Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 4, Slice 1 Part 18

See William H. Safford, _Life of Harman Blennerha.s.sett_ (Cincinnati, 1853); W.H. Safford (editor), _The Blennerha.s.sett Papers_ (Cincinnati, 1864); and "The True Story of Harman Blennerha.s.sett," by Therese Blennerha.s.sett-Adams, in the _Century Magazine_ for July 1901, vol.

lxii.

BLERA (mod. _Bieda_), an ancient Etruscan town on the Via Clodia, about 32 m. N.N.W. of Rome. It was of little importance, and is only mentioned by geographers and in inscriptions. It is situated on a long, narrow tongue of rock at the junction of two deep glens. Some remains of the town walls still exist, and also two ancient bridges, both belonging to the Via Clodia, and many tombs hewn in the rock--small chambers imitating the architectural forms of houses, with beams and rafters represented in relief. See G. Dennis, _Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria_, i. 207. There was another Blera in Apulia, on the road from Venusia to Tarentum.

BLESSINGTON, MARGUERITE, COUNTESS OF (1789-1849), Irish novelist and miscellaneous writer, daughter of Edmund Power, a small landowner, was born near Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, Ireland, on the 1st of September 1789.

Her childhood was made unhappy by her father's character and poverty,--and her early womanhood wretched by her compulsory marriage at the age of fifteen to a Captain Maurice St Leger Farmer, whose drunken habits brought him at last as a debtor to the king's bench prison, where, in October 1817, he died. His wife had left him some time before, and in February 1818 she married Charles John Gardiner, earl of Blessington. Of rare beauty, charm and wit, she was no less distinguished for her generosity and for the extravagant tastes which she shared with her husband, which resulted in enc.u.mbering his estates with a load of debt. In the autumn of 1822 they went abroad, spent four months of the next year at Genoa in close intimacy with Byron, and remained on the continent till Lord Blessington's death in May 1829.

Some time before this they had been joined by Count D'Orsay, who in 1827 married Lady Harriet Gardiner, Lord Blessington's only daughter by a former wife. D'Orsay, who had soon separated from his wife, now accompanied Lady Blessington to England and lived with her till her death. Their home, first at Seamore Place, and afterwards Gore House, Kensington, became a centre of attraction for whatever was distinguished in literature, learning, art, science and fas.h.i.+on. After her husband's death she supplemented her diminished income by contributing to various periodicals as well as by writing novels. She was for some years editor of _The Book of Beauty_ and _The Keepsake_, popular annuals of the day.

In 1834 she published her _Conversations with Lord Byron_. Her _Idler in Italy_ (1839-1840), and _Idler in France_ (1841) were popular for their personal gossip and anecdote, descriptions of nature and sentiment.

Early in 1849, Count D'Orsay left Gore House to escape his creditors; the furniture and decorations were sold, and Lady Blessington joined the count in Paris, where she died on the 4th of June 1849.

Her _Literary Life and Correspondence_ (3 vols.), edited by R.R.

Madden, appeared in 1855. Her portrait was painted in 1808 by Sir Thomas Lawrence.

BLIDA, a town of Algeria, in the department of Algiers, 32 m. by railway S.W. from Algiers, on the line to Oran. Pop. (1906) 16,866. It lies surrounded with orchards and gardens, 630 ft. above the sea, at the base of the Little Atlas, on the southern edge of the fertile plain of the Metija, and the right bank of the Wad-el-Kebir affluent of the Chiffa.

The abundant water of this stream provides power for large corn mills and several factories, and also supplies the town, with its numerous fountains and irrigated gardens. Blida is surrounded by a wall of considerable extent, pierced by six gates, and is further defended by Fort Mimieh, crowning a steep hill on the left bank of the river. The present town, French in character, has well-built modern streets with many arcades, and numbers among its buildings several mosques and churches, extensive barracks and a large military hospital. The princ.i.p.al square, the place d'Armes, is surrounded by arcaded houses and shaded by trees. The centre of a fertile district, and a post on one of the main routes in the country, Blida has a flouris.h.i.+ng trade, chiefly in oranges and flour. The orange groves contain over 50,000 trees, and in April the air for miles round is laden with the scent of the orange blossoms. In the public gardens is a group of magnificent olive trees.

