BLUE RIDGE-BLUM. simple form in which mercury can be administered internally. It consists merely of two parts of mercury rubbed up with three parts of conserve of roses, till globules of mercury can no longer be detected; to this is added powdered liquorice-root, so that a pill of five grains contains one grain of mercury. In cases of torpid condition of the liver or inflammation of that organ, B. P. is much used as a purgative, either alone or combined with some other drug, such as rhubarb. When it is given with the view of bringing the system under the influence of mercury (Salivation, q. v.), small doses of opium should be added to counteract its purgative tendency, and the state of the gums watched carefully from day to day, so that the first symptoms of salivation may be noticed, and the medicine omitted. As a purgative, the common dose of B. P. is one or two pills of five grains each, followed by a purgative draught. When the system is to be saturated with it, or salivated, one pill may be given morning and evening, or one every night combined with of a grain of opium, repeated till the gums become sore. But the sensibility to the action of mercury varies with the individual; some may take large quantities before it exhibits its physiological symptoms, and on the other hand, three blue pills, one taken on three successive nights, have brought on a fatal salivation. When taking blue pills, all sudden changes of temperature should be avoided; and, indeed, though they are found in every domestic medicine-chest, neither they nor any other form of mercury should be given without good cause and without the greatest caution. BLUE RIDGE, the most easterly range of the Alleghanies, in the United States. It forms an almost continuous chain from West Point in New York down to the north of Alabama, through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. It divides Virginia into Eastern and Western. Mount Mitchell, in North Carolina, the loftiest point of the B. R., is 6470 feet above the sea; while the Otter Peaks in Virginia, next in elevation, have an altitude of 4200 feet. BLUE STOCKING, a name given to learned and literary ladies, who display their acquirements in a vain and pedantic manner, to the neglect of womanly duties and virtues. The name is derived from a literary society formed in London about the year 1780, which included both men and women. A gentleman of the name of Stillingfleet, who was in the habit of wearing blue stockings, was a distinguished member of this society; hence the name, which has been adopted both in Germany and France. BLUE THROAT, or BLUE BREAST, also called Bluethroated Warbler and Bluethroated Robin (Phoenicura Suecica, or Sylvia Suecica, see SYLVIADE), a beautiful bird, a very little larger than a redbreast, and much resembling it, but having the throat and upper part of the neck of a brilliant skyblue, with a spot in the centre, which in some specimens is pure white, and in very old males is red. Below the blue colour is a black bar, then a line of white, and again a broad band of bright chestnut. The B. is well known as a summer bird of passage in many parts of Europe, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arctic Ocean, but is very rare in Britain, only a few instances of its occurrence having been recorded. It is supposed to spend the winter in Africa. Great numbers are caught for the table in Lorraine and Alsace. The bird is one of those known by the names of Becfin (q. v.) and Beccafico (q. v.), and esteemed a delicacy. It is a bird of very sweet song. It imitates, to an unusual degree, the notes of other birds, so that the Laplanders give it a name which signifies the bird of a hundred tongues. BLUE'WING, according to some naturalists, a genus of Anatida, which has been named Cyanopterus (by a sort of Greek translation of the English name), but more generally regarded as a mere section or subsection of the restricted but still large genus Anas. See DUCK. The tail-feathers are only 14 in number, instead of 16, as in the common duck, teal, &c. ; but the character from which the name is derived is, after all, that which chiefly distinguishes the bluewings, and never fails to arrest attention. The best known species, the Common or Lunate B. (Anas or Cyanopterus discors), is generally called the Blue-winged Teal in the United States of America, where it is very abundant. Vast numbers spend the winter in the extensive marshes near the mouths of the Mississippi, to which they congregate both from the north and from the coast regions of the east; but the summer migrations of the species extend as far north as the 57th parallel, and it is plentiful on the Saskatchewan in the breeding-season. It breeds, however, also in the marshes of the south, even in Texas; and is common in Jamaica, where it is supposed to be not a mere bird of passage, but a permanent resident. None of the duck tribe is in higher esteem for the table, and it has therefore been suggested that the B. is particularly worthy of domestication, of which it seems to be very easily susceptible. In size it is rather larger than the common teal; in the summer plumage of the male, the upper part of the head is black, the other parts of the head are of a deep purplish blue, except a half-moon shaped patch of pure white before each eye; the prevalent colour of the rest of the plumage on the upper parts is brown mixed and glossed with green, except that the wings exhibit various shades of blue, the lesser wing-coverts being of a rich the lower parts are reddish orange spotted with ultramarine blue, with an almost metallic lustre; black; the tail is brown, its feathers short and pointed.