[1] The Malay name _ge-koq_ imitates the animal's cry.
GED, WILLIAM (1690-1749), the inventor of stereotyping, was born at
Edinburgh in 1690. In 1725 he patented his invention, developed from the
simple process of soldering together loose types of Van der Mey. Ged,
although he succeeded in obtaining a cast in similar metal, of a type
page, could not persuade Edinburgh printers to take up his invention,
and finally entered into partnership with a London stationer named
Jenner and Thomas James, a typefounder. The partnership, however, turned
out very ill; and Ged, broken-hearted at his want of success due to
trade jealousy and the compositors' dislike of the innovation, died in
poverty on the 19th of October 1749. Two prayer-books for the university
of Cambridge and an edition of Sallust were printed from his stereotype
plates. In his time the best type was imported from Holland, and Ged's
daughter reports that he had repeated offers from the Dutch which, from
patriotic motives, he refused. His sons tried to carry out his patent,
and it was eventually perfected by Andrew Wilson.
GEDDES, ALEXANDER (1737-1802), Scottish Roman Catholic theologian, was
born in Rathven, Banffshire, on the 14th of September 1737. He was
trained at the Roman Catholic seminary at Scalan and at the Scottish
College in Paris, where he studied biblical philology, school divinity
and modern languages. In 1764 he officiated as a priest in Dundee, but
in May 1765 accepted an invitation to live with the earl of Traquair;
where, with abundance of leisure and the free use of an adequate
library, he made further progress in his favourite biblical studies.
After a second visit to Paris, which was employed by him in reading and
making extracts from rare books and manuscripts, he was appointed in
1769 priest of Auchinhalrig and Preshome in his native county. The
freedom with which he fraternized with his Protestant neighbours called
forth the rebuke of his bishop (George Hay), and ultimately, for hunting
and for occasionally attending the parish church of Cullen, where one of
his friends was minister, he was deprived of his charge and forbidden
the exercise of ecclesiastical functions within the diocese. This
happened in 1779; and in 1780 he went with his friend Lord Traquair to
London, where he spent the rest of his life. Before leaving Scotland he
had received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the university of
Aberdeen, and had been made an honorary member of the Society of
Antiquaries, in the institution of which he had taken a very active
part. In London Geddes soon received an appointment in connexion with
the chapel of the imperial ambassador, and was also helped by Lord Petre
in his scheme for a new Catholic version of the Bible. In 1786,
supported also by such scholars as Benjamin Kennicott and Robert Lowth,
Geddes published a _Prospectus of a new Translation of the Holy Bible_,
a considerable quarto volume, in which the defects of previous
translations were fully pointed out, and the means indicated by which
these might be removed. It was well received, and led to the publication
in 1788 of _Proposals for Printing_, with a specimen, and in 1790 of a
_General Answer to Queries, Counsels and Criticisms_. The first volume
of the translation itself, which was entitled _The Holy Bible ...
faithfully translated from corrected Texts of the Originals, with
various Readings, explanatory Notes and critical Remarks_, appeared in
1792, and was the signal for a storm of hostility on the part of both
Catholics and Protestants. It was obvious enough--no small offence in
the eyes of some--that as a critic Geddes had identified himself with
C.F. Houbigant (1686-1783), Kennicott and J.D. Michaelis, but others did
not hesitate to stigmatize him as the would-be "corrector of the Holy
Ghost." Three of the vicars-apostolic almost immediately warned all the
faithful against the "use and reception" of his translation, on the
ostensible ground that it had not been examined and approved by due
ecclesiastical authority; and by his own bishop (Douglas) he was in 1793
suspended from the exercise of his orders in the London district. The
second volume of the translation, completing the historical books,
published in 1797, found no more friendly reception; but this
circumstance did not discourage him from giving forth in 1800 the volume
of _Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures_, which presented in a
somewhat brusque manner the then novel and startling views of Eichhorn
and his school on the primitive history and early records of mankind.
Geddes was engaged on a critical translation of the Psalms (published in
1807) when he was seized with an illness of which he died on the 26th of
February 1802. Although under ecclesiastical censures, he had never
swerved from a consistent profession of faith as a Catholic; and on his
death-bed he duly received the last rites of his communion.
