Chapter III: Part 3

HEMLOCK (in O. Eng. _hemlic_ or _hymlice_; no cognate is found in any other language, and the origin is unknown), the _Conium maculatum_ of botanists, a biennial umbelliferous plant, found wild in many parts of Great Britain and Ireland, where it occurs in waste places on hedge-banks, and by the borders of fields, and also widely spread over Europe and temperate Asia, and naturalized in the cultivated districts of North and South America. It is an erect branching plant, growing from 3 to 6 ft. high, and emitting a disagreeable smell, like that of mice. The stems are hollow, smooth, somewhat glaucous green, spotted with dull dark purple, as alluded to in the specific name, _maculatum_. The root-leaves have long furrowed footstalks, sheathing the stem at the base, and are large, triangular in outline, and repeatedly divided or compound, the ultimate and very numerous segments being small, ovate, and deeply incised at the edge. These leaves generally perish after the growth of the flowering stem, which takes place in the second year, while the leaves produced on the stem became gradually smaller upwards. The branches are all terminated by compound many-rayed umbels of small white flowers, the general involucres consisting of several, the partial ones of about three short lanceolate bracts, the latter being usually turned towards the outside of the umbel. The flowers are succeeded by broadly ovate fruits, the mericarps (half-fruits) having five ribs which, when mature, are waved or crenated; and when cut across the albumen is seen to be deeply furrowed on the inner face, so as to exhibit in section a reniform outline. The fruits when triturated with a solution of caustic potash evolve a most unpleasant odour.

Hemlock is a virulent poison, but it varies much in potency according to the conditions under which it has grown, and the season or stage of growth at which it is gathered. In the first year the leaves have little power, nor in the second are their properties developed until the flowering period, at which time, or later on when the fruits are fully grown, the plant should be gathered. The wild plant growing in exposed situations is to be preferred to garden-grown samples, and is more potent in dry warm summers than in those which are dull and moist.

The poisonous property of hemlock resides chiefly in the alkaloid _conine_ or _conia_ which is found in both the fruits and the leaves, though in exceedingly small proportions in the latter. Conine resembles nicotine in its deleterious action, but is much less powerful. No chemical antidote for it is known. The plant also yields a second less poisonous crystallizable base called _conhydrine_, which may be converted into conine by the abstraction of the elements of water. When collected for medicinal purposes, for which both leaves and fruits are used, the former should be gathered at the time the plant is in full blossom, while the latter are said to possess the greatest degree of energy just before they ripen. The fruits are the chief source whence conine is prepared. The principal forms in which hemlock is employed are the extract and juice of hemlock, hemlock poultice, and the tincture of hemlock fruits. Large doses produce vertigo, nausea and paralysis; but in smaller quantities, administered by skilful hands, it has a sedative action on the nerves. It has also some reputation as an alterative and resolvent, and as an anodyne.

The acrid narcotic properties of the plant render it of some importance that one should be able to identify it, the more so as some of the compound-leaved umbellifers, which have a general similarity of appearance to it, form wholesome food for man and animals. Not only is this knowledge desirable to prevent the poisonous plant being detrimentally used in place of the wholesome one; it is equally important in the opposite case, namely, to prevent the inert being substituted for the remedial agent. The plant with which hemlock is most likely to be confounded is _Anthriscus sylvestris_, or cow-parsley, the leaves of which are freely eaten by cattle and rabbits; this plant, like the hemlock, has spotted stems but they are hairy, not hairless; it has much-divided leaves of the same general form, but they are downy and aromatic, not smooth and nauseous when bruised; and the fruit of _Anthriscus_ is linear-oblong and not ovate.

HEMP (in O. Eng. _henep_, cf. Dutch _hennep_, Ger. _Hanf_, cognate with Gr. [Greek: kannabis], Lat. _cannabis_), an annual herb (_Cannabis sativa_) having angular rough stems and alternate deeply lobed leaves. The bast fibres of _Cannabis_ are the hemp of commerce, but, unfortunately, the products from many totally different plants are often included under the general name of hemp. In some cases the fibre is obtained from the stem, while in others it comes from the leaf. Sunn hemp, Manila hemp, Sisal hemp, and Phormium (New Zealand flax, which is neither flax nor hemp) are treated separately. All these, however, are often classed under the above general name, and so are the following:--Deccan or Ambari hemp, _Hibiscus cannabinus_, an Indian and East Indian malvaceous plant, the fibre from which is often known as brown hemp or Bombay hemp; Pite hemp, which is obtained from the American aloe, _Agave americana_; and Moorva or bowstring-hemp, _Sansevieria zeylanica_, which is obtained from an aloe-like plant, and is a native of India and Ceylon. Then there are Canada hemp, _Apocynum cannabinum_, Kentucky hemp, _Urtica cannabina_, and others.

The hemp plant, like the hop, which is of the same natural order, Cannabinaceae, is dioecious, i.e. the male and female flowers are borne on separate plants. The female plant grows to a greater height than the male, and its foliage is darker and more luxuriant, but the plant takes from five to six weeks longer to ripen. When the male plants are ripe they are pulled, put up into bundles, and steeped in a similar manner to flax, but the female plants are allowed to remain until the seed is perfectly ripe. They are then pulled, and after the seed has been removed are retted in the ordinary way. The seed is also a valuable product; the finest is kept for sowing, a large quantity is sold for the food of cage birds, while the remainder is sent to the oil mills to be crushed. The extracted oil is used in the manufacture of soap, while the solid remains, known as oil-cake, are valuable as a food for cattle. The leaves of hemp have five to seven leaflets, the form of which is lanceolate-acuminate, with a serrate margin. The loose panicles of male flowers, and the short spikes of female flowers, arise from the axils of the upper leaves. The height of the plant varies greatly with season, soil and manuring; in some districts it varies from 3 to 8 ft., but in the Piedmont province it is not unusual to see them from 8 to 16 ft. in height, whilst a variety (_Cannabis sativa_, variety gigantea) has produced specimens over 17 ft. in height.

