Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/146

136 pronunciation, l.ll)l‘.11‘0.1 respiration, wi.1e dilatation of the ' large number of undoubtedly gcnuinc examples, extending pupils, and impossibility of keeping an erect posture. The mind in most cases remains clear until shortly before death. The earliest and most prominent symptom of a fatal or dangerous dose is the drooping of the eyelids, which indi- cates the immediate administration of stimulants, for when the paralysis of the tongue which ensues extends to the epiglottis, dcglutition becomes impossible, and the epiglottis is apt, unless the sufferer be placed in a forward position to ﬂap back and close the windpipe. The antidotes which have been found the most successful are carbonate of am- monia, brandy, aromatic spirits of ammonia, and morphia. It has been found that death may be averted by keeping up artiﬁcial respiration until the poison is eliminated by the kidneys.

1em  GEMINIANI, (c.1680–1762), a celebrated violinist, born at Lucca about 1680. He received lessons in music from Alessandro Scarlatti. and studied the violin under Lnnati, and afterwards under Corelli. In 1714 he arrived iu London, where his performance and compositions attractel much attention. He was taken under the special protection of the earl of Essex. After visiting Paris and residing there for some time, he returned to England in 175-3. In 1761 he went to Dublin, where a servant robbed him of a musical manuscript on which he had bestowed much time and labour. His vexation at this loss is sail to have hastened his death, which tOok place at Dublin on 17th September 1762. He appears to have been a ﬁrst-rate violinist, but most of his compositions are dry and deficient in melody. IIis Art of Playing the Violin is a good work of its kind, but his Guide Armom'ca is a miserable production. He published a number of solos for the violin, three sets of violin concertos, twelve violin trios, The .lrt of Accompaniment on the IIarym'chord, Organ, &c., Lessons for the Harpsichord, and some other works. His musical opinions had no foundation in truth or principle.  GEMISTUS, or PLETHO,, held high office under the Byzantine emperors during the, and derived his name, which signiﬁes the Replete, from the extraordinary amount of his erudition. He is, however, chieﬂy memorable for having been the first person who introduced Plato to the Western world. This took place upon his visit to Florence in, as one of the deputies from Constantinople on occasion of the general council. Cardinal Bessarion became his disciple; he produced a great impression upon Cosmo de’ Medici; and though not himself making any very important contribution to the study of Plato, he effectually shook the exclusive domination which Aristotle had exercised over European thought for eight centuries. He promoted the union of the Greek and Latin Churches as far as possible, but his efforts in this direction bore no permanent fruit. He probably died before the capture of Constantinople. The most important of his published works are a treatise on the distinction between Plato and Aristotle as philosophers, and one on the religion of Zoroaster. In addition to these he compiled several volumes of excerpts from ancient authors, and wrote a number of works on geography, music, and other subjects, many of which still exist in MS. in various European libraries.  GEMS (dujdmr, gemmtc), engraved with designs, whether adapted for sealing (mispayt’s, sigillnm, intagliol, or mainly from the mists of Babylonian antiquity to the decline of toman civilization, and again starting with a new but unnatural impulse on the revival of art. Apart from workmanship they possess the charms of colour deep, rich, and varied, of material unequalled for its endurance, and of scarcity which in many instances has been enhanced by the strangeness of the lands whence they came, or the fortuity of their occurrence. These qualities united within the small compass of a gem were precisely such as were required in a seal as a thing of constant use, so inalienable in its posses- sion as to become naturally a personal ornament and an attractive medium of artistic skill, no less than the centre of traditions or of religious and legendary associations. As regards the nations of classical antiquity all seals are clasSLd as gems, though in many cases the material is not such as would strictly come under that heading. On the other hand, gems properly so called were not always seals. Many of the Babylonian cylinders could not have been so em- ployed without great difﬁculty, and when Herodotus (i. 195) speaks of every Babylonian wearing a seal (m/apnyr’9), it may have been in most cases no other than a talisman having an inherent power derived from the subject of its design, consisting perhaps mostly of ﬁgures of protecting deities. He adds that every Babylonian carricd also a stall on which it was unlawful for him not to have the figure of an apple, a rose, a lily, an eagle, or something else, as his badge or Eaton/1.011, from which it may perhaps be inferred that having selected some such badge for his staff he would necessarily have the same for the seal with which he attested his name. But if that had been the case, then the great mass of exist- ing cylinders could not have been seals in the ordinary sense. In Greece and Rome within historic times, gems were worn engraved with designs to show that the bearer was an adherent of a particular worship, the follower of a certain philosopher, or the attached subject of an emperor. It cannot be said that these gcms may not have been used systematically as seals, but it is clear that they primarily served a ditfcrcnt purpose. Again, when the sense of personal ornament naturally attaching to a seal increased, and the resources both of material and skill were enlarged, the process of engraving gems in cameo, that is, with the design in relief mostly in such stones as by their differently coloured layers could be made to present a variety of sur- faces, came largely into fashion (see article, and figs. 18, 19 in Plate I.). As a rule these cameos arc of a date subsequent to that of Alexander the Great; but there are excep- tions in an Egyptian cameo in the Louvre, said to belong to the 12th dynasty, about, and in some few Etruscan scarabs, which havingdesigns in intaglio 0n the face liavc a‘so reliefs engraved on the back, apparently in the same archaic manner of art as the intaglios. Such a scarab in carnelian was found at Orvicto in 1871 in a tomb along with vases dating from the beginning of the, and it will be seen from the engraving of this gem (Arc/(dbl. Zu't., 1877, pl. xi., ﬁg. 3, compare ﬁgure of Siren on back of scarab engraved in Wieseler, Dank-mater (lcr altm lt'uusl,_1\'o. 752) that, while the design on the face present-s evidently the same subject which occurs on a scaraboid found in the treasury of Curium in Cyprus by General Cesnola (see his Cyprus, p1. xxxix., ﬁn. 5, p. 381), the half-length figure of a Gorgon on the back seems to be the same in subject and treatment as a carnelian fragment, apparently cut from the back of a scaraboid, now in the British Museum. As further examples of the same rare form of cameo, the following scaraboids in the British Museum may be men- tioned :—(1) a carnelian cut from back of a scaraboid, with head of Gorgon surrounded by wings ; carnelian scara- boid : Gorgon running to left, on face of gem an intaglio of