[1] The word "gulf," a portion of the sea partially enclosed by the
coast-line, and usually taken as referring to a tract of water larger
than a bay and smaller than a sea, is derived through the Fr.
_golfe_, from Late Gr. [Greek: kolphos], class. Gr. [Greek: kolpos],
bosom, hence bay, cf. Lat. sinus. In University slang, the term is
used of the position of those who fail to obtain a place in the
honours list at a public examination, but are allowed a "pass."
GULFWEED, in botany, a popular name for the seaweed _Sargassum
bacciferum_, one of the brown seaweeds (Phaeophyceae), large quantities
of which are found floating in the Gulf of Mexico, whence it is carried
northwards by the Gulf Stream, small portions sometimes being borne as
far as the coasts of the British Isles. It was observed by Columbus, and
is remarkable among seaweeds for its form, which resembles branches
bearing leaves and berries; the latter, to which the species-name
_bacciferum_ refers, are hollow floats answering the same purpose as the
bladders in another brown seaweed, _Fucus vesiculosus_, which is common
round the British Isles between high and low water.
GULL, SIR WILLIAM WITHEY, 1st Bart. (1816-1890), English physician, was
the youngest son of John Gull, a barge-owner and wharfinger of
Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex, and was born on the 31st of December 1816 at
Colchester. He began life as a schoolmaster, but in 1837 Benjamin
Harrison, the treasurer of Guy's Hospital, who had noticed his ability,
brought him up to London from the school at Lewes where he was usher,
and gave him employment at the hospital, where he also gained permission
to attend the lectures. In 1843 he was made a lecturer in the medical
school of the hospital, in 1851 he was chosen an assistant physician,
and in 1856 he became full physician. In 1847 he was elected Fullerian
professor of physiology in the Royal Institution, retaining the post for
the usual three years, and in 1848 he delivered the Gulstonian Lectures
at the College of Physicians, where he filled every office of honour but
that of president. He died in London on the 29th of January 1890 after a
series of paralytic strokes, the first of which had occurred nearly
three years previously. He was created a baronet in 1872, in recognition
of the skill and care he had shown in attending the prince of Wales
during his attack of typhoid in 1871. Sir William Gull's fame rested
mainly on his success as a clinical practitioner; as he said himself, he
was "a clinical physician or nothing." This success must be largely
ascribed to his remarkable powers of observation, and to the great
opportunities he enjoyed for gaining experience of disease. He was
sometimes accused of being a disbeliever in drugs. That was not the
case, for he prescribed drugs like other physicians when he considered
them likely to be beneficial. He felt, however, that their
administration was only a part of the physician's duties, and his mental
honesty and outspokenness prevented him from deluding either himself or
his patients with unwarranted notions of what they can do. But though he
regarded medicine as primarily an art for the relief of physical
suffering, he was far from disregarding the scientific side of his
profession, and he made some real contributions to medical science. His
papers were printed chiefly in _Guy's Hospital Reports_ and in the
proceedings of learned societies: among the subjects he wrote about were
cholera, rheumatic fever, taenia, paraplegia and abscess of the brain,
while he distinguished for the first time (1873) the disease now known
as myxoedema, describing it as a "cretinoid state in adults."
GULL (Welsh _gwylan_, Breton, _goelann_, whence Fr. _goeland_), the name
commonly adopted, to the almost entire exclusion of the O. Eng. MEW
(Icel. _mafur_, Dan. _maage_, Swedish _mase_, Ger. _Meve_, Dutch
_meeuw_, Fr. _mouette_), for a group of sea-birds widely and commonly
known, all belonging to the genus _Larus_ of Linnaeus, which subsequent
systematists have broken up in a very arbitrary and often absurd
fashion. The family _Laridae_ is composed of two chief groups, _Larinae_
and _Sterninae_--the gulls and the terns, though two other subfamilies
are frequently counted, the skuas (_Stercorariinae_), and that formed by
the single genus _Rhynchops_, the skimmers; but there seems no strong
reason why the former should not be referred to the _Larinae_ and the
latter to the _Sterninae_.