All cultivated hemp belongs to the same species, _Cannabis sativa_; the special varieties such as _Cannabis indica_, _Cannabis chinensis_, &c., owe their differences to climate and soil, and they lose many of their peculiarities when cultivated in temperate regions. Rumphius (in the 17th century) had noticed these differences between Indian and European hemp.

Wild hemp still grows on the banks of the lower Ural, and the Volga, near the Caspian Sea. It extends to Persia, the Altai range and northern and western China. The authors of the _Pharmacographia_ say:--"It is found in Kashmir and in the Himalaya, growing 10 to 12 ft. high, and thriving vigorously at an elevation of 6000 to 10,000 ft." Wild hemp is, however, of very little use as a fibre producer, although a drug is obtained from it.

It would appear that the native country of the hemp plant is in some part of temperate Asia, probably near the Caspian Sea. It spread westward throughout Europe, and southward through the Indian peninsula.

The names given to the plant and to its products in different countries are of interest in connexion with the utilization of the fibre and resin. In Sans. it is called _goni_, _sana_, _shanapu_, _banga_ and _ganjika_; in Bengali, _ganga_; Pers. _bang_ and _canna_; Arab. _kinnub_ or _cannub_; Gr. _kannabis_; Lat. _cannabis_; Ital. _canappa_; Fr. _chanvre_; Span. _canamo_; Portuguese, _canamo_; Russ. _konopel_; Lettish and Lithuanian, _kannapes_; Slav. _konopi_; Erse, _canaib_ and _canab_; A. Sax. _hoenep_; Dutch, _hennep_; Ger. _Hanf_; Eng. _hemp_; Danish and Norwegian, _hamp_; Icelandic, _hampr_; and in Swed. _hampa_. The English word _canvas_ sufficiently reveals its derivation from _cannabis_.

Very little hemp is now grown in the British Isles, although this variety was considered to be of very good quality, and to possess great strength. The chief continental hemp-producing countries are Italy, Russia and France; it is also grown in several parts of Canada and the United States and India. The Central Provinces, Bengal and Bombay are the chief centres of hemp cultivation in India, where the plant is of most use for narcotics. The satisfactory growth of hemp demands a light, rich and fertile soil, but, unlike most substances, it may be reared for a few years in succession. The time of sowing, the quantity of seed per acre (about three bushels) and the method of gathering and retting are very similar to those of flax; but, as a rule, it is a hardier plant than flax, does not possess the same pliability, is much coarser and more brittle, and does not require the same amount of attention during the first few weeks of its growth.

The very finest hemp, that grown in the province of Piedmont, Italy, is, however, very similar to flax, and in many cases the two fibres are mixed in the same material. The hemp fibre has always been valuable for the rope industry, and it was at one time very extensively used in the production of yarns for the manufacture of sail cloth, sheeting, covers, bagging, sacking, &c. Much of the finer quality is still made into cloth, but almost all the coarser quality finds its way into ropes and similar material.

A large quantity of hemp cloth is still made for the British navy. The cloth, when finished, is cut up into lengths, made into bags and tarred. They are then used as coal sacks. There is also a quantity made into sacks which are intended to hold very heavy material. Hemp yarns are also used in certain classes of carpets, for special bags for use in cop dyeing and for similar special purposes, but for the ordinary bagging and sacking the employment of hemp yarns has been almost entirely supplanted by yarns made from the jute fibre.

Hemp is grown for three products--(1) the fibre of its stem; (2) the resinous secretion which is developed in hot countries upon its leaves and flowering heads; (3) its oily seeds.

Hemp has been employed for its fibre from ancient times. Herodotus (iv. 74) mentions the wild and cultivated hemp of Scythia, and describes the hempen garments made by the Thracians as equal to linen in fineness. Hesychius says the Thracian women made sheets of hemp. Moschion (about 200 B.C.) records the use of hempen ropes for rigging the ship "Syracusia" built for Hiero II. The hemp plant has been cultivated in northern India from a considerable antiquity, not only as a drug but for its fibre. The Anglo-Saxons were well acquainted with the mode of preparing hemp. Hempen cloth became common in central and southern Europe in the 13th century.

_Hemp-resin._--Hemp as a drug or intoxicant for smoking and chewing occurs in the three forms of bhang, ganja and charas.

1. _Bhang_, the Hindustani _siddhi_ or _sabzi_, consists of the dried leaves and small stalks of the hemp; a few fruits occur in it. It is of a dark brownish-green colour, and has a faint peculiar odour and but a slight taste. It is smoked with or without tobacco; or it is made into a sweetmeat with honey, sugar and aromatic spices; or it is powdered and infused in cold water, yielding a turbid drink, _subdschi_. _Hashish_ is one of the Arabic names given to the Syrian and Turkish preparations of the resinous hemp leaves. One of the commonest of these preparations is made by heating the bhang with water and butter, the butter becoming thus charged with the resinous and active substances of the plant.

2. _Ganja_, the guaza of the London brokers, consists of the flowering and fruiting heads of the female plant. It is brownish-green, and otherwise resembles bhang, as in odour and taste. Some of the more esteemed kinds of hashish are prepared from this ganja. Ganja is met with in the Indian bazaars in dense bundles of 24 plants or heads apiece. The hashish in such extensive use in Central Asia is often seen in the bazaars of large cities in the form of cakes, 1 to 3 in. thick, 5 to 10 in. broad and 10 to 15 in. long.

3. _Charas_, or churrus, is the resin itself collected, as it exudes naturally from the plant, in different ways. The best sort is gathered by the hand like opium; sometimes the resinous exudation of the plant is made to stick first of all to cloths, or to the leather garments of men, or even to their skin, and is then removed by scraping, and afterwards consolidated by kneading, pressing and rolling. It contains about one-third or one-fourth its weight of the resin. But the churrus prepared by different methods and in different countries differs greatly in appearance and purity. Sometimes it takes the form of egg-like masses of greyish-brown colour, having when of high quality a shining resinous fracture. Often it occurs in the form of irregular friable lumps, like pieces of impure linseed oil-cake.

