GAL 



GAL 



for instance, the wine gallon contains 231 

 cubic inches, and holds eight pounds 

 averdupois of pure water : the beer and 

 ale gallons contain 282 solid inches, and 

 hold ten pounds three ounces and a 

 quarter averdupois, of water : and the 

 gallon for corn, meal, &c. 27 2 cubic 

 inches, and holds nine pounds thirteen 

 ounces of pure water. 



GALLOON, in commerce, a narrow 

 thick kind of ferret, or lace, used to 

 edge or border clothes, sometimes made 

 of wool, and at other times of gold or 

 silver. 



GALLY, in printing, a frame into which 

 the compositor empties the lines out of 

 his composing stick, and in which he ties 

 up the page when it is completed. The 

 gaily is formed of an oblong square board, 

 with a ledge on three sides, and a groove 

 to admit a false bottom, called a gally- 

 slice. 



GALOPINA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Tetrandria Digynia class and order. Na- 

 tural order of Kubiacea;, Jussieu. Essen- 

 tial character: calyx none ; corolla four- 

 cleft ; seeds two, naked. There is one 

 species, viz. G. circseoides, a native of the 

 Cape of Good Hope. 



GALVANI (LEWIS) a modern physio- 

 logist, who has had the honour of giving 

 his name to a supposed new principle in 

 nature, was born in 1737, at Bologna, 

 where several of his relations had distin- 

 guished themselves in jurisprudence and 

 theology. From his early youth he was 

 much disposed to the greatest austerities 

 of the Catholic religion, and particularly 

 frequented a convent, the monks of which 

 attached themselves to the solemn duty of 

 visiting the dying. He shewed an incli- 

 nation to enter into this order, but was di- 

 verted from it by one of the fraternity. 

 Thenceforth he devoted himself to the 

 study of medicine in its different branches. 

 His masters were, the Doctors Beccari, 

 Jaccom, Galli, and especially the Profes- 

 sor Galleazzi, who received him into his 

 house, and gave him his daughter in mar- 

 riage. In 1762