[1] _Nature_, lxiii. 127.
HUY (Lat. _Hoium_, and Flem. _Hoey_), a town of Belgium, on the right
bank of the Meuse, at the point where it is joined by the Hoyoux. Pop.
(1904), 14,164. It is 19 m. E. of Namur and a trifle less west of Liége.
Huy certainly dates from the 7th century, and, according to some, was
founded by the emperor Antoninus in A.D. 148. Its situation is
striking, with its grey citadel crowning a grey rock, and the fine
collegiate church (with a 13th-century gateway) of Notre Dame built
against it. The citadel is now used partly as a depot of military
equipment and partly as a prison. The ruins are still shown of the abbey
of Neumoustier founded by Peter the Hermit on his return from the first
crusade. He was buried there in 1115, and a statue was erected to his
memory in the abbey grounds in 1858. Neumoustier was one of seventeen
abbeys in this town alone dependent on the bishopric of Liége. Huy is
surrounded by vineyards, and the bridge which crosses the Meuse at this
point connects the fertile Hesbaye north of the river with the rocky and
barren Condroz south of it.
HUYGENS, CHRISTIAAN (1629-1695), Dutch mathematician, mechanician,
astronomer and physicist, was born at the Hague on the 14th of April
1629. He was the second son of Sir Constantijn Huygens. From his father
he received the rudiments of his education, which was continued at
Leiden under A. Vinnius and F. van Schooten, and completed in the
juridical school of Breda. His mathematical bent, however, soon diverted
him from legal studies, and the perusal of some of his earliest theorems
enabled Descartes to predict his future greatness. In 1649 he
accompanied the mission of Henry, count of Nassau, to Denmark, and in
1651 entered the lists of science as an assailant of the unsound system
of quadratures adopted by Gregory of St Vincent. This first essay
(_Exetasis quadraturae circuli_, Leiden, 1651) was quickly succeeded by
his _Theoremata de quadratura hyperboles, ellipsis, et circuli_; while,
in a treatise entitled _De circuli magnitudine inventa_, he made, three
years later, the closest approximation so far obtained to the ratio of
the circumference to the diameter of a circle.
Another class of subjects was now to engage his attention. The
improvement of the telescope was justly regarded as a _sine qua non_ for
the advancement of astronomical knowledge. But the difficulties
interposed by spherical and chromatic aberration had arrested progress
in that direction until, in 1655, Huygens, working with his brother
Constantijn, hit upon a new method of grinding and polishing lenses. The
immediate results of the clearer definition obtained were the detection
of a satellite to Saturn (the sixth in order of distance from its
primary), and the resolution into their true form of the abnormal
appendages to that planet. Each discovery in turn was, according to the
prevailing custom, announced to the learned world under the veil of an
anagram--removed, in the case of the first, by the publication, early in
1656, of the little tract _De Saturni luna observatio nova_; but
retained, as regards the second, until 1659, when in the _Systema
Saturnium_ the varying appearances of the so-called "triple planet" were
clearly explained as the phases of a ring inclined at an angle of 28° to
the ecliptic. Huygens was also in 1656 the first effective observer of
the Orion nebula; he delineated the bright region still known by his
name, and detected the multiple character of its nuclear star. His
application of the pendulum to regulate the movement of clocks sprang
from his experience of the need for an exact measure of time in
observing the heavens. The invention dates from 1656; on the 16th of
June 1657 Huygens presented his first "pendulum-clock" to the
states-general; and the _Horologium_, containing a description of the
requisite mechanism, was published in 1658.
His reputation now became cosmopolitan. As early as 1655 the university
of Angers had distinguished him with an honorary degree of doctor of
laws. In 1663, on the occasion of his second visit to England, he was
elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and imparted to that body in
January 1669 a clear and concise statement of the laws governing the
collision of elastic bodies. Although these conclusions were arrived at
independently, and, as it would seem, several years previous to their
publication, they were in great measure anticipated by the
communications on the same subject of John Wallis and Christopher Wren,
made respectively in November and December 1668.
Huygens had before this time fixed his abode in France. In 1665 Colbert
made to him on behalf of Louis XIV. an offer too tempting to be
refused, and between the following year and 1681 his residence in the
philosophic seclusion of the Bibliothèque du Roi was only interrupted by
two short visits to his native country. His _magnum opus_ dates from
this period. The _Horologium oscillatorium_, published with a dedication
to his royal patron in 1673, contained original discoveries sufficient
to have furnished materials for half a dozen striking disquisitions. His
solution of the celebrated problem of the "centre of oscillation" formed
in itself an important event in the history of mechanics. Assuming as an
axiom that the centre of gravity of any number of interdependent bodies
cannot rise higher than the point from which it fell, he arrived, by
anticipating in the particular case the general principle of the
conservation of _vis viva_, at correct although not strictly
demonstrated conclusions. His treatment of the subject was the first
successful attempt to deal with the dynamics of a system. The
determination of the true relation between the length of a pendulum and
the time of its oscillation; the invention of the theory of evolutes;
the discovery, hence ensuing, that the cycloid is its own evolute, and
is strictly isochronous; the ingenious although practically inoperative
idea of correcting the "circular error" of the pendulum by applying
cycloidal cheeks to clocks--were all contained in this remarkable
treatise. The theorems on the composition of forces in circular motion
with which it concluded formed the true prelude to Newton's _Principia_,
and would alone suffice to establish the claim of Huygens to the highest
rank among mechanical inventors.
