OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mercury (deity)

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​MERCURY (Mercurius), in Roman mythology, the god of merchandise (merx) and merchants; later identified with the Greek Hermes. His nature is more intelligible and simple than that of any other Roman deity. In the native Italian states no trade existed till the influence of the Greek colonies on the coast introduced Greek customs and terminology. It was no doubt under the rule of the Tarquins that merchants began to ply their trade. Doubtless the merchants practised their religious ceremonies from the first, but their god Mercurius was not officially recognized by the state till the year 495 B.C. Rome frequently suffered from scarcity of grain during the unsettled times that followed the expulsion of the Tarquins. Various religious innovations were made to propitiate the gods; in 496 the Greek worship of Demeter, Dionysus and Persephone was established in the city, and in 495 the Greek god Hermes was introduced into Rome under the Italian name of Mercurius (Livy ii. 21, 27), as protector of the grain trade, especially with Sicily. Preller thinks that at the same time the trade in grain was regulated by law and a regular college or gild of merchants instituted. This college was under the protection of the god; its annual festival was on the 15th (the ides) of May, on which day the temple of the god had been dedicated at the southern end of the Circus Maximus, near the Aventine; and the members were called mercuriales as well as mercatores. Mommsen, however, considers the mercuriales to be a purely local gild—the pagani of the Circus valley. The 15th of May was chosen as the feast of Mercury, obviously because Maia was the mother of Hermes, that is of Mercury; and she was worshipped along with her son by the mercuriales on this day. According to Preller, this religious foundation had a political object; it established on a legitimate and sure basis the trade between Rome and the Greek colonies of the coast, whereas formerly this trade had been exposed to the capricious interference of government officials. Like all borrowed religions in Rome, it must have retained the rites and the terminology of its Greek original (Festus p. 257). Mercury became the god, not only of the mercatores and of the grain trade, but of buying and selling in general; and it appears that, at least in the streets where shops were common, little chapels and images of the god were erected. There was a spring dedicated to Mercury between his temple and the Porta Capena; every shopman drew water from this spring on the 15th of May, and sprinkled it with a laurel twig over his head and over his goods, at the same time entreating Mercury to remove from his head and his goods the guilt of all his deceits (Ovid, Fasti, v. 673 seq.). The word mercurialis was popularly used as equivalent to “cheat.”
Roman statuettes of bronze, in which Mercury is represented, like the Greek Hermes, standing holding the caduceus or staff in the one hand and a purse in the other (an element very rare in purely Hellenic representations), are exceedingly common.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Groth, Klaus

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​GROTH, KLAUS (1819–1899), Low German poet, was born at Heide in Schleswig-Holstein, on the 24th of April 1819. After studying at the seminary in Tondern (1838–1841), he became a teacher at the girls’ school in his native village, but in 1847 went to Kiel to qualify for a higher educational post. Ill-health interrupted his studies and it was not until 1853 that he was able to resume them at Kiel. In 1856 he took the degree of doctor of philosophy at Bonn, and in 1858 settled as privatdocent in German literature and languages at Kiel, where, in 1866, he was made professor, and where he lived until his death on the 1st of June 1899. In his Low German (Plattdeutsch) lyric and epic poems, which reflect the influence of Johann Peter Hebel (q.v.), Groth gives poetic expression to the country life of his northern home; and though his descriptions may not always reflect the peculiar characteristics of the peasantry of Holstein as faithfully as those of F. Reuter (q.v.), yet Groth is a lyric poet of genuine inspiration. His chief works are Quickborn, Volksleben in plattdeutschen Gedichten Ditmarscher Mundart (1852; 25th ed. 1900; and in High German translations, notably by M. J. Berchem, Krefeld, 1896); and two volumes of stories, Vertelln (1855–1859, 3rd ed. 1881); also Voer de Goern (1858) and Ut min Jungsparadies (1875).
Groth’s Gesammelte Werke appeared in 4 vols. (1893). His Lebenserinnerungen were edited by E. Wolff in 1891; see also K. Eggers, K. Groth und die plattdeutsche Dichtung (1885); and biographies by A. Bartels (1899) and H. Siercks (1899.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Grottaferrata

