GYANTSE HAHNEMANN, SAMUEL CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH
GYGES HAHN-HAHN, IDA
GYLIPPUS HAI
GYLLEMBOURG-EHRENSVARD, CHRISTINE HAIBAK
GYLLENSTJERNA, JOHAN HAIDA
GYMKHANA HAIDINGER, WILHELM KARL
GYMNASTICS AND GYMNASIUM HAIDUK
GYMNOSOPHISTS HAIFA
GYMNOSPERMS HAIK
GYMNOSTOMACEAE HAIL
GYMPIE HAILES, DAVID DALRYMPLE
GYNAECEUM HAILSHAM
GYNAECOLOGY HAINAN
GYONGYOSI, ISTVAN HAINAU
GYOR HAINAUT
GYP HAINBURG
GYPSUM HAINICHEN
GYROSCOPE AND GYROSTAT HAI-PHONG
GYTHIUM HAIR
GYULA-FEHERVAR HAIR-TAIL
H HAITI
HAAG, CARL HAJIPUR
HAAKON HAJJ
HAARLEM HAJJI KHALIFA
HAARLEM LAKE HAKE, EDWARD
HAASE, FRIEDRICH HAKE, THOMAS GORDON
HAASE, FRIEDRICH GOTTLOB HAKE
HAAST, SIR JOHANN JULIUS VON HAKKAS
HABABS HAKLUYT, RICHARD
HABAKKUK HAKODATE
HABDALA HAL
HABEAS CORPUS HALA
HABERDASHER HALAESA
HABINGTON, WILLIAM HALAKHA
HABIT HALBERSTADT
HABITAT HALBERT
HABSBURG HALDANE, JAMES ALEXANDER
HACHETTE, JEAN NICOLAS PIERRE HALDANE, RICHARD BURDON
HACHETTE, JEANNE HALDANE, ROBERT
HACHETTE, LOUIS FRANCOIS HALDEMAN, SAMUEL STEHMAN
HACHURE HALDIMAND, SIR FREDERICK
HACIENDA HALE, EDWARD EVERETT
HACKBERRY HALE, HORATIO
HACKENSACK HALE, JOHN PARKER
HACKET, JOHN HALE, SIR MATTHEW
HACKETT, HORATIO BALCH HALE, NATHAN
HACKETT, JAMES HENRY HALE, WILLIAM GARDNER
HACKLANDER, FRIEDRICH WILHELM VON HALEBID
HACKNEY (borough of London) HALES, JOHN (d. 1571)
HACKNEY (riding-horse) HALES, JOHN (1584-1656)
HADAD HALES, STEPHEN
HADDINGTON, EARL OF HALESOWEN
HADDINGTON HALEVI, JUDAH BEN SAMUEL
HADDINGTONSHIRE HALEVY, JACQUES FRANCOIS ELIE
HADDOCK HALEVY, LUDOVIC
HADDON HALL HALFPENNY, WILLIAM
HADEN, SIR FRANCIS SEYMOUR HALF-TIMBER WORK
HADENDOA HALFWAY COVENANT
HADERSLEBEN HALHED, NATHANIEL BRASSEY
HADING, JANE HALIBURTON, THOMAS CHANDLER
HADLEIGH HALIBUT
HADLEY, ARTHUR TWINING HALICARNASSUS
HADLEY, JAMES HALICZ
HADLEY HALIFAX, CHARLES MONTAGUE
HADRAMUT HALIFAX, GEORGE MONTAGU DUNK
HADRIA HALIFAX, GEORGE SAVILE
HADRIAN HALIFAX (Canada)
HADRIAN'S WALL HALIFAX (Yorkshire, England)
HADRUMETUM HALISAH
HAECKEL, ERNST HEINRICH HALKETT, HUGH
HAEMATITE HALL, BASIL
HAEMATOCELE HALL, CARL CHRISTIAN
HAEMOPHILIA HALL, CHARLES FRANCIS
HAEMORRHAGE HALL, CHRISTOPHER NEWMAN
HAEMORRHOIDS HALL, EDWARD
HAEMOSPORIDIA HALL, FITZEDWARD
HAETZER, LUDWIG HALL, ISAAC HOLLISTER
HAFIZ HALL, SIR JAMES
HAG HALL, JAMES (American judge)
HAGEDORN, FRIEDRICH VON HALL, JAMES (American geologist)
HAGEN, FRIEDRICH HEINRICH VON DER HALL, JOSEPH
HAGEN HALL, MARSHALL
HAGENAU HALL, ROBERT
HAGENBACH, KARL RUDOLF HALL, SAMUEL CARTER
HAGENBECK, CARL HALL, WILLIAM EDWARD
HAGERSTOWN HALL (spa of Austria)
HAG-FISH HALL (town of Germany)
HAGGADA HALL (of a mansion)
HAGGAI HALLAM, HENRY
HAGGARD, HENRY RIDER HALLAM, ROBERT
HAGGIS HALLE, SIR CHARLES
HAGIOLOGY HALLE
HAGIOSCOPE HALLECK, FITZ-GREENE
HAGONOY HALLECK, HENRY WAGER
HAGUE, THE HALLEFLINTA
HAHN, AUGUST HALLEL
GYANTSE, one of the large towns of Tibet. It lies S.E. of Shigatse, 130
m. from the Indian frontier and 145 m. from Lhasa. Its central position
at the junction of the roads from India and Bhutan with those from
Ladakh and Central Asia leading to Lhasa makes it a considerable
distributing trade centre. Its market is the third largest in Tibet,
coming after Lhasa and Shigatse, and is especially celebrated for its
woollen cloth and carpet manufactures. Here caravans come from Ladakh,
Nepal and upper Tibet, bringing gold, borax, salt, wool, musk and furs,
to exchange for tea, tobacco, sugar, cotton goods, broadcloth and
hardware. The town is compactly built of stone houses, with wooden
balconies facing the main street, whence narrow lanes strike off into
uninviting slums, and contains a fort and monastery. In the British
expedition of 1904 Gyantse formed the first objective of the advance,
and the force was besieged here in the mission post of Changlo for some
time. The Tibetans made a night attack on the post, and were beaten off
with some difficulty, but subsequently the British attacked and stormed
the fort or jong. Under the treaty of 1904 a British trade agent is
stationed at Gyantse.
