Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/349

 GURNARD GURNET 335 igh. The color above is gray clouded with >rown, more or less spotted with black and yellowish white; below silvery. It is com- lon on the English coasts, and is found from Torway to the Mediterranean ; it keeps near bottom, and feeds on crustaceans and mol- Sj spawning in May and June ; when taken Gray Gurnard (Trigla gurnardus). in the water it makes a kind of grunting md (whence one of its common names), rhich cannot proceed from the air bladder, as iis has no duct communicating externally, rotwithstanding its hideous appearance, its is white, firm, and wholesome; it is ight in deep water, biting at almost every- ling, even a red rag. The habits of this fish easily studied in the aquarium. They may seen with their pectorals close to the sides, " with no motion of the tail, crawling along bottom by means of the free pectoral rays, rhich are placed successively on the ground so many feet ; their light weight, rendered by their capacious air bladder, is thus >ved with considerable rapidity forward, 3kward, or sideways in search of food, lese free rays are moved by a muscular >paratus independent of that supplying the imon fin ; to these rays are also distributed nervous filaments, arising from a marked mansion of the upper part of the spinal cord, licating that these organs are endowed with delicate sense of touch. It stirs up the mud sand with its shovel-shaped nose, and is ibled to detect its prey in the turbid water means of these pectoral feelers. The large Web-fingered Gurnard (Prionotus palmipes). res, on the top of the head so as to catch all rays of light, indicate an animal organized >r living in comparative darkness. The Amer- ican gurnards of the genus prionotus are dis- tinguished from those of the preceding genus 382 VOL. vin. 22 by the larger pectoral fins, and by the villiform teeth on the palate bones. The banded gurnard (P. lineatus, Mitch.) grows to a length of 12 to 18 in. ; it is reddish brown above, covered with numerous black dots, and the abdomen white; the color of the dead fish above the lateral line is slaty, and beneath there are sev- eral brownish bands, whence its name ; the head is covered with bony plates, rough, and armed with spines ; the upper jaw the longer. It is found on the coast of Massachusetts and the middle states. It is called also grunter and sea robin. The web-fingered gurnard (P. pal- mipes, Storer), a much rarer species, grows to the length of about 18 in., and may be known by the dilated ends of the pectoral processes ; the color is reddish brown above, with irregu- lar darker shadings, and nearly white below. When alarmed, it buries itself in the sand by a rapid lateral movement of the body, leaving only the eyes and top of the head exposed ; the flesh is occasionally eaten ; it feeds princi- pally on crustaceans. It is found from Massa- chusetts as far south as the Carolinas, and per- haps further. Other species are described. GURNET, Sir Goldworthy, an English inventor, born in Cornwall in 1793. He was educated for a physician, but gave his attention to chem- istry, and in 1822 delivered a course of lectures at the Surrey institution on chemical science, which were published in 1823. He invented the Bude, oil vapor, lime, and magnesium lights, and claims to be the inventor of the oxyhy- drogen blowpipe, and to have first produced the startings of the magnetic needle by cross currents from the voltaic battery, which form the basis of the electric telegraph. He also invented the high-pressure steam jet and the tubular boiler, and in July, 1829, drove a steam carriage on the turnpike from London to Bath at the rate of 14 m. an hour. His high-pres- sure steam jet, being applied to locomotives in October, 1830, increased the speed from 12 m. an hour to 30. It has since been used for the ventilation of coal mines and for extinguishing fires in them. In 1849 he applied it to the consumption of poisonous gases from a sewer in London. In 1852 he was appointed to su- perintend the lighting and ventilating of the new houses of parliament, for which he had invented a new method. In 1863 he became paralyzed. He resides at Reeds, Cornwall. GURNET, Joseph John, an English philanthro- pist, born at Earlham hall, near Norwich, Aug. 2, 1788, died there, Jan. 4, 1847. He was edu- cated at Oxford under a private tutor, without becoming connected with the university, and in 1818 became a minister of the society of Friends. At different times he travelled through Ireland, the United States and Canada (1837), and most of the countries of central Europe, to inquire into the condition of prisons. In these tours he was generally accompanied by his sister Mrs. Elizabeth Fry, and with her la- bored for the improvement of prison discipline. Much of his ample fortune was devoted to be-