The medicinal and intoxicating properties of hemp have probably been known in Oriental countries from a very early period. An ancient Chinese herbal, part of which was written about the 5th century B.C., while the remainder is of still earlier date, notices the seed and flower-bearing kinds of hemp. Other early writers refer to hemp as a remedy. The medicinal and dietetic use of hemp spread through India, Persia and Arabia in the early middle ages. The use of hemp (bhang) in India was noticed by Garcia d'Orta in 1563. Berlu in his _Treasury of Drugs_ (1690) describes it as of "an infatuating quality and pernicious use." Attention was recalled to this drug, in consequence of Napoleon's Egyptian expedition, by de Sacy (1809) and Rouger (1810). Its modern medicinal use is chiefly due to trials by Dr O'Shaughnessy in Calcutta (1838-1842). The plant is grown partly and often mainly for the sake of its resin in Persia, northern India and Arabia, in many parts of Africa and in Brazil.

_Pharmacology and Therapeutics._--The composition of this drug is still extremely obscure; partly, perhaps, because it varies so much in individual specimens. It appears to contain at least two alkaloids--cannabinine and tetano-cannabine--of which the former is volatile. The chief active principle may possibly be neither of these, but the substance cannabinon. There are also resins, a volatile oil and several other constituents. Cannabis indica--as the drug is termed in the pharmacopoeias--may be given as an extract (dose (1/4)-1 gr.) or tincture (dose 5-15 minims).

The drug has no external action. The effects of its absorption, whether it be swallowed or smoked, vary within wide limits in different individuals and races. So great is this variation as to be inexplicable except on the view that the nature and proportions of the active principles vary greatly in different specimens. But typically the drug is an intoxicant, resembling alcohol in many features of its action, but differing in others. The early symptoms are highly pleasurable, and it is for these, as in the case of other stimulants, that the drug is so largely consumed in the East. There is a subjective sensation of mental brilliance, but, as in other cases, this is not borne out by the objective results. It has been suggested that the incoordination of nervous action under the influence of Indian hemp may be due to independent and non-concerted action on the part of the two halves of the cerebrum. Following on a decided lowering of the pain and touch senses, which may even lead to complete loss of cutaneous sensation, there comes a sleep which is often accompanied by pleasant dreams. There appears to be no evidence in the case of either the lower animals or the human subject that the drug is an aphrodisiac. Excessive indulgence in cannabis indica is very rare, but may lead to general ill-health and occasionally to insanity. The apparent impossibility of obtaining pure and trustworthy samples of the drug has led to its entire abandonment in therapeutics. When a good sample is obtained it is a safe and efficient hypnotic, at any rate in the case of a European. The tincture should not be prescribed unless precautions are taken to avoid the precipitation of the resin which follows its dilution with water.

See Watt, _Dictionary of the Economic Products of India_.

HEMSTERHUIS, FRANCOIS (1721-1790), Dutch writer on aesthetics and moral philosophy, son of Tiberius Hemsterhuis, was born at Franeker in Holland, on the 27th of December 1721. He was educated at the university of Leiden, where he studied Plato. Failing to obtain a professorship, he entered the service of the state, and for many years acted as secretary to the state council of the United Provinces. He died at the Hague on the 7th of July 1790. Through his philosophical writings he became acquainted with many distinguished persons--Goethe, Herder, Princess Amalia of Gallitzin, and especially Jacobi, with whom he had much in common. Both were idealists, and their works suffer from a similar lack of arrangement, although distinguished by elegance of form and refined sentiment. His most valuable contributions are in the department of aesthetics or the general analysis of feeling. His philosophy has been characterized as Socratic in content and Platonic in form. Its foundation was the desire for self-knowledge and truth, untrammelled by the rigid bonds of any particular system.

His most important works, all of which were written in French, are:
_Lettre sur la sculpture_ (1769), in which occurs the well-known
definition of the Beautiful as "that which gives us the greatest
number of ideas in the shortest space of time"; its continuation,
_Lettre sur les desirs_ (1770); _Lettre sur l'homme et ses rapports_
(1772), in which the "moral organ" and the theory of knowledge are
discussed; _Sopyle_ (1778), a dialogue on the relation between the
soul and the body, and also an attack on materialism; _Aristee_
(1779), the "theodicy" of Hemsterhuis, discussing the existence of God
and his relation to man; _Simon_ (1787), on the four faculties of the
soul, which are the will, the imagination, the moral principle (which
is both passive and active); _Alexis_ (1787), an attempt to prove that
there are three golden ages, the last being the life beyond the grave;
_Lettre sur l'atheisme_ (1787).

The best collected edition of his works is by P. S. Meijboom
(1846-1850); see also S. A. Gronemann, _F. Hemsterhuis, de
Nederlandische Wijsgeer_ (Utrecht, 1867); E. Grucker, _Francois
Hemsterhuis, sa vie et ses oeuvres_ (Paris, 1866); E. Meyer, _Der
Philosoph Franz Hemsterhuis_ (Breslau, 1893), with bibliographical
notice.

HEMSTERHUIS, TIBERIUS (1685-1766), Dutch philologist and critic, was born on the 9th of January 1685 at Groningen in Holland. His father, a learned physician, gave him so good an early education that, when he entered the university of his native town in his fifteenth year, he speedily proved himself to be the best student of mathematics. After a year or two at Groningen, he was attracted to the university of Leiden by the fame of Perizonius; and while there he was entrusted with the duty of arranging the manuscripts in the library. Though he accepted an appointment as professor of mathematics and philosophy at Amsterdam in his twentieth year, he had already directed his attention to the study of the ancient languages. In 1706 he completed the edition of Pollux's _Onomasticon_ begun by Lederlin; but the praise he received from his countrymen was more than counterbalanced by two letters of criticism from Bentley, which mortified him so keenly that for two months he refused to open a Greek book. In 1717 Hemsterhuis was appointed professor of Greek at Franeker, but he did not enter on his duties there till 1720. In 1738 he became professor of national history also. Two years afterwards he was called to teach the same subjects at Leiden, where he died on the 7th of April 1766. Hemsterhuis was the founder of a laborious and useful Dutch school of criticism, which had famous disciples in Valckenaer, Lennep and Ruhnken.

