B L A 



503 



B L A 



part of it being a proportion of a bequest made in 1621 by 

 William Williams, who left 30001. to be laid out in lands, 

 the proceeds to be applied for sundry charitable purposes, 

 among which was 51. per annum to enable the schoolmaster 

 of Blandford to afford instruction to ' four poor men's children 

 apt for learning.' This cannot however be considered a 

 free grammar-school, as the present master pays a rent of 

 101. a year for the school-house, and is under no obligation 

 to teach gratuitously any of the children of the town. There 

 is another* inefficient free-school at Blandford. It was ori- 

 ginally founded at Milton Abbas, six miles from Blandford, 

 by the abbot of Milton, in the year 1521 ; but its efficiency 

 was nullified by an act of parliament which, in 1 785, trans- 

 ferred the school to Blandford, in spite of the opposition of 

 the feoffees of the school. No children have been sent to 

 the school for education since its removal. 



Archbishop Wake founded a blue-coat school, and endowed 

 it with 1616/.,for the instruction and clothing of twelve boys. 

 In 1698 Robert Rideout bequeathed 50/. to the parish; and 

 John Bastard, in 1768, gave 600/., a part of the annual pro- 

 duce of both which sums is applicable to the purpose of 

 teaching poor children to read. For a town of its size Bland- 

 ford has a large amount of charities, consisting in alms- 

 houses, and sums left for apprenticing boys, and for sup- 

 plying the poor with bread, clothing, and alms. 



Besides Archbishop Wake, already mentioned, Blandford 

 gave birth to Dr. Lindesay, who was primate of Ireland at 

 the same time that Wake was primate of England. To 

 these we may add Bruno Ryves, D.D., who, during the civil 

 war, started the early newspaper called Mercurius Rusticus, 

 and who assisted in the Polyglott Bible ; Christopher Pitt, 

 the translator of Virgil ; and Thomas Creech, who suc- 

 cessively translated Lucretius, Horace, and Theocritus. 



(Hutchins's History of Dorset, 2nd edit. ; Maton's Obser- 

 vations on the Western Counties; Carlisle's Endowed 

 Grammar Schools ; Municipal Corporations' Reports, &c.) 



BLANK, GILBERT, an eminent physician, was the 

 fourth son of Gilbert Blane of BlaneBeld, in the county of 

 Ayr, in Scotland, at which place he was born on the 29th of 

 August, 1749. Being intended for the church, he was sent 

 to the university of Edinburgh ; but during his attendance 

 there certain conscientious scruples induced him to abandon 

 his original intention, and to devote himself to the study of 

 medicine. In the prosecution of this branch of science he 

 showed such ardour and industry as acquired for him the 

 notice not only of his fellow-students (among whom as a 

 member of the Speculative Society and Royal Medical So- 

 ciety he greatly distinguished himself), but also of Dr. 

 Robertson, the principal of the university, of Dr. Blair, and 

 Dr. Cullen. After obtaining his degree of Doctor of Medi- 

 cine he was recommended by Dr. Cullen to Dr. William 

 Hunter, at that time the most eminent teacher of anatomy 

 in London, and in high estimation as a physician. Through 

 his instrumentality Dr. Blane was appointed private physician 

 to Lord Holdernesse. This appointment introduced him to 

 the notice of many distinguished individuals, and among 

 others, to Lord Rodney, who nominated him his pri- 

 vate physician, in which capacity he accompanied Lord 

 Rodney, when in 1780 he assumed the command of the 

 squadron on the West Indian station. In the course of 

 the first engagement every officer being either killed, 

 wounded, or employed, Dr. Blane was intrusted by the 

 admiral with the duty of conveying his orders to the officers 

 at the guns, and in one of these dangerous missions lie was 

 slightly wounded. As a reward for his services on this 

 occasion, and on the recommendation of Lord Rodney, he 

 was instituted at once, without going through the subordi- 

 nate grades, to the high office of physician to the fleet. 

 In the execution of his duties he was unremitting, and ex- 

 erted himself most beneficially in preserving the health 

 and efficiency, as well as in promoting the comfort of the 

 seamen, on that sickly station. He was present during six 

 engagements under his friend and patron Lord Rodney, 

 and of the battle of the 12th of April, 1782, he gave so 

 animated an account in a letter to Lord Stair, that his nar- 

 rative was published. He remained on the West Indian 

 station till 1783. Soon after his return to England he em- 

 bodied the results of his experience, and also many of the 

 conclusions drawn from the returns of the surgeons of the 

 ships, in a volume, which he published in 1783, entitled 

 Observations on the Diseases of Seamen, 8vo. London. This 

 work has several times been reprinted, with enlargements 

 and improvements. 



