BLA
B L A
Black game, in zoology, a common EngKih name for the urogallus, or tetrao minor.) called alfo the groufe. See the ar- ticle Grouse, c3V.
Black earthy terra nigra, denotes the natural mould or loam. IVoodw. Meth. Foff. p. 4. See Soil, ISc.
Black eunuchs, in the cuftoms of eaftern nations, are Ethiopi- ans caftrated, to whom their princes commonly commit the care of their women. D'Herkl. Bibl. Orient, p. J 55. voc. azbar. See Eunuch, Cycl.
Black eye, hypofpbagma, in medicine, a fuffufion of blood on the tunica adnata turning livid, occafioned by a blow. Caji. Lex. Med. p, 408. voc. hypofpbagma. See Echymosis, Cycl. and Suppl.
Black eye is alfo a name given to the germ in beans, which the Romans called bilum. Vat. Phyf. Exper. P. 2. §. 6. c. 2. p. 50L See Bean, Germination, &c.
Black fryers, a name given to the dominican order, called alfo Predicants and preaching fryers, in France jacobins. Stepb. Suppl. to Dugd, Monaft. T. 1. p. 186. See Dominicans, Cycl.
Black land, in agriculture, a term by which the husbandmen denote a particular fort of clayey foil, which, however, they know more by its other properties than by its colour, which is rarely any thing like a true black, and often but a pale grey. This, however pale when dry, always blackens by means of rains ; and when ploughed up at thefe feafons, it flicks to the plough-fhares, and the more it is wrought, the muddier and duskier-coloured it appears. This fort of foil always contains a large quantity of land, and ufually a great number of fmall white ftones. Moretoris Northampt. p. 45.
Black lead, a mineral fubftance, in colour refembling lead, but more tender and friable ; and on that account ufed for mark- ing, writing, and drawing.
The name feems given it with fome impropriety, the common lead being the true black lead, fo called by way of contradi- stinction from tin, other wife called white lead. Plott, in Phil. Tranf. N° 240. p. 183. See Lead and, Tin. Black lead is otherwifc popularly denominated wad or wadt, and kelhw; by natural ifts nigrica fabrilis, from its ufe in fcor- ing; by analogy to the rubftca fabrilis, or ruddle, which has the fame ufe. IVoodw. Meth. FoiE cl. 5. p. 4.3. See Ruddle. Blatk leadvtzs known to the antients under the names ofp/mn- bagO) galena, and m.lybdena. Vid. Ruland. Lex. Alche'm. p. 370. voc. plvmbago. Cajl, Lex. Med, p. 355. voc. galena. See Plumbago, c?V.
It is found in divers parts of Germany, &c 3 . but the better fort is the produce of England alone, and that retrained to the mines near Kefwick in Cumberland ; befides which. Dr. Woodward allures us, there is none found worth any thing in any other country b . — [ a Savor. DitSt. Comm. T. 2. p. 739. voc. mina de pkmb. b IVcodvj. Nat. Hill. Engl. Fofl*. T. 1.
p-j-]
- Tis fomewhat difficult to afcertain what clafs of minerals black
lead belongs to. Metal it is not, as not being either ductile or even fufible ; nor can it be reckoned among flones, for want of hardnefs : it remains, therefore, that it mufl be placed among the earth?, though it diilolve not in water, as mofl earths will, except fl iff clays and ochres; among the latter whereof Dr Plott judges it may be reckoned, it iteming to be a fort of clofe earth, of very fine and loofe parts, fo burnt as to become black and mining, difcolouring the hands, as all ochres do. Whence the moll proper name that can be ffiven it, according to this author, is ochra nigra, or black ochre. Phil. Tranf. N° 240. p. 183. See Ochre. Some writers fpeak alfo of a factitious black lead, or plumbago, produced in furnace^, being found adhering to the fides ofthofe where gold or filver are melted. Ruland. Lex. Alch. p. 373. voc. plumbago.
Black leather is that which has paned the curriers hands, where, from the ruffe t as it was left by the tanners, it is become black, by having been fcored and rubbed three times on the grain- fide with copperas-water. Hougbt. Collect. T. i. N° 122. p. 322.
Black mail (Cycl.)— The origin of this word is much contefted; for though it feems a composition of black and motile, ufed for a fmall piece of metal or money, whence the tribute of black math feems to fome to have been fo denominated, as being paid not in fdver or white money, but either in copper or victuals, according to the ability of the debtor; yet there is ground to hold the word black to be here a corruption of blank or white, and confequently to lignify a rent paid in a fmall copper coin called blanks. This may receive fome light from a phrafe ftill ufed in Picardy, where fpeaking of a perfon who has not a fingle half-penny, they fay, il n a pas urn blanque maiile. Du Cange, Gloff. Lat. T. r. p. 569. voc blakmale.
Black monks, a denomination given to the benedictins c , called in Latin nigri monachi, or nigromanachi j fometimes ordo nigro- rmn, the order of blacks •*.— [ = Stepb. Suppl. to Dugd. T. I. P- 69. * Magri, Voc. Ecclef.J See Benedictins, Cycl. and Suppl J
Black procefion, in ecclefiaftical writers, that which is made in Hack habits, and with black enfigns and ornaments. See Pro- cession, Cycl,
Antiently at Malta there was a black prscejjlon every Friday, where the whole clergy walked with their faces covered with 'a black veil. Magri, lib. cit.
Black rents, the fame with black-mail, fuppofed to be rents toi* merly paid in provifions and flefh, not in fpecie. See Black mail, Cycl. and Suppl.
