[1] Columella (De re rustica, viii. cap. 2) distinguishes the Meleagris from the Gallina Africana or Numidica, the latter having, he says, a red wattle (palea, a reading obviously preferable to galea), while it was blue in the former. This would look as if the Meleagris had sprung from what is now called Numida ptilorhyncha, while the Gallina Africana originated in the N. meleagris, species which have a different range, and if so the fact would point to two distinct introductions—one by Greeks, the other by Latins.

[2] Specimens from the Gambia are said to be smaller, and have been described as distinct under the name of N. rendalli.

[3] Darwin (Anim. and Pl. under Domestication, i. 294), gives this as the original stock of the modern domestic birds, but obviously by an accidental error. As before observed, it may possibly have been the true μελεαγρίς of the Greeks.


GUINEA-WORM (Dracontiasis), a disease due to the Filaria medinensis, or Dracunculus, or Guinea-worm, a filarious nematode like a horse-hair, whose most frequent habitat is the subcutaneous and intramuscular tissues of the legs and feet. It is common on the Guinea coast, and in many other tropical and subtropical regions and has been familiarly known since ancient times. The condition of dracontiasis due to it is a very common one, and sometimes amounts to an epidemic. The black races are most liable, but Europeans of almost any social rank and of either sex are not altogether exempt. The worm lives in water, and, like the Filaria sanguinis hominis, appears to have an intermediate host for its larval stage. It is doubtful whether the worm penetrates the skin of the legs directly; it is not impossible that the intermediate host (a cyclops) which contains the larvae may be swallowed with the water, and that the larvae of the Dracunculus may be set free in the course of digestion.


GÜINES, a town in the interior of Havana province, Cuba, about 30 m. S.E. of Havana. Pop. (1907) 8053. It is situated on a plain, in the midst of a rich plantation district, chiefly devoted to the cultivation of tobacco. The first railway in Cuba was built from Havana to Güines between 1835 and 1838. One of the very few good highways of the island also connects Güines with the capital. The pueblo of Güines, which was built on a great private estate of the same name, dates back to about 1735. The church dates from 1850. Güines became a “villa” in 1814, and was destroyed by fire in 1817.


GUINGAMP, a town of north-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Côtes-du-Nord, on the right bank of the Trieux, 20 m. W.N.W. of St Brieuc on the railway to Brest. Pop. (1906), town 6937, commune 9212. Its chief church, Notre-Dame de Bon-Secours, dates from the 14th to the 16th centuries; two towers rise on each side of the richly sculptured western portal and a third surmounts the crossing. A famous statue of the Virgin, the object of one of the most important “pardons” or religious pilgrimages in Brittany, stands in one of the two northern porches. The central square is decorated by a graceful fountain in the Renaissance style, restored in 1743. Remains of the ramparts and of the château of the dukes of Penthièvre, which belong to the 15th century, still survive. Guingamp is the seat of a sub-prefect and of a tribunal of first instance. It is an important market for dairy-cattle, and its industries include flour-milling, tanning and leather-dressing. Guingamp was the chief town of the countship (subsequently the duchy) of Penthièvre. The Gothic chapel of Grâces, near Guingamp, contains fine sculptures.