BLO
B L O
white, tinged with green ; but, on adding fpirit of fait to them, they become of a colour not unlike that of copper before the folution. Oil of tartar gives a pale green folution, and the fpirit of fait clears up the liquor, and reftores it to its former colour.
Bifmuth diflblved in aqua fortis, and mixed with a lixivium of blood, produces a milky coagulum, which, after a fmall time ftanding, with the addition of fome fpirit of fait, becomes of a pale blue. The lixivia of fled), and of crude fait of tartar, produced both white coagula, which the fpirit of fait made no al- teration in. From thefe experiments it appears, that not any of thefe mctallick bodies would produce a fine blue colour, with the lixivium of the blood; but a folution of iron anfwers all the experiments that are made with the folution of vitriol, and produces as fine a blue colour, as that made in the common way. Philof. Tranf. N u 381. p. 23. Medicinal ufes of Blood — We find a great number of thefe enu- merated by autient and modern writers ; but moft of them, we doubt, onfalfeand infufficient grounds. The blood of the hare, is, by fome, reputed a fpecific againft inflammatory tumors a . That of the mole againft mortifica- tions b . That of the afs againft manias, and other diforders of the nervous kind c . That of the barble-fifh againft marks of the mother d . That of a cock's comb for facilitating denti- tion e . That of doves, as a filtre for procuring love f j and, by others, held excellent in cataracts s. Even that of the menfes is by fome cried up for its ufe in fynovias and white fwellings h . — [ a Junck. Confpec. Chir. tab. 5. p. 64. b Id. ib. tab. 10. p. 97. c Nent. Fund. Med. T. 2. P. 3. p. 786. It feems it is to be drawn from behind the ears, then dried, and a piece put into the patient's drink. d Junck. lib. cit. tab. 37. p. 237. c Id. Confp. Med. p. 7 10. f Potter, Archaeol. Att. I.4. c.io. T. 2. p. 25r. £ Junck. Confp. Chir. tab, 88. p. 604. h Id. ib. tab. 60. p. 391J
The volatile fait, and fpirit of human blood, are commended by Mr. Boyle, as preferable to that of harts horn, for the cure of afthmas, confumptions ', &c. though Quincy only puts them on a level k . Borrichius fhews, that this fpirit was much ufed by the Egyptians againft epilepftes '. Several have pre- tended, that the blood of Chriftian children is ufed by the Jewifh women to facilitate delivery m ; but this feems a calumny. Some fcruple not to make the blood a prefervative from the le- profy, and attribute the frequency of this difeafe among the Jews, to their eating meat void of all blood; but it appears without all foundation \ In effect, all the medicinal ufes of blood are rejected by Bartholin, both from reafon and expe- rience *. Even the famed virtues of goats blood p, for curing pleuriiies without bleeding, and diffolving the ftone in the bladder, feem not much better warranted than the reft. — [* Beyle, Phil. Works abr. T. 1 . p. 65. Item, T. 3. p. 492. It is to be preferved in fpirit of wine: and will draw tincture from faffron, turmeric, £ff<r. Vid. Boyle, lib. cit. T. 3. p. 565, and 480. k Qu'mc. Pharmac. P. 2. §. 179. p. 107- ' Borrih. ap. Philof. Tranfact. N a 113. p. 299. m IVolf.¥s\h\. Hebr. T. 2. p. 1102. Item, T- 3. p. 911. feq. n Barthol. Act. Med. 1. c. p. 259. and 261. ° Barth. Difq. de Sang. ap. ejufd. Act. Med. T. 1. p. 306. p Savar. Diet. Comm. T. 2. p. 1459. voc - f m Z debouc]
Eating of Blood. — This practice appears to have been prohi- bited by Noah a , which prohibition was renewed by Mofes, obferved by the Jews, repeated by the apoftles at the council ofjerufalem, confirmed and defended by all the fathers, ex- cept St. Auguftin, and the univerfal practice, both of the eaftern and weftern church b , till his time; and, in many churches, even of the weft, much longer, as low as the middle of the tenth c , fome fay the eleventh d century. The queftion is, whether the apoftolical precept to abftain from blood, be to be confidered as only temporal and occafional, a fort of accommodation to the weaknefs of the Jewifh con- verts c ; or perpetual, founded on moral principles, and con- fequently ftill obligatory.— [ a Bud. Hift. Ecclef. Vet. Teft. P. 2. fee. 2. T. 1. p. 159. b Barth. Difq. de Sang, ve-
tito, Francof. 1672. 8°. Act. Med. Hafn. T. 1. p. 306. Chrift- Theophil. de Sanguine vetito Difquifitio uberior pro Bartholino, Francof. 1678. 8°. Aft. Med. Hafn. T. 4. p. 100. ' Johttf. Ecclef. Laws, T. 1. * Trev. Diet. Univ. T. 4. p. 1845. voc. fang. e Bingh. Orig, Ecclef. 1. 17. c. 5. §. 20.]
Religious ufes of Blood — Among the antients, blood was ufed for the fealing and ratifying covenants- and alliances, which was done by the contracting parties drinking a little of each other's blood*; for appearing the manes of the dead, in order to which iked was offered on their tombs, as part of the funeral cere- mony. Thus we read, that twelve youths were facrificed at the funeral of Patroclus b ; and eight at that of Pallas c . — p Vid. Tacit. Annal. 1. 12. c. 47. n. 3. Pitifc. Lex. Antiq. T. 1. p. ^90. voc. fanguis. Potter, Archreol. 1. 4. c. 8. p. Virgil, J£n. 1. 10. v. 518.]
2.3 b.
b Hem. 13.
.27.
