2«6 G E C 
Adonis, and was anciently a place of great beauty, and 
no fmall extent, as appears from the many heaps of 
ruins, and the fine pillars fcattered up and down in 
the gardens near the town.” See Byblus. 
GEBAU', a town of Bohemia, in the circle of Bole- 
flaw : fix miles fouth of Benatek. 
GEBAU' (New), a town and caftle of Sllefia, in the 
principality of Oppeln : nine miles and a half foiith-ealt 
from Falkenburg. 
GEB'BAR, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in the province 
of Diarbekir: ten miles Ibiith-eali of Jadida. 
GEBEN'NA, a town and mountain of Gaul. Lucan. 
GE'BER (John), a chemift and aftronomer, com¬ 
monly confidered as an Arabian, though born at Seville 
in Spain j but Leo Africanus aflerts, that he vs-asa Greek, 
who afterwards embraced Mahometanifm. As the word 
geber fignifies a king, this circumftance, it is probable, 
gave rife to the fabulous report of his having been a 
I'overeign in India. The events of his life, and the period 
when he flouriflied, are at bed: uncertain. According to 
fome, lie w'as a nephew of Mahomet, and lived in the 
feventli century ; whilfi others place him in the eighth 
or ninth. He was not only an excellent aftronomer, and 
correfted many errors in the Almageft of Ptolemy, but 
was alfo the firft reviver of chemiftry j and therefore he 
is mentioned with great refpedl; by Boerhaave, who fays 
that he found in his works many obfervations and expe¬ 
riments whicli w'ere afterwards publiftied as new. That 
he involved himfelf in the myfteries of alchemy muft be 
aferibed to tlie tafte of the period at which he lived. The 
'alchemillsmake iiini theinventorof an univerfal medicine, 
•as Cardan does of algebra. His works were written in Ara¬ 
bic, but were eagerlytranllated into otlier languages.They 
were prefented by Golius, in (Arabic manufeript, to the 
library of tlie univerfity of Leyden, where they are ftill 
prelerved. Thofe which have been printed are: i. 
Syntaxis AJlmiomka, Jive Demonjlrativum Opus AJlrotogia, 
Libri IX. Nuremberg, 1533, folio, tranftated by Gerrard 
dc Sabionetta. 2. De Invjiigatione PerJcQionis, Bafte, 1561, 
folio, with fome alcliemiftic works, colletled by Grata- 
rola. 3. Liber Fornacuni, in Gratarola’s colleblion, ibid. 
1571, 8 VO. 4. De Akbymia, Tradhi-o Summa Perjeblionis, in 
duos Libras divifa. 5. Liber Invejiigatiotiis Magijlerii, Stralb. 
1588, 8vo. 6. Summa PerJeLlionis Magijlerii, Venice, 1542, 
8 VO. improved from a manulcript in the Vatican, Dant- 
wic, 1682, 8vo. 7. Cbymia, five Traditio Summa PerJeSlionis 
& Invefigatio Magijlerii, Leyden, 1668 ; of this work there 
is another edition improved by George Horn, with the 
addition of Medulla Alchymia Gebrica. 8. Enarratio Met/io^ 
dica trium Gebri Medicinarum, in quibus continetur Lapidis Phi- 
Iflfophici Vera ConfeBio, Anifterdam, 1678, 8vo. 9. La Ef- 
pofizione di molti Secreti della Natura, Venice, 1544, 8vo. 
10. Gcomanica, tranflated into Italian, 1552. Golius gav.e 
a Latin tranfiation of the alchemical works of Geber, 
tinder the title of Lapis Phitqfophorumy which was pub¬ 
liftied firft at Leyden, in folio, and afterwards in quarto. 
An Englifti tranfiation, by Richard RuflTel, appeared at 
Leyden, in 1668, 8vo. 
GE'BERSDORF, a town of Germany, in the circle 
of Upper Saxony, and principality of Qiierfurt: one 
mile nortli of Dahme. 
GFiBESEE', a town of Germany, in the circle of 
Upper Saxony, in Thuringia; eight miles north-north- 
weft of Erfurt. 
GE'BIM, a city of Paleftine, fituated moft probably 
in the tribe of Judah. IfaiaJ)., x. 31. 
GEB'LITZ, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of 
Leitmeritz ; two miles fouth-weft of Leitmeritz. 
