G E H

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G E I

GAZA, Theodore, a famous Greek in the 15th century, bornuin Thei-salonica, in 1398. His country being invaded by theTurks, he retired into Italy ; where he at first supported himselfby transcribing ancient authors. His uncommon parts and learn-ing soon recommended him to public notice. In 1450, he wasinvited to Rome by Pope Nicholas V. ; and on his death, in1456, to Naples, by king Alphonso; who dying in 1458, here-turned to Rome, where cardinal Bessarion procured him a bene-fice in Calabria , lie was one of those to whom the revival oflearning in Italy was principally owing. He translated from theGreek into Latin, Aristotle’s History ot Animals, Theophrastus onplants, and Hippocrates ’s Aphorisms; and put into Greek, Sci-pio’s Dream, and Cicero ’s Treatise on Old Age. He wrote aGrammar and several other works in Greek and Latin ; and diedat Rome in 1478, aged 80.

GAZA , in andient geography, a-principal city and one of theAve satrapies of the Philistines . It was situated about 100 stadiafrom the Mediterranean, on an artificial mount, and strongly wall-ed round.

GAZE-HOUND, or GAST-IIOUND, one that makes moreuse of his sight than of his nose. Such dogs are much used inthe north of England : they are fitter in an open champaign coun-try, than in busily and woody places.

GAZETTE, [gazettu, is a Venetian halfpenny, the price of anewspaper, of which the first was published at Venice, ] a paper ofpublic intelligence. With us it is confined to that paper of newspublished by authority. The first English gazette was publishedat Oxford, the court being there, in a folio half-sheet, Nov. 7,1665. On the removal of the court to London , the title waschanged to the London Gazette. The Oxford Gazette was pub-lished on Tuesdays, the London on Saturdays: and these havecontinued to be the davs of publication ever since.

. GAZETTEER , in literature, a title for Geographical Dictiona-ries, giving a brief account of the various countries, kingdoms,cities, towns, republics, &c. in the world, in alphabetical order.

GAZNA, a city of Asia , once much celebrated, and the capitalof a very extensive empire; but which is now' either entirelyruined, or become of so little consideration, that it is hardly takennotice of by geographers. This city was anciently an empory andfortress of Zaolestan, near the confines of India .

GAZONS , in fortification, pieces of fresh earth, covered withgrass, cut in the form of a wedge about a foot long and half a footthick, to line parapets and the traverses of galleries.

GDOV, a town of Russia , in the government of Petersburg!!, 90miles S. S. W. of Petersburg!!.

GECCO, in natural history, a name given by the Indians totheir terrible poison, the smallest quantity of which kills whenmixed with the blood. They say that it is a venomous froth orhumour vomited out of the’mouths of their most poisonous ser-pents; which they procure in this fatal strength, by hanging upthe creatures by the tails, and whipping them to ennigejthem: theycollect this in proper vessels as it falls; and when they would use*t, they either poison a weapon w ith it, or wounding any part ofthe flesh introduce the smallest quantity imaginable into it; which,s said to cause immediate death.

GEDERN, a town of Germany , 24 miles E. N. E. of I'ranc-f°tt on the Maine .

GKEONG, a town in the island of Borneo .

GKFLE, a river of Sweden , in the province of Gestricia whichn ms into the Gulf of Bothnia .

. Gkfle, oi’Giaw le, an ancient and populous town of Sweden ,m Gestricia, 60 miles N. of Upsal.

GEHENNA, or GE11INNON, [rm*. Gr. of BW), Ileb.me valley of Hinnom,] a scripture-term which has given sometrouble to the critics. It occurs in St. Matthew , v. 22, 29,30. x.? 8 - xviii. 9. xxiii. 15, 33. Mark, ix. 43, 45, 47, Luke, xu. 5. Janies,’M. The authors of the Louvain and Geneva versions retain

,c word t'thcnna as it stands in the Greek; the like does M. si-m°n; the English translators render it bv hell and hell-me, and

do the translators of Mens and Father Boliours. In the valleyHinnom, near Jerusalem , there was a place named I ophet,

* here the idolatrous Jews sacrificed their children to Moioclv, byllre - K. Josius, to render this place lor ever abominable, made aCo mmon sewer of it, where all the filth and carcases of the city'"ere cast; and where a continual fire was kept up, to burn thoseCreases; for which reason, as the Jew 's had no proper Urm m their

language to signify hell, they made use of gelienna or gehinnon, todenote a fire unextinguishable.

