GARXISHEE. 



(U& 



The mercury compound (C,H,S,2HgS + C,H,Cl,2HgCl) ia decomposed 

 on being distilled with sulphocyanide of potassium, sulphide of allyl 

 being reproduced together with sulphocyonide uf allyl (oil of mustard). 



Other plants besides garlic contain sulphide of allyl ; see ESSENTIAL 

 OILS, alliaria, crrtt, onion, radith, Ac. 



GAKN I s 1 1 1-: I :. [ATTACHiiKtT.J 



QARTEK, ORDER OP THE, one of the most ancient and illus- 

 trious of the military orders of knighthood in Europe, was founded by 

 King Edward III. The precise year of its institution has been <\\- 

 puted, though all authorities agree that it was established at Windsor 

 after the celebration of a tournament Froissart says, Edward esta- 

 blished the order on resolving to rebuild Windsor Castle, " which King 

 Arthur bad founded in time past," and fixed the first celebration of 

 the order on " St. George's day next ensuing," that is April 23. 1344. 

 Walsingham and Fabyao agree with this as the date of its foundation. 

 Stow, who, according to Ashmole, is corroborated by the statutes of 

 the Order, says 1350. Camden says it was founded after the battle of 

 Crecy, at which Edward displayed his garter as a signal for the attack. 

 The precise cause of the origin or formation of the Order is likewise 

 not distinctly known. The common story respecting the fall of the 

 Countess of Salisbury's garter at a ball, which was picked up by the 

 king, and his retort to those who smiled at the action, Soni toil qui 

 mat y pane, which afterwards became the motto of the order, is not 

 entirely given up as fable. A tradition certainly obtained as far back 

 as the time of Henry VI. that this Order received its origin from the 

 fair sex. Ashmole's opinion was, that the Garter was selected at once 

 as a symbol of union and a compliment to the ladies. 



This Order was founded in honour of the Holy Trinity, the Virgin 

 Mary, St. George, and St. Edward the Confessor. St. George, who 

 had become the tutelary saint of England, was considered as its especial 

 patron and protector. It was originally composed of twenty-five 

 knights, and the sovereign (who nominates the other knights), twenty- 

 six in all. This number received no alteration till the reign of George 

 III., when it was directed that princes of the royal family and illus- 

 trious foreigners on whom the honour might be conferred should not 

 be included. The number of these extra-knights was fifteen in 1860. 

 The military knights of Windsor are also considered as an adjunct of 

 the Order of the Garter. 



The officers of the Order are a prelate, who is always the Bishop of 

 Winchester; a chancellor, who till 1837 was the Bishop of Salisbury, 

 but is now the Bishop of Oxford, in consequence of Berkshire, and of 

 course Windsor, being transferred to that diocese ; a registrar, who is 

 the Dean of Windsor ; garter principal king-at-anns of the Order ; and 

 a gentleman usher of the black rod. The chapter ought to meet every 

 year on St. George's day, in St. George's chapel, Windsor, where the 

 installations of the Order are held, and in which the banners of the 

 several knights are suspended. 



The original dress of the Knights of the Garter was a mantle, tunic, 

 and capuchin or hood, of the fashion of the time, all of blue cloth ; 

 those of the knights companions differing only from the sovereign's by 

 the tunic being lined with miniver instead of ermine. All the three 

 garments were embroidered with garters of blue and gold, the mantle 

 having one larger than all the rest on the left shoulder. The dress 

 underwent various changes. Henry VIII. remodelled both it and the 

 statutes of the Order, and gave the knights the collar, and the greater 

 and lesser George, as at present worn. The last alteration in the dress 

 took place in the reign of Charles II. : the principal parts of it consist 

 of a mantle of dark blue velvet lined with white tati'eta, and a surcoat 

 of crimson velvet lined with white taffeta ; a hood of crimson velvet ; 

 a cap or hat of black velvet lined with white taffeta, with an ostrich 

 and heron plume; the stockings are of white silk, and the garter, 

 which is of dark blue velvet, having the motto embroidered in gold 

 letters, is worn under the left knee. The collar is of gold, of twenty- 

 six pieces, each in the form of a garter, enamelled azure, appended to 

 which is " the greater George," a figure of St. George encountering 

 the dragon. The badge is a gold medallion representing St. George 

 and the dragon, which is worn suspended over the left shoulder by a 

 blue ribbon ; hence it is a form of speech to say, when an individual 

 has been appointed a knight of the garter, that he has received the 

 blue ribbon. There is also a star of eight points argent, St. George's 

 cross in the centre gules, encircled with the garter, worn on the left 

 'breast The fashion of wearing the blue ribbon suspended from the 

 left shoulder was adopted in the latter part of the reign of Charles II. 



It is not generally known that, from the first institution of the 

 Order of the Garter to at least as late as the reign of Edward IV., 

 ladies were admitted to a participation in the honours of the fraternity. 

