The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 215

GERIZZIM, a mountain of 2848 ft. in height in the S. of the valley of Shechem, opposite EBAL (q. v.), and from the slopes of which the blessings were responded to by half the tribes of Israel on their arrival in Canaan (Josh. viii. 30-35); the Samaritans erected a temple on this mountain, ruins of which still remain.

GERM THEORY, the doctrine that certain diseases are due to fermentation caused by the presence of germs in the system in the form of minute organisms called bacteria.

GERMAN CATHOLICS, a sect formed in 1844 by secession from the Catholic Church of Germany, under the leaders.h.i.+p of Johann Ronge, on account of the mummery under papal patronage connected with the exhibition of the Holy Coat of Treves and the superst.i.tious influence ascribed to it.

GERMAN VOLTAIRE, name given sometimes to Wieland and sometimes, but less appropriately, to Goethe.

GERMANICUS, CaeSAR, Roman general, son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia, daughter of Mark Antony; he served with distinction under his uncle Tiberius in Dalmatia and Pannonia; was awarded a triumph, and in A.D. 12 was elected consul; his success and popularity as leader of the army on the Rhine provoked the jealousy of Tiberius, who transferred him to the East, where he subsequently died; his son Caligula succeeded Tiberius on the imperial throne (15 B.C.-A.D. 19).

GERMANY (49,428), const.i.tuted an empire in 1871, occupies a commanding position in Central Europe, and stretches from Switzerland in the S. to the German Ocean and Baltic Sea on the N.; Austria lies to the SE., Russia to the NE., while France, Belgium, and the Netherlands flank the W.; is made up of 26 States of widely varying size and importance, comprising four kingdoms (of which Prussia is by far the largest and most influential), six grand-duchies, five duchies, seven princ.i.p.alities, three free towns (Lubeck, Bremen, Hamburg), and one imperial province, Alsace-Lorraine; the main physical divisions are (1) the great lowland plain stretching from the centre to the Baltic and North Sea, well watered by the Ems, Weser, Elbe, Oder, Vistula, and their tributaries, in which, bating large sandy tracts, agriculture employs a large cla.s.s, and cereals, tobacco, and beetroot are raised; (2) the mountainous district, in the interior of which the Fichtelgebirge is the central knot, in which vast forests abound, and rich deposits of coal, fire-clays, iron, and other metals are worked, giving rise to iron-works and potteries; (3) the basin of the Rhine, on the W., where the vine is largely cultivated, and extensive manufactures of silks, cottons, and hardware are carried on; fine porcelain comes from Saxony and vast quant.i.ties of beer from Bavaria; Westphalia is the centre of the steel and iron works; throughout Germany there are 26,000 m. of railway line (chiefly State railways), 57,000 m. of telegraph line, while excellent roads, ca.n.a.ls, and navigable rivers facilitate communication; 65 per cent. of the people are Protestants; education is compulsory and more highly developed than in any other European country; the energies of the increasing population have in recent years found scope for their action in their growing colonial possessions; the military system imposes upon every German a term of seven years' service, three in active service, and the remainder in the reserve, and till his forty-sixth year he is liable to be called out on any great emergency; under the emperor the government is carried on by a _Federal Council_, the members of which are appointed by the governments of the various estates, and the _Reichstag_, elected by universal suffrage and ballot for three years.

GeRoME, LeON, a celebrated French painter, born at Vesoul; he studied at Paris under Paul Delaroche, with whom he subsequently travelled in Italy; he travelled in the East and familiarised himself with Eastern scenes; in 1863 he was appointed professor of Painting in the Paris School of Fine Arts; among his most famous pictures, all characterised by vivid colouring and strong dramatic effect, are "The Age of Augustus and the Birth of Christ," "Roman Gladiators in the Amphitheatre," "Cleopatra and Caesar," &c.; _b_. 1824.

GERRY, ELBRIDGE, American statesman, born in Marblehead, Ma.s.s.; in 1773, eight years after graduating at Harvard, he was elected to the Ma.s.sachusetts a.s.sembly, and in 1789 to the first National Congress; as envoy to France in 1797 he a.s.sisted in establis.h.i.+ng diplomatic relations with that country, and after his recall in 1810 was chosen governor of his native State; during his tenancy of this office, by an unfair redistribution of the electoral districts in the State he gave undue advantage to his own political party, a proceeding which led to the coining of the word "gerrymandering"; subsequently he held office as Vice-President of the Republic (1744-1814).