In 1681 he finally severed his French connexions, and returned to
Holland. The harsher measures which about that time began to be adopted
towards his co-religionists in France are usually assigned as the motive
of this step. He now devoted himself during six years to the production
of lenses of enormous focal distance, which, mounted on high poles, and
connected with the eye-piece by means of a cord, formed what were called
"aerial telescopes." Three of his object-glasses, of respectively 123,
180 and 210 ft. focal length, are in the possession of the Royal
Society. He also succeeded in constructing an almost perfectly
achromatic eye-piece, still known by his name. But his researches in
physical optics constitute his chief title-deed to immortality. Although
Robert Hooke in 1668 and Ignace Pardies in 1672 had adopted a vibratory
hypothesis of light, the conception was a mere floating possibility
until Huygens provided it with a sure foundation. His powerful
scientific imagination enabled him to realize that all the points of a
wave-front originate partial waves, the aggregate effect of which is to
reconstitute the primary disturbance at the subsequent stages of its
advance, thus accomplishing its propagation; so that each primary
undulation is the envelope of an indefinite number of secondary
undulations. This resolution of the original wave is the well-known
"Principle of Huygens," and by its means he was enabled to prove the
fundamental laws of optics, and to assign the correct construction for
the direction of the extraordinary ray in uniaxial crystals. These
investigations, together with his discovery of the "wonderful
phenomenon" of polarization, are recorded in his _Traité de la lumière_,
published at Leiden in 1690, but composed in 1678. In the appended
treatise _Sur la Cause de la pesanteur_, he rejected gravitation as a
universal quality of matter, although admitting the Newtonian theory of
the planetary revolutions. From his views on centrifugal force he
deduced the oblate figure of the earth, estimating its compression,
however, at little more than one-half its actual amount.
Huygens never married. He died at the Hague on the 8th of June 1695,
bequeathing his manuscripts to the university of Leiden, and his
considerable property to the sons of his younger brother. In character
he was as estimable as he was brilliant in intellect. Although, like
most men of strong originative power, he assimilated with difficulty the
ideas of others, his tardiness sprang rather from inability to depart
from the track of his own methods than from reluctance to acknowledge
the merits of his competitors.
In addition to the works already mentioned, his _Cosmotheoros_--a
speculation concerning the inhabitants of the planets--was
printed posthumously at the Hague in 1698, and appeared almost
simultaneously in an English translation. A volume entitled _Opera
posthuma_ (Leiden, 1703) contained his "Dioptrica," in which the ratio
between the respective focal lengths of object-glass and eye-glass is
given as the measure of magnifying power, together with the shorter
essays _De vitris figurandis_, _De corona et parheliis_, &c. An early
tract _De ratiociniis in ludo aleae_, printed in 1657 with Schooten's
_Exercitationes mathematicae_, is notable as one of the first formal
treatises on the theory of probabilities; nor should his
investigations of the properties of the cissoid, logarithmic and
catenary curves be left unnoticed. His invention of the spiral
watch-spring was explained in the _Journal des savants_ (Feb. 25,
1675). An edition of his works was published by G. J.'s Gravesande, in
four quarto volumes entitled _Opera varia_ (Leiden, 1724) and _Opera
reliqua_ (Amsterdam, 1728). His scientific correspondence was edited
by P. J. Uylenbroek from manuscripts preserved at Leiden, with the
title _Christiani Hugenii aliorumque seculi XVII. virorum celebrium
exercitationes mathematicae et philosophicae_ (the Hague, 1833).
The publication of a monumental edition of the letters and works of
Huygens was undertaken at the Hague by the _Société Hollandaise des
Sciences_, with the heading _Oeuvres de Christian Huygens_ (1888),
&c. Ten quarto volumes, comprising the whole of his correspondence,
had already been issued in 1905. A biography of Huygens was prefixed
to his _Opera varia_ (1724); his _Éloge_ in the character of a French
academician was printed by J. A. N. Condorcet in 1773. Consult
further: P. J. Uylenbroek, _Oratio de fratribus Christiano atque
Constantino Hugenio_ (Groningen, 1838); P. Harting, _Christiaan
Huygens in zijn Leven en Werken geschetzt_ (Groningen, 1868); J. B. J.
Delambre, _Hist. de l'astronomie moderne_ (ii. 549); J. E. Montucla,
_Hist. des mathématiques_ (ii. 84, 412, 549); M. Chasles, _Aperçu
historique sur l'origine des méthodes en géometrie_, pp. 101-109; E.
Dühring, _Kritische Geschichte der allgemeinen Principien der
Mechanik_, Abschnitt (ii. 120, 163, iii. 227); A. Berry, _A Short
History of Astronomy_, p. 200; R. Wolf, _Geschichte der Astronomie_,
passim; Houzeau, _Bibliographie astronomique_ (ii. 169); F. Kaiser,
_Astr. Nach._ (xxv. 245, 1847); _Tijdschrift voor de Wetenschappen_
(i. 7, 1848); _Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_ (M. B. Cantor); J. C.
Poggendorff, _Biog. lit. Handwörterbuch_. (A. M. C.)
