HESSE-CASSEL HEWITT together with all the other German rulers, dethroned and Hessen became a republic. HESSE-CASSEL (hes'kas'el), till 1866 a German electorate, since then forming the government district of Cassel in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau iq. V.) ; area, 3,700 square miles. The landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel was formed by William IV., eldest son of Philip the Magnanimous, who died in 1567. Con- stituted an electorate in 1803, it was occupied by the French in 1806, incor- porated with Westphalia in 1807, and re- constituted an electorate in 1813. The elector having joined Austria in 1866, Hesse-Cassel was incorporated with Prussia, as part of the province of Hesse-Nassau. HESSE-HOMBTJRG (hes'hom-burg), a former landgraviate of Germany; consisted of the provinces of Homburg and Meisenheim. The male line of Hesse-Homburg became extinct by the death of the landgrave Ferdinand, March 24, 1866; the state was incorporated ■with Hesse-Darmstadt, but later that year was ceded to Prussia and since then forms part of Prussian Hesse-Nassau. HESSE-NASSAU (hes'nas'sa), a prov- ince of Prussia, incorporated by decree of Dec. 7, 1868, by the union of the province of Upper Hesse (formerly a portion of the grand-duchy of Hesse) with the former duchy of Nassau; area, 6,060 square miles; pop. about 2,500,000. The most important city of the province is Frankfort-on-the-Main iq. v.). The province is also known throughout the world for its numerous mineral springs and health resorts, among which the most important are Homburg, Wies- baden, Ems, and Selters. Its mineral deposits, especially iron ore and coal, are important. HESSIAN ELY {Cecxdomyia destruc- tor), a fly of the family TipuUdm, of the order Diptera (two-winged flies), the larva of which is very destructive to wheat, barley, and rye crops (it does not attack oats). It is so named from the belief that it was brought over to America by the Hessian mercenaries
during the Revolutionary War. The
female flies usually lay their eggs on the young plants twice in the year, in May and September, out of which eggs the maggots hatch in from 4 to 14 days. It has long been a pest in the United States and Germany, but did not appear in Great Britain till the summer of 1886. HESSITE, an orthorhombic gray sec- tile mineral of metallic luster. Hard- ness, 2-3.5; sp. gr. 8.3-8.6. Composi- tion: Tellurium, 37.2; silver, 62.8 = 100. Found in the Altai Mountains in a tal- cose rock, also in Transylvania and Hungary. HETEROCERCAL, a term introduced by Agassiz to designate the unsymmet- rical tail of elasmobranch and most ganoid fishes, in which the vertebral axis is bent upward in the tail, making the upper lobe much the larger. HETEROPODA (-op'o-dii), an order of marine mollusks, the most highly or- ganized of the Gasteropoda. In this order the foot is compressed into a ver- tical muscular lamina, serving for a fin, and the gills, when present, are collected into a mass on the hinder part of the back. The chief genera are Carhiaria and Firola. HETMAN, or ATAMAN, the title of the head (general) of the Cossacks. HEULANDITE, a monoclinic, trans- parent or translucent brittle mineral, of pearly luster, and white, red, gray, or brown color. HEWES, JOSEPH, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, born at Kingston, N. J., in 1730. In 1763 he moved to Edenton, N. C, and in 1774 was elected to the Continental Congress, of which he was a member until his death in 1779. HEWITT, ABRAM STEVENS, an American statesman; born in Haver- straw, N. Y., July 31, 1822. He was graduated at Columbia College; was commissioner to the French Exposition of 1867; member of Congress 1875- 1879 and 1881-1886; mayor of New York 1887-1888 ; secretary of the Cooper Union, New York. He was a high au- thority on all questions relating to iron. He died in New York City, Jan. 18, 1903. HEWITT, PETER COOPER, an American engineer and inventor, born in New York City in 1861, the son of Abram S. Hewitt and the grandson of Peter Cooper. In his early manhood he became eminent as a scientist and was chosen director of the Cooper-Hewitt Electric Co. and other corporations. He was the inventor of the Cooper-Hewitt Mercury Vapor Electric Lamp, the Cooper-Hewitt Mercury Vapor Rectifier and many other important inventions re- lating to electricity, and also made im- portant discoveries in relation to wireless electricity. He was a member of many scientific societies and received honorary degrees from Columbia University and Rutgers College.
