Page images
PDF
EPUB

BLUMENTHAL BLUNT

Flower; The Bend in the River.' The familiar hymn tune, 'Blumenthal,' is an adaptation of his composition, The Two Angels.'

[ocr errors]

nearly 21; and in 1822-66 was a publisher of charts and nautical books in New York. He made original surveys of many American harBlumenthal, Oskar, ōs'kär bloo'men-täl, bors; was one of the committee that organized German dramatist and critic: b. Berlin, 13 the present system of pilotage for New York; March 1852. Sprightliness of dialogue is the made several revisions of the American Coast most distinguishing character of his plays; the Pilot'; and was influential in causing the Fedmost successful of them are The Big Bell'; eral government to adopt the French system of 'A Drop of Poison'; 'The Black Veil.' He lighthouses and to organize the Lighthouse has published several volumes of critical and Board. miscellaneous essays.

Blundell, (MRS.) Francis (M. E. FRANCIS), English novelist: b. Dublin. She is the widow of Francis N. Blundell and has lived for many years in Lancashire, but more recently in Dorsetshire. Her writings, which have steadily increased in popularity, both in England and the United States, are: Whither? (1892); 'In a North Country Village) (1893); The Song of Dan' (1894); Town Mice in the Country, a Story for Children' (1894); A Daughter of the Soil' (1895); Frieze and Fustian' (1896); Among the Untrodden Ways (1896); Maime o' the _Corner' (1897); 'Miss Erin) (1898); 'The Duenna of a Genius' (1898); Yeoman Fleetwood' (1899); 'Pastorals of Dorset'; 'Fiander's Widow' (1901); North, South, and Over the Sea'; 'The Manor Farm' (1902).

Blundell's School, a famous English free grammar school in Tiverton, Devonshire, founded in 1604 by Peter Blundell, who left his fortune to charities, the school being the most important of his benevolences. In connection with it five Balliol College scholarships were founded and many persons who afterward became eminent went to Balliol College, Oxford, from Tiverton School. The school is mentioned in the novel 'Lorna Doone' as the scene of John Ridd's early education. In 1880 new buildings in the Tudor style were built for the school in the outskirts of the town. The late archbishop of Canterbury, Frederick Temple, was a student at Blundell's School.

Blunderbuss, a short, heavy, large-bored firearm, often brass-barrelled, and bell- or trumpet-mouthed. It was used to discharge a heavy load of slugs or small bullets at a short range, and was once generally employed as a weapon for the defense of houses against burglars. As a military weapon, it was used occasionally on shipboard for repelling boarders, or pouring heavy volleys into boats, when attempting to cut vessels out from anchorage. It is now wholly disused. See SMALL ARMS.

Blunt, Edmund March, American author: b. Portsmouth, N. H., 20 June 1770; d. Sing Sing, N. Y., 2 Jan. 1862. He is remembered for his publication of the American Coast Pilot (1796), describing all the coasts of the United States, and containing a vast amount of invaluable information for seamen. More than 30 editions of this work have been published, and it is still in use in the United States and the principal European countries, having been translated into nearly every foreign language. He also compiled a number of nautical books and charts.

Blunt, George William, American hydrographer: b. Newburyport, Mass., II March 1802; d. New York, 19 April 1878; a son of Edmund March Blunt (q.v.). He went to sea when 14 years old and served as a sailor till

Blunt, James G., American soldier: b. Trenton, Maine, 1826; d. Washington, D. C., 1881. He settled as a physician in Anderson County, Kansas, in 1856; became prominent in the contest over the introduction of slavery into that State, and was a member of the convention that framed its constitution. Entering the army as lieutenant-colonel of the 3d Kansas Volunteers, he became brigadier-general, 8 April 1862, and was assigned to the command of the military department of Kansas. As such he was engaged in the battle of old Fort Wayne, defeated Marmaduke at Cane Hill, Ark., and, with the aid of Gen. Herron, defeated Hindman at Prairie Grove, and thus checked the Confederate advance into Missouri. He was promoted major-general, 29 Nov. 1862, and in October 1864 gave the final blow to Price's invasion of Missouri.

Blunt, John Elijah, English consular agent: b. 14 Oct. 1832. He entered the English consular service in 1850, and held various consular posts in Turkey, receiving in 1862 and again in 1868 the thanks of the President of the United States for his services to American citizens in the province of Adrianople. Since 1899 he has been consul at Boston, Mass., with the rank of consul-general.

