B L E 



511 



B L E 



of land ih the adjoining parish of Nutfield, and a house ant 

 garden for the master were afterwards bequeathed b' 

 Mr. Bostock of Tanridge. The property produces some 

 thing more than 20/. a year, which continues to be appro 

 priated according to the directions of the founder. Then 

 are eleven almshouses at Blechingley, and some smal 

 charitable donations for the benefit of the poor. (Aubrey's 

 Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey; Salmon's 

 Antiquities of Surrey; Manning's History and Antiq. oj 

 Surrey, fyc.) 



BLE'DIUS, a genus of insects of the order Coleoptera 

 and family Stenidce. Generic characters: antennas will: 

 the basal joint very long, the remaining joints bent at ar 

 angle with the first ; maxillary palpi with the second anc 

 third joints large, terminal one slender ; mandibles armec 

 with a tooth internally towards the apex ; body elongate anc 

 cylindrical ; head furnished with two tubercles or spines ; 

 thorax armed with a horn in the males ; legs short, the four 

 anterior tibiae broad and flat, having numerous spines on 

 the external part ; tarsi four-jointed. 



The Bledii appear to be peculiar to the sea-coast, where 

 they burrow in the wet clay or sand near pools of water, by 

 means of the spined anterior tibiae above described ; they 

 are gregarious in their habits. Three species have been 

 discovered in this country, all of which are of a black colour, 

 with the wing-cases more or less red. 



Blediui tricornis, in the male sex, has two short horns 

 on the head, and one long smooth horn proceeding horizon- 

 tally from the front of the thorax. Length about 3-12ths 

 of an inch. 



H. Taurus, in the male, has two long and slender horns 

 on the head ; the thoracic horn is pubescent at the apex ; 

 about the same size as the last. 



B. Ruddii has short acute horns on the head, and the 

 thoracic horn pubescent at the apex ; it is rather less than 

 the two foregoing. 



BLEEDING, the operation by which blood is removed 

 from the body, with a view to the prevention and cure of 

 disease. Bleeding is either general or local. General 

 bleeding is practised when the object is to lessen the whole 

 mass of the circulating blood ; local, when the object is to 

 lessen the quantity in some particular part of the body. 

 General bleeding consists either in opening a vein (vene- 

 section), or in opening an artery (arteriotomy). Vene- 

 section, the most common mode of abstracting blood, is a 

 simple operation, and in skilful hands neat, elegant, and 

 safe ; but in unskilful nands dirty, bungling, and exceed- 

 ingly unsafe: it is always performed with a lancet. Various 

 means are employed for the removal of blood from parti- 

 cular parts of the body ; such as cupping-glasses, the sca- 

 rificator, the division of visibly distended vessels with a 

 lancet, and leeches. The mode of performing the operation 

 of venesection and arteriotomy is fully detailed in the com- 

 mon books on surgery, where the requisite precautions are 

 pointed out. It is only necessary to add here, in reference 

 to local bleeding, and more especially to the application of 

 leeches, that when there is a difficulty in making leeches 

 fix readily on any particular part, they may often be made 

 to do so at once, by first cooling the part with a cloth dipped 

 in cold water, or by moistening it with cream or milk, and 

 then confining the leeches in the proper situation under a 

 small glass. It should be borne in mind, that these ani- 

 mals are cold-blooded, that heat is highly injurious to them, 

 and that handling them with the warm hand, or keeping 

 them long out of water in a heated room, totally unfits them 

 for the performance of their office. Great fatigue to the 

 patient, great aggravation of his disease, and even the loss of 

 life itself, sometimes result from the ignorant and unskilful 

 manner in which attempts are made to apply leeches. In 

 the diseases of infants and children especially, in which ge- 

 neral bleeding can rarely be employed, the preservation of 

 life constantly depends on the efficient application of 

 leeches. 



It is scarcely one time in a hundred that the physician 

 finds a single person in a family who has the slightest notion 

 of the proper mode of performing this service to the sick. 

 It would be wonderful indeed were it otherwise, when the 

 education of women, in reference to the entire class of sub- 

 jects the knowledge of which is necessary to qualify them 

 for the performance of their duties as nurses and as mothers, 

 is universally and wholly neglected. 



The conditions of the system which require the abstrac- 

 tion of blood, and the benefit which the removal of it is 



capable of effecting, will be better understood after reading 

 the account of the blood. [See BLOOD.] 



