B L I
B L I
It ufually lies immediately over the veins of lead ore, [in. die 1 mines which produce it, for it is not found in all. When the miners fee this, they know the vein of ore is very near. Ray's Engl. Words, p. 1 1 «.
Blinds, pr.BUKOBS. in the military art, denote every thing fervingto cover the befiegars from the enemy, as wool-packs, e.irth-bafkets, fand-bags, and the like. Quill. Gent. Di&. P. 2. in voc. Fa$k*bex. Milit. p. 96. feq. voc. tim- dungen.
Blhuics are fometimes only canvas frretched to take away the fight of the enemy ; fometimes they are planks let up, pro- perly called mantelets ; others are of bafkets, others of barrels.
Blinde s more peculiarly denote pieces of wood laid a-crofs a trench, to fupport fafcines or bafkets, which are placed on them, loaded with earth to cover the workmen i . They are chiefly ufed, where the trenches are carried on in the face of the place, in a right line, fo as the enemy might fcour them with their guns from ^he walls b . — [ a Qzan. Did:. Math. p. 6co. b F.afeh. Lex,.&<Mit. p. 96.]
Blinds differ from chandeliers, as the latter are intended as a fcreen from above, the former from before. Felib. Princ. de 1'Archit. p. 74. SeeCHANDELiER, Cycl. _ Somealfo rank mantelets in the number of blindes. Fafh. Lex Milit. p. 97. voc. blendungen. SccMantelet, Cycl.
Blind is fometimes alio ufed for orillon. Milit. Diet, in voc. See Oullon, Cycl.
BLINDING, a fpecies of corporal punifhment antiently in- flicted on thieves % adulterers b , perjurers c , and others ; and from which the antient chriftians were not exempt . The inhabitants of the city Apollonia executed it on their watch, whom they found afleep s . Democritus, according to Plutarch, Cicero, and A Gellius, put out his own eyes, that he might be left difturbed in his mental contemplations, when thus freed from the diftraction of the objects of fight f . Though Labe- rius gives another reafon, viz. that he might not have the mortification of feeing wicked men in fplendor and triumph ; and Tertullian another, viz. that he might be exempted from the ftimulus to venery, excited by the fight of women s. — [ a Vid. Holm. Polyhift. c. 4. Lamprid- W Alex. Sever, c. 17. b Vakr. Max. 1 6. c. 5. n. 3. c Luitprand. de Reb. Imp. &Reg. 1. z. c 1 1. d Lafiant. de Mort. Perfecut. c. 36. n. 7. c He*odot I. 6. c. 92. f Au. GeII.No&. Att. 1. 10. c. 77. Cicero, Tufc. Quasft. 5. * Tertall. Adv. Gent. Stanl. Hift. Philof P. 11. c. 5. p.755.0
BtlNmHG, ohcaeatio, in the black art, denotes a fpecies of ne- cromancy, whereby a vifible body may he concealed, or hid- den by an invifiblc power. Caji. Lex. Med. p. 532. voc. ob~ c&catia.
Blinding of a cafemate fignifies erecting a battery againft it, in order to difmount its cannon, and render diem ufelefs. Trev. Diet. Univ. T.i. p. 723. voc. aveughr.
BLINDNESS {Cycl) is of divers kinds. Natural blindnefs is that happening according to the ordinary courfe of things; thus that of certain infects formed without eyes, though it is not eafy to fix which thefe are, fince divers animals have been erroneoufly fuppofed fo, on account of their fmallnefs or imper- ccptiblenefs ; as the crecilia, commonly called the blind worm, the mole, fcff. Grew, Muf. Reg. Societ. P. 1. §. 3. p. 48. That moles are naturally blind is a popular error, arifing partly from the fmallnefs of their eyes, and partly from their being hid, or buried deep in the head, to fave them from the annoy- ances, which otherwifc they would be perpetually liable to, in digging under ground; but, on occafion, they can exert or thruft them forward, as is likewife done by fnails. Brown, Vulg. Error, I. 3. c. 18. p. 123. Preternatural, or morbid blindnefs, is that owing to difeafe or accident.
Total blindnefs,, that wherein all fight or perception, even of light, is wanting, as is the cafe of thofe who are faid to be jlonc blind.
Partial blindnefs, that wherein fome faint glimmering is left, as is always the cafe in people who have ripe cataracts, who are never fo blind, but they can difcern day from night ; and, for the moft part, in a ftrong light, diftinguifh black, white and fcarlet, though they cannot perceive the fhape of any thing. The reaibn is, that the light by which thofe per- ceptions are made, being let in obliquely through the aqueous humour, or the anterior furface of the chryftalline, (by which the rays cannot be brought into a focus upon the retina) they can difcern in no other manner, than a found eye can through a gkfs of broken jelly, where a great variety of furfaces fo differently refract the light, that the feveral diitinct pencils of rays cannot be collected by die eye into their proper foci; wherefore the fhape of an object in fuch a cafe cannot be at all difcerned, though the colour may. Vid. Philof. Tranf. N° 4©2. p 447.
Perpetual blmdnefs, that which remains alike under all the di- verfity of feafons-, times, ages, fcfj.
Tranfcieht blindnefs, that which gives way of itfelf in due time, as that of whelps..