 The queen, some of the knights-companions' wives, and other great 

 ladies, had robes and hoods of the gift of the sovereign, the former 

 garnished with little embroidered garters. The ensign of the garter 

 was also delivered to them, and they were expressly termed Dame* tie 

 la JratrritiU <lc St. fieunje. The splendid appearance of Queen i'hi ii|>| 

 at the first grand feast of the Order is noticed by Froisaart Two 

 monuments also are still existing which bear figures of ladies wearing 

 the garter: the Duchess of Suffolk's, at Ewelme, in Oxfordshire, of 

 the time of Henry VI., represents her wearing it on the wrist, in the 

 manner of a bracelet; Lady Harcourt, at Stan ton Haroourt, in Oxford- 

 shire, of the time of Edwaid IV., wean the garter on her left arm 

 above the ell o-.v. 



When Queen Anne attended the thanksgiving at St Paul's in 

 and again in 1704, she wore the garter set with diamonds, as sovereign 

 of the Order, tied round her left arm. 



GAS, a term originally employed by chemists as synonymous with 

 air. It was first used in a very general sense by Van Helmont ; but in 

 consequence of the great number of permanently-elastic fluids dis- 

 covered by Priestley, so different in their properties from common air, 

 and in order to avoid any confusion from the use of the same v. 

 express both, Macquer employed the term gas, which has been uni- 

 versally adopted to distinguish from mere vapours all such elastic 

 fluids as had not been rendered liquid or solid by reducing their 

 temperature. 



The experiments of Professor Faraday have however shown that 

 elastic fluids which may be liquefied by reducing the temperature 

 and increasing the pressure, are included in this definition. [GASES, 

 LIQUEFACTION or.] Still however there exists this difference between 

 bodies in the elastic state : vapours generated by the agency of 

 artificial heat are reduced to solids or liquids when the heat is with- 

 drawn ; while gases preserve their aeriform state at common tempe- 

 ratures. It must however be admitted that the difference is one of 

 degree only, and though not an essential one, it is usefully retained. 



The number of gaseous bodies is great, and they possess in many 

 respects such different properties, that it would be impossible to give 

 a general description of them. The qualities therefore peculiar to each 

 gas will be stated under its proper head ; thus it will appear that some 

 gases are elementary or simple in their nature, while by far the greater 

 number are compound bodies ; few of them exist in nature, but are 

 mostly the products of chemical agency. Gases differ as to colour, 

 odour, taste, specific gravity, and solubility in water ; they vary also 

 in their effects upon the animal economy, and in their relations to 

 heat : moat of them are either combustible or supporters of combustion, 

 but one important gas at least belongs to neither class. Their powers 

 of chemical combination are also extremely different ; two gases only 

 possess alkaline properties, whilst there are several gaseous acids. 



One most important circumstance relative to gaseous bodies has been 

 much discussed, and very opposite conclusions have been arrived at 

 respecting it by philosophers of eminence ; it is this, whether all gases, 

 under the same volume and pressure, have the same specific heat 

 That this is the case, has been maintained by Haycraft, and Harcet 

 and Delarive, and some others ; while Dalton, Delaroche and Berard, 

 Dulong and Dr. Apjohn, &c., are of opinion that equal volumes of 

 different gases have not the same specific heat under similar cir- 

 cumstances. 



It would be useless to detail the processes or to describe the 

 apparatus by which chemists and physicists have arrived at such dis- 

 cordant results. The experiments of Delaroche and Berard, which are 

 in general most relied upon, though complicated, were made with great 

 care ; they transmitted known quantities of gas, heated to 212* in a 

 uniform current, through a calorimeter, the serpentine of which was 

 surrounded with water, the temperature of which, as well as of the 

 gas at its exit, being ascertained during the course of the process by 

 very delicate thermometers. These chemists operated with a consider- 

 able quantity of gas, and used other precautions to avoid the errors into 

 which other experimentalists had fallen. 



Tin: following is a statement of the results obtained by Delaroche 

 and Berard, Dulong, and Apjohn, of the specific heats of equal volumes 

 of the gases mentioned, under equal pressures : 



Dr. Apjohn observes that the numbers which he has arrived at 

 correspond tolerably well with those of Delaroche and Berard, except 

 in the case of hydrogen ; and ho admits that he does not speak 

 with much confidence of the numbers attached to nitrogen and 



"\\ L'' IL 



There are some other properties which gases possess in common 

 though they vary in degree. There is however one circumst.ii , 

 which they all agree, whether they are elementary or compound, anl 

 whatever may be the difference of their specific gravity : they are sub- 

 ject to suffer the same increase of volume, when subjected to the same 

 increase of temperature. 



According to Dalton, when 100 volumes of air are heated from 32 

 to 212*, they become 132-5 volumes ; by Gay-Lussac's experiments 

 they increase to 187'5 volumes; by Crichton's to 137 48 : the expan- 

 sion therefore of each volume, according to Dalton is ,\ M , t 

 Lussac jfc, and to Oichton JH } U for one degree of Fahrenheit's ther- 

 mometer. 



The discovery of this law has supplied chemists with a simple rule 

 for determining what the known bulk of a gas at any temperature will 

 be at any otlur temperature. Suppose, for example, it is desi 

 know what the bulk of 100 oubio inh*s of air at 62 will bs at 00 i 



