482 



GWEEDORE 



GYMNASTICS 



There are Hindu temples, a Hindu palace, Jain 

 caves, and rock sculptures. Pop. (1891) 104,083. 



Gweedore. a hamlet in a poverty-stricken dis- 

 trict 3 miles inland from the west coast of Donegal, 

 28 miles NW. of Letterkenny. 



Gwillim. See GUILLIM. 



Gwyniad (Corcgonus clupeoides), a small fresh- 

 water fish, sometimes called the Fresh-water Her- 

 ring. When full grown the gwyniad is about 10 

 or 12 inches in length ; the first dorsal fin is high ; 

 the jaws are a little produced ; the mouth is small, 

 and the jaws are without teeth. It is found 



Gwj'niad (Coregonus clupeoides). 



in some of the lakes of Wales and Cumberland. 

 Gwyniad is a Welsh name, while at Ullswater the 

 fish is called Schelly. It occurs in that lake in 

 great shoals, so that many hundreds are sometimes 

 taken at a single draught of the net. It is rather 

 an insipid fish, and cannot be kept long after being 

 taken out of the water, unless salted, which it 

 often is by the poor. There are numerous nearly- 

 related species, such as the Irish 'pollan' (C. 

 pollan), the ' powan ' of Loch Lomond, the ' ven- 

 dace' (C. vandesius) of Lochmaben, and the 'white 

 fish ' of North American lakes. See COREGONUS. 



Gwyiin, NELL. See CHARLES II. 



Gyarmat-Balassa, or BALASSA-GYARMAT, a 

 town of Hungary, 40 miles IS. by E. of Pesth. 

 Here peace was concluded between Austria and 

 Turkey in 1626. Pop. 6788. 



Gyges, king of Lydia, who obtained the throne 

 by murdering his master, King Candaules, and 

 marrying his widow. This happened about 687 B.C. 

 Gyges reigned thirty-four years, during the course 

 of which he wrested Magnesia and Colophon from 

 the Ionian Greeks, lent assistance to Psammetichus 

 in his revolt in Egypt against Assyria, and, after 

 stoutly defending himself for some time against the 

 Cimmerians, was at last slain by them (654 B.C.). 

 Plato has a fable in which Gyges, having miracu- 

 lously obtained possession of a golden ring of great 

 virtue, was enabled by means of it to make him- 

 self invisible, and thus took occasion to murder his 

 sovereign and usurp the supreme power. 



Gymnasium. This word (from gymnos, 

 'naked') was applied to those public places or build- 

 ings where the Greek youths exercised themselves, 

 fittedup with running and wrestling grounds, baths, 

 and rooms or halls for conversation and discussion. 

 These were the favourite resort of youth, and for 

 this reason were frequented by teachers, especi- 

 ally philosophers. The three great gymnasia of 

 Athens were the Academy, where Plato taught ; 

 the Lyceum, where Aristotle laboured ; and the 

 Cynosarges. In this connection it is easy to under- 

 stand the transference of the name to institutions 

 for the mental disciplining and instruction of youth. 

 The German gymnasium is an upper school where 

 instruction is carried out largely by means of the 

 classical tongues, preparing its pupils for the univer- 

 sity, and corresponding roughly to the grammar 

 and public schools of England, and the grammar 



and high schools of Scotland. See EDUCATION, 

 Vol. IV. p. 208. 



Gymnastics. According to the derivation and 

 original use of the word Gymnastics (gymnos, 

 ' naked or stripped ' ) all athletic exercises might be 

 included under this head, but the term is now much 

 more restricted in its application. It excludes 

 athletic sports, and all outdoor games such as 

 cricket, football, and lawn-tennis, and is limited 

 to certain exercises devised to strengthen the 

 muscles and bones, especially those of the upper 

 half of the body. 



Gymnastic games in their original sense are so 

 old as to be prehistoric ; they are alluded to in the 

 2d and 23d books of the Iliad. Before the time of 

 Hippocrates gymnastic exercises had been adopted 

 in Greece as part of the course of medicine intended 

 to counteract increasing luxury and indolence. 

 The various exercises were speedily combined 

 into a system, and gymnasia, where they should 

 be practised, were formed first by the Lace- 

 daemonians, and subsequently at Athens. The 

 Romans adopted the system, and constructed 

 gymnasia on a magnificent scale. Many of their 

 buildings, having extensive baths attached, were 

 known as thermae. The exercises in the gymnasia 

 consisted of running, leaping, dancing, wrestling,. 

 boxing, hurling, &c. ; and in those days, when all 

 men bore arms, and when, in close combat, victory 

 went generally to the strongest man, these games 

 were doubtless of great value. In subsequent ages 

 of knightly prowess similar exercises were probably 

 practised, though less publicly ; but with the intro- 

 duction of gunpowder, and through its means, the 

 gradual substitution of fighting at a distance in 

 which science and skill were the main requisites 

 for personal encounters where strength and muscle 

 went far to carry the day, the attention paid to 

 gymnastics decreased, and finally vanished alto- 

 gether. To make infantry soldiers perfect in the 

 drilled movements of masses, cavalry soldiers good 

 horsemen and fair swordsmen, and to have gunners, 

 who could take an accurate aim became the utmost 

 sought by the possessors of great armies ; while the 

 science of gymnastics, having gone out of repute 

 for the military, was speedily neglected in merely 

 civil life. It is only since the earlier portion of the 

 19th century that the science has at all revived. 



The revival commenced in Germany, where, in 

 1774 and 1784, gymnasia were opened by Basedow 

 (q.v. ) and Salzmann at Dessau and Schnepfenthal 

 in Thiiringen, that of the latter being under the 

 superintendence of the celebrated gymnastic peda- 

 gogue Guts Muths (q.v.). In 1811 Friedrich Lud- 

 wig Jahn (1778-1852), the so-called 'Turnvater,' 

 or father of gymnastics, opened the first ' turn- 

 platz ' at Berlin, and he rendered the science of 

 gymnastics so popular that it speedily attracted 

 the attention of the youth throughout the king- 

 dom, and to the training thus obtained must be 

 attributed, in no small degree, the vigour which 

 succeeded in driving out the French army of the 

 first empire. Sweden soon imitated Prussia, and 

 from that time gymnastics has formed a prominent 

 feature in the Scandinavian course of education. 

 In Prussia the gymnasia began to be the scenes of 

 political gatherings, too liberal in tendency to please 

 its semi-military government ; and in 1818 they 

 were all closed. The troops were, however, con- 

 tinued in gymnastic exercises, and showed so clearly 

 the advantages of the training they experienced 

 that, about 1844, Louis-Philippe adopted and im- 

 proved the system in the Frencn army. From that 

 time gymnasia have been constructed for almost all 

 continental armies, and, with more or less success, 

 for the civil population. England moved publicly 

 in the matter in 1860, in which year Major (after- 

 wards Major-general) Hammersley, the 'father of 



