stage of dissociation consists, but a view compatible with all that we
know of the functions of the central nervous system may be suggested.
The connexions between neural dispositions involve synapses or
cell-junctions, and these seem to be the places of variable resistance
which demarcate the dispositions and systems; and there is good reason
to think that their resistances vary with the state of the neurones
which they connect, being lowered when these are excited and raised when
their excitement ebbs. Now, in the waking state, the varied stimuli,
which constantly rain upon all the sense-organs, maintain the whole
cerebrum in a state of sub-excitement, keep all the cerebral neurones
partially charged with free nervous energy. When the subject lies down
to sleep or submits himself to the hypnotizer he arrests as far as
possible the flow of his thoughts, and the sensory stimuli are
diminished in number and intensity. Under these conditions the general
cerebral activity tends to subside, the free energy with which the
cerebral neurones are charged ebbs away, and the synaptic resistances
rise proportionally; then the effect of sensory impressions tends to be
confined to the lower nervous level, and the brain tends to come to
rest. If this takes place the condition of normal sleep is realized. But
in inducing hypnosis the operator, by means of his words and
manipulations, keeps one system of ideas and the corresponding neural
system in activity, namely, the ideas connected with himself; thus he
keeps open one channel of entry to the brain and mind, and through this
one open channel he can introduce whatever ideas he pleases; and the
ideas so introduced then operate with abnormally great effect because
they work in a free field, unchecked by rival ideas and tendencies.
This theory of relative dissociation has two great merits: in the first
place it goes far towards enabling us to understand in some degree most
of the phenomena of hypnosis; secondly, we have good evidence that
dissociation really occurs in deep hypnosis and in some allied states.
Any one may readily work out for himself the application of the theory
to the explanation of the power of the operator's suggestions to control
movement, to induce anaesthesia, hallucinations and delusions, and to
exert on the organic processes an influence greater than can be exerted
by mental processes in the normal state of the brain. But the positive
evidence of the occurrence of dissociation is a matter of great
psychological interest and its nature must be briefly indicated. The
phenomena of automatic speech and writing afford the best evidence of
cerebral dissociation. Many persons can, while in an apparently normal
or but very slightly abnormal condition, produce automatic writing, i.e.
intelligibly written sentences, in some cases long connected passages,
of whose import they have no knowledge, their self-conscious
intelligence being continuously directed to some other task. The
carrying out of post-hypnotic suggestions affords in many cases similar
evidence. Thus a subject may be told that after waking he will perform
some action when a given signal, such as a cough, is repeated for the
fifth time. In the post-hypnotic state he remains unaware of his
instructions, is not conscious of noting the signals, and yet carries
out the suggestion at the fifth signal, thereby proving that the signals
have been in some sense noted and counted. Many interesting varieties of
this experiment have been made, some of much greater complexity; but all
agreeing in indicating that the suggested action is prepared for and
determined by cerebral processes that do not affect the consciousness of
the subject, but seem to occur as a system of processes detached from
the main stream of cerebral activity; that is to say, they imply the
operation of relatively dissociated neural systems.
Many authorities go further than this; they argue that, since actions of
the kind described are determined by processes which involve operations,
such as counting, that we are accustomed to regard as distinctly mental
in character and that normally involve conscious activity, we must
believe that in these cases also consciousness or psychical activity is
involved, but that it remains as a separate system or stream of
consciousness concurrent with the normal or personal consciousness.
In recent years the study of various abnormal mental states, especially
the investigations by French physicians of severe forms of hysteria,
have brought to light many facts which seem to justify this assumption
of a secondary stream of consciousness, a co- or sub-consciousness
coexistent with the personal consciousness; although, from the nature of
the case, an absolute proof of such co-consciousness can hardly be
obtained. The co-consciousness seems to vary in degree of complexity and
coherence from a mere succession of fragmentary sensations to an
organized stream of mental activity, which may rival in all respects the
primary consciousness; and in cases of the latter type it is usual to
speak of the presence of a secondary personality. The co-consciousness
seems in the simpler cases, e.g. in cases of hysterical or hypnotic
anaesthesia, to consist of elements split off from the normal primary
consciousness, which remains correspondingly poorer; and the assumption
is usually made that such a stream of co-consciousness is the psychical
correlate of groups and systems of neurones dissociated from the main
mass of cerebral neurones. If, in spite of serious objections, we
entertain this conception, we find that it helps us to give some account
of various hypnotic phenomena that otherwise remain quite inexplicable;
some such conception seems to be required more particularly by the facts
of negative hallucination and the execution of post-hypnotic suggestions
involving such operations as counting and exact discrimination without
primary consciousness.
_Supernormal Hypnotic Phenomena._--The facts hitherto considered,
strange and perplexing as many of them are, do not seem to demand for
their explanation any principles of action fundamentally different from
those operative in the normal human mind. But much of the interest that
has centred in hypnotism in recent years has been due to the fact that
some of its manifestations seem to go beyond all such principles of
explanation, and to suggest the reality of modes of influence and action
that science has not hitherto recognized. Of these by far the best
attested are the post-hypnotic unconscious reckoning of time and
telepathy or "thought-transference" (for the latter see TELEPATHY). The
post-hypnotic reckoning and noting of the lapse of time seems in some
instances to have been carried out, in the absence of all extraneous
aids and with complete unconsciousness on the part of the normal
personality, with such extreme precision that the achievement cannot be
accounted for by any intensification of any faculty that we at present
recognize or understand. Thus, Dr Milne Bramwell has reported the case
of a patient who, when commanded in hypnosis to perform some simple
action after the lapse of many thousands of minutes, would carry out the
suggestion punctually to the minute, without any means of knowing the
exact time of day at which the suggestion was given or the time of day
at the moment its performance fell due; more recently a similar case,
even more striking in some respects, has been carefully observed and
described by Dr T. W. Mitchell. Other reported phenomena, such as
telaesthesia or clairvoyance, and telekinesia, are hardly sufficiently
well attested to demand serious consideration in this place.
_Medical Applications of Hypnotism._--The study and practice of
hypnotism is not yet, and probably never will be, regarded as a normal
part of the work of the general practitioner. Its successful application
demands so much time, tact, and special experience, that it will
probably remain, as it is now, and as it is perhaps desirable that it
should remain, a specialized branch of medical practice. In England it
is only in recent years that it has been possible for a medical man to
apply it in his practice without incurring professional odium and some
risk of loss of reputation. That, in certain classes of cases, it may
effect a cure or bring relief when all other modes of treatment are of
no avail is now rapidly becoming recognized; but it is less generally
recognized that it may be used with great advantage as a supplement to
other modes of treatment in relieving symptoms that are accentuated by
nervous irritability or mental disturbance. A third wide field of
usefulness lies before it in the cure of undesirable habits of many
kinds. Under the first heading may be put insomnia, neuralgia,
neurasthenia, hysteria in almost all its many forms; under the second,
inflammations such as that of chronic rheumatism, contractures and
paralyses resulting from gross lesion of the brain, epilepsy, dyspepsia,
menstrual irregularities, sea-sickness; under the third, inebriety, the
morphia and other drug habits, nail-biting, _enuresis nocturna_,
masturbation, constipation, facial and other twitchings. In pronounced
mental diseases hypnotism seems to be almost useless; for in general
terms it may be said that it can be applied most effectively where the
brain, the instrument through which it works, is sound and vigorous. The
widespread prejudice against the use of hypnotism is no doubt largely
due to the marvellous and (to most minds) mysterious character of the
effects producible by its means; and this prejudice may be expected to
diminish as our insight into the mode of its operation deepens. The more
purely bodily results achieved by hypnotic suggestion become in some
degree intelligible if we regard it as a powerful means of diverting
nervous energy from one channel or organ to others, so as to give
physiological rest to an overworked organ or tissue, or so as to lead to
the atrophy of one nervous habit and the replacement of it by a more
desirable habit. And in the cure of those disorders which involve a
large mental element the essential part played by it is to drive out
some habitually recurrent idea and to replace it by some idea,
expectation or conviction of healthy tendency.
