[1] Aeschylus died there in 456 B.C.
GELADA, the Abyssinian name of a large species of baboon, differing from
the members of the genus _Papio_ (see BABOON) by the nostrils being
situated some distance above the extremity of the muzzle, and hence made
the type of a separate genus, under the name of _Theropithecus gelada_.
In the heavy mantle of long brown hair covering the fore-quarters of the
old males, with the exception of the bare chest, which is reddish
flesh-colour, the gelada recalls the Arabian baboon (_Papio hamadryas_),
and from this common feature it has been proposed to place the two
species in the same genus. The gelada inhabits the mountains of
Abyssinia, where, like other baboons, it descends in droves to pillage
cultivated lands. A second species, or race, _Theropithecus obscurus_,
distinguished by its darker hairs and the presence of a bare
flesh-coloured ring round each eye, inhabits the eastern confines of
Abyssinia. (R. L.*)
GELASIUS, the name of two popes.
GELASIUS I., pope from 492 to 496, was the successor of Felix III. He
confirmed the estrangement between the Eastern and Western churches by
insisting on the removal of the name of Acacius, bishop of
Constantinople, from the diptychs. He is the author of _De duabus in
Christo naturis adversus Eutychen et Nestorium_. A great number of his
letters has also come down to us. His name has been attached to a _Liber
Sacramentorum_ anterior to that of St Gregory, but he can have composed
only certain parts of it. As to the so-called _Decretum Gelasii de
libris recipiendis et non recipiendis_, it also is a compilation of
documents anterior to Gelasius, and it is difficult to determine
Gelasius's contributions to it. At all events, as we know it, it is of
Roman origin, and 6th-century or later. (L. D.*)
GELASIUS II. (Giovanni Coniulo), pope from the 24th of January 1118 to
the 29th of January 1119, was born at Gaeta of an illustrious family. He
became a monk of Monte Cassino, was taken to Rome by Urban II., and made
chancellor and cardinal-deacon of Sta Maria in Cosmedin. Shortly after
his unanimous election to succeed Paschal II. he was seized by Cencius
Frangipane, a partisan of the emperor Henry V., but freed by a general
uprising of the Romans in his behalf. The emperor drove Gelasius from
Rome in March, pronounced his election null and void, and set up
Burdinus, archbishop of Braga, as antipope under the name of Gregory
VIII. Gelasius fled to Gaeta, where he was ordained priest on the 9th of
March and on the following day received episcopal consecration. He at
once excommunicated Henry and the antipope and, under Norman protection,
was able to return to Rome in July; but the disturbances of the
imperialist party, especially of the Frangipani, who attacked the pope
while celebrating mass in the church of St Prassede, compelled Gelasius
to go once more into exile. He set out for France, consecrating the
cathedral of Pisa on the way, and arrived at Marseilles in October. He
was received with great enthusiasm at Avignon, Montpellier and other
cities, held a synod at Vienne in January 1119, and was planning to hold
a general council to settle the investiture contest when he died at
Cluny. His successor was Calixtus II.
His letters are in J.P. Migne, _Patrol. Lat._ vol. 163. The original
life by Pandulf is in J.M. Watterich, _Pontif. Roman. vitae_ (Leipzig,
1862), and there is an important digest of his bulls and official acts
in Jaffé-Wattenbach, _Regesta pontif. Roman._ (1885-1888).
See J. Langen, _Geschichte der römischen Kirche von Gregor VII. bis
Innocenz III._ (Bonn, 1893); F. Gregorovius, _Rome in the Middle
Ages_, vol. 4, trans. by Mrs G.W. Hamilton (London, 1896); A. Wagner,
_Die unteritalischen Normannen und das Papsttum, 1086-1150_ (Breslau,
1885); W. von Giesebrecht, _Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit_, Bd.
iii. (Brunswick, 1890); G. Richter, _Annalen der deutschen Geschichte
im Mittelalter_, iii. (Halle, 1898); H.H. Milman, _Latin
Christianity_, vol. 4 (London, 1899). (C. H. Ha.)
GELATI, a Georgian monastery in Russian Transcaucasia, in the government
of Kutais, 11 m. E. of the town of Kutais, standing on a rocky spur (705
ft. above sea-level) in the valley of the Rion. It was founded in 1109
by the Georgian king David the Renovator. The principal church, a
sandstone cathedral, dates from the end of the preceding century, and
contains the royal crown of the former Georgian kingdom of Imeretia,
besides ancient MSS., ecclesiological furniture, and fresco portraits of
the kings of Imeretia. Here also, in a separate chapel, is the tomb of
David the Renovator (1089-1125) and part of the iron gate of the town of
Ganja (now Elisavetpol), which that monarch brought away as a trophy of
his capture of the place.
GELATIN, or GELATINE, the substance which passes into solution when
"collagen," the ground substance of bone, cartilage and white fibrous
tissue, is treated with boiling water or dilute acids. It is especially
characterized by its property of forming a jelly at ordinary
temperature, becoming liquid when heated, and resolidifying to a jelly
on cooling. The word is derived from the Fr. _gélatine_, and Ital.
_gelatina_, from the Lat. _gelata_, that which is frozen, congealed or
stiff. It is, therefore, in origin cognate with "jelly," which came
through the Fr. _gélee_ from the same Latin original.
The "collagen," obtained from tendons and connective tissues, also
occurs in the cornea and sclerotic coat of the eye, and in fish scales.
Cartilage was considered to be composed of a substance chondrigen, which
gave chondrin or cartilage-glue on boiling with water. Recent researches
make it probable that cartilage contains (1) chondromucoid, (2)
chondroitin-sulphuric acid, (3) collagen, (4) an albumoid present in old
but not in young cartilage; whilst chondrin is a mixture of gelatin and
mucin. "Bone collagen," or "ossein," constitutes, with calcium salts,
the ground substance of bones. Gelatin consists of two substances,
glutin and chondrin; the former is the main constituent of skin-gelatin,
the latter of bone-gelatin.