-The B. is a bird of extremely rapid and well-sustained flight. The flocks of the B. are sometimes so numerous and so closely crowded together on the muddy marshes near New Orleans, that Audubon mentions having seen 84 killed by the simultaneous discharge of the two barrels of a double-barrelled gun.-There are other species of B., also American; but this alone seems to visit the more northern regions. cumstances at Cologne, 10th November 1807. BLUM, ROBERT, was born in very humble cirAfter a brief military service in 1830, he became scene-shifter, afterwards secretary and treasurer, to Ringelhardt, director of a theatre at Cologne, and subsequently at Leipsic, in which situation he remained, devoting his leisure time to literature and politics until 1847, when he established himself as bookseller and publisher. In 1840, he founded at Leipsic the Schillers-Verein, i. e., Schiller's Society, which celebrated the poet's anniversary, as a festival in honour of political liberty. In 1845 he acquired, in connection with the German Catholic movement and the political outbreaks in Leipsic, great reputation as a popular orator; and in 1848, was elected vice-president of the provisional parliament at Frankfort, and as such he ruled that turbulent assembly by presence of mind and a stentorian voice. In the National Assembly he became leader of the Left; and was one of the bearers of a congratulatory address from the Left to the people of Vienna, when they rose in October. At Vienna he joined the insurgents, was arrested, and shot on the 9th November. B. was a man of strong character, of great natural intelligence, and a speaker of stirring eloquence. For heading a party, he possessed clever ness and ambition enough, but he had not that passion and fanaticism which scorns to consider BLUMENBACH-BO TREE. the consequences likely to flow from unbridled popular licence. The news of his execution caused an indignant outcry among the democrats in Germany, who, besides instituting commemorations for the dead, made an ample subscription for his widow and children. understood: it is simply like the case of distending the hose of a fire-engine by working the pump, and driving the water along. The counteracting force of the nerve-centres is proved by the following experiments: When the sympathetic nerve proceeding to the vessels of the head and face of an animal is cut, there follows congestion of the bloodVessels with augmented heat over the whole surface supplied by the nerve. The ear is seen to become BLUMENBACH, JOHANN FRIEDRICH, a very eminent naturalist, was born at Gotha, 11th May 1752. He studied at Jena and Göttingen, in the latter of which universities he became extra-redder; a thermometer inserted in the nostril shews ordinary professor in 1776, and ordinary professor an increase of temperature, the sign of a greater in 1778. Here he lectured for fifty years on quantity of blood flowing into the capillaries. The natural history, comparative anatomy, physiology, drawal of a counterpoise, the force that distends the inference from the experiment is, that, from the withand the history of medicine. In 1785, consequently before Cuvier, he made natural history small blood-vessels that is to say, the heart's action dependent on comparative anatomy. His Manual has an unusual predominance. It is further proved of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology has been that this nervous influence, acting upon the minute translated into almost all the principal languages muscular fibres of the small vessels, proceeds from of Europe. The natural history of man was always the nerve-centres lodged in the head, for, by cutting his favourite study; and his Collectio Craniorum the connection between the brain and the ganglion Diversarum Gentium, commenced in 1791, and com- in the neck, from which the above-mentioned nerve pleted in 1808, gave to the learned world the result is derived, the same restraining influence is arrested, of his observations on the skulls of different and the congestion takes place. By stimulating the races, of which he had an extensive collection (see divided nerve galvanically, the suffusion disappears, ETHNOLOGY). He published many other works the vessels shrinking by the galvanic contraction of their muscular coats. on natural history, all of which were favourably received; for, both as a writer and a lecturer, he The agency now described is of a piece with the was eminently successful. His Manual of Natural action of the brain upon involuntary muscles geneHistory, indeed, has gone through 12 editions. rally, as the heart and the intestinal canal, and Towards the end of the 18th c., he visited England, by it many organic functions-digestion, nutrition, where he met with a