OENTIANIC ACIR 



GEODESY. 



310 



M the Calarau* aromaticuji of the ancirnU, an opinion from which Dr. 

 Boyle diurnU. (' Flora of the Himalaya.' p. 277.) 



OKNTIANIC ACID (0 .11 ",,r>; Untitntm / crystalline acid 

 extracted from the root of the (ienliana btltm. It u very (lightly 

 oluble in water, little more o in ether, but readily soluble in boiling 

 alcohol. It doe* not redden litmus. Acted npon by nitric acid, it 

 give* nitro-gentianie acid <C,,H,<NO,),0 10 + 2Aq.). 



GKNTIAMX. [OIEXTIAXIC ACID ] 



UKNTLKMAN. a corruption of ytntilhnmmt, our Saxon ance*ton 

 having very early substituted " mon," or " man." for the corresponding 

 term of the Norman-French, from which they originally received the 

 term. Some form of thin word (a compound of <"''''' and homo) i 

 found in all the Romance language* ( ntU-knmme in Krt-n.-li 

 momo in Italian, and t/eniil-kunj>rt in Spanish), and it i* undoubtedly 

 on* of the many trace* of the great influence which the laws and polity 

 of Rome exercised upon modern eociety and civilisation. 



In the earliest form of the Roman constitution the populus, or ruling 

 portion of th community, was divided into genU. who were united by 

 a common name, and the performance of certain aacred righto. Each . 

 gene waa again subdivided into several familue, distinguished by a sur- 

 name in addition to the common gentile appellation. Thus, the gens 

 Cornelia comprised the families of the Scipionea, the Lentuli, the 

 Sylla 1 , &c. Now, in default of the Agnati, or of heirs in the male line, 

 the property of the family reverted, not to the whole populus, in 

 whom, of strict right, the sovereignty lay, but to the gens to whom it 

 had transferred its rights. 



This right of reversionary succession, especially in the earn of 

 usufructuary possessions of the public 1 mils, being the most valuable 

 and important privilege of the patricians, was brought prominently 

 forward in the quarrel* between the nobles and the plebeians, n>l the 

 phrase gci.ltm habtrt (Livy, z. 8) is often employed as distinctive of the 

 former. Afterwards, when the members of the plebs obtained the 

 right of intermarriage with tliu patrician families, and an access to 

 the honours of the state, which confeired thej'tu imagmum, or nobility, 

 they also received* the rights and privilege of ijenien. To be admitted 

 into a gem, became henceforward equivalent to a patent of nobility in 

 modern times, and gentila is accordingly widely defined by Cicero 

 (' Top.' 6) as denoting those who were of the same name and stock, 

 free-born, in the full enjoyment of all the rights of citizenship, and 

 whose ancestors were always free. Hence, also, in an opposite sense, 

 " tine gente " is employed by Horace (' Sat.' ii., v. 15) and Suetonius 

 (' Tib.' 1) for ignobly born and of servile parentage. 



Thi privilege of succession, which was called jta gextilitatit, or 

 imply gmtili'at (Cic.,'De Oratore,' i. 88), and formed one of the 

 enactments of the Twelve Tables, wag gradually undermined by the 

 encroachments of the pratore on the civil law, and finally disappeared 

 (Gains, iii. 25) ; but the name has survived in all the languages of 

 Western Europe. 



According to Selden (' Title* of Honour,' p. 852), " a gentleman is 

 one that either, from the blood of hi* ancestors, or the favour of his 

 soveraigne, or of those that have the vcrtue of soveraigntie in them, or 

 from his own vertue. employment, or otherwise, according to the cus- 

 touies of honour in his countrie, in ennobled, made gentile, or so raised 

 to an eminencie above the multitude, that by those lawes and customes 

 he be truly nobilis, or noble, whether he have any title, or not, fixed 

 besides on him." That the word was formerly employed in this exten- 

 sive signification is clear from a patent of Richard II., by which one 

 John de Kingston is received into the estate of a gentleman and 

 created an esquire ("Nous lui avons receive/ en Testate de gentil- 

 home et lui fait esquier") ; and from another of Henry VI., who there, 

 by the term " nobilitamus," creates one Bernard Angevin, a Bourdelois, 

 a gentleman. And, according to Smith (' De Rep. Ang.,' lib. i., c. 20, 

 21), under the denomination of gentleman are comprised all above 

 yeomen, whereby noblemen are truly called gentlemen. 



In a narrower sense, a gentleman is generally defined to be " one 

 who, without any title, bear* a coat of arms, or whose ancestors have 

 been freemen ; and by the coat that a gentleman giveth, ho is known 

 to be, or not, descended from those of his name that lived many hun- 

 dred years since." (Jacob*' ' Law Dictionary.') There U also said to 

 be a gentleman by office and in reputation, as well a* those that are 

 born such (2 ' In*t.' 868) ; and, according to Blockstone, quoting Sir 

 Thomas Smith (1 'Comm.,' p. 400), " Whosoever (tudifth tin- laws of 

 the realm, who studicth in the universities, who professcth the liberal 

 sciences, and (to be short) who can live idly and without manual 

 labour, and well bear the port, charge, and countenance of a gentleman, 

 he fhall be called master, and taken for a gentleman." 



