333. 
H E L 
H E L 
You Hander 
The helms o’ th’ Hate, who care for vou like fathers, 
When you curfe them as enemies. Shakefpeare. 
To HELM, v. a. To guide ; to conduit.—The very 
ft ream of his life, and the bufinefs he hath helmed, nuift. 
give them a better proclamation. Shake/peare. 
To Helm aUee, is to put the helm to the lee-fide of 
the (hip ; a fea phrafe. 
To bear up the Helm, is to let the (hip go more large 
before the wind. 
To port the Helm, to put the helm over the left fide of 
the (hip. 
To right the Helm, or Helm a mid/hip, to keep it even 
with the middle of the (hip. 
Starboard the Helm, is, put it to the right fide of the 
lhip. 
HELMANA'ED, a town of Germany, in the arch¬ 
duchy of Auftria : eight miles fouth-wert of Freyftadt. 
HELM'BRECHT, a town of Germany, in Franco¬ 
nia, and principality of Culmbach: fixteen miles north- 
eaft of Culmbach. 
HEL'MED, adj. Furniflied with a head-piece : 
The helmed cherubim 
Are feen in glittering ranks with wings difplay’d. Milton. 
HEL'MERSHAUSAN, a town of Germany, in the 
Upper Rhine, and principality of Heffe Caffel : twenty- 
two miles north of Caffel, and nineteen weft of Gottingen. 
HEL'MESTADT, a town of Germany, in Lower 
Saxony, and principality of Wolfenbuttel ; containing 
two fauxbourgs, three churches, and an univerfity 
founded by duke Julius in 1576 ; an anatomical thea¬ 
tre, and a public library. Near it is a medical fpring : 
twenty.miles north of Halberftadt, and feventeen eaft of 
Wolfenbuttel. 
HEL'MET,,yi [Probably a diminutive of helm.'] A 
helm ; a headpiece ; armour for the head. See the ar¬ 
ticle Armour, vol. ii. p. 200, and the correfpondent 
Engraving. See alfo the article Heraldry, in this 
volume. 
Sev’n darts are thrown at once, and fome rebound 
From his bright (hield, fome on his helmet found. Denham. 
HEL'MET-FLOWER. See Aconitu'm. 
HELMINTHAGO'GIC, adj. [from eX/^hOo?, Gr. a 
worm, and uyio, to drive.] Expelling worms. Scott. 
HELMIN' iHAGOGUES, f. Medicines to expel 
worms. Scott. 
I-iELMIN'THES, f. [sX/xuiS ej, Gr. from to roll 
about.] Worms; fo called from their continual twill¬ 
ing, and coiling. 
HELMIN'THIC, adj. [from tX/*n/0os, Gr.] Relating 
to worms. 
HELMINTHICS, f. \_helminthica, Lat.] Medicines 
which expel and deftroy worms. 
HELMINTHOLI'THUS, f. A genus of foljils or pe¬ 
trifactions ; for which fee the article Mineralogy. 
HELMINTHOTHE'CA, and HELM 1 N'T I A, f in 
botany. SeePiCRis. 
