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GERRY 305 GESTATION GERRY, ELBRIDGE, an American statesman; born in Marblehead, Mass., July 17, 1744; was a member of the Con- tinental Congress in 1776-1780 and 1783- 1785 ; delegate to the Constitutional Con- vention in 1789; member of Congress from Massachusetts, in 1789-1793; com- missioner to France in 1797-1798; gov- ernor of Massachusetts in 1810-1812; and Vice-President of the United States in 1813-1814. It was during his term as governor that an unsatisfactory redis- tricting of the State took place, in which he was supposed to have taken part, whence arose the term "gerrymander," now generally applied to the process of so arranging electoral districts as to give a majority of Congressmen, or State Legislators, as the case may be, to the party having the minority in the total popular vote of the State. He died in Washington, D. C, Nov. 23, 1814. GERRY, PETER GOELET, a United States Senator, born in New York, 1879; graduated from Harvard, 1901; began a law practice, 1906, in Providence, R. I.; was a member of the Representative Council of Newport, R. I., 1912; delegate to the National Democratic Conventions of 1912 and 1916. He was elected to Congress from the 2d R. I. District for the term 1913-1915, and to the United States Senate for the term 1917-1923. GERS (zhar), a department in S. W. France, separated by Landes from the Bay of Biscay; area, 2,425 square miles; capital, Auch. There are parallel lines of hills in the S., separated by fan-shaped valleys which expand as they extend toward the plains in the N. The Gers and other principal rivers ai'e tributaries of the Garonne and Adour. One-half of the surface is devoted to agriculture, and nearly a sixth to vine- yards. Wine is produced in considerable quantity; a great part of it being con- verted into Armagnac brandy. Pop. about 222,000. GERVINUS, GEORG GOTTFRIED (ger-ve'nos), a German historian; born m Darmstadt, Hesse, May 20, 1805. He studied at Heidelberg; was for some time a teacher. He published his "His- tory of the Poetic National Literature of the Germans," 1835-1842. In 1835 he was appointed extraordinary professor at Heidelberg, and the following year ordinary Professor of History and Lit- erature at Gottingen; but in 1837, being one of the seven professors who pro- tested against King Ernst August's breach of the constitution, he was ban- ished from Hanover. After another visit to Italy he returned to Heidelberg, where in 1844 he was appointed an hon- orary professor. He now became an active liberal in politics, edited the "Deutsche Zeitung" and was returned to the federal diet by the Hanse tovns. In 1848, he gave up politics and resumed his old studies. In 1849 he published the first part of the great work on Shake- speare, in 1853 his "History of German Poetry," and in 1855 the first volume of his "History of the Nineteenth Cen- tury," Among his last writings was a critical essay on Handel and Shake- speare. He died in Heidelberg, Baden, March 18, 1871. GESTA ROMANORUM (jes'ta r5- ma-no'-rum). "Deeds of the Romans," title of a collection of short tales, legends, etc., in Latin, very popular in the Middle Ages. The book was probably written about the close of the 13th cen- tury by a certain monk Elinandus, an Englishman or a German. The separate tales making up the Gesta are of very various contents, and belong to different times and countries. Moral reflections and allegorical interpretations were added to them, it is said, by a Petrus Bercorius or Pierre Bercaire of Poitou, a Benedictine prior. After the Reforma- tion the book fell into oblivion. GESSLER, ALBRECHT, or HERMAN (ges'ler), called also Gessler von Bru- NECK (in Swiss legendry), was in 1300 appointed joint-governor along with Berenger von Landenberg, of the Wald- stadten or forest cantons (Schw^z, Un- terwalden, and Uri), by Albrecht I. of Austria. According to the traditions connected with William Tell (q. v.), his oppressive edicts and wanton cruelty so enraged the inhabitants that a con- spiracy was formed against him, and he was shot bv Tell in a narrow pass near Kiissnacht 'in 1307. GESTATION, in physiology, the act of carrying young in the uterus from the time of conception to that of parturi- tion. The average time of a woman's pregnancy is 9 solar months, or about 280 days, though it may be as few as 7 or as many as 10. The period of ges- tation is shorter in carnivorous than in herbivorous animals. The young of the former are also less developed at birth, their eyes not opening for several days thereafter. Herbivorous animals: The elephant has 20 or 21 months' gestation; the giraffe, 14 months; dromedary, 12 months; buffalo, 12 months; ass, 12 months; mare, upwards of 11 months; rhinoceros, 9 months; cow, 9 months; many of the larger deer, over 8 months; sheep and goat, 5 months; pig, 4 months. Rodents: Beaver, 4 months; dormouse, 31 days; rabbit. 30 to 31 days; squirrel and rat, 28 days; guinea-pig, 21 days oi