HIPPARCHUS 



719 



ace tabu lu in ami the head and neck of the thigh- 

 bone become disintegrated, softened, and gritty. 

 In ;i still more advanced stage dislocation of the 

 head of the thigh-bone commonh occurs, either 

 horn the capsular ligament becoming more or lens 

 destroyed, and the bead of the bone being drawn 

 out of it* cavity by the action of the surrounding 

 muscles, or from a fungous mass snrouting up from 

 the bottom of the cavity, and pushing the bead of 

 tin- hone In-fore it. It is of extreme importance 

 that the symptoms should be detected in an early 

 stage of tin- ili-M-.-i-i-. 



As the disease advances abscesses occur around 

 the joint. True shortening of the limb now takes 

 place, which at the same time becomes adducted 

 and inverted. From this stage, if the health is 

 pretty good, and the lungs are sound, the patient 

 may be so fortunate as to recover with an anchy- 

 lo-ed (or immovable) hip-joint; but the proba- 

 bility is that exhaustion and hectic will come on, 

 and that death will supervene, from the wasting 

 influence of the purulent discharges occasioned by 

 the diseased bone. The duration of the disease 

 may vary from two or three months to ten or 

 more years. 



As the treatment must be left entirely in the 

 hands of the surgeon it is unnecessary to say more 

 than that the most important points are perfect rest 

 to the affected part, which may be effected in 

 various ways, the internal administration of cod- 

 liver oil and tonics, and the application of counter- 

 irritation by means of an issue behind the great 

 trochanter. 



HipparctlUS, the first systematic astronomer 

 on record, was born at Nicaea, in Bithynia, and 

 flourished between 160 and 125 B.C. Or his per- 

 sonal history nothing is known except that he 

 observed at Rhodes. The only authority we have 

 regarding his researches is the Syntaxis of Ptolemy ; 

 from it we learn that Hipparchus discovered the 

 precession of the equinoxes and the eccentricity of 

 the sun's path, determined the length of the solar 

 year and the distances of the sun and moon re- 

 spectively from the earth, invented the planisphere, 

 drew up a catalogue of 1080 stars, and fixed the 

 geographical position of places on the earth by 

 giving their longitude and latitude. All that we 

 nave of his works is a commentary to the poetical 

 description of the stars by Aratns, published in 

 Patavms's Uranologia (1630). See Delambre's 

 Histoire de I' Astronomic Ancienne (Paris, 1817). 



Hipparion, a fossil genus of Equidae. See 

 HORSE. 

 Hippias and Hipparchus. See PISIS- 



TRATUS. 



Hippo Regius. 



See BONA. 



Hippocampus 



(Gr. ; a sea-monster 

 on which the gods 

 rode), commonly 

 called SEA-HOR^E, a 

 genus of curiously 

 modified marine 



fishes, which, with 

 the Pipe-fish (q.v.), 

 compose the family 

 Syngnathidiv, belong- 

 ing to the order Lo- 

 phobranchii, whose 

 gills are disposed in 

 tufts. They derive 

 their generic name 

 from the remarkable 

 likeness which the head and neck l>ear to those of 

 a horse, or perhaps even more strikingly to those 

 of the knight in a set of chessmen. They are 



Hippocampus antiquorum. 



all characterised by the prehensile tail devoid of 

 a fin, by which they cling to the -t-m- of 

 weeds or corals, or even to each other ; the 

 body is compressed ami more or lew elevated ; 

 the shields have more or less prominent tubercles 

 or spines ; the hinder part of the head forum 

 a flattened crest, terminating above in a pro- 

 minent knob (coronet) ; i>ectoral fins and a dorsal 

 fin are present. The males have a ]M>u<-h beneath 

 the tail, in which they carry the eggs until they 

 are hatched. As in all other li.-ln- .it tin- order, 

 there is a long snout, and at its extremity a small 

 toothless mouth. The fins vibrate with great 

 rapidity, and present the apj>earance of a rotating 

 wheel or a delicate waving web, but the animal* 

 move only slowly and for a short distance at a 

 time, usually in a half upright posture. There aie 

 about twenty species, mostly inhabiting tropical 

 seas ; some have a wide area of distribution, as they 

 are ndt unfrequently carried to great distances by 

 floating materials to which they have attached 

 themselves. H, antiquorum of Australia, the 

 Atlantic, and Mediterranean, is occasionally found 



Phyllopteryx eques. 



on British shores. The allied genus Phylloptervx, 

 of which three species are known from Australia, 

 is remarkable for its long streaming filaments, 

 which very closely mimic the fronds of the Fucus 

 among which it lives. 



Hippocampus. See BRAIN. 



Hippocras (vinvm Hippocraticum, 'wine of 

 Hippocrates'), an aromatic medicated wine, for- 

 merly much used as a cordial. It was prepared 

 from white wine, flavoured with cinnamon and 

 other spices, lemon peel, almonds, &c., and sweet- 

 ened with honey or sugar. 



Hippoc'rates, the most celebrated physician 

 of antiquity, was the son of Heracleides, who was 

 also a physician, and belonged to the family of 

 the Asclepiadiv, Hippocrates himself being either 

 nineteenth or seventeenth in descent from ^iscu- 

 lapius. His mother, whose name was Pluenarete, 

 was said to be descended from Hercules. He was 

 born in the island of Cos, probably about 460 B.c. 

 He is said to have been instructed in medicine by 

 his father and by Herodicus, and in philosophy by 

 Gorgias of Leontini, the celebrated sophist, and 

 Democritus of Abdera, whose cure, when he was 

 mentally deranged, he afterwards effected. After 

 visiting some parts of Greece, particularly Athens, 

 then at its intellectual zenith, he settled in practice 

 at Cos. He died at Larissa, in Thessaly, but at what 

 age is uncertain, different ancient authors stating it 

 to have been at 85, 90, 104, and 109 years. Clinton 

 (l-'axti Hell.) places his death 357 B.C., at the age 

 of 104. We know little more of his personal 

 history than that he was greatly esteemed as a 

 physician and an author, and that he raised the 

 medical school of Cos to a very high reputation. 