Besides pamphlets on the Catholic and slavery questions, as well as
several fugitive _jeux d'esprit_, and a number of unsigned articles in
the _Analytical Review_, Geddes also published a free metrical version
of _Select Satires of Horace_ (1779), and a verbal rendering of the
_First Book of the Iliad of Homer_ (1792). The _Memoirs_ of his life
and writings by his friend John Mason Good appeared in 1803.
GEDDES, ANDREW (1783-1844), British painter, was born at Edinburgh.
After receiving a good education in the high school and in the
university of that city, he was for five years in the excise office, in
which his father held the post of deputy auditor. After the death of his
father, who had opposed his desire to become an artist, he came to
London and entered the Royal Academy schools. His first contribution to
the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, a "St John in the Wilderness,"
appeared at Somerset House in 1806, and from that year onwards Geddes
was a fairly constant exhibitor of figure-subjects and portraits. His
well-known portrait of Wilkie, with whom he was on terms of intimacy,
was at the Royal Academy in 1816. He alternated for some years between
London and Edinburgh, with some excursions on the Continent, but in 1831
settled in London, and was elected associate of the Royal Academy in
1832; and he died in London of consumption in 1844. A very able
executant, a good colourist, and a close student of character, he made
his chief success as a portrait-painter, but he produced occasional
figure subjects and landscapes, and executed some admirable copies of
the old masters as well. He was also a good etcher. His portrait of his
mother, and a portrait study, called "Summer," are in the National
Gallery of Scotland, and his portrait of Sir Walter Scott is in the
Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
See _Art in Scotland: its Origin and Progress_, by Robert Brydall
(1889); _The Scottish School of Painting_, by William D. McKay, R.S.A.
(1906).
GEDDES, JAMES LORRAINE (1827-1887), American soldier and writer, was
born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 19th of March 1827. In his boyhood
he was taken to Canada, but in 1843 he returned to Scotland; then
studied at Calcutta in the military academy, entered the army, and after
distinguishing himself in the Punjab campaign, returned to Canada,
whence in 1857 he removed to Vinton, Iowa. In the American Civil War he
served in the Federal army first as lieutenant-colonel and after
February 1862 as colonel of volunteers, taking part in the fighting at
Shiloh, Vicksburg and Corinth. He was captured at Shiloh and was
imprisoned for a time at Madison, Ga., and in Libby prison, Richmond,
Va., and in 1865 was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers. He was
principal of the College for the Blind at Vinton after the war, and
until his death was connected with the Iowa College of Agriculture at
Ames, being military instructor and cashier in 1870-1882, acting
president in 1876-1877, librarian in 1877-1875, vice-president and
professor of military tactics in 1880-1882, and treasurer in 1884-1887.
He died at Ames on the 21st of February 1887. He wrote a number of war
songs, including "The Soldiers' Battle Prayer" and "The Stars and
Stripes."
GEDDES, SIR WILLIAM DUGUID (1828-1900), Scottish scholar and
educationist, was born in Aberdeenshire. He was educated at Elgin
academy and university and King's College, Aberdeen, and after having
held various scholastic posts he was appointed in 1860 professor of
Greek and in 1885 principal of the (united) university of Aberdeen. He
was knighted in 1892. He died in Aberdeen on the 9th of February 1900.
It is chiefly as a teacher that Geddes will be remembered, and in his
enthusiastic and successful efforts to raise the standard of Greek at
the Scottish universities he has been compared with the humanists of the
Renaissance. Amongst other works he was the author of _A Greek Grammar_
(1855; 17th edition, 1883; new and revised edition, 1893); a meritorious
edition of the _Phaedo_ of Plato (2nd ed., 1885); and _The Problem of
the Homeric Poems_ (1878), in which, while supporting Grote's view that
the _Iliad_ consisted of an original Achilleïs with insertions or
additions by later hands, he maintains that these insertions are due to
the author of the _Odyssey_.