It seems clear that the various systems of "mind-curing" in the hands of
persons lacking all medical training, which are now so frequently the
cause of distressing and needless disasters, owe their rapid spread to
the fact that the medical profession has hitherto neglected to attach
sufficient importance to the mental factor in the causation and cure of
disease; and it seems clear, too, that a more general and more
intelligent appreciation of the possibilities of hypnotic treatment
would constitute the best means at the disposal of the profession for
combating this growing evil.
_The Dangers of Hypnotism._--Much has been written on this head of late
years, and some of the enthusiastic advocates of hypnotic treatment have
done harm to their cause by ignoring or denying in a too thoroughgoing
manner the possibility of undesirable results of the spread of the
knowledge and practice of hypnotism. Like all powerful agencies,
chloroform or morphia, dynamite or strong electric currents, hypnotic
suggestion can only be safely used by those who have special knowledge
and experience, and, like them, it is liable to abuse. There is little
doubt that, if a subject is repeatedly hypnotized and made to entertain
all kinds of absurd delusions and to carry out very frequently
post-hypnotic suggestions, he may be liable to some ill-defined harm;
also, that an unprincipled hypnotizer might secure an undue influence
over a naturally weak subject.
But there is no ground for the belief that hypnotic treatment, applied
with good intentions and reasonable care and judgment, does or can
produce deleterious effects, such as weakening of the will or liability
to fall spontaneously into hypnosis. All physicians of large experience
in hypnotic practice are in agreement in respect to this point. But some
difference of opinion exists as to the possibility of deliberately
inducing a subject to commit improper or criminal actions during
hypnosis or by post-hypnotic suggestion. There is, however, no doubt
that subjects retain even in deep hypnosis a very considerable power of
resistance to any suggestion that is repugnant to their moral nature;
and it has been shown that, on some cases in which a subject in hypnosis
is made to perform some ostensibly criminal action, such as firing an
unloaded pistol at a bystander or putting poison into a cup for him to
drink, he is aware, however obscurely, of the unreal nature of the
situation. Nevertheless it must be admitted that a person lacking in
moral sentiments might be induced to commit actions from which in the
normal state he would abstain, if only from fear of punishment; and it
is probable that a skilful and evil-intentioned operator could in some
cases so deceive a well-disposed subject as to lead him into
wrong-doing. The proper precaution against such dangers is legislative
regulation of the practice of hypnotism such as is already enforced in
some countries.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The literature of hypnotism has increased in volume at
a rapid rate during recent years. Of recent writings the following may
be mentioned as among the most important:--_Treatment by Hypnotism and
Suggestion_ by C. Lloyd Tuckey, M.D. (5th ed., London, 1907);
_Hypnotism, its History, Practice and Theory_, by J. Milne Bramwell,
M.B. (2nd ed., London, 1906); _Hypnotism_, by Albert Moll (5th ed.,
London, 1901). All these three books give good general accounts of
hypnotism, the first being the most strictly medical, the last the
most general in its treatment. See also _Hypnotism: or Suggestion in
Psycho-Therapy_, by August Forel (translated from the 5th German ed.
by G. H. W. Armit, London, 1906); a number of papers by Ed. Gurney,
and by Ed. Gurney and F. W. H. Myers in _Proc. of the Soc. for
Psychical Research_, especially "The Stages of Hypnotism," in vol.
ii.; also some more recent papers in the same journal by other hands;
chapter on Hypnotism in _Human Personality and its Survival of bodily
Death_, by F. W. H. Myers (London, 1903); _The Psychology of
Suggestion_, by Boris Sidis, Ph.D. (New York, 1898); "Zur Psychologie
der Suggestion," by Prof. Th. Lipp, and other papers in the
_Zeitschrift für Hypnotismus_. Of special historical interest are the
following:--_Étude sur le zoomagnétisme_, par A. A. Liébeault (Paris,
1883); _Hypnotisme, suggestion, psycho-thérapie_, par Prof. Bernheim
(Paris, 1891); _Braid on Hypnotism_ (a new issue of James Braid's
_Neurypnology_), edited by A. E. Waite (London, 1899); _Traité du
somnambulisme_, by A. Bertrand (Paris, 1826). A full bibliography is
appended to Dr Milne Bramwell's _Hypnotism_. (W. McD.)
HYPOCAUST (Gr. [Greek: hypokauston: hypo], beneath, and [Greek: kauein],
to burn), the term given to the chamber formed under the floors of the
Roman baths, through which the hot air from the furnace passed,
sometimes to a single flue, as in the case of the _tepidarium_, but in
the _calidarium_ and sweating-room to a series of flues placed side by
side forming the lining of the walls. The floor of the hot-air chamber
consisted of tiles, 2 ft. square, laid on a bed of concrete; on this a
series of dwarf piers 2 ft. high were built of 8-in. square tiles placed
about 16 in. apart, which carried the floor of the hall or room; this
floor was formed of a bed of concrete covered with layers of pounded
bricks and marble cement, on which the marble pavement in slabs or
tesserae was laid. In colder countries, as for instance in Germany and
England, the living rooms were all heated in a similar way, and round
Trèves (Trier) both systems have been found in two or three Roman
villas, with the one flue for the ordinary rooms and several wall flues
for the hot baths. In England these hypocausts are found in every Roman
settlement, and the chief interest in these is centred in the
magnificent mosaic pavements with which the principal rooms were laid.
Many of the pavements found in London and elsewhere have been preserved
in the British or the Guildhall museums; and in some of the provincial
towns, such as Leicester and Lincoln, they remain _in situ_ many feet
below the present level of the town.
HYPOCHONDRIASIS (synonyms--"the spleen," "the vapours"), a medical term
(from [Greek: to hypochondrion, ta hypochondria], the soft part of the
body immediately under the [Greek: chondros] or cartilage of the
breast-bone) given by the ancients, and indeed by physicians down to the
time of William Cullen, to diseases or derangements of one or more of
the abdominal viscera. Cullen (_Clinical Lectures,_ 1777) classified it
amongst nervous diseases, and Jean Pierre Falret (1794-1870) more fully
described it as a morbid condition of the nervous system characterized
by depression of feeling and false beliefs as to an impaired state of
the health. The subjects of hypochondriasis are for the most part
members of families in which hereditary predisposition to degradation of
the nervous system is strong, or those who have suffered from morbid
influences affecting this system during the earlier years of life. It
may be dependent on depressing disease affecting the general system, but
under such circumstances it is generally so complicated with the
symptoms of hysteria as to render differentiation difficult (see
HYSTERIA). Hypochondriasis is often handed down from one generation to
another in its individual form, but it is also not unfrequently to be
met with in an individual as the sole manifestation in him of a family
tendency to insanity. In its most common form it is manifested by simple
false belief as to the state of the health, the intellect being
otherwise unaffected. We may instance the "vapourish" woman or the
"splenetic" as terms society has applied to its milder manifestations.
