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Moses, admitted them by the Jewish priests to offer holocausts;because these vfere a sort of sacriiies prior to the law, and commont® all nations.

HOLOGRAPH , or HOLOGRAPHUM, [ofox»r all, andI write,] in the civil law, is chiefly used of a testament writ-ten wholly in the testator’s own hand, The Romans did not ap-prove of holographic testaments; and, though Valentinian authori-sed them, they are not used where the civil law is in full force.

HOLOMETER, [5x®-and jutsrjau,'] ,t mathematical instrumentthat serves universally lor taking all measures, both on the earthand in the heavens.

IIOLOR ACE/E, in botany, the name of the twelfth order inLinnrcus’s “ fragments of a Natural Method,” consisting of pot-herbs, or plants used for the table, aud entering into the economyof domestic affairs.

HOLOSTEUM, in botany, a genus of the triandria trigyniaclass and order. Natural order, Caryophyllei. Calyx five-leav-cd ; petals five; capsule one-celled, subcylindrical, opening attop. There are five species.

HOLOTHURIA, a genus of the vermes mollusca class and or-der. Body detached, cylindrical, thick, naked, and open at theextremity ; mouth surrounded by fleshy branched tentacula orfeelers. These are all inhabitants of the sea, and expand or con-tract themselves at pleasure ; the anterior aperture serves themboth as a mouth and vent, and from the hinder one they rejectwaters which had been previously drawn in ; the tentacula areretractile. There are twenty-three species.

II. Pentactes, the Five-rowed, Holothuria, has the mouthencompassed with tentacula, the body bearing tentacula five dif-ferent ways. The animal is of a red colour, nearly oval, orsomewhat cylindrical, and is observed to assume various shapes.The mouth is set round with ten rays mostly at the points; thebody longitudinally dotted in five places with clay-coloured hol-low warts, situated two together. It inhabits the sea of Norw ay,and is also found near Penzance . See Plate LX VII.

H. Physalis, the Bladder-shaped Holothuria. The bodyof this species is oval, approaching to triangular, of a glossy trans-parency ; the back sharp-edged, of a dark green colour, whencerun out a number of sinews; anteriorly the body is of a reddishhue, r l'he trunk spiral, reddish towards the thicker end. It in-habits the seas. The word holothuria is used by Pliny and Ari-stotle ; brit Mr. Pennant supposes they both intended, under thisname, to describe those marine bodies now dcnominaledzoophyla.Aristotle , however, seems to have admitted that they possessed ani-mal life, a circumstance that has in modern times been completelyascertained.

H. Tremula, er Quivering Holothuria, is of a cylindricform about an inch in diameter ; it can extend to more than a footin length, or contract its body into a ball. See Plate LXVIL

HOLSTEIN, a late duchy of Ge nnanv, bounded by the Ger-man ocean on the YV.; the Baltic, or the guiph of Lubeck on the E.;the duchy of Mecklenburg on the S. Iv ; that of Bremen , with theElbe, on the S. \V. ; and Lauenburg, with the territory of Ham-burg , on the S. Its greatest length is about 80 miles and breadth60. A great part of this country consists of rich marshes wherecattle are bred in vast numbers, and great quantities of excellentbutter and cheese made of their milk. The arable land is veryfruitful in wheat, barley, pease, beans, and rape seed. In the bar-ren and heathy parts of the country, large flocks of sheep aregrazed. The woods abound with game and wild fowl; and thesea and rivers with fish. Holstein is also noted for beautiful horses.'Hie ponds and lakes are drained once in three or four years, andthe carp, lampreys, pikes, and perches, found in them,* are sold;then sowed for several years after with oats, or used for pasture ;aud after that laid under water again, and fish bred in them. Thereare hardly any hills. The principal rivers are the Eyder, Stor,and Trave. The duchy contains about 30 towns.

HOLT, whether at the beginning or ending of the name of anyplace, signifies that it is or hath been woody, from the Saxon holt,a wood; or sometimes possibly from the Saxon hoi. i. e. hollow,especially when the name ends in tun or dun. Gibson.

Holt, a town of Germany , in the late duchy of Cleves, now inthe department of the Roer." It is 27 miles S. ‘E. of Cleves.

