B I A 



497 



B L A 



tension increases, inflammation ensues, a spot mortifies, 

 the urine escapes into the abdomen, and death is speedily 

 thc result. Such is the process by which the bladder re- 

 lieves itself, and it never, under such circumstances, is 

 lacerated or burst, as it is'ordinarily said to be ; such a result 

 is never produced except by direct violence. With respect 

 to these cases of retention of urine, there is a fact which 

 never should be lost sight of, viz. that after the third day 

 or so from the date of the retention, the urine, as it descends 

 from the kidneys, is evacuated from the bladder in small 

 quantities. At this period the bladder is distended as 

 much as possible, and the case may be mistaken for one of 

 incontinence of urine, though it is, as we have seen, one of 

 retention. If under these circumstances a catheter cannot 

 be introduced, the only means left for relieving the patient 

 is puncturing the bladder, which may be effected through 

 the perinseum, through the rectum, or above the puhes ; 

 the bladder, as we have seen, is not covered by the perito- 

 naeum in these regions. But the most important disease to 

 which the bladder is liable is the formation of urinary cal- 

 culi or concretions in it. When they are present and not en- 

 cysted they produce intense suffering ; and as medicines 

 possess no certain power over them, the ingenuity of sur- 

 geons has been exercised in order to devise means of re- 

 moving them. These means are reducible to three : when 

 small, they may be extracted through the urethra by a pair 

 of forceps, invented for the purpose : when larger, they may 

 be reduced to pieces so small as to pass away with the urine, 

 or they may be removed by cutting into the bladder ; to the 

 former method the term Lithotrity, to the latter that of Li- 

 thotomy is applied. [See LITHOTRITY and LITHOTOMY.] 



BLADDER-NUT. [See STAPHYLEA.] 



BLADDER-SENNA. [See COLUTEA.] 



BLADENSBURG. [See WASHINGTON.] 



BLA1N, a small town in France in the department of 

 Loire Inferieure (Lower Loire), on a cross road i'rom Ploe'r- 

 mel and R('don to Ancenis and Angers. It is in 47 30' N. 

 lat., 147' W. long. The town is on the north or right bank 

 of the little river Isaac, which Hows into the Vilaine. The 

 population in 1832 was 4899 for the whole commune. There 

 is an hospital for the poor. Blain was the birth-place of 

 the Due de Rohan, chief of the Protestant party in France 

 in the reign of Louis XIII., and one of the most remarkable 

 men of his day. 



BLAIR-ATHOL. [See ATHOL.] 



BLAIR-GOWRIE, a parish and borough of barony 

 (l. e. a borough governed by a bar,) in Perthshire, Scotland, 

 is situated four miles from Cupar Angus, and about fifteen 

 from Perth. The southern part of the parish lies in the 

 beautiful valley of Strathmore : it is about eleven miles long 

 from south to north, and in some places eight miles broad, 

 but the breadth is very irregular. The village is on the 

 south side of the Ericht, which divides it from the village 

 of Rattray. It lies on the east side of a range of hills, at 

 the northern boundary of the valley of Strathmore; and 

 when seen from these, the windings of the Ericht, gene- 

 rally hidden but occasionally coming into view, have the 

 appearance of a number of lakes scattered over the plain. 

 Blair-Gowrie was made a borough of barony by a charter 

 from Charles I. in 1634. 



There are the remains of several Druidical temples in 

 the parish. At the back of the manse, in 1796, there was a 

 mote-hill or circular mound, where, it is said, Earl Gowrie 

 held his regality courts. There are also some cairns, in one 

 of which when opened a small stone coffin was found at 

 the bottom ; and many tumuli run through the parish. 

 Not far from the village, commanding a fine view of Strath- 

 more, is Newton House, built somewhat in the style of a 

 cast'.e, on the foundation of the old house, in a vault of which 

 many gentlemen were saved while it was burned down. 

 Two modes of catching salmon are practised on the Ericht 

 at this place. One is by poke-nets : Towards twilight, 

 the fishermen throw into the stream near the Keith Falls, 

 where it runs through deep narrow channels among the 

 rocks, large quantities of black mould, until the water 

 becomes muddy. Nets in the shape of pokes or bags are 

 then put into the narrowest parts of the stream, and in them 

 the salmon are caught. The other method is by pikes or 

 pol^s with sharp points, and iron hooks at the end of them, 

 with which the fishermen, on a dark night, strike the fish 

 the moment they are attracted to the surface by the glare 

 of torches held from the rocks above the dark parts of the 

 stream. 



