The above quotations positively prove, that the Romans deviated from their predecessors in the practice of this barbarous custom. The Greeks appear to have destroyed their prisoners on a revengeful principle, and dispatched them immediately; but the former refined upon cruelty, and would rather purchase captives, or destroy the lives of ill-disposed slaves, than send the ashes of their friends to the urn bloodless, or the spectators of the obsequies home, without the gratification of witnessing wretches cutting each other to death, though not under the influence of previous anger.

According to Valerius Maximus, and Lampridius in Heliogabalus, gladiators were first introduced at Rome by M. and D. Brutus, at the funeral of their father, in the consulship of Ap. Claudius and M. Fulvius.

The examples of great men, however detestable, ever produce imitators. Hence, though the brothers may have acted from motives of family vanity only, other great personages, perceiving that the people delighted in the sight of blood, determined to gratify them by adopting the custom; which was afterwards extended to public exhibitions given by the priests in the Ludi Sacerdotales, and the magistrates, solely for the amusement of the populace, or perhaps to confirm them in an habitual contempt for wounds and military death.

Thus the family alluded to, introducing perhaps three pair of gladiators to the citizens of Rome, was the means of multiply ing their number to an amount which is shocking to humanity; for the subsequent emperors appear to have attempted to excel each other in assembling them at their birth-day celebrations, at triumphs, the consecration of edifices, at their periodical games, and at the rejoicings after great victories.

As the dispositions of several of the chief magistrates who are recorded as having exhibited gladiators were mild and merciful, it is but fair to suppose, that Julius Cæsar, who produced three hundred and twenty pairs in his edileship, Titus, Trajan, and others, submitted to the custom in compliance with the temper of the people, rather than from any predilection to it in themselves. But there are few pernicious practices which do not carry their punishment with them. The prevailing frenzy had at length arrived to such an excess, that the gladiators became sufficiently numerous to threaten the safety of the state; as when

the Catiline conspiracy raged, an order was issued to disperse the gladiators in different garrisons, that they might not join the disaffected party: yet although the fears of the government were excited, it doth not appear that any steps were taken to lessen their number, as the Emperor Otho had it in his power long after the above event to enlist two thousand of them to serve against Vitellius.

The people thus cut off from society, and rendered murderers per force, were fully justified in considering the whole Roman state their enemy; nor was it surprising that they were sometimes willing to revenge themselves upon their oppressors. Spartacus, a gladiator, gave a bold but unavailing example to his brethren, by rushing out of an amphitheatre at Verona, at the head of those collected there for public exhibition, declaring war against the Romans, and assembling so great a force as to make the citizens of Rome tremble. Similar apprehensions were entertained at intervals by enlightened people, and Cicero observed, "The shows of gladiators may possibly to some persons seem barbarous and inhuman: and, indeed, as the case now stands, I cannot say that the censure is unjust. But in those times, when only guilty persons composed the number of combatants, the ear perhaps might receive many better instructions; but it is impossible that any thing which affects our eyes should fortify us with more success against the assaults of grief and death." Still he had the good sense to propose a law prohibiting all candidates for offices from exhibiting gladiators within two years before they became such. Julius Ca sar limited their number in Rome. Augus tus ordained that not more than sixty pairs of combatants should fight at one exhibition, and that there should be only two of the latter in a year. During the reign of Tiberius it was decreed, that gladiators were not to be brought before the public by persons worth less than 400,000 ses▾ terces. Constantine the Great had the humanity and courage to abolish the custom, after it had prevailed near six hundred years; but it revived under Constantius Theodosius and Valentinian, and was finally sup pressed by the Emperor Honorius.