Taking the gulls in their restricted sense, Howard Saunders, who has
subjected the group to a rigorous revision (_Proc. Zool. Society_, 1878,
pp. 155-211), admits forty-nine species of them, which he places in five
genera instead of the many which some prior investigators had sought to
establish. Of the genera recognized by him, _Pagophila_ and
_Rhodostethia_ have but one species each, _Rissa_ and _Xema_ two, while
the rest belong to _Larus_. The _Pagophila_ is the so-called ivory-gull,
_P. eburnea_, names which hardly do justice to the extreme whiteness of
its plumage, to which its jet-black legs offer a strong contrast. The
young, however, are spotted with black. An inhabitant of the most
northern seas, examples, most commonly young birds of the year, find
their way in winter to more temperate shores. Its breeding-place has
seldom been discovered, and the first of its eggs ever seen by
ornithologists was brought home by Sir L. M'Clintock in 1853 from Cape
Krabbe (_Journ. R. Dubl. Society_, i. 60, pl. 1); others were
subsequently obtained by Dr Malmgren in Spitsbergen. Of the species of
_Rissa_, one is the abundant and well-known kittiwake, _R. tridactyla_,
of circumpolar range, breeding, however, also in comparatively low
latitudes, as on the coasts of Britain, and in winter frequenting
southern waters. The other is _R. brevirostris_, limited to the North
Pacific, between Alaska and Kamchatka. The singular fact requires to be
noticed that in both these species the hind toe is generally deficient,
but that examples of each are occasionally found in which this
functionless member has not wholly disappeared. We have then the genus
_Larus_, which ornithologists have attempted most unsuccessfully to
subdivide. It contains the largest as well as the smallest of gulls. In
some species the adults assume a dark-coloured head every
breeding-season, in others any trace of dark colour is the mark of
immaturity. The larger species prey fiercely on other kinds of birds,
while the smaller content themselves with a diet of small animals, often
insects and worms. But however diverse be the appearance, structure or
habits of the extremities of the series of species, they are so closely
connected by intermediate forms that it is hard to find a gap between
them that would justify a generic division. Forty-three species of this
genus are recognized by Saunders. About fifteen belong to Europe and
fourteen to North America, of which (excluding stragglers) some five
only are common to both countries. Our knowledge of the geographical
distribution of several of them is still incomplete. Some have a very
wide range, others very much the reverse, as witness _L. fuliginosus_,
believed to be confined to the Galapagos, and _L. scopulinus_ and _L.
bulleri_ to New Zealand,--the last indeed perhaps only to the South
Island. The largest species of the group are the glaucous gull and
greater black-backed gull, _L. glaucus_ and _L. marinus_, of which the
former is circumpolar, and the latter nearly so--not being hitherto
found between Labrador and Japan. The smallest species is the European
_L. minutus_, though the North American _L. Philadelphia_ does not much
exceed it in size. Many of the gulls congregate in vast numbers to
breed, whether on rocky cliffs of the sea-coast or on healthy islands
in inland waters. Some of the settlements of the black-headed or
"peewit" gull, _L. ridibundus_, are a source of no small profit to their
proprietors,--the eggs, which are rightly accounted a great delicacy,
being taken on an orderly system up to a certain day, and the birds
carefully protected. Ross's or the roseate gull, _Rhodostethia rosea_,
forms a well-marked genus, distinguished not so much by the pink tint of
its plumage (for that is found in other species) but by its small
dove-like bill and wedge-shaped tail. It is an exceedingly scarce bird,
and beyond its having an Arctic habitat, little has yet been ascertained
about it. More rare still is one of the species of _Xema_, _X.
furcatum_, of which only two specimens, both believed to have come from
the Galapagos, have been seen. Its smaller congener Sabine's gull, _X.
sabinii_, is more common, and has been found breeding both in Arctic
America and in Siberia, and several examples, chiefly immature birds,
have been obtained in the British islands. Both species of _Xema_ are
readily distinguished from all other gulls by their forked tails.
(A. N.)
