: 



HERRERA, ANTONIO. 



HEKSCHEL, WILLIAM. 



U i 



impossible to mj what portion of the progress which medicine made 

 in their tin* as owing to the labour* of each. 



The chief feature which marks the time of Herophiliu in the history 

 of nwdiciue ii the commencement of the study of anatomy from 

 direction* of the human body, for which purpoM the bodies of all 

 malefactor* were appropriated by the government With such zeal 

 did Iterophilu* pursue this science, that be is t aid to have dissected 

 700 subjects, and it was against him and Erasiatratus that the very 

 improbable charge was first made of having frequently opened living 

 criminals that they might discover the secret springs of life. (Celsus, 

 ' Pnefat') From the peculiar advantages which the school of Alexan- 

 dria presented by this authorised dissection of the human body, it 

 gained, and for many centuries preserved, the first reputation for medical 

 education, so that Ammianus Haroellinus, who lived about 650 years 

 after iU establishment, ssys that it was sufficient to secure credit to 

 any physician if he could say that ho had studied at Alexandria. 



By the labours of Herophilus and Erasutratua nearly every part of 

 the anatomy of the human body was rendered clearer, and many most 

 important discoveries wen made. They first determined that the 

 nerves are not connected with the membranes which cover the brain, 

 but with the brain itself, though as yet the distinction of the nerves 

 from the tendons and other white tissues had not been made out. 

 The description which Herophilus gave of the brain itself was far 

 superior to those of previous authors : he discovered the arachnoid 

 membrane, and showed that it lined the ventricle), which be supposed 

 were the seat of the soul ; and the chief meeting of the sinuses into 

 which th veins of the brain pour their blood still bears the name of 

 Torculsr HerophilL He noticed the lacteal*, though he was not aware 

 of their use ; be pointed out that the first division of the intestinal 

 canal is never more thau the breadth of twelve fingers in length, and 

 from this fact proposed for it the name (duodenum) by which it is 

 still called. 



Heropbilus practised surgery as well as medicine; but it is probable 

 that very toon after bis time the division of surgery and medicine into 

 distinct professions took place. Of his knowledge of medical practice 

 there is not sufficient evidence in the extracts which Qalen makes 

 from bis works to enable us to form an accurate idea, and bis fame 

 must rest rather on the indirect assistance which he afforded by his 

 anatomical researches than on any immediate addition to the means 

 of curing disease. He does not appear to have drawn many patho- 

 logical conclusions from his knowledge of the healthy structure, but 

 his observations on the pulse, of which his master Praxagoras had 

 taught him tome of the value as a means of discriminating diseases, 

 were important and interesting ; and it was he who first showed that 

 paralysis is the result not of a vitiated state of the humours, as was 

 previously imagined, but of an affection of the nervous system. 

 Herophilus teems to have founded a school which took its name from 

 him. According to Strabo (xii. p. 680), there was a great school of 

 Herophiliste in bis time established in a temple between Laodiceia and 

 Carura in Phrygia. 



H ERRK'KA, ANTONIO, Coronista Mayor de las Indias y Castilla, 

 born at Cuellar in 1549, died at Madrid on the 19th of March 1625. 

 He is extolled by Robertson (' History of America,' b. v., note 70), and 

 many other distinguished writers. Quintana (' Vida de Fi/..irro,' 

 append ice vii.) points out some inaccuracies, which however he 

 extenuates as unavoidable in that work, the chief and still the best 

 source of information which Hen-era left for subsequent writers on 

 American history from 1492 to 1554. The first and now rare edition 

 of that laborious performance bears the title of ' Historia General de 

 los Hrchos de los Castellanoe en las Islas y Tierra Firma del Mar 

 Oceano, en 8 decades,' 4 vols. fol., Madrid, 1601. A second edition, 

 that of Antwerp, 4 vols. fol., 1728, is very incorrect A highly- 

 improved edition, with corrections and additions, is entitled 'Descrip- 

 tion de las Itidias Occiden tales,' 4 vols. fol., Madrid, 1730. Barltous 

 published this history in his ' Novus Orbis,' 1622 ; and Nicolas Coste, 

 in bit ' Histoire Ge'ndrale des Voyages des Castillans,' 1659; and Captain 

 Stevens, in his ' History of America,' 1725. The rarest perhaps of 

 several other politioo-hutorical works of Herrera is entitled ' Historia 

 de lo Sucedido en Esoocia y Inglaterra en 44 anos que vivid Maria 

 EstuarHa,' gvo, Madrid, 15S9, and 8vo, Lisbon, 1590. 



HKRRE'KA, FERNANDO, a native of Seville, lived in the 16th 

 century, the golden age of Spanish poetry, among the reformers of 

 which be was prominent He won the admiration of his contempo- 

 rari'S, who prefixed to his name the epithet of ' divine.' Inspired by 

 Pindar, be became one of the first classical ode-writers in modern 

 Europe : bis odes on the battle of Lepanto, and the ' Ode to Sleep,' 

 are worthy of bis Greek model. An attempt so congenial to Hen-era's 

 aspiration*, and to those of hi* age that of elevating his native 

 poetry to the level of the Greek and Roman led Herrera to over- 

 strain the powers of his own language by the adoption of antique 

 modrs of expression, which the learned of that age endeavoured to 

 establish as the sole expressions of the beautiful and the sublime. It 

 was chiefly to inculcate these principles, or to foster a corresponding 

 taste, that Herrera commented on Garcilaso a practical way ol 

 developing a theory, which has been followed by a host of 

 commentators. 