True gelatigenous tissue occurs in all mature vertebrates, with the
single exception, according to E.F.I. Hoppe-Seyler, of the _Amphioxus
lanceolatus_. Gelatigenous tissue was discovered by Hoppe-Seyler in the
cephalopods _Octopus_ and _Sepiola_, but in an extension of his
experiments to other invertebrates, as cockchafers and _Anodon_ and
_Unio_, no such tissue could be detected. Neither glutin nor chondrin
occurs ready formed in the animal kingdom, but they separate when the
tissues are boiled with water. A similar substance, vegetable gelatin,
is obtained from certain mosses.
Pure gelatin is an amorphous, brittle, nearly transparent substance,
faintly yellow, tasteless and inodorous, neutral in reaction and
unaltered by exposure to dry air. Its composition is in round numbers C
= 50, H = 7, N = 18, O = 25%; sulphur is also present in an amount
varying from 0.25 to 0.7%.
Nothing is known with any certainty as to its chemical constitution,
or of the mode in which it is formed from albuminoids. It exhibits in
a general way a connexion with that large and important class of
animal substances called _proteids_, being, like them, amorphous,
soluble in acids and alkalis, and giving in solution a left-handed
rotation of the plane of polarization. Nevertheless, the ordinary
well-recognized reactions for proteids are but faintly observed in the
case of gelatin, and the only substances which at once and freely
precipitate it from solution are mercuric chloride, strong alcohol and
tannic acid.
Although gelatin in a dry state is unalterable by exposure to air, its
solution exhibits, like all the proteids, a remarkable tendency to
putrefaction; but a characteristic feature of this process in the case
of gelatin is that the solution assumes a transient acid reaction. The
ultimate products of this decomposition are the same as are produced
by prolonged boiling with acid. It has been found that oxalic acid,
over and above the action common to all dilute acids of preventing the
solidification of gelatin solutions, has the further property of
preventing in a large measure this tendency to putrefy when the
gelatin is treated with hot solutions of this acid, and then freed
from adhering acid by means of calcium carbonate. Gelatin so treated
has been called _metagelatin_.
In spite of the marked tendency of gelatin solutions to develop
ferment-organisms and undergo putrefaction, the stability of the
substance in the dry state is such that it has even been used, and
with some success, as a means of preserving perishable foods. The
process, invented by Dr Campbell Morfit, consists in impregnating the
foods with gelatin, and then drying them till about 10% or less of
water is present. Milk gelatinized in this way is superior in several
respects to the products of the ordinary condensation process, more
especially in the retention of a much larger proportion of
albuminoids.
Gelatin has a marked affinity for water, abstracting it from admixture
with alcohol, for example. Solid gelatin steeped for some hours in
water absorbs a certain amount and swells up, in which condition a
gentle heat serves to convert it into a liquid; or this may be readily
produced by the addition of a trace of alkali or mineral acid, or by
strong acetic acid. In the last case, however, or if we use the
mineral acids in a more concentrated form, the solution obtained has
lost its power of solidifying, though not that of acting as a glue.
This property is utilized in the preparation of liquid glue (see
GLUE). By prolonged boiling of strong aqueous solutions at a high, or
of weak solutions at a lower temperature, the characteristic
properties of gelatin are impaired and ultimately destroyed. After
this treatment it acts less powerfully as a glue, loses its tendency
to solidify, and becomes increasingly soluble in cold water;
nevertheless the solutions yield on precipitation with alcohol a
substance identical in composition with gelatin.
By prolonged boiling in contact with hydrolytic agents, such as
sulphuric acid or caustic alkali, it yields quantities of leucin and
glycocoll (so-called "sugar of gelatin," this being the method by
which glycocoll was first prepared), but no tyrosin. In this last
respect it differs from the great body of proteids, the characteristic
solid products of the decomposition of which are leucin and tyrosin.
Gelatin occurs in commerce in varying degrees of purity; the purer form
obtained from skins and bones (to which this article is restricted) is
named gelatin; a preparation of great purity is "patent isinglass,"
while isinglass (q.v.) itself is a fish-gelatin; less pure forms
constitute glue (q.v.), while a dilute aqueous solution appears in
commerce as size (q.v.). The manufacture follows much the same lines as
that of glue; but it is essential that the raw materials must be
carefully selected, and in view of the consumption of most of the
gelatin in the kitchen--for soups, jellies, &c.--great care must be
taken to ensure purity and cleanliness.
In the manufacture of bone-gelatin the sorted bones are degreased as
in the case of glue manufacture, and then transferred to vats
containing a dilute hydrochloric acid, by which means most of the
mineral matter is dissolved out, and the bones become flexible.
Instead of hydrochloric acid some French makers use phosphoric acid.
After being well washed with water to remove all traces of
hydrochloric acid, the bones are bleached by leading in sulphur
dioxide. They are now transferred to the extractors, and heated by
steam, care being taken that the temperature does not exceed 85° C.
The digestion is repeated, and the runnings are clarified,
concentrated, re-bleached and jellied as with glue. Skin-gelatin is
manufactured in the same way as skin-glue. After steeping in lime pits
the selected skins are digested three times; the first and second
runnings are worked up for gelatin, while the third are filtered for
"size."
Vegetable gelatin is manufactured from a seaweed, genus _Laminaria_;
from the tengusa, an American seaweed, and from Irish moss. The
_Laminaria_ is first extracted with water, and the residue with sodium
carbonate; the filtrate is acidified with hydrochloric acid and the
precipitated alginic acid washed and bleached. It is then dissolved in
an alkali, the solution concentrated, and cooled down by running over
horizontal glass plates. Flexible colourless sheets resembling animal
gelatin are thus obtained. In America the weed is simply boiled with
water, the solution filtered, and cooled to a thick jelly. Irish moss
is treated in the same way. Both tengusa and Irish moss yield a
gelatin suitable for most purposes; tengusa gelatin clarifies liquids
in the same way as isinglass, and forms a harder and firmer jelly than
ordinary gelatin.
