755 



HUMIN. 



HUSBANDRY. 



754 



that water flows down the walls. The leaves of plants also discharge, 

 in the form of vapour, the water which is imbibed by the roots ; and 

 in conservatories this effect is particularly sensible. 



In order to determine the quantity of water which is contained in 

 earth when completely saturated with rain, Dr. Dalton took a quantity 

 of garden mould, on which rain had fallen copiously during the pre- 

 ceding day, and exposed it to different degrees of heat. When it seemed 

 to have about the same degree of moisture as soil at the depth of two 

 inches from the surface in dry summer weather, he weighed it, and 

 found that it had lost one-twelfth of its weight ; and when it had lost 

 two-ninths of its weight it seemed like the upper soil in summer. His 

 conclusion is that a body of earth one foot in depth, when saturated 

 with moisture, contains seven inches in depth of water, and that it 

 may lose one-fourth or one-half of that quantity without becoming 

 incapable of supporting vegetation. 



The effects of humidity on the dimensions of bodies are various : 

 when a watery vapour penetrates between the twisted fibres of cordage, 

 which are vegetable materials, the cordage swells out transversely, and 

 thus becomes shortened ; while cords made of animal substances become 

 relaxed by humidity and increase in length. Most salts absorb water, 

 and thereby increase in weight. 



HUMIN. [GEIN.] 



HUMOPIC ACID. [HUMOPINIC Aero.] 



HUMOPINIC ACID (C 48 H M 1T , or C^H^O,,?). Sumopic Add. 

 A product of the decomposition by heat of narcotine, which on being 

 melted and exposed to a temperature of 428 is suddenly decomposed, 

 with considerable intumescence, into ammonia and a brown vesicular 

 substance, which consists chiefly of the acid in question. 



This acid Is a dark brown amorphous body, which melts on exposure 

 to heat, and burns with a bright flame, diffusing an odour resembling 

 that of narcotine. It is soluble in water, dilute acids, and in alcohol, 

 giving with the latter a deep red-coloured solution. With the alkalies 

 it forms saffron-yellow coloured solutions, which give dark brown pre- 

 cipitates with the salts of baryta and lead. When humopinic acid ia 

 boiled for some length of time in water, it becomes ; insoluble in 

 ammonia, and, when added to potash or alcohol, a blackish brown 

 substance remains undissolved, which is probably humin. Its com- 

 position has not been determined with certainty. 



HUMULUS LUPULUS, MEDICAL PROPERTIES OF. [Hops.] 



HUMUS. [GEIN.] 



HUNDRED. [SHIRE.] 



HUNDRED COURT. [COURTS.] 

 UNDREDWEIGHT. [AVOIRDUPOIS ; WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.] 



HUNS, HUNNI, the name given by historians to several nomadic 

 Scythian tribes, which devastated the Roman empire in the 5th 

 century. It appears that these people inhabited the plains of Tartary 

 near the borders of the Chinese empire for several centuries before our 

 era, and that they were known to the Chinese by the name of Hiong- 

 nu, and also Han. They made many incursions into China, and it was 

 to put a stop to them that the Chinese built their great wall, about 

 two centuries B.C. In after-times they became divided into the 

 Northern and Southern Huns. The Northern Huns, being defeated by 

 the Chinese about A.D. 93, emigrated westward as far as the Volga, 

 where they met the Alauni, or Alani, another powerful Scythian tribe, 

 which they routed and drove beyond the Tanais, or Don. The Huns 

 then encamped in the plains between the Volga and the Tanais, and as 

 far south as the ridge of the Caucasus, where they remained for more 

 than two centuries. Under the emperor Valens, they first crossed the 

 Cimmerian Bosporus, drove before them the Ostrogoths and Visigoths, 

 and obliged the latter to cross the Danube, when the emperor granted 

 them lands in Thrace. The Huns were joined by numerous other 

 Scythian hordes, and were looked upon with equal dread by the Gothic 

 and Teutonic nations and by the Romans. Their features and general 

 appearance are described by the Roman historians as hideous and 

 repulsive, and their manners as savage in the extreme. (' Ammianus,' 

 b. 31.) The description of their features seems to correspond in some 

 degree with that of the Calmucks of the present day. The Huns 

 being now on the frontiers of the empire, had frequent wars with the 

 Romans, and their incursions were dreadful though not lasting. 

 [ATTILA, in Bioo. Dry.] After the death of Attila the various tribes 

 under his sway quarrelled among themselves, and being attacked by 

 the Goths they were driven back beyond the Tanais. Part of them 

 settled in Pannonia, to which they gave the name of Hungary, but 

 the present Hungarians, or Magyars, come from a different and much 

 later immigration. The Huns are mentioned in subsequent history as 

 being sometimes at war with the emperors of Constantinople, and at 

 times as their allies against the Persians. Under Heraclius many of 

 the Huns embraced Christianity. After that period their name is no 

 longer mentioned in history. (Des Guignes, ' Histoiredes Huns.') 



HURIN. An acrid non-azotised crystallisable substance obtained 

 from the juice of the Hura crepitan*. 



HUSBAND. [DIVORCE; SEPARATION, JUDICIAL ; WIFE.] 



