HAI 



HAI 



, it is tamed with great ease, and 

 will accompany the ducks to the ponds, 

 nd the poultry in general to their roosts. 

 The general food of these birds, in their 

 natural state, consists of shell-fish ; they 

 will, with astonishing ease, force the lim- 

 pet from the rock, notwithstanding its te- 

 nacious hold, and it is said that on per- 

 ceiving the slightest opening of its shells 

 by an oyster, they insert their bills in it 

 with admirable dexterity, and tear the te- 

 nant from his mansion. See Aves, Plate 

 VII. fig. 6. 



HJEMATOXYLUM, in botany, a ge- 

 nus of the Decandria Monogynia class 

 and order. Natural order of Lomenta- 

 ceae. Leguminosae, Jussieu. Essential 

 character : calyx five-parted ; petals five ; 

 legume lanceolate ; valves boat-shaped. 

 There is but one species, viz. H. campe- 

 cheinum, logwood, blood-wood, or cam- 

 peche-wood. This tree grows naturally 

 in the bay of Campeche, at Honduras, 

 and many parts of the Spanish West-In- 

 dies, where it frequently rises to four-and- 

 twenty feet in height. 



HAEMORRHOIDS, or Piles. See ME- 



1HCINE. 



H^ERUCA, in natural history, a genus 

 of the Vermes Intestina class and order. 

 Body cylindrical, the fore-part two-neck- 

 ed, and surrounded with a single row of 

 prickles, without any proboscis. Only one 

 species is mentioned by Gmelin, viz. the 

 H. muris, which inhabits the intestines of 

 the mouse, and is distinguished from the 

 genus Echinorhynchus, by being desti- 

 tute of the retractile proboscis. 



HAIL, in natural history* a meteor ge- 

 nerally defined frozen rain, but differing 

 from it, in that the hailstones are not form- 

 ed of single pieces of ice, but of many lit- 

 tle spherules agglutinated together ; nei- 

 ther are these spherules all of the same 

 consistence; some of them being hard 

 and solid, like perfect ice; others soft, 

 and mostly like snow hardened by a se- 

 vere frost. Hail-stone has a kind of core 

 of this soft matter ; but more frequently 

 the core is solid and hard, while the out- 

 side is formed of a softer matter. Hail, 

 stones assume various figures, being some- 

 times round, at other times pyramidal, 

 crenated, angular, thin, and flat, and 

 sometimes stellated with six radii, like 

 the small crystals of snow. Natural histo- 

 rians furnish us with various accounts of 

 surprising showers of hail, in which the 

 hail-stones were of extraordinary magni- 

 tude. Of these we mention one or two, 

 said to have happened in England. 



"Dr. Halley, and others also, relate, 

 that in Cheshire, Lancashire, &c. April 



29th, 1697, a thick, black cloud, coming 

 from Carnarvonshire, disposed the va- 

 pours to congeal in such a manner, that, 

 for about the breadth of two miles, which 

 v\ as the limit of the cloud, in its progress 

 for the space of sixty miles, it did incon- 

 ceivable damage ; not only killing all sorts 

 of fowls and other small animals, but split- 

 ting trees, knocking down horses and 

 men, and even ploughing up the earth ; 

 so that the hail-stones buried themselves 

 under ground an inch or an inch and a 

 half deep. The hail-stones, many of which 

 weighed five ounces, and some half a 

 pound, and being five or six inches about, 

 were of various figures; some round, 

 others half round ; some smooth, others 

 embossed and crenated; the icy sub- 

 stance of them was very transparent and 

 hard, but there was a snowy kernel in the 

 middle of them. 



" In Hertfordshire, May 4, the same 

 year, after a severe storm of thunder and 

 lightning, a shower of hail succeeded, 

 which far exceeded the former; some 

 persons were killed by it, and their bo- 

 dies beaten all black and blue ; vast oaka 

 were split, and fields of rye cut down as 

 with a scythe. The stones measured from 

 ten to thirteen or fourteen inches about. 

 Their figures were various, some oval, 

 others picked, and some flat." Phil. Trans. 

 Number 229. See METEOROLOGY 



HAILING, in naval language, the salu- 

 tation or accosting a ship at a distance, 

 which is usually performed with a speak- 

 ing-trumpet : the first exclamation is, 

 "hoa, the ship, ahoy," to which she 

 replies, " holloa ;" then follow the re- 

 quisite questions and replies. 



HAIR, small filaments issuing out of the 

 pores of the skins of animals, and serving 

 most of them as a tegument or covering. 

 In lieu of hair, the nakedness of some 

 animals is covered with feathers, wool, 

 scales, See. Hair is found on all parts of 

 the human body, except the soles of the 

 feet and the palms of the hands ; but it 

 grows longest on the head, chin, breast, 

 in the armpits, &c. It is known that every 

 hair does properly and truly live, and re- 

 ceive nutriment to fill and distend it like 

 the other parts; which they argue hence, 

 that the roots do not turn grey in aged 

 persons sooner than the extremities, but 

 the whole changes colour at once, and the 

 like is observed in boys, &c. which 

 shows, that there is a direct communica- 

 tion, and that all the parts are affected 

 alike. It may be observed, however, 

 that, in propriety, the life and growth of 

 hairs is of a different kind from that of the 

 rest of the body, and is not immediately 