_Applications of Gelatin._--First and foremost is the use of gelatin
as a food-stuff--in jellies, soups, &c. Referring to the articles
GLUE, ISINGLASS and SIZE for the special applications of these forms
of gelatin, we here enumerate the more important uses of ordinary
gelatin. In photography it is employed in carbon-processes, its use
depending on the fact that when treated with potassium bichromate and
exposed to light, it is oxidized to insoluble compounds; it plays a
part in many other processes. A solution of gelatin containing readily
crystallized salts--alum, nitre, &c.--solidifies with the formation of
pretty designs; this is the basis of the so-called "crystalline glass"
used for purposes of ornamentation. It is also used for coating pills
to prevent them adhering together and to make them tasteless.
Compounded with various mineral salts, the carbonates and phosphates
of calcium, magnesium and aluminium, it yields a valuable ivory
substitute. It also plays a part in the manufacture of artificial
leather, of India inks, and of artificial silk (the Vanduara Company
processes).
GELDERLAND, GELDERS, or GUELDERS, formerly a duchy of the Empire, on the
lower Rhine and the Yssel, bounded by Friesland, Westphalia, Brabant,
Holland and the Zuider Zee; part of which has become the province of
Holland, dealt with separately below. The territory of the later duchy
of Gelderland was inhabited at the beginning of the Christian era by the
Teutonic tribes of the Sicambri and the Batavi, and later, during the
period of the decline of the Roman empire, by the Chamavi and other
Frank peoples. It formed part of the Caroling kingdom of Austrasia, and
was divided into _pagi_ or _gauen_, ruled by official counts
(_comites-graven_). In 843, by the treaty of Verdun, it became part of
Lotharingia (Lorraine), and in 879 was annexed to the kingdom of East
Francia (Germany) by the treaty of Meerssen. The nucleus of the later
county and duchy was the _gau_ or district surrounding the town of
Gelder or Gelre, lying between the Meuse and the Niers, and since 1715
included in Rhenish Prussia.
The early history is involved in much obscurity. There were in the 11th
century a number of counts ruling in various parts of what was
afterwards known as Gelderland. Towards the close of that century Gerard
of Wassenburg, who besides the county of Gelre ruled over portions of
Hamalant and Teisterbant, acquired a dominant position amongst his
neighbours. He is generally reckoned as the first hereditary count of
Gelderland (d. 1117/8). His son, Gerard II.--the Long--(d. 1131),
married Irmingardis, daughter and heiress of Otto, count of Zutphen, and
their son, Henry I. (d. 1182), inherited both countships. His successors
Otto I. (1182-1207) and Gerard III. (1207-1229) were lovers of peace and
strong supporters of the Hohenstaufen emperors, through whose favour
they were able to increase their territories by acquisitions in the
districts of Veluwe and Betuwe. He acted as guardian to his nephew
Floris IV. of Holland during his minority. Otto II., the Lame
(1220-1271), fortified several towns and bestowed privileges upon them
for the purpose of encouraging trade. He became a person of so much
importance that he was urged to be a candidate for the dignity of
emperor. He preferred to support the claims of his cousin, William II.
of Holland. In return for the loan of a considerable sum of money
William gave to him the city of Nijmwegen in pledge. His son Reinald I.
(d. 1326) married Irmingardis, heiress of Limburg, and in right of his
wife laid claim to the duchy against Adolf of Berg, who had sold his
rights to John I. of Brabant. War followed, and on the 5th of June 1288
Reinald, who meantime had also sold his rights to the count of
Luxemburg, was defeated and taken prisoner at the battle of Woeringen.
In this battle the count of Luxemburg was slain, and Reinald had to
surrender his claims as the price of his defeat to John of Brabant. In
1310, in return for his support, Reinald received from the emperor Henry
VII. for all his territories _privilegium de non evocando_, i.e. the
exemption of his subjects from the liability to be sued before any court
outside his jurisdiction. In 1317 he was made a prince of the Empire. A
wound received at the battle of Woeringen had affected his brain, and an
insurrection against him was in 1316 headed by his son Reinald, who
assumed the government under the title of "Son of the Count." Reinald I.
was finally in 1320 immured in prison, where he died in 1326.
Reinald II., the Black (1326-1343), was one of the foremost princes in
the Netherlands of his day. He married (1) Sophia, heiress of Mechlin,
and (2) in 1331 Eleanor, sister of Edward III. of England. By purchase
or conquest he added considerably to his territories. He did much to
improve the condition of the country, to foster trade, to promote the
prosperity of the towns, and to maintain order and security in his lands
by wise laws and firm administration. In 1338 the title of duke was
bestowed upon him by the emperor Louis the Bavarian, who at the same
time granted to him the fief of East Friesland. He died in 1343, leaving
three daughters by his first marriage, and two sons, Reinald and Edward,
both minors, by Eleanor of England. His elder son was ten years of age,
and succeeded to the duchy under the guardianship of his mother Eleanor.
Declared of age two years later, the youthful Reinald III. found himself
involved in many difficulties through the struggles between the rival
factions named after the two noble families of Bronkhorst and Hekeren.
