340 GEO 
as a vermifuge by Mr. Peter Duguid ; but Dr.Wright, 
who refided a long time at Jamaica, has communicated 
the fulled: information concerning this tree: according 
to him, the bark is powerfully medicinal, and its anthel¬ 
mintic effedts have been eftablifhed at Jamaica by long 
experience. It may be given in decodlion, fyrup, pow¬ 
der, or extradt; but muft be ufed with caution, in fmall 
dofes, at firft. 
GEOG'RAPHER, f. [yy) and Gr. geographe, 
Fr.] One who defcribes the earth according to the po- 
fition of its different parts.—A greater part of the earth 
hath ever been peopled than hath been known or de- 
fcribed by geographers. Brown. 
From fea to fea, from realm to realm, I rove, 
And grow a xwcrt geographer by love. Tickel. 
GEOGRAPH'ICAL, adj. [geographique, Fr. irom geo¬ 
graphy.'^ Relating to geography; belonging to geogra¬ 
phy.—I fend you an hiftorical, chronological, and geo¬ 
graphical, didlionary. As geographical, it defcribes the 
lituation of countries and cities. Chejlerjield. 
GEOGRAPH'ICAL MILE, the fea-mile or minute,, 
being the 6oth part of a degree of a great circle. 
GEOGRAPH'ICALLY, In a geographical man¬ 
ner ; according to the rules of geography.—Minerva lets 
Ulyfles into the knowledge of,his country ; {l\c geogra¬ 
phically defcribes it to him. Broome. 
GEOG'RAPHY, f. \_geographic, Fr. geograjia, Ital. 
geographia, Span. Port, and Lat. yzioy^xpa, of yn, the 
earth, and y^etpa, Gr. to deferibe.] 1 he fcience which 
teaches and explains the nature and properties ot the 
earth, as to its figure, place, magnitude, motions, ce- 
leftial appearances, &c. witli the various lines, real or 
imaginary, on its furface. Golnitz confiders geography 
as either exterior or interior; but Varenius more juftly 
divides it into general and fpccial ; or univerfal and par¬ 
ticular. G neralox univerfal geography, is that which coai- 
fiders the wiiole earth, witliout any regard to particular 
countries ; while fpccial or particular geography, contem¬ 
plates the confiitution of the feveral particular regions, 
or countries. V/hat is called general geography, em¬ 
braces a wide view of the fubject, regarding the earth 
agronomically as a planet, the grand divifions of land 
and water, drc. and extends to what is called pradtical 
or matlieinatical geograplty, being that which defines 
the fpherical ftrubiure of ilie earth, and demonfirates the 
artificial conilruftion of globes, maps, charts, &c. 
Among tJie liibordinate divifions of this fcience, may 
be named phyfical geography, which invefligates the ma¬ 
terials of w'hicli the earth is formed, with the changes or 
revolutions it lias undergone; and which the reader will 
find mod amply difculfed. under the article Earth, 
vol. vi. p. 177-106 ;. and Earthquake, p. 207-216. 