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​GROTTAFERRATA, a village of Italy, in the province of Rome, from which it is 13 m. S.E. by electric tramway, and 21/2 m. S. of Frascati, 1080 ft. above sea-level, in the Alban Hills. Pop. (1901) 2645. It is noticeable for the Greek monastery of Basilians founded by S. Nilus in 1002 under the Emperor Otho III., and which occupies the site of a large Roman villa, possibly that of Cicero. It was fortified at the end of the 15th century by Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere (afterwards Pope Julius II.), whose arms may be seen about it. The massive towers added by him give it a picturesque appearance. The church belongs to the 12th century, and the original portal, with a mosaic over it, is still preserved; the interior was restored in 1574 and in 1754, but there are some remains of frescoes of the 13th century. The chapel of S. Nilus contains frescoes by Domenico Zampieri (Domenichino) of 1610, illustrating the life of the saint, which are among his most important works. The abbot’s palace has a fine Renaissance portico, and contains an interesting museum of local antiquities. The library contains valuable MSS., among them one from the hand of S. Nilus (965); and a palaeographical school, for the copying of MSS. in the ancient style, is maintained. An omophorion of the 11th or 12th century, with scenes from the Gospel in needlework, and a chalice of the 15th century with enamels, given by Cardinal Bessarion, the predecessor of Giuliano della Rovere as commendatory of the abbey, are among its treasures. An important exhibition of Italo-Byzantine art was held here in 1905–1906.
See A. Rocchi, La Badia di Grottaferrata (Rome, 1884); A. Muñoz, L’Art byzantin à l’exposition de Grottaferrata (Rome, 1905); T. Ashby in Papers of the British School at Rome, iv. (1907). (T. As.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ground-pearl

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​GROUND-PEARL, the glassy secretion forming the pupacase of coccid insects of the genus Margarodes, belonging to the homopterous division of the Hemiptera.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ground Nut

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​GROUND NUT (Earth Nut, Pistache de Terre, Monkey Nut, Pea Nut, Manilla Nut), in botany, the fruit or pod of Arachis hypogaea (nat. ord. Leguminosae). The plant is an annual of diffuse habit, with hairy stem, and two-paired, abruptly pinnate leaflets. The pods or legumes are stalked, oblong, cylindrical, about 1 in. in length, the thin reticulated shell containing one or two irregularly ovoid seeds. After the flower withers, the stalk of the ovary has the peculiarity of elongating and bending down, forcing the young pod underground, and thus the seeds become matured at some distance below the surface. Hence the specific and vernacular names of the plant. Originally a native of South America, it is extensively cultivated in all tropical and subtropical countries. The plant affects a light sandy soil, and is very prolific, yielding in some instances 30 to 38 bushels of nuts per acre. The pods when ripe are dug up and dried. The seeds when fresh are largely eaten in tropical countries, and in taste are almost equal to almonds; when roasted they are used as a substitute for chocolate. In America they are consumed in large quantities as the “pea-nut”; but are not much appreciated in England except by the poorer children, who know them as “monkey-nuts.” By expression the seeds yield a large quantity of oil, which is used by natives for lamps, as a fish or curry oil and for medicinal purposes. The leaves form an excellent food for cattle, being very like clover.
Large quantities of seeds are imported to Europe, chiefly to Marseilles, London and Hamburg, for the sake of their contained oil. The seeds yield from 42 to 50% of oil by cold expression, but a larger quantity is obtained by heat, although of an inferior quality. The seeds being soft facilitate mechanical expression, and where bisulphide of carbon or other solvent is used, a very pure oil is obtained.
The expressed oil is limpid, of a light yellowish or straw colour, having a faint smell and bland taste; it forms an excellent substitute for olive oil, although in a slight degree more prone to rancidity than the latter. Its specific gravity is 0.916 to 0.918; it becomes turbid at 3° C., concretes at +3° to −4° C., and hardens at +7° C. It is a non-drying oil. Ground nut oil consists of (1) oleic acid (C$_{18}$H$_{34}$O$_2$); (2) hypogaeic acid (C$_{16}$H$_{30}$O$_2$), by some supposed to be identical with a fatty acid found in whale oil; (3) palmitic acid (C$_{16}$H$_{32}$O$_2$); and (4) arachic acid (C$_{20}$H$_{40}$O$_2$). The oil is used in the adulteration of gingelly oil.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Grotesque