His chief writings are the following: _Luciani colloquia et Timon_
(1708); _Aristophanis Plutus_ (1744); _Notae, &c., ad Xenophontem
Ephesium in the Miscellanea critica_ of Amsterdam, vols. iii. and iv.;
_Observationes ad Chrysostomi homilias; Orationes_ (1784); a Latin
translation of the _Birds_ of Aristophanes, in Kuster's edition; notes
to Bernard's _Thomas Magister_, to Alberti's _Hesychius_, to Ernesti's
_Callimachus_ and to Burmann's _Propertius_. See _Elogium T.
Hemsterhusii_ (with Bentley's letters) by Ruhnken (1789), and
_Supplementa annotationis ad elogium T. Hemsterhusii, &c._ (Leiden,
1874); also J. E. Sandys' _Hist. Class. Scholarship_, ii. (1908).

HEMY, CHARLES NAPIER (1841- ), British painter, born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, was trained in the Newcastle school of art, in the Antwerp academy and in the studio of Baron Leys. He has produced some figure subjects and landscapes, but is best known by his admirable marine paintings. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1898, associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1890 and member in 1897. Two of his paintings, "Pilchards" (1897) and "London River" (1904), are in the National Gallery of British Art.

HEN, a female bird, especially the female of the common fowl (q.v.). The O. Eng. _haen_ is the feminine form of _hana_, the male bird, a correlation of words which is represented in other Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. _Hahn_, _Henne_, Dutch _haan_, _hen_, Swed. _hane_, _honne_, &c. The O. Eng. name for the male bird has disappeared, its place being taken by "cock," a word probably of onomatopoeic origin, being from a base _kuk_- or _kik_-, seen also in "chicken." This word also appears in Fr. _coq_, and medieval Lat. _coccus_.

HENAULT, CHARLES JEAN FRANCOIS (1685-1770), French historian, was born in Paris on the 8th of February 1685. His father, a farmer-general of taxes, was a man of literary tastes, and young Henault obtained a good education at the Jesuit college. Captivated by the eloquence of Massillon, in his fifteenth year he entered the Oratory with the view of becoming a preacher, but after two years' residence he changed his intention, and, inheriting a position which secured him access to the most select society of Paris, he achieved distinction at an early period by his gay, witty and graceful manners. His literary talent, manifested in the composition of various light poetical pieces, an opera, a tragedy (_Cornelie vestale_, 1710), &c., obtained his entrance to the Academy (1723). _Petit-maitre_ as he was, he had also serious capacity, for he became councillor of the _parlement_ of Paris (1705), and in 1710 he was chosen president of the court of _enquetes_. After the death of the count de Rieux (son of the famous financier, Samuel Bernard) he became (1753) superintendent of the household of Queen Marie Leszczynska, whose intimate friendship he had previously enjoyed. On his recovery in his eightieth year from a dangerous malady (1765) he professed to have undergone religious conversion and retired into private life, devoting the remainder of his days to study and devotion. His religion was, however, according to the marquis d'Argenson, "exempt from fanaticism, persecution, bitterness and intrigue"; and it did not prevent him from continuing his friendship with Voltaire, to whom it is said he had formerly rendered the service of saving the manuscript of _La Henriade_, when its author was about to commit it to the flames. The literary work on which Henault bestowed his chief attention was the _Abrege chronologique de l'histoire de France_, first published in 1744 without the author's name. In the compass of two volumes he comprised the whole history of France from the earliest times to the death of Louis XIV. The work has no originality. Henault had kept his note-books of the history lectures at the Jesuit college, of which the substance was taken from Mezeray and P. Daniel. He revised them first in 1723, and later put them in the form of question and answer on the model of P. le Ragois, and by following Dubos and Boulainvilliers and with the aid of the abbe Boudot he compiled his _Abrege_. The research is all on the surface and is only borrowed. But the work had a prodigious success, and was translated into several languages, even into Chinese. This was due partly to Henault's popularity and position, partly to the agreeable style which made the history readable. He inserted, according to the fashion of the period, moral and political reflections, which are always brief and generally as fresh and pleasing as they are just. A few masterly strokes reproduced the leading features of each age and the characters of its illustrious men; accurate chronological tables set forth the most interesting events in the history of each sovereign and the names of the great men who flourished during his reign; and interspersed throughout the work are occasional chapters on the social and civil state of the country at the close of each era in its history. Continuations of the work have been made at separate periods by Fantin des Odoards, by Anguis with notes by Walckenaer, and by Michaud. He died at Paris on the 24th of November 1770.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Henault's _Memoires_ have come down to us in two
different versions, both claiming to be authentic. One was published
in 1855 by M. du Vigan; the other was owned by the Comte de Coutades,
who permitted Lucien Perey to give long extracts in his work on
President Henault (Paris, 1893). The memoirs are fragmentary and
disconnected, but contain interesting anecdotes and details concerning
persons of note. See the _Correspondance_ of Grimm, of Madame du
Deffand and of Voltaire; the notice by Walckenaer in the edition of
the _Abrege_; Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du lundi_, vol. xi.; and the
_Origines de l'abrege_ (_Ann. Bulletin de la Societe de l'histoire de
France_, 1901). Also H. Lion, _Le President Henault_ (Paris, 1903).