The products of the neighbouring cork trees and cedar groves are a source of revenue to the town. In the vicinity are the villages of Joinville and Montpensier, which owe their origin to military camps established by Marshal Valee in 1838; and on the road to Medea are the tombs of the marabout Mahommed-el-Kebir, who died in 1580, and his two sons.

Blida, _i.e. boleida_, diminutive of the Arab word _belad_, city, occupies the site of a military station in the time of the Romans, but the present town appears to date from the 16th century. A mosque was built by order of Khair-ed-din Barbarossa, and under the Turks the town was of some importance. In 1825 it was nearly destroyed by an earthquake, but was speedily rebuilt on a site about a mile distant from the ruins. It was not till 1838 that it was finally held by the French, though they had been in possession for a short time eight years before.

In April 1906 it was chosen as the place of detention of Behanzin, the ex-king of Dahomey, who died in December of that year.

Blida is the chief town of a commune of the same name, having (1906) a population of 33,332.

BLIGH, WILLIAM (1754-1817), English admiral, was born of a good Cornish family in 1754. He accompanied Captain Cook in his second expedition (1772-1774) as sailing-master of the "Resolution." During the voyage, the bread-fruit, already known to Dampier, was found by them at Otaheite; and after seeing service under Lord Howe and elsewhere, "Bread-fruit Bligh," as he was nicknamed, was despatched at the end of 1787 to the Pacific in command of H.M.S. "Bounty," for the purpose of introducing it into the West Indies from the South Sea Islands. Bligh sailed from Otaheite, after remaining there about six months; but, when near the Friendly Islands, a mutiny (April 28, 1789) broke out on board the "Bounty," headed by Fletcher Christian, the master's mate, and Bligh, with eighteen others, was set adrift in the launch. The mutineers themselves settled on Pitcairn Island (q.v.), but some of them were afterwards captured, brought to England and in three cases executed.

This mutiny, which forms the subject of Byron's Island, did not arise so much from tyranny on the part of Bligh as from attachments contracted between the seamen and the women of Otaheite. After suffering severely from hunger, thirst and storms, Bligh and his companions landed at Timor in the East Indies, having performed a voyage of about 4000 m. in an open boat. Bligh returned to England in 1790, and he was soon afterwards appointed to the "Providence," in which he effected the purpose of his former appointment by introducing the bread-fruit tree into the West India Islands. He showed great courage at the mutiny of the Nore in 1797, and in the same year took part in the battle of Camperdown, where Admiral Duncan defeated the Dutch under De Winter. In 1801 he commanded the "Glatton" (54) at the battle of Copenhagen, and received the personal commendations of Nelson. In 1805 he was appointed "captain general and governor of New South Wales." As he made himself intensely unpopular by the harsh exercise of authority, he was deposed in January 1808 by a mutiny headed by Major George Johnston of the 102nd foot, and was imprisoned by the mutineers till 1810. He returned to England in 1811, was promoted to rear-admiral in that year, and to vice-admiral in 1814. Major Johnston was tried by court martial at Chelsea in 1811, and was dismissed the service. Bligh, who was an active, persevering and courageous officer, died in London in 1817.

BLIND, MATHILDE (1841-1896), English author, was born at Mannheim on the 21st of March 1841. Her father was a banker named Cohen, but she took the name of Blind after her step-father, the political writer, Karl Blind (1826-1907), one of the exiled leaders of the Baden insurrection in 1848-1849, and an ardent supporter of the various 19th-century movements for the freedom and autonomy of struggling nationalities. The family was compelled to take refuge in England, where Mathilde devoted herself to literature and to the higher education of women. She produced also three long poems, "The Prophecy of St Oran" (1881), "The Heather on Fire" (1886), an indignant protest against the evictions in the Highlands, and "The Ascent of Man" (1888), which was to be the epic of the theory of evolution. She wrote biographies of George Eliot (1883) and Madame Roland (1886), and translated D.F. Strauss's _The Old Faith and the New_ (1873-1874) and the _Memoirs of Marie Bashkirtseff_ (1890).

