BLADE. 
Europe, particularly of the district around Naples, 
and was introduced to Great Britain in 1568. It 
usually attains a height of about 10 or 12 feet; 
its branches have a whitish colour, and give it a 
unique appearance during winter ; its leaves are 
pinnated, and consist of four or five pairs of oval 
and top-indented folioles, with a terminating odd 
one, and have a very pleasing appearance; its 
flowers are papilionaceous, numerous, clustered, 
and yellow, and they stand on long and slender 
footstalks, and bloom from June till August ; and 
the pods are large and inflated like bladders, 
partially appear at the same time as the later 
flowers, and have an arresting effect upon the 
eye the first few times of their being seen. This 
plant is sufficiently scenic and beautiful of itself 
to secure esteem, and quite hardy enough to re- 
sist the damaging effects of our severest winters; 
yet, in order to be protected from fractures and 
splittings by high winds, it requires to be planted 
among other tall shrubs or low trees. It is said 
to have been cultivated by the ancient Greeks of 
the district around Athens for the fattening of 
sheep. 
The oriental or bloody bladder-senna, Colutea 
cruenta, is a native of the Levant, and was intro- 
duced to Great Britain early in last century. It 
usually grows to the height of about five feet ; its 
branches have a greyish colour; its leaves are 
pinnated, and consist of several pairs of small 
and obversely - cordated folioles, with a termi- 
nating odd one; and its flowers are scarlet or 
reddish, spotted with yellow, are produced in 
twos or threes on footstalks from the sides of the 
branches, and bloom in June and July. This 
plant is extremely hardy, and not so liable to be 
split or fractured as the common colutea. 
The Aleppo or Pococke’s bladder-senna, Colutea 
haleppica, is also a native of the Levant, and was 
introduced to Britain about the middle of last 
century. It commonly attains a height of 6 or 
7 feet, and differs from the common species in 
scarcely any other property or feature than mere 
size.—The intermediate bladder-senna, Oolutea 
media, grows to the same height as the common 
kind, but has orange-coloured flowers.—The Ne- 
paul species, Colutea nepalensis, was introduced 
to Britain from Nepaul about twenty-five years 
ago; and it grows to the height of 5 or 6 feet, 
and produces a yellow flower in August and Sep- 
tember. 
BLADE. The spire of a small grass plant, be- 
fore sending up the flower-stem, cr the green 
shoot of a corn plant rising from the seed ; also, 
the sharp face or striking part of an instrument 
or a weapon. 
BLAIN. A disease of black cattle and sheep. 
It is sometimes called inflammation of the tongue; 
yet though it seems always to have its origin or 
its chief seat in the membrane of the mouth he- 
neath or above the tongue, it extends its ravages 
widely over the system, and involves inflamma- 
tion and gangrene of the cesophagus, the paunch, 
BLAIN. 
44] 
and the abomasum. Frequent popular names of 
it are hawker, glossanthrox, and gargyse. It is 
a disease of both great virulence and very rapid 
action,—sometimes proving fatal in a single day ; 
and it ought not, in any case, to be trifled with 
for even one moment. It occurs at all seasons, 
and on all sorts of pastures; but is most frequent 
in sultry summer weather, on rich pastures, in 
low and moist situations. It seems to be very 
often induced by the contraction of a common 
cold, while the vascular system is full of rich 
blood, or while the animals are in a high condi- 
tion ; yet some persons have ascribed it to a sud- 
den rising of the blood, and others to the licking 
up of a small red worm. An animal, on con- 
tracting it, appears dull and languid; the eyes 
are inflamed, and make a trickling discharge of 
water; a swelling appears round the eyes, and 
sometimes on other parts of the body ; the pulse 
is accelerated; the flanks exhibit more or less of 
a heaving motion; the bowels, in some cases, are 
constipated; but, above all, and as the charac- 
teristic symptoms of the disorder, blisters are 
formed under the tongue or at the back part of 
the mouth. When the disease is suffered to ad- 
vance without a proper and prompt check, or 
when its earlier stages happen to escape observa- 
tion, a copious discharge of saliva flows from the 
mouth, often mixed with purulent, bloody and fetid 
matter, the tongue is much and rapidly enlarged, 
and the animal suffers languor and exhaustion, 
and seems in hazard of suffocation. A proper 
and very expeditious remedy is thoroughly to cut 
the blisters in the mouth; and if much fever be 
present, five or six quarts of blood should be taken 
away, an aperient drink may be given, and the 
mouth may be washed with a solution of one 
drachm of chloride of lime in a quart of water. 
The cutting of the blisters ought to be a perfectly 
simple operation, and totally unaccompanied by 
operations with sticks, tar, or any other appli- 
ances. When the discharge from the cut blisters 
ceases to be very fetid, the wash with the solu- 
tion of chlorine of lime should be substituted by 
one consisting of equal parts of water and tinc- 
ture of myrrh. If the fever continue, a drink 
should be given night and morning, consisting of 
one drachm of emetic tartar, half a drachm of 
pulverized foxglove, three drachms of saltpetre, 
and a quart of pretty thick gruel; if debility and 
want of appetite remain after the fever is sub- 
dued, a drink may be given once or even twice 
a-day, consisting of two drachms of gentian, 
one drachm of ginger, one drachm of tar- 
trate of iron, and a pint of gruel; and till 
the animal acquire appetite for ordinary food, 
or soundness of mouth for using it, thin gruel 
ought to be kept within its reach, and a proper 
quantity of thick gruel given it with the horn. 
The disease, however contracted, may infect 
other cattle; and the purulent discharges of it, 
if falling on any skinless part of the human 
body, occasion such troublesome ulcers as can- 
