ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

his kingdom in the 14th year of his reign; but after various exploits his army met with a sudden destruction, and the survivors precipitately retreated. Soon after this signal deliverance, Hezekiah was seized with a severe illness, the fatal termination of which was averted in answer to his prayers, and 15 years were added to his life, the latter part of which was passed in tranquillity and peace.

HIACOOMES, the first Indian convert to Christianity in New England, born about 1610, died in Martha's Vineyard about 1690. Under the preaching of the missionary Thomas Mayhew he was converted to Christianity, and having been taught to read, he began in 1653 to preach to his brethren in Martha's Vineyard. He succeeded in making a number of converts among them, notwithstanding the menaces directed against him by the Indian priests. In Aug. 1670, an Indian church was formed at Martha's Vineyard, and Hiacoomes became its pastor. HIBBARD, FREEBORN GARRETSON, an American clergyman, born in New Rochelle, Westchester co., N. Y., Feb. 22, 1811. At the age of 18 he entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church, before he had finished his collegiate course. He has been appointed to several important stations in the church, and frequently elected to the general conference, at the last of which he was chosen editor of the "Northern Christian Advocate," which post he now (1860) occupies. He has devoted himself especially to biblical and theological literature. His principal works are: Baptism, its Import, Mode, Efficacy, and Relative Order;" "Geography and History of Palestine;" and "The Psalms, chronologically arranged, with Historical Introductions, and a General Introduction to the whole Book."

[ocr errors]

HIBERNATION (Lat. hibernare, to go into winter quarters), generally understood as the condition of lethargy in which many animals pass the cold season. The sources of their daily food being at this time cut off, they sink into a deep sleep, in which nutriment is unnecessary, and so remain until the warm weather of spring; a beautiful provision of the Creator for the preservation of animals which would otherwise perish from cold and hunger. Among the animals in which this state has been noticed are the bat, hedgehog, dormouse, hamster, marmot, and other rodents; chelonians, saurians, ophidians, and batrachians, among reptiles; and some fishes (like the eel), mollusks, and insects. The phenomena of hibernation, however, are not confined to the winter season, and are not necessarily connected with a low degree of external temperature; the bats, in the summer time, present these phenomena regularly every 24 hours; the tenrec, a nocturnal insectivorous mammal, though living in the torrid zone, according to Cuvier passes three of the hottest months of the year in a state of lethargy. The influence of cold in producing this state is due only to its tendency to cause sleep, and if carried too far, instead of inducing the physiolo

gical condition of hibernation, leads to the pathological one of torpor, and even death. According to Marshall Hall ("Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology," article "Hibernation"), the quantity of respiration is inversely as the degree of irritability of the muscular fibre, the former being measured by the amount of oxygen inspired, and the latter by that of the galvanic force necessary to demonstrate its existence. Birds have a high respiration and a low muscular irritability; reptiles, on the contrary, have a high degree of irritability and a low respiration. This is true also of the progressive development of animals from the immature to the perfect state, in which the change is from a lower to a higher respiration, and froin a higher to a lower muscular irritability. In sleep, and especially in the profound sleep of hibernation, the respiration is diminished and the irritability increased. To whatever the susceptibility to this change be owing, the capability of passing into a state of hibernation depends, according to this author, on the power of taking on an increased muscular irritability; certain animals pass beyond the physiological limits of ordinary sleep into the lethargy of hibernation, the mammal for the time assuming in this respect reptilian characters. Were the respiration to be diminished without the increased irritability, death would take place from the torpor of slow asphyxia; and were the respiration increased without the diminution of the irritability, the animal would die from over stimulation, as in those suddenly aroused from the state of hibernation, or as if submitted to an atmosphere of pure oxygen. Sleep and hibernation are similar periodical phenomena, differing only in degree, and the latter is extraordinary only because less familiar than the former; the ordinary sleep of the hedgehog and dormouse, and of the bat in summer, is a diurnal hibernation, ceasing daily at the call of hunger, and accompanied by a diminution of respiration and animal heat; and this sleep may pass into true hibernation, as the blood becomes more venous in the brain, and the muscular fibres of the heart acquire increased irritability. In perfect hibernation the process of sanguification is nearly or entirely arrested; the bat takes no food, and passes no excretions from the intestines or kidneys; but the dormouse awakes daily, and the hedgehog every 2 or 3 days, in a temperature of 40° to 45° F., take food and pass excretions, and subside again into their lethargy. Respiration is also very nearly or entirely suspended in perfect hibernation, as has been experimentally proved by the absence of all external respiratory acts, by the unchanged condition of the surrounding air, by the diminution of the animal heat to that of the atmosphere, and by the capability of supporting the entire privation of air or the action of carbonic acid and other irrespirable gases. The circulation, though very slow, is continuous, and the heart beats regularly; the blood, from the absence of respiration, is en

