Mahometans, 203 Christians, and 316 “others.” Amongst the higher castes there is an unusually large proportion of Brahmans, a circumstance due to the number of sacred places which the district contains. The Gayawals, or priests in charge of the holy places, are held in high esteem by the pilgrims ; but they are not pure Brahmans, and are looked down upon by those who are. They live an idle and dis- solute life, but are very wealthy, from contributions extorted from the pilgrims. The ruiiied city of Buddh Gaya, about 6 miles south of Gaya town, marks the residence of Sakya Sinha, the founder of the Buddhist religion, who flourished in the 6th century b.c., and an ancient tree is pointed out as the identical fig tree under which the sage sat in abstraction for five years, until be attained to the state of Buddha. Another place of religious interest is a temple of great antiquity, which crowns the highest peak of the Baraber hills, and at which a religious fair is held each September, attended by from 10,000 to 20,000 pilgrims. At the foot of the hill are numerous rock caves excavated about 200 b.c.
Seven towns in Gaya district contain upwards of 5000 inhabitants, viz., Gaya, 66,843; Jaliauabad, 21,022, .Dz'iudnagar, 10,058 ; Tikéri', 8178; Slierghati, 7033 ; HaSi'ia, 6119; and Rajauli, 5012. About four-fifths of the surface is cultivated. Rice forms the great agricultural staple, the area under cultivation being estimated at about 900,000 acres, yielding an outturn of over 400,000 tons. W'heat occupies about 170,000 acres, producing a crop of 60,000 tons, of which one-half is exported. Oil seeds are grown on about 35,000 acres, and opium on between 60,000 and 70,000 acres. Cotton, sugar-cane, chilies, and vegetables are also grown. Droughts are common, and in the famine of 1866 Gayé. sufl‘ered severely. The scarcity of 1873—74 did not affect the district to any great extent. Manufactures consist of common brass utensils, black stone orna- ments, pottery, tasar silk cloth. Formerly cloth-weaving and paper-making were important manufactures in the district, but these industries have now almost entirely died out. The chief exports are feed grains, oil seeds, indigo, crude opium (sent to Patna for manu- facture), saltpctre, sugar, blankets, brass utensils, &c. The imports are salt, piece goods, cotton, timber, bamboos, tobacco, lac, iron, spices, and fruits. The principal trade route is along the Patna. branch road. The total net revenue of the district in 1876—77 was £188,426, of which £136,692 was derived from the land; the net civil expenditure, £23,878. The district and municipal police of all ranks numbered 923, besides a rural force of 6790 men paid by the landholders and villagers. The number of schools in 1873—74 was 446, attended by 8139 pupils. The climate of Gaya is dry and healtliy,——the average annual temperature being about 80° F., and average annual rainfall 35 '59 inches.
Gayá, the chief town and administrative headquarters of the above district, situated on the bank of the Phalgi’i river, lat. 24° 47’ 15” N., long. 85° 3' 10" E. The population in 1872 numbered 66,843 z—Hindus, 52,265; Mahometans, 14,444; Christians, 134. The municipal income in 1871 was £2716, and the expenditure £2351. The town con- sists of_two distinct parts, adjoining each other; the part containing the residences, of the priests is Gaya proper; and. the other, which is the business quarter, is called Bahibgmii]. The civil offices and residences of the European inhabitants are situated here. Gaya derives its sanctity from incidents in the life of Buddha connected with the adjoining district. But a local legend also exists concerning a pagan monster of great sanctity, named Gaya, who wickedly tried to save sinners from deserved perdition. Brahma in order to get rid of Gaya induced him to lie down in order that a feast might be held on his body ; and once down, he placed a large stone on him to keep him there. The tricked demon struggled violently, and, in order to pacify him, Brahma promised that the gods should take up their permanent residence in him, and that any one who made a pilgrimage to the spot were he lay should be delivered from. the terrors of the Hindu place of torment. This may possibly be a Brahmanic rendering of Buddha’s life and work. “There are forty-five sacred spots in and around town, which are Visited by from 100,000 to 200,000 pilgrims annually.
GAY-LUSSAC, Joseph Louis (1778–1850), one of the most distinguished of modern physicists and chemists, was born at St Léonard, in the department of Haute Vienne, on the 6th of December 1778. His father, Antoine Gay, who was procureur du roi and judge at Pont-de-Noblac, had added to the common family name the distinctive title Lussac, from a small property he had in the neighbourhood of St Leonard. The family consisted of two sons, of whom Joseph Louis was the elder, and three daughters. Intended for the bar, young Gay-Lussac prosecuted his early studies in Latin. and other elementary subjects at home, under the superintendeiice of the Abbé Bourdeix and other masters, until 1794, when he was sent to Paris, where he worked very hard for three years preparing for admission to the Ecole Polytechnique. After a brilliant examination he was received into this institution on December 27, 1797, whence on the 22d of November 1800 he was transferred to the school Des Ponts et Chaussées. Shortly afterwards he was assigned to Berthollet, who had returned from Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition, and who was desirous of having an able student from the Ecole Polytechnique to aid him in his researches. The results expected by the author of the Statz'que C'kimz'que were not verified by his assistant’s experiments, which seem to have been recorded without any consideration of the theorizer’s feelings. It was on this occasion, according to Arago, that Berthollet, at first nettled to find that his ideas were not confirmed, delivered himself as follows: “Young man, it is your destiny to make dis- coveries. You shall be henceforth my companion. I wish—it is a title of which I am sure I shall have cause some day to be proud—I wish to be your father in science.”
constant recurrence in experimental inquiries, had up to this time been very imperfectly examined. In his first memoir (Ann. (1e (Mimic, t. xliii., 1802) he shows that different gases are dilated in the same proportion when heated from 0° to 80° (Réaumur). He does not seem to have been aware of Dalton’s experiments on this subject, which were indeed very far from being accurate; but he states in a footnote that “ le cit. Charles[1] avait remarqué depuis 15 ans la meme propriété clans ces gaz ; mais, n’ayant jamais publié ses résultats, c’est par le plus grand hasard que je les ai connus.” In return for his having thus rescued from oblivion the remark which his fellow- citizen, probably wisely, did not think worth recording, some recent authors have changed the title of the law from that of Gay-Lussac to that of Charles. The investigations re- corded in this memoir were followed by experiments on the improvementsof thermometers and barometers, on the tension of vapours, their mixture with gases, and the determination of their density, evaporation, hygrometry, and capillarity. In course of these researches, which engaged him for a couple of years, he acquired not only dexterity in manipulation and the contrivance of experiments, but a great deal of valuable knowledge of physics. During the interval, in the year 1802, he had been nominated F ourcroy’s demonstrator at the Ecole Polytechnique, and as he had in this capacity to .lecture frequently for the professor, lie was beginning to acquire reputation as a teacher and expounder of chemistry and physics, by the clearness, precision, and care which his lectures evinced. In 1803–4 certain results respecting terrestrial magnetism had been obtained during two balloon ascents, which appeared of so much interest that the French Academy was desirous of having them repeated. Through Berthollet and Chaptal the balloon which had been used in Egypt was obtained, and fitted up with various instruments;
the observations were entrusted to Gay-Lussac and Biot,
- ↑ The inventor of the “ Charliére,” or hydrogen balloon.
