Hernia

[Fr. hernie; Gr. hernos, a branch, from its protruding forward.] ( Med. ) A general term in morbid anatomy applied to the protrusion of any viscus from its natural cavity. In a more restricted sense, however, the word only signifies a protrusion of the abdominal viscera. H. in the latter form is unfortunately very frequent. Many causes contribute to this frequency. There are three natural openings which are weak and unprotected in the walls of the abdomen. These openings yield easily, and permit the escape of any viscus that may be pre ed towards them with even a moderate degree of force. The nature of the walls, too, which are principally composed of muscles, and the condition of the viscera within-loose, liable to change of size and situation, and subject to irregular pre ure by the contractions of these muscular walls-all unite to render these weak situations still more weak. The places referred to are called the umbilicus, and the inguinal and femoral canals. There are, however, other situations where hernia may occur, though such cases are unfrequent. It is also evident that if the muscles or tendous of the diaphragm are wounded, some portion of the contents of the abdomen may escape; thus constituting the varieties of ventral and phrenic hernia. The forms of this disease have consequently been arranged and named according to the places where they occur. Besides this division as to situation, there is another of great importance, derived from the nature of the viscus displaced. Men are much more liable to H. than women, the proportion being about four to one, and the liability to the disease increases with years. A hernia is always composed of a "sac" and its contents. The former is a portion of the peritoneum pushed forward by the protruding viscera, and forming a pouch. The contents of the sac vary greatly; but generally consist of a portion of the small intestines, especially the ilium. A certain quantity of fluid is always found secreted in the sac, together with the viscera. The principal divisions of the ordinary disease are: reducible (when it is returnable into the abdomen); irreducible, and strangulated hernia. Reducible hernia is treated either with a tru , so as to retain the protrusion within the cavity of the abdomen, or the treatment may be radical, the contrivances for which are purely surgical. In the former case, each particular kind of hernia requires its special form of tru , and before applying it, the H. must be reduced by placing the patient on his back, relaxing the muscles by bending back the thigh, and pre ing the tumor back in the proper direction. The protruded viscus cannot be returned into the abdomen in irreducible hernia. Cases of this kind are treated either by means of a tru having a hollow pad, so as to embrace the tumor, or radically, in some cases by keeping the patient recumbent, on low diet, for two or three months, during which time the bowels are kept open by laxatives and injections, the tumor being equally pre ed during the time. When a portion of the intestine protruded is so tightly constricted that it not only cannot be returned into the abdomen, but has its circulation arrested also, the disease is called strangulated hernia . If relief is not speedily obtained when the disease occurs in this form, it is highly dangerous; for the strangulated part becomes gangrenous. If the intestines cannot be returned by pre ure, chloroform is administered internally so as to relax the muscles, or a hot-bath, or bleeding to the verge of faintne . If none of these methods are of any avail, the operator is obliged to divide the constriction by means of the knife. Her'nial, a . Pertaining to, or connected with, hernia. Hernia'ria, n. ( Bot .) A genus of plants, order lecebracea. The species H. glabra , the Burst-wort, which was formerly considered efficacious in the case of hernia, seems destitute of all virtue. Her'nosand, ( Wester - Norrland ,) a province of Sweden, bounded N. by Lapmark, E. by the Gulf of Bothnia, S. by An germ ann land and Dale carl i a, and W. by Norway. It. lies between Lat. 620 and 64° N., and Lon. 15° and 190 E.; area , 9,500 sq. m. Prod. Grain, flax, timber, tar, and pitch. Pop . 94,000.- Its capital, Her nos and, on the W.coast of the island of Herne, is joined to the maiuland by a bridge 230 m. N. of Stockholm. Manuf . Flax, salt, linseed-oil, brandy, and ship-building. Hern's haw, n . Same as HERONSHAW, q. v. He'ro, n. [Lat. heros; Gr. heros; probably akin to Ger. herr, lord, master, and to O. Ger. her, her i , high, sacred; Sax. hear , high, proud.] A chief; a man of distinguished valor, intrepidity, or enterprise in danger; a prominent personage in any great action or event. ( Lit. ) The principal personage of, or the person who has the principal share in the transactions related in, a poem or romance. - ( Myth .) In the Homeric poems, H. is a title of honor, not only for those who were employed as leaders or fighting-men in war (the Danaans and Achæans being collectively called heroes ), but even for heralds and minstrels, and for the unwarlike Phæacians. (Od. vii. 44.) In the Hesiodic Theogony, the Heroes are represented as a race of men interposed between the Brazen and the Iron Age, who fought at the sieges of Troy and Thebes. The exaltation of this race, which even in the Iliad (xii. 23) is styled a race of demigods, was completed before the time of Pindar, who makes them a race between gods and men. As so used, the term denoted especially those who were sprung from the union of a divine with a mortal being; as Perseus from that of Zeus with Danaê, and Achilles from that of Thetis