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London, when he was on a visit to that
city; and there, also, was first published
a sermon which he preached to the con-
gregation of English Protestants, in Rome,
on Easter Sunday, the third of April,
1825, on occasion of a collection for the
benefit of the Vaudois, or Waldenses, in
Piedmont. The opinions of bishop Ho-
bart, both as to doctrine and discipline,
were positive and high-toned; but he
won, from a very numerous and wide
acquaintance, a degree of personal regard
and honor which few prelates of his age
had acquired.

HOGNOSE SERPENT. (See Serpents.)
HOLIDAYS. (See Festivals.)
HOLOFERNES. (See Judith.)

HOLY THURSDAY. (See Ascension

Day.)

HONEYSTONE. (See Mellite.)

nailing metal shoes upon the feet of horses. According to Beckmann, the Greek word divata, which, he is convinced, signifies horse-shoes, such as are used at present, occurs for the first time in the ninth century, in the works of the emperor Leo; and this antiquity of horseshoes, he adds, is in some measure confirmed by their being mentioned in the writings of Italian, English and French writers of the same century. The word occurs, in the tenth century, in the Tactica of the emperor Constantine, where he says, that a certain number of pounds of iron should be given out from the imperial stores to make selenaia, and other horse furniture. Eustathius, who wrote in the twelfth century, uses the same term in the same sense as that in which it is here interpreted. "When one con

HOODED SNAKE. (See Cobra da Ca- siders," says Beckmann, “that the oɛdivaia,

pello.)

Just

HOOKAH. (See Pipe, Smoking.) HOPE, Thomas, died in 1831. before his death appeared his Essays on the Prospects of Man (1831, 3 vols., 8vo.). HORN MUSIC, RUSSIAN. (See Russian Hunting Music.)

HORSE-RACING. (See Races.)

HORSE-SHOES. The practice of affixing plates or pieces of metal to the feet of horses, which constitutes so much of the blacksmith's business, is generally allowed to be of great antiquity; though at what period it was first introduced appears by no means certain. Ancient classic writers frequently mention the defences of horses' feet, in terms similar to those used when they speak of shoes in general: they likewise mention them as being of metal. We are told by Suetonius that Nero, when he took short journeys, was always drawn by mules which had silver shoes; and those of his wife Poppæa, according to Pliny, had shoes of gold. There is nothing, however, deducible from the Roman writers, which can fairly authorize the belief, that in the former case any thing more is meant than mere chirurgical bandages, or socks of some kind; nor in the latter, that the shoes of precious metal were any thing else than thin slips, attached over the hoof by way of ornament, and removable at pleasure: at all events, there is no ground to suppose that they were connected with soles permanently fastened with nails to the corneous substance of the foot, according to the method of modern times. The figures on ancient monuments afford still feebler evidence of the very early origin which some authors have claimed for the art of

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or σεinvaia, belonged to horse furniture; that they were made of iron; that, as Eustathius says, they were placed under the hoofs of the horses; that the word seems to show its derivation from the moon-like form of shoes, such as those used at present; and, lastly, that nails were necessary to these selenaia,—I think we may venture to conclude, without any fear of erring, that this word was employed to signify horse-shoes of the same kind as ours; and that they were known, if not earlier, at least in the ninth century." The same author mentions that, when the marquis of Tuscany, one of the richest princes of his time, went to meet Beatrix, his bride, mother of the wellknown Matilda, about the year 1038, his whole train were so magnificently decorated, that his horses were shod not with iron, but with silver. The nails even were of the same metal; and when any of them dropped out, they belonged to those who found them. The marquis appears to have imitated Nero: but this account, which is in verse, may be only a fiction. It is well known, however, that an ambassador to the court of France indulged in a similar folly, to attract admiration for his opulence and generosity; having had his horse shod with silver shoes so slightly attached, that, by purposely curvetting the animal, they were shaken off, and allowed to be picked up by the populace! The following passage on this subject is likewise from Beckmann: "Daniel, the historian, seems to give us to understand that, in the ninth century, horses were not shod always, but only in the time of frost, and on other particular occasions. The practice of

