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BLINDING

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 59 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BLINDING , a See also:

form of See also:punishment anciently See also:common in many lands, being inflicted on thieves, adulterers, perjurers and other criminals. The inhabitants of See also:Apollonia (See also:Illyria) are said to have inflicted this See also:penalty on their " See also:watch " when found asleep at their posts. It was resorted to by the See also:Roman emperors in their persecutions of the Christians. The method of destroying , the sight varied. Sometimes a mixture of See also:lime and See also:vinegar, or barely scalding vinegar alone, was poured into the eyes. Some-times a rope was See also:twisted See also:round the victim's See also:head till the eyes started out of their sockets. In the See also:middle ages the punishment seems to have been changed from See also:total See also:blindness to a permanent injury to the eyes, amounting, however, almost to blindness, produced by holding a red-hot See also:iron dish or See also:basin before the See also:face. Under the See also:forest See also:laws of the See also:Norman See also:kings of See also:England blinding was a common penalty. See also:Shakespeare makes See also:King See also:John See also:order' his See also:nephew See also:Arthur's eyes to be burnt out. BLINDMAN'S-See also:BUFF (from an O. Fr. word, buffe, a See also:blow, especially a blow on the cheek), a See also:game in which one player is blindfolded and made to catch and identify one of the others, who in See also:sport push him about and " See also:buffet " him.

End of Article: BLINDING

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