Chapter XII: Part 12
From 1839 to 1845 Wolfgang studied law at Bonn, Jena, Heidelberg and Berlin, taking his degree of _doctor juris_ at Heidelberg in 1845. During this period he had made his first literary efforts. His _Studenten-Briefe_ (Jena, 1842), a medley of letters and lyrics, are wholly conventional. This was followed by _Der Mensch und die elementarische Natur_ (Stuttgart and Tubingen, 1845), in three parts (_Beitrage_): (1) an historical and philosophical dissertation on the relations of mankind and the "soul of nature," largely influenced by Schelling, (2) a dissertation on the juridical side of the question, _De fragmento Vegoiae_, being the thesis presented for his degree, (3) a lyrical drama, _Erlinde_. In this last, as in his other poetic attempts, Wolfgang showed a considerable measure of inherited or acquired ability, in his wealth of language and his easy mastery of the difficulties of rhythm and rhyme. But this was all. The work was characteristic of his self-centred isolation: ultra-romantic at a time when Romanticism was already an outworn fashion, remote alike from the spirit of the age and from that of Goethe. The cold reception it met with shattered at a blow the dream of Wolfgang's life; henceforth he realized that to the world he was interesting mainly as "Goethe's grandson," that anything he might achieve would be measured by that terrible standard, and he hated the legacy of his name.
The next five years he spent in Italy and at Vienna, tormented by facial neuralgia. Returning to Weimar in 1850, he was made a chamberlain by the grand-duke, and in 1852, his health being now somewhat restored, he entered the Prussian diplomatic service and went as attache to Rome. The fruit of his long years of illness was a slender volume of lyrics, _Gedichte_ (Stuttgart and Tubingen, 1851), good in form, but seldom inspired, and showing occasionally the influence of a morbid sensuality. In 1854 he was appointed secretary of legation; but the aggressive ultramontanism of the Curia became increasingly intolerable to his overwrought nature, and in 1856 he was transferred, at his own request, as secretary of legation to Dresden. This post he resigned in 1859, in which year he was raised to the rank of _Freiherr_ (baron). In 1866 he received the title of councillor of legation; but he never again occupied any diplomatic post.
The rest of his life he devoted to historical research, ultimately selecting as his special subject the Italian libraries up to the year 1500. The outcome of all his labours was, however, only the first part of _Studies and Researches in the Times and Life of Cardinal Bessarion_, embracing the period of the council of Florence (privately printed at Jena, 1871), a catalogue of the MSS. in the monastery of Sancta Justina at Padua (Jena, 1873), and a mass of undigested material, which he ultimately bequeathed to the university of Jena.
In 1870 Ottilie von Goethe, who had resided mainly at Vienna, returned to Weimar and took up her residence with her two sons in the Goethehaus. So long as she lived, her small salon in the attic storey of the great house was a centre of attraction for many of the most illustrious personages in Europe. But after her death in 1872 the two brothers lived in almost complete isolation. The few old friends, including the grand-duke Charles Alexander, who continued regularly to visit the house, were entertained with kindly hospitality by Baron Walther; Wolfgang refused to be drawn from his isolation even by the advent of royalty. "Tell the empress," he cried on one occasion, "that I am not a wild beast to be stared at!" In 1879, his increasing illness necessitating the constant presence of an attendant, he went to live at Leipzig, where he died.
Goethe's grandsons have been so repeatedly accused of having displayed a dog-in-the-manger temper in closing the Goethehaus to the public and the Goethe archives to research, that the charge has almost universally come to be regarded as proven. It is true that the house was closed and access to the archives only very sparingly allowed until Baron Walther's death in 1885. But the reason for this was not, as Herr Max Hecker rather absurdly suggests, Wolfgang's jealousy of his grandfather's oppressive fame, but one far more simple and natural. From one cause or another, principally Ottilie von Goethe's extravagance, the family was in very straitened circumstances; and the brothers, being thoroughly unbusinesslike, believed themselves to be poorer than they really were.[1] They closed the Goethehaus and the archives, because to have opened them would have needed an army of attendants.[2] If they deserve any blame it is for the pride, natural to their rank and their generation, which prevented them from charging an entrance fee, an expedient which would not only have made it possible for them to give access to the house and collections, but would have enabled them to save the fabric from falling into the lamentable state of disrepair in which it was found after their death. In any case, the accusation is ungenerous. With an almost exaggerated _Pietat_ Goethe's descendants preserved his house untouched, at great inconvenience to themselves, and left it, with all its treasures intact, to the nation. Had they been the selfish misers they are sometimes painted, they could have realized a fortune by selling its contents.
_Wolf Goethe_ (Weimar, 1889) is a sympathetic appreciation by Otto
Mejer, formerly president of the Lutheran consistory in Hanover. See
also Jenny v. Gerstenbergk, _Ottilie von Goethe und ihre Sohne Walther
und Wolf_ (Stuttgart, 1901), and the article on Maximilian Wolfgang
von Goethe by Max F. Hecker in _Allgem. deutsche Biographie_, Bd. 49,
_Nachtrage_ (Leipzig, 1904). (W. A. P.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] After Walther's death upwards of L10,000 in bonds, &c., were
discovered put away and forgotten in escritoires and odd corners.
[2] This was the reason given by Baron Walther himself to the
writer's mother, an old friend of Frau von Goethe, who lived with her
family in the Goethehaus for some years after 1871.
