HELVETIUS, Jan Adrien, a distinguished physician, was born in Holland about the year 1661. He was the son of Jan Friderich Helvetius, also a physician. On completing his studies at Leyden, he proceeded to Paris to dispose of medicines invented by his father. In the French capital he experimented with the ipecacuanha root, which had just then been imported from Brazil, as a valuable drug. He discovered it to be a specific against dysentery, and first used it for the cure of that complaint. He carefully guarded his secret. Curing several persons of distinction, and among others the dauphin, Louis XIV. ordered him to make his discovery public, bestowing on him at the same time a reward of 1000 louis d'or, and several important offices at the French court. Jan Adrien Helvetius is the author of several works, the most important of which are his "Lettres à M. Regis sur la Nature et la Guérison du Cancer," Paris, 1691, and his "Traité des maladies les plus fréquentes et des remèdes specifique," Paris, 1703. He died at Paris on the 20th February, 1727.—G. B—y.
HELVETIUS, Jean Claude Adrien, a distinguished French physician, was born at Paris on the 18th July, 1685. The son of Jean Adrien Helvetius—the subject of the preceding memoir—he studied medicine at Paris, and passed as doctor in 1708. Rapidly, under his father's guidance, acquiring extensive practice, he was present at the consultation which took place at the death of Louis XIV As physician to Louis XV., with a splendid pension, he was induced to settle at Versailles, where he succeeded to some of his father's offices at court. He is the author of several works, the most important of which are his "Idée générale de l'economie animale," Paris, 1722, 12mo, and his "Principia Physico-medica in tyronum medicinæ gratiam conscripta," Paris, 1752, 2 vols. 8vo.—G. B—y.
HELVICUS, Christopherus, or Christoph Helwig, an able German scholar, who was born in 1581, and died in 1617. He became a first-rate linguist, and was professor of Greek and Hebrew at Giessen. Although he died at the early age of thirty-six, he wrote several learned works, some of which have been reprinted, especially his "Theatrum Chronologicum et Historicum," which is even now not forgotten.—B. H. C.
HELYOT, Pierre, a celebrated Franciscan historian, who was born in 1660, and died in 1716. He is said to have been of English descent. He travelled in Italy, and collected the materials from which he compiled his great History of the Monastic Orders, upon which he was engaged a quarter of a century. He also wrote "The Dying Christian," and some other pieces.—B. H. C.
HEMANS, Felicia Dorothea, was born in Duke Street, Liverpool, on the 25th September, 1793. Her father, Mr. Browne, was a merchant of that city, and an Irishman by birth; her mother had been a Miss Wagner, daughter of the imperial and Tuscan consul at Liverpool. The future poetess was not more than seven when Mr. Browne experienced reverses, which led him to quit Liverpool, and to retire to Gwrych, near Abergeley, in Denbighshire; but shortly afterwards he emigrated to America, where he died. The education of Felicia thus devolved exclusively on her mother, a woman excellently qualified for such a duty; and under maternal encouragement the young girl's mind precociously expanded to a keen sense of the beautiful, and a warm appreciation of nature and poetry. Mrs. Browne traced her descent from a Venetian family, and her daughter used to account in that manner for the strong tinge of romance in her own character. It is averred that some of the verses to be found in her works date their composition so far back as 1803 and 1804; but it was not till 1808 that her first volume, a quarto, was ushered into the world. The book was severely handled in one or two quarters by reviewers probably ignorant of the years of the authoress. The writer of her memoir describes her at this period of her life as in the full glow of that radiant beauty, which was destined to fade so early. "The mantling bloom of her cheeks was shaded by a profusion of natural ringlets of a rich golden brown; and the ever-varying expression of her brilliant eyes gave a changeful play to her countenance, which would have made it impossible for any painter to do justice to it." In 1809 the family left Gwrych, and went to reside at Bronwylfa, near St. Asaph. Here the work of intellectual development steadily progressed; and Miss Browne, already mistress of French and Italian, acquired the Spanish and Portuguese languages, with the rudiments of German. Her memory had now grown so astonishingly