HORN. The weapons which project from the heads of various species of animals, constituting what are known as horns, embrace substances which are, in their anatomical structure and chemical composition, quite distinct from each other; and although in commerce also they are known indiscriminately as horn, their uses are altogether dissimilar. These differences in structure and properties are thus indicated by Professor Owen “The weapons to which the term horn is properly or technically applied consist of very different substances, and belong to two organic systems, as distinct from each other as both are from the teeth. Thus the horns of deer consist of bone, and are processes of the frontal bone; those of the giraffe are independent bones or ‘epiphyses’ covered by hairy skin; those of oxen, sheep, and antelopes are ‘ apophyses ’ of the frontal bone, covered by the corium and by a sheath of true homy material; those of the prong-horned antelope consist at their basis of bony processes covered by hairy skin, and are covered by horny sheaths in the rest of their extent. They thus combine the character of those of the giraffe and ordinary antelope, together with the expanded and branched form of the antlers of deers. Only the horns of the rhinoceros are composed wholly of horny matter, and this is disposed in longitudinal fibres, so that the horns seem rather to consist of coarse bristles compactly matted together in the form of a more or less elongated sub-compressed cone.” True horny matter is really a modified form of epidermic tissue, and consists of an albuminoid principle termed “keratin.” It forms, not only the horns of the ox tribe, but also the hoofs, claws, or nails of animals generally, the carapace of the tortoises and the armadillo.es, the scales ...

By horns the Hebrews sometimes understood an eminence, or angle, a corner, or a rising. By horns of the altar of burnt offerings, many understand the angles of that altar; but there were also horns, or eminences, at the corners of that altar, Exod. xxvii, 2; xxx, 2. Horn also signifies glory, brightness, rays. God’s “brightness was as the light, he had horns coming out of his hand,” Hab. iii, 4; that is, refulgent beams issuing from the hollow of it. As the ancients frequently used horns to hold liquors, vessels containing oil and perfumes are often called horns, whether made of horn or not. “Fill thine horn with oil,” says the Lord to Samuel, “and anoint David,” 1 Sam. xvi, 1. Zadok took a horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon, 1 Kings i, 39. Job called one of his daughters Kerenhappuch, horn of antimony, or horn to put antimony (_stibium_) in, which the women of the east still use at this day, Job xliii, 14. The principal defence and strength of horned beasts consist in their horns; and hence the Scripture mentions the horn as a symbol of strength. The Lord exalted the horn of David, the horn of his people; he breaketh the horn of the ungodly; he cutteth off the horn of Moab; he cutteth off the horn of Israel; he promiseth to make the horn of Israel to bud forth; to reëstablish the honour of it, and restore its former vigour. Moses compares Joseph to a young bull, and says that he has horns like those of a unicorn. Kingdoms and great powers are often in Scripture described by the symbol of horns. In Daniel vii, viii, horns represent the power of the Persians, of the Greeks, of Syria, of Egypt, or of Pagan and Papal Rome. The prophet represents three animals as having many horns, one of which grew from the other. This emblem is a ...

HORN-BOOK, a name sometimes given to an elementary treatise on any subject; It was originally applied to a sheet containing the letters of the alphabet, which formed a primer for the use of children. It was mounted on wood and protected with transparent horn. Sometimes the leaf was simply pasted against the slice of horn. The wooden frame had a handle, and it was usually hung at the child’s girdle. The sheet, which in ancient times was of vellum and latterly of paper, contained first a large cross—the criss-crosse— from which the horn-book was called the Christ Cross Row, or criss-cross-row. The alphabet in large and small letters followed. The vowels then formed a line, and their combinations with the consonants were given in a tabular form. The usual exorcism—“in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost, Amen ”—followed, then the Lord’s Prayer, the "whole concluding with the Roman numerals. The horn-book is mentioned in Shakespeare’s Love's Labour's Lost, V. 1, where the ba, the a, e, i, o, u, and the horn, are alluded to by Moth. It is also described by Ben Jonson—

1 ‘ The letters may be read, through the horn, That make the story perfect.”

Horn-books are now of great rarity. A representation of a good specimen will be found prefixed to Halliwell’s Notices of Fugitive Tracts, in the twenty-ninth volume of the works printed for the Percy Society.

