G V I 
chancery is the only . proper court, that has 
jurisdiction in appointing and removing 
guardians, and in preventing them and others 
from abusing their persons or estates. 2 Inst. 
]4. Ancias the court of chancery is now 
vested with this authority, hence in every 
day’s practice, we find that court determin- 
ing, as to the right of guardianship, who is 
the next of kin, and who the most proper 
guardian ; as also orders are made by that 
court on petition or motion, for tiie provision 
of infants during any dispute therein ; as like- 
wise guardians removed or compelled to give 
security ; they and others punished for abuses 
committed on infants, &c. 
Guardian of the spiritualities, the person 
to whom the spiritual jurisdiction of any 
diocese is committed, during the time the 
see is vacant. A guardian of the spiritualities 
may likewise be either such in law, as the 
archbishop is of any diocese within his pro- 
vince ; or by delegation, as he whom the 
archbishop or vicar-general for the time ap- 
points. Any such guardian has power to 
hold courts, grant licences, dispensations, 
probates of wills, See. 
GL APERVA. See C h ,eto don. 
G l' AREA, a genus of the class and order 
Detail cl ria monogynia. 'The cal. is four-cleft ; 
pet. four; nect. cvlindric, bearing the an- 
thers at its mouth ; caps, four-valved, four- 
celled ; seeds solitary. There is one species, 
a tree of the West Indies. 
GUDGEON, in ichthyology. See Cy- 
PR1NUS. 
Gudgeons, in a ship, are the eyes drove 
into the stern-post, into which the pintles 
of the rudder go, to hang it. 
In vol. XI. of the Transactions of the So- 
ciety for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. we 
have the following account of a gudgeon on 
an improved construction for the upright 
shafts of mills. “ This gudgeon is formed of 
hard steel, and works on a hard steel bed ; is 
circular, three inches in diameter, and three- 
fourths of an inch thick: from its upper side 
a rib projects, which being fixed in the bot- 
tom of an upright shaft, the gudgeon works 
horizontally on a square bed : and that now 
in the possession of the society has worked in 
a mill whose wheel and shatt weighed nearly 
six tons ; and though it had continued to 
work seven years, had lost very little of its 
surface. It ran in a square box of cast iron, 
having oil therein : and a notch along the 
whole of the face of the gudgeon admits the 
oil to insinuate itself between the gudgeon 
and the bed.” 
GUETTARDA, a genus of the heptan- 
clria order, in the moncecia class of plants, 
and in the natural method ranking under the 
38th order, tricoecae. The male calyx is cy- 
lindrical; the corolla cleft into seven parts, 
and funnel-shaped. The female calyx cylin- 
drical ; the corolla cleft into seven parts ; 
one pistil, and the fruit a dry plum. There 
are four species, trees of the East and West 
Indies. 
GUILANDINA, the nickar tree; a 
genus of the monogynia order, in the de- 
candria class of plants, and in the natural 
method ranking under the 33d order, lomen- 
tacear. The calyx is monophyllous and salver- 
shaped ; the petals inserted into the neck 
of the calyx, nearly equal. The seed-vdssel 
a legumen. The species are six: the most 
Vol. I. 
G U I 
remarkable are, 1 . The bonduc, or yellow 
nickar. 2. The bonducella, or grey nickar. 
These are climbing plants, natives of the 
West Indies, where they rise to the height 
of 12 or 14 feet: the flowers come out at 
the wings of the stalks, and are composed of 
five concave yellow petals. They are suc- 
ceeded by pocls about three inches long and 
two broad, closely armed with slender spines, 
opening with two valves, each inclosing two 
hard seeds about the size of children’s 
marbles, of a yellowish colour. 3. The mo- 
ringa, or morunga nickar, is a native of the 
island of Ceylon, and some places on the 
Malabar coast. It rises to the height of 25 
or 30 feet, having flowers produced in loose 
hunches from the sides of the branches, and 
composed of an unequal number of petals. 
These plants, being natives of warm cli- 
mates, require to be kept through the winter 
in a stove in this country. They are propa- 
gated by seeds ; but those of the first sort are 
so hard, that unless they are soaked two or j 
three days in water before they are put into : 
the ground, or placed under the pots in the j 
tan-bed to soften their covers, they will remain | 
for years without vegetating. The roots of i 
the third sort are scraped when young, and j 
used by the inhabitants of Ceylon and Mar 
labar as those of horse-radish are in Europe. 