What was the quarrel between them, and what the causes they represented,
cannot now be ascertained with certainty. There is good reason, however,
to believe that they were the counterparts of the contemporary Cod and
Hook parties in Holland, and of the Schieringers and Vetkoopers in
Friesland. In Gelderland the quarrel between them was converted into a
dynastic struggle, the Hekeren recognizing Duke Reinald, while the
Bronkhorsten set up his younger brother Edward. At the battle of Tiel
(1361) Reinald was defeated and taken prisoner, and Edward held the
duchy till 1371. He was a good and successful ruler, and his death by an
arrow wound, after a brilliant victory over the duke of Brabant near
Baesweller (August 1371), was a loss to his country. He was in his
thirty-fifth year and left no heirs. Reinald was now taken from the
prison in which he had been confined to reign once more, but his health
was broken and he died childless three years afterwards. The war of
factions again broke out, the half-sisters of Reinald III. and Edward
both claiming the inheritance; the elder, Matilda (Machteld), in her
own right, the younger Maria on behalf of her seven-year-old boy William
of Jülich, as the only male representative of the family. The Hekeren
supported Matilda, the Bronkhorsten William of Jülich. The war of
succession lasted till 1379, and ended in William's favour, the emperor
Wenceslas (Wenzel) recognizing him as duke four years later.
Duke William was able, restless and adventurous, an ideal knight of the
palmy days of chivalry. He took part in no less than five crusades with
the Teutonic order against the heathen Lithuanians and Prussians. In
1393 he inherited the duchy of Jülich, and died in 1402. He was
succeeded by his brother, Reinald IV. (d. 1423), in the united
sovereignty of Gelderland, Zutphen and Jülich, who, in accordance with a
promise made before his accession, ceded the town of Emmerich to Duke
Adolf of Cleves. He took the part of his brother-in-law, John of Arkel,
against William VI. of Holland, and in a war of several years' duration
was not successful in preventing the Arkel territory being incorporated
in Holland. On his death without legitimate issue, Gelderland passed to
the young Arnold of Egmont, grandson of his sister Johanna, who had
married John, lord of Arkel, their daughter Maria (d. 1415) being the
wife of John, count of Egmont (d. 1451). Arnold was recognized as duke
in 1424 by the emperor Sigismund, but in the following year the emperor
revoked his decision and bestowed the duchy upon Adolf of Berg. Arnold
in retaliation laid claim to the duchy of Jülich, which had likewise
been granted to Adolf by Sigismund, and a war followed in which the
cities and nobles of Gelderland stood by Arnold; it ended in Arnold
retaining Gelderland and Zutphen, and Gerard, the son of Adolf (d.
1437), being acknowledged as duke of Jülich. To gain the support of the
estates of Gelderland in this war of succession, Arnold had been
compelled to make many concessions limiting the ducal prerogatives, and
granting large powers to a council consisting of representatives of the
nobles and the four chief cities, and his extravagance and exactions led
to continual conflicts, in which the prince was compelled to yield to
the demands of his subjects. In his later years a conspiracy was formed
against him, headed by his wife, the violent and ambitious Catherine of
Cleves, and his son Adolf. Arnold was at first successful and Adolf had
to go into exile; but he returned, and in 1465, having taken his father
prisoner by treachery, interned him in the castle of Buren. Charles the
Bold of Burgundy now seized the opportunity to intervene. In 1471 he
forced Adolf to release his father, who sold the reversion of the duchy
to the duke of Burgundy for 92,000 golden gulden. On the 23rd of
February 1473 Arnold died, and Charles of Burgundy became duke of
Gelderland. His succession was not unopposed. Nijmwegen offered an
heroic resistance and only fell after a long siege. After Charles's
death in 1477 Adolf was released from the captivity in which he had been
held, and placed himself at the head of a party in the powerful city of
Ghent, which sought to settle the disputed succession by forcing a match
between him and Mary, the heiress of Burgundy. On the 29th of June 1477,
however, he was killed at the siege of Tournai; and Mary gave her hand
to Maximilian of Austria, afterwards emperor. Catherine, Adolf's sister,
made an attempt to assert the rights of his son Charles to the duchy,
but by 1483 Maximilian had crushed all opposition and established
himself as duke of Gelderland.
Charles of Egmont, however, did not surrender his claims, but with the
aid of the French collected an army, and in the course of 1492 and 1493
succeeded in reconquering his inheritance. The efforts of Maximilian to
recover the country were vain, and the successive governors of the
Netherlands, Philip the Fair and his sister Margaret, fared no better.
In 1507 Charles of Egmont invaded Holland and Brabant, captured
Harderwijk and Bommel in 1511, threatened Amsterdam in 1512, and took
Groningen. It was, undoubtedly, a great and heroic achievement for the
ruler of a petty state like Gelderland thus to assert and maintain his
independence for a long period against the overwhelming power of the
house of Austria. It was not till 1528 that the emperor Charles V. could
force him to accept the compromise of the treaty of Gorichen, by which
he received Gelderland and Zutphen for life as fiefs of the Empire. In
1534 the duke, who was childless, attempted to transfer the reversion of
Gelderland to France, but this project was violently resisted by the
estates of the duchy, and Charles was compelled by them in 1538 to
appoint as his successor William V.--the Rich--of Cleves (d. 1592).
Charles died the same year, and William, with the aid of the French,
succeeded in maintaining his position in Gelderland for several years.
The Habsburg power was, however, in the end too great for him, and he
was forced to cede the duchy to Charles V. by the treaty of Venloo,
signed on the 7th of September 1543.
Gelderland was now definitely amalgamated with the Habsburg dominions in
the Netherlands, until the revolt of the Low Countries led to its
partition. In 1579 the northern and greater part, comprising the three
"quarters" of Nijmwegen, Arnhem and Zutphen, joined the Union of Utrecht
and became the province of Gelderland in the Dutch republic. Only the
quarter of Roermonde remained subject to the crown of Spain, and was
called Spanish Gelderland. By the treaty of Utrecht (1715) this was
ceded to Prussia with the exception of Venloo, which fell to the United
Provinces, and Roermonde, which, with the remaining Spanish Netherlands,
passed to Austria. Of this, part was ceded to France at the peace of
Basel in 1795, and the whole by the treaty of Lunéville in 1801, when it
received the name of the department of the Roer. By the peace of Paris
of 1814 the bulk of Gelderland was incorporated in the United
Netherlands, the remainder falling to Prussia, where it forms the circle
of Düsseldorf.
