Spirit of, a volatile alkali of a very penetrating odour, and an efficacious remedy in nervous affections. It is an impure ammonia, and derives its name from the deer's horns from which it was formerly prepared; and to which very wonderful medicinal virtues were ascribed; but it is now obtained by the destructive distillation of bone of any kind. The salt of hartshorn—an impure solid carbonate of ammonia, formed at the same time—is sometimes used as a remedy in fever. Under the name of hartshorn sharings, the scrapings or raspings of deers' horns are variously employed in medical practice. Deers' horns, when boiled in water, yield a strong and very nutritive jelly, though inferior, perhaps, to that afforded by ivory.

HARUN AL RASCHID, the famous Caliph of Bagdad, holds in oriental history very much the same place that his contemporary, Charlemagne, holds in the history of Europe. His love of peace and justice, of literature and the arts, was only equalled by his skill and success in war. His reign is the golden age of the Mohammedan dominion, and furnished the materials for some of the best stories in the Arabian Nights. He died in 808, after a reign of twenty-two years. See Bagdad.

HARUSPICES, an order of priests among the Romans. Their name is derived, according to Donatus (Ter. Phorm. iv. 5), from haruqa, a victim, though others have referred its origin to the word ara, an altar. Dionysius (ii. 22) explains it as a corruption of the Greek word teopoeoros, inspector of the victims; and states that Romulus appointed three, one from each tribe. This number was gradually increased, till it became an important body in the state, was regarded as a collegium, and its president was called Summus Haruspex, or Magister Publicus. In the flourishing period of the republic it enjoyed great influence from the explanation it was called on to give of omens, which were taken at the commencement of any important undertaking; but in proportion as the doctrines of the Greek philosophers spread amongst the Romans, the Haruspices gradually lost their influence, at least amongst the higher ranks. Cato used frequently to say that he was surprised the Haruspices did not laugh when they met one another in the street. (Cic. Nat. Div. i. 26.) The Emperor Claudius made an attempt to revive their importance, and the Pontifices received an order to report as to the best way of accomplishing this object; but how far he succeeded we have no means of discovering. (Tacit. Ann. xi. 15.) Alexander Severus appointed fixed salaries to the members of this body, and teachers, who should instruct the young in the arts of soothsaying (Lampird. 44); and they continued in this state till Constantine put an end to their functions, by forbidding, under the penalty of death, the continuation of their superstitious practices. (Codex Theodos. 9, tit.16.) The duties of the Haruspices were to examine the entrails of victims sacrificed, and thence to derive omens of futurity. They also attended to the flame, the smoke, whether the victim came to the altar willingly, stood quietly, fell by one stroke, and many other circumstances of the same kind. Their knowledge of this art was derived from the Etruscans; and in early times the young nobility used to be sent to Etruria to be instructed in this art. (Cic. Div. i. 2, 41.)