HERNIA. 11 HEROD. is said to be strangulated ■nhen a portion of in- testine or omentum that is protruded is so tight- ly constricted that it not only cannot be returned into the abdomen, but has its circuhitiou arrested. This fonn is highly dangerous, because, if relief is not si)ccdily aliorded, the strangulated part becomes gangrenous. The causes of strangulation are various, but the condition most commonly arises from a sudden violent ellort, by which a fresh portion of intestine is driven into a pre- existing hernia, which it distends to such a degree as to produce this complication. The most promi- nent early symptoms are flatulence, colicky pain?.. etc. They are succeeded by vomiting first of the contents of the stomach, then of mucus and bile, and lastly of fa;cal matters, owing to inverted ]x?ristaltic action. If relief is not obtained, the iii- flamniation that eonimences in the sac extends to the peritoneum, and the ordinary signs of jjeri- tonitis appear. After a variable time comes gangrene or mortification of the part, and the patient speedily sinks. When reduction is im- possible, prompt surgical intervention is neces- sarj'. Tile hernia is cut down upon and freed from constricting bands with the knife. Where gangrene has set in in the intestine the diseased portion must be cut away and the ends of the intestine reunited. HERNICI, er-ne'che. An old Italian people of Latium. Of Sabine connection, they dwelt in the Apennines fjetween the Trerus and Lake Fuci- nus. They held out long against the Romans, with whom they at length formed an equal alli- ance in B.C. 4SG, but to whom they had to yield in B.C. 306. They received in B.C. 241 the rights of Roman citizens. To the north were the Marsi and the .^^^qui, while the Volsci were on the south. Their capital was Anagnia. HERNOSAND, her'ne-sand. The capital of the LiiJQ of Wester Xorrland, Sweden, situated on the island of Hemo. in the Gulf of Bothnia, about two miles south of the mouth of the Angerman River (Map: Sweden. H 5). It is connected bj bridges with the mainland. It has a school of navis.ation and other educational institutions. Its harbor is good, and it has regular steamship communication with the other coast towns. It. was foimded in 1584 by John III., became a bishop's see in 1772, and capital of the liin in 1778. Population, in 1901, 7890. HETEIO (Lat., from Gk.'Hpii). A priestess of Aphrodite at Sestos. At a festival of Aphrodite she was seen and loved by Leander. a youth of Abydos. She returned his love, and received him in her tower on the Hellespont, which he swam nightly, being guided by her lamp. Venturing the passage on a stormy night, he was drowned and the body washed ashore at the tower, whence Hero at once cast herself that she might be united with her lover in death. The story devel- oped in the romantic poetry of the Alexandrian period, and has come down to us in a work of Mus;t-us and in Ovid. It is represented on some late works of art and on Roman coins of Abydos and Sestos. It is also the subject of poems by Marlowe and Schiller, and a drama, Des Meeres und der Liehe Wcllen, by Orillparzer. HERO. A Greek mathematician and physi- cist. See Hero of Ai.exani)ri.. HERO. The quiet daughter of I.eonato and cousin of the gay Beatrice in Shakespeare's Much Vol. X.— 2. Ado About Kothing. Don John causes her wait- ing woman to impersonate her in a moonlight in- terview with him, and thus causes her lover to reject her at the altar, but on the discovciy of the deception the marriage is carried out. The story of the slander to which she is subjected is generally omitted in modern productions. HERO,, or HERON, OF ALEXANTJRIA. The leading Greek mathematician and physicist of his time. Xot only are the dates of his birth and death unknown, but there is great uncertainty as to the century in which he lived. The most recent investigation of the evidence, by Schmidt (1899, work cited below, Bd. 1, p. ix.), leads to the conclusion that he may have lived in the first century ..D.. but other writers, who, it must be said, have not considered the question so fully, have usually placed him in the first or even the second century n.c. There is much confusion con- cerning the works of Hero of Alexandria, there having been no less than eighteen Greek writers of this name. It is, however, fairly certain that he wrote at least thirteen books on mathematics and physics. He seems to have been an Egyptian, and it is certain that his style is not that of a Greek. He contributed little to pure mathe- matics, his chief work on this subject being the extension of the ancient mathematics so as to allow the consid»ration of the fourth power of lines. Thus, in his geodesy, yeufaiaia, contained in his MfTpi(c(i, upon which subject he was the only Greek writer, he gives the well-known for- mula for finding the area of a triangle with sides, a, h, c, and semiperiraeter s, i^.? (s-a) (s-5) (s-c) , a formula known by his name. (The proof is given, possibly an interpolation, in his Ylepl Sid-rpn^.) He srcms also to have had some idea of trigonometry, and in his geometry is to be found the first definite use of a trigonometric formula. He asserts in substance, using modern symbols, that if A represents the area of a regular n-gon of side s, and if c be the numerical coefficient by which s* must be multiplied to produce A, i.e. so 71 180*^ that A = cs^ then must c=-r cot He pro- 4 n ceeds to compute c for the values h=.3, 4, . . . 12, with considerable accuracy, but his method is un- known. He could also solve the complete quad- ratic equation ax'--bx = c, where a, b, c. are positive, but not the general form. Hero is cred- ited with a number of mechanical inventions, including a contrivance for utilizing the force of steam and a fountain which bears his name. Consult: Martin, "Hecherches sur la vie et les ouvrages dTI^ron d'Alexandrie," in vol. iv. of Mf moires prr.trntres par dirers sara7its d VAra^ d/-mie d'Inscriptions (SC-rie I., Paris, 1854) ; Hultsch, Herotiia Alexandrini Geometricorum et fitereomelriroriim Relif/uia; (Berlin. 1864) : Schmidt, JJeronii Alexandrini Opera quw Siiper- siint Omnia (Leipzig. 1890 — ). HEROD, hor'od (Gk. -RpiiSvi, Hrrodes) . The family name of a group of rulers in Palestine, derived from that of its most famous member, Herod the Great. The family had its origin in -Antipater. an Idumean of honorable stock, whom Alexander Jann;Tus (B.r. 104-78) made governor of Idumea. The fact that the Idumeans had been subjueated to .Tohn Hvrcanus in B.C. 128. and compelled to embrace .Tudaism. is the only basis for the claim that the members of the
