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Rh Amorites Shenir (Deut. iii. 9). According to one theory it is the “high mountain” near Caesarea Philippi, which was the scene of the Transfiguration (Mark ix. 2). A curious reference in Enoch vi. 6, says that in the days of Jared the wicked angels descended on the summit of the mountain and named it Hermon. The modern name is Jebel es-Sheikh, or “mountain of the chief or elder.” It is also called Jebel eth-Thelj, “snowy mountain.” The ridge of Hermon, rising into a dome-shaped summit, is 20 m. long, extending north-east and south-west. The formation of the lower part is Nubian sandstone, that of the upper part is a hard dark-grey crystalline limestone belonging to the Neocomian period, and full of fossils. The spurs consist in some cases of white chalk covering the limestone, and on the south there are several basaltic outbreaks. The view from Hermon is very extensive, embracing all Lebanon and the plains east of Damascus, with Palestine as far as Carmel and Tabor. On a clear day Jaffa also may be seen. The mountain in spring is covered with snow, but in autumn there is occasionally none left, even in the ravines. To the height of 500 ft. it is clothed with oaks, poplars and brush, while luxuriant vineyards abound. Foxes, wolves and Syrian bears are not infrequently met with, and there is a heavy dew or night mist. Above the snow-limit the mountain is bare and covered with fine limestone shingle. The summit is a plateau from which three rocky knolls rise up, that on the west being the lowest, that on the south-east the highest. On the south slope of the latter are remains of a small temple or sacellum described by St Jerome. A semicircular dwarf wall of good masonry runs round this peak, and a trench excavated in the rock may perhaps indicate the site of an altar. On the plateau is a cave about 25 ft. sq. with the entrance on the east. A rock column supports the roof, and a building (possibly a Mithraeum) once stood above. Other small temples are found on the sides of Hermon, of which twelve in all have been explored. They face the east and are dated by architects about 200. The most remarkable are those of Deir el ‘Ashaiyir, Hibbariyeh, Hosn Niha and Tell Thatha. At the ruined town called Rukleh on the northern slopes are remains of a temple, the stones of which have been built into a church. A large medallion, 5 ft. in diameter, with a head supposed to represent the sun-god, is built into the wall. Several Greek inscriptions occur among these ruins. In the 12th century Psalm lxxxix. 12 was supposed to indicate the proximity of Hermon to Tabor. The conical hill immediately south of Tabor was thus named Little Hermon, and is still so called by some of the inhabitants of the district.

HERMSDORF, a village of Germany, in the Prussian province of Silesia. Pop. (1900) 10,975. There are coal and iron mines and lime quarries in the vicinity, and in the town there are large iron-works. Hermsdorf is known as Niederhermsdorf to distinguish it from other places of the same name. Perhaps the most noteworthy of these is a village in Silesia at the foot of the Riesengebirge, chiefly famous for the ruins of the castle of Kynast. This castle, formerly the seat of the Schaffgotsch family, was destroyed by lightning in 1675. A third Hermsdorf is a village in Saxe-Altenburg, where porcelain is made.

HERNE, JAMES A. [originally ] (1840–1901), American actor and playwright, was born in Troy, New York, and after theatrical experiences in various companies produced his own first play, Hearts of Oak, in 1878, and his great success Shore Acres in 1882. It was in rural drama that his humour and pathos found their proper setting, and Shore Acres was seen throughout the United States almost continuously for six seasons, being followed by the less successful Sag Harbor, 1900.

HERNE, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Westphalia, 15 m. by rail N.W. of Dortmund. Pop. (1905) 33,258. It has coal mines, boiler-works, gunpowder mills, &c. Herne was made a town in 1897.