HUYGENS, SIR CONSTANTIJN (1596-1687), Dutch poet and diplomatist, was
born at the Hague on the 4th of September 1596. His father, Christiaan
Huygens, was secretary to the state council, and a man of great
political importance. At the baptism of the child, the city of Breda was
one of his sponsors, and the admiral Justinus van Nassau the other. He
was trained in every polite accomplishment, and before he was seven
could speak French with fluency. He was taught Latin by Johannes
Dedelus, and soon became a master of classic versification. He developed
not only extraordinary intellectual gifts but great physical beauty and
strength, and was one of the most accomplished athletes and gymnasts of
his age; his skill in playing the lute and in the arts of painting and
engraving attracted general attention before he began to develop his
genius as a writer. In 1616 he proceeded, with his elder brother, to the
university of Leiden. He stayed there only one year, and in 1618 went to
London with the English ambassador Dudley Carleton; he remained in
London for some months, and then went to Oxford, where he studied for
some time in the Bodleian Library, and to Woodstock, Windsor and
Cambridge; he was introduced at the English court, and played the lute
before James I. The most interesting feature of this visit was the
intimacy which sprang up between the young Dutch poet and Dr Donne, for
whose genius Huygens preserved through life an unbounded admiration. He
returned to Holland in company with the English contingent of the synod
of Dort, and in 1619 he proceeded to Venice in the diplomatic service of
his country; on his return he nearly lost his life by a foolhardy
exploit, namely, the scaling of the topmost spire of Strassburg
cathedral. In 1621 he published one of his most weighty and popular
poems, his _Batava Tempe_, and in the same year he proceeded again to
London, as secretary to the ambassador, Wijngaerdan, but returned in
three months. His third diplomatic visit to England lasted longer, from
the 5th of December 1621 to the 1st of March 1623. During his absence,
his volume of satires, _'t Costelick Mal_, dedicated to Jacob Cats,
appeared at the Hague. In the autumn of 1622 he was knighted by James I.
He published a large volume of miscellaneous poems in 1625 under the
title of _Otiorum libri sex_; and in the same year he was appointed
private secretary to the stadholder. In 1627 Huygens married Susanna
van Baerle, and settled at the Hague; four sons and a daughter were born
to them. In 1630 Huygens was called to a seat in the privy council, and
he continued to exercise political power with wisdom and vigour for many
years, under the title of the lord of Zuylichem. In 1634 he is supposed
to have completed his long-talked-of version of the poems of Donne,
fragments of which exist. In 1637 his wife died, and he immediately
began to celebrate the virtues and pleasures of their married life in
the remarkable didactic poem called _Dagwerck_, which was not published
till long afterwards. From 1639 to 1641 he occupied himself by building
a magnificent house and garden outside the Hague, and by celebrating
their beauties in a poem entitled _Hofwijck_, which was published in
1653. In 1647 he wrote his beautiful poem of _Oogentroost_ or "Eye
Consolation," to gratify his blind friend Lucretia van Trollo. He made
his solitary effort in the dramatic line in 1657, when he brought out
his comedy of _Trijntje Cornelis Klacht_, which deals, in rather broad
humour, with the adventures of the wife of a ship's captain at Zaandam.
In 1658 he rearranged his poems, and issued them with many additions,
under the title of _Corn Flowers_. He proposed to the government that
the present highway from the Hague to the sea at Scheveningen should be
constructed, and during his absence on a diplomatic mission to the
French court in 1666 the road was made as a compliment to the venerable
statesman, who expressed his gratitude in a descriptive poem entitled
_Zeestraet_. Huygens edited his poems for the last time in 1672, and
died in his ninety-first year, on the 28th of March 1687. He was buried,
with the pomp of a national funeral, in the church of St Jacob, on the
4th of April. His second son, Christiaan, the eminent astronomer, is
noticed separately.
Constantijn Huygens is the most brilliant figure in Dutch literary
history. Other statesmen surpassed him in political influence, and at
least two other poets surpassed him in the value and originality of
their writings. But his figure was more dignified and splendid, his
talents were more varied, and his general accomplishments more
remarkable than those of any other person of his age, the greatest age
in the history of the Netherlands. Huygens is the _grand seigneur_ of
the republic, the type of aristocratic oligarchy, the jewel and
ornament of Dutch liberty. When we consider his imposing character and
the positive value of his writings, we may well be surprised that he
has not found a modern editor. It is a disgrace to Dutch scholarship
that no complete collection of the writings of Huygens exists. His
autobiography, _De vita propria sermonum libri duo_, did not see the
light until 1817, and his remarkable poem, _Cluyswerck_, was not
printed until 1841. As a poet Huygens shows a finer sense of form than
any other early Dutch writer; the language, in his hands, becomes as
flexible as Italian. His epistles and lighter pieces, in particular,
display his metrical ease and facility to perfection. (E. G.)
HUYSMANS, the name of four Flemish painters who matriculated in the
Antwerp gild in the 17th century. Cornelis the elder, apprenticed in
1633, passed for a mastership in 1636, and remained obscure. Jacob,
apprenticed to Frans Wouters in 1650, wandered to England towards the
close of the reign of Charles II., and competed with Lely as a
fashionable portrait painter. He executed a portrait of the queen,
Catherine of Braganza, now in the national portrait gallery, and Horace
Walpole assigns to him the likeness of Lady Bellasys, catalogued at
Hampton Court as a work of Lely. His portrait of Izaak Walton in the
National Gallery shows a disposition to imitate the styles of Rubens and
Van Dyke. According to most accounts he died in London in 1696. Jan
Baptist Huysmans, born at Antwerp in 1654, matriculated in 1676-1677,
and died there in 1715-1716. He was younger brother to Cornelis Huysmans
the second, who was born at Antwerp in 1648, and educated by Gaspar de
Wit and Jacob van Artois. Of Jan Baptist little or nothing has been
preserved, except that he registered numerous apprentices at Antwerp,
and painted a landscape dated 1697 now in the Brussels museum. Cornelis
the second is the only master of the name of Huysmans whose talent was
largely acknowledged. He received lessons from two artists, one of whom
was familiar with the Roman art of the Poussins, whilst the other
inherited the scenic style of the school of Rubens. He combined the two
in a rich, highly coloured, and usually effective style, which, however,
was not free from monotony. Seldom attempting anything but woodside
views with fancy backgrounds, half Italian, half Flemish, he painted
with great facility, and left numerous examples behind. At the outset of
his career he practised at Malines, where he married in 1682, and there
too he entered into some business connexion with van der Meulen, for
whom he painted some backgrounds. In 1706 he withdrew to Antwerp, where
he resided till 1717, returning then to Malines, where he died on the
1st of June 1727.
