GAETA GALBA. 



343 



Into Gaelic for the use of the inhabitants of the 

 Highlands. More than two-thirds of the names of 

 places in the united kingdom of Great Britain and 

 Ireland are of Celtic origin. Not many years since, 

 a chapel was opened in London, for the performance 

 of divine worship in Gaelic, according to the forms 

 of the church of Scotland. 



GAETA, duke of. See Gaudin. 



GAETA, a Neapolitan fortress, on the gulf of 

 Gaeta, Ion. 13 32' E., lat. 41 5' N., with 10,300 

 inhabitants, is the see of a bishop, and is situated 

 about twenty leagues from Rome, and twelve from 

 Naples, upon a promontory, which, according to 

 Virgil (JEn. vii. l.),has its name from Caieta, the 

 nurse of JSneas. It was founded before Rome, and 

 had, for some time after the downfall of the Roman 

 empire, a republican constitution. It was afterwards 

 governed by dukes, who acknowledged the pope as 

 their feudal lord. Gaeta is of.one the strongest for- 

 tresses of Europe, as it can be attacked by land only 

 from a narrow isthmus. The environs of this ancient 

 city are enchanting, and the many pretty villas in 

 the suburbs (the ancient Romans built many country 

 houses here along the fertile coast) render the whole 

 scenery, with its vineyards and olive-gardens, very 

 romantic. In the middle ages, Gaeta was besieged 

 several times, particularly in 1435, by king Alphonso 

 of Arragon. In modern times, it has sustained three 

 memorable sieges ; in 1702, when it was taken by 

 assault by the Austrians, after a siege of three 

 months ; in 1734, when it surrendered, after a siege 

 oi five months, to the united army of France, Spain, 

 and Sardinia. It was besieged in 1806, by the French, 

 when the prince of Hesse-Philippsthal refused to 

 surrender it after the capture of Naples. He was 

 finally wounded and obliged to retire to Sicily, and 

 Gaeta surrendered July 18th, after a siege of five 

 months. 



GAILLIARDE (Italian, Gagliardd); an ancient 

 Italian dance, of a sportive character and lively 

 movement, the air of which was in triple time. It 

 was called, likewise, Romanesque, because it was 

 said to have come originally from Rome. 



GAIUS. See Caius. 



GALACTOMETER (milk-measure), invented by 

 Cadet de Vaux. The first degree shows all pure 

 milk. The second, milk with a fourth water ; the 

 third, milk with a third water; the fourth, milk 

 with a half water. Every one knows that the milk 

 is richer towards the end, than at the beginning of 

 the milking. The milk of a pregnant cow, too, is 

 richer than that of one which has just begun to be 

 milked. Food, season, and rain, exercise a great 

 influence on the quality of butter in the milk. The 

 instrument seems, therefore, to be uncertain. 



GALATEA ; in heathen mythology, daughter of 

 Nereus and Doris. The Cyclops Polyphemus per- 

 secuted with his love the charming nymph, though 

 he gained nothing but ridicule in return. The fair 

 shepherd Acis, of Sicily, enjoyed her affection, and 

 suffered death on her account ; for Polyphemus, sur- 

 prising them in tender embraces, and mad with jeal- 

 ousy, hurled a rock at them, which dashed Acis in 

 pieces, while Galatea escaped into the sea. Acis 

 was transformed into a fountain, and hastened to 

 meet his mistress in a safer region. 



GALAT1A ; a part of Phrygia Major, inhabited 

 by the Galatians, a mixture of Greeks and Gauls 

 (Celts); thence also the name Gallogreeci, and later, 

 Galatce. 



