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of fix years, was defied a fellow of that college. He 
took the degree of M. D. and pradlifed as a phyfician 
during ten years, at Cambridge, at the fame time giving- 
annual ledfures in the-materia mediea to the ftudents in 
the university. In 1748 he removedto London, where 
lie had already been admitted into the Royal College of 
Phyficians; and was foon after made a fellow of the 
Royal Society. For a period of thirty years he prac- 
tifed as a phyfician in the metropolis with diftinguilhed 
liberality and fuccefs. It was in confequence of his 
fuggeftion, in 1766, that the College of Phyficians en¬ 
gaged in the publication of that moft valuable work, en¬ 
titled, Medical Tranfadtions. Among thefe, the writ¬ 
ings of Dr. Heberden are prominent in number and value, 
and attradted much notice from the faculty. Other pa¬ 
pers were communicated by him to the Royal Society, 
and are printed in its Tranfadtions. His reputation caufed 
him in 1776 to be chofen an aflfociate of the Royal So¬ 
ciety of Medicine at Paris. In 1782 he clofed his pro- 
fefiional fervices by compiling the records of his long 
experience into a volume of Commentaries, written in 
Latin, and laid up in manufcript, not to be given to the 
public till after his deceafe: For feveral years after¬ 
wards, he enjoyed the rewards of a temperate life, and 
funk calmly under the hand of death in 1801, after com¬ 
pleting the ninetieth year of his age, and was buried in 
the church at Windfor, where a fmall tablet is eredted 
to his memory. As a medical writer, Dr. Heberden is 
diftinguilhed by great accuracy of obf ervation and prac¬ 
tical knowledge. He thought for himfelf; and, though 
far from being hafty to oppofe common opinions, he did 
not hefitate to do fo, .when thofe opinions were contra- 
didted by fadts which lie had himfelf witneffed. Of 
his papers in the Medical Tranfadtions, the molt novel 
in its fubjedt is that which gives the defcription of a fa¬ 
tal diforder of the thorax, entitled by him Angina PcElo- 
ris. The principal matter of his detached papers is in¬ 
corporated into his polthumous work, which was pub- 
lifheci by his fon Dr. William Heberden, in 1802, under 
the title of Gulielmi Heberden Commentarii de Morborum Hijlo- 
ria& Curatione, 8vo. an Englilh edition from the author’s 
own manufcript was publilhed at the fame time. 
HE'BERITE, f. A defcendant of Heber. 
To HEB'ETATE, v.a. [hebeto , Lat. hebeter, Fi\] To 
dull; to blunt; to (tupify.—Beef may confer a robuft- 
nefs on the limbs of my ion, but will hebetate and clog 
his intelledtuals. Arbuthnot. 
HEB'ETATING,/. The adt of ftupifying. 
HEB'ETATION,yi The adt of dulling. The date 
of being dulled. 
HEB'ETUDE, f [kebetudo, Lat.] Dulnefs ; obtufe- 
nefs ; bluntnefs.—The peftiient feminaries, according 
to their grofsnefs or fubtility,' adtivity or hebetude, caufe 
more or lefs truculent plagues. Harvey. 
HE'BON,y. Ufed by Marlow for henbane: 
The juice of hebon, and Cocytus’ breath, 
And all the poifons of the Stygian pool. Jew of Malta. 
HE'BRAISM, f. [ hebraifme , Fr. kebraifmus, Lat.] A 
Hebrew idiom.—Milton has infufed a great many Latin- 
jfms, as well as Graecifms, and fometimes Hebraifms, into 
his poem. Spectator. 
HE'BRAIST, f. [ kebraus , Lat.] A man fkilled in 
Hebrew. 
HE'BREW, adj. Relating to the Hebrews. Thus we 
fay, Hebrew Bible. See the article Bible, vol. iii. p. io. 
In the language of the Jews .—1 have head them lay, 
lir, they read hard Hebrew books backwards. Congreve. 
HE'BREW Character and Language. See the article 
Language. 
Some write in Hebrew, fome in Greek, 
And fome more wile in Arabic. Butler's Remains. 
HE'BREW-WISE, adv. After the manner of Hebrew, 
that is, backwards : 
Vol. IX. No. 585. 