The learned author mu*t have been somewli.it puzzled with his 

 definition of a gentleman, u understood in his time. Having defined 

 gentleman to be one who studieth the law*, Ac., he add* (to be short) 

 that he who can live idly and bear the port, 4c., of a gentleman, is a 

 gentleman ; that is, if h<> can live idly, and if he can also do as a gen- 

 tleman doe* (it not being said what this in), he i* a gentleman. I'erhap* 

 a definition of the term, a* now used, would not be easily made ; it 

 being extended by the courtesy of modern manner* to many who do 

 not come within the ancient acceptation of the trm, and denied by 

 public opinion to many whose rank and wealth do not make up for the 

 want of other qualification*. 



GENUS, in Physic*, (igaifie* a multitude or claw of object* poMewmg 



common quality or qualities. In logic it denote* the material 

 part of the definition. 



When we direct our attention to a particular object, we discover 

 under it* apparent unity a great variety of character* and qualities ; 

 and, upon an examination of several objects, we observe many point* 

 of agreement and difference between them. By the power 'which we 

 POSSUM of concentrating our faculties, we are enabled to consider these 

 mutual relations and resemblances without any regard to their differ- 

 ence* : we, a* it were, draw the one away from the other ; in short . we 

 abstract them. 



Now, by abstraction, we may either confine our view to a quality 

 inherent in some object independently of that object; orelae.neg! 

 the many point* of dinagreement which exist between a inn 

 objects, we may seize upon the qualities that belong to all in common, 

 in order to combine them into a single idea. In the former case the 

 notion i* simply abstract ; in the Utter it i* abstract and general ; and 

 the multitude of object* to which we apply the general notion or 

 common term constitute* a t.euitt. 



In this operation we may proceed continually by neglecting in 

 sucoeenon a greater number of difference*, and comprising under the 

 common denomination fewer points of agreement and resemblance. 

 In this manner we form a series of notions or genera of higher and 

 lower order, until we ultimately arrive at the highest possible that of 

 being. In this coordination of genera, every intermediate genus in 

 called a subaltern genus or species, being such in respect of different 

 other terms ; for that of which a higher genus is predicated U called a 

 pecies, while relatively to all lower species it is itself a genus. Lastly, 

 that which is not contained under any higher, is called the lummnn 

 gemta, and that under which individuals only arc comprised i* usually 

 called the injima r, 



These general notions and genera are the principles of classification 

 and arrangement, and without them the knowledge of fact* and nature 

 iteelf would be, if not absolutely impossible, at best a confused mass of 

 conceptions and object* without beauty, order, or coherence. But at 

 the same time that we thus admit the utility of such general notions, 

 we must remember that they ore purely relative to human science and 

 it* object*; that even as such they are imiK-rfect, and very far from 

 conveying an adequate expression of tlic truth of nature, wherein there 

 is nothing really corresponding to theu but only a something in the 

 individual objects from which we derive them, which not only is the 

 cause and the occasion of our forming them, but also transferring to 

 them, as it were, a part of it* own verity and existence, justifies us in 

 according t > them our confidence in science and action. 



GEOCENTRIC (having the earth as centre), a term applied to the 

 place of a planet, as seen from the centre of the earth, in opposition to 

 it* Mierei'ti-ir place, as seen from the centre of the sun. [PARALLAX.] 



GEO'DESY is that branch of applied mathematics which determines 

 the figures and areas of large portion* of the earth's surface, the general 

 figure of the earth, nd the variations of the intensity of gravity in 

 different regions, by means of direct observation and measurement. 



Some of the ancient philosophers, who lived several centuries before 

 the Christian era, were acquainted with the nearly spherical form of 

 the globe, and even devised method* for measuring approxima 

 meridional circumference. [ERATOSTBF.SKS, in BIOG. Div.] The Arabs 

 long afterwards pursued the same object, and the Caliph Almamoun, 

 in A.D. 814, ordered the measurement of a degree in the plains of Meso- 

 potamia, an example which, after another long interval, was imitated by 

 Snellius in Holland, Norwood in England, and by several French and 

 Spanish mathematician*. Richer observed a variation in the length of 

 the seconds' pendulum when sent to Cayenne by the French Academy 

 of Sciences, the true cause of which phenomenon WOK explained by 

 Newton ; for the centrifugal force arising from the earth's rotation 

 round ibt axis in twenty-four hours is directly opposed to the force of 

 gravity at the equator, and in, other latitudes the part of this force 

 which acts in the direction of the plumb-line is nearly proportional to 

 the square of the cosine of the latitude. He has also proved in lii* 

 ' Principia" that a uniform fluid spheroid, in which the ratio of the 

 centrifugal force to the attraction at the surface wa* the name as in 

 the earth, would be in equilibrium when the axis of revolution was 

 lee* than the equatorial diameter by 1 'J:!i if h of the latter. From that 

 time measurements have been undertaken under the directions of the 

 various government'! of Europe, to determine if the globe were really 

 flattened at the poles, and also for the purpose of forming exact maps 

 with respect to the latitude, longitude, and altitude, above the level of 

 the sea, of place* in their respective dominions ; and lastly, the French 

 have deduced their legal metre of length from the measurement of a 

 particular meridian arc. Jacob! has lately shown that a revolving fluid 

 ellipsoid, having three unequal axes, may also present a surface of 

 equilibrium. 



The result of *o many geodetic enterprise* ha* not been u successful 

 as could be wished. Some of the earliest attempts by the French 

 were faulty in computation, and gave results directly contrary to 

 Newton's theory, and some able mathematicians of that day appear to 

 have been misled by a feeling akin to envy, to the extent of supporting 

 theee false conclusion* by plausible reasonings. The error of that 

 (urvey ha* been since discovered, and all the methods which have been 

 employed In the numerous trials undertaken in this and the last 

 century agree in proving that the polar axi* of the earth i* shorter 