shoeing appears to have been introduced into England by William the Conqueror. We are informed that this sovereign gave the city of Northampton, as a fief, to a certain person, in consideration of his paying a stated sum yearly for the shoeing of horses; and it is believed that Henry de Ferrers, who came over with William, and whose descendants bear in their arms six horse-shoes, received that surname because he was intrusted with the inspection of the farriers ;"-ferrière (from ferrum, iron) signifying, in French, a bag of instruments used in the shoeing of horses. That the practice of shoeing horses in England may have become more common after the conquest may easily be conceived; and it is certain that a number of smiths came over with the Norman army: but that the thing was not new at the time is clear, from the historical fact, that Welbeck, in Nottinghamshire, the very estate on which, at this day, stand the capacious stables formerly belonging to that famous writer on horsemanship, the duke of Newcastle, was, before the conquest, the property of an old Saxon tenant in capite, named Gamelbere, who, according to Dugdale, held of the king two carucates of land, by the service of shoeing the king's palfrey on all four feet, with the king's nails, as oft as the king should lie at his manor of Mansfield; and if he should lame the palfrey, then he should give the king another palfrey of four marks price. Before the invention of metal shoes, considerable attention, as may well be supposed, was paid to the strengthening and hardening the hoofs of horses, especially of those employed in war; and various whimsical methods of producing these effects are still extant in the works of those who have treated on the ancient ménage. Notwithstanding, however, that attention, there is but too good reason to believe, from incidental passages in the writers of early times, that dreadful havoc must frequently have taken place amongst, and dreadful sufferings have been endured by, those noble animals, of whose preservation, even in military service, so much care is taken in modern times, and to which preservation the art of shoeing especially conduces. That the horses of the ancients were never shod in war, is the opinion of Beckmann; nor does it appear that conclusive evidence to the contrary has been adduced. When Mithridates was besieging Cyzicus, he was obliged to send his cavalry to Bithynia, because the hoofs of the horses were en

tirely spoiled and worn out. In the Latin translation of Appian, it is added, that this was occasioned by the horses not having shoes; but there are no such words in the original, which seems rather to afford a strong proof that in the army of Mithridates there was nothing of the kind. The case seems to have been the same in the army of Alexander; for we are told by Diodorus Siculus, that with uninterrupted marching the hoofs of the horses were totally broken and destroyed. An instance of a like kind is to be found in Cinnamus, where the cavalry were obliged to be left behind, as they had suffered considerably in the hoofs; evil," says the historian, "to which horses are often liable."

of.)

66 an

HOSPITALERS. (See John, St., Knights

HOUDON. This artist died in 1828. HOUSE SNAKE. (See Serpent.) HUBER died at Geneva, in 1832, at the age of eighty-one years.

HULANS. (See Ulans.)

HUMPHREYS, David, LL. D., minister of the U. States to the court of Spain, was the son of the reverend Daniel Humphreys, of Derby, Connecticut, and born in 1753. He was educated at Yale college, and graduated in 1771, with a distinguished reputation for talents, energy of character, and scientific and literary acquirements. Soon after the commencement of the revolutionary war, he entered the American army, and was successively an aid to generals Parsons, Putnam and Greene. In 1779, he was appointed one of the aids of Washington, and remained in his family till the close of the war, enjoying his high confidence, friendship and patronage. He left the army with the rank of colonel. When Franklin, Adams and Jefferson were, in 1784, appointed commissioners for nego. tiating treaties with foreign powers, he was chosen secretary of the legation, and attended them in that capacity to Paris and London. In 1791, he was sent ambassador to the court of Lisbon, and, in 1797, appointed minister plenipotentiary to that of Madrid. He concluded treaties of peace with the bey of Tripoli and the dey of Algiers. On his return from Spain, he transported to New England 100 sheep, of the Merino race, which proved a valuable acquisition to the agricultural and manufacturing interests. While in the military service, he published a patriotic poem, addressed to the American armies, and, after the war, another, on the happiness and future glory

of America. In 1789, he gave to the public the Life of General Putnam, and, during his residence in Europe, published several poems on subjects connected with the American revolution. After his return to the U. States, he resided chiefly in Connecticut, and, in 1812, was appointed to the command of the veteran volunteers of that state, with the rank of general. He died at New Haven, Feb. 21, 1818, aged sixty-five years.