The rise of the towns in Gelderland began in the 13th century, river
commerce and markets being the chief cause of their prosperity, but they
never attained to the importance of the larger cities in Holland and
Utrecht, much less to that of the great Flemish municipalities. They
differed also from the Flemish cities in the nature of their privileges
and immunities, as they did not possess the rights of communes, but only
those of "free cities" of the Rhenish type. The power of the feudal lord
over them was much greater. The states of Gelderland first became a
considerable power in the land during the reign of Arnold of Egmont
(1423-1473). Their claim to large privileges and a considerable share in
the government of the county were formulated in a document drawn up at
Nijmwegen in April 1436. These the duke had to concede, and to agree
further to the appointment of a council to assist him in his
administration. From this time the absolute authority of the sovereign
in Gelderland was broken. The states consisted of two members--the
nobility and the towns. The towns were divided into four separate
districts or "quarters" named after the chief town in each--Nijmwegen,
Arnhem, Zutphen and Roermonde. In the time of the republic, as has been
stated above, the province of Gelderland comprised the three first-named
"quarters" only. The three quarters had each of them peculiar rights and
customs, and their representatives met together in a separate assembly
before taking part in the diet (_landdag_) of the states. The nobility
possessed great influence in Gelderland and retained it in the time of
the republic. (G. E.)
GELDERLAND (_Guelders_), a province of Holland, bounded S. by Rhenish
Prussia and North Brabant, W. by Utrecht and South Holland, N. by the
Zuider Zee, N.E. by Overysel, and S.E. by the Prussian province of
Westphalia. It has an area of 1906 sq. m. and a pop. (1900) of 566,549.
Historically it was part of the duchy of Gelderland, which is treated
separately above.
The main portion of Gelderland north of the Rhine and the Old Ysel forms
as it were an extension of the province of Overysel, being composed of
diluvial sand and gravel, covered with sombre heaths and patches of fen.
South of this line, however, the soil consists of fertile river-clay.
The northern portion is divided by the New (or Gelders) Ysel into two
distinct regions, namely, the Veluwe ("bad land") on the west, and the
former countship of Zutphen on the east. In this last division the
ground slopes downwards from south-east to north-west (131 to 26 ft.)
and is intersected by several fertilizing streams which flow in the same
direction to join the Ysel. The extreme eastern corner is occupied by
older Tertiary loam, which is used for making bricks, and upon this and
the river-banks are the most fertile spots, woods, cultivated land,
pastures, towns and villages. The highlands of the Veluwe lying west of
the Ysel really extend as far as the Crooked Rhine and the Vecht in the
province of Utrecht, but are slightly detached from the Utrecht hills by
the so-called Gelders valley, which forms the boundary between the two
provinces. This valley extends from the Rhine along the Grift, the
Luntersche Beek, and the Eem to the Zuider Zee, and would still offer an
outlet in this direction to the Rhine at high water if it were not for
the river dikes. The two main ridges of the Veluwe hills (164 and 360
ft.) extend from the neighbourhood of Arnhem north to Harderwyk and
north-east to Hattem. In the south they stretch themselves along the
banks of the Rhine, forming a strip of picturesque river scenery made up
of the varied elements of sandhills and trees, clay-lands and pastures.
A large number of country-houses and villas are to be found here, and
the riverside villages of Dieren, Velp and Renkum. All over the Veluwe
are heaths, scantily cultivated, with fields of rye and buckwheat,
cattle of inferior quality, and sheep, and a sparse population. There is
also a considerable cultivation of wood, especially of fir and copse,
while tobacco plantations are found at Nykerk and Wageningen.
The southern division of the province presents a very different aspect,
and contains many old towns and villages. It is watered by the three
large rivers, the Rhine, the Waal and the Maas, and has a level clay
soil, varied only by isolated hills and a sandy, wooded stretch between
Nijmwegen and the southern border. The region enclosed between the Rhine
and the Waal and watered by the Linge is called the Betuwe ("good
land"), and gave its name to the Germanic tribe of Batavians, who are
sometimes wrongly regarded as the parent stock of the Dutch people.
There is here a denser population, occupied in the cultivation of wheat,
beetroot and fruit, the breeding of excellent cattle, shipping and
industrial pursuits. The principal centres of population, such as
Zutphen, Arnhem (the chief town of the province), Nijmwegen and Tiel,
lie along the large rivers. Smaller, but of equal antiquity, are the
riverside towns of Doesburg, which is strongly fortified; Wageningen,
with the State agricultural schools; Doetinchem, with a bridge over the
Old Ysel which is mentioned as early as the 14th century; Zalt-Bommel,
with an old church (1304), and a railway bridge over the Waal; and
Kuilenburg, with a fine railway bridge (1863-1868) over the Rhine. Five
m. S. of Zalt-Bommel, on the Maas, is the medieval castle of Ammerzode
or Ammersooi, also called Amelroy during the French occupation in 1674.
It is in an excellent state of preservation and has been restored in
modern times. The first authentic record of the castle is its possession
by John de Herlar of the noble family of Loo at the end of the 13th
century. In 1480 it passed by marriage to the powerful lords van Arkel,
and was partly destroyed by fire at the end of the 16th century. The
chapel dates from the 15th century, and the keep from 1564. Among the
family portraits are works by Albert Dürer. Zetten, on the railway
between Nijmwegen and Tiel, is famous for the charitable institutions
founded here by the preacher Otto Gerhard Heldring (d. 1876). They
comprise a penitentiary (1849) for women; an educational home (1858) for
girls; a theological training college (1864); and a Magdalen hospital.