She died on the 26th of November 1896, bequeathing her property to Newnham College, Cambridge.

A complete edition of her poems was edited by Mr Arthur Symons in 1900, with a biographical introduction by Dr Richard Garnett.

BLIND HOOKEY, a game of chance, played with a full pack of cards. The deal, which is an advantage, is decided as at whist, the cards being shuffled and cut as at whist. The dealer gives a parcel of cards to each player including himself. Each player puts the amount of his stake on his cards, which he must not look at. The dealer has to take all bets.

He then turns up his parcel, exposing the bottom card. Each player in turn does the same, winning or losing according as his cards are higher or lower than the dealer's. Ties pay the dealer. The cards rank as at whist. The suits are of no importance, the cards taking precedence according to their face-value.

BLINDING, a form of punishment anciently common in many lands, being inflicted on thieves, adulterers, perjurers and other criminals. The inhabitants of Apollonia (Illyria) are said to have inflicted this penalty on their "watch" when found asleep at their posts. It was resorted to by the Roman emperors in their persecutions of the Christians. The method of destroying the sight varied. Sometimes a mixture of lime and vinegar, or barely scalding vinegar alone, was poured into the eyes. Sometimes a rope was twisted round the victim's head till the eyes started out of their sockets. In the middle ages the punishment seems to have been changed from total blindness to a permanent injury to the eyes, amounting, however, almost to blindness, produced by holding a red-hot iron dish or basin before the face. Under the forest laws of the Norman kings of England blinding was a common penalty. Shakespeare makes King John order his nephew Arthur's eyes to be burnt out.

BLINDMAN'S-BUFF (from an O. Fr. word, _buffe_, a blow, especially a blow on the cheek), a game in which one player is blindfolded and made to catch and identify one of the others, who in sport push him about and "buffet" him.

BLINDNESS, the condition of being blind (a common Teutonic word), i.e.

devoid of sight (see also VISION; and EYE: _Diseases_). The data furnished in various countries by the census of 1901 showed generally a decrease in blindness, due to the progress in medical science, use of antiseptics, better sanitation, control of infectious diseases, and better protection in shops and factories. Blindness is much more common in hot countries than in temperate and cold regions, but Finland and Iceland are exceptions to the general rule.[1] In hot countries the eyes are affected by the glaring sunlight, the dust and the dryness of the air. From statistics in Italy, France and Belgium, localities on the coast seem to have more blind persons than those at a distance from the sea.

The following table gives the number of blind persons as reported in the census of each country. Unless otherwise stated, it refers to the statistics of 1900.

+----------------------------------+--------+----------------+ Total Number Country. Number. per Million of Population. +----------------------------------+--------+----------------+ Austria 14,582 540 Belgium 3448 487 Canada 3279 610 Denmark 1047 427 England 25,317 778 France 27,174 698 Finland[2] 3229 1191 Germany 34,334 609 Hungary 19,377 1006 Ireland 4263 954 Italy 38,160 1175 Holland (1890) 2114 414 Norway 1879 838 Portugal 5650 1040 Sweden 3413 664 Switzerland (1895) 2107 722 Scotland 3253 727 Spain (1877) 24,608 1006 Russia about 2000 United States (corrected census) 85,662 1125 +----------------------------------+--------+----------------+

CAUSES AND PREVENTION

There are many cases of complete or partial blindness which might have been prevented, and a knowledge of the best methods of prevention and cure should be spread as widely as possible. Magnus, Bremer, Steffen and Rossler are of opinion that 40% of the cases of blindness might have been prevented. Hayes gives 33.35% as positively avoidable, 38.75% possibly avoidable, and 46.27% as a conservative estimate. Cohn regards blindness as certainly preventable in 33%, as probably preventable in 43%, and as quite unpreventable in only 24%. If we take the lowest of these figures, and a.s.sume that 400 out of every 1000 blind persons might have been saved from such a calamity, we realize the importance of preventative measures. For the physiology and pathology of the eye generally, see VISION and EYE.

