HINTON

hinton, james (1822-1875), english surgeon and author, son of john howard hinton (1791-1873), baptist minister and author of the _history and topography of the united states_ and other works, was born at reading in 1822. he was educated at his grandfather's school near oxford, and at the nonconformist school at harpenden, and in 1838, on his father's removal to london, was apprenticed to a woollen-draper in whitechapel. after retaining this situation about a year he became clerk in an insurance office. his evenings were spent in intense study, and this, joined to the ardour, amounting to morbidness, of his interest in moral problems, so affected his health that in his nineteenth year he resolved to seek refuge from his own thoughts by running away to sea. his intention having, however, been discovered, he was sent, on the advice of the physician who was consulted regarding his health, to st bartholomew's hospital to study for the medical profession. after receiving his diploma in 1847, he was for some time assistant surgeon at newport, essex, but the same year he went out to sierra leone to take medical charge of the free labourers on their voyage thence to jamaica, where he stayed some time. he returned to england in 1850, and entered into partnership with a surgeon in london, where he soon had his interest awakened specially in aural surgery, and gave also much of his attention to physiology. he made his first appearance as an author in 1856 by contributing papers on physiological and ethical subjects to the _christian spectator_; and in 1859 he published _man and his dwelling-place_. a series of papers entitled "physiological riddles," in the _cornhill magazine_, afterwards published as _life in nature_ (1862), as well as another series entitled _thoughts on health_ (1871), proved his aptitude for popular scientific exposition. after being appointed aural surgeon to guy's hospital in 1863, he speedily acquired a reputation as the most skilful aural surgeon of his day, which was fully borne out by his works, _an atlas of diseases of the membrana tympani_ (1874), and _questions of aural surgery_ (1874). but his health broke down, and in 1874 he gave up practice; and he died at the azores of acute inflammation of the brain on the 16th of december 1875. in addition to the works already mentioned, he was the author of _the mystery of pain_ (1866) and _the place of the physician_ (1874). on account of their fresh and vigorous discussion of many of the important moral and social problems of the time, his writings had a wide circulation on both sides of the atlantic. his _life and letters_, edited by ellice hopkins, with an introduction by sir w. w. gull, appeared in 1878. hiogo [hyogo], a town of japan in the province of settsu, nippon, on the western shore of the bay of osaka, adjoining the foreign settlement of kobe, 21 m. w. of osaka by rail. the growth of its prosperity has been very remarkable. its population, including that of kobe, was 135,639 in 1891, and 285,002 in 1903. from 1884 to the close of the century its trade increased nearly eightfold, and the increase was not confined to a few staples of commerce, but was spread over almost the whole trade, in which silk and cotton fabrics, floor-mats, straw-plaits, matches, and cotton yarns are specially important. kobe owes much of its prosperity to the fact of serving largely as the shipping port of osaka, the chief manufacturing town in japan. the foreign community, exclusive of chinese, exceeds 1000 persons. kobe is considered the brightest and healthiest of all the places assigned as foreign settlements in japan, its pure, dry air and granite subsoil constituting special advantages. it is in railway communication with all parts of the country, and wharves admit of steamers of large size loading and discharging cargo without the aid of lighters. the area originally appropriated for a foreign settlement soon proved too restricted, and foreigners received permission to lease lands and houses direct from japanese owners beyond the treaty limits, a privilege which, together with that of building villas on the hills behind the town, ultimately involved some diplomatic complications. kobe has a shipbuilding yard, and docks in its immediate neighbourhood. hiogo has several temples of interest, one of which has near it a huge bronze statue of buddha, while by the minatogawa, which flows into the sea between hiogo and kobe, a temple commemorates the spot where kusunoki masashige, the mirror of japanese loyalty, met his death in battle in 1336. the temple of ikuta was erected on the site of the ancient fane built by jingo on her return from korea in the 3rd century. hiogo's original name was bako. its position near the entrance of the inland sea gave it some maritime importance from a very early period, but it did not become really prominent until the 12th century, when kiyomori, chief of the taira clan, transferred the capital from kioto to fukuhara, in hiogo's immediate neighbourhood, and undertook various public works for improving the place. the change of capital was very brief, but hiogo benefited permanently from the distinction. hip. (1) (from o. eng. _hype_, a word common in various forms to many teutonic languages; cf. dutch _heup_, and ger. _hufte_), the projecting part of the body formed by the top of the thighbone and the side of the pelvis, in quadrupeds generally known as the haunch (see joints). (2)(o. eng. _heope_, from same root as m.h. ger. _hiefe_, a thorn-bush), the fruit of the dog-rose (_rosa canina_); "hips" are usually joined with "haws," the fruit of the hawthorn.