The guilty persons alluded to by Cicero must apply to those slaves whose masters sold them, for disobedience or mal-practices, to the Lanista, who instructing them in the arts of attack and defence, hired them to any rich man disposed to exhibit them,

Had they been entirely confined to this class of people, we might have been less inclined to censure the custom; but when we reflect that honest and courageous soldiers were condemned to undergo the lash of their captors, and afterwards perish by the swords of slaves, or each other, we cannot fail of being astonished that the highspirited Roman should expose himself to their vengeance, by voluntarily entering the arena with them, there to meet almost certain death. Strange, however, as it appears, freemen fought for hire under the term of auctorati; and even knights, nobles, and senators, who had wasted their property by extravagance, have deigned to become gladiators. Augustus, offended at their conduct, forbid the senatorian order and knights to enter the lists as such; but preceding princes, less influenced by a sense of honour, permitted them to act as they pleased. The contagion, at length, extended to the females of Rome; and, lastly, dwarfs were taught the use of the sword, and fighting with the women, or each other, furnished a new description of diversion. Kennet classes the various sorts of gladiators under the terms of the Retiarii, the Secutores, the Myrmyllones, the Thracians, the Samnites, the Essedarii, and the Andabata; the Gladiatores Meridiani fought in the afternoon; the Gladiatores Fiscales were paid from the Emperor's private treasury; the Gladiatores Postulatitii were men of consummate art in their profession; the Gladiatores Catervarii fought in small companies; and the Gladiatores Ordinarii were not particularly distinguished, but fought in a common way.

The dress of the Retiarius was a short habit, and a hat tied under the chin. His means of offence were a weapon called a fuscina, and a net. With the latter in his right hand, he endeavoured to entangle his adversary, and with the fuscina in the left he aimed mortal blows at him; but as this description of gladiator was invariably opposed to a Secutor, armed with a scymeter, a buckler, and a helmet, the Retiarius had no means of escape, if he failed in casting his net, except by flight round the arena, during which he adjusted it for a

new trial.

The best gladiators were Thracians. Those men, with their faulchion and small round shields, possessed more national ferocity and cruelty than any of their opponents. Kennet says, "The original of the Samnite gladiators is given by Livy. The

Campanians (says he) bearing a great hatred to the Samnites, they armed a part of their gladiators after the fashion of that country, and called them Samnites. They wore a shield broad at the top, to defend the breast and shoulders, and growing more narrow towards the bottom, that it might be moved with the greater convenience. They had a sort of belt coming over their breasts, a greave on their left foot, and a crested helmet on their heads." The Epedarii sometimes engaged from chariots, and at others on foot; and the Andabatæ mounted on horses fought with a helmet which covered their faces and eyes.

The exhibition of gladiators was announced to the public by bills affixed in the public places, sometimes accompanied by paintings of the intended combat, or the most celebrated combatants; and when the time mentioned had arrived, and the people assembled, the gladiators marched slowly round the arena; they were then matched, by persons appointed for that purpose, as equally as possible, and they proceeded to prepare for the contest by fencing with blunted swords, &c.; after which the trumpets were sounded, and the battles began in serious earnest. When a severe wound was given, the gladiator who inflicted it, and the people exclaimed, He has it.' If that proved decisive, the vanquished person resigned his weapon, and acknowledged himself conquered. But this submission was not alone sufficient to save his life: the people were to decide his fate. He therefore turned to them, and supplicated for mercy, which was granted, or refused, according to their opinion of his skill and courage. Several learned authors have differed as to the exact manner in which the hands and fingers were placed to express praise or disapprobation on those occasions. According to Juvenal, the bending of the thumbs back authorised the conqueror to kill his adversary as a coward. The Emperor might, however, interfere, if he was present, and save the gladiator; it is supposed, besides, that his entrance at the instant of defeat was favourable to the vanquished party, as far as his life was concerned.

The rewards of the victors consisted of money collected from the spectators; and when they happened to be slaves, they received the pileus, or cap, denoting that from that moment they became free; or the rudis, or wand, which signified their services as gladiators were thenceforth dis

pensed with, whether slaves or freemen. It was customary for the persons thus situated either to become Lanistæ, or to suspend their arms in the Temple of Hercules.