Though most of his pictures were composed for cabinets rather than
churches, he sometimes emulated van Artois in the production of large
sacred pieces, and for many years his "Christ on the Road to Emmaus"
adorned the choir of Notre Dame of Malines. In the gallery of Nantes,
where three of his small landscapes are preserved, there hangs an
"Investment of Luxembourg," by van der Meulen, of which he is known to
have laid in the background. The national galleries of London and
Edinburgh contain each one example of his skill. Blenheim, too, and
other private galleries in England, possess one or more of his
pictures. But most of his works are on the European continent.
HUYSMANS, JORIS KARL (1848-1907), French novelist, was born at Paris on
the 5th of February 1848. He belonged to a family of artists of Dutch
extraction; he entered the ministry of the interior, and was pensioned
after thirty years' service. His earliest venture in literature, _Le
Drageoir à épices_ (1874), contained stories and short prose poems
showing the influence of Baudelaire. _Marthe_ (1876), the life of a
courtesan, was published in Brussels, and Huysmans contributed a story,
"Sac au dos," to _Les Soirées de Médan_, the collection of stories of
the Franco-German war published by Zola. He then produced a series of
novels of everyday life, including _Les Soeurs Vatard_ (1879), _En
Ménage_ (1881), and _À vau-l'eau_ (1882), in which he outdid Zola in
minute and uncompromising realism. He was influenced, however, more
directly by Flaubert and the brothers de Goncourt than by Zola. In
_L'Art moderne_ (1883) he gave a careful study of impressionism and in
_Certains_ (1889) a series of studies of contemporary artists, _À
Rebours_ (1884), the history of the morbid tastes of a decadent
aristocrat, des Esseintes, created a literary sensation, its caricature
of literary and artistic symbolism covering much of the real beliefs of
the leaders of the aesthetic revolt. In _Là-Bas_ Huysmans's most
characteristic hero, Durtal, makes his appearance. Durtal is occupied in
writing the life of Gilles de Rais; the insight he gains into Satanism
is supplemented by modern Parisian students of the black art; but
already there are signs of a leaning to religion in the sympathetic
figures of the religious bell-ringer of Saint Sulpice and his wife. _En
Route_ (1895) relates the strange conversion of Durtal to mysticism and
Catholicism in his retreat to La Trappe. In _La Cathédrale_ (1898),
Huysmans's symbolistic interpretation of the cathedral of Chartres, he
develops his enthusiasm for the purity of Catholic ritual. The life of
_Sainte Lydwine de Schiedam_ (1901), an exposition of the value of
suffering, gives further proof of his conversion; and _L'Oblat_ (1903)
describes Durtal's retreat to the Val des Saints, where he is attached
as an oblate to a Benedictine monastery. Huysmans was nominated by
Edmond de Goncourt as a member of the Académie des Goncourt. He died as
a devout Catholic, after a long illness of cancer in the palate on the
13th of May 1907. Before his death he destroyed his unpublished MSS. His
last book was _Les Foules de Lourdes_ (1906).
See Arthur Symons, _Studies in two Literatures_ (1897) and _The
Symbolist Movement in Literature_ (1899); Jean Lionnet in _L'Évolution
des idées_ (1903); Eugène Gilbert in _France et Belgique_ (1905); J.
Sargeret in _Les Grands convertis_ (1906).
HUYSUM, JAN VAN (1682-1749), Dutch painter, was born at Amsterdam in
1682, and died in his native city on the 8th of February 1749. He was
the son of Justus van Huysum, who is said to have been expeditious in
decorating doorways, screens and vases. A picture by this artist is
preserved in the gallery of Brunswick, representing Orpheus and the
Beasts in a wooded landscape, and here we have some explanation of his
son's fondness for landscapes of a conventional and Arcadian kind; for
Jan van Huysum, though skilled as a painter of still life, believed
himself to possess the genius of a landscape painter. Half his pictures
in public galleries are landscapes, views of imaginary lakes and
harbours with impossible ruins and classic edifices, and woods of tall
and motionless trees--the whole very glossy and smooth, and entirely
lifeless. The earliest dated work of this kind is that of 1717, in the
Louvre, a grove with maidens culling flowers near a tomb, ruins of a
portico, and a distant palace on the shores of a lake bounded by
mountains.
It is doubtful whether any artist ever surpassed van Huysum in
representing fruit and flowers. It has been said that his fruit has no
savour and his flowers have no perfume--in other words, that they are
hard and artificial--but this is scarcely true. In substance fruit and
flower are delicate and finished imitations of nature in its more subtle
varieties of matter. The fruit has an incomparable blush of down, the
flowers have a perfect delicacy of tissue. Van Huysum, too, shows
supreme art in relieving flowers of various colours against each other,
and often against a light and transparent background. He is always
bright, sometimes even gaudy. Great taste and much grace and elegance
are apparent in the arrangement of bouquets and fruit in vases adorned
with bas reliefs or in baskets on marble tables. There is exquisite and
faultless finish everywhere. But what van Huysum has not is the breadth,
the bold effectiveness, and the depth of thought of de Heem, from whom
he descends through Abraham Mignon.
Some of the finest of van Huysum's fruit and flower pieces have been
in English private collections: those of 1723 in the earl of
Ellesmere's gallery, others of 1730-1732 in the collections of Hope
and Ashburton. One of the best examples is now in the National Gallery
(1736-1737). No public museum has finer and more numerous specimens
than the Louvre, which boasts of four landscapes and six panels with
still life; then come Berlin and Amsterdam with four fruit and flower
pieces; then St Petersburg, Munich, Hanover, Dresden, the Hague,
Brunswick, Vienna, Carlsruhe and Copenhagen.