GOETZ, HERMANN (1840-1876), German musical composer, was born at Konigsberg in Prussia, on the 17th of December 1840, and began his regular musical studies at the comparatively advanced age of seventeen. He entered the music-school of Professor Stern at Berlin, and studied composition chiefly under Ulrich and Hans von Bulow. In 1863 he was appointed organist at Winterthur in Switzerland, where he lived in obscurity for a number of years, occupying himself with composition during his leisure hours. One of his works was an opera, _The Taming of the Shrew_, the libretto skilfully adapted from Shakespeare's play. After much delay it was produced at Mannheim (in October 1874), and its success was as instantaneous as it has up to the present proved lasting. It rapidly made the round of the great German theatres, and spread its composer's fame over all the land. But Goetz did not live to enjoy this happy result for long. In December 1876 he died at Zurich from overwork. A second opera, _Francesco da Rimini_, on which he was engaged, remained a fragment; but it was finished according to his directions, and was performed for the first time at Mannheim a few months after the composer's death on the 4th of December 1876. Besides his dramatic work, Goetz also wrote various compositions for chamber-music, of which a trio (Op. 1) and a quintet (Op. 16) have been given with great success at the London Monday Popular Concerts. Still more important is the _Symphony in F_. As a composer of comic opera Goetz lacks the sprightliness and artistic _savoir faire_ so rarely found amongst Germanic nations. His was essentially a serious nature, and passion and pathos were to him more congenial than humour. The more serious sides of the subject are therefore insisted upon more successfully than Katherine's ravings and Petruchio's eccentricities. There are, however, very graceful passages, e.g. the singing lesson Bianca receives from her disguised lover. Goetz's style, although influenced by Wagner and other masters, shows signs of a distinct individuality. The design of his music is essentially of a polyphonic character, and the working out and interweaving of his themes betray the musician of high scholarship. But breadth and beautiful flow of melody also were his, as is seen in the symphony, and perhaps still more in the quintet for pianoforte and strings above referred to. The most important of Goetz's posthumous works are a setting of the 137th Psalm for soprano solo, chorus and orchestra, a "Spring" overture (Op. 15), and a pianoforte sonata for four hands (Op. 17).
GOFFE (or GOUGH), WILLIAM (fl. 1642-1660), English parliamentarian, son of Stephen Goffe, puritan rector of Stanmer in Essex, began life as an apprentice to a London salter, a zealous parliamentarian, but on the outbreak of the civil war he joined the army and became captain in Colonel Harley's regiment of the new model in 1645. He was imprisoned in 1642 for his share in the petition to give the control of the militia to the parliament. By his marriage with Frances, daughter of General Edward Whalley, he became connected with Oliver Cromwell's family and one of his most faithful followers. He was a member of the deputation which on the 6th of July 1647 brought up the charge against the eleven members. He was active in bringing the king to trial and signed the death warrant. In 1649 he received the honorary degree of M.A. at Oxford. He distinguished himself at Dunbar, commanding a regiment there and at Worcester. He assisted in the expulsion of Barebone's parliament in 1653, took an active part in the suppression of Penruddock's rising in July 1654, and in October 1655 was appointed major-general for Berkshire, Sussex and Hampshire. Meanwhile he had been elected member for Yarmouth in the parliament of 1654 and for Hampshire in that of 1656. He supported the proposal to bestow a royal title upon Cromwell, who greatly esteemed him, was included in the newly-constituted House of Lords, obtained Lambert's place as major-general of the Foot, and was even thought of as a fit successor to Cromwell. As a member of the committee of nine appointed in June 1658 on public affairs, he was witness to the protector's appointment of Richard Cromwell as his successor. He supported the latter during his brief tenure of power and his fall involved his own loss of influence. In November 1659 he took part in the futile mission sent by the army to Monk in Scotland, and at the Restoration escaped with his father-in-law General Edward Whalley to Massachusetts. Goffe's political aims appear not to have gone much beyond fighting "to pull down Charles and set up Oliver"; and he was no doubt a man of deep religious feeling, who acted throughout according to a strict sense of duty as he conceived it. He was destined to pass the rest of his life in exile, separated from his wife and children, dying, it is supposed, about 1679.
GOFFER, to give a fluted or crimped appearance to anything, particularly to linen or lace frills or trimmings by means of heated irons of a special shape, called goffering-irons or tongs. "Goffering," or the French term _gaufrage_, is also used of the wavey or crimped edging in certain forms of porcelain, and also of the stamped or embossed decorations on the edges of the binding of books. The French word _gaufre_, from which the English form is adapted, means a thin cake marked with a pattern like a honeycomb, a "wafer," which is etymologically the same word. _Waufre_ appears in the phrase _un fer a waufres_, an iron for baking cakes on (quotation of 1433 in J. B. Roquefort's _Glossaire de la langue romane_). The word is Teutonic, cf. Dutch _wafel_, Ger. _Waffel_, a form seen in "waffle," the name given to the well-known batter-cakes of America. The "wafer" was so called from its likeness to a honeycomb, _Wabe_, ultimately derived from the root _wab_-, to weave, the cells of the comb appearing to be woven together.
GOG (possibly connected with the Gentilic _Gagaya_, "of the land of Gag," used in Amarna Letters i. 38, as a synonym for "barbarian," or with Ass. _Gagu_, a ruler of the land of _Sahi_, N. of Assyria, or with _Gyges_, Ass. _Gugu_, a king of Lydia), a Hebrew name found in Ezek. xxxviii.-xxxix. and in Rev. xx., and denoting an antitheocratic power that is to manifest itself in the world immediately before the final dispensation. In the later passage, Gog and Magog are spoken of as co-ordinate; in the earlier, Gog is given as the name of the person or people and Magog as that of the land of origin. Magog is perhaps a contracted form of Mat-gog, _mat_ being the common Assyrian word for "land." The passages are, however, intimately related and both depend upon Gen. x. 2, though here Magog alone is mentioned. He is the second "son" of Japhet, and the order of the names here and in Ezekiel xxxviii. 2, indicates a locality between Cappadocia and Media, i.e. in Armenia. According to Josephus, who is followed by Jerome, the Scythians were primarily intended by this designation; and this plausible opinion has been generally followed. The name [Greek: Skythai], it is to be observed, however, is often but a vague word for any or all of the numerous and but partially known tribes of the north; and any attempt to assign a more definite locality to Magog can only be very hesitatingly made. According to some, the Maiotes about the Palus Maeotis are meant; according to others, the Massagetae; according to Kiepert, the inhabitants of the northern and eastern parts of Armenia. The imagery employed in Ezekiel's prophetic description was no doubt suggested by the Scythian invasion which about the time of Josiah, 630 B.C., had devastated Asia (Herodotus i. 104-106; Jer. iv. 3-vi. 30). Following on this description, Gog figures largely in Jewish and Mahommedan as well as in Christian eschatology. In the district of Astrakhan a legend is still to be met with, to the effect that Gog and Magog were two great races, which Alexander the Great subdued and banished to the inmost recesses of the Caucasus, where they are meanwhile kept in by the terror of twelve trumpets blown by the winds, but whence they are destined ultimately to make their escape and destroy the world.