tirely venous, but the increased muscular irritability of the left ventricle of the heart permits it to contract under the slight and usually insufficient stimulus of a non-oxygenated blood; it is the exaltation of this single vital property which preserves life and renders hibernation possible, forming the only exception to the general rule of the circulation in animals which possess a double heart; the slow circulation of a venous blood keeps up a state of lethargy induced by a diminished respiration. Sensation and volition are quiescent as the brain and its sensory ganglia are asleep, but the true spinal or excito-motory system is awake and its energies are unimpaired, as is shown by the facility with which respiration is excited by touching or irritating the animal; muscular motility is also unimpaired in this state; the action of the heart has been found to continue about 10 hours in an animal in the state of hibernation, in which the brain had been removed and the spinal marrow destroyed, while in the same animal in a natural state it ceases after 2 hours. With such an irritable condition of the heart, the introduction into it of an arterial or oxygenated blood from respiration would soon cause death from over stimulation; and as trifling causes are sufficient to excite the respiratory act, hibernating animals adopt various means of securing themselves from disturbance; bats retire to the recesses of gloomy caverns, where they hang suspended by the claws of the hind feet, head downward; the hedgehog and the dormouse roll themselves into a ball; tortoises burrow in the earth, frogs and eels plunge under the mud, and snakes twist themselves together in natural or artificial crevices and holes in the ground. The call of hunger and the warmth of returning spring arouse all these from their winter retreats, the irritability gradually diminishing as the respiration becomes active. Extreme cold will rouse a hibernating animal from its lethargy, and speedily kill it; hence many animals congregate in carefully prepared nests, and others, like the snakes, entwine themselves for mutual protection from cold. The state of hibernation, or that in which the stimulus of venous blood is sufficient to continue the heart's action, finds a parallel in some cases of disease accompanied by lethargy, in which revival has occurred after supposed sus⚫pended animation, and in others in which actual death has been delayed for days after the apparent cessation of respiration and circulation; the causes of this condition, which might throw much light on the kinds and phenomena of death, have not been fully investigated in the human subject. The torpor produced by extreme cold, though sleep be always induced, is very different from true hibernation; the former is attended with diminished sensation and rigidity of the muscles, and if prolonged ends in arrest of the circulation and death; the latter, in which sensation and motility are unimpaired, has for its object the preservation of life; the hibernating bat or dormouse is aroused

from its sleep by too great cold, and is destroyed by it like any other animal. Most animals lay up a store of fat under the skin, which is slowly absorbed during hibernation; in the frogs, and probably in other reptiles, the adipose accumulation takes place within the abdominal cavity in the folds of the peritoneum, for a similar purpose. The phenomena of insect hibernation are very interesting in all stages of growth; many pass the winter in this condition, both above and beneath the surface of the ground; eggs and chrysalids have been known to withstand a temperature several degrees below the freezing point of water. It is well known that many species of fish may become stiff from cold and yet not perish, but actual congelation is fatal; in the so called frozen fishes which have revived in warm water, there must have been a low degree of vital action in the organs of circulation. In many reptiles the necessary respiration may be effected entirely through the skin, in the hibernating state. The lower animals generally seem to possess a remarkable power of resisting cold, and may be reduced to a condition of apparent death, without the irritability of hibernation, and yet not identical with the torpidity usually produced by cold.

HIBERNIA. See IRELAND.

