at one time "Rear-Admiral of the Blue";

again, in 1690, the Royal Horse Guards were called the "Blues" from

their blue uniforms, or, from their leader, the earl of Oxford, the

"Oxford Blues"; also, from the blue ribbon worn by the knights of the

Garter comes the use of the phrase as the highest mark of distinction

that can be worn, especially applied on the turf to the winning of the

Derby. The "blue Peter" is a rectangular blue flag, with a white square

in the centre, hoisted at the top of the foremast as a signal that a

vessel is about to leave port. At Oxford and Cambridge a man who

represents his university in certain athletic sports is called a "blue"

from the "colours" he is then entitled to wear, dark blue for Oxford and

light blue for Cambridge.

BLUEBEARD, the monster of Charles Perrault's tale of _Barbe Bleue_, who

murdered his wives and hid their bodies in a locked room. Perrault's

tale was first printed in his _Histoires et contes du temps passe_

(1697). The essentials of the story--Bluebeard's prohibition to his wife

to open a certain door during his absence, her disobedience, her

discovery of a gruesome secret, and her timely rescue from death--are to

be found in other folklore stories, none of which, however, has attained

the fame of _Bluebeard_. A close parallel exists in an Esthonian legend

of a husband who had already killed eleven wives, and was prevented from

killing the twelfth, who had opened a secret room, by a gooseherd, the

friend of her childhood. In "The Feather Bird" of Grimm's _Hausmarchen_,

three sisters are the victims, the third being rescued by her brothers.

Bluebeard, though Perrault does not state the number of his crimes, is

generally credited with the murder of seven wives. His history belongs

to the common stock of folklore, and has even been ingeniously fitted

with a mythical interpretation. In France the Bluebeard legend has its

local habitation in Brittany, but whether the existing traditions

connecting him with Gilles de Rais (q.v.) or Comorre the Cursed, a

Breton chief of the 6th century, were anterior to Perrault's time, we

have no means of determining. The identification of Bluebeard with

Gilles de Rais, the _bete d'extermination_ of Michelet's forcible

language, persists locally in the neighbourhood of the various castles

of the baron, especially at Machecoul and Tiffauges, the chief scenes of

his infamous crimes. Gilles de Rais, however, had only one wife, who

survived him, and his victims were in the majority of cases young boys.

The traditional connexion may arise simply from the not improbable

association of two monstrous tales. The less widespread identification

of Bluebeard with Comorre is supported by a series of frescoes dating

only a few years later than the publication of Perrault's story, in a

chapel at St Nicolas de Bieuzy dedicated to St Tryphine, in which the

tale of Bluebeard is depicted as the story of the saint, who in history

was the wife of Comorre. Comorre or Conomor had his original

headquarters at Carhaix, in Finistere. He extended his authority by

marriage with the widow of Iona, chief of Domnonia, and attempted the

life of his stepson Judwal, who fled to the Frankish court. About 547 or

548 he obtained in marriage, through the intercession of St Gildas,

Tryphine, daughter of Weroc, count of Vannes. The pair lived in peace at

Castel Finans for some time, but Comorre, disappointed in his ambitions

in the Vannetais, presently threatened Tryphine. She took flight, but

her husband found her hiding in a wood, when he gave her a wound on the

skull and left her for dead. She was tended and restored to health by St

Gildas, and after the birth of her son retired to a convent of her own

foundation. Eventually Comorre was defeated and slain by Judwal. In

legend St Tryphine was decapitated and miraculously restored to life by

Gildas. Alain Bouchard (_Grandes croniques_, Nantes, 1531) asserts that

Comorre had already put several wives to death before he married

Tryphine. In the _Legendes bretonnes_ of the count d'Amezeuil the

church legend becomes a charming fairy tale.

See also E.A. Vizetclly, _Bluebeard_ (1902); E. Sidney Hartland, "The

Forbidden Chamber," in _Folklore_, vol. iii. (1885); and the editions

of the _Contes_ of Charles Perrault (q.v.). Cf. A. France, _Les Sept

Femmes de Barbe Bleue_ (1909).