distinguished reception from absorption, &c. are affected by those changes in the most famous naturalists. On the 19th Septem- the cerebral substance that accompany mental ber 1825, his friends celebrated the jubilee of his states. It is known that mental excitement has an immediate influence in all those functions; one doctorate, presented him on the occasion with a medal struck on purpose, and founded an exhi- set of passions, such as fear, tend to derange them, bition in his name, the proceeds of which were to while joy and exhilaration operate favourably upon assist young physicians and naturalists in the prosecution of their researches by travel. In 1835, the increasing infirmities of age compelled him to resign his academical functions. He died on the 22d January 1840. BLUNDERBUSS is a kind of short musket with a very wide bore, sufficient to take in several shot or bullets at once. It has a limited range, but is very destructive at close quarters. As a military weapon, it is chiefly of service in defending passages, door-ways, staircases, &c. Some of the English and German troopers in the 17th c. were armed with the B.; but the carbine has since nearly superseded this weapon. BLUSHING, a sudden reddening of the face, neck, and breast, owing to some mental shock, most commonly of the character of humiliation or shame. The nature and cause of this effect have been recently elucidated by physiological researches. It is produced by an increased flow of blood into the capillary vessels over the parts where the blush extends. Besides reddening the complexion, it creates a sensible augmentation of heat in those parts. The feeling that accompanies the state is of a distressing kind. The phenomenon of B. is part of a general influence exerted on the capillary circulation by mental causes operating through the brain. The experiments whereby the existence of this influence has been established, may be described as follows: The small blood-vessels, by which the blood is brought into proximity with the various tissues of the body, are kept in a state of balanced distension between two forces: the one the propulsive power of the heart's action, which fills and distends them; the other, an influence derived from the nervous centres, and acting upon the muscular fibres so as to contract the vessels. The first of the two forces the agency of the heart is quite well them. To apply these observations to the case in hand. Supposing a person in the average mental condition, and something to arise which gives a painful shock to the feelings a piece of ill news, a reproach from some one whose good opinion is much valued, an open shame, or the fear of it, a fit of remorse, an occasion of grief-the pain is accompanied with a sudden loss, or waste, or decrease of cerebral power; none of the functions that the brain aids in maintaining is so strongly stimulated as before; and in particular, that stream of nervous energy which balances the heart's action in regulating the distension of the small blood-vessels, is abated, the abatement being made apparent in the redness and heat over the face and neck. In a great stroke of mental depression, the influence is of a much more extensive kind, though still of the same nature essentially as regards the enfeeblement of the nervous energy, and may lower the action of the heart itself: in which case there will be a widespread pallor, perhaps without a blush. In all probability, it is when the loss of cerebral influence extends only to the relaxation of the muscular fibres of the small vessels, leaving the heart in its usual vigour, that the state of B. is most fully manifested. Hence it is more apt to arise out of the smaller modes of painful apprehension, than from the more serious calamities that prostrate the system throughout. It is said that, in the Circassian slave-market, a young woman that blushes fetches a higher price. Some complexions do not shew the increased flow of blood in this way, and all persons are not equally sensitive to the cerebral shock that causes it. BO TREE, the name given in Ceylon to the PEEPUL (q. v.) of India (Ficus religiosa). It is held sacred by the Buddhists, and planted close by every temple, attracting almost as much veneration as the statue of Buddha itself.-The B. T. of the BO TREE-BOA. sacred city Anarajapoora, is in all probability the oldest tree in the world, of which the age can Bo Tree. From a Drawing in Tennent's work on Ceylon. It was be ascertained by historical evidence. 