Such persons are constantly asserting a weak state of health although no
palpable cause can be discovered. In its more definite phases pain or
uneasy sensations are referred by the patient to some particular region,
generally the abdomen, the heart or the head. That these are subjective
is apparent from the fact that the general health is good: all the
functions of the various systems are duly performed; the patient eats
and sleeps well; and, when any circumstance temporarily overrides the
false belief, he is happy and comfortable. No appeal to the reason is of
any avail, and the hypochondriac idea so dominates his existence as to
render him unable to perform the ordinary duties of life. In its most
aggravated form hypochondriasis amounts to actual insanity, delusions
arising as to the existence of living creatures in the intestines or
brain, or to the effect that the body is materially changed; e.g. into
glass, wood, &c. The symptoms of this condition may be remittent; they
may even disappear for years, and only return on the advent of some
exciting cause. Suicide is occasionally committed in order to escape
from the constant misery. Recovery can only be looked for by placing the
patient under such morally hygienic conditions as may help to turn his
mind to other matters. (See also NEUROPATHOLOGY.)
HYPOCRISY, pretence, or false assumption of a high character, especially
in regard to religious belief or practice. The Greek [Greek:
hypokrisis], from which the word is derived through the Old French,
meant primarily the acting of a part on the stage, from [Greek:
hypokrinesthai], to give an answer, to speak dialogue, play a part on
the stage, hence to practice dissimulation.
HYPOSTASIS, in theology, a term frequently occurring in the Trinitarian
controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries. According to Irenaeus (i. 5,
4) it was introduced into theology by Gnostic writers, and in earliest
ecclesiastical usage appears, as among the Stoics, to have been
synonymous with [Greek: ousia]. Thus Dionysius of Rome (cf. Routh, _Rel.
Sacr._ iii. 373) condemns the attempt to sever the Godhead into three
separate _hypostases_ and three deities, and the Nicene Creed in the
anathemas speaks of [Greek: ex heteras hypostaseôs ê ousias].
Alongside, however, of this persistent interchange there was a desire to
distinguish between the terms, and to confine [Greek: hypostasis] to the
Divine _persons_. This tendency arose in Alexandria, and its progress
may be seen in comparing the early and later writings of Athanasius.
That writer, in view of the Arian trouble, felt that it was better to
speak of [Greek: ousia] as "the common undifferentiated substance of
Deity," and [Greek: hypostasis] as "Deity existing in a personal mode,
the substance of Deity with certain special properties" ([Greek: ousia
meta tinôn idiômatôn]). At the council of Alexandria in 362 the phrase
[Greek: treis hypostaseis] was permitted, and the work of this council
was supplemented by Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa in
the formula [Greek: mia ousia, treis hypostaseis] or [Greek: mia ousia
en trisin hypostasesin].
The results arrived at by these Cappadocian fathers were stated in a
later age by John of Damascus (_De orth. fid._ iii. 6), quoted in R.
L. Ottley, _The Doctrine of the Incarnation_, ii. 257.
HYPOSTYLE, in architecture, the term applied to a hall, the flat ceiling
of which is supported by columns, as in the Hall of Columns at Karnak.
In this case the columns flanking the central avenue are of greater
height than those of the side aisles, and this admits of openings in the
wall above the smaller columns, through which light is admitted over the
aisle roof, through clerestory windows.
HYPOSULPHITE OF SODA, the name originally given to the substance known
in chemistry as sodium thiosulphate, Na2S2O3; the earlier name is still
commonly used, especially by photographers, who employ this chemical as
a fixer. In systematic chemistry, sodium hyposulphite is a salt of
hyposulphurous acid, to which Schutzenberger gave the formula H2SO2, but
which Bernthsen showed to be H2S2O4. (See SULPHUR.)
HYPOTHEC (Lat. _hypotheca_, Gr. [Greek: hypothêkê]), in Roman law, the
most advanced form of the contract of pledge. A specific thing may be
given absolutely to a creditor on the understanding that it is to be
given back when the creditor's debt is paid; or the property in the
thing may be assigned to the creditor while the debtor is allowed to
remain in possession, the creditor as owner being able to take
possession if his debt is not discharged. Here we have the kind of
security known as pledge and mortgage respectively. In the _hypotheca_,
the property does not pass to the creditor, nor does he get possession,
but he acquires a preferential right to have his debt paid out of the
hypothecated property; that is, he can sell it and pay himself out of
the proceeds, or in default of a purchaser he can become the owner
himself. The name and the principle have passed into the law of
Scotland, which distinguishes between conventional hypothecs, as
_bottomry_ and _respondentia_, and tacit hypothecs established by law.
Of the latter the most important is the landlord's hypothec for rent
(corresponding to distress in the law of England), which extends over
the produce of the land and the cattle and sheep fed on it, and over
stock and horses used in husbandry. The law of agricultural hypothec
long caused much discontent in Scotland; its operation was restricted by
the Hypothec Amendment (Scotland) Act 1867, and finally by the Hypothec
Abolition (Scotland) Act 1880 it was enacted that the "landlord's right
of hypothec for the rent of land, including the rent of any buildings
thereon, exceeding two acres in extent, let for agriculture or pasture,
shall cease and determine." By the same act and by the Agricultural
Holdings (Scotland) Act 1883 other rights and remedies for rent, where
the right of hypothec had ceased, were given to the landlord.
HYPOTHESIS (from Gr. [Greek: hypotithenai], to put under; cf. Lat.
_suppositio_, from _sub-ponere_), in ordinary language, an explanation,
supposition or assumption, which is put forward in the absence of
ascertained facts or causes. Both in ordinary life and in the
acquisition of scientific knowledge hypothesis is all-important. A
detective's work consists largely in forming and testing hypothesis. If
an astronomer is confronted by some phenomenon which has no obvious
explanation he may postulate some set of conditions which from his
general knowledge of the subject would or might give rise to the
phenomenon in question; he then tests his hypothesis until he discovers
whether it does or does not conflict with the facts. An example of this
process is that of the discovery of the planet Neptune: certain
perturbations of the orbit of Uranus had been observed, and it was seen
that these could be explained on the hypothesis of the existence of a
then unknown planet, and this hypothesis was verified by actual
observation. The progress of inductive knowledge is by the formation of
successive hypotheses, and it frequently happens that the demolition of
one or even many hypotheses is the direct road to a new and accurate
hypothesis, i.e. to fresh knowledge. A hypothesis may, therefore, turn
out to be entirely wrong, yet it may be of the greatest practical use.
The recognition of the importance of hypotheses has led to various
attempts at drawing up exact rules for their formation, but logicians
are generally agreed that only very elementary principles can be laid
down. Thus a hypothesis must contain nothing which is at variance with
known facts or principles: it should not postulate conditions which
cannot be verified empirically. J. S. Mill (_Logic_ III. xiv. 4) laid
down the principle that a hypothesis is not "genuinely scientific" if it
is "destined always to remain a hypothesis": it must "be of such a
nature as to be either proved or disproved by comparison with observed
facts": in the same spirit Bacon said that in searching for causes in
nature "Deum semper excipimus." Mill's principle, though sound in the
abstract, has, except in a few cases, little practical value in
determining the admissibility of hypotheses, and in practice any rule
which tends to discourage hypothesis is in general undesirable. The most
satisfactory check on hypothesis is expert knowledge in the particular
field of research by which rigorous tests may be applied. This test is
roughly of two kinds, first by the ultimate principles or
presuppositions on which a particular branch of knowledge rests, and
second by the comparison of correlative facts. Useful light is shed on
this distinction by Lotze, who contrasts (_Logic_, § 273) _postulates_
("absolutely necessary assumptions without which the content of the
observation with which we are dealing would contradict the laws of our
thought") with _hypotheses_, which he defines as conjectures, which seek
"to fill up the postulate thus abstractly stated by specifying the
concrete causes, forces or processes, out of which the given phenomenon
really arose in this particular case, while in other cases maybe the
same postulate is to be satisfied by utterly different though equivalent
combinations of forces or active elements." Thus a hypothesis may be
ruled out by principles or postulates without any reference to the
concrete facts which belong to that division of the subject to explain
which the hypothesis is formulated. A true hypothesis, therefore, seeks
not merely to connect or colligate two separate facts, but to do this in
the light of and subject to certain fundamental principles. Various
attempts have been made to classify hypotheses and to distinguish
"hypothesis" from a "theory" or a mere "conjecture": none of these have
any great practical importance, the differences being only in degree,
not in kind.
