a a 
——— 
BLOODWORT. 
them from injury, the veins are very frequently 
superficial, and covered only by the skin. The 
veins, it is well known, are the vessels commonly 
opened in blood-letting, although, in cases which 
render it necessary, a small artery is sometimes 
divided.—There are two portions of the venous 
system, which do not correspond exactly with 
our general description; these are the veins of 
the bowels and of the lungs. The former circu- 
late their blood through the liver before it re- 
turns to the heart, and the latter, the pulmonary 
veins, convey red blood from the lungs to the 
heart. (For an account of the circulation of the 
blood, see Huarr.) It should also be mentioned 
that the large vein, which brings back the blood 
from the lower part of the body, receives from 
the lymphatic and lacteal vessels the chyle from 
the bowels, which supplies the waste of the blood 
and nourishes the body, and the serous and other 
watery fluids which are taken up by the absorb- 
ents in all parts of the body. 
BLOODWORT, or Puccoox,—botanically San- 
guinaria, A perennial, tuberous-rooted, hardy, 
ornamental plant, of the poppy-tribe. The only 
known species is the Canadian,—/S, Canadensis ; 
and this was introduced to Great Britain from 
North America in 1680. It was at one time re- 
garded as a celandine. Its flower somewhat re- 
sembles that of the wood anemone, but stands on 
a short, naked pedicle of about six inches in 
length, has sometimes so many as ten or twelve 
petals, and appears in March and April. The 
green leaves come out at the fading of the flowers, 
and continue till midsummer. A yellow juice is 
yielded by the whole plant, possesses narcotic 
and emetic properties, and is used by the Ameri- 
can Indians for painting their persons. Blood- 
wort may very suitably be mixed with dog’s- 
tooth violet, spring cyclamen, Persian iris, bulbo- 
codium, sisyrinchium, and some other low-growing 
and bulbous or tuberous rooted flowering-plants, 
which require the same culture.—The name blood- 
wort is often popularly given also to the large, 
beautiful, indigenous, fusiform-rooted, bloody- 
veined dock,—Rumex sanguineus. 
BLOODY-TWIG. See Dogwoon. 
BLOOM. The period of the expansion or liv- 
ing freshness of the flowers of herbaceous plants 
and of the blossoms of trees. 
BLOOM. A very fine and soft powder on the 
| leaves and fruit of certain plants, and particularly 
| on the leaves of cabbages and the fruit of plum- 
trees. It is easily rubbed off; it occasions a pe- 
culiar shade of colour; it is slowly reproduced on 
a leaf or fruit from which it has been removed ; 
and, when seen through a microscope, it appears 
| to consist of unpolished granules similar to those 
of starch. It is insoluble in water, and, in con- 
sequence, resists dew and rain. Some scientific 
men regard it as a resin, and others pronounce it 
to be wax. 
BLOSSOM. The flower of a fruit-tree. It 
possesses exactly the same phytological character 
BLOW PIPE. 
as the flower of any other class of plants; and 
takes its distinguishing name of blossom from 
the mere circumstance of its being the forerun- 
ner of an edible fruit. The secretions of a tree 
are usually most abundant immediately before 
the formation and during the continuance of its 
blossoms; the pruning of fruit trees, in conse- 
quence, occasions a great enlargement of both 
the blossoms and the fruit; for these parts of a 
pruned tree receive, in the character of an excess 
of nourishment, the alimentary juices which 
would have formed and fed the secretions of the 
lopped-off boughs. 
BLOW-MILK. Milk which is skimmed by the 
method of blowing off the cream. 
BLOWN. The cattle disease more commonly 
called hoove and hoven. See the article Hoovs. 
BLOWPIPE. ‘The name applied to an instru- 
ment, by means of which the flame of a candle 
or lamp is made to produce an intense heat, 
capable of being applied to a variety of useful 
purposes. Its most simple form is that of a ta- 
pering tube, about eight inches in length, and 
curved nearly at right angles, within two inches 
of its smaller extremity. At its larger end it is 
nearly a quarter of an inch in diameter, and at 
the smaller, only large enough to admit a com- 
mon-sized pin. It is made of brass or white iron. 
In using it, the flame of a lamp or candle is 
turned aside from its vertical to a horizontal di- 
rection, by a stream of air impelled upon it, 
either from the lungs, or from a double bellows. 
The flame, in its new direction, assumes a coni- 
cal shape, and consists of two parts, visible by 
their different colours; the outer being reddish- 
brown, and the inner blue. ‘The heat at the 
apex of the inner cone is the most intense, and 
is equal to that produced in the best furnaces. | 
It is employed by the jeweller and goldsmith in 
the operation of soldering, and by other artists 
who fabricate small objects in metal; by the 
glass-blower in making thermometers, barome- 
ters, and other glass instruments; by the ena- 
meller, and, indeed, wherever it is required to 
subject a small body to a strong heat.—The com- 
mon blowpipe has undergone a variety of im- 
provements in the hands of the chemists, to 
whose researches it has proved an excellent aux- 
iliary. These consist, principally, in providing 
its stem with a bowl, or enlargement, where the 
moisture of the breath may be condensed and 
detained ; in fitting the smaller end so as to re- 
ceive a variety of little caps, or hollow cones, 
with orifices of different diameters, so as to be 
changed according as a flame is required more or 
less strong; and in rendering the instrument 
more portable, by constructing it of several 
pieces, capable of being taken apart and packed 
up in the space of a pencil-case. With a part, 
or with the whole of these improvements, it is 
used by the chemist to make an examination of 
any doubtful mineral substance, artificial alloy, 
or pharmaceutical preparation. This he is capable 
