Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/140

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

132 GOURGUES GOURGrES, Dominique de, a French adventurer, born at Mmit-di-Marsan, Gascony, about 1530, died in Tours about 1693. He served in the war with Spain, was taken prisoner in Italy and put in chains in the galleys, was captured with the vessel by the Turks, and recaptured by the knights of Malta. He afterward made voyages to Africa, Brazil, and the East. In 1567 he sailed from Bordeaux, with three small vessels equipped with 100 arquebusiers and 80 sailors, to avenge the massacre of the French colonists in Florida by the Spaniards under Menendez. He landed at St. Mary's river, made an alliance with an Indian chief, who joined him with 300 savages, captured Fort San Mateo on the St. John's river, and two other forts, slaughtered most of the garrisons, and hung his prisoners on the same trees on which the French had suffered. Menendez had placed over his victims the inscription, " Not as to Frenchmen, but as to Lutherans;" and Gour- gues retaliated by putting over the Spaniards whom he executed, " Not as to Spaniards, but as to traitors, robbers, and murderers." On his return to France his surrender was de- manded by the Spanish ambassador, but he found asylum among his friends at Rouen, and lived in obscurity for many years. When Queen Elizabeth of England, hearing of his mis- fortunes, invited him to enter her service, the French king restored him to favor. Shortly before his death Dom Antonio of Portugal ap- pointed him commander of his fleet against Philip II. An account of his expedition to Flor- ida was published by Basanier, Voyage du capi- taine Qourgues dans la Floride (4to, 1586). Parkman's "Pioneers of France in the New World" (1865) has a full account of Gourgues. GorsSLT, Thomas Marie Joseph, a French pre- late, born at Montigny-les-Cherlieux, Haute- 8a6ne, May 1, 1792, died in Rheims, Dec. 24, 1866. He was the son of a peasant, and labor- ed in the field until his 17th year. In 1817 he was ordained priest, and after a brief interval was appointed professor of moral theology in the seminary of Besancon, where he remained for 17 years. In 1825 he published Exposition de la doctrine de Vfigliae sur le pret a interet, which showed that he was far in advance of the common opinion regarding usury. Other writings on the relations between the civil code and moral theology brought him to the notice of the government ; and in 1835 he was made bishop of Perigueux, and in 1836 arch- bishop of Rheims. In 1850 he was created a cardinal and senator of France. Through- out his citreor ho never forgot his humble origin, and delighted to have his aged father, chid in his homely peasant's garb, placed con- pkmonily in a seat of honor near himself in the services of his cathedral. His most re- markable works are Theologie dogmatique (2 vols. 8vo, 1844 ; 8th ed., 1856), and Theoloqie morale (2 vols. 8vo, 1848; 12th ed., 1862), which are to be found in almost every priest's library on both sides of the Atlantic. GOUT GOUT, a painful disease affecting principally the fibrous tissues about the smaller joints, and intimately connected with an excess of uric acid and its compounds in the blood. Various names have been given according to the part affected, as podagra when in the feet, chiragra when in the hands, &c. ; but all such, and probably many cases of neuralgia accompanied by oxalic deposits in the urine, are mere forms of one disease. A common attack of acute gout is generally preceded by uneasiness, indi- gestion, loss of appetite, nausea, and vomiting, biliary derangement, dull pains or numbness in the parts to be affected, often with feverish symptoms ; but in some cases, on the contra- ry, the disease comes on in the midst of appa- rent health and well-being, and occasionally at night during refreshing sleep. In most cases it makes itself known by an acute pain in the me- tatarso-phalangeal joint of the great toe; dif- ferent sufferers compare this to the sensations produced by the contact of a drop of cold water, or of cold or heated metal, or by twist- ing, dislocation, or laceration, as by a nail or wedge driven into the foot ; this is accompa- nied by feverish symptoms, urinary sediment, extreme tenderness, restlessness, involuntary muscular contractions, sleeplessness, and per- spiration ; the affected joint is swollen, red, and hot. This series of symptoms may last four or five days, to be followed after a day or two by three or four others, continuing in all from two to three weeks ; the severity of the attack, its persistence, its seat, and its metastases vary according to circumstances. This first warning past, the luxurious epicure may not receive another, even if he persist in his indulgences, for months, or perhaps years ; but the second comes, and the third, and so on, the intervals between the attacks becoming less ; though the pain be less severe, the joints are more discolored and swollen, with O3dema and chalky deposits in their neighborhood; and by a sudden retrocession toward the inter- nal vital organs, life may be seriously threat- ened. When gout becomes chronic the attacks are more irregular, less severe, more frequent and sudden, leaving one joint for another after slight exposure to cold and moisture, excess at table, or vivid emotions ; in this form, the con- tinuance of the pain and the fear of injuring the gouty joints render its subjects cross, fret- ful, and disagreeable, though persons thus af- fected are often able to devote themselves to serious study and important private and pub- lic business. The pathology of gout reduces itself chiefly to the abnormal presence of uric acid in the blood, and to the deposit of urate of soda in the fibrous tissue around the joints and sheaths of tendons. Gout is rare before the age of 20, and men of robust constitution and of a mixed sanguine and bil- ious temperament are far more liable to it than females ; it may be inherited, and seems independent of climate except so far as it in- fluences the diet of a people, the northern races