GE'BRES. See Gabres, p. 131, of this volume, 
GEC'CO,^, A name given by the Indians to the 
poifon with which they anoint their arrows, or infufe 
under their nails, or inftil by a pun^Jure, to deftroy the 
lite of an enemy, or thofe they wifti to kill by a flow 
poifon. See the article Poison. 
GECKjy. [geac, Sax. a cuckow j Germ, a 
G E D 
fool; gawk, Scottifti.] A bubble eafily impofed upon. 
Hanmer. Obfolete. —Why did you fuffer Jachimo to taint 
his noble heart and brain with needlefs jealoufy, and to 
become thegecA and fcorn o’ th’ other’s villainy? Shahejp. 
Why have you fuffer’d me to be imprifon’d. 
And made the moft notorious geek and gull. 
That e’er invention play’d on ? Shakefpeart. 
To GECK, V. a. To cheat; to trick. 
GECK'O,/. A fpecies of lizard. See Lacekta, 
GEDALI'AH, [of Vna Heb. greatnefs, and n* the 
Lord, i. e. the greatnefs of the Lord.] A governor left 
at Jerufalem during the Babylonifh captivity. 
GED'DES (Alexander), a learned Scotch catholic 
divine, born at Arradowl in Bamft'shire, in 1737. His 
parents were reputable, but not opulent; and in whofe 
library the principal book was an Fhiglifti edition of the 
Bible, which they taught their fon to read at a very 
early period. By the care and frequency with which 
he perufed that book, the principal facts contained in it 
became familiar to his mind in his infancy, and before 
he attained his eleventh ye?r, he knew all its hiftory by 
heart. In 1758, he was fent to the Scotch college at 
Paris; and not long after he began to attend the lectures 
in the college of Navarre, under M. Bure and de Sau- 
vent, and of Lavocat for the Hebrew language, at the 
Sorbonne. His proficiency interefted the laft-mentioned 
profefTor ftrongly in his favour, who wifhed him to re¬ 
main at Paris; but through the advice of other friends 
he was prevailed upon to return to Scotland in 1764, 
The firft appointment which he had as prieft was among 
the catholics in the county of Angus ; from which fitua- 
tion he removed, in 1765, to Traquaire, where he refided 
nearly three years in the capacity of domeftic chaplain 
to the earl of that name. In the autumn of 1768 he 
quitted Traquaire, and returned to Paris, where he fpent 
the following winter, devoting his time to the confulta- 
tion of books and manuferipts in the king’s and other 
libraries, and making extrafls from the Hebrew. In the 
fpring of 1769 he returned to Scotland, and undertook 
the charge of a confiderable Roman-catholic congrega. 
tion at Auchinhalrig, in Bamffshire. In 1779 the uni¬ 
verfity of Aberdeen, from a regard to his learning and 
merits, conferred on him the degree of doftor of laws: 
an honour by which that body had not before diftinguifti- 
ed any Roman-catholic fmee the reformation. About 
this period Dr. Geddes removed to London, for the fake 
of being within reach of greater facilities for profecuting 
the grand work to wliich his courfe of ftudies had for 
fome time been fubfervient, which was a new Englifti 
tranfiation of the Books of the Old and New Teftament 
from their original languages. For a few months after 
his arrival at the naetropolis, he officiated as prieft in 
the imperial ambaflador’s chapel, till it was fuppreffed 
at the end of the year 1780, by an order from the empe- 
rorjofephll. and afterwards he preached occafionally 
at the chapel in Duke-ftreet, Lincoln’s-inn-fields, till 
Eafter, 1782, at which time it is believed that he entirely 
declined the public exercife of all clerical funftions. 
Dr. Geddes had formed the defign of a new tranfiation 
of the Bible while he was a ftudent at Paris; and about 
the year 1760, he began a tourle of reading neceflary to 
qualify him for entering on fo great an undertaking. 
When it was underftood that Dr. Geddes was ferioufty 
bent on the defign of a new tranfiation of the Bible, he 
met with much difeouragement and oppofition from the 
lefs enlightened members of his own communion, origi¬ 
nating in their well-known dread of permitting the laity 
to have accefs to the feripturesin their native language. 
In thefe circumftances, fays he, “ I had but little hopes 
of ever being able to profecute the plan, when Provi¬ 
dence threw me into the arms of fuch a patron as Origen 
himfelf might have been proud to boaft of; a patron 
who, for thefe ten years part, has, with a dignity pecu¬ 
liar to himfelf, afforded me every convenience that my 
heart 
