GAYAH-GAY-LUSSAC.

owing to some misunderstanding with the lord chamberlain, its representation was prohibited. On its publication, it brought the author £1200. About this time, he went to live with the Duke of Queensberry, and remained with him during the rest of his life. He was seized with an inflammatory fever, and died after an illness of three days. His death took place on the 4th December 1732, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Although more than a century has elapsed, and the satire and the allusions are obsolete, The Beggars' Opera is still occasionally represented. It exists, however, mainly in virtue of its songs and music. G. had a happy lyrical vein, and could turn a stanza on the beauty of woman, and the fascinations of the wine-cup, and the fleeting of youth, with considerable grace. His Fables, and his serious and comic poems, are only now to be found in libraries. The wit and the sentiment are alike dust. Of all he has done, his ballad of Black-eyed Susan possesses the strongest vitality, and thrills now and then our theatres and concert-rooms.

GAY'AH, the capital of the district of Bahar, in the sub-presidency of Bengal, stands on the Phalga, an affluent of the Ganges, in lat. 24° 48' N., and long. 85° 4' E. It contains about 45,000 inhabitants; but as it is a place of great sanctity, it is annually visited by at least 100,000 pilgrims. It consists of two towns-the older being reserved for the Brahmins and their immediate dependents, and the newer being occupied by the population at large and on an intermediate area stand the public establishments. The people rely chiefly on the expenditure of the superstitious visitors, some of whom have been known to leave behind them £5000 each.

GAYAL (Bos Gavaus), a species of ox, found wild in the mountains of Aracan, Chittagong, Tipura, and Sylhet, and which has long been domesticated in these countries and in the eastern parts of Bengal. It is about equal in size to the Indian buffalo; and, like the buffalo, it carries the head with the muzzle projecting forward. The head is very broad and flat at the upper part, uddenly contracted towards the nose; with short

horns, a little curved, projecting nearly in the plane of the forehead, and a very wide space between them at the base. There is no proper hump, but a sharp ridge on the shoulders and fore-part of the back. The prevailing colour is brown, generally dark. The Kookies keep herds of gayals, which they permit to roam at large during the day in the forests, but which return home at night of their own accord;

to secure which the animals are occasionally supplied with a little salt, which has the greatest attractions for them. Their milk is extremely rich, but not abundant; the Kookies, however, do not use the milk, but rear them entirely for their flesh and skins.

GAY-LUSSAC, LOUIS JOSEPH, one of the most distinguished chemists and physicists of recent times, was born on the 6th of December 1778, at St Léonard (Haute-Vienne). In 1795, he was sent to Paris to prepare for the examinations requisite for admittance into the Polytechnic School; and his admission to that institution took place on the 27th December 1797. After three years' study, he was promoted to the department Des Ponts et Chaussées. Berthollet, who was then Professor of Chemistry in the Polytechnic School, having recog nised his zeal and talents for original research, selected him as his assistant at Arcueil, where the government chemical works were situated. The study of Dalton's Experimental Essays, published in 1801, directed the attention of the young chemist to the department of chemical physics. In that year he published his first Memoir, which treated of 'the dilatation of gases and vapours,' and which was speedily followed by others on the improvement of thermometers and barometers;' on the tension of vapours, their mixture with gases, and the determination of their density, &c.;' and on capillary action.' In consequence of the reputation which he acquired from these researches, he was commissioned, in association with Biot, by the Institute of France, to make a balloon ascent, with the view of ascertaining whether the magnetic force existed at considerable heights above the surface of the earth, or only on the surface, as had

been asserted by some physicists. A notice of this ascent, and of another ascent which he made alone, is given in the article BALLOON. Alexander von Humboldt investigated with him the properties of air brought down from a height of more than 23,000 feet, and their joint Memoir to the Academy of Sciences (read on the 1st of October 1804) contained the first announcement of the fact, that oxygen and hydrogen unite to form water in the simple proportion of 100 parts by bulk (volumes) of the former to 200 parts of the latter. The simplicity of the ratio in which these gases stood to each other in their combining proportions, induced him to study the combining volumes of other gases, and thus led him to the important discovery of the law of volumes, which was announced in 1808, and is one of the most general and important laws in the whole domain of chemistry. Davy's discoveries of potassium and sodium, by the decomposing action of the voltaic pile, having excited much attention in France, Napoleon directed G. and Thenard to pursue this class of researches. The results of these investigations appeared in their Recherches Physicochimiques, in two volumes, published in 1811. Amongst the most important of the discoveries announced in these volumes, are a new chemical process which yields potassium and sodium much more abundantly than the voltaic pile, the determination of the composition of boracic acid both analytically and synthetically, and new and improved methods of analysing organic compounds. (Boron was, however, simultaneously discovered in England by Davy.) Although the discovery of iodine (in 1811) is due to Courtois, it was G. who (ir: 1813) first described its distinctive properties, gave it the name which it now bears, and proved that it is an elementary body; he was also the first to form synthetically the compounds of iodine with hydrogen and oxygen, known as hydriodic and iodic acids. In 1815, he announced the discovery

