pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
GENTLEMAN. Under this denomination are comprehended all above the rank of yeomen, and hence noblemen are truly called gentlemen.

The word is formed of the French gentilhomme, or rather of gentil, fine, fashionable, becoming, and the Saxon man, honestus, or honesto loco natus. The same signification belongs to the Italian gentilhuomo, and the Spanish hidalgo, or hijo dalgo, that is, the son of somebody, or a person of note. If we go farther back, we shall find gentleman originally derived from the Latin gentilis homo ; which was used amongst the Romans to signify a race of noble persons of the same name, born of free or ingenuous parents, and whose ancestors had never been slaves or put to death by law. Hence Cicero in his Topics says, Gentiles sunt, qui inter se eodem sunt nomine, ab ingenuis oriundi, quorum majorum nemo servitutem servivit, qui capite non sunt diminuti. Some hold that it was formed from gentile, meaning pagan; and that the ancient Franks, who conquered Gaul, then converted to Christianity, were called gentiles by the natives, as being yet heathens. Others state, that in the decline of the Roman empire, as recorded by Ammianus Marcellinus, there were two companies of brave soldiers, the one called gentiles, and the other scutarii ; and that hence we derive the names gentleman and esquire. (See Esquire.) This opinion is confirmed by Pasquire, who supposes the appellation gentiles and ecuyers to have been transmitted to us from the Roman soldiery; especially as it was to the gentiles and scutarii, the bravest of the soldiery, that the principal benefices and portions of land were assigned.
GENTOOS. See Hindustan.
GENUFLEXION (from genu, knee, and flecto, I bend), the act of bowing or bending the knee, or rather of kneeling down. The Jesuit Rosweyd, in his Onomastico, shows that genufluxion, or kneeling, was a very ancient custom in the church, even under the Old Testament dispensation; and that this practice was observed throughout all the year, excepting on Sundays, and during the time from Easter to Whitsuntide, when kneeling was forbidden by the council of Nice. Others have shown, that the custom of not kneeling on Sunday had obtained from the time of the apostles, as appears from Irenaeus and Tertullian; and the Ethiopian church, scrupulously attached to the ancient ceremonies, still retain that of not kneeling at divine service. The Russians esteem it an indecent posture to worship God upon the knees. Baronius is of opinion that genuflexion was not established in the year of Christ 58, founding on that passage in Acts (xx. 36) where St Paul is expressly mentioned as kneeling down at prayer; but Saurin shows that nothing can thence be concluded. The same author also remarks that the primitive Christians carried the practice of genuflexion so far, that some of them had worn cavities in the floor where they prayed; and St Jerome relates of St James, that he had contracted a hardness on his knees equal to that of camels.
GENUS, among metaphysicians and logicians, denotes a number of beings which agree in certain general properties common to them all, so that a genus is nothing else but an abstract idea, expressed by some general name or term.

Genus, in Rhetoric. Authors distinguish the art of rhetoric, as also orations or discourses, into three genera or kinds, namely, demonstrative, deliberative, and judicial. To the demonstrative kind belong panegyrics, genethlia-cons, epithalamiums, and funeral harangues; to the deliberative, persuasions, dissuasions, and commendations; to the judicial, defences and accusations.

Genus, in Natural History, a subdivision of any class or order of natural beings, whether of the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdoms, which agree in certain common characters.

Genus, in Music, by the ancients called genus melodi<e, is a certain manner of dividing and subdividing the principles of melody; that is, the consonant and dissonant intervals, into their concinnous parts. The moderns considering the octave as the most perfect of intervals, and that on which aD the concords depend, in the present theory of music the division of that interval is considered as containing the true division of the whole scale. But the ancients went to work somewhat differently. The diatessaron, or fourth, was the least interval which they admitted as concord; and therefore they sought first how that might be most conveniently divided, and then constituted the diapente and diapason. The diatessaron being thus, as it were, the root and foundation of the scale, what they called the genera, or kinds, arose from its various divisions; and hence they defined the genus modulandi the manner of dividing the Letrachord, and disposing its four sounds as to succession. The genera of music were three; the enharmonic, the chromatic, and the diatonic. The first two were variously subdivided; and even with regard to the last, though it is commonly reckoned not to have any species, different authors have proposed different divisions, but without giving any particular names to the species, as was done in the two others.
