GOSSE GOSSE, Philip Henry, an English zoologist, born in Worcester, April 6, 1810. He went to Newfoundland in 1827 in a mercantile capa- city, and during a residence there of eight years occupied his leisure in collecting insects and making colored drawings of them. He removed to Lower Canada, where he pursued his studies of zoology, particularly entomology, for three years, and af- terward travelled in the United States, making in Alabama numerous drawings of the lepidop- tera of that region, and wrote " Letters from Alabama, chiefly rela- ting to Natural Histo- ry." After his return to England in 1839, he published the results of his observations under the title of the "Cana- dian Naturalist" (Lon- don, 1840). In 1844 he visited Jamaica to study its zoology, and on re- turning after 18 months published "The Birds of Jamaica," which was followed by an " Atlas of Illustrations " and " A Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica." During the subsequent years he published an " Introduction to Zoology," and prepared many works for the society for the promotion of Christian knowledge. He then devoted himself especially to the mi- croscopic study of the British rotifera, and took a prominent part in the formation of pub- lic and private collections of marine animals. In 1856 he was elected a member of the royal society. His remaining works include : " The Aquarium" (1854); "Manual of Marine Zool- ogy" (1855); "Tenby, a Seaside Eomance" (1856) ; " Life in its Lower, Intermediate, and Higher Forms" (185T); "Omphalos, an At- tempt to Untie the Gordian Knot" (1857); " Evenings at the Microscope " (1 859) ; " Acti- nologia Britanniea, a History of the British Sea Anemones and Corals" (1860) ; " The Komance of Natural History " (1860-'62) ; " A Year at the Shore" (1865); and "Land and Sea" (1865). GOSSELIES, a market town of Belgium, in the province of Hainaut, on the Brussels and Charleroi railway, 23 m. S. by E. of Brussels ; pop. in 1866, 6,511. It has important manu- factories of woollens, hats, steel ware, and leather, and near it are large coal mines. The battle fought near this place June 26, 1794, be- tween the French and the Austrians, is known as the battle of Fleurus. GOTHA. I. Formerly an independent duchy (Saxe-Gotha), but now politically united with Coburg under the name of S axe- Coburg- Goth a ; pop. of Gotha in 1871, 122,630. (See SAXE- COBUKG-GOTHA.) II. The capital, and alter- GOTHENBUKG 123 nately with Coburg the residence of the duke; pop. in 1871, 20,591. It is the principal station of the Thuringian railway, by which the dis- tance to Halle is 83 m. and to Weimar 30 m. The palace of Friedenstein adjoins the town, and contains collections of fine arts and one of the richest collections of coins in Europe ; also a library with upward of 200,000 volumes The Ducal Palace, Gotha. and more than 6,000 manuscripts, among which are 14 folio volumes of St. Bernard's correspondence and about 3,000 Arabic and Persian manuscripts. Gotha has a famous gymnasium, many excellent educational and charitable institutions, and an observatory es- tablished in 1859 by Hansen. It is one of the most prosperous trading and manufacturing places of Thuringia. It is the seat of a celebra- ted fire and life insurance company, and of the geographical establishment of Justus Perthes, the publisher of the Almanack de Gotha. GOTHAM, a parish of Nottinghamshire, Eng- land, the Boeotian rusticity of whose inhabi- tants gained them the proverbial appellation of " the wise men of Gotham." The name Go- tham was satirically applied by Washington Irving to the city of New York. GOTHENBURG, or Gottenburg (Swed. Goteborg). I. A Isen or province of Sweden, in the S. W. part of the kingdom, bordering on the Catte- gat, the Skager Rack, and Norway ; area, 1,890 sq. m. ; pop. in 1873, 236,899. It forms a nar- row strip of land between the mountains which separate it on the east from the province of Elfsborg and the rugged coast, which is indent- ed by numerous bays and bordered by many small islands. The climate is severe ; the soil is sterile, and there are few manufactures ex- cept in the capital city. II. The capital _of the province, and the second commercial city of Sweden, at the head of a fiord on the Catte- gat at the mouth of the Gotha river, 240 m. W. S. W. of Stockholm ; pop. in 1873, 59,329.