GAZA-GAZETTE

GAZE, in Heraldry. When a beast of the chase, full-faced, it is said to be at gaze. as a hart or stag, is represented as affrontée, or

of cyanogen, which presented the first known villages. It has no gates, no fortifications or defences example of a compound body (CN) exhibiting of any kind. The only building of interest is the many properties which were previously believed to great mosque, with its tall octagonal minaret and pertain specially to simple or elementary bodies. peaked roof. G. has manufactures of soap and His Memoir on this compound, in the 95th volume cotton stuffs; and, owing to its situation near the of the Annales de Chimie, is a model of what a com- Mediterranean and on the caravan route to Egypt, plete and exhaustive chemical investigation should it has a good trade both by sea and land. Pop. be. Our space will not allow of more than a passing upwards of 15,000, from 200 to 300 of whom are allusion to his subsequent investigations regarding Christians, and the rest Mohammedans. the fabrication of hydrated sulphuric acid, his essays on the bleaching chlorides, on the alcohols, and on the alkalies employed in commerce. In 1805, he was chosen a member of the Committee of Arts and Manufactures, established by the Minister of Commerce. In 1818, he was appointed to superintend the government manufactory of gunpowder and saltpetre; and in 1829, he received the lucrative office of chief assayer to the mint, where he introduced several important chemical changes. In 1831, he became a member of the Chamber of Deputies; and in 1839, he was made a peer of France. He never, however, took an active part in politics, and was diligently engaged in scientific research until his last illness. For many years, he was the editor, in association with Arago, of the Annales de Chimie et de Physique. He died at Paris, 9th May 1850, from atrophy of the heart.

GAZA, THEODORUS, a successor of Emanuel Chrysoloras as teacher of the Greek language and literature in the West. When his native city, Thessalonica, fell into the hands of the Turks, in 1430, he fled to Italy, where he studied the Latin language, under Victorinus of Feltre, at Mantua; after 1441, he was appointed rector of the newly established gymnasium, or high school, of Ferrara, and professor of Greek. He was invited by Pope Nicholas V., along with other learned Greeks, to Rome, and was employed in making Latin versions of Greek authors. After the death of Nicholas, King Alfonso invited him to Naples in 1456; but two years after, the death of this monarch also necessitated his return to Rome, where he found a patron in Cardinal Bessarion, who obtained for him a small benefice in the south of Italy, either in Apulia or Calabria. Here he died in 1478, at an advanced age.

G. has been warmly praised by subsequent scholars, such as Politian, Erasmus, Scaliger, and Melancthon. His principal writings are his Introductive Grammatices, libri iv. (a work on the elements of Greek grammar, first published by Aldus Manutius at Venice, 1495 A.D., and long held in high repute), a number of epistles to different persons on different literary subjects, and a variety of important translations into Latin of portions of Aristotle, Theophrastus, St Chrysostom, Hippocrates, and other Greek writers.

GAZA (Heb. signifies 'strong'), (now called GUZZEH), a town in the south-west of Palestine, is situated about three miles from the sea, on the borders of the desert which separates Palestine from Egypt. It originally belonged to the Philistines, and was a place of importance at the period of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites. It is frequently mentioned in the history of Samson; and after many vicissitudes in the wars between the Israelites and the Philistines, it was allotted to the tribe of Judah, in whose possession it finally remained. In the year 333 B.C., G. was taken by Alexander the Great; and from that period down to 1799, when it was taken by the French under Kleber, it has been the scene of many battles and sieges. Constantine the Great, who rebuilt the town, made it the seat of a bishop. The modern G. has the appearance of being a collection of mere

