GANGES 



341 8 



GANOID 



its mouth it is a mile wide. The 

 period of flood begins in May and 

 lasts until the end of July, the 

 waters subsiding in Aug. and Sept. 

 The river rises on the average 

 31 ft., and the country overflowed 

 is about 100 m. in width. A tidal 

 bore, most noticeable on the 

 Hooghli, rushes up the river at 

 nearly 18 m. an hour, sometimes 

 causing an instantaneous rise of 

 5 ft. at Calcutta. The drainage 

 area is estimated at 391,100 sq. m. 

 See Allahabad ; Benares, illus. 



Gauges. British training ship. 

 She forms part of the naval train- 

 ing establishment at Shotley (<?.#.). 



Gangi. Town of Sicily, in the 

 prov. of Palermo. It stands on a 

 mt. slope, at an alt. of 3,000 ft., 

 19 m. S.E. of Cefalu. It has been 

 identified with the ancient En- 

 guium (Gr. Engyon), famed for its 

 temple of the Great Mother of the 

 Gods, which was despoiled by 

 Verres. Pop. 10,394. 



Gangjam. Dist. and town of 

 India, in the N. of Madras presi- 

 dency. The district (including the 

 agency), which lies on the coast- 

 line of the Bay of Bengal, has an 

 area of 8,380 sq. m. It is traversed 

 by the E. Ghats, which here reach 

 an alt. of nearly 5,000 ft. For ad- 

 ministrative purposes Gangjam is 

 divided into five sub-divisions, one 

 of which, the hill area, inhabited 

 for the most part by backward 

 tribes, is administered as a separate 

 agency (area, 3,484 sq. m.), by a 

 collector acting as agent to the 

 governor. The chief products are 

 rice, millet, and gram. Among the 

 industries are weaving and tan- 

 ning, and there is trade in sugar 

 and salt. Gangjam town, at one 

 time the headquarters of the dis- 

 trict, has declined in importance 

 since it was superseded in 1815 by 

 Berhampur. 



Ganglion (Gr., tumour under 

 the skin). In physiology, a collec- 

 tion of nerve cells. Instances are 

 the spinal ganglia on the posterior 

 roots of the spinal nerves, and the 

 gasserian ganglion lying deep in 

 the temporal region of the skull. 



In pathology, a cyst-like swell- 

 ing which forms in connexion with 

 a tendon sheath or joint, most fre- 

 quently the tendons at the back of 

 the wrist or the fingers. It may be 

 treated by being struck a sharp 

 blow which ruptures the cyst in- 

 ternally and leads to absorption of 

 the contents. Perforation from the 

 exterior should be avoided if 

 possible, and only undertaken with 

 strictest aseptic precautions. See 

 Brain ; Nervous System. 



Gangpur. Native state of India, 

 tributary to Orissa. Its area is 

 2,492 sq. m. The sUte is a long 

 undulating tableland about 700 ft 



above sea level, interspersed with 

 hill ranges and isolated peaks. It 

 is watered by the Ib, the Sankh, 

 and the S. Koel, the last two unit- 

 ing and forming the Brahmani. 

 Gangpur was transferred from 

 Chota Nagpur to Orissa in 1905, 

 and the chief is now subject to the 

 control of the political agent who 

 is also the commissioner of the 

 Orissa division, according to the 

 terms of the sanad or charter 

 granted in 1899 and renewed in 

 1905. The principal crops are rice, 

 sugar-cane, and oil-seeds, while 

 coal, limestone, and iron are worked. 



Gangrene (Gr. gangraina) OR 

 MORTIFICATION. Death of a mass 

 of tissue. The condition may be 

 due to blocking of an artery which 

 cuts off the supply of blood to a 

 part (embolic gangrene) ; imperfect 

 nutrition of a part in elderly people 

 (senile gangrene) ; abnormal con- 

 dition of the blood, as in diabetes, 

 combined with a slight injury ; 

 chronic poisoning by ergot ; Ray- 

 naud's disease (q. v.) ; injury 

 to a limb (traumatic gangrene) ; 

 infection by certain organisms 

 (wound phagedena, hospital gan- 

 grene, gas gangrene, cancrum oris, 

 etc.) ; frost-bite ; and burning. 