The adjective "hypothetical" is used, in the same sense, both loosely in
contradistinction to "real" or "actual," and technically in the phrases
"hypothetical judgment" and "hypothetical syllogism." (See LOGIC and
SYLLOGISM.)
See Naville, _La Logique de l'hypothèse_ (1880), and textbooks of
logic, e.g. those of Jevons, Bosanquet, Joseph; Liebmann, _Der Klimax
d. Theorien_.
HYPOTRACHELIUM (Gr. [Greek: hypotrachêlion], the lower part of the neck,
[Greek: trachêlos]), in classical architecture, the space between the
annulet of the echinus and the upper bed of the shafts, including,
according to C. R. Cockerell, the three grooves or sinkings found in
some of the older examples, as in the temple of Neptune at Paestum and
the temple of Aphaea at Aegina; there being only one groove in the
Parthenon, the Theseum and later examples. In the temple of Ceres and
the so-called Basilica at Paestum the hypotrachelium consists of a
concave sinking carved with vertical lines suggestive of leaves, the
tops of which project forward. A similar decoration is found in the
capital of the columns flanking the tomb of Agamemnon at Mycenae, but
here the hypotrachelium projects forward with a cavetto moulding, and is
carved with triple leaves like the buds of a rose. In the Roman Doric
Order the term was sometimes applied to that which is generally known as
the "necking," the space between the fillet and the annulet.
HYPSOMETER (Gr. [Greek: hypsos], height, [Greek: metron], a measure), an
instrument for measuring heights which employs the principles that the
boiling-point of a liquid is lowered by diminishing the pressure, and
that the barometric pressure varies with the height of the point of
observation. The instrument consists of a cylindrical vessel in which
the liquid, usually water, is boiled, surmounted by a jacketed column,
in the outer partitions of which the vapour circulates, while in the
central one a thermometer is placed. To deduce the height of the station
from the observed boiling-point, it is necessary to know the relation
existing between the boiling-point and pressure, and also between the
pressure and height of the atmosphere.
HYRACOIDEA, a suborder of ungulate mammals represented at the present
day only by the Syrian hyrax (_Procavia syriaca_), the "coney" of the
Bible, and its numerous African relatives, all of which may be included
in the single genus _Procavia_ (or _Hyrax_), and consequently in the
family _Procaviidae_. These creatures have no proper English name, and
are generally known as hyraxes, from the scientific term (_Hyrax_) by
which they were for many years designated--a term which has
unfortunately had to give place to the earlier _Procavia_. In size these
animals may be compared roughly to rabbits and hares; and they have
rodent-like habits, hunching up their backs after the fashion of some
foreign members of the hare-family, more especially the Liu-Kiu rabbit.
In the matter of nomenclature these animals have been singularly
unfortunate. In the title "hyrax" they have, for instance, usurped the
Greek name for the shrew-mouse; while in the Bible they have been given
the old English name for the rabbit. Perhaps rock-rabbit would be the
best name. At the Cape they are known to the Dutch as dass (badger),
which has been anglicized into "dassie."
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--The Cape Hyrax (_Procavia capensis_).]
As regards the recent forms, the dentition in the fully adult animal
consists only of incisors and cheek-teeth, the formula being _i._ ½,
_c._ 0/0, _p._ 4/4 _m._ 3/3. There is, however, a minute upper canine
developed at first, which is early shed; and in extinct forms this
tooth was functional and molar-like. The upper incisors have
persistent pulps, and are curved longitudinally, forming a semicircle
as in rodents; they are, however, not flattened from before backwards
as in that order, but prismatic, with an antero-external, an
antero-internal and a posterior surface, the first two only being
covered with enamel; their tips are consequently not chisel-shaped,
but sharp-pointed. They are preceded by functional, rooted milk-teeth.
The lower incisors have long tapering roots, but not of persistent
growth; and are straight, directed somewhat forwards, with awl-shaped,
tri-lobed crowns. Behind the incisors is a considerable gap, followed
by the cheek-teeth, which are all contiguous, and formed almost
exactly on the pattern of some of the perissodactyle ungulates. The
milk-dentition includes three pairs of incisors and one of canines in
each jaw. The hyoid arch is unlike that of any known mammal. The
dorsal and lumbar vertebrae are very numerous, 28 to 30, of which 21
or 22 bear ribs. The tail is extremely short. There are no clavicles.
In the fore foot, the three middle toes are subequally developed, the
fifth is present, but smaller, and the first is rudimentary, although,
in one species at least, all its normal bones are present. The
terminal phalanges of the four outer digits are small, somewhat
conical and flattened in form. The carpus has a distinct os centrale.
There is a slight ridge on the femur in the place of a third
trochanter. The fibula is complete, thickest at its upper end, where
it generally unites with the tibia. The articulation between the tibia
and astragalus is more complex than in other mammals, the end of the
malleolus entering into it. The hind-foot is very like that of a
rhinoceros, having three well-developed toes. There is no trace of a
first toe, and the fifth meta-tarsal is represented by a small nodule.
The terminal phalange of the inner (or second) digit is deeply cleft,
and has a peculiar long curved claw, the others having short broad
nails. The stomach is formed upon much the same principle as that of
the horse or rhinoceros, but is more elongated transversely and
divided by a constriction into two cavities--a large left _cul de
sac_, lined by a very dense white epithelium, and a right pyloric
cavity, with a thick, soft, vascular lining. The intestinal canal is
long, and has, in addition to the ordinary short, but capacious and
sacculated caecum at the commencement of the colon, lower down, a pair
of large, conical, pointed caeca. The liver is much subdivided, and
there is no gall-bladder. The brain resembles that of typical
ungulates far more than that of rodents. The testes are permanently
abdominal. The ureters open into the fundus of the bladder as in some
Rodents. The female has six teats, of which four are inguinal and two
axillary, and the placenta is zonary and deciduous. There is a gland
on the back.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Skull and Dentition of Tree-Hyrax (_Procavia
dorsalis_).]
The more typical members of the genus are terrestrial in their habits,
and their cheek-teeth have nearly the same pattern as in rhinoceroses;
while the interval between the upper incisors is less than the width
of the teeth; and the lower incisors are only slightly notched at the
cutting edge. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 22, L. 8, S. 6, C. 6. Of this form
the earliest known species, _P. capensis_, is the type; but there are
many other species, as _P. syriaca_, and _P. brucei_ from Syria and
eastern Africa. They inhabit mountainous and rocky regions, and live
on the ground. In a second section the molar teeth have the same
pattern as in _Palaeotherium_ (except that the third lower molar has
but two lobes); the interval between the upper incisors exceeds the
width of the teeth; and the lower incisors have distinctly tri-lobed
crowns. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 21, L. 7, S. 5, C. 10. The members of this
section frequent the trunks and large branches of trees, sleeping in
holes. There are several species from Western and South Africa, as _P.
arboreus_ and _P. dorsalis_. The members of both groups appear to have
a power like that possessed by geckos of clinging to vertical surfaces
of rocks and trees by the soles of their feet.