HENBANE (Fr. _jusquiaume_, from the Gr. [Greek: hyoskuamos], or hog's-bean; Ital. _giusquiamo_; Ger. _Schwarzes Bilsenkraut_, _Huhnertod_, _Saubohne_ and _Zigeuner-Korn_ or "gipsies' corn"), the common name of the plant _Hyoscyamus niger_, a member of the natural order Solanaceae, indigenous to Britain, found wild in waste places, on rubbish about villages and old castles, and cultivated for medicinal use in various counties in the south and east of England. It occurs also in central and southern Europe and in western Asia extending to India and Siberia, and has long been naturalized in the United States. There are two forms of the plant, an annual and a biennial, which spring indifferently from the same crop of seed--the one growing on during summer to a height of from 1 to 2 ft., and flowering and perfecting seed; the other producing the first season only a tuft of radical leaves, which disappear in winter, leaving underground a thick fleshy root, from the crown of which arises in spring a branched flowering stem, usually much taller and more vigorous than the flowering stems of the annual plants. The biennial form is that which is considered officinal. The radical leaves of this biennial plant spread out flat on all sides from the crown of the root; they are ovate-oblong, acute, stalked, and more or less incisely-toothed, of a greyish-green colour, and covered with viscid hairs; these leaves perish at the approach of winter. The flowering stem pushes up from the root-crown in spring, ultimately reaching from 3 to 4 ft. in height, and as it grows becoming branched, and furnished with alternate sessile leaves, which are stem-clasping, oblong, unequally-lobed, clothed with glandular clammy hairs, and of a dull grey-green, the whole plant having a powerful nauseous odour. The flowers are shortly-stalked, the lower ones growing in the fork of the branches, the upper ones sessile in one-sided leafy spikes which are rolled back at the top before flowering, the leaves becoming smaller upwards and taking the place of bracts. The flowers have an urn-shaped calyx which persists around the fruit and is strongly veined, with five stiff, broad, almost prickly lobes; these, when the soft matter is removed by maceration, form very elegant specimens when associated with leaves prepared in a similar way. The corollas are obliquely funnel-shaped, of a dirty yellow or buff, marked with a close reticulation of purple veins. The capsule opens transversely by a convex lid and contains numerous seeds. Both the leaves and the seeds are employed in pharmacy. The Mahommedan doctors of India are accustomed to prescribe the seeds. Henbane yields a poisonous alkaloid, _hyoscyamine_, which is stated to have properties almost identical with those of atropine, from which it differs in being more soluble in water. It is usually obtained in an amorphous, scarcely ever in a crystalline state. Its properties have been investigated in Germany by T. Husemann, Schroff, Hohn, &c. Hohn finds its chemical composition expressed by C18H28N2O3. (Compare Hellmann, _Beitrage zur Kenntnis der physiolog. Wirkung des Hyoscyamins_, &c., Jena, 1874.) In small and repeated doses henbane has been found to have a tranquillizing effect upon persons affected by severe nervous irritability. In poisonous doses it causes loss of speech, distortion and paralysis. In the form of extract or tincture it is a valuable remedy in the hands of a medical man, either as an anodyne, a hypnotic or a sedative. The extract of henbane is rich in nitrate of potassium and other inorganic salts. The smoking of the seeds and capsules of henbane is noted in books as a somewhat dangerous remedy adopted by country people for toothache. Accidental poisoning from henbane occasionally occurs, owing sometimes to the apparent edibility and wholesomeness of the root.

See Bentley and Trumen, _Medicinal Plants_, 194 (1880).

HENCHMAN, originally, probably, one who attended on a horse, a groom, and hence, like groom (q.v.), a title of a subordinate official in royal or noble households. The first part of the word is the O. Eng. _hengest_, a horse, a word which occurs in many Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. and Dutch _hengst_. The word appears in the name, Hengest, of the Saxon chieftain (see HENGEST AND HORSA) and still survives in English in place and other names beginning with Hingst- or Hinx-. Henchmen, pages of honour or squires, rode or walked at the side of their master in processions and the like, and appear in the English royal household from the 14th century till Elizabeth abolished the royal henchmen, known also as the "children of honour." The word was obsolete in English from the middle of the 17th century, and seems to have been revived through Sir Walter Scott, who took the word and its derivation, according to the _New English Dictionary_, from Edward Burt's _Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland_, together with its erroneous derivation from "haunch." The word is, in this sense, used as synonymous with "gillie," the faithful personal follower of a Highland chieftain, the man who stands at his master's "haunch," ready for any emergency. It is this sense that usually survives in modern usage of the word, where it is often used of an out-and-out adherent or partisan, ready to do anything.

HENDERSON, ALEXANDER (1583-1646), Scottish ecclesiastic, was born in 1583 at Criech, Fifeshire. He graduated at the university of St Andrews in 1603, and in 1610 was appointed professor of rhetoric and philosophy and questor of the faculty of arts. Shortly after this he was presented to the living of Leuchars. As Henderson was forced upon his parish by Archbishop George Gladstanes, and was known to sympathize with episcopacy, his settlement was at first extremely unpopular; but he subsequently changed his views and became a Presbyterian in doctrine and church government, and one of the most esteemed ministers in Scotland. He early made his mark as a church leader, and took an active part in petitioning against the "five acts" and later against the introduction of a service-book and canons drawn up on the model of the English prayer-book. On the 1st of March 1638 the public signing of the "National Covenant" began in Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh. Henderson was mainly responsible for the final form of this document, which consisted of (1) the "king's confession" drawn up in 1581 by John Craig, (2) a recital of the acts of parliament against "superstitious and papistical rites," and (3) an elaborate oath to maintain the true reformed religion. Owing to the skill shown on this occasion he seems to have been applied to when any manifesto of unusual ability was required. In July of the same year he proceeded to the north to debate on the "Covenant" with the famous Aberdeen doctors; but he was not well received by them. "The voyd church was made fast, and the keys keeped by the magistrate," says Baillie. Henderson's next public opportunity was in the famous Assembly which met in Glasgow on the 21st of November 1638. He was chosen moderator by acclamation, being, as Baillie says, "incomparablie the ablest man of us all for all things." James Hamilton, 3rd marquess of Hamilton, was the king's commissioner; and when the Assembly insisted on proceeding with the trial of the bishops, he formally dissolved the meeting under pain of treason. Acting on the constitutional principle that the king's right to convene did not interfere with the church's independent right to hold assemblies, they sat till the 20th of December, deposed all the Scottish bishops, excommunicated a number of them, repealed all acts favouring episcopacy, and reconstituted the Scottish Kirk on thorough Presbyterian principles. During the sitting of this Assembly it was carried by a majority of seventy-five votes that Henderson should be transferred to Edinburgh. He had been at Leuchars for about twenty-three years, and was extremely reluctant to leave it.

