190 



GERMEN 



GERSAU 



./ESTHETICS, BIOGRAPHY, DRAMA, Music, PHILO- 

 SOPHY, PLATT-DEUTSCH, ROMANTICISM ; and for 

 the German printed character, BLACK LETTER. 



Language. The standard authority on German Lexico- 

 graphy is the great Deutsches Worterbuch, begun in 1852 

 by the brothers Grimm, and still in progress, under the 

 care of Moriz Heyne, Rudolf Hildebrand, Matthias Lexer, 

 Karl Weigand, and E. Wiilcker. Admirable books are 

 the Dictionaries by D. Sanders (1860-65) and Kluge 

 (1882), and the smaller books by Sanders (3d ed. 1883) 

 and Weigand (4th ed. 1882), the latter the best of all 

 the smaller dictionaries. Other successors of the Grimnis 

 were Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Uhland, Schmeller, Graff, 

 Massmann, W. Wackernagel, M. Haupt, R. v. Raumer, 

 Fr. Pfeiffer, Holtzmann, Miillenhoff, Zarncke. Bartsch, 

 Wernhold, Paul, and Sievers ; as well as, in the wider 

 sense, Bopp and Schleicher. A few special books that 

 may merely be named are Lexer's Mittelliochdeutsches 

 Handworterbach (1869-78); Dieffenbach and Wulcker's 

 Hoch- und Nieder- Deutsches Worterbuch der Mittleren 

 und Neueren Zeit (1874-85); O. Schade's Altdeutsches 

 Worterbuch (2d ed. Halle, 1873-81); Grimm's Deutsche 

 Grammatik, edited by W. Scherer (Berlin, 1869-78) ; H. 

 Riickert's Geschichte der Neuhochdeutschen Schriftsprache 

 ( 1875 ) ; R. v. Raumer, Geschichte der Germanischen 

 Philologie (1870) ; Tromel, Die Litteratur der Deutschen 

 Mundarten (bibliographical, Halle, 1884); and Strong 

 and Meyer's History of the German Language ( 1886). 



Literature. See W. Scherer's Geschichte der Deutschen 

 Litteratur ( Berlin, 1883 ), of which the Clarendon Press at 

 Oxford has published a translation (2 vols. 1886) ; Kober- 

 stein's Grundriss der Ges. der,Deut. Nationallitteratur 

 1 6th ed. 5 vols. Leip. 1872-74 ) ; Vilmar's Gesch. der Deut. 

 Nationallitteratur (22d ed. 2 vols. 1885); Stern's Lexi- 

 con der Deutschen Litteratur (1882); and works by 

 Wackernagel, Kurz, Gervinus ( German poetry ), Goedeke 

 (poetry), Roquette, Koenig (illustrated), and Gottschall ; 

 for literature of 18th century, Hettner, Hillebrand, and 

 Biedermann ; for literature of 19th century, Julian 

 Schmidt. Taylor of Norwich, Coleridge, De Quincey, 

 Carlyle, and Lewes did much to spread the taste for 

 German literature in England. See also Metcalfe's 

 Hist. ofGer. Lit. (1858, based on Vilmar); W. Menzel's 

 History of German Literature ( trans. 4 vols. 1840 ) ; Bayard 

 Taylor's Studies in Ger. Lit. (1879); and Hallam's -Lit. 

 Hist, of Europe in the Middle Ages. Among more 

 recent books are Gostwick and Harrison's Outlines of 

 German Literature ('2d ed. Lond 1883); A. M. Selss's 

 Critical Outline of Lit. of Germany (trans. Lond. 1884); 

 and W. M. MacCallum's Studies in High German and 

 Low German Literature (1889). 



Germen, a disused botanical synonym for 

 Ovary (q.v. ). 



Germersheim, a town of the Bavarian Palat- 

 inate, occupies a marshy site on the left bank of 

 the Rhine, 8 miles SSW. of Spires. Founded in 

 1276, it fell into the hands of the French in 1644, 

 1674, and 1688 ; and in 1793 the Austrians here 

 defeated the French. Pop. 6132. 



Germinal, the ' budding ' month ( March-April ) 

 in the French revolutionary Calendar (q.v.). 



Germination ( Lat. germinatio, ' sprouting ' ), 

 the beginning of growth in a seed, or of the devel- 

 opmental process by which it is converted into a 

 new plant. See SEED; also, for cryptogamic 

 plants, FERNS, FUNGI, &c. 



Germ Theory. See GERM. 