·HICCOUGH, a spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm, producing a shock in the thoracic and abdominal cavities, and accompanied by a convulsive inspiration in which the column of air is arrested by the sudden closing of the glottis, and by a loud and well known clucking sound. Authors are not agreed as to the origin of this act, but the movement is undoubtedly of a purely reflex character; though the spasmodic action be in the diaphragm, its point of departure may be in the abdominal organs or in the nervous centres. In ordinary cases it comes and goes spontaneously, and is a matter of no consequence beyond a slight inconvenience under certain circumstances; but it may be preceded by gastric symptoms, pain, and eructations, be accompanied by labored respiration, and be so persistent and severe as to require active treatment. It is often seen in children and in adults who have eaten or drunk immoderately or hastily, after long fasting, in diseases of the stomach, intestines, and liver, and in nervous persons troubled with flatulence; it becomes an important diagnostic sign in peritonitis, strangulated hernia, and other intestinal obstructions; it is not uncommon in intermittent fevers, and is a grave symptom in typhoid and gangrenous affections accompanied by other spasmodic phenomena. In nervous persons it may be brought on by any excitement, and generally disappears with its cause; if not, a few swallows of cold or acidulated water, cold sprinkling, or vivid emotion of any kind, will put an end to it in a few moments; obstinate cases are on record, which required cold shower baths, ice externally and internally, narcotics, and revulsives to the epigastrium; when inter

mittent, it yields to quinine; if symptomatic, the nature of the disease will indicate its treatment.

HICKMAN. I. A central co. of Tenn., drained by Duck and Piney rivers; area, 550 sq. m.; pop. in 1850, 9,397, of whom 1,816 were slaves. The surface is uneven, and the soil rich and well watered. Iron ore is abundant. The productions in 1850 were 635,265 bushels of Indian corn, 82,250 of oats, 29,396 of sweet potatoes, 34,146 lbs. of tobacco, 92,016 of butter, and 17,202 of wool. There were 20 churches, and 30 pupils attending an academy. Capital, Centreville. II. A S. W. co. of Ky., bordering on Tenn., separated from Mo. by the Mississippi river, and drained by the bayou de Chien and other small streams; area, 220 sq. m.; pop. in 1850, 4,791, of whom 840 were slaves. The surface is gently undulating, and the soil consists of rich mould with a substratum of sand. The productions in 1850 were 317,671 bushels of Indian corn, 31,896 of oats, 378,580 lbs. of tobacco, and 6,339 of wool. There were 2 grist mills, 4 saw mills, 17 churches, and 410 pupils attending public schools. Value of land in 1857, $910,669. The Mobile and Ohio railroad passes through Clinton, the capital.

site branches, the stamens from 4 to 8 in each flower; and fertile, which are solitary or else in small groups at the ends of the branches. The fruit is a large roundish nut, the husk of which opens partially or wholly of itself by 4 seams. The genus carya is exclusively American; the nearest approach to it among foreign trees is the Asiatic walnut (juglans regia, Linn.). There are many species, all of them remarkable for stateliness and general beauty. In the autumnal scenery, the foliage of the hickories contributes a pleasing share, each species possessing its own peculiar hues and tints. As an ornamental tree the hickory can be recommended for planting. If raised from the nut and subjected to nursery treatment, the young trees could probably be transplanted without difficulty; but the hickory seldom survives when taken from the woods, as its roots are large, few in number, and easily killed. The bitter-nut hickory (C. amara, Nutt.) is the most graceful and remarkable for its finely cut foliage. It raises a noble columnar top to the height of 60 or 70 feet, enlarging upward, and broadest at 40 or 50. Its recent shoots are of an orange green, smooth and dotted with orange. Its fruit, however, is intensely bitter. It has an abundance of fibrous roots, so that if the young trees were transplanted they could be used for stocks on which to engraft other kinds. The pig-nut hickory (C. glabra, Torrey) is also a large tree, with a close bark and very tough and valuable wood; its sprouts are used as withes; the wood when mature is much preferred for making axles of wagons. Its fruit is variable in size and form, and is abundant, but of a disagreeable taste. The small-fruited hickory (C. microcarpa, Nutt.) grows in the moist woodlands of Pennsylvania and southward, and its trunk rises to the height of 60 to 80 feet; its fruit is small, but eatable. The mocker-nut hickory (C. tomentosa, Nutt.) is a fine stately tree, with an erect trunk, forming at the summit a graceful pyramidal head of a few moderate sized branches. It is sometimes called white-heart hickory, although the wood in the old trees does not differ in color from that of the other kinds. Its sap is of sirup-like sweetness, and is very abundant in early summer. There are several varieties of the species, of which the most remarkable is the C. t. maxima (Nutt.), bearing fruit as large as an apple, with a very thick husk. Michaux asserts that it is slow of growth, and that the wood is liable to the attacks of worms, and is the least worthy of cultivation. The mockernut hickory has a wide distribution, being HICKORY (carya, Nuttall), the common found in New England as well as in the middle name of several species of timber trees, with states. The shell-bark or shag-bark hickory large compound leaves, having from 5 to 15, but (C. alba, Nutt.) is easily distinguishable by its usually not more than 11 leaflets. The hickories shaggy bark, its excellent fruit, and its ovate, belong to the natural order of juglandacea, an half-covered leaf buds. The shag-bark is a order consisting chiefly of these and of the wal- stately tree, rising to about 60 to 80 feet. Its nuts, valuable for their wood and some of them branches are irregular and scattered; but when for their fruits. The flowers of the hickory are growing singly in open space, the tree attains of 2 kinds: sterile, which are borne in compound much beauty and gracefulness. The delicious catkins, each principal catkin having 2 oppo- flavor of its fruit is not surpassed by any foreign