HWANG HO [HOANG HO], the second largest river in China. It is known to
foreigners as the Yellow river--a name which is a literal translation of
the Chinese. It rises among the Kuenlun mountains in central Asia, its
head-waters being in close proximity to those of the Yangtsze-Kiang. It
has a total length of about 2400 m. and drains an area of approximately
400,000 sq. m. The main stream has its source in two lakes named
Tsaring-nor and Oring-nor, lying about 35° N., 97° E., and after flowing
with a south-easterly course it bends sharply to the north-west and
north, entering China in the province of Kansuh in lat. 36°. After
passing Lanchow-fu, the capital of this province, the river takes an
immense sweep to the north and north-east, until it encounters the
rugged barrier ranges that here run north and south through the
provinces of Shansi and Chihli. By these ranges it is forced due south
for 500 m., forming the boundary between the provinces of Shansi and
Shensi, until it finds an outlet eastwards at Tung Kwan--a pass which
for centuries has been renowned as the gate of Asia, being indeed the
sole commercial passage between central China and the West. At Tung Kwan
the river is joined by its only considerable affluent in China proper,
the Wei (Wei-ho), which drains the large province of Shensi, and the
combined volume of water continues its way at first east and then
north-east across the great plain to the sea. At low water in the winter
season the discharge is only about 36,000 cub. ft. per second, whereas
during the summer flood it reaches 116,000 ft. or more. The amount of
sediment carried down is very large, though no accurate observations
have been made. In the account of Lord Macartney's embassy, which
crossed the Yellow river in 1792, it was calculated to be 17,520 million
cub. ft. a year, but this is considered very much over the mark. Two
reasons, however, combine to render it probable that the sedimentary
matter is very large in proportion to the volume of water: the first
being the great fall, and the consequently rapid current over two-thirds
of the river's course; the second that the drainage area is nearly all
covered with deposits of loess, which, being very friable, readily gives
way before the rainfall and is washed down in large quantity. The
ubiquity of this loess or yellow earth, as the Chinese call it, has in
fact given its name both to the river which carries it in solution and
to the sea (the Yellow Sea) into which it is discharged. It is
calculated by Dr Guppy (_Journal of China Branch of Royal Asiatic
Society_, vol. xvi.) that the sediment brought down by the three
northern rivers of China, viz., the Yangtsze, the Hwang-ho and the
Peiho, is 24,000 million cub. ft. per annum, and is sufficient to fill
up the whole of the Yellow Sea and the Gulf of Pechili in the space of
about 36,000 years.
Unlike the Yangtsze, the Hwang-ho is of no practical value for
navigation. The silt and sand form banks and bars at the mouth, the
water is too shallow in winter and the current is too strong in
summer, and, further, the bed of the river is continually shifting. It
is this last feature which has earned for the river the name "China's
sorrow." As the silt-laden waters debouch from the rocky bed of the
upper reaches on to the plains, the current slackens, and the coarser
detritus settles on the bottom. By degrees the bed rises, and the
people build embankments to prevent the river from overflowing. As the
bed rises the embankments must be raised too, until the stream is
flowing many feet above the level of the surrounding country. As time
goes on the situation becomes more and more dangerous; finally, a
breach occurs, and the whole river pours over the country, carrying
destruction and ruin with it. If the breach cannot be repaired the
river leaves its old channel entirely and finds a new exit to the sea
along the line of least resistance. Such in brief has been the story
of the river since the dawn of Chinese history. At various times it
has discharged its waters alternately on one side or the other of the
great mass of mountains forming the promontory of Shantung, and by
mouths as far apart from each other as 500 m. At each change it has
worked havoc and disaster by covering the cultivated fields with 2 or
3 ft. of sand and mud.
A great change in the river's course occurred in 1851, when a breach
was made in the north embankment near Kaifengfu in Honan. At this
point the river bed was some 25 ft. above the plain; the water
consequently forsook the old channel entirely and poured over the
level country, finally seizing on the bed of a small river called the
Tsing, and thereby finding an exit to the sea. Since that time the new
channel thus carved out has remained the proper course of the river,
the old or southerly channel being left quite dry. It required some
fifteen or more years to repair damages from this outbreak, and to
confine the stream by new embankments. After that there was for a time
comparative immunity from inundations, but in 1882 fresh outbursts
again began. The most serious of all took place in 1887, when it
appeared probable that there would be again a permanent change in the
river's course. By dint of great exertions, however, the government
succeeded in closing the breach, though not till January 1889, and not
until there had been immense destruction of life and property. The
outbreak on this occasion occurred, as all the more serious outbreaks
have done, in Honan, a few miles west of the city of Kaifengfu. The
stream poured itself over the level and fertile country to the
southwards, sweeping whole villages before it, and converting the
plain into one vast lake. The area affected was not less than 50,000
sq. m. and the loss of life was computed at over one million. Since
1887 there have been a series of smaller outbreaks, mostly at points
lower down and in the neighbourhood of Chinanfu, the capital of
Shantung. These perpetually occurring disasters entail a heavy expense
on the government; and from the mere pecuniary point of view it would
well repay them to call in the best foreign engineering skill
available, an expedient, however, which has not commended itself to
the Chinese authorities. (G. J.)
