Gravamen

[Lat.) The substantial cause of an action at law; the ground or burden of complaint; that part of an accusation which weighs most heavily against the accused. A representation; a motion; specifically a motion proposed in convocation. Grav'elotte, a small village of Germany, situated in Alsace-Lorraine, 8 m. W. of Metz, on the Moselle. At this place, on Aug. 18, 1870, the French under Marshall Bazaine were defeated by the Germans under Gen. Steinmetz and Prince Frederick Charles. The battle of Grave lotte, which decided the fate of Metz, was very bloody, the lo of the Germans being about 20,000, and that of the French about 13,000. The French army, after its defeat, was shut up in Metz, and was finally surrendered prisoners of war. Gravity Battery. A form of double fluid battery in which the fluids range themselves at different heights in a single jar by virtue of their different specific gravities. Gravity Railroad. A railroad in which the cars move down a series of inclined planes by their own weight alone, being drawn up to the various summits by cables or otherwise.