Blunt, John Henry, English High Church theologian: b. London, 25 Aug. 1823; d. there, II April 1884. He held various curacies, and in 1873 was appointed to the living of Beverston, Gloucestershire. He wrote much, among his chief works being: Dictionary of Doctrinal and Historical Theology' (1870); 'Dictionary of Sects, Heresies, etc.' (1874); History of the English Reformation' (1868-82); 'Household Theology) (1865); Annotated Book of Common Prayer (1866; revised and enlarged, 1884).

Blunt, John James, English divine: b. Newcastle-under-Lyme, 1794; d. Cambridge, 18 June 1855. From 1839 he was Lady Margaret professor of divinity at Cambridge. His works include: Sketch of the Reformation in England' (1832); Undesigned Coincidences in the Old and New Testament, an Argument for their Veracity) (1847); On the Right Use of the Early Fathers' (1857); History of the Church During the First Three Centuries' (1856); several volumes of sermons; etc.

Blunt, Stanhope English, American military officer: b. Boston, Mass., 29 Sept. 1850. He was graduated at the United States Military Academy and commissioned 2d lieutenant in 1872; rose through the ranks to major in the ordnance department; served at various posts and arsenals in the West; was a member of several boards, including that which selected the Krag-Jorgensen rifle for use in the army; and had command of the Rock Island Arsenal,

BLUNT-BOA

Ill. He has written Firing Regulations for Small Arms,' and numerous papers on the use of small arms.

Blunt, Wilfrid Scawen, English poet and traveler: b. Crabbet Park, Sussex, 17 Aug. 1840. He was attaché of legation at The Hague, Athens, Madrid, Buenos Ayres, and elsewhere; supported Arabi Pasha in the revolt in Egypt in 1881; and was imprisoned in 1888 for his insurrectionary actions in Ireland. He is author of: Sonnets and Songs by Proteus' (London 1875); The Love Sonnets of Proteus (1881); The Future of Islam' (1882); 'The Wind and the Whirlwind,' political poems (1884); Ideas About India' (1885); In Vinculis' (1889); ‘A New Pilgrimage) (1889); Esther: a Young Man's Tragedy (1892); Stealing of the Marc (1892); Griselda' (1893); Satan Absolved' (1899).

Blunthead, a columbrine snake of Java and the East Indies (Amblycephalus monticola). It is about three feet in length, and purple in ground color, but this is almost entirely concealed by the brown markings and mottlings, and the cheeks and lip-plates are carnation-red. It is perfectly harmless, and is welcomed by the natives to their houses as a vermin-destroyer. It owes its name to the squarish form of the head, which, as in many other species of the family, looks so much like that of a poisonous snake as to deceive most observers.

Bluntschli, Johann Kasper, yō'hän käs'par blunt'shle, Swiss jurist and statesman: b. Zurich, 7 March 1808; d. Carlsruhe, 21 Oct. 1881. He became professor in the newly founded university in that city in 1833; took an active part in the political struggles that divided his country, and at first inclined to the party of reform, until the events of 1839 induced him to join the Conservatives, of whom he was, for a time, a leader. He was a councilor of state, and became a member of the government and of the Federal Directory, and afterward worked for the formation of a moderate Liberal Conservative Party in Switzerland. In 1848 he went to Munich as professor of civil and international law. There he published his 'Allgemeines Staatsrecht' (5th ed. 1876), on which his reputation as a jurisconsult chiefly rests; 'Deutsches Privatrecht' (3d ed. 1864); and, in conjunction with Arndts and Pözl, Kritische Ueberschau der

Deutschen Gesetzgebung und Rechtswissen

schaft (6 vols. 1853-8). In 1861 he removed to Heidelberg University, and became a privy councilor of Baden, actively forwarding all Liberal measures in the state. Liberty in ecclesiastical matters he had equally at heart; he acted several times as president of the Protestantenverein, and it was after delivering a closing speech at the general synod of Baden that he died suddenly at Carlsruhe. He was the author of valuable histories of Zurich and of the Swiss Confederation, and of a number of works on law, being especially an authority in international law. His library is now possessed by the Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore.