with Peleus. But in the later historical writers, the heroes are commonly inferior local deities, as for instance the eponymous heroes of the Attic tribes. Their chapels, termed Ἡρῷa , although supported by the state, were always distinct from the temples of the national gods. Her'od, the name of several princes, Idumæans by descent, who governed either the whole or a part of Judea, under the Romans. The two principal are: HEROD THE GREAT, the son of Anti pater, who appointed him governor of Galilee. Antony appointed him tetrarch, and August us made him king of the Jews. He governed with savage cruelty, and sacrificed his wife Mariamne, her grandfather Hyrcanus, and brother Aristobulus. At the birth of Christ he caused all the infants of Bethlehem to be ma acred, in hopes that he would fall among the number. He also put to death his sons Alexander and Aristobulus, so that August us said, "It was better to be Herod's hog than his son." He rebuilt the temple of Jerusalem, and, in a time of famine, sold his curiosities to relieve the sufferers. D.at the age of 70, after a reign of 37 years. HEROD ANTIPAS, the son of the above, succeeded his father as tetrarch of Galilee. He divorced his wife, the daughter of Aretas, king of Arabia, and espoused Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, on which Aretas declared war against him. Herod sacrificed John the Baptist to the cruelty of Herodias, and his conduct occasioned the Jews to revolt. Being called to Rome to justify his conduct, he died on the road. This is the Herod to whom Christ was sent by Pilate. Hero'dians, n. pl. ( Script .) A sect existing among the Jews at the period of our Saviour's preaching. ( Matthew xvi.; Mark viii. 15.) Much doubt exists as to their history and tenets; some commentators, both ancient and modern, imagine that they were fanatics, who regarded Herod the Great as the Me iah; others, that they were a mere political party, attached to the family of Herod; while a third opinion (Bergier, Dic tionnaire de Théologie ) is, that they supported some innovations attempted by Herod in the religious observ. ances of the country by the partial introduction of Pagan usages. Herodia'nus, a Greek historian, flourished in the 3d century, and held several public offices at Rome. His history is written in Greek, and comprises the period from the death of Marcus Aurelius to the year 238, Hero'dias. ( Script .) A grand-daughter of Herod the IMG:content-0572.jpg:[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed] Great and Marfamne, daughter of Aristobulus, and sister of Herod Agrippa I. She was first married to her uncle Herod Philip, but afterwards abandoned him and connected herself with his brother Herod Antipas. It was by her artifice that Herod was persuaded to cause to be put to death John the Baptist, who had boldly denunciated the incestuous connection which subsisted between her and Herod. Herod'otus, the "FATHER OF HISTORY," a native of Halicarna us, a Dorian city in Asia Minor, was born B. C. 484, and was perhaps alive in the beginning of the following century. According to Suidas, his father was called Lyxas, and his mother Dryo, both descended from noble Halicarna ian families. Disgusted with the government of Lygdamis, the grandson of Artemisia, who was tyrant of his native city, he retired for a time to the island of Samos, whence he acquired the Ionic dialect, in which he afterwards composed his history. To collect the nece ary materials for his great work, he entered, in early manhood, upon that course of patient and observant travel which was destined to render his name illustrious in all future ages. During his wanderings, he visited almost every part of Greece and its dependencies, and many other countries, the affairs of which are treated in his work, investigating minutely the history, manners, and customs of the people. The shores of the Hellespont, Scythia, and the Euxine Sea, Syria, Palestine, Colchis, the northern parts of Africa, Ecbatana, and even Babylon, were the objects of his unwearied search. On his return from his travels, he took a prominent part in delivering his country from the tyranny of Lygdamis. But the expulsion of the tyrant did not bring tranquillity to Halicarna us, and H. , having himself become an object of dislike, again quitted his native city, and settled, along with a colony from Athens, at Thurii, in the south of Italy, B. c. 443. Here he spent the remainder of his life, and here he wrote the work which has immortalized his name. The time and place of his death are matters of dispute. According to some he died at Thurii, and was buried in the market-place, while others a ert that he died at Pella, in Macedonia. His history consists of 9 books, which bear the names of the 9 Muses. "Next to the 'Iliad' and 'Ody ey," says Col. Mure, "the history of H. is the greatest effort of Greek literary genius. The one is the perfection of epic poetry, the other the perfection of epic prose. Were it not for the influence which the prior existence of so noble a model, even in a different branch of composition, has evidently exercised on the historian, his title to the palm of original invention might rival that of his poetical predece or. In the complexity of the plan [of his history], as compared with the simplicity of its execution, in the multiplicity and heterogeneous nature of its materials, and in the harmony of their combination, in the grandeur of its historical ma es, and the minutene , often triviality, of its illustrative details, it remains not only without equal, but without rival or parallel in the literature of Greece or Europe."