GEDYMIN (d. 1342), grand-duke of Lithuania, was supposed by the earlier
chroniclers to have been the servant of Witen, prince of Lithuania, but
more probably he was Witen's younger brother and the son of Lutuwer,
another Lithuanian prince. Gedymin inherited a vast domain, comprising
Lithuania proper, Samogitia, Red Russia, Polotsk and Minsk; but these
possessions were environed by powerful and greedy foes, the most
dangerous of them being the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian knights of
the Sword. The systematic raiding of Lithuania by the knights under the
pretext of converting it had long since united all the Lithuanian tribes
against the common enemy; but Gedymin aimed at establishing a dynasty
which should make Lithuania not merely secure but mighty, and for this
purpose he entered into direct diplomatic negotiations with the Holy
See. At the end of 1322 he sent letters to Pope John XXII. soliciting
his protection against the persecution of the knights, informing him of
the privileges already granted to the Dominicans and the Franciscans in
Lithuania for the preaching of God's Word, and desiring that legates
should be sent to receive him also into the bosom of the church. On
receiving a favourable reply from the Holy See, Gedymin issued circular
letters, dated 25th of January 1325, to the principal Hanse towns,
offering a free access into his domains to men of every order and
profession from nobles and knights to tillers of the soil. The
immigrants were to choose their own settlements and be governed by their
own laws. Priests and monks were also invited to come and build churches
at Vilna and Novogrodek. Similar letters were sent to the Wendish or
Baltic cities, and to the bishops and landowners of Livonia and
Esthonia. In short Gedymin, recognizing the superiority of western
civilization, anticipated Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great by
throwing open the semi-savage Russian lands to influences of culture.
In October 1323 representatives of the archbishop of Riga, the bishop of
Dorpat, the king of Denmark, the Dominican and Franciscan orders, and
the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order assembled at Vilna, when Gedymin
confirmed his promises and undertook to be baptized as soon as the papal
legates arrived. A compact was then signed at Vilna, "in the name of the
whole Christian World," between Gedymin and the delegates, confirming
the promised privileges. But the christianizing of Lithuania was by no
means to the liking of the Teutonic Knights, and they used every effort
to nullify Gedymin's far-reaching design. This, unfortunately, it was
easy to do. Gedymin's chief object was to save Lithuania from
destruction at the hands of the Germans. But he was still a pagan
reigning over semi-pagan lands; he was equally bound to his pagan
kinsmen in Samogitia, to his orthodox subjects in Red Russia, and to his
Catholic allies in Masovia. His policy, therefore, was necessarily
tentative and ambiguous, and might very readily be misinterpreted. Thus
his raid upon Dobrzyn, the latest acquisition of the knights on Polish
soil, speedily gave them a ready weapon against him. The Prussian
bishops, who were devoted to the knights, at a synod at Elbing
questioned the authority of Gedymin's letters and denounced him as an
enemy of the faith; his orthodox subjects reproached him with leaning
towards the Latin heresy; while the pagan Lithuanians accused him of
abandoning the ancient gods. Gedymin disentangled himself from his
difficulties by repudiating his former promises; by refusing to receive
the papal legates who arrived at Riga in September 1323; and by
dismissing the Franciscans from his territories. These apparently
retrogressive measures simply amounted to a statesmanlike recognition of
the fact that the pagan element was still the strongest force in
Lithuania, and could not yet be dispensed with in the coming struggle
for nationality. At the same time Gedymin through his ambassadors
privately informed the papal legates at Riga that his difficult position
compelled him for a time to postpone his steadfast resolve of being
baptized, and the legates showed their confidence in him by forbidding
the neighbouring states to war against Lithuania for the next four
years, besides ratifying the treaty made between Gedymin and the
archbishop of Riga. Nevertheless in 1325 the Order, disregarding the
censures of the church, resumed the war with Gedymin, who had in the
meantime improved his position by an alliance with Wladislaus Lokietek,
king of Poland, whose son Casimir now married Gedymin's daughter Aldona.
