squares, the weight of each being about 6 grains. About 150 of these pieces are piled alternately with leaves of fine calf skin vellum or of a tough paper manufactured in France for this purpose, each piece being placed in the middle of one of the leaves, which are 4 inches square. A number of extra leaves are added to the top and bottom of the pile, which when completed is called a tool or kutch. This is then slipped into a parchment case, open at two ends, and this into a similar case, so as to enclose the pack on all 4 sides. The pack is now placed upon a block of marble, set for an anvil, with a ledge around 3 sides of it, and a leather apron for the 4th side, which is held up by the workman, who proceeds to beat the pack. He wields a 16 lb. hammer, shifting it from one hand to the other without interfering with the regularity of the stroke, also occasionally turning the pack with the same dexterity. The hammer has a slightly convex face, which adds to its efficiency in spreading the gold, and the working of it is made much easier by the elasticity of the pack causing it to rebound. The pack is from time to time bent back and forth to overcome the adhesion between the gold and the vellum or paper; it is also rolled between the hands for the same purpose; and it is occasionally opened to examine the condition of the leaves and properly arrange them. In about 20 minutes' beating the gold is spread to the size of the leaves, covering 16 square inches in place of one inch. The pieces are then taken out, and each is cut into 4 square pieces, the original 150 pieces being thus increased to 600. These are again packed, this time in gold-beater's skin, again enclosed in parchment cases, and beaten with a smaller hammer, till they are extended to the size of the skins. This operation requires about 2 hours. More particular care is given now than before to folding the pack in order to loosen the leaves. When all the gold leaves have expanded to the full size, they are taken out and spread by the breath one by one upon a cushion, where each is cut into 4 squares by two sharp edges of cane fixed crosswise, and used by pressure downward. To this material the thin leaves do not adhere as they do to a steel blade. The squares are now 2,400 in number. These are once more packed, making 3 parcels, and beaten as before for 4 hours. This part of the process requires the most skill and care from the workman. The skins are the finest, about 5 inches square; the leaves are brought at the end of the operation to 3 inches, or from that to 3 inches square. In this condition an ounce of gold is made to cover 100 square feet. It begins to transmit the rays of light, and, if slightly alloyed, the green rays particularly, but, if highly alloyed with silver, the pale violet rays also. The beating may be continued, and the gold be reduced to the thinness of the specimens noticed in GILDING; but there is no advantage gained in passing the average of the commercial gold leaf, which is about 3000, or that of the French, which is probably less than 5000 of an inch

thick. The method of estimating this is by a simple calculation, obvious to any one who follows the above account of the process, or, knowing the weight of a cubic inch of gold, has the superficial area of the specimens and their weight given. The leaves are sorted after the final beating, each one being lifted by a delicate pair of whitewood pincers, and spread out by the breath upon a leather cushion. It is then trimmed down to about 3 inches square by a square frame of sharp cane, and laid between the leaves of the book in which it is sold. Each book is made to contain 25 gold leaves, and these are prevented from adhering to the paper by an application to this of red ochre or red chalk.-Machinery for beating gold was exhibited in the London exhibition of 1851 from the United States and from France; and it is probable that this mode of manufacture will entirely supersede that by hand. Silver and copper are both beaten into leaves; but their value is not so great as to render it an object to reduce them to any thing like the tenuity of gold leaf, if their malleability admitted of its being done. Silver, though much less malleable than gold, may nevertheless be beaten out to cover a greater surface than the same weight of gold, in consequence of its greater bulk for the same weight.

GOLD COAST. See GUINEA.

