Bligh, who was an active, persevering and
courageous officer, died in London in 1817.

BLIND, MATHILDE (1841-1896), English author, was born at Mannheim on the
21st of March 1841. Her father was a banker named Cohen, but she took
the name of Blind after her step-father, the political writer, Karl
Blind (1826-1907), one of the exiled leaders of the Baden insurrection
in 1848-1849, and an ardent supporter of the various 19th-century
movements for the freedom and autonomy of struggling nationalities. The
family was compelled to take refuge in England, where Mathilde devoted
herself to literature and to the higher education of women. She produced
also three long poems, "The Prophecy of St Oran" (1881), "The Heather on
Fire" (1886), an indignant protest against the evictions in the
Highlands, and "The Ascent of Man" (1888), which was to be the epic of
the theory of evolution. She wrote biographies of George Eliot (1883)
and Madame Roland (1886), and translated D.F. Strauss's _The Old Faith
and the New_ (1873-1874) and the _Memoirs of Marie Bashkirtseff_ (1890).
She died on the 26th of November 1896, bequeathing her property to
Newnham College, Cambridge.

A complete edition of her poems was edited by Mr Arthur Symons in
1900, with a biographical introduction by Dr Richard Garnett.

BLIND HOOKEY, a game of chance, played with a full pack of cards. The
deal, which is an advantage, is decided as at whist, the cards being
shuffled and cut as at whist. The dealer gives a parcel of cards to each
player including himself. Each player puts the amount of his stake on
his cards, which he must not look at. The dealer has to take all bets.
He then turns up his parcel, exposing the bottom card. Each player in
turn does the same, winning or losing according as his cards are higher
or lower than the dealer's. Ties pay the dealer. The cards rank as at
whist. The suits are of no importance, the cards taking precedence
according to their face-value.

BLINDING, a form of punishment anciently common in many lands, being
inflicted on thieves, adulterers, perjurers and other criminals. The
inhabitants of Apollonia (Illyria) are said to have inflicted this
penalty on their "watch" when found asleep at their posts. It was
resorted to by the Roman emperors in their persecutions of the
Christians. The method of destroying the sight varied. Sometimes a
mixture of lime and vinegar, or barely scalding vinegar alone, was
poured