bowls, but scarcely a quarter of an inch thick, also well polished."

GYMNOTHORAX, the murana, in natural history, a genus of fishes of the order Apodes. Generic character: body cel-shaped, no pectoral fins; spiracle single, on each side the neck, small, oval, and uncovered. There are four species, according to Gmelin, but Shaw enumerates eleven. The G. romana abounds on the Mediterranean coasts, and attains nearly to the size of the common eel. It is principally found in salt water, but will live equally well in fresh. It is high ly voracious, and preys upon a vast variety of smaller animals. It was regarded by the Romans as one of the first of delicacies, and the rich and noble frequently kept these fishes in large reservoirs, in which they were at once fed for the table, and afforded entertainment by the tameness and familiarity to which they were easily disciplined. V. Pollio once ordered a slave, who had offended him by neglect, in the presence of the Emperor, to be cut in pieces and given for food to his murænas, at which the Emperor Augustus was so much disgusted, that he instantly ordered the ponds of this nobleman to be filled up, and his slave to be liberated, and was induced to spare the life of this tyrant, only from a regard to an acquaintance of considerable duration.

GYMNOTUS, the gymnote, in nattiral history, a genus of fishes of the order Apodes. Generic character: the head with lateral opercula, two tentacula on the upper lip; eyes covered by the common skin; gill-membrane five-rayed; body compressed, generally without a dorsal fin, but carinated by a fin beneath. There are nine species, of which we shall notice G. electricus, or the electrical gymnote. This is generally of the length of three or four feet, is of an unpleasant appearance, much like a large eel, but thicker in proportion to the length, and always of the colour of a blackish brown.

It has, occasionally, been seen of the length of ten feet. It is found in the hot elimates of Africa and America, particularly in the rivers of Surinam and Senegal. Towards the close of the 17th century, a memoir was presented by M. Ri cher to the French Academy, announcing his discovery of a very pecular quality of this fish, by which it communicated to the person touching it a very sudden and violent shock. This statement, however, was considered as fabulous for a considerable time, and it was not till about the middle of the last century that all

scepticism on this subject, even among learned and scientific men, completely vanished, and this very peculiar property was universally allowed to attach to the fish in question. Dr. Garden, of Charlestown, in South Carolina, after giving an elaborate description of the form and structure of this animal, adds, that it has the power of giving an electrical shock to any person, or to any number of persons who join hands together, the extreme person on each side touching the fish. There were five of these fishes under his immediate inspection at the above town, all which possessed this property in a high degree, and they could communicate the shock to any number of individuals, either by the immediate touch of the fish by one of them, or through the medium of a metalline rod; but when they were first caught, this power was more fully possessed by them than some time afterwards. He observed that, in his own case, the shock was never experi enced, when the fish was laid hold of by him with one hand only; when it was held by both hands, at a considerable distance apart, he never failed to receive a sensible and smart one. Indeed, if it be held by one hand, and the other hand be immersed in the water immediately over the body of the fish, the same effect will follow as if the fish were held by both hands, and so it will be with respect to any number of persons joining in a circle, one hand of the person at one extremity holding the fish, and the person at the other extremity placing his hand in the water over the gymnote. This shock is considered as completely electrical, all the circumstances of it resembling those of the electricity of the atmosphere. It is passed by the same conductors, and interrupted by the same electrics. These fishes are caught in Surinam river, considerably above the reach of the sea-water. They subsist on fishes, worms, or any animal food, which is small enough for them to swallow; and when any fish is thrown at them, they will immediately communicate to it a shock, by which it is stupified. If the fish be large, several shocks are requisite, and are applied for this purpose, and many are thus destroyed by the gymnote which it is unable to swallow, and after repeated attempts finds itself obliged to abandon. The shock inflicted by these creatures on others, intended by them for prey, is by no means always, nor perhaps generally, fatal, and many have been speedily recovered, after being removed into another vessel from that in which they received the shock, and in

which they were rendered motionless, and to all appearance dead, by it. It appears that the electrical fish has no teeth, and the most minute examination of the fishes contained in their stomachs could discover no marks of laceration, even in the slightest degree. Gymnotes of three feet in length are incapable of swallowing any fish larger than three inches and a half It appears that the strength of their peculiar talent is in proportion to their magnitude, and it is stated that there are some in Surinam river, whose length is twenty feet, and whose shock is followed by immediate death to any human being, who is so unfortunate as to be exposed to it. It is observed, that even after the electrical fish is dead, it retains, for a considerable time, more or less of this singular property. It is a fish greatly and justly dreaded by the inhabitants of those countries, the rivers of which it frequents; it is, however, notwithstanding this circumstance, used by them for food, and even by some considered as a capital delicacy. For a representation of the gymnotus electricus, see Pisces, Plate IV. fig. 5.

