Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/785

 GAS

The true way in which the antients prepared their garum, which they fo much valued as a delicacy at their tables, is unknown to us ; but it appears that fome kinds of garum had no fifhy matter in them, fromAetius, who gives the following prefcription of a liquor, which he calls by this name. Take of common water thirty one pints, of fea fait two pints, and of dried figs fifty \ let thefe all macerate together, and afterwards be (trained clear for ufe. All the garums were efteemed hot and drying by the antients, and were fometimes given as laxa- tives before food. The modern writers understand the word garum in a much more limited fenfe, meaning no more by it than the brine or pickle in which herrings or anchovies are preferved.

GARYOPHYLLUS, or Caryophyllus, the dove fpke. There is great room to doubt whether the caryophyllus of the antient Greeks and Romans was the fame with the fpice we now know by that name. Pliny's account of it is, againft the general opinion, that it was. He fays it was of the lhape of a pepper corn, but larger, and more brittle, and that it was brought over for the fake of its fmell. This defcription of the caryophyllus of the antients does not at all agree with our clove fpice, but much better with the pimento, or, as we call it, Jamaica pepper. Pliny adds, that it was faid to grow in fome part of the Indies. The copies differ in thefe words, fome have it in indlco luce^ others in indicate^ and the moft correct in ind'ica Tynde. Tyndis was a famous market of the Eaft In- dies in old times, and, according to Peutinger's tables, it was the very utmoft limits of the Roman traffick in this part of the world : and the author of the Periplus of the Red Sea mentions Tyndis and Muziris, as two of the moll: remark- able and flourishing marts of the Indies, where merchants of all nations reforted to purchafe the products of the Eaft. The .cloves, or caryophylli of our times, grow in the Molucca iflands, and in Ceylon, which was the Taprobatane of the an- tients.

The caryophyllus of Pliny muft be allowed to be different from our clove, but Paulus iEgineta feems plainly to have known our clove by this name ; he fays, that it was a fpice brought from the Indies, and feemed a fort of flower, but compofed of a woody fubfiance, and bore its fruit on the top. The flower itfelf he alfo, in another place, compares to a nail, a companion adopted by many who have written fince his time, and very appofite to the cloves now in ufe, but by no means to the cloves of the antients, which, as defcribed by Pliny, muft have been round, and in iize between a pepper corn andapea, itsfize and fhape very well agreeing with our pimento. Paulus ./Egineta finds fault with the name caryophyllus ; which fignifies having leaves like the nut tree. It is very certain that the clove july flower, with which we make a fyrup in the mops, is by no means entitled, by the fhape of its leaves, to this name, and has only obtained it from its flower, fome what refem- bling, in fmell, the clove fpice. Some fay that it is applica- ble to the clove tree, but this will fcarce hold, for the clove tree is, by all modern writers, agreed to have leaves like the bay, and the bay leaf has no great referiiblance to any thing of the nut kind. Theophraftus indeed compares the citron leaf to the leaf of the bay, the nut, and the andrachne ; but though we allow that the andrachne had leaves very like the bay, we can fcarce come into the opinion, that the nut leaf is like the bay. Upon the whole, the quarrel that iEgineta makes to the name, and the name being received as a proper one among all the Greek writers, feems a farther proof that their clove was not the fame with ours: the tree that pro- duced their clove, if different from ours, might perhaps have leaves like a nut tree, though the leaves of our clove tree are like the bay.

GAS (Cycl.J — Gas fylveftre, a term ufed by Van Helmont to exprefs a fubtile and floating fpirit, which is fcarce abfent from any place, but impregnates the air; and though it is of no harm when in an open place, yet when fhut up, and clofe confined in a cavern, has power to extinguifh a candle, and even in a more potent ftate will fuffocate animals. Neuman obferves that this gas always remains, in fome por- tion, in fermented liquors, though it is not to be feparated from them, any more than from any other body which it impregnates in a fenfible form. Ale is obferved by this author always to retain a confiderable portion of it, to which it owes its inebriating and narcotic quality, more than to the common fpirit which it contains.

^TjAST hounds a term ufed in the north of England for a fort of hound, called alfo, more expreflivelv, the gaze hound. This dog is more beholden to the fharpnefs of his fight in hunting, than to his fmell. He will feldom lofe fight of the fox, when once he has found him, and makes very good fport with the hare. As to the buck, he will always fmgle out a plump and good one from the herd, and if after a time he joins them again, and they fuffer it, this dog will foon pick him out again by his eye, and never leave him till he is worried. Thefe fort of hounds do better in champaign even ground, than where there are bufhes and briars ; and they are better for people who follow them on horfeback, than for thofe who hunt on foot. If this fort of dog takes a wrong way, he is not obftinare in it, but begins the chace afrelh from a iignal Suppi.. Vol. I.