6 the species are of large size and great strength, some of them far exceeding in these respects all other serpents. The story related by the ancients of a serpent 120 feet in length, which devoured several soldiers, and caused alarm to a Roman army in Africa, may perhaps be deemed unworthy of credit, although the skin is said to have been long preserved at Rome; but there is good reason to believe that serpents in more modern times have attained at least half this length, and have made even the larger mammalia, and sometimes man, their prey. The Boida are not venomous; but their mouth, although destitute of poison-fangs, is so furnished with teeth as to make their bite very severe. Their teeth are numerous, long, and directed backwards, so as the more effectually to prevent the escape of the prey, which is first seized by the mouth, and then the serpent, with a rapidity of NO Head of Boa. motion which the eye of the closest observer fails BO'A, in popular language, the name of all those large serpents which kill their prey by entwining themselves around it, and constricting it in their coils; but by zoologists of the present day, limited as the name of a genus to a very small portion of their number, all of which are natives of the warm parts of America-the similar large serpents of Asia and Africa forming the genus Python (q. v.). The name B., however, was certainly not originally applied to American serpents, for it is used by Pliny, who accounts for its origin by a fable of serpents sucking the milk of cows, thus referring it, very improbably, to the Latin bos, an ox. The Linnæan genus B. comprehended all serpents having simple subcaudal plates, but without spur or rattle at the end of the tail, and was thus very artificial, as founded chiefly upon a single unimportant character, and consisted of a very miscellaneous assemblage of species, venomous and non-venomThe B. family, or Boida, as now constituted ants of watery places, often lie in wait for Claw of (containing the Pythons, &c., of the old world, animals that come to drink; thus the Boa as well as the true Boas of the new), is almost largest of the American species, Boa exclusively confined to tropical climates, and all (Eunectes) murina-sometimes called Anaconda, ous. The tail in all the Boida has great prehensile power, and its grasp of a tree round which it may be coiled is aided by the opposing action of two claws, one on each side of the anus, which are really the representatives of the hinder limbs of the superior vertebrate animals, and which, on dissection, are found to be connected not only with strong muscles, but with bones entirely concealed within the serpent, one jointed to another, so as to make the character of a rudimentary limb very apparent. These serpents, being almost all inhabit BOADICEA-BOARD OF ADMIRALTY. although Anaconda seems to be originally, like B., the name of a serpent of the old world-is to be found where rivers or narrow lagoons are overshadowed by gloomy forests. Perhaps the want of sufficient supplies of water, more than the greater cold of the climate, may account for the short time that specimens of the Boidæ brought to Europe have generally lived in confinement. After a repast, these serpents spend a considerable time in a state of comparative torpidity-several weeks generally elapsing before they waken up to require a new supply-and in this lethargic state they are easily killed. When they do waken up, the demands of appetite seem to be very urgent. Many of our readers must still remember the interest excited some years ago concerning a B. in the London Zoological Gardens, which, to the astonishment of its keepers, swallowed its rug; but this, after a trial of a week or two, it found indigestible, and the animal then gratified public curiosity by a reversal of the process of deglutition. The head in the Boide is thick, yet somewhat elongated; the eyes are small; the body is thickest in the middle; the tail usually has a blunt termination. The scales are numerous and rather small. The colours are various, and in many of the species rather bright and elegantly disposed. The true boas have the plates underneath the tail single, whilst in the pythons they are double. The species to which the name Boa Constrictor is appropriated, is far from being one of the largest, seldom attaining a length of more than twelve feet. It is common in Surinam and Brazil, where its skin is used for making boots and saddle-cloths. The name Boa Constrictor is, however, popularly extended to almost any of the species. The number of species, whether in the genus or in the family, is far from being well ascertained. Boas are much infested by intestinal worms, which appear often to cause their death. The excrement of the B.--the urine and fæces being combined as in other reptiles, and voided by a single vent-is a solid white substance, and consists mainly of urate of ammonia, accompanied by phosphate of lime (bone-earth). It is employed as an easy source of uric acid. their collective capacity, who have the management of some public office or department, bank, railway, charity, or, indeed, of any other trust. Thus, the Commissioners of Customs, when met for the transaction of business, are called the B. of Customs; the Lords of the Treasury, the B. of Treasury; Commissioners of Excise, B. of Excise; directors of railways, B. of Directors; poor-law guardians, B. of Guardians, &c. See CUSTOMS, TREASURY, &c. BOARD, BOARDING. In nautical language, board is used with many significations. Besides its ordinary application to a plank of wood, B. is a space or portion of sea over which a ship passes in tacking; hence the phrases, to make a good board,' to make short boards,' 'to make a stern-board,' 'to leave the land on back-board,' &c.