HWICCE, one of the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon Britain. Its exact dimensions
are unknown; they probably coincided with those of the old diocese of
Worcester, the early bishops of which bore the title "Episcopus
Hwicciorum." It would therefore include Worcestershire, Gloucestershire
except the Forest of Dean, the southern half of Warwickshire, and the
neighbourhood of Bath. The name Hwicce survives in Wychwood in
Oxfordshire and Whichford in Warwickshire. These districts, or at all
events the southern portion of them, were according to the _Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle_, _s.a._ 577, originally conquered by the West Saxons under
Ceawlin. In later times, however, the kingdom of the Hwicce appears to
have been always subject to Mercian supremacy, and possibly it was
separated from Wessex in the time of Edwin. The first kings of whom we
read were two brothers, Eanhere and Eanfrith, probably contemporaries of
Wulfhere. They were followed by a king named Osric, a contemporary of
Æthelred, and he by a king Oshere. Oshere had three sons who reigned
after him, Æthelheard, Æthelweard and Æthelric. The two last named
appear to have been reigning in the year 706. At the beginning of Offa's
reign we again find the kingdom ruled by three brothers, named Eanberht,
Uhtred and Aldred, the two latter of whom lived until about 780. After
them the title of king seems to have been given up. Their successor
Æthelmund, who was killed in a campaign against Wessex in 802, is
described only as an earl. The district remained in possession of the
rulers of Mercia until the fall of that kingdom. Together with the rest
of English Mercia it submitted to King Alfred about 877-883 under Earl
Æthelred, who possibly himself belonged to the Hwicce. No genealogy or
list of kings has been preserved, and we do not know whether the dynasty
was connected with that of Wessex or Mercia.
See Bede, _Historia eccles._ (edited by C. Plummer) iv. 13 (Oxford,
1896); W. de G. Birch, _Cartularium Saxonicum_, 43, 51, 76, 85, 116,
117, 122, 163, 187, 232, 233, 238 (Oxford, 1885-1889).
(F. G. M. B.)
HYACINTH (Gr. hyakinthos), also called JACINTH (through Ital.
_giacinto_), one of the most popular of spring garden flowers. It was in
cultivation prior to 1597, at which date it is mentioned by Gerard. Rea
in 1665 mentions several single and double varieties as being then in
English gardens, and Justice in 1754 describes upwards of fifty
single-flowered varieties, and nearly one hundred double-flowered ones,
as a selection of the best from the catalogues of two then celebrated
Dutch growers. One of the Dutch sorts, called La Reine de Femmes, a
single white, is said to have produced from thirty-four to thirty-eight
flowers in a spike, and on its first appearance to have sold for 50
guilders a bulb; while one called Overwinnaar, or Conqueror, a double
blue, sold at first for 100 guilders, Gloria Mundi for 500 guilders, and
Koning Saloman for 600 guilders. Several sorts are at that date
mentioned as blooming well in water-glasses. Justice relates that he
himself raised several very valuable double-flowered kinds from seeds,
which many of the sorts he describes are noted for producing freely.
The original of the cultivated hyacinth, _Hyacinthus orientalis_, a
native of Greece and Asia Minor, is by comparison an insignificant
plant, bearing on a spike only a few small, narrow-lobed, washy blue
flowers, resembling in form those of our common blue-bell. So great has
been the improvement effected by the florists, and chiefly by the Dutch,
that the modern hyacinth would scarcely be recognized as the descendant
of the type above referred to, the spikes being long and dense, composed
of a large number of flowers; the spikes produced by strong bulbs not
unfrequently measure 6 to 9 in. in length and from 7 to 9 in. in
circumference, with the flowers closely set on from bottom to top. Of
late years much improvement has been effected in the size of the
individual flowers and the breadth of their recurving lobes, as well as
in securing increased brilliancy and depth of colour.
The peculiarities of the soil and climate of Holland are so very
favourable to their production that Dutch florists have made a specialty
of the growth of those and other bulbous-rooted flowers. Hundreds of
acres are devoted to the growth of hyacinths in the vicinity of Haarlem,
and bring in a revenue of several hundreds of thousands of pounds. Some
notion of the vast number imported into England annually may be formed
from the fact that, for the supply of flowering plants to Covent Garden,
one market grower alone produces from 60,000 to 70,000 in pots under
glass, their blooming period being accelerated by artificial heat, and
extending from Christmas onwards until they bloom naturally in the open
ground.
In the spring flower garden few plants make a more effective display
than the hyacinth. Dotted in clumps in the flower borders, and arranged
in masses of well-contrasted colours In beds in the flower garden, there
are no flowers which impart during their season--March and April--a
gayer tone to the parterre. The bulbs are rarely grown a second time,
either for indoor or outdoor culture, though with care they might be
utilized for the latter purpose; and hence the enormous numbers which
are procured each recurring year from Holland.
The first hyacinths were single-flowered, but towards the close of the
17th century double-flowered ones began to appear, and till a recent
period these bulbs were the most esteemed. At the present time, however,
the single-flowered sorts are in the ascendant, as they produce more
regular and symmetrical spikes of blossom, the flowers being closely set
and more or less horizontal in direction, while most of the double sorts
have the bells distant and dependent, so that the spike is loose and by
comparison ineffective. For pot culture, and for growth in
water-glasses especially, the single-flowered sorts are greatly to be
preferred. Few if any of the original kinds are now in cultivation, a
succession of new and improved varieties having been raised, the demand
for which is regulated in some respects by fashion.