GOLD FISH, or GOLDEN CARP (cyprinus auratus, Linn.), a native of China, but introduced into Europe early in the 17th century. In China they are to be found in almost every house, and are kept either in porcelain vessels or in artificial ponds; wherever known they are prized for their beauty, elegant form, grace of motion, and docility; they are very easily kept alive in small vessels, if due attention be paid to changing the water daily. The usual color is bright orange above, lighter on the sides, and whitish beneath; the scales are large and striated; the pupils are black, and the iris silvery; the mouth is small and toothless; the dorsal fin is single, with the first two rays spinous. The colors vary exceedingly by domestication, and exhibit almost every variety of orange, purple, and silvery; the fins vary considerably, as regards the size of the dorsal and the number of the anals; triple tails are common, in which case the dorsal is frequently absent. The silver fish is a mere variety, and the dark colors are the marks of the young fish. It is found in many ponds in New England, bearing well the severity of the winters, and breeding in great numbers when protected from other fish. Gold fish form one of the most interesting ornaments of private gardens, and are seen everywhere in the basins of the fountains of large cities in the summer season; their price varies from 20 to 50 cents each, according to size and beauty; their food is chiefly infusorial animalcules, with bread when in confinement; their flesh is not esteemed as food. The intensity of the colors and several of their external characters are modified by their food, and the new characters are transmitted to the offspring. In artificial ponds they

are taught to come to the surface at the ringing of a bell. They will live in foul water, and a long time out of water on account of the loose structure of their gills; in ponds the spawn and young fish are often eaten by their larger comrades; their life may be prolonged to 20 or 30 years, and they will bear great extremes of heat and cold with impunity. In common with many fresh water fish, they are attacked and sometimes destroyed by a parasitic fungus, which springs from any diseased surface, and even from the healthy tissue of the gills.

GOLDEN FLEECE. See ARGONAUTS. GOLDEN FLEECE, ORDER OF THE (Span. el toyson de oro; Fr. ordre de la toison d'or), one of the oldest and most important of the orders of chivalry, founded at Bruges by Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, on occasion of his marriage with the princess Isabella of Portugal, Jan. 10, 1430, and consecrated to the Virgin Mary and the apostle Andrew. The statutes of the order declare that it takes its name from the golden fleece which the Argonauts went in search of. The decoration of the grand master is a chain composed of alternate flints and rays of steel with the golden fleece fastened in the middle. The knights wear a golden fleece on a red ribbon. Its design was to maintain the honor of knighthood and protect the church, and it was sanctioned by Pope Eugenius IV. in 1433 and by Leo X. in 1516. An article of the statutes (published at Lille, Nov. 30, 1431, in the French language) ordained that if the house of Burgundy should become extinct in the male line, the husband of the daughter and heir of the last lord should be grand master of the order. After the death of Charles the Bold (1477), the husband of his daughter and heir Mary, Maximilian I. of Austria, therefore inherited the grand master ship. During the war of the Spanish succession Charles III. (afterward the emperor Charles VI.) and Philip V., the contestants for the throne of Spain, both claimed this dignity. When the former left Spain he carried the archives of the order with him, and in 1713 celebrated its revival in Vienna. Spain protested against this at the congress of Cambrai in 1721, and it was decided by the treaty of Vienna in 1725 that the regents of both states should be permitted to confer the order with similar insignia, but that the members should be distinguished as knights of the Spanish or Austrian golden fleece. After the death of Charles VI., Maria Theresa in 1741 bestowed the office of grand master upon her husband Francis I., against which Philip V. of Spain protested in the electoral assembly at Vienna and at Frankfort. At the peace of Aix la Chapelle in 1748, France, England, and Holland demanded that the schism should be composed; but as Ferdinand VI. of Spain declared that the order was inseparable from the Spanish crown, the dispute has remained unreconciled, and the order continues in two branches, neither of which recognizes the other. The statutes ordain that the knights shall recognize no other jurisVOL. VIII.-23

diction but an assembly of their order under the presidency of the grand master or of a knight authorized by him, and that they shall have precedency of all persons except those of royal blood. The number of knights, originally 24, was soon increased to 31, and in 1516 to 52. In 1851 the order consisted in Austria of 6 grand crosses, 20 commanders, and 161 knights. -See Reiffenberg, Histoire de l'ordre de la toison d'or (Brussels, 1830).

GOLDEN NUMBER, an ecclesiastical term for the number of years that have passed at a given date since the new moon fell on New Year's day. But in computing it, no account is taken of the reformation of the calendar; all the years are considered as Julian, of 365 days; and the Metonic cycle of 19 years is assumed to be rigorously exact. The golden number is the remainder arising from adding 1 to the date and dividing by 19. It has been in use since the 5th century B. C.

