668 



HEIDEGGER HEIGHTS. 



year 1593 of the Christian ; and the year 1830 after 

 Christ is equivalent to the year 1246 of the Hegira. 

 See Epoch and JEra. 



HEIDEGGER. JOHN JAMES ; a Swiss adventurer, 

 Mho took up his residence in England, in 1708, ami, 

 obtaining a commission in the guards, was known in 

 fa -~i iii ma hie society, by the appellation of the Swiss 

 count. An opera, entitled Thomyris, which he pro- 

 duced, meeting with success, gained him so much 

 credit, that lie was enabled to undertake, the manage- 

 ment of the opera-house, in London. In his conduct 

 of that establishment, he was very fortunate ; added 

 to which, by giving concerts, masquerades, &c., under 

 the patronage of the court, he gained a handsome in- 

 come, which lie expended in keeping a hospitable table 

 and relieving the unfortunate. Heidegger was a 

 great favourite with king Geor->e II., who often visit- 

 ed a villa which the Swiss had at Barnes, in Surrey. 

 He was a sort of butt for the wits of his time ; and, 

 having a very peculiar visage, he is reported to have 

 made a bet with lord Chesterfield, that lie could not 

 produce an uglier man throughout the metropolis, and 

 to have won the wager. He died in 1749, aged ninety. 



HEIDELBERG ; a city of the grand-duchy of 

 Baden, equally distinguished for its charming situa- 

 tion and its university ; at the foot of the beautiful 

 Konigstuhl, and on the left bank of the lovely Neckar, 

 over which is a bridge 700 feet long, and from which 

 a most superb view extends between high mountains, 

 over the valley of the Rhine, to the Vosges ; 1| 

 league from Manheim ; lat. 49* 24' 43" N. ; Ion. 8 

 41' 46" E. ; 10, 370 inhabitants. The city lias rather 

 an old appearance, but the walks are as various as 

 they are beautiful. The view from the Konigstuhl 

 is one of the most enchanting on the Rhine, embrac- 

 ing many villages and cities, and distant chains of 

 mountains. Here are four Protestant churches, one 

 Catholic, and one synagogue. The university called 

 the Rupert-Caroline university was founded in 1386, 

 and is the oldest in Germany, after those of Prague 

 and Vienna. It early adopted the Calvinistic doc- 

 trines, and took an important part in the reformation. 

 In the thirty years' war, Heidelberg was taken by 

 the Catholic general Tilly, in 1622 ; he carried off 

 the library, and the university declined. Heidelberg 

 was ceded to Baden in 1802, and a new era began 

 in her university ; the grand-duke Charles Frederic 

 is considered its restorer. It has now an annual in- 

 come of 66,000 guilders, and is divided into five de- 

 partments the theological, with three professores 

 ordinarii; the legal, with five; the medical, with 

 four ; that of political economy, with five ; and the 

 philosophical, with seven. There are, besides, many 

 professores extraor dinar ii, and lecturers. The library 

 of the university contains, at present, 45,000 volumes. 

 The university lias two botanical gardens, a clinical 

 institute, a lying-in hospital, &c. &c. In 1829, there 

 were 600 students. Heidelberg also has some trade. 

 There is a gymnasium for Lutherans, Calvinists, and 

 Catholics. We must not forget the famous tun in 

 the cellar of the castle, made of copper, with iron 

 hoops, and containing 600 hogsheads. 



HEIDELBERG CATECHISM ; a work of much 

 celebrity in the history of the reformation. Frederic 

 III., elector of the Palatinate, belonging to the Cal- 

 vinistic church, caused it to be written, for the pur- 

 pose of having a uniform rule of faith. The principal 

 contributors were Zacharias Ursinus, professor of 

 theology at Heidelberg (died 1583), and Caspar 

 Olevianus, minister and public teacher at Heidelberg 

 (died 1587). The Catechism was published in 1563, 

 under the title Catechism, or Short System of Chris- 

 tian Faith, as it is taught in the Churches and Schools 

 of the Palatinate. It has been translated into many 

 languages. See C~eed. 



HEIGHTS, MEASUREMENT OF. A knowledge of 

 the relative heights of different parts of the sur- 

 face of the earth, is not only an important part of 

 physical geography, but is likewise practically use- 

 ful in connexion with agriculture and the application 

 of the arts. A knowledge of the elevation of a coun- 

 try enables us to determine its climate, to lay out 

 roads and aqueducts properly, and to guard against 

 inundations. The geologist must, in the chart of the 

 country which he wishes to describe, make divisions, 

 according to the most prominent points ; but, in order 

 to do this, he must first have a knowledge of the mea- 

 surement of altitudes. The military man, unless he 

 is acquainted with the altitude of the points upon the 

 chart before him, cannot form an accurate idea of the 

 ground on which he is to execute his plan of opera- 

 tions. The topographer, who wishes to represent a 

 country in plaster of Paris, clay, &c., must also be 

 acquainted with all its elevations and depressions. It 

 was, therefore, very important to invent a method 

 for quickly and accurately determining heights, by a 

 knowledge of the atmosphere and by the use of in- 

 struments, particularly of the barometer and thermo- 

 meter. As soon as it was discovered, that the air 

 which surrounds our globe was possessed of gravity 

 and elasticity, the operation of which had been per- 

 ceived on the barometer, it was inferred that its effects 

 on the barometer would be different at different 

 heights in the atmosphere, and that these variations 

 must follow a certain law. Efforts were made to dis- 

 cover this law by experiment. The barometer and 

 thermometer were carried to known heights, observa- 

 tions were there made, and from these observations, 

 rules were derived for finding the elevation of a place 

 above the level of the sea. The famous Pascal, upon 

 the 19th of September, 1648, on the Puy de Dome, 

 near Clermont, made the first experiment, the result 

 of which he had already anticipated. It appeared 

 that the barometer stood at the height of twenty-six 

 French inches 3 lines, in the garden of the monas- 

 tery at Clermont, but at only twenty-three inches two 

 lines upon the summit of the above-mentioned moun- 

 tain. It followed as a necessary consequence, that 

 the height of the column of mercury was diminished 

 in the same proportion as the mass of the atmosphere 

 which supported it in the barometer ; and Pascal 

 concluded that, by this process, we could determine 

 whether two places were at the same height, or 

 which of them was the higher, even though they were 

 at a great distance from each other. 



Succeeding philosophers followed this idea ; but 

 the little success which they met with at first, shows 

 how many difficulties the subject presented, although 

 it now appears so simple. They had the scales, but 

 were unacquainted with the value of the weights. 

 Barometrical admeasurements first acquired precision 

 and accuracy with Deluc (1754). This philosopher 

 distinguished the effects produced by heat, on the 

 air and on mercury, from those which depend upon 

 their weight ; and the improvements which he made 

 form an epoch in the history of the barometer. This 

 history has been written by Pictet, who himself play- 

 ed an honourable part in it. Biot also published in- 

 quiries made for the purpose of perfecting the theory 

 of barometrical measurements, and some tables to 

 facilitate the calculations. Ramond, in 1809, devot- 

 ed himself to this subject. In his works, which ap- 

 peared at Clermont (1811), he has determined the 

 conditions of a good observation ; he has arranged 

 and explained the circumstances which are peculiar 

 to barometrical observations, in order that the effect 

 of the state of the atmosphere on the correctness of 

 the calculations may be known, that the ;unount of 

 error may be estimated, and may be made use of for 

 the advancement of meteorology. 