_Extinct Hyracoids._--For many years extinct representatives of the
Hyracoidea were unknown, partly owing to the fact that certain fossils
were not recognized as really belonging to that group. The longest
known of these was originally named _Leptodon graecus_, but, on
account of the preoccupation of the generic title, the designation has
been changed to _Pliohyrax graecus_. This animal, whose remains occur
in the Lower Pliocene of both Attica and Samos, was about the size of
a donkey, and possessed three pairs of upper incisor teeth, of which
the innermost were large and trihedral, recalling those of the
existing genus. On the other hand, the two outer pairs of incisors
were in contact with one another and with the canines, so as to form
on each side a series continuous with the cheek-teeth.
The next representatives of the group occur in the Upper Eocene beds
of the Fayum district of Egypt, where the genera _Saghatherium_ and
_Megalohyrax_ occur. These are regarded as representing a distinct
family, the _Saghatheriidae_, characterized by the possession of the
full series of twenty-two teeth in the upper jaw, among which the
first pair of incisors was modified to form trihedral rootless tusks,
while the two remaining pairs were separated from one another and from
the teeth in front by gaps. The canine was like a premolar, and in
contact with the first tooth of that series; and the cheek-teeth were
short-crowned, with the premolar simpler than the molars, and a third
lobe to the last lower tooth of the latter series. The members of
this genus were small or medium-sized ungulates with single-rooted
incisors. On the other hand, the representatives of the contemporary
genus _Megalohyrax_ were approximately as large as _Pliohyrax_, and in
some instances had double roots to the second and third incisors.
It is now possible to define the suborder Hyracoidea as including
ungulates with a centrale in the carpus, plantigrade feet, in which
the first and fifth toes are reduced in greater or less degree, and
clavicles and a foramen in the lower end of the humerus are absent.
The femur has a small third trochanter, the radius and ulna and tibia
and fibula are respectively separate, at least in the young, and the
fibula articulates with the astragalus. The earlier forms had the full
series of 44 teeth, with the premolars simpler than the molars; but in
the later types the canines and some of the incisors disappear, and at
least the hinder premolars become molar-like. In all cases the first
upper incisors are large and rootless.
That the group originated in Africa there can be no reasonable doubt;
and it is remarkable that so early as the Upper Eocene the types in
existence differed comparatively little in structure from the modern
forms. In fact the hyraxes were then almost as distinct from other
mammals as they are at the present day.
See also C. W. Andrews, _Descriptive Catalogue of the Tertiary
Vertebrata of the Fayum_, British Museum (1906). (R. L.*)
HYRCANIA. (1) An ancient district of Asia, south of the Caspian Sea, and
bounded on the E. by the river Oxus, called _Virkana_, or "Wolf's Land,"
in Old Persian. It was a wide and indefinite tract. Its chief city is
called Tape by Strabo, Zadracarta by Arrian (probably the modern
Astarabad). The latter is evidently the same as Carta, mentioned by
Strabo as an important city. Little is known of the history of the
country. Xenophon says it was subdued by the Assyrians; Curtius that
6000 Hyrcanians were in the army of Darius III. (2) Two towns named
Hyrcania are mentioned, one in Hyrcania, the other in Lydia. The latter
is said to have derived its name from a colony of Hyrcanians,
transported thither by the Persians.
HYRCANUS ([Greek: Hykanos]), a Greek surname, of unknown origin, borne
by several Jews of the Maccabaean period.
JOHN HYRCANUS I., high priest of the Jews from 135 to 105 B.C., was the
youngest son of Simon Maccabaeus. In 137 B.C. he, along with his brother
Judas, commanded the force which repelled the invasion of Judaea led by
Cendebeus, the general of Antiochus VII. _Sidetes_. On the assassination
of his father and two elder brothers by Ptolemy, governor of Jericho,
his brother-in-law, in February 135, he succeeded to the high priesthood
and the supreme authority in Judaea. While still engaged in the struggle
with Ptolemy, he was attacked by Antiochus with a large army (134), and
compelled to shut himself up in Jerusalem; after a severe siege peace
was at last secured only on condition of a Jewish disarmament, and the
payment of an indemnity and an annual tribute, for which hostages were
taken. In 129 he accompanied Antiochus as a vassal prince on his
ill-fated Parthian expedition; returning, however, to Judaea before
winter, he escaped the final disaster. By the judicious mission of an
embassy to Rome he now obtained confirmation of the alliance which his
father had previously made with the growing western power; at the same
time he availed himself of the weakened state of the Syrian monarchy
under Demetrius II. to overrun Samaria, and also to invade Idumaea,
which he completely subdued, compelling its inhabitants to receive
circumcision and accept the Jewish faith. After a long period of rest he
directed his arms against the town of Samaria, which, in spite of the
intervention of Antiochus, his sons Antigonus and Aristobulus ultimately
took, and by his orders razed to the ground (c. 100 B.C.). He died in
105, and was succeeded by Aristobulus, the eldest of his five sons. The
external policy of Hyrcanus was marked by considerable energy and tact,
and, aided as it was by favouring circumstances, was so successful as to
leave the Jewish nation in a position of independence and of influence
such as it had not known since the days of Solomon. During its later
years his reign was much disturbed, however, by the contentions for
ascendancy which arose between the Pharisees and Sadducees, the two
rival sects or parties which then for the first time (under those names
at least) came into prominence. Josephus has related the curious
circumstances under which he ultimately transferred his personal support
from the former to the latter.
JOHN HYRCANUS II., high priest from 78 to 40 B.C., was the eldest son of
Alexander Jannaeus by his wife Alexandra, and was thus a grandson of the
preceding. When his father died in 78, he was by his mother forthwith
appointed high priest, and on her death in 69 he claimed the succession
to the supreme civil authority also; but, after a brief and troubled
reign of three months, he was compelled to abdicate both kingly and
priestly dignities in favour of his more energetic and ambitious younger
brother Aristobulus II. In 63 it suited the policy of Pompey that he
should be restored to the high priesthood, with some semblance of
supreme command, but of much of this semblance even he was soon again
deprived by the arrangement of the pro-consul Gabinius, according to
which Palestine was in 57 B.C. divided into five separate circles
([Greek: synodoi, synedria]). For services rendered to Caesar after the
battle of Pharsalia, he was again rewarded with the sovereignty ([Greek:
prostasia tou ethnous], Jos. _Ant._ xx. 10) in 47 B.C., Antipater of
Idumaea, however, being at the same time made procurator of Judaea. In
41 B.C. he was practically superseded by Antony's appointment of Herod
and Phasael to be tetrarchs of Judaea; and in the following year he was
taken prisoner by the Parthians, deprived of his ears that he might be
permanently disqualified for priestly office, and carried to Babylon. He
was permitted in 33 B.C. to return to Jerusalem, where on a charge of
treasonable correspondence with Malchus, king of Arabia, he was put to
death in 30 B.C.
See Josephus (_Ant._ xiii. 8-10; xiv. 5-13; _Bell. Jud._ i. 2; i.
