B L O 



B L O 



honoured with letters patent from the king for the fuper- 

 intendep'x of all the public works in Paris. To him were in- 

 truded the repair and decorations of the gates of St. An- 

 tony and St. Bernard ; and the gate of St. Denfe, one of the 

 moll finifhed pieces of French architeftiire, was defigned and 

 ereifted by himfelf. In the office of direftor and profeflbr 

 of the Academy of Architcfture, eftablifhed in 1671, he 

 gave " A Courle of Architeflure," which was pubUfhed in 

 large folio, in 1698, and which was long conlidered as a 

 ftandard book. In l^'S< ^^ prefented to the king his trea- 

 tifes " On the art of throwing bombs," printed in l6Byi 

 4to. and " Oii a new method of fortification," which pro- 

 cured for him the rank of mardial de camp. His other 

 works were " Notes on the architefture of Savot ;" the 

 •' Refolution of four principal problems of architefture," 

 Paris, 1676, fol. ; " A Courfe of mathematics," Paris, 1683, 

 4to. ; the " Hiilory of the Roman calendar," Paris, 1682, 

 4to. ; and a " Comparifon between Pindar and Horace." 

 He alfo communicated fevtral ingenious pieces to the Royal 

 Academy of Sciences, which are inferted in their Memoires* 

 particularly for the year 1666. He died at Paris, Feb. I. 

 1686. Gen. Dift. 



Bi-ONDEL, Francis, was admitted doflor in medicine at 

 Paris, the place of his birth, in 1632. As he had acquired 

 confiderable reputation as a (cholar, he was engaged, on the 

 death of Chartier, to aflift in completinghismagnificentedition 

 of the works of Hippocrates and Galen, three volumes ot 

 which were lelt uiifinilhed. He was anavowedopponent tothe 

 admidion of antimony, and of all chemical preparations, into 

 the practice of medicine, coinciding in that refpeft with his co- 

 temporary and coadjutor, Guy Patin. In 1658, he was made 

 dean of the faculty of medicine, which office he held the fol- 

 lowing year. In 1660, lie publifhed " Statuta facultatis 

 medicinx," Paris, izmo. ; and in 1665, an epillle to Alliot, 

 " De cura carcinomatis, abfque ferro et igne," 4to. Alliot 

 ufed for the purpofe a medicine prepared from the arfeniciim 

 rubrum> diflolved in aqua fortis, and precipitated with the 

 acetum faturni. The precipitate was then wafhed, by re- 

 peated affufions of warm water, and its caufticity further mi- 

 tigated by burning fpirits of wine, in which it was immerfed, 

 until the powder became perfeftly infipid. Blondel died 

 Sept, 5th, 1682. Haller. Bib. Chii-urg. et Med. Eloy Did. 

 Hiil. 



Blondel, Francis, born at Liege in 1613, ftudied me- 

 dicine at Cologne, and was for fome time phyfician to the 

 eleilor of Treves. On the death of that prince, in 11^52, he 

 went to Aix, and was appointed phyfician and fuperintend- 

 ant of the baths in that city. In 1663, he publidied " Lettre 

 de Francis Blondel a Jaques Didier, touchant les eaux mine- 

 rales chaudes d'AiK, et de Borfct, et les cures qui fe font 

 faites par fon ufage," Erux. i2mo. j and in 167 1, " Ther- 

 marum, aquifgranenfuim, et porcetanarum defcriptio," which 

 was reprinted in 1688, in 410. with engi-avings, and confider- 

 able additions. He died in 1703, much regretted by the inha- 

 bitants of Aix, having, by his writings, fo recommended the 

 waters, as coiifiderably to increafe the refort of patients there. 

 Eloy. Did. Hift. 