Nykerk, Harderwyk and Elburg are fishing towns on the Zuider Zee.
Apeldoorn is situated on the edge of the sand-grounds. Heerenberg on the
south-eastern border is remarkable for its ancient castle near the seat
of the powerful lords van den Bergh. Other ancient and historical towns
bordering on the Prussian frontier are Zevenaar, which was for long the
cause of dispute between the houses of Cleves and Gelder and was finally
attached to the kingdom of the Netherlands in 1816; Breedevoort, once
the seat of a lordship of the same name belonging to the counts van Loon
or Lohn, who built a castle here in the beginning of the 13th century
which was destroyed in 1646--the lordship was presented to Prince
William III. in 1697; Winterswyk, now an important railway junction, and
of growing industrial importance; and Borkeloo, or Borkulo, the seat of
an ancient lordship dating from the first half of the 12th century,
which finally came into the possession of Prince William V. of Orange
Nassau in 1777. The castle was formerly of importance.
Gelderland is intersected by the main railway lines, which are largely
supplemented by steam-tram railways. Steam-tramways connect Arnhem and
Zutphen, Wageningen, Nijmwegen, Velp, Doetinchem (by way of Dieren and
Doesburg), whence there are various lines to Emmerich and Gendringen on
the Prussian borders. Groenlo and Lichtenvorde, Borkulo and Deventer are
also connected.
GELDERN, a town of Germany, in Rhenish Prussia, on the Niers, 28 m. N.
W. of Düsseldorf, at the junction of railways to Wesel and Cologne. Pop.
(1905) 6551. It has an Evangelical and two Roman Catholic churches and a
town hall with a fine council chamber. Its industries include the
manufacture of buttons, shoes, cigars and soap. The town dates from
about 1100 and was early an important fortified place; until 1371 it was
the residence of the counts and dukes of Gelderland. Having passed to
Spain, its fortifications were strengthened by Philip II., but they were
razed by Frederick the Great, the town having been in the possession of
Prussia since 1703.
See Nettesheim, _Geschichte der Stadt und des Amtes Geldern_ (Crefeld,
1863); Henrichs, _Beiträge zur innern Geschichte der Stadt Geldern_
(Geldern, 1893); and Real, _Chronik der Stadt und Umgegend von
Geldern_ (Geldern, 1897).
GELL, SIR WILLIAM (1777-1836), English classical archaeologist, was born
at Hopton in Derbyshire. He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge,
and subsequently elected a fellow of Emmanuel College (B.A. 1798, M.A.
1804). About 1800 he was sent on a diplomatic mission to the Ionian
islands, and on his return in 1803 he was knighted. He went with
Princess (afterwards Queen) Caroline to Italy in 1814 as one of her
chamberlains, and gave evidence in her favour at the trial in 1820 (see
G.P. Clerici, _A Queen of Indiscretions_, Eng. trans., London, 1907). He
died at Naples on the 4th of February 1836. His numerous drawings of
classical ruins and localities, executed with great detail and
exactness, are preserved in the British Museum. Gell was a thorough
dilettante, fond of society and possessed of little real scholarship.
None the less his topographical works became recognized text-books at a
time when Greece and even Italy were but superficially known to English
travellers. He was a fellow of the Royal Society and the Society of
Antiquaries, and a member of the Institute of France and the Berlin
Academy.
His best-known work is _Pompeiana; the Topography, Edifices and
Ornaments of Pompeii_ (1817-1832), in the first part of which he was
assisted by J.P. Gandy. It was followed in 1834 by the _Topography of
Rome and its Vicinity_ (new ed. by E.H. Bunbury, 1896). He wrote also
_Topography of Troy and its Vicinity_ (1804); _Geography and
Antiquities of Ithaca_ (1807); _Itinerary of Greece, with a Commentary
on Pausanias and Strabo_ (1810, enlarged ed. 1827); _Itinerary of the
Morea_ (1816; republished as _Narrative of a Journey in the Morea_,
1823). All these works have been superseded by later publications.
GELLERT, CHRISTIAN FÜRCHTEGOTT (1715-1769), German poet, was born at
Hainichen in the Saxon Erzgebirge on the 4th of July 1715. After
attending the famous school of St Afra in Meissen, he entered Leipzig
University in 1734 as a student of theology, and on completing his
studies in 1739 was for two years a private tutor. Returning to Leipzig
in 1741 he contributed to the _Bremer Beiträge_, a periodical founded by
former disciples of Johann Christoph Gottsched, who had revolted from
the pedantry of his school. Owing to shyness and weak health Gellert
gave up all idea of entering the ministry, and, establishing himself in
1745 as _privatdocent_ in philosophy at the university of Leipzig,
lectured on poetry, rhetoric and literary style with much success. In
1751 he was appointed extraordinary professor of philosophy, a post
which he held until his death at Leipzig on the 13th of December 1769.
The esteem and veneration in which Gellert was held by the students, and
indeed by persons in all classes of society, was unbounded, and yet due
perhaps less to his unrivalled popularity as a lecturer and writer than
to his personal character. He was the noblest and most amiable of men,
generous, tender-hearted and of unaffected piety and humility. He wrote
in order to raise the religious and moral character of the people, and
to this end employed language which, though at times prolix, was always
correct and clear. He thus became one of the most popular German
authors, and some of his poems enjoyed a celebrity out of proportion to
their literary value. This is more particularly true of his _Fabeln und
Erzählungen_ (1746-1748) and of his _Geistliche Oden und Lieder_ (1757).