8-13). Also MACCABEES, _History_. (J. H. A. H.)
HYSSOP (_Hyssopus officinalis_), a garden herb belonging to the natural
order _Labiatae_, formerly cultivated for use in domestic medicine. It
is a small perennial plant about 2 ft. high, with slender, quadrangular,
woody stems; narrowly elliptical, pointed, entire, dotted leaves, about
1 in. long and 1/3 in. wide, growing in pairs on the stem; and long
terminal, erect, half-whorled, leafy spikes of small violet-blue
flowers, which are in blossom from June to September. Varieties of the
plant occur in gardens with red and white flowers, also one having
variegated leaves. The leaves have a warm, aromatic, bitter taste, and
are believed to owe their properties to a volatile oil which is present
in the proportion of ¼ to ½%. Hyssop is a native of the south of Europe,
its range extending eastward to central Asia. A strong tea made of the
leaves, and sweetened with honey, was formerly used in pulmonary and
catarrhal affections, and externally as an application to bruises and
indolent swellings.
The hedge hyssop (_Gratiola officinalis_) belongs to the natural order
_Scrophulariaceae_, and is a native of marshy lands in the south of
Europe, whence it was introduced into Britain more than 300 years ago.
Like _Hyssopus officinalis_, it has smooth opposite entire leaves, but
the stems are cylindrical, the leaves twice the size, and the flowers
solitary in the axils of the leaves and having a yellowish-red veined
tube and bluish-white limb, while the capsules are oval and many-seeded.
The herb has a bitter, nauseous taste, but is almost odourless. In small
quantities it acts as a purgative, diuretic and emetic when taken
internally. It was formerly official in the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia,
being esteemed as a remedy for dropsy. It is said to have formed the
basis of a celebrated nostrum for gout, called _Eau médicinale_, and in
former times was called _Gratia Dei_. When growing in abundance, as it
does in some damp pastures in Switzerland, it becomes dangerous to
cattle. G. _peruviana_ is known to possess similar properties.
The hyssop (_'ezob_) of Scripture (Ex. xii. 22; Lev. xiv. 4, 6; Numb.
xix. 6, 18; 1 Kings v. 13 (iv. 33); Ps. li. 9 (7); John xix. 29), a
wall-growing plant adapted for sprinkling purposes, has long been the
subject of learned disputation, the only point on which all have
agreed being that it is not to be identified with the _Hyssopus
officinalis_, which is not a native of Palestine. No fewer than
eighteen plants have been supposed by various authors to answer the
conditions, and Celsius has devoted more than forty pages to the
discussion of their several claims. By Tristram (_Oxford Bible for
Teachers_, 1880) and others the caper plant (_Capparis spinosa_) is
supposed to be meant; but, apart from other difficulties, this
identification is open to the objection that the caper seems to be, at
least in one passage (Eccl. xii. 5), otherwise designated
(_'abiy-yônah_). Thenius (on 1 Kings v. 13) suggests _Orthotrichum
saxatile_. The most probable opinion would seem to be that found in
Maimonides and many later writers, according to which the Hebrew
_'ezob_ is to be identified with the Arabic _sa'atar_, now understood
to be _Satureja Thymus_, a plant of very frequent occurrence in Syria
and Palestine, with which _Thymus Serpyllum_, or wild thyme, and
_Satureja Thymbra_ are closely allied. Its smell, taste and medicinal
properties are similar to those of _H. officinalis_. In Morocco the
_sa'atar_ of the Arabs is _Origanum compactum_; and it appears
probable that several plants of the genera _Thymus_, _Origanum_ and
others nearly allied in form and habit, and found in similar
localities, were used under the name of hyssop.
HYSTASPES (the Greek form of the Persian _Vishtaspa_). (1) A
semi-legendary king (_kava_), praised by Zoroaster as his protector and
a true believer, son of Aurvataspa (Lohrasp). The later tradition and
the Shahname of Firdousi makes him (in the modern form Kai Gushtasp)
king of Iran. As Zoroaster probably preached his religion in eastern
Iran, Vishtaspa must have been a dynast in Bactria or Sogdiana. The
Zoroastrian religion was already dominant in Media in the time of the
Assyrian king Sargon (c. 715 B.C.), and had been propagated here
probably in much earlier times (cf. PERSIA); the time of Zoroaster and
Vishtaspa may therefore be put at c. 1000 B.C. (2) A Persian, father of
Darius I., under whose reign he was governor of Parthia, as Darius
himself mentions in the Behistun inscription (2. 65). By Ammianus
Marcellinus, xxiii. 6. 32, and by many modern authors he has been
identified with the protector of Zoroaster, which is equally impossible
for chronological and historical reasons, and from the evidence of the
development of Zoroastrianism itself (see PERSIA: _Ancient History_).
(Ed. M.)
HYSTERESIS (Gr. [Greek: hysterêsis], from [Greek: hysterein], to lag
behind), a term added to the vocabulary of physical science by J. A.
Ewing, who defines it as follows: When there are two qualities M and N
such that cyclic variations of N cause cyclic variations of M, then if
the changes of M lag behind those of N, we may say that there is
hysteresis in the relation of M to N (_Phil. Trans._, 1885, 176, p.
524). The phenomenon is best known in connexion with magnetism. If an
iron bar is subjected to a magnetic force which is first gradually
increased to a maximum and then gradually diminished, the resulting
magnetization of the bar for any given value of the magnetic force will
be greater when the force is decreasing than when it is increasing; the
iron always tends to retain the magnetic condition which it has
previously acquired, and changes of its magnetization consequently lag
behind changes of the magnetic force. Thus there is hysteresis in the
relation of magnetization to magnetic force. In consequence of
hysteresis the process of magnetizing a piece of iron to a certain
intensity and then restoring it to its original condition, or of
effecting a double reversal of its magnetization, involves the
expenditure of energy, which is dissipated as heat in the iron.
Electrical generators and transformers often contain pieces of iron the
magnetization of which is reversed many times in a second, and in order
to economize power and to avoid undue heating it is essential that
hysteresis should in such cases be as small as possible. Iron and mild
steels showing remarkably little hysteresis are now specially
manufactured for use in the construction of electrical machinery. (See
MAGNETISM.)
HYSTERIA, a term applied to an affection which may manifest itself by a
variety of symptoms, and which depends upon a disordered condition of
the highest nervous centres. It is characterized by psychical
peculiarities, while in addition there is often derangement of the
functions subserved by the lower cerebral and spinal centres.
Histological examination of the nervous system has failed to disclose
associated structural alterations.