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​GROTESQUE, strictly a form of decorative art, in painting or sculpture, consisting of fantastic shapes of human beings, animals and the like, joined together by wreaths of flowers, garlands or arabesques. The word is also applied to any whimsical design or decorative style, if characterized by unnatural distortion, and, generally, to anything ludicrous or extravagantly fanciful. “Grotesque” comes through the French from the Ital. grottesco, an adjective formed from grotta, which has been corrupted in English to “grotto.” The commonly accepted explanation of the special use of the term “grotesque” is that this particular form of decorative art was most frequently found in the excavated ancient Roman and Greek dwellings found in Italy, to which was applied the name grotte. The derivation of grotta is through popular Lat. crupta or grupta (cf. “crypt”), from Gr. κρύπτη, a vault, κρύπτειν, to hide. Such a term would be applicable both to the buried dwellings of ancient Italy, and to a cavern, artificial or natural, the ordinary sense of the word. An interesting parallel with this origin of the word is found in that of “antic,” now meaning a freak, a jest, absurd fancy, &c. This word is the same as “antique,” and was, like “grotesque,” first applied to the fanciful decorations of ancient art.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Groth, Paul Heinrich von

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​GROTH, PAUL HEINRICH VON (1843– ), German mineralogist, was born at Magdeburg on the 23rd of June 1843. He was educated at Freiberg, Dresden and Berlin, and took the degree of Ph.D. in 1868. After holding from 1872 the chair of mineralogy at Strasburg, he was in 1883 appointed professor of mineralogy and curator of minerals in the state museum at Munich. He carried on extensive researches on crystals and minerals, and also on rocks; and published Tabellarische Übersicht der einfachen Mineralien (1874–1898), and Physikalische Krystallographie (1876–1895, ed. 4, 1905). He edited for some years the Zeitschrift für Krystallographie und Mineralogie.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ground-squirrel

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​GROUND-SQUIRREL, one of the names for a group of (chiefly) North American striped terrestrial squirrel-like rodents, more generally known as chipmunks. They are closely allied to squirrels, from which they are distinguished by the possession of cheek-pouches for the storage of food. The sides, or the sides and back, are marked with light stripes bordered by dark bands; the ears are small, and without tufts; and the tail is relatively short. With the exception of one Siberian species (Tamias asiaticus), ground-squirrels are confined to North America, where they are represented by a large number of species and races, all referable to the genus Tamias. In North America ground-squirrels are migratory, and may be abundant in a district one year, and absent the next. They feed on nuts, beechmast, corn and roots, and also on grubs. With the assistance of their cheek-pouches they accumulate large supplies of food for the winter, during which season they lie dormant in holes. Although generally keeping to the ground, when hunted they take to trees, which they climb in search of food. One of the longest known American species is T. striatus.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nichol, John

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​NICHOL, JOHN (1833–1894), Scottish man of letters, son of the astronomer J. P. Nichol (1804–1859), was born on the 8th of September 1833, and educated at Glasgow and Balliol College, Oxford, where he had a brilliant career. After taking his first-class in classics, he remained at Oxford as a coach. With Albert Venn Dicey, Thomas Hill Green, Swinburne and others, he formed the Old Mortality Society for discussions on literary matters. In 1862 he was made professor of English literature at Glasgow. He, had already made a reputation as an acute critic and a successful lecturer, and his influence at Glasgow was very marked. He visited the United States in 1865, and in 1882 he wrote the article on American literature for the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica—an article which is a good example of his pungent (sometimes unduly pungent) style. He left Glasgow for London in 1889, and died on the 11th of October 1894. Among his best works were his drama Hannibal (1873), The Death of Themistocles, and other Poems (1881), his Byron in the “English Men of Letters” series (1880), his Robert Burns (1882) and Carlyle (1892).
A Memoir by Professor Knight was published in 1896.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Niche

