Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/701

 BLACKING BLACKMOKE 681 " Poems, English and Latin " (1860) ; " Homer and the Iliad," with a translation of the Iliad in ballad measure (1866) ; Mwta Burschicosa (1869); and "War Songs of the Germans," with historical sketches (1870). He has also published "Critical Dissertations" (3 vols.), and "Notes Philological and Archaeological" (4 vols.). His discourse on " Democracy " (1867) has passed through many editions, and his latest work is "Four Phases of Morals" (1872). BLACKING, a preparation applied to leather, designed either to preserve or to polish it. Ivory black, vinegar or sour beer, sugar or mo- lasses, and a little sweet oil and sulphuric acid are the common ingredients. The corrosive properties of the acids are neutralized by the lime in the ivory black. It is made in the form of a paste, and also liquid. The following recipe (patented in England) is designed to give the leather .somewhat of a waterproof quality: Dissolve 18 oz. of caoutchouc in 9 Ibs. of hot rape oil ; to this add 60 Ibs. ivory black and 45 Ibs. molasses, with 1 Ib. finely ground gum arabic, previously dissolved in 20 gallons of vinegar, of strength No. 24 ; the whole to be well triturated in a paint mill till smooth. Then add, in small successive quantities, 12 Ibs. sulphuric acid, stirring strongly for half an hour. The stirring is to be continued for half an hour a day during a fortnight, when 3 Ibs. of gum arabic, in fine powder, are to be added, and the half hour's daily stirring continued an- other fortnight, when it is ready for use. For paste blacking the same ingredients and quan- tities are used, except that instead of 20 gal- lons of vinegar, 12 gallons will answer, and a week of stirring only is required. A good blacking is also made more simply by mixing 3 oz. of ivory black, 2 of molasses, a table-spoon- ful of sweet oil, 1 oz. of sulphuric acid, and 1 of gum arabic, dissolved in water and a pint of vinegar. An excellent blacking for harness is prepared by melting 2 oz. of mutton suet with 6 oz. of beeswax, to which are to be added 6 oz. of sugar candy, 2 oz. of soft soap dissolved in water, and 1 oz. of indigo finely powdered, and, when melted and well mixed, a gill of turpentine. It is to be put on with a sponge and polished with a brush. Blacking for stoves may be made of finely powdered black lead, of which ^ Ib. may be mixed with the whites of three eggs well beaten. The mix- ture is then to be diluted with sour beer or porter well stirred, and heated to simmering for about half an hour. BLACK JACK. See BLENDE. BLACK LEAD. See GEAPHITE. BLACKLOCK, Thomas, D. D., a Scottish clergy- man, born at Annan, Nov. 10, 1721, died in Edinburgh, July 7, 1791. He became blind at the age of six months. His father, who was a mechanic, used to read to him from the best English authors. He early acquired a knowl- edge of Latin, and at 12 produced creditable verses. Through the assistance of Dr. Steven- son of Edinburgh he was enabled to pursue a course of study at the university, and became proficient in the classical and modern langua- ges and music. A quarto edition of his poems was published in 1756, in London, by sub- scription. In 1759 he was licensed as a minis- ter of the gospel. He married in 1762, and was ordained minister of Kirkcudbright ; but in 1764 he resigned, and retired to Edinburgh on a small pension, which he eked out by instruct- ing a few young men. He wrote several phi- losophical and theological works. BLACK MAIL, a tribute formerly paid by the occupants of lands in the northern counties of England to some Scottish chieftain for protec- tion against the depredations of border rievers or moss troopers. At a later period, after civil order had been established in the border coun- ties, and agriculture and peaceful habits pre- vailed in the lowlands of Scotland, the custom of paying black mail to the highland chiefs by the lowland farmers became common, and con- tinued till within a century. The origin of the term in this sense is doubtful, some deriving it from the signification of "rent in kind," which mail had in the old English and Scotch law; others, from the moral blackness of the custom. The modern sense of "hush money, extorted by threats of exposure," evidently the old tribute. BLACKMAN, George Curtis, an American sur- geon, born in Connecticut, died at Avondale, ! Ohio, July 19, 1871. He took his medical i degree in 1841 at the college of physicians and surgeons, New York. After spending some time as surgeon of a packet ship between this country and Great Britain, he commenced practice in one of the towns upon the Hudson river. In 1854 he was appointed professor of surgery in the medical college of Ohio at Cin- cinnati. He was a bold and skilful operator, and there were hardly any great operations in surgery which he did not perform, and many of them he repeated several times. He trans- lated and edited Vidal's " Treatise on Venereal Disease," and reedited Mott's translation of Velpeau's " Surgery," with notes and additions of his own. He was surgeon to two of the Cincinnati hospitals. During the civil war, from 1861 to 1865, he served as medical officer, and was present at the battles of Shiloh and the Wilderness. BLACKMORE, Sir Richard, an English physi- cian, poet, and miscellaneous writer, born at Corsham, Wiltshire, about 1650, died Oct. 8, 1729. After spending several years at Oxford and on the continent he settled in London, and became physician to William III. He wrote several medical and religious treatises, "The Accomplished Preacher," a new version of the Psalms, two volumes of essays, and a volume of miscellaneous poems ; but he is best known by his heroic poems, "Prince Arthur," "King Arthur," "King Alfred," "Eliza," and "The Redeemer," and by his "Creation," a philo- sophical poem. These poems were mercilessly
 * had its origin in the compulsory character of