BLUE-BOOK, the general name given to the reports and other documents

printed by order of the parliament of the United Kingdom, so called from

their being usually covered with blue paper, though some are bound in

drab and others have white covers. The printing of its proceedings was

first adopted by the House of Commons in 1681, and in 1836 was commenced

the practice of selling parliamentary papers to the public. All notices

of questions, resolutions, votes and proceedings in both Houses of

Parliament are issued each day during the session; other publications

include the various papers issued by the different government

departments, the reports of committees and commissions of inquiry,

public bills, as well as returns, correspondence, &c., specially ordered

to be printed by either house. The papers of each session are so

arranged as to admit of being bound up in regular order, and are well

indexed. The terms upon which blue-books, single papers, &c., are issued

to the general public are one halfpenny per sheet of four pages, but for

an annual subscription of L20 all the parliamentary publications of the

year may be obtained; but subscriptions can be arranged so that almost

any particular class of publication can be obtained--for example, the

daily votes and proceedings can be obtained for an annual subscription

of L3, the House of Lords papers for L10, or the House of Commons papers

for L15. Any publication can also be purchased separately.

Most foreign countries have a distinctive colour for the binding of

their official publications. That of the United Slates varies, but

foreign diplomatic correspondence is bound in red. The United States

government publications are not only on sale (as a rule) but are widely

supplied gratis, with the result that important publications soon get

out of print, and it is difficult to obtain access to many valuable

reports or other information, except at a public library. German

official publications are bound in white; French, in yellow; Austrian,

in red; Portuguese, in white; Italian, in green; Spanish, in red;

Mexican, in green; Japanese, in grey; Chinese, in yellow.

BLUESTOCKING, a derisive name for a literary woman. The term originated

in or about 1750, when Mrs Elizabeth Montagu (q.v.) made a determined

effort to introduce into society a healthier and more intellectual tone,

by holding assemblies at which literary conversation and discussions

were to take the place of cards and gossip. Most of those attending were

conspicuous by the plainness of their dress, and a Mr Benjamin

Stillingfleet specially caused comment by always wearing blue or worsted

stockings instead of the usual black silk. It was in special reference

to him that Mrs Montagu's friends were called the Bluestocking Society

or Club, and the women frequenting her house in Hill Street came to be

known as the "Bluestocking Ladies" or simply "bluestockings." As an

alternative explanation, the origin of the name is attributed to Mrs

Montagu's deliberate adoption of blue stockings (in which fashion she

was followed by all her women friends) as the badge of the society she

wished to form. She is said to have obtained the idea from Paris, where

in the 17th century there was a revival of a social reunion in 1590 on

the lines of that formed in 1400 at Venice, the ladies and men of which

wore blue stockings. The term had been applied in England as early as

1653 to the Little Parliament, in allusion to the puritanically plain

and coarse dress of the members.

BLUFF (a word of uncertain origin; possibly connected with an obsolete

Dutch word, _blaf_, broad), an adjective used of a ship, meaning broad

and nearly vertical in the bows; similarly, of a cliff or shore,

presenting a bold and nearly perpendicular front; of a person,

good-natured and frank, with a rough or abrupt manner. Another word

"bluff," perhaps connected with German _verbluffen_, to baffle, meant

originally a horse's blinker, the corresponding verb meaning to

blindfold: it survives as a term in such games as poker, where "to

bluff" means to bet heavily on a hand so as to make an opponent believe

it to be stronger than it is; hence such phrases as "the game of bluff,"

"a policy of bluff."

BLUM, ROBERT FREDERICK (1857-1903), American artist, was born in

Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 9th of July 1857. He was employed for a time in

a lithographic shop, and studied at the McMicken Art School of Design in

Cincinnati, and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in

Philadelphia, but he was practically self-taught, and early showed great

and original talent. He settled in New York in 1879, and his first

published sketches--of Japanese jugglers--appeared in _St Nicholas_. His

most important work is a large frieze in the Mendelssohn Music Hall, New

York, "Music and the Dance" (1895). His pen-and-ink work for the Century

magazine attracted wide attention, as did his illustrations for Sir

Edwin Arnold's _Japonica_. In the country and art of Japan he had been

interested for many years. "A Daughter of Japan," drawn by Blum and W.J.

Baer, was the cover of _Scribner's Magazine_ for May 1893, and was one

of the earliest pieces of colour-printing for an American magazine. In

_Scribner's_ for 1893 appeared also his "Artist's Letters from Japan."

He was an admirer of Fortuny, whose methods somewhat influenced his

work. Blum's Venetian pictures, such as "A Bright Day at Venice" (1882),

had lively charm and beauty. He died on the 8th of June 1903 in New York

City. He was a member of the National Academy of Design, being elected

after his exhibition in 1892 of "The Ameya"; and was president of the

Painters in Pastel. Although an excellent draughtsman and etcher, it was

as a colourist that he chiefly excelled.