GEOCENTRIC, in Astronomy, is applied to a planet, or its orbit, to denote that it is concentric with the earth, or has the earth as its centre or the same centre with the earth.
GEOFFROY, Stephen Francis, a physician eminent for his chemical and botanical knowledge, was born at Paris on the 13th of February 1672, where his father kept an apothecary’s shop, and had been several times in the magistracy. He received a liberal education; and, whilst prosecuting the study of medicine, he had conferences at his father’s house with Cassini, Duveracy, Homberg, and other men of distinguished eminence. At Montpellier he attended the lectures of the ablest professors of physic, and afterwards visited the south of France, carefully viewing every object deserving of his attention. He accompanied Count de Tallard to England in 1698, where he became acquainted with the leading men of science, and was admitted a member of the Royal Society. He next went into Holland, and in 1700 he accompanied the Abbé de Louvois in a tour to Italy. On his return, he became a licentiate in 1702, and, in two years after, he was created doctor of medicine. One of his theses was A vermibus hominum ortus interitus î which was translated into French under this title, Si sHomme a commence par être vers î iot the sake of some ladies of high rank, by whom it was deemed interesting.

Geoffroy did not hastily commence the practice of medicine, continuing the prosecution of his studies in retirement for some years. He appeared nowise anxious to push himself forward, although his knowledge made him often be consulted by several gentlemen of the faculty; and he felt so concerned for the recovery of his patients, that it imparted to him an air of melancholy, which at first alarmed them, till they became acquainted with the cause. In 1709, he was appointed by the king professor of physic to the Royal College, vacant by the death of the celebrated Tournefort, and began with lectures on Materia Medica; but in 1712, Fagon resigned to him the chemical chair, and on both subjects Geoffroy lectured with unwearied assiduity. He was twice chosen as dean by the faculty of Paris, and from the year 1699 he filled a place in the Royal Academy of Sciences. Anxious to discharge his various functions with credit, his health at last sunk under fatigue, and he died upon the 5th of January 1731. He is known to the chemical world by his table of affinities, which is far superior to any that had appeared before his time. His greatest work was his History of the Materia Medica, which was published in an unfinished state, after his death, Paris, 1741, in 3 vols. 8vo. This learned and laborious author enriched the Mémoires of the Academy of Sciences with different articles, the princitial of which were, 1. Table des Différents Rapports observes en Chimie entre différents Substances, and Eclaircissements sur cette Table, 1718 and 1720; 2. Observations sur le Vitriol et sur le Fer, 1713; 3. Sur les Dissolutions et sur les Fermentations que l’on peut appeler froides, parce quelles sont accompagnées du refroidissement des Liqueurs dans lesquelles elles se passent, 1700; 4. Examen des eaux de Vichy et de Bourbon l’Archambault, 1702; 5. Détail de la manière dont se fait l’Alun de roche en Italie et en Angleterre, 1702.
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GEOLOGY. The rapidly progressive state of this science has induced us to defer the consideration of it till we reach the head of Mineralogy ; under which it will be fully treated.
GEOMANCY, Geomantia, a kind of divination, performed by means of a number of little points or dots, made on paper at random, and considering the various lines and figures which those points present, and thence forming a pretended judgment of futurity, and deciding any question proposed. The word is formed from the Greek ∕ια, or yη, terra, earth, and μmrtia, divination; the ancient custom being to cast little pebbles on the ground, and thence to form conjectures, instead of the points afterwards made use of. Polydore Virgil defines geomancy to be a kind of divination performed by means of clefts or chinks made in the ground, and of which he conceives the Persian Magi to have been the inventors.
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GEORGETOWN, the chief town of Prince of Wales' Island, which is well built, having spacious streets running at right angles. It is bounded on the north and east by the sea, and on the west by a high road.

Georgetown, a post-town and port of entry in Washington county, district of Columbia, in North America. It is situated on the north-eastern bank of the Potomac, about two hundred miles from its mouth, and three from Washington, the capital. It possesses several public buildings, institutions, places of public worship, schools, and the like, and is a place of considerable trade. In consequence of the difficulties of navigation occasioned by a bar about three miles below the town, a considerable part of the produce is sent to Alexandria for exportation. Georgetown College is a Catholic institution, under the direction of the incorporated Catholic clergy of Maryland. The population of this town in 1830 amounted to 8441.

