h a bride-cake is cut. She thus
bids adieu to all her friends, and having previously taken the white
veil, the betrothal, she now assumes the black, and for ever forswears
the world and its pleasures. Her hair is cut short, and her bridal robes
are exchanged for the sombre religious habit. Her wedding-ring, however,
she continues to wear, and it is buried with her.

BLACKWATER, the name of a number of rivers and streams in England,
Scotland and Ireland. The Blackwater in Essex, which rises near Saffron
Walden, has a course of about 40 m. to the North Sea. The most important
river of the name is in southern Ireland, rising in the hills on the
borders of the counties Cork and Kerry, and flowing nearly due east for
the greater part of its course, as far as Cappoquin, where it turns
abruptly southward, and discharges through an estuary into Youghal Bay.
The length of its valley (excluding the lesser windings of the river)
is about 90 m., and the drainage area about 1300 sq. m. It is navigable
only for a few miles above the mouth, but its salmon fisheries are both
attractive to sportsmen and of considerable commercial value. The
scenery of its banks is at many points very beautiful.

BLACKWATER FEVER, a disease occurring in tropical countries and
elsewhere, which is often classed with malaria (q.v.). It is
characterized by irregular febrile paroxysms, accompanied by rigors,
bilious vomiting, jaundice and haemoglobinuria (Sambon). It has a wide
geographical distribution, including tropical Africa, parts of Asia, the
West Indies, the southern United States, and--in Europe--Greece, Sicily
and Sardinia; but its range is not coextensive with malaria. Malarial
parasites have occasionally been found in the blood. Some authorities
believe it to be caused by the excessive use of quinine, taken to combat
malaria. This theory has had the support of Koch, but it is not
generally accepted. If it were correct, one would expect blackwater
fever to be regularly prevalent in malarial countries and to be more or
less coextensive with the use of quinine, which is not at all the case.
It often resembles yellow fever, but the characteristic black vomit of
yellow fever rarely occurs in blackwater fever, while the black urine
from which the latter derives its name is equally rare in the former.
According to the modern school of tropical parasitology, blackwater
fever is neither a form of malaria nor produced by quinine, but a
specific