GUILLOTINE GUINEA 311 aescr This parts lern invention. Similar contrivances were use in several parts of Europe during the th and 17th centuries, if not before. Ac- cording to Crusius, in his Annales Suevici (1595), such an instrument of decapitation ex- isted in early times in Germany, but was su- perseded by the sword ; it was styled Fallbeil, falling hatchet. A representation of it may be seen in two old engravings, the one by Georg Penez, who died in 1550, the other by Heinrich Aldegrever, bearing the date of 1553 ; and also in an old picture which, according to Reiffem- berg, is still preserved in the city hall of Augs- burg. Jean d'Autun, the historiographer of Louis XII. of France, narrating an execution which he witnessed at Genoa, May 13, 1507, describes a machine exactly like the guillotine, is the mannaia, which was used in all of Italy for the execution of men of rank, and is fully described by Pere Labat in his Voyage en Espagne et en Italie en 1730. The same had been introduced into southern France, and Puysegur in his Memoires makes an allu- sion to it on occasion of the execution of Mont- morency in 1632. A similar contrivance ex- isted in the Netherlands. The "maiden" of Scotland, which was used in the decapitation of the regent Morton in 1581, and is still pre- served in the museum of the antiquarian society at Edinburgh, was an instrument akin to those above mentioned, and either it or at least the pattern of it had been brought from abroad by the very man who suffered by it. The decapi- tating machine, therefore, was far from being a novelty when Dr. Guillotin suggested its ap- plication in 1789. The scheme being submit- ted to the carpenter employed by the govern- ment, he demanded 5,000 francs for making the instrument ; but a German named Schmidt iered to build it for a much smaller sum ; " finally a bargain was struck at 824 francs, shinidt contracting to furnish 83 machines of same kind, one for each department. The hine was first tried, April 18, 1792, upon corpses at the Bic^tre hospital, and ed so satisfactorily that seven days later it as used publicly for the decapitation of Pel- tier, a highwayman under sentence. Som- ering, in the Moniteur of Nov. 9, 1795, de- nounced it as too rapid in its operation, and maintained that sensation does not cease im- mediately after the head of the sufferer has been severed from the body. The controversy was kept up by Sue, Oelsner, Oabanis, and others. In the same year appeared S6dillot's Reflexions historiques et pMlosophiques sur le mpplice de la guillotine, and in 1796 the Anec- dotes sur les decapites. The question has been renewed at different times and in various forms, particularly in an article in the London " Quar- terly Review" for December, 1846, republish- ed separately in 1850 ; Louis Dubois's Re- cherches historiques et physiologiques sur la guillotine (Paris, 1843); and Ludovic La- lanne's Curiosites des traditions, des mceurs et des legendes (1847). GUILMETH, Alexandra Augnste, a French archae- ologist, bora at Brionne, Eure, Dec. 2, 1807. He was educated at the college of Bernay, and has been successively master of studies in the college of Rouen, inspector general in that of Amiens, and censor and superintendent in the colleges of Dieppe and Juilly. He early de- voted himself to the study of the archaeology of Normandy, and has published many histori- cal works on its celebrated localities and cities, including Brionne, Pont-Audemer, Evreux, Dieppe, Havre, Yvetot, and Elbeuf, all of which have been collected under the title La description historique de la Normandie (12 vols. 8vo, 1836-'50), with plans and engra- vings. A Notice Mographique et litteraire sur A. A. Guilmeth was published in 1860. GUIMARAENS (Port. Guimaraes), a town of Portugal, in the province of Minho, between the Ave and Vizella, 32 m. N. E. of Oporto ; pop. about 8,000. The town stands on a gen^ tie slope, nearly surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills, is generally well built, and has several good streets and public squares. It is fortified, and contains an ancient castle, with square towers at the angles and in the middle of each side. The keep, which is in the centre, is entered at mid-height by a wooden bridge. Among the public buildings are a fine collegi- ate church called the cathedral, a Dominican convent of the 14th century, and a hospital. There are manufactories of cutlery, iron ware, paper, leather, cotton, and linen ; and large quantities of plums and figs are exported. Near by are hot sulphur springs, which have been frequented for centuries. Guimaraens is said to have been founded by Celts about 500 B. 0. Henry of Burgundy made it the capital of Portugal in the beginning of the 12th cen- tury. Here began the reign of King Wamba, which is the proverbial expression for chro- nological indefiniteness. GUI IVAN I), a Swiss optician, born in the can- ton of Neufchatel about 1745, died in 1825. He was the son of a house carpenter, and con- structed a telescope in imitation of one of great value in the possession of his employer, so like the model that it was difficult to decide which of the two was better. At 40 years of age he commenced the manufacture of lenses for tele- scopes. Some of these coming under the ob- servation of Fraunhofer, the well known in- strument maker of Bavaria, he engaged the services of Guinand for a number of years, solely for his skill in this manufacture. In the latter part of his life Guinand was occupied in constructing telescopes of great size and power, every part of which was the work of his own hands. (See GLASS, and LENS.) GUINEA, an English gold coin, first struck in the reign of Charles II., of gold which had been brought from the coast of Guinea, whence its name. Its value is 21 shillings, or about $5 12. Guineas have not been coined since 1817, when they were superseded by the sovereign, and have now become rare.