Georgetown, a post-town, port of entry, and capital of Georgetown district, in South Carolina. It is situated on the west side of Winyaw Bay, about sixty miles northnorth-east of Charleston. It enjoys some trade, and possesses the usual public buildings, together with a populatio« of about 2000.
GEORGIC, a poetical composition upon the subject of husbandry, containing rules clothed in a pleasing dress, and embellished with all the beauties and elegancies of poetry. The word is formed from the Latin georgicus, which is merely the Greek ysωjy∕κo{, from yη, terra, earth, and tjyaζoμ,α∕, opero, I work or labour, from ∙fyor, opus, work.
GEPIDAE, Gepides, or Gepidi, in Ancient Geography, according to Procopius, were a Gothic people, or a branch of that race, some of whom, in the migration of the Goths, settled in an island at the mouth of the Vistula, [7:10:471]which they called Gepidos, after their own name, which signifies lazy or slothful; whilst others established themselves in Dacia, and called their settlement there Gepidia.
GERA, a city, the capital of the principality of Reuss. It stands in a beautiful valley on the river Elster, and has several public buildings, 850 houses, with 9050 inhabitants. It is a place of considerable manufacturing industry in linen, woollen, and cotton goods, and in brewing and distilling. Long. 12. 58. 41. E. Lat. 50. 23. 32. N.
GERARDE, John, a surgeon in London, and the greatest botanist of his time, was many years chief gardener to Lord Burghley, who was himself a great lover of plants, and had the best collection of any nobleman in the kingdom, amongst which were a great number of exotics introduced by Gerarde. In 1597 the latter published his Herbal, which was printed at the expense of J. Norton, who procured from Frankfort the same blocks in wood which were used in the herbal of Tabernaeniontanus. In 1663, Thomas Johnson, an apothecary, published an improved edition of Gerarde’s book, which met with such approbation in the university of Oxford that they conferred upon him the degree of doctor of physic. The descriptions in the Herbal are plain and familiar; and both these authors have laboured more to make their readers understand the characters of the plants than to inform them that they themselves understood Greek and Latin. The Herbal of Gerarde is now considered only as a literary curiosity. The figures in general express very accurately the characters of the plants which they are intended to represent.
GERGONG, or Gherghong, a city of Assam, and formerly the principal town of that country, situated on the Dekhow river, one of the numerous tributary streams of the [7:10:472]- Brahmapootra. It occupied formerly a very large space, every house being surrounded by a garden, and the rajah’s palace being encompassed by a stockade of bamboos and a wet ditch; so that the city covered a space of nearly ten miles. The city, palaces, and fort are now a heap of ruins. Long. 94. 40. E. Lat. 26. 55. N.
GERMAIN-EN-LAYE, St, a city of France, in the department of the Seine and Oise, and arrondissement of Versailles, twelve miles from Paris. It is built on a slope rising from the river Seine. In the environs are some fine woods surrounding a park, in which is the royal palace, the birthplace of Louis XIV., and where our King James II. held his court after his loss of the British crown. The city contains about 12,000 inhabitants, some of whom are employed in tanneries and hosiery, and many in cultivating garden vegetables for the supply of the metropolis. Long. 2. 7.35. E. Lat. 48. 50. 37. N.
GERMAINS, St, a borough and market-town of Cornwall, in the hundred of East Cornwall, 227 miles from London. It was at one time, from 981 to 1049, the see of a bishop, and the ancient cathedral is still used as the parish church: the ruins of the episcopal palace may also be traced near the town. Two members are returned to parliament, chosen by the inhabitants within the borough, which is of very contracted limits. There is a market on Friday, but it is thinly attended. The population amounted in 1801 to 2030, in 1811 to 2139, in 1821 to 2404, and in 1831 to 2586.
GERMAN, in matters of genealogy, signifies whole, entire, or own. Germani, quasi eadem stirpe geniti. Hence brother-german denotes a brother both by the father’s and mother’s side, in contradistinction to uterine brothers, who are so only by the mother’s side; or brothers consanguinean, who are so by the father’s side alone. Cousins-german are those in the first or nearest degree, being the children of brothers or sisters. Amongst the Romans we find no instance of marriage between cousins-german before the time of the Emperor Claudius, when they were very frequent. Theodosius prohibited such marriages under very severe penalties, including even fine and proscription.