There are few nations which have not imitated this strange custom, in a greater or less degree, at different periods of their history; and less than a century past we had gladiators in London, who fought and bled, but never killed each other. Malcolm's Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of this great Metropolis, contains numerous particulars relating to those modern swordsmen, whose exertions were rivalled by several females in the art of boxing and catting. One of their challenges, from the publication alluded to, will be a proper conclusion to this article. "In Islington Road, on Monday, being the 17th of July, 1727, will be performed a trial of skill by the following combatants: We, Robert Barker and Mary Welsh, from Ireland, having often contaminated our swords in the abdomnious corporations of such antagonists as have had the insolence to dispute our skill, do find ourselves once more necessitated to challenge, defy, and invite Mr. Stokes, and his bold Amazonian virago, to meet us on the stage; where we hope to give a satisfaction to the honourable lord of our nation, who has laid a wager of twenty guineas on our heads. They that give the most cuts to have the whole money, and the benefit of the house. And if swords, daggers, quarter-staff, fury, rage, and resolution will prevail, our friends shall not meet with a disappointment."-"We, James and Elizabeth Stokes, of the city of London, having already gained an universal approbation by our agility of body, dextrous hands, and courageous hearts, need not preambulate on this occasion, but rather choose to exercise the sword to their sorrow, and corroborate the general opinion of the town, than to follow the custom of our repartee antagonists. This will be the last time of Mrs. Stokes performing on the stage. There will be a door on purpose for the reception of the gentlemen, where coaches may drive up to it, and the company come in without being crowded. Attendance will be given at three, and the combatants mount at six. They all fight in the same dresses as before."

GLADIOLUS, in botany, English cornflag, a genus of the Triandria Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Ensatæ.

Irides, Jussieu. Essential character: corolla six-parted, irregular, unequal; stigmas three. There are thirty species: these are herbaceous, perennial plants, with a tuberous-coated root; a simple stalk; the flowers specious, in spikes, with a spathe to each flower.

GLAMA, a species of Peruvian camel, with the back even, and the breast gibbose. See CAMELUS.

GLANCE, in mineralogy, one of the ores of cobalt, found in beds of mica, in Sweden: its colour is tin-white; it is massive in various forms, and crystallized in cubes and octahedrons; the surface of the crystals is smooth and splendent; it is brittle, and the specific gravity is 6.45.

GLAND, in anatomy, a small body, formed by the interweaving of vessels of every kind, covered with a membrane, usually provided with an excretory duct, and destined to separate some particular fluid from the mass of blood, or to perfect the lymph. See ANATOMY and PHYSIO

LOGY.

The glands have been chemically examined by Fourcroy and others. There are two sets of them: the conglobate, which are small, scattered in the course of the lymphatics; and the conglomerate, such as the liver, kidneys, &c. Fourcroy supposes the first to be composed of gelatine; the composition of the others has not been ascertained.

GLANDERS. See FARRIERY.
GLANS. See ANATOMY.

GLAREOLA, the pratincole, in natural history, a genus of birds of the order Gralla. Generic character: bill strong, strait, short, hooked at the end; nostrils at the base, linear and oblique; feet four-toed; toes long, slender, connected at the base by a membrane; tail forked, consisting of twelve feathers. There are three species, of which the principal is P. austriaca; this is about as large as a black-bird, lives on water-insects and on worms; is found in great numbers on the banks of the Rhine, in the neighbourhood of Strasburgh, and in innumerable flocks in the deserts of the Caspian Sea; it is a bird particularly clamorous and restless. See Aves, Plate VII. fig. 5.