While Scotland and England were preparing for the "First Bishops' War," Henderson drew up two papers, entitled respectively _The Remonstrance of the Nobility_ and _Instructions for Defensive Arms_. The first of these documents he published himself; the second was published against his wish by John Corbet (1603-1641), a deposed minister. The "First Bishops' War" did not last long. At the Pacification of Birks the king virtually granted all the demands of the Scots. In the negotiations for peace Henderson was one of the Scottish commissioners, and made a very favourable impression on the king. In 1640 Henderson was elected by the town council rector of Edinburgh University--an office to which he was annually re-elected till his death. The Pacification of Birks had been wrung from the king; and the Scots, seeing that he was preparing for the "Second Bishops' War," took the initiative, and pressed into England so vigorously that Charles had again to yield everything. The maturing of the treaty of peace took a considerable time, and Henderson was again active in the negotiations, first at Ripon (October 1st) and afterwards in London. While he was in London he had a personal interview with the king, with the view of obtaining assistance for the Scottish universities from the money formerly applied to the support of the bishops. On Henderson's return to Edinburgh in July 1641 the Assembly was sitting at St Andrews. To suit the convenience of the parliament, however, it removed to Edinburgh; Henderson was elected moderator of the Edinburgh meeting. In this Assembly he proposed that "a confession of faith, a catechism, a directory for all the parts of the public worship, and a platform of government, wherein possibly England and we might agree," should be drawn up. This was unanimously approved of, and the laborious undertaking was left in Henderson's hands; but the "notable motion" did not lead to any immediate results. During Charles's second state-visit to Scotland, in the autumn of 1641, Henderson acted as his chaplain, and managed to get the funds, formerly belonging to the bishopric of Edinburgh, applied to the metropolitan university. In 1642 Henderson, whose policy was to keep Scotland neutral in the war which had now broken out between the king and the parliament, was engaged in corresponding with England on ecclesiastical topics; and, shortly afterwards, he was sent to Oxford to mediate between the king and his parliament; but his mission proved a failure.

A memorable meeting of the General Assembly was held in August 1643. Henderson was elected moderator for the third time. He presented a draft of the famous "Solemn League and Covenant," which was received with great enthusiasm. Unlike the "National Covenant" of 1638, which applied to Scotland only, this document was common to the two kingdoms. Henderson, Baillie, Rutherford and others were sent up to London to represent Scotland in the Assembly at Westminster. The "Solemn League and Covenant," which pledged both countries to the extirpation of prelacy, leaving further decision as to church government to be decided by the "example of the best reformed churches," after undergoing some slight alterations, passed the two Houses of Parliament and the Westminster Assembly, and thus became law for the two kingdoms. By means of it Henderson has had considerable influence on the history of Great Britain. As Scottish commissioner to the Westminster Assembly, he was in England from August 1643 till August 1646; his principal work was the drafting of the directory for public worship. Early in 1645 Henderson was sent to Uxbridge to aid the commissioners of the two parliaments in negotiating with the king; but nothing came of the conference. In 1646 the king joined the Scottish army; and, after retiring with them to Newcastle, he sent for Henderson, and discussed with him the two systems of church government in a number of papers. Meanwhile Henderson was failing in health. He sailed to Scotland, and eight days after his arrival died, on the 19th of August 1646. He was buried in Greyfriars churchyard, Edinburgh; and his death was the occasion of national mourning in Scotland. On the 7th of August Baillie had written that he had heard that Henderson was dying "most of heartbreak." A document was published in London purporting to be a "Declaration of Mr Alexander Henderson made upon his Death-bed"; and, although this paper was disowned, denounced and shown to be false in the General Assembly of August 1648, the document was used by Clarendon as giving the impression that Henderson had recanted. Its foundation was probably certain expressions lamenting Scottish interference in English affairs.

Henderson is one of the greatest men in the history of Scotland and, next to Knox, is certainly the most famous of Scottish ecclesiastics. He had great political genius; and his statesmanship was so influential that "he was," as Masson well observes, "a cabinet minister without office." He has made a deep mark on the history, not only of Scotland, but of England; and the existing Presbyterian churches in Scotland are largely indebted to him for the forms of their dogmas and their ecclesiastical organization. He is thus justly considered the second founder of the Reformed Church in Scotland.

See M'Crie's _Life of Alexander Henderson_ (1846); Aiton's _Life and
Times of Alexander Henderson_ (1836); _The Letters and Journals of
Robert Baillie_ (1841-1842) (an exceedingly valuable work, from an
historical point of view); J. H. Burton's _History of Scotland_; D.
Masson's _Life of Drummond of Hawthornden_; and, above all, Masson's
_Life of Milton_; Andrew Lang, _Hist. of Scotland_ (1907), vol. iii.
Henderson's own works are chiefly contributions to current
controversies, speeches and sermons. (T. Gi.; D. Mn.)