HERNE BAY, a seaside resort in the St Augustine’s parliamentary division of Kent, England, 8 m. N. by E. of Canterbury, on the South Eastern and Chatham railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 6726. It has grown up since 1830, above a sandy and pebbly shore, and has a pier m. long. The church of St Martin in the village of Herne, 1 m. inland, is Early English and later; the living was held by Nicholas Ridley (1538), afterwards Bishop of London. At Reculver, 3 m. E. of Herne Bay on the coast, is the site of the Roman station of Regulbium. The fortress occupied about 8 acres, but only traces of the south and east walls remain. In Saxon times it was converted into a palace by King Ethelbert, and in 669 a monastery was founded here by Egbert. The Early English church was taken down early in the 19th century owing to the encroachment of the sea, and parts of its fabric were preserved in the modern church of St Mary. But its twin towers, known as the Sisters from the tradition that they were built by a Benedictine abbess of Faversham in memory of her sister, were preserved by Trinity House as a conspicuous landmark.

 HERNE THE HUNTER, a legendary huntsman who was alleged to haunt Windsor Great Park at night, especially around an aged tree, long known as Herne’s oak, said to be nearly 700 years old. This was blown down in 1863, and a young oak was planted by Queen Victoria on the spot. Herne has his French counterpart in the Grand Veneur of Fontainebleau. Mention is made of Herne in The Merry Wives of Windsor and in Harrison Ainsworth’s Windsor Castle. Nothing definite is known of the Herne legend. It is suggested that it originated in the life-story of some keeper of the forest; but more probably it is only a variant of the “Wild Huntsman” myth common to folk-lore, which (E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, 4th ed. pp. 361-362) is almost certainly the modern form of a prehistoric storm-myth.

HERNIA (Lat. hernia, perhaps from Gr., a sprout), in surgery, the protrusion of a viscus, or part of a viscus, from its normal cavity; thus, hernia cerebri is a protrusion of brain-substance, hernia pulmonum, a protrusion of a portion of lung, and hernia iridis, a protrusion of some of the iris through an aperture in the cornea. But, used by itself, hernia implies a protrusion from the abdominal cavity, or, in common language, a “rupture.” A rupture may occur at any weak point in the abdominal wall. The common situations are the groin (inguinal hernia), the upper part of the thigh (femoral hernia), and the navel (umbilical hernia). The more movable the viscus the greater the liability to protrusion, and therefore one commonly finds some of the small intestine, or of the fatty apron (omentum), in the hernia. The tumour may contain intestine alone (enterocele), omentum alone (epiplocele), or both intestine and omentum (entero-epiplocele). The predisposing cause of rupture is abnormal length of the suspensory membrane of the bowel (the mesentery), or of the omentum, in conjunction with some weak spot in the abdominal wall, as in an inguinal hernia, which descends along the canal in which the spermatic cord lies in the male and the round ligament of the womb in the female. A femoral hernia comes through a weak spot in the abdomen to the inner side of the great femoral vessels; a ventral hernia takes place by the yielding of the scar tissue left after an operation for appendicitis or ovarian disease. The exciting cause of hernia is generally some over-exertion, as in lifting a heavy weight, jumping off a high wall, straining (as in difficult micturition), constipation or excessive coughing. The pressure of the diaphragm above and the abdominal wall in front acting on the abdominal viscera causes a protrusion at the weakest point.

Rupture is either congenital or acquired. A child may be born with a hernia in the inguinal or umbilical region, the result of an arrest of development in these parts; or the rupture may be acquired, first appearing, perhaps, in adult life as the result of a strain or hurt. Men suffer more frequently than women, because of their physical labours, because they are more liable to accidents, and because of the passage for the spermatic cord out of the abdomen being more spacious than that for the round ligament of the womb.

At first the rupture is small, and it gradually increases in bulk. It varies from the size of a marble to a child’s head. The swelling consists of three parts—the coverings, sac and contents. The “coverings” are the structures which form the abdominal wall at the part where the rupture occurs. In femoral hernia the coverings are the structures at the upper part of the thigh which are stretched, thinned and matted together as the result of