I! KM, KN 1ST 



HKLMIIOLTZ 



830 



tincture, which is obtained by maceration in -pint, 

 is usually given when its action as an cmmena- 

 gogiie I-. required. In an excessive dose it actn as 

 u naicoiic acrid poison, anl causes vomiting, purg- 

 ing, burning pain in the stomach ami inte-tine-. 

 lumtnesH, paralysis, and death. Stinking Helle- 

 bore ( //. fiftiilun) grows on hills and mountains in 

 the -mill an. I \\>--t of Europe, in .some of the chalk 

 districts of England, and in several places in Scot 

 land. It has a very disagreeable smell, and green 

 Mowers somewhat tinned with purple. The stem is 

 many-flowered and leafy. Green Hellebore (H. 

 fit -it/is), also found in the chalk districts of Eng- 

 land, has a leafy stem, with a few large greenish- 

 yellow Mowers. The celebrated hellebore of the 

 ancients was probably a species peculiar to Greece 

 and the Levant, H. oriental-is or H. officinalis ; all 

 the species, however, have similar medicinal quali- 

 tie-. From the abundance of the plant around the 

 city of Anticyra, hypochondriacal persons were said 

 to need a visit to Anticyra. 



White Hellebore (1'n-ntrnin album) belongs to 

 the natural order Melanthacea\ The genus has 

 polygamous Mowers, with six-leaved perianth, six 

 stamens, three pistils cohering at the base, a three- 

 horned capsule separating into three many-seeded 

 follicles, and compressed seeds winged at the apex. 

 White hellebore has a leafy stem, sometimes 4 

 feet high, ovate-oblong leaves, a long terminal 

 compound panicle, and yellowish-white flowers. 

 It abounds in the mountains of the centre and 

 south of Europe, but is not found in Britain. The 

 root was once much used in medicine, but now 

 rarely, although it seems to act powerfully in some 

 diseases. It is a very acrid and active poison. Its 



{towder is used to destroy lice, and by gardeners 

 or killing caterpillars. A decoction and ointment 

 of it are sometimes used in itch and ringworm. 

 Caution is necessary even in handling the powder 

 of white hellebore, and very unpleasant effects 

 ensue from .its getting into the eyes or nose. 

 American Hellebore, or Swamp Hellebore 

 (V. viride), known also as Indian Poke or Itch 

 Weed, is frequent in damp grounds from Canada 

 to Carolina. Its root has properties similar to 

 those of white hellebore. These properties seem 

 to depend chiefly on an alkaloid called Veratria, 

 which is derived from plants of the genus Veratrum. 

 Hellenist (Gr. Hellenistes), one who adopts 

 Greek customs and language ; a name given especi- 

 ally to those among the Jews, and afterwards in 

 the Christian church of Judea, who, either by birth 

 or by residence, and by the adoption of the Greek 

 language, manners, and usages, were regarded as 

 Greeks in opposition to the Hebrews properly so 

 called, whether of Palestine or of the Dispersion, 

 and to the Hellenes, or Greeks proper. They are 

 called Grecians in the Authorised Version, Grecian 

 Jews in the Revised Version, of the New Testa- 

 ment. They inevitably stood in a relation of 

 rivalry, if not of antagonism to the Hebrews 

 (see Acts, vi. 1, and ix. 29). It was among the 

 Jews settled in Alexandria that the Hellenising 

 tendency found its freest development ; and it is 

 to that city that we must refer the formation as 

 well of that peculiar dialect of the Greek lan- 

 guage which is known as the Hellenistic, as of 

 that speculative philosophy which exercised so 

 large an influence on those early Christian schools, 

 of which Urigen is the most famous exponent (see 

 ALKXANDKIA). 



The really characteristic element of the Hellen- 

 istic Greek consists in its foreign, and especially its 

 Hebrew and Aramaic words and idioms. Although 

 it was in its origin a purely popular form of the 

 language, yet its being employed in the Alexandrian 

 or Septuagint version of the Old Testament has 

 given to it all the fixedness and definite character 



of a written language. The Hellenimnn of the 

 Septuagint differ in many respect* from thowe of 

 the New Testament, which again present Home 

 point - of discrepancy with those of the Alexandrian 

 Fathers ; but there are certain leading character- 

 istics common to them all. 