HENDERSON, EBENEZER (1784-1858), a Scottish divine, was born at the Linn near Dunfermline on the 17th of November 1784, and died at Mortlake on the 17th of May 1858. He was the youngest son of an agricultural labourer, and after three years' schooling spent some time at watchmaking and as a shoemaker's apprentice. In 1803 he joined Robert Haldane's theological seminary, and in 1805 was selected to accompany the Rev. John Paterson to India; but as the East India Company would not allow British vessels to convey missionaries to India, Henderson and his colleague went to Denmark to await the chance of a passage to Serampur, then a Danish port. Being unexpectedly delayed, and having begun to preach in Copenhagen, they ultimately decided to settle in Denmark, and in 1806 Henderson became pastor at Elsinore. From this time till about 1817 he was engaged in encouraging the distribution of Bibles in the Scandinavian countries, and in the course of his labours he visited Sweden and Lapland (1807-1808), Iceland (1814-1815) and the mainland of Denmark and part of Germany (1816). During most of this time he was an agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society. On the 6th of October 1811 he formed the first Congregational church in Sweden. In 1818, after a visit to England, he travelled in company with Paterson through Russia as far south as Tiflis, but, instead of settling as was proposed at Astrakhan, he retraced his steps, having resigned his connexion with the Bible Society owing to his disapproval of a translation of the Scriptures which had been made in Turkish. In 1822 he was invited by Prince Alexander (Galitzin) to assist the Russian Bible Society in translating the Scriptures into various languages spoken in the Russian empire. After twenty years of foreign labour Henderson returned to England, and in 1825 was appointed tutor of the Mission College, Gosport. In 1830 he succeeded Dr William Harrison as theological lecturer and professor of Oriental languages in Highbury Congregational College. In 1850, on the amalgamation of the colleges of Homerton, Coward and Highbury, he retired on a pension. In 1852-1853 he was pastor of Sheen Vale chapel at Mortlake. His last work was a translation of the book of Ezekiel. Henderson was a man of great linguistic attainment. He made himself more or less acquainted, not only with the ordinary languages of scholarly accomplishment and the various members of the Scandinavian group, but also with Hebrew, Syriac, Ethiopic, Russian, Arabic, Tatar, Persian, Turkish, Armenian, Manchu, Mongolian and Coptic. He organized the first Bible Society in Denmark (1814), and paved the way for several others. In 1817 he was nominated by the Scandinavian Literary Society a corresponding member; and in 1840 he was made D.D. by the university of Copenhagen. He was honorary secretary for life of the Religious Tract Society, and one of the first promoters of the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews. The records of his travels in Iceland (1818) were valuable contributions to our knowledge of that island. His other principal works are: _Iceland, or the Journal of a Residence in that Island_ (2 vols., 1818); _Biblical Researches and Travels in Russia_ (1826); _Elements of Biblical Criticism and Interpretation_ (1830); _The Vaudois, a Tour of the Valleys of Piedmont_ (1845).

See _Memoirs of Ebenezer Henderson_, by Thulia S. Henderson (his
daughter) (London, 1859); _Congregational Year Book_ (1859).

HENDERSON, GEORGE FRANCIS ROBERT (1854-1903), British soldier and military writer, was born in Jersey in 1854. Educated at Leeds Grammar School, of which his father, afterwards Dean of Carlisle, was headmaster, he was early attracted to the study of history, and obtained a scholarship at St John's College, Oxford. But he soon left the University for Sandhurst, whence he obtained his first commission in 1878. One year later, after a few months' service in India, he was promoted lieutenant and returned to England, and in 1882 he went on active service with his regiment, the York and Lancaster (65th/84th) to Egypt. He was present at Tell-el-Mahuta and Kassassin, and at Tell-el-Kebir was the first man of his regiment to enter the enemy's works. His conduct attracted the notice of Sir Garnet (afterwards Lord) Wolseley, and he received the 5th class of the Medjidieh order. His name was, further, noted for a brevet-majority, which he did not receive till he became captain in 1886. During these years he had been quietly studying military art and history at Gibraltar, in Bermuda and in Nova Scotia, in spite of the difficulties of research, and in 1889 appeared (anonymously) his first work, _The Campaign of Fredericksburg_. In the same year he became Instructor in Tactics, Military Law and Administration at Sandhurst. From this post he proceeded as Professor of Military Art and History to the Staff College (1892-1899), and there exercised a profound influence on the younger generation of officers. His study on _Spicheren_ had been begun some years before, and in 1898 appeared, as the result of eight years' work, his masterpiece, _Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War_. In the South African War Lieutenant-Colonel Henderson served with distinction on the staff of Lord Roberts as Director of Intelligence. But overwork and malaria broke his health, and he had to return home, being eventually selected to write the official history of the war. But failing health obliged him to go to Egypt, where he died at Assuan on the 5th of March 1903. He had completed the portion of the history of the South African War dealing with the events up to the commencement of hostilities, amounting to about a volume, but the War Office decided to suppress this, and the work was begun _de novo_ and carried out by Sir F. Maurice.

Various lectures and papers by Henderson were collected and published
in 1905 by Captain Malcolm, D.S.O., under the title _The Science of
War_; to this collection a memoir was contributed by Lord Roberts. See
also Journal of the Royal United Service Institution, vol. xlvii. No.
302.

HENDERSON, JOHN (1747-1785), English actor, of Scottish descent, was born in London. He made his first appearance on the stage at Bath on the 6th of October 1772 as Hamlet. His success in this and other Shakespearian parts led to his being called the "Bath Roscius." He had great difficulty in getting a London engagement, but finally appeared at the Haymarket in 1777 as Shylock, and his success was a source of considerable profit to Colman, the manager. Sheridan then engaged him to play at Drury Lane, where he remained for two years. When the companies joined forces he went to Covent Garden, appearing as Richard III. in 1778, and creating original parts in many of the plays of Cumberland, Shirley, Jephson and others. His last appearance was in 1785 as Horatius in _The Roman Father_, and he died on the 25th of November of that year and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Garrick was very jealous of Henderson, and the latter's power of mimicry separated him also from Colman, but he was always gratefully remembered by Mrs. Siddons and others of his profession whom he had encouraged. He was a close friend of Gainsborough, who painted his portrait, as did also Stewart and Romney. He was co-author of Sheridan and Henderson's _Practical Method of Reading and Writing English Poetry_.