GOLDEN ROD (solidago, Linn.), the name of numerous plants, whose showy heads of flowers, waving like golden wands, make bright and gay the sides of roads, hills, and gravelly banks in the autumn. A supposed efficacy in the plants suggested to the early botanists the name solidago, from Lat. solido, to make firm. Although the general appearance of the racemed or else corymbed heads, which bear the florets, is diverse, yet the flowers themselves differ only from the asters in the pappus or silky hairs at the base of the fruit (seed) being in a single row. The genus is mostly North American, and Persoon out of 49 species gives only 8 which are indigenous to Europe and Asia, and 3 of these he calls arborescent forms. The most common European species is S. virgaurea, with a low, terete, pubescent stem, which branches above; the lower leaves are elliptical, somewhat hairy, acutely serrate, the flower heads in thyrsoid racemes. It grows in thickets and woods, and formerly was much used in medicine. Its principle is astringent and tonic; the leaves and flowers, however, were thought aperient. It occurs in the northern regions of America, but under very dissimilar forms. Of these, a dwarf kind, only a few inches high, with obovate or lanceolate, mostly entire leaves, and a few large flowers, is the variety which Dr. Bigelow calls alpina. It occurs in the alpine regions of New Hampshire, of Maine, and of New York, and on the shore of Lake Superior. A second distinct variety is humilis (Pursh), on the rocky banks of western Vermont, Lakes Huron and Superior, and northward; and a sub-variety with larger and broader leaves, the flower heads in ample, compound racemes, the flower rays occasionally white instead of yellow, is to be met with on gravelly banks of streams at the base of the White mountains in New Hampshire. A similar, but at the same time a distinct species,. considered by Pursh as the S. virgaurea, is S. thyrsoidea (Meyer), which occurs on the wooded sides of mountains from Maine to New York and northward. Perhaps the most inter-

esting species is the sweet golden rod (S. odora, Ait.), with a slender stem 2 to 3 feet high, often reclined; the leaves linear-lanceolate, entire, shining, covered with pellucid dots, which secrete a delicious anisate oil; the flower heads in racemes spreading in a one-sided panicle, the flower rays rather large and conspicuous. It may be occasionally found in rich shady woods. An essence distilled from the leaves has been used to relieve spasmodic pains. One of the earliest indications of the approach of autumn is in the flowers of S. bicolor, or white golden rod, a species scarcely like the others, with small white flowers of no especial beauty. Next comes into yellow bloom the tall Canadian golden rod (S. Canadensis), and following this, the gigantic golden rod (S. gigantea), and the tall golden rod (S. altissima), names singularly misapplied, as the altitude of both is not unusual. Afterward may be seen S. arguta and other species, until the lingering florets upon the downy golden rod (S. nemoralis) indicate the near approach of the cold. The golden rods generally affect dry and sterile soils, and range from alpine heights to the very margin of the sea, where may be seen S. sempervirens, with its large, thick, shining green leaves, and bold, large-rayed, and conspicuous yellow flowers, and the narrow-leaved (S. tenuifolia, Pursh), having very small, crowded heads of inconspicuous flowers. Several species are peculiar to the western states, as S. Ohioensis (Riddel) and S. Riddelii (Frank.), occurring in moist meadows and grassy prairies; and others, as S. Drummondii (Torr. and Gray), upon rocks, in common with more ordinary ones, indicating a wide distribution of the genus.

