438 



GUAIRA 



GUANAJUATO 



rulers, pestles, and bowls (see BOWLS) are among 

 the articles most commonly made of it. When 

 rubbed or heated, it emits a faint disagreeable 

 aromatic smell ; its taste is also pungent and 

 aromatic. Shavings and raspings of the wood are 

 bought by apothecaries for medicinal use. The 

 bark is also used in medicine on the continent of 

 Europe, although not in Britain. The virtues of 

 both wood and bark depend chiefly on the resin 

 which they contain, and which is itself used in 

 powder, pill, and tincture. It is an acrid stimu- 

 lant, and has been employed with advantage in 

 chronic rheumatism, in chronic skin diseases, in 

 certain cases of scanty and painful menstruation 

 (and hence it is occasionally an effectual remedy 

 in cases of sterility), and in chronic catarrh. It 

 has also been highly praised as a preventive of 

 gout. The resin is an ingredient of the well- 

 known Plummer's Pills. In the 16th and 17th 

 centuries Guaiacum was the remedy most in repute 

 for syphilis. It is used in testing Blood-stains 

 (q.v. ). The resin sometimes flows spontaneously 

 from the stem of the Guaiacum tree ; it is some- 

 times obtained artificially. It is of a greenish- 

 brown colour, and has a brilliant resinous fracture. 



Guaiacum officinale. 



It has scarcely any taste, but leaves a burn- 

 ing sensation in the mouth. One of its most 

 striking characteristics is that it is coloured blue 

 by its oxidising agents. It contains gxaiacic acid,, 

 IfOC 12 H 7 O 5 , which closely resembles benzoic acid, 

 &id' yields, on distillation, certain definite com- 

 J>6unds known as guaiacin, pyroguaiacin, and 

 hydride of guaiacyl. 



,, Gliaira, LA, the port of Caracas (q.v.), on a 

 narrow, shadeless strip of land between the moun- 

 tains and , the Caribbean Sea. Efforts have been 

 made to improve the harbour by the construction 

 of a breakwater and wharves. The average value 

 of the imports is almost 1,000,000, and that of the 

 exports nearly as much. Pop. (1887), with two 

 neighbouring villages, 15,293. La Guaira is often 

 referred to in Kingsley's Westward Ho ! 



Gualeguay, a town of Entre Rios, Argentine 

 Kepublicy on the Gualeguay River, which flows into 

 a tributary ' of , the ;Para'a, : there is a railway (7 

 viiles) to Puerto-film at, its mouth. The town has 

 A tannery, steafa-mills, and large slaughter-houses 

 and beef-salting, establishments. Pop. 11,000. 



; Glialegliaycllll. a town ofEntre Rios, Argen- 

 tine Republic, on the G-uaHegtrfly-chii River, which 

 enters the Uruguay 11 miles' below. Besides 

 Slaughtering ' ahd 1 halting 1 ; works! it feas an extract- 



Guam, an island, the largest of the Lad rones 

 (q.v.). It belongs to the United States. 



CJliail, or YACOU (Penelope), a genus of large 

 game-birds (Gallinae) of the family Cracidae, 



Guan (Penelope cristata). 



among the representatives in the New World of 

 the grouse and pheasants in the Old. It is repre- 

 sented by fourteen species distributed from southern 

 Texas through Mexico to Paraguay. The guans 

 are graceful birds, with long tails, handsome, 

 variegated plumage, bare, dilatable patches of 

 skin on the throat, and naked spaces round the 

 eyes. They live mostly on trees, but come to the 

 ground for their food of fruits, berries, and insects. 

 The Spanish call them squalling pheasants, from 

 their loud, frequent cries. Their flesh is much 

 esteemed, and they fall a constant and easy prey 

 to the hunter. 



Guanabacoa, a city of Cuba, lying in a small 

 fertile plain among rocky hills, about 3 miles E. 

 by S. of Havana, with which it is connected by 

 rail and high-road. In the vicinity are mineral 

 baths, and traces of copper and iron. Pop. (1899) 

 13,965. 



Guaiiaco. See HUANACO. 



Guaiiajay, a city of Cuba, in a well cultivated 

 region, 35 miles by rail WSW. of Havana, and ?i 

 miles from Mariel, a port on the north coast. Pop. 

 (1S99)6483 ; 



Guanajuato* an inland state of Mexico ; area, 

 12,500 sq. in. The surface is largely included in the 

 lofty plateau of Anahuac (q.v. ) ; the Sierra de Gonla 

 traverses the north part, and the Sierra de Guana- 

 juato ( 1 1,030 feet) the centre ; the south-west portion 

 belongs to the fertile plain of Bajio. Valuable min- 

 eral products constitute the main wealth; numer- 

 ous mines of gold, silver, lead, copper, and mercury 

 are still worked. Stock-raising is of some import- 

 ance, but agriculture is little pursued, although the 

 soil yields most temperate and tropical products ; 

 chillies (see CAPSICUM) form a noteworthy export. 

 Foreigners have established large cotton and woollen 

 factories. Pop. (1893) 1,007,116. GUANAJUATO, 

 the capital, in a district honey-combed "with mines, 

 is mainly a mining-town. It is curiously situated on 

 both sides of a deep ravine, traversed by a mountain- 

 stream that in the rainy season is swelled into a 

 foaming torrent. The streets are narrow and tor- 

 tuous ; of the houses, which frequently are of 

 four or five stories, the handsomest belong to the 

 wealthy mine owners. It has a large government 

 palace, a mint, barracks, a cathedral, several con- 

 vents and colleges, an art-school, the Alhondiga 

 (a public granary), and several amalgamation works, 

 others lining the canon for several miles ; there 