GERMANIA. See Germany.
GERMANO, St, a city of the province Terra di Lavoro, in the kingdom of Naples. It stands at the foot of the mountain on which the magnificent convent of Monte Cassino is built. It contains 4839 inhabitants. It is remarkable as the spot where the battle was fought, in 1815, in which Nugent scattered and destroyed the army of Murat.
GERMANTOWN, a post-town of North America, in the state of Pennsylvania, and county of Philadelphia. It is pleasantly situated about seven miles north of Philadelphia, the capital. Most of the houses are built in one continuous line of street, which is about two miles in length. This place possesses considerable manufactures, and a population of about 5000.
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GERMEN, the seed-bud, defined by Linnaeus to be the base of the pistillum, which contains the rudiments of the seed, and, in progress of vegetation, swells and becomes the seed-vessel. In assimilating the vegetable and animal kingdoms, Linnaeus denominates the seèd-bud the ovarium or uterus of plants; and affirms that it exists chiefly at the time of the dispersion of the màle dust by the anther®, since, after its impregnation, it becomes a seed-vessel. Germen, by Pliny and the ancient botanists, is used to signify a bud containing the rudiments of the leaves.
GERMINATION, amongst botanists, comprehends the precise time which the seeds take to rise after they have been committed to the soil. The different species of seeds are longer or shorter in rising according to the degree of heat which is proper to each. Millet, wheat, and several of the grasses, rise in one day; blite, spinach, beans, mustard, kidney beans, turnips, and rocket, in three days; lettuce and dill, in four; cucumber, gourd, melon, and fress, in five; radish and beet, in six; barley, in seven; orach, in eight; purslain, in nine; cabbage, in ten; hyssop, in thirty; parsley, in forty or fifty days; peach, almond, walnut, chestnut, peony, horned poppy, hypecoum, and ranunculus falcatus, in one year; rose bush, cornel tree, hawthorn, medlar, and hazel nut, in two. The seeds of some species of orchis, and of some liliaceous plants, never rise at aD. Of seeds, some require to be sown almost as soon as they are ripe, otherwise they will not sprout or germinate; and of this kind are the seeds of coffee and fraxinella. Others, particularly those of the pea-bloom flowers, preserve their germinating faculty for a series of years.
GERONA, a city of Spain, in the province of Catalonia. It is situated on the river Ter, at its confluence with the Oña, and is a strongly fortified city, of great celebrity in the military history of Catalonia, by the sieges it has sustained at various periods. None of the resistances it has made, or indeed of those made by any other city, surpasses the obstinate defence which it sustained against the armies of France during the late war. It is the see of a bishop, and has a magnificent cathedral, with many other substantial public buildings. The diocese of Gerona was one of the best cultivated and most flourishing districts of Spain. The portion of it on the sea coast abounds in wheat, wines, and vinegar; the sides of the mountains are covered with vineyards and olive gardens, and the tops yield the best oaks and other useful trees. The ravages of war have been very severely felt; but the fertility of the soil, and the industry of the inhabitants, will, it is hoped, speedily repair the injuries it has endured. Its inhabitants amount to 14,000. It is in north latitude 42. 0. S.
GERONTES, in Antiquity, a kind of judges, or magistrates, in ancient Sparta, answering to what the Areopagites were at Athene. The word is Greek, ytļm, and signifies an old man, whence also the words gerontie, some thing belonging to an old man; and Geronieon, a famous book amongst the modern Greeks, containing the lives of the ancient monks. The senate of Gerontes was called Gerusia, that is, an assembly or council of old men. The Gerontes were originally instituted by Lycurgus ;' and their number, according to some, was twenty-eight, but according to others, thirty-two. They governed in conjunction with the king, whose authority they were intended to balance, and also to watch over the interests of the people. Polybius defines their office in few words, when he says, per ipsos, et cum ipsis, omnia administrari. None were to be admitted into this office under sixty years of age, and they held it for life. The Gerontes were succeeded by the Ephori.
