another, whilst two series of alternating rows cover the back and side. The body, otherwise circular in section, is slightly flattened ventrally. The mouth is anterior and slightly ventral; it leads into a protrusible pharynx armed with recurved teeth that can be everted. This leads to a muscular oesophagus with a triradiate lumen, which acts as a sucking pump and ends in a funnel-valve projecting into the stomach. The last named is oval and formed of four rows of large cells; it is separated by a sphincter from the rectum, which opens posteriorly and dorsally. The nitrogenous excretory apparatus consists of a coiled tube on each side of the stomach; internally the tubes end in large flame-cells, and externally by small pores which lie on the edges of the ventral row of scales. A cerebral ganglion rests on the oesophagus and supplies the cephalic cilia and hairs; it is continued some way back as two dorsal nerve trunks. The sense organs are the hairs and bristles and in some species eyes. The muscles are simple and unstriated and for the most part run longitudinally.
| |
| From Zeitschrift für Wissenschaft. Zoologie, vol. xlix. p. 209, by permission of Wilhelm Engelmann. | |
| Chaetonotus maximus, Ehrb., ventral side. (After Zelinka.) | |
| Bo, | Bristles surrounding the mouth. |
| ds, | Dorsal bristles. |
| hCi, | Posterior lateral cilia. |
| Ke, | Cuticular dome. |
| Mr, | Oral cavity. |
| lT, | Lateral sensory hairs. |
| Pl, | Cuticular plates. |
| Sa, | Dorsal bristle of the basal part. |
| Sch, | Plates. |
| Se, | Lateral bristles. |
| Vb, | Point of union of ciliated tract. |
| vCi, | Anterior group of cilia. |
| vS, | Ventral bristles of the basal part. |
The two ovaries lie at the level of the juncture of the stomach and rectum. The eggs become very large, sometimes half the length of the mother; they are laid amongst water weeds. The male reproductive system is but little known, a small gland lying between the ovaries has been thought to be a testis, and if it be, the Gastrotricha are hermaphrodite.
Zelinka classifies the group as follows:—
Sub-order 1.—Euichthydina with a forked tail.
(i.) Fam. Ichthydidae, without bristles. Genera: Ichthydium, Lepidoderma.
(ii.) Fam. Chaetonotidae, with bristles. Genera: Chaetonotus, Chaetura.
Sub-order 2.—Apodina, tail not forked. Genera: Dasydytes, Gossea, Stylochaeta.
The genus Aspidiophorus recently described by Voigt seems in some respects intermediate between Lepidoderma and Chaetonotus. Zelinkia and Philosyrtis are two slightly aberrant forms described by Giard from certain diatomaceous sands. Altogether there must be some forty to fifty described species.
The group is an isolated one and shows no clear affinities with any of the great phyla. Those that are usually dwelt on are treated with the Rotifers and Nematoda and Turbellaria.
Literature.—A. C. Stokes, The Microscope (Detroit, 1887–1888); C. Zelinka, Zeitschr. wiss. Zool. xlix., 1890, p. 209; M. Voigt, Forschber. Plön. Th. ix., 1904, p. 1; A. Giard, C. R. Soc. Biol. lvi. pp. 1061 and 1063; E. Daday, Termes. Fuzetek. xxiv. p. 1; F. Zschokke, Denk. Schweiz. Ges. xxxvii. p. 109; S. Hlava, Zool. Anz. xxviii., 1905, p. 331. (A. E. S.)
GATAKER, THOMAS (1574–1654), English divine, was born in London in September 1574, and educated at St John’s College, Cambridge. From 1601 to 1611 he held the appointment of preacher to the society of Lincoln’s Inn, which he resigned on accepting the rectory of Rotherhithe. In 1642 he was chosen a member of the assembly of divines at Westminster, and annotated for that assembly the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Lamentations. He disapproved of the introduction of the Covenant, and declared himself in favour of episcopacy. He was one of the forty-seven London clergymen who disapproved of the trial of Charles I. He was married four times, and died in July 1654.