GYNANDRIA, in botany, the name of the twentieth class in the Linnæan system. It consists of plants with hermaphrodite flowers, in which the stamina are placed upon the style, or upon a pillarshaped receptacle resembling a style, which rises in the middle of the flower, and bears both the stamina and pointal. There are seven orders in this class, each of which is founded on the number of the stamina in the plants which compose it. See BOTANY.

GYNOPOGON, in botany, a genus of the Pentandria Monogynia class and or der. Natural order of Apocineæ, Jussieu. Essential character: calyx half fivecleft, inferior, permanent; corolla fiveparted, tube ventricose below the. tip, throat contracted; stigma globular, twolobed; berry pedicelled, sub-globular; seed cartilaginous, sub-bilocular. There are three species, natives of the islands in the South Seas.

GYPSIES. There are several statutes against them, by which they are treated as rogues and vagabonds.

GYPSOPHILA, in botany, a genus of the Decandria Digynia class and order. Natural order of Caryophyllei. Essential character: calyx one-leafed, bell-shaped, angular; petals five, ovate, sessile; capsule globular, one-celled. There are twelve species.

GYPSUM, a substance well known to the ancients, and one that is very abun

dant in nature, and is now denominated, according to the new chemical arrangement, the sulphate of lime. It forms immense strata, composing entire mountains; it is found in almost every soil, either in greater or less quantities; it is contained in the waters of the ocean, and in almost all river and spring water. In these its presence is the cause of the quality termed hardness, which may be known by the water being incapable of forming a solution of soap, the sulphuric acid seizing on the alkali of the soap, and the oil forming a compound with the lime. Sulphate of lime is insipid, white, and soft to the touch. Water will not hold a 500th part of it in solution. Exposed to heat it appears to effervesce, which phenomenon is caused by the expulsion of water. It becomes opaque, and falls into powder. This powder, when its water has been driven off by the application of a red heat, absorbs water rapidly, so that if it be formed into a paste with water, it dries in a few minutes. In this state it is called plaster of Paris, and is employed for forming casts, and for a variety of purposes in the art of statuary.

Eleven

GYRINUS, in natural history, waterflea, a genus of insects of the order Coleoptera. Antennæ cylindrical; jaws horny, one-toothed, sharp-pointed; eyes four, two above and two beneath; thorax and shells margined, the latter shorter than the body; legs formed for swimming. The insects of this genus are to be found on the surface of waters, on which they run, and describe circles with a great degree of swiftness; when attempted to be taken they plunge to the bottom, drawing after them a bubble very similar to a globule of quicksilver. species of the gyrinus have been described, of which one only is found in Europe; and in the United States about six additional ones, viz. G. natator, a small insect, not more than a quarter of an inch long, of a blackish colour, but with so bright a surface as to shine like a mirror in the sun. The larva is of a very singular aspect, having a lengthened body, furnished with many lateral appendages down the body, exclusively of six legs. Dr. Shaw says, its motions are extremely agile, swimming in a kind of serpentine manner, and preying on the smaller and weaker water-insects, minute worms, &c. It is a highly curious object for the microscope. When its change arrives, it forms for itself a small oval cell or case on a leaf of some water plant, and after casting its skin it becomes a chrysalis. These

animals, in large numbers, give out a disagreeable smell, and, like other water beetles, they fly only by night. Their eggs are white, and are laid on the stems

of water-plants, where they are hatched in the course of a week, and instantly begin to swim about very swiftly in quest of prey; inhabits Europe.

H,

Or h, the eighth letter, and sixth consonant in our alphabet; though some grammarians will have it to be only an aspiration or breathing.

It is pronounced by a strong expiration of the breath between the lips, closing, as it were, by a gentle motion of the lower jaw to the upper, and the tongue nearly approaching the palate.

There seems to be no doubt, but that our h, which is the same with that of the Romans, derived its figure from that of the Hebrew. And, indeed, the Phonicians, most ancient Greeks and Romans, used the same figure with our H, which in the series of all these alphabets keeps its primitive place, being the eighth let

ter.

H, used as a numeral, denotes 200; and with a dash over it, H, 200,000.

HABEAS corpus, a writ of various uses, and of different importance. It was originally a writ, which a man indicted of a trespass before justices of the peace, or in a court of franchise, and being apprehended for it, may have out of the King's Bench, to remove himself thither at his own costs, and to answer the cause there. In its more usual sense, it is the most celebrated writ in the English

law. The most efficacious kind, in all manner of illegal confinement, is that of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum, which is the subject's writ of right, in cases where he is aggrieved by illegal imprisonment, or any unwarrantable exercise of power.

