GILLETTE 



2194 



GINGER 



to the ointment such as Jacob sent to his son 

 Joseph in Egypt (Genesis XLIII, 11). 



GILLETTE, jilet', WILLIAM HOOKER (1855- 

 ), an actor of unusual gifts and one of the 

 foremost American dramatists. He is best 

 known by his characterization of the title role 

 of Sherlock Holmes, which he dramatized from 

 Sir Conan Doyle's stories of that hero. He 

 was born in Hartford, Conn., the son of a 

 United States Senator. While playing in stock 

 companies in New York and Boston he took 

 special courses at the University of New York 

 and the Massachusetts Institute of Technol- 

 ogy. He began his theatrical career in 1877, 

 and soon after started writing his own plays. 

 In Secret Service Mr. Gillette carries the War 

 of Secession theme, which he began with Held 

 by the Enemy, to the highest point such plays 

 have reached. Two of the best plays recently 

 produced in the United States are his Secret 

 Service and Sherlock Holmes. Others of his 

 plays are The Private Secretary, Esmeralda and 

 Because She Loved Him So. 



GILLS, gilz, the breathing organs of fishes, 

 located in chambers, one on each side of the 

 head. If the throat of a fish be examined, a 

 series of four or five slits, called gill-openings, 

 may be seen. These open to the exterior; the 

 fish opens its mouth at regular intervals, draws 

 in a quantity of water, contracts the sides of 

 its throat when it closes its mouth, and thus 

 forces the water through the gill-opening, over 

 the tiny gill-filaments to the exterior. When 

 the water passes over the gill-filaments the 

 oxygen is extracted from it by the blood in the 

 filaments and is carried to other parts of the 

 body. In sharks these outer openings may be 

 seen, but in bony fishes the chamber on each 

 side of the head is covered by a bony plate. 

 For illustration, see FISH. 



GIL 'MAN, DANIEL COIT (1831-1908), an 

 American educator and the first president of 

 Johns Hopkins University, was born at Nor- 

 wich, Conn. He was graduated from Yale 

 College in 1852 and continued his studies in 

 Europe, in Cambridge University and in Ber- 

 lin. In 1872 he became president of the Uni- 

 versity of California, and in 1875 was elected 

 first president of Johns Hopkins University at 

 Baltimore, where he remained until 1901. The 

 Carnegie Institution In Washington, D. C., also 

 chose him as its first president in the latter 

 year; he resigned this position in 1904. From 

 1893 till 1901 he served as president of the 

 American Oriental Society, and The Russell 

 Sage Foundation for Social Betterment ap- 



pointed him a trustee in 1907. He was also 

 vice-president of the Archaeological Institute 

 of America. He published Launching a Uni- 

 versity, an account of the early years of Johns 

 Hopkins, Life of James D. Dana, the geologist, 

 and Life of James Monroe. Dr. Oilman was 

 also one of the editors of the first edition of 

 the New International Encyclopedia. 



GIL 'MORE, PATRICK SARSFIELD (1829-1892), 

 one of the most popular of American musical 

 conductors, was born near Dublin, Ireland. At 

 an early age he left his native land for the 

 United States, and soon after organized Gil- 

 more's Band. In 1869 he arranged the National 

 Peace Jubilee in commemoration of the close 

 of the War of Secession in America, and in 

 1872 the World's Peace Jubilee, after the close 

 of the Franco-German War in Europe. On the 

 latter occasion he conducted an orchestra of 

 2,000 pieces and a chorus of 20,000 voices. 

 Later he organized the famous Twenty-Second 

 Regiment band in New York, which gave popu- 

 lar and successful concerts in the United States, 

 Canada and Europe. He devoted little time to 

 composing, his only work of note being an 

 anthem entitled Columbia and intended as a 

 national hymn. 



GIN, jin, a liquor distilled from grain. The 

 name is derived from jenever, the Dutch word 

 for the juniper plant, the berries of which are 

 used to flavor the spirit. By far the larger part 

 of the spirit is made in Holland where it is 

 treated in different ways and sold under vari- 

 ous names. The ordinary gin sold in the low- 

 est class of drinking places consists of alcohol 

 flavored with salt and oil of turpentine, and 

 diluted to alcoholic strength of from twenty- 

 five to forty-eight per cent. 



GINGER, jin'jur, a valuable and favorite 

 seasoning and confection, with a warm, burn- 

 ing taste, obtained from the rootstalks of the 

 ginger plant. Though native to the East In- 

 dies, ginger has been introduced into the West 

 Indies, South America and West Africa. From 

 the knotty rootstalks grow grasslike leaves and 

 cylindrical stems bearing clusters of white, 

 purple-streaked flowers. When the leaves 

 wither the roots are dug and dried whole to 

 produce black ginger, or scraped, washed and 

 dried to produce white ginger. If it is to be 

 preserved it is boiled and dipped in sirup every 

 twenty-four hours for a week. The finest gin- 

 ger is obtained from the island f Jamaica and 

 is generally sold in the form of an extract. 

 Most of the preserved ginger is imported from 

 China. 