The blood of victims was the portion of the Gods, both among Jews a and heathens b ; and accordingly was poured, or fprinkled on the altars in oblation to them. — [ a Calm. Diet. Bibl. T. 1. p. 314. b Lakcmak. Antiq. Grtec. Sacr. P. 3. C. 1. §. 19. p. 371. feq.] Some h:ivc afferted, that the Romans offered human blood to
appcafe their deities, which is denied by others. Mdcroh. Sa- turn, hi. c. 7. Strteu. Synt. Ant. Rom. c. 10. p. 458. The pricfts made another ufe of blood, viz. for divination : the ftreaming of blood from the earth % fire b , and the like, was held a prodigy, or omen of evil. — [ a Apul. Metam. 1. 9. p. 302. b 4>. Curt. 1. 4. c. 2. n. 1 1. Buleng. de Prodig. c. II. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. 2. p. 69c. voc. fanguis.] The Roman priefts were not unacquainted with the ufe of blood in miracles ; they had their fluxes of blood from images, ready to ferve a turn ; witnefs that faid to have {beamed from the itatue of Minerva at Modena, before the battle at that place a . But I know not whether in this their fucceflbrs have not gone beyond them ! How many relations in ecclefiaftical writers of madonas, crucifixes, and wafers bleeding? At leait the liquification of the blood of St. Januarius at Naples, repeated annually for fo many ages, feems to tranfeend by far, all the frauds of the Grecian or Roman priefthood.' But. the chemifts are got into the fecret, and we find M. Neumann at Berlin performed the miracle of the liquification of dried blood, with all the circumftances of the Neapolitan experiment b . — [ a Dio. 1. 46. p. 313. b Vid. Bibl. Germ. T. 29. an. 1734. p. 204.]
Among the fchoolmen we find a famous difputc, under Pope Pius II. whether the blood of Chrift, which fell from him in the three days paflion, retained or loft the hypoftatic union; and confequently whether it were the proper object of adoration j that is, to be worfhipped with the cultus latria. The domi- nicans maintaining the former, the Francifcans the latter. Pfaff. Inft. Theol. P. 2. c. 6. p. 432. Ejufd. Hift. Ecclef. faec. 15. c. 2. §. 7. p. 721.
It feems the dominican doctrine gained the afcendant, as be- ing fitter to favour the profits of the monks ; who becoming poffefled fome way or other of a few drops of this precious li- quor, were fecured of ample offerings from the deluded laity, who flocked to pay their homage to the facred relick. Jofeph of Arimathea is faid to have firil brought into Britain two fi.1- ver vefTels filled with the blood of Chrift, which by his order were buried in his tomb. King Henry III. had acryftal, con- taining a portion of the fame blood, fent him by the mafter of the temple at Jerufalem, attefted with the fcals of the pa- triarch; which treafure the king committed to the church of St. Peters, Wcftminfter, and obtained from the bifhops an indulgence of fix years, and one hundred fixteen days, to all that mould vifit it. Mat. Paris a even aflures us, that the king's fummoning his nobles and prelates to celebrate the feaft of St. Edward in St. Peter's church, was chiefly pro venerations fa?i£fi fanguinis Chrifli nuper adepti^. Divers others of our monafterieswere pofreffed of this profitable relick; as the col- lege of Bon Homines at Aftiridge, and the abby of Hales, to- whom it was given by Henry, Son of Richard duke of Corn- wall, and king of the Romans. To it reforted a great concourfe of people for devotion and adoration; till in 1538, as the reforma- tion took place, it was perceived to be only honey clarified, and coloured with faffron, as was fhewn at Paul's crofs by the bifhop of Rochefter. The like difcovery was made of the blood of Chrift,. found among the reliques in the abby of Fefcamp in Nor- mandy, pretended to have been preferved by Nicodemus, when he took the body from the crofs, and given to that abby by William duke of Normandy : it was buried by bis fon Ri- chard, and again difcovered in 1171, and attended with diffe- rent miracles ; but the cheat, which had been long winked at, was at length expofed, the relation of which is given by Speed c . [ a Matt. Paris, Hift. Angl. ad an. 1249. b Pryn, Hift. Coll. T. 2. p- 715. c Kenn. Paroch. Antiq. p. 300, feq J Blood, in the Romifh church, is ufed in fpcaking of the wine in the eucharift ; which they fuppofe miraculoufiy converted, by the prieft's confecration, into the real blood of Chrift. See Eucharist, Transubstantiation, &c. Cycl. There have been divers difputes among their divines concern- ing the matter and form of the veflel or cup, wherein the blood of Chrift was to be made and contained. Vid. Durant. de Ritib. Ecclef. 1. 1. c. 7. p. 67, feq. Blood is alfo ufed abufivcly for the fap of plants; as having much the fame office in the vegetable, as the other in the ani- mal oeconomy. See Sap.
In a fenfe, not unlike this, wine is fometimes alfo denominated the blood of the grape. Cahnei, Diet. Bibl. p. 314. Blood is alfo applied, in pharmacy, to certain vegetable juices, tears, &c. as dragons blood, fanguis draconis, a fort of eaftern gum. See Dragons blood, Cycl, Dragons Blood, fanguis dracomf, is alfo ufed by the Arabs for the juice of the anefmfa. Cajl. Lex. Med. p. 377. voc. hama. Satyrion Blood, fanguis fatyrii, a ruddy liquor produced from the roots of fatyrium, baked with bread ; and liquified, as it were, into blood, by a long digeftion. Blood, in chemiftry and alchemy, is a denomination given to feveral artificial compofitions, chiefly on account of their red colour . Blood of fulphur, fanguis fulphuris, is a preparation of liver of fulphur, ground with oil of tartar per dcliquium, then digefted, with dulcified fpirit of nitre. It is reputed a good pectoral and diuretic, but rarely prefcribed. §>y'mc. Pharmac. P. 2. fee. 1 7. p. 328*
Blood