HICKOK, LAURENS PERSEUS, D.D., an American metaphysician, born in Danbury, Conn., Dec. 29, 1798. He was graduated at Union college in 1820, devoted himself to theology, was licensed as a preacher in 1822, and was pastor successively at Newtown and Litchfield, till in 1836 he was elected professor of theology in the Western Reserve college, O., where he remained 8 years. In 1844 he became professor in the Auburn theological seminary, and in 1852 removed to Schenectady, N. Y., where he was appointed to the professorship of mental and moral science, together with the office of vice-president, in Union college. His publications, beside various occasional sermons and addresses, and contributions to the "Christian Spectator," "Biblical Repository," and "Bibliotheca Sacra," are: "Rational Psychology" (8vo., Auburn, 1848); "Moral Science" (Schenectady, 1853), treating of our duties to God, and mankind under the head of pure morality, and of civil, divine, and family government under that of positive authority; "Empirical Psychology, or the Human Mind as Given in Consciousness" (1854); and "Rational Cosmology" (New York, 1858), in which he attempts to demonstrate a priori the laws of the universe.

nut. Large quantities of the nuts, brought from districts where the species grows best, are readily disposed of in the markets; and the logs and larger branches are among the best materials for fuel. In the woods of Pennsylvania and westward to Illinois and Kentucky, the thickshelled hickory (C. sulcata, Nutt.) is found, having nuts nearly as sweet as those of the shagbark. The pecan hickory (C. olivaæformis, Nutt.) is a more western and southern species, extending in its natural growth from Illinois to Louisiana. The tree is of slender growth, and the qualities of its fruit are well known. The nut meg-fruited hickory (C.myristica formis, Nutt.) was first described by Michaux from a branch and some nuts given him at Charleston, S. C. The fruit is described as very small, smooth, and brown, streaked with white, and strongly resembling a nutmeg; the kernel is of little size or value. Elliott says that he was unable to meet with it in his researches, although he made many attempts; the specimen in question was perhaps a mere garden variety. Other species are mentioned, but on no authentic information.

HICKORY, a S. W. co. of Mo., intersected by the Pomme de Terre river, a tributary of the Osage; area, 408 sq. m.; pop. in 1856, 3,312, of whom 206 were slaves. It has a moderately uneven surface, covered in some places by a good growth of timber, and a rich soil. The productions in 1850 were 79,212 bushels of Indian corn, 4,278 of wheat, 28,212 of oats, 6,048 lbs. of wool, and 542 tons of hay. There were 2 saw mills, 1 grist mill, 4 churches, and 186 pupils in public schools. Capital, Hermitage.