While on his guard against his northern foes, Gedymin from 1316 to 1340
was aggrandizing himself at the expense of the numerous Russian
principalities in the south and east, whose incessant conflicts with
each other wrought the ruin of them all. Here Gedymin's triumphal
progress was irresistible; but the various stages of it are impossible
to follow, the sources of its history being few and conflicting, and the
date of every salient event exceedingly doubtful. One of his most
important territorial accretions, the principality of Halicz-Vladimir,
was obtained by the marriage of his son Lubart with the daughter of the
Haliczian prince; the other, Kiev, apparently by conquest. Gedymin also
secured an alliance with the grand-duchy of Muscovy by marrying his
daughter, Anastasia, to the grand-duke Simeon. But he was strong enough
to counterpoise the influence of Muscovy in northern Russia, and
assisted the republic of Pskov, which acknowledged his overlordship, to
break away from Great Novgorod. His internal administration bears all
the marks of a wise ruler. He protected the Catholic as well as the
orthodox clergy, encouraging them both to civilize his subjects; he
raised the Lithuanian army to the highest state of efficiency then
attainable; defended his borders with a chain of strong fortresses; and
built numerous towns including Vilna, the capital (c. 1321). Gedymin
died in the winter of 1342 of a wound received at the siege of Wielowa.
He was married three times, and left seven sons and six daughters.
See Teodor Narbutt, _History of the Lithuanian nation_ (Pol.) (Vilna,
1835); Antoni Prochaska, _On the Genuineness of the Letters of
Gedymin_ (Pol.) (Cracow, 1895); Vladimir Bonifatovich Antonovich,
_Monograph concerning the History of Western and South-western Russia_
(Rus.) (Kiev, 1885). (R. N. B.)
GEE, THOMAS (1815-1898), Welsh Nonconformist preacher and journalist,
was born at Denbigh on the 24th of January 1815. At the age of fourteen
he went into his father's printing office, but continued to attend the
grammar school in the afternoons. In 1837 he went to London to improve
his knowledge of printing, and on his return to Wales in the following
year ardently threw himself into literary, educational and religious
work. Among his publications were the well-known quarterly magazine _Y
Traethodydd_ ("The Essayist"), _Gwyddoniadur Cymreig_ ("Encyclopaedia
Cambrensis"), and Dr Silvan Evans's _English-Welsh Dictionary_ (1868),
but his greatest achievement in this field was the newspaper _Baner
Cymru_ ("The Banner of Wales"), founded in 1857 and amalgamated with _Yr
Amserau_ ("The Times") two years later. This paper soon became an oracle
in Wales, and played a great part in stirring up the nationalist
movement in the principality. In educational matters he waged a long and
successful struggle on behalf of undenominational schools and for the
establishment of the intermediate school system. He was an enthusiastic
advocate of church disestablishment, and had a historic newspaper duel
with Dr John Owen (afterwards bishop of St David's) on this question.
The Eisteddfod found in him a thorough friend and a wise counsellor. His
commanding presence, mastery of diction, and resonant voice made him an
effective platform speaker. He was ordained to the Calvinistic Methodist
ministry at Bala in 1847, and gave his time and talents ungrudgingly to
Sunday school and temperance work. Throughout his life he believed in
the itinerant unpaid ministry rather than in the settled pastorate. He
died on the 28th of September 1898, and his funeral was the most
imposing ever seen in North Wales.
GEEL, JACOB (1789-1862), Dutch scholar and critic, was born at Amsterdam
on the 12th of November 1789. In 1823 he was appointed sub-librarian,
and in 1833 chief librarian and honorary professor at Leiden, where he
died on the 11th of November 1862. Geel materially contributed to the
development of classical studies in Holland. He was the author of
editions of Theocritus (1820), of the Vatican fragments of Polybius
(1829), of the [Greek: 'Olumpiakos] of Dio Chrysostom (1840) and of
numerous essays in the _Rheinisches Museum_ and _Bibliotheca critica
nova_, of which he was one of the founders. He also compiled a valuable
catalogue of the MSS. in the Leiden library, wrote a history of the
Greek sophists, and translated various German works into Dutch.
GEELONG, a seaport of Grant county, Victoria, Australia, situated on an
extensive land-locked arm of Port Phillip known as Corio Bay, 45 m. by
rail S.W. of Melbourne. Pop. of the city proper (1901) 12,399; with the
adjacent boroughs of Geelong West, and Newton-and-Chilwell, 23,311.