Black row grains^ a fpecies of iron-ftone or ore found in the mines about Dudley in Stafford fh ire. Plott, Nat. Hi ft. Staf- fordfh. c. 4. §. 17. p. 159.
Black Jhcep, in the oriental hiftory, the enfign or ftandard of a race of Turkmans fettled in Armenia and Mefopotainia ; hence called the dynajli of the black flrtep, Vid. D' ' Herbtl. Bibl. Orient, p, Z53. voc. cara.
Black Jlones and gems, according to Dr. Woodward, owe their colour to a mixture of tin in their compofition. Vid. IVoodw. Hift. EmU. Foff. T. 1. p. 190.
Black tin, in mineralogy, a denomination given to the tin-ore when dreffed, flamped, and warned ready fur the blowing- houfe, or to be melted into metal. Phil. Tranf. N Q 6o. p. 21 10. IVoodw. Nat. Hift. Engl. Fofl'. T. 1. p. 199. Petius, Hift. Mines, c 18. p. 79.
It is prepared into this flate by means of beating and wafTiing; and when it has palled through feveral baddies or wafhing- troughs, it is taken up in form of a black powder, like fine fand, called black tin. See Tin.
Black wbythf, in our old writers, bread of a middle finenefs betwixt white and brown, called in fome parts ravel bread. In religious houfes, it was the bread made for ordinary e;uefts, anddiftinguifhed from their houfhold loaf, or pa uis convent ua lis, which was pure manchet, or white bread. Cowel.
Black w^, iron wrought by the blackfmith ; thus called by way of oppofition to that wrought by whitefmiths. Saiar. Diet. Comm. T. 2. p. 1651. voc. taillandcrie.
BLACKING is fometimes ufed for a factitious black, as lamp- black, fhoe-black, tic. Crouch, Surv. Brit. Cuft. T. 1. p. 120. See Black.
BLACKS, in phyfiology. See Negro.
BLADDER (C>/.)— Though the urinary bladder he naturally Angle, yet there have been inftances of nature's varyino- from herfelf in this particular. The bladder of the famous Cafau- bon, upon differing his body after his death, was found to be double; and, in the Pbilofophical Tranfactions, we have an account of a triple bladder found in the body of a gentleman, who had long been ill, and no one could guefs the caufe. In this perfon's beft flate of health, he never could void his urine in a continued ftjeam, like other healthful perfons ; but the quantity ufed to come away by little and little, and that with great trouble : and in the two or three laft years of his life, a thick mucus difcharged itfelf with the urine, and gave him pain, which he never had been fubject to before. He fufpect- ed at length that he had a ftone in the bladder, and being fearched for it with a catheter, the perfon who performed that operation, meeting with fome refiftence in the way, forced the inflrumcnt through the membranes, and caufed an effufion of blood, which finally was the caufe of his death, and on open- ing him, the bladder was found to be triple; a circumftance which caufed all his complaints, but which could not be known till it difcovered itfelf too late.
As to the figure and fituation of the human bladder, Mr. Weit- brecht has given a better defcription of them than is to be met with in the common fyitems. Vid. Med. EfT. Edinb. from Comment. Acad. Petrop. T. ?.
The difeafes to which the bladder is fubject a are ulcers b , wounds c , defcents or ruptures J , preternatural contents, par- ticularly ftones and gravel % fchirrus f , palfics s, inflamma- tions of its neck \ csv.— [ a Diod. Carljt. Epift. ad Anti^on. ap. Fabric. Bibl. Grasc. 1. 6. c. 7. T. 1 2. p. 5^9, f e q. *> Phil. Tranf. N° 280. p. 121 1. where is an account of the cure of ulcers of the bladder by cantharides internally given, firft prac- tifed by Groenvelt, and afterwards with fuccefs bv Mr. Yon^e. c Teichmey. Infl. Med. Leq. c. 23. p. 288. where 'it is inquired, whether wounds of the bladder be always mortal, as is aflerted by Hippocrates. J Hift. Acad. Scienc. ami. 1717. p. 17. where is given an inftance of a rupture of the bladder, by many held impoflible on account of its magnitude. c Hift. Acad. Scienc. aim. 1702. p. 29. It. Mem. p. 34.. Teiclmiey. ubi fupra, c. 17. p. 138. f Med. EfT. Edinb. T. r. §. 34. p .
321. where the hiftory is given of a bladder becoming fchir- rous. e Id. T. 2. §. 32. p. 36^. where is an inftance of a cure of a fuppreffion of urine, caufed by a palfey of the bladder. h Littrc, in Hift. Acad. Scienc. ann. 1704. p. 35, feq. where an account is given of a total fuppreffion of urine, caufed by an inflammation of the neck of the bladder.'] The internal membrane of the bladder has been known to come away with the urine, without any great danger. Mr. Rotuult gives an account, in the memoirs of the academy of fcience.s, of a patient he had, who, after a very violent ftoppage of urine, voided with fome pain a piece of a membrane of an inch fquare. Three or four days afterwards, the patient felt fomething again obftruct the paffase; and as it came nearer the end of the urethra, he at length took hold of it, and drew out a larger piece of the fame fort of membrane. Some time after this, in ftraining violenily in difchaming his urine, he voided three other fuch pieces, which together, according to Mr. Rohault's judgment, could not make^Iefs than two-thirds of the internal membrane of the whole bladder; and in effect it was plain, that, in the courfe of the difeafe, the whole in- terna
