GALLATIN 



2365 



GALLEY 



Having made an exhaustive study of the 

 structure and functions of the brain, he be- 

 came convinced that each of the various fac- 

 ulties of the mind had a special seat in the 

 brain, and that the shapes of men's heads de- 

 termined their mental and moral character- 

 istics (see PHRENOLOGY). In 1796 he began a 

 series of lectures at Vienna, but the ideas he 

 advanced were so contrary to accepted theo- 

 ries concerning the mind that the Austrian 

 government forbade his continuing his lectures 

 in 1802. In 1807 Professor Gall went to Paris 

 with his pupil and associate, Dr. Spurzheim. 

 There he gained a successful practice and was 

 also active in circulating his theories. Gall's 

 system of phrenology at one time had wide 

 acceptance, but modern research has shown 

 that it is physiologically unsound. 



GAL'LATIN, ALBERT (1761-1849), an Amer- 

 ican financier, statesman and ethnologist, was 

 born in Geneva, Switzerland. He was gradu- 

 ated at Geneva Academy in 1779 and a year 

 later came to America and was for a time 

 teacher of French in Harvard College. In 1786 

 he removed to Fayette County, Pa., becaine a 

 member of the state legislature, where he was 

 active in opposition to the Federal excise law 

 (see WHISKY INSURRECTION), and was elected 

 to the United States Senate in 1793. How- 

 ever, he was declared ineligible to hold the 

 latter office, it having been less than nine 

 years since he became a naturalized citizen. 

 He served in the House of Representatives 

 from 1795 to 1801 and from that time until 

 1813 was Secretary of the Treasury, becoming 

 such an eminent financier that a marked re- 

 duction was made in the national debt. 



In negotiations which concluded with the 

 Treaty of Ghent he rendered important service 

 and was rewarded by appointment as minis- 

 ter to France, which post he held from 1816 

 to 1823. In 1826 he was sent to London as 

 minister and on his return settled in New York 

 and became interested in the problems of 

 finance and education, and also took an active 

 part in the founding of the University of New 

 York. He was the first president of the 

 Ethnological Society of America, which was 

 founded through his efforts in 1842. He wrote 

 several valuable essays on various phases of 

 this subject. His published works include 

 Notes on the Semi-Civilized Nations of Mex- 

 ico, Yucatan and Central America and The 

 Indian Tribes East of the Rocky Mountains. 



GALL BLADDER, a small, pear-shaped 

 pouch on the under side of the liver, in which 



bile is stored. It is about four inches long 

 and two inches in diameter, and can hold 

 about an ounce and a half of fluid. The stem, 

 or neck, of the gall bladder connects with a 

 tube (the cystic duct) which enters the hepatic 

 duct, the two combining to form the common 

 bile duct. When digestion takes place bile 

 flows from the liver through the hepatic duct 

 into the common duct and empties into the 

 duodenum, the first division of the small in- 

 testine; during the interval between meals 

 this fluid passes into the common bile duct, 

 but is kept out of the intestine by a small 

 muscle which guards the opening into the duo- 

 denum. It therefore flows backward into the 

 cystic duct and from that tube into the gall 

 bladder, where it remains until needed. If 

 the bladder becomes inflamed by disease germs, 

 small hard masses form inside of it. These 

 are the gall stones that cause such severe at- 

 tacks of pain when they pass through the bile 

 duct into the intestine; in many cases they 

 have to be removed by a surgical operation. 

 See LIVER; BILE. 



GALLEY, the ancient ship of the Mediter- 

 ranean merchantmen, was a long, single or 

 half-decked vessel with low free-board, pro- 

 pelled principally by oars but also having 

 masts for sails: The term is generally descrip- 



A GALLEY 



tive of the later Roman and Grecian war- 

 vessels of various types, the motive power of 

 which was the oar, but it more particularly 

 applies to the war craft of the Middle Ages, 

 which survived in the Mediterranean navies 

 after the adoption elsewhere of larger ships of 

 war propelled entirely by sails. Ancient Greek 

 vases show many illustrations of the bireme, 

 or galley with two rows of oars, whose inven- 

 tion marked an important advance in naval 

 construction, but it was the trireme, or galley 

 with three rows of oars, which was the chief 