GERSON, JOHN CHARLIER DE, an eminent ecclesiastical scholar, born at Gerson, in the diocese of Rheims; in 1395 he became chancellor of his old university at Paris, and earned in that office a high reputation for learning, becoming known as Doctor Christianissimus; he was a prominent member of the councils of Pisa and Constance, advocating, as a remedy for the Western Schism, the resignation of the rival Popes; in consequence of his denunciation of the Duke of Burgundy for the murder of the Duke of Orleans he was forced to become a refugee in Germany for some time, but finally retired into the monastery of Lyons; his various works reveal an intellect of keen intelligence, but somewhat tinged with a cloudy mysticism (1363-1429).

GERSTaCKER, FRIEDRICH, German author and traveller, born in Hamburg; when 21 he emigrated to New York, and for six years led a wandering life in different parts of America, working the while now at one occupation now at another, a narrative of which he published on his return to Germany; in 1849 he undertook a journey round the world which occupied him three years; in 1860-61 he crossed S. America; in 1862 he was in Africa with Duke Ernst of Gotha, and in 1863 in Central America; his many writings, descriptive of these countries, exhibit a fresh and graphic style, and have had a wide popularity; he is the author also of several thrilling stories (1816-1872).

GERVASE OF TILBURY, a mediaeval historical writer, born at Tilbury, in Ess.e.x; said to have been a nephew of King Henry II.; he held a lectures.h.i.+p in Canon Law at Bologna, and through the influence of Emperor Otto IV. was made marshal of the kingdom of Arles; he was the author of "Otia Imperiala," a historical and geographical work; _d_. about 1235.

GERVINUS, GEORG GOTTFRIED, German historian and Shakespearian critic, born at Darmstadt; he was elected to the chair of History at Gottingen in 1836, an appointment which was cancelled the following year by his signing the protest against the abolition of the Hanoverian const.i.tution; in 1844 he was appointed honorary professor at Heidelberg, and subsequently contributed greatly to the establishment of const.i.tutional liberty in Germany by means of his writings and by founding the _Deutsche Zeitung_ there; in 1848 he became a member of the National a.s.sembly, but shortly afterwards withdrew, disgusted with the course things were taking; he now engaged in literary studies, the fruit of which appeared in his celebrated volumes of Shakespearian criticism (1805-1871).

GERYON, a king of Erytheia (i. e. red island), on the western borders of the world, with three bodies and three heads, who had a herd of oxen guarded by a giant shepherd and his dog, the two-throated Orthros, which were carried off by Hercules at the behest of his fate.

GESENIUS, an eminent German Hebraist and Biblical scholar, born in Prussian Saxony, whose labours form an epoch in the study of the Hebrew Scriptures; was 30 years professor of the language in Halle; produced a Hebrew Grammar and Lexicon, and commentary on Isaiah on rationalistic lines (1785-1842).

GESNER, KONRAD VON, Swiss scholar and naturalist, born at Zurich; hampered by ill-health and poverty in his youth, he yet contrived by unremitting diligence to obtain an excellent education at Strasburg, Bourges, and Paris; in his twenty-first year he obtained an appointment in Zurich University, and in 1537 became professor of Greek at Lausanne; abandoning the idea he entertained of entering the Church, he determined to adopt the medical profession instead, graduated at Basel in 1540, and a year later went to Zurich to occupy the chair of Natural History and to practise as a doctor; his chief works are the "Bibliotheca Universalis"

(a catalogue and summary of all Hebrew, Greek, and Latin works then known to exist), and the "Historia Animalium"; these monuments of learning have won him the cognomen of the German Pliny (1516-1565).

GESSLER, ALBRECHT, a governor of the forest cantons of Switzerland, who figures in Swiss legend as an oppressor who was shot as related in the tradition of Tell.

GESSNER, SALOMON, Swiss poet and artist, born at Zurich; served an apprentices.h.i.+p to a bookseller in Berlin, and after a sojourn in Hamburg returned to Zurich, where the rest of his life was spent; he published several volumes of poetry, chiefly pastoral and of no great value; his "Death of Abel" is his most notable performance; his paintings are mainly landscapes of a conventional type, several of which he engraved, revealing better abilities as an engraver than as an artist (1730-1788).

GESTA ROMANORUM (the exploits of the Romans), a collection of short didactic stories, not however solely Roman, written in the Latin tongue, probably towards the close of the 13th century, the authors.h.i.+p of which is uncertain, though it is generally recognised as of English origin; the stories are characterised by nave simplicity, and have served as materials for many notable literary productions; thus Shakespeare owes to this work the plot of Pericles and the incidents of the caskets and the pound of flesh in the "Merchant of Venice," Parnell his "Hermit," Byron his "Three Black Crows," and Longfellow his "King Robert of Sicily."

GETHSEMANE, somewhere on the E. of Kedron, half a mile from Jerusalem, at the foot of Mount Olivet, the scene of the Agony of Christ.