But the mod common acceptation now given to this 
fcience, is that of hiforical geography, not only from its 
profefl'ed fubfervience to hidory, but becaufe it is in fact 
a narrative fo nearly approaching the hillorical, that 
Herodotus, and many other ancient hidorians, and even 
the immortal Homer, have enriched their works with it; 
and the celebrated defeription of Germany, by Tacitus, 
contains mod of the materials adopted in treatifes of 
geography. In this popular point of view, therefore, 
hidorical geography may be divided into civil, which 
treats of the cudoms, manners, religion, laws, &c. of 
different communities; and chorographical, which points 
out the diverfified regions of the earth, its various dif- 
triCls, ;uid divifions into land and water, illands, conti¬ 
nents, leas, lakes, gulphs, &c. and hence we trace hif¬ 
torical geography into its two grand divifions of An¬ 
cient and Mouern. From ancient geography, the 
mod important fabfs in the pliyfical hidory of the globe 
are to be defined, with the modern appearance of that 
which is now mod driking on its furface. Dates of 
remote period cannot be underdood, unlefs they be con- 
jiected with thofe of place, which it is the objebt of 
GEO 
geography to afeertain; and hence aftronomy, natural 
hidory, natural philofophy, geometry, navigation, and 
all the principal arts of civil life, are, in truth, inti¬ 
mately related to the fcience of geography, either as 
fupplying its fafts and principles, or as deriving their 
bed lights from it. A well-grounded knowledge of the 
feenes of ancient hidory may feem, to a perfpicacious 
mind, to annihilate the lapfe of ages, and to give us 
the privilege of being contemporaries- of thofe earlier 
races of men, whofe progrefs in civility we delight to 
contemplate ; and but for a knowledge of their geo¬ 
graphy, more than half the information which we find 
in the writings of the ancients, would be lod to us. Yet 
there is nothing more difficult in erudition or fcientific 
refearch, than to acquire a thorough knowledge of the 
fafls of ancient, in clear fatisfadtory comparifon with 
thofe of modern, geography. The notions of the ancients 
refpedting the figure of the earth, and its relations 'J:o 
the heavenly bodies, were not fuch as to aftbrd that ac¬ 
curacy in the divifions of the world, without which lo¬ 
cal didances can never be didinftly recorded. The 
names which they have given to places, vary or agree 
in different writings, with a very troublefome irregu¬ 
larity ; and the changes which have taken place on the 
face of the globe fince the ancients wrote, have been fo 
very confiderable, that thefe, above every thing elfe, 
render all the parts of ancient geography in the utinoft 
degree difficult and obfeure. Yet we (hall endeavour 
to open this refearch from the records of the mod dif- 
tinguiflied writers, whofe valuable difeoveries feenj 
wholly their own, undertaken without a beacon to con- 
duft, or a fenfire to miflead. 
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS of GEOGRAPHY. 
The origin or fird principles of geography, mud have 
been nearly primeval with the early population ol' the 
world, which it is its province to deferibe. It mud 
however be obvious to every obferver, that arts and 
fciences, when reprefented only in their highed date of 
improvement, can never communicate full information, 
unlefs at the fame time the ruder dages through which 
they paffed before they arrived at fuch perfedtion, are 
minutely traced and appreciated. Geography, in this 
refpedt.’is like every other fcience, whole imperfedl be¬ 
ginnings ought to be defined, and the time and manner 
pointed out, by which it received its gradual improve¬ 
ments. Its early twilight rays may in fome mealure be 
colledJed from Mofes, Job, and Homer; which were af¬ 
terwards concentrated by tlie Egyptians, Chaldeans, and 
Babylonians. From them it appears, that the early geo¬ 
graphers, being deditute of mathematical indruments, 
and of adronomical obfervations, fird began to determine 
the fituation of places according to climates-, and they 
were led to fix upon thofe climates from the form and 
colour of certain animals which were to be found in 
thole different countries. Tlie appearance of Negroes, 
or what they called Ethiopians, and of the larger animals, 
fuch as the rhinoceros and elephant, fiiggeded to them 
tl'.e line of divifion where tlie limits of the torrid zone 
■began towards tlie north, and ended towards the foiith. 
For reafon, faid they, points out to us, that fimilar things 
appear in the fame temperature of the elements ; and that 
whether they were animals ur plants, they are produced 
according to the fimilar date of the air or climate under 
the lame parallels, or a like lituation equallydidant from 
either pole. 
This liinple manner of dividing their climates, mud 
be confidered as the fird fcientific outline of geography 
in the more early ages of tlie world. But another me¬ 
thod was foon adopted by the Egyptians and Babylo¬ 
nians, which was the determining the lituation of places, 
or their di dance from the equator, by obferving the length 
of their longed and lliorted days. And that this obier- 
vation might be performed with fome accuracy, they 
.made life of a.kind of perpendiculai' fun-dial, having a 
dilu-s 
