of the fouthern counties. It was introduced, as it is faid, by Sir Kenelm Digby, whether for medical purposes, or as food, is uncertain: tradition fays, that to cure his beloved wife of a decay was the object. They are quite confined to our fouthern counties. An attempt was made to bring them into Northamptonshire, but they would not live there. They are used as food in feveral parts of Europe during Lent; and are preferved in an efcargatoire, or a large place boarded in, with a floor covered half a foot deep with herbs, in which the fnails neftle and fatten. They were also a favourite dish with the Romans, who had their cochlearia, a nursery fimilar to the above. Fulvius Hirpinus was the firft inventor of this luxury, a little before the civil wars between Cæfar and Pompey. The fnails were fed with bran and fodden wine. If we could credit Varro (lib. iii. cap. 14.) they grew fo large, that the fhells of fome would hold ten quarts! People need not admire the temper ance of the fupper of the younger Pliny, (Epift.xv.) which confifted of only a lettuce a-piece, three fnails, two eggs, a barley-cake, fweet wine, and fnow, if his fnails bore any proportion in fize to thofe of Hirpinus.-Its name is derived not from any thing relating to an orchard, but from wa, an operculum, it having a very ftrong one. This feems to be the species described by Pliny, (lib. viii. c. 39.) which he fays was scarce; that it covered itfelf with the opercle, and lodged under ground; and that they were at first found only about the Maritime Alps, and more lately near Velitræ. See Pl. 173. fig. 8, where the fig. is half the natural fize. (1.) HELL. n. f. [belle, Saxon.] 1. The place of the devil and wicked fouls.

For it is a knell

That fummons thee to heaven, or to hell. Shak. -If a man were a porter of hell gates, he should have old turning the key. Shak. Macbeth.Let none admire

That riches grow in hell; that foil may best Deferve the precious bane. Milton.

Hell's black tyrant trembled to behold The glorious light he forfeited of old. Cosuley. 2. The place of separate fouls, whether good or bad. I will go down to my fon mourning to hell. Gen. vi. 35. He defcended into hell. Apofles Creed. 3. Temporal death.-The pains of bell came about me; the fnares of death overtook me. Psalm xviii. 5. 4. The place at a running play to which those who are caught are carried.

Then couples three be straight allotted there; They of both ends the middle two do fly;

The two that in mid-place, bell called, were, Muft ftrive with waiting foot and watching eye, To catch of them, and them to bell to bear, That they, as well as they, bell may supply.

Sidney. 5. The place into which the tailor throws his fhreds.

This trufty fquire, he had as well As the bold Trojan knight feen bell; Not with a counterfeited pafs

Of golden bough, but true gold-lace. Hudibras, In Covent-garden did a tailor dwell. Who might deferve a place in his own bell. King's Cookery 6. The infernal powers.—

7. It is used in composition by the old writers more than by the modern.

(2.) HELL, § 1, def. 1. As all religions have fuppofed a future ftate of exiftence after this life, fo all have their hell or place of torment, in which the wicked are fupposed to be punished.

(3.) HELL, ANCIENT OPINIONS RESPECTING. The hell of the ancient heathens was divided into two manfions; the one called ELYSIUM, on the right hand, pleasant and delightful, appointed for the fouls of good men; the other called TARTARUS, on the left,, a region of mifery and torment, appointed for the wicked. The latter only was hell, in the prefent restrained fenfe of the word. (See thefe articles.) The philofophers were of opinion, that the infernal regions were at an equal diftance from all the parts of the earth; neverthelefs it was the opinion of fome, that there were certain paffages which led thither, as the river. Lethe near the Syrtes, and the Acherufian cave in Epirus. At Hermione it was thought, that there was a very short way to hell; for which reafon the people of that country never put the fare into the mouths of the dead to pay their paffage. The Jews placed hell in the centre of the earth, and believed it to be fituated under waters and mountains. According to them, there are 3 paffages leading to it: The firft is in the wilderness, and by. that Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, defcended into hell; the ad in the fea, because Jonah, who was thrown into the fea, cried to God out of the belly of hell; the 3d is in Jerufalem, because it is faid. the fire of the Lord is in Zion, and his furnace is in Jerufalem. They likewife acknowledged 7 degrees of pain in hell, because they find this place called by 7 different names in fcripture. Though they believed that infidels, and perfons eminently wicked, will continue for ever in hell; yet they maintained, that every Jew who is not infected. with fome herefy, and has not acted contrary to the points mentioned by the rabbins, will not be punished therein for any other crimes above a year at moft.

