612 



UAl HAIR. 



bread and water till he had saved money enough to 

 enable him to purchase oue. He continued lu's 

 labours with unremitting assiduity, and eventually 

 produced works of great ingenuity ; as, a clock show- 

 ing tile course of the earth and other planets, as well 

 as tiiat of tin- moon and other satellites, and their 

 eccentricities ; a calculating machine ; and many 

 others. He died in 1790. 



HAI (sea); a Chinese word, appearing in many 

 geographical words; as, Kan-hai (Sand-sea). 



HAIL appears to be a species of snow, or snowy 

 rain, which has undergone several congelations and 

 superficial meltings, in its passage through different 

 zones of the atmosphere, some temperate and others 

 frozen. It is generally formed in sudden alternations 

 of the fine season. Hailstones are often of consi- 

 derable dimensions, exceeding sometimes the length 

 of an inch. They sometimes fall with a velocity of 

 seventy feet a second, or about fifty miles an hour. 

 Their great momentum, arising from this velocity, 

 renders them very destructive, particularly in hot cli- 

 mates. They not only beat down the crops, and 

 strip trees of their leaves, fruits and branches, but 

 sometimes kill even large beasts and men. The 

 phenomena attending the formation and fall of hail 

 are not well understood. But it is certain that they 

 are connected with electricity. This fact we find 

 noticed by Moses, who relates that "the Lord sent 

 thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the 

 ground" (Gen. ix. 23). This has been supposed to ac- 

 count for the great variations of temperature to which 

 the hail has evidently been subjected, in its passage 

 through the different strata of the atmosphere. Arti- 

 ficial hail can be produced by an electrical appara- 

 tus, and volcanic eruptions are often followed by a 

 fall of hailstones of great size. Hail-rods have been 

 erected, at the suggestion of Volta, in countries 

 much exposed to the ravages of hail-storms, on the 

 same principle as lightning-rods. They consist of 

 lofty poles, tipped with metallic points, and having 

 metallic wires communicating with the earth. By 

 thus subtracting the superabundant electricity from the 

 clouds, he imagined that the formation of hail might 

 be prevented. These rods are used in Germany and 

 Switzerland, but their success is not proportionate 

 to the expectations entertained of them. The vio- 

 lence with which hail is discharged upon the earth, 

 under an oblique angle, and independently of the 

 wind, would be explained by Volta's supposition, that 

 two electrical clouds are drawn towards each other in 

 a vertical direction, and by their shock produced hail, 

 which, by the law of the composition ot forces, would 

 be projected in the diagonal of its gravity, and of the 

 result of the direction of the clouds. In Germany, 

 there are companies which insure against damage by 

 hail. 



H AILES, LORD. See Dalrymple, Sir David. 



HAILING ; the salutation or accosting of a ship 

 at a distance, which is usually performed with a 

 speaking-trumpet ; the first expression is Hoa, the 

 ship ahoay, to which she answers Holloa ; then follow 

 the requisite questions and replies, &c. 



HAINAUT, or HAINAULT. (Hene-gowen in 

 Dutch, Hennegau in German); a province of the 

 Netherlands, bounded north by East Flanders and 

 South Brabant, east by Namur, south and south-west 

 by France, and north-west by West Flanders ; popu- 

 lation 497,819. Square miles, 1683. It is divided 

 into three districts, Mons, the capital, Tournay 

 and Charleroy. It is generally level, with beautiful 

 undulating plains and a fruitful soil. Grain is abun- 

 dant, pastures excellent ; minerals, iron, lead, mar- 

 ble, but especially coal ; in the eastern part are consi- 

 derable forests. The principal rivers are the Scheldt, 

 the Selle, the Haine, the Sambre and the Dender. 



In the time of the French republic and empire, it 

 belonged to the department ot Jemappes. Part of 

 it was formerly under the Austrian government, and 

 was called Austrian Hainault. 



HAIR ; the fine, threadlike, more or less elastic 

 substance, of various form and colour, which consti- 

 tutes the covering of the skin, particularly of the class 

 of mammalia. It is of a vegetative nature, and ap- 

 pears also in animals of the lower orders, and, indeed 

 in all animals which have a distinct epidermis ; there- 

 fore in insects. In the crustaceous animals, it some- 

 times appears in particular places, as the feet, on 

 the margins of the shell, on the outside of the jaws, 

 and grows in tufts. Hair is most distinctly develop- 

 ed in those insects as caterpillars, spiders, bees, &c. 

 which have a soft skin ; in this case, it even ap- 

 pears of a feathery form ; and butterflies are covered 

 all over with a coat of woolly hair, of the most varie- 

 gated and beautiful colours. The same variety and 

 brilliancy are displayed in the feathers of birds, 

 which may be considered as analogous to hair, whilst 

 the two other classes of animals fishes and reptiles 

 have no hair whatever. No species of mammalia 

 is without hair in an adult state, not even the cetacea. 

 In quadrupeds, it is of the most various conforma- 

 tion, from the finest wool to the quills of a porcupine 

 or the bristles of the hog. The hair, which is spread 

 over almost the whole of the skin, is comparatively 

 short and soft. On particular parts, a longer, thicker 

 and stronger kind is found ; as, for instance, the mane, 

 fetlocks and tail of the horse, the lion's mane, the cov- 

 ering of man's occiput, his beard, the beard of goats. 

 The colour of the hair generally affords an external 

 characteristic of the species or variety; but climate, 

 food and age produce great changes in it. The human 

 body is naturally covered with long hair only on a 

 few parts ; yet the parts which we should generally 

 describe as destitute of it, produce a fine, short, col- 

 ourless, sometimes hardly perceptible hair. The only 

 places entirely free from it are the palms of the hands 

 and the soles of the feet ; but the body of the male 

 often produces hair like that of the head, on the 

 breast, shoulders, arms,&c. Each hair originates in 

 the cellular membrane of the skin, from a small 

 cylindrical root, which is surrounded by a covering, 

 or capsule, furnished with vessels and nerves, called 

 the bulb. The root is tubular, and contains a clear 

 gelatinous fluid. The pulp on which the hair is 

 formed, passes through the bottom of the bulb, in 

 order to enter the tube of the hair, into which it 

 penetrates for a short distance, never, in common 

 hairs, reaching as far as the external surface of the 

 skin. According to Vauquelin, black hair consists of, 

 1. an animal matter, which constitutes the greater 

 part ; 2. a white concrete oil, in small quantity ; 3. 

 another oil, of a grayish-green colour, more abundant 

 than the former ; 4. iron, the state of which in the 

 hair is uncertain; 5. a few particles of oxide of 

 mnngauese; 6. phosphate of lime; 7. carbonate of 

 lime, in very small quantity ; 8. silex, in a conspicu- 

 ous quantity ; 9. lastly, a considerable quantity ef 

 sulphur. The same experiments show that red hair 

 differs from black only in containing a red oil instead 

 of a blackish-green oil ; and that white hair differs 

 from both these only in the oil being nearly colour- 

 less, and in containing phosphate of magnesia which 

 is not found in them. 



The human hair varies according to age, sex, 

 country and circumstances. The foetus has, in the 

 fifth month, a fine hairy covering, which is shed soon 

 after birth, and appears again at the age of puberty. 

 With the seventh month, the first traces of hair on 

 the head are visible in the embryo. At birth, an 

 infant generally has light hair. It always grows 

 darker and stift'er with age. The same is the case 



