Blondin, Charles
Charles (1824-1897), a distinguished French acrobat. He won a reputation as a rope walker in his native France. His most distinguished performances, however, took place during a tour of the United States . June 30, 1859, he crossed the Falls of Niagara on a tight rope. This he did in the presence of a crowd of 25,000 people. On the fourth of the following July he crossed again, blindfolded, trundling a wheelbarrow in front of him, and on the nineteenth of August, he crossed a third time carrying a man on his back. The next year he crossed for the fourth time walking on stilts. It seems incredible that any performer should walk on a slender rope for a distance of several hundred feet, much less keep his balance when crossing a chasm over 300 feet in depth. It would seem that the moving waters below would cause him to lose his head. The slightest tremor or misstep would have sent him to his death. His performances took place, however, in the presence of thousands, including the Prince of Wales , and cannot be disputed. See Niagara ; Circus
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
Blood Flower
the English name of the hæmanthus, a genus of plants belonging to the order amaryllidaceæ (amaryllids). The allusion is to the brilliant red flowers. The species, which are mostly from the Cape of Good Hope, are ornamental plants.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Blood Letting
a method of relieving the human system in states of genera eneral or local plethora by the abstraction of blood. General plethora is best treated, according to this method, by withdrawing a considerable quantity of blood from the arteries (arteriotomy) or veins (venesection). Local engorgement, or hyperæmia, of a part is usually treated by abstracting blood from the smallest sized vessels, or capillaries, present in the skin, by the methods of scarification or leeching. In these cases, the removal of blood from the superficial textures diverts the blood stream in part from underlying tissues, and thus reduces the tendency tendency to inflammatory action in the latory deeper structures. In general blood letting the object is to reduce the strength of the blood stream throughout the whole system, and thus to diminish the acuteness of feverish conditions. The most usually employed method of accomplishing this is by the opening of one of the superficial veins of the arm, and allowing a sufficient quantity of blood to escape from the blood vessel thus operated upon. The amount of blood actually abstracted in blood letting must depend on the age of the patient and the nature the case. of The operation would be scarcely necessary if less than a quarter of a pint is to be removed, and it is now rare to remove more than one pint at one operation, however severe the case in which it is employed. See BLEEDING.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Blood Poisoning
a name loosely used of pyæmia and allied diseases. It is also used popularly in a wider sense for the results on the human system of poison germs from malaria, bad drains, etc.; or for the condition of the blood caused by such ailments as Bright's disease of the kidneys, etc.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Blood Rain
rain nearly of the color of blood, and which many of the unscientific suppose to be actual blood. It arises either from minute plants, mostly of the order algæ, or from infusorial animalcule. It is akin to red snow, which is similarly produced. The word also applies to a bright scarlet alga or fungus, called palmella prodigiosa, sometimes developed in very hot weather on cooked vegetables or decaying fungi. BLOOD ROOT (sanguinaria canadensis), a plant of Canada and the United States, belonging to the poppy order, and so named from its root stock yielding a sap of a deep orange color. Its leaves are heart-shaped and deeply lobed, the flower grows on a scape and is white or tinged with rose. The plant has acrid narcotic properties, and has been found useful in various diseases. Geum canadense, another American plant used as a mild tonic, is also known as blood root.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Blood Stone
a variety of jaspery quartz, flecked with red spots like drops of blood.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Blood Vessels
the tubes or vessels in which the blood circulates.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Blood Wood
a name of several trees. Indian bloodwood (lagerstræmia reginæ), is a large tree of the henna family, with wood of a blood-red color, used for many purposes. It is called also jarool.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Blood Wort
same as blood root (sanguinaria).
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Blood-Hound
a variety of hound or dog, so called from the ability which it possesses to trace a wounded animal by the smell of any drops of blood which may have fallen from it. It is the canis familiaris, variety B. sagax, of Linnæus, now called variety sanguinaria. It is the sleuth-hound of the Scotch. It has large, pendulous ears, a long curved tail, is of a reddish tan color, and stands about 28 inches high. The breed is not now often pure. There are other subvarieties, especially the Cuban blood-hound, used in the Maroon wars in Jamaica during the 18th century, as well as in tracking criminals in the United States. The African blood-hound is used in hunting the gazelle.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia
Bloodless Surgery
the so-called bloodless surgery brought prominently before the public by the visit to this country of Dr. Adolf Lorenz of Vienna; in 1902, was used during the above trip in the treatment particularly of congenital dislocation of the hip, a condition in children which often leads to serious deformity. But Lorenz advocates the method for many other conditions. In an address before the New York Academy of medicine during his American tour the doctor mentioned the following conditions as amenable to his "modelling redressment" as he calls his manipulations: hip deformities, knee contractures, all deformities of the foot, and wry neck. The Lorenz method consists essentially of a tearing of muscles and ligaments, followed by replacement of the displaced bone. The usual or bloody method consists of a cutting of the tissues. As a matter of fact the bloodless surgery is often about as bloody as when the knife is used, the only difference being that the blood in the former case flows out among the tissues instead of appearing on the surface through the knife wound. The Lorenz method is not without danger. It appears to be useful in certain cases, but the knife is preferred by the average surgeon and orthopedist in most cases.
Only in Collier's New Encyclopedia