 Clinically, gangrene is divided into 

 two forms : dry gangrene, in which 

 there is little fluid in the tissues 

 and the part becomes dry, hard, 

 shrunken, and black ; and moist 

 gangrene, in which the part is 

 swollen with fluid and is putrescent. 

 The chances of arrest of the pro- 

 gress, and recovery to health, as well 

 as the treatment, depend upon the 

 cause of the condition and the re- 

 cuperative powers of the patient. 



Gangue (Fr. gangw, Ger. Gang). 

 Special term used in metallurgy 

 for the earthy, stony material, the 

 worthless vein-stuff associated 

 with metalliferous ores, or the ma- 

 trix in which ores are usually em- 

 bedded. The gangue appears in 

 many forms, from the simple, 

 earthy, or clayey matter of sedi- 

 mentary deposits, such as those 

 from which iron is chiefly obtained, 

 to the hard, massive, resistant 

 granite and quartz rock usually as- 

 sociated with gold. See Mining ; Ore. 



Ganister. Local name of a 

 siliceous stone found in the lower 

 coal measures of Yorkshire, par- 

 ticularly in the neighbourhood of 

 Sheffield. It is a close-grained, 

 dark-coloured, argillaceous sand- 

 stone rock, the clay being present 

 in just about the necessary pro- 

 portions to permit the stone, when 

 ground and mixed with a little 

 water, to be moulded into bricks. 

 It is highly refractory and largely 

 used for the lining of metallurgical 

 furnaces of all kinds. See Blast 

 Furnace ; Dinas Rock ; Furnace. 



Ganja OR GANJAH. Name ap- 

 plied to the tops of cultivated 

 female plants of Cannabis saliva 

 or Indian hemp. The tops are cut 

 directly after flowering and made 

 into bundles from 2 ft. to 4 ft. 

 long. The two varieties are Bengal 

 and Bombay ganja, the superiority 

 of the former being due to the care 

 taken to eradicate the male plants 

 from the fields where the tops are 

 collected. Ganja is a narcotic and 

 anodyne. See Hemp. 



Gannet OR SOLAN GOOSE (Sula 

 basso.na). Group of large sea fowl, 

 rather goose-like in form, from 

 which they derive their popular 

 name. About twelve species are 

 usually recognized, and they are 

 widely distributed throughout the 

 world. The European gannefc is 

 common around the British coasts, 

 and nests in vast numbers on the 

 Bass Rock and on the cliffs in 

 many of the wilder districts. ' It 

 is almost 3 ft. in length, and 





Gannet or Solan Goose, Sula 

 bassana 



has pure white plumage with the 

 exception of some black feathers 

 on the wings and a slight yellowish 

 buff tinge on the head and neck. 



The birds assemble in great 

 multitudes in the early spring at 

 their nesting sites, and construct 

 a small heap of seaweed and grass 

 on the bare rock. Only one egg is 

 laid, and the female sits so closely 

 that she will often allow herself 

 to be touched rather than leave 

 the nest. She generally sits with 

 her face turned towards the cliff. 

 Gannets work havoc in the herring 

 and pilchard fisheries, and their 

 flesh is rank. 



Ganoid. Name formerly applied 

 to one of the orders of fishes. They 

 are characterised by the possession 

 of cartilaginous skeletons and 

 blight bony scales on the skin. 

 Most of the earlier fossil fishes were 

 of this type, and the few still exist- 

 ing genera include the sturgeon, 

 American gar pike, bowfinand poly- 

 pterus. The majority of them are 

 fresh-water fish ; and some, like the 

 sturgeon, attain a large size. The 

 ganoids were formerly regarded by 

 zoologists as forming a separate 

 group from the Teleostei or bony 



