BLOCK ISLAND--BLOMARY.

BLOCK ISLAND, formerly MAN'ISEES: in the Atlantic, about 9 m. s. of the mainland; about 8 m. long, 5 m. wide; constitutes the town New Shoreham, Newport co., R. I. Numerous visitors resort there in summer. There are two churches and a high school.-E. of the island is an exten sive breakwater, forming a harbor of refuge. A light house stands at the n. w. end, in 41° 13' n., 71° 35' w. Pop. (1880) 1,203; (1890) 1,320.

BLOCK'-PRINTING: see PRINTING.

BLOCKSBERG, bloks běrg: name of various mountains and hills in Germany, pre-eminently of the Brocken, the highest point of the Harz Mountains, and, indeed, of the n. of Germany. According to the popular belief, it is the favorite haunt of the witches, where they celebrate the night of May 1, Walpurgisnacht (see WALPURGA), with wild orgies. Almost all mountains, supposed thus haunted, are known to have been famous places of sacrifice in the ages of paganism.

BLOEMFONTEIN, blóm-fon'tin: town, cap. of the Orange River Free State (q.v.).

BLOIS, blud: town of France, cap. of the department of Loire-et-Cher. It has a remarkably fine situation on the acclivity of a hill, and is built chiefly on the right bank of the Loire, about 35 m. s. w. of Orleans. The houses, in the upper part of the town especially, are mean and ill built, and the streets are crooked and narrow, but they are kept clean by water from the public fountains, which are supplied by a fine aqueduct, supposed to have been constructed by the Romans. B. has a handsome cathedral; but its chief glory is its old castle, scene of many interesting his torical events. Louis XII. was born in it, and under its roof Charles, Duc d'Alençon, and Margaret of Anjou, and Henry IV. and Margaret of Valois were married. Here also were sometimes held the courts of François I., Henry II., Charles IX., and Henry III. Here also the Duc de Guise and his brother were murdered, by order of Henri III., 1588, Dec. 23. Isabella, queen of Charles VI., here found a retreat; it served as a prison for Mary de' Medici; Catharine de' Medici died within its walls; and Maria Louisa here held her court in 1814, after Paris had capitulated. B. is a place of great antiquity. Stephen, who usurped the crown of England on the death of Henry I., was a son of one of the counts of B., by Adela, the daughter of William the Conqueror. B. is an archbishop's see, has a tribunal of commerce, a communal college, a public library of 20,000 vols., a botanic garden, etc., and manufactures of porcelain and gloves, with a trade in brandy, wine, and wood. Pop. (1881) 18,409; (1891) 23,457.)

BLOMARY, BLOOMARY, or BLOOMERY, blom'a-ri [A. Sax. blóma, a mass of metal]: a kind of furnace for reducing iron ore, in use from remote times and among rude peoples as well as those highly civilized. Diodorus Siculus de scribes such a process used in the island of Elba. The ruder forms are small open pits of clay or earth with openings in the side, tuyeres, for the passage of air-blast from

BLOMFIELD.

the bellows. The Catalan furnace, used in Spain and s. France, is an improved form; it has a hearth of heavy iron plates at the bottom of a pit 2 ft. or less in depth, 3 ft. long, 24 ft. wide, or smaller. Ignited charcoal and broken ore are heaped up in this, more charcoal and fine ore being thrown on during the process, which lasts about six hours; then the loup, or mass of iron collected at the bottom, is taken out and freed from dross by forging it into a bloom of malleable iron.-The German B., used in n. Europe, is an iron pot or a box of iron plates, lined with firebricks, 1 to 2 ft. in diameter and in depth. The fur nace is first heaped up with charcoal ignited, unmixed with ore; then the ore, previously made fine, is thrown on top, a small quantity at a time, producing a loup and a bloom as above. Early in the last c. the German B. was introduced into America, and is still used, especially in n. New York, in improved forms called the B. fire, the Jersey forge, the Champlain forge, or sometimes (improperly) the Catalan forge. The Rev. Jared Elliot, 1762, treated black sands from Killingworth, Conn., in a B., and the blooms were made into fine steel; for the discovery he received a medal from the London Soc. of Arts. Now the old cold blast is replaced by a hot blast, and various other improvements have been made. Still the richest ore must be used, and at best there is great waste, much iron being lost in the slag. One and a half to two tons of rich ore will reduce to one ton of bloom, two tons or more of charcoal being consumed in the process. The heat in the B. is usually not sufficient nor intended to fuse the metal; the ore is simply reduced,' and the metal collects without melting. The B. requires very small outlay for the plant, and produces a fine quality of metal. However, it has given place for the most part to the regular blast furance.

The name B. is given also to a similar furnace for converting cast-iron into malleable iron.

