preserve; subsisting principally by fishing and pilotage. On the north end of the island is a light-house, and on the south a haven for boats. Heligoland was in former ages the residence of a chief of the Sicambri, or North Frieslanders, and the seat of worship of the Saxon deity Phoseta. During the late war it was a considerable depôt for British merchandise, which was smuggled into the continent.

HELIOCARPUS, in botany, a genus of the digynia order, and dodecandria class of plants: natural order thirty-seventh, columnifera: CAL. tetraphyllous: the petals four; the styles simple; CAPS. bilocular, compressed, and radiated length

wise on each side.

HELIOCENTRIC, adj. Fr. heliocentrique; ἥλιος and κέντρον.

The heliocentrick place of a planet is said to be such as it would appear to us from the sun, if our eye were fixed in its centre. Harris.

HELIOCOMETES, a phenomenon sometimes observed about sun-setting; being a large luminous tail or column of light proceeding from the body of the sun, and dragging after it, like the tail of a comet, whence the name.

HE'LIOID PARABOLA, or the parabolic spiral, in mathematics, is a curve which arises from the supposition of the axis of the common Apolionian parabola being bent round into the periphery of a circle, and is a line then passing through the extremities of the ordinates, which do now converge towards the centre of the said

circle.

HELIODORUS, bishop of Tricca, in Thessaly, and the father of romance writing, was born at Emmessa, in Phoenicia, in the end of the fourth century. In his youth he wrote a romance in ten books, the first work of its kind, entitled Æthiopics, relating the amours of Theagenes and Chariclea. He was deposed by a synod because he would not consent to suppress it. It has been repeatedly printed in Greek and Latin, particularly at Basil, in 1553. Professor Robison gives the following high character of this work, in his Proofs of a Conspiracy, p. 266. 'I think,' says he, that the first piece, in which woman is pictured as a respectable character, is the oldest novel that I am acquainted with, written by a Christian bishop, Heliodorus; I mean the adventures of Theagenes and Chariclea.' Heliodorus was also a good Latin poet. He flourished under Theodosius I. and Arcadius.

HELIOGABALUS (M. Aurelius Antoninus), one of the many monsters who reigned in Rome. See ROME. He was murdered, after a short and detestable reign of four years, A.D. 222. He took the name of Heliogabalus from having been a priest of Apollo, in Phoenicia.

HELIOMETER, from ŋos, the sun, and HETρEW, to measure, an instrument called also astrometer, invented by M. Bouguer in 1747, for measuring with particular exactness the diameters of the stars, and especially those of the sun and moon. This instrument is a kind of telescope, consisting of two object glasses of equal focal distance, placed the one by the side of the other, so that the same eye glass serves for both. The tube is of a conic form, larger at the upper end, which receives the two object glasses,

than at the lower, which is furnished with an eye-glass and micrometer. By the construction of this instrument two distinct images of an object are formed in the focus of the eye-glass, whose distance, depending on that of the two object glasses from one another, may be measured with great accuracy; nor is it necessary that the whole disc of the sun or moon come within the field of view; since, if the images of only a small part of the disc be formed by each object-glass, the whole diameter may be easily computed by their position with respect to one another; for, if the object be large, the images will approach, or perhaps lie even over one another; and, the object-glasses being moveable, the two images may always be brought to touch one another, and the diameter may be computed from the known distance of the centres of the two glasses. Besides, as this instrument has a common micrometer in the focus of the eye-glass, when the two images of the sun or moon are made in part to cover one another, that part which is common to both the images may be measured with great exactness, as being viewed upon a ground that is only one-half less luminous than itself; whereas, in general, the heavenly bodies are viewed upon a dark ground, and on that account are imagined to be larger than they really are. By a small addition to this instrument, provided it be of a moderate length, M. Bouguer thought it very possible to measure angles of three or four degrees, which is of particular consequence in taking the distance of stars from the moon. this instrument M. Bouguer, by repeated observation, found, that the sun's vertical diameter, though somewhat diminished by the astronomical refraction, is longer than the horizontal diameter; and, in ascertaining this phenomenon, he also found, that the upper and lower edges of the sun's disc are not so equally defined as the other parts; on this account his image appears somewhat extended in the vertical direction. This is owing to the decomposition of light, which is known to consist of rays differently refrangible in its passage through our atmosphere. Thus the blue and violet rays, which proceed from the upper part of the disc at the same time with those of other colors, are somewhat more refracted than the others, and therefore seem to us to have proceeded from a higher point; whereas, on the contrary, the red rays proceeding from the lower edge of the disc, being less refracted than the others, seem to proceed from a lower point; so that the vertical diameter is extended, or appears longer, than the horizontal diameter. Mr. Servington Savery discovered a similar method of improving the micrometer, which was communicated to the Royal Society in 1743. See MICROMETER.