The fables, for which he took La Fontaine as his model, are simple and
didactic. The "spiritual songs," though in force and dignity they cannot
compare with the older church hymns, were received by Catholics and
Protestants with equal favour. Some of them were set to music by
Beethoven. Gellert wrote a few comedies: _Die Betschwester_ (1745), _Die
kranke Frau_ (1748), _Das Los in der Lotterie_ (1748), and _Die
zärtlichen Schwestern_ (1748), the last of which was much admired. His
novel _Die schwedische Gräfin von G._ (1746), a weak imitation of
Richardson's _Pamela_, is remarkable as being the first German attempt
at a psychological novel. Gellert's _Briefe_ (letters) were regarded at
the time as models of good style.
See Gellert's _Sämtliche Schriften_ (first edition, 10 vols., Leipzig,
1769-1774; last edition, Berlin, 1867). _Sämtliche Fabeln und
Erzählungen_ have been often published separately, the latest edition
in 1896. A selection of Gellert's poetry (with an excellent
introduction) will be found in F. Muncker, _Die Bremer Beiträge_
(Stuttgart, 1899). A translation by J.A. Murke, _Gellert's Fables and
other Poems_ (London, 1851). For a further account of Gellert's life
and work see lives by J.A. Cramer (Leipzig, 1774), H. Döring (Greiz,
1833), and H.O. Nietschmann (2nd ed., Halle, 1901); also _Gellerts
Tagebuch aus dem Jahre 1761_ (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1863) and _Gellerts
Briefwechsel mit Demoiselle Lucius_ (Leipzig, 1823).
GELLERT, or KILLHART, in Welsh traditional history, the dog of
Llewellyn, prince of Wales. The dog, a greyhound, was left to guard the
cradle in which the infant heir slept. A wolf enters, and is about to
attack the child, when Gellert flies at him. In the struggle the cradle
is upset and the infant falls underneath. Gellert kills the wolf, but
when Prince Llewellyn arrives and sees the empty cradle and blood all
around, he does not for the moment notice the wolf, but thinks Gellert
has killed the baby. He at once stabs him, but almost instantly finds
his son safe under the cradle and realizes the dog's bravery. Gellert is
supposed to have been buried near the village of Beddgelert ("grave of
Gellert"), Snowdon, where his tomb is still pointed out to visitors. The
date of the incident is traditionally given as 1205. The incident has
given rise to a Welsh proverb, "I repent as much as the man who slew his
greyhound." The whole story is, however, only the Welsh version of a
tale long before current in Europe, which is traced to the Indian
Panchatantra and perhaps as far back as 200 B.C.
See W.A. Clouston, _Popular Tales and Fictions_ (1887); D.E. Jenkins,
_Beddgelert, its Facts, Fairies and Folklore_ (Portmadoc, 1899).
GELLIUS, AULUS (c. A.D. 130-180), Latin author and grammarian, probably
born at Rome. He studied grammar and rhetoric at Rome and philosophy at
Athens, after which he returned to Rome, where he held a judicial
office. His teachers and friends included many distinguished
men--Sulpicius Apollinaris, Herodes Atticus and Fronto. His only work,
the _Noctes Atticae_, takes its name from having been begun during the
long nights of a winter which he spent in Attica. He afterwards
continued it at Rome. It is compiled out of an Adversaria, or
commonplace book, in which he had jotted down everything of unusual
interest that he heard in conversation or read in books, and it
comprises notes on grammar, geometry, philosophy, history and almost
every other branch of knowledge. The work, which is utterly devoid of
sequence or arrangement, is divided into twenty books. All these have
come down to us except the eighth, of which nothing remains but the
index. The _Noctes Atticae_ is valuable for the insight it affords into
the nature of the society and pursuits of those times, and for the
numerous excerpts it contains from the works of lost ancient authors.
Editio princeps (Rome, 1469); the best editions are those of Gronovius
(1706) and M. Hertz (1883-1885; editio minor, 1886, revised by C.
Hosius, 1903, with bibliography). There is a translation in English by
W. Beloe (1795), and in French by various hands (1896). See Sandys,
_Hist. Class. Schol._ i. (1906), 210.
GELLIVARA [GELLIVARE], a mining town of Sweden in the district (_län_)
of Norrbotten, 815 m. N. by E. of Stockholm by rail. It lies in the
well-nigh uninhabited region of Swedish Lapland, 43 m. N. of the Arctic
Circle. It owes its importance to the iron mines in the mountain
Malmberget 4½ m. to the north, rising to 2024 ft. above sea-level (830
ft. above Gellivara town). During the dark winter months work proceeds
by the aid of electric light. In 1864 the mines were acquired by an
English company, but abandoned in 1867. In 1884 another English company
took them up and completed a provisional railway from Malmberget to
Luleå at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia (127 m. S.S.E.), besides
executing a considerable portion of the preliminary works for the
continuation of the line on the Norwegian side from Ofoten Fjord upwards
(see NARVIK). But this company, after extracting some 150,000 tons of
ore in 1888-1889, went into liquidation in the latter year. Two years
later the mines passed into the hands of a Swedish company, and the
railway was acquired by the Swedish Government. The output of ore was
insignificant until 1892, when it stood at 178,000 tons; but in 1902 it
amounted to 1,074,000 tons. Three miles S.W. rises the hill Gellivara
Dundret (2700 ft.), from which the sun is visible at midnight from June
5 to July 11. The population of the parish (about 6500 sq. m.) in 1900
was 11,745; the greater part of the population being congregated at the
town of Gellivara and at Malmberget.
GELNHAUSEN, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau,
on the Kinzig, 27 m. E.N.E. of Frankfort-on-Main, on the railway to
Bebra. Pop. 4500. It is romantically situated on the slope of a
vine-clad hill, and is still surrounded by ancient walls and towers. On
an island in the river are the ivy-covered ruins of the imperial palace
which Frederick I. (Barbarossa) built before 1170, and which was
destroyed by the Swedes during the Thirty Years' War. It has an
interesting and beautiful church (the Marien Kirche), with four spires
(of which that on the transept is curiously crooked), built in the 13th
century, and restored in 1876-1879; also several other ancient
buildings, notably the town-hall, the Fürstenhof (now administrative
offices), and the Hexenthurm. India-rubber goods are manufactured, and
wine is made. Gelnhausen became an imperial town in 1169, and diets of
the Empire were frequently held within its walls. In 1634 and 1635 it
suffered severely from the Swedes. In 1803 the town became the property
of Hesse-Cassel, and in 1866 passed to Prussia.
