GALTEES 



GALVKSTON 



69 



usual rapidity. His first novel was Latent 

 which a> followed by Southetitutn, a romance of the 

 .if l t >neen Mary; and this by a Life of Lord 

 nitron, which ran through several editions, but 

 which \\a.s roughly handled by the critics. In 1834 

 lie published his Literary Life and Miscellanies in 

 three volumes. He now returned to Scotland, 

 utterly liroken in health and spirits, and died at 

 ( iieenock, llth April 1839. While some of his pro- 

 ductions are already forgotten, others will perish 

 only with the language. A voluminous and un- 

 equal writer, he had ricli humour, genuine pathos, 

 and a rare mastery of the Scots dialect; in delineat- 

 ing tlte life of small Scottish towns and villages he 

 was without a rival. See an edition of his works, 

 with introduction by Crockett(1896) ; Mrs Oliphant'i 

 William lil'K-ktoood &> Son* (1897) ; Sir G. Douglas, 

 The Blacktoood Group ( 1897). 



Sir ALEXANDER TILLOCH GALT, his son, born at 

 Chelsea, 6th September 1817, was elected to the 

 Canadian parliament in 1849, and was finance 

 minister in 1858-62 and 1864-66. In 1880-83 he 

 is High Commissioner for Canada in Britain ; 

 d he served on the Washington Treaty and 

 Halifax Fisheries Commissions. A G.C.M.G., he 

 died 19th September 1893. 

 Galtees. See TIPPERARV. 

 4. alt on. FRANCIS, F.R.S., grandson of Dr 

 rasmus Darwin, and cousin of Charles Darwin, 

 as born at Duddeston in 1822, and educated at 

 King Edward's School, Birmingham. He studied 

 medicine at the Birmingham Hospital and King's 

 College, London, and graduated from Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, in 1844. Having in 1846 

 travelled in North Africa, he explored in 1850 

 nds hitherto unknown in South Africa, pub- 

 hing his experiences in his Narrative oj an 

 'xplorer in Tropical South Africa, which ob- 

 ined the gold medal of the Royal Geographical 

 >ciety, and in Art of Travel, which passed through 

 ve editions between 1855 and 1872. His investi- 

 tions in meteorology are recorded in Meteoro- 

 aphica, published in 1863. A member of a Mete- 

 orological Committee of the Board of Trade, he was 

 ipointed one of the committee entrusted with the 

 rliamentary grant for the Meteorological Office, 

 itterly he has specially devoted himself to the 

 problem of heredity, publishing Hereditary Genius : 

 its Laws and Consequences ( 1869) ; Experiments in 

 Pangenesis (1871); English Men of Science: their 

 Nature and Nurture (1874); Life-history Album 

 (1884); Natural Inheritance (1889), &c. ' He was 

 general secretary of the British Association, 1863- 

 68 ; President of the Anthropological Sections, 1877 

 and 1885; President of the Anthropological Insti- 

 tute, 1885-86. 



Galvani* LUIGI, a famous anatomist, was born 

 at Bologna, 9th September 1737, studied theology 

 id subsequently medicine at the university there, 

 id in 1762 was elected professor of Anatomy. His 

 ctures enjoyed much popularity, and among other 

 writings two treatises on the organs of hearing and 

 n the genito-urinary tract in birds added consider- 

 ibly to his reputation. But Galvani owes the wide 

 Jelebrity attached to his name to his discoveries in 

 inimal electricity. The story of the convulsive 

 luscular movements produced in a skinned frog by 

 chance contact with a scalpel may be dismissed 

 s unfounded ; there is evidence that Galvani's 

 views were based on experiments patiently con- 

 ducted for many years before the publication' of his 

 !) I'iri/iit.-i l-'.lfrtrii-ittttis in Motu Mtisculari Commen- 

 f'H-iiix ( 1791 ). He was removed for a time from 

 his post l>ecause of his refusal to take the oaths 

 prescribed by the Cisalpine Republic, of which 

 Bologna then formed a part ; but he was afterwards 

 reinstated, and died 4th December 1798, in Bologna, 



where hit* statue was erected in 1879. Most of 

 his writings were published in a quarto edition in 

 1841-42 by the Academy of Science* of hu native 

 city ; but several manuscript treatise* by him were 

 discovered there in April 18S!>. 