BLOMFIELD, blum'feld, CHARLES JAMES, Bishop of London: 1786-1857, Aug. 5; b. Bury St. Edmund's, Suffolk, where his father was school-master. Being well grounded by his father in the classics, B. went to Cambridge, where he took high honors. After he had filled Averal curacies, the Bp. of London appointed him his chaplain in recognition of his acknowledged philological and theological acquirements. Soon, he was called to the living of St. Botolph; in 1824, he was made Bp. of Chester; and in 1828, he was promoted to the see of London, on the translation of Bp. Howley to Canterbury. B's reputation for classical scholarship rests chiefly on his editions of Callimachus (Lond. 1815), and of several of the dramas of Eschylus. In connection with Rennel, he published the Musa Cantabrigienses; and with Monk (1812), the Posthumous Tracts of Porson; and 1814, the Adversaria Porsoni. He published also Lectures on the Acts of the Apostles. B. was exceedingly active in the superintendence of his dio. cese, and was a prime mover in the agitation for the erection of new churches. Under his presidency, more churches were erected in London than under any bishop since the

BLOMMAERT-BLONDIN.

Reformation. His conduct in regard to the controversies that latterly agitated his diocese was much animadverted on by both parties. Accused at one time of leaning to Puseyism, he yet proceeded against his clergy for ritualistic practices. See Memoir (new ed. 1864).

BLOMMAERT, blomʼmárt, PHILIP: 1809, Aug. 24—1871, Aug. 14; b. Ghent: Flemish author. In 1834 he published a volume of verse, characterized by much simplicity and earnestness, but so inartistic in form that it had little success. He rendered better service to literature and to the patriotic cause by the publication (1836-41) of Theophilus, an old Flemish poem of the 14th c., and of the Oudvlaemsche Gedichten (Old Flemish Poems) of the 12th, 13th, and 14th c. Both works are enriched with glossaries and learned annotations. B. showed a predilection for middleage literature generally, and translated the Nibelungen into Flemish iambics. His most important work is a History of the Belgians (Brussels, 1849), in which he attempts to show that the political destiny of the Low Countries has ever been identical with that of Germany, and that it is with the latter country, and not with France, she should seek to ally herself. B. also contributed extensively to several Belgian journals, especially to the Messager des Sciences Historiques. He died at Ghent.

BLONDE, n. blond [F. blonde, a fair woman-from blond, fair, of a light yellow, flaxen: Pol. blady, pale]: a woman having a fair complexion and light hair, opposed to brunette; a kind of silk lace. BLOND, a. blond, fair; having a fair complexion.

BLONDEL, blōn-děl': celebrated French minstrel of the 12th c., the favorite of Richard the Lion-heart, King of England, whom he accompanied to Palestine. When Richard, on his return, was seized and imprisoned by Leopold, Duke of Austria, B. (according to the exquisitely romantic myth of an old chronicler) resolved to find out the place in which his master was confined. He wandered through Germany in disguise; and at length coming to the castle of Lowenstein, in Austria, he heard that it contained some illustrious captive. Feeling assured that this was no other than the king, he tried all means to get a sight of him, but

to no purpose. He then placed himself opposite to the tower in which he learned the unknown was imprisoned, and commenced singing one of those Provençal songs which Richard and he had composed together. Hardly had B. finished the first stanza, when a well-known voice from the tower took up the second, and carried it on to the end. So the minstrel discovered his monarch, and was the means of his being ransomed by his subjects.

BLONDIN, bồn đèn, F. bling dăng, EMILE GRAVELET: rope-walker: 1830: b. St. Omer,

France. He became one of the greatest experts on the tight-rope. In 1855, he performed in New York, and four years later crossed the Niagara river, below the Falls, on a rope 1.300 feet long, 150 ft. above the water. crossed also with a man on his back.

He

BLOOD.