HUSBANDRY. The origin of the simplest arts of life is involved 

 in the obscurity which envelopes the early history of the human race. 

 Before there can be any motives to record events, some considerable 

 progress must have been made in civilisation. When attention is 

 altogether directed to obtaining the means of subsistence, there is 

 little leisure ; nor is there any great desire to communicate the know- 



ARTS AND sci. Dry. VOL. iv. 



ledge acquired by experience. Warlike achievements are the first 

 things recorded ; and the peaceful labours of the husbandman are 

 overlooked. In the fables which in the early ages of the world 

 supplied the place of authentic histories, some conspicuous character 

 was always made the inventor of the various arts of which the origin 

 was unknown ; and to such personage a divine origin was frequently 

 ascribed. Thus Cadmus is said to have invented letters, and Tripto- 

 lemus to have made the first plough. 



In the oldest writings which have been handed down to us, the 

 common operations of husbandry are mentioned, or alluded to, in 

 nearly the same terms in which we should describe them now the 

 same implements were then in use.'Jand the same productions raised 

 which are now found in the same climates : but they are only men- 

 tioned incidentally. It requires a very advanced state of the arts and 

 of literature to produce a treatise on any one practical subject ex- 

 clusively ; and the simpler and more common the arts, the less they 

 are noticed in the early literature of a nation. We have, however, no 

 other means of tracing the progress of husbandry than by the works of 

 those who have written on the subject, until we come to our own 

 times, when everything is noted and commented on, and every one who 

 makes any discovery or improvement is anxious that the public should 

 be acquainted with it. We have already mentioned some of the early 

 Greek authors [ARABLE-LAND], and likewise some of the Latin authors 

 most generally known as having treated of husbandry in general. 

 (' De Re Rustica.') From these authors we learn that considerable 

 progress had been made in the tillage of the ground and in the breed- 

 ing and rearing of domestic animals : and it appears that wherever the 

 Romans carried their victorious arms, they also introduced improved 

 methods of cultivation. The practice of fallowing land, to restore 

 its fertility, can be clearly traced to them. For a long time the 

 Latin authors were the source from which all writers on husbandry 

 derived their knowledge ; and hence many useless and absurd 

 rules, which were connected with the pagan superstition were 

 perpetuated. 



The Mediterranean Sea and the countries situated around it were 

 once the centre of all the arts, which had slowly travelled westward 

 from Asia and from Egypt ; and the colonies which the Greeks and 

 Romans planted on all the coasts of this sea, and in the countries 

 which they conquered, contributed to diffuse a knowledge of the 

 various products of the earth. The irruption of the barbarians into 

 the Roman empire greatly checked the progress of husbandry ; but 

 the destruction of the Eastern empire, while it made the Greeks 

 retrograde in civilisation, tended to introduce improvements into those 

 countries where men of learning and science sought a refuge from the 

 invaders. 



British. Husbandly The husbandry of the aboriginal Britons was 

 probably very imperfect before the invasion of Julius Caesar ; but we 

 have no records to inform us. Rural matters were of too little import- 

 ance in the eyes of conquerors to engage much of their attention, but 

 the mildness of the climate and the general fertility of the country, 

 induced many of the Romans to settle here; and from them 

 the natives learned a better system of cultivation than that of their 

 ancestors. 



As far as we can learn from ancient documents, the land in England 

 formerly consisted chiefly of woods and of extensive pastures, in which 

 sheep and cattle were bred, which constituted the chief wealth. A 

 very small proportion of the soil was cultivated ; and while the popu- 

 lation was thin, there was no difficulty in obtaining land which had 

 never before been broken up, and which with little trouble or manuring 

 produced moderate crops of corn. But this system could not last long. 

 The proprietors of land would soon perceive that the produce fell 

 off, and would consequently restrict the breaking up of pastures, 

 and thus more attention was necessarily paid to the arable lands in 

 cultivation. 



Through the deficiency of the laws, or the difficulty of executing, 

 them, and the frequent intestinal wars between the barons, depredations 

 were often committed with impunity ; and the cultivators of the soil 

 congregated in villages for mutual protection and defence. The best 

 land nearest to the habitations was cultivated, and the common pastures 

 fed the cattle without much trouble or expense. The consequence of 

 this system was, that very little manure was made, and the cultivated 

 fields scarcely produced a return adequate to the expense of cultivation. 

 Four times the seed was a full average for corn crops, and the laud 

 was overrun with weeds after a single crop. Hence it was not an 

 uncommon practice to have a fallow every other year, and this was 

 considered a superior system to having two crops between the fallows, 

 which has been more common since. Wheat was very little cultivated ; 

 barley, rye, and oats were the principal produce. 



The woods nourished many hogs on the acorns and beechmast 

 which abounded there, and the right of turning hogs into the king's 

 forests was granted under the barbarous terms of mastagiiim and 

 rootaffium. 



The religious orders, to whom extensive grants of waste lands were 

 made, greatly contributed to the improvement of agriculture. The 

 monks, by their knowledge of Latin, were enabled to study the 

 Roman authors on husbandry, and, by applying the rules and principles 

 which they drew from that source, they greatly improved their estates, 

 and made the land more productive : teaching and encouraging their 



3 c 



