(A. C. Se.)
GYMNOSTOMACEAE, an order of Ciliate Infusoria (q.v.), characterized by a closed mouth, which only opens to swallow food actively, and body cilia forming a general or partial investment (rarely represented by a girdle of membranellae), but not differentiated in different regions. With the Aspirotrochaceae (q.v.) it formed the Holotricha of Stein.
GYMPIE, a mining town of March county, Queensland, Australia, 107 m. N. of Brisbane, and 61 m. S. of Maryborough by rail. Pop. (1901) 11,959. Numerous gold mines are worked in the district, which also abounds in copper, silver, antimony, cinnabar, bismuth and nickel. Extensive undeveloped coal-beds lie 40 m. N. at Miva. Gympie became a municipality in 1880.
GYNAECEUM (Gr. γυναικεῖον, from γυνή, woman), that part in a Greek house which was specially reserved for the women, in contradistinction to the “andron,” the men’s quarters; in the larger houses there was an open court with peristyles round, and as a rule all the rooms were on the same level; in smaller houses the servants were placed in an upper storey, and this seems to have been the case to a certain extent in the Homeric house of the Odyssey. “Gynaeconitis” is the term given by Procopius to the space reserved for women in the Eastern Church, and this separation of the sexes was maintained in the early Christian churches where there were separate entrances and accommodation for the men and women, the latter being placed in the triforium gallery, or, in its absence, either on one side of the church, the men being on the other, or occasionally in the aisles, the nave being occupied by the men.
GYNAECOLOGY (from Gr. γυνή, γυναικός, a woman, and λόγος, discourse), the name given to that branch of medicine which concerns the pathology and treatment of affections peculiar to the female sex.
Gynaecology may be said to be one of the most ancient branches of medicine. The papyrus of Ebers, which is one of the oldest known works on medicine and dates from 1550 B.C., contains references to diseases of women, and it is recorded that specialism in this branch was known amongst Egyptian medical practitioners. The Vedas contain a list of therapeutic agents used in the treatment of gynaecological diseases. The treatises on gynaecology formerly attributed to Hippocrates (460 B.C.) are now said to be spurious, but the wording of the famous oath shows that he was at least familiar with the use of gynaecological instruments. Diocles Carystius, of the Alexandrian school (4th century B.C.), practised this branch, and Praxagoras of Cos, who lived shortly after, opened the abdomen by laparotomy. While the Alexandrine school represented Greek medicine, Greeks began to practise in Rome, and in the first years of the Christian era gynaecologists were much in demand (Häser). A speculum for gynaecological purposes has been found in the ruins of Pompeii, and votive offerings of anatomical parts found in the temples show that various gynaecological malformations were known to the ancients. Writers who have treated of this branch are Celsus (50 B.C.-A.D. 7) and Soranus of Ephesus (A.D. 98-138), who refers in his works to the fact that the Roman midwives frequently called to their aid practitioners who made a special study of diseases of women. These midwives attended the simpler gynaecological ailments. This was no innovation, as in Athens, as mentioned by Hyginus, we find one Agnodice, a midwife, disguising herself in man’s attire so that she might attend lectures on medicine and diseases of women. After instruction she practised as a gynaecologist. This being contrary to Athenian law she was prosecuted, but was saved by the wives of some of the chief men testifying on her behalf. Besides Agnodice we have Sotira, who wrote a work on menstruation which is preserved in the library at Florence, while Aspasia is mentioned by Aetius as the author of several chapters of his work. It is evident that during the Roman period much of the gynaecological work was in the hands of women. Martial alludes to the “feminae medicae” in his epigram on Leda. These women must not be confounded with the midwives who on monuments are always described as “obstetrices.” Galen devotes the sixth chapter of his work De locis affectis to gynaecological ailments. During the Byzantine period may be mentioned the work of Oribasius (A.D. 325) and Moschion (2nd century A.D.) who wrote a book in Latin for the use of matrons and midwives ignorant of Greek.