BLUMENBACH, JOHANN FRIEDRICH (1752-1840), German physiologist and

anthropologist, was born at Gotha on the 11th of May 1752. After

studying medicine at Jena, he graduated doctor at Gottingen in 1775, and

was appointed extraordinary professor of medicine in 1776 and ordinary

professor in 1778. He died at Gottingen on the 22nd of January 1840. He

was the author of _Institutiones Physiologicae_ (1787), and of a

_Handbuch der vergleichenden Anatomie_ (1804), both of which were very

popular and went through many editions, but he is best known for his

work in connexion with anthropology, of which science he has been justly

called the founder. He was the first to show the value of comparative

anatomy in the study of man's history, and his craniometrical researches

justified his division of the human race into several great varieties or

families, of which he enumerated five--the Caucasian or white race, the

Mongolian or yellow, the Malayan or brown race, the Negro or black race,

and the American or red race. This classification has been very

generally received, and most later schemes have been modifications of

it. His most important anthropological work was his description of sixty

human crania published originally in _fasciculi_ under the title

_Collectionis suae craniorum diversarum gentium illustratae decades_

(Gottingen, 1790-1828).

BLUMENTHAL, LEONHARD, COUNT VON (1810-1900), Prussian field marshal, son

of Captain Ludwig von Blumenthal (killed in 1813 at the battle of

Dennewitz), was born at Schwedt-on-Oder on the 30th of July 1810.

Educated at the military schools of Culm and Berlin, he entered the

Guards as 2nd lieutenant in 1827. After serving in the Rhine provinces,

he joined the topographical division of the general staff in 1846. As

lieutenant of the 31st foot he took part in 1848 in the suppression of

the Berlin riots, and in 1849 was promoted captain on the general staff.

The same year he served on the staff of General von Bonin in the

Schleswig-Holstein campaign, and so distinguished himself, particularly

at Fredericia, that he was appointed chief of the staff of the

Schleswig-Holstein army. In 1850 he was general staff officer of the

mobile division under von Tietzen in Hesse-Cassel. He was sent on a

mission to England in that year (4th class of Red Eagle), and on several

subsequent occasions. Having attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel, he

was appointed personal adjutant to Prince Frederick Charles in 1859. In

1860 he became colonel of the 31st, and later of the 71st, regiment. He

was chief of the staff of the III. army corps when, on the outbreak of

the Danish War of 1864, he was nominated chief of the general staff of

the army against Denmark, and displayed so much ability, particularly at

Duppel and the passage to Alsen island, that he was promoted

major-general and given the order _pour le merite_. In the war of 1866

Blumenthal occupied the post of chief of the general staff to the crown

prince of Prussia, commanding the 2nd army. It was upon this army that

the brunt of the fighting fell, and at Koniggratz it decided the

fortunes of the day. Blumenthal's own part in these battles and in the

campaign generally was most conspicuous. On the field of Koniggratz the

crown prince said to his chief of staff, "I know to whom I owe the

conduct of my army," and Blumenthal soon received promotion to

lieutenant-general and the oak-leaf of the order _pour le merite_. He

was also made a knight of the Hohenzollern Order. From 1866 to 1870 he

commanded the 14th division at Dusseldorf. In the Franco-German War of

1870-71 he was chief of staff of the 3rd army under the crown prince.

Blumenthal's soldierly qualities and talent were never more conspicuous

than in the critical days preceding the battle of Sedan, and his

services in the war have been considered as scarcely less valuable and

important than those of Moltke himself. In 1871 Blumenthal represented

Germany at the British manoeuvres at Chobham, and was given the command

of the IV. army corps at Magdeburg. In 1873 he became a general of

infantry, and ten years later he was made a count. In 1888 he was made a

general field marshal, after which he was in command of the 4th and 3rd

army inspections. He retired in 1896, and died at Quellendorf near

Kothen on the 21st of December 1900.

Blumenthal's diary of 1866 and 1870-1871 has been edited by his son,

Count Albrecht von Blumenthal (_Tagebuch des G.F.M. von Blumenthal_),

1902; an English translation (_Journals of Count von Blumenthal_) was

published in 1903.

