(5.) BLAST, FIRE, or UREDINE, in agriculture, is fuppofed by Mr Hales to be owing to the folar rays reflected from or condensed in the clouds, or even collected by the denfe fteams in hop gardens and other places. The effect of them is to wither, fhrivel, fcorch, turn black, as it were, burn up the leaves, bloffoms, and fruits of trees, shrubs, herbs, grafs, corn, even for whole tracts of ground. (6.) BLAST, [FLATUS, in the military art, a fudden compreflion of the air, caused by the dif charge of the bullet out of a great gun. The blast fometimes throws down part of the embrasures of the wail. (7) BLASTS, among miners. See DAMPS. *To BLAST. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To frike with fome fudden plague or calamity.: Oh! Portius, is there not fome chofen curfe, Some hidden thunder in the store of heaven,* Red with uncommon wrath, to bƐaft the man, Who owes his greatness to his country's ruin! and Italy, the pains of death are not now inflicted. a kind of blafts, that affect human bodies, and In the Empire, either amputation, or death is caufe erysipelas, palfies, &c. ftill the punishment of this crime. By the canon law, blafphemy was punished only by a folemn penance; and by cuftom either by pecuniary or corporal punishment. By the English laws, blafphemies of God, as denying his being or providence, and all contumelious reproaches of Jefus Christ, &c. are offences by the common law, and punishable by fine, imprisonment and pillory. And by the ftatute law, he that denies one of the perfons in the Trinity, or afferts that there are more than one God, or denies-Chriftianity to be true, for the firft effence is rendered incapable of any office; for the fecond, adjudged incapable of fuing, being executor or guardian, receiving any gift or legacy, and to be imprifoned for three years. According to the law of Scotland, the puniknient of blafphemy is death. The first fpecies thereof confifs in railing at or curfing God; and here the fingle act constitutes the crime. The fecond consists in denying the existence of the Supreme Being, or any of the perfons of the Trini-,. ty, and therein obftinately perfifting to the laft; For reiterated denial does not fully conftitute the crime, because the fat. of Charles II. 1661, admits of repentance before conviction, as a complete expiation. This ftatute of 1661 is ratified by a ftatute of king William III. whereby the calling in queftion the existence of God, or of any of the perfons of the Trinity, or the authority of Scripture, or the Divine Providence, is made penal: For the first offence, imprisonment till fatisfaction given by public repentance, in fack-cloth; for the fecond, a fine of a year's valued rent of the real estate, and 20th part of the perfonal eftate; and the trial in both these cafes is competent to jnferior judges. The punishment of the third offence is death, to be tried only by the juftices. It is fortunate that, in the prefent age of liberal fentiment, fuch ftatutes are not enforced. BLASQUES, a clutter of 12 fmall iflands of Ireland, in Dungle Bay, on the coast of Kerry, Munfter. Lon; 10. 30. W. Lat. 52. 10. N. (1.) * BLAST. n. f. [from blaßt, Saxon; blafen, Germ. to blow.] 1. A guft or puff of wind. They that stand high, have many blasts to shake them; And, if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces. Shakespeare. 2. The found made by blowing any inftrument of wind mufick. He blew his trumpet-the angelick blaft Fill'd all the regions. Milton. 3. The ftroke of a malignant planet; the infection of any thing peftilential: from the verb To blaf. By the blast of God they perish. Feb. (2.) BLAST is also applied in a more general fenfe to any forcible stream of wind or air, excited by the mouth, bellows, or the like. (3.) BLAST, in agriculture and gardening, is otherwife called a blight. Thefe blafts or blaftings are by fome fuppofed owing to cold; by others to the want of a due fupply of fap; by others to afcending fumes of the earth; by others to fharp winds and frofts, immediately fucceeding rains. (4.