GAS 
sophy. Gassendi possessed a large and va- 
luable library, to which he added an astro- 
nomical and philosophical apparatus, which, 
on account of their accuracy and worth, were 
purchased by the Emperor Ferdinand III. 
and afterwards deposited, with other 
choice collections, in the Imperial library 
at Vienna. The MSS. which he left behind 
him, and the treatises formerly published 
by himself, were printed together, accom- 
panied by the authors life, and published 
by Sorbiere, in six volumes folio, 1658. 
They consist in the philosophy of EpicurOs ; 
the author’s own philosophy ; astronomical 
works ; the lives of Peiresc, Epicurus, Co- 
pernicus, Tycho Brahe, Purbeck, Regio- 
montanus, John Muller, &c. a refutation of 
the meditations of Des Cartes ; and epistles, 
and other treatises. 
GASTEROSTETJS, the stickle-back, in 
natural history, a genus of fishes of the order 
Thoracici. Generic character : body carinate 
on each side, somewhat lengthened, and co- 
vered with bony plates ; dorsal fin single, 
with distinct spines between it and the head; 
ventral fins behind the pectoral, but above 
the sternum. There are thirteen species. 
G. aculeatus, 6r three spined stickle-back 
is found in almost all the fresh waters of 
Europe, and is about three inches long, and 
in the beginning of the summer displays the 
most beautiful combination of bright-red, 
fine olive green, and silvery whiteness. It 
is extremely active and rapid, and is parti- 
cularly injurious in fish ponds, as it devours 
the spawn of the fish. It is highly voracious, 
and is reported to have swallowed in the 
space of five hours, seventy-four young dace, 
about a quarter of an inch in length. In 
the fens of Lincolnshire, these fishes appear 
in immense numbers, and have been fre- 
quently sold at the rate of a halfpenny per 
bushel. They have been often most success- 
fully applied as manure for land. 
GASTRIC juice, a fluid of the utmost 
importance in the process of digestion. It 
does not act indiscriminately on all sub- 
stances, nor is it the same in all animals, nor 
does it continue always of the same nature, 
even in the same animal, it changes accord- 
ing to circumstances. No certain facts have 
yet been established as to the nature of the 
gastric juice : it is however completely as- 
certained that it acts with a chemical energy 
in dissolving food : it attacks the surface of 
bodies, unites to the particles of them, which 
it carries off, and cannot be separated from 
them by filtration. It operates with more 
energy and rapidity the more the food is di- 
GAV 
vided, and its action is increased by a warm 
temperature. The food is not merely re- 
duced to very minute parts; its taste and 
smell are quite changed ; its sensible pro- 
perties are destroyed, and it acquires new 
and very different ones. This fluid does not 
act as a ferment, it is a powerful antiseptic, 
and even restores flesh already putrified. 
Two things are well known with respect to 
the substances contained in the stomach. 
1. They contain phosphoric acid; and, 2. 
they have the power of coagulating milk, 
and the serum in the blood. What the coa- 
gulating substance is, has not been discover- 
ed, but it is supposed to be not very soluble 
in water, since the inside of a calf’s stomach, 
after being steeped in water six hours, and 
then well washed, still furnishes a liquor on 
infusion which coagulates milk. 
GASTROBRANCHUS, in natural histo- 
ry, a genus offishes, of the order Cartilaginei. 
Generic character: mouth beneath, furnish- 
ed with pectinal teeth, in a double row on 
each side; body eel-shaped, carinate beneath 
by a soft fin, two ventral spiracles. G. 
coecus of the hag-fish, is about five inches in 
length, in the European seas, but, in those 
of India attains the length of a common 
eel. Its appearance is very similar to that 
of the lamprey. It is characterized by the 
circumstance of exhibiting no traces of the 
existence of such an organ as the eye. It 
is reported by naturalists, that the hag-fish 
will often enter the mouths of fishes fixed 
on the hook of the angler, and gnaw a pas- 
sage through their bodies, devouring all but 
the bones and skin. Its substance is so 
highly glutinous, that a large vessel of sea 
water will, in a short time after the living 
coecus is placed in it, become of the consist- 
ence of jelly. 
GATE, in architecture, a large door, lead- 
ing, or giving entrance into a city, town, 
castle, palace, or other considerable build- 
ing : or a place giving passage to persons, 
horses, coaches, or waggons, &c. 
GAVELKIND, a tenure or custom be- 
longing to lands in the county of Kent, by 
which the lands of the father are, at his 
death, equally divided among all his sons ; 
or the land of a deceased brother, in case he 
leaves no issue, among all the brethren. 
This is by some called antient soccage- 
tenure : the custom came from our Saxon 
ancestors, among whom the inheritance of 
lands did not descend to the eldest, but to 
all the sons alike ; and the reason why it 
was retained in Kent is, because the Kentish 