HELM1NTUOL'OGY f. [from 'EApA?, the genitive 
of 'EAjmi';; which in its firft fenfe fignifies “ an Earth¬ 
worm;” then “ a Worm of the Inteitines;” and Aoyo?, 
a treatife or difcourfe. ] That department of natural hil- 
iory which inveftigates the orders and genera of worms ; 
or that clafs of organized beings which the ancients dil- 
tinguifhed by the name of imp erfed animals. This defig- 
nation was by no means unaptly applied, lince by far the 
greater number of theie creatures are deftitute of ears, 
nole, eyts, and legs. They are all of them more or lefs 
flow ot motion ; fome indeed feem fixed for ever to the 
fpot where nature produces them ; whilft others move 
only with the matter to which they are attached. In 
fubftance they are moltiy (oft and gelatinous, and ex¬ 
tremely tenacious of life ; infomuch that, inftead of be¬ 
ing killed or deftroyed by having t'heir parts cut or 
broken off, they poffefs the Angular power of reprodu¬ 
cing them ; in which faculty the polypi, of all their con¬ 
geners, feem wonderfully to excel. The parts of gene¬ 
ration in raoft of them have as~yet efcaped detedlion by 
the microfcope; but it is certain that they are chiefly 
hermaphrodites, and poffefs the gift of fecundity in a 
very eminent degree. The head or anterior part is ge¬ 
nerally diftinguiflied by tentacu/a, or feelers, which are rc- 
tradfile, and of the nature of the horns of fnails. With 
thefe they feel and entangle their prey; and with them 
they convey it to their mouth or orifice; whence they 
are alfo called arms. In all their charadfer.s they are to¬ 
tally different from infeEls, though they are often fo de¬ 
nominated by authors; but with manifeft impropriety 
and error. Their organization is lefs perfedt than that 
of the infedt tribes ; their members are very differently 
conftrudted ; nor are they, like them, deftined to un¬ 
dergo the different ftages of metamprphofis. But, though 
lefs known, they equal the infedts in number, if they do 
not even furpafs them ; for there are few fubftances, 
either living or dead, in which vermes are not found to 
be inhabitants, and are fubfifted and nouriflied within 
them. “They perforate the clay, (fays Linnieus,) to 
give a paffage to fprings and water; they penetrate the 
earth, to fertilife the foil by the admiffion of air and 
moifture; they bore through wood, and excavate rock- 
and (tone, to promote the wife purpofes of an immuta¬ 
ble Providence; they are afligned a place even in the 
dark abyfs of the ocean, to illuminate the waters by 
their phofphoric light,^as the (tars of heaven do the fur- 
rounding atmofphere.” 
This clafs of animals has been divided by the French 
naturalifts into four fections: the firft containing the 
naked or bare worms, which in their charadters approach 
the neareft to the caterpillars and larvse of infedts; but 
without having the fmalleft relation to them. The fe- 
cond comprehends all thofe fpecies which have a tefta- 
ceous covering or (hell; the organs of which were little 
known, till the valuable refearches of Mr. Adanfon 
proved that their ftrudture clofely refembled that of the 
naked worms. The third fedtion comprifes the nume¬ 
rous clafs of worms with a cruftaceous covering, the 
ftructure of which refembles flowers and plants, hence 
called animal flowers ; but their organization is very dif¬ 
ferent from that of the two preceding claffes. The 
fourth fedtion contains the polypi, with all thole zoo¬ 
phytes whofe conformation appears nearly to refemble 
them ; for in refemblance chiefly is this claflification 
founded. Its infufficiency, however, induced other na¬ 
turalifts, fuch as Klein, Lifter, d’Argenville, &c. to 
form (yftems of their own, but equally incongruous; 
till fir Charles Linnaeus, with endowments of mindform- 
for fuch a talk, favoured the world with the following 
claflification of thefe humbled of all creatures in the 
fcale of being; which in one chain carries the link of 
life by an almoft imperceptible gradation to the effloref- 
cence of a vegetable; whilft the other extends it as it 
were to a minute- particle of fand ; or rather to an invi. 
lible point, yet full of animation. 
ORDERS, and GENERA. 
I. Intestina. Simple naked animals without limbs 
or eyes. 
1. Found within other animals ; ckaraElers as follow : 
Afcaris. - - Body round, tapering each way ; head 
with three veficles.—Common in chil¬ 
dren,and fomeadultperfons; and found 
alfo in many animals. 
Trichocephalus. Body round, tapering towards the tail; 
head furniftied with a probofcis.—In 
man, the horfe, &c, 
UncinaxifW « Rody filiform, elaftic; head with mem¬ 
branaceous angular lips ; tail of the 
female aciform or needle.Khaped, of the 
male 