By the ancients and by modern physicians down to the time of Sydenham
the symptoms of hysteria were supposed to be directly due to
disturbances of the uterus (Gr. [Greek: hystera], whence the name). This
view is now universally recognized to be erroneous. The term
"functional" is often used by English neurologists as synonymous with
hysterical, a nomenclature which is tentatively advantageous since it is
at least non-committal. P. J. Möbius has defined hysteria as "a state in
which ideas control the body and produce morbid changes in its
functions." P. Janet, who has done much to popularize the psychical
origin of the affection, holds that there is "a limitation of the field
of consciousness" comparable to the contraction of the visual fields met
with in the disease. The hysterical subject, according to this view, is
incapable of taking into the field of consciousness all the impressions
of which the normal individual is conscious. Strong momentary
impressions are no longer controlled so efficiently because of the
defective simultaneous impressions of previous memories. Hence the
readiness with which the impulse of the moment is obeyed, the loss of
emotional control and the increased susceptibility to external
suggestion, which are so characteristic. A secondary subconscious mental
state is engendered by the relegation of less prominent impressions to a
lower sphere. The dual personality which is typically exemplified in
somnambulism and in the hypnotic state is thus induced. The explanation
of hysterical symptoms which are independent of the will, and of the
existence of which the individual may be unaware, is to be found in a
relative preponderance of this secondary subconscious state as compared
with the primary conscious personality. An elaboration of this theory
affords an explanation of hysterical symptoms dependent upon a "fixed
idea." The following definition of hysteria has recently been advanced
by J. F. F. Babinski: "Hysteria is a psychical condition manifesting
itself principally by signs that may be termed primary, and in an
accessory sense others that we may call secondary. The characteristic of
the primary signs is that they may be exactly reproduced in certain
subjects by suggestion and dispelled by persuasion. The characteristic
of the secondary signs is that they are closely related to the primary
phenomena."
The causes of hysteria may be divided into (a) the predisposing, such as
hereditary predisposition to nervous disease, sex, age and national
idiosyncrasy; and (b) the immediate, such as mental and physical
exhaustion, fright and other emotional influences, pregnancy, the
puerperal condition, diseases of the uterus and its appendages, and the
depressing influence of injury or general disease. Perhaps, taken over
all, hereditary predisposition to nerve-instability may be asserted as
the most prolific cause. There is frequently direct inheritance, and
cases of epilepsy and insanity or other form of nervous disease are
rarely wanting when the family history is carefully enquired into. As
regards age, the condition is apt to appear at the evolution periods of
life--puberty, pregnancy and the climacteric--without any further
assignable cause except that first spoken of. It is rare in young
children, but very frequent in girls between the ages of fifteen and
twenty-five, while it sometimes manifests itself in women at the
menopause. It is much more common in the female than in the male--in the
proportion of 20 to 1. Certain races are more liable to the disease than
others; thus the Latin races are much more prone to hysteria than are
those who come of a Teutonic stock, and in more aggravated and complex
forms. In England it has been asserted that an undue proportion of cases
occur among Jews. Occupation, or be it rather said want of occupation,
is a prolific cause. This is noticeable more especially in the higher
classes of society.
An hysterical attack may occur as an immediate sequel to an epileptic
fit. If the patient suffers only from _petit mal_ (see EPILEPSY),
unaccompanied by true epileptic fits, the significance of the hysterical
seizure, which is really a post-epileptic phenomenon, may remain
unrecognized.
It is convenient to group the very varied symptoms of hysteria into
paroxysmal and chronic. The popular term "hysterics" is applied to an
explosion of emotionalism, generally the result of mental excitement, on
which convulsive fits may supervene. The characters of these vary, and
may closely resemble epilepsy. The hysterical fit is generally preceded
by an aura or warning. This sometimes takes the form of a sensation as
of a lump in the throat (_globus hystericus_). The patient may fall, but
very rarely is injured in so doing. The eyes are often tightly closed,
the body and limbs become rigid, and the back may become so arched that
the patient rests on her heels and head (_opisthotonos_). This stage is
usually followed by violent struggling movements. There is no loss of
consciousness. The attack may last for half-an-hour or even longer.
Hysterical fits in their fully-developed form are rarely seen in
England, though common in France. In the chronic condition we find an
extraordinary complexity of symptoms, both physical and mental. The
physical symptoms are extremely diverse. There may be a paralysis of one
or more limbs associated with rigidity, which may persist for weeks,
months or years. In some cases, the patient is unable to walk; in others
there are peculiarities of the gait quite unlike anything met with in
organic disease. Perversions of sensation are usually present; a common
instance is the sensation of a nail being driven through the vertex of
the head (_clavus hystericus_). The region of the spine is a very
frequent seat of hysterical pain. Loss of sensation (_anaesthesia_), of
which the patient may be unaware, is of common occurrence. Very often
this sensory loss is limited exactly to one-half of the body, including
the leg, arm and face on that side (_hemianaesthesia_). Sensation to
touch, pain, heat and cold, and electrical stimuli may have completely
disappeared in the anaesthetic region. In other cases, the anaesthesia
is relative or it may be partial, certain forms of sensation remaining
intact. Anaesthesia is almost always accompanied by an inability to
recognize the exact position of the affected limb when the eyes are
closed. When hemianaesthesia is present, sight, hearing, taste and smell
are usually impaired on that side of the body. Often there is loss of
voice (hysterical aphonia). It is to such cases of hysterical paralysis
and sensory disturbance that the wonderful cures effected by quacks and
charlatans may be referred. The mental symptoms have not the same
tendency to pass away suddenly. They may be spoken of as
inter-paroxysmal and paroxysmal. The chief characteristics of the former
are extreme emotionalism combined with obstructiveness, a desire to be
an object of interest and a constant craving for sympathy which is often
procured at an immense sacrifice of personal comfort. Obstructiveness is
the invariable symptom. Hysteria may pass into absolute insanity.
The treatment of hysteria demands great tact and firmness on the part of
the physician. The affection is a definite entity and has to be clearly
distinguished from malingering, with which it is so often erroneously
regarded as synonymous. Drugs are of little value. The moral treatment
is all-important. In severe cases, removal from home surroundings and
isolation, either in a hospital ward or nursing home, are essential, in
order that full benefit may be derived from psychotherapeutic measures.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Charcot, _Leçons sur les maladies du système nerveuse_
(1877); S. Weir Mitchell, _Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System
especially in Women_ (1885); Buzzard, _Simulation of Hysteria by
Organic Nervous Disease_ (1891); Pitres, _Leçons cliniques sur
l'hystérie et l'hypnotisme_ (1891); Richer, _Études cliniques sur la
grande hystérie_ (1891); Gilles de la Tourette, _Traité clinique et
thérapeutique de l'hystérie_ (1891); Bastian, _Hysterical or
Functional Paralysis_ (1893); Ormerod, Art. "Hysteria," in Clifford
Allbutt's _System of Medicine_ (1899); Camus and Pagnez, _Isolement et
Psychotherapie_ (1904). (J. B. T.; E. Bra.)
HYSTERON-PROTERON (Gr. [Greek: hysteron], latter, and [Greek: proteron],
former), a figure of speech, in which the order of words or phrases is
inverted, and that which should logically or naturally come last is put
first, to secure emphasis for the principal idea; the classical example
is Virgil's "_moriamur et in media arma ruamus,_" "let us die and charge
into the thick of the fight" (Aen. ii. 358). The term is also applied to
any inversion in order of events, arguments, &c.
HYTHE, a market town and watering-place, one of the Cinque Ports, and a
municipal and parliamentary borough of Kent, England, 67 m. S.E. by E.
of London on a branch of the South Eastern & Chatham railway. Pop.
(1901) 5557. It is beautifully situated at the foot of a steep hill near
the eastern extremity of Romney Marsh, about half a mile from the sea,
and consists principally of one long street running parallel with the
shore, with which it is connected by a straight avenue of wych elms. On
account of its fine situation and picturesque and interesting
neighbourhood, it is a favourite watering-place. A sea-wall and parade
extend eastward to Sandgate, a distance of 3 m. There is communication
with Sandgate by means of a tramway along the front. On the slope of the
hill above the town stands the fine church of St Leonard, partly Late
Norman, with a very beautiful Early English chancel. The tower was
rebuilt about 1750. In a vault under the chancel there is a collection
of human skulls and bones supposed to be the remains of men killed in a
battle near Hythe in 456. Lionel Lukin (1742-1834), inventor of the
life-boat, is buried in the churchyard. Hythe possesses a guildhall
founded in 1794 and two hospitals, that of St Bartholomew founded by
Haimo, bishop of Rochester, in 1336, and that of St John (rebuilt in
1802), of still greater antiquity but unknown date, founded originally
for the reception of lepers. A government school of musketry, in which
instructors for the army are trained, was established in 1854, and has
been extended since, and the Shorncliffe military camp is within 2½ m.
of the town.