The legends that attach themselves to the gigantic effigies (dating from 1708 and replacing those destroyed in the Great Fire) of Gog and Magog in Guildhall, London, are connected only remotely, if at all, with the biblical notices. According to the _Recuyell des histoires de Troye_, Gog and Magog were the survivors of a race of giants descended from the thirty-three wicked daughters of Diocletian; after their brethren had been slain by Brute and his companions, Gog and Magog were brought to London (Troy-novant) and compelled to officiate as porters at the gate of the royal palace. It is known that effigies similar to the present existed in London as early as the time of Henry V.; but when this legend began to attach to them is uncertain. They may be compared with the giant images formerly kept at Antwerp (Antigomes) and Douai (Gayant). According to Geoffrey of Monmouth (_Chronicles_, i. 16), Goemot or Goemagot (either corrupted from or corrupted into "Gog and Magog") was a giant who, along with his brother Corineus, tyrannized in the western horn of England until slain by foreign invaders.
GOGO, or GOGHA, a town of British India in Ahmedabad district, Bombay, 193 m. N.W. of Bombay. Pop. (1901) 4798. About 3/4 m. east of the town is an excellent anchorage, in some measure sheltered by the island of Piram, which lies still farther east. The natives of this place are reckoned the best sailors in India; and ships touching here may procure water and supplies, or repair damages. The anchorage is a safe refuge during the south-west monsoon, the bottom being a bed of mud and the water always smooth. Gogo has lost its commercial importance and has steadily declined in population and trade since the time of the American Civil War, when it was an important cotton-mart.
GOGOL, NIKOLAI VASILIEVICH (1809-1852), Russian novelist, was born in the province of Poltava, in South Russia, on the 31st of March 1809. Educated at the Niezhin gymnasium, he there started a manuscript periodical, "The Star," and wrote several pieces including a tragedy, _The Brigands_. Having completed his course at Niezhin, he went in 1829 to St Petersburg, where he tried the stage but failed. Next year he obtained a clerkship in the department of appanages, but he soon gave it up. In literature, however, he found his true vocation. In 1829 he published anonymously a poem called _Italy_, and, under the pseudonym of V. Alof, an idyll, _Hans Kuchel Garten_, which he had written while still at Niezhin. The idyll was so ridiculed by a reviewer that its author bought up all the copies he could secure, and burnt them in a room which he hired for the purpose at an inn. Gogol then fell back upon South Russian popular literature, and especially the tales of Cossackdom on which his boyish fancy had been nursed, his father having occupied the post of "regimental secretary," one of the honorary officials in the Zaporogian Cossack forces.
In 1830 he published in a periodical the first of the stories which appeared next year under the title of _Evenings in a Farm near Dikanka: by Rudy Panko_. This work, containing a series of attractive pictures of that Little-Russian life which lends itself to romance more readily than does the monotony of "Great-Russian" existence, immediately obtained a great success--its light and colour, its freshness and originality being hailed with enthusiasm by the principal writers of the day in Russia. Whereupon Gogol planned, not only a history of Little-Russia, but also one of the middle ages, to be completed in eight or nine volumes. This plan he did not carry out, though it led to his being appointed to a professorship in the university of St Petersburg, a post in which he met with small success and which he resigned in 1835. Meanwhile he had published his _Arabesques_, a collection of essays and stories; his _Taras Bulba_, the chief of the _Cossack Tales_ translated into English by George Tolstoy; and a number of novelettes, which mark his transition from the romantic to the realistic school of fiction, such as the admirable sketch of the tranquil life led in a quiet country house by two kindly specimens of _Old-world Gentlefolks_, or the description of the petty miseries endured by an ill-paid clerk in a government office, the great object of whose life is to secure the "cloak" from which his story takes its name. To the same period belongs his celebrated comedy, the _Revizor_, or government inspector. His aim in writing it was to drag into light "all that was bad in Russia," and to hold it up to contempt. And he succeeded in rendering contemptible and ludicrous the official life of Russia, the corruption universally prevailing throughout the civil service, the alternate arrogance and servility of men in office. The plot of the comedy is very simple. A traveller who arrives with an empty purse at a provincial town is taken for an inspector whose arrival is awaited with fear, and he receives all the attentions and bribes which are meant to propitiate the dreaded investigator of abuses. The play appeared on the stage in the spring of 1836, and achieved a full success, in spite of the opposition attempted by the official classes whose malpractices it exposed. The aim which Gogol had in view when writing the _Revizor_ he afterwards fully attained in his great novel, _Mertvuiya Dushi_, or Dead Souls, the first part of which appeared in 1842. The hero of the story is an adventurer who goes about Russia making fictitious purchases of "dead souls," i.e. of serfs who have died since the last census, with the view of pledging his imaginary property to the government. But his adventures are merely an excuse for drawing a series of pictures, of an unfavourable kind, of Russian provincial life, and of introducing on the scene a number of types of Russian society. Of the force and truth with which these delineations are executed the universal consent of Russian critics in their favour may be taken as a measure. From the French version of the story a general idea of its merits may be formed, and some knowledge of its plot and its principal characters may be gathered from the English adaptation published in 1854, as an original work, under the title of _Home Life in Russia_. But no one can fully appreciate Gogol's merits as a humorist who is not intimate with the language in which he wrote as well as with the society which he depicted.