Ophthalmia.

The great majority of these cases are due to infantile purulent ophthalmia. This arises from inoculation of the eyes with hurtful material at time of birth. If the contagious discharges are allowed to remain, violent inflammation is set up which usually ends in the loss of sight. It depends on the presence of a microbe, and the effective application of a weak solution of nitrate of silver is curative, if made in a proper manner at an early period of the case. In Germany, midwives are expressly prohibited by law from treating any affection of the eyes or eyelids of infants, however slight. On the appearance of the first symptoms, they are required to represent to the parents, or others in charge, that medical a.s.sistance is urgently needed, or, if necessary, they are themselves to report to the local authorities and the district doctor. Neglect of these regulations entails liability to punishment.

Eleven of the United States of America have enacted laws requiring that, if one or both eyes of an infant should become inflamed, swollen or reddened at any time within two weeks of its birth, it shall be the duty of the midwife or nurse having charge of such infant to report in writing within six hours, to the health officer or some legally qualified physician, the fact that such inflammation, swelling or redness exists. The penalty for failure to comply is fine or imprisonment.

The following weighty words, from a paper prepared by Dr Park Lewis, of Buffalo, N.Y., for the American Medical a.s.sociation, show that laws are not sufficient to prevent evil, unless supported by strong public sentiment:--

"When an enlightened, civilized and progressive nation quietly and pa.s.sively, year after year, permits a mult.i.tude of its people unnecessarily to become blind, and more especially when one-quarter of these are infants, the reason for such a startling condition of affairs demands explanation. That such is the fact, practically all reliable ophthalmologists agree.

"From a summary of carefully tabulated statistics it has been demonstrated that at least four-tenths of all existing blindness might have been avoided had proper preventative or curative measures been employed, while one-quarter of this, or one-tenth of the whole, is due to _ophthalmia neonatorum_, an infectious, preventable and almost absolutely curable disease. Perhaps this statement will take on a new meaning when it is added that there are in the state of New York alone more than 6000, and in the United States more than 50,000 blind people; of these 600 in the one state, and 5000 in the country, would have been saved from lives of darkness and unhappiness, in having lost all the joys that come through sight, and of more or less complete dependence--for no individual can be as self-sufficient without as with eyes--if a simple, safe and easily applied precautionary measure had been taken at the right time and in the right way to prevent this affliction. The following three vital facts are not questioned, but are universally accepted by those qualified to know:--

"1. The ophthalmia of infancy is an infectious germ disease.

"2. By the instillation of a silver salt in the eyes of a new-born infant the disease is prevented from developing in all but an exceedingly small number of the cases in which it would otherwise have appeared.

"3. In practically all those few exceptional cases the disease is absolutely curable, if like treatment is employed at a sufficiently early period.

"Since these facts are no longer subjects of discussion, but are universally accepted by all educated medical men, the natural inquiry follows: Why, as a common-sense proposition, are not these simple, harmless, preventive measures invariably employed, and why, in consequence of this neglect, does a nation sit quietly and indifferently by, making no attempt to prevent this enormous and needless waste of human eyes?

"The reasons are three-fold, and lie--first, with the medical profession; second, with the lay public; third, with the state.

"For the education of its blind children annually New York alone pays _per capita_ at least $350, and a yearly gross sum amounting to much more than $100,000. If, as sometimes happens, the blind citizen is a dependent throughout a long life, the cost of maintenance is not less than $10,000, and the mere cost in money will be multiplied many times in that a productive factor, by reason of blindness, has been removed from the community.