Geelong slopes to the bay on the north and to the Barwon river on the
south, and its position in this respect, as well as the shelter it
obtains from the Bellarine hills, renders it one of the healthiest towns
in Victoria. As a manufacturing centre it is of considerable importance.
The first woollen mill in the colony was established here, and the
tweeds, cloths and other woollen fabrics of the town are noted
throughout Australia. There are extensive tanneries, flour-mills and
salt works, while at Fyansford, 3 m. distant, there are important cement
works and paper-mills. The extensive vineyards in the neighbourhood of
the town were destroyed under the Phylloxera Act, but replanting
subsequently revived this industry. Corio Bay, a safe and commodious
harbour, is entered by two channels across its bar, one of which has a
depth of 23½ ft. There is extensive quayage, and the largest wool ships
are able to load alongside the wharves, which are connected by rail with
all parts of the colony. The facilities given for shipping wool direct
to England from this port have caused a very extensive wool-broking
trade to grow up in the town. The country surrounding Geelong is
agricultural, but there are large limestone quarries east of the town,
and in the Otway Forest, 23 m. distant, coal is worked. Geelong was
incorporated in 1849.
GEESTEMÜNDE, a seaport town of Germany, in the Prussian province of
Hanover, on the right bank of the Weser, at the mouth of the Geeste,
which separates it from Bremerhaven, 32 m. N. from Bremen by rail. Pop.
(1905) 23,625. The interest of the place is purely naval and commercial,
its origin dating no farther back than 1857, when the construction of
the harbour was begun. The great basin, which can accommodate large
sea-going vessels, was completed in 1863, the petroleum basin was opened
in 1874, and additional wharves have been constructed for the reception
of vessels engaged in the fishing industry. The fish market of
Geestemünde is the most important in Germany, and the auction hall
practically determines the price of fish throughout the empire. The
whole port is protected by powerful fortifications. Among the industrial
establishments of the town are shipbuilding yards, foundries,
engineering works and saw-mills.
GEFFCKEN, FRIEDRICH HEINRICH (1830-1896), German diplomatist and jurist,
was born on the 9th of December 1830 at Hamburg, of which city his
father was senator. After studying law at Bonn, Göttingen and Berlin, he
was attached in 1854 to the Prussian legation at Paris. For ten years
(1856-1866) he was the diplomatic representative of Hamburg in Berlin,
first as chargé d'affaires, and afterwards as minister-resident, being
afterwards transferred in a like capacity to London. Appointed in 1872
professor of constitutional history and public law in the reorganized
university of Strassburg, Geffcken became in 1880 a member of the
council of state of Alsace-Lorraine. Of too nervous a temperament to
withstand the strain of the responsibilities of his position, he retired
from public service in 1882, and lived henceforth mostly at Munich,
where he died, suffocated by an accidental escape of gas into his
bedchamber, on the 1st of May 1896. Geffcken was a man of great
erudition and wide knowledge and of remarkable legal acumen, and from
these qualities proceeded the personal influence he possessed. He was
moreover a clear writer and made his mark as an essayist. He was one of
the most trusted advisers of the Prussian crown prince, Frederick
William (afterwards the emperor Frederick), and it was he (it is said,
at Bismarck's suggestion) who drew up the draft of the New German
federal constitution, which was submitted to the crown prince's
headquarters at Versailles during the war of 1870-71. It was also
Geffcken who assisted in framing the famous document which the emperor
Frederick, on his accession to the throne in 1888, addressed to the
chancellor. This memorandum gave umbrage, and on the publication by
Geffcken in the _Deutsche Rundschau_ (Oct. 1888) of extracts from the
emperor Frederick's private diary during the war of 1870-71, he was, at
Bismarck's instance, prosecuted for high treason. The Reichsgericht
(supreme court), however, quashed the indictment, and Geffcken was
liberated after being under arrest for three months. Publications of
various kinds proceeded from his pen. Among these are _Zur Geschichte
des orientalischen Krieges 1853-1856_ (Berlin, 1881); _Frankreich,
Russland und der Dreibund_ (Berlin, 1894); and _Staat und Kirche_
(1875), English translation by E.F. Fairfax (1877). His writings on
English history have been translated by S.J. Macmullan and published as
_The British Empire, with essays on Prince Albert, Palmerston,
Beaconsfield, Gladstone, and reform of the House of Lords_ (1889).
