HER 
Hermaa- with the view of acquiring a knowledge of forest trees, 
stadt. 
he applied himself with diligence to the study of bo- 
tany. The first work of L’Heritier was entitled Stir- 
pes Nove. The first fasciculus, with eleven finely en- 
graved plates, appeared in 1784. It was completed in 
six fasciculi, containing in all eighty-four plates, with 
their descriptions, which were dated in 1784 and 1785, 
though they did not appear till some years afterwards. 
This circumstance gave rise to a controversy between 
the Abbe Cavanilles of Madrid and L’Heritier. In or- 
der to secure some of his own discoveries, L’Heritier 
published them in the form of monographs, with one 
or two plates. The subjects were Louichea, Bucholzia 
Michauwia, Hymeno-pappus, and Virgilia ; and twelve 
of each only were printed. 
After the Herbarium of Dombey had been put into 
the hands of L’Heritier in 1787, with orders to publish 
its contents, the influence of the court of Spain induced 
the French government to give orders that the Herba- 
rium should be withdrawn ; but L’Heritier having re- 
ceived notice of the measure, carried it over to London, 
where. he remained for fifteen months, chiefly under 
the hospitable roof of Sir Joseph Banks. The state of 
his country, however, compelled him to return to Pa- 
ris; and at this time the MSS, of his Peruvian Flora 
was complete, sixty drawings were finished, and man 
of the plates engraven. During his stay in England, 
he had collected the materials of his Sertem Anglicum, 
an unfinished work, of which he published several 
fasciculi, on the same plan as his Stirpes Nove. 
In the year 1775, L’Heritier married Madamoiselle 
Doré, who brought him five children, and died in the 
year 1794. In the year 1775, he became a Conseiller 
a la cour des aides, and was a long time the dean of 
that court. After the death of his wife, L’Heritier de- 
voted himself to the education of his children ; but his 
hopes were frustrated by the unprincipled conduct of 
his son. When he was one evening returning from a 
meeting of the National Institute, in August 1800, he 
was murdered, and his body was found next morning, 
with his money and other articles of value untouched. 
No discovery was ever made respecting this barbarous 
event ; but suspicions of the most unnatural kind were 
confidently entertained. See Rees’ Cyclopedia. 
HERMANSTADT, Hermensrapt, or SzeBeny, the 
Cibinium and Hermanopolis of the ancients, is a town 
of Hungary, and the capital of the province of Transyl- 
vania, It is situated in a champaign country, near 
the river Cibin, o: Szeben, from which it derived the 
name of Cibinium and Szebeny. The principal publie 
buildings are three monasteries for men, and one con- 
vent for women. One of the monasteries is for Ex- 
Jesuits, another for Catholics of the Franciscan order, 
and another for Greek monks of the order of St Basil. 
There is also a theatre, which is open during summer, 
a cassino, a public school for Protestants, and another 
for Greeks. In the great square there is a statue. The 
town is fortified with a double wall and deep moat. 
The museum of Baron Bruckenthal, a venerable noble- 
man, contains one of the finest collections in Euro 
of pictures, antiquities, and natural history. Dr Clarke 
has given a very minute description of it. The 
works of this town have been long celebrated ; and the 
tallow candles manufactured here are so white, that 
there is a great demand for them at Vienna, The cha- 
teau of Freck, in the vicinity of the town, is worthy of 
being visited. The town. was founded by Herman- 
nus, a Greek emperor. It is well built, large, and 
populous, and contains from 15,000 to 16,000 inhabi- 
750 
tants. The climate is said to be insalubrious.. See He 
gium, 
dered a mark of divine ve 
HER 
Clarke’s Travels, part ii. sect. iii, Supplement, p. 603, 
&ec.; and Hermannstadter Handlungs, gemerbs“und 
MaEERMAPHRODITE: i lvicg,betng posses 
A DITE, is a living bein i 
the of generation belonging to both pei ie 
On surveying the origin, the progress, and decay of 
the animal creation, there is sufficient reason to infer, 
that nature is infinitely more solicitous about preserving 
the different genera and species than the individuals of 
the race. Thus where their continuation is required 
by mutual concourse, as among the larger and more 
perfect creatures of the earth, it is ne that the 
sexual organs of each should be reserved distinct and 
entire. Though accidental monstrosities ensue in other 
parts, the animal functions can be carried on, and some- 
times with little injury ; but imperfections in that por- 
tion of the frame appropriated for procreation, is for the 
rennet an Saped ment to the laws which regulate the 
ws uction of living beings. 
evertheless, the sexual organs, like other parts of 
animated matter, are liable to exhibit malformation, or 
monstrosities ; and hence an idea has originated, that in 
man and different animals, the qualities of a perfect male 
and female may be united in the same individual. The 
fables of the ancients have perhaps conspired to give 
probability to these opinions. According to their alle- 
ies, a son of Mercury and Venus, who had been 
ostered by the Naiads of Ida, became enamoured of the 
nymph Salmacis, who fled from his embraces. But 
he joined her in a fountain where she could escape no 
longer, and besought the gods that their bodies might 
be united in one. His prayers were heard. 
** Vota suos habuere deos: nam mista duorum 
a junguntur, faciesque inducitur illis 
SIO yo! Shieh arya TP ah Pers ME oe 65 OS 
Nec duo sunt et forma duplex nee femina dici 
Nec puer ut possint ; neutrumque et utrumque videntur.” 
Ovip Metam. lib. iv. cap. 9 
This androgynous being was thenceforth called Her- 
per eer (whence the derivation of hermaphrodite,) 
and affords a subject for many beautiful sculptures 
from the hands of the ancients, which are still pre- 
served, 
No question has been more keenly agitated than the 
existence of human. hermaphrodites ; and the difficulty 
of the subject has been greatly increased, by that anxje-~ 
ty with which Etre ahd g conceal their nakedness ; and, 
by an unjust abhorrence entertained against whatever 
seems beyond the standard of ordinary configuration. 
The Jews, for example, have a long catalogue of denun- 
ciations against persons labouring under disease or infir= 
mity, natural or accidental; and even in the islands 
which we ourselves inhabit, monstrous productions of 
animals are almost invariably destroyed, as also those of 
mankind, where it can be effected with safety.. But _ 
the vehemence of civil institutions, seems to have been 
more conspicuously directed against those unfortunate 
beings known to labour under malformation of the sex- 
ual organs. At an early period of Roman. history, a 
law was enacted, that every child of this description 
should be shut up ina chest and thrown into the sea; - 
and Livy gives an instance where, on some difficulty 
with respect to the sex of an infant, it was directed to 
be thrown into the sea, ¢anquam feedum et turpe prodia 
ium, Nay, such a visitation seems to have been consi- — 
ce, for the execution. 
was always followed by religious rites. The Jewish law« 
is extremely solicitous regarding the disposal of herma- 
5 