HENDERSON, a city and the county-seat of Henderson county, Kentucky, U.S.A., on the S. bank of the Ohio river, about 142 m. W.S.W. of Louisville. Pop. (1890), 8835; (1900), 10,272, of whom 4029 were negroes; (1910 census) 11,452. It is served by the Illinois Central, the Louisville & Nashville, and the Louisville, Henderson & St. Louis railways, and has direct communication by steamboat with Louisville, Evansville, Cairo, Memphis and New Orleans. Henderson is built on the high bank of the river, above the flood level; the river is spanned here by a fine steel bridge, designed by George W. G. Ferris (1859-1896), the designer of the Ferris Wheel. The city has a public park of 80 acres and a Carnegie library. It is situated in the midst of a region whose soil is said to be the best in the world for the raising of dark, heavy-fibred tobacco, and is well adapted also for the growing of fruit, wheat and Indian corn. Bituminous coal is obtained from the surrounding country. Immense quantities of stemmed tobacco are shipped from here, and the city is an important market for Indian corn. The manufactures of the city include cotton and woollen goods, hominy, meal, flour, tobacco and cigars, carriages, baskets, chairs and other furniture, bricks, ice, whisky and beer; the value of the city's factory products in 1905 was $1,365,120. The municipality owns and operates its water works, gas plant and electric-lighting plant. Henderson, named in honour of Richard Henderson (1734-1785), was settled as early as 1784, was first known as Red Banks, was laid out as a town by Henderson's company in 1797, was incorporated as a town in 1810, and was first chartered as a city in 1854. The city boundary lines were extended in 1905 by the annexation of Audubon and Edgewood. Henderson was for some time the home of John James Audubon, the ornithologist.

HENDIADYS, the name adopted from the Gr. [Greek: hen dia duoin] ("one by means of two") for a rhetorical figure, in which two words connected by a copulative conjunction are used of a single idea; usually the figure takes the form of two substantives instead of a substantive and adjective, as in the classical example _pateris libamus et auro_ (Virgil, _Georgics_, ii. 192), "we pour libations in cups and gold" for "cups of gold."

HENDON, an urban district in the Harrow parliamentary division of Middlesex, England, on the river Brent, 8 m. N.W. of St Paul's Cathedral, London, served by the Midland railway. Pop. (1891), 15,843; (1901), 22,450. The nucleus of the township lies on high ground to the east of the Edgware road, which crosses the Welsh Harp reservoir of Regent's Canal, a favourite fishing and skating resort. The church of St Mary is mainly Perpendicular, and contains a Norman font and monuments of the 18th century. To the north of the village, which has extended greatly as a residential suburb of the metropolis, is Mill Hill, with a Roman Catholic Missionary College, opened in 1871, with branches at Rosendaal, Holland and Brixen, Austria, and a preparatory school at Freshfield near Liverpool; and a large grammar school founded by Nonconformists in 1807. The manor belonged at an early date to the abbot of Westminster.

HENDRICKS, THOMAS ANDREWS (1819-1885), American political leader, vice-president of the United States in 1885, was born near Zanesville, Ohio, on the 7th of September 1819. He graduated at Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana, in 1841, and began in 1843 a successful career at the bar. Identifying himself with the Democratic party, he served in the state House of Representatives in 1848, and was a prominent member of the convention for the revision of the state constitution in 1850-1851, a representative in Congress (1851-1855), commissioner of the United States General Land Office (1855-1859), a United States senator (1863-1869), and governor of Indiana (1873-1877). From 1868 until his death he was put forward for nomination for the presidency at every national Democratic Convention save in 1872. Both in 1876 and 1884, after his failure to receive the nomination for the presidency, he was nominated by the Democratic National Convention for vice-president, his nomination in each of these conventions being made partly, it seems, with the hope of gaining "greenback" votes--Hendricks had opposed the immediate resumption of specie payments. In 1876, with S. J. Tilden, he lost the disputed election by the decision of the electoral commission, but he was elected with Grover Cleveland in 1884. He died at Indianapolis on the 25th of November 1885.

HENGELO, or HENGELOO, a town in the province of Overyssel, Holland, and a junction station 5 m. by rail N.W. of Enschede. Pop. (1900), 14,968. The castle belonging to the ancient territorial lords of Hengelo has long since disappeared, and the only interest the town now possesses is as the centre of the flourishing industries of the Twente district. The manufacture of cotton in all its branches is very actively carried on, and there are dye-works and breweries, besides the engineering works of the state railway company.

HENGEST and HORSA, the brother chieftains who led the first Saxon bands which settled in England. They were apparently called in by the British king Vortigern (q.v.) to defend him against the Picts. The place of their landing is said to have been Ebbsfleet in Kent. Its date is not certainly known, 450-455 being given by the English authorities, 428 by the Welsh (see KENT). The settlers of Kent are described by Bede as Jutes (q.v.), and there are traces in Kentish custom of differences from the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Hengest and Horsa were at first given the island of Thanet as a home, but soon quarrelled with their British allies, and gradually possessed themselves of what became the kingdom of Kent. In 455 the Saxon Chronicle records a battle between Hengest and Horsa and Vortigern at a place called Aegaels threp, in which Horsa was slain. Thenceforward Hengest reigned in Kent, together with his son Aesc (Oisc). Both the _Saxon Chronicle_ and the _Historia Brittonum_ record three subsequent battles, though the two authorities disagree as to their issue. There is no doubt, however, that the net result was the expulsion of the Britons from Kent. According to the _Chronicle_, which probably derived its information from a lost list of Kentish kings, Hengest died in 488, while his son Aesc continued to reign until 512.