GEFFROY, MATHIEU AUGUSTE (1820-1895), French historian, was born in
Paris. After studying at the École Normale Supérieure he held history
professorships at various lycées. His French thesis for the doctorate of
letters, _Étude sur les pamphlets politiques et religieux de Milton_
(1848), showed that he was attracted towards foreign history, a study
for which he soon qualified himself by mastering the Germanic and
Scandinavian languages. In 1851 he published a _Histoire des états
scandinaves_, which is especially valuable for clear arrangement and for
the trustworthiness of its facts. Later, a long stay in Sweden
furnished him with valuable documents for a political and social history
of Sweden and France at the end of the 18th century. In 1864 and 1865 he
published in the _Revue des deux mondes_ a series of articles on
Gustavus III. and the French court, which were republished in book form
in 1867. To the second volume he appended a critical study on _Marie
Antoinette et Louis XVI apocryphes_, in which he proved, by evidence
drawn from documents in the private archives of the emperor of Austria,
that the letters published by Feuillet de Conches (_Louis XVI, Marie
Antoinette et Madame Elisabeth_, 1864-1873) and Hunolstein (_Corresp.
inédite de Marie Antoinette_, 1864) are forgeries. With the
collaboration of Alfred von Arneth, director of the imperial archives at
Vienna, he edited the _Correspondance secrète entre Marie-Thérèse et le
comte de Mercy-Argenteau_ (3 vols., 1874), the first account based on
trustworthy documents of Marie Antoinette's character, private conduct
and policy. The Franco-German War drew Geffroy's attention to the
origins of Germany, and his _Rome et les Barbares: étude sur la Germanie
de Tacite_ (1874) set forth some of the results of German scholarship.
He was then appointed to superintend the opening of the French school of
archaeology at Rome, and drew up two useful reports (1877 and 1884) on
its origin and early work. But his personal tastes always led him back
to the study of modern history. When the Paris archives of foreign
affairs were thrown open to students, it was decided to publish a
collection of the instructions given to French ambassadors since 1648
(_Recueil des instructions données aux ambassadeurs et ministres de
France depuis le traité de Westphalie_), and Geffroy was commissioned to
edit the volumes dealing with Sweden (vol. ii., 1885) and Denmark (vol.
xiii., 1895). In the interval he wrote _Madame de Maintenon d'après sa
correspondance authentique_ (2 vols., 1887), in which he displayed his
penetrating critical faculty in discriminating between authentic
documents and the additions and corrections of arrangers like La
Beaumelle and Lavallée. His last works were an _Essai sur la formation
des collections d'antiques de la Suède_ and _Des institutions et des
moeurs du paganisme scandinave: l'Islande avant le Christianisme_, both
published posthumously. He died at Bièvre on the 16th of August 1895.
GEFLE, a seaport of Sweden on an inlet of the Gulf of Bothnia, chief
town of the district (_län_) of Gefleborg, 112 m. N.N.W. of Stockholm by
rail. Pop. (1900) 29,522. It is the chief port of the district of
Kopparberg, with its iron and other mines and forests. The exports
consist principally of timber and wood-pulp, iron and steel. The
harbour, which has two entrances about 20 ft. deep, is usually ice-bound
in mid-winter. Large vessels generally load in the roads at Gråberg, 6
m. distant. There are slips and shipbuilding yards, and a manufacture of
sail-cloth. The town is an important industrial centre, having tobacco
and leather factories, electrical and other mechanical works, and
breweries. At Skutskär at the mouth of the Dal river are wood-pulp and
saw mills, dealing with the large quantities of timber floated down the
river; and there are large wood-yards in the suburb of Bomhus. Gefle was
almost destroyed by fire in 1869, but was rebuilt in good style, and has
the advantage of a beautiful situation. The principal buildings are a
castle, founded by King John III. (1568-1592), but rebuilt later, a
council-house erected by Gustavus III., who held a diet here in 1792, an
exchange, and schools of commerce and navigation.
