Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/901

 for to anfwer the name of the linatrius of the antients ; and it is alfo equally plain, that the gem we now call the Hyacinth was known to them by no other name, though we cannot but believe that a gem, always fo common, muft have been known to them : And it is equally plain, that our Hyacinth, and no other known gem, anfwers to all the characters they have given of the lapis lyncurius; and it appears hence rea- fonable to conclude, that this is the gem known to them by that name.

Pliny's account wholly confirms this opinion, and the defcrip- tion of the lyncurius given by Theophraftus ; though Pliny feems evidently to have taken it from fome other author. He fays it was a gem refembling the carbuncle, that is, refem- bling the generality of red gems ; for at his time they called all thofe by the common name carbuncle ; and differing from them, in that it was of a flame colour ; words which could never have been fpoken of the belemnites, but which very happily exprefs our Hyacinth.

It is a lefs gaudy looking gem than any other of the red ones ; but is not without its beauty, which in the fin eft fpecimens is great, though not glaring ; and is as feldorn found blemiftied or faulty as almoft any other gem. It is of various fizes, but is feldom found fmaller than a hempfeed, or larger than a nutmeg. We have had accounts, indeed, of fome of a much larger fize ; but they feem not much to be depended upon, It is not lefs irregular in fhape than fize, being found fome- times in the figure of a regularly hcxangular column, ter- minated by an hexangular pyramid, and in all refpects, ex- i cept colour and hardnefs, refembling fprig cryftal ; and at other times it is found in form of a fmall roundifh or oblong pebble, generally flatted on one fide. It makes much the beft external appearance in its cryltalliform Irate ; but the peb- ble-fhap'd mafTes are much the harder, and of the finer luftre. It is lefs hard than the ruby or fapphire, but greatly more fo than cryftal. Hill's Hift. of Foffils, p. 592. It is found of various degrees of deepnefs or palenefs, but its colour is always a deadifh red, with a confiderable admixture of yellow, fometimes indeed fo much, that the laft ieems the predominant colour. It is fometimes fo deep as to feem al- mofr, black, till held up againft a ftrong light, and at others is almofr, colourlefs; and probably, not unfrequently is wholly lb, though m that cafe, wanting its true character, which is taken from its colour, it is not to be dillinguifhed from peb- ble cryftal on the one hand, nor from the white fapphire on the other, without the afliftance of the wheel to alcertain its hardnefs. Its moft ufual ftate, however, is its having that colour mixed of red and yellow, which we ufually call flame colour.

Thefe are the characters bv which the lyncurius of the an- tients, or Hyacinth of our times, is to be diflinguifhed from all other gems; and our jewellers and lapidaries, according to its different degrees of colour, diftirjguifh it into three kinds, which they call by its own name, with different epi- thets, and a fourth, which ufually, but improperly, is ac- counted by authors a ruby.

The firft kind is the la hella Hyadnlha. This is the name given to the Hyacinth, in its molt perfect and beautiful ftate, when it is of a pure and bright flame colour, fecmingly made of a mixture of cinnabarine red, and a moderate proportion of a fine amber yellow.

The fecond is the fafFron Hyacinth. This is the name they give this gem, when it has more of the red, and that of a deeper and dufkicr colour, and is tinged with an admixture ot a dead and brownifti yellow.

The third is the amber Hyacinth. This is the name they give thofe Hyacinths which arc tinged with a fainter red, in a fmall proportion, and a dead whitifh yellow. The fourth is the Rubacelk, a name given to the Hyacinth when of a very deep and ftrong red, blended with a very deep but dufky yellow. The ftrong colour of the red, in this ftone, has generally made it have a place among the rubies, jn the accounts of authors ; but a comparifon of it with the two gems will evidently fhew, that it belongs not to the ruby, but to the Hyacinth kind.

The firft of thefe arc the finer Hyacinths', and arc of con- fiderable value. They are brought to us both from the Eaft and Weft Indies. The Rubacelle is only found in the Eaft Indies, but is of very little value ; and the other two varieties are common both to the Eaft and Weft Indies, and to Silefia and Bohemia, and feveral other parts of Europe. Thefe are, indeed, fometimes brought over to us from the Eaft Indies, among the finer kind ; as is alfo the la hella Hyacintha, fome- times found in Bohemia, though poor in comparifon of the oriental. It is no wonder, indeed, that they fhould be all found equally in both places, being all, in reality, only va- rieties of the fame gem ; but the oriental are in general greatly the finer and better colour'd. HY^NA, orHi^NA, in natural hiftory. The animal which is known to us by this name is a quadruped alraoft as large as a wolf, excepting that its legs are not fo long. The hair of it is rough, and its flcin fpotted with divers colours. Hiama's were formerly produced at Rome in the public games, and they have been reprefented on fome medals, on account of their rarity. It is an uncommon creature, fcavce to be feen

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any where but in Egypt. Spanheim, who had copies of it engraved from medals, defcribes it with the head of a maftifF, with fhort triangular ears, a lion's tail and feet, and hair fpotted all over like a tyger's.