H E B 2$9 
The tliefis vice v erf a put 
Should Hebrew-wife be undGrftood ; 
And means, the poet makes the god. Prior. 
HE'BREWS, the defendants of Heber, commonly 
called Jews. See the articles Heber, and Jews. 
HE'BREWS, or Epistle to the Hebrews, a ca¬ 
nonical book of the New Tellament; written by St. Paulk 
The Hebrews to whom this Epiftle was addrelTed were the 
believing Jews of Paleftine ; and its defign was to com 
vince them, and by their means all the Jewilh converts 
wherefoever difperfed, of the infufficiency and abolilh- 
ment of the ceremonial and ritual law. 
HEBRI'CI AN, f. [from Hebrew. - ] One (kilful in He¬ 
brew.—The nature of the Hebrew verfe, as the meaneft 
Hebrician knoweth, confills of uneven feet. Peacham. 
HEB'RIDES, Heb'udes, or Western Islands, 
an extenfive range of illands, fituated in the North At¬ 
lantic Ocean, to the north-weft of Scotland, of which 
country they form a part. The principal of the firlt di« 
'vifion of them are Ilay, Jura, Mull, Hyona or Icolm- 
kill, Staffa, Tirey, and Skye, which lie the neareft to 
the coaft of Scotland. The fecond divifion of them is 
fituated far more remote, forming, as it were, a barrier 
againft the Atlantic. The principal of thefe are Rona, 
Hirta or St. Kilda, Lewis, Harris, North and South Uift, 
or Vift. This exterior group goes by the common name' 
of the Long ljland. For a particular account of each of 
thefe illands, fee under their refpedtive names in this 
Encyclopaedia. 
Pliny the Elder is the firft writer who has noticed 
thefe illands in a geographical point of view ; and he 
calls them by their original name, the Habudes. This 
fpelling was corrupted by Hedtor Boyce into Hebrides; 
he having been milled by an edition of Solinus, printed 
at Venice in 1491, 4to. in which, by an error of the prefs, 
Ebrides is put for Ebudes. This error has been ever 
fince retained ; not only in common fpeech, but by the 
moft celebrious defcripti ve writers on the Weftern I Hands, 
fuch as Dr. Johnfon, Mr. Pennant, Mr. Buchanan, the 
honourable Mrs. Murray, &c. Pinkerton, in his Mo- 
dern Geography, has judicioufly reftored the primitive 
orthography. 
The aboriginal inhabitants of thefe illands had proba¬ 
bly, for fome ages, their own governors : one chief or 
king to each illand, or to each group, as necefiity re¬ 
quired. It is reafonable to fuppofe that their govern¬ 
ment was as much divided as that of Britain, which was 
under the diredtion of numbers of petty princes, before 
it w r as reduced under the power of the Romans. In the 
year 1089, there is an evident proof of the independency 
of thefe illanders on Norway : for, on the death of Lag- 
man, one of their monarchs, they fent a deputation to 
O’Brian, king of Ireland, to requeft a regent of royal 
blood to govern them during the minority of their young 
prince. They probably might in turn compliment in 
lome other refpedts their Scottilh neighbour ; the illan¬ 
ders mull have given them fome pretence to fovereign- 
ty, for, in the year 1093, Donald-Bane, king of Scot¬ 
land, called in Magnus the Barefooted, king of Norway, 
and bribed him to his intereft -by a promife of all the 
illands ; Magnus accepted the terms, but, at the fame 
time, boafted, that he did not come to Invade the terri¬ 
tories of others, but to refume the ancient rights of Nor¬ 
way. His conquefts were rapid and complete ; for be- 
fides the illands, by an ingenious fraud, he added Can- 
tyre to his dominions. In the thirteenth century, how¬ 
ever, they were ceded to Scotland ; but Scotland feems 
to have received no real acquifition of ftrength : the 
illands ftill remained governed by powerful chieftains, 
the defcendants of Somerled, thane of Heregaidel or Ar- 
gyle, who, marrying the daughter of Olave king of 
Mull, left a divided dominion to his fons Dugal and°Rc- 
ginald; from the firft were defcended the Mac-dougals 
of Lorn ; from the la ft the powerful clan of the Macdo¬ 
nalds. See the article Scotland. The lordlhip of 