GE1SINGEN, town of Germany, in Suabia , in the principalityofFurstenberg, 29 miles N. W. of Constance.

GE1SL1NGEN, an imperial town of Suabia , on the Cocher,12 miles W. of Ulm.

GEISMAll, a town of llesse-Cassel, 22 miles W. of Gottin-gen. ^

GF.LA, in ancient geography, a city of great extent on the S.of Sicily, so named from the Gelas. it is now called TerraNuova.

GELATINE , in chemistry, a semitransparent and colourlessjelly , obtained from animal substances. If a piece of the skin of ananimal be well cleaned, and repeatedly soaked and washed in coldwater, till the water ceases to be coloured, and the skin be thenboiled for some time in pure water, some of it will be dissolved, andon evaporation will yield gelatine. It is the same with glue onlythat the glue is not quite free from impurities, or extraneous matter.On being exposed to dry air it obtains its hardness, and breakswith a glassy n-acture. Gelatine lias neither taste nor smell; it issoluble in hot acids and alkalies ; but there is no action betw eenany of the earths and this substance. Some of the metallic oxidesand salts funn precipitates with gelatine in its solution in w. ter,and the compound thus formed is insoluble. Gelatine forms acopious white precipitate with tan, which is brittle and insolublein water, and is not changed by exposure to the air. It is com-posed of carbon, hydrogen, azote, and oxygen, with small portionsof phosphate of lime and of soda. It is a principal part both of thesolid and fluid parts of animals, and is employed in the. stale ofglue, size, and isinglass.

GELD, in the English old customs, a Saxon word signifyingmoney, or tribute. It also denoted a compensation for some crimecommitted: hence wergeid, in their ancient laws, was used forthe value of a man slain; and orfgeld, of a beast,

GELDERS. See Gueldf.rs.

GELDING, the operation of castrating any animal, particu-larly horses. A colt may be gelded at nine or fifteen days old, ifthe testicles have come down ; as the sooner lie is gelded the betterit will be for his growth, shape, and courage; though the operationmay be performed at any age, if proper care be taken m the manage-ment. The manner of doing it is usually tins: 'I’he beast beingcast down on some soft place, the operator takes the teitides be-tween his foremost and his great linger, and, slitting the scrotum,presses the stones forth ; their taking a pair of nippers made verysmooth, either of steel, box, or Brazil wood, lie claps the chord tothe testicles between them, a very little above where the stonesare set on, and presses them so hard that the course of the bloodthrough the artery is interrupted ; then with a thin, drawing, cau-terising iron, he sears away the testicle. This done, he takes a hardplaster, made of rosin, wax, and turpentine, well dissolved together,and melts it on the seared part, till he has laid a good thickness ofit upon the cauterized edge. When this is clone to one testicle, thenippers are loosened, and the like is done to the other; and thetwo incised edges of the scrotum are brought close together, andkept in that situation bv pieces of sticking plaister. If the part in-flames violently, the liorse should be bled, and a poultice of rye-meal, linseed-meal, and water, should be applied. A consider-able improvement, however, on this operation, would be to per-form it either by applying a strong ligature round the chord of thetesticle, or by taking up the blood-vessels separately; for themethod commonly used is sometimes fatal to the horse, owing tothe violent inflammation brought on by the actual cautery. Themanner of gelding a hog is as follows:—The operator, after havingmade two cross-slits or incisions on the midst of the stones, pressesthem out, and takes off the stone. But another general method,yet somewhat more difficult, is, fir-t, to cut on the side of one stone,and after having drawn and cut il oil", the operator puts in his lin-gers at the same slit, and with a lancet cuts the skin between thetwo stones, and bv that slit presses out the other stone ; and thusthere is but one incision made in the cod. Boar-pigs ought to bagelded about six months old; yet they are commonly geldedabout three or four weeks old.

GELENHAUSF.N, a small town of Germany , in AVctler-avia. Lon. S. 13. E. Lat..50. 20. N.

GELENIUS, Sicismukd, a learned and excellent man, bornof a g«od family at Fragile, about 1498. Erasmus , conceiving an

esteem