BLUNDERBUSS (a corruption of the Dutch _donder_, thunder, and the Dutch

_bus_; cf. Ger. _Buchse_, a box or tube, hence a thunder-box or gun), an

obsolete muzzle-loading firearm with a bell-shaped muzzle. Its calibre

was large so that it could contain many balls or slugs, and it was

intended to be fired at a short range, so that some of the charge was

sure to take effect. The word is also used by analogy to describe a

blundering and random person or talker.

BLUNT, JOHN HENRY (1823-1884), English divine, was born at Chelsea in

1823, and before going to the university of Durham in 1850 was for some

years engaged in business as a manufacturing chemist. He was ordained in

1852 and took his M.A. degree in 1855, publishing in the same year a

work on _The Atonement_. He held in succession several preferments,

among them the vicarage of Kennington near Oxford (1868), which he

vacated in 1873 for the crown living of Beverston in Gloucestershire. He

had already gained some reputation as an industrious theologian, and had

published among other works an annotated edition of the Prayer Book

(1867), a _History of the English Reformation_ (1868), and a _Book of

Church Law_ (1872), as well as a useful _Dictionary of Doctrinal and

Historical Theology_ (1870). The continuation of these labours was seen

in a _Dictionary of Sects and Heresies_ (1874), an _Annotated Bible_ (3

vols., 1878-1879), and a _Cyclopaedia of Religion_ (1884), and received

recognition in the shape of the D.D. degree bestowed on him in 1882. He

died in London on the 11th of April 1884.

BLUNT, JOHN JAMES (1794-1855), English divine, was born at

Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, and educated at St John's

College, Cambridge, where he took his degree as fifteenth wrangler and

obtained a fellowship (1816). He was appointed a Wort's travelling

bachelor 1818, and spent some time in Italy and Sicily, afterwards

publishing an account of his journey. He proceeded M.A. in 1819, B.D.

1826, and was Hulsean Lecturer in 1831-1832 while holding a curacy in

Shropshire. In 1834 he became rector of Great Oakley in Essex, and in

1839 was appointed Lady Margaret professor of divinity at Cambridge. In

1854 he declined the see of Salisbury, and he died on the 18th of June

1855. His chief book was _Undesigned Coincidences in the Writings both

of the Old and New Testaments_ (1833; fuller edition, 1847). Some of

his writings, among them the _History of the Christian Church during the

First Three Centuries_ and the lectures _On the Right Use of the Early

Fathers_, were published posthumously.

A short memoir of him appeared in 1856 from the hand of William

Selwyn, his successor in the divinity professorship.

BLUNT, WILFRID SCAWEN (1840- ), English poet and publicist, was born

on the 17th of August 1840 at Petworth House, Sussex, the son of Francis

Scawen Blunt, who served in the Peninsular War and was wounded at

Corunna. He was educated at Stonyhurst and Oscott, and entered the

diplomatic service in 1858, serving successively at Athens, Madrid,

Paris and Lisbon. In 1867 he was sent to South America, and on his

return to England retired from the service on his marriage with Lady

Anne Noel, daughter of the earl of Lovelace and a grand-daughter of the

poet Byron. In 1872 he succeeded, by the death of his elder brother, to

the estate of Crabbet Park, Sussex, where he established a famous stud

for the breeding of Arab horses. Mr and Lady Anne Blunt travelled

repeatedly in northern Africa, Asia Minor and Arabia, two of their

expeditions being described in Lady Anne's _Bedouins of the Euphrates_

(2 vols., 1879) and _A Pilgrimage to Nejd_ (2 vols., 1881). Mr Blunt

became known as an ardent sympathizer with Mahommedan aspirations, and

in his _Future of Islam_ (1888) he directed attention to the forces

which afterwards produced the movements of Pan-Islamism and Mahdism. He

was a violent opponent of the English policy in the Sudan, and in _The

Wind and the Whirlwind_ (in verse, 1883) prophesied its downfall. He

supported the national party in Egypt, and took a prominent part in the

defence of Arabi Pasha. _Ideas about India_ (1885) was the result of two

visits to that country, the second in 1883-1884. In 1885 and 1886 he

stood unsuccessfully for parliament as a Home Ruler; and in 1887 he was

arrested in Ireland while presiding over a political meeting in

connexion with the agitation on Lord Clanricarde's estate, and was

imprisoned for two months in Kilmainham. His best-known volume of verse,

_Love Sonnets of Proteus_ (1880), is a revelation of his real merits as

an emotional poet. _The Poetry of Wilfrid Blunt_ (1888), selected and

edited by W.E. Henley and Mr George Wyndham, includes these sonnets,

together with "Worth Forest, a Pastoral," "Griselda" (described as a

"society novel in rhymed verse"), translations from the Arabic, and

poems which had appeared in other volumes.

