GEN 
strength and designs of the enemy, and by 
this means is enabled to take the most suc- 
cessful 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 discipline. 
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 advan- 
tageous ground ; to make the disposition 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 ap- 
proaches 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 de- 
claration or indictment, without offering 
any special matter, whereby to evade it : and 
it is called the general issue, because, by im- 
portingan 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 ordinary 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 specially 
pleaded upon the record. In many cases, 
for the protection of justices, constables, 
excise officers, &c. they are by act of par- 
liament enabled to plead the general issue, 
and give the special matter for their justifi- 
cation under the act in evidence. 
GENERATING line, or figure, in geo- 
metry, is that by which its motion produces 
any other plane or solid figure. Thus, a 
right line moved any way parallel to itself, 
generates a parallelogram ; round a point 
in the same plane, with one end fastened in 
that point, it generates a circle. One en- 
tire revolution of a circle, in the same 
plane, generates the cycloid ; and the revo- 
lution 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 natu- 
ral bodies, which agree in certain essential 
GEN 
and peculiar characters, and therefore all of 
the same family or kind ; so that the word 
used as the generical name, equally ex- 
presses every one of them, and some other 
words expressive of the peculiar qualities of 
figures of each are added, in order to de- 
note 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 unquestion- 
ably most injurious to their constitution 
and morals. A liquid of this kind was for- 
merly sold in the apothecaries shops, drawn 
from the juniper-berry, but distillers now 
have completely supplanted 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 compo- 
sition. It is composed of oil of turpentine, 
and malt spirits. A better sort is said to 
be drawn off by a slow fire, from juniper- 
berries, proof-spirits, and water, in the 
proportion of three pound of berries to four 
gallons of water and ten of spirit. The ce- 
lebrated Hollands 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 order. 
Essential character : calyx turbinate, five- 
cleft ; corolla one-petalled, with a villose 
throat, and a five-parted border ; capsule 
oblong, two-celled, many-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. Na- 
tural order ofPapilionaceas orLeguminosae. 
Essential character : calyx two-lipped, two 
and three-toothed ; banner oblong, reflex 
downwards from the pistil and stamens. 
There are seventeen species. 
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 from nature to perform 
well and easily that which others can do 
but indifferently, and with a great deal of 
pains. 
GENTIAN, in pharmacy, is to be found 
in many countries, but particularly in some 
parts of France, on the Alps, Pyrenees, 
and the mountainous districts of Germany. 
