Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/649

BLA BLAES or BLASIUS,, a Dutch physician of the seventeenth century, studied at Copenhagen and Leyden, and took his degree as doctor of medicine at the latter university in 1646. He then practised for some time in Amsterdam, became professor in the gymnasium there in 1660, and soon afterwards physician to the hospital and librarian. In 1682 he was elected into the Academia Naturæ Curiosorum, under the title of Podalirius II., but he did not long enjoy this honour, as he died at an advanced age in the course of the same year. He was an industrious writer, and gave to the world editions of the works of numerous authors on medicine and anatomy. The latter science was his own favourite study, and his reputation for anatomical knowledge was very great among his contemporaries. His knowledge of anatomy appears to have been gained more by the dissection of animals than by that of the human subject, and his principal work is entitled "Zootomiæ, seu Anatomes variorum animalium pars prima," which was published at Amsterdam in 1676, in 12mo, and again in 1681 in quarto, under the title of "Anatome Compilatitia Animalium," &c.—W. S. D.  BLAGDEN,, an eminent English physician and chemist, born in 1748. He took his doctor's degree at Edinburgh in 1768; his thesis on the occasion, which was afterwards printed, being "De Causis Apoplexiæ." Entering the army as a physician, he rose to eminence, and acquired a considerable fortune, to which on the death of Cavendish was added a sum of £16,000, the gift of that celebrated chemist to his friend. For nearly half a century he lived on terms of intimacy with Sir Joseph Banks, and many other famous men of science both in his own country and in France, and was for a number of years one of the secretaries of the Royal Society. At Paris, where he usually resided some months of the year, his reputation, fortune, and courteous manner, enabled him to foster the intercourse of learned men of this country and of France, and by that means to promote the interests of science. An account of his experiments in a heated room, in company with his friends, Dr. George Fordyce and Sir Joseph Banks, and a number of other papers on subjects of considerable interest, are to be found in various volumes of the Philosophical Transactions. He died suddenly from an effusion in the brain in 1820, at Arcueil, in the residence of the celebrated chemist, Count Berthollet.—J. S., G.  BLAGRAVE,, an eminent mathematician of the seventeenth century, and author of several works, was born at Bulmarsh Court, near Sunning, Berks; lived at Reading, Berks, and died there August 9, 1611. He wrote on the astrolabe, the art of dialling, &c.—T. J.  BLAGRAVE,, an English medical man and astrologer, was born in 1610, and died in 1679. He published a supplement to Culpepper's English Physician, containing an account of medicinal plants, and of the virtues of herbs.—J. H. B.  BLAGRAVE,, a musician, and a gentleman of the royal chapel in the reign of Charles I. and II. He was descended from the family of that name in Berkshire. A few of his songs are printed in Playford's Select Ayres and Dialogues, 1659, folio; and his portrait is preserved in the music-school at Oxford. He died in 1688.—E. F. R.  * BLAGROVE,, a violinist, was born at Nottingham in October, 1811. He was first taught by his father, and subsequently by Spagnoletti. Being one of the original students of the Royal Academy of Music at its opening in 1823, he was there placed under F. Cramer, and finally in 1833 he spent eight months with Spohr, receiving his constant lessons. He first played in public when five years old, and while yet a child was daily exhibited as a prodigy. He was appointed solo violinist to Queen Adelaide in 1830, and held that office (with leave of absence during his sojourn in Germany), till the private band was dismembered on the death of the king in 1837. From this year till 1842 he gave an annual series of quartet concerts, in conjunction with Messrs. Gattie, Dando, and Lucas, which had much influence in extending the appreciation of this class of music. In 1831 he became a professor in the academy. He has published some pieces for his instrument. He plays with purity of tone and certainty of intonation.—G. A. M.  BLAIN,, born at Caen in 1654, went to Paris and studied under Monnoyer, the flower painter, at a time when the age preferred artificial to real flowers. He was successful, and became renowned for flies, peaches, and tulips, painted with what wigged amateurs called "a sweet delicate brush and an elegant colour." He finished highly. Died 1715.  