HORNBEAM, Carpinus, Tournef., a small genus of trees of the natural order Cupiiliferoe and sub-order Coryleoe. The Latin name Carpinus has been thought to be derived from the Celtic car, wood, and pin or pen, head, the wood of hornbeams having been used for yokes of cattle (see Loudon, Eηcy. of Pl., p. 792, new ed., 1855, and Littré, Diet., ii. 556). The common hornbeam, or yoke-elm, Carpinus Betulus, L. (Gr., probably ζνγlα ; Germ., Horn-baum and Hornbuche ; Fr., charmf), is indigenous in the temperate parts of western Asia and of Asia Minor, and in Europe, where it ranges as high as 55° and 56° N. lat. It is common in woods and hedges in parts of Wales and of the south of England. The trunk is usually flattened, and twisted as though composed of several stems united; the bark is smooth, and light grey; and the leaves are sub-distichous, 2 to 3 inches long, elliptic-ovate, doubly serrate, pointed, numerously ribbed, hairy below, and opaque, and not glossy as in the beech, have large stipules and short petioles, and when young are plaited. The flowers appear with the leaves in April and May. The male catkins are about 1∣∙ inches long, and have pale yellow anthers, bearing tufts of hairs at the apex; the female attain a length of 2 to 4 inches, with bracts 1 to 1∣ inches long. The green and angular fruit or “nut” ripens in October; it is about ∣ inch in length, is in shape like a small chestnut, and is enclosed in leafy, 3-lobed bracts. The hornbeam thrives well on stiff, clayey, moist soils, into which its roots penetrate deeply; on chalk or gravel it does not flourish. Raised from seed it may become a tree 40 to as much as 70 feet in height, greatly resembling the beech, except in its rounder and closer head. It is, however, rarely grown as a ...

HORNBILL, the English name for a long while generally given to all the birds of the Family Bucerotidoe of modern ornithologists, from the extraordinary horn-like excrescence (epithema) developed on the bill of most of the species, though to which of them it was first applied seems doubtful. Among classical authors Pliny had heard of such animals, and mentions them (Hist. Hat., lib. x. cap. lxx.) under the name of Tragopan ; but he deemed their existence fabulous, comparing them with Pegasi and Gryphones— in the words of Holland, his translator (vol. i. p. 296)—“I thinke the same of the Tragopanades, which many men affirme to bee greater than the Aegle; having crooked homes like a Ram on either side of the head, of the colour of yron, and the head onely red.” Yet this is but an exaggerated description of some of the species with which doubtless his informants had an imperfect acquaintance. Mediaeval writers found Pliny’s bird to be no fable, for specimens of the beak of one species or another seem occasionally to have been brought to Europe, where they were preserved in the cabinets of the curious, and thus Aldrovandus was able to describe pretty fairly and to figure (Orηithologia, lib. xii. cap. xx. tab. x. fig. 7) one of them under the name of “Rhinoceros Avisf though the rest of the bird was wholly unknown to him. When the exploration of the East Indies had extended further, more examples reached Europe, and the “Corvus Indicus cornutus ,, of Bontius became fully recognized by Willughby and Ray, under the title of the “Horned Indian Raven or Topau called the Rhinocerot Bird.” Since the time of those excellent ornithologists our knowledge of the Hornbills has been steadily increasing, but it must be confessed that in regard to many points there is ...

HORNCASTLE, a market-town giving its name to a soke in Lincolnshire, England, is situated at the foot of a line of low hills called the Wolds, on an angle formed by the confluence of the Bain and Waring, and at the terminus of a branch line of the Great Northern Railway, 21 miles east of Lincoln. The principal buildings are the parish church of St Mary’s (supposed to have been originally erected in the time of Henry VII., possessing a square embattled tower, many fine old monuments, and an old brass), Queen Elizabeth’s grammar school founded in 1562, the dispensary opened in 1789, the corn exchange opened in 1856, with a room for public meetings, and accommodation for the mechanics’ institute, a library, and a news-room. There are also national and Wesleyan schools, and an infant school for poor children. Among the charities is one for apprenticing orphan boys belonging to the parish. A few fragments still remain of the ancient fortification from which the town takes its name, and many Roman urns and coins have been discovered in the vicinity. Near the confluence of the rivers there at one time existed an ancient labyrinth called the Julian bower. To the south-east of the town there is a spot calledHangman’sCorner, where criminals were formerly executed. The prosperity of the town is chiefly dependent on agriculture and its horse fairs,—that held in August being the largest of· its class in England. Brewing, malting, and currying are carried on, and there is some trade in coal and iron. The population of the parish in 1871 was 4947, and of the soke 10,469....

