JAHN JAMAICA. 



203 



coon as the jaguar attacks the ant-eater, it lies down 

 on its back, and suffocates or strangles him with its 

 long claws. 



JAHN, FREDERIC Louis ; inventor of the modern 

 system of gymnastics, born in 1778, in Pomerania, 

 in the village of Lanz, near Lenzen. His father was 

 a clergyman. He studied in Jena, Halle, and Griefs- 

 walde, and exerted himself much to suppress the 

 Landsmanschaften (combinations of the students, 

 according to the sections of the country to which 

 they belonged), which excited so much sectional 

 feeling among them. (For an account of these 

 Landsmanschaften, see Universities.) In 1809, he 

 went to Berlin, and became an instructor in a private 

 institution. At that time, the French were masters 

 of Germany, and the best means of preparing the 

 Germans for a contest with their oppressors con- 

 stantly employed the mind of Jahn and others of his 

 countrymen. With the view of exciting patriotic 

 feeling among the young men of Germany, he 

 established, in 1811, his first gymnasium. No con- 

 versation was permitted in French, or in any lan- 

 guage but their own ; national songs were sung. 

 Gymnastic exercises had long before been intro- 

 duced into Schrepfenthal, by Gutsmuths ; but Jahn 

 first conceived the idea of making gymnasia national 

 establishments for education. (See Gymnastics.) 

 During the war which soon after broke out between 

 Germany and France, the gymnasia were suspended ; 

 but when peace was concluded, in 1814, Jahn re- 

 opened his institutions, and exerted all his powers 

 again to make them schools of patriotism. In the 

 mean time, the liberal spirit which spread over the 

 continent of Europe, found its way into the gymnasia. 

 The German governments began to dread the effects 

 of that love of freedom in the nation, which they had 

 themselves used for the overthrow of the French. 

 After the murder of Kotzebue, by the student Sand, 

 the governments fearing, or professing to fear, the 

 existence of secret combinations of a political 

 character in the gymnasia, Jahn and many of his 

 friends were arrested, and treated in a very arbitrary 

 and illegal manner. In 1825, the tribunal at Frank- 

 fort declared Jahn to be innocent. Several of his 

 scholars were also imprisoned, and, after long con- 

 finement, liberated without trial. 



JAHN, JOHN, born at Taswitz, in Moravia, in 

 1750, professor of theology in the university of 

 Vienna, died in August, 1816. Jahn published, 

 among other works, a Chaldaic and Syriac Grammar 

 (Vienna, 1793); Arabian Grammar (1796); Biblical 

 Archaeology (2 vols.,ib., 1797 to 1800; 2d edit., ib., 

 1817 to 1818, part of which has been translated into 

 English, under the title of the Hebrew Common- 

 wealth, (A ndover, 1828); Elementarbuch der He- 

 f>r iiischen- Sprache (2 vols., 1799); Arabische Chres- 

 iomathie (1802); Introductio in Libros Sacros J'eteris 

 Mederis (ib., 1804; 3d edit., ib., 1825); Archeeoiogia 

 Bib lica, an abridgment, in Latin, of the larger work 

 on Biblical Archasology in German (Vienna, 1804; 

 2d edit., Vienna, 1814), translated into .English 

 \Andover, 1st edit., 1823 ; 2d edit., 1827); Gram- 

 matica Hebraica (ib., 1809); f-'aticinia Prophetarum, 

 Commentarius criticus in Libros Prophetarum J^'et. 

 Testam. (ib. 1815); Appendix to his theological 

 works (1821). 



JAIL, or GAOL ; a prison or place of legal con- 

 finement. This word is formed from the French 

 word geole, and that from the barbarous Latin word 

 geola, gaola, gayola (a cage); whence the Picards 

 still call a bird-cage gayolle. For some remarks on 

 the subject of prisons, see Prison. 