With

HELIOPOLIS, a city of Egypt, so called by Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus; by Moses On, and by Jeremiah Bethshemesh. It is one of the most ancient cities of the world of which any vestiges can now be traced. It lay south-east of the Delta, and east of Memphis; and was long famous for its temple of the sun. The most enlightened philosophers of Greece and Rome were attracted to this celebrated seat of learning It was here that Herodotus became acquainted

with the sciences and mysteries of Egypt. Plato was here taught philosophy, and about thirty years before Christ its ruins were visited and described by Strabo. In this city was erected a temple to the sun, where a particular part was appropriated for the feeding of the sacred ox, which was here worshipped under the name of Mnevis. There was also another splendid temple, with avenues of sphinxes and superb obelisks, before the principal entrance. Out of the four obelisks, which were erected here by Sochis, two were carried to Rome; one was destroyed by the Arabs, and the fourth still remains. The obelisk, or pillar of On, which is now the only piece of antiquity that marks the site of Heliopolis, is about sixty-eight feet high, and six feet and a half wide on each side. According to Dr. Clarke, who has given a very correct engraving of it, it is one entire mass of reddish granite. Each of its four sides exhibits the same characters, and in the same order. Those which face the south have been the least affected by the decomposition of the substance of which they are hewn; and it is from the southern side that Dr. Clarke's engraving is taken. For a particular account of this obelisk, and the hieroglyphics which it contains, the reader is referred to Dr. Clarke's Travels in Egypt.—Near this city the French, under general Kleber, completely defeated the Turks under the grand vizier, and killed 8000 men, on the 18th of March, 1800, after the breach of the treaty of El-Arisch.

HELIOPOLIS, a city of Colesyria, near the springs of the Orontes; so called from the worship of the sun; now named Balbec. See BALBEC.

HELIOSCOPE, n. s. Fr. helioscope; og and oкOTEw. A sort of telescope fitted so as to look on the body of the sun, without offence to the eyes.

HELIOTROPE, n. s. Fr. heliotrope; og and rpen; Lat. heliotropium. A plant that turns towards the sun; but more particularly the turnsol, or sunflower.

"Tis an observation of flatterers, that they are like the heliotrope; they open only towards the sun, but shut and contract themselves at night, and in cloudy

weather.

Government of the Tongue.

HELIOTROPE, among the ancients, an instrument or machine for showing when the sun arrived at the tropics and the equinoctial line. This name was also used for a sun-dial.

