HINGE. 



nisT"i:v. 



of the manner* and customs of the natives, that Europeans in general 

 give too much credit to the issfirHoos of the natives ooaoerniug the rules 

 of their caste, which an commonly alleged u an ezciue fur declining 

 any duty thnt u disagreeable. 



A great portion of the population of India doe* not belong to any of 

 the tour pure cute*. The individuals who form what in usually 

 termed the impure or mixed classes, called in Sanskrit \'anta-Santani, 

 that U, "mixture or confiuion of classes," are either. the original 

 inhabitant* of the country who hare never professed the Hindu laith. 

 or person* who originally belonged to one of the four pure clasaen, and 

 have either loat carte themselves, or are descended from thorn who had 

 lost cute, or the offspring of marriage* between person* of different 

 castes. The faults which occasion a lost of caste, and for which no 

 pardon can be given, are 1, Sexual intercourse within the prohibited 

 degree of consanguinity; -', Sexual intercourse with any prohibited 

 class ; S, Eating forbidden fruit, or drinking intoxicating liquor* ; 

 4, Stealing; 5, Slaying any animal of the cow kind, or of the human 

 species ; but a Brahmin is )>ermitted to kill hi* enemy in battle ; 

 6, Eating in company with persons of another caste, or of food dressed 

 by their impure hands 4, 7, Eating on board a ship food that has been 

 dressed there ; 8, Omitting to perform the ceremonies due to deceased 

 parents. But the greater number of impure or mixed classes has 

 arisen from the intermarriage of person* of different classes. 



Numerous other classes are formed from the intermarriage of the 

 twelve mixed rliimrn that have already been enumerated. One of the 

 best known of the impure dames is that of the Pariahs, a corruption of 

 the Tamul name Parriar, in the Deccan. They are called Maliicanlu 

 in Telingana, and (('affiant in Carnata. Their number* are very con- 

 siderable. 



There are other tribes, which ore considered inferior even to the 

 Pariahs. Such are the Palli* and the Puliat, in the southern part of 

 the Deccan ; tho Carubariu, the Lambada, the Dumbarui, the Ghmtu 

 Carirt, and many others. 



HINGE, a kind of joint, usually mode of iron or brass, upon which 

 "doors, gates, shutters, box-covers, &c., are made to turn in the act of 

 opening and shutting. Hinges are constructed in a great variety of 

 forms ; but in most of the commoner kinds the action is that of a 

 hollow cylinder working round a fixed central pin. In Collinge's 

 patent hinges, -which are peculiarly adapted for hanging large heavy 

 doors and gates, the principal nibbing action ia between a hollow cap 

 and an accurately turned sphere, formed, as it were, upon the end of a 

 pin : a cavity being provided for the reception of a supply of oil to 

 lubricate the rubbing surfaces. Kedmund's ruing hinges, so frequently 

 used for hanging room-doors in houses of superior character, have, like 

 ordinary hinges, a hollow cylinder divided into two or more portions, 

 attached one to the door and one or more to the door-post ; but instead 

 of the hollow cylinders being divided transversely at right angttt, they 

 are divided by spiral or rather helical lines. The result of this con- 

 trivance is, that when the door is opened it U lifted up a little from 

 the floor by the sliding upon one another of the inclined helical sur- 

 faces ; so that although the door may shut very close to the floor, it 

 rises when opened, to a sufficient height above the floor to allow its 

 loweV edge to clear the carpet. Another advantage of this kind of 

 hinge is, that the weight of the door acting upon the inclined rubbing 

 surfaces of the binge*, causes it gently to close itself so soon as the 

 hand is removed from it ; but as this might in some cases prove incon- 

 venient, a modification is introduced to allow the door to remain open 

 at 90, or more. In some cases a small spring is attached to hinge* of 

 this description, to aid the closing of the door when it has been opened 

 but a little way. Hinges supplied with much more powerful springs 

 are often used for the doors of public offices, where it is desired to 

 render the closing of the door both certain and quick. For such doors 

 hinges which will open in either direction and cause the door to spring 

 back to its original position are often used. Whitechurch's ingenious 

 hinge is an apparatus by which doors or windows may be opened 

 at pleasure either on the right or left hand ; or by which, in other 

 word*, either edge of the door may be made, at pleasure, the opening 

 edge. A handle U fixed near each side of the door or window, by 

 turning which the required position* of the apparatus are varied .it 

 pleasure : the action of this handle being to disconnect or release the 

 door from the style or post near which it is placed, and at the same 

 moment to complete its connection with the opposite style. This 

 apparatus is, however, too complex for general use. Nettlefo'ld's hinge, 

 for the doors of book-cases, has a contrivance by which two adjacent doors 

 opening in contrary directions may be hung without an intervening 

 style : the two door* being connected together by a hinge resembling 

 that by which ordinary doors are hung, and the axis of this hinge being 

 connected with the edge of a thin partition in the book-case by metal 

 brackets above and below the hinge, the space occupied by which is 

 notched or cut out of the edges of the doors. Doors hung in thi* way 

 fold completely back, and the hinges do not offer the slightest impedi- 

 ment to the removal of the volumes which happen to stand next to 

 the partition, and which, were the door* hung in the usual way, could 

 only be removed by first taking out those which stand adjacent to 

 them. There are many other kinds of hinges of recent introduction, 

 but not railing for special description. 