GEGENBAUR, CARL (1826-1903), German anatomist, was born on the 21st of
August 1826 at Würzburg, the university of which he entered as a student
in 1845. After taking his degree in 1851 he spent some time in
travelling in Italy and Sicily, before returning to Würzburg as
_Privatdocent_ in 1854. In 1855 he was appointed extraordinary professor
of anatomy at Jena, where after 1865 his fellow-worker, Ernst Haeckel,
was professor of zoology, and in 1858 he became the ordinary professor.
In 1873 he was appointed to Heidelberg, where he was professor of
anatomy and director of the Anatomical Institute until his retirement in
1901. He died at Heidelberg on the 14th of June 1903. The work by which
perhaps he is best known is his _Grundriss der vergleichenden Anatomie_
(Leipzig, 1874; 2nd edition, 1878). This was translated into English by
W.F. Jeffrey Bell (_Elements of Comparative Anatomy_, 1878), with
additions by E. Ray Lankester. While recognizing the importance of
comparative embryology in the study of descent, Gegenbaur laid stress on
the higher value of comparative anatomy as the basis of the study of
homologies, i.e. of the relations between corresponding parts in
different animals, as, for example, the arm of man, the foreleg of the
horse and the wing of a fowl. A distinctive piece of work was effected
by him in 1871 in supplementing the evidence adduced by Huxley in
refutation of the theory of the origin of the skull from expanded
vertebrae, which, formulated independently by Goethe and Oken, had been
championed by Owen. Huxley demonstrated that the skull is built up of
cartilaginous pieces; Gegenbaur showed that "in the lowest (gristly)
fishes, where hints of the original vertebrae might be most expected,
the skull is an unsegmented gristly brain-box, and that in higher forms
the vertebral nature of the skull cannot be maintained, since many of
the bones, notably those along the top of the skull, arise in the skin."
Other publications by Gegenbaur include a _Text-book of Human Anatomy_
(Leipzig, 1883, new ed. 1903), the _Epiglottis_ (1892) and _Comparative
Anatomy of the Vertebrates in relation to the Invertebrates_ (Leipzig, 2
vols., 1898-1901). In 1875 he founded the _Morphologisches Jahrbuch_,
which he edited for many years. In 1901 he published a short
autobiography under the title _Erlebtes und Erstrebtes_.
See Fürbringer in _Heidelberger Professoren aus dem 19ten Jahrhundert_
(Heidelberg, 1903).
GEGENSCHEIN (Ger. _gegen_, opposite, and _schein_, shine), an extremely
faint luminescence of the sky, seen opposite the direction of the sun.
Germany was the country in which it was first discovered and described.
The English rendering "counterglow" is also given to it. Its faintness
is such that it can be seen only by a practised eye under favourable
conditions. It is invisible during the greater part of June, July,
December and January, owing to its being then blotted out by the
superior light of the Milky Way. It is also invisible during moonlight
and near the horizon, and the neighbourhood of a bright star or planet
may interfere with its recognition. When none of these unfavourable
conditions supervene it may be seen at nearly any time when the air is
clear and the depression of the sun below the horizon more than 20°.
(See ZODIACAL LIGHT.)
GEIBEL, EMANUEL (1815-1884), German poet, was born at Lübeck on the 17th
of October 1815, the son of a pastor in the city. He was originally
intended for his father's profession, and studied at Bonn and Berlin, but
his real interests lay not in theology but in classical and romance
philology. In 1838 he accepted a tutorship at Athens, where he remained
until 1840. In the same year he brought out, in conjunction with his
friend Ernst Curtius, a volume of translations from the Greek. His first
poems, _Zeitstimmen_, appeared in 1841; a tragedy, _König Roderich_,
followed in 1843. In the same year he received a pension from the king of
Prussia, which he retained until his invitation to Munich by the king of
Bavaria in 1851 as honorary professor at the university. In the interim he
had produced _König Sigurds Brautfahrt_ (1846), an epic, and
_Juniuslieder_ (1848, 33rd ed. 1901), lyrics in a more spirited and
manlier style than his early poems. A volume of _Neue Gedichte_, published
at Munich in 1857, and principally consisting of poems on classical
subjects, denoted a further considerable advance in objectivity, and the
series was worthily closed by the _Spätherbstblätter_, published in 1877.
