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GILLS

767

GIOTTO

are three of its cities mentioned in Scripture. A plan has been presented to the government at Constantinople to have this region colonized by Jews. See Oliphant's Land of Gilead.

Gills. See RESPIRATION, ORGANS OF.

Gil'man, Daniel Coit, LL. D., American scholar and educator, was born at Norwich, Conn., July 6, 1831, and was educated at Yale'University and at Berlin. In 1855 he became librarian at Yale and professor of physical and political geography, and took an active part in the organization of Sheffield Scientific School. From 1872 to 1875 he was president of the University of California, and in the latter year became president of Johns Hopkins. In 1879 he acted as president of the American Social Science association, and in 1893 became president of the American Oriental Society. His published writings include James Monroe (in American Statesmen Series); University Problems; an introduction to an edition of De Tocque-ville's Democracy in A merica; and Our National Schools of Science* He has edited the writings of Francis Lieber, the German-American political economist. His other writings embrace a Memoir of James Dwight Dana, the geologist, and a volume entitled Science and Letters in Yale. He received the degree of LL.D. from Harvard in 1876, from Colum-bia in 1887, from Yale in 1889 and from Princeton in 1896. He resigned the presidency of Johns Hopkins in 1901, and was succeeded by Dr. Ira Remsen. He for a time was president, and one of the trustees, of Carnegie Institution at Washington, D. C. He died on Oct. 14, 1908.

Gin or Geneva, an alcoholic drink, distilled from malt or from unmalted barley or other grain and afterward flavored. The gin, which forms the common drink of the lower classes of London, is flavored very slightly with oil of turpentine and common salt. Usually about five ounces of spirit of turpentine and three and one half pounds of salt are mixed in ten gallons of water; this is then placed with 80 gallons of corn-spirit in a still and allowed to distill. Gin -is an article of great manufacture in Holland, whence comes most of that used in the United States. Very little pure gin is found; it consists of 51.6 parts of alcohol in 100 parts.

Gink go, a genus of one species, commonly known as the maiden-hair tree, because its leaves resemble those of the or-

dinary maiden-hair fern. This genus is the only living representative of a group of Gymnosperms once widely distributed throughout the world. The ginkgo is commonly used in parks, on account of its unusual and attractive appearance, but it has been chiefly perpetuated by its cultivation in temple-grounds in China and Japan, where it is regarded as a sacred tree. For a long time it was thought that it did not exist as a native tree, but had been preserved from extinction only through cultivation. Recently, however, it has been found in forests in western China, but it does not occur in great quantities, so that it really is almost extinct as a native plant.

Giorgione (jor-jd'na), meaning Great George, the name given by reason of his stature and his fame to Giorgio Barbarella, an Italian painter, who was born about 1477. At Venice he was a fellow-pupil with Titian, and as a painter he soon gained a reputation. His work showed intense poetic feeling, great beauty and richness of coloring and naturalness and independence in manner. He painted many portraits and did much fresco-work, but only a few canvases known to be his are still in existence. Among them are The Family of Giorgione, now at Venice; The Three Philosophers, in the Belvedere, Vienna; and The Sleeping Venus, in the Dresden gallery. He ranks with the very greatest of Venetian painters, and his example powerfully influenced the artists of his day, even Titian himself. He died of the plague at Venice in 1511.

Giotto (jot'to) di Bondone, one of the greatest of early Italian painters and also celebrated as an architect, was probably born in 1266 near Florence. At ten he was discovered by the artist, Cimabue, tending his father's flocks and drawing one of the lambs upon a flat stone, and was taken by him to Florence and instructed in art. The earliest of his works that have been preserved are a series of 28 frescoes, scenes from the life of St. Francis, in the church at Assisi. Soon afterward he was employed at Rome, where the mosaic of the Navicella may still be seen in the vestibule of St. Peter's, and at Florence, where, in a fresco, occurs a profile-likeness of his friend Dante. The next great series of works by Giotto are the frescoes in the Arena chapel at Padua, where the artist is seen rising to his highest power. The frescoes include 38 subjects from the lives of Christ and Mary, a Christ in Glory, a Last Judgment and a series of 14 single figures personifying the main virtues and their opposing vices. But the frescoes in the chapels in the church of Santa Croce, Florence, are the finest specimens of the artist's genius. Giotto also did important work at Naples, and in 13^,4 he was appointed

DANIEL COIT OILMAN