5.19 



BLINDS. 



BLOOD. 



510 



Suecica,' L'Orvet of Lacepede, Blind Schleiche of the Germans, Anguis 

 fniijUis of Linnaeus. It brings forth its young alive, and it is said 

 twice a year, in the seasons of spring and autumn. 



The general opinion is (and we think it well founded) that the 

 Blind- Worm is the Ccecilia of the Latins, and the Tv<t>\u$ and TvQXtvos 

 of the ancient Greeks, names given in allusion to its supposed blind- 

 ness, and that it was sometimes called Kemp las on account of its assumed 

 deafness. Belon considers it to be the serpent called Tephloti, Tephliti, 

 and Tephlini by the modern Greeks. Columella (' De Re Rustica," 

 6. a 17), following the opinion of its deleterious nature, says that its 

 poison is fatal to oxen, and that the cure is the flesh of storks, 

 because they devour this serpent. Upon the principle, we suppose, 

 of counteracting one poison by the application of another, a Theriaca, 

 or poison-antidote, made from the harmless Blind-Worms (Cteciliis) and 

 the theriacal water was used as a sudorific against the pestilence. 

 Mr. Bell says this creature is kept alive with difficulty in confinement. 

 It feeds on worms, insects, slugs, &c. Its habits are exceedingly gentle 

 and inoffensive, and even should it attempt to bite when irritated it 

 is incapable of producing injury. (Bell, British Reptile.) 



BLINDS, a name given in Devonshire and Cornwall to the Whiting 

 Pout [MORRHUA.] 



BLITUM (from 0\iTOf), a genus of plants belonging to the natural 

 order Ckenopodiacete. It has no corolla, a trifid calyx, a pistil with 2 

 styles, a single seed immersed in its berried calyx. Two species of 

 this genus are known by the name of Strawberry Elite B. capitatum 

 and B. rirgatum. The former has its flowers in terminal spikes ; the 

 latter has its heads lateral and scattered. Some writers have made 

 the B. rirgatum only a variety of the first, but its axillary flowers are 

 constant. After flowering, the calyx of these two species swells out, 

 iunl presents the size, colour, and appearance of the common wood- 

 strawberry. It is succulent, stains the hands, and was formerly used 

 for colouring puddings. The taste is insipid These plants are not 

 natives of Great Britain, but ar? common on way-sides and in culti- 

 vated grounds in the south of Europe. The species of C'henopodium 

 are closely allied to those of Blitum ; and Meyer, Reichenbach, and 

 Koch have referred the European species of Chenopodium with 

 vertical seeds to the genus Blitum. These are the C. rubrum, C. 

 Bonus Ifenricus, and C. glaucum of Babington's ' Manual of British 

 Botany /all three of which are Linnrean species. 



( Koch, Flora Germanica ; Loudon, Encyclopaedia of Plants ; 

 Babington, Manual.) 



BLOOD, the animal fluid by which the tissues of the body are 

 nourished, and which is contained in the tubes called from their office 

 Blood-Vessek. 



On first flowing from the vessel in which it is contained the blood 

 is a thick, viscid, and tenacious fluid. In all the more highly- 

 organised animals it is of a red colour : but redness is not one of its 

 essential properties. In several tribes of animals which possess true and 

 proper blood, this fluid is not of a red colour, and there is no animal 

 whose blood is visibly red in all the parts of the body. The blood of 

 the insect is colourless and transparent ; that of the reptile is of a 

 yellowish colour ; in the main part of the body of the fish, that is, in 

 the whole of its muscular system, the blood is without colour ; hence 

 the whiteness of the general substance of the body of the fish : but 

 in the more important organs, and especially in those which constitute 

 the circle of nutrition, called the organs of organic life, the blood is 

 of a red colour, as in the heart, the branchise or gills, and so on. In 

 the bird the blood is of a deep red ; but it is the deepest of all in the 

 mammalia. In some species of mammalia it is deeper than in others ; 

 in the hare, for example, it is much deeper than in the rabbit. It is 

 deeper in some varieties of the same species than in others, and more 

 especially in different varieties of the human family. 



In man and all the higher animals the body contains two kinds of 

 blood, each of which is distinguished by a striking difference of 

 colour. Each kind of blood is contained in its own peculiar set 

 of vessels : the one in the vessel called a vein, hence called venous 

 blood : the other in the vessel called an artery, arterial blood. Venous 

 blood is of a dark or Modena-red colour ; arterial blood is of a bright 

 scarlet colour. Venous differs from arterial blood in its most essential 

 properties no less than in its colour: venous blood is incapable of 

 nourishing the body and of stimulating the organs; arterial blood is 

 the proper nutrient and stimulant of the system. 



The specific gravity of human blood (water being 1000) may be 

 stated to be about 1055 or 1056, from which standard it is capable of 

 increasing to 1120, and of sinking to 1026, this being the extreme 

 range of variation hitherto observed. Venous in heavier than arterial 

 IP loorl, the former being commonly estimated at 1052, and the latter 

 at 1049. The higher the organisation of the blood the greater is its 

 specific gravity : hence the specific gravity of the blood of the higher 

 is greater than that of the lower animals. 



