[Hecker, Friedrich Karl Franz], a German revolutionary, born at Eichtersheim, Baden; practised as an advocate in Mannheim, and in 1842 became an active democrat and Socialist; frustrated in an attempt during the '48 Revolution to create a republican assembly, he headed a revolutionary attack upon Baden, was defeated, and subsequently settled in the United States, where he took to farming; took part in the Civil War at the head of a regiment of Germans, and became a commander of a brigade (1811-1881).
[Hecker, Justus Friedrich Karl], author of a great work on the "Epidemics of the Middle Ages"; was a professor of Medicine at Berlin (1795-1850).
[Heckmondwike] (10), a market-town in Yorkshire, 8 m. NE. of Huddersfield; is the principal seat of the carpet and blanket manufactures in the West Riding.
[Hecla] or Hekla, the loftiest of 20 active volcanoes in Iceland (5102 ft.); is an isolated peak with five craters, 68 m. E. of Reykjavik; its most violent outbreak in recent times continued from 1845 to 1846; its last eruption was in March 1878.
[Hectic Fever], a fever connected with consumption, and showing itself by a bright pink flush on the cheeks.
[Hector], the chief hero of Troy in the war with the Greeks, the son of Priam and Hecuba; fought with the bravest of the enemy and finally slew Patroclus, the friend of [Achilles] (q. v.), which roused the latter from his long lethargy to challenge him to fight; Achilles chased him three times round the city, pierced him with his spear, and dragged his dead body after his chariot round Ilium; his body was at the command of Zeus delivered up to Priam and buried with great pomp within the city walls.
[Hecuba], the wife of Priam, king of Troy; distinguished both as a wife and a mother; on the fall of the city she fell into the hands of the Greeks, and, according to one tradition, was made a slave, and, according to another, threw herself in despair into the sea.
[Hedonism], the doctrine of the Cyrenaics that pleasure is the end of life, and the measure of virtue, or the summum bonum.
[Heem, Jan Davidsz van], a famous Dutch painter, born at Utrecht; had a prosperous and uneventful career in Antwerp, where in 1635 he became a member of the Guild of Painters; he is considered the greatest of the "still life" painters; his pictures, masterpieces of colouring and chiaroscuro, have a great monetary value, and are to be found in the famous galleries of Amsterdam, Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, &c. (1606-1684).
[Heeren, Ludwig], a German historian; professor of History at Göttingen; wrote on ancient and modern history, specially the ancient and its antiquities; eminent in both (1760-1842).