` BLAST, in medicine; physicians mention Addi on. 2. To make to wither. And behold feven thin Agony unmix'd, inceflant gall Thomfon. 3. To injure; to invalidate'; to make infamous.He thews himself weak, if he will not take my word, when he thinks I deferve no credit ;.or malicious, if he knows I deferve credit, and yet goes about to blast it. Stillingfleet. 4. To cut off; to hinder from coming to maturity. This commerce, Jehofhaphet king of Judea endeavoured to renew; but his enterprize was blafted by the deftruction of veffels in the harbour. Arbuthnot. 5. To confound; to ftrike with terrour.— Trumpeters, With brazen din, blast you the city's ears; BLASTED, fomething ftruck with a blast. Among the Romans, places blafted with lightning were to be confecrated to Jupiter, under the name of bidentalia and putealia. It was also a ceremo ny of religion to burn blafted bodies in the fire. BLASTING, among miners, a term for the tearing up rocks, which they find in their way, by gun-powder. The method of doing it is this: they make a long hollow of a large gun-barrel in the rock they would split; this they fill with gunpowder; then they firmly ftop up the mouth of the hole with clay, except a touch-hole, at which they leave a match to fire it. A fmall quantity of powder does great things in this way. * BLASTMENT. n. f. [from blast.] Blaft; fudden stroke of infection. Not now in use.- In the morn, and liquid dew of youth, Contagious blaftments are moft imminent. Sbak. BLASTOLOGY, [from Baas, bud, and yeye, I gather,] the regular and stated pruning of vines. BLASTUM MYSOLITUM, in the materia medica, a term used by some writers to exprefs the cafia lignea, or caffia bark, when not peeled off from the branches, but kept with the wood with in in it; this was a common way of collecting and preferving, not only this bark, but the cinnamon,, and many others. BLASTUS, chamberlain to Herod, appears to have been bribed by the people of Tyre and Sidon to pacify that monarch, when he was enraged against them. Als xii. 20. BLATANT. adj. [blattant, Fr.] Bellowing as a calf,--You learn this language from the blatant beaf. Dryden. BLATE, adj. Bashful. Spenfer. BLATOBULGIUM, in ancient geography, a place of the Brigantes in Britain, having a camp of exploratores or scouts near Solway Frith and. promontory; now called BULNESS. (1.) BLATEA, or COCK-ROACH, a genus of infects belonging to the order of hemiptera, or fuch as have 4 femicruttaceous incumbent wings. The head of the blatta is inflected towards the breast; the antennæ, or feelers, are hard like briftles; the elytra and wings are plain, and refemble parchment; the breaft is smooth, roundish, and is terminated by an edge or margin; and there are two fmall horns above the tail. This infect refembles the beetle; and there are 10 fpecies, viz. 1. BLATTA AFRICANA is afh coloured, and has fome hairs on its breaft. It is found in Africa. 2. BLATTA ALBA is red, the margin of the breaft is white. It is found in Egypt. 3. BLATTA AMERICANA is of an iron colour, and the hind part of the breast is white. The wings and elytra are longer than it's body. found in America and the south of France. PLATE XXII. It is See 4. BLATTA GERMANICA is livid and yellowish, with two black parallel lines on the breaft. It is found in Denmark. 5. BLATTA GIGANTEA is of a livid colour, and bas fquare brownish marks on the breaft. It is found in Afia and America, and is about the fize of a hen's egg. 6. BLATTA LAPONICA is yellow, and the elytra are fpotted with black. It is found in Lapland; and feeds upon cheese, fifles, &c. 7. BLATTA OBLONGATA is of an oblong figure; the colour is livid and fhining; and it has two black spots on the breaft. The feelers are red and clavated; and the feet are very hairy. It is a native of America. 