HEMP PALM 



HENDERSON 



641 



bowels, create nausea, or check tlte secretions, and 

 that it in less likely to occasion headache. 



The name Hemp ((ler. Ilnnf) is from the flreek 

 And I ..-it in cannabta, and that from Sanskrit '.""" 

 Tin- name hemp is often extended with some dis- 

 tinctive prefix to many of the fibres used for ropes 

 und ru.u-i' fabrics Sunn Hemp, Manilla Hemp, 

 Deccan Hemp, Sisal Hemp, &c. See APOCYN- 

 ACE*:, BOWSTRING HEMP, FIBROUS SUBSTANCES. 



ll<'lll|> Palm ( Chamcerops excelsa ; see CHA- 

 M.CROPS), a palm of China and Japan, the fibre of 

 the leaves of which is much employed in those 

 countries for making cordage. Hats are also made 

 of its leaves, and even cloaks and other garments 

 for wet weather. 



Heins, HOMS, or HUMS (Lat. Emesa), a city 

 of Syria, is situated near the right bank of the 

 Orontes, 63 miles NE. of Tripoli. It is surrounded 

 by ancient walls, now greatly ruined, and is entered 

 by six gates. Its streets are narrow and dirty, 

 and its houses mean. In ancient times it was 

 chiefly celebrated for its temple of the Sun, now 

 destroyed, though probably its site is occupied by 

 the dilapidated castle or fortress, ruined by Ibrahim 

 Pasha in 1831. One of the priests of this temple, 

 Heliogabalus, was raised to the imperial throne 

 of Rome in 218. Under the walls of Hems 



< Emesa) Zenobia was defeated by the Emperor 

 Ann-Han in 272. In 636 the city was taken 

 by the Saracens, when its old Semitic name 

 Hems was revived ; and in 1098 it fell into the 

 hands of the Crusaders. It has a considerable trade 

 in oil, cotton, and sesame, and produces, besides 

 these commodities, silk goods and gold wares. 

 Pop. about 20,000. 



llcinstcrhiiis, TIBERIUS, Dutch philologist, 

 was 1)0111 at Groningen, 1st February 1685. He 

 became professor of Greek at Franekerin 1720, and 

 of Greek history at Leyden in 1740, where he died 

 7th April 1766. One of the greatest Greek scholars 

 of his time, Hemsterhuis may be said to have 

 created a new school of Greek philology, to which 

 belong his distinguished pupils Ruhnken and 

 Yali'kenaer. His editions of the Onomasticon of 

 Pollux (1706), of the Select Dialogues of Lucian 



< 1708 and 1732 ), and of the Plutus of Aristophanes 



< 1744, by Schiifer 1811) are his principal literary 

 works. A beautiful picture of his life is given in 

 Ruhnken *s Elogium Heinsterhusii (1768 and 1789), 

 republished in Lindemann's Vitce diiumvirorum T. 

 Heinsterhusii et D. Ruhnkenii ( Leip. 1 822 ). From 

 Hemsterhuis's MSS. Anecdota Hemsterhusiana 

 <1825) have been edited by Geel, and Orationes et 

 Bftttofa (1839) by Friedemann. 



Hen. See POULTRY. 



Henbane (Hyoscyamus), a genus of plants of 

 the natural order Solanace;i', having a five-toothed 

 calyx, an irregular, funnel-shaped corolla, and a 

 r.-tpsiile opening by a lid and enclosed in the 

 hardened calyx. The species are mostly annual 

 and biennial herbaceous plants, and natives of 

 the countries near the Mediterranean Sea. The 

 only species found in Britain is the Common Hen- 

 bane (H. niger), which is not uncommon in waste 

 places and in the neighbourhood of towns and 

 villages, particularly in calcareous soils, and on 

 the sandy shores of Scotland. It is an annual 

 plant, somewhat bushy, about 2 feet high, with 

 large sinuated or sharply-lotted leaves without 

 I'-.-u stalks, and large dingy yellow (lowers with 

 purplish veins. The whole plant is covered with 

 unctuous hairs, and has a nauseous smell, which 

 gives warning of its strong narcotic poisonous 

 quality. Cases of poisoning by henbane are, how- 

 ever, not rare, but are more frequently owing to 

 the proceedings of quacks than to any mistake of 

 the plant for an esculent. 

 249 



The ecds contain in largest quantity the peculiar 

 alkaloid on which the properties of the plant chiefly 

 depend, HyoHcyamia or Ifynttryninin, which crystal- 

 lines in stellated acicular crystals of a silky lustre. 



Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger). 



The symptoms of poisoning by henbane are similar 

 to those produced by other narcotic poisons, and 

 the proper treatment is the same as in cases of 

 poisoning by opium. In medicine henbane is em- 

 ployed both externally and internally. The leaves 

 are the part commonly used ; they are gathered 

 and quickly dried when the plant is in full flower. 

 Fomentations of henbane are applied to painful 

 glandular swellings, parts affected with neuralgia, 

 &c., and are often found to afford relief. An ex- 

 tract of henbane is sometimes employed instead of 

 belladonna to dilate the pupil of the eye. Tinc- 

 ture and extract of henbane are often administered 

 in cases of annoying cough, spasmodic asthma, 

 and other diseases requiring sedatives and anti- 

 spasmodics. Henbane is also employed to calm 

 mental irritation and to induce sleep. For 

 many cases it has one great advantage over 

 laudanum, in not producing constipation. The 

 smoke from the burning seeds of henbane is some- 

 times introduced into a carious tooth to relieve 

 toothache. 



The other species of henbane possess similar 

 properties. The dried stalks of H. albus are used 

 by smoking in Greece to allay toothache. 



Henderson, capital of Henderson county, 

 Kentucky, on the Ohio, 10 miles S. of Evansville 

 by rail, with over a score of tobacco-factories and 

 warehouses. Pop. ( 1880 ) 5365 ; ( 1900 ) 10,'27'2. 



Henderson* ALEXANDER, a famous Scottish 

 ecclesiastic, born in 1583, and educated at St 

 Andrews, where in 1610 he was placed in the 

 chair of Rhetoric and Philosophy, being soon after 

 presented by Archbishop Gladstanes to the living 

 of Leuchars, in Fife. Although the nominee of 

 a prelate, he soon embraced the popular cause, 

 and became one of its foremost leaders. He is 

 supposed to have had a great share in drawing 

 up the Xdtinnnl Core mint ; he withstood to the 

 face the lukewarm theologians of Aberdeen, and 

 \\a-> unanimously placed in the moderator's chair 

 at the memorable General Assembly at Glasgow 

 in November 1638, which in the face of the king's 

 commissioner restored all its liberties to the Kirk 

 of Scotland. In all the tortuous negotiations with 

 the king Henderson took a principal part, and had 

 many interviews with him. He was moderator at 

 Edinburgh in 1641, and again in August 1643, and 

 drafted the famous Solemn League and Covenant, 