GALAXY (Via Lactea, or Milky Way), in astro- 

 nomy; that long, luminous track or zone, which 

 encompasses the heavens, forming nearly a great 

 circle of the celestial sphere. It is inclined to the 

 plane of the ecliptic at about an angle of GO , and 



cuts it nearly at the two solstitial points. It traverses 

 the constellations Cassiopeia, Perseus, Auriga, Orion, 

 Gemini, Canis Major, and the Ship, where it appears 

 most brilliant in southern latitudes; it then passes 

 through the feet of the Centaur, the Cross, the 

 southern Triangle, and returns towards the north by 

 the Altar, the tail of the Scorpion, and the arc of 

 Sagittarius, where it divides into two branches, pass- 

 ing through Aquila, Sagitta,the Swan, Serpentarius, 

 the head of Cepheus, and returns into Cassiopeia. 

 The ancients had many singular ideas as to the cause 

 of this phenomenon ; but modern astronomers have 

 long attributed it to a great assemblage of stars, and 

 doctor Herschel has confirmed these conjectures, 

 having discovered, in a space of about 15 long, by 

 2 broad, no less than 50,000 stars. This, however, 

 instead of satisfying the curiosity of astronomers, only 

 gave rise to farther inquiries and hypotheses ; amongst 

 others, that of doctor Herschel, which is very inter- 

 esting. He supposes the sidereal universe to be 

 distributed into nebulae and clusters of stars, and the 

 Milky Way to be that particular cluster in which 

 our sun is placed. In a paper on the construction of 

 the heavens, doctor Herschel says, it is very proba- 

 ble, that the great stratum, called the Milky Way, is 

 that in which the sun is placed, though perhaps not 

 in the centre of its thickness, but not far from the 

 place where some smaller stratum branches from it. 

 Such a supposition will satisfactorily, and with great 

 simplicity, account for all the phenomena of the 

 Milky Way, which, according to this hypothesis, is 

 no other than the appearance of the projection of the 

 stars contained in this stratum and its secondary 

 branch. Doctor Herschel then solves a general 

 problem for computing the length of the visual ray. 

 The telescope which he used will reach to stars 497 

 times the distance of Sinus. Now, Sirius cannot be 

 nearer than 100,000 x 190,000,000 miles ; therefore 

 doctor Herschel's telescope will at least reach to 

 100,000 x 190,000,000 x 497 miles. And doctor 

 Herschel says, that in the most crowded part of the 

 Milky Way, he has had fields of view that contained 

 no less than 588 stars, and these were continued for 

 many minutes, so that, in a quarter of an hour, he has 

 seen 116,000 stars pass through the field of view of 

 a telescope of only 15' aperture; and, at another 

 time, in forty-one minutes, he saw 258,000 stars pass 

 through the field of his telescope. Every improve- 

 ment in his telescope discovered stars not seen 

 before, so that there appears no bounds to their 

 number, or to the extent of the universe. 



GALBA, SERGIUS, or SERV1US SULPICIUS ; 

 successor of Nero, born B. C. 4, of the ancient and 

 celebrated family of the Sulpicii. He was made 

 pretor before he had reached the lawful age, then 

 governor of Aquitania, and, a year after, consul. 

 Caligula appointed him general in Germany. He 

 soon repulsed the Germans who had invaded Gaul, 

 and restored the ancient military discipline. After 

 the death of Caligula, he caused his troops to swear 

 allegiance to Claudius, who received him, for this 

 service, among his most confidential friends, and sent 

 him, as proconsul, to Africa, where great confusion 

 prevailed. In two years, Galba restored order, ob- 

 tained the honours of a triumph, and was received 

 among the priests of Augustus. He lived afterwards 

 in retirement till the middle of Nero's reign, that he 

 might avoid exciting suspicion. Nero appointed him 

 governor of Hispania Tarraconensis ; but soon after 

 became so exasperated against him, that he ordered 

 him to be secretly assassinated. Galba then revolted 

 against the emperor, but became involved in great 

 difficulties, when news arrived of the death of Nero 

 (A. D. 68); and he himself was chosen emperor by 

 the pretorian cohorts in Rome. Ambassadors from 