GYGES, founder of the third or Mermnad dynasty of Lydian kings, he
reigned 687-652 B.C. according to H. Geizer, 690-657 B.C. according to
H. Winckler. The chronology of the Lydian kings given by Herodotus has
been shown by the Assyrian inscriptions to be about twenty years in
excess. Gyges was the son of Dascylus, who, when recalled from
banishment in Cappadocia by the Lydian king Sadyattes--called Candaules
"the Dog-strangler" (a title of the Lydian Hermes) by the Greeks--sent
his son back to Lydia instead of himself. Gyges soon became a favourite
of Sadyattes and was despatched by him to fetch Tudo, the daughter of
Arnossus of Mysia, whom the Lydian king wished to make his queen. On the
way Gyges fell in love with Tudo, who complained to Sadyattes of his
conduct. Forewarned that the king intended to punish him with death,
Gyges assassinated Sadyattes in the night and seized the throne with the
help of Arselis of Mylasa, the captain of the Carian bodyguard, whom he
had won over to his cause. Civil war ensued, which was finally ended by
an appeal to the oracle of Delphi and the confirmation of the right of
Gyges to the crown by the Delphian god. Further to secure his title he
married Tudo. Many legends were told among the Greeks about his rise to
power. That found in Herodotus, which may be traced to the poet
Archilochus of Paros, described how "Candaules" insisted upon showing
Gyges his wife when unrobed, which so enraged her that she gave Gyges
the choice of murdering her husband and making himself king, or of being
put to death himself. Plato made Gyges a shepherd, who discovered a
magic ring by means of which he murdered his master and won the
affection of his wife (Hdt. i. 8-14; Plato, _Rep._ 359; Justin i. 7;
Cicero, _De off._ iii. 9). Once established on the throne Gyges devoted
himself to consolidating his kingdom and making it a military power. The
Troad was conquered, Colophon captured from the Greeks, Smyrna besieged
and alliances entered into with Ephesus and Miletus. The Cimmerii, who
had ravaged Asia Minor, were beaten back, and an embassy was sent to
Assur-bani-pal at Nineveh (about 650 B.C.) in the hope of obtaining his
help against the barbarians. The Assyrians, however, were otherwise
engaged, and Gyges turned to Egypt, sending his faithful Carian troops
along with Ionian mercenaries to assist Psammetichus in shaking off the
Assyrian yoke (660 B.C.). A few years later he fell in battle against
the Cimmerii under Dugdamme (called Lygdamis by Strabo i. 3. 21), who
took the lower town of Sardis. Gyges was succeeded by his son Ardys.
See Nicolaus Damascenus, quoting from the Lydian historian Xanthus, in
C. Muller, _Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum_, iii.; R. Schubert,
_Geschichte der Konige von Lydien_ (1884); M. G. Radet, _La Lydie et
le monde grec au temps de Mermnades_ (1892-1893): H. Gelzer, "Das
Zeitalter des Gyges" (_Rhein. Mus._, 1875); H. Winckler,
_Altorientalische Forschungen_, i. (1893); Macan's edition of
Herodotus. (A. H. S.)
GYLIPPUS, a Spartan general of the 5th century B.C.; he was the son of
Cleandridas, who had been expelled from Sparta for accepting Athenian
bribes (446 B.C.) and had settled at Thurii. His mother was probably a
helot, for Gylippus is said to have been, like Lysander and
Callicratidas, a _mothax_ (see HELOT). When Alcibiades urged the
Spartans to send a general to lead the Syracusan resistance against the
Athenian expedition, Gylippus was appointed, and his arrival was
undoubtedly the turning point of the struggle (414-413). Though at first
his long hair, his threadbare cloak and his staff furnished the subject
of many a jest, and his harsh and overbearing manner caused grave
discontent, yet the rapidity and decisiveness of his movements, won the
sympathy and respect of the Syracusans. Diodorus (xiii. 28-32),
probably following Timaeus, represents him as inducing the Syracusans
to pass sentence of death on the captive Athenian generals, but we need
have no hesitation in accepting the statement of Philistus (Plutarch,
_Nicias_, 28), a Syracusan who himself took part in the defence, and
Thucydides (vii. 86), that he tried, though without success, to save
their lives, wishing to take them to Sparta as a signal proof of his
success. Gylippus fell, as his father had done, through avarice;
entrusted by Lysander with an immense sum which he was to deliver to the
ephors at Sparta, he could not resist the temptation to enrich himself
and, on the discovery of his guilt, went into exile.