In 1836 Gogol for the first time went abroad. Subsequently he spent a considerable amount of time out of Russia, chiefly in Italy, where much of his _Dead Souls_ was written. His residence there, especially at Rome, made a deep impression on his mind, which, during his later years, turned towards mysticism. The last works which he published, his _Confession_ and _Correspondence with Friends_, offer a painful contrast to the light, bright, vigorous, realistic, humorous writings which had gained and have retained for him his immense popularity in his native land. Asceticism and mystical exaltation had told upon his nervous system, and its feeble condition showed itself in his literary compositions. In 1848 he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and on his return settled down at Moscow, where he died on the 3rd of March 1852.
See _Materials for the Biography of Gogol_ (in Russian) (1897), by
Shenrok; "Illness and Death of Gogol," by N. Bazhenov, _Russkaya
Muisl_, January 1902. (W. R. S.-R.)
GOGRA, or GHAGRA, a river of northern India. It is an important tributary of the Ganges, bringing down to the plains more water than the Ganges itself. It rises in Tibet near Lake Manasarowar, not far from the sources of the Brahmaputra and the Sutlej, passes through Nepal where it is known as the Kauriala, and after entering British territory becomes the most important waterway in the United Provinces. It joins the Ganges at Chapra after a course of 600 m. Its tributary, the Rapti, also has considerable commercial importance. The Gogra has the alternative name of Sarju, and in its lower course is also known as the Deoha.
GOHIER, LOUIS JEROME (1746-1830), French politician, was born at Semblancay (Indre-et-Loire) on the 27th of February 1746, the son of a notary. He was called to the bar at Rennes, and practised there until he was sent to represent the town in the states-general. In the Legislative Assembly he represented Ille-et-Vilaine. He took a prominent part in the deliberations; he protested against the exaction of a new oath from priests (Nov. 22, 1791), and demanded the sequestration of the emigrants' property (Feb. 7, 1792). He was minister of justice from March 1793 to April 1794, and in June 1799 he succeeded Treilhard in the Directory, where he represented the republican interest. His wife was intimate with Josephine Bonaparte, and when Bonaparte suddenly returned from Egypt in October 1799 he repeatedly protested his friendship for Gohier, who was then president of the Directory, and tried in vain to gain him over. After the _coup d'etat_ of the 18th Brumaire (Nov. 9, 1799), he refused to abdicate his functions, and sought out Bonaparte at the Tuileries "to save the republic," as he boldly expressed it. He was escorted to the Luxembourg, and on his release he retired to his estate at Eaubonne. In 1802 Napoleon made him consul-general at Amsterdam, and on the union of the Netherlands with France he was offered a similar post in the United States. His health did not permit of his taking up a new appointment, and he died at Eaubonne on the 29th of May 1830.
His _Memoires d'un veteran irreprochable de la Revolution_ was
published in 1824, his report on the papers of the civil list
preparatory to the trial of Louis XVI. is printed in Le _Proces de
Louis XVI_ (Paris, an III) and elsewhere, while others appear in the
_Moniteur_.
GOHRDE, a forest of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hanover, immediately W. of the Elbe, between Wittenberg and Luneburg. It has an area of about 85 sq. m. and is famous for its oaks, beeches and game preserves. It is memorable for the victory gained here, on the 16th of September 1813, by the allies, under Wallmoden, over the French forces commanded by Pecheur. The hunting-box situated in the forest was built in 1689 and was restored by Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover. It is known to history on account of the constitution of Gohrde, promulgated here in 1719.
GOITO, a village of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Mantua, from which it is 11 m. N.W., on the road to Brescia. Pop. (village) 737; (commune) 5712. It is situated on the right bank of the Mincio near the bridge. Its position has given it a certain military importance in various campaigns and it has been repeatedly fortified as a bridge-head. The Piedmontese forces won two actions (8th of April and 30th of May 1848) over the Austrians here.
GOITRE (from Lat. _guttur_, the throat; synonyms, Bronchocele, Derbyshire Neck), a term applied to a swelling in the front of the neck caused by enlargement of the thyroid gland. This structure, which lies between the skin and the anterior surface of the windpipe, and in health is not large enough to give rise to any external prominence (except in the pictures of certain artists), is liable to variations in size, more especially in females, a temporary enlargement of the gland being not uncommon at the catamenial periods, as well as during pregnancy. In goitre the swelling is conspicuous and is not only unsightly but may occasion much discomfort from its pressure upon the windpipe and other important parts of the neck. J. L. Alibert recorded cases of goitre where the tumour hung down over the breast, or reached as low as the middle of the thigh.
Goitre usually appears in early life, often from the eighth to the twelfth year; its growth is at first slow, but after several years of comparative quiescence a sudden increase is apt to occur. In the earlier stages the condition of the gland is simply an enlargement of its constituent parts, which retain their normal soft consistence; but in the course of time other changes supervene, and it may become cystic, or acquire hardness from increase of fibrous tissue or from calcareous deposits. Occasionally the enlargement is uniform, but more commonly one of the lobes, generally the right, is the larger. In rare instances the disease is limited to the isthmus which connects the two lobes of the gland. The growth is unattended with pain, and is not inconsistent with good health.