The face is reddish

GAZE'LLE (Antilope Dorcas or Gazella Dorcas), a species of antelope, about the size of a roebuck, but of lighter and more graceful form, with longer and more slender limbs, in these respects exhibiting the typical characters of the antelopes in their highest perfection. It is of a light tawny colour, the under parts white; a broad brown band along each flank; the hair short and smooth. fawn-colour, with white and dark stripes. The horns of the old males are nine or ten inches long, bending outward and then inward, like the sides of a lyre, also backward at the base, and forward at the tips, tapering to a point, surrounded by thirteen or fourteen permanent rings, the rings near the base being closest together and most perfect. The horns of the female are smaller and obscurely ringed. The ears are long, narrow, and pointed; the eyes very large, soft, and black; there is a tuft of hair on each knee; the tail is short, with black hairs on its upper surface only, and at its tip. The G. is a native of the north of Africa, and of Syria, Arabia, and Persia. Great herds of gazelles frequent the northern borders of the Sahara; and notwithstanding their great powers of flight, and the resistance which they are capable of making when compelled to stand at bay-the herd closing together with the females and young in the centre, and the males presenting their horns all around-lions and panthers destroy them in great numbers. The speed of the G. is such that it cannot be successfully hunted by any kind of dog, but in some parts of the East it is taken by the assistance of falcons, of a small species, which fasten on its head, and by the flapping of their wings blind and confuse it, so that it soon falls a prey to the hunter. It is also captured in enclosures made near its drinking. places. Although naturally very wild and timid, it is easily domesticated, and, when taken young, becomes extremely familiar. Tame gazelles are very common in the Asiatic countries of which the species is a native; and the poetry of these countries abounds in allusions both to the beauty and the gentleness of the gazelle. It has been sup posed that the gazelles of Asia may be of different species from the African, but there is reason to The Ariel G. (A. think that they are the same. Arabica) perhaps differs rather as a variety than as a species, and is even more symmetrical and graceful than the common kind. There are several species very nearly allied to the G., among which Abyssinia, with the curvatures of the horns very is Antilope (or Gazella) Soemmeringii, a native of marked and sudden.-Some confusion has arisen

among naturalists as to the application of the name G., originally Arabic; and it has not only been given to the leucoryx of the ancients, a very different species, but even to the gemsboc of South Africa. The true G. was known to the ancients, and is accurately described by Ælian under the name dorcas, which was also given to the roe.

GAZETTE. A gazette was a Venetian coin worth somewhat less than a farthing; and the name was hence applied to a sort of gossiping sheet, or

GAZETTEER GECKO.

primitive newspaper, that was sold for that sum at Venice. See NEWSPAPER. In its English acceptation, it means the official newspaper, in which proclamations, notices of appointments, and the like, are published by the government. The Gazette is said to have been published for the first time at Oxford in 1665. On the removal of the court to London, the title was changed to the London Gazette. It is now published on Tuesdays and Fridays. Proclamations printed in the Gazette are probative, without production. But the rule is different as to presentations or grants to private persons. Publication of a dissolution of partnership in the Gazette is not a sufficient notice to persons who were formerly in the habit of dealing with the company. Even as regards parties dealing for the first time, the tendency in England is to doubt the sufficiency of such notice in all cases; whereas, in Scotland, the opposite tendency prevails, and it is held that persons contracting with a company for the first time are bound to inquire into its existing condition, and consequently that notice even in a provincial newspaper may suffice. In practice, all reasonable means ought to be resorted to. Under the Bankrupt Act and other statutes, certain notices are directed to be given in the Gazette.

and bags, in the manufacture of which many of the people of Java find much employment; the fibres of its leaf-stalks are made into ropes, baskets, nets, cloth, &c.-To the genus Corypha belongs also the TALIPAT PALM (q. v.). The fruit of C. Pumas, a Mexican species, is eatable, and has a sweet taste.

GEBIR, ABU-MUSSAH-JAAFER AL SOFI, the ished towards the end of the 8th, or the commencefounder of the Arabian school of chemistry, flourment of the 9th century. The place of his birth is uncertain. According to the majority of authorities, he was born at Tus, in Khorassan, but Abulfeda supports the claims of Harran in Mesopotamia. He in Europe, where the chemists, down to the time of was greatly esteemed in the East, and subsequently Van Helmont, did nothing more than repeat his subtlest geniuses of the world, while Roger Bacon experiments. Cardan reckons G. one of the twelve bestows upon him the epithet 'magister magistrorum.' He wrote an immense number of treatises on alchemy, of which a considerable number are extant in the form of Latin versions. The library of Leyden contains many manuscripts of G.'s works which have never been published. In the Imperial Library at Paris there are manuscripts of his two celebrated works, the Summa Collectionis Comple

GAZETTEER. See DICTIONARY and ENCYCLO- menti Secretorum Natura, and the Summa Perfec

PÆDIA.