The hyacinth delights in a rich light sandy soil. The Dutch
incorporate freely with their naturally light soil a compost
consisting of one-third coarse sea or river sand, one-third rotten cow
dung without litter and one-third leaf-mould. The soil thus renovated
retains its qualities for six or seven years, but hyacinths are not
planted upon the same place for two years successively, intermediary
crops of narcissus, crocus or tulips being taken. A good compost for
hyacinths is sandy loam, decayed leaf-mould, rotten cow dung and sharp
sand in equal parts, the whole being collected and laid up in a heap
and turned over occasionally. Well-drained beds made up of this soil,
and refreshed with a portion of new compost annually, would grow the
hyacinth to perfection. The best time to plant the bulbs is towards
the end of September and during October; they should be arranged in
rows, 6 to 8 in. asunder, there being four rows in each bed. The bulbs
should be sunk about 4 to 6 in. deep, with a small quantity of clean
sand placed below and around each of them. The beds should be covered
with decayed tan-bark, coco-nut fibre or half-rotten dung litter. As
the flower-stems appear, they are tied to rigid but slender stakes to
preserve them from accident. If the bulbs are at all prized, the stems
should be broken off as soon as the flowering is over, so as not to
exhaust the bulbs; the leaves, however, must be allowed to grow on
till matured, but as soon as they assume a yellow colour, the bulbs
are taken up, the leaves cut off near their base, and the bulbs laid
out in a dry, airy, shady place to ripen, after which they are cleaned
of loose earth and skin, ready for storing. It is the practice in
Holland, about a month after the bloom, or when the tips of the leaves
assume a withered appearance, to take up the bulbs, and to lay them
sideways on the ground, covering them with an inch or two of earth.
About three weeks later they are again taken up and cleaned. In the
store-room they should be kept dry, well-aired and apart from each
other.
Few plants are better adapted than the hyacinth for pot culture as
greenhouse decorative plants; and by the aid of forcing they may be
had in bloom as early as Christmas. They flower fairly well in 5-in.
pots, the stronger bulbs in 6-in. pots. To bloom at Christmas, they
should be potted early in September, in a compost resembling that
already recommended for the open-air beds; and, to keep up a
succession of bloom, others should be potted at intervals of a few
weeks till the middle or end of November. The tops of the bulbs should
be about level with the soil, and if a little sand is put immediately
around them so much the better. The pots should be set in an open
place on a dry hard bed of ashes, and be covered over to a depth of 6
or 8 in. with the same material or with fibre or soil; and when the
roots are well developed, which will take from six to eight weeks,
they may be removed to a frame, and gradually exposed to light, and
then placed in a forcing pit in a heat of from 60 to 70°. When the
flowers are fairly open, they may be removed to the greenhouse or
conservatory.
The hyacinth may be very successfully grown in glasses for ornament in
dwelling-houses. The glasses are filled to the neck with rain or even
tap water, a few lumps of charcoal being dropped into them. The bulbs
are placed in the hollow provided for them, so that their base just
touches the water. This may be done in September or October. They are
then set in a dark cupboard for a few weeks till roots are freely
produced, and then gradually exposed to light. The early-flowering
single white Roman hyacinth, a small-growing pure white variety,
remarkable for its fragrance, is well adapted for forcing, as it can
be had in bloom if required by November. For windows it grows well in
the small glasses commonly used for crocuses; and for decorative
purposes should be planted about five bulbs in a 5-in. pot, or in pans
holding a dozen each. If grown for cut flowers it can be planted
thickly in boxes of any convenient size. It is highly esteemed during
the winter months by florists.
The Spanish hyacinth (_H. amethystinus_) and _H. azureus_ are charming
little bulbs for growing in masses in the rock garden or front of the
flower border. The older botanists included in the genus _Hyacinthus_
species of _Muscari_, _Scilla_ and other genera of bulbous Liliaceae,
and the name of hyacinth is still popularly applied to several other
bulbous plants. Thus _Muscari botryoides_ is the grape hyacinth, 6
in., blue or white, the handsomest; _M. moschatum_, the musk hyacinth,
10 in., has peculiar livid greenish-yellow flowers and a strong musky
odour; _M. comosum_ var. _monstrosum_, the feather hyacinth, bears
sterile flowers broken up into a featherlike mass; _M. racemosum_, the
starch hyacinth, is a native with deep blue plum-scented flowers. The
Cape hyacinth is _Galtonia candicans_, a magnificent border plant, 3-4
ft. high, with large drooping white bell-shaped flowers; the star
hyacinth, _Scilla amoena_; the Peruvian hyacinth or Cuban lily, _S.
peruviana_, a native of the Mediterranean region, to which Linnaeus
gave the species name _peruviana_ on a mistaken assumption of its
origin; the wild hyacinth or blue-bell, known variously as _Endymion
nonscriptum_, _Hyacinthus nonscriptus_ or _Scilla nutans_; the wild
hyacinth of western North America, _Camassia esculenta_. They all
flourish in good garden soil of a gritty nature.
HYACINTH, or JACINTH, in mineralogy, a variety of zircon (q.v.) of
yellowish red colour, used as a gem-stone. The _hyacinthus_ of ancient
writers must have been our sapphire, or blue corundum, while the
hyacinth of modern mineralogists may have been the stone known as
_lyncurium_ ([Greek: lynkourion]). The Hebrew word _leshem_, translated
ligure in the Authorized Version (Ex. xxviii. 19), from the [Greek:
ligyrion] of the Septuagint, appears in the Revised Version as jacinth,
but with a marginal alternative of amber. Both jacinth and amber may be
reddish yellow, but their identification is doubtful. As our jacinth
(zircon) is not known in ancient Egyptian work, Professor Flinders
Petrie has suggested that the _leshem_ may have been a yellow quartz, or
perhaps agate. Some old English writers describe the jacinth as yellow,
whilst others refer to it as a blue stone, and the _hyacinthus_ of some
authorities seems undoubtedly to have been our sapphire. In Rev. xx. 20
the Revised Version retains the word jacinth, but gives sapphire as an
alternative.