Goitre is a marked example of an endemic disease. There are few parts of the world where it is not found prevailing in certain localities, these being for the most part valleys and elevated plains in mountainous districts (see CRETINISM). The malady is generally ascribed to the use of drinking water impregnated with the salts of lime and magnesia, in which ingredients the water of goitrous districts abounds. But in localities not far removed from those in which goitre prevails, and where the water is of the same chemical composition, the disease may be entirely unknown. The disease may be the result of a combination of causes, among which local telluric or malarial influences concur with those of the drinking water. Goitre is sometimes cured by removal of the individual from the district where it prevails, and it is apt to be acquired by previously healthy persons who settle in goitrous localities; and it is only in such places that the disease exhibits hereditary tendencies.
In the early stages, change of air, especially to the seaside, is desirable, and small doses of iron and of iodine should be given; if this fails small doses of thyroid extract should be tried. If palliative measures prove unsuccessful, operation must be undertaken for the removal of one lateral lobe and the isthmus of the tumour. This may be done under chloroform or after the subcutaneous injection of cocaine. If chloroform is used, it must be given very sparingly, as the breathing is apt to become seriously embarrassed during the operation. After the successful performance of the operation great improvement takes place, the remaining part of the gland slowly decreasing in size. The whole of the gland must not be removed during the operation, lest the strange disease known as Myxoedema should be produced (see METABOLIC DISEASES).
In _exophthalmic goitre_ the bronchocele is but one of three phenomena, which together constitute the disease, viz. palpitation of the heart, enlargement of the thyroid gland, and protrusion of the eyeballs. This group of symptoms is known by the name of "Graves's disease" or "Von Basedow's disease"--the physicians by whom the malady was originally described. Although occasionally observed in men, this affection occurs chiefly in females, and in comparatively early life. It is generally preceded by impoverishment of blood, and by nervous or hysterical disorders, and it is occasionally seen in cases of organic heart disease. It has been suddenly developed as the effect of fright or of violent emotion. The first symptom is usually the palpitation of the heart, which is aggravated by slight exertion, and may be so severe as not only to shake the whole frame but even to be audible at some distance. A throbbing is felt throughout the body, and many of the larger blood-vessels are, like the heart, seen to pulsate strongly. The enlargement of the thyroid is gradual, and rarely increases to any great size, thus differing from the commoner form of goitre. The enlarged gland is of soft consistence, and communicates a thrill to the touch from its dilated and pulsating blood-vessels. Accompanying the goitre a remarkable change is observed in the eyes, which attract attention by their prominence, and by the startled expression thus given to the countenance. In extreme cases the eyes protrude from their sockets to such a degree that the eyelids cannot be closed, and injury may thus arise to the constantly exposed eyeballs. Apart from such risk, however, the vision is rarely affected. It occasionally happens that in undoubted cases of the disease one or other of the three above-named phenomena is absent, generally either the goitre or the exophthalmos. The palpitation of the heart is the most constant symptom. Sleeplessness, irritability, disorders of digestion, diarrhoea and uterine derangements, are frequent accompaniments. It is a serious disease and, if unchecked, may end fatally. Some cases are improved by general hygienic measures, others by electric treatment, or by the administration of animal extracts or of sera. Some cases, on the other hand, may be considered suitable for operative treatment. (E. O.*)
GOKAK, a town of British India, in the Belgaum district of Bombay, 8 m. from a station on the Southern Mahratta railway. Pop. (1901) 9860. It contains old temples with inscriptions, and is known for a special industry of modelled toys. About 4 m. N.W. are the Gokak Falls, where the Ghatprabha throws itself over a precipice 170 ft. high. Close by, the water has been impounded for a large reservoir, which supplies not only irrigation but also motive power for a cotton-mill employing 2000 hands.
GOKCHA, (GOK-CHAI; Armenian _Sevanga_; ancient _Haosravagha_), the largest lake of Russian Transcaucasia, in the government of Erivan, in 40 deg. 9' to 40 deg. 38' N. and 45 deg. 1' to 45 deg. 40' E. Its altitude is 6345 ft., it is of triangular shape, and measures from north-west to south-east 45 m., its greatest width being 25 m., and its maximum depth 67 fathoms. Its area is 540 sq. m. It is surrounded by barren mountains of volcanic origin, 12,000 ft. high. Its outflow is the Zanga, a left bank tributary of the Aras (_Araxes_); it never freezes, and its level undergoes periodical oscillations. It contains four species of _Salmonidae_, and two of _Cyprinidae_, which are only met with in the drainage area of this lake. A lava island in the middle is crowned by an Armenian monastery.
GOLCONDA, a fortress and ruined city of India, in the Nizam's Dominions, 5 m. W. of Hyderabad city. In former times Golconda was the capital of a large and powerful kingdom of the Deccan, ruled by the Kutb Shahi dynasty which was founded in 1512 by a Turkoman adventurer on the downfall of the Bahmani dynasty, but the city was subdued by Aurangzeb in 1687, and annexed to the Delhi empire. The fortress of Golconda, situated on a rocky ridge of granite, is extensive, and contains many enclosures. It is strong and in good repair, but is commanded by the summits of the enormous and massive mausolea of the ancient kings about 600 yds. distant. These buildings, which are now the chief characteristics of the place, form a vast group, situated in an arid, rocky desert. They have suffered considerably from the ravages of time, but more from the hand of man, and nothing but the great solidity of their walls has preserved them from utter ruin. These tombs were erected at a great expense, some of them being said to have cost as much as L150,000. Golconda fort is now used as the Nizam's treasury, and also as the state prison. Golconda has given its name in English literature to the diamonds which were found in other parts of the dominions of the Kutb Shahi dynasty, not near Golconda itself.
