Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, first edition - Volume I, A-B.pdf/681

 B L I ( 573 ) B L O a total privation of fight, arifing from and bloflbms, which will be fcorched and Ihrivelled BLINDNESS, an obitru£tion of the fundlions of the organs of fight, up, the relt remaining green and flourifhing. Some have 1'uppoled that blights are ufually produced or from an intire deprivation of them. See Mediby an eafterly wind, which brings vaft quantities of cine, Of the gutla ferena, &c. in farriery. When a horfe becomes blind, infects eggs along with it, from fome diltant place, Blindness, that, being lodged upon the furface of the leaves and it may be thus difcerned : His walk or ftep is always floe ers of fruit-trees, caufe them to fluivel up andperifh. unceitain and unequal, fo that he does not fet down To cure this diftemper, they advife the burning of his feet boldly when led in one’s hand : But if the wet litter on the windward fide of the plants, that the fame horfe be mounted by an expert horfeman, and if fmoke thereof may be carried to them by the wind, he be a bead of metal, then the fear of the fpurs will which they fuppofe will Itille and deltroy the infe&s, make him go refolutely and freely; fo that his blind* nefs can hardly be perceived. and thereby cure the diltemper. Others dired: the ule of tobacco-duft, or to wafh BLISTER, in medicine, a thin bladder containing a wathe trees with water wherein tobacco-ftalks have been tery humour, whether occafioned by burns, and the infufed for twelve hours; which they fay will deftroy like accidents, or by veficatories applied to different parts of the body for that purpofe. thofe infeds, and recover the plants. Pepper-duft fcattered over the bloflbms of fruitCantharides, or Spanilh flies, applied in the form of trees, <bc. has been recommended as very ufeful in a plafter, are chiefly ufed with this intention. See this cafe ; and there are fome that advife the pulling Cantharides. ELITE, in botany. SccBlitum. off the leaves that are diftempered. The true caufe of blights feems to be continued dry BLITH, a market-town in Nottinghamfhire, about 18 eafterly winds for feveral days together, without the miles north-weft of Newark; in i° W. long, and 53° intervention of/howers, or any morning dew, by which 25' N. lat. the perfpiration in the tender blofl'om is flopped; and ELITE M, in botany, a genus of the monandria digynia if it fo happens, that there is a long continuance of the clafs. The calix confilts of three fegments ; there are fame weather, it equally affeds the tender leaves, where- no petals ; and the feed, which is fingle, is inclofed in by their Colour is changed, and they wither and decay. the calix, which becomes a kind of berry. The fpeThe beft remedy for this diftemper, is gently to cies are two; viz. the capitatum, a native of Tyrol; wafh and fprinkle over the tree, from time to time and the virgatum, a native of Tartary and Spain. with common water; and if the young fhoots feem to BLOATING, among phyficians. See Emphysema. be much infefted, let them be waihed with a woollen BLOCK, a large mafs of wood, ferving to work or cut cloth, fo as to clear them, if poflible, from this gluti- things on. nous matter, that their refpiration and perfpiration Blocks, on (hip-board, is the ufual name of what we may not be obftrudied. This operation ought to be call pulleys at land. They are thick pieces of wood, performed early in the day, that the moifture may be fome with three, four, or five (hivers in them, through exhaled before the cold of the night comes on: Nor which all the running ropes run. Blocks, whether fingle .or double, are diftinguiftted and called by the names of ftiould it be done when the fun fhines very hot. Another caufe of blights in the Ipring, is (harp hoary the ropes they carry, and the ufes they ferve for. frofts, which are often fuceeded by hot funlhine in the Double blocks are ufed when there is occafion for day time: This is the molt fudden and certain de- much ftrength, becaufe they will purchafe with more ftroyer of the fruits that is known. eafe than fingle blocks, though much (lower. BLIGHTED corn. See Smut. Block and block is a phrafe fignifying that two blocks BLIND. See Blindness. meet, in haling any tackle, or halliard, having fuch Perc-BhitiD, or par-BLiNoT A perfon who is very fhort- blocks belonging to them. fighted is faid to be pur-blind. Fiflr-block is hung in at a notch at the end of the Aftfev-BniND, denotes horfes that lofe their fight at cer- davit. It ferves to hale up the (looks of the anchor tain times of the moon. at the (hip’s prow. Blind is alfoufed figuratively, for things without aperSnatch-block is a great block with a (hiver in it, and tures ; Thus we fay, a blind ovall, a blind alembic, See. a notch cut through one of its cheeks, for the more Blind, among traders, a kind of falfe light which they ready receiving of any rope; as by this notch the have in their warehoufes and fliops, to prevent too middle-part of a rope may be reeved into the block, great a light from diminiftiing the luftre of their fluffs. without palling it endwife. It is commonly faftened Blind, Blinde, or Blend. See Blend. with a ftrap about the main-maft, clofe to the upper BLINDS, or Blindes, in the art of war, a fort of de- deck, and is chiefly ufed for the fall of the winding fence commonly made of oziers, or branches inter- tackle, which is reeved into this block, and then woven, and laid icrofs, between two rows of flakes, brought to the capflan. about the height of a man, and four or five feet afunamong bowlers, denotes the fmall bowl ufed as der, ufed particularly at the heads of trenches, when Block, a mark. they are extended in front towards the glacis; ferving Block, in falconry, the perch upon which they place to (belter the workmen, and prevent their being over- the hawk. It ought to be covered with doth. looked by the enemy. BLOCKADE, in the art of war, the blocking up a Vol. I. Numb. 24. 3 7F pUce,