GULLY, JOHN (1783-1863), English sportsman and politician, was born at
Wick, near Bath, on the 21st of August 1783, the son of an innkeeper. He
came into prominence as a boxer, and in 1805 he was matched against
Henry Pearce, the "Game Chicken," before the duke of Clarence
(afterwards William IV.) and numerous other spectators, and after
fighting sixty-four rounds, which occupied an hour and seventeen
minutes, was beaten. In 1807 he twice fought Bob Gregson, the Lancashire
giant, for two hundred guineas a side, winning on both occasions. As the
landlord of the "Plough" tavern in Carey Street, London, be retired from
the ring in 1808, and took to horse-racing. In 1827 he lost L40,000 by
backing his horse "Mameluke" (for which he had paid four thousand
guineas) for the St Leger. In partnership with Robert Ridskale, in 1832,
he made L85,000 by winning the Derby and St Leger with "St Giles" and
"Margrave." In partnership with John Day he won the Two Thousand Guineas
with "Ugly Buck" in 1844, and two years later he took the Derby and the
Oaks with "Pyrrhus the First" and "Mendicant," in 1854 the Two Thousand
Guineas with "Hermit," and in the same year, in partnership with Henry
Padwick, the Derby with "Andover." Having bought Ackworth Park near
Pontefract he was M.P. from December 1832 to July 1837. In 1862 he
purchased the Wingate Grange estate and collieries. Gully was twice
married and had twelve children by each wife. He died at Durham on the
9th of March 1863. He appears to have been no relation of the subsequent
Speaker, Lord Selby.
GULPAIGAN (_Jerbadegan_ of the Arab geographers), a district and city in
Central Persia, situated N.W. of Isfahan and S.E. of Irak. Together with
Khunsar it forms a small province, paying a yearly revenue of about
L6000. The city of Gulpaigan is situated 87 m. N.W. of Isfahan, at an
elevation of 5875 ft. in 33 deg. 24' N. and 50 deg. 20' E., and has a
population of about 5000. The district is fertile and produces much
grain and some opium. Sometimes it is under the governor-general of the
Isfahan province, at others it forms part of the province of Irak, and
at times, as in 1906, is under a governor appointed from Teheran.
GUM (Fr. _gomme_, Lat. _gommi_, Gr. [Greek: kommi], possibly a Coptic
word; distinguish "gum," the fleshy covering of the base of a tooth, in
O. Eng. _goma_, palate, cf. Ger. _Gaumen_, roof of the mouth; the
ultimate origin is probably the root _gha_, to open wide, seen in Gr.
[Greek: chainein], to gape, cf. "yawn"), the generic name given to a
group of amorphous carbo-hydrates of the general formula (C6H10O5)_n,
which exist in the juices of almost all plants, and also occur as
exudations from stems, branches and fruits of plants. They are entirely
soluble or soften in water, and form with it a thick glutinous liquid or
mucilage. They yield mucic and oxalic acids when treated with nitric
acid. In structure the gums are quite amorphous, being neither organized
like starch nor crystallized like sugar. They are odourless and
tasteless, and some yield clear aqueous solutions--the real gums--while
others swell up and will not percolate filter paper--the vegetable
mucilages. The acacias and the Rosaceae yield their gums most abundantly
when sickly and in an abnormal state, caused by a fulness of sap in the
young tissues, whereby the new cells are softened and finally
disorganized; the cavities thus formed fill with liquid, which exudes,
dries and constitutes the gum.
_Gum arabic_ may be taken as the type of the gums entirely soluble in
water. Another variety, obtained from the _Prosopis dulcis_, a
leguminous plant, is called gum mesquite or mezquite; it comes from
western Texas and Mexico, and is yellowish in colour, very brittle and
quite soluble in water.
Gum arabic occurs in pieces of varying size, and some kinds are full
of minute cracks. The specific gravity of Turkey picked gum (the
purest variety) is 1.487, or, when dried at 100 deg. C., 1.525. It is
soluble in water to an indefinite extent; boiled with dilute sulphuric
acid it is converted into the sugar galactose. Moderately strong
nitric acid changes it into mucic, saccharic, tartaric and oxalic
acids. Under the influence of yeast it does not enter into the
alcoholic fermentation, but M. P. E. Berthelot, by digesting with
chalk and cheese, obtained from it 12% of its weight of alcohol, along
with calcium lactate, but no appreciable quantity of sugar. Gum arabic
may be regarded as a potassium and calcium salt of gummic or arabic
acid. T. Graham (_Chemical and Physical Researches_) recommended
dialysis as the best mode of preparing gummic acid, and stated that
the power of gum to penetrate the parchment septum is 400 times less
than that of sodium chloride, and, further, that by mixing the gum
with substances of the crystalloid class the diffusibility is lowered,
and may be even reduced to nothing. The mucilage must be acidulated
with hydrochloric acid before dialysing, to set free the gummic acid.