BLUNTSCHLI, JOHANN KASPAR (1808-1881), Swiss jurist and politician, was

born at Zurich on the 7th of March 1808, the son of a soap and candle

manufacturer. From school he passed into the _Politische Institut_ (a

seminary of law and political science) in his native town, and

proceeding thence to the universities of Berlin and Bonn, took the

degree of _doctor juris_ in the latter in 1829. Returning to Zurich in

1830, he threw himself with ardour into the political strife which was

at the time unsettling all the cantons of the Confederation, and in this

year published _Uber die Verfassung der Stadt Zurich_ (On the

Constitution of the City of Zurich). This was followed by _Das Volk und

der Souveran_ (1830), a work in which, while pleading for constitutional

government, he showed his bitter repugnance of the growing Swiss

radicalism. Elected in 1837 a member of the Grosser Rath (Great

Council), he became the champion of the moderate conservative party.

Fascinated by the metaphysical views of the philosopher Friedrich Rohmer

(1814-1856), a man who attracted little other attention, he endeavoured

in _Psychologische Studien uber Staat und Kirche_ (1844) to apply them

to political science generally, and in particular as a panacea for the

constitutional troubles of Switzerland. Bluntschli, shortly before his

death, remarked, "I have gained renown as a jurist, but my greatest

desert is to have comprehended Rohmer." This philosophical essay,

however, coupled with his uncompromising attitude towards both

radicalism and ultramontanism, brought him many enemies, and rendered

his continuance in the council, of which he had been elected president,

impossible. He resigned his seat, and on the overthrow of the Sonderbund

in 1847, perceiving that all hope of power for his party was lost, took

leave of Switzerland with the pamphlet _Stimme eines Schweizers uber

die Bundesreform_ (1847), and settled at Munich, where he became

professor of constitutional law in 1848.

At Munich he devoted himself with energy to the special work of his

chair, and, resisting the temptation to identify himself with politics,

published _Allgemeines Staatsrecht_ (1851-1852); _Lehre vom modernen

Staat_ (1875-1876); and, in conjunction with Karl Ludwig Theodor Brater

(1819-1869), _Deutsches Staats-worterbuch_ (II vols., 1857-1870:

abridged by Edgar Loening in 3 vols., 1869-1875). Meanwhile he had

assiduously worked at his code for the canton of Zurich,

_Privatrechtliches Gesetzbuch fur den Kanton Zurich_ (4 vols.,

1854-1856), a work which was much praised at the time, and which,

particularly the section devoted to contracts, served as a model for

codes both in Switzerland and other countries. In 1861 Bluntschli

received a call to Heidelberg as professor of constitutional law

(Staatsrecht), where he again entered the political arena, endeavouring

in his _Geschichte des allgemeinen Staatsrechts und der Politik_ (1864)

"to stimulate," as he said, "the political consciousness of the German

people, to cleanse it of prejudices and to further it intellectually."

In his new home, Baden, he devoted his energies and political influence,

during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, towards keeping the country

neutral. From this time Bluntschli became active in the field of

international law, and his fame as a jurist belongs rather to this

province than to that of constitutional law. His _Das moderne

Kriegsrecht_ (1866); _Das moderns Volkerrecht_ (1868), and _Das

Beuterecht im Krieg_ (1878) are likely to remain invaluable text-books

in this branch of the science of jurisprudence. He also wrote a pamphlet

on the "Alabama" case.

Bluntschli was one of the founders, at Ghent in 1873, of the Institute

of International Law, and was the representative of the German emperor

at the conference on the international laws of war at Brussels. During

the latter years of his life he took a lively interest in the

_Protestantenverein_, a society formed to combat reactionary and

ultramontane views of theology. He died suddenly at Karlsruhe on the

21st of October 1881. His library was acquired by Johns Hopkins

University at Baltimore, U.S.A.

Among his works, other than those before mentioned, may be cited

_Deutsches Privatrecht_ (1853-1854); _Deutsche Staatslehre fur

Gebildete_ (1874); and _Deutsche Staatslehre und die heutige

Staatenwelt_ (1880).

