GMELIN, the name of several distinguished German scientists, of a Tübingen family. Johann Georg Gmelin (1674–1728), an apothecary in Tübingen, and an accomplished chemist for the times in which he lived, had three sons. The first, Johann Conrad (1702–1759), was an apothecary and surgeon in Tübingen. The second, Johann Georg (1709–1755), was appointed professor of chemistry and natural history in St Petersburg in 1731, and from 1733 to 1743 was engaged in travelling through Siberia. The fruits of his journey were Flora Sibirica (4 vols., 1749–1750) and Reisen durch Sibirien (4 vols., 1753). He ended his days as professor of medicine at Tübingen, a post to which he was appointed in 1749. The third son, Philipp Friedrich (1721–1768), was extraordinary professor of medicine at Tübingen in 1750, and in 1755 became ordinary professor of botany and chemistry. In the second generation Samuel Gottlieb (1743–1774), the son of Johann Conrad, was appointed professor of natural history at St Petersburg in 1766, and in the following year started on a journey through south Russia and the regions round the Caspian Sea. On his way back he was captured by Usmey Khan, of the Kaitak tribe, and died from the ill-treatment he suffered, on the 27th of July 1774. One of his nephews, Ferdinand Gottlob von Gmelin (1782–1848), became professor of medicine and natural history at Tübingen in 1805, and another, Christian Gottlob (1792–1860), who in 1828 was one of the first to devise a process for the artificial manufacture of ultramarine, was professor of chemistry and pharmacy in the same university. In the youngest branch of the family, Philipp Friedrich had a son, Johann Friedrich (1748–1804), who was appointed professor of medicine in Tübingen in 1772, and in 1775 accepted the chair of medicine and chemistry at Göttingen. In 1788 he published the 13th edition of Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae with many additions and alterations. His son Leopold (1788–1853), was the best-known member of the family. He studied medicine and chemistry at Göttingen, Tübingen and Vienna, and in 1813 began to lecture on chemistry at Heidelberg, where in 1814 he was appointed extraordinary, and in 1817 ordinary, professor of chemistry and medicine. He was the discoverer of potassium ferricyanide (1822), and wrote the Handbuch der Chemie (1st ed. 1817–1819, 4th ed. 1843–1855), an important work in its day, which was translated into English for the Cavendish Society by H. Watts (1815–1884) in 1848–1859. He resigned his chair in 1852, and died on the 13th of April in the following year at Heidelberg.
GMÜND, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Württemberg,[1] in a charming and fruitful valley on the Rems, here spanned by a beautiful bridge, 31 m. E.N.E. of Stuttgart on the railway to Nördlingen. Pop. (1905) 18,699. It is surrounded by old walls, flanked with towers, and has a considerable number of ancient buildings, among which are the fine church of the Holy Cross; St John’s church, which dates from the time of the Hohenstaufen; and, situated on a height near the town, partly hewn out of the rock, the pilgrimage church of the Saviour. Among the modern buildings are the gymnasium, the drawing and trade schools, the Roman Catholic seminary, the town hall and the industrial art museum. Clocks and watches are manufactured here and also other articles of silver, while the town has a considerable trade in corn, hops and fruit. The scenery in the neighbourhood is very beautiful, near the town being the district called Little Switzerland.
Gmünd was surrounded by walls in the beginning of the 12th century by Duke Frederick of Swabia. It received town rights from Frederick Barbarossa, and after the extinction of the Hohenstaufen became a free imperial town. It retained its independence till 1803, when it came into the possession of Württemberg. Gmünd is the birth-place of the painter Hans Baldung (1475–1545) and of the architect Heinrich Arler or Parler (fl. 1350). In the middle ages the population was about 10,000.
See Kaiser, Gmünd und seine Umgebung (1888).