8. BLATTA ORIENTALIS is of a dusky afh colour, has fhort elytra, with an oblong furrow in them. This fpecies is frequent in America. They get into chefts, &c. and do much hurt to clothes; they infeft people's beds in the night, bite like bugs, and leave a very unfavory smell behind them. They avoid the light, and seldom appear but in the night. The female resembles a kind of caterpillar, as it has no wings; fhe lays an egg of about one half the bulk of her belly. They eat bread, raw or dreffed meat, linen, books, filk-worms and their bags, &c. Sir Hans Sloane fays, that the Indians mix their afhes with fugar, and apply them to ulcers in order to promote the fuppuration. 9. BLATTA PIVEA is white, with yellow feelers. It is a native of America. 10. BLATTA SURINAMENSIS is livid, and the breaft edged with white. It is a native of Surinam. (IL) BLATTA, in middle age writers, denotes a purple in the wool or filk, dyed with the liquor of the fith of the blatta. (II) BLATTA was alfo ufed, according to fome, for the KERMES, and, according to others, for the purple worm. (VI.) BLATTA BYZANTINA, in phyfiology and. pharmacy, a teftaceous body, being the operculum, or lid of a turbinated thell, whofe fish yields a purple dye. The blatta differs from the lid of the buccinum, or purpura, in figure; the first being oblong, the latter round: but in the fhops they are ordinarily confounded, and fold for each other. Apothecaries alfo confound the blatta byzantina with the UNGUIS ODORATUS, from which it ought to be diftinguished, as belonging to another kind of thell fish. In Diofcorides's time, the best was brought from the Red Sea, viz. the paleft and fateit; the blacker and less from Babylon, or the Perfian Gulf: but in later times they took up with thofe found about Conftantinople; whence the prefent blatta of the fhops had its name. The blatta byzantina taken internally, is faid to render the body foluble, foften the spleen, and difcufs peccant humours. When ufed externally, by way of fumigation, it reftores epileptic patients, and women labouring under a ftrangulation of the uterus... (V.) BLATTA PISTINARIA, a name given by fome to the common bake-houfe beetle fo frequent in London.. BLATTARIA, Tournefort's generic name for the verbafcum of Linnæus. See VERBASCUM. BLATTARIÆ, [from blatta, a moth or little. worm,] the title of Scopoli's 12th natural class, in his Flora Carniolica. BLATTARIUS, in ancient writers,' a dyer in BLABEUREN, a town of Germany, in the circle of Suabia, and late duchy of Wirtemberg; fituated at the confluence of the Ach with the Blaw, 11 miles W. of Ulm. Great quantities of fuftian and linen cloth are made here. Lon. 9. 57. E. Lat. 48. 22. N. (1.) BLAVET, a river of France. (2.) BLAVET, a fea-port town of France, in the department of Morbihan, and ci-devant province of Britany, fituated at the mouth of the river, (N° 1.) It was one of the ftations of the royal navy of France, and called Port Lequis, after Lewis XIV. Lon. 3. 5. W. Lat. 47. 40. N. BLAVIA, or in ancient geography, a town (1.) BLAVIUM, of Aquitain, on the N. bank of the Garonne, below its confluence with the Dordone, now called BLAYE. (2.) BLAVIUM. See BLADUM. * (1.) BLAY. (1.) * BLAY. n.. [alburnus.] A small white river fifh; called alfo a bleak. (2.) BLAY. See ALBURNUS, and CYPRINUS. BLAYE, an ancient and ftrong town of France, in the department of Gironde, and late province of Guienne. It is fituated on the Garonne, has a harbour much frequented by foreigners, and the thips which fail to Bourdeaux are obliged to leave their guns here. The river is 3800 feet broad at Blaye; for which reafon a battery was built upon an island in 1689, to command the vessels that fail up. The city is built on a rock, and has a citadel with 4 baftions, which is called the Upper Torun. The lower town is feparated from the upper by a small river; and the merchants refide in it, with their magazines. The trade of Blaye confifts chiefly in wines. The neighbourhood produces a great deal of corn, which is fometimes' exported. It is 17 miles N. of Bourdeaux. Lon. 0.35. W. Lat. 45. 