HORNE, George (1730-1792), bishop of Norwich, was born on November 1, 1730, at Otham near Maidstone, where his father was a clergyman, and received his early education at the Maidstone school, whence he proceeded to University College, Oxford. In 1749 he became a fellow of Magdalen College, of which in 1768 he was appointed president. As a preacher he early attained great popularity; and his reputation was further helped by several clever if somewhat wrong headed publications, including a satirical pamphlet entitled The Theology and Philosophy of Cicero's Somnium Scipionis (1751), a defence of the Hutchinsonians in A Fair, Candid, and Imparti d State of the Case between Sir Isaac Newton and Mr Hutchinson (1753), and critiques upon Dr Shuckford (1754) and Dr Kennicott (1760). In 1776 he published his well-known Commentary on the Book of Psalms, and in the same year he was chosen vice-chancellor of his university; in 1781 he was made dean of Canterbury, and in 1790 he was raised to the see of Norwich, which, however, he held for less than two years. He died at Bath January 17, 1792.

His collected Works were first published, with a Memoir by one of his chaplains (Jones), in 1795. There have been several subsequent editions, the latest being that of 1830. The most popular and also the best of his writings, the Commentary on the Psalms, has been still more frequently reprinted, occasionally along with an essay by James Montgomery, or with a much more remarkable discourse by Edward Irving....

HORNELLSVILLE, a township and post village of Steuben county, New York, is situated on the Canisteo river and on the Erie Railway, 90 miles south-east of Buffalo. It is well supplied with schools and churches, and possesses planing-mills, tanneries, and factories for sashes and blinds, furniture, cars, mowing-machines, and boots and shoes. The population was 5639 in 1870, and 9852 in 1880.

HORNER, Francis (1778-1817), political economist, was born at Edinburgh, August 12th, 1778. After passing through the usual courses at the high school and university of his native city, he devoted five years, the first two in England, to comprehensive but desultory study, and in 1800 was called to the Scotch bar. Desirous, however, of a wider sphere, Horner removed to London in 1802, and occupied the interval that elapsed before his admission to the English bar in 1807 with researches in law, philosophy, and political economy, and latterly with parliamentary duties. In February 1806 he became one of the commissioners for adjusting the claims against the nawab of Arcot, and in November entered parliament as member for St Ives. Next year he sat for Wendover, and in 1812 for St Mawes, in the patronage of the marquis of Buckingham. In 1811, when Lord Grenville was organizing a prospective ministry, Horner had the offer, which he refused, of a treasury secretaryship. He had resolved not to accept office till he could afford to live out of office; and his professional income, on which he depended, was at no time proportionate to his abilities. His labours at last began to tell upon a constitution never robust, and in October 1816 his physicians ordered him to Italy, where, however, he sank under his malady. He died at Pisa, February 8, 1817. He was buried at Leghorn, and a marble statue by Chantrey was erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey....

HORNET. See Wasp.

הצרעה, Exod. xxiii, 28; Deut. vii, 20; Joshua xxiv, 12. The hornet, in natural history, belongs to the species _crabo_, of the genus _vespa_ or wasp. It is a most voracious insect, and is exceedingly strong for its size, which is generally an inch in length, and sometimes more. In each of the instances where this creature is mentioned in Scripture, it is as sent among the enemies of the Israelites, to drive them out of the land. Some explain the word metaphorically, as “I will send my terror as the hornet,” &c. But Bochart contends that it is to be taken in its proper literal meaning, and has accumulated examples of several other people having been chased from their habitations by insects of different kinds. Ælian records that the Phaselites, who dwelt about the mountains of Solyma, were driven out of their country by wasps. As these people were Phenicians or Canaanites, it is probable that the event to which he refers is the same as took place in the days of Joshua. How distressing and destructive a multitude of these fierce and severely stinging insects might be, any person may conjecture. No armour, no weapons could avail against them. A few thousands of them would be sufficient to overthrow the best disciplined army and put it into confusion and rout. From Joshua xxiv, 12, we find that two kings of the Amorites were actually driven out of the land by these hornets, so that the Israelites were not obliged to use either sword or bow in the conquest. One of these, according to the Jewish commentaries of R. Nachman, was the nation of the Girgashites, who retired into Africa, fearing the power of God. And Procopius, in his history of the Vandals, mentions an ancient inscription in Mauritania Tingitana, stating, that the inhabitants had fled thither from the ...