As his appointment was of a nature to preclude his being 

 allowed hall-pay, a unanimous application was made by all 

 the officers who had been on the West Indian station to 

 the Admiralty to bestow upon Dr. Blane some reward ; and 

 accordingly a pension was granted him by the crown, the 

 amount of which was subsequently doubled, on the recom- 

 mendation of the Lords of the Admiralty. 



In the course of his residence in the West Indies he fre- 

 quently met the present king, William IV., then Duke 

 of Clarence, serving as a midshipman in Lord Rodney's 

 fleet. Dr. Biane obtained the favourable regard of his 

 Royal Highness, and upon determining to settle in London 

 as a physician, he was by the influence of the Duke of 

 Clarence appointed physician extraordinary to the Prince 

 of Wales. In 1 785 he was elected physician to St. Thomas's 

 Hospital, in his canvass for which he was greatly assisted 

 by Lord Rodney. About this time he was appointed one 

 of the commissioners of sick and wounded sailors ; and in 

 1795 was placed at the head of the Navy Medical Board. 

 During the time that Earl Spencer was first lord of the 

 admiralty, Dr. Blane, seconded by that nobleman, was 

 enabled to effect the introduction into every ship of the use 

 of lemon-juice, as a preventive and cure for scurvy. This 

 measure has had the beneficial effect of almost completely 

 eradicating scurvy at sea, and has done more to keep up 

 our naval force in a state of efficiency than any other 

 measure. [See ANTISCORBUTICS.] Dr. Blane zealously 

 directed his attention to improve the condition both of the 

 men engaged in the service, and of the medical officers 

 whose duty it was to superintend their health. He caused 

 regular returns or journals of the state of health and disease 

 to be kept by every surgeon in the service, and forwarded 

 periodically to the Navy Board. From a careful examina- 

 tion of these returns, he drew up several dissertations 

 which were read before the Medico-Chirurgical Society, in 

 whose transactions they were subsequently published. 



In 1786 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, 

 who appointed him to deliver the Croonian Lecture in 

 1788. He selected for his subject 'Muscular Motion,' his 

 treatment of which evinced the extent and variety of his 

 knowledge as well as the originality of his mind. It was 

 printed in 1791, 4to., and reprinted in his Select Disserta- 

 tions, London, 1 822, of which a second edition appeared in 

 two volumes, 1834. An essay on the ' Nardus,' or spikenard 

 of the ancients, was published in the Transactions of the 

 Royal Society, vol. 80, in the year 1790. During the scarcity 

 in 1 799 and 1 800, he published an ' Inquiry into the Causes 

 and Remedies of the late and present Scarcity and High 

 Price of Provisions, in a Letter to the Right Hon. Earl 

 Spencer, First Lord of the Admiralty, &c., dated 8th Nq-i 

 vember, 1800 ; with Observations on the Distresses of Agri- 

 culture and Commerce which have prevailed for the last 

 three years, by Sir Gilbert Blane, Bart., F.R.S,, Physician 

 to the Prince Regent, 8vo.' This tract was first published 

 in the end of the year 1800, without the author's name ; 

 but a second edition, with considerable alterations and addi- 

 tions, was printed exclusively in the ' Pamphleteer' in 1817, 

 vol. ix. No. xvii., of which some impressions were issued 

 separately. 



Having attained great eminence as a physician, and his 

 private practice becoming very extensive, he resigned his 

 office of physician to St. Thomas's Hospital. He re- 

 corded some of his observations made during the period of 

 twenty years that he held that situation, in a dissertation 

 on the Comparative Prevalence and Mortality of different 

 diseases in London, which was published in the Transactions 

 of the Medico-Chirurgical Society, and reprinted in his. 

 Select Dissertations. 



The last public service on which he was employed 

 was on a professional mission to inquire and report on the 

 cause of the sickness of the army in Walcheren in 1809 ; 

 and to Northfleet, to report on the expediency of establish- 

 ing a dock-yard and naval arsenal at that place in 1810. 

 His great merit and public services were rewarded by the 

 title of a baronet conferred upon him in 1812; he was also 

 appointed physician in ordinary to the Prince Regent in the 

 same year. 



In 1819 he published Elements of Medical Logic, which 

 in a few years went through several editions. Of all his 

 writings, this is calculated to be the most permanently and 

 extensively useful, his other productions mostly referring to 

 subjects of temporary interest. His observations on the 

 diseases of seamen however must always be worthy the at- 