For notices of Bluntschli's life and works see his interesting

autobiography, _Denkwurdiges aus meinem Leben_ (1884); von

Holtzendorff, _Bluntschli und seine Verdienste um die

Staatswissenschaften_ (1882); Brockhaus, _Konversations-Lexicon_

(1901); and a biography by Meyer von Kronau, in _Allgemeine deutsche

Biographie_.

BLYTH, a market town and seaport of Northumberland, England, in the

parliamentary borough of Morpeth, 9 m. E.S.E. of that town, at the mouth

of the river Blyth, on a branch of the North Eastern railway. Pop. of

urban district (1901) 5472. This is the port for a considerable

coal-mining district, and its harbour, on the south side of the river,

is provided with mechanical appliances for shipping coal. There are five

dry docks, and upwards of 1-1/2 m. of quayage. Timber is largely

imported. Some shipbuilding and the manufacture of rope, sails and

ship-fittings are carried on, and the fisheries are valuable. Blyth is

also in considerable favour as a watering-place; there are a pleasant

park, a pier, protecting the harbour, about 1 m. in length, and a sandy

beach affording sea-bathing. The river Blyth rises near the village of

Kirkheaton, and has an easterly course of about 25 m. through a deep,

well-wooded and picturesque valley.

B'NAI B'RITH (or SONS OF THE COVENANT), INDEPENDENT ORDER OF, a Jewish

fraternal society. It was founded at New York in 1843 by a number of

German Jews, headed by Henry Jones, and is the oldest as well as the

largest of the Jewish fraternal organizations. Its membership in 1908

was 35,870, its 481 lodges and 10 grand lodges being distributed over

the United States, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Rumania, Egypt and

Palestine. Its objects are to promote a high morality among Jews,

regardless of differences as to dogma and ceremonial customs, and

especially to inculcate the supreme virtues of charity and brotherly

love. Political and religious discussions were from the first excluded

from the debates of the order. In 1851 the first grand lodge was

established at New York; in 1856, the number of district lodges having

increased, the supreme authority was vested in a central body consisting

of one member from each lodge; and by the present constitution, adopted

in 1868, this authority is vested in a president elected for five years,

an executive committee and court of appeals (elected as before). The

first lodge in Germany was instituted at Berlin in 1883. A large number

of charitable and other public institutions have been established in the

United States and elsewhere by the order, of which may be mentioned the

large orphan asylum in Cleveland, the home for the aged and infirm at

Yonkers, N.Y., the National Jewish hospital for consumptives at Denver,

and the Maimonides library in New York City. The B'nai B'rith society

has also co-operated largely with other Jewish philanthropic

organizations in succouring distressed Israelites throughout the world.

See the _Jewish Encyclopaedia_ (1902), s.v.

BOA, a name formerly applied to all large serpents which, devoid of

poison fangs, kill their prey by constriction; but now confined to that

subfamily of the _Boidae_ which are devoid of teeth in the praemaxilla

and are without supraorbital bones. The others are known as pythons

(q.v.). The true boas comprise some forty species; most of them are

American, but the genus _Eryx_ inhabits North Africa, Greece and

south-western Asia; the genus _Enygrus_ ranges from New Guinea to the

Fiji; _Casarea dussumieri_ is restricted to Round Island, near

Mauritius; and two species of _Boa_ and one of _Corallus_ represent this

subfamily in Madagascar, while all the other boas live in America,

chiefly in tropical parts. All _Boidae_ possess vestiges of pelvis and

hind limbs, appearing externally as claw-like spurs on each side of the

vent, but they are so small that they are practically without function

in climbing. The usually short tail is prehensile.

One of the commonest species of the genus _Boa_ is the _Boa

constrictor_, which has a wide range from tropical Mexico to Brazil. The

head is covered with small scales, only one of the preoculars being

enlarged. The general colour is a delicate pale brown, with about a

dozen and a half darker cross-bars, which are often connected by a still

darker dorso-lateral streak, enclosing large oval spots. On each side is

a series of large dark brown spots with light centres. On the tail the

markings become bolder, brick red with black and yellow. The under parts

are yellowish with black dots. This species rarely reaches a length of

more than 10 ft. It climbs well, prefers open forest in the

neighbourhood of water, is often found in plantations where it retires

into a hole in the ground, and lives chiefly on birds and small mammals.