HELIOTROPE, in lithology, a precious stone, of a green color, streaked with red veins. Pliny says it is thus called, because, when cast into a vessel of water, the sun's rays falling thereon seem to be of a blood color; and that, when out of the water, it gives a faint reflection of the figure of the sun; and is proper to observe eclipses of the sun as a helioscope. The heliotrope is also called the oriental jasper, on account of its ruddy spots. It is found in the East Indies, as also in Ethiopia, Germany, Bohemia, &c. According to Brandes and Firnhaber it contains, silica 96.55, oxide of iron 1.25, alumina 0.83, water 1:05, 99.58. It is found in rocks belonging to the secondary trap formation. The finest heliotrope comes from Bucharia and Siberia. A variety is found in the

island of Rume in Scotland. It is cut into seals and snuff-boxes. The Siberian wants the red spots. HELIOTROPIUM, turnsol, a genus of the polygynia order, and pentandria class of plants: natural order forty-first, asperifolia: cor. salvershaped and quinquefid, with smaller dents interjected alternately; the throat closed up by small arches formed in the corolla itself. There are many species, all natives of warm countries. Only one, viz. H. tricoccum, grows in Europe, and is a native of France, Spain, and Italy.

HE'LISPHERICAL, adj. Helix and sphere. The helispherical line is the rhomb line in navigation, and is so called because on the globe it winds round the pole spirally, and still comes nearer and Harris. nearer to it, but cannot terminate in it. HE'LIX, n. s. Fr. helice; Gr. E. Part of a spiral line: a circumvolution.

Find the true inclination of the screw, together with the quantity of water which every helix does Wilkins. contain.

HELIX, in anatomy, is the whole circuit or extent of the auricle or border of the ear outwards; whence the inner protuberance surrounded thereby, and answering thereto, is called antihelix. See ANATOMY.

HELIX, in architecture. Some authors make a difference between the helix and the spiral. A stair-case, according to Daviler, is in a helix, or is helical, when the stairs or steps wind round a cylindrical newel; whereas the spiral winds round a cone, and is continually approaching nearer and nearer its axis. The word is also applied to the caulicules, or little volutes under the flowers of the Corinthian capital; called also urillæ.

HELIX, in zoology, the snail, a genus in the class of vermes, and order of testacea. The shell consists of one spiral, brittle, and almost diaphanous valve; and the aperture is narrow. There are numerous species, principally distinguished by the figure of their shells. They are of various sizes, from that of a small appie to less than a grain of corn. Some of them live on land, frequenting woods and gardens, or inhabiting clefts of rocks and dry sand-banks. Others are aquatic, inhabiting ponds, deep rivers, and the ocean. The principal species are,

1. H. hortensis, the garden snail, is in form like the pomatia, but less, and not umbilicated, clouded, or mottled with brown. It abounds with a viscid slimy juice, which it readily gives out by boiling in milk or water, so as to render them thick and glutinous. The decoctions in milk are apparently very nutritious and demulcent, and have been recommended in a thin acrimonious state of the humors, in consumptive cases, and emaciations. The eyes of snails are lodged in their horns, one at the end of each horn, which they can retract at pleasure. The manner of examining these eyes, which are four in number, is this: when the horns are out, cut off nimbly the extremity of one of them; and, placing it before the microscope, you may discover the black spot at the end to be really a semiglobular eye. The dissection of this animal is very curious; for the microscope not only discovers the heart beating just against the

round hole near the neck, which seems the place of respiration, but also the liver, spleen, stomach, and intestines, with the veins, arteries, mouth, and teeth, are plainly observable. The guts of this creature are green, from its eating herbs, and are branched all over with fine capillary white veins: the mouth is like a hare's or rabbit's, with four or six needle teeth, resembling those of leeches, and of a substance like horn. Snails are all hermaphrodites, having both sexes united in each individual. They lay their eggs with great care in the earth, and the young ones are hatched with shells completely formed. Cutting off a snail's head, a little stone appears, which is supposed to be a great diuretic, and good in all nephritic disorders. Immediately under this stone the heart is seen beating; and the auricles are evidently distinguishable, are membraneous, and of a white color; as are also the vessels which proceed from them. Snails discharge their excrements at a hole in their neck; they also breathe by this hole, and their parts of generation are situated very near it. Snails are said to couple three times at the distance of about fifteen days, which lasts ten or twelve hours. At the end of about eighteen days they bring forth their eggs by the aperture of their neck. The snail is a small animal; it is not free from the plague of supporting other smaller animals on its body; and as in other animals we find these secondary ones either living on their surface, as lice, &c., or in the intestines, as worms, it is very remarkable that this creature infests the snail in both these manners; being found sometimes on the surface of its body, and sometimes within its intestines. There is a part of the common garden snail, and of other of the like kinds, commonly called the collar. This surrounds the neck of the snail, and is considerably thick, and is the only part that is visible when the animal is retired quietly into its shell. In this state of the animal these insects which infest it are usually seen in considerable numbers marching about very nimbly on this part; besides, the snail, every time it has occasion to open its anus, gives them a place by which to enter into its intestines, and they often seize the opportunity. Snails are great destroyers of fruit in gardens, especially the better sorts of wall-fruit. Lime and ashes sprinkled on the ground where they most resort will drive them away, and destroy the young brood of them: it is a common practice to pull off the fruit they have bitten; but this should never be done, for they will eat no other till they have wholly eaten up this if it be left for them.

