GUM 
manufacture where large quantities of foreign gum have 
been . ufually employed. 
To GUM, v. a. To clofe with gum.—The eyelids 
are apt to be gummed, together with a vifcous humour. 
Wi/eman. 
GUM-CIS'TUS, f. A fpecies of rock-rofe, of which 
there are fever a 1 diftihtt forts. Mafon's Supplement. 
GXJM.EiLAS'TIC, /'. in botany. See Iatropha. 
GUM-EL'IMI TREE. See Amyris and Bursera. 
GUM-LACC See Croton. 
GUM-SUC'CORY. See Chondrilla. 
GUMBIN'NEN, a town of Pruflian Lithuania, con. 
taining two churches, and three thoufand inhabitants ; 
with feme manufactures of cloth : fifty-fix miles eaft of 
f^onigfberg. 
GUMBQRITZ', a town of Rufiia, in the govern¬ 
ment of Olonetz : fixteen miles fouth of Olonetz. 
GUMI'EL D’lZAN', a town of Spain, in Old Caf- 
tile : twenty-eight miles weft of Ofma. 
GUMI'NEN, a town of Swilferland, in the canton of 
Berne : five miles weft of Bern. 
GUMIPOL'LAM, a town of Hindooftan, in the My- 
fore country : fifty-three miles north-north-eaft of Ban¬ 
galore, and ninety-eight eaft of Chittledroog. 
GUM'MA, a town of Japan, in the province of 
Koodfuke. 
GUM'lVfA, f. In pathology,adifeafe or tumourarifing 
put ofithe fubftanceof a bone, whereby it becomes fo foft as 
to yield to the finger. When thefe tumoursare harder they 
are called tophi ; when harder ftill, they receive the name 
of nodes : but the harder tumours in bones are exojiofes. In 
venereal patients fuch tumours occur on the head, and 
even itithe middle of the moft folid bones. They feemto 
be produced when the veflels running'between the bony 
laminae, being either obftru&ed or inflamed, are dilated, 
and fo raife the incumbent laminse. Perhaps the bone 
degenerates too into a morbid foftnefs. A foftnefs of 
the bones fometimes fucceeds abfeefles of the adjacent 
part5 ; and fometimes the origin of the diforder is lodged 
in the fubftance of the bone, efpecially in the lues ve- 
iiera ; gumrnatahave, however, beendifeovered, when no 
inch adequate caufe could be obferved. See Surgery. 
GUM'MATA, f. pi. In medicine, tumours of a ftru- 
nious kind. Scott. 
GUM'MATED, adj. Smeared over with gum, glazed 
with gum. Scott. 
GUM'MINESS, f. The ftate of being gummy ; ac¬ 
cumulation of gum.—The tendons are involved with a 
great gumminefs- and collection of matter. Wi/eman. 
GUMMING,yi The aCtof joining as with gum; the 
juncture occafioned by a vifcous matter. 
GUMMO'SE, adj. Abounding with gum, gummous. 
GUMMOS'lTY, f. The nature of gum; gummi¬ 
nefs.-—Sugar and honey make windy liquors, and the 
elaftic fermenting particles are detained by their innate 
gummofity. Floyer. 
GUM'MOUS, adj. Of the nature of gum;;—Obfer- 
vations concerning Englilh amber, and relations about 
the ambet" of Pruflia, prove that amber is not a gummous 
or rfefinous fubftance drawn out of trees by the fun’s 
heat, but a natural foffil. Woodward, 
GUMMY, adj. Conftfting of gum ; of the nature of 
gum.—From the utmoft end of the head branches there 
ilfueth out a gummy juice, which liangeth downward 
like a cork. Raleigh. 
How each arifing alder now appears. 
And o’er the Po diftils hex gummy tears. Dryden. 
Productive of gum : 
The flant lightnings ; whofe thwart flame driv’n down, 
Kindles the gummy bark of fir and pine. Milton. 
Overgrown with gum : 
The yawning youth, fcaree half awake, effays 
His lazy limbs and dozy head to raife; 
Then rubs his gummy eyes, and ferubs his pate. Dryden, 
GUM 9S. 
GUM'EENSTEIN, a town of Germany,’ in the arch¬ 
duchy of Stiria : fixteen miles weft of Rottenmann. 