HOL ! HEAD, a town, cape, and parish, of Wales , on the isleof Anglesea, in the Irish channel, where people usually embark for

Dublin, there being regular packet-boats which sail for that cityevery Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It has a very conve-nient harbour for the northern trade, whenstopt by contrary winds.It is situated near the extremity of the isle, and is joined to theN. W. part of it by a stone-bridge of one arch. It has a marketon Saturday. Under the mountains that overhang the town is alarge cavern in the rock, supported by natural pillars, called theParliament-house, accessible only by boats, and the tide runs intoit. The chief commodities are butter, cheese, bacon, wild fow l,lobsters, crabs, oyste's, razor-fish, shrimps, herrings, cod-lish,whitings, pollacks, cole-fish, tenches, turbots, soles, flounders, rays,and other fish. It lies 24 miles and a half N. W. of Caernarvon,60 E. of Dublin, and 276 N. W. of London . Lon. 4. 22. W.Lat. 53. 19. N.

HOLY ISLAND, a small island on the coast of England 10miles S. E. of Berwick, in Northumberland .

Holy-Rood Day, a festival observed by the Roman catholics ,in memory of the exaltation of our Saviour’s cross.

Holy-Thursday. The day on which the ascension of ourSaviour is commemorated, ten days before Whitsuntide.

Holy-Week . The week before Easter, in which the passionof our Redeemer is commemorated.

IIOLYWOOD, John, or Joannes De Sacrobosco . SeeSacrobosco .

1IOLZAPSEL, a county of Germany , on the banks of theLahn, between the late electorate of Treves and Nassau Dietz.

Holzapsel, the capital of the above county, 4 miles N. E. ofNassau ,

HOMAEIUM, in botany, a genus of the polyandria trigyniaclass and order. Calyx six or seven-parted ; corolla six or seven-petaled; stamens twenty-one, in three bodies; pericarpium one-celled, many-seeded. There are two species.

HOMBERG, William, a celebrated physician, chemist, andphilosopher, born in Batavia, in the East Indies, in 1632. Hisfather was a Saxon gentleman, who, afterwards settling at Amster-dam , William there prosecuted his studies; and thence removed,to Jena, and to Leipsic, where he studied the law. In 1642 hewas made advocate at Magdeburg , where he studied experi-mental philosophy. Some time after he travelled into Italy ; audstudied medicine, anatomy, aud botany, at Padua . Fie after-wards studied at Bologna ; and at Rome learned optics, painting,sculpture, and music. He at length travelled into France , Eng-land, and Holland ; obtained the degree of M.D. at YViltem-berg ; travelled into Germany and the North; visited the minesof Saxony, Bohemia, Hungary, and Sweden ; and returned toFrance , where he acquired the esteem of the learned. M. Col-bert being informed of his merit, made him such advantageousoffers, as induced him to fix his residence at Paris. M. Horn berg,who was already well known for his phosphorus, for a pneumaticmachine of his own invention more perfect than that of Guericke ,for his microscopes, for his discoveries in chemistry, and for thegreat number and variety of his curious observations, was receivedinto the academy of sciences in 169L aud had the laboratory ofthat academy, of which he was one of ils principal ornaments.The duke of Orleans, afterwards regent, made him his chemistgave him a pension, and the most superb laboratory that was everin the possession of a chemist, and in 1704 made him his first phy-sician. He had abjured the Protestant religion in 1682, and diedin 1715. There are many learned and curious pieces of his writ-ing, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, and in severaljournals. He had begun to give the elements of chemistryin them, and the rest were found among his papers fit forprinting.

IIOMBURG, a town of Germany , in the late duchy of DeuxPouts, now annexed to France , and included in the depart-ment of Sarre and Moselle . It is 4 miles N.N.W. of DeuxPouts, aud 36 W. N. W. of Landau. Lon. 7. 32. E. Lat. 49.16. N.

HOME, Henry, Lord Kamos, an eminent Scottish lawyer,and author of many useful and ingenious works on various sub-jects, was descended of an ancient family, and born in 1696, inBerwickshire. In early youth, lie was lively, and eager in theacquisition of knowledge. He never attended a public school ;but was instructed in the ancient aud modern, languages, as wellas in several branches of mathematics, and the arts necessarily

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