B L A 



B L A 



monies of France from the eftablilTiment of the monarchy. 

 Accordingly he publi(hcd " A Treatilc on the Monies of 

 France," Paris, l6(j8, 4X0. with figures ; reprinted at Am- 

 (lerda:;i, 4to. [692. To this is uftia'.ly annexed his diffcr- 

 tation, pubh(hed the preceding year, " On the coins of 

 Charlemagne and his fuccefToro Itruck at Rome." He was 

 chofen hiftorical tutor to the royal children ; but died be- 

 fore he entered on his office, at Vcrfaiilcs in 169S. Nouv. 

 Dift. Hitl. 



Blanc, John- Bernard Le, Abbe, hiftoringrapher of 

 the public building', and member of the acailemies of La 

 Cmfca, and of the Arcadi at Rome, was born at Dijon in 

 1707, and engaging in the literary, career, wrote a trajjedy 

 entitled " Abenlaid," which, notwiihftat'.ding the haUiinefs 

 of its verfific^-tian, was at firil well received. At Paris, where 

 he fettl.d, he cbtaipcd iriends ^;id patrons; and in 1746 

 Manpertuls was empowered by the king of Prufiia to oSer 

 him a reiidenci-, as a man of l>;tters, at his court, winch he 

 declined accepting. His " Letters on the Entjhfli nation," 

 in 3 vols. l2mo. 1758, are the mott known of his works, 

 and were occafioncd by his villt to England. The Ityle is 

 heavy, and the thoughts trite and vulgar, fo that they 

 are now little read.' He died in 1 78 1. Nouv. Diet. 

 Hift. 



Blanc, Lewis Le, Sicur Je Bcauliai, a profcfTor of divi- 

 nity at Sedan in the 17th century, was born at Plefiis-Marii, 

 where his father was minillcr, and in the progrcf; ot his life, 

 of which few particulars are recorded, was dii'tiiiguilhed by 

 his learning and virtue. He died in 1675, at the age of 60 

 years and 6 months. His " Thtfes Theologies:" were col- 

 lefted into one volume after his death, palTtd through feveral 

 editions, and are highly worthy of an attentive pemial. The 

 firll edition wasprinted at Sedan in 4to, and two other editions 

 were printed in England ; the third in 1 683. He was eminent 

 for the perfuafive power of hi? eloquence, and dilcovered an 

 uncommon degree of penetration and fagacily in his writings 

 and negucialions. Anxious for a reconcliation and union 

 between the Reformed and Romifh churches, he pafled in 

 review many of the controverfies that divided them, and 

 feemed to prove, with the utmoll perfpiciiity, that fome of 

 them were merely difputes about words, and that the others 

 were of much leis conftquence than was generally imagined. 

 This manner of llating the differences betv.ecn the two 

 churches drew upon him the indignation of thofe who re- 

 garded all attempts to foften and modify contro' ertcd doc- 

 trines as dangerous and detrimental to the caufe of truth. 

 Among thefe we may reckon Amauld, Saurin, and Jnrieu. 

 On the other hand, the acutenefs and dexterity with which 

 he treated this delicate fubjecl, made a confulerable imprcf- 

 fion upon feveral perfons, and procured him difciples who en- 

 tertained his reconciling fentiments, but either entirely con- 

 cealed them, or difcovered th:m with caution, as they were 

 known to be difpleafiiig to the greatell part of the membtrs 

 of both communions. Some of Le Blanc's fern>o:iS were 

 printed at Sedan in 1675. Gen. Diet. art. A-n/i/Vci/. Mofn. 

 £ccl. Hilf, vol. v. p. 379. 



Blasc, Le.vis Lt, a flcilful furgeou and hthctomiil of 

 Orleans, publiihcd in 1764 " A Dlfcuurfe on th^ iitihly of 

 Anatomy ;" and in 1768, '■ Nouvellc Mcthode d'operer des 

 Hernies," 8vo. He recoxm.eiids dilating the ring with the 

 finger, if practicable, which it ulually is, lie fays, in recent 

 cafes ; in thofe of long iianding, with a p?.ir of lorceps he in- 

 vented for the pnrpoie, inilcad of ufr.ig the knitc. This 

 doitrine having been oppofed by Ant. Louis, he was an- 

 fwered by I^e Blanc in a difTertation on t!ic fubjeiS, pubhflied 

 in the fourth volume of the Memoirs of tiie Academy of 

 Surgery. After reducing the intc.line, by his method, no 

 trufs is wanted, as is invariably the cafe when ihe ring is 



Vol. IV. 



opened by incifion. The forceps are introduced into the 

 ring, clofed, and open themfelvcs by the force of an elattic 

 fpring. He alfo wrote on the operation for the Hone, on the 

 method of extracti:!g fmall portions of the placenta left in 

 the uterus, and furtl-.er obfervations on the cure of hernia. 