—all of which refer to the direction of a ship's movement at a particular time and place. Again, board or aboard relates to the interior of the ship, in such phrases as 'to go aboard,' 'to heave overboard,' &c. But the most important of these meanings is that which relates to the boarding of an enemy's ship, or making a forcible entry for the sake of capturing it. Whenever this bold operation is determined on, certain seamen are told off to act as boarders. It is very rarely that, between two men-of-war, this operation is ventured on; it would, in most cases, be too perilous to the assailants, who more frequently conquer by cannon and musketry. Boarding is, in most instances, attempted by privateers against merchantmen, where the defenders are few in number. The assailant well considers all the circumstances for and against him-the relative sizes of the two vessels, the relative strength of the crews, the state of the wind and sea, and the chances of escape if foiled. Besides the pistols, cutlasses, and boarding-pikes of the seamen, there are provided powder-flasks for producing smoke and confusion on the enemy's deck, and shells called stink-pots, for producing an intolerable stench. The moment and the spot being selected, the fuses of the flasks and stink-pots are lighted; these combustibles are thrown upon the enemy's deck; and while the fire, smoke, and stench are doing their work by confusing the enemy, the boarders climb on board, and gain a mastery by their personal prowess—that is, if the calculations of relative strength have been duly made. Sometimes terrible hand-to-hand encounters take place on deck before victory decides for or against the assailants. BOADICE'A, a warrior-queen of the Iceni, a tribe inhabiting the eastern coast of Britain, in the time of the Romans. She flourished after the middle of the 1st century. Prasutagus, her husband, who died A. D. 60, or 61, had left his wealth jointly to the General Sir Howard Douglas, in his recent work Roman Emperor Nero, and to his two daughters, on 'Warfare with Steam,' expresses an opinion that hoping that by this artifice his kingdom would be steam war-ships are likely sometimes to come to protected from oppression; but the Roman soldiery, close quarters; and that, on that account, they should taking advantage of the defenceless condition of the be provided with a larger quota of marines and of country, began to plunder unscrupulously. B. her- boarding-implements than have hitherto been supself was scourged, her daughters were violated, and plied to sailing ships. The defenders, he adds, the noblest among the Iceni were treated as slaves. should construct loopholed barricades across the These outrages soon drove the Britons to revenge. terminations of the quarter-deck and the foreB. gathered round her a large army; attacked castle, to prolong the defence within board. The and captured the Roman colony of Camalodunum; French naval officers, it is known, look forward to defeated Petilius Cerealis, legate of the ninth legion, a great increase in all such military resources on who was marching to its relief; took Londinium board war-steamers; and Sir Howard is endeavourand Verulamium; and destroyed, it is said, some-ing to impress similar convictions on the English where about 70,000 Romans, many of them by torture. Suetonius, the Roman governor of Britain, now advanced at the head of 10,000 men against B., who, we are informed, had under her command no less than 263,000. A dreadful battle ensued (62 A. D.), in which, according to Tacitus, 80,000 Britons perished, and only 400 Romans. These figures, of course, cannot be trusted; but the victory must have been decisive, as it finally established the authority of the Romans in Britain. B., overwhelmed with despair, committed suicide. BOARD, the general name applied to persons in authorities. BOARD OF ADMIRALTY, a government department which has the management of all matters concerning the British navy. In the article ADMIRAL, the steps are noticed by which the duties of the Lord High Admiral, in former days, were transferred to a Board of Commissioners. The constitution and functions of this body will now be described. The B. of A. comprises six lords commissioners, who decide collectively on all important questions. Besides this collective or corporate action, each has BOARD OF ORDNANCE-BOAR'S HEAD. 1828 till 1854, and the general arrangements were very defective. Of the four members, the mastergeneral had a sort of general authority and veto; the surveyor-general had control over the artillery, engineers, sappers and miners, ordnance medical corps, contracts, laboratory, gunpowder, barracks, and navy gunners; the chief clerk managed the estimates, money-arrangements, civil establishment, pensions, superannuations, and Ordnance property; while the storekeeper-general had charge of stores, store-rooms, naval equipments, and naval war-stores. In matters relating to coast-defences, it was often difficult to decide between the Admiralty and the Ordnance: each Board claiming authority. When the Crimean disasters took place in 1854, the defects of the B. of O. became fully apparent: it could not work harmoniously with the other government departments. The Board was dissolved, the office of master-general abolished, and the duties were distributed among different branches of the