Guillemet

[Fr., from the name of the inventor.] ( Typog.) A term sometimes applied to quotation-marks or points; thus('...') ("..."). Guillemot, (gil-le-mot') n. (Zool.) See URINE. Guil'lev at, n. [From Fr. guiller , to ferment.] A vat for fermenting liquors. Guilloche, ( gil - lōsh ' ,) n. [From the inventor Guillot .] ( Arch .) An ornament composed of two (Fig. 1212) or more carved fillets, which by repetition form a continued series. ৩০০০০০ IMG:content-0464.jpg:[blocks in formation] Guillotine, ( gil -lo-teen',) n. An instrument used in France, for infliction of capital punishment by decapitation; so called from Joseph Ignace Guillotin, by whom it was introduced into that country. This person was born at Saintes, and became a physician at Paris, where he obtained a certain celebrity, in the early period of the Revolution, by the strong part which he took in favor of the rights of the Tiers-État. He was in consequence elected a deputy to the National A embly. When that body was occupied in its long discu ions relative to the reform of the penal code, in 1790, Guillotin proposed the adoption of decapitation, up to that time used only for nobles, as the only method of capital punishment. From sentiments of humanity, he recommended the employment of a machine which had been long known in Italy under the name of mannaja , and in Scotland under the name of maiden . The A embly approved the idea, and the machine was adopted, to which the Parisians have given the name of Guillotine , and of which Guillotin is most erroneously supposed to have been the inventor. It consists of two upright pieces of wood, fixed in a horizontal frame; a sharp blade of steel moves up and down, by means of a pulley in grooves in the two uprights; the edge is oblique, instead of horizontal. The criminal is laid on his face, his neck immediately under the blade, which severs it at a blow from his body. It is equally a vulgar error that Guillotin perished by the instrument which bears his name. He was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror, but released at the revolution of July, 1794, and D. in 1814.