GOLDFINCH (fringilla carduelis, Linn.), one of the handsomest of the European fringillida, valued as a cage bird both for its beauty, its song, and its docility. It is about 5 inches long, with an extent of wings of 9 inches; the forehead and throat are crimson; the loral space, top of the head, and a semicircular band on the upper neck black; the hind neck and back are umber brown, passing into ochre yellow on the rump; sides of breast and flanks paler, and white below; smaller wing coverts black, secondary rich yellow; most of the quills black with white tips, except the basal half of the outer webs, which are yellow; tail black, white tipped. The female is smaller, with less crimson, pure black, and bright colors in the plumage. Like all caged birds, the goldfinch sometimes shows considerable differences in color. It will pair and produce progeny with the green linnet. Its food consists of the seeds of the thistles, grasses, and herbaceous plants, which it seeks in small flocks. Its song, which is sweet and varied, usually begins in Great Britain about the end of March and continues until July; its flight is quick and buoyant, like that of the linnet. The nest is elaborately made of the usual materials, and lined with wool and hair; the eggs, about 5, are of an inch long, of a bluish white color, with brown tinges and purplish spots. It remains in

Scotland through the winter, though great numbers perish in severe seasons. The goldfinch is easily caught and tamed, and may be taught the notes of other birds and many amusing tricks; it is a great favorite both in England and America as a cage bird; a fine male costs in England 6 or 7 shillings. For the American goldfinches, of the genus chrysomitris (Boie), see YELLOW BIRD.

He

GOLDONI, CARLO, the most celebrated comic author of Italy, called by his countrymen the Italian Molière, born in Venice in 1707, died in Paris in 1793. He passed his childhood in the midst of festivals and theatrical and operatic performances, with which his grandfather amused his leisure at a country seat near Venice. Comedies were his favorite reading, and at the age of 8 years he wrote a sort of comic drama, and at the age of 13 played female parts on the stage at Perugia. studied philosophy under the Dominicans at Rimini, but deserted them to join a troop of comedians. His father, a practising physician at Chioggia, then undertook to teach him his own profession, but he soon solicited an exchange from medicine to law. At the age of 16 he was again transferred from legal studies at Venice to a scholarship in the papal college at Pavia, with the design of fitting him for the church. Within a year he became accomplished in music, dancing, and fencing, and learned a little of civil and canonical law. At the close of the 2d year he descended the Ticino and the Po with a company of wits and men of pleasure, and arriving at Chioggia was called upon to preach a sermon for an abbé of the place. His attempt met with brilliant success, and he returned to Pavia w ith a reputation for eloquence In the 3d year of his scholarship, he composed a scandalous satire against the inhabitants of the town for an insult that they had of fered to the students, and was expelled from the college. He resumed his studies of law, was graduated after divers mishaps at Padua, and in 1732 was admitted into the corps of advocates at Venice. He had already composed two comedies, and been manager of the theatre where they were produced, playing the principal parts himself; and while waiting for clients he published a successful volume, a medley of prose and verse and of serious and humorous pieces, under the title of Esperienza del passato, l'astrologo dell' avenire, &c. He soon after repaired to Milan, where his comic opera the "Venetian Gondolier" was produced and applauded. While being driven from city to city by the events of war, he finished the tragedy of "Belisarius," which was played at Venice in 1734 with overwhelming success, maintaining itself through the season. His second tragedy, "Rosimond," failed in the following year. After furnishing other pieces with various success to different strolling companies, he married in 1736, and began to write for the company of Sacchi at Venice with the design of gradually reforming the Italian theatre. His aims were to substi