Tli.-reisa remarkable difference in different classes of animals in 

 the temperature of the blood. In some it is only a degree or two 

 that of the surrounding medium. Creatures with blood of this 

 low temperature are called cold-blooded, in contradistinction l.o v, nm 

 . inials, whose temperature is maintained under whatever 

 varict nstances they may be placed considerably above that 



of the surrounding air. 



The following table of the temperature of the blood of different 



animals, is compiled from the researches of Tiedemann and Rudolphi 

 on this subject. 



Animal. 



Great Titmouse 

 Swallow .... 

 Ducks and Geese 

 Common Hen . . 

 Species of Eagles, Hawks, &c. 

 Pigeon . 

 Gull . 



Bat 



Squirrel .... 

 Ox ..... 



Ape 



Dog 



Cat 



Elephant .... 

 Horse .... 

 Man 



Degrees of Fahrenheit. 



. 111-25 

 . . 111-25 

 106 to 111 

 102 to 109 

 104 to 109 

 106 to 109 

 . 100 

 . . 106 

 . 105 

 . . 104 

 . 103 

 101 

 103 

 99 



98-24 

 98 



98 to 



Arterial is warmer by one degree than venous blood. 



Disease is capable of effecting a considerable change in the tempera- 

 ture of the blood. In almost every case of fever the temperature of 

 the blood differs from the natural standard. In the cold fit of 

 intermittent fever (ague) it sometimes sinks as low as 94 ; in some 

 types of continued fever it rises as high as 102. In cholera it sinks 

 to 90. In inflammation of moderate severity it exceeds the natural 

 standard by 4 degrees ; in intense inflammation it is capable of rising 

 above it as high as 7 degrees. 



The blood, whilst circulating in the body is composed of two parts, 

 a liquid and a solid. The liquid is called liquor sanguinis, and the 

 solid, on account of its cellular character, blood-globules or corpuscles. 

 When blood is allowed to stand, after it is taken from the body, it 

 separates into two distinct parts, a solid mass, and a fluid matter in 

 which the solid mass swims. The solid portion of the blood, which 

 includes the blood-corpuscles and a portion of the liquor sanguinis 

 called the fibrin, is termed the Clot, or the Crassamentum ; the fluid 

 portion is called the Serum ; and the process by which the separation 

 takes place is denominated Coagulation. 



The change in the constitution of the blood by which this separa- 

 tion into a solid and fluid portion is effected commences directly the 

 blood leaves the blood-vessel. In about eight or nine minutes after 

 blood is drawn from a living animal it begins to thicken, and in the 

 course of a quarter of an hour the clot begins to form, and the 

 serum exudes. This process arises from the fact that the fibrin is 

 not dissolved, only suspended in the blood, and when allowed to 

 stand it separates, sinking in the liquid blood, and carrying with it 

 the blood-corpuscles. When the latter separate from the fibrin, 

 which they do under various circumstances, forming a layer at the 

 lower part of the clot, the upper part of the clot, which is of a 

 yellow or buff colour, is called the buffy coat. 



The Coagulation of the Blood is not simply a separation of the 

 fibrin from the serum of the blood, dependent on physical causes, as 

 is evident from the manner in which it is hastened or delayed by 

 external causes. This may be stated without the necessity of making 

 any inferences from the phenomena presented. Temperature exerts 

 an influence, as cold delays coagulation, whilst moderate heat hastens 

 its occurrence. Exposure to the atmosphere facilitates this process, 

 as also contact with foreign bodies ; but the exclusion of air delays it. 

 The cessation of active motion whilst the blood is in the body 

 hastens coagulation, but movement also gi vr . A tendency to it out of 

 the body. A mixture of half the bn v . of the blood with water 

 increases the coagulative tendency, bun increased dilution diminishes 

 it. States of the system affect it. Faintness is favourable to 

 coagulation, but excitement and suffocation retard it. Coagulation is 

 quicker in arterial than in venous blood. Foreign substances generally 

 hasten it, but alkalies delay it. 



The Clot or Crassamentum separates into two portions a substance 

 of a yellowish-white colour forming the top of the clot, and a red 

 mass always found at the bottom of the clot. When the yellowish 

 substance forming the top of the clot is completely separated from 

 the red mass it is found to be a solid of considerable consistence, soft, 

 firm, elastic, and tenacious, or gluey. Its distinctive character is 

 derived from the disposition manifested by its component particles to 

 arrange themselves into minute threads or fibres ; these threads or 

 tibres are often so disposed as to form a complete net-work. In its 

 general aspect as well as in its chemical relations this substance bears 

 a striking resemblance to pure muscular fibre ; that is, to muscular 

 fibre deprived of its enveloping membrane and of its colouring matter. 

 Several names have been given to this substance gluten, coagulable 

 lymph, fibre of the blood, and fibrin ; the latter is the name commonly 

 appropriated to it. Of all the constituents of the blood Fibrin is by 

 far the most important. Whatever other constituent may be absent, 

 this in all animals which possess blood is invariably present. The 

 main part of all the solid structures of the body is composed of it ; it 

 forms the basis of muscle, and in the lower animals, in which distinct 

 muscular fibres cannot be traced, it probably performs the function 

 of muscle. This substance or some modification of it is also found in 