This writ is founded upon common law, and has been secured by various statutes, of which the last, and most efficacious, was the 31 Charles II. c. 2, which is emphatically termed the habeas act, and may justly be deemed a second magna charta, and as relates to modern times is far more efficacious,

for it is the grand protection of the subject against unlawful imprisonment.

By this important statute it is enacted, that on complaint, in writing, by or on behalf of any person committed and charged with any crime (unless committed for felony or treason expressed in the warrant, or as accessary, or on suspicion of being accessary before the fact, to any petit treason or felony plainly expressed in the warrant, or unless he be convicted or charged in execution by legal process), the Lord Chancellor, or any other of the twelve judges, in vacation, upon viewing a copy of the warrant, or affidavit that the copy is denied, shall (unless the party have neglected for two terms to apply to any court for his enlargement) award an habeas corpus for such prisoner, returnable immediately before himself, or any other of the judges, and, upon return made, shall discharge the party, if bailable, upon giving security to appear, and answer to the accusation in the proper court of judicature.

That such writs shall be indorsed, as granted in pursuance of the act, and signed by the person awarding them. That the writ shall be returned, and the pri soner brought up within a limited time according to the distance, not exceeding in any case twenty days. That the officers and keepers neglecting to make due returns, or not delivering to the prisoner, or his agent, within six hours after demand, a copy of the warrant of commitment, or shifting the custody of a prisoner from one to another, without sufficient reason or authority (specified in the act), shall, for the first offence, forfeit one hundred pounds, and for the second offence two hundred pounds, to the party griev ed, and be disabled to hold his office. That no person, once delivered by habeas corpus, shall be recommitted for the same offence, on penalty of five hundred pounds.

That every person committing treason or felony shall, if he require it, the first week of the next term, or the first day of the sessions of oyer and terminer, be indicted in that term or session, or else be admitted to bail, unless the king's witnesses cannot be produced at that time; and if acquitted, or if not indicted and tried in the second term or session, he shall be discharged from his imprisonment for such imputed offence; but no person, after the assize shall be open for the county in which he is detained, shall be removed by habeas corpus till after the assizes are ended, but shall be left to the justice of the judges of assize. That any such prisoner may move for and obtain his habcas corpus, as well out of the Chancery or Exchequer, as out of the King's Bench or Common Pleas; and the Lord Chancellor, or judges, denying the same on sight of the warrant, or oath that the same is refused, shall forfeit severally, to the party grieved, the sum of five hun dred pounds. That this writ of habeas corpus shall run into the counties palatine, cinque ports, and other privileged places, and the islands of Jersey, Guern sey, &c. That no inhabitants of England (except persons contracting, or convicts praying to be transported, or having committed some capital offence in the place to which they are sent) shall be sent prisoners to Scotland, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, or any places beyond the seas, within or without the king's dominions, on pain that the party committing, his advis ers, aiders, and assistants, shall forfeit to the party grieved a sum not less than five hundred pounds, to be recovered with treble costs, shall be disabled to bear any office of trust or profit, shall incur the penalties of premunire, and shall be incapable of the king's pardon.

The writ of habeas corpus, being an high prerogative writ, issues out of the King's Bench or Common Pleas, not only in term, but in vacation, by a fiat from the chief justice, or any other judge; and runs into all parts of the king's dominions. If it issues in vacation, it is usually returnable before the judge himself who awarded it, and he proceeds by himself thereon, unless the term should intervene, when it may be returned in court.

To obtain this writ, application must be made to the court by motion, as in the case of all other prerogative writs. This writ may also be obtained, to remove every unjust restraint on personal freedom in private life, though imposed by an husband, or a father; but when women or VOL. VI.

infants are brought up by the habeas corpus, the court will set them free from an unmerited or unreasonable confinement, and will leave them at liberty to choose where they will go.

The habeas corbus ad subjiciendum is a prerogative writ, and also, in regard to the subject, is his writ of right, to which he is entitled to ex debito justicia, being in nature of writ of error to examine the legality of the commitment, and commanding the day, the caption, and cause of detention, to be returned.

The habeas corpus ad faciendum et reci. piendum issues only in civil cases, and lies where a person is sued, and in gaol, in some inferior jurisdiction, and is willing to have the cause determined in some su.

perior court; in this case the body is to be removed by habeas corpus, but the proceedings must be removed by certiorari. This writ suspends the power of the court below; so that if it proceeds after, the proceedings are void, and deemed coram non judice. The proceedings in the inferior court are, in fact, at an end; for the person of the defendant being removed to the superior court, they have lost their jurisdiction over him, and all the proceed. ings in the superior court are de novo, so that bail de novo must be put in, in the superior court,

Habeas corpus ad respondendum, is where a man hath a cause of action against one who is confined by the process of some inferior court; in which case, this writ is granted to remove the prisoner to answer this new action in the court above, which is often done, to remove a prisoner from the prison of the Fleet into the King's Bench, and vice versa.