GOLD [symbol Au, atomic weight 195.7(H = 1), 197.2(O = 16)], a metallic chemical element, valued from the earliest ages on account of the permanency of its colour and lustre. Gold ornaments of great variety and elaborate workmanship have been discovered on sites belonging to the earliest known civilizations, Minoan, Egyptian, Assyrian, Etruscan (see JEWELRY, PLATE, EGYPT, CRETE, AEGEAN CIVILIZATION, NUMISMATICS), and in ancient literature gold is the universal symbol of the highest purity and value (cf. passages in the Old Testament, e.g. Ps. xix. 10 "More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold"). With regard to the history of the metallurgy of gold, it may be mentioned that, according to Pliny, mercury was employed in his time both as a means of separating the precious metals and for the purposes of gilding. Vitruvius also gives a detailed account of the means of recovering gold, by amalgamation, from cloth into which it had been woven.
_Physical Properties._--Gold has a characteristic yellow colour, which is, however, notably affected by small quantities of other metals; thus the tint is sensibly lowered by small quantities of silver, and heightened by copper. When the gold is finely divided, as in "purple of Cassius," or when it is precipitated from solutions, the colour is ruby-red, while in very thin leaves it transmits a greenish light. It is nearly as soft as lead and softer than silver. When pure, it is the most malleable of all metals (see GOLDBEATING). It is also extremely ductile; a single grain may be drawn into a wire 500 ft. in length, and an ounce of gold covering a silver wire is capable of being extended more than 1300 m. The presence of minute quantities of cadmium, lead, bismuth, antimony, arsenic, tin, tellurium and zinc renders gold brittle, 1/2000th part of one of the three metals first named being sufficient to produce that quality. Gold can be readily welded cold; the finely divided metal, in the state in which it is precipitated from solution, may be compressed between dies into disks or medals. The specific gravity of gold obtained by precipitation from solution by ferrous sulphate is from 19.55 to 20.72. The specific gravity of cast gold varies from 18.29 to 19.37, and by compression between dies the specific gravity may be raised from 19.37 to 19.41; by annealing, however, the previous density is to some extent recovered, as it is then found to be 19.40. The melting-point has been variously given, the early values ranging from 1425 deg. C. to 1035 deg. C. Using improved methods, C. T. Heycock and F. H. Neville determined it to be 1061.7 deg. C.; Daniel Berthelot gives 1064 deg. C., while Jaquerod and Perrot give 1066.1-1067.4 deg. C. At still higher temperatures it volatilizes, forming a reddish vapour. Macquer and Lavoisier showed that when gold is strongly heated, fumes arise which gild a piece of silver held in them. Its volatility has also been studied by L. Eisner, and, in the presence of other metals, by Napier and others. The volatility is barely appreciable at 1075 deg.; at 1250 deg. it is four times as much as at 1100 deg. Copper and zinc increase the volatility far more than lead, while the greatest volatility is induced, according to T. Kirke Rose, by tellurium. It has also been shown that gold volatilizes when a gold-amalgam is distilled. Gold is dissipated by sending a powerful charge of electricity through it when in the form of leaf or thin wire. The electric conductivity is given by A. Matthiessen as 73 at 0 deg. C., pure silver being 100; the value of this coefficient depends greatly on the purity of the metal, the presence of a few thousandths of silver lowering it by 10%. Its conductivity for heat has been variously given as 103 (C. M. Despretz), 98 (F. Crace-Calvert and R. Johnson), and 60 (G. H. Wiedemann and R. Franz), pure silver being 100. Its specific heat is between 0.0298 (Dulong and Petit) and 0.03244 (Regnault). Its coefficient of expansion for each degree between 0 deg. and 100 deg. C. is 0.000014661, or for gold which has been annealed 0.000015136 (Laplace and Lavoisier). The spark spectrum of gold has been mapped by A. Kirchhoff, R. Thalen, Sir William Huggins and H. Kruss; the brightest lines are 6277, 5960, 5955 and 5836 in the orange and yellow, and 5230 and 4792 in the green and blue.
_Chemical Properties._--Gold is permanent in both dry and moist air at ordinary or high temperatures. It is insoluble in hydrochloric, nitric and sulphuric acids, but dissolves in _aqua regia_--a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids--and when very finely divided in a heated mixture of strong sulphuric acid and a little nitric acid; dilution with water, however, precipitates the metal as a violet or brown powder from this solution. The metal is soluble in solutions of chlorine, bromine, thiosulphates and cyanides; and also in solutions which generate chlorine, such as mixtures of hydrochloric acid with nitric acid, chromic acid, antimonious acid, peroxides and nitrates, and of nitric acid with a chloride. Gold is also attacked when strong sulphuric acid is submitted to electrolysis with a gold positive pole. W. Skey showed that in substances which contain small quantities of gold the precious metal may be removed by the solvent action of iodine or bromine in water. Filter paper soaked with the clear, solution is burnt, and the presence of gold is indicated by the purple colour of the ash. In solution minute quantities of gold may be detected by the formation of "purple of Cassius," a bluish-purple precipitate thrown down by a mixture of ferric and stannous chlorides.
The atomic weight of gold was first determined with accuracy by Berzelius, who deduced the value 195.7 (H = 1) from the amount of mercury necessary to precipitate it from the chloride, and 195.2 from the ratio between gold and potassium chloride in potassium aurichloride, KAuCl4. Later determinations were made by Sir T. E. Thorpe and A. P. Laurie, Kruss and J. W. Mallet. Thorpe and Laurie converted potassium auribromide into a mixture of metallic gold and potassium bromide by careful heating. The relation of the gold to the potassium bromide, as well as the amounts of silver and silver bromide which are equivalent to the potassium bromide, were determined. The mean value thus adduced was 195.86. Kruss worked with the same salt, and obtained the value 195.65; while Mallet, by analyses of gold chloride and bromide, and potassium auribromide, obtained the value 195.77.
_Occlusion of Gas by Gold._--T. Graham showed that gold is capable of occluding by volume 0.48% of hydrogen, 0.20% of nitrogen, 0.29% of carbon monoxide, and 0.16% of carbon dioxide. Varrentrapp pointed out that "cornets" from the assay of gold may retain gas if they are not strongly heated.