Waroffice, in a way that will be briefly noticed under WAR DEPARTMENT. BOARD OF TRADE. See TRADE, BOARD OF. BOA'R-FISH (Capros), a genus of fishes of the genus Zeus, or Dory, in the still more protractile Dory (q. v.) family, or Zeide, differing from the mouth-the resemblance of which to the snout of in the want of spines at the base of the dorsal a hog is supposed to have given origin to the name special duties assigned to him. There are two civil in the cabinet, he had less political power. The or political lords, and four naval or sea lords. The Board days were thrice a week; and each of the first lord, who is always a cabinet minister, besides four members had control over certain departments a general control, has the management of naval-the patronage of which was generally vested in estimates, finance, political affairs, slave-trade pre- him. Scarcely any improvements were made from vention, appointments, and promotions. The first naval lord manages the composition and distribution of the fleet, naval discipline, appointment of inferior officers, commissioning ships, general instructions, sailing orders, and the naval reserve. The second naval lord attends to armaments, manning the navy, the coast-guard, the marines, marine artillery, dockyard brigades, and naval apprentices. The third naval lord attends to naval architecture, the building and repairing of ships, steam-machinery, and new inventions. The fourth naval lord has control over the purchase and disposal of stores, victualling ships, navy medical affairs, transports, convicts, and pensioners. The junior civil lord attends to accounts, mail-packets, Greenwich Hospital, naval chaplains, and schools. Under these six lords are two secretaries-in-chief, who manage the daily office work. The lords all resign when the prime minister resigns, and are usually replaced by others. This change gives rise to many evils. There is likely to be a change of views and of system: the new Board is not bound to act on the plans of its predecessors; and many of the costly novelties in the navy within the last ten years are directly traceable to this cause. The system is defended on the plea that these changes infuse new blood into the Admiralty, and give fair-play to increased knowledge and new plans. Some statesmen advocate a modified plan: proposing to render a few naval officers of rank permanent lords of the Admiralty, and only changing the others on a change of ministry. A connectinglink between the old and new Boards is the surveyor of the navy, who is a permanent officer. Every morning, a junior lord assists a clerk in apportioning all letters and dispatches among the several departments. Each lord of a department then attends to his own. The secretaries and the lords determine which letters ought to be submitted to the Board collectively: and that portion of the correspondence is treated as in most boards and committees. All delicate or doubtful matters are specially reserved for the first lord; but in the Board meetings he has only one vote, like the rest. The Admiralty House at Whitehall being too small for the business required to be done, many rooms in Somerset House are also appropriated by the Board; an arrangement that leads to much waste of time. The offices of the surveyor of the navy, the accountant-general, the storekeeper-general, the comptroller of victualling and transports, the navy medical department, the comptroller of steam-machinery, and the director of works are at Somerset House; and numerous messengers are employed all day long in conveying letters, documents, and messages from those departments to the Admiralty, where the lords, the chief secretaries, and the hydrographer have their offices. BOARD OF O'RDNANCE, a government department having the management of all affairs relating to the artillery and engineering corps of the British army. Under this precise designation, the Board no longer exists: a change having recently been made which requires brief explanation. The B. of O., until 1854, comprised the master-general of the Ordnance, the surveyor-general, the clerk of the Ordnance, and the principal storekeeper. There was no chairman at the meetings, and the Board often consisted of only one officer. The mastergeneral had a veto, and was in that respect more powerful than the chief member of the Board of Admiralty; although, not having necessarily a seat Boar-Fish (C. Aper). and anal fins, and of long filaments to the dorsal spines. The body has the usual oval, much compressed form of the family. The common B. (C. Aper) is a well-known inhabitant of the Medi terranean, rarely caught on the coasts of England The eyes are very large, and placed far forward; the body is of a carmine colour, lighter below, and with seven transverse orange bands on the back. The flesh is little esteemed. BOAR'S HEAD. The B. H. is the subject of a variety of legends, poetic allusions, and carols connected with the festivities of Christmas in England. At this wintry season, the wild boar was hunted, and his head served up as the most important dish on the baronial table. According to Scott's graphic lines: Then was brought in the lusty brawn Then the grim boar's head frowned on high, |