GUM'POLTSKIRCHEN, a town of Germany, in 
the archduchy of Auftria : eight miles fouth of Vienna. 
GUM'S, f. [-jama,' -Sak. ■ gufoiite, jbut.j The hard 
flefliy fubftance in either jaw, thrOii’gh which the teeth 
protrude. The gumS ate apt to become fpohgy, and 
to feparate from the teeth ; and the cattfe is frequently 
a ftony tar.tarous kind of cruft, which forms itl'elf there, 
but which when fepatated by an. operation which the 
dentifts call foaling, the gums foon return to their for¬ 
mer ftate. If rubbed daily with a brufli Cbrnpcfed of 
very ltiff bridles, the tartar will not only be prevented 
from accumulating, but the gums, from being'tender 
and apt to bleed, will become hard and firm. Cold 
water is as fifeful as any other wafh, but fome choofe 
to join with it one part in four of tinChire of myrrh. 
The feurvy is another diforder whicli affects the gums; 
indeed, when a fcorbutic diforder invades the whole 
habit, its firft fymptom is a putrid ftate of the gums.— 
See the article Anatom y, vol. i. p. 543. 
GUMSOOR', a town of Hindooftan, in the county of 
Orifta : eighty miles fouth-weft of Cattack. Lat. 19. 
45. N. Ion. 84. 49. E. Greenwich. 
GUN, f. [Of this word there is no fatisfaCtory ety¬ 
mology. Mr. Lye obferves that gun in Icelanddignifies 
battle ; but when guns came into uft we had no com¬ 
merce with Iceland. May not- gun copie by gradual 
corruption from canne, game, gunne? Came is the origi¬ 
nal of cannon. ] The general term for fireiarms ; which 
includes every kind that difeharges a ball or fhot through 
a cylindrical tube by means of gunpowder, except mor¬ 
tars and piftols, which are never diftinguiftied by the 
name oi gun ; though fuch as are loaded and difehafge'd 
by air, and all fowling-pieces, are thus denominated; 
Sortie there are who range the purple heath 
Or naked ftubble, where from field to field 
The founding coveys urge their lab’ring flight, 
Eager amid the rifing cloud to pour 
The gun's unerring thunder. Armjlrong. 
It is impoflible to afeertain at what period of time 
thefe weapons were firft invented ; for though the in¬ 
troduction of guns into the weftern part of the world is 
but of modern date, comparatively fpeaking, yet it is 
certain that in fome parts of Alia they were ufed in very re¬ 
mote ages, though in a rude and imperfedt manner. Phi- 
loftratus fpeaks of a city near the river Hyphafis in the In¬ 
dies, which Was faid to be impregnable, and that its in¬ 
habitants were relations of the gods, becaule they threw 
thunder and lightning upon their enemies; and other 
Greek authors, as alfo Quintus Curtius, fpeak of the 
fame thing having been experienced by Alexander the 
Great. Hence fome imagine that guns were ufed by the 
eaftern nations in his time; while others fuppofe the 
thunder and lightning alluded to by thofe authors were 
only artificial fire-works, or rockets, fuch as we know 
are ufed in the wars by the Indians even in the prefent 
day againft the Europeans. But if this fa£t only be 
admitted, it will ferve to ftiew the great antiquity of 
gunpowder; and if this antiquity of gunpowder be ad¬ 
mitted, it gives fome colour to the aftertion of certain 
modern travellers, who pretend to have difeovered that 
guns were ufed in China as far back as the year of Chrift 
85. Hyde, in his Hift. Shahiludii, p. 175, info.bns us, 
that the Indians had for many centuries the ufe of gun¬ 
powder, and Of machines for fending forth fire; and that 
the Chinefe learned the knowledge of them from the In¬ 
dians ; and it appears in his Var. Obfervat. p. 89..that the 
Saracens learned it from the Chinefe. But Mr. Pennant, in 
his Outlines of the Globe, p. 104, fays, “ The firft guns or 
canrton ever call in China, were the work of a Jefuit, fa¬ 
ther Adam Schaal, by order of the emperor. The next of 
father Verbieft, the great ornament of the order; he firft 
caft a hundred and thirty, and after that three hundred 
4 ' and 