(4.) HELL, MODERN OPINIONS RESPECTING. The Mahometans believe the eternity of rewards and punishments in another life. In the Koran it is faid that hell has 7 gates, the first for the Mufsulmans, the 2d for the Christians, the 3d for the Jews, the 4th for the Sabians, the 5th for the Magians, the 6th for the Pagans, and the 7th for hypocrites of all religions. Among Chriftians, there are two controverted queftions in regard to hell; the one concerning the locality, the other the duration of its torments. 1. The locality. of hell, and the reality of its fire, began first to be controverted by Origen. That father, interpreting the fcripture account metaphorically, makes hell to confift, 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 hypothefis. The comets, he thinks, are so many hells appointed in their orbits alternately to carry the damned into the confines of the fun, there to be scorched by its violent heat, and then to return with them Z 2 beyond

moft abundantly in the front of a warm funny border. The plants may be removed, and the roots divided for propagation, in Sep. Oct. or Nov.; but the fooner in autumn it is done, the ftronger will the plants flower at their proper feafon. The root was anciently used as a cathartic. The tafte is acrid and bitter. Its acrimony, fays Dr Grew, is firft felt on the tip of the tongue, and then fpreads itself immediately to the middle, without being much perceived in the intermediate part. On chewing the root for a few minutes, the tongue feems benumbed, and affected with a kind of paralytic ftupor, as when burnt by eating any thing too hot. The fibres are more acrimonious than the head of the root from whence they iffue. Black hellebore root, taken from 15 to 30 grains, proves a ftrong cathartic; and, as fuch, has been celebrated for the cure of maniacal and other disorders proceeding from what the ancients called the ATRA BILIS; in which cafes, medicines of this kind are doubtlefs occafionally of ufe, though they are by no means poffeffed of any specific power. It does not however appear, that our black hellebore acts with so much violence as that of the ancients; whence many have fuppofed it to be a different fpecies of plant : and indeed the defcrip. tions which the ancients have left us of their heilebore, do not agree with those of any of the forts ufually taken notice of by modern botanifts. Our hellebore is at prefent looked upon principally as an alterative; and in this light is frequently employed in small dofes for attenuating vifcid humours, promoting the uterine and urinary difcharges, and opening inveterate obftructions of the remoter glands. It often proves a powerful emmenagogue in plethoric habits, where fteel is ineffectual or improper. In fome parts of Germany, a fpecies of black hellebore has been made ufe of, which frequently produced violent, and fometimes deleterious effects. It appears to be the fetid kind of Linnæus, called in English settlewort, fetterwort, or baftard hellebore. The roots of this may be diftinguished from those of the true kind by their being lefs black.

2. HELLEBORUS NIGER ORIENTALIS is a fpecies difcovered in the eastern countries, which Tournefort diftinguishes thus; ampliffimo folio, caule præalto, flore purpurefcente, and fuppofes to be the true ancient hellebore, from its growing in plenty about mount Olympus, and in the island of Anticyra, celebrated of old for the production of this antimaniacal drug: he relates, that a fcruple of this fort, given for a dose, occafioned convulfions.

HELLELAND, a town of Norway. HELLEN, the fon of Deucalion, who is faid to have given the name of HELLENUS to the Greeks, A. A. C. 1521. See GREECE, N° I. § 2.

HELLENES. See GREECE, § 2, & HELLENISTS. (1.) * HELLENISM. n. S. ['éλanuioμs.] A Greek idiom. Ainsworth.

(2.) HELLENISM is only used when speaking of the authors who, writing in a different language, exprefs themselves in a phraseology peculiar to the Greek.

HELLENISTIC LANGUAGE, that ufed by the Grecian Jews who lived in Egypt and other parts where the Greek tongue prevailed. In this lan

guage it is faid the Septuagint was written, and alfo the books of the New Teftament; and that it was thus denominated to fhow that it was Greek filled with Hebraisms and Syriacifms.