GELO, son of Deinomenes, tyrant of Gela and Syracuse. On the death of
Hippocrates, tyrant of Gela (491 B.C.), Gelo, who had been his commander
of cavalry, succeeded him; and in 485, his aid having been invoked by
the Gamori (the oligarchical landed proprietors) of Syracuse who had
been driven out by the populace, he seized the opportunity of making
himself despot. From this time Gelo paid little attention to Gela, and
devoted himself to the aggrandizement of Syracuse, which attained
extraordinary wealth and influence. When the Greeks solicited his aid
against Xerxes, he refused it, since they would not give him command of
the allied forces (Herodotus vii. 171). In the same year the
Carthaginians invaded Sicily, but were totally defeated at Himera, the
result of the victory being that Gelo became lord of all Sicily. After
he had thus established his power, he made a show of resigning it; but
his proposal was rejected by the multitude, and he reigned without
opposition till his death (478). He was honoured as a hero, and his
memory was held in such respect that when all the brazen statues of
tyrants were condemned to be sold in the time of Timoleon (150 years
later) an exemption was made in favour of the statue of Gelo.
Herodotus vii.; Diod. Sic. xi. 20-38; see also SICILY: _History_, and
SYRACUSE; for his coins see NUMISMATICS: _Sicily_.
GELSEMIUM, a drug consisting of the root of _Gelsemium nitidum_, a
clinging shrub of the natural order Loganiaceae, having a milky juice,
opposite, lanceolate shining leaves, and axillary clusters of from one
to five large, funnel-shaped, very fragrant yellow flowers, whose
perfume has been compared with that of the wallflower. The fruit is
composed of two separable jointed pods, containing numerous flat-winged
seeds. The stem often runs underground for a considerable distance, and
indiscriminately with the root it is used in medicine. The plant is a
native of the United States, growing on rich clay soil by the side of
streams near the coast, from Virginia to the south of Florida. In the
United States it is commonly known as the wild, yellow or Carolina
jessamine, although in no way related to the true jessamines, which
belong to the order Oleaceae. It was first described in 1640 by John
Parkinson, who grew it in his garden from seed sent by Tradescant from
Virginia; at the present time it is but rarely seen, even in botanical
gardens, in Great Britain.
The drug contains a volatile oil and two potent alkaloids, gelseminine
and gelsemine. Gelseminine is a yellowish, bitter substance, readily
soluble in ether and alcohol. It is not employed therapeutically.
Gelsemine has the formula C11H19NO2, and is a colourless, odourless,
intensely bitter solid, which is insoluble in water, but readily forms a
soluble hydrochloride. The dose of this salt is from 1/60th to 1/20th of
a grain. The British Pharmacopoeia contains a tincture of gelsemium, the
dose of which is from five to fifteen minims.
[Illustration: _Gelsemium nitidum_, half natural size; flower, nat.
size.]
The drug is essentially a nerve poison. It has no action on the skin and
no marked action on the alimentary or circulatory systems. Its action on
the cerebrum is slight, consciousness being retained even after toxic
doses, but there may be headache and giddiness. The drug rapidly causes
failure of vision, diplopia, ptosis or falling of the upper eyelid,
dilatation of the pupil, and a lowering of the intra-ocular tension.
This last action is doubtful. The symptoms appear to be due to a
paralysis of the motor cells that control the internal and external
ocular muscles. The most marked action of the drug is upon the anterior
cornua of grey matter in the spinal cord. It can be shown by a process
of experimental exclusion that to an arrest of function of these cells
is due the paralysis of all the voluntary muscles of the body that
follows the administration of gelsemium or gelsemine. Just before death
the sensory part of the spinal cord is also paralysed, general
anaesthesia resulting. The drug kills by its action on the respiratory
centre in the medulla oblongata. Shortly after the administration of
even a moderate dose the respiration is slowed and is ultimately
arrested, this being the cause of death. In cases of poisoning the
essential treatment is artificial respiration, which may be aided by the
subcutaneous exhibition of strychnine.
Though the drug is still widely used, the rational indications for its
employment are singularly rare and uncertain. The conditions in which it
is most frequently employed are convulsions, bronchitis, severe and
purposeless coughing, myalgia or muscular pain, neuralgia and various
vague forms of pain.
GELSENKIRCHEN, a town of Germany in the Prussian province of Westphalia,
27 m. W. of Dortmund on the railway Duisburg-Hamm. Pop. (1905) 147,037.
It has coal mines, iron furnaces, steel and boiler works, and soap,
glass and chemical factories. In 1903 various neighbouring industrial
townships were incorporated with the town.
GEM (Lat. _gemma_, a bud,--from the root _gen_, meaning "to
produce,"--or precious stone; in the latter sense the Greek term is
[Greek: psêphos]), a word applied in a wide sense to certain minerals
which, by reason of their brilliancy, hardness and rarity, are valued
for personal decoration; it is extended to include pearl. In a
restricted sense the term is applied only to precious stones after they
have been cut and polished as jewels, whilst in their raw state the
minerals are conveniently called "gem-stones." Sometimes, again, the
term "gem" is used in a yet narrower sense, being restricted to engraved
stones, like seals and cameos.
The subject is treated here in two sections: (1) Mineralogy and general
properties; (2) Gems in Art, i.e. engraved gems, such as seals and
cameos. The artificial products which simulate natural gem-stones in
properties and chemical composition are treated in the separate article
GEM, ARTIFICIAL.