tute human vices and follies for fantastic and frivolous adventures, to have the plays written in full instead of being only sketched by the author and in large part improvised by the actors, and to banish from the stage the traditional masks and costumes by which the Harlequin, Birghella, Pantalon, and other chief actors were distinguished. In 1739 he was appointed Genoese consul at Venice, but his income did not meet his expenses, and after two years he again resumed his wandering life, proceeding according to the exigencies of the war which had recommenced. At Rimini, the Austrian head-quarters, he was appointed director of the spectacles and amusements, and was liberally rewarded. He passed 4 months in Florence, visited Sienna, and was received with enthusiasm at Pisa, where he resumed for a short time the practice of law, at the same time sending to Sacchi at Venice some of his most successful comedies. In 1747 he returned from Pisa to Venice, determined to devote himself only to the stage and to complete the reform which he had begun. A violent warfare began between the partisans of the old and the new comedy, but at the close of the first season he had raised the theatre to which he was attached to a superiority over its rivals, and during the second year produced 16 new pieces of 3 acts each. The excessive labor injured his health, and to indemnify himself he began to publish his comedies, contesting the right to do so with the manager. In 1753 the first volume of a second edition appeared at Florence, and 1700 copies were at once subscribed for, though his opponents, prominent among whom was Carlo Gozzi, were exerting their greatest efforts against him. He was the author of 120 pieces, when in 1761 he was invited to Paris, where after writing 2 years for the Italian theatre he was attached to the court as instructor of the daughters of the king in the Italian language, and after 3 years more was awarded a pension. He continued to produce comedies at intervals, the most successful of which was the Bourru bienfaisant. His last literary labor was writing his memoirs (Paris, 1787), which were said by Gibbon to be more comical than his best comedies. In 1792 his pension with numerous others was suppressed by the convention, but it was restored through the influence of Joseph Chénier on the day preceding his death. The most striking characteristic of Goldoni as an author is his fertility, far superior to that of Molière, and scarcely surpassed by that of Calderon and Lope de Vega. The best of his pieces are those in the Venetian dialect, and his greatest merits are his theatrical skill, and the liyeliness, piquancy, and humor with which he depicts the manners of all classes of society in Italy. Schlegel criticizes him as deficient in depth of characterization and in novelty and richness of invention. Critical biographies of him have been written by Giovanni (Milan, 1821), Carrer (Venice, 1824), Gavi (Milan, 1826), and Meneghezzi (Milan, 1827). The most complete

edition of his works is that which appeared in 44 vols. at Venice between 1788 and 1795.

GOLDSCHMIDT, HERMANN, a German painter and astronomer, born in Frankfort-onthe-Main, June 17, 1802. He studied painting at Munich under Schnorr and Cornelius, and in 1836 established himself in Paris, where he has since resided. Among the paintings which he has exhibited are the "Cumaan Sibyl” (1844), an "Offering to Venus" (1845), "Cleopatra' and a "View of Rome" (1849), the "Death of Romeo and Juliet" (1857), and several landscapes and portraits. In 1847 he began to devote himself to astronomy, and he has since discovered 10 asteroids, Lutetia (Nov. 15, 1852), Pomona (Oct. 26, 1854), Atalanta (Oct. 5, 1855), Harmonia (March 31, 1856), Daphne (May 22, 1856), Nysa (May 27, 1857), Eugenia (June 27, 1857), Doris and Pales (both on the same night, Sept. 19, 1857), and Europa (Feb. 4, 1858). He also pointed out more than 10,000 stars that were wanting in the celestial maps of the academy of Berlin, on which the most skilful astronomers have been laboring for half a century. It is remarkable that the amateur astronomer has made his discoveries with an ordinary spyglass from his studio in an attic. The academy of sciences bestowed on him its grand astronomical prize.

GOLDSMITH, OLIVER, an English author, born in the hamlet of Pallas or Pallasmore, co. of Longford, Ireland, Nov. 10, 1728, died in London, April 4, 1774. His father, the Rev. Charles Goldsmith, was a clergyman of the established church, who, at the birth of his afterward renowned son, was struggling against want by farming some fields in his neighborhood, and by performing occasional services for the rector of an adjoining parish, by which he gained an aggregate income of £40 a year. Two years later he was presented to the living of Kilkenny West, and the family removed from their humble dwelling at Pallas to a comfortable house and farm near the village of Lissoy in Westmeath. Oliver's childhood gave no special indications of his future greatness. He received the elements of instruction at the village school from a teacher whose real character appears to have been as grotesque as are any of the after creations of his pupil's fancy. An attack of small pox from which young Goldsmith suffered while a child left its marks upon his naturally plain face, which, with a generally uninviting exterior, made his personal appearance especially unprepossessing. From the school of Lissoy he was removed to that of the Rev. Mr. Griffin in Roscommon, where he entered upon studies of a higher order, but was not distinguished for either aptness or diligence. An elder brother, Henry, afterward rector of Pallas, was then a student at the university; and several relatives having contributed to afford the same advantages to the younger brother, he was sent for preparation to a school at Athlone, and two years later to one at Edgeworthtown, but at neither of them did he display any prom