Like most true boas, it is of a very gentle disposition and easily

domesticates itself in the palm or reed thatched huts of the natives,

where it hunts the rats during the night.

The term "boa" is applied by analogy to a long article of women's dress

wound round the neck.

BOABDIL (a corruption of the name Abu Abdullah), the last Moorish king

of Granada, called _el chico_, the little, and also _el zogoybi_, the

unfortunate. A son of Muley Abu'l Hassan, king of Granada, he was

proclaimed king in 1482 in place of his father, who was driven from the

land. Boabdil soon after sought to gain prestige by invading Castile. He

was taken prisoner at Lucena in 1483, and only obtained his freedom by

consenting to hold Granada as a tributary kingdom under Ferdinand and

Isabella, king and queen of Castile and Aragon. The next few years were

consumed in struggles with his father and his uncle Abdullah ez Zagal.

In 1491 Boabdil was summoned by Ferdinand and Isabella to surrender the

city of Granada, and on his refusal it was besieged by the Castilians.

Eventually, in January 1492, Granada was surrendered, and the king spent

some time on the lands which he was allowed to hold in Andalusia.

Subsequently he crossed to Africa, and is said to have been killed in

battle fighting for his kinsman, the ruler of Fez. The spot from which

Boabdil looked for the last time on Granada is still shown, and is known

as "the last sigh of the Moor" (_el ultimo suspire del Moro_).

See J.A. Conde, _Dominacion de los Arabes en Espana_ (Paris, 1840),

translated into English by Mrs J. Foster (London, 1854-1855);

Washington Irving, _The Alhambra_ (New York, ed. 1880).

BOADICEA, strictly BOUDICCA, a British queen in the time of the emperor

Nero. Her husband Prasutagus ruled the Iceni (in what is now Norfolk) as

an autonomous prince under Roman suzerainty. On his death (A.D. 61)

without male heir, his dominions were annexed, and the annexation was

carried out brutally. He had by his will divided his private wealth

between his two daughters and Nero, trusting thereby to win imperial

favour for his family. Instead, his wife was scourged (doubtless for

resisting the annexation), his daughters outraged, his chief tribesmen

plundered. The proud, fierce queen and her people rose, and not alone.

With them rose half Britain, enraged, for other causes, at Roman rule.

Roman taxation and conscription lay heavy on the province; in addition,

the Roman government had just revoked financial concessions made a few

years earlier, and L. Annaeus Seneca, who combined the parts of a

moralist and a money-lender, had abruptly recalled large loans made from

his private wealth to British chiefs. A favourable chance for revolt was

provided by the absence of the governor-general, Suetonius Paulinus, and

most of his troops in North Wales and Anglesey. All south-east Britain

joined the movement. Paulinus rushed back without waiting for his

troops, but he could do nothing alone. The Britons burnt the Roman

municipalities of Verulam and Colchester, the mart of London, and

several military posts, massacred "over 70,000" Romans and Britons

friendly to Rome, and almost annihilated the Ninth Legion marching from

Lincoln to the rescue. At last Paulinus, who seems to have rejoined his

army, met the Britons in the field. The site of the battle is unknown.

One writer has put it at Chester; others at London, where King's Cross

had once a narrow escape of being christened Boadicea's Cross, and

actually for many years bore the name of Battle Bridge, in supposed

reference to this battle. Probably, however, it was on Watling Street,

between London and Chester. In a desperate soldiers' battle Rome

regained the province. Boadicea took poison; thousands of Britons fell

in the fight or were hunted down in the ensuing guerrilla. Finally, Rome

adopted a kindlier policy, and Britain became quiet. But the scantiness

of Romano-British remains in Norfolk may be due to the severity with

which the Iceni were crushed.

See Tacitus, _Annals_, xiv.; _Agric_. xv.; Dio lxii. The name Boudicca

seems to mean in Celtic much the same as Victoria. (F. J. H.)

BOAR (O. Eng. _bar_; the word is found only in W. Ger. languages, cf.

