Blackstone, Sir William
Sir William (1723-1780), an English jurist. He was born in London and was educated at a London school called Charterhouse, at Oxford University, and later for the law. In 1758 he began a series of lectures at Oxford on English law. He divided his comments into four books on the rights of persons, the rights of things, public wrongs, and private wrongs. Published in book form these lectures are known as Blackstone's Commentaries and are frequently, if not universally, the first law book placed in the hands of a law student. Blackstone is criticized for being too much of an essayist and not enough of a lawyer; for not distinguishing clearly between legal and popular uses of a word; for falling into contradiction; and for setting up a literary defense of English law as a perfect and perfected body of law, instead of a crude, growing code full of injustice as well as of admirable provisions. Lawyers regard Blackstone rather as an essayist,--a Lord Macaulay turned loose in a law school.
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Blackwell, Anna
The most prominent disciple of Allen Kardec in this country, and the ablest exponent of his views. Miss Blackwell herself had psychic experiences-she had seen visions, and spirit forms had appeared on her photographs.
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Blackwood
WILLIAM, a Scotch publisher, born at Edinburgh, Nov. 20, 1776. He started as a bookseller in 1804, and soon became also a publisher. The first number of "Blackwood's Magazine" appeared April 1, 1817, and it has always been conducted in the Tory interest. He secured as contributors most of the leading Tory writers, among them Sir Walter Scott, Lockhart, Hogg, Professor Wilson, De Quincey, Dr. Moir (Delta), Dr. Maginn, John Galt, and others. The work of editor he performed himself. After his death the business, which had developed into a large publishing concern, was carried on by his sons, and the magazine still keeps its place among the leading periodicals. He died Sept. 16, 1834.
or INDIAN ROSE- WOOD, a leguminous tree of Hindustan (dalbergia latifolia), the timber of which is highly valued and much used in the manufacture of fine furniture. The Australian blackwood is the acacia melanoxylon.
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Blackwood, William
William (1776-1834), an Edinburgh publisher. He was a bookseller from his youth up, and had experience in the trade, not only in his native city, but in Glasgow and London as well. He established Blackwood's Magazine in Edinburgh in 1817. It immediately took rank as a literary journal, corresponding in a way to our Atlantic Monthly. Among the earlier contributors who gave standing were John Wilson, J. G. Lockhart, De Quincey, and James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd. Mr. Blackwood combined the literary taste and genial manners that attracted men of letters and made them loyal to his enterprise. He was a man of delightful hospitality. In this respect, he resembled our American publisher, James T. Fields, whose Boston home was the resort of authors and magazine writers. Mr. Blackwood was succeeded in business by his sons, who have built up one of the influential publishing houses of Great Britain . W. E. Aytoun succeeded the elder Blackwood in the editorship of the magazine. See Black ; Adam
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Bladder
a membranous bag in man and the higher animals, designed for the reception of the urine, as it is secreted by the kidneys. This, being the most important structure of the kind in the frame, is called, by way of prominence, the bladder; any other one is distinguished from it by a word prefixed, as the gall bladder.
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Bladder Wort
the English name of utricularia, a genus of scrophulariaceous plants. Both the English and the scientific appellations refer to the fact that the leaves bear at their margins small bladders.
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Bladder-Nut
a shrub ten feet high, with greenish striped branches. It is related to the box-elder and to the maples. So called from a three-celled, inflated pod, looking something like the husk of a ground cherry . There are from one to four seeds in each cell. They rattle in a pod which hangs on all winter.
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Bladderwort
a curious aquatic herb floating or rooting in the mud. The thread-like leaves are furnished with air bladders which float the plant, especially at time of flowering. An interesting feature is a light, thin, trapdoor opening inward on the underside of the bladders. The probability is that this door is designed to admit water when the plant is ready to sink, but insects push up through the trap and are unable to escape. The question is whether the plant makes use of them for food. The yellow flower of the common bladderwort (utricularia vulgaris) has a chin-like spur and an irregular sort of hood. It grins at one from ponds and ditches like a tiny old water witch.
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Blaikie
WILLIAM GARDEN, a Scotch clergyman, born in Aberdeen, in 1837; was graduated at the University of Aberdeen; ordained a minister of the Established Church in 1842; joined the Free Church in 1843; and was appointed Professor of Apologetics and Pastoral Theology in New College, Edinburgh, in 1868. He was a delegate to the Presbyterian General Assembly of the United States in 1870; took a leading part in the formation of the Alliance of the Reformed Churches; and was editor of the "Free Church Magazine" in 1849-1853, the "North British Review" in 1860-1863, the "Sunday Magazine" in 1871-1874, and the "Catholic Presbyterian" in 1879- 1883. His writings include "Bible History in Connection with General History" (1859); "Bible Geography" (1860); "Glimpses of the Inner Life of David Livingstone" (1880); "Leaders in Modern Philanthropy" (1884); etc. He died in North Berwick, Scotland, June 11, 1899.
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Blaine
JAMES GILLESPIE, an American statesman, born in West Brownsville, Pa., Jan. 31, 1830. He graduated at Washington College, Pa., in 1847. In 1854 he removed to Augusta, Me., and engaged in journalism. He was one of the founders of the Republican JAMES G. BLAINE party, and in 1856 was a delegate to the first Republican National Convention, which nominated Frémont for the Presidency. In 1858 he was elected to the Legislature of Maine, and in 1862 to the House of Representatives of the National Congress. He became Speaker of the House in 1864, and held that office for six years; was a member of the Senate from 1876 to 1881; was twice Secretary of State (1881-1882 and 1889-1892). He was defeated for the Presidency in 1884 by Grover Cleveland. Besides his numerous speeches and writings on the public questions of his day, his best known work is his "Twenty Years in Congress" (2 vols., 1884-1886), a historical production of great and permanent value. He died in Washington, D. C., Jan. 27, 1893.
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