GALVANISM is one of the names of a particular 

 branch of the science of electricity, given in 

 honour of Luigi Galvani, from whose observations 

 and experiments the historical development of 

 current electricity dates. The term itself i rarely 

 used now ; and the subject will be found treated 

 under ELECTRICITY. There are, however, other 

 expressions which have been derived from the same 

 source, and which are in common use. Such are 

 galvanic current, galvanic cell, galvanic battery, 

 and galvanometer. Voltaic may l>e, and very 

 often is, used in place of galvanic in the first three 

 expressions ; but galvanometer is the one name for 

 an instrument which measures the strength of an 

 electric current by means of its effect upon a 

 neighbouring magnet. The gradual disuse of the 

 term galvanism is probably due to the recognition 

 in these later times of the fact that, although 

 Galvani's experiments were the beginning of the 

 new era in electricity, it is to Volta that we are 

 specially indebted for the development of the 

 science along purely physical lines. 



Galvanised Iron. This name is given to iron 

 which has been coated with zinc to prevent its rust- 

 ing. The iron is simply dipped in the melted 

 zinc, and the name does not imply, as might 

 be supposed, that any definite galvanic process 

 is undergone. Galvanised iron first came into 

 use about 1837, when iron cooking-vessels were 

 treated in this way. Since then tinned iron 

 has come into use for cooking- vessels, and galvan- 

 ised iron is now employed chiefly for roofing pur- 

 poses, buckets, telegraph wire, chains, &c. The 

 process of manufacture is very simple. The zinc is 

 melted, and dry sal-ammoniac poured on the top. 

 This fuses and forms a protecting layer, keeping 

 the surface of the metal clean. The iron plates or 

 vessels, having been carefully cleansed by means of 

 dilute hydrochloric acid and scrubbing with sand, 

 are now introduced into the molten zinc, which 

 immediately forms an alloy with the iron, and ren- 

 ders it incapable of rusting. Care must be taken 

 not to immerse the iron for too long a time, for the 

 alloy of zinc and iron melts at a comparatively low 

 temperature, and there is a danger of destroying 

 the vessel which is being galvanised. Galvanised 

 iron is not so tough as iron itself, but still the free- 

 dom from rusting makes it specially applicable for 

 many purposes. Galvanised iron water-pipes are 

 now much employed in houses, but steam-pipes of 

 this material are unsatisfactory : when exposed con- 

 tinuously to a moist steam neat, galvanised iron 

 seems to become corroded, and small holes make 

 their appearance. Galvanised iron is, of course, 

 unsuitable where any acid is present, and any pre- 

 paration containing vinegar will assume a disagree- 

 able taste if placed in a galvanised vessel. 



CialvestOIl, a seaport of Texas, the third largest 

 city of the state, is situated on Galveston Island, 

 at the opening of the hay of the same name into 

 the Gulf of Mexico, 214 'miles ESE. of Austin by 

 rail. The island is a low strip of land, some 30 

 miles long by 3 broad ; the bay extends northward 

 from the city to the mouth of 'the Trinity River, a 

 distance of 35 miles, and has a breadth of from 12 

 to 18 miles. The city contains a Catholic cathedral, 

 the Catholic University of St Mary, and the Texas 

 Medical College ; anil it has several foundries, 

 flour and planing mills, and machine-shops. Gal- 

 veston has the best harbour in the state, protected 

 by a breakwater, and connected with deep water by 

 a channel of from 27 to 29 feet. It has numerous 