GLASS, a substance too well known to admit of a definition. It is a compound of the fixed alkalies, or alkaline earths with silica, brought into complete fusion, and then suddenly congealed. Silica, when

mixed with the fixed alkalies, and exposed to a strong heat, readily enters into fusion. In this state the mixture may be moulded into any shape, and if suddenly cooled below the temperature at which it assumes the solid state, it retains the transparency, and those peculiar properties that belong to the substance called glass. Metallic oxides are sometimes added, as well to assist in the fusion, as to communicate certain colours to the mass. If the melted glass be suffered to cool very slowly, the different tendency of the constituent part to assume solid forms at certain temperatures, will cause them to separate successively in crystals, as salts held in solution in water assume the form of crystals as the liquid is slowly evaporated. But if the glass be suddenly cooled down to the point of congelation, the constituents have not time to separate in succession, and the glass remains the same homogeneous compound as while in a state of fusion. Hence it should seem that the vitreous quality depends entirely 1. upon the fusibility of the mixture; and, 2. on the suddenness with which it is cooled down to the point of congelation. It was discovered by Sir James Hall, that glass always loses its vitreous state, and assumes that of a stone, if more than a minute or two elapses while it is cooling down from complete fusion to the point at which it congeals.

There are several kinds of glass adapted to different uses. The best and most beautiful are the flint and the plate glass. These when well made, are perfectly transparent and colourless, heavy and brilliant. They are composed of fixed alkali, pure siliceous sand, calcined flints, and litharge in different proportions. The flint glass contain a large quantity of oxide of lead, which by certain processes is easily separated. The plate glass is poured in the melted state upon a table covered with copper. The plate is cast half an inch thick, or more, and is ground down to a proper degree of thinness, and then polished.

Crown-glass, that used for windows, is made without lead, chiefly of fixed alkali fused with siliceous sand, to which is added some black oxide of manganese, which is apt to give the glass a tinge of purple.

Bottle-glass is the coarsest and cheapest kind into this little or no fixed alkali enters the composition. It consists of an alkaline earth combined with alumina and silica. In this country it is composed of sand and the refuse of the soap-boiler, which

consists of the lime employed in rendering his alkali caustic, and of the earthy matters with which the alkali was contaminated. The most fusible is flint-glass, and the least fusible is bottle-glass.

Flint-glass melts at the temperature of 10° Wedgewood; crown-glass at 30°; and bottle-glass at 4.". The specific gravity varies between 2.48 and 3.33.

Good glass is perfectly transparent, and when cold very brittle, but at a red heat it is one of the most ductile bodies known, and may be drawn into threads so very delicate, as to become almost invisible to the human eye. It is extremely elastic, and one of the most sonorous of bodies. See HARMONICA.

There are but few chemical agents which have any action upon it. Mr. Davy in one of his lectures delivered in the course of the present month, (May, 1808,) exhibited a method of decomposing it by means of the Voltaic battery: he, however, first reduced it to powder. Fluoric acid, as we have seen, has a great power over it, and dissolves it very quickly (see FLUORIC ACID); so also have the fixed alkalies when assisted by heat. The continued action of hot water is said to be capable of decomposing glass, which it is thought will fully explain how the siliceous earth was obtained by Boyle and others, when they subjected water to very tedious distillations in glass vessels. It has also been supposed, that the deflagration of the oxygen and hydrogen gases, in the formation of water, has decomposed the glass, which will account for an acid as part of the result.

In making glass, the materials are completely fused together, and in this state the hot mixture is called frit. The frit is introduced into large pots made of prepared clay, and exposed to a heat sufficient to melt it completely. When the fusion has continued the proper time, the furnace is allowed to cool a little. In this state the glass is exceedingly ductile, and will assume any shape according to the fancy of the workman. The vessels thus formed, must not be permitted to cool too quickly, hence they are put into a hot furnace, in order that the heat may pass off very gradually: this is called annealing.

Glass is often tinged of various colours, which is performed by mixing with it, while in fusion, some one of the metallic oxides. Thus blue glass is formed by the oxide of cobalt; green by the oxide of iron, or copper; violet by the oxide of manganese;

red by a mixture of the oxides of copper and iron; purple by the oxide of gold; white by the oxide of arsenic and zinc ; and yellow by the oxide of silver, and by combustible bodies.

