Gela
one of the most important ancient Greek cities of Sicily, situated on the S. coast of the island between Agrigentum and Camarina; founded in 690 B. c. by a colony of Cretans and Rhodians. The colony was remarkably prosperous, and in 528 B. C. sent out a portion of its inhabitants, who founded Agrigentum. In 280 Phintias, the tyrant of Agrigentum, utterly destroyed Gela. GELASIUS II., Bishop of Rome (1118- 1119), formerly John of Gaeta. He was educated at the Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino, was cardinal and chancellor under Urban II. and Paschal II., and on the death of the latter was chosen Pope by the party hostile to the Emperor Henry V. The imperial party at Rome under the Frangipani seized his person, but were forced to set him free by the menacing attitude of the mob. The new Pope fled before the advancing imperial troops to Gaeta, where he first received his consecration, and whence he fulminated the thunders of excommunication against Henry V. and Gregory VIII., the antipope he had set up. Soon after he was able to return to Rome, but ere long had to betake himself for protection to France, where he died in the monastery of Clugny, Jan. 29, 1119.
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Gelatin Process
the name given to the preparation of a photographic photographic dryplate by covering with an emulsion of salts in warm gelatin, and then sensitive drying. The plates are very much more sensitive than the old-fashioned wet plates, and have therefore made possible the photographing of rapidly moving objects. The exact composition of the gelatin emulsions varies considerably, and is kept secret by the different manufacturers, but generally speaking, the chemicals used in their manufacture include silver nitrate, ammonium bromide, potassium bromide and potassium iodide.
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Gellius Aulus
A Roman grammarian in the age of M. Antoninus . He wrote a work called Noctes Atticae, which he composed at Athens . Gemoniae or Gemonii (Gradus). A flight of steps cut out of the Aventine, down which the bodies of criminals strangled in the prison were dragged, and afterwards thrown into the Tiber. Geneva or Genava (Geneva). The last town of the Allobroges, on the frontiers of the Helvetii, situated on the south bank of the Rhone, at the spot where the river flowed out of the Lacus Lemannus. There was a bridge here over the Rhone. Genitrix (The Mother). Used by Ovid as a surname of Cybele , in the place of mater, or magna mater; but it is better known as a surname of Venus , to whom Caesar dedicated a temple at Rome, as the mother of the Julia gens.
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Gelnhausen
a town of Prussia, on the Kinzig river, and on the slopes of a vine-clad hill, 26 miles N. E. of Frankfort-on-the- Main. Here, on an island in the Kinzig, Frederick Barbarossa built an imperial residence ("the Pfalz"); and in 1169 he conferred on the village the freedom of the empire. After being transferred to the counts of Hanau in 1435, Gelnhausen began to decay. GELSENKIRCHEN (gel'zen-kērchen), a modern manufacturing town of Westphalia, 4 miles N. W. of Bochum. It owes to coal and iron its rise from a mere village since 1860. Pop. about 170,000.
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Gemara
that portion of the two Talmuds which contains the annotations, discussions, and amplifications of the Mishnah by the academies of Palestine on the one hand, and those of Babylon on the other. The Babylonian Gemara, more complete as well as more lucid than the Palestinian , possesses a much more highly valued authority. The final redaction of this latter falls in the middle of the 4th century A. D., while the former was not completed till 500 A. D. See TALMUD.
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Gematria
along with temurah, was the science of the dual and is practically synonymous with the Greek "Hades." interpretation of the Kabalistic alphabet, which composed the notary art, which is fundamentally the complete science of the tarot (q.v.) signs and their complex and varied application to the definition of all secrets. 66
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Gemsbok
a large antelope of South Africa. The scientific name is Oryx Gazella. It is known also as the Cape Oryx. This antelope is a native of South Africa. The general color is yellowish with conspicuous black and white markings on the head, legs, and flanks. The neck and shoulders bear a mane. The tail is tufted. The gemsbok is a noble, large beast of the Kalahari Desert. It is provided with a pair of straight, tapering horns, two-thirds as long as its body. Unless able to leap from the rear when the animal is drinking or otherwise off guard, the lion durst not spring at a gemsbok. The rifles of Boer and Briton have driven the gemsbok from the more accessible plains.
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Genappe
a town of Belgium in the province of South Brabant, 15 miles from Brussels. Many battles have been fought here at different times. It is, however, chiefly memorable as the site of the first of that series of battles which, in June, 1815, was terminated on the field of Waterloo.
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Genazzano
a small town, 27 miles E. of Rome, containing an old castle of the Colonna family, and the far-famed pilgrimagechapel of the Madonna del Buon Consiglio (the Madonna of Good Counsel). Pop. 42,000 .
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Genealogy
the systematical investigation and exhibition of the origin, descent , and relations of families (or their "pedigree"). Persons descended from a common father constitute a family. Under the idea of "degree" of relationship is denoted the nearness or remoteness of relationship in which one person stands with respect to another. A series of several persons, descended from a common progenitor, is called a "line." A line is either "direct" or "collateral." The collateral lines comprehend the several lines which unite in a common progenitor. For illustrating descent and relationship genealogical tables are constructed , the order of which depends on the end in view. The common form of genealogical tables places the common stock at the head, and shows the degree of each descendant by lines. Some tables, however, have been constructed in the form of a tree, in which the progenitor (German , Stammvater, "trunk-father ") is placed beneath as if for a root.
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