BLOOD, n. blud [AS. blod; Dut. bloed; Ger. blut, blood -as connected with Dut. bloedsel; OE. blooth; Ger. blüthe, a blossom, a flower, from their generally bright color: Ger. blühen, to glow-lit., a fluid of a bright glowing color]: the red fluid which circulates through the veins and arteries of animals, essential to life; kindred; honorable birth or extraction: V. to stain with blood; to let blood; to bleed; to give a taste of blood, or to provoke the desire for it; to heat or exasperate. BLOOD ING, imp. BLOOD ED, pp. BLOODLESS, a. -lès, without blood; lifeless; inactive. BLOOD'LESSLY, ad. li. BLOOD'Y, a. -, stained with blood; cruel; murderous. BLOOD'ILY, ad. -i-li, with the disposition to shed blood; cruelly. BLOOD INESS, n. state of being bloody; disposition to shed blood. BLOOD BOUGHT, a. purchased by shedding blood. BLOOD-BROTHER, n. a brother by blood, as contradistinguished from a brother-in-law, brought into that relation by marriage. BLOOD-GUILTINESS, n. crime of shedding blood. BLOOD HORSE, one of a full or high breed; a thoroughbred horse. BLOOD-HOT, of the same heat as blood. BLOOD-HOUND, a hound for tracking human beings by scent; a hunter after human blood. BLOODLETTER, one who lets blood. BLOODLETTING, act of one who lets blood. BLOOD ROOT, a plant of the ord. Hæmodorácia, so named from the red color of its roots, which are used in dyeing; also applied to a plant of the Poppy order, having a red juice. BLOOD'SHED, n. waste of life. BLOOD'SHEDDER, n. one who. BLOOD SHEDDING, n. act of shedding blood. BLOOD'SHOT, a. red; inflamed. BLOOD-STAINED, a. stained with blood; guilty of murder. BLOODSTONE, a variety of chalcedony of a dark-green color, sprinkled with deep red spots-also called heliotrope. BLOOD-SPAVIN, a distemper in horses, consisting of a soft swelling growing through the hoof, and usually full of blood. BLOOD'SUCKER, n. any animal that sucks blood, as a leech; a cruel man. BLOOD THIRSTY, a. cruel; murderous. BLOOD-VESSEL, a vein or artery. BLOODY FLUX, the disease called dysentery, in which the discharges from the bowels have a mixture of blood. BLOODY-SWEAT, a sweat accompanied with a discharge of blood; a disease called the sweating sickness. FLESH AND BLOOD, human nature; mortal man. COLD BLOOD, free from excitement or passion. COLDBLOODED, a. cool and calculating, used in a bad sense; not having warm blood. HOT BLOOD, in a state of excitement and blind fury. HOT-BLOODED, a. very impulsive; fiery. PRINCE OF THE BLOOD, one of royal descent. BIT OF BLOOD, a high or well-bred animal. BLOODY-HAND, symbol of a baronet. BLOODY ASSIZES, the assizes or court held in 1685 by the infamous Judge Jeffreys, by whose sentence some 300 were hanged, 1,000 sent to slavery in the colonies, and many whipped and imprisoned-all with a mere show of a trial. Note.-BLOODY, this OE. word, and now only low vulgarism, in the sense of a bit; half; very much; excessive-as 'bloody fool' = a bit of a fool; very much a fool-bloody strange' very strange; rather strange, is really a different word from that given in the text. It is not likely that writers such as Dean Swift and the poet

BLOOD

Gray would have written, 'It grows bloody cold,' ' a bloody satire,' if the present sense of a sanguinary character had been exclusively attached to it in Swift's time. Indeed, the alternative, innocent sense is very old. The etymology may be found in such a form as Gael. bloide, a piece '

see Dr. C. Mackay.

BLOOD: the nutritive fluid of the tissues, circulating through the veins and arteries of animals. It consists of a transparent colorless fluid, the liquor sanguinis, and minute solid bodies, the corpuscles' which float in it. The liquor sanguinis consists of water, in which are dissolved fibrine, albumen, chlorides of sodium and potassium, phosphates of soda, lime, and magnesia, together with fatty and extractive matters, the latter the product of the metamor

Blood-corpuscles highly magnified.

phosis of the tissues. The corpuscles are of two kinds-white and red; the white are larger and less numerous than the red, being in healthy blood in the proportion of 2 or 3 to 1,000. In certain forms of disease the number of these white blood-corpuscles is increased. They present a granular appearance on the surface, have a nucleus, which is speedily brought into view by the action of dilute acetic acid, and are identical with the lymph-corpuscle. Under the microscope they vary their forms in the same way as the Amoeba (see PROTEUS); hence these movements are called amaboid. The red corpuscles are pecular to vertebrates, and seem to have their origin in the white corpuscles, are oval and nucleated in fishes, reptiles, and birds, but in man and the mammalia generally they are non-nucleated, and are biconcave flattened discs, their edges being thicker than the centre, hence the dark appearance of the latter when seen under the microscope. They have a great tendency to turn on their side and run into rouleaux, like piles of coins. Their color is straw-yellow, and it is only when seen en masse that they give the blood its characteristic red color. The size of the human red bloodcorpuscles is of an inch. They are largest in reptiles, those of the Proteus (q.v.) being th of an inch in their long diameter. Hoppe Seylar has shown that, chemically, they consist chiefly of hemoglobine, with traces of albumen, cholesterine, protagon, phosphate of potash, but no fat. The specific gravity of B. is 1052 to 1057, and its mean quantity in an adult man about 344 lbs. On evaporation as a whole, the B. yields 790 parts in 1,000 of water, and 210 of solid residue, which residue has nearly the same ultimate chemical composition as that of flesh. When B. is set aside for a time, occasionally crystals consisting of globuline tinted with coloring matter appear. The B. crystals of man and the carnivora have a prismatic form, whilst those of the rat and mouse are tetrahedral, and those of the squirrel hexag onal' (Carpenter).