The wood dyes a beautiful blue colour. It 
is the lignum nephriticum of the dispensa- 
tories, and is brought over in large, compact, 
ponderous pieces, without knots, of a whitfsh 
or pale-yellow colour on the outside, and 
dark-coloured or reddish within : the bark 
is usually rejected. This wood imparts to 
water or rectified spirit a deep tincture ; ap- 
pealing, when placed between the eve and 
the light, of a golden colour ; in other situ- 
ations blue: pieces of another wood are 
sometimes mixed with it, which give only a 
yellow colour to water. The nephritic wood 
has scarcely any smell, and very little taste. 
It stands recommended in difficulty of urine, 
and all nephritic complaint*;, and is said to 
have this peculiar advantage ; that it does 
not, like the warmer diuretics, heat or irri- 
tate the urinary passages. Practitioners, 
however, have not found these praises war- 
ranted by experience. 
GUILD (from the Saxon guildan “to 
pay”), signifies a fraternity or company, be- 
cause every one . was gildare, that is, to pay 
something towards the charge and support 
of the company. As to the original of these 
guilds or companies, it was a law among 
the Saxons, that every freeman of fourteen 
years of age should find sureties to keep the 
peace, or be committed : upon which certain 
neighbours, consisting of ten families, entered 
into an association, and became bound for 
each other, either to produce him who com- 
mitted an offence, or to make satisfaction to 
the injured party : that they might the better 
do this, they raised a sum of money among 
themselves, which they put into a common 
stock ; and when one of their pledges had 
committed an offence, and was fled, t hen the 
other nine made satisfaction out of this stock, 
by payment of money according to the of- 
fence. Because this association consisted often 
families, it was called a decennary : and hence 
proceeded later kinds of fraternities. But 
as to the precise time when these guilds had 
their origin in England, there is nothing of 
certainty to be found; since they were in 
5 T 
G U M 
8&l 
use long before any formal licence was 
granted to them for such meetings. It seem# 
to have been about the close of the eleventh 
century, says Anderson in his History of 
Commerce, vol. i. p. 70, that merchant- 
guilds, or fraternities, which were afterwards 
styled corporations, came first into general 
use in many parts of Europe. Mr. Madox, 
in his Fiona Burgi, chap. i. § 9. thinks 
they were hardly known to our Saxon proge- 
nitors, and that they might be probably 
brought into England by the Normans, al- 
though they do not seem to have been very 
numerous in those days. The French and 
Normans might probably borrow them from 
the free cities of Italy, where trade and ma- 
nufactures were much earlier propagated, 
and where possibly such communities were 
first in use. These guilds are now compa- 
nies joined together, with laws and orders 
made by themselves, by the licence of the 
prince. 
Guild, in the royal boroughs of Scotland, 
is still used for a company of merchant's, who 
are freemen of the borough. (See Borough.) 
Every royal borough has a dean of guild, 
who is the next magistrate below the bailiff. 
He judges of controversies among meu 
concerning trade ; disputes between inhabit- 
ants touching buildings, lights, water- 
courses, and other nuisances ; calls courts, 
at which his brethren of the guild are bound 
to attend ; manages the common stock of 
the guild ; and amerces and collects fines. 
GUINEA-pig. See Cavia. 
Guinea-worm. See Dracunculus. 
GUITAR, or Guitarra, a musical in- 
strument of the string-kind, with five double, 
rows of strings, of which those that are bass, 
are in the middle, unless it be for the burden, 
an octave lower than the fourth. 
GULA, or Gola. See Architecture. 
GULES, in heraldry, signifies the colour 
red, which is expressed in engraving by per- 
pendicular lines falling from the top of the 
escutcheon to the bottom. 
GUM. A thick, transparent, tasteless 
fluid, which sometimes exudes from certain 
species of trees. It is very adhesive, and 
gradually hardens without losing, its trans- 
parency ; but easily softens again when 
moistened with water. The gum most com- 
monly used is that which exudes from dif- 
ferent species of the mimosa, particularly the 
nilotica. It is known by the name of gum 
arabic. Gum likewise exudes abundantly 
from the prunus avium, or common wild 
cherry-tree of this country. 
Gum is usually obtained in small pieces 
like tears, moderately hard, and somewhat 
brittle while cold, so that it can be reduced 
by pounding to a fine powder. When pure 
it is colourless, but it has usually a yellowish 
tinge, and it is not destitute of lustre, It 
has no smell. Its taste is insipid. Its spe- 
cific gravity varies from 1.31 to 1.48. 
1. Gum undergoes no change from being 
exposed to the atmosphere ; but the light of 
the sun makes it assume a white colour. Wa- 
ter dissolves it in large quantises. The so- 
lution which is known by the name of mu- 
cilage, is thick and adhesive : it is often 
used as a paste, and to give stiffness and 
lustre to linen. When spread out thjn it 
soon dries, and has the appearance of a var- 
nish ; but it readily attracts moisture, and 
becomes glutinous. Water washes it away 