The Nogais tartars, according to father du Ban the jefuit, who lived among them, are born blind, and open not their eyes, ti after feveral days a ; as the blindnefs of whelps for feve-
5
raJ days after they are littered, which is commonly faid to held nine days, rarely twelve b . — [ a Vid. Nouv. Mem. des Meff. T.i. p. 23. Trev. Mem. Hift. Art. an. 1715. p. 1532.
- >" Brovm, Vulg. Err. 1. 3. c. 27. p. 147.]
Periodical blindnefs, that which comes and goes by turns, ac- cording to the feafon of the moon, time of day, and the like. Nocturnal blindnefs, called alfo nyctalopia, that which entries on the fetting of the fun in perfons who fee perfectly in the day, but become blind as pofts as foon as night comes on. Brigg, in Phil. Tranf. N° 159. p. 5G0, where an inftance of it is given.
Lunar blindnefs, that which happens under a certain ftate or age of the moon, frequent enough in horfes, but fometimes alfo obferved in men. A very extraordinary inftance of this kind is related in the Philofophical Tranfactions : a poor man in the north of Scotland was, every year in his life, taken blind two days before the new moon, and recovered again at the inftant of the new moon. Vid. Phil. Tranf. N° 233. p. 728.
The caufes of blindnefs are either ordinary, as a decay of the optic nerve ; (an inftance whereof we have in the academy of fciences, where, upon opening the eye of a perfon long blind, the optic nerve was found extremely fhrunk and decayed, and having no medulla in it) or fome external violence, vitious conformation, growth of a cataract, gutta ferena, fmall-ppx, or the like. Vid. Mery, in Hift. Acad. Scienc. Par. ann. 1 71 3. p. 161.
In the hiftory of the academy of fciences, we have an account of a perfon born feemingly without eyes, i. e. the eyes were covered up by the eye-lids, which were grown together. Hift. Acad. Scienc. ann. 1721. p. 42.
Extraordinary caufes of 'blindnefs are malignant flenches, poi- fonous juices dropped into the eye, baneful vermin, long con- finement in the dark, or the like.
We have an account in the hiftory of the academy of fciences, of two labourers {truck quite blind by a fetid damp or ftench ; but cured again in twenty-four hours by M. Chomel a . And Boyle fpeaks of a blindnefs occafioned by a drop of liquor from a fpider depofited in the eye b .— [ * Hift. Acad. Scienc. aim. '7 11 ' P- Zh fe[' b Beyk Ph^' Work, abrid. T. 3. p.
The ducks which generate underground, and break out into the Zirchnitzer-fea in Carniola after alt great ftorms, are blind at their firft eruption ; but, in fome time, come to their fight. Among the caufes of blindnef muft alfo be recited the artificial ways of blinding practifed on criminals, &c. of which we find frequent mention in antient writers, under the denominations obcacatio, exoculatio c , ccuhnan effoffio d , abbacinatio e . To which may be added elufcatio, which only denoted a kind of half-blinding, or putting out one of the eyes, and leaving the other f .~ [ c Du Cange, Gloff. Lat. T. z. p. 321. voc. exa- culare. d Vid. Spelm. GlofT p. 434. voc. oculorum effoffio.
e ^Du Cange, ibid. T. 1. p. i.voc. abbacinare. f C ah. hex. Jur. p. 323. voc. eiuftare.]
Sometimes lime and vinegar, or barely fcalding vinegar, was poured into the eyes, till their balls were confumed ; fome- times a rope was twifted round the head till the eyes ftarted out. Schott. Lex. Antiq. in voc. augen.
In the middle age, they changed total blindnefs for a great dark- nefs, or diminution of fight, which they produced by holding a red-hot iron difli or bafon before the eyes, till their humours were dried, and their coats fhrivelled up.
The remedies for blindnef are either regular, empirical, or fu- perftitious.
Regular remedies are ophthalmic lotions adapted to the parti- cular evil, collyriums, and the like.
Empirical remedies are certain mercurial and arfenical drops and powders, prefcribed equally againft all fpecies of this dif- eafe £ j or manual, as by couching h , and the like. — [ s Vid. Boyle, Phil. Work, abrldg. T. 1. p. 103, where he fpeaks of an empyrical cure for blindnefs invented by Adr. Glaffmaker, being a fort of turbith made by precipitating quickfilver with oil of vitriol. h Vid. Hift. Acad, Scienc. ann. 172 1. p. 47, where is an account of cutting open the eyes of a perfon, in whom they were naturally clofed up, and covered over by the eye-lids.]
Su peril: itious remedies are of various kinds, as that given by Myrepfus, pretended to have been revealed by the Virgin »; or the gall of Jonas's whale, the fifh lamia, or canis carcha- rias; not to mention thofe fictitious cures attributed by Spar- tian to the emperor Hadrian k , and others.— [ * Vid. Fabric. Bibl. Gra?c. 1. 6. c. 9. p. 7. & Barth. Act. Med. T. 1. p. 298. k Vid. Bayle, Diet. Crit. T. z. p. 668. voc. Hadrian. note (M).]
The miferies of blindnef are feelingly painted by Milton ', and may be alfo partly guefled at by the extaiies into which per- fons have fallen on their recovery from it m . Mr. Boyle men- tions a gentleman, who having been blind, and brought to fight at eighteen, was very near going diftracted with the joy".-[ ! Milt. Parad. Loft, 1. 3. init, m Phil. Tranf. N° 402. p. 450. n Boyle, Phil. Work, abridg. T. 1.
p. 4-1
We find various recompenfes for blindnefs, or fubftitutes for
the
