a thick fleshy root, from the crown of which arises in spring a branched flowering stem, usually much taller and more vigorous than the flowering stems of the annual plants. The biennial form is that which is considered officinal. The radical leaves of this biennial plant spread out flat on all sides from the crown of the root; they are ovate-oblong, acute, stalked, and more or less incisely-toothed, of a greyish-green colour, and covered with viscid hairs; these leaves perish at the approach of winter. The flowering stem pushes up from the root-crown in spring, ultimately reaching from 3 to 4 ft. in height, and as it grows becoming branched, and furnished with alternate sessile leaves, which are stem-clasping, oblong, unequally-lobed, clothed with glandular clammy hairs, and of a dull grey-green, the whole plant having a powerful nauseous odour. The flowers are shortly-stalked, the lower ones growing in the fork of the branches, the upper ones sessile in one-sided leafy spikes which are rolled back at the top before flowering, the leaves becoming smaller upwards and taking the place of bracts. The flowers have an urn-shaped calyx which persists around the fruit and is strongly veined, with five stiff, broad, almost prickly lobes; these, when the soft matter is removed by maceration, form very elegant specimens when associated with leaves prepared in a similar way. The corollas are obliquely funnel-shaped, of a dirty yellow or buff, marked with a close reticulation of purple veins. The capsule opens transversely by a convex lid and contains numerous seeds. Both the leaves and the seeds are employed in pharmacy. The Mahommedan doctors of India are accustomed to prescribe the seeds. Henbane yields a poisonous alkaloid, hyoscyamine, which is stated to have properties almost identical with those of atropine, from which it differs in being more soluble in water. It is usually obtained in an amorphous, scarcely ever in a crystalline state. Its properties have been investigated in Germany by T. Husemann, Schroff, Höhn, &c. Höhn finds its chemical composition expressed by C18H28N2O3. (Compare Hellmann, Beiträge zur Kenntnis der physiolog. Wirkung des Hyoscyamins, &c., Jena, 1874.) In small and repeated doses henbane has been found to have a tranquillizing effect upon persons affected by severe nervous irritability. In poisonous doses it causes loss of speech, distortion and paralysis. In the form of extract or tincture it is a valuable remedy in the hands of a medical man, either as an anodyne, a hypnotic or a sedative. The extract of henbane is rich in nitrate of potassium and other inorganic salts. The smoking of the seeds and capsules of henbane is noted in books as a somewhat dangerous remedy adopted by country people for toothache. Accidental poisoning from henbane occasionally occurs, owing sometimes to the apparent edibility and wholesomeness of the root.
See Bentley and Trumen, Medicinal Plants, 194 (1880).
HENCHMAN, originally, probably, one who attended on a
horse, a groom, and hence, like groom (q.v.), a title of a subordinate
official in royal or noble households. The first part
of the word is the O. Eng. hengest, a horse, a word which occurs in
many Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. and Dutch hengst. The word
appears in the name, Hengest, of the Saxon chieftain (see
Hengest and Horsa) and still survives in English in place and
other names beginning with Hingst- or Hinx-. Henchmen,
pages of honour or squires, rode or walked at the side of their
master in processions and the like, and appear in the English
royal household from the 14th century till Elizabeth abolished
the royal henchmen, known also as the “children of honour.”
The word was obsolete in English from the middle of the 17th
century, and seems to have been revived through Sir Walter
Scott, who took the word and its derivation, according to the
New English Dictionary, from Edward Burt’s Letters from a
Gentleman in the North of Scotland, together with its erroneous
derivation from “haunch.” The word is, in this sense, used as
synonymous with “gillie,” the faithful personal follower of a
Highland chieftain, the man who stands at his master’s “haunch,”
ready for any emergency. It is this sense that usually survives
in modern usage of the word, where it is often used of an out-and-out
adherent or partisan, ready to do anything.
HENDERSON, ALEXANDER (1583–1646), Scottish ecclesiastic,
was born in 1583 at Criech, Fifeshire. He graduated at
the university of St Andrews in 1603, and in 1610 was appointed
professor of rhetoric and philosophy and questor of the faculty
of arts. Shortly after this he was presented to the living of
Leuchars. As Henderson was forced upon his parish by Archbishop
George Gladstanes, and was known to sympathize with
episcopacy, his settlement was at first extremely unpopular;
but he subsequently changed his views and became a Presbyterian
in doctrine and church government, and one of the most
esteemed ministers in Scotland. He early made his mark as a
church leader, and took an active part in petitioning against the
“five acts” and later against the introduction of a service-book
and canons drawn up on the model of the English prayer-book.
On the 1st of March 1638 the public signing of the “National
Covenant” began in Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh. Henderson
was mainly responsible for the final form of this document,
which consisted of (1) the “king’s confession” drawn up in
1581 by John Craig, (2) a recital of the acts of parliament
against “superstitious and papistical rites,” and (3) an elaborate
oath to maintain the true reformed religion. Owing to the skill
shown on this occasion he seems to have been applied to when
any manifesto of unusual ability was required. In July of the
same year he proceeded to the north to debate on the “Covenant”
with the famous Aberdeen doctors; but he was not well received
by them. “The voyd church was made fast, and the keys
keeped by the magistrate,” says Baillie. Henderson’s next
public opportunity was in the famous Assembly which met in
Glasgow on the 21st of November 1638. He was chosen moderator
by acclamation, being, as Baillie says, “incomparablie the ablest
man of us all for all things.” James Hamilton, 3rd marquess
of Hamilton, was the king’s commissioner; and when the
Assembly insisted on proceeding with the trial of the bishops,
he formally dissolved the meeting under pain of treason. Acting
on the constitutional principle that the king’s right to convene
did not interfere with the church’s independent right to hold
assemblies, they sat till the 20th of December, deposed all the
Scottish bishops, excommunicated a number of them, repealed
all acts favouring episcopacy, and reconstituted the Scottish
Kirk on thorough Presbyterian principles. During the sitting of
this Assembly it was carried by a majority of seventy-five votes
that Henderson should be transferred to Edinburgh. He had
been at Leuchars for about twenty-three years, and was extremely
reluctant to leave it.
While Scotland and England were preparing for the “First Bishops’ War,” Henderson drew up two papers, entitled respectively The Remonstrance of the Nobility and Instructions for Defensive Arms. The first of these documents he published himself; the second was published against his wish by John Corbet (1603–1641), a deposed minister. The “First Bishops’ War” did not last long. At the Pacification of Birks the king virtually granted all the demands of the Scots. In the negotiations for peace Henderson was one of the Scottish commissioners, and made a very favourable impression on the king. In 1640 Henderson was elected by the town council rector of Edinburgh University—an office to which he was annually re-elected till his death. The Pacification of Birks had been wrung from the king; and the Scots, seeing that he was preparing for the “Second Bishops’ War,” took the initiative, and pressed into England so vigorously that Charles had again to yield everything. The maturing of the treaty of peace took a considerable time, and Henderson was again active in the negotiations, first at Ripon (October 1st) and afterwards in London. While he was in London he had a personal interview with the king, with the view of obtaining assistance for the Scottish universities from the money formerly applied to the support of the bishops. On Henderson’s return to Edinburgh in July 1641 the Assembly was sitting at St Andrews. To suit the convenience of the parliament, however, it removed to Edinburgh; Henderson was elected moderator of the Edinburgh meeting. In this Assembly he proposed that “a confession of faith, a catechism, a directory for all the parts of the public worship, and a platform