Habeas corpus ad deliberandum et recipiendum, is a writ which lies to remove a person to the proper place or county where he committed some criminal offence.

Habeas corpus ad satisfaciendum, lies after a judgment, when the party wishes to bring up a prisoner to charge him in execution in the inferior court.

Habeas corpus upon a cepi, lies where the party is taken in execution in the court below.

Habeas corpus ad testificandum, lies to remove a person in confinement, in order to give his testimony in a cause depending.

These are all writs, in civil cases, to bring the party into court for a special purpose, and are mere ordinary processes; but the grand writ, by which the liberty of the subject is secured, is that of the habeas corpus mentioned first, which is O

justly deemed a palladium of British liberty. Its efficacy consists in the right that every man has to have his cause of commitment publicly stated and inquired into by the lawful judges of the land, according to the ordinary rules of law, and it provides not only against the oppression and cruelty, but also against the indolence and ignorance, of a government; for it it is well observed by Black stone, that under a despotic authority, and when the habeas corpus act has been sus pended, the unfortunate persons who have been confined have been too often suffered to linger, because they were forgotten. One important use of the habeas corpus, to which it is now daily applied, is in bringing up seamen who have been impressed, to ascertain whether they are subject to that rigorcus authority. In times of particular alarm, it has been the practice to suspend the operation of the habe. as corpus act, and it is to be feared that ministers have rather sought and made, than properly found, a just occasion for this measure. It is easy to cry that the church and state are in danger, and there are enough ready to take or to feign an alarm; the habeas corpus act is suspended, and men are taken up by warrants from the Secretary of State, upon mere charges of libel, or what is indefinitely called sedition, to give a colour to the harsh usurpation of power. Instances have been known where men so confined have been afterwards released without trial; because, in reality, no charge could be supported against them. In the ordinary course of law, these men would be entitled to indemnity; but the minister, who has the address to procure an indem nity bill, avoids the just compensation due to injured innocence, and the man who has been ruined by an unjust charge is without redress. Surely, when these are the possible consequences of a suspension of the habeas corpus act, every Briton ought to resist it. If crimes are committed, the law has vigour to punish. The habeas corpus is the protection only of the innocent, and they should never be deprived of it.

With respect to removing civil causes out of inferior courts by habeas corpus, there are some useful restrictions, such as that they shall not be removed, if the debt or damages be less than 51. &c.

HABENDUM, in a deed, that formal part of it, which is to determine what estate or interest is granted by it, the certainty thereof, for what time, and to what use. It is expressed by the words "to have and to hold for such a term," &c.

It sometimes qualifies the estate, so that the general extent, which, by construction of law, passes by the words used in the premises, may by the habendum be controlled. The habendum may, therefore, lessen or enlarge the estate previously granted, but it cannot totally contradict or be repugnant to it. As if a grant be to one, and the heirs of his body, habendum, to have to him and his heirs for ever, here he has an estate tail by the grant; and by the habendum a fee-simple expectant thereon. But if it had been in the premises to him and his heirs to have for life, the habendum would be utterly void: for an estate of eritance is vested in him before the habendum comes, and shall not afterwards be taken away, or divested by it. The habendum cannot pass any thing that is not expressly mentioned, or contained by implication, in the premises of the deed; because the premises being part of the deed by which the thing is granted, and consequently that makes the gift, it follows, that the habendum, which only li mits the certainty and extent of the estate in the thing given, cannot increase or multiply the gift, because it were absurd to say, that the grantee shall hold a thing which was never given him. See DEED.

HABIT, in philosophy, an aptitude or disposition, either of mind or body, acquired by a frequent repetition of the

same act.

HACKLE, an implement used in dressing flax.

HÆMANTHUS, in botany, a genus of the Hexandria Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Spathaceæ. Narcissi, Jussieu. Essential character: invo lucre six-leaved, many flowered; corolla six-parted, superior; berry three-celled. There are eight species.

HÆMATOPUS, the Oyster-catcher, in natural history, a genus of birds of the order Grallæ. Generic character: bill conpressed, the tip an equal wedge; nostrils linear; tongue about a third part of the length of the bill; toes three; all placed forwards, the outer one joined to the middle by a strong membrane. This bird is sixteen inches in length, and about the size of a crow; it is to be met with on almost every sea-shore, and is rather com. mon in the United States on the sea coast. In the winter season, these birds are seen in considerable flocks, but in summer only in pairs. The female prepares no nest, but deposits her eggs on the naked shore, a little above high-water mark. If the oyster-catcher 'be taken