An edition, now rare, of his poetical works appeared after his death 

 under the title, ' Obras en Verso de Heruando de Herrera,' Seville, 4 to, 



15S2. Another equally rara is, ' Versos de Hernando de Herrera, 

 mendados y divididos por el en 8 librox,' 4to, Sevilla, 1619. Of his 

 prose writings those remaining are, ' Relacion de la Guerra de Cliipre, 

 f Suoeso de la Batalla do Lepanto,' 8vo, Sevilla, 1572 ; and ' Vida y 

 Miierte de Thomas Moro ' (translated from the Latin of Stapleton), 

 8vo. Sevilla, 1592, and Madrid, ItiJi. 



HERRE'RA, FRANCISCO DE, surnamod Et VIEJO (the Elder), 

 was born at Seville in 1576. He was one of the most eminent of the 

 Spanish painters of the school of Seville. He excelled both in design 

 and colouring, and though his execution was decided and rapid, bis 

 works will bear the test of minute investigation. Among his best 

 works are the ' Last Judgment.' in the church of San Barnard ; the 

 'Descent from the Cross and the Effusion of the Holy Ghost,' in the 

 church of San Ines ; and, in fresco, the cupola of San Bonaventura 

 all at Seville, His easel pictures, mostly representing subjects of 

 common life kitchens, alehouses, inns, lie. are admirably executed, 

 and fetch high prices. Ho also worked in bronze, and has left some 

 etchings. In 1047 he completed his works in the episcopal palace at 

 Seville, and went in 1650 to Madrid, where he died, some say, in the 

 same year ; others in 1656. 



HERRE'RA, FRANCISCO DE, called EL Mozo (the Younger), 

 painter and architect, son of the preceding, inherited his father's, 

 talents. The father being a man of a tyrannical disposition, his son 

 left him, and weut to Rome to pursue his studies. After hia father's 

 death he returned to Seville, and painted for the churches. An 

 academy being established in 1660, he was made sub-director; but 

 being too proud to brook the superior authority of Murillo, he went to 

 Madrid, where he rivalled the most eminent artists. He painted both 

 in oil and fresco. His frescoes in the chapel of San Philip so pleased 

 King Philip IV., that he commissioned him to point the chapel of the 

 Madonna de Atocha, where he painted the ' Assumption of the Virgin.' 

 This and other works procured him the honour of principal painter to 

 the king, and superintendant of the royal edifices. He died in 

 aged sixty-three. 



1IKUKKKA, GABRIEL ALONSO, a native of Talavera, called the 

 New Columella, lived in the second hnlf of the 15th and the beginning 

 of the next century. He was a professor at the University of Sala- 

 manca, and had from an early age a predilection for rural economy. 

 Accordingly he collected the best information that he could derive 

 from the ancients, as well as from his travels at home and abroad, in 

 a treatise which he published under the patronage of Cardinal Cisneros, 

 with the title of ' Obra de Agriculture copilada de Diversoa Autores,' 

 fol., Alcalo, 1513 (black letter). None of its twenty-eight subsequent 

 editions presented, according to Juan Iriarto, the original text ; but 

 this was restored at lost by the Sociedad Econoiniea Matriten-r. in 

 their 'Agriculture General, corregida y adicionada,' 4 vols. 4to., 

 Madrid, 1818. 



HERRICK, ROBERT, was born in the year 1591. Of his life few 

 or no particulars are known, except that he was vicar of a parish called 

 Dean 1'rior in Devonshire for the space of twenty yearn, was ejected 

 by Cromwell and restored by Charles II., and long held in remem- 

 brance by his parishioners as a poet. His poems are of two very 

 different kinds, sacred and love pieces ; the latter often disgraced by 

 indecency, but both exhibiting a richness of fancy mingled with the 

 quaintnebs of the age in which he lived, such as to render him worthy 

 of ono of the highest places in the scale of British lyrical poets. He 

 is however very unequal. His poems were published in 1647-4S under 

 the title of ' Uesperides, or the Works, both Human and Divine, of 

 Robert Herrick, Esq.' The ' Hesperides ' have several times been 

 reprinted. The date of his death is not given in the biographies, but 

 it appears from the registers of Dean Prior parish that "Robert 

 Herrick, vicker," was buried on the 15th of October 1674. (See a 

 communication by Mr. Milner Barry to Notct and Queries, i. 292.) 



HERSCHEL, WILLIAM, was the second son of a musician at 

 Hanover, and was born November 15, 1733. His father brought him 

 up to his own profession, with four other of his sons, giving them at 

 the same time a good education in other respects. At the age of 

 fourteen, he was placed, it is said, in the band of the Hanoverian 

 regiment of guards, which regiment he accompanied to England at a 

 period which is variously stated from 1757 to 1759. Another account 

 states that he came to England alone. After his arrival, he was for 

 some time at Durham, where he is said to have superintended the 

 formation of a baud for the militia, and afterwards was for several 

 years organist at Halifax, where he employed hims-lf iu teaching 

 music and studying languages. There is a mass of stories relating to 

 his musical occupations, none of which have any certain foundation, 

 as that he played iu the Pump-room bond at Bath that upon the 

 occasion of being a candidate for the situation of organist, he helped 

 his performance by little bits of lead placed upon holding notes, 

 which he dexterously removed in time that in Italy, to procure 

 money to pay his passage homo, he gave a concert, at which he played 

 at once upon a harp and two horns, one fastened to each shoulder 

 &c. The last story must be incorrect, as he never was in Italy ; and, 

 though much given to music, lie never (latterly at least) played the 

 French horn, or any other military instrument, but only the violin 

 and organ ; from which, as well as the vagueness of the accounts, it 

 may be doubted whether his professional talents were ever employed 

 in a band. 



