GELLIVARA [Gellivare], a mining town of Sweden in the district (län) of Norrbotten, 815 m. N. by E. of Stockholm by rail. It lies in the well-nigh uninhabited region of Swedish Lapland, 43 m. N. of the Arctic Circle. It owes its importance to the iron mines in the mountain Malmberget 412 m. to the north, rising to 2024 ft. above sea-level (830 ft. above Gellivara town). During the dark winter months work proceeds by the aid of electric light. In 1864 the mines were acquired by an English company, but abandoned in 1867. In 1884 another English company took them up and completed a provisional railway from Malmberget to Luleå at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia (127 m. S.S.E.), besides executing a considerable portion of the preliminary works for the continuation of the line on the Norwegian side from Ofoten Fjord upwards (see Narvik). But this company, after extracting some 150,000 tons of ore in 1888–1889, went into liquidation in the latter year. Two years later the mines passed into the hands of a Swedish company, and the railway was acquired by the Swedish Government. The output of ore was insignificant until 1892, when it stood at 178,000 tons; but in 1902 it amounted to 1,074,000 tons. Three miles S.W. rises the hill Gellivara Dundret (2700 ft.), from which the sun is visible at midnight from June 5 to July 11. The population of the parish (about 6500 sq. m.) in 1900 was 11,745; the greater part of the population being congregated at the town of Gellivara and at Malmberget.
GELNHAUSEN, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province
of Hesse-Nassau, on the Kinzig, 27 m. E.N.E. of Frankfort-on-Main,
on the railway to Bebra. Pop. 4500. It is romantically
situated on the slope of a vine-clad hill, and is still surrounded
by ancient walls and towers. On an island in the river are the
ivy-covered ruins of the imperial palace which Frederick I.
(Barbarossa) built before 1170, and which was destroyed by the
Swedes during the Thirty Years’ War. It has an interesting
and beautiful church (the Marien Kirche), with four spires (of
which that on the transept is curiously crooked), built in the
13th century, and restored in 1876–1879; also several other
ancient buildings, notably the town-hall, the Fürstenhof (now
administrative offices), and the Hexenthurm. India-rubber
goods are manufactured, and wine is made. Gelnhausen became
an imperial town in 1169, and diets of the Empire were frequently
held within its walls. In 1634 and 1635 it suffered severely from
the Swedes. In 1803 the town became the property of Hesse-Cassel,
and in 1866 passed to Prussia.
GELO, son of Deinomenes, tyrant of Gela and Syracuse. On
the death of Hippocrates, tyrant of Gela (491 B.C.), Gelo, who
had been his commander of cavalry, succeeded him; and in 485,
his aid having been invoked by the Gamori (the oligarchical
landed proprietors) of Syracuse who had been driven out by
the populace, he seized the opportunity of making himself despot.
From this time Gelo paid little attention to Gela, and devoted
himself to the aggrandizement of Syracuse, which attained
extraordinary wealth and influence. When the Greeks solicited
his aid against Xerxes, he refused it, since they would not give
him command of the allied forces (Herodotus vii. 171). In the
same year the Carthaginians invaded Sicily, but were totally
defeated at Himera, the result of the victory being that Gelo
became lord of all Sicily. After he had thus established his
power, he made a show of resigning it; but his proposal was
rejected by the multitude, and he reigned without opposition
till his death (478). He was honoured as a hero, and his memory
was held in such respect that when all the brazen statues of
tyrants were condemned to be sold in the time of Timoleon
(150 years later) an exemption was made in favour of the statue
of Gelo.
Herodotus vii.; Diod. Sic. xi. 20-38; see also Sicily: History, and Syracuse; for his coins see Numismatics: Sicily.
GELSEMIUM, a drug consisting of the root of Gelsemium
nitidum, a clinging shrub of the natural order Loganiaceae, having
a milky juice, opposite, lanceolate shining leaves, and axillary
clusters of from one to five large, funnel-shaped, very fragrant
yellow flowers, whose perfume has been compared with that of
the wallflower. The fruit is composed of two separable jointed
pods, containing numerous flat-winged seeds. The stem often
runs underground for a considerable distance, and indiscriminately
with the root it is used in medicine. The plant is a native of
the United States, growing on rich clay soil by the side of streams
near the coast, from Virginia to the south of Florida. In the
United States it is commonly known as the wild, yellow or
Carolina jessamine, although in no way related to the true
jessamines, which belong to the order Oleaceae. It was first
described in 1640 by John Parkinson, who grew it in his garden
from seed sent by Tradescant from Virginia; at the present time
it is but rarely seen, even in botanical gardens, in Great Britain.
The drug contains a volatile oil and two potent alkaloids, gelseminine and gelsemine. Gelseminine is a yellowish, bitter substance, readily soluble in ether and alcohol. It is not employed therapeutically. Gelsemine has the formula C11H19NO2, and is a colourless, odourless, intensely bitter solid, which is insoluble in water, but readily forms a soluble hydrochloride. The dose of this salt is from 160th to 120th of a grain. The British Pharmacopoeia contains a tincture of gelsemium, the dose of which is from five to fifteen minims.
 |
| Gelsemium nitidum, half natural size; flower, nat. size. |
The drug is essentially a nerve poison. It has no action on the skin and no marked action on the alimentary or circulatory systems. Its action on the cerebrum is slight, consciousness being retained even after toxic doses, but there may be headache and giddiness. The drug rapidly causes failure of vision, diplopia, ptosis or falling of the upper eyelid, dilatation of the pupil, and a lowering of the intra-ocular tension. This last action is doubtful. The symptoms appear to be due to a paralysis of the motor cells that control the internal and external ocular muscles. The most marked action of the drug is upon the anterior cornua of grey matter in the spinal cord. It can be shown by a process of experimental exclusion that to an arrest of function of these cells is due the paralysis of all the voluntary muscles of the body that follows the administration of gelsemium or gelsemine. Just before death the sensory part of the spinal cord is also paralysed, general anaesthesia resulting. The drug kills by its action on the respiratory centre in the medulla oblongata. Shortly after the administration of even a moderate dose the respiration is slowed and is ultimately arrested, this being the cause of death. In cases of poisoning the essential treatment is artificial respiration, which may be aided by the subcutaneous exhibition of strychnine.
Though the drug is still widely used, the rational indications for its employment are singularly rare and uncertain. The conditions in which it is most frequently employed are convulsions, bronchitis, severe and purposeless coughing, myalgia or muscular pain, neuralgia and various vague forms of pain.