HICKS, ELIAS, an American preacher of the society of Friends, born in Hempstead, L. I., March 19, 1748, died in Jericho, L. I., Feb. 27, 1830. While a youth he manifested a talent for public speaking, and at the age of 27 was a well known preacher. For many years he labored zealously in advancing the generally accepted doctrines of the Friends; but having as he believed discovered errors in these tenets, he put forth views of his own which he defended with energy and ability. To advance these views he travelled extensively in the United States and in the British provinces, attracting large congregations by his oratory. The result was a schism in the body of Friends; those adhering to the old doctrines being specially termed orthodox, while the followers of Hicks were called after him Hicksites. (See FRIENDS.) He preserved his intellectual vigor till late in life, visiting when 80 years of age New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, and the northern and western parts of New York. His theological writings were principally in an epistolary form.-See "Elias Hicks, Journal of his Life and Labors" (Philadelphia, 1828), and his "Sermons" (1828).

HICKS, THOMAS, an American painter, born in Newtown, Bucks co., Penn., Oct. 18, 1823. He is a descendant of the preceding, and was educated in conformity with the principles of the society of Friends. He attempted portrait

painting in his 15th year, and in 1838, after copying the casts in the Pennsylvania academy of fine arts, entered the life and antique schools of the national academy of design in New York, to whose annual exhibition in 1841 he contrib-⚫ uted a picture of the "Death of Abel." For several years he painted portraits and compositions, and in 1845 departed for Europe, where he remained during the next 4 years. Establishing himself in Rome in the autumn of 1845, he painted, among other works, a half-length figure called "Italia," for Mr. William H. Appleton of New York. In the succeeding spring, on the last night of the carnival, he was stabbed in the back with a stiletto while crossing the Piazza Colonna in a dense crowd, and lay for many weeks in a critical condition. After a protracted residence in Italy, during which he executed many cabinet pictures, portraits, and copies of the old masters, he repaired in June, 1848, to Paris, and after the revolutionary outbreak of that month harbored two insurgents in his studio, and assisted them to escape from France. He studied under Couture in Paris, where he remained about a year, and after a brief residence in England returned to New York, of which city he is now a resident. He has since devoted himself principally to portrait painting, but has occasionally produced landscapes and figure pieces. His last prominent portrait is that of Dr. Kane in the cabin of the Advance, and he is now engaged upon a large picture of the contemporaneous authors of America, in which the figures are of life size.

HIDALGO, a S. co. of Texas, separated from Mexico by the Rio Grande, and drained by Palo Blanco and other small streams; area, 2,300 sq. m.; pop. not given in the latest state returns. It has a level surface, covered in many places with mezquite and chapparal, and a productive soil. It was formed from part of Cameron co. in 1852. Capital, Edinburg.

HIDALGO, a word applied in Spain to every noble man or woman, but strictly the title of the lowest order of nobility, constituting the hidalguia. Some writers derive the word from hijo del Goto, the son of a Goth, such descent being held in Spain to imply greater purity of blood than when intermixed; others from hijo de alguno, son of somebody. Hidalgos are divided into hidalgos de naturaleza, deriving their privileges from their ancestors, and hidalgos de privilegio, who have purchased their rank, or obtained it by court favor instead of descent, and are in this respect on an equality with simple caballeros and escuderos, or knights and squires. A hidalgo de bragueta was one supposed to possess the privileges of nobility from being the father of 7 sons without an intervening female child; and a hidalgo de gotero was one who enjoyed the rights of nobility in one place alone. The privileges of the hidalgos were abolished by the introduction of the constitutional system. In Portugal the word fidalguia embraces all the nobility under the common denomination of fidalgos.