BLEIBERG, or BLEYBERG, on the Drave, a market- 

 town of Upper Carinthia, at present comprehended in the 

 circle of Villach, in the Austrian kingdom of Illyria, and at 

 the foot of the Bleyberg, or Lead Mountain, to the south- 

 west of the town of Villach. It is the seat of one of the 

 Austrian mining departments, and its neighbourhood con- 

 tains valuable quarries of white and variegated marbles, 

 copper, and lead ; indeed the lead here raised is es- 

 teemed the puiest in the Austrian dominions, and is in 

 high repute in the east of Germany, Italy, and the adja- 

 cent countries. There are six principal and forty minor 

 shafts in full work, which produce annually between 1700 

 and 2000 tons of metal. These, together with the copper 

 mines and the production of about eighty tons of red lead, 

 employ eight works in breaking the ores, &c., nineteen 

 in washing, and twenty-one in smelting. The town of 

 Bleiberg being composed of five villages, spreads over a con- 

 siderable surface : it contains one Catholic church, a Pro- 

 testant place of worship, about 600 houses, and about 3700 

 inhabitants. 



BLE'MUS, a genus of insects of the order Coleoptera 

 and family Harpalidai. Generic characters: head almost 

 as large as the thorax, the portion joining the anterior 

 part of the eyes distinctly elevated ; antenna) very long ; 

 palpi with the terminal joint somewhat conical and rather 

 acute; labium slightly notched in front; thorax consider- 

 ably narrowed posteriorly ; body elongate and rather de- 

 pressed, wings ample ; the joints of the anterior tarsi of the 

 male dilated. 



About six British species of this genus have been disco- 

 vered, the largest of which does not exceed 3-1 2ths of an 

 inch. All the species are of a pale-yellow or ochre colour, 

 having more or less of a bluish shade on the disc of the 

 elytra, excepting B. consputus, which, although generally 

 placed in this genus we do not consider as strictly belong- 

 ing to it. Blemus fasciatus, which may be considered the 

 type of the genus, is rather more than 2-12ths of an inch 

 in length, and of a pale-ochre colour, with a blue-black 

 Fascia crossing the elytra. This beautiful little species has 

 been found near London, and in various other parts ; but, 

 [ike all the species of this genus, is rather scarce. 



BLENDE, a name particularly given to zinc-blende, but 

 most commonly used by mineralogists as denoting an order 

 which in the system of Professor Jameson of Edinburgh 

 contains the following genera : Manganese-blende, Zinc- 

 jlende or Garnet-blende, Antimony-blende, Ruby-blende. 

 The word is probably derived from a German verb (used only 

 n combinations) signifying to mix: the term ' blende' 

 signifies a mineral which contains no ore in fact a pseudo- 

 alena. 



BLENHEIM, or BLENDHE1M, a village on the 

 Danube, not far from the town of Hochstiidt, in the circle 

 of the Upper Danube in Bavaria. The population of this 

 ilace and its environs is about 1500 souls. It was the 

 scene of Marlborough's great victory on the 13th of August, 

 [ 704, when, at the head of the British troops, aided by 

 Prince Eugene and the Imperialists, he totally defeated the 

 French and Bavarian forces under Marshal Tallard. The 

 marshal himself and 12,000 of his troops were taken pri- 

 soners ; and his artillery and bagjjage fell into the hands of 

 .he conquerors. At Blenheim in Bavaria also the Austrians 

 were defeated by the French in the year 1800. 



BLENHEIM PARK, the name of an extra-parochial 

 listrict in the county of Oxford, seven miles N.W. from 

 hat city, and sixty miles W.N.W. from London, containing 

 seventeen houses in 1831, with a population of eighty-three 

 >ersons. The district inclosed by walls comprehends about 

 !700 acres, and is said to be upwards of twelve miles in 

 circuit. It is a demesne-appendage to Blenheim House, 

 vhich was erected at the public expense for the duke 

 )f Marlborough in the reign of Queen Anne, when par- 

 iament voted 500.000/. for the purpose, in testimony of 

 he public gratitude for the services which he had rendered 



the nation. The queen enhanced the value of this gift 

 iy adding the grant of the honour of Woodstock, an antient 

 iroperty of the crown. Although apparently intended as 



1 general acknowledgment of the duke's services, the victory 

 ver the French and Bavarians near the village of Blen- 



leim, on the Danube, on the 2nd of August, 1 704, is that 

 o which the grants had more especial reference, and from 

 vhich the place takes its name. It was enacted that on 