Ge"r6me, LEON, French historical genre-painter, 

 was born at Vesoul, llth May 1824, and in 1841 

 entered the studio of Paul Delaroche at Paris, at 

 the same time attending the School of the Fine 

 Arts. He began to exhibit in 1847 ; in 1855, 1857, 

 and 1864 he travelled in the East ; and in 1863 he 

 was appointed professor of Painting in the School of 

 the Fine Arts. His first great picture, ' The Age 

 of Augustus and the Birth of Christ,' was exhibited 

 in 1855 ; and four years later his ' Roman Gladiators 

 in the Amphitheatre ' raised to the highest pitch 

 his reputation as a colourist and painter of the 

 human figure, a reputation which was still further 

 enhanced by 'Phryne before her Judges' (1861). 



In the same year he exhibited, among other pic- 

 tures, 'Socrates searching for Alcibiades at the 

 House of Aspasia,' 'The Two Augurs,' and a por- 

 trait of Rachel. 'Louis XIV. and Moliere,' 'The 

 Prisoner,' 'Cleopatra and Caesar,' 'The Death of 

 Caesar,' 'The Plague at Marseilles,' 'Death of St 

 Jerome,' 'Lioness meeting a Jaguar,' 'RexTibicen' 

 (1874), and ' L'Eminence Grise ' (1874) are among 

 the best known of his subsequent works. See Mrs 

 C. H. Stranahan, History of French Painting ( 1889). 



Gerona (anc. Gerunda), capital of the Spanish 

 province of the same name, is situated 65 miles by 

 rail NE. of Barcelona. It contains a beautiful 

 Gothic cathedral of the 14th and 15th centuries. 

 The inhabitants carry on the manufacture of 

 paper, cork-cutting, spinning, and weaving. The 

 fortifications are now of little value. Pop. 15,015. 

 The town was formerly a place of great strength, 

 and has undergone several notable sieges, particu- 

 larly in 1653, 1684, 1694, 1706, and 1809, on each 

 occasion by the French. The province of Gerona 

 measures 2271 sq. m. in extent, and had in 1883 a 

 pop. of 301,536. 



Gerry, ELBRIDGE, American statesman, was 

 born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, 17th July 

 1744, graduated at Harvard in 1762, and was 

 elected to the Massachusetts Assembly in 1772. 

 He was a member of the Continental Congress of 

 1776, and served on several important committees ; 

 and in 1789 the Republican party elected him to 

 the first National Congress. He was one of the 

 envoys sent in 1797 to establish diplomatic relations 

 with France. His colleagues, Marshall and Pinck- 

 ney, being Federalists, were ordered to quit France, 

 but Gerry was permitted to remain ; and he did 

 remain, to the indignation of Americans, until his 

 recall was ordered. Elected governor of Massa- 

 chusetts in 1810, Gerry, who was a keen partisan, 

 removed the holders of civil offices and replaced 

 them with Republicans ; and he unfairly rearranged 

 the districts or the state so as to secure the advan- 

 tage to his own party a manoeuvre for which his 

 opponents coined the word gerrymander. He was 

 defeated in 1812, but his party rewarded his zeal 

 by electing him to the vice-presidency of the United 

 States, in which office he died, 23d November 

 1814, at Washington. There is a Life by James T. 

 Austin (2 vols. Boston, 1828-29). 



Gers, a department in the south-west of France, 

 separated by Landes from the Bay of Biscay, with 

 an area of 2415 sq. m., a climate healthy and tem- 

 perate, a soil only moderately productive, no mineral 

 riches, scarcely any trade, and an agricultural popu- 

 lation, among whom education has not risen above 

 a very low level. In 1861 there were 298,931 inhabit- 

 ants, but the number has since steadily decreased ; 

 in 1881 it had fallen to 281,532 ; in 1891 to 261,084. 

 There are parallel lines of hills in the south, separ- 

 ated by fan-shaped valleys which expand as they 

 extend towards the plains in the north. The Gers 

 and other principal rivers are tributaries of the 

 Garonne and Adour. One-half of the surface is 

 devoted to agriculture, and nearly a sixth to vine- 

 yards. Wine of very moderate quality is produced 

 in considerable quantity ; great part of it is con- 

 verted into Armagnac brandy, which, after Cognac, 

 is esteemed the best. The department has five 

 arrondissements, those of Auch, Condom, Lectoure, 

 Lombez, and Mirande ; the capital is Auch. 



Gersail, a village in the Swiss canton of 

 Schwyz, on the Lake of Lucerne, and near the foot 

 of the Rigi. Pop. (1888) 1846. From 1390 till it 

 was absorbed by the French in the Helvetian 

 Republic ( 1798) the village and its territory, 5 miles 

 square, was an independent republic. In 1817 it 

 became part of Schwyz. See Coolidge in the EngL 

 Histor. Review, July 1888. 