Blushing, a sudden reddening of the face, caused by a rush of blood into the capillary vessels of the skin. A blush is excited by confusion of mind, arising from surprise or diffidence, modesty or shame, or conscious guilt and apprehension, showing the influence of the

Vol. 3-5

passions and emotions on the nervous system and the circulation of the blood. Sudden fear and apprehension cause the blood to rush from ing the bloodless lips quite pale, and the whole the external surface to the internal organs, leavface suffused with deathly pallor. It is a kind of inverse blushing; the one being a sudden flash of color in the face, the other a sudden flash of paleness.

Blüthgen, August Eduard Viktor, ow'goost ěd'oo-ärd vik'tôr blut'-gen, German novelist: b. Zörbig, near Halle, 4 Jan. 1844. He has won high distinction as a writer for the young. Among his stories for boys and girls are: "The Rogues' Looking Glass' (1876); The Battle of Frogs and Mice (1878); and with these is to be classed the letter-press (verses) of O. Pletsch's Picture Books. Of novels and romances he is author of a great many; for example, The Peace Breaker (1883); The Step-Sister (1887); Madame the Countess (1892); etc.

Blyden, Edward Wilmot, a negro author: b. St. Thomas, W. I., 3 Aug. 1832. After vainly seeking, in 1845, admission to some college in the United States, he went to Liberia, and graduated at the Alexander High School, of which he afterward was principal. In 1880 he became president of Liberia College, has held important government positions, and was commissioner to the Presbyterian General Assembly of the United States in 1861 and 1880. He is proficient in many languages, including Latin, Greek, Spanish, Hebrew, and Arabic. He has published: Liberia's Offering) (1873); From West Africa to Palestine' (1873); The Negro in Ancient History'; etc.

Blythe, Herbert. See BARRYMORE, MAURICE.

B'nai B'rith, b'ni b'reth, Independent Order of the, an association of German Jews formed in the United States in 1843. Its purpose is the moral improvement of the members. Its organization resembles that of the Free Masons, but it is not a secret society, and has no elaborate ceremonial. The organization has since been established in Germany, and in the East. In 1901 it had over 400 lodges and 28,000 members.

Bo-tree, the sacred fig of India. See PEEPUL.

ily Boide called Boina. The boas are mostly Boa, a serpent of that section of the famof great size, and inhabitants of the forests of tropical America; and, with the pythons, constitute a family of the largest of modern snakes, which are noted for their power to enfold and fatally crush their prey in muscular coils. These serpents are notable not only for great size, but for certain structural peculiarities, of which the most noteworthy and characteristic is the fact that vestiges remain of the pelvis and hinder limbs, which appear externally as claw-like spurs on each side of the vent, which are of The muscular power is very great, the tail is partly prehensile; and the bones of the head, and especially of the jaws, are more than ordinarily loosely joined together (see SERPENT), so that bodies surprisingly large may be swallowed. This family is distributed throughout all tropical regions, and is divided into two sub-families, by diversities of structure. One (Pythonine) con

service in hanging from trees.

BOABDIL-BOADICEA

tains the Old World pythons (q.v.), which have a pair of supraorbital bones, some teeth on the premaxilla, and the sub-caudal scales in two rows; while the boas lack supraorbital bones, never have premaxillary teeth and but a single row of scales on the under side of the tail. Most of the 40 or 50 species of Boine are American, but several small species inhabit the warmer parts of the Old World. Several of the American boas are very large snakes, perhaps occasionally reaching 30 feet in length, though few carefully measured have exceeded 20 feet; but such a one would weigh several hundred pounds, and be a very formidable foe to the largest animals exposed to their attacks. They inhabit the forests, and climb to the lower branches of the trees, where they seek or await 'their prey, usually above a path. There the serpent swings about in the air till some luckless animal approaches; then, suddenly relinquishing its position, he seizes the victim, and coils his body spirally round its throat and chest, till, after a few ineffectual cries and struggles, the animal is suffocated, and expires. In producing this effect, the serpent does not merely wind itself around its prey, but places fold over fold, as if desirous of adding as much weight as possible to the muscular effort; these folds are then gradually tightened with enormous force, and speedily induce death. The animals thus destroyed by the larger boas are sometimes as large as tapirs, deer, and even bullocks, but ordinarily the much smaller mammals and birds of the forest, while one species feeds mainly upon aquatic prey. Having crushed and rolled its prey until its bones are broken into pieces, and it is compacted into the form of a sausage, it takes it into its mouth, and at first by the help of the strong recurved teeth on its jaw bones, and later by reflex movements of its throat and ribs slowly engulfs it, the action being facilitated by a copious flow of saliva; but there is no truth in the reputed preparation of the prey by a covering of slime, etc., related in so many books. The process of digestion is slow, and while it is proceeding, the snake is inert, and easily caught and killed.