_Occurrence and Distribution._--Gold is found in nature chiefly in the metallic state, i.e. as "native gold," and less frequently in combination with tellurium, lead and silver. These are the only certain examples of natural combinations of the metal, the minute, though economically valuable, quantity often found in pyrites and other sulphides being probably only present in mechanical suspension. The native metal crystallizes in the cubic system, the octahedron being the commonest form, but other and complex combinations have been observed. Owing to the softness of the metal, large crystals are rarely well defined, the points being commonly rounded. In the irregular crystalline aggregates branching and moss-like forms are most common, and in Transylvania thin plates or sheets with diagonal structures are found. More characteristic, however, than the crystallized are the irregular forms, which, when large, are known as "nuggets" or "pepites," and when in pieces below 1/4 to 1/2 oz. weight as gold dust, the larger sizes being distinguished as coarse or nuggety gold, and the smaller as gold dust proper. Except in the larger nuggets, which may be more or less angular, or at times even masses of crystals, with or without associated quartz or other rock, gold is generally found bean-shaped or in some other flattened form, the smallest particles being scales of scarcely appreciable thickness, which, from their small bulk as compared with their surface, subside very slowly when suspended in water, and are therefore readily carried away by a rapid current. These form the "float gold" of the miner. The physical properties of native gold are generally similar to that of the melted metal.
Of the minerals containing gold the most important are sylvanite or
graphic tellurium (Ag, Au) Te2, with 24 to 26%; calaverite, AuTe2,
with 42%; nagyagite or foliate tellurium (Pb, Au)16 Sb3(S, Te)24, with
5 to 9% of gold; petzite, (Ag, Au)2Te, and white tellurium. These are
confined to a few localities, the oldest and best known being those of
Nagyag and Offenbanya in Transylvania; they have also been found at
Red Cloud, Colorado, in Calaveras county, California, and at Perth and
Boulder, West Australia. The minerals of the second class, usually
spoken of as "auriferous," are comparatively numerous. Prominent among
these are galena and iron pyrites, the former being almost invariably
gold-bearing. Iron pyrites, however, is of greater practical
importance, being in some districts exceedingly rich, and, next to the
native metal, is the most prolific source of gold. Magnetic pyrites,
copper pyrites, zinc blende and arsenical pyrites are other and less
important examples, the last constituting the gold ore formerly worked
in Silesia. A native gold amalgam is found as a rarity in California,
and bismuth from South America is sometimes rich in gold. Native
arsenic and antimony are also very frequently found to contain gold
and silver.
The association and distribution of gold may be considered under two
different heads, namely, as it occurs in mineral veins--"reef gold,"
and in alluvial or other superficial deposits which are derived from
the waste of the former--"alluvial gold." Four distinct types of reef
gold deposits may be distinguished: (1) Gold may occur disseminated
through metalliferous veins, generally with sulphides and more
particularly with pyrites. These deposits seem to be the primary
sources of native gold. (2) More common are the auriferous
quartz-reefs--veins or masses of quartz containing gold in flakes
visible to the naked eye, or so finely divided as to be invisible. (3)
The "banket" formation, which characterizes the goldfields of South
Africa, consists of a quartzite conglomerate throughout which gold is
very finely disseminated. (4) The siliceous sinter at Mount Morgan,
Queensland, which is obviously associated with hydrothermal action, is
also gold-bearing. The genesis of the last three types of deposit is
generally assigned to the simultaneous percolation of solutions of
gold and silica, the auriferous solution being formed during the
disintegration of the gold-bearing metalliferous veins. But there is
much uncertainty as to the mechanism of the process; some authors hold
that the soluble chloride is first formed, while others postulate the
intervention of a soluble aurate.
In the alluvial deposits the associated minerals are chiefly those of
great density and hardness, such as platinum, osmiridium and other
metals of the platinum group, tinstone, chromic, magnetic and brown
iron ores, diamond, ruby and sapphire, zircon, topaz, garnet, &c.
which represent the more durable original constituents of the rocks
whose distintegration has furnished the detritus.
_Statistics of Gold Production._--The supply of gold, and also its relation to the supply of silver, has, among civilized nations, always been of paramount importance in the economic questions concerning money (see MONEY and BIMETALLISM); in this article a summary of the modern gold-producing areas will be given, and for further details reference should be made to the articles on the localities named. The chief sources of the European supply during the middle ages were the mines of Saxony and Austria, while Spain also contributed. The supplies from Mexico and Brazil were important during the 16th and 17th centuries. Russia became prominent in 1823, and for fourteen years contributed the bulk of the supply. The United States (California) after 1848, and Australia after 1851, were responsible for enormous increases in the total production, which has been subsequently enhanced by discoveries in Canada, South Africa, India, China and other countries.
TABLE I.