HELLENISTS, [HELLENISTA,] a term occur ring in the Greek text of the New Teftament, and which in the English verfion is rendered Grecians. The critics are divided as to the fignification of the word. Ecumenius, in his Scholia on Acts vi. 1. obferves, that it is not to be understood as fignifying thofe of the religion of the Greeks, but thofe who spoke Greek, rus EλANVIsi půlyžœμevės. The authors of the Vulgate verfion, indeed, render it like ours, Graci; but Meffieurs Du Port Royal more accurately Juifs Grecs, Greek or Grecian Jews; the Jews who fpoke Greek being here treated of, and hereby diftinguished from the Jews called Hebrews, that is, who spoke the Hebrew tongue of that time. Thefe Hellenifts, or Grecian Jews, were those who lived in Egypt and other parts where the Greek tongue prevailed. It is to them we owe the Greek verfion of the Old Teftament, commonly called the Septuagint, or that of the LXX. Salmafius and Voffius, however, are of a different opinion, with regard to the Hellenists. The latter will only have them to be those who adhered to the Grecian interefts. Scaliger is re prefented, in the Scaligerana, as afferting the Hellenifts to be the Jews who lived in Greece and other places, and who read the Greek Bible in their fynagogues, and used the Greek language in jaeris ; and thus they were opposed to the Hebrew Jews, who performed their public worship in the Hebrew tongue. In this fenfe St Paul speaks of himfelf as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, (Phil. iii. 5.) i. e, a Hebrew both by nation and language. The Hellenists are thus properly distinguished from the HELLENES or Greeks, mentioned John' xii. 20. who were Greeks by birth and nation, and yet profelytes to the Jewish religion.

t

HELLENODICÆ, ['Exaпvodixxi,] in antiquity, the directors of the Olympian games. At first there was only one, afterwards the number increased to 2 and 3, and at length to 9. They affembled in a place called 'Exavodxov, in the Elean forum, where they were obliged to refide ten months before the celebration of the games, to take care that fuch as offered themselves to contend, performed their goyμvaμara, or preparatory exercises, and to be inftructed in all the laws of the games by certain men called voμopuraxis, i. e. keepers of the laws. To prevent all unjust practices, they were obliged to take an oath, that they would act impartially, would take no bribes, nor discover the reafon for which they difliked or approved of any of the contenders. At the folemnity they fat naked, having before them the victorial crown till the exercises were finished, and then it was prefented to whomfoever they adjudged it. Nevertheless, there lay an appeal from the hellenodica to the Olympian fenate.

HELLEN'S, ST. See HELEN'S, ST, N° 1.
HELLEBRACH, a river of Silefia.

HELLESPONT, a narrow ftrait between Afia and Europe, near the Propontis, so named from HELLE. It is celebrated for the love and death of Leander, and for the bridge of boats which XERXES built over it when he invaded Greece. It is now

called

called the DARDANELLES. It is about 33 miles long, and in the broadest parts the Afiatic coaft is about one mile and a half distant from the European, and only half a mile in the narrowest, ac. cording to modern investigation, and the cocks are heard crowing from the opposite shores.

HELL-GATE, a famous ftrait, 8 m. E. of New York, near the W. end of Long Island Sound, op. pofite Haerlem, in York Island, remarkable for its whirlpools, which make a most tremendous noise at certain times of the tide.

*HELL-GOVERNED. adj. Directed by hell.Earth, gape open wide and eat him quick, As thou doft fwallow up this good king's blood, Which his bell-govern'd arm hath butcher'd. Shak. HELL-HATED. adj. Abhorred like hell.— Back do I tofs thefe treafons to thy head, With the hell-bated lie o'erwhelm thy heart. Shak. HELL-HAUNTED. adj. [belland haunt.] Haunted by the devil.

Fierce Ofmond clof'd me in the bleeding bark, And bid me ftand exposed to the bleak winds, Bound to the fate of this hell-baunted grove. Dryden. *HELL-HOUND. n. f. [belle hund, Sax.] 1. Dog of hell

From forth the kennel of thy womb hath crept A bell-bound that doth hunt us all to death. Shak. Now the bell-bounds with fuperior speed Had reach'd the daine, and, fafl'ning on her fide, The ground with iffuing ftreams of purple dy'd. Dryden. 2. Agent of hell.—

I call'd

HELLIMER, a town of France, in the dep. of the Mofelle, 8 miles W. of Sar Albe, and 9 SSE. of St Avoid.

HELLIN, a town of Spain, in Murcia.

HELLISH, adj. [from hell.] 1. Sent from hell. O thou celeftial or infernal spirit of love, or what other heavenly or hellish title thou lift to have, for effects of both I find in myself, have compaffion of me. Sidney.

Victory and triumph to the Son of God, Now entering his great duel, not of arms, But to vanquish by wisdom hellifh wiles. Milt. 2. Having the qualities of hell; infernal; wicked; deteftable. No benefits fhall ever allay that diabolical rancor that ferments in fome hellish breafts, but that it will foam out at its foul mouth in flander. South.