GAZOGÈNE. See AERATED WATER. GAZONS, in Fortification, are sods laid over newly made earthworks, to consolidate them, and prevent the soil from rolling down.

GEARING, a term applied to the parts of machinery by which motion in one part of a machine is communicated to another; gearing consists in general of toothed-wheels, friction-wheels, endless bands, screws, &c., or of a combination of these. When the communication between the two parts of the machine is interrupted, the machine is said to be out of gear; and when the communication is restored, it is said to be in gear. In the case of a thrashing-mill, e. g., driven by a steam-engine, the gearing usually consists of an endless band which communicates motion from the axle of the fly-wheel to that of the drum. If the band were slipped off from one wheel, or slackened so that motion could not be communicated by means of it, then the machine would be out of gear. Gearing which can be put in and out of gear is called movable gearing; that which cannot, as, for instance, the wheel-work of a watch, is called fixed gearing. Gearing which consists of wheel-work or endless Screws (q. v.) is put out of gear either by means of one of the wheels sliding along its axis, or being noved out of its place horizontally or vertically by means of a lever. Straight gearing is used when the planes of motion are parallel to each other; bevelled gearing, when the direction of the plane of motion is changed. See WHEELS, TOOTHED. Gearing has also for its object the increasing or diminishing of the original velocity, and in reference to this, is distinguished by the term multiplying' or 'retarding.' See WHEELS,

TOOTHED.

GEBA RIVER. See SENEGAMBIA.

GEBANG PALM (Corypha Gebanga), a fanleaved palm, native of the East Indies, and one of the most useful palms of that part of the world. Its stem yields a kind of sago; its root is medicinal, being both emollient and slightly astringent, so as to be particularly adapted to many cases of diarrhoea; its leaves are used for thatch, for making broad-brimmed hats, and for various economical purposes; its young leaves are plaited into baskets

tionis-also of a work on Astronomy, and a treatise on Spherical Triangles. The principle laid down by G. at the commencement of his works is, that art cannot imitate nature in all things, but that it can and ought to imitate her as far as its limits allow. An edition of his works in Latin was published at Dantzic in 1682, and another in English by Russell (London, 1678). For information respecting G.'s opinions with regard to alchemy, see ALCHEMY.

GECKO (Gecko), a genus of Saurian reptiles, constituting a family, Geckotida, which some recent naturalists have divided into many genera. The geckos are of small size, and generally of repulsive aspect; the colours of most of them are dull, and

GEDDES.

caught. The feet are remarkable, being adapted for adhering to smooth surfaces, so that geckos readily climb the smoothest trees or walls, or creep inverted on ceilings, or hang on the lower side of the large leaves in which tropical vegetation abounds. The body and tail are never crested, but are sometimes furnished with lateral membranes, variously festooned or fringed. The lateral membrane is sometimes even so large as to be of use to arboreal species in enabling them to take long leaps from branch to branch. The geckos feed chiefly on insects. They are more or less nocturnal in their habits. They are natives of warm climates, and are very widely distributed over the world. Two species are found in the south of Europe, both of which frequently enter houses, as do the geckos of Egypt, India, and other warm countries. The name G. is derived from a peculiar cry often uttered by some of the species, and which in some of them resembles syllables distinctly pronounced, whilst others are described as enlivening the night in tropical forests by a harsh cackle. The geckos have, in almost all parts of the world where they are found, a bad reputation as venomous, and as imparting injurious qualities to food which they touch, but there is no good evidence in support of any such opinion, in accordance with which, however, an Egyptian G. is even known as the father of leprosy.

men; and in regard to his purpose, it is affirmed that
he only did what all other ancient legislators had
done-required a greater or less degree of implicit
obedience to their respective laws, and for that
purpose feigned an intercourse with the Deity, to
make that obedience more palatable to the credulous
multitude.' Miracles are explained away; and the
account of the creation in Genesis is described as
a most beautiful mythos or philosophical fiction,
contrived with great wisdom, and dressed up in
the garb of real history.' These opinions naturally
enough exposed him to the charge of infidelity, and
his criticisms were described as 'less scurrilous,
perhaps, but not less impious than those of Thomas
Paine.' All sorts of ecclesiastics united in their
condemnation, and the undoubted effect of their
hostility was to crush whatever hopes of literary
fame G. may have entertained. He died at London,
26th February 1802. It is now generally admitted,
even by those who have no sympathy with his
views, that G.'s translation is in the main excellent,
and that his remarks are often valuable.
labours have unquestionably advanced the science
of Biblical Criticism. Among his other productions
may be mentioned a poem on the Confessional; the
Battle of B-ng-r, or the Church's Triumph, a
comic-heroic poem in nine cantos; and Bardomachia,
or the Battle of the Bards.

