692 



HEROSTRATTJS 



HERRICK 



Herostratus. See EPHESUS. 



Herpes (Gr. , from herpo, ' I creep ' ), the name 

 of a group of diseases of the skin, characterised 

 by the presence of clusters of vesicles on an in- 

 flamed base. There are two well-dehned classes 

 included under the name. 



( 1 ) Catarrhal herpes occurs most commonly at the 

 edge of the lip, and often attends some febrile 

 disease, especially acute inflammation of the lungs ; 

 but may also follow some local irritation, or be 

 without assignable cause. It is attended some- 

 times by burning or itching sensations, but rarely 

 by pain. The vesicles dry up into a scab, which 

 falls off in the course of a few days. No treatment 

 is generally necessary ; but it is very apt to recur. 

 It appears less commonly on other parts of the face, 

 on the mucous membrane of the mouth, and on the 

 genital organs. 



(2) Herpes zoster (Gr. ; Lat. zona; Eng. shingles, 

 plural of Old Eng. sengle, 'a girth,' through Fr. 

 from Lat. cingulum, words all meaning ' a girdle') 

 is most commonly met with along the course of 

 one of the intercostal nerves, whence the name. 

 It is now known that the inflammation of the 

 skin depends upon an inflammation of the nerve 

 supplying the area affected, though many forms of 

 inflammation of the nerves occur without producing 

 herpes. Its occurrence can sometimes be traced to 

 a blow, to diseased tissues in the neighbourhood, 

 or to the prolonged administration of arsenic ; but 

 more often no cause can be assigned for it. The 

 appearance of the characteristic eruption is gener- 

 ally preceded for some days by neuralgic pain in 

 the affected part ; inflammation of the skin in 

 patches, development of vesicles, formation of 

 scabs and their subsequent detachment generally 

 run a pretty uniform course, occupying about a 

 fortnight. In young people nothing is left but 

 slight scarring of the skin ; but in those beyond 

 middle life an extremely intractable form of neur- 

 algia often remains, and may persist for months. 

 The disease may occur at any age, but a second 

 attack is quite exceptional. More than one inter- 

 costal nerve may be affected at once ; but very 

 seldom two on the opposite sides, so that the popu- 

 lar superstition ' that shingles which meet round 

 the body always prove fatal ' is not likely to be 

 often practically refuted. Though commonest in 

 connection with the intercostal nerves, herpes zoster 

 may occur on almost any region of the body. The 

 brow is a frequent situation ; and if the eye is 

 affected, as sometimes happens, it may be seriously 

 damaged. No treatment seems to be effective in 

 arresting the course of the disease ; but painting 

 with flexile collodion, or application of zinc oint- 

 ment over the inflamed patches, diminishes their 

 irritability. 



Herpetology (Gr. herpeton, 'a reptile,' and 

 logos, ' a discourse ' ), that branch of natural history 

 which treats of reptiles. See REPTILES. 



Herrera, FERNANDO DE, a Spanish lyric poet, 

 of whom we only know that he was born at Seville 

 in 1534, took orders, and died in 1597. As a poet 

 he ranked so high in the opinion of his contem- 

 poraries that they bestowed upon him the appel- 

 lation of the divine. Many of his love-poems are 

 remarkable for tender feeling, while his odes, such 

 as that on the ' Battle of Lepanto,' frequently 

 display a lofty enthusiasm ; but his language is 

 very artificial, being full of words, inflections, 

 and inversions in imitation of Greek, Latin, and 

 Italian authors. Many of his poems were accident- 

 ally burned shortly after his death ; most of what 

 survived were published by Pacheco, the painter, in 

 1619, and all were printed in the Coleccion of Ramon 

 Fernandez (1786; new ed. 1808). Herrera wrote 

 in prose a good Account of the War in Cyprus 



(1572), and translated from the Latin of Stapleton 

 a life of Sir T. More ( 1592). 



