312 



BLARNEY BLIND, 



a Baronet by patent, dated I>cc. ->, 

 1S12. In Nov. 1829, with tin- sanction of the 

 lords of the admiralty, he founded a prize medal 

 fur the best journal kept by the surgeons of his 

 .Ma| .-s:\'s navy. The medal is awarded every 

 second year, the commissioners selecting four jour- 

 nals Sir Gilbert during his life, and thenceforth 

 the president of the college of physicians, and the 

 president of the college of surgeons, deciding which 

 of such four is best entitled to this honorary dis- 

 tinction. This judicious institution is calculated 

 to excite considerable emulation in the medical de- 

 partments of the navy ; and, by bringing the jour- 

 nals from time to time before the notice of the 

 board, insure to the most deserving the promotion 

 which, in this most important branch of the public 

 service, is, or ought to be, given only to merit, 

 lie married, July 11, 1786, Elizabeth, only daughter 

 of Abraham Gardner, merchant ; and by that lady, 

 who died on the 9th of July 1832, he had six sons 

 and three daughters. He himself died on the 27th 

 June 1834, aged 85. His eldest son, Gilbert Gard- 

 ner Blane, Esq., died in February 1833, aged 45. 

 His second son, Lieut. George Rodney Blane, of 

 the Bengal engineers, died on the 18th of May 

 1821. His successor in the title, the present Sir 

 Hugh Seymour Blane, served with distinction at 

 Waterloo, as an officer of the 3d guards. He is 

 married, and has issue. Sir Gilbert has left one 

 other son, Charles Collins. His daughter Louisa 

 was accidentally drowned in a piece of water on 

 her uncle's estate at Winkfield park, Aug. 24, 1813, 

 aged 19. The others died in infancy. 



BLARNEY; a village in the county of Cork, 

 five miles from the city of Cork, containing by the 

 last census 253 inhabitants. The castle of Blarney 

 was built in the 15th century. It was purchased 

 in 1701 by Sir James Jefferys, governor of Cork, 

 who soon after erected a large and handsome house 

 in front of it, which was the family residence for 

 many years, but is now a ruin. The " Groves of 

 Blarney," celebrated in Irish song, are of considera- 

 ble extent, and very interesting. In the highest 

 part of Blarney castle, is a stone usually pointed 

 out to the visitor, which is said to have the power 

 of imparting to the person who kisses it the pri- 

 vilege of hazarding, without a blush, that species of 

 romantic assertion which many term falsehood. 

 Hence the phrase of blarney, applied to such viola- 

 tions of accuracy in narration. 



BLIND, (a.) The effects of blindness upon 

 the physical man, whatever they may be upon the 

 intellectual, are decidedly pernicious ; not directly 

 and necessarily, but, nevertheless, almost inevita- 

 bly. The mind is not called into action, the mus- 

 cuhr power is not developed by exercise and 

 labour, the sufferer dares not run about and play 

 with his comrades; he cannot work in the open 

 air, nor get the healthful movement which is neces- 

 sary to bring the frame to the temper that will 

 enable it to wear well in after life ; and it conse- 

 quently soon wears out. Hence we see so many 

 of the blind, who were comparatively intelligent 

 and active in childhood, gradually drooping through 

 youth into premature old age; becoming first inac- 

 tive, then stupid, then idiotic, and finally going 

 down to an early grave with the light of intellect 

 completely extinguished, and enveloped in both 

 physical and intellectual darkness. This is purely 

 the effect of physical inaction; and this inaction 

 always must have this effect; hence so few strong 

 men are found among the blind, hence so many 



weak and helpless ones. The development of some 

 of the particular powers seems also to be affected 

 by blindness : this is particularly observable in re- 

 gard to the sexual propensity, which, while it is 

 particularly strong in the deaf, is weak in the 

 blind; and for the very obvious reason that the 

 imagination is fed in the one case by the sight, u/id 

 in the other is not. The same principle which 

 causes the physical inability of the blind, contri- 

 butes mainly to the perfection of the Arises which 

 they possess, for these are called into strong and 

 continual action. The touch, the hearing, and the 

 smell of the blind, sometimes become so acute that 

 they differ as widely from the same senses in the 

 state in which we possess them, as does the scent 

 of the spaniel from that of the grayhound. 



It is a popular, but unphilosophical saying, that 

 when " we are of one sense bereft, it but retires 

 into the rest." The blind man does not hear any 

 better, merely because he has not the sense of 

 sight; but because his peculiar situation and wants 

 oblige him to cultivate his ear; just as the sailor 

 acquires a power of descrying vessels at a distance, 

 which is unattainable by the eye of a landsman. 

 The hearing is the sense which seems to us the 

 most changed in the blind, although we are aware 

 that many people, and even many of the blind 

 themselves, say it is the touch. May we not, how- 

 ever, call all the senses mere modifications of the 

 sense of touch ? WbatistoucA? Lexicographers 

 call it the sense of feeling ; now this sense of feel- 

 ing is inherent in a greater or less degree in every 

 part of the surface of the body ; in the lips it is 

 very acute, in the ear it is still more so, and the 

 undulations of the air, striking upon the apparatus 

 of hearing, are felt, just as the pressure of a hard 

 substance is by the rest of the body. Is not the 

 power of vision, too, dependent on the touch ? 

 The rays of light strike upon the retina, and we 

 feel colour. The taste is decidedly a modification 

 of touch, and the power of distinguishing the phy- 

 sical qualities of bodies by the lips and tongue is 

 very striking in the blind. People are not generally 

 aware of the powers of the ear : blind men, for in- 

 stance, have been known, who could not only as- 

 certain the shape arid dimensions of an apartment 

 by the sound of their voice, but who could, on en- 

 tering one with which they were familiar, tell by 

 striking their cane on the floor, and listening to the 

 echo, whether any of the large articles of furniture 

 had been removed from it, or shifted from their 

 usual places. What seeing person would think it 

 possible with his eyes bandaged, to tell which was 

 the tallest, and which was the shortest of a number 

 of speakers, merely by the direction in which the 

 sound came from their mouths to his ear? Yet 

 many blind persons can not only do this, but can 

 ascertain very nearly the ages of the persons. 

 There is no doubt that the voice is changed with 

 every changing year; we seize only upon the ex- 

 tremes of the chain ; we can tell the shrill scream 

 of the child, from the rough firm voice of manhood, 

 and the trembling tones of old age; but besides 

 these, besides the difference in the volume and 

 pitch which exists between the voices of different 

 persons, there is another produced by the course of 

 years; arid time stamps his impress upon the voice, 

 as surely as upon the face. The blind man tests 

 these by his practised ear, and not only can ascer- 

 tain with tolerable correctness the age of the 

 speaker, but pronounce upon his height, dimen- 

 sions of his chest, and so forth. Nor is this the 



