GEN 



GEN 



most advantageous posts, either tor fight- 

 ing or shunning a battle. His experience 

 inspires his army with confidence, and an 

 assurance of victory; and his quality, by 

 creating respect, augments his authority. 

 By his liberality he gets intelligence of 

 the strength and designs of the enemy, 

 and by this means is enabled to take the 

 most successful measures. A general 

 ought likewise to be fond of glory, to 

 have an aversion to flattery, to render 

 himself beloved, and to keep a strict dis- 

 cipline. 



The office of a general is to regulate 

 the march and encampment of the army ; 

 in the day of battle to choose out the most 

 advantageous ground ; to make the dispo- 

 sition of the army ; to post the artillery ; 

 and, where there is occasion, to send his 

 orders by his aids-de-camp. At a siege, 

 he is to cause the place to be invested ; to 

 order the approaches and attacks ; to visit 

 the works ; and to send out detachments 

 to secure his convoys. 



GENERAL issue, in law, is that plea 

 which traverses and denies, at once, the 

 whole declaration or indictment, without 

 offering any special matter, whereby to 

 evade it : and it is called the general is- 

 sue, because, by importing an absolute 

 and general denial of what is alleged in 

 the declaration, it amounts at once to an 

 issue ; that is, a fact affirmed on one side, 

 and denied on the other. This is the or- 

 dinary plea upon which most causes are 

 tried, and is now almost invariably used 

 in all criminal cases. It puts every thing 

 in issue, that is, denies every thing, and 

 requires the party to prove all that he has 

 stated. 



It is a frequent question, what can be 

 given in evidence by the defendant upon 

 this plea, and the difficulty is, to know 

 when the matter of defence may be urged 

 upon the general issue, or must be spe- 

 cially pleaded upon the record. In many 

 cases, for the protection of justices, con- 

 stables, excise officers, &c. they are by 

 act of parliament enabled to plead the ge- 

 neral issue, and give the special matter 

 for their justification under the act in evi- 

 dence. 



GENERATING line or figure, in geo- 

 metry, is that by which its motion produ- 

 ces any other plane or solid figure. Thus, 

 a right line moved any way parallel to it- 

 self generates a parallelogram ; round a 

 point in the same plane, with one end 

 fastened in that point, it generates a cir- 

 cle. One entire revolution of a circle, in 

 the same plane, generates the cycloid ; 

 and the revolution of a semi-circle 



round its diameter, generates a sphere, 

 &c. See CYCLOID, SPHERE, &c. 



GENERATION. See PHYSIOLOGY. 



GENERICAL name, in natural history, 

 the word used to signify all species of na- 

 tural bodies, which agree in certain es- 

 sential and peculiar characters, and there- 

 fore all of the same family or kind ; so 

 that the word used as the generical name 

 equally expresses every one of them, and 

 some other words, expressive of the pecu- 

 liar qualities or figures of each, are added, 

 in order to denote them singly, and make 

 up what is called the specific name. Thus 

 the word rosa, or rose, is the generical 

 name of the whole series of flowers of 

 that kind, which are distinguished by the 

 specific names of the red-rose, the white- 

 rose, the apple-rose, &c. 



GENEVA, gin, a hot fiery spirit, too 

 much used by the lower classes of people 

 in this country as a dram, and is unques- 

 tionably most injurious to their constitu- 

 tion and morals. A liquid of this kind 

 was formerly sold in the apothecaries' 

 shops, drawn from the juniper-berry, but 

 distillers have now completely supplant- 

 ed the trade of the apothecary, who sell 

 it under the name of Geneva, or gin, in 

 which it is believed juniper-berries make 

 no part of the composition. It is compos- 

 ed of oil of turpentine and malt spirits. 

 A better sort is said to be drawn off by a 

 slow fire from juniper berries, proof-spi- 

 rits, and water, in the proportion of three 

 pound of berries to four gallons of water 

 and ten of spirit. The celebrated Hol- 

 lands geneva is manufactured chiefly at a 

 village near Rotterdam, from the same 

 materials, making use of French brandy 

 instead of malt-spirits. 



GENIOSTOMA, in botany, a genus of 

 the Pentandria Monogynia class and or- 

 der. Essential character : calyx turbi- 

 nate, five-cleft; corolla one-petalled, 

 with a villose throat, and a five-parted 

 border; capsule oblong, two-celled, ma- 

 ny seeded. There is but one species, a 

 native of the isle of Tanna, in the South 

 Seas. 



GENISTA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Diadelphia Decandria class and order. 

 Natural order of Papilionaceae or Legu- 

 minosze. Essential character : calyx two- 

 lipped, two and three-toothed ; banner 

 oblong, reflex downwards from the pistil 

 and stamens. There are seventeen spe- 

 cies. , 



GENIUS, in matters of literature, &c. 

 a natural talent or disposition to do one 

 thing more than another; or the aptitude 

 a man has received froni.ua.ture to per- 





0? TH1 



