52 HUMPHREYS HTJNFALVY and hydrographic surveys of the delta of the Mississippi, continuing in general charge of the work till 1861, when he published a volumi- nous and very valuable "Report upon the Physics and Hydraulics of the Mississippi Riv- er." During the civil war he was on the staff of McClellan until his supersedure by Burnside, was made brevet colonel for his services in the battle of Fredericksburg, commanded a divi- sion at Chancellorsville and at Gettysburg, and after the last battle became chief of the staff of Gen. Meade, being appointed major general of volunteers, July 8, 1863. He took an ac- tive part in the campaigns of 1864 and 1865, succeeding Hancock in the command of the 2d corps. He was brevetted brigadier gen- eral in the regular army for gallant conduct at Gettysburg, and major general for services at the battle of Sailor's Oreek, the closing battle of the war (April 7, 1865). From July to De- cember, 1865, he commanded the district of Pennsylvania, and thereafter he was in charge of the examination of the Mississippi levees till August, 1866, when he was appointed chief of engineers of the United States army, with the rank of brigadier general. HUMPHREYS, David, an American poet, born in Derby, Conn., in July, 1752, died in New Haven, Feb. 21, 1818. He was educated at Yale college, entered the army at the begin- ning of the revolutionary war, and in 1780 became a colonel and aide-de-camp to Wash- ington. He resided more than a year with Washington after his retirement to Virginia, and again in 1788. He accompanied Jefferson to Europe as secretary of legation in 1784, was elected to the legislature of Connecticut in 1786, and was soon associated with Lemuel Hopkins, John Trumbull, and Joel Barlow in the composition of the " Anarchiad," a series of poems which appeared in the " New Haven Gazette " and the " Connecticut Magazine." These poems were satirized as being the pro- duction of "four bards with Scripture names." An edition of them, purporting to be "the first published in book form, edited, with notes and appendices, by Luther G. Riggs," was pub- lished at New Haven in 1861. Humphreys was minister to Lisbon from 1791 to 1797, and afterward minister to Spain till 1802, and on his return imported from Spain 100 merino sheep, and engaged in the manufacture of woollens. He held command of two Connec- ticut regiments in the war of 1812, after which he lived in retirement. His principal poems are : an " Address to the Armies of the United States" (1782); a "Poem on the Happiness of America ;" a tragedy, entitled " The Widow of Malabar," translated from the French of Le Mierre; and a "Poem on Agriculture." His " Miscellaneous Works " (New York, 1790 and 1804) contain besides his poems a biogra- phy of Gen. Putnam and several orations and other prose compositions. HUMUS (Lat. humua, the soil), vegetable mould, or the product of the decay of vegeta- ble matter. When portions of a decayed stump or the decayed matter of peat is digested in a weak solution of caustic potash or soda, a brown liquid is formed, which on the addition of an acid deposits a dark brown precipitate. This is a mixture, according to Mulder, of three substances, which he considers as compounds of water, or of water and ammonia, with three different acids, viz. : 1, geic acid, CsolInCX ; 2, humic acid, CjoIInOt ; 3, ulmic acid, Cjo Hi 4 O 6 . It has been doubted, however, wheth- er humus has so definite a composition. Mul- der also found that the brown substances form- ed by the prolonged action of boiling dilute acids upon sugar resemble ulmic and humic acids derived from mould, both in chemical composition and properties. Humus may be regarded as in a state of continuous decompo- sition or eremacausis, a species of slow com- bustion (see EREMAOAUSIS), in which the hy- drogen of the vegetable matter is more rapidly removed by oxidation than the carbon, so that it contains an excess of the latter element. The formation of water, carbonic acid, and ammonia, and the elimination of mineral con- stituents in the decay of woody fibre is one cause of the beneficial action of vegetable ma- nures in promoting the growth of plants. HUMUYA, a river of Honduras, rising at the S. extremity of the plain of Comayagua, and flowing due N. for a distance of about 100 m. to a point N. of the town of Yojoa, where it unites with the rivers Blanco and Santiago or Venta, forming the great river Ulua, which falls into the bay of Honduras, about 25 m. N. E. of the port of Omoa. For the greater part of its course it is a rapid stream, and only navigable for canoes. It is principally inter- esting in connection with the interoceanic rail- way through Honduras, in course of construc- tion (1874) through its valley. Comayagua, the capital of Honduras, stands on its E. bank. HUNDRED, the name given in some parts of England to the subdivision of a shire, which may have received the appellation from having comprised 100 families, 100 warriors, or 100 manors. The existing divisions of this name differ greatly in area and population. The hundred is by some considered to have been a Danish institution, adopted by King Alfred about 897, each county being divided into tithings, of which 10 or 12 made a hundred, presided over by a decanus, head borough, or hundred man. The hundreds were represent- ed in the "shiremote," which, under the presi- dency of its earl and bishop or sheriff, regula- ted the affairs of the county. The jurisdiction of the hundred was vested in the sheriff, al- though it was sometimes a special grant from the crown to individuals, and lie or his deputy held a court baron, or court leet. The hun- dred was held responsible for felons until de- livered up. The townships of the state of Delaware are called hundreds. HUNFALVY. I. PSI, a Hungarian philologist, born at Nagy-Szalok, March 12, 1810. He