The village consists of one principal street, which winds 

 irregularly to the Bridge of Ericht, and from which almost 

 all the other streets branch off. There is a good town-house 

 lately built ; and an apartment in the principal inn is occu- 

 pied as a reading-room. The parish church is a new and 

 handsome building, placed high on the side of a hill at the 

 back of the village. There are two dissenting meeting- 

 houses : the Antiburger Meeting-house, conveniently situ- 

 ated near the town-house ; and the Congregational Chapel 

 in William Street, at the south end of the village. They 

 are capable of containing nearly 400 persons each, and the 

 parish church may seat about 1000. The town is governed 

 by a baron baillie. It has a post-office. There are several 

 thriving manufactures carried on in the place. The annual 

 value of the real property in the parish as assessed in April, 

 1815, was 6206/. ; and the population in 1831 was 3644. 

 It has three annual fairs. 



The clergyman's stipend, as fixed by a decreet of the 

 Court of Teinds in 1 79 1, is five chalders of grain (two-thirds 

 of meal and one-third of bear), with 45l. sterling of money, 

 and 51. for communion elements. The glebe contains nine 

 and a half acres, of which four and a half are good soil. 



In the parish school, English reading, writing, arithmetic, 

 book-keeping, and mathematics are taught. The whole 

 emoluments of the teacher, exclusive of a free house, did not 

 exceed, in 1796, 'ill. a year. There are several private 

 schools in the village. 



The poor's fund arises from the interest of a small stock, 

 the collections at the church doors, the dues of the mort- 

 cloths, and the rents of the seats in the galleries of the 

 church. It is of course variable in amount. 



(From communications with Blair-Gowrie; Sinclair's 

 Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xvii. ; Chambcrs's 

 Gazetteer ; Chalmers's Caledonia ; Comparative Account 

 of the Population of Great Britain ; Enumeration Abstract 

 of Population Returns, fyc.) 



BLAIR, HUGH, D.D., a divine of the Church of Scot- 

 land, was born in Edinburgh, April 7, 1718.- He was 

 educated at the University of Edinburgh, and took his de- 

 gree of A.M. in 1739. In 1741 he was licensed to preach, 

 and was soon after appointed to the living ofColessie in 

 Fifeshire. In 1743 he was appointed second minister of the 

 Canongate Church, Edinburgh; in 1754 he was presented 

 to the ministry of Lady Tester's Church, Edinburgh ; in 

 1 757 the University of St. Andrews conferred upon him the 

 degree of D.D. ; and in 1 758 he was removed from Lady 

 Yester's to be one of the ministers of the High Church, 

 which is what is called a collegiate charge, or one in which 

 the duties are divided between two clergymen. He was 

 indebted to his merits alone for this success. While at 

 the university he had been a diligent student. In 

 going through an extensive course of reading he made 

 abstracts of the most important works, in order to rendei- 

 his acquaintance with them more intimate and accurate. 

 To aid and methodise his historical reading, he and a few of 

 his fellow-students constructed chronological charts, in 

 which they arranged the principal historical facts which 

 they met with in the course of their studies. 



An ' Essay on the Beautiful,' which he wrote while a 

 student, was regarded as highly creditable to his taste and 

 abilities. His advancement having lightened his profes- 

 sional labours, he was enabled to bestow more time on lite- 

 rary pursuits ; and accordingly having prepared some lectures 

 on ' Composition,' he read them to classes in the university, 

 with the permission of that learned body. In 1762 the 

 king erected and endowed a professorship of rhetoric 

 and belles lettres in the University of Edinburgh, and ap- 

 pointed Dr. Blair, in consequence of his approved qualifica- 

 tions, regius professor, with a salary of 701. The 'Lectures' 

 were first published in 1 783, when he resigned the profes- 

 sorship. On the controverted question of the genuineness 

 of Ossian's poems, he published, in 1763, a ' Dissertation,' 

 in which he supported their claims to originality. He was 

 intimately acquainted with Macpherson, and his opinions 

 seem to have been in some degree influenced by his par- 

 tiality for the man, whom he thought incapable of im- 

 position. 



The career of Dr. Blair as a divine was marked both by 

 its success and usefulness. By the time he had attained his 

 fortieth year he was called upon to discharge one of the most 

 important ministries in the church, and for the long space 

 of forty-two years he was considered one of its greatest 

 ornaments. Notwithstanding his popularity as a preacher, he 



NO. 267. 



[THE PENNY CYCLOPAEDIA.] 



VOL. IV.- 3 S 