We shall give now a detail of the manual operations in the manufacture of glass.

Glass-blowing, the art of forming vessels of glass; the term, however, is exclusively applied to those vessels which are blown by the mouth. The operation is exceedingly simple, the workman has a tube of iron, the end of which he dips into a pot of melted glass, and thus gathers a small quantity of glass on the end of it, he then applies the other end of the tube to his mouth and blows air through it, this air enters into the body of the fluid glass, and expands it out into a hollow globe, similar to the soap bladders blown from a tobacco pipe. Various methods are used to bring these hollow globes into forms of the different utensils in common domestic use, and several tools; the chief part of these are represented in PLATE-GLASS MAKING.

The first and greatest of the glass-blowers' implements is the furnace; it consists of two large domes set one over the other, the lower one stands over a long grating, (on a level with the ground,) on which the fuel is placed; beneath the grate is the ash pit, and a large arch leading to it, conveys air to the furnace. In the sides of the lower dome, as many holes or mouths are made as there are workmen to make use of the furnace, and before each mouth a pot of melted glass is placed; the pots are very large like crucibles, and will hold from three to four hundred weight of liquid glass, they are supported upon three small piers of brickwork, resting on the floor of the furnace. The form reverberates the flame from the roof down upon the pots, and they are placed at some distance within the fur nace, that the flame may get between the wall and the pots. The upper dome is built upon the other, and its floor made flat by filling up round the roof of the lower dome with brickwork, there is a small chimney opens from the top of the lower dome into the middle of the floor of the upper one, which conveys the smoke away from it, and a flue from the upper dome leads it completely from the furnace.

The upper dome is used for annealing the glass, and is exactly similar to a large oven, it has three mouths, and in different parts a small flight of steps leads up to each. We

now come to describe the smaller implements.

Fig. 1 and 2, is a bench or stool with two arms ab at its ends, which are a little inclined to the horizon; the operator when at work sits upon the stool, and lays his blowing tube d across the arms, as shewn in the figure.

Fig. 3, are a pair of shears, or rather plyers, formed of one piece of steel, they have no sharp edges, and spring open when permitted; the workmen has several of these of different sizes, which are hung upon hooks at e in the stool fig. 4.

Fig. 4, is a pair of compasses to measure the work, and ascertain when it is brought to the proper size, the workmen should have three or four of these. Fig. 5, a common pair of shears for cutting the soft glass.

Fig. 6, a very coarse flat file.

Fig. 7, is the blowing pipe; it is simply a wrought iron tube about three feet long, at x, it is covered with twine to prevent it burning the workman's hand.,

Fig. 8, a small iron rod, of which there should be several.

Fig. 9, is a stool with a flat plate of cast iron laid upon it, and ƒ is another flat plate upon the ground behind the stool.

To explain the use of these tools, we shall describe the manner of forming a lamp or urn of glass. Fig. 10, with a wide mouth at top and a small neck g at bottom, through which the candle is inserted, and which is fitted into a brass cap to support the lamp by.

The operation is conducted by three workmen. The first takes the blowing pipe 7, and after heating it to a red heat at the mouth of the furnace, dips it into the pot of melted glass, at the same time turning it round that it may take up the glass, which has then much the consistence of turpentine; in the quantity of metal he is guided by experience, and must proportion it to the size of the vessel to be blown, he then brings it from the furnace to the stool, fig. 9, and rolls the lump of glass upon it to bring it to a round form, after which he blows through the pipe, resting the glass upon the iron plate ƒ behind the stool, as in the figure, and rolling it backwards and forwards. The blowing makes the glass hollow, and he has several methods of bringing it to a proper shape to be worked; by simply blowing, it would assume a figure nearly globular, if he wants