HOMBERG, Wilhelm (1652 -1715), an eminent natural philosopher, born at Batavia, January 8,1652, was educated in Holland, studied law at Jena and Leipsic, and became an advocate at Magdeburg in 1674. In that town he interested himself in botany and astronomy, and made the acquaintance of Otto von Guericke, under whose influence, renouncing his profession, he finally devoted himself exclusively to the natural sciences. Having travelled in Italy, France, and England, and profited by the instructions of the anatomist Graaf in Holland, he took the degree of doctor of medicine at Wittemberg; and, after visiting Germany, Hungary, Bohemia, and Sweden, he in 1685 settled in Rome, where he practised physic with great success. At Paris, whither he repaired in 1691, he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences, and became (1702) teacher of physics and (1705) private physician to the duke of Orleans. He died at Paris, September 24, 1715. In 1702 Homberg discovered boracic acid, termed at first the sal sedativum Hombergi, the true nature of which was ascertained by Bergman in 1775. What is known as “Romberg’s phosphorus” is a mixture of calcium chloride and lime, which, after heating in a sealed tube and exposure to sunlight, phosphoresces in the dark.
Numerous treatises by Homberg, chiefly chemical, were published in the Recueil de l , Academie des Sciences, 1692, &c. See Chauffepié, Dictionnaire, and Chemistry, vol. v. p. 461....
HOMBURG-vor-der-Höhe, chief town of the circle of Obertaunus in the Wiesbaden government district of the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau, is prettily situated on a small stream at the foot of a spur of the Taunus mountains, about 11 miles north of Frankfort-on-the-Main, with which it is connected by rail. Homburg consists of an old and a new town, the latter, founded by the landgrave Frederick II., being regular and well-built. Besides the palatial edifices erected in connexion with the mineral water-cure, the most important buildings are the theatre, the synagogue, and the various churches, schools, and benevolent institutions. On a neighbouring hill stands the castle of the former landgraves, built in 1680, and subsequently enlarged and improved. The White Tower, 183 feet in height, is said to date from Roman times, and certainly existed under the lords of Eppstein, who held the district in the 12th century. The castle is surrounded by extensive grounds, laid out in the manner of an English park. The woollen and linen manufactures of Homburg are unimportant, the prosperity of the town being almost entirely due to the annual influx of visitors, which in the season lasting from May to October inclusive averages 9000 or 10,000. The five mineral springs which form the chief attraction to strangers are very salipe, and contain a considerable proportion of carbonate of lime. Their use is beneficial for diseases of the stomach and intestines, and externally for diseases of the skin and rheumatism. The population of the town in 1875, including the garrison, was 8294.
Homburg first came into repute as a watering-place in 1834, and owing to its gambling-tables, which were set up soon after, it rapidly became one of the favourite and most fashionable health-resorts of the Continent. In 1849 the town was occupied by Austrian troops for the purpose of enforcing the imperial decree against gambling establishments, but immediately on their withdrawal the bank was again opened, and play continued unchecked till 1872, when the Prussian Government refused to renew the lease for gambling purposes which then expired. As the capital of thy former landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg the town shared the vicissitudes of that state.
See Schudt’s Homburg und seine Umgebungen, 11th ed., 1875.
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