

GUA 



this jurisdiction was acquired ; for it is 

 certainly of no very ancient date, though 

 now indisputable ; for it is clearly agreed, 

 that the king, as pater patrix, is universal 

 guardian of all infants, idiots, and luna- 

 tics, who cannot take care of themselves ; 

 and as this care cannot be exercised 

 otherwise than by appointing them pro- 

 per curators or committees, it seems also 

 agreed, that the king may, as he has done, 

 delegate the authority to his chancellor : 

 and that therefore at this day the Court 

 of Chancery is the only proper court that 

 hath jurisdiction in appointing and re- 

 moving guardians, and in preventing 

 them and others from abusing their per- 

 sons or estates. And as the Court of 

 Chancery is now vested with this autho- 

 rity, hence in every day's practice we 

 find that court determining, as to the right 

 of guardianship, who is the next of kin, 

 and who the most proper guardian ; as 

 alse orders are made by that court, on 

 petition or motion, for the provision of 

 infants during any dispute therein ; as 

 likewise guardians removed or compelled 

 to give security ; they and others punish- 

 ed for abuses committed on infants, and 

 effectual care taken to prevent any abuses 

 intended them in their persons or estates ; 

 all such wrongs and injuries being rec- 

 koned a contempt of that court, that 

 hath, by an established jurisdiction, the 

 protection of all persons under natural 

 disabilities. All ccfurts of justice appoint 

 guardians to infants, to see and prosecute 

 their rights in their respective courts, 

 when the occasion calls for it 



There are also some cases where an 

 infant may elect a guardian, and the Court 

 of Chancery allows him to do so after 

 fourteen. 



GUARDIAN of tlie Spiritualities, is he to 

 whom the spiritual jurisdiction of any dio- 

 cese is committed, during the vacancy of 

 the see. The archbishop is guardian of 

 the spiritualities, on the vacancy of any 

 see within his province ; but when the 

 archiepiscopal see is vacant, the dean and 

 chapter of the archbishop's diocese are 

 guardians of the spiritualities. 



GUAREA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Octandria Monogynia class and order. 

 Katural order of Melise, Jussieu. Essen- 

 tial character : calyx four-cleft ; petals 

 four ; nectary cylindric, bearing the an- 

 thers at its mouth ; capsule four-celled, 

 four-valved ; seeds solitary. There is only 

 one species, liz. G. trichilioides, ash- 

 leaved guarea. This tree is remarkable 

 for its strong odour of musk, particularly 

 the bark, and is used instead of tbatper- 



GUE 



fume for many purposes. The wood is 

 full of a bitter resinous substance, which 

 renders it unfit for rum hogsheads, hav- 

 ing been observed to communicate both 

 its smell and taste to spirituous liquors. 

 It is a native of South America and the 

 West India islands. The English call it 

 muskwood. 



GUDGEONS, in a ship, are the eyes 

 drove into the stern-post, into which the 

 pintles of the rudder go, to hang it. 



GUEIUCKE, OTTO, or OTHO, a very 

 eminent German experimental philoso- 

 pher in the seventeenth century, who, 

 with Torricelli, Pascal, and Boyle, greatly 

 contributed to explain the various proper- 

 ties of the air and their effects, was born 

 in the year 1602, and died, at Hamburgh, 

 in the year 1686. He was councellor to 

 the Elector of Brandenburg ; and burgo- 

 master, or consul, of Magdeburg ; but 

 his memory derives greater honour from 

 his philosophical discoveries, than from 

 the civil dignities to which he was rais- 

 ed. To him is to be attributed the inven- 

 tion of the air-pump, for though Mr. 

 Boyle had, about the same time, made 

 some approaches towards a similar disco- 

 very, yet he ingenuously acknowledged, 

 in a letter to his nephew, Lord Dungar- 

 von, that the information which he re- 

 ceived from Schottus's " Mechanica Hy- 

 draulico Pneumatica," published in 1657, 

 in which was an account of Guericke's ex- 

 periments, first enabled him to bring his 

 design to any thing like maturity. Gue- 

 ricke was also the inventor of the two 

 brass hemispheres, to illustrate the pres- 

 sure of the air, which, being applied to 

 each other, and the air exhausted, resist- 

 ed the force of sixteen horses to draw 

 them asunder. He likewise invented an 

 instrument to show the variations in the 

 state of the* atmosphere, consisting of a 

 tube, in which was a little image of glass, 

 that descended in rainy or stormy wea- 

 ther, and rose again when the weather 

 became fine and serene. This last ma- 

 chine fell into disuse on the invention 

 of the barometer, and especially after 

 the improvements made in that instru- 

 ment by Huygens and Amontons. By 

 consulting his tube, Guericke would fre- 

 quently foretel approaching storms ; 

 whence the ignorant populace gave him 

 the character of a sorcerer. In this opi- 

 nion of him they were confirmed, by a 

 thunder storm discharging itself on day 

 upon his house, and shivering to pieces 1 

 several machines, of which he had made 

 use in his experiments. That event 

 they considered to be an unequivocal in- 