His principal works, besides some volumes of sermons are—On the Nature and Use of Lots (1619), a curious treatise which led to his being accused of favouring games of chance; Dissertatio de stylo Novi Testamenti (1648); Cinnus, sive Adversaria miscellanea, in quibus Sacrae Scripturae primo, deinde aliorum scriptorum, locis aliquam multis lux redditur (1651), to which was afterwards subjoined Adversaria Posthuma; and his edition of Marcus Antoninus (1652), which, according to Hallam, is the “earliest edition of any classical writer published in England with original annotations,” and, for the period at which it was written, possesses remarkable merit. His collected works were published at Utrecht in 1698.
GATCHINA, a town of Russia, in the government of St Petersburg, 29 m. by rail S. of the city of St Petersburg, in 59° 34′ N. and 30° 6′ E. Pop. (1860) 9184; (1897) 14,735. It is situated in a flat, well-wooded, and partly marshy district, and on the south side of the town are two lakes. Among its more important buildings are the imperial palace, which was founded in 1770 by Prince Orlov, and constructed according to the plans of the Italian architect Rinaldi; a military orphanage, founded in 1803; and a school for horticulture. Among the few industrial establishments is a porcelain factory. At Gatchina an alliance was concluded between Russia and Sweden on the 29th of October 1799.
GATE, an opening into any enclosure for entrance or exit, capable of being closed by a barrier at will. The word is of wide application, embracing not only the defensive entrance ways into a fortified place, with which this article mainly deals, or the imposing architectural features which form the main entrances to palaces, colleges, monastic buildings, &c., but also the common five-barred barrier which closes an opening into a field. The most general distinction that can be made between “door” and “gate” is that of size, the greater entrance into a court containing other buildings being the “gate,” the smaller entrances opening directly into the particular buildings the “doors,” or that of construction, the whole entrance way being a “gate” or gateway, the barrier which closes it a “door.” A further distinction is drawn by applying “door” to the solid barriers or “valves” of wood, metal, &c., made in panels and fitted to a framework, and “gate” to an openwork structure, whether of metal or wood (see further Door and Metal-work). The ultimate origin of the word is obscure; the early forms appear with a palatalized initial letter, still surviving in such dialectical forms as “yate,” or in Scots “yett.” It is probably connected with the root of “get,” in the sense either of “means of access” or of “holding,” “receptacle”; cf. Dutch gat, hole. There may be a connexion, however, with “gate,” now usually spelled “gait,” a manner of walking,[1] but originally a way, passage; cf. Ger. Gasse, narrow street, lane.
The entrance through the enclosing walls of a city or fortification has been from the earliest times a place of the utmost importance, considered architecturally, socially or from the point of view of the military engineer. In the East the “gate” was and still is in many Mahommedan countries the central place of civic life. Here was the seat of justice and of audience, the most important market-place, the spot where men gathered to receive and exchange news. The references in the Bible to the gates of the city in all these varied aspects are innumerable (cf. Gen. xix. 1; Deut. xxv. 7; Ruth iv. 1; 2 Sam. xix. 8; 2 Kings vii. 1). Later the seat of justice and of government is transferred to the gate of the palace of the king (cf. Dan. ii. 49, and Esther ii. 19), and this use is preserved to-day in the official title of the seat of government of the Turkish empire at Constantinople, the “Sublime Porte,” a translation of the Turkish Bab Aliy (bab, gate, and aliy, high). A full account with many modern instances of Eastern customs will be found in Sir Charles Warren’s article “Gate” in
- ↑ The spelling “gait” is confined to this meaning—the only literary one surviving. In the form “gate” it appears dialectally in this sense and in such particular meanings as a right to run cattle on common or private ground or as a passage way in mines. The principal survival is in names of streets in the north and midlands of England and in Scotland, e.g. Briggate at Leeds, Wheeler Gate and Castle Gate at Nottingham, Gallow Tree Gate at Leicester, and Canongate and Cowgate at Edinburgh.