He had quitted Munich in 1869 and returned to Lübeck, where he died on the
6th of April 1884. His works further include two tragedies, _Brunhild_
(1858, 5th ed. 1890), and _Sophonisbe_ (1869), and translations of French
and Spanish popular poetry. Beginning as a member of the group of
political poets who heralded the revolution of 1848, Geibel was also the
chief poet to welcome the establishment of the Empire in 1871. His
strength lay not, however, in his political songs but in his purely lyric
poetry, such as the fine cycle _Ada_ and his still popular love-songs. He
may be regarded as the leading representative of German lyric poetry
between 1848 and 1870.
Geibel's _Gesammelte Werke_ were published in 8 vols. (1883, 4th ed.
1906); his _Gedichte_ have gone through about 130 editions. An
excellent selection in one volume appeared in 1904. For biography and
criticism, see K. Goedeke, _E. Geibel_ (1869); W. Scherer's address on
Geibel (1884); K.T. Gaedertz, _Geibel-Denkwurdigkeiten_ (1886); C.C.T.
Litzmann, _E. Geibel, aus Erinnerungen, Briefen und Tagebüchern_
(1887), and biographies by C. Leimbach (2nd ed., 1894), and K.T.
Gaedertz (1897).
GEIGE (O. Fr. _gigue_, _gige_; O. Ital. and Span. _giga_; Prov. _gigua_;
O. Dutch _gighe_), in modern German the violin; in medieval German the
name applied to the first stringed instruments played with a bow, in
contradistinction to those whose strings were plucked by fingers or
plectrum such as the cithara, rotta and fidula, the first of these terms
having been very generally used to designate various instruments whose
strings were plucked. The name _gîge_ in Germany, of which the origin is
uncertain,[1] and its derivatives in other languages, were in the middle
ages applied to rebecs having fingerboards. As the first bowed
instruments in Europe were, as far as we know, those of the rebab type,
both boat-shaped and pear-shaped, it seems probable that the name clung
to them long after the bow had been applied to other stringed
instruments derived from the cithara, such as the fiddle (videl) or
vielle. In the romances of the 12th and 13th centuries the _gîge_ is
frequently mentioned, and generally associated with the rotta. Early in
the 16th century we find definite information concerning the Geige in
the works of Sebastian Virdung (1511), Hans Judenkünig (1523), Martin
Agricola (1532), Hans Gerle (1533); and from the instruments depicted,
of two distinct types and many varieties, it would appear that the
principal idea attached to the name was still that of the bow used to
vibrate the strings. Virdung qualifies the word _Geige_ with _Klein_
(small) and _Gross_ (large), which do not represent two sizes of the
same instrument but widely different types, also recognized by Agricola,
who names three or four sizes of each, discant, alto, tenor and bass.
Virdung's _Klein Geige_ is none other than the rebec with two C-shaped
soundholes and a raised fingerboard cut in one piece with the vaulted
back and having a separate flat soundboard glued over it, a change
rendered necessary by the arched bridge. Agricola's _Klein Geige_ with
three strings was of a totally different construction, having ribs and
wide incurvations but no bridge; there was a rose soundhole near the
tailpiece and two C-shaped holes in the shoulders. Agricola (_Musica
instrumentalis_) distinctly mentions three kinds of _Geigen_ with three,
four and five strings. From him we learn that only one position was as
yet used on these instruments, one or two higher notes being
occasionally obtained by sliding the little finger along. A century
later Agricola's _Geige_ was regarded as antiquated by Praetorius, who
reproduces one of the bridgeless ones with five strings, a rose and two
C-shaped soundholes, and calls it an old fiddle; under _Geige_ he gives
the violins. (K. S.)