HYDROCELE. (See Dropsy.) HYDROCYANIC ACID. (See Prussic Acid.) HYDROMETRA. (See Dropsy.) HYDROSTATIC BED. This is one of those happy inventions that have sprung from the practical application of science in the wants of life. It not only delights us by its ingenious novelty and great simplicity, but commands a still deeper interest when we consider the relief which it will afford in innumerable cases of protracted suffering, where hitherto the patient has been considered in a great measure beyond the power of the physician. In all diseases where the system has been much enfeebled and the patient long confined to bed, the circulation of the blood goes on so imperfectly, in some of those parts of the body that are more immediately and more constantly subjected to pressure, that they frequently mortify, or lose their vitality. The dead parts thus formed become a continual source of irritation, often exhausting the patient's strength by a slow decay, where other wise every hope might have been entertained of recovery; and when he does survive, they are removed solely by the slow process of ulceration, during a tedious convalescence. The hydrostatic bed will mitigate or entirely remove these evils; and even when they appear in a milder form, still it becomes of the utmost value, from the certainty with which those sources of irritation are removed, that arise from the inequality of pressure in a common bed, and prevent that refreshing sleep which it is always such an object to procure. This bed is constructed in the following manner:-A trough six feet long, two feet six (or nine) inches broad, and one foot deep, is filled to the depth of six or seven inches with water, and a sheet of water-proof India rubber cloth placed upon it. It is fixed and firmly cemented at the upper part of the trough, being of such a size as to hang down loosely in the inside, and floating on the surface of the water, which admits, therefore, of the most perfect freedom of motion. A light hair mattress is

placed upon the water-proof cloth, upon which the pillow and bed-clothes are to be placed. When the patient rests upon it, he at once experiences the surpassing softness of the hydrostatic bed: he is placed nearly in the same condition as when floating in water, the fluid support being prevented from touching him, however, by the peculiar manner in which it is sealed, hermetically, as it were, within the water-proof cloth, and by the intervening mattress. The hydrostatic bed was invented, a short time since, in London, under the following circumstances, by doctor Arnott, the author of the Elements of Physics :-A lady, who had suffered much, after a premature confinement, from a combination and succession of low fever, jaundice, &c., and whose back had sloughed (mortified) in several places, was at last so much exhausted, in consequence of the latter, that she was considered in the most imminent danger. She generally fainted when the wounds in her back were dressed, and was passing days and nights of uninterrupted suffering, as the pressure even of an air-pillow had occasioned mortification. Doctor Arnott reflected that the support of water to a floating body is so uniformly diffused that every thousandth part of an inch of the inferior surface has, as it were, its own separate liquid pillar, and no one part bears the load of its neighbor; that a person resting in a bath is nearly thus supported; that this patient might be laid upon the face of a bath, over which a large sheet of the waterproof India rubber cloth was previously thrown; she being rendered sufficiently buoyant by a soft mattress placed beneath her; thus would she repose on the face of the water, like a swan on its plumage, without sensible pressure any where, and almost as if the weight of her body were annihilated. The pressure of the atmosphere on our bodies is fifteen pounds per square inch of its surface, but, because uniformly diffused, is not felt. The pressure of a water bath, of depth to cover the body, is less than half a pound per inch, and is similarly unperceived. A bed having been made on this plan, and the patient placed on it, she was instantly relieved in a remarkable degree, and enjoyed a calm and tranquil sleep; she awoke refreshed; she passed the next night much better than usual, and on the following day, it was found that all the sores had assumed a healthy appearance: the healing from that time went on rapidly, and no new sloughs were formed.

