Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/314

284]  the legs in tepid water, and a suspension of all mental and bodily exertion, are absolutely necessary. Bleeding, cupping, styptic tinctures, fox-glove, and opium, must be submitted to the discretion of the medical practitioner: and we shall here only observe, that a table spoonful of fine salt, taken dry, has frequently afforded instant relief.

3. Vomiting of Blood. See.

4. Discharge of Blood by the urethra. See.

5. Bloody Flux. See.

6. Bleeding Hemorrhoids. See.  BLEND-WATER, also called more-hough, a distemper incident to black cattle, which proceeds either from the state of the animal's blood, from the yellows, or from the change of ground, which, if too hard, is apt to produce this evil. To cure it—Take one ounce of bole armenian, as much charcoal as will fill a small tea-cup; and three ounces of the rind of the oak: let the whole be reduced to a powder, and given to the animal in a quart of new milk.  BLIGHT, in husbandry, is a disease incident to plants, and affecting them in various degrees; sometimes destroying only the leaves and blossoms, and frequently causing the whole plant to perish.

Blights are generally supposed to be produced by easterly winds, which convey multitudes of the eggs from some distant quarter; and these being lodged on the surface of the leaves and flowers of fruit-trees, cause them to shrivel and decay.

It is the general opinion, that one principal reason why the environs of London are particularly subject to blights, is the great number of pruned trees and cut hedges near the metropolis; for as all vegetables become more or less sickly when the course of their sap is impeded, the trees in this state are more liable to blight, than such as are vigorous and uninjured by the pruning-knife. It is worthy of remark, that to the westward of London the effects of this distemper insensibly decrease, insomuch, that at forty miles distance it rarely occurs, and at an hundred miles and upwards, it is entirely unknown. This circumstance seems to favour the idea of its being conveyed by easterly winds. But the true cause appears to be, the continuance of these winds for several days, without the intervention of showers or dews, by which the expansion of the tender blossom is checked, so that the young leaves necessarily wither.

To cure this distemper, some persons burn a quantity of wet litter on the windward side of the plants, as it is supposed that the smoke will suffocate the insects: others fumigate the trees, by strewing sulphur upon lighted charcoal, or by sprinkling them with tobacco-dust, or with water in which tobacco-stalks have been infused for twelve hours. Ground-pepper, scattered over the blossoms, has sometimes proved beneficial.

Mr., of Tavistock, is of opinion that great benefit may be derived from whipping the branches of fruit-trees with a bunch of elder-twigs, the leaves of which should be previously bruised. The smell of the elder being extremely disagreeable, no insects will settle on the parts touched by it; and some blighted shoots