2. H. janthina, with a violet-colored shell. This is remarkable for the extreme thinness of texture, which breaks with the least pressure, and seems therefore entirely calculated to keep the open sea, or at least to shun rocky shores. It inhabits the seas of Europe, especially the Mediterranean; those of Asia and Africa; and also the ocean. The living animal, when touched, exudes a juice which stains the hands of a violet color. Dr. Hawkesworth, in his account of Cook's voyage, mistakes this shell for that which yielded the purpura of the ancients. But

whoever looks into Pliny cannot entertain the idea, that the thin shell aforementioned could be the same with it. They had several shells which yielded the purple dye; but these were all rock shells (see BUCCINUM, and MUREX), very different both in figure and hardness from the little helix janthina; which is not calculated for the neighbourhood of rocks.

3. H. pomatia, the exotic snail, with five spires, most remarkably ventricose, and fasciated with a lighter and deeper brown, is a native of France, where it inhabits the woods; but has been naturalised in England, where it inhabits the woods of the southern counties. It was introduced, as it is said, by Sir Kenelm Digby, whether for medical purposes, or as food, is uncertain: tradition says, that to cure his beloved wife of a decline, was the object. They are quite confined to our southern counties. An attempt was made to bring them into Northamptonshire, but they could not live there. are used as food in several parts of Europe during Lent; and are preserved in an escargatoire, or a large place boarded in, with a floor covered half a foot deep with herbs, in which the snails nestle and fatten. They were also a favorite dish with the Romans, who had their cochlearia, a nursery similar to the above. Fulvius Hirpinus was the first inventor of this luxury, a little before the civil wars between Cæsar and Pompey. The snails were fed with sodden wine and bran. Its name is derived not from any thing relating to an orchard, but from

They

wμa, an operculum, it having a very strong one. This seems to be the species described by Pliny, lib. viii. c. 39, which he says was scarce; that it covered itself with the opercle, and lodged under ground; and that they were at first found only about the Maritime Alps, and more lately near Velitræ.

HELL, n. s. Sax. pele; Teut. helle, signifying originally the grave; as some think, from Goth. hyla; Sax. pelan, to cover, or conceal. The place of the devil and wicked spirits; the separate state, or invisible world; temporal death; the place at a running play to which those who are caught are carried; the place where the taylor throws his shreds; the infernal powers. By old writers it is a word used in composition.

I will go down to my son mourning to hell. Genesis. The pains of hell came about me; the snares of death overtook me. Psa. xviii. 4. He descended into hell. Apostle's Creed. Men shuld, eke, rembre hem of the shame That is to come at the day of dome, to hem that ben Not penitent in this present lif; for all the crea

tures

In heven, and in erthe, and in helle, shul
See apertly all that they hidden in this world.

Chaucer. The Persones Tule.
For it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven, or to hell.
Shakspeare.