GAS

made him by the mailer, and follows with as much courage and nimblenefs as at firft.

GASTEROSTEUS, in ichthyology, the name of a genus of the acanthopterygious fifhes, the charaflers of which, ac- cording to Artedi, are thefe. The brancheoftege membrane on each fide contains three fmall and flender bones ; the belly is almofl all over covered with bony fcales ; the belly fins have only two rays, the one of which is much larger than the other, and is prickly. The fpecics of this fifh are thefe. I. The gaftcnjleus, with three prickles on the back ; this is the com- mon pifciculus aculeatus, or common ftittlebaek. 2. The gajhroftem, with ten prickles on the back ; this is the pug- nitius minor of authors. 3. The gafterajlem, with fifteen prickles on the back ; this is the fteinbicher of the Germans. The body is fquare, and the fifh is five or fix inches long. The name is of Greek origin, and is derived from the words ?•«="•>!;, the billy, and o, a bom ; the greater part of the belly of this fill] being fortified by bony plates. Artedi Gen. Pifc. p. 37. See alfo Linnai Syft. Natj p. 53,

GASTRIC (Cycl.) — Gastric^i//^, a name given by fome au- thors to the proper juices of the ftomach. This is a thin, pellucid, fpumous, and faltifh liquor, which continually di* ftils from the glandulbus kernels of the Itomach for the diflb- lution, mixture, and dilution of our food, and is of great fer- vice in digeftioh.

GASTROCNEMII, (Cycl.) in anatomy, two thick pretty broad and oblong mufcles, fituated laterally with refpecf to each other, in the fame plane, under the poples, and forming a great part of what is called the calf of the leg. That which lies next the tibia is called interims, and that next the fibula externus. Each mufcle is fixed above, by a flat tendon to the pofterior part of the lower extremity of the os femoris, be- hind the lateral tuberosity of each condyle, adhering clofely to the pofterior ligaments of the point of the knee : from thence they run down, each forming a large and pretty broad flefhy bedy, irregularly oval. The externus covers the poplitieus, being larger and broader, fpreading more laterally and running lower down than the interims ; the flefhy body of which begins higher up than the other. About the middle of the leg they end in a ftrong, broad, common tendon, which contracts a little in breadth as it defcends, and is infert- ed in the pofterior extremity of the os calcis, together with the tendon of the folaeus. The fuperior tendons of thefe muf- cles become gradually cartilaginous in aged perfons ; and at length offify near the condyles, the bony portions looking like fefamoide bones. It is fometimes very late before they are hardened in this manner, and often one of them is hardened before the other. W:njltrw\ Anat. p. 218.

GASTRORAPHY, in furgery, exprefies the operation of the future, or fowing up wounds in the abdomen. The word is derived from the belly, or abdomen, and, a future.

This operation is generally much dreaded by the patient, and is unneceffary in feveral cafes where the wound is only in the mufcular part, and 2. where it is not very lar<*e, efpecially if it be made-length wife : for if the wound fhould penetrate into the cavity of the abdomen, and even let out a part of the omentum, or interlines ; yet in cafes where it is very- fmall as wounds generally are, which are made by punfiure, or have happened lengthways ; in thefe cafes, upon returning the parte which are pufhed out, flopping the wound with a foft tent, and fecuring all with a proper bandage, it may be heal- ed without the help of the needle. Befides in fat perfons, this operation is very difficult : and it would be an acf of great cruelty in a fufgeon, to perform this operation upon a man, when he might be cured after an eafier method. But there are two Cafes in which this operation is abfolutely neceflary ; the firft is, where the Wound is fo Jaro-e, that there is no poffibility of retaining the interlines by any other me- thod ; for as the inteftines are continually pufhed forward in the a& of infpiration, by the acf ion of the diaphragm and the abdomen, the falling down of the inteftines in this cafe is unavoidable, and therefore the operation is neceflary j the other is in large tranfverfe wounds of the abdomen, where the mufcles are divided, but the peritomcum is not con- cerned.

In wounds of the abdomen the chief inquiry is, whether the omentum or inteftines are let out ; if none of thefe have burft through the wound, the lips of the wound muft be kept as clofe together as pomble with the hands, and the pati- ent kept with his head lying downwards, till the wound is fuf- ficiently fecured from letting out the contents of the abdomen : but when the inteftines are already fallen out, they muft be returned with the greateft expedition, left they fhould receive any injuries from the external air. It is firft to be examined however, whether they have received any wound, or not ; and whether they preferve their natural warmth and colour : for where they are cold, livid, or dry, or wounded, they are not to be returned fuddenly, but fomented with warm milk and water, or wrapped up for fome time in the cawl of fome animal newly killed, till they have in fome degree recovered their native warmth and condition.

You will eafily perceive, that there is fome hurt in the in- 12 D »4aiak