Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/473

 HAREBELL HAREM 459 the first application of voltaic electricity to blasting under water was made. This was in 1831, and the experiments were made under the direction of Dr. Hare. (See BLASTING.) He contributed numerous papers to the " Amer- ican Journal of Science," and other period- icals, and published "Brief View of the Policy and Resources of the United States " (1810), "Chemical Apparatus and Manipulations" (1836), and "Compendium of the Course of Chemical Instruction in the Medical Depart- ment of the University of Pennsylvania." In his later years he became a believer in spirit- ual manifestations, and wrote "Spiritualism Scientifically Demonstrated " (1855). HAREBELL, the common name in this coun- try and England for a beautiful wild peren- nial plant, campanula rotundifolia. The ge- nus campanula is a large and very ornamen- one ; the flowers are bell-shaped, as is ex- id by the name, which is the diminutive Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) of the Italian campana, a bell. The specific name (round-leafed) was not happily chosen by Linnaeus, as it is only the root leaves which are round ; and as these usually decay by the time the plant flowers, the only leaves gener- ally found upon it are those of the stem, which are linear or narrowly lanceolate. The stem is seldom a foot high, often half that, and bears from one to ten small bell-shaped flowers of the most beautiful bright blue color. The harebell is common in Europe and northern Asia, as well as in America, and is most fre- quent on shaded rocky banks, especially on mountains, which it ascends to great elevations. It is one of the wild flowers frequently alluded to in poetry, and one deserving of more at- tention from cultivators than it has received. It will grow in the ordinary soil of the borders, but its most appropriate place is upon the rock- work. There is a double-flowered variety in the French gardens ; and an upright, rigid, wild form has been described as a distinct species, <?. linifolia. In England the flowers, treated with alum, are used to make a green dye. HARE LIP, a congenital fissure of the upper lip, on one or on both sides, giving to the mouth very much the appearance presented by the cleft upper lip of the hare. It is some- times accompanied by a fissure of the hard and soft palate in which the cavities of the mouth and nose communicate ; when the teeth and the gums project through the fissure, the de- formity is much increased. In the infant it interferes with the process of sucking, and in the adult renders speech imperfect ; when fis- sure of the palate coexists, not only is articu- lation indistinct and nasal, but the passage of food and drink from the mouth to the nose, and of the nasal secretions into the mouth, is a source of great annoyance and mortification. This deformity is in most cases capable of removal by a very simple surgical operation, which has been practised successfully upon infants a few weeks old. The operation con- sists merely in paring the edges of the fissure with a knife or scissors, and keeping the cut surfaces in apposition by needles and sutures, strengthened by sticking plaster or collodion. When the hare lip is double, both sides are generally operated on at the same time. It is usual to extract projecting teeth, or to remove any too prominent portion of the jaw by cut- ting forceps. Bleeding is generally slight, and restrained by pressure or simple contact of the cut surfaces. In infants, adhesive straps are often necessary to prevent the edges being drawn asunder by crying or sucking; in adults, strict silence and liquid food are en- joined for four or five days. Fissure of the soft palate is remedied on the same principle of paring the edges and keeping them in con- tact by various kinds of sutures and needles ; this operation, called staphyloraphy, can only be performed on a patient old enough to aid the proceedings of the surgeon. It is attribu- ted to intra-uterine disease, producing an ar- rest of development; when single, it is said to be most common on the left side. In very rare instances it occurs upon the median line. HAREM (Arabic, el-harim, the sanctuary), a term applied to the -holy cities, Mecca and Medina, which are jointly called "the harems," and to the temple of Mecca, which is termed mesjid el-harim, the sacred mosque ; but which in its more general use signifies throughout the Mohammedan world the fe- males of a family, and more particularly that part of a dwelling house which is appropriated to their use. It is also commonly used by the Greeks, Armenians, and Jews of the Turkish empire, though the seclusion of their women is not so strict as that of the Mohammedans, and is founded on customs of remote antiquity in the East. Its prevalence among the Mohamme- dans has been established by the following pas- sage of the Koran : " And speak unto the be- lieving women, that they restrain their eyes,