By adding alcohol to the solution, the acid is precipitated as a white
amorphous mass, which becomes glassy at 100 deg. Its formula is
(C6H10O5)2H2O, and it forms compounds with nearly all bases which are
easily soluble in water. Gummic acid reddens litmus, its reaction
being about equal to carbonic acid. When solutions of gum arabic and
gelatin are mixed, oily drops of a compound of the two are
precipitated, which on standing form a nearly colourless jelly,
melting at 25 deg. C., or by the heat of the hand. This substance can
be washed without decomposition. Gummic acid is soluble in water; when
well dried at 100 deg. C., it becomes transformed into metagummic
acid, which is insoluble, but swells up in water like gum tragacanth.
Gum arabic, when heated to 150 deg. C. with two parts of acetic
anhydride, swells up to a mass which, when washed with boiling water,
and then with alcohol, gives a white amorphous insoluble powder called
acetyl arabin C6H8(C2H3O)2O5. It is saponified by alkalies, with
reproduction of soluble gum. Gum arabic is not precipitated from
solution by alum, stannous chloride, sulphate or nitrate of copper, or
neutral lead acetate; with basic lead acetate it forms a white jelly,
with ferric chloride it yields a stiff clear gelatinoid mass, and its
solutions are also precipitated by borax.
The finer varieties are used as an emollient and demulcent in medicine,
and in the manufacture of confectionery; the commoner qualities are used
as an adhesive paste, for giving lustre to crape, silk, &c., in cloth
finishing to stiffen the fibres, and in calico-printing. For labels,
&c., it is usual to mix sugar or glycerin with it to prevent it from
cracking.
Gum senegal, a variety of gum arabic produced by _Acacia Verek_, occurs
in pieces generally rounded, of the size of a pigeon's egg, and of a
reddish or yellow colour, and specific gravity 1.436. It gives with
water a somewhat stronger mucilage than gum arabic, from which it is
distinguished by its clear interior, fewer cracks and greater toughness.
It is imported from the river Gambia, and from Senegal and Bathurst.
Chagual gum, a variety brought from Santiago, Chile, resembles gum
senegal. About 75% is soluble in water. Its solution is not thickened by
borax, and is precipitated by neutral lead acetate; and dilute sulphuric
acid converts it into _d_-glucose.
_Gum tragacanth_, familiarly called gum dragon, exudes from the stem,
the lower part especially, of the various species of _Astragalus_,
especially _A. gummifer_, and is collected in Asia Minor, the chief port
of shipment being Smyrna. Formerly only what exuded spontaneously was
gathered; this was often of a brownish colour; but now the flow of the
gum is aided by incisions cut near the root, and the product is the
fine, white, flaky variety so much valued in commerce. The chief flow of
gum takes place during the night, and hot and dry weather is the most
favourable for its production.
In colour gum tragacanth is of a dull white; it occurs in horny,
flexible and tough, thin, twisted flakes, translucent, and with
peculiar wavy lines on the surface. When dried at temperatures under
100 deg. C. it loses about 14% of water, and is then easily powdered.
Its specific gravity is 1.384. With water it swells by absorption, and
with even fifty times its weight of that liquid forms a thick
mucilage. Part of it only is soluble in water, and that resembles
gummic acid in being precipitated by alcohol and ammonium oxalate, but
differs from it in giving a precipitate with neutral lead acetate and
none with borax. The insoluble part of the gum is a calcium salt of
bassorin (C12H20O10), which is devoid of taste and smell, forms a
gelatinoid mass with water, but by continued boiling is rendered
soluble.
Gum tragacanth is used in calico-printing as a thickener of colours and
mordants; in medicine as a demulcent and vehicle for insoluble powders,
and as an excipient in pills; and for setting and mending beetles and
other insect specimens. It is medicinally superior to gum acacia, as it
does not undergo acetous fermentation. The best pharmacopeial
preparation is the _Mucilago Tragacanthae_. The compound powder is a
useless preparation, as the starch it contains is very liable to
ferment.
Gum kuteera resembles in appearance gum tragacanth, for which the
attempt has occasionally been made to substitute it. It is said to be
the product of _Sterculia urens_, a plant of the natural order
Sterculiaceae.
_Cherry tree gum_ is an exudation from trees of the genera _Prunus_ and
_Cerasus_. It occurs in shiny reddish lumps, resembling the commoner
kinds of gum arabic. With water, in which it is only partially soluble,
it forms a thick mucilage. Sulphuric acid converts it into l-arabinose;
and nitric acid oxidizes it to oxalic acid (without the intermediate
formation of mucic acid as in the case of gum arabic).