HIDALGO Y COSTILLA, DON MIGUEL, the first leader in the Mexican war of independence, born in South America in the latter part of the 18th century, shot at Chihuahua, Mexico, July 27, 1811. He was a priest, and in earlier life was simply a man of great acquirements, who was anxious to promote industry in Mexico, and who was noted for the conscientious fulfilment of his ecclesiastical functions. He is said to have introduced the silkworm into Mexico, and did much to promote the culture of the vine. This conflicted with the policy of the Spanish government, which was to discourage all manufactures or agriculture which could interfere with the revenue, and the vines which Hidalgo had planted were destroyed. This drove him to rebellion. Possessing much influence among the Indians, he formed the plan of a general insurrection, which was to take place Nov. 1, 1810; but the plot having been disclosed by one of the conspirators, some of his party were arrested, and he was obliged to precipitate his movements. On Sept. 10, having been joined by 3 officers of the garrison of Guanajuato, he raised the standard of revolt. His eloquence had a remarkable effect on the multitude who heard him, and when after his oration he unfurled a rude copy of the picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of Mexico, the war assumed the character of a crusade. On Sept. 29, with an army of 20,000 men, mostly Indians, he captured Guanajuato, on which occasion the greatest outrages were committed, and $5,000,000 plundered. He took Valladolid and several small places, and soon after was proclaimed generalissimo of the Mexican army, and advanced against Mexico; but finding himself almost without ammunition, he was obliged to retreat. During this war the government party declared that the ordinary rules of warfare need not be observed as regarded the insurgents, while the latter retaliated with the most hor rible atrocities. On one occasion Hidalgo is said to have massacred 700 prisoners because they were Europeans. After several defeats the insurgents were left at Saltillo under charge of Rayon, while Hidalgo and others went to the United States to obtain arms and military aid. On the way they were captured by a former friend, and finally shot in Chihuahua. They died bravely, Hidalgo persisting to the last in his conviction that "the knell of the Spanish rule had been sounded; that though the viceroy might resist, the end would come." He was after his death regarded as a saint by the people, and within a few years the place of his execution was shown to travellers as a holy spot.

HIDES, in commerce, the skins of some of the larger animals, which are especially adapted for the manufacture of leather, and which are also a source of glue. The term is applied chiefly to those of cattle, the horse, and the hippopotamus, and of the buffalo when intended for tanning. The skins of young cattle are distinguished as kips, and those of the deer, sheep, goat, seal, &c., even though intended for leather, are called

skins. Ox hides, which may be considered as including all the skins of the bovine kind designed for leather, and horse hides also, are articles of large export from South American countries. California also has furnished great quantities of them. The animals from which they are principally obtained roam in vast herds over the extensive llanos and pampas, the property of the estates upon which they may be found. They are lassoed and slaughtered only for the hides, and these are immediately dried in the sun and salted for exportation. Those obtained in the tropics do not make so good leather as the hides of temperate latitudes. The hides of wild horses are said to be of better quality than those of the worn-out domestic animals. The East Indies also supply a large portion of the hides of commerce, especially to the English market. They are also obtained from the West Indies, the Cape of Good Hope, from Holland, and the countries up the Mediterranean. The skins of domestic animals add to the supplies, and, under the name of green hides, are rated as of higher value than the dry or salted foreign hides; yet the latter, weight for weight, will produce much more leather, on account of the water contained in the former, which, however, require less labor in their treatment. The heaviest hides, and those which make the best sole leather, are the skins of the largest oxen. Those of the bull are thickest about the neck and parts of the belly, but in the back they are inferior in thickness and in fineness of grain to the hides of oxen, or even of cows and heifers. But hides differ much in quality even when obtained from animals resembling each other in size and in other respects, and their relative excellence cannot always be determined on examination. The best are made into the heavy leather used for the best trunks, soles of shoes, belts for machinery, harness, and other purposes. The lighter qualities serve for the uppers of common boots and shoes, and some are employed in European countries without tanning for covering trunks. Kips and the skins of calves make the best leather for the uppers of fine boots and shoes. Horse hides are inferior in thickness and strength, and only the best will serve even for uppers. They are split or shaved for the thin enamelled leather used for ladies' shoes, and are made into the white material called lace leather, which is used for thongs, for lacing belts, and various other purposes. The hides of mules and asses are tanned to make the leather called shagreen, which is used for scabbards, and formerly for cases for various instruments. The hides of the hippopotamus are exported in small numbers from southern Africa to be tanned for making the beetling implements used in washing and bleaching cotton and linen goods.-Hides were an important article of trade with the ancient Egyptians, being largely imported from foreign countries and received as tribute from the conquered tribes. In the paintings on the walls of the tombs at Thebes, skins of the leopard, fox, and other animals are seen

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »