originality. As architect to Louis XV. from 1755 he necessarily did much in the rococo manner, although it would seem that he conformed to fashion rather than to artistic conviction. He was among the earliest founders of schools of architecture in France, and for this he was distinguished by the Academy; but he is now best remembered by his voluminous work L’Architecture française, in which he was the continuator of Marot. The book is a precious collection of views of famous buildings, many of which have disappeared or been remodelled.
BLONDIN (1824–1897), French tight-rope walker and acrobat,
was born at St Omer, France, on the 28th of February 1824.
His real name was Jean François Gravelet. When five years
old he was sent to the École de Gymnase at Lyons and, after six
months’ training as an acrobat, made his first public appearance
as “The Little Wonder.” His superior skill and grace as well
as the originality of the settings of his acts, made him a popular
favourite. He especially owed his celebrity and fortune to his
idea of crossing Niagara Falls on a tight-rope, 1100 ft. long,
160 ft. above the water. This he accomplished, first in 1859,
a number of times, always with different theatric variations:
blindfold, in a sack, trundling a wheelbarrow, on stilts, carrying
a man on his back, sitting down midway while he made and ate
an omelette. In 1861 Blondin first appeared in London, at the
Crystal Palace, turning somersaults on stilts on a rope stretched
across the central transept, 170 ft. from the ground. In 1862
he again gave a series of performances at the Crystal Palace,
and elsewhere in England, and on the continent. After a period
of retirement he reappeared in 1880, his final performance
being given at Belfast in 1896. He died at Ealing, London,
on the 19th of February 1897.
BLOOD, the circulating fluid in the veins and arteries of
animals. The word itself is common to Teutonic languages;
the O. Eng. is blód, cf. Gothic bloth, Dutch bloed, Ger. Blut. It
is probably ultimately connected with the root which appears
in “blow,” “bloom,” meaning flourishing or vigorous. The
Gr. word for blood, αἷμα, appears as a prefix haemo- in many
compound words. As that on which the life depends, as the
supposed seat of the passions and emotions, and as that part
which a child is believed chiefly to inherit from its parents, the
word “blood” is used in many figurative and transferred
senses; thus “to have his blood,”
“to fire the blood,” “cold
blood,” “blood-royal,” “half” or “whole blood,” &c. The
expression “blue blood” is from the Spanish sangre azul. The
nobles of Castile claimed to be free from all admixture with the
darker blood of Moors or Jews, a proof being supposed to lie in
the blue veins that showed in their fairer skins. The common
English expletive “bloody,” used as an adjective or adverb,
has been given many fanciful origins; it has been supposed to
be a contraction of “by our Lady,” or an adaptation of the oath
common during the 17th century, “’sblood,” a contraction of
“God’s blood.” The exact origin of the expression is not quite
clear, but it is certainly merely an application of the adjective
formed from “blood.” The New English Dictionary suggests
that it refers to the use of “blood” for a young rowdy of aristocratic
birth, which was common at the end of the 17th century,
and later became synonymous with “dandy,” “buck,” &c.;
“bloody drunk” meant therefore “drunk as a blood,” “drunk
as a lord.” The expression came into common colloquial use
as a mere intensive, and was so used till the middle of the 18th
century. There can be little doubt that the use of the word
has been considerably affected by the idea of blood as the vital
principle, and therefore something strong, vigorous, and parallel
as an intensive epithet with such expressions as “thundering,”
“awfully” and the like.
Anatomy and Physiology
In all living organisms, except the most minute, only a minimum number of cells can come into immediate contact with the general world, whence is to be drawn the food supply for the whole organism. Hence those cells—and they are by far the most numerous—which do not lie on the food-absorbing surface, must gain their nutriment by some indirect means. Further, each living cell produces waste products whose accumulation would speedily prove injurious to the cell, hence they must be constantly removed from its immediate neighbourhood and indeed from the organism as a whole. In this instance again, only a few cells can lie on a surface whence such materials can be directly discharged to the exterior. Hence the main number of the cells of the organism must depend upon some mechanism by which the waste products can be carried away from them to that group of cells whose duty it is to modify them, or discharge them from the body. These two ends are attained by the aid of a circulating fluid, a fluid which is constantly flowing past every cell of the body. From it the cells extract the food materials they require for their sustenance, and into it they discharge the waste materials resulting from their activity. This circulating medium is the blood.
Whilst undoubtedly the two functions of this circulating fluid above given are the more prominent, there are yet others of great importance. For instance, it is known that many tissues as a result of their activity produce certain chemical substances which are of essential importance to the life of other tissue cells. These substances—internal secretions as they are termed—are carried to the second tissue by the blood stream. Again, many instances are known in which two distant tissues communicate with one another by means of chemical messengers, bodies termed hormones (ὁρμάειν, to stir up), which are produced by one group of cells, and sent to the other group to excite them to activity. Here, also, the path by which such messengers travel is the blood stream. A further and most important manner in which the circulating fluid is utilized in the life of an animal is seen in the way in which it is employed in protecting the body should it be invaded by micro-organisms.
Hence it is clear that the blood is of the most vital importance to the healthy life of the body. But the fact that it is present as a circulating medium exposes the animal to a great danger, viz. that it may be lost should any vessel carrying it become ruptured. This is constantly liable to happen, but to minimize as far as possible any such loss, the blood is endowed with the peculiar property of clotting, i.e. of setting to a solid or stiff jelly by means of which the orifices of the torn vessels become plugged and the bleeding stayed.
The performance of these essential functions depends upon the maintenance of a continuous flow past all tissue cells, and this is attained by the circulatory mechanism, consisting of a central pump, the heart, and a system of ramifying tubes, the arteries, through which the blood is forced from the heart to every tissue (see Vascular System). A second set of tubes, the veins, collects the blood and returns it to the heart. In many invertebrates the circulating fluid is actually poured into the tissue spaces from the open terminals of the arteries. From these spaces it is in turn drained away by the veins. Such a system is termed a haemolymph system and the circulating fluid the haemolymph. Here the essential point gained is that the fluid is brought into direct contact with the tissue cells. In all vertebrates, the ends of the arteries are united to the commencements of the veins by a plexus of extremely minute tubes, the capillaries, consequently the blood is always retained within closed tubes and never comes into contact with the tissue cells. It is while passing through the capillaries that the blood performs its work; here the blood stream is at its slowest and is brought nearest to the tissue cell, only being separated from it by the extremely thin wall of the capillary and by an equally thin layer of fluid. Through this narrow barrier the interchanges between cell and blood take place.
The advantage gained in the vertebrate animal by retaining the blood in a closed system of tubes lies in the great diminution of resistance to the flow of blood, and the consequent great increase in rate of flow past the tissue cells. Hence any food stuffs which can travel quickly through the capillary wall to the tissue cell outside can be supplied in proportionately greater quantity within a given time, without requiring any very great increase in the concentration of that substance in the blood. Conversely, any highly diffusible substance may be withdrawn