_Gum of Bassora_, from Bassora or Bussorah in Asia, is sometimes
imported into the London market under the name of the hog tragacanth. It
is insipid, crackles between the teeth, occurs in variable-sized pieces,
is tough, of a yellowish-white colour, and opaque, and has properties
similar to gum tragacanth. Its specific gravity is 1.36. It contains
only 1% of soluble gum or arabin. Under the name of Caramania gum it is
mixed with inferior kinds of gum tragacanth before exportation.
_Mucilage._--Very many seeds, roots, &c., when infused in boiling water,
yield mucilages which, for the most part, consist of bassorin. Linseed,
quince seed and marshmallow root yield it in large quantity. In their
reactions the different kinds of mucilage present differences; e.g.
quince seed yields only oxalic acid when treated with nitric acid, and
with a solution of iodine in zinc iodide it gives, after some time, a
beautiful red tint. Linseed does not give the latter reaction; by
treatment with boiling nitric acid it yields mucic and oxalic acids.
_Gum Resins._--This term is applied to the inspissated milky juices of
certain plants, which consist of gum soluble in water, resin and
essential oil soluble in alcohol, other vegetable matter and a small
amount of mineral matter. They are generally opaque and solid, and
often brittle. When finely powdered and rubbed down with water they
form emulsions, the undissolved resin being suspended in the gum
solution. Their chief uses are in medicine. Examples are ammoniacum,
asafetida, bdellium, euphorbium, gamboge, myrrh, sagapanum and
scammony.
GUMBEL, KARL WILHELM VON, BARON (1823-1898), German geologist, was born
at Dannenfels, in the Palatinate of the Rhine, on the 11th of February
1823, and is known chiefly by his researches on the geology of Bavaria.
He received a practical and scientific education in mining at Munich and
Heidelberg, taking the degree of Ph.D. at Munich in 1862; and he was
engaged for a time at the colliery of St Ingbert and as a surveyor in
that district. In 1851, when the Geological Survey of Bavaria was
instituted, Gumbel was appointed chief geologist; in 1863 he was made
honorary professor of geognosy and surveying at the university of
Munich, and in 1879, Oberberg director of the Bavarian mining department
with which the Geological Survey was incorporated. His geological map of
Bavaria appeared in 1858, and the official memoir descriptive of the
detailed work, entitled _Geognostische Beschreibung des Konigreichs
Bayern_ was issued in three parts (1861, 1868 and 1879). He subsequently
published his _Geologie von Bayern_ in 2 vols. (1884-1894), an elaborate
treatise on geology, with special reference to the geology of Bavaria.
In the course of his long and active career he engaged in much
palaeontological work: he studied the fauna of the Trias, and in 1861
introduced the term Rhaetic for the uppermost division of that system;
he supported at first the view of the organic nature of _Eozoon_ (1866
and 1876), he devoted special attention to Foraminifera, and described
those of the Eocene strata of the northern Alps (1868); he dealt also
with Receptaculites (1875) which he regarded as a genus belonging to the
Foraminifera. He died on the 18th of June 1898.
GUMBINNEN, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of East Prussia,
on the Pissa, an affluent of the Pregel, 22 m. by rail S.W. of
Eydtkuhnen on the line to Konigsberg. Pop. (1905), 14,194. The
surrounding country is pleasant and fruitful, and the town has spacious
and regular streets shaded by linden trees. It has a Roman Catholic and
three Evangelical churches, a synagogue, a gymnasium, two public
schools, a public library, a hospital and an infirmary. In the market
square there is a statue of the king of Prussia Frederick William I.,
who in 1724 raised Gumbinnen to the rank of a town, and in 1732 brought
to it a number of persons who had been driven from Salzburg by religious
persecution. On the bridge over the Pissa a monument has been erected to
the soldiers from the neighbourhood who fell in the Franco-German war of
1870-71. Iron founding and the manufacture of machinery, wool, cotton,
and linen weaving, stocking-making, tanning, brewing and distilling are
the principal industries. There are horse and cattle markets, and some
trade in corn and linseed.
See J. Schneider, _Aus Gumbinnens Vergangenheit_ (Gumbinnen, 1904).