BLAINVILLE,, a distinguished French naturalist. He was born at Arques, near Dieppe, on the 12th of September, 1778. He received his early education under the care of a curé in a neighbouring village, and was afterwards sent to the military school at Beaumont-en-Auge, founded by the aristocratic families of Normandy and Brittany for the purpose of preparing their sons for the military profession. This establishment was, however, broken up during the Revolution, and young de Blainville returned home to his mother. In 1794 or 1795 he entered the school of design at Rouen, and studied under Deschamps, son of the author of the Vie des peintres Flamands. In 1796 he came to Paris with the view of improving himself in the art of painting, and entered the atelier of the well-known historical painter Vincent. In 1798 he was drawn for the conscription, but was excused service on account of a stiffness of the right arm, arising from an accident in his early youth. He continued for several years to pursue the art of painting, in which he attained considerable excellence; and in the hours of leisure, from this his most serious pursuit, he attended the lectures on natural science in the museum and the college of France with his fiend, M. Constant Prevost. It was during this casual attendance upon lectures that he listened to the discourses of Baron Cuvier on comparative anatomy. Charmed by the eloquence of the great teacher, he was irresistibly drawn to the study of the animal kingdom; and, at the age of twenty-seven, formed the resolution to devote his life to the study of zoology and comparative anatomy. He now entered himself as a student of medicine, and in 1808 took the degree of doctor of medicine in the university of Paris. The subject of his thesis, on the occasion of his taking his degree, was the influence of the eighth pair of nerves on the function of respiration. This essay, although it did not solve the great problem of the relation of the eighth pair of nerves to respiration, was, nevertheless, accompanied by original experiments and observations, and was a valuable contribution to this department of physiological inquiry. De Blainville now devoted himself to the study of comparative anatomy; and his great skill as an artist enabled him to delineate with accuracy and success the numerous dissections which he made. This quality led to an introduction to Cuvier himself, who employed him as a practical anatomist and artist, with a salary of 2000 francs a year. He now made great progress in his anatomical and zoological studies, and he was occasionally requested by Cuvier to deliver portions of his own courses at the college of France, and in the Athénée. In 1812 he obtained the vacant chair of anatomy and physiology in the Faculty of Sciences of Paris, after a concourse in which he maintained a thesis on the peculiarities of the structure, and on the natural affinities, of the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus. On the restoration of the Bourbons, de Blainville was earnestly pressed to undertake a public political position, but his pursuits in life were now fixed, his path was clear, and he resisted the allurements of a more conspicuous place before the world, for the more enduring and honourable name of a cultivator of science. In 1816 he visited England, and spent the principal part of his time in the British museum, and in the Hunterian museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. His subsequent writings on natural history show what extensive use he made of his short stay in England, and his powers of accurate observation. Although de Blainville owed the development of his taste for natural history, and "his position" as a teacher to Cuvier, a jealousy grew up between the master and pupil that increased with years, and was painfully apparent in all their writings and teachings. As far as de Blainville was concerned, science did not suffer from this, as it was apparently one of the incentives to his work, and contributed in no small degree to the multiplicity of his writings. On the death of Olivier in 1814, de Blainville was nominated to supply his place in the Academy of Sciences, but the choice fell on Latreille. Subsequently, Dumeril was elected; and on the death of Lacepede in 1825, de Blainville succeeded to this great national scientific honour". On the death of Lamarck, on the 18th of December, 1829, a chair in the museum of natural history became vacant, which comprehended the whole of the invertebrate animals. By an ordinance of the sovereign this chair was now divided, and to de Blainville was assigned the chair of mollusca, zoophytes, and worms. Strange contrast between the intellectual development of France and Great Britain! In this country no single chair of zoology exists in any of our universities, whilst in Paris this noble <section end="649Zcontin" />