If a man were a porter of hell gates, he should have
old turning the key.
Id. Macbeth.
Hell's black tyrant trembled to behold
The glorious light he forfeited of old. Cowley.

by a power,

Deeper than all yet urged, a tyrant-spell,
Which had its birth-place in a star condemned,
The burning wreck of a demolished world,
A wandering hell in the eternal space;
By the strong curse which is upon my soul,
The thought which is within me and around me,
I do compel ye to my will.

Byron. Childe Harold. HELL. The hell of the ancient heathens was divided into two mansions; the one called ELYSIUM, on the right hand, pleasant and delightful, appointed for the souls of good men; the other called TARTARUS, on the left, a region of misery and torment, appointed for the wicked. The latter only was hell, in the present restrained sense of the word. (See these articles). The philosophers were of opinion, that the infernal regions were at an equal distance from all the parts of the earth; nevertheless it was the opinion of some, that there were certain passages which led thither, as the river Lethe near the Syrtes, and the Acherusian cave in Epirus. At Hermione it was thought that there was a very short way to hell; for which reason the people of that country never put the fare into the mouths of the dead to pay their passage. The Jews placed hell in the centre of the earth, and believed it to be situated under waters and mountains. According to them, there are three passages leading to it: the first is in the wilderness, and by that Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, descended into hell; the second in the sea, because Jonah, who was thrown into the sea, cried to God out of the belly of hell; the third is in Jerusalem, because it is said the fire of the Lord is in Zion, and his furnace is in Jerusalem. They likewise maintained seven degrees of pain in hell, because they find this place called by seven different names in scripture. Though they believed that infidels, and persons eminently wicked, will continue for ever in hell; yet they held, that every Jew who is not infected with some heresy, and has not acted contrary to

the points mentioned by the rabbies, will not be punished therein for any other crimes above a year at most.

The Mahommedans believe the eternity of rewards and punishments in another life. In the Koran it is said that hell has seven gates; the first for the Mussulmans, the second for the Christians, the third for the Jews, the fourth for the Sabians, the fifth for the Magians, the sixth for the Pagans, and the seventh for hypocrites of all religions. The locality of hell, and the reality of its fire, began first to be controverted by Origen. That father, interpreting the Scripture account metaphorically, makes hell to consist, not in external punishments, but in a consciousness or sense of guilt, and a remembrance of past pleasures. Among the moderns, Mr. Whiston advanced a new hypothesis, The comets, he thinks, are so many hells appointed in their orbits alternately to carry the damned into the confines of the sun, there to be scorched by its violent heat, and then to return with them beyond the orb of Saturn, to starve them in those cold and dismal regions. Another modern author supposes the sun to be the local hell. See THEOLOGY.

HELL, VALLEY OF, a valley of Suabia, in the Black Forest, through which, for many leagues, there is scarcely room for fifty men to march in front, the mountains rise so high on each side. Through this formidable defile, though defended by numerous bodies of Austrian troops, general Moreau, in 1798, forced a passage with his army, through a hostile country of 300 miles in extent: and daily gave battle to the Austrians, while flushed with victory; and even took several thousands of them prisoners, with many of their colors and cannons, during his desperate but masterly retreat, which many think has not been equalled since the days of Xenophon. HELL-BLACK, adj. Compounds now HELL-BRED, adj. rarely used; their HELL-BROTH, N. S. meaning is for the HELL-DOOMED, adj. most part obvious: HELL'-GOVERNED, adj. hell-broth, a compoHELL-HATED, adj. sition boiled up for HELL-HAUNTED, adj. infernal HELL-HOUND, n. s. hell - haunted, HELL-KITE, n. s. quented by the devil: HEL'LISH, adj. hell-hound, a dog or HEL'LISHLY, adv. agent of hell: hellHEL'LISHNESS, n. s. kite, a kite of the inHELL'WARD, adv. fernal breed: hellish, any thing having the qualities of hell; infernal; diabolical; wicked: hellward, towards hell. The term hell prefixed to any word notes detestation.

purposes: fre