Bochart and Ludolphus a, in his hiftory of Ethiopia, maintain, that the Hycena is in the Hebrew called "Tzeboa. Jeremiah 'fpeaks of it in chap. xii. g. Pliny b fpeaks of the Hyeena, and defcribes it in a manner which feems fabulous. He fays, that it changes its fex every year, being one year male, and the next female ; and that from its eyes are taken precious ftones, from the name of this creature called Hyczna. Ari- ftotle and ./Elian fay, that it makes dogs dumb with its fhadow ; that it imitates the fpeech of mankind, and deceives tlieiri, in order to draw them out of their houfes, and devour them. They add, that it has feet like a man's, and no ver- tebrae in the neck. — ■ [ a See Bo chart's Hierozoicon, P. 1, I. 3. c. ir. and Lutklph. Comment- in Hift. Ethiop. I. 1. n. 8r. b Plin. 1.8. c. 30. & 1. 28. c. 8.] Bufbequius, in his travels to Amafia, relates feveral particulars of this animal. He fays it is almoft of the ftiape of a wolf, but not fo tall. That its hair is like that of a wolf, except its being more briftly, and marked at certain diftances with great black fpots. It has no neck, but its head is faftened to the vertebras of the back, fo that ft is forced to turn itfelf quite round, whenever it would look behind. It is very cruel and voracious ; it drags dead bodies out of graves, and carries them to its den. Inftead of teeth, it has one continued bone in the jaw. It is faid to imitate the voice of a man, and that by this means it often deceives travellers. The daughter of the Hyana is a bird, the ufc whereof is for- bidden by Mofes. Calm. Diet. Bnjbea. Iter. Amafian. p. 76. HYALINjE, in natural hiftory, the name of a genus of follils, of the clafs of the talcs, the characters of which arc, that they are compofed of feparate plates of confiderable thicknefs, and thofe not fiflile into any thinner.

The word is derived from the Greek ta%% glafs. The feve- ral plates which compofe thefe bodies being very much of the appaarance of the finer glafs, and ufually about the thicknefs of that ufed for fafh windows. See Tab. of Foflils, Clafs 1. and Hill's Hift. of Foffils, p. 75.

There is but one fpecies known of this genus, which is found lodged in the clay, in the fteep banks of the river Aube in Champaigne, near the town of Bar, and in fome other places along that river ; but fo far as is yet known, in no other part of the wdrld. HYALOIDES, in the natural hiftory of the antients, the name of a tranfparent ftone fit to engrave feals on, which was the great ufe they made of the gems, and very bright and readily reflecting the images of things. Different authors have had different guetfes about this ftone ; but it feeni3 to be the fame gem which Pliny calls ajlrios, which, he fays, was of the nature of cryftal, and was brought from the Indies. We have this ftone to this day in many parts of America, particu- larly about the river of the amazons, from whence many fair ftones of it have at times been brought, and have been by fome miflakcn for diamonds ; they are a fort of pebble cryftal, approaching to what the jewellers call the white fapphire. Hill's Theophraft. p. 80. Hyaloides, in anatomy, is fometimes applied to the vitreous humour of the eye, contained betwixt the tunica-retina and the uvea. HYANCHE, a word ufed by the old medicinal writers to fig- nify a quinfy, attended with a fwclling on each iide of the throat, HYARITH, a word ufed, by fome of the affected chemical

writers, for filver. HYBERNAL Occident. Seelhe article Occident. Hyeernal Orient. Seethe article Orient. HYBERNICUS Lapis. See the article Lapis Hyhemicits. HYBOMA, a word ufed by the old medicinal writers for a gib-

bofity of the fpine. HYDARTHROS, a word ufed by the antient writers in me- dicine to exprefs a clear water running from the joints when wounded or ulcerated ; it is a very common fymptom in &orfes, and our farriers call it joint-water. HYDATIDES, in natural hiftory, a name given, by fome writers, to a fpecies of aftroites, the liueatrons of which re- femble waves. It is by others ufed as a name of the enhydros. See the articles Astroites and Enhydros. Hydatides, inmedicine (Cycl.)— Thefe tumours are fome- times voided by the vagina. Of this Mr. Watfon has given a remarkable inftancein a gentlewoman of about forty-eight years of age, the mother of feveral children, and who, after a refpite of fix years, had again the figns of conception for three months, after which time they left her, and from that timefhedifcharg- ed every night, for a month together, large quantities of blood by the vagina, and not perceiving any iucreafe in her belly, nor in the fize of her breafts, ihe concluded that the menfes were leaving her at their ufual period. But fome weeks after this, fne was taken with pains like thofe of labour, and there came away a vaft number of Hydatides, of all the fizes be- tween a nutmeg and a pin's head, fome filled with clear water, fome with a bloody lymph, all of them growing in the man- ner of a duller of grapes, from a fpungy fubftance, ferving as