Most of the gems known in trade as hyacinth are only garnets--generally
the deep orange-brown hessonite or cinnamon-stone--and many of the
antique engraved stones reputed to be hyacinth are probably garnets. The
difference may be detected optically, since the garnet is singly and the
hyacinth doubly refracting; moreover the specific gravity affords a
simple means of diagnosis, that of garnet being only about 3.7, whilst
hyacinth may have a density as high as 4.7. Again, it was shown many
years ago by Sir A. H. Church that most hyacinths, when examined by the
spectroscope, show a series of dark absorption bands, due perhaps to the
presence of some rare element such as uranium or erbium.
Hyacinth is not a common mineral. It occurs, with other zircons, in the
gem-gravels of Ceylon, and very fine stones have been found as pebbles
at Mudgee in New South Wales. Crystals of zircon, with all the typical
characters of hyacinth, occur at Expailly, Le Puy-en-Velay, in Central
France, but they are not large enough for cutting. The stones which have
been called Compostella hyacinths are simply ferruginous quartz from
Santiago de Compostella in Spain. (F. W. R.*)
HYACINTHUS,[1] in Greek mythology, the youngest son of the Spartan king
Amyclas, who reigned at Amyclae (so Pausanias iii. 1. 3, iii. 19. 5; and
Apollodorus i. 3. 3, iii. 10. 3). Other stories make him son of Oebalus,
of Eurotas, or of Pierus and the nymph Clio (see Hyginus, _Fabulae_,
271; Lucian, _De saltatione_, 45, and _Dial. deor._ 14). According to
the general story, which is probably late and composite, his great
beauty attracted the love of Apollo, who killed him accidentally when
teaching him to throw the _discus_ (quoit); others say that Zephyrus (or
Boreas) out of jealousy deflected the quoit so that it hit Hyacinthus on
the head and killed him. According to the representation on the tomb at
Amyclae (Pausanias, _loc. cit._) Hyacinthus was translated into heaven
with his virgin sister Polyboea. Out of his blood there grew the flower
known as the hyacinth, the petals of which were marked with the mournful
exclamation AI, AI, "alas" (cf. "that sanguine flower inscribed with
woe"). This Greek hyacinth cannot have been the flower which now bears
the name: it has been identified with a species of iris and with the
larkspur (_Delphinium Aiacis_), which appear to have the markings
described. The Greek hyacinth was also said to have sprung from the
blood of Ajax. Evidently the Greek authorities confused both the flowers
and the traditions.
The death of Hyacinthus was celebrated at Amyclae by the second most
important of Spartan festivals, the Hyacinthia, which took place in the
Spartan month Hecatombeus. What month this was is not certain. Arguing
from Xenophon (_Hell._ iv. 5) we get May; assuming that the Spartan
Hecatombeus is the Attic Hecatombaion, we get July; or again it may be
the Attic Scirophorion, June. At all events the Hyacinthia was an early
summer festival. It lasted three days, and the rites gradually passed
from mourning for Hyacinthus to rejoicings in the majesty of Apollo,
the god of light and warmth, and giver of the ripe fruits of the earth
(see a passage from Polycrates, _Laconica_, quoted by Athenaeus 139 d;
criticized by L. R. Farnell, _Cults of the Greek States_, iv. 266
foll.). This festival is clearly connected with vegetation, and marks
the passage from the youthful verdure of spring to the dry heat of
summer and the ripening of the corn.
The precise relation which Apollo bears to Hyacinthus is obscure. The
fact that at Tarentum a Hyacinthus tomb is ascribed by Polybius to
Apollo Hyacinthus (not Hyacinthius) has led some to think that the
personalities are one, and that the hero is merely an emanation from the
god; confirmation is sought in the Apolline appellation [Greek:
tetracheir], alleged by Hesychius to have been used in Laconia, and
assumed to describe a composite figure of Apollo-Hyacinthus. Against
this theory is the essential difference between the two figures.
Hyacinthus is a chthonian vegetation god whose worshippers are afflicted
and sorrowful; Apollo, though interested in vegetation, is never
regarded as inhabiting the lower world, his death is not celebrated in
any ritual, his worship is joyous and triumphant, and finally the
Amyclean Apollo is specifically the god of war and song. Moreover,
Pausanias describes the monument at Amyclae as consisting of a rude
figure of Apollo standing on an altar-shaped base which formed the tomb
of Hyacinthus. Into the latter offerings were put for the hero before
gifts were made to the god.
On the whole it is probable that Hyacinthus belongs originally to the
pre-Dorian period, and that his story was appropriated and woven into
their own Apollo myth by the conquering Dorians. Possibly he may be the
apotheosis of a pre-Dorian king of Amyclae. J. G. Frazer further
suggests that he may have been regarded as spending the winter months in
the underworld and returning to earth in the spring when the "hyacinth"
blooms. In this case his festival represents perhaps both the Dorian
conquest of Amyclae and the death of spring before the ardent heat of
the summer sun, typified as usual by the _discus_ (quoit) with which
Apollo is said to have slain him. With the growth of the hyacinth from
his blood should be compared the oriental stories of violets springing
from the blood of Attis, and roses and anemones from that of Adonis. As
a youthful vegetation god, Hyacinthus may be compared with Linus and
Scephrus, both of whom are connected with Apollo Agyieus.
See L. R. Farnell, _Cults of the Greek States_, vol. iv. (1907), pp.
125 foll., 264 foll.; J. G. Frazer, _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_ (1906),
bk. ii. ch. 7; S. Wide, _Lakonische Kulte_, p. 290; E. Rhode,
_Psyche_, 3rd ed. i. 137 foll.; Roscher, _Lexikon d. griech. u. röm.
Myth._, s.v. "Hyakinthos" (Greve); L. Preller, _Griechische Mythol._
4th ed. i. 248 foll. (J. M. M.)