GERS, a department in the south-west of France, formed out of Condomois, Armagnac, and Comminges, portions of ancient Gascony. It is bounded on the north by the department of the Landes and of Lot-Garonne, on the east by Tarn-Garonne and Upper Garonne, on the south by Upper Garonne, Upper Pyrenees, and Lower Pyrenees, and on the west by the Landes.

The extent is 2717 square miles, or, according to the Royal Almanack, 623,719 hectares. It is divided into five arrondissements, twenty-nine cantons, and 685 communes, which are inhabited by 312,160 persons. The whole surface of the department is covered with hills, between which are some pleasant valleys, but no plains; but none of those hills exceed 1200 feet in height, and they are a kind of spurs or projections from the mass of the Pyrenees. The soil is generally clayey, but intermixed, with stripes of calcareous and sandy land. The melting of the snows on the Pyrenees in the months of May and June causes great injury to the land, before it passes by the beds of the various rivers and rivulets which empty themselves into the Adour. The inhabitants are a lively, cheerful race, simple in their dress, food, and houses, and speak the Gascon language, which is a mixture of Latin, Italian, and Spanish, rich in diphthongs and vowels. Garlic and onions are abundantly cultivated, and form an important portion of the aliment of the inhabitants. Agriculture is in a backward state, and barely produces sufficient corn for the scanty consumption of those who use it. The meadows are about a tenth part of the land, but, from neglect, furnish only a scanty provision for the cattle, which are by no means distinguished for their good qualities. The number of cattle was in 1801 as follows :—11,710 horses, 3020 mules, 171,506 cows, oxen, and calves, 517,380 sheep, and 37,500 pigs. The sheep yield only coarse wool. Fruit is cultivated negligently, and the produce of the vineyards is barely sufficient for the department, and is of bad quality. Brandy is made, and is almost the only article exported; some of it is highly prized. The forests have been wasted, and now scarcely yield sufficient fuel for the inhabitants. There is little manufacturing industry, and no trade with other [7:10:491]districts, excepting the export of some brandy, and of a few cows, calves, sheep, and lambs.
GERTOKH, a town of Thibet, and a mart for the exchange of the productions of Nepaul with those of the country. The imports consist of grain, oil, sugar, cottons, chintzes, iron, brass, lead, dates, almonds, peaches, &c.; and from Gertokh are exported for the Cashmerian market, shawl wool, to Nepaul and Hindustan gold dust, silver, musk, scented leather, shawls, China ware, tea, salt, borax, &c.
GERVAISE, or Gervase, of Tilbury, an historian of the thirteenth century, was a native of Tilbury in Essex, and nephew of Henry II. The exact date of his birth has not been ascertained. Having visited part of Europe, he arrived, about the year 1208, at the court of Otho IV. emperor of Germany, who, being descended by his mother from an illustrious family in England, received Gervase with the greatest distinction, made him one of his orators, then nominated him chancellor, and, lastly, appointed him marshal of the kingdom of Arles. Gervase died about the year 1218. His productions are, 1. Otia Imperialia, libri tres, a work which is also known under the titles Mappa sive Descriptio Mundi, and De Mirabilibus Orbis; 2. Illustrationes Galfridi Monemuthensis, libri iv.; 3. Historia Terrae Sanctae; 4. De Origine Burgundiorum; 5. Facetiarum liber, dedicated to Henry II. of England; 6. Tricoumnium Angliae; and, 7. Metrica Descriptio Balneorum Puteolanorum. The compilation of the Exchequer book, entitled Liber Niger Saccarii, was ascribed to Gervase; but Madox, who published a correct edition of this Black Book, attributes it to Richard Nelson, bishop of London. There are two manuscript copies of this work; one in the Exchequer, presented, according to Strype, by Archbishop Parker; and another in Caius College, Cambridge, which is supposed to have been the original, whence the archbishop’s copy was transcribed. Bale and Pitts differ considerably in their accounts of Gervase’s works, the greater part of which still remain in manuscript, and are but little known.
GERUND, in Grammar, a verbal noun of the neuter gender, partaking of the nature of a participle, but declinable only in the singular number, through all the cases except the vocative. The word is formed from the Latin gerundivus, and that from the verb gerere, to bear. The gerund expresses not only the time, but also the manner of an action; as, he fell in running post. It differs from the participle in this, that it expresses the time, which the participle does not; and from the tense properly so called, in expressing the manner, which the tense does not. See Grammar.