7. N. * BLAZE. n. f. [blafe, a torch, Saxon.] 1. A flame; the light of the flame: blaze implies more the light than the heat. Thy throne is darkness in th' abyss of light, A blaze of glory that forbids the fight. Dryden 2. Publication; wide diffufion of report. For what is glory but the blaze of fame, The people's praife, if always praise unmixt? Milton. 3. Blaze is a white mark upon a horfe, defcending from the forehead almoft to the nofe. Far rier's Dia. (1.) * To BLAZE. v. a. 1. To publish; to make known; to fpread far and wide.-The noise of this fight, and iffue thereof, being blazed by the country people to fome noblemen thereabouts, they came thither. Sidney. When beggars die, there are no comets feen; The heav'ns themselves blaze forth the death of princes. Shakefp. 1. To blazon; to give an account of enfigns armorial in proper terms. This is not now ufed.This, in ancient times, was called a fierce; and you should then have blazed it thus: he bears a fierce, fable, between two fierces, or. Peacham. (2.) To BLAZE. v. n. [from the noun.] 1. To flame; to fhew the light of the flame. Thus you may long live an happy instrument for your king and country; you fhall not be a meteor, or a blazing ftar, but ftella fixa; happy here, and more happy hereafter. Bacon. The third fair morn now blaz'd upon the main, Then gloffy fmooth lay all the liquid plain. Pope. 2. To be confpicuous. * BLAZER. 7. S. [from blaze.] One that fpreads reports. Utterers of fecrets he from thence debarr'd, Babblers of folly, and blazers of crime. Spenfer. BLAZING STAR, a comet. See ASTRONOMY, Index; and COMET. * BLAZON. n.. [from the verb.] 1. The art of drawing or explaining coats of arms.-Proceed unto beasts that are given in arms, and teach me what I ought to obferve in their blazon. Peacham. 2. Show; divulgation; publication.— But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood. Shakespeare. Celebration; proclamation of fome quality.I am a gentleman-I'll be fworn thou art; Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, action, and fpirit, Shakespeare. 3. Do give the five-fold blazon. *To BLAZON. v. a. \blafonner, Fr.] 1. To ex plain, in proper terms, the figures on enfigns ar morial.-King Edward gave to them the coat of arms, which I am not herald enough to blazon in to English. Addison. 2. To deck; to embellish; to adorn.She blazons in dread smiles her hideous form; So lightning gilds the unrelenting ftorm. Garth. 3. To difplay; to fet to show. O thou goddefs, Thou divine nature! how thyfelf thou blazon't 4. To celebrate; to fet out. Shakespeare. One that excels the quirk of blazoning pens, And, in th' effential vefture of creation, Does bear all excellency. Shakespeare. J. To blaze about; to make public. What's this but libelling againft the fenate, And blazoning our injuftice every where? Shak. BLAZONING, or ) in heraldry, the decypher (1.) BLAZONRY, ing the arms of noble fa milies. The word originally fignified the blowing or winding of a horn; and was introduced into heraldry as a term denoting the defcription of things borne in arms, with their proper fignifica tions and intendments, from an ancient custom the heralds, who were judges, had of winding an horn at jufts and tournaments, when they expiain ed and recorded the atchievements of knights. See HERALDRY. * (2.) BLAZONRY. n. f. [from blazon.] The art of blazoning. Give certain rules as to the princi ples of blazonry. Peacham on Drawing. BLEA, in the anatomy of plants, the inner rind or dry bark. See PLANTS. (1.) * To BLEACH. v. a. [bleechen, Germ.] To whiten; commonly to whiten by exposure to the open air. When turtles tread, and rooks and daws; And maidens bleach their fummer fmocks. Sbak. (2.)* To BLEACH. v. n. To grow white; to grow white in the open air. The white fheet bleaching in the open field. Shakespeare. BLEACHER, n. f. One who practifes the art of bleaching.^ BLEACH-FIELD, n. f. [a contraction of blea ing field,] A field for bleaching cloth. END OF THE TS YO! |