GUMBO, or OKRA, termed also _Okro, Ochro, Ketmia, Gubbo_ and Syrian
mallow (Sans. _Tindisa_, Bengali _Dheras_, Pers. _Bamiyah_--the _Bammia_
of Prosper Alpinus; Fr. _Gombaut_, or better _Gombo_, and _Ketmie
comestible_), _Hibiscus esculentus_, a herbaceous hairy annual plant of
the natural order _Malvaceae_, probably of African origin, and now
naturalized or cultivated in all tropical countries. The leaves are
cordate, and 3 to 5-lobed, and the flowers yellow, with a crimson
centre; the fruit or pod, the _Bendi-Kai_ of the Europeans of southern
India, is a tapering, 10-angled capsule, 4 to 10 in. in length, except
in the dwarf varieties of the plant, and contains numerous oval
dark-coloured seeds, hairy at the base. Three distinct varieties of the
gumbo (_Quiabo_ and _Quimgombo_) in Brazil have been described by
Pacheco. The unripe fruit is eaten either pickled or prepared like
asparagus. It is also an ingredient in various dishes, e.g. the _gumbo_
of the Southern United States and the _calalou_ of Jamaica; and on
account of the large amount of mucilage it contains, it is extensively
consumed, both fresh and in the form of the prepared powder, for the
thickening of broths and soups. For winter use it is salted or sliced
and dried. The fruit is grown on a very large scale in the vicinity of
Constantinople. It was one of the esculents of Egypt in the time of
Abul-Abbas el-Nebati, who journeyed to Alexandria in 1216 (Wustenfeld,
_Gesch. d. arab. Arzte_, p. 118, Gott., 1840), and is still cultivated
by the Egyptians, who called it _Bammge_.
The seeds of the gumbo are used as a substitute for coffee. From their
demulcent and emollient properties, the leaves and immature fruit have
long been in repute in the East for the preparation of poultices and
fomentations. Alpinus (1592) mentions the employment of their decoction
in Egypt in ophthalmia and in uterine and other complaints.
The musk okra (Sans., _Latakasturika_, cf. the Gr. [Greek: kastor];
Bengali, _Latakasturi_; Ger. _Bisamkornerstrauch_; Fr. _Ketmie
musquee_), _Hibiscus Abelmoschus_ (_Abelmoschus moschatus_),
indigenous to India, and cultivated in most warm regions of the globe,
is a suffruticose plant, bearing a conical 5-ridged pod about 3 in. in
length, within which are numerous brown reniform seeds, smaller than
those of _H. esculentus._ The seeds possess a musky odour, due to an
oleo-resin present in the integument, and are known to perfumers under
the name of _ambrette_ as a substitute for musk. They are said to be
used by the Arabs for scenting coffee. The seeds (in the Fantee
language, _Incromahom_) are used in Africa as beads; and powdered and
steeped in rum they are valued in the West Indies as a remedy for
snakebites. The plant yields an excellent fibre, and, being rich in
mucilage, is employed in Upper India for the clarifying of sugar. The
best-perfumed seeds are reported to come from Martinique.
See P. Alpinus, _De plantis Aegypti_, cap. xxvii. p. 38 (Venice,
1592); J. Sontheimer's _Abd Allah ibn Ahmad_, &c., i. 118 (Stuttgart,
1840-1842); P. P. Pacheco, "La Ketmie potagere ou comestible," _La
Belgique horticole_, iv. 63 (1853); Della Sudda, "De l'emploi a
Constantinople de la racine de l'Hibiscus esculentus," _Repert. de
pharm._, January 1860, p. 229; E. J. Waring, _Pharm. of India_, p. 35
(1868); O. Popp, "Uber die Aschenbestandteile der Samen von Acacia
nilotica und Hibiscus esculentus in Agypten," _Arch. der Pharm._ cxcv.
p. 140 (1871); Drury, _The Useful Plants of India_, pp. 1, 2 (2nd ed.,
1873); U. C. Dutt, _The Mat. Med. of the Hindus_, pp. 123, 321 (1877);
Lanessan, _Hist. des drogues_, i. 181-184 (1878); G. Watt, _Dictionary
of the Economic Products of India_ (1890).
GUMTI, a river of northern India. It rises in a depression in the
Pilibhit district of the United Provinces, and after a sinuous but
generally south-easterly course of 500 m. past Lucknow and Jaunpur joins
the Ganges in Ghazipar district. At Jaunpur it is a fine stream, spanned
by a 16th-century bridge of sixteen arches, and is navigable by vessels
of 17 tons burden. There is also a small river of the same name in the
Tippera district of eastern Bengal and Assam.