retentive, that on one occasion she learned by heart the four hundred and twenty-four lines of Heber's Europe in little more than an hour, and then repeated them on the spot without a single mistake. Miss Browne did not appear in print again till 1812, when she gave to the press the "Domestic Affections." In the same year she was married to Captain Hemans of the 4th regiment, lately returned from Spanish service; and removed to Daventry with her husband, who was appointed adjutant to the Northamptonshire militia. On the disembodiment of the corps the captain and his wife returned to Bronwylfa, where they continued to live during a few years in close domestic privacy. But the union was not happy; there was a certain incompatibility of temper, and perhaps other secret causes of disagreement; and in 1818, after the birth of five children, all sons, a separation took place, ostensibly because the captain, whose health was declining, was advised to try the effect of a warmer climate. He went to Italy; and they never saw each other afterwards. Subsequently to a step which virtually amounted to a divorce, Mrs. Hemans and her children remained under Mrs. Browne's roof at Bronwylfa till the decease of the latter, when she removed to Wavertree, near Liverpool, where she resided for the next three years. Finally, in 1831, she settled in Dublin, where she had connections, and died there on the 16th May, 1835, in her forty-second year. Her remains were interred in St. Anne's church, Dawson Street, Dublin; and a tablet was erected by her brothers in St. Asaph's cathedral—"In memory of Felicia Hemans, whose character is best pourtrayed in her writings." The incidents of Mrs. Hemans' later life were not very varied. To the last she retained the same ardent love of knowledge and the same wide taste for literature, especially of the romantic and poetical cast, which had characterized her from her childhood. Among those who enjoyed her friendship and esteem were Bishop Heber, Scott, Wordsworth, Miss Jewsbury, Miss Mitford, and Mr. Jacob, the author of Travels in Spain and in Germany. She had special reverence for the Welsh bards, and Froissart and the old Spanish romances of chivalry were also favourites. With the early English writers she does not seem to have been much acquainted. In the summer of 1819 Mrs. Hemans spent a few days at Abbotsford; and in 1830 she paid a fortnight's visit to Wordsworth at Rydal Mount, previously to taking up her temporary residence at Dove Nest, near Ambleside. Besides the volumes already noticed in an incidental manner, Mrs. Hemans published "Tales and Historic Scenes;" "Modern Greece;" "Songs of the Affections;" "Records of Woman;" various translations from Camoens, Manzoni, and others, and a drama called "The Vespers of Palermo," written at Bishop Heber's suggestion, and performed at Covent Garden theatre in 1823. The piece was a failure. It afterwards appeared with better success at Edinburgh, Sir Walter Scott writing the epilogue. Mrs. Hemans was also a contributor to the New Monthly and Edinburgh Magazines. In 1834 she published three collections of poems entitled respectively "Hymns for Childhood," "National Lyrics and Songs for Music," and "Scenes and Hymns of Life." A volume of Poetical Remains appeared after her death. "Tender and enthusiastic," observes a critic in the Dublin University Magazine, "she fed her heart upon all things noble, and would tolerate no others as the aliment of imagination."—W. C. H.
HEMELAR, John, canon of Antwerp, and a native of the Hague, was a diligent student of numismatics and polite literature. He delivered a panegyric of Clement VIII. at Rome, which was much admired. He corresponded with Justus Lipsius, was the friend of Grotius, and of Golius the orientalist, to whom he was related. He wrote "Expositio numismatum Imperatorum Romanorum" from Julius Cæsar to Heraclius, and had some reputation as a Latin poet and orator; but although a very good catholic, he does not appear to have troubled himself much about religion. He was living in 1638.—B. H. C.
HEMINGFORD, Walter de, a chronicler of the fourteenth century, was a canon of Gisborough abbey, near Cleveland in Yorkshire, and died there in 1347. He wrote a history of England from the Norman conquest to the year 1308. Gale published it in his Veteres Scriptores, and Hearne again (with a quantity of other and different matter, after the manner of that editor) at Oxford in 1731, prefixing all the extant notices of its author.—F. E.
HEMLING, Hans. See Memling, Hans.
HEMMING, Nicolaus, an eminent Danish divine of the
