The following instances of diapedesis, or sweating of blood, show that the author's philosophy is not without its accompanying facts. Brevity allows us only a condensed statement of a few of the instances cited by him (p. 379 sq.). An Italian officer, in 1552, threatened with a public execution, "was so agitated at the prospect of an ignominious death that he. sweated blood from every part of his body." A young Florentine, unjustly ordered to be put to death by Pope Sixtus V, when led to execution, "through excess of grief, was observed to shed bloody tears, and to discharge blood instead of sweat from his whole bod}' : a circumstance which many regarded as certain proof that nature condemned the severity of a sentence so cruelly hastened, and invoked vengeance against the magistrate himself, as therein guilty of murder." In the Ephemerides, it is stated that "a young boy, who, having taken part in a crime for which two of his older brothers were hanged, was exposed to public view under the gallows on which they were executed, and was there observed to sweat blood from his whole body." Maldonato mentions "a robust and healthy man at Paris, who, on hearing sentence of death passed upon him, was covered with a bloody sweat." Other instances of the same kind also are on record. Schenck gives the case of "a nun who fell into the hands of sol- diers ; and on seeing herself encompassed with swwds and diggers, threatening instant death, was so ter- rified and agitated that she discharged blood from every part of her body, and died of hemorrhage in the sight of her assailants." The case of a sailor is also given, who " was so alarmed by a storm that through fear he fell down, and his face sweated blood, which, during the whole continuance of the storm, returned like ordinary sweat." Catharine Merlin, of Chamberyr at the age of forty-six, being strong and hale, received a kick from a bullock in the pit of the stomach, which was followed by vomiting blood. This having been suddenly stopped by her medical attendants, the blood made its way through the pores of various parts of her body, the discharge recurring usually twice in t v\ enty-four hours. It was preceded by a prickly sen- sation, ami pressure on the skin would accelerate the How and increase the quantity of blood. The Medico- Chirurgical Review for Oct. 1831, gives the case of a female subject to hysteria, who, when the hysteric paroxysm was protracted, was also subject to this bloody perspiration. And in this case she continued at different times to be affected with it for three months, when it gave way to local bleeding ami oth- er Btrong revulsive measures. Rut the case of the wretched < lharles I X of France isone of the most strik- ing thai has as yet occurred. The account is thus given by De Mezeray: "After the vigor of his youth and the energy of his courage hail long struggled against hi- disease, be was at length reduced by it to his bed ,-,t the castle of Vincennes, about the Nth of May. 1674. During the last two weeks of his life his constitution made strange efforts, lie was affected with spasms and convulsions of extreme violence. l ami agitated himself oontinually, and his
blood gashed from all tl utlets of his body, even
from the pores of his skin ; m. that on one occasion lii- was found bathed in a bloody sweat." Prom these
and other instances that might be cited, it is clearly evident that the sweating of blood may be produced by intense mental emotion. The instances of it are comparatively rare, it is true, but, nevertheless, per- fectly well authenticated. See Blood and Water.
Blossom (usually "3, nets), the flower of a tree (Gen. xl, 10). The almond rod of Aaron, which, by the miraculous power of God, was made to bud and blossom and bring forth almonds (Num. xvii, 8), was, in the opinion of some commentators, a very suitable emblem of Him who first arose from the grave; and as the light and warmth of the vernal sun seems first to affect this symbolical tree (Jer. i, 11), it was with great propriety that the bowls of the golden candle- stick were shaped like almonds. Most commentators think that the rod of Aaron continued to retain its leaves and fruit after it was laid up in the tabernacle ; and some writers are of opinion that the idea of the thyrsus, or rod encircled with vine branches, which Bacchus was represented to bear in his hand, was bor- rowed from some tradition concerning Aaron's rod that blossomed. See Aaron ; Bod.
Blot. To blot out (fin^, waehxh') signifies to ob- literate ; therefore to blot out living things, or the name or remembrance of any one, is to destroy or to abolish, as in Gen. vii, 4, where for "destroy" we should read, as in the margin, "blot out." Also a sinful stain, a reproach, is termed a blot in Job xxxi, 7 ; Prov. ix, 7. To blot out sin is fully and finally to forgive it (Isa. xliv, 22). To blot men out of God's book is to deny them his providential favors, and to cut them off by an untimely death (Exod. xxxii, 32, 33 ; Psa. lxix, 28). When Moses says, in the passage referred to above, " Blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written," we are to understand