' Blondel, James Augustus, of aFrenchfamily, butborn 

 in England, and admitted licentiate of the college of phylicians 

 in London about the year 1720 ; publilhed, in 1727, " The 

 ilrength of imagination in pregnant women examined, and 

 the opinion that marks and deformities in children ariie from 

 thence, demonftrated to be a vulgar error," 121T10. Though 

 Dr. B. had not put his name to this work, yet his neighbour 

 and colleague, Dr.Turner, difcovering that he was the writer, 

 and confidering it as an attack upon what he bad faid on 

 the fubjeft, in the 12th chapter of his trcatife on the difcafes 



of the {kin, in which he gives numerous inftancfs of marks 

 and deformities in the bodies of children, impreilcd on them 

 by the difturbed imaginations of the parents, thought him- 

 felf called upon to explain and to defend what he had there 

 advanced. He therefore, in an appendix to his trcatife on 

 gleets, publifhed the following year, gave fome additional 

 obfen.-ation3 on the fubjeft, in further proof of the influence 

 of the affeftions of the mother over the fa:tus in utero. To 

 this Dr. Blondel replied, in 1729, and with much humour, as 

 well as argument, (hewed the abfnrdity and fallacy of the 

 opinion maintained by his antagonift ; who, if he infifted on 

 his point, mull admit that animals, and even plants, are under 

 the influence of the fame affeftions ; their fcctufes being fre- 

 quently produced equally defeftive and monftrous as thofe of 

 the human fpecies. The anfwcr is entitled, <' The power of 

 the mother's imagination over the foetus examined, in anfwer 

 to Dr Daniel Turner's book, entitled, 'A Defence of the 

 1 2th chapter of his treatife, de movbis cutaneis." This drew 

 a more ferious reply from Dr. Turner, addrelTed immediately 

 to his opponent, under the title of " The force of the mo- 

 ther's imagination upon the fcctus in utcro ftill farther con- 

 fidered, in the way of a reply to Dr. Blondel's laft book, by, 

 8ic." 1730, 8vo. But though the doftor fupports himfelf 

 with the authority of Schenckius, Hildanns, Horftius, and 

 many other coUeftors of wonderful and extraordinary (lories, 

 the good fenfe of his antagonill prevailed, and he has the 

 merit of having contributed very largely towards removing 

 the prejudices on this fubjeft, which had prevailed for ages, 

 and, with them, the folicitude and anxiety which never failed 

 to torment the minds of fuch women as had the misfortune, 

 while pregnant, to fee or hear any thing, (Irongly affcfling 

 their imaginations, left their oflspring (hould be born with 

 fome defedl or defonnity. It is now pretty generally known, 

 that no fuch confequences follow, and that the few cafes in 

 which children are produced defeftive, with redundant parts, 

 or in any way diftorted, happen indifferently, where the mo- 

 ther has or has not, in the courfe of her pregnancy, received 

 fome fiiock or alarm. The power of the imagination in 

 marking, diftorting, or deforming the foetus in utero is va- 

 iiifhed, with the witches, ghofts, and hobgoblins, formerly 

 equally objefts of diflrefs and terror. Haller. Bib. Chir. et 

 Med. Praft. Eloy Dift. Hift. 



There is another writer of the name mentioned by biblio- 

 graphers. 



Blondel, Jaques, furgeon of Lifle in Flanders. He 

 tranflated the Chirurgia militaris of Nicolas Godin, under the- 

 title of " La Chirurgie militaire, tres utile a tous ceux qui 

 veulent fuivre un camp, en terns de guerre, pareillement a tous 

 autres en condition peftilente ou dyfcnterique, ecrite en 

 latin, par Nic. Godin," Anver?, 155S, Svo. 



Blondel, John Francis, was born at Rouen in 1705 ; 

 and was known, not only as architeft to the king, member of 

 the Academy of Architcdlure, and royal profcflor of the art 

 at the Louvre, but by feveral ufeful publications ; as " A 

 Difcourfe on Architefture," i2mo.; " A Treatife on the 

 decoration of buildings," 1738, 2 vols. 4to. ; " A Courfe of 

 Architeclure," 6 vols. 8vo. 1771 — 1773. The two laft 

 were publiflied in 1777, 5 ye^''^ after his death. M. de 

 Ballide alfo publifhed, in 1774, a pofthumous work of Blon- 

 del, entitled, " L'homme du monde eclairc, par les Arts," 

 8vo. 2 vols. Blondel was the author of the articles relating 

 to architedlure in the Encyclopedic, He died Jan. 9, 1774. 

 Encycl. 



BLONDIN Peter, a native of Picardy, bom Dec. 18th 

 1682, was a difciple of Tournefort, by whofe advice he tra- 

 velled over Picartly, Normandy, and the ifle of France, to im- 

 prove himfelf in botany. In the courfe of his excurfion, he 



difco- 



1 