Herrera, FRANCISCO, surnamed EL VIEJO 

 (the Elder), Spanish painter, was born in Seville 

 in 1576. His drawing was correct, arid his pictorial 

 style is marked by energy, freedom, and boldness, 

 and he became the founder of a school. Herrera's 

 masterpiece was the ' Last Judgment,' in a church 

 at Seville. Besides historical pieces, he also painted 

 such subjects as wine-houses, fairs, carnivals, and 

 the like ; he was a clever worker also in bronze. In 

 1650 he removed to Madrid, and died there in 1656. 

 Some of his best works are in the Louvre at Paris. 

 His youngest son, FRANCISCO HERRERA, sur- 

 named EL Mozo (the Younger), was born at Seville 

 in 1622. He studied under his father, but to escape 

 his roughness and cruelty ran away to Rome, 

 where he became celebrated for pictures of still life, 

 especially for fish-pieces. Returning to Spain after 

 his father's death, he at first settled in Seville, and 

 was in 1660 appointed sub-director of the academy 

 there ; but he soon betook himself to Madrid, where 

 he became painter to the king. His best works 

 are a fresco, ' The Ascension,' in the Atocha church 

 in Madrid, and ' San Francisco,' in Seville cathe- 

 dral. Herrera died at Madrid in 1685. 



Herrera y Tordesillas, ANTONIO, Spanish 

 historian, was born at Cuellar, in Segovia, in 1549, 

 was appointed by Philip II. historiographer of the 

 Indies and of Castile, and died at Madrid, 29th 

 March 1625. His principal work is a General His- 

 tory of Castilian Exploits in the Pacific (1601-15), 

 that is, a history of the Spanish-American colonies 

 from 1492 to 1554 (Eng. trans, by John Stevens, 

 1725). His Descripcion de las Indias Occidentales 

 (1601 and 1615) forms an introduction to the above 

 work. He also wrote on the history of England 

 and Scotland in the time of Mary Stuart ; histories 

 of Portugal, of the world in the time of Philip II., 

 of the League, and of the Spanish, French, and 

 Venetians in Italy. 



Herrick, ROBERT, a great English poet, was 

 born in London, the fourth son and seventh child 

 of a prosperous Cheapside goldsmith of good Leices- 

 tershire descent, and was baptised 24th August 

 1591. His father died the year after, not without 

 suspicion of suicide, and the boy was bound appren- 

 tice for ten years to his uncle, afterwards Sir 

 William Herrick, also a well-to-do Cheapside gold- 

 smith. By September 1613, however, we find him 

 a fellow-commoner at St John's College, Cam- 

 bridgC; whence he sent fourteen letters, still ex- 

 tant, to his guardian -uncle, who appears to have 

 been stingy in his allowances of money. The last 

 letter is dated from Trinity Hall, whither he 

 writes he had migrated for economy. Herrick 

 took his M.A. in 1620, and apparently came next 

 to London, where, no doubt, he plunged light- 

 heartedly into the gaieties of the town, as well as 

 ' those lyric feasts made at the Sun, the Dog, the 

 Triple Tun.' He was already a poet, and his ' wild, 

 unbaptised rhymes ' quickly earned him the friend- 

 ship of Ben Jonson and his ring of hilarious spirits. 

 In 1629 his mother died, and in the same year he 

 took orders, and was presented to the sequestered 

 living of Dean Prior, near Totnes, in Devonshire. 

 He bemoans his lonely banishment in ' loathed 

 country life ' among ' currish ' natives in ' dull 

 Devonshire,' but from his poems we cannot doubt 

 that his keen eye and kindly heart found him a 

 consolation in the observation of the honest country- 

 folk around him whose old-world customs are mir- 

 rored so charmingly in his verse. Of his clerical 

 life we know but little, although Wood speaks of 

 his ' florid and witty discourses,' and tells us he 

 was ' beloved by the neighbouring gentry.' He lias 

 immortalised his housekeeper, ' Prue ' or Prudence 