When the patient was first laid upon the
bed, her mother asked her where the
down pillows, which she before had
used, were to be placed; to which she
answered, that she knew not, for that she
felt no pain to direct; in fact, she needed
them no more.—The hydrostatic bed will
be useful, not merely in extreme cases,
such as the above, but also in every in-
stance where there is restlessness or want
of sleep, from the irksome feeling com-
municated by that inequality of pressure
which is necessarily perceived in every
common bed, and to which the body be-
comes so remarkably sensible, when fa-
tigued or enfeebled, as when suffering
from disease. The sensation which is
experienced by a person reclining on a
hydrostatic bed is uncommonly pleas-
ing. It is easy to change the position
with a very feeble effort. The patient
also can always take a little exercise at
pleasure, with the slightest exertion, from
the facility with which the water can be
moved—a circumstance which will prove
highly grateful to those who have been
long confined to bed.

HYDROTHORAX. (See Dropsy.)
HYDRUS. (See Serpent.)

I.

ICONOGRAPHY. (See Icon.)
IDEOLOGY. (See Language.)
IDYL. (See Pastoral.)
ILMENITE. (See Titanium.)
IMAGES, ADORATION OF. (See Iconola-
try, and Iconoclasts.)

IMBOSSING. (See Embossing.),
INCARNATION. (See Granulation.)
INDEMNITY BILL. (See Law of Ex-
ception.)

taking care of and maintaining their children. The Eskimaux, inhabiting the shores of Hudson's bay, according to Ellis, constrain their wives to obtain frequent abortions for the same cause, by means of an herb common in that country; and an older author, Denys, says, that if a woman of North America became pregnant while suckling her child, she obtained abortion; alleging, that nursing one at a time was enough. Other examples might be given; for procuring abortion is. common over the world, and must, to a certain extent, prevail where misfortune or disgrace attends the birth of the offspring. There is too great reason for considering these motives as the cause of infanticide, where the child is actually born. The instances of it are innumerable, though arising also from different causes. Among the inhabitants of the Kurile islands, it is customary to destroy one of twins. The American Indians, in the neighborhood of Berbice, are said to do so, from believing that the birth of two children proves the infidelity of the moth

er.

Kolben informs us, that the ugliest of Hottentot female twins is put to death, under the pretext that a mother cannot suckle two fernales at once. At least one of twins was wont to be destroyed with the Kanitschadales; and in New Holland, the weakest and lightest is quickly suffocated by the mother. As there is greater difficulty experienced in supporting feeble and sickly children, or those laboring under prominent personal imperfections, so the parents have had less hesitation in bereaving them of existence. Diodorus relates, that all deformed children in Ta probana, which we suppose is Ceylon were put to death. Quintus Curtius says the same of those in the kingdom of Sophi tus. Promising children were reared in Sparta; the others were destroyed; no could parents spare those whom they INFANTICIDE. Parental affection seems chose, as they were submitted to the exso deeply rooted in mankind, by a wise amination of certain persons, and, if weak provision for the protection of the off- or deformed, were thrown into a cavern. spring, that, without actual evidence, it Gemelli Careri was told in Paragoa, one would be difficult to credit the extent to of the Philippine islands, that children which infanticide has extended. It is born with imperfections, which would apsaid, by Krascheninikow, that there are fe-parently disable them from working, were males in Kamschatka who use herbs and conjurations to prevent conception, and that they procure abortions by means of poisonous medicines, wherein they are assisted by skilful old women. Mackenzie, the traveller across the North American continent, affirms that the women of the Knistenaux frequently procure abortion, to avoid the distress consequent on

INERTIA. (See Mechanics.)