Thucydides vi. 93. 104, vii.; Plutarch, _Nicias_, 19, 21, 27, 28,
_Lysander_, 16, 17; Diodorus xiii. 7, 8, 28-32; Polyaenus i. 39. 42.
See SYRACUSE (for the siege operations), commentaries on Thucydides
and the Greek histories.
GYLLEMBOURG-EHRENSVARD, THOMASINE CHRISTINE, Baroness (1773-1856),
Danish author, was born on the 9th of November 1773, at Copenhagen. Her
maiden name was Buntzen. Her great beauty early attracted notice, and
before she was seventeen she married the famous writer Peter Andreas
Heiberg. To him she bore in the following year a son, afterwards
illustrious as the poet and critic Johan Ludvig Heiberg. In 1800 her
husband was exiled, and she obtained a divorce, marrying in December
1801 the Swedish Baron K. F. Ehrensvard, himself a political fugitive.
Her second husband, who presently adopted the name of Gyllembourg, died
in 1815. In 1822 she followed her son to Kiel, where he was appointed
professor, and in 1825 she returned with him to Copenhagen. In 1827 she
first appeared as an author by publishing her romance of _The Polonius
Family_ in her son's newspaper _Flyvende Post_. In 1828 the same journal
contained _The Magic Ring_, which was immediately followed by _En
Hverdags historie (An Everyday Story)_. The success of this anonymous
work was so great that the author adopted until the end of her career
the name of "The Author of _An Everyday Story_." In 1833-1834 she
published three volumes of _Old and New Novels_. _New Stories_ followed
in 1835 and 1836. In 1839 appeared two novels, _Montanus the Younger_
and _Ricida_; in 1840, _One in All_; in 1841, _Near and Far_; in 1843,
_A Correspondence_; in 1844, _The Cross Ways_; in 1845, _Two
Generations_. From 1849 to 1851 the Baroness Ehrensvard-Gyllembourg was
engaged in bringing out a library edition of her collected works in
twelve volumes. On the 2nd of July 1856 she died in her son's house at
Copenhagen. Not until then did the secret of her authorship transpire;
for throughout her life she had preserved the closest reticence on the
subject even with her nearest friends. The style of Madame
Ehrensvard-Gyllembourg is clear and sparkling; for English readers no
closer analogy can be found than between her and Mrs Gaskell, and
_Cranford_ might well have been written by the witty Danish authoress.
See J. L. Heiberg, _Peter Andreas Heiberg og Thomasine Gyllembourg_
(Copenhagen, 1882), and L. Kornelius-Hybel, _Nogle Bemaerkninger om P.
A. Heiberg og Fru Gyllembourg_ (Copenhagen, 1883).
GYLLENSTJERNA, JOHAN, COUNT (1635-1680), Swedish statesman, completed
his studies at Upsala and then visited most of the European states and
laid the foundations of that deep insight into international politics
which afterwards distinguished him. On his return home he met King
Charles X. in the Danish islands and was in close attendance upon him
till the monarch's death in 1660. He began his political career at the
diet which assembled in the autumn of the same year. An aristocrat by
birth and inclination, he was nevertheless a true patriot and demanded
the greatest sacrifices from his own order in the national interests. He
was therefore one of those who laboured most zealously for the recovery
of the crown lands. In the Upper House he was the spokesman of the
gentry against the magnates, whose inordinate privileges he would have
curtailed or abolished. His adversaries vainly endeavoured to gain him
by favour, for as court-marshal and senator he was still more hostile to
the dominant patricians who followed the adventurous policy of Magnus de
la Gardie. Thus he opposed the French alliance which de la Gardie
carried through in 1672, and consistently advocated economy in domestic
and neutrality in foreign affairs. On the outbreak of the war in 1675 he
was the most loyal and energetic supporter of the young Charles XI.,
and finally his indispensable counsellor. Indeed, it may be said, that
the political principles which he instilled into the youthful monarch
were faithfully followed by Charles during the whole of his reign. In
1679 Gyllenstjerna was appointed the Swedish plenipotentiary at the
peace congress of Lund. The alliance which he then concluded with
Denmark bound the two northern realms together in a common foreign
policy, and he sought besides to facilitate their harmonious
co-operation by every means in his power. In 1680, after bringing home
Charles XI.'s Danish bride from Copenhagen, he was appointed
governor-general of Scania (Skane), but expired a few weeks later.
See M. Hojer, _Ofversigt af Sveriges yttre politik under aren
1676-1680_ (Upsala, 1875). (R. N. B.)
GYMKHANA, a display of miscellaneous sports, originally at the military
stations of India. The word would seem to be a colloquial remodelling of
the Hindustani _gend-khana_, ball-house or racquet-court, by
substituting for _gend_ the first syllable of the English word
"gymnastics." The definition given in Yule's _Glossary_ is as follows:
"A place of public resort at a station, where the needful facilities for
athletics and games ... are provided." The name of the place was
afterwards applied to the games themselves, and the word is now used
almost exclusively in this sense. According to Yule the first use of it
that can be traced was, on the authority of Major John Trotter, at Rurki
in the year 1861, when a gymkhana was instituted there. Gymkhana sports
were invented to relieve the monotony of Indian station life, and both
officers and men from the ranks took part in them. The first meetings
consisted of promiscuous horse and pony races at catch weights. To these
were soon added a second variety, originally called the _pagol_ (funny
races), the one generally known outside India, which consisted of
miscellaneous races and competitions of all kinds, some serious and some
amusing, on horseback, on foot and on bicycles. Among these may be
mentioned the usual military sports; such as tent-pegging, lemon-cutting
and obstacle racing; rickshaw racing; tilting at the ring sack, pillion,
hurdle, egg-and-spoon, blindfold, threading-the-needle and many other
kinds of races depending upon the inventive powers of the committees in
charge.
GYMNASTICS AND GYMNASIUM, terms signifying respectively a system of
physical exercises practised either for recreation or for the purpose of
promoting the health and development of the body, and the building where
such exercises are carried on. The gymnasium of the Greeks was
originally the school where competitors in the public games received
their training, and was so named from the circumstance that these
competitors exercised naked ([Greek: gymnos]). The gymnasium was a
public institution as distinguished from the palaestra, which was a
private school where boys were trained in physical exercises, though the
term palaestra is also often used for the part of a gymnasium specially
devoted to wrestling and boxing. The athletic contests for which the
gymnasium supplied the means of training and practice formed part of the
social life of the Greeks from the earliest times. They were held in
honour of heroes and gods; sometimes forming part of a periodic
festival, sometimes of the funeral rites of a deceased chief. In course
of time the Greeks grew more attached to such sports; their free active
life, spent to a great extent in the open air, fostered the liking
almost into a passion. The victor in any athletic contest, though he
gained no money prize, was rewarded with the honour and respect of his
fellow citizens; and a victory in the great religious festivals was
counted an honour for the whole state. In these circumstances the
training of competitors for the greater contests became a matter of
public concern; and accordingly special buildings were provided by the
state, and their management entrusted to public officials. The
regulation of the gymnasium at Athens is attributed by Pausanias (i. 39.
3) to Theseus. Solon made several laws on the subject; but according to
Galen it was reduced to a system in the time of Cleisthenes. Ten
_gymnasiarchs_, one from each tribe, were appointed annually. These
performed in rotation the duties of their office, which were to maintain
and pay the persons who were training for public contests, to conduct
the games at the great Athenian festivals, to exercise general
supervision over the morals of the youths, and to adorn and keep up the
gymnasium. This office was one of the ordinary [Greek: leitourgiai]
(public services), and great expense was entailed on the holders. Under
them were ten _sophronistae_, whose duty was to watch the conduct of the
youths at all times, and especially to be present at all their games.
The practical teaching and selecting of the suitable exercises for each
youth were in the hands of the _paedotribae_ and _gymnastae_, the latter
of whom also superintended the effect on the constitution of the pupils,
and prescribed for them when they were unwell. The _aleiptae_ oiled and
rubbed dust on the bodies of the youths, acted as surgeons, and
administered the drugs prescribed. According to Galen there was also a
teacher of the various games of ball. The gymnasia built to suit these
various purposes were large buildings, which contained not merely places
for each kind of exercise, but also a stadium, baths, covered porticos
for practice in bad weather, and outer porticos where the philosophers
and men of letters read public lectures and held disputations.
The gymnasium of the Greeks did not long remain an institution
exclusively devoted to athletic exercises. It soon began to be applied
to other uses even more important. The development arose naturally
through the recognition by the Greeks of the important place in
education occupied by physical culture, and of the relation between
exercise and health. The gymnasium accordingly became connected with
education on the one hand and with medicine on the other. Due training
of the body and maintenance of the health and strength of children were
the chief part of earlier Greek education. Except the time devoted to
letters and music, the education of boys was conducted in the gymnasia,
where provision was made, as already mentioned, for their moral as well
as their physical training. As they grew older, conversation and social
intercourse took the place of the more systematic discipline.
Philosophers and sophists assembled to talk and to lecture in the
gymnasia, which thus became places of general resort for the purpose of
all less systematic intellectual pursuits, as well as for physical
exercises. In Athens there were three great public gymnasia--Academy,
Lyceum and Cynosarges--each of which was consecrated to a special deity
with whose statue it was adorned; and each was rendered famous by
association with a celebrated school of philosophy. Plato's teaching in
the Academy has given immortality to that gymnasium; Aristotle conferred
lustre on the Lyceum; and the Cynosarges was the resort of the Cynics.
Plato when treating of education devotes much consideration to
gymnastics (see especially _Rep._ iii. and various parts of _Laws_); and
according to Plato it was the sophist Prodicus who first pointed out the
connexion between gymnastics and health. Having found such exercises
beneficial to his own weak health, he formulated a method which was
adopted generally, and which was improved by Hippocrates. Galen lays the
greatest stress on the proper use of gymnastics, and throughout ancient
medical writers we find that special exercises are prescribed as the
cure for special diseases.
The Greek institution of the gymnasium never became popular with the
Romans, who regarded the training of boys in gymnastics with contempt as
conducive to idleness and immorality, and of little use from a military
point of view; though at Sparta gymnastic training had been chiefly
valued as encouraging warlike tastes and promoting the bodily strength
needed for the use of weapons and the endurance of hardship. Among the
Romans of the republic, the games in the Campus Martius, the duties of
camp life, and the enforced marches and other hardships of actual
warfare, served to take the place of the gymnastic exercises required by
the Greeks. The first public gymnasium at Rome was built by Nero and
another by Commodus. In the middle ages, though jousts and feats of
horsemanship and field sports of various kinds were popular, the more
systematic training of the body which the Greeks had associated with the
gymnasium fell into neglect; while the therapeutic value of special
exercises as understood by Hippocrates and Galen appears to have been
lost sight of. Rousseau, in his _Emile_, was the first in modern times
to call attention to the injurious consequences of such indifference,
and he insisted on the importance of physical culture as an essential
part of education. It was probably due in some measure to his influence
that F. L. Jahn and his followers in Germany, encouraged by the Prussian
minister Stein, established the _Turnplatze_, or gymnastic schools,
which played an important part during the War of Liberation, and in the
political agitations which followed the establishment of the German
confederation by the Congress of Vienna. The educational reformers
Pestalozzi and Froebel emphasized the need for systematic physical
training in any complete scheme of education.
The later development of the classical gymnasium (when it had become the
school of Intellectual culture rather than of exclusively physical
exercise), and not the original idea, has been perpetuated in the modern
use of the word in Germany, where the name "gymnasium" is given to the
highest grade of secondary school, and the association of the word with
athleticism has been entirely abandoned. On the other hand, in England,
France and elsewhere in Europe, as well as in America, the history of
the word has been precisely the reverse; the connexion of the gymnasium
with philosophy and mental culture has been dropped, and it indicates a
building exclusively intended for the practice of physical exercises.
But whereas the Greeks received training in the gymnasium for contests
which are now designated as _athletic sports_ (q.v.), gymnastics in the
modern sense is a term restricted to such exercises as are usually
practised indoors, with or without the aid of mechanical appliances, as
distinguished from sports or games practised in the open air.
It was not until near the end of the 19th century that gymnastics were
recognized in England as anything more than a recreation; their value as
a specifically therapeutic agent, or as an article in the curriculum of
elementary schools, was not realized. More recently, however,
educationists have urged with increasing insistence the need for
systematic physical training, and their views received greater attention
when evidence of deterioration in the physique of the people began to
accumulate. During the first decade of the 20th century more than one
commission reported to parliament in England in favour of more
systematic and general physical training being encouraged or even made
compulsory by public authority. Voluntary associations were formed for
encouraging such training and providing facilities for it. Gymnastics
had already for several years been an essential part of the training of
army recruits with exceedingly beneficial results, and gymnasia had been
established at Aldershot and other military centres. Physical exercises,
although not compulsory, obtained a permanent place in the code for
elementary schools in Great Britain; and much care has been taken to
provide a syllabus of exercises adapted for the improvement of the
physique of the children. These exercises are partly gymnastic and
partly of the nature of drill; they do not in most cases require the use
of appliances, and are on that account known as "free movements," which
numbers of children go through together, accompanied whenever possible
by music. On the other hand at the larger public schools and
universities there are elaborate gymnasia equipped with a great variety
of apparatus, the skilful use of which demands assiduous practice; and
this is encouraged by annual contests between teams of gymnasts
representing rival institutions.
Gymnastic apparatus.
The appliances vary to some extent in different gymnasia, some of the
more complicated requiring a greater amount of space and involving a
larger cost than is often practicable. But where these considerations
are negligible, substantial uniformity is to be found in the equipment
of gymnasia not designed for specifically medical purposes. The
simplest, and in many respects the most generally useful, of all
gymnastic apparatus is the dumb-bell. It was in use in England as early
as the time of Elizabeth, and it has the advantage that it admits of
being exactly proportioned to the individual strength of each learner,
and can be adjusted in weight as his strength increases. The exercises
that may be performed with the dumb-bell, combined with a few simple
drill-like movements, give employment to all parts of the body and to
both sides equally. Dumb-bell exercises, therefore, when arranged
judiciously and with knowledge, are admirably suited for developing the
physique, and are extensively employed in schools both for boys and
girls. The bar-bell is merely a two-handed dumb-bell, and its use is
similar in principle. The Indian club is also in use in most gymnasia;
but the risk of overstraining the body by its unskilful handling makes
it less generally popular than the dumb-bell. All these appliances may
be, and often are, used either in ordinary schoolrooms or elsewhere
outside the gymnasium. The usual fixed sorts of apparatus, the presence
of which (or of some of them) in a building may be said to constitute it
a gymnasium, are the following: a leaping-rope; a leaping-pole; a
vaulting-horse; a horizontal bar, so mounted between two upright posts
that its height from the ground may be adjusted as desired; parallel
bars, used for exercises to develop the muscles of the trunk and arms;
the trapeze consisting of a horizontal bar suspended by ropes at a
height of 4 to 5 ft. from the ground; the bridge ladder; the plank; the
inclined plane; the mast; swinging rings; the prepared wall; the
horizontal beam.
Before the end of the 19th century the therapeutic value of gymnastics
was fully realized by the medical profession; and a number of medical or
surgical gymnasia came into existence, provided with specially devised
apparatus for the treatment of different physical defects or weaknesses.
The exercises practised in them are arranged upon scientific principles
based on anatomical and physiological knowledge; and these principles
have spread thence to influence largely the practice of gymnastics in
schools and in the army. A French medical writer enumerates seven
distinct groups of maladies, each including a number of different
complaints, for which gymnastic exercises are a recognized form of
treatment; and there are many malformations of the human body, formerly
believed to be incurable, which are capable of being greatly remedied if
not entirely corrected by regular gymnastic exercises practised under
medical direction.
The value of gymnastics both for curing defects, and still more for
promoting health and the development of normal physique, is recognized
even more clearly on the continent of Europe than in Great Britain. In
Germany the government not only controls the practice of gymnastics but
makes it compulsory for every child and adult to undergo a prescribed
amount of such physical training. In France also, physical training by
gymnastics is under state control; in Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland,
Italy, Russia, systems more or less distinct enjoy a wide popularity;
and in Finland gymnastics are practised on lines that exhibit national
peculiarities. The Finns introduce an exceptional degree of variety into
their exercises as well as into the appliances devised to assist them;
women are scarcely less expert than men in the performance of them; and
the enthusiasm with which the system is supported produces the most
beneficial results in the physique of the people. International
gymnastic contests have become a feature of the revived Olympic Games
(see ATHLETIC SPORTS), and in those held at Athens in 1906 a team of
Danish ladies took part in the competition and proved by their skilful
performance that gymnastics may be practised with as much success by
women as by men.
The chief work on the ancient gymnastics is Krause, _Gymnastik und
Agonistik der Hellenen_ (1841); of more recent works mention may be
made of Jager, _Gymnastik der Hellenen_ (1881); L. Grasberger,
_Erziehung und Unterricht im klassischen Altertum_ (1881); J. P.
Mahaffy, _Old Greek Education_ (1883); A. S. Wilkins, _National
Education in Greece_ (1873); E. Paz, _Histoire de la gymnastique_
(1886); Wickenhagen, _Antike und moderne Gymnastik_ (1891);
Becker-Goll, _Charicles_ ii.; Brugsma, _Gymnasiorum apud Graecos
descriptio_ (1855); Petersen, _Das Gymnasium der Griechen_ (1858). See
also N. Laisne, _Gymnastique pratique_ (Paris, 1879); Collineau, _La
Gymnastique_ (Paris, 1884); _L'Hygiene a l'ecole_ (Paris, 1889); P. de
Coubertin, _La Gymnastique utilitaire_ (Paris, 1905); H. Nissen,
_Rational Home Gymnastics_ (Boston, 1903). (R. J. M.)
GYMNOSOPHISTS (Lat. _gymnosophistae_, from Gr. [Greek: gymnos,
sophistes], "naked philosophers"), the name given by the Greeks to
certain ancient Hindu philosophers who pursued asceticism to the point
of regarding food and clothing as detrimental to purity of thought. From
the fact that they often lived as hermits in forests, the Greeks also
called them _Hylobioi_ (cf. the _Vana-prasthas_ in Sanskrit writings).
Diogenes Laertius (ix. 61 and 63) refers to them, and asserts that
Pyrrho of Elis, the founder of pure scepticism, came under their
influence, and on his return to Elis imitated their habits of life, to
what extent does not appear. Strabo (xv. 711, 714) divides them into
Brahmans and Sarmans (or Shamans). See JAINS.
GYMNOSPERMS, in Botany. The Gymnosperms, with the Angiosperms,
constitute the existing groups of seed-bearing plants or Phanerogams:
the importance of the seed as a distinguishing feature in the plant
kingdom may be emphasized by the use of the designation Spermophyta for
these two groups, in contrast to the Pteridophyta and Bryophyta in which
true seeds are unknown. Recent discoveries have, however, established
the fact that there existed in the Palaeozoic era fern-like plants which
produced true seeds of a highly specialized type; this group, for which
Oliver and Scott proposed the term Pteridospermae in 1904, must also be
included in the Spermophyta. Another instance of the production of seeds
in an extinct plant which further reduces the importance of this
character as a distinguishing feature is afforded by the Palaeozoic
genus _Lepidocarpon_ described by Scott in 1901; this lycopodiaceous
type possessed an integumented megaspore, to which the designation seed
may be legitimately applied (see PALAEOBOTANY: _Palaeozoic_).
As the name Gymnosperm (Gr. [Greek: gymnos], naked, [Greek: sperma],
seed) implies, one characteristic of this group is the absence of an
ovary or closed chamber containing the ovules. It was the English
botanist Robert Brown who first recognized this important distinguishing
feature in conifers and cycads in 1825; he established the gymnospermy
of these seed-bearing classes as distinct from the angiospermy of the
monocotyledons and dicotyledons. As Sachs says in his history of botany,
"no more important discovery was ever made in the domain of comparative
morphology and systematic botany." As Coulter and Chamberlain express
it, "the habitats of the Gymnosperms to-day indicate that they either
are not at home in the more genial conditions affected by Angiosperms,
or have not been able to maintain themselves in competition with this
group of plants."
These naked-seeded plants are of special interest on account of their
great antiquity, which far exceeds that of the Angiosperms, and as
comprising different types which carry us back to the Palaeozoic era and
to the forests of the coal period. The best known and by far the largest
division of the Gymnosperms is that of the cone-bearing trees (pines,
firs, cedars, larches, &c.), which play a prominent part in the
vegetation of the present day, especially in the higher latitudes of the
northern hemisphere; certain members of this class are of considerable
antiquity, but the conifers as a whole are still vigorous and show but
little sign of decadence. The division known as the Cycadophyta is
represented by a few living genera of limited geographical range and by
a large number of extinct types which in the Mesozoic era (see
PALAEOBOTANY: _Mesozoic_) played a conspicuous part in the vegetation of
the world. Among existing Cycadophyta we find surviving types which, in
their present isolation, their close resemblance to fossil forms, and in
certain morphological features, constitute links with the past that not
only connect the present with former periods in the earth's history, but
serve as sign-posts pointing the way back along one of the many lines
which evolution has followed.
It is needless to discuss at length the origin of the Gymnosperms. The
two views which find most favour in regard to the Coniferales and
Cycadophyta are: (1) that both have been derived from remote filicinean
ancestors; (2) that the cycads are the descendants of a fern-like stock,
while conifers have been evolved from lycopodiaceous ancestors. The line
of descent of recent cycads is comparatively clear in so far as they
have undoubted affinity with Palaeozoic plants which combined cycadean
and filicinean features; but opinion is much more divided as to the
nature of the phylum from which the conifers are derived. The
Cordaitales (see PALAEOBOTANY: _Palaeozoic_) are represented by extinct
forms only, which occupied a prominent position in the Palaeozoic
period; these plants exhibit certain features in common with the living
Araucarias, and others which invite a comparison with the maidenhair
tree (_Ginkgo biloba_), the solitary survivor of another class of
Gymnosperms, the Ginkgoales (see PALAEOBOTANY: _Mesozoic_). The Gnetales
are a class apart, including three living genera, of which we know next
to nothing as regards their past history or line of descent. Although
there are several morphological features in the three genera of Gnetales
which might seem to bring them into line with the Angiosperms, it is
usual to regard these resemblances as parallel developments along
distinct lines rather than to interpret them as evidence of direct
relationship.
_Gymnospermae._--Trees or shrubs; leaves vary considerably in size and
form. Flowers unisexual, except in a few cases (Gnetales) without a
perianth. Monoecious or dioecious. Ovules naked, rarely without
carpellary leaves, usually borne on carpophylls, which assume various
forms. The single megaspore enclosed in the nucellus is filled with
tissue (prothallus) before fertilization, and contains two or more
archegonia, consisting usually of a large egg-cell and a small neck,
rarely of an egg-cell only and no neck (_Gnetum_ and _Welwitschia_).
Microspore spherical or oval, with or without a bladder-like extension
of the exine, containing a prothallus of two or more cells, one of
which produces two non-motile or motile male cells. Cotyledons two or
several. Secondary xylem and phloem produced by a single cambium, or
by successive cambial zones; no true vessels (except in the Gnetales)
in the wood, and no companion-cells in the phloem.
I. _Pteridospermae_ (see PALAEOBOTANY, PALAEOZOIC).
II. _Cycadophyta_.
A. Cycadales (recent and extinct).
B. Bennettitales (see Palaeobotany: _Mesozoic_).
III. _Cordaitales_ (see PALAEOBOTANY: _Palaeozoic_).
IV. _Ginkgoales_ (recent and extinct).
V. _Coniferales_.
A. Taxaceae.
B. Pinaceae.
There is no doubt that the result of recent research and of work now
in progress will be to modify considerably the grouping of the
conifers. The family _Araucarieae_, represented by _Araucaria_ and
_Agathis_, should perhaps be separated as a special class and a
rearrangement of other genera more in accord with a natural system of
classification will soon be possible; but for the present its twofold
subdivision may be retained.
VI. _Gnetales_.
A. Ephedroideae.
B. Gnetoideae.
C. Welwitschioideae (Tumboideae).
CYCADOPHYTA.--A. _Cycadales._--Stems tuberous or columnar, not
infrequently branched, rarely epiphytic (Peruvian species of _Zamia_);
fronds pinnate, bi-pinnate in the Australian genus _Bowenia_.
Dioecious; flowers in the form of cones, except the female flowers of
_Cycas_, which consist of a rosette of leaf-like carpels at the apex
of the stem. Seeds albuminous, with one integument; the single embryo,
usually bearing two partially fused cotyledons, is attached to a long
tangled suspensor. Stems and roots increase in diameter by secondary
thickening, the secondary wood being produced by one cambium or
developed from successive cambium-rings.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Stem of _Cycas_. F, foliage-leaf bases; S,
scale-leaf bases.]
The cycads constitute a homogeneous group of a few living members
confined to tropical and sub-tropical regions. As a fairly typical and
well-known example of the Cycadaceae, a species of the genus _Cycas_
(e.g. _C. circinalis_, _C. revoluta_, &c.) is briefly described. The
stout columnar stem may reach a height of 20 metres, and a diameter of
half a metre; it remains either unbranched or divides near the summit
into several short and thick branches, each branch terminating in a
crown of long pinnate leaves. The surface of the stem is covered with
rhomboidal areas, which represent the persistent bases of foliage- and
scale-leaves. In some species of _Cycas_ there is a well-defined
alternation of transverse zones on the stem, consisting of larger
areas representing foliage-leaf bases, and similar but smaller areas
formed by the bases of scale-leaves (F and S, fig. 1). The
scale-leaves clothing the terminal bud are linear-lanceolate in form,
and of a brown or yellow colour; they are pushed aside as the
stem-axis elongates and becomes shrivelled, finally falling off,
leaving projecting bases which are eventually cut off at a still lower
level. Similarly, the dead fronds fall off, leaving a ragged petiole,
which is afterwards separated from the stem by an absciss-layer a
short distance above the base. In some species of _Cycas_ the
leaf-bases do not persist as a permanent covering to the stem, but the
surface is covered with a wrinkled bark, as in _Cycas siamensis_,
which has a stem of unusual form (fig. 2). Small tuberous shoots,
comparable on a large scale with the bulbils of _Lycopodium Selago_,
are occasionally produced in the axils of some of the persistent
leaf-bases; these are characteristic of sickly plants, and serve as a
means of vegetative reproduction. In the genus _Cycas_ the female
flower is peculiar among cycads in consisting of a terminal crown of
separate leaf-like carpels several inches in length; the apical
portion of each carpellary leaf may be broadly triangular in form, and
deeply dissected on the margins into narrow woolly appendages like
rudimentary pinnae. From the lower part of a carpel are produced
several laterally placed ovules, which become bright red or orange on
ripening; the bright fleshy seeds, which in some species are as large
as a goose's egg, and the tawny spreading carpels produce a pleasing
combination of colour in the midst of the long dark-green fronds,
which curve gracefully upwards and outwards from the summit of the
columnar stem. In _Cycas_ the stem apex, after producing a cluster of
carpellary leaves, continues to elongate and produces more bud-scales,
which are afterwards pushed aside as a fresh crown of fronds is
developed. The young leaves of _Cycas_ consist of a straight rachis
bearing numerous linear pinnae, traversed by a single midrib; the
pinnae are circinately coiled like the leaf of a fern (fig. 3). The
male flower of _Cycas_ conforms to the type of structure
characteristic of the cycads, and consists of a long cone of numerous
sporophylls bearing many oval pollen-sacs on their lower faces. The
type described serves as a convenient representative of its class.
There are eight other living genera, which may be classified as
follows:--
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--_Cycas siamensis._]
_Classification._--A. _Cycadeae._--Characterized by (a) the
alternation of scale- and foliage-leaves (fig. 1) on the branched or
unbranched stem; (b) the growth of the main stem through the female
flower; (c) the presence of a prominent single vein in the linear
pinnae; (d) the structure of the female flower, which is peculiar in
not having the form of a cone, but consists of numerous independent
carpels, each of which bears two or more lateral ovules. Represented
by a single genus, _Cycas_. (Tropical Asia, Australia, &c.).
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--_Cycas._ Young Frond.]
B. _Zamieae._--The stem does not grow through the female flower; both
male and female flowers are in the form of cones. (a)
_Stangerieae._--Characterized by the fern-like venation of the pinnae,
which have a prominent midrib, giving off at a wide angle simple or
forked and occasionally anastomosing lateral veins. A single genus,
_Stangeria_, confined to South Africa, (b) _Euzamieae._--The pinnae
are traversed by several parallel veins. _Bowenia_, an Australian
cycad, is peculiar in having bi-pinnate fronds (fig. 5). The various
genera are distinguished from one another by the shape and manner of
attachment of the pinnae, the form of the carpellary scales, and to
some extent by anatomical characters. _Encephalartos_ (South and
Tropical Africa).--Large cones; the carpellary scales terminate in a
peltate distal expansion. _Macrozamia_ (Australia).--Similar to
_Encephalartos_ except in the presence of a spinous projection from
the swollen distal end of the carpels. _Zamia_ (South America,
Florida, &c.).--Stem short and often divided into several columnar
branches. Each carpel terminates in a peltate head. _Ceratozamia_
(Mexico).--Similar in habit to _Macrozamia_, but distinguished by the
presence of two horn-like spinous processes on the apex of the
carpels. _Microcycas_ (Cuba).--Like _Zamia_, except that the ends of
the stamens are flat, while the apices of the carpels are peltate.
_Dioon_ (Mexico) (fig. 4).--Characterized by the woolly scale-leaves
and carpels; the latter terminate in a thick laminar expansion of
triangular form, bearing two placental cushions, on which the ovules
are situated. _Bowenia_ (Australia).--Bi-pinnate fronds; stem short
and tuberous (fig. 5).
[Illustration: From a photograph of a plant in Peradeniya Gardens,
Ceylon, by Professor R. H. Yapp.