*HELLISHLY. adv. {from hellish.] Infernally; wickedly; detestably;

* HELLISHNES. n. f. [from hellish.] Wicked. nefs; abhorred qualities.

* HELL-KITE. n.s. [bell and kite.] Kite of infernal breed. The term hell prefixed to any word notes deteftation.

Did you fay all? What, all? Oh, hell-kite! all What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam, At one fell fwoop? Shak. Macbeth. HELL'S CLEUGH, a hill of Scotland in Eaft Lothian, 2100 feet above the fea level. On its fummit is a cairn, called the Pyked Stane, which af

fords an extenfive prospect of Fifeshire, as far as Dumbarton S. of the Forth, to N. Berwick on the E. and to the Eildon and Cheviot hills on the S. HELL'S SKERRIES, a cluster of small islands near the W. coaft of Scotland, 10 miles W. of Rum Inland. Lon. 3. 40. W. Lat. 57. o. N.

* HELLWARD: adv. [from hell.] Towards hell. Be next thy care the fable fheep to place Full o'er the pit, and hellward turn their face. Pope.

HELL-WEED. See CUSCUTA.

(I.) HELM denotes defence: as Eadhelm, happy defence; Sig helm, victorious defence; Berthelm, eminent defence; like Amyntas and Boetius among the Greeks. Gibson's Camden.

(II. 1.) HELM. n. f. [belm, Saxon, from helan, to cover, to protect.] 1. A covering for the head in war; a helmet; a morrion; an headpiece.

France spreads his banners in our noiseless land! With plumed helm the slayer begins his threats. Shak.

Mneftheus lays hard load upon his helm. Dryd. 2. The part of a coat of arms that bears the creft. -More might be added of helms, crests, mantles, and supporters. Camden's Remains. 3. The upper part of the retort.-The vulgar chymifts themfelves pretend to be able, by repeated cohobations and other fit operations, to make the diftilled parts of a concrete bring its own caput mortuum over the belm. Boyle. 4. [belma, Sax.] The fteerage; the rudder.

They did not leave the helm in ftorms; And fuch they are make happy ftates. B. Jonf. More in profperity is reafon toft

Than fhips in ftorms, their helms and anchors loft. Denham. Fair occafion fhews the fpringing gale, And int'reft guides the helm, and honour fwells the fail. Prior. 5. The station of government.-I may be wrong in the means; but that is no objection against the defign: let thofe at the helm contrive it better. Swift. 6. In the following line it is difficult to determine whether steerfman or defender is intended: I think fleersman.—

You flander

The helms o' th' ftate, who care for you like fathers

When you curfe them as enemies.

Shak.

(2.) The HELM (§ 1, def. 4.) is a long and flat piece of timber, or an affemblage of feveral pieces, fufpended along the hind part of a fhip's ftern-poft, where it turns upon hinges to the right or left, ferving to direct the course of the veffel, as the tail of a fish guides the body. The helm is ufually compofed of 3 parts, viz. the rudder, the tiller, and the wheel, except in fmall veffels, where the wheel is unneceffary. As to the form of the rudder, it becomes gradually broader in proportion to its diftance from the top, or to its depth under the water. The back, or inner part of it, which joins to the ftern-poft, is diminished into the form of a wedge throughout its whole length, fo as that the rudder may be more easily turned from one fide to the other, where it makes an obtufe angle with the keel. It is fupported upon hinges; of which thofe that are bolted round the ftern-poft to the after extremity of the ship, are called googings,

and

and are furnished with a large hole in the afterpart of the ftern-poft. The other parts of the hinges, which are bolted to the back of the rudder, are called pintles, being ftrong cylindrical pins, which enter into the googings, and reft upon them. The length and thickness of the rudder is nearly equal to that of the ftern-poft. The rudder is turned upon its hinges by means of a long bar of timber, called the tiller, which is fixed horizontally in its upper end within the veffel. The movements of the tiller to the right and left, accordingly, direct the efforts of the rudder to the government of the ship's courfe as fhe advances; which, in the fea language, is called fteering. The operations of the tiller are guided and affifted by a fort of tackle, communicating with the ship's fide, called the tiller-rope, which is ufually compofed of untarred rope-yarns, for the purpofe of traverfing more readily through the blocks or pulleys.