Lympne, which is now 3 m. inland, is thought to have been the original
harbour which gave Hythe a place among the Cinque Ports. The course of
the ancient estuary may be distinctly traced from here along the road to
Hythe, the sea-sand lying on the surface and colouring the soil. Here
are remains of a Roman fortress, and excavations have brought to light
many remains of the Roman _Portus Lemanis_. Large portions of the
fortress walls are standing. At the south-west corner is one of the
circular towers which occurred along the line of wall. The site is now
occupied by the fine old castellated mansion of Studfall castle,
formerly a residence of the archdeacons of Canterbury. The name denotes
a fallen place, and is not infrequently thus applied to ancient remains.
The church at Lympne is Early English, with a Norman tower built by
Archbishop Lanfranc, and Roman material may be traced in the walls. A
short distance east is Shipway or Shepway Cross, where some of the great
assemblies relating to the Cinque Ports were held. A mile north from
Hythe is Saltwood Castle, of very ancient origin, but rebuilt in the
time of Richard II. The castle was granted to the see of Canterbury in
1026, but escheated to the crown in the time of Henry II., when the
murder of Thomas à Beckett is said to have been concerted here, and
having been restored to the archbishops by King John remained a
residence of theirs until the time of Henry VIII. It was restored as a
residence in 1882. About 2 m. N.W. of Saltwood are remains of the
fortified 14th-century manor-house of Westenhanger. It is quadrangular
and surrounded by a moat, and of the nine towers (alternately square and
round) by which the walls were defended, three remain.
The parliamentary borough of Hythe, which includes Folkestone, Sandgate
and a number of neighbouring villages, returns one member. The town is
governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area 2617 acres.
Hythe (Heda, Heya, Hethe, Hithe, _i.e._ landing-place) was known as a
port in Saxon times, and was granted by Halfden, a Saxon thegn, to
Christ Church, Canterbury. In the Domesday Survey the borough is entered
among the archbishop's lands as appurtenant to his manor of Saltwood,
and the bailiff of the town was appointed by the archbishop. Hythe was
evidently a Cinque Port before the Conquest, as King John in 1205
confirmed the liberties, viz. freedom from toll, the right to be
impleaded only at the Shepway court, &c., which the townsmen had under
Edward the Confessor. The liberties of the Cinque Ports were confirmed
in Magna Carta and later by Edward I. in a general charter, which was
confirmed, often with additions, by subsequent kings down to James II.
John's charter to Hythe was confirmed by Henry IV., Henry V. and Henry
VI. These charters were granted to the Cinque Ports in return for the
fifty-seven ships which they supplied for the royal service, of which
five were contributed by Hythe. The ports were first represented in the
parliament of 1365, to which they each sent four members.
Hythe was governed by twelve jurats until 1574, when it was incorporated
by Elizabeth under the title of the mayor, jurats and commonalty of
Hythe; a fair for the sale of fish, &c., was also granted, to be held on
the feast of St Peter and St Paul. As the sea gradually retreated from
Hythe and the harbour became choked up with sand, the town suffered the
fate of other places near it, and lost its old importance.
I the ninth letter of the English and Latin alphabet, the tenth in the
Greek and Phoenician, because in these the symbol Teth (the Greek
[theta]) preceded it. Teth was not included in the Latin alphabet
because that language had no sound corresponding to the Greek [theta],
but the symbol was metamorphosed and utilized as the numeral C = 100,
which took this form through the influence of the initial letter of the
Latin _centum_. The name of I in the Phoenician alphabet was _Yod_.
Though in form it seems the simplest of letters it was originally much
more complex. In Phoenician it takes the form [symbol], which is found
also in the earliest Syriac and Palestinian inscriptions with little
modification. Ultimately in Hebrew it became reduced to a very small
symbol, whence comes its use as a term of contempt for things of no
importance as in "not one _jot_ or tittle" (Matthew v. 18). The name
passed from Phoenician to Greek, and thence to the Latin of the vulgate
as _iota_, and from the Latin the English word is derived. Amongst the
Greeks of Asia it appears only as the simple upright I, but in some of
the oldest alphabets elsewhere, as Crete, Thera, Attica, Achaia and its
colonies in lower Italy, it takes the form [symbol] or S, while at
Corinth and Corcyra it appears first in a form closely resembling the
later Greek _sigma_ [Sigma]. It had originally no cross-stroke at top
and bottom. I being not _i_ but _z_. The Phoenician alphabet having no
vowel symbols, the value of _yod_ was that of the English _y_. In Greek,
where the consonant sound had disappeared or been converted into _h_, I
is regularly used as a vowel. Occasionally, as in Pamphylian, it is used
dialectically as a glide between _i_ and another vowel, as in the proper
name [Greek: Damatriius]. In Latin I was used alike for both vowel and
consonant, as in _iugum_ (yoke). The sound represented by it was
approximately that still assigned to _i_ on the continent. Neither Greek
nor Latin made any distinction in writing between short and long _i_,
though in the Latin of the Empire the long sound was occasionally
represented by a longer form of the symbol I. The dot over the _i_
begins in the 5th or 6th century A.D. In pronunciation the English short
_i_ is a more open sound than that of most languages, and does not
correspond to the Greek and Latin sound. Nor are the English short and
long _i_ of the same quality. The short _i_ in Sweet's terminology is a
high-front-wide vowel, the long _i_, in English often spelt _ee_ in
words like _seed_, is diphthonged, beginning like the short vowel but
becoming higher as it proceeds. The Latin short _i_, however, in final
syllables was open and ultimately became _e_, e.g. in the neuter of
_i_-stems as _utile_ from _utili-s_. Medially both the short and the
long sounds are very common in syllables which were originally
unaccented, because in such positions many other sounds passed into _i_:
_officio_ but _facio_, _redimo_ but _emo_, _quidlibet_ but _lubet_
(_libet_ is later); _collido_ but _laedo_, _fido_ from an older _feido_,
_istis_ (dative plural) from an earlier _istois_. (P. Gi.)
IAMBIC, the term employed in prosody to denote a succession of verses,
each consisting of a foot or metre called an iambus ([Greek: iambos]),
formed of two syllables, of which the first is short and the second long
(u --). After the dactylic hexameter, the iambic trimeter was the most
popular metre of ancient Greece. Archilochus is said to have been the
inventor of this iambic verse, the [Greek: trimetros] consisting of
three iambic fed. In the Greek tragedians an iambic line is formed of
six feet arranged in obedience to the following scheme:--
u -- | u -- | u -- | u -- | u -- | u -- |
u u u | u u u | u u u | u u u | u u u | |
-- -- | | -- -- | | -- -- | |
-- u u | | -- u u | | | |
u u -- | | | | | |
Much of the beauty of the verse depends on the caesura, which is usually
In the middle of the third foot, and far less frequently in the middle
of the fourth. The English language runs more naturally in the iambic
metre than in any other. The normal blank verse in English is founded
upon an iambic basis, and Milton's line--