Several of the larger species are well known and often seen in menageries, where they are easily distinguished by the shape of the head and by the well-defined pattern of the markings. These are exceedingly handsome in most cases, the colors being yellow, buff, chestnut, and varying browns, set off by black and white; and the skins, which may be tanned into good leather with the scales on, are of high commercial value for making purses, belts, and other ornamental articles. Among the best known species are the common boa-the Boa constrictor proper (for that term is ignorantly given to all), which is one of the lesser forms, rarely exceeding 10 feet in length. Its home is the region of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, and it is pale brown, with a chain-like series of dark-brown markings on each side of the spine, enclosing large oblong-oval spots, and a series of large dark spots along the sides, each with a light centre; on the tail the markings become brick-red. Several other species of this genus, some much larger, inhabit South and Central America. One, the imperial boa, has a Mexican variety, often called the abonia, which is believed to be the serpent venerated by the ancient Mexicans, and worshipped with bloody sacrifices. Two species of

true boas also inhabit Madagascar. Of a closely related genus is the great water-boa, or anaconda (Eunectes nuerinus), which adds to the arboreal habits of the others the custom of crawling into the rivers and swamps of the half-flooded forests, where it lives, and there lying in wait for animals that come down to drink, or seizing those of semi-aquatic life. This is the largest, most formidable, and one of the handsomest of the tribe. Many species are of smaller size, down to only three feet in length, but all have similar habits. One genus (Lichanura) has a few species that dwell in the West Indies and Mexico, and are occasionally taken in Arizona and southern California; and small boas of this or an allied sort are frequently brought into the United States from Cuba, tightly coiled about bunches of bananas. They are harmless, of course, unless of a great size, having no poison sacs or fangs, and all the larger ones are susceptible of taming, and seem to acquire a positive regard for their human friends.

or

ä'boo-abd-ool'ah, last Moorish king of GraBoabdil, bō-ab-dēl', Abu-Abdullah, nada. He gained the throne in 1481 by expelling his father, Mulei Hassan; but being attacked by Ferdinand of Aragon, was defeated and taken prisoner. His father having resumed his crown, Ferdinand set Boabdil at liberty, and promised to assist him against his father, on condition of his agreement to become the vassal of and his father died of a broken heart. Boabdil Spain. He accepted the ignominious condition, was not permitted to reign in peace. By his tyranny he provoked the hostility of his own the dissensions which prevailed, laid siege to subjects, and Ferdinand, taking advantage of Granada. The Moors made a valiant defense, and were prepared to bury themselves under the ruins of the city, but Boabdil capitulated, and retired to asigned him by the victor (1491). a domain of the Alpujarras his way he turned round to take a last look of exclaimed his mother, Aixa, who was standing the city, and burst into tears. "Right, my son," which you had not the spirit to defend as a by him, "weep like a woman for the throne Ultimo Sospiro del Moro" (the last sigh of the man and a king." The spot is still called "El Moor). (See GRANADA.) Boabdil soon afterward passed into Africa, and fell in battle dethrone the king of Morocco. while assisting the king of Fez in an attempt to

When on

Boadice'a, queen of the Iceni, a British tribe, inhabiting what are now the counties of Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Hertfordshire. She died about 62 A.D. The celebrated earthworks still extant, known as the Devil's ditch, at Newmarket heath, and at SixMile bottom, are supposed to be the fortifications of this tribe, and perhaps of this queen, against the Romans. She was a contemporary of Nero, and was a woman of remarkable character, both for firmness and ability. Her husband, the king of the Iceni, Prasutagus, dying, left Nero and his own two daughters joint heirs to his great wealth, hoping thereby to preserve his family and kingdom from the rapacity of the conquerors. But immediately on his death his kingdom was taken possession of by the Roman centurions. For some real or imaginary offense, the British queen was pub

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][merged small]
« PreviousContinue »