GUMULJINA, or GUMURDJINA, a town of European Turkey, in the vilayet of
Adrianople. Pop. (1905), about 8000, of whom three-fourths are Turks and
the remainder Greeks, Jews or Armenians. Gumuljina is situated on the
river Karaja-Su, south of the eastern extremity of the Rhodope range of
mountains and 13 m. inland from the Aegean Sea. It has a station on the
railway between Salonica and Dedeagatch. The district produces wheat,
maize, barley and tobacco; sericulture and viticulture are both
practised on a limited scale. A cattle fair is held annually on Greek
Palm Sunday. Copper and antimony are found in the neighbourhood.
GUMUS, or GUMZ, Negroes of the Shangalla group of tribes, dwelling in
the mountainous district of Fazogli on the Sudan-Abyssinian frontier.
They live in independent groups, some being mountaineers while others
are settled on the banks of the Blue Nile. Gumz in the native tongue
signifies "people," and the sub-tribes have distinctive names. The Gumus
are nature-worshippers, God and the sun being synonymous. On ceremonial
occasions they carry parasols of honour (see SHANGALLA).
GUMUSH-KHANEH, the chief town of a sanjak of the same name in the
Trebizond vilayet of Asiatic Turkey, situated on high ground (4400 ft.)
in the valley of the Kharshut Su, about 1/2 m. to south of the
Trebizond-Erzerum _chaussee_. The silver mines from which the place
takes its name were noted in ancient times and are mentioned by Marco
Polo. Pop. about 3000, chiefly Greeks, who are in the habit of
emigrating to great distances to work in mines. They practically supply
the whole lead and silver-mining labour in Asiatic Turkey, and in
consequence the Greek bishop of Gumush-Khaneh has under his jurisdiction
all the communities engaged in this particular class of mines.
GUN, a general term for a weapon, tubular in form, from which a
projectile is discharged by means of an explosive. When applied to
artillery the word is confined to those pieces of ordnance which have a
direct as opposed to a high-angle fire, in which case the terms
"howitzer" and "mortar" are used (see ORDNANCE and MACHINE-GUN). "Gun"
as applied to firearms which are carried in the hand and fired from the
shoulder, the old "hand gun," is now chiefly used of the sporting
shot-gun, with which this article mainly deals; in military usage this
type of weapon, whether rifle, carbine, &c., is known collectively as
"small arms" (see RIFLE and PISTOL). The origin of the word, which in
Mid. Eng. is _gonne_ or _gunne_, is obscure, but it has been suggested
by Professor W. W. Skeat that it conceals a female name, _Gunnilde_ or
_Gunhilda_. The names, e.g. Mons Meg at Edinburgh Castle and _faule
Grete_ (heavy Peg), known to readers of Carlyle's _Frederick the Great_,
will be familiar parallelisms. "Gunne" would be a shortened "pet name"
of Gunnhilde. The _New English Dictionary_ finds support for the
suggestion in the fact that in Old Norwegian _gunne_ and _hilde_ both
mean "war," and quotes an inventory of war material at Windsor Castle in
1330-1331, where is mentioned "una magna balista de cornu quae vocatur
Domina Gunilda." Another suggestion for the origin of the word is that
the word represents a shortened form, _gonne_, of a supposed French
_mangonne_, a mangonel, but the French word is _mangonneau_.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Hand Gun.]
Firearms are said to have been first used in European warfare in the
14th century. The hand gun (see fig. 1) came into practical use in 1446
and was of very rude construction. It consisted of a simple iron or
brass tube with a touch-hole at the top fixed in a straight stock of
wood, the end of which passed under the right armpit when the "gonne"
was about to be fired. A similar weapon (see fig. 2) was also used by
the horse-soldier, with a ring at the end of the stock, by which it was
suspended by a cord round the neck; a forked rest, fitted by a ring to
the saddlebow, served to steady the gun. This rest, when not in use,
hung down in front of the right leg. A match was made of cotton or hemp
spun slack, and boiled in a strong solution of saltpetre or in the lees
of wine. The touch-hole was first placed on the top of the barrel, but
afterwards at the side, with a small pan underneath to hold the priming,
and guarded by a cover moving on a pivot.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Mounted Man with Hand Gun.]
[Illustration: From General Hardy de Perini's _Turenne et Conde
1626-1675_.