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NICHE (through Fr. niche from Ital. nicchia, nicchio, shell; possibly from Lat. mitulus, a sea-mussel; cf. "napkin" from mappa), in architecture a recess sunk in a wall, generally for the reception of a statue. The niche is sometimes terminated by a simple label, but more commonly by a canopy, and with a bracket or corbel for the figure, in which case it is often called a "tabernacle."
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nicholas, Henry

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​NICHOLAS (or Niclaes), HENRY (or Hendrik) (c. 1501–c. 1580), founder of the sect called “the Family of Love,” was born in 1501 or 1502, at Münster, where he was married and carried on the business of a mercer. As a boy he was subject to visions, and at the age of twenty-seven charges of heresy led to his imprisonment. About 1530 he removed with his family to Amsterdam, where he was again imprisoned on a charge of complicity in the Munster revolution of 1534–1535. About 1539 he experienced a call to found his “Familia Caritatis.” Removing to Embden, he lived there and prospered in business for twenty years, though he travelled with commercial as well as missionary objects into the Netherlands, England and elsewhere. The date of his sojourn in England has been placed as early as 1552 and as late as 1569. In 1579 he was living at Cologne, where probably he died a year or two later. His doctrines seem to have been derived largely from the Dutch Anabaptist David Jöris or George, who died in 1556; but they have mainly to be inferred from the jaundiced accounts of hostile writers. The outward trappings of his system were merely Anabaptist; but he anticipated a good many later speculations, and his followers were accused of asserting that all things were ruled by nature and not directly by God, of denying the dogma of the Trinity, and repudiating infant baptism. They held that no man should be put to death for his opinions, and apparently, like the later Quakers, they objected to the carrying of arms and to anything like an oath; and they were quite impartial in their repudiation of all other churches and sects, including Brownists and Barrowists.
Nicholas’s principal disciple in England was one Christopher Vitel, and towards 1579 the progress of the sect especially in the eastern counties provoked literary attacks, proclamations and parliamentary bills. But Nicholas’s followers escaped the gallows and the stake, for they combined with some success the wisdom of the serpent and the harmlessness of the dove. They would only discuss their doctrines with sympathizers; they showed every respect for authority, and considered outward conformity a duty. This quietist attitude, while it saved them from molestation, hampered propaganda; and though the “Family” existed until the middle of the 17th century, it was then swallowed up by the Quakers, Baptists and Unitarians, all of which denominations may have derived some of their ideas through the “Family” from the Anabaptists.
The list of Nicholas’s works occupies nearly six columns in the Dict. Nat. Biogr. See also Belfort Bax, Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists, pp. 327-380 (1903); and Strype’s Works, General index. (A. F. P.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Moon, Sir Richard

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​MOON, SIR RICHARD, 1st Baronet (1814–1899), English railway administrator, was the son of a Liverpool merchant, and was born on the 23rd of September 1814. The history of his life is practically the history of the London & North-Western railway for the period in which he lived. When he first became a member of the board in 1847, the company had just come into existence by the amalgamation of the London & Birmingham, the Manchester & Birmingham, and the Grand Junction lines, and it was during his long connexion with it—first as director and then (from 1862 to 1891) as chairman—that its system was developed substantially into what it is now. The Chester & Holyhead, the Lancaster & Carlisle, and many smaller lines were gradually added to it, either by leasing or by complete absorption, and finally in 1877 an act was obtained consolidating all into one homogeneous whole. Throughout his career, Sir Richard Moon’s powers of organization and his genius for what may be called railway diplomacy were of the greatest advantage to the company, and to him it owed in very large measure its commanding position. An extremely hard worker himself, he expected equal diligence of his subordinates; but energy and capacity did not go unrewarded, for he made promotions, not by standing or seniority, but by merit. Sir Richard Moon, who was created a baronet in 1887, died at Coventry on the 17th of November 1899.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Moonstone

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​MOONSTONE, a variety of felspar, showing in certain directions a bluish opalescence, whence its value as an ornamental stone. When cut with a convex surface it displays a soft milky reflection, forming a luminous band, but not sharply defined as in cat’s-eye. The ordinary moonstone is a translucent variety of orthoclase known as adularia (see Orthoclase), whence the peculiar sheen has been called “adularescence.” The effect is probably caused by interference from twin lamellae, or by numerous enclosures of microscopic laminae, definitely orientated, and it has been suggested that these may often be flakes of kaolin due to incipient decomposition of the felspar. Practically all the moonstone of commerce comes from Ceylon, principally from the Dumbara district of the Central Province. It occurs as pebbles and irregular masses in the gem-gravels and clay-deposits, and is also obtained by quarrying an adularia leptynite, as described by Dr. A. K. Coomáraswámy. Very similar in some respects to moonstone is the chatoyant soda-felspar which was called by T. Sterry Hunt peristerite, from Gr. περιστερά, a dove, in allusion to the resemblance of its lustre to that of the bird’s neck. The original peristerite was from Bathurst, near Perth, Lanark county, Ontario, but it occurs also at Macomb, St Lawrence county, New York.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Moorcroft, William

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​MOORCROFT, WILLIAM (c. 1770–1825), English traveller, was born in Lancashire, about 1770. He was educated as a surgeon in Liverpool; but on completing his course he resolved to devote himself to veterinary surgery, and, after studying the subject in France, began practice in London. In 1795 he published a pamphlet of directions for the medical treatment of horses, with special reference to India, and in 1800 a Cursory Account of the Methods of Shoeing Horses. Having been offered by the East India Company the inspectorship of their Bengal stud, Moorcroft left England for India in 1808. Under his care the stud rapidly improved; in order to perfect the breed he resolved to undertake a journey into Central Asia to obtain a stock of Turkoman horses. In company with Captain William Hearsey, and encumbered with a stock of merchandise for the purpose of establishing trade relations between India and Central Asia, Moorcroft left Josimath, well within the mountains, on the 26th of May 1812. Proceeding along the valley of the Dauli, they reached the summit of the frontier pass of Niti on the 1st of July. Descending by the towns of Darba and Gartok, Moorcroft struck the main upper branch of the Indus near its source, and on the 5th of August arrived at the sacred lake of Manasarowar. Returning by Bhutan, he was detained some time by the Ghurkas, and reached Calcutta in November. This journey only served to whet Moorcroft’s appetite for more extensive travel, for which he prepared the way by sending out a young Hindu, who succeeded in making extensive explorations. In company with him and George Trebeck, Moorcroft set out on his second journey in October 1819. On the 14th of August the source of the Beas (Hyphasis) was discovered, and subsequently that of the Chenab. Leh, the capital of Ladakh, was reached on the 24th of September, and here several months were spent in exploring the surrounding country. A commercial treaty was concluded with the government of Ladakh, by which the whole of Central Asia was virtually opened to British trade. Kashmir was reached on the 3rd of November 1822, Jalalabad on the 4th of June 1824, Kabul on the 20th of June, and Bokhara on the 25th of February 1825. At Andkhui, in Afghan Turkestan, Moorcroft was seized with fever, of which he died on the 27th of August 1825, Trebeck surviving him only a few days. But according to the Abbé Huc, Moorcroft reached Lhasa in 1826, and lived there twelve years, being assassinated on his way back to India in 1838. In 1841 Moorcroft’s papers were obtained by the Asiatic Society, and published, under the editorship of H. H. Wilson, under the title of Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the Punjāb, in Ladakh and Kashmir, in Peshawar, Kabul, Kunduz and Bokhara, from 1819 to 1825.
See Graham Sandberg, The Exploration of Tibet (1904).