HII'PARAFKIN ,C,,H,NO, f), a white crystallisable substance 

 obtained in small quantity by the action of peroxide of lead upon 



hippurie aeid. It in inodorous and tasteless, very soluble in alcohol and 

 ether, and fuses at 390* Fahr. 



II lI'IMHUti iMK (iroUwMt), a large inclosed space appropriated by 

 the ancient Uroeks for their horse and chariot races. There appear* 

 to have been little substantial difference between the Greek hippo- 

 drome and the Roman circus, except that, from the Romans not having 

 been accustomed to allow more than four chariots to compete at once, 

 the circus was made much narrower than the hippodrome. Bearing 

 this distinction in mind, and that the number of chariots which ran 



clear conception of the form and character of the hippodrome will ! 

 obtained by a reference to the article CIBCUS. Tho races will be f. >und 

 described under OLYMPIAN GAMES. 



HIITURATES. [Hii-i-unio ACID.] 



HIPPURIC ACID (C..H.NO., HO) is found in large quantities in 

 the urine of the cow, the horse, and other herbivorous animals. It 

 has also been detected in human urine. It is procured by t . ; . -i.it in- 

 the urine of the horse or cow to a small bulk, and acidulating with 

 hydrochloric acid. The mixture deposits brown crystals of hippuric 

 acid, which may be made white by lioiling with lime, dissolving the 

 hippiir.ito of lime, 1 and again adding hydrochloric acid, when the 

 pure hippuric acid is thrown down. It forms large semi-trail.- 1 

 four-sided prisms, which are sparingly soluble in cold water, and very 

 soluble in hot water and in alcohoL Under heat it melts and give* off 

 benzole acid, beuzoate of ammonia, and a fragrant oily substance. It 

 forms salts which are soluble and crystallisable. 



Concentrated boiling hydrochloric acid converts hippuric acid into 

 benzole acid and sugar of gelatin. 



C,H,NO. + ZHO = C^H.O. + C.II.Mi. 



Hippuric ucid. 



Benzole acid. Sugar of grluun. 



When the salts of hippuric acid are fused with ail excess of potash 

 or lime they furnish ammonia and benzole, a reaction which is 

 characteristic of this acid. 



The salts of hippuric acid are termed hippurata. 



HIKCIC ACID. This substance was obtained by Chevreul from the 

 fat of the goat. 



To prepare it, the aqueous product of the distillation of the liquid 

 acid separated from the soap of goat's fat is saturated with baryta. 

 After having evaporated the solution, the dry salt is decomposed by 

 dilute sulphuric acid ; the hircic acid then floats on the surface of the 

 liquid in the form of an oil. 



This acid remains fluid at 32 ; it is lighter than water, smells of the 

 goat, is insoluble in water, and forms soluble salU with potash and 

 baryta. It has not been analysed. 



II I HI 'IN, a principle similar to butyrin, which exists in goat's fat 

 and in mutton suet, combined with olein. lt name is derive. I t>. >m 

 liirciit ; and it is obtained from the fat of the goat by a process simil.ir 

 to that by which butyrin is procured, from which it appears to differ 

 by yielding hircic acid, by treatment with the caustic alkalies. 



II I KING OF SERVANTS. ISKHV.VNTH.] 



HISTORY. The notion that is contained in the word History 

 appears to be often conceived both indistinctly and in<-mp|i t--ly. If 

 we trace the word to its original (urropia), which simply means 

 " inquiry " or " search " after facts, and includes the notion of 

 recording them, we obtain a notion which, though distinct as far as it 

 goes, will not enable us to distinguish history from annals [ANNALS] ; 

 and if we examine a series of works which bear the name of histories, 

 we shall find many of them deficient in every characteristic which shall 

 be sufficient to distinguish them from bare records of events arranged 

 in- chronological order. 



In modern times a popular use of the word history has obtained, 

 which may help us in arriving at a more precise notion of what is 

 included in the term. Such expressions as a " History of the Steam- 

 Engine," a "History of Printing," Ac., are in common use, a' 

 understood to signify a statement, arranged in chronological order, of 

 the original discovery, and of the various steps and processes by whieh 

 such discovery has been perfected, and the art, which is the K i 

 matter of the history, has been brought to its present state. Such a 

 history, then, is nothing more than the explanation of the present ,-,.n 

 dition or state of any given thing, by connecting it with an explanation 

 of all the previous states of the same thing. But whatever propriety 

 there may be in such an application of the word history, it is olivion 

 that a bare narrative, however complete, of the successive mechanical 

 contrivances by which the steam-engine or the printing-machine have 

 advanced from their first rude beginnings to their present perfection, 

 cannot fully satisfy the desire of knowledge when it is once called into 

 action. If the description of such successive mechanical improvements 

 were not connected with social progress, the scientific exhibition of 

 such development, though it might interest the few, would not com- 

 mand the attention nor excite the sympathies of the many. And this 

 leads at once to the conclusion that the various steps and processes by 

 which every art and science has been brought to its present state, cannot 

 be viewed simply by themselves, without relation to each other, and 

 without relation to their effects on the happiness of mankind. All 



