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HERMES TRISMEGISTUS HERNIA. 



Aermet, but also philosophers, politicians, orators, 

 &c., according to the circumstances of the place. 

 Sometimes the head merely, sometimes the breast 

 also, and sometimes even a larger part of the body, 

 was represented. 



HERMES TRISMEGISTUS ; an historical name, 

 of which no certain account can be given. It was 

 applied, by the Egyptians and Phoenicians, to the 

 inventor of letters, and of all the useful arts and 

 sciences. The Egyptians called him also Thot, 

 Taunt, Thoyt or T/ieut, and placed his image, as 

 that of a benevolent god, by the side of the images 

 of Osiris and Isis, his contemporaries. According to 

 Uiodorus, he was the friend and counsellor of the 

 great Osiris. He formed the Egyptian language, 

 and invented the first written characters; he was, 

 moreover, the inventor of grammar, astronomy, 

 arithmetic, geometry, music, medicine ; he was the 

 first lawgiver, the founder of the religious ceremonies 

 of the Egyptians, the first cultivator of the olive-tree, 

 the first instructer in gymnastics and the joyous 

 dance. Sanchoniathon, Manetho, and Plutarch, give 

 a similar account of his wisdom. But every thing 

 relating to the subject is so uncertain and obscure, 

 that even the time when and the place where he 

 lived, cannot be assigned with any certainty. It is 

 even doubtful whether there ever was such an in- 

 dividual. To transmit his knowledge to posterity, 

 Hermes engraved it upon pillars of stone ; and to 

 these pillars Plato and Pythagoras were supposed to 

 have been indebted for much of their science. These 

 inscriptions were afterwards copied into books, and 

 :i great number of books were ascribed to Hermes. 

 Tiie Alexandrian school, in particular, attributed to 

 him all their mystic sciences, magic, theosophy, 

 alchymy, and the like. Some of the works ascribed, 

 to Hermes are extant, while of others we have only 

 the titles. Among the first are Poemander and 

 Asclepiits (London, 1628.) Modern enthusiasts have 

 viewed the books which bear the name of Hermes as 

 a fountain of secret wisdom. 



HERMETIC ART. See Alchemy. 



HERMETICAL PHILOSOPHY is that which 

 professes to explain all the phenomena of nature, 

 from the three chymical principles of salt, sulphur, 

 and mercury. 



HERMETICAL SEALING is used to denote a 

 peculiar manner of stopping or closing glass vessels 

 for chemical and other operations, so that not the 

 rarest medium cau either escape or enter. This is 

 usually done by heating the neck of the vessel in the 

 flame of a lamp with a blow-pipe, till it be ready to 

 melt, and then, with a pair of hot pincers, twisting it 

 close together. 



HERMIONE ; 1. a daughter of Mars and Venus, 

 who married Cadmus. The gods, except Juno, 

 honoured her nuptials with their presence, and she 

 received as a present, a rich veil and splendid neck- 

 lace, which had been made by Vulcan. She was 

 changed into a serpent with her husband Cadmus, 

 and placed in the Elysian fields. 



2. A daughter of Menelaus and Helen. She was 

 privately promised in marriage to Orestes, the son of 

 Agamemnon; but her father, ignorant of this pre- 

 engagement, gave her hand to Pyrrhus, the son of 

 Achilles, whose services he had experienced in the 

 Trojan war. Pyrrhus, at his return from Troy, car- 

 ried home Hermione, and married her. Hennione, 

 tenderly attached to her cousin Orestes, looked upon 

 Pyrrhus with horror and indignation. According to 

 some, however, Hermione received the addresses of 

 Pyrrhus with pleasure, and even reproached Andro- 

 mache, his concubine, with stealing his affections 

 from her. Her jealousy of Andromache, according 

 to some, induced her to unite herself to Orestes, and 



to destroy Pyrrhus. She gave herself to Orestes 

 after this murder, and received the kingdom of Sparta 

 as a dowry. 



3. A town of Argolis, where Ceres liad a famous 

 temple. 



HERMIT. See Anachorets. 



HERMITAGE ; one of the finest French wines, 

 which is produced along the Rhone, between Valence 

 and ValieYe, in the ci-devant Daupliiny. It is of twi: 

 kinds, red and white; the former is preferred. It 

 takes its name from Mount Hermitage, lying oppo- 

 site the village of Tain. Much is exported by the 

 way of Cette, or carried into the country to mix with 

 inferior wines. 



HERMIT CRAB (pagurus). This genus of 

 Crustacea belongs to the second family (decapoda 

 macroura), or those having ten legs and a long tail. 

 The generic characters are, intermediate antennas, 

 curved, having a very long peduncle ; body oblong, 

 thorax crustaceous ; abdomen vesicular, naked, soft, 

 and furnished at tip with hooks or holders. These 

 crabs inhabit univalve shells, carrying this habitation 

 about with them, and changing it for a larger one as 

 they increase in size. 



HERNIA (Latin, a rupture, a burst, a descent) ; 

 a tumour formed by the displacement of a soft part, 

 which protrudes by a natural or accidental opening, 

 from the cavity in which it is contained. The three 

 great cavities of the body are subject to these dis- 

 placements. The brain, the heart, the lungs, and 

 most of the abdominal viscera may become totally or 

 partially displaced, and thus give rise to the forma- 

 tion of herniary tumours: displacements of the brain, 

 and of the organs of the chest, are, however, 

 extremely rare, and are, in general, the result or 

 symptom of some other disease. Every part of the 

 abdomen may become the seat of hernias ; but they 

 most commonly appear in the anterior and inferior 

 region, which, being destitute, in a great measure, 

 of fleshy fibres, and containing the natural openings, 

 offers less resistance to the displacement of the 

 viscera. They are most common in the groin, at the 

 navel, more rarely in the vagina, at the interior and 

 upper part of the thigh, and at its lower and posterior 

 part. They have received different names, from 

 their positions. All the abdominal viscera, with the 

 exception of the duodenum, the pancreas and the 

 kidneys, may form a hernia, but they are not all 

 displaced with the same iacility. The omentum and 

 intestinal canal escape easily ; but the stomach, the 

 liver, and the spleen form hernias more rarely. Most 

 of the viscera, when displaced, push the peritoneum 

 forward before them : this membrane thus forms an 

 envelope of the hernia, which is called the hernial 

 sack. If the hernia, with its sack, can be entirely 

 replaced, it is said to be reducible ; if, from its size or 

 other cause, it cannot be replaced, it is irreducible. 



Among the predisposing causes of hernia, may be 

 ranked any circumstances which diminish the resist- 

 ance of the abdominal walls, whether natural or 

 accidental ; such as the defect of fleshy fibres, the 

 weakening of the walls of the stomach by a forced 

 distension, as in pregnancy or the dropsy, or by an 

 accident, as a wound. Any circumstance which 

 tends to increase or relax the openings through 

 which the vessels pass, as a violent extension of the 

 body, long standing, &c., may have the same effect. 

 Any prolongation of the viscera, which tends to 

 bring them in contact with points at which they may 

 protrude, and articles of dress which push the organs 

 towards the weaker parts of the abdominal wall (as 

 corsets), may also produce the hernia. The efficient 

 causes of the hernia are all circumstances which may 

 break the equilibrium existing between the abdo- 

 i ininal walls and the viscera, which react, and 