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Period. | Oz. | Period. | Oz. |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| 1801-1810 | 590,750 | 1856-1860 | 6,350,180 |
| 1811-1820 | 380,300 | 1861-1865 | 5,951,770 |
| 1821-1830 | 472,400 | 1866-1870 | 6,169,660 |
| 1831-1840 | 674,200 | 1871-1875 | 5,487,400 |
| 1841-1850 | 1,819,600 | 1876-1880 | 5,729,300 |
| 1851-1855 | 6,350,180 | -- | -- |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
The average annual world's production for certain periods from 1801 to 1880 in ounces is given in Table I. The average production of the five years 1881-1885 was the smallest since the Australian and Californian mines began to be worked in 1848-1849; the minimum 4,614,588 oz., occurred in 1882. It was not until after 1885 that the annual output of the world began to expand. Of the total production in 1876, 5,016,488 oz., almost the whole was derived from the United States, Australasia and Russia. Since then the proportion furnished by these countries has been greatly lowered by the supplies from South Africa, Canada, India and China. The increase of production has not been uniform, the greater part having occurred most notably since 1895. Among the regions not previously important as gold-producers which now contribute to the annual output, the most remarkable are the goldfields of South Africa (Transvaal and Rhodesia, the former of which were discovered in 1885). India likewise has been added to the list, its active production having begun at about the same time as that of South Africa. The average annual product of India for the period 1886 to 1899 inclusive was L698,208, and its present annual product averages about 550,000 oz., or about L2,200,000, obtained almost wholly from the free-milling quartz veins of the Colar goldfields in Mysore, southern India. In 1900 the output was valued at L1,891,804, in 1905 at L2,450,536, and in 1908 at L2,270,000. Canada, too, assumed an important rank, having contributed in 1900 L5,583,300; but the output has since steadily declined to L1,973,000 in 1908. The great increase during the few years preceding 1899 was due to the development of the goldfields of the North-Western Territory, especially British Columbia. From the district of Yukon (Klondike, &c.) L2,800,000 was obtained in 1899, wholly from alluvial workings, but the progress made since has been slower than was expected by sanguine people. It is, however, probable that the North-Western Territory will continue to yield gold in important quantities for some time to come.
The output of the United States increased from L7,050,000 in 1881 to L16,085,567 in 1900, L17,916,000 in 1905, and to L20,065,000 in 1908. This increase was chiefly due to the exploitation of new goldfields. The fall in the price of silver stimulated the discovery and development of gold deposits, and many states formerly regarded as characteristically silver districts have become important as gold producers. Colorado is a case in point, its output having increased from about L600,000 in 1880 to L6,065,000 in 1900; it was L5,139,800 in 1905. Somewhat more than one-half of the Colorado gold is obtained from the Cripple Creek district. Other states also showed a largely augmented product. On the other hand, the output of California, which was producing over L3,000,000 per annum in 1876, has fallen off, the average annual output from 1876 to 1900 being L2,800,000; in 1905 the yield was L3,839,000. This decrease was largely caused by the practical suspension for many years of the hydraulic mining operations, in preparation for which millions of dollars had been expended in deep tunnels, flumes, &c., and the active continuance of which might have been expected to yield some L2,000,000 of gold annually. This interruption, due to the practical prohibition of the industry by the United States courts, on the ground that it was injuring, through the deposit of tailings, agricultural lands and navigable streams, was lessened, though not entirely removed, by compromises and regulations which permit, under certain restrictions, the renewed exploitation of the ancient river-beds by the hydraulic method. On the other hand, the progressive reduction of mining and metallurgical costs effected by improved transportation and machinery, and the use of high explosives, compressed air, electric-power transmission, &c., resulted in California (as elsewhere) in a notable revival of deep mining. This was especially the case on the "Mother Lode," where highly promising results were obtained. Not only is vein-material formerly regarded as unremunerative now extracted at a profit, but in many instances increased gold-values have been encountered below zones of relative barrenness, and operators have been encouraged to make costly preparations for really deep mining--more than 3000 ft. below the surface. The gold product of California, therefore, may be fairly expected to maintain itself, and, indeed, to show an advance. Alaska appeared in the list of gold-producing countries in 1886, and gradually increased its annual output until 1897, when the country attracted much attention with a production valued at over L500,000; the opening up of new workings has increased this figure immensely, from about L1,400,000 in 1901 to L3,006,500 in 1905. The Alaska gold was derived almost wholly from the large low-grade quartz mines of Douglas Island prior to 1899, but in that year an important district was discovered at Cape Nome, on the north-western coast. The result of a few months' working during that year was more than L500,000 of gold, and a very much larger annual output may reasonably be anticipated in the future; in 1905 it was about L900,000. The gold occurs in alluvial deposits designated as gulch-, bar-, beach-, tundra- and bench-placers. The tundra is a coastal plain, swampy and covered with undergrowth and underlaid by gravel. The most interesting and, thus far, the most productive are the beach deposits, similar to those on the coast of Northern California. These occur in a strip of comparatively fine gravel and sand, 150 yds. wide, extending along the shore. The gold is found in stratified layers, with "ruby" and black sand. The "ruby" sand consists chiefly of fine garnets and magnetites, with a few rose-quartz grains. Further exploration of the interior will probably result in the discovery of additional gold districts.
Mexico, from a gold production of L200,000 in 1891, advanced to about L1,881,800 in 1900 and to about L3,221,000 in 1905. Of this increase, a considerable part was derived from gold-quartz mining, though much was also obtained as a by-product in the working of the ores of other metals. The product of Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador amounted in 1900 to L2,481,000 and to L2,046,000 in 1905.
In 1876 Australasia produced L7,364,000, of which Victoria contributed L3,084,000. The annual output of Victoria declined until the year 1892, when it began to increase rapidly, but not to its former level, the values for 1900 and 1905 being L3,142,000 and L3,138,000. There has been an important increase in Queensland, which advanced from L1,696,000 in 1876 to L2,843,000 in 1900, and subsequently declined to L2,489,000 in 1905. There has been no increase, and, indeed, no large fluctuation until quite recently in the output of New Zealand, which averaged L1,054,000 per annum from 1876 to 1898, but the production of the two years 1900 and 1905 rose to L1,425,459 and L2,070,407 respectively. By far the most important addition to the Australasian product has come from West Australia, which began its production in 1887--about the time of the inception of mining at Witwatersrand ("the Rand") in South Africa--and by continuous increase, which assumed large proportions towards the close of the 19th century, was L6,426,000 in 1899, L6,179,000 in 1900, and L8,212,000 in 1905. The total Australasian production in 1908 was valued at L14,708,000.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Gloss" to "Gordon, Charles George"Chapter XII: Part 12
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