(3) HELM, MANAGEMENT OF THE. To facilitate the management of the helm, the tiller-rope, in all large veffels, is wound about a wheel, which acts upon it with the powers of a crane or windlafs. The rope employed in this fervice being conveyed from the fore-end of the tiller k, to a fingle block'i, on each fide of the fhip, (fee DECK, 2; and Pl.xcix. fig. 7.) is farther communicated to the wheely by two blocks fufpended near the mi zen-maft, and two holes immediately above, lead. ing up to the wheel, which is fixed upon an axis on the quarter-deck, almoft perpendicularly over the fore-end of the tiller. Five turns of the tillerrope are ufually wound about the barrel of the wheel; and when the helm is amidship, the middle turn is nailed to the top of the barrel, with a mark by which the helmfman readily discovers the fituation of the helm, as the wheel turns it from the ftarboard to the larboard fide. The spokes of the wheel generally reach about eight inches beyond the rim or circumference, ferving as handles to the perfon who fteers the veffel. As the effect of a lever increases in proportion to the length of its arm, it is evident that the power of the helmfman to turn the wheel will be increased according to the length of the spokes beyond the circumference of the barrel. When the helm, inftead of lying in a right line with the keel, is turned to one fide or the other, as in BD, Plate CLXXIII. fig. 9, it receives an immediate fhock from the water, which glides along the fhip's bottom in running aft from A to B; and this fluid pushes it towards the oppofite fide, whilft it is retained in this pofition: fo that the ftern, to which the rudder is confined, receives the fame impreffion, and accordingly turns from B to b about fome point c, whilft the head of the ship paffes from A to a. It must be obferved, that the current of water falls upon the rudder obliquely, and only strikes it with that part of its motion which acts according to the fine of incidence, pushing it in the direction NP, with a force which not only depends on the velocity of the fhip's courfe, by which this current of water is produced, but alfo upon the extent of the fine of incidence. This force is by confequence-compofed of the square of the velocity with which the hip advances, and the fquare of the fine of incidence, which will neceffarily be greater or fmaller

according to circumstances; fo that if the veffel runs 3 or 4 times more fwiftly, the abfolute fhock of the water upon the rudder will be 9 or 16 times ftronger under the fame incidence: and, if the incidence is increased, it will yet be augmented in a greater proportion, because the fquare of the fine of incidence is more enlarged. This impreffion, or power of the helm, is always very feeble, when compared with the weight of the vessel; but as it operates with the force of a long lever, its efforts to turn the fhip are extremely advantageous. For the helm being applied to a great distance from the centre of gravity G, or from the point about which the veflel turns horizontally, if the direction PN of the impreffion of the water upon the rudder be prolonged, it is evident that it will pafs perpendicularly to R, widely diftant from the centre of gravity G: thus the abfolute effort of the water is very powerful. It is not therefore furprifing, that this machine impreffes the fhip with a confiderable circular movement, by pushing the ftern from B to b, and the head from A to a; and even much farther whilst she fails with rapidity, because the effect of the helm always keeps pace with the velocity with which the vessel advances. Amongst the feveral angles that the rudder makes with the keel, there is always one pofition more favourable than any of the others, as it more readily produces the defired effect of turning the fhip, in order to change her course. To ascertain this, it must be confidered, that if the obliquity of the rudder with the keel is greater than the obtuse angle ABD, fo as to diminish that angle, the action of the water upon the rudder will increase, and at the fame time oppose the courfe of the ship in a greater degree; because the angle of incidence will be more open, fo as to prefent a greater fur face to the fhock of the water, by oppofing its paffage more perpendicularly. But at that time the direction NP of the effort of the helm upon the fhip, will pafs with a smaller diftance from the centre of gravity G towards R, and lefs approach the perpendicular NL, according to which it is abfolutely neceffary that the power applied fhould act with a greater effect to turn the veffel. Thus it is evident, that if the obtufe angle ABD is too much inclofed, the greateft impulfe of the water will not counterbalance the lofs fuftained by the distance of the direction NP from NL, or by the great obliquity which is given to the fame direction NP of the abfolute effort of the helm with the keel AB. If, on the contrary, the angle ABD is too much opened, the direction NP of the force of the action of the helm will become more advan tageous to turn the veffel, because it will approach nearer the perpendicular NI.; fo that the line prolonged from NP will increase the line GR, by removing R to a greater distance from the centre of gravity G: but then the helm will receive the impreffion of the water too obliquely, for the angle of incidence will be more acute fo that it will only prefent a fmall portion of its breadth to the fhock of the water, and by confequence will only receive a feeble effort. By this principle it is eafy to conceive, that the greateft diftance GR from the centre of gravity G, is not fufficient to repair the diminution of force occafioned by the too great obliquity of the shock of the water, Hence we may

conclude