BLOCH. 183 BLOCKADE. I French, German, and English periodicals and his war - and - peace nniseiini at Lucerne, but more particularly through his great work published at Saint Petersburg in 1S9S (7 vols.), and in ■abridged form translated into English by R. C. Long as The Future of War in Its Teehnical, Eco- nomic, and Political Relations (1S!)9: in England as. Is ^'ar Xow Impossiblef). In this book the author argues that under modern conditions a war would necessaril}- be of such length as to re- sult in the starvation of the contending powers, consequent revolution, and the destruction of the State; and hence that it is unlikely to be entered upon in the future. BLOCH, Kari. Heixrich (1834-90). A Dan- ish painter. He was bom in Copenhagen, and studied at the Copenhagen Academy. From 1852 to ISli.T he was in Italy, and in 1883 he was ap- pointed a professor at the Copenhagen Academy. He first achieved a reputation for nature-studies, in particular those drawn from Jutland and Zealand, and for humorous pictures. His most important paintings, however, are historical. The list of his works includes: "Peasant's Cot- tage" (18:">81; ••Roman Street Barber^' (1864); "Christian II. in Prison at Sonderburg"' (1871) ; "James of Scotland Visiting Tycho Brahe," and two large historical frescoes at the University of Coi>enhagen. BLOCH, MRCUS Ellesek (1723-99). A German ichthyologist, born of poor Jewish parents in Anspach. He was permitted to ^row up in ignorance, and at nineteen he had read nothing except a few useless rabbinical treatises. He then became an assistant to a Jewish surgeon in Hamburg, and learned German and Latin. He decided to study medicine, went to Berlin, and devoted himself with indefatigable zeal to anatomy and other branches of natural history. His great work is the Allfiemeine Satur- geschichte der Fisclie (12 vols., Berlin, 1872-95, with 432 colored plates), long the most com- prehensive work on ichthyology, and still valu- able, especially for its pictures. His collection of fishes went to the Berlin Zoological ^Museum. BLOCH, IIORITZ. A Hungarian philologist and theological writer. See Ball-vgi, Moritz. BLOCHMANN, bldc'man, Karl Justus ( 1780-1855 I . A German educator, born in Reich- stadt ( Saxony ) . He studied at the University of Leipzig, and from 1809 to 1816 was an in- structor in Peslalozzi's school in Yverdon, Switzerland. In 1824 he opened in Dresden the Blochmann Institute, which in 1829 was united with the 'izthum Gymnasium, and long enjoyed a very considerable fame. His method was in general similar to that of Pestalozzi, except that it placed a greater emphasis upon the orthodoxy of the time. He wrote what is perhaps the best German biography of Pestalozzi: Heinrich Pes- talozzi, Zii'ie aus dem liilde seines Lebens und Wirkens (1897). BLOCK. An instrument used in practical meclKuiics. and especially on board ship, for ciianging the direction in which a rope leads, or for gaining power at the expense of speed. It consists of a framework, or shell ; one or more pul- leys, or sheaves ; a hook, shackle, or other means of attachment to other objects; a pin or pivot- bolt for the sheaves to revolve upon; and. gen- erally a strap of rof)e or iron to which the hook or shackle is attached. Blocks are classed in sev- eral ways according to the number of sheaves, as single, double, treble, fourfold, etc.; according to their design, as snatch blocks, fiddle blocks, gin blocks, secret blocks, sister blocks, check blocks, c?«mp blocks, etc.; and according to their use as cat blocks, quarter blocks, clew-line blocks, topsail halliard blocks, etc. The appa- ratus called a tackle or j^urehase consists of two blocks and the rope (called the fo/?) which reeves (i.e. passes) through them. One end of the fall. BLOCKS. a — Double block, b— Trebly block, c— Long-tackle block, d — Clew-Uae block, e — tSnatcti block. called the standing end, is made fast to the breech (the part opposite the hook) of one of the blocks; from this the fall leads through the other block and then back through the first one; if the blocks are double, treble, fourfold, etc., the fall leads back and forth through the blocks until all the sheaves are filled. See Tackle. BLOCK, blok, MoRiTZ. A French writer on statistics and political economy. He was born in Berlin, but was naturalized in France, where he served in the ilinistry of Agriculture from 1844 to 1852, and then in the Bureau of Statis- tics till 1862, devoting himself henceforth ex- clusively to authorship. Among his numerous works on agriculture in various countries of Europe, on French statistics and finances, and on socialism in Germany, the most important are: Des charges de I'agriculture dans les divers pays de VEurope (1850) ; Dictionnaire de I'ad- ministration francaise (1892), which won for him his great reputation; Statistique de la France (187.')) ; L' Europe politique et sociale (1893); Petit manucl d'economie pratique (1890), which was tr.an.slated into eleven lan- guages; and Les progrcs de la science economique depuis Adam Smith (1890). From 1856 he edited L'Annuaire de I'cconomie politique et de la statistique, and he also published several statistical works in German. BLOCKADE (Fr. bloquer, to obstruct, block; bloc, block). The investment of an enemy's city, port, or seacoast. It may be military, in which case the object of the operation is to reduce the invested place, or commercial, for the purpose of shutting out neutral commerce from access to the blockaded port or coast. The right to establish a blockade rests in the general right which ever}- belligerent power pos- sesses of distressing its enemy and weakening the jMiwer of resistance. (See Belligerent.) As such it imposes the obligatiim of observance upon a neutral, even though incidentally the neutral be injured by tlie cutting ofl" of conmiercial rela- tions. But the neutral need not employ preven- tive measures; nor is the breach of a blockade a municipal offense which the blockading power may recjuire the neutral to punish. The respon- sibilitv of its maintenance belongs to the block-