Dutch _beer_, Ger. _Eber_), the name given to the un-castrated male of

the domestic pig (q.v.), and to some wild species of the family _Suidae_

(see SWINE). The European wild boar (_Sus scrofa_) is distributed over

Europe, northern Africa, and central and northern Asia. It has long been

extinct in the British Isles, where it once abounded, but traces have

been found of its survival in Chartley Forest, Staffordshire, in an

entry of 1683 in an account-book of the steward of the manor, and it

possibly remained till much later in the more remote parts of Scotland

and Ireland (J.E. Harting, _Extinct British Animals_, 1880). The wild

boar is still found in Europe, in marshy woodland districts where there

is plenty of cover, and it is fairly plentiful in Spain, Austria, Russia

and Germany, particularly in the Black Forest.

From the earliest times, owing to its great strength, speed, and

ferocity when at bay, the boar has been one of the favourite beasts of

the chase. Under the old forest laws of England it was one of the

"beasts of the forest," and, as such, under the Norman kings the

unprivileged killing of it was punishable by death or the loss of a

member. It was hunted in England and in Europe on foot and on horseback

with dogs, while the weapon of attack was always the spear. In Europe

the wild boar is still hunted with dogs, but the spear, except when used

in emergencies and for giving the _coup de grace_, has been given up for

the gun. It is also shot in great forest drives in Austria, Germany and

Russia. The Indian wild boar (_Sus cristatus_) is slightly taller than

_Sus scrofa_, standing some 30 to 40 in. at the shoulder. It is found

throughout India, Ceylon and Burma. Here the horse and spear are still

used, and the sport is one of the most popular in India. (See

PIG-STICKING.)

The boar is one of the four heraldic beasts of venery, and was the

cognizance of Richard III., king of England. As an article of food the

boar's head was long considered a special delicacy, and its serving was

attended with much ceremonial. At Queen's College, Oxford, the dish is

still brought on Christmas day in procession to the high-table,

accompanied by the singing of a carol.

BOARD (O. Eng. _bord_), a plank or long narrow piece of timber. The word

comes into various compounds to describe boards used for special

purposes, or objects like boards (drawing-board, ironing-board,

sounding-board, chess-board, cardboard, back-board, notice-board,

scoring-board). The phrase "to keep one's name on the boards," at

Cambridge University, signifies to remain a member of a college; at

Oxford it is "on the books." In bookbinding, pasteboard covers are

called boards. Board was early used of a table, hence such phrases as

"bed and board," "board and lodging"; or of a gaming-table, as in the

phrase "to sweep the board," meaning to pocket all the stakes, hence,

figuratively, to carry all before one. The same meaning leads to "Board

of Trade," "Local Government Board," &c.

From the meaning of border or side, and especially ship's side, comes

"sea-board," meaning sea-coast, and the phrases "aboard" (Fr. _abord_),

"over-board," "by the board"; similarly "weather-board," the side of a

ship which is to windward; "larboard and starboard" (the former of

uncertain origin, Mid. Eng. _laddeboard_ or _latheboard_; the latter

meaning "steering side," O. Eng. _steorbord_, the rudder of early ships

working over the steering side), signifying (to one standing at the

stern and looking forward) the left and right sides of the ship

respectively.

BOARDING-HOUSE, a private house in which the proprietor provides board

and lodging for paying guests. The position of a guest in a

boarding-house differs in English law, to some extent, on the one hand

from that of a lodger in the ordinary sense of the term, and on the

other from that of a guest in an inn. Unlike the lodger, he frequently

has not the exclusive occupation of particular rooms. Unlike the guest

in an inn, his landlord has no lien upon his property for rent or any

other debt due in respect of his board (_Thompson v. Lacy_, 1820, 3 B.

and Ald. 283). The landlord is under an obligation to take reasonable

care for the safety of property brought by a guest into his house, and

is liable for damages in case of breach of this obligation (_Scarborough

v. Cosgrove_, 1905, 2 K.B. 803). Again, unlike the innkeeper, a

boarding-house keeper does not hold himself out as ready to receive all

travellers for whom he has accommodation, for which they are ready to

pay, and of course he is entitled to get rid of any guest on giving

reasonable notice (see _Lamond v. Richard_, 1897, I Q.B. 541, 548). What

is reasonable notice depends on the terms of the contract; and, subject

thereto, the course of payment of rent is a material circumstance (see

LANDLORD AND TENANT). Apparently the same implied warranty of fitness

for habitation at the commencement of the tenancy which exists in the

case of furnished lodgings (see LODGER AND LODGINGS) exists also in the

case of boarding-houses; and the guest in a boarding-house, like a

lodger, is entitled to all the usual and necessary conveniences of a

dwelling-house.