GETTYSBURG (3), a town in Pennsylvania, built on a group of hills 50 m. SW. of Harrisburg; during the Civil War it was the scene of General Meade's famous victory over the Confederates under General Lee on July 3, 1863.

GEYSER, fountains which from time to time, under the expansion of steam, eject columns of steam and hot water, and which are met with in Iceland, North America, and New Zealand, of which the most remarkable is the Great Geyser, 70 m. N. of Reikiavik, in Iceland, which ejects a column of water to 60 ft. in height, accompanied with rumblings underground; these eruptions will continue some 15 minutes, and they recur every few hours.

GFRoRER, AUGUST FRIEDRICH, a learned German historian, born in the Black Forest; educated for the Protestant ministry; in 1828, after residence at Geneva and Rome, started as a tutor of theology, and two years later became librarian at Stuttgart; published a number of historical works, including a "Life of Gustavus Adolphus," "Pope Gregory VII.," a "History of Primitive Christianity," "Church History to the Fourteenth Century"; in this last work he showed a strong leaning to Catholicism; was appointed to the chair of History in the university of Freiburg; was elected to the Frankfort parliament, and finally openly professed the Catholic faith (1803-1861).

GHaTS, or GHAUTS, EASTERN AND WESTERN, two mountain ranges running parallel with the E. and W. coasts of S. India, the latter skirting the Malabar coast between 30 and 40 m. from the sea, rising to nearly 5000 ft., and exhibiting fine mountain and forest scenery, and the former skirting the E. of the Deccan, of which tableland it here forms the b.u.t.tress, and has a much lower mean level; the two ranges converge into one a short distance from Cape Comorin.

GHAZALI, ABU MOHAMMED AL-, Arabian philosopher, born at Tus, Persia; in 1091 he was appointed professor of Philosophy in Bagdad; four years later he went to Mecca, and subsequently taught at Damascus, Jerusalem, and Alexandria; finally, he returned to his native town and there founded a Sufic college; of his numerous philosophic and religious works the most famous is the "Destruction of the Philosophers," in which he combats the theories and conclusions of the current Arabian scholasticism (1058-1111).

GHAZIPUR (45), a city of India, on the Ganges, 44 m. NE. of Benares, capital of the district of that name (1,077), in the North-West Provinces; is the head-quarters of the Government Opium Department, and trades in rose-water, sugar, tobacco, &c.; contains the ruins of the Palace of Forty Pillars.

GHAZNI (10), a fortified city of Afghanistan, 7726 ft. above the sea, 85 m. SW. of Cabul; it is the chief strategical point on the military route between Kandahar and Cabul; in the 11th and 12th centuries it was the capital of the KINGDOM OF GHAZNEVIDS, which stretched from the plains of Delhi to the Black Sea, and which came to an end in 1186.

GHEEL (12), a town in Belgium, situated on a fertile spot in the midst of the sandy plain called the Campine, 26 m. SE. of Antwerp; it has been for centuries celebrated as an asylum for the insane, who (about 1300) are now boarded out among the peasants; these cottage asylums are under government control, and the board of the patients in most cases is guaranteed.

GHENT (150), a city of Belgium, capital of East Flanders, situated at the junction of the Scheldt and the Lys, 34 m. NW. of Brussels; rivers and ca.n.a.ls divide it into 26 quarters, connected by 270 bridges; in the older part are many quaint and interesting buildings, notably the cathedral of St. Bavon (13th century); it is the first industrial city of Belgium, and is a great emporium of the cotton, woollen, and linen trades; the floriculture is famed, and the flower-shows have won it the name of the "City of Flowers."

GHETTO, an Italian word applied to the quarters set apart in Italian cities for the Jews, and to which in former times they were restricted; the term is now applied to the Jews' quarters in any city.

GHIBELLINES, a political party in Italy who, from the 11th to the 14th centuries, maintained the supremacy of the German emperors over the Italian States in opposition to the GUELPHS (q. v.).

GHIBERTI, LORENZO, an Italian sculptor and designer, born at Florence; his first notable work was a grand fresco in the palace of Malatesta at Rimini in 1400, but his most famous achievement, which immortalised his name, was the execution of two doorways, with bas-relief designs, in the baptistery at Florence; he spent 50 years at this work, and so n.o.ble were the designs and so perfect the execution that Michael Angelo declared them fit to be the gates of Paradise (about 1378-1455).

GHIKA, HELENA. See DORA D'ISTRIA.

GHILAN (200), a province of NW. Persia, between the SW. border of the Caspian Sea and the Elburz Mountains; is low-lying, swampy, and unhealthy towards the Caspian, but the rising ground to the S. is more salubrious; wild animals are numerous in the vast forests; the soil, where cleared, is fertile and well cultivated; the Caspian fisheries are valuable; the people are of Iranian descent, and speak a Persian dialect.