onnected with German _verbluffen_, to baffle, meant
originally a horse's blinker, the corresponding verb meaning to
blindfold: it survives as a term in such games as poker, where "to
bluff" means to bet heavily on a hand so as to make an opponent believe
it to be stronger than it is; hence such phrases as "the game of bluff,"
"a policy of bluff."

BLUM, ROBERT FREDERICK (1857-1903), American artist, was born in
Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 9th of July 1857. He was employed for a time in
a lithographic shop, and studied at the McMicken Art School of Design in
Cincinnati, and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in
Philadelphia, but he was practically self-taught, and early showed great
and original talent. He settled in New York in 1879, and his first
published sketches--of Japanese jugglers--appeared in _St Nicholas_. His
most important work is a large frieze in the Mendelssohn Music Hall, New
York, "Music and the Dance" (1895). His pen-and-ink work for the Century
magazine attracted wide attention, as did his illustrations for Sir
Edwin Arnold's _Japonica_. In the country and art of Japan he had been
interested for many years. "A Daughter of Japan," drawn by Blum and W.J.
Baer, was the cover of _Scribner's Magazine_ for May 1893, and was one
of the earliest pieces of colour-printing for an American magazine. In
_Scribner's_ for 1893 appeared also his "Artist's Letters from Japan."
He was an admirer of Fortuny, whose methods somewhat influenced his
work. Blum's Venetian pictures, such as "A Bright Day at Venice" (1882),
had lively charm and beauty. He died on the 8th of June 1903 in New York
City. He was a member of the National Academy of Design, being elected
after his exhibition in 1892 of "The Ameya"; and was president of the
Painters in Pastel. Although an excellent draughtsman and etcher, it was
as a colourist that he chiefly excelled.

BLUMENBACH, JOHANN FRIEDRICH (1752-1840), German physiologist and
anthropologist, was born at Gotha on the 11th of May 1752. After
studying medicine at Jena, he graduated doctor at Gottingen in 1775, and
was appointed extraordinary professor of medicine in 1776 and ordinary
professor in 1778. He died at Gottingen on the 22nd of January 1840. He
was the author of _Institutiones Physiologicae_ (1787), and of a
_Handbuch der vergleichenden Anatomie_ (1804), both of which were very
popular and went through many editions, but he is best known for his
work in connexion with