His

GEDDES, ALEXANDER, LL.D., a biblical critic, GEDDES, JANET, known in Scottish ecclesiastranslator, and miscellaneous writer, was born at tical history as 'Jenny Geddes,' has had her name Arradowl, in the parish of Ruthven, Banffshire, in transmitted as the person who took a prominent 1737. His parents were Roman Catholics, and part in resisting the introduction of the Liturgy young G. was educated for a priest, first at Sculan, or Service-book into the Church of Scotland in a monastic seminary in the Highlands, and subse- 1637. The circumstances were these. Sunday, quently at the Scots College, Paris, where he 23d July 1637, was the day fixed for this innovaacquired a knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, Italian, tion, so obnoxious to the Scottish Presbyterians, French, Spanish, German, and Low Dutch. In and an immense crowd filled the High Church of 1764, he returned to Scotland, and, having taken St Giles's, Edinburgh, on the occasion. On the orders, he was appointed officiating priest to the Dean of Edinburgh beginning to read, his voice was Roman Catholics of Angus, but after a short time lost in a tumultuous shout, and an old woman, went to reside with the Earl of Traquair. In 1769, said to have been one Jenny G., who kept a greenhe undertook the charge of a Roman Catholic con- stall in the High Street, bawling out: Villain! gregation at Auchinhalrig, in Banffshire, where he dost thou say mass at my lug?' (that is, ear), remained for ten years, making himself during that launched her stool at the dean's head. Universal period honourably conspicuous by his charities and confusion ensued, and the dean, throwing off his extraordinary liberality of sentiment. He was at surplice, fled, to save his life. The Bishop of length deposed from all his ecclesiastical functions, Edinburgh, on attempting to appease the storm, on account of his occasional attendance at the was assailed by a volley of sticks, stones, and other parish church of Cullen, between the minister of missiles, accompanied by cries and threats that which and himself there existed an intimate acquaint- effectually silenced him. This tumult proved the ance. G. now resolved to betake himself to litera- deathblow of the liturgy in Scotland. It has been ture, and proceeded to London in 1780. He had doubted, however, if there ever was such a person long planned a translation of the Bible into English as Jenny Geddes. In 1756, a citizen of Edinburgh, for the use of Roman Catholics, and he was now, of the name of Robert Mein (who died in 1776), through the munificence of Lord Petre, enabled to known for his exertions for the improvement of devote himself to the work. After various pre- his native city, published a tract called The Cross liminary publications intended to pave the way for Removed, Prelacy and Patronage Disproved, &c., in an impartial or favourable consideration of his mag- which he claims the exploit of Jenny G. for his num opus, there appeared in 1792 The First Volume great-grandmother, the worthy Barbara Hamilton, of the Holy Bible, or the Books accounted Sacred by spouse to John Mein, merchant and postmaster in Jews and Christians, otherwise called the Books of the Edinburgh, who, in the year 1637, spoke openly Old and New Covenants, faithfully translated from in the church at Edinburgh against Archbishop Corrected Texts of the Originals, with Various Read- Laud's new Service-book, at its first reading there, ings, Explanatory Notes, and Critical Remarks. In which stopped their proceedings, and dismissed 1793, the second volume was published, carrying their meeting, so that it never obtained in our the translation as far as the end of the historical church to this day.' In the obituary notice of books; and in 1800, a third volume was issued, Robert Mein, Weekly Magazine, vol. xxxix., and containing his Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scrip- Scots Magazine, vol. xxxvi. (1776), this Barbara tures. The opinions enunciated in these volumes, Hamilton is said to have been descended from the especially in the last, are startlingly heretical, more Hamiltons of Bardowie, 'but was better known in especially when the training of their author is con- our history by the name of Jenny Geddes, though sidered, and were calculated, at the time of their called so erroneously.' Jenny G.'s famous stool is appearance, to offend both Catholics and Protes- said to have been burned by herself in the bonfires tants. They exhibit as thorough-going Rationalism at the cross of Edinburgh at the Restoration, and as is to be found in Eichhorn or Paulus. Moses is what has been called hers in the Museum of the said to be inspired in the same sense as other good | Society of Antiquaries at Edinburgh, has no claim

GEEFS GEHENNA.