JALAP, has received its name from being prin- 

 cipally brought from the environs of Xalapa ; 

 though the plant which produces it is abundant in 



other parts of Mexico, even in the immediate 

 vicinity of Vera Cruz. It is much employed in 

 medicine, as a very valuable purgative, and has been 

 known in Europe since the year 1610. It is exported 

 exclusively from Vera Cruz, to the amount of about 

 400,000 pounds annually. The plant is the convol- 

 vulus jalapa of authors, an herbaceous twining vine, 

 having entire cordate or three to five lobed leaves, 

 and large white flowers with purple veins. The 

 root, which is the part employed, is very large, 

 sometimes weighing fifty pounds. 



JAMAICA ; (from Xaymaca, the name given it 

 by the aborigines), one of the West India islands, 

 belonging to Great Britain, and the most considera- 

 ble and valuable of her possessions in that quarter. 

 It is of an oval form, about one hundred and fifty 

 miles in length, and, on a medium, about forty miles 

 in breadth ; lying thirty leagues west of St Domingo. 

 Long. 76 45' W. lat. 18 12' N. A lofty range of 

 mountains, called the Blue mountains, runs through 

 the whole island from east to west, dividing it into 

 two parts, and rising in some of its most elevated 

 peaks to 7431 feet above the level of the sea. On 

 the north and south sides of these mountains, the 

 aspect of the country is extremely different. On the 

 north side of the island, the land rises from the shore 

 into hills, which are more remarkable for beauty than 

 boldness, being all of gentle acclivity, and commonly 

 separated from each other by spacious vales and 

 romantic inequalities. Every valley has its rivulet, 

 and every hill its cascade. On the southern side of 

 the island, the scenery is of a different nature, con- 

 sisting of the stupendous ridges of the Blue moun- 

 tains, of abrupt precipices and inaccessible cliffs, 

 approaching the shore. The soil of Jamaica is in 

 some places deep and fertile ; but, on the whole, 

 Edwards pronounces it to be an unfruitful and labo- 

 rious country, compared with those which have been 

 generally regarded as fertile. He calculates the 

 island to contain 4,080,000 acres, of which not more 

 than about 2,000,000 have been granted to individuals 

 by patent from the crown. The island is well watered. 

 There are about 100 rivers, which take their rise in 

 the mountains, and run, commonly with great rapidity, 

 to the sea on both sides of the island. None of them 

 are navigable except for boats. Black river is the 

 deepest, and has the greatest current. There are 

 springs, both sulphureous and chalybeate, in different 

 parts of the country. The climate of Jamaica on 

 the plains is hot, the average heat from June to No- 

 vember inclusive, being 80 Fahr., and, in the colder 

 season, from 70 to 80. On the higher grounds the 

 heat is less. The year, as in all tropical countries, 

 may be divided between the wet and dry seasons. 

 Sugar, indigo, cotton, and coffee are the most impor- 

 tant natural productions of Jamaica. Maize, or 

 Indian, and Guinea corn, and rice, are also cultivated. 

 The bread-fruit tree, with several other useful plants, 

 has been introduced by the exertions of Sir Joseph 

 Banks. The island also abounds with different kinds 

 of grass, of excellent quality. The several kinds of 

 kitchen garden produce, namely those edible roots and 

 pulse which are in use throughout Europe, thrive well 

 in the mountainous parts. There are also excellent 

 vegetables of native growth. The other indigenous 

 productions are plantains, bananas, yams of several 

 varieties, calalue (a species of spinage), eddoes, ca?- 

 savi, and sweet potatoes. *Fruits are found in equal 

 perfection and variety, and no country affords so mag- 

 nificent a dessert. The mountains are also covered 

 with extensive woods, containing excellent timbers, 

 some of which are of prodigious growth and solidity; 

 while others, as the well known mahogany, are well 

 adapted for cabinet work. The indigenous qua- 

 drupeds of the island were the agouti, the pecare or 