GMUNDEN, a town and summer resort of Austria, in Upper Austria, 40 m. S.S.W. of Linz by rail. Pop. (1900) 7126. It is situated at the efflux of the Traun river from the lake of the same name and is surrounded by high mountains, as the Traunstein (5446 ft.), the Erlakogel (5150 ft.), the Wilde Kogel (6860 ft.) and the Höllen Gebirge. It is much frequented as a health and summer resort, and has a variety of lake, brine, vegetable and pine-cone baths, a hydropathic establishment, inhalation chambers, whey cure, &c. There are a great number of excursions and points of interest round Gmunden, specially worth mentioning being the Traun Fall, 10 m. N. of Gmunden. It is also an important centre of the salt industry in Salzkammergut. Gmunden was a town encircled with walls already in 1186. On the 14th of November 1626, Pappenheim completely defeated here the army of the rebellious peasants.
See F. Krackowizer, Geschichte der Stadt Gmunden in Oberösterreich (Gmunden, 1898–1901, 3 vols.).
GNAT (O. Eng. gnæt), the common English name for the smaller dipterous flies (see Diptera) of the family Culicidae, which are now included among “mosquitoes” (see Mosquito). The distinctive term has no zoological significance, but in England the “mosquito” has commonly been distinguished from the “gnat” as a variety of larger size and more poisonous bite.
GNATHOPODA, a term in zoological classification, suggested as an alternative name for the group Arthropoda (q.v.). The word, which means “jaw-footed,” refers to the fact that in the members of the group, some of the lateral appendages or “feet” in the region of the mouth act as jaws.
GNATIA (also Egnatia or Ignatia, mod. Anazzo, near
Fasano), an ancient city of the Peucetii, and their frontier town
towards the Sallentini (i.e. of Apulia towards Calabria), in
Roman times of importance for its trade, lying as it did on the
sea, at the point where the Via Traiana joined the coast road,[2]
38 m. S.E. of Barium. The ancient city walls have been almost
entirely destroyed in recent times to provide building material,[3] and the place is famous for the discoveries made in its tombs.
A considerable collection of antiquities from Gnatia is preserved
at Fasano, though the best are in the museum at Bari. Gnatia
was the scene of the prodigy at which Horace mocks (Sat. i.
5. 97). Near Fasano are two small subterranean chapels with
paintings of the 11th century A.D. (E. Bertaux, L’Art dans
l’Italie méridionale, Paris, 1904, 135). (T. As.)
GNEISENAU, AUGUST WILHELM ANTON, Count
Neithardt von (1760–1831), Prussian field marshal, was the son
of a Saxon officer named Neithardt. Born in 1760 at Schildau,
near Torgau, he was brought up in great poverty there, and
subsequently at Würzburg and Erfurt. In 1777 he entered
Erfurt university; but two years later joined an Austrian
regiment there quartered. In 1782 taking the additional name
of Gneisenau from some lost estates of his family in Austria,
he entered as an officer the service of the margrave of Baireuth-Anspach.
With one of that prince’s mercenary regiments in
English pay he saw active service and gained valuable experience
in the War of American Independence, and returning
in 1786, applied for Prussian service. Frederick the Great gave
him a commission as first lieutenant in the infantry. Made
Stabskapitän in 1790, Gneisenau served in Poland, 1793–1794,
and, subsequently to this, ten years of quiet garrison life in
Jauer enabled him to undertake a wide range of military studies.
In 1796 he married Caroline von Kottwitz. In 1806 he was
one of Hohenlohe’s staff-officers, fought at Jena, and a little
later commanded a provisional infantry brigade which fought
under Lestocq in the Lithuanian campaign. Early in 1807
Major von Gneisenau was sent as commandant to Colberg, which,
small and ill-protected as it was, succeeded in holding out until
the peace of Tilsit. The commandant received the much-prized
order “pour le mérite,” and was promoted lieutenant-colonel.
A wider sphere of work was now opened to him. As chief of
- ↑ There are two places of this name in Austria. (1) Gmünd, a town in Lower Austria, containing a palace belonging to the imperial family, (2) a town in Carinthia, with a beautiful Gothic church and some interesting ruins.
- ↑ There is no authority for calling the latter Via Egnatia.
- ↑ H. Swinburne, Travels in the Two Sicilies (London, 1790), ii. 15, mentions the walls as being 8 yds. thick and 16 courses high.
