UNIVERSITY 



BRITISH ENCYCLOPEDIA. 



GIL 



^ IPT, in law, a transferring the pro- 

 xJfperty in a thing from one to another 

 without a valuable consideration ; for to 

 transfer any thing upon a valuable consi- 

 deration is a contract or sale. He who 

 gives any thing is called the donor, and 

 he to whom is given is called the donee. 

 By the common law, all chattels, real or 

 personal, maybe granted or given without 

 deed, except in some special cases, and 

 a free gift is good without a considera- 

 tion, if not to defraud creditors. But no 

 leases, estates, or interests, either of 

 freehold or term of years, or any uncer- 

 tain interest, not being copyhold or custo- 

 mary interest of, in, to, or out of any 

 messuages, manors, lands, tenements, or 

 hereditaments, shall at any time be as- 

 signed, granted, or surrendered, unless 

 it be by deed or note in writing, signed 

 by the party so assigning, granting, or 

 surrendering the same, or their agents, 

 thereunto lawfully authorized by writing, 

 or by act and operation of law. 29 Car. 

 I. c. 3. A gift of any thing without a 

 consideration, is good, but it is revocable 

 before delivery to the donee of the thing 

 given. 



GILBERTIA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Decandria Monogynia class and order. 

 .Calyx five-toothed ; corolla deeply five- 

 parted; nectary deeply ten-parted, with 

 lanceolate segments ; antherze sessile, in 

 the segments of the nectary ; fruit six- 

 celled. Only one species. G. racemosa, 

 found in Peru ; branches reddish and 

 ^owny f leaves alternate, elliptic, acute, 

 entire, reddish, downy underneath ; ra- 

 cemes axillarv. 



GIL 



GILD, or GUILD. See GUILD. 



GILDING, art of. The art of gilding", 

 or of laying a thin superficial coating of 

 metal on wood, metal, and other sub- 

 stances, has been long practised and 

 highly esteemed, both for its utility, and 

 the splendid effect which it produces. 

 Gold, from the extreme beauty of its 

 colour, and from the length of time dur- 

 ing which it may be exposed to the action 

 of the air without tarnishing, is perhaps 

 the most valuable of all substances for 

 the purpose of decoration ; but on ac- 

 count of its dearness and weight, it can 

 very seldom be employed in substance, 

 and its ornamental use would be limited, 

 indeed, if it were not at the same time 

 the most extensible of all substances ; so 

 that a given weight of gold, notwithstand- 

 ing its high specific gravity, may, by beat- 

 ing, be made to cover a larger surface 

 than an equal quantity of any other body. 

 Among the ancients, the Romans, and, 

 among the moderns, the French have 

 been remarkable for their large and pro- 

 fuse consumption of gold ; not only the 

 temples, theatres, and other public build- 

 ing, being adorned with gilding, but 

 even the private houses of the wealthier 

 classes. 



The materials for gilding, or rather 

 the different states in which gold is used 

 for the purpose, are the following : leaf- 

 gold of different thicknesses, and formed 

 either of the pure metal, or of an alloy 

 of this with silver, amalgam of gold, and 

 gold-powder. The leaf-gold is procured 

 by the gilder from the gold-beater, for 

 an account of which we shall refer the 