 Thcfc papers were publilhedin die 30th, 35th, and 39th vo- 

 lumes of the Journal de Medicine. In 1775 he publifhed 

 " Precis d'operations de Chirurgie," 2 vol. 8vo. containing 

 the fubftance of the above, with fome additional obfervations. 

 Haller. Bib. Anat. de Chirurg. 



BLAKC-ffrnnfjv, Fr. q. d. mhltefood, in Domeflic Economy, 

 is a preparation cf dilTolved illnglafs, milk, fugar, cinnamon, 

 &c. boiled into a thick confiftence, and garniftied for 

 tlic table with blanched almonds. It is coohng and 

 lirengihening 



Blancs inarJeaux, in Eccte/lafucal Hiftory, a name origi- 

 naily given to the Serviles, or iervants of the Bleffed Virgin, 

 on account of their white cloaks; but lince applied to divers 

 forts of religious, who h.ave fucceiTivcly inhabited the houfe 

 of the Seyji'cs, and now to the Bei.'edi<Sine3 at Paris, though 

 habited in black. 



Blanc, Mor.t, in Geography, a lofty mountain of Savoy, 

 in ti'.e duchy of Faucigny, being part of the ancient " Alpes 

 Penninsc." See Alps. This is reckoned the moft eleva- 

 ted mountain of the ancient continent, its height above the 

 level of the fea being, according to the calculations of M. de 

 Luc, 15,304 Er!gli(h feet; or, according to the meafuremeut 

 of fir George Shuckburgh, 15,662 feet. This accurate ob- 

 fsrver informs us (Phi!. Tranf. vol. Lxvii. p. 595), that the 

 height of Vefuvius, eftimated by SaufFureat 3,900 feet, placed 

 upon mount .ffitna, elevated, according to fir George, 10,954 

 feet, would not be equal to the height of Mont Blar.c, which 

 he luppofes to be the moll elevated point of Europe, Afia, and 

 Africa. This mountain, obferved from the "Colde Balme," 

 and the vale of " Cham.ouny," is particularly diflinguifhed 

 from other mountains by a mantle of fnow, which clothes its 

 fummit and fides, almolt without the intervention of the lead 

 rock to break die glare of the "white" appearance, from 

 which its name is derived. Thofe who have feen it from 

 the valley of Aoft obferve, that on that fide it do^s not ap- 

 pear to be covered with a mantle of fnow, and that it ex- 

 ceeds the Schreckhorn in ruggedncfs and horror. See 

 ScHRECKHORN. Thofe who are totally unacquainted ^vith 

 Alpine fcenes, laysMr.Coxe, (Swiff, vol. ii. p. 5.) may, per- 

 haps, conceive a faint idea of this gigantic mountain, on 

 being informed, that the mantle of fnow, which appears to 

 cover its top and lides, exceeds an altitude of 4000 feet per- 

 pendicular, and 90C0 feet in an horizontal direction from the 

 dome of Goutc, to the fummit ; and that the height of the 

 fnow and ice, elliraated from the fouroe of the Arveron, at 

 the bottom of the glacier of Montanvert, to the fummit of 

 Mont Blanc, cannot be Icfs than 12,000 perpendicular feet, 

 or near three times as high as Snowdon in North Wales. The 

 highclt point of tiiis mountain appears like a compreffed 

 hemifphere, and is called from its form " La BofTe du D;o- 

 medaire ;" from that point it gradually finks, prcfenting a 

 kind of concave furfacc of fuov,', in the m.idll of which is a 

 fm:dl pyramid of ice ; it then rifes into a fccond hemifphtre, 

 called by fome" Lilde Mont Blanc," but more propei>!y by 

 others " Le Dome du Milieu," or the " Middle Dome ;" 

 thence it defcer.ds into another concave furface teriinnating 

 in a point, indifcriininately llyltd by tlie natives " Aiguille 

 dc Goutc" " Point de G.>utc," and '• Dome de Gouic ;" 

 from this dome it ends abruptly, and loles itfelf amid the 

 mountains that bound the vale ot Chamouny. Five glaciers 

 extend into this vale, r.nd are fcparated from one another by 

 forells, corn-fields, and meadows ; fo tiiat large tratls of ice 

 aie blended with cultivation, and perpetually fucceed each 

 3 Z other 