The influence of the Hellenistic mode* of thought 

 on the Alexandrian philosophy are traced under 

 PHILO JVDXVS, NEOPLATONWM, PLOTINUS, &c. 



See Winer, Grammatik des N. T. Spruchidiomt ( 1822 ; 

 7th ed. 1807); Alex. Butttnann, Gramm. det N. T. 

 Sprachtjebrauclu (1859) ; 8. A. Green, Handbook to the 

 Grammar of the Greek New Testament (1885); W. R 

 Simcox, On tfie Lamjuatje of the Nne Testament (1889) ; 

 Dr Hatch, Exmi/x in Biblical Greek (1889). There are 

 dictionaries of New Testament Greek by Schleusner 

 (1792), Robinson (Boston, 1836; New York, 1850), 

 Cremer (1866; Kng. ed. by Urwick), D. Harting (2d 

 ed. Utrecht, 1888); alno Grimm's ed. of Wilke'a davit 

 (1868, and 1877-79 ; Eng. ed. by Professor Thayer). 

 Concordances of the Greek New Testament are those by 

 . R. Young ( 1884 ), and Hastings and Hudson, as revised 

 by E. Abbot (Boston, 1885). 



Heller, STEPHEN, pianist and musical com 

 poser, was born on 15th May 1814 at Pesth, and 

 made a brilliant debut as a pianist when only nine 

 years of age. Before he was sixteen he had played 

 in most of the principal cities of Europe. From 

 1830, when he settled in Augsburg, he began to 

 study composition. In 1838 he removed to Paris, 

 where he occupied himself with composing and 

 teaching until his death, on 14th January 1888. 

 In the matter of technique he must be ranked 

 beside Chopin. He wrote almost exclusively for the 

 pianoforte ; his works, which number about 150, 

 consist of sonatas, etudes, &c., and are distin- 

 guished by originality and refinement. See his 

 Life by Barbedette (Paris, 1876). 



Hellespont. See DARDANELLES. 



Hell Gate* or HURL GATE, named by the 

 Dutch settlers of New York Helle Gat, is a pass in 

 the East River, between New York city and Long 

 Island, formerly very dangerous to vessels from its 

 numerous rocks and rapid current. As early as 1851 

 attempts were made to blast away the obstruc- 

 tions ; the operations which in 1885 finally freed 

 the navigation are described, with an illustration, 

 in the article BLASTING. 



Hellill, a town of Spain, 69 mijes by rail NNW. 

 of Murcia. In the vicinity are productive sulphur- 

 mines and sulphur-springs. Pop. 13,700. 



Helm. See STEERING. 



Helmet. See ARMOUR, HERALDRY. 



Helmet-shell ( Cassis), a genus of gasteropoda, 

 type of a family (Cassidie), the members of which 

 are somewhat whelk-like, and have thick, heavy 

 shells, with bold ridges, a short spire and a long 

 aperture, the outer lip toothed, the canal recurved. 

 Numerous species, amounting to about fifty if we 

 include closely allied genera such as Cassidaria, 

 occur in the warmer seas. As the shells are made 

 up of differently -coloured layers, they are much 

 used for the manufacture of Cameos (q.v.). The 

 species most used is the large Black Helmet (C. 

 madagtuearmtit), sometimes almost a foot long, 

 with a whitish outer and black inner layer. 



Hellllholtz, HKKMANX VON, a very dis- 

 tinguished scientist, was born at Potsdam, 31st 

 August 1821 ; he was ennobled by the Emperor 

 of Cermany in 1883. He was at first a surgeon 

 in the army, then assistant in the Berlin Ana- 

 tomical Museum, and was a professor of Phy- 

 siology from 1849 at Konigsberg, from 1855 at 

 Bonn, ami from 1858 at Heidelberg. In 1871 he 

 became professor of Physics in Berlin. Helmholtz 

 was equally distinguished in physiology, in mathe- 

 matics, and in experimental and mathematical 



