Hay

[Sax. heg, hig.] The stems and leaves of gra es cut and dried for fodder. After being OF COMMON THINGS 7 7 mown, the gra is shaken up and spread abroad evenly over the ground, to be dried by the sun. This is continued for several days, the hay being raked into windrows at night and into small heaps if rain threatens. Fever. A warm weather disease; its symptoms are those of common catarrh, yet very difficult to cure, and recurring annually at a fixed time. It is thought to be due to the pollen of certain plants. Some persons are very susceptible, but most people not at all so. HAWK. [Sax. hczsel.] A genus of nut-bear¬ ing plants or small trees of the order Coryleae. The hazel is a native of all the temperate parts of Europe and Asia. It is also common iu North America. In England the hazel is cultivated for its nuts {filberts), from which, on pre ure, a valuable oil is obtained. The wood of the hazel is largely used—the smaller kind for making crates, baskets, hoops, whip-handles, etc. and; the larger wood for charcoal, which is in great demand for forges, for the manufacture of gun¬ powder and of artists’ crayons. [Sax. heortP\ A hollow7 muscular organ, with four chambers, iu the higher animals. It is the centre of the blood’s motion in an animal body, and is situated in the thorax. The blood flows from the veins to the two right chambers of the heart (auricle and ventricle), then to the lungs, next to the two left chambers, from which it is driven into the arteries. Thus the circula¬ tion is carried on and life maintained. The heart of a reptile has only three chambers, and of a fish only two, so that the blood is imperfectly aerated, and there is little animal heat. A force in nature known by its effects in fusion and evaporation. Formerly it was sup¬ posed to be a subtle fluid, which wTas known as caloric. It is now regarded as a kind of motion, 653