put alive into a hollow cane, and buried. These cruel expedients must be viewed as the result of necessity rather than of choice; because, in countries where each has to depend on his own personal exertion for a precarious subsistence, there is no room to provide for the helpless. It has even been seen, that, by a barbarous custom, originating from a similar source,

when a man perished, his widow and or- sionaries affirm that the Bosjesmans, or phans were put to death; not from the Bushmen, an African tribe, whose history desire of shedding blood, but because the is little known, “take no great care of survivors had no means of supporting their children; that they kill them withthem. In Greenland, when the mother out remorse on various occasions, as when of an infant at the breast died, the child they are ill shaped, or when they are in was buried along with her, if the father want of food." It is generally agreed, and relations could not find a nurse. At that infanticide is universal in China, bethe present day, it seems an invariable ing either immediately committed by the practice of the savages of New Holland hands of the parents, or resulting from to inter the sucking infant in the same exposure to the influence of the elements. grave with its departed mother; nay, the The exposure of children was a privilege father is the first to heap the earth over commonly sanctioned among the ancients : the bodies of both. No concern is testi- it was so prevalent, that Ælian celebrates fied by the relatives for its fate. They the humanity of the Thebans, who deseem satisfied that this is what ought to creed capital punishment against it: nevbe done; for their own helpless condition ertheless, where the parents were in povdeprives them of the means of providing erty, they might offer the child for a price for a being still more helpless than them- to the magistrates, who, having brought it selves.-The sources of infanticide may, up, were entitled to sell it for a slave. Alîn general, be traced to necessity, super- most all the children exposed in China stition, the love of pleasure, and shame. are females; and the number, though it In most countries, it is the female off- be difficult to approximate the truth, is spring which is doomed to destruction, certainly very great. Mr. Barrow, comwhile the males are spared: thus, if the putes, from the most authentic data which twins of the New Hollander be of a dif- may be deduced from the statement of ferent sex, it is the daughter alone that the missionaries, that it is not less than perishes. Dobrizhoffer relates, that he 9000 in Pekin, the capital, and as many has known mothers among the Abipo- in the provinces. A more powerful monians, a South American tribe, who de- tive for infanticide than all the rest, is that stroyed the whole offspring as soon as unbounded ascendancy which superstithey were born; but others more com- tion sometimes gains over the human monly spared the males than the females. mind. The practice of the moderns, The ancient Arabians, especially those of however, is not so explicit in this respect the tribes Koreish and Kendah, were as what we may collect from antiquity. accustomed to bury their daughters, from It is said that the Kamtschadales destroy the apprehension of inability to provide their children if born during storms, though for them, as also, it is said, from the grief the necessity of doing so may be averted which would be felt on their becoming by conjurations. The indigenous inhabcaptives, or from their immoral conduct. itants of Madagascar and Ceylon are likeBy the injunctions of Mohammed, the wise accused of infanticide, should the practice is supposed to have been abol- epoch of the birth of a child be declared ished in Arabia. Probably it never was unfortunate by their priests and astrolouniversal there. As the British domin- gers. Certain periods of time, as the ions extended to the north-west of the months of March and April, the last week Indian peninsula, a certain race, called Ja- of every month, together with every rejahs, was found in the province of Gu- Thursday and Friday, are judged omizerat, and the district of Cutch, where nous. The child born at these times will civilization had made considerable ad- either be animated by evil propensities, or vances, and where the nature of the occasion numberless disasters, from which country removed all apprehensions of exemption is purchased by the sacrifice want. This race destroyed all their of its life. Mankind have been prone to daughters at the moment of their birth. imbrue their hands in each other's blood, The British resident, lieutenant-colonel to propitiate or appease their sanguinary Walker, at length succeeded in abolishing deities; but of all offerings, children were a custom so revolting to humanity. Other deemed the most acceptable, being a sacinstances may be given of that infanticide rifice of what was the most precious to which is not restricted to females. Kras- parents. The Moabites offered up their cheninikow says, that there are some of children for propitiation in desperate enthe Kamtschadale women so unnatural terprises. Thus, "when the king of Moas to destroy their children when born, or ab saw that the battle was too sore for throw them alive to the dogs. The mis- him, he took with him 700 men that drew

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