GAVIAL 



2409 



GAZA 



as in ordinary weaving, but are twisted in 

 pairs alternately from left to right and from 

 right to left, after each shot of the weft threads 

 (those that run crosswise). In this way the 

 weft passes through a succession of loops in 

 the warp and the threads are kept at equal 

 distances apart, at the same time being held 

 firmly in place. 



Gauze fabrics are plain, figured or striped. 

 At the present time China produces many 

 choice gauzes worked with flowers of silver 

 or gold on a silk foundation. Cotton gauze, 

 made especially for the use of surgeons, is 

 valued for antiseptic purposes. Light summer 

 under garments made from woven fabrics of 

 ilk, linen and cotton are sold under the name 

 of gauze underwear. The term is also fre- 

 quently applied to bolting-cloth, used for sift- 

 ing flour, and to the fine-woven wire cloth 

 employed in window-screens, sieves and safety 

 lamps. 



GA'VIAL, a fish-eating crocodile of North- 

 ern India, which inhabits chiefly the basins of 

 the Ganges, Indus and Brahmaputra rivers. 

 It is distinguished from true crocodiles by the 

 length and slenderness of its muzzle, charac- 



THE GAVIAL 



teristics which vary according to age and sex. 

 It has numerous long recurved teeth, usually 

 more than one hundred, especially adapted to 

 its exclusive fish diet. It reaches a great 

 size, often twenty feet in length, but owing to 

 its slender and weak mouth and jaws is con- 

 sidered less dangerous than a crocodile of 

 smaller proportions. Its feet are webbed, and 

 it spends much of its time in the water. 



GAVOTTE, gavot'. Among the peasants in 

 France there originated a merry, light dance 

 which was so well thought of that it was intro- 

 duced at court in the sixteenth century. It re- 

 ceived the name from the Gavots, the people 

 among whom it originated. At first the gavotte 

 in 2/4 or 4/4 time, was a bright, happy dance, 

 but later it became a stately, formal affair. 

 As a theatrical dance it became very effective 

 and popular, and was' worked out in many 

 ways by Gliick and Gretry. As a modern 

 dance it is not popular in society, but is seen 

 frequently on the stage; the Russian dancer, 

 Pavlowa, has been its greatest exponent since 

 1910. 



GAY, JOHN (1685-1732), an English poet, 

 famous for his Beggar's Opera, which was first 

 acted in 1728. It ran for sixty-three nights, at 

 that time a most remarkable achievement. 

 In 1713 he published Rural Sports, which was 

 followed by several pastoral poems in 1714, 

 dedicated to Alexander Pope. This was the 

 beginning of a lasting friendship between the 

 two. Pope never tired of helping his friend. 

 Gay had a great many patrons, and in 1720 

 he published Poems on Several Occasions by 

 subscription, on which he realized 1,000, or 

 $5,000. In 1715 his burlesque tragedy, What 

 d'ye Call It? appeared, followed by Trivia, or 

 The Art of Walking the Streets oj London. 

 A tragedy, The Captives, produced some years 

 later, met with some success, and Fables, in 

 verse, helped also to increase his reputation. 

 He died in 1732 and was buried in West-, 

 minster Abbey. Pope wrote his epitaph, which 

 is followed by a couplet of Gay's own: 



Life is a jest, and all things show it, 

 I thought so once, and now I know it. 



GAY-LUSSAC ' , JOSEPH Louis (1778-1850), 

 a French chemist and physicist, and one of the 

 most noted scientists of his day. He was an 

 undaunted investigator of volcanic eruptions, 

 having visited Vesuvius when it was in full 

 eruption in 1805. He was also a fearless aero- 

 naut, and did not hesitate to make an ascent 

 23,000 feet above sea level in a balloon to 

 make observations of magnetism and also of 

 the temperatuj'er and humidity of the air, 

 collecting samples of air at different heights. 

 His most important discovery was that oxygen 

 and hydrogen unite in proportions of one to 

 two to form water. This led to the discovery 

 of the law of volumes, which is one of the 

 most important discoveries ever made in chem- 

 istry. 



His services to industry included his im- 

 provements in the processes for the manufac- 

 ture of sulphuric acid and oxalic acid, methods 

 of ascertaining the amount of real alkali in 

 potash and soda by the volume of standard 

 acid required for neutralization, and for esti- 

 mating the available chlorine in bleaching pow- 

 der by a solution of arsenious acid, etc. He 

 also elaborated a method of assaying silver by 

 a standard solution of common salt. Owing to 

 the great benefits resulting from his experi- 

 ments and discoveries, Gay-Lussac was the 

 recipient of many honors, and in 1839 was made 

 a peer of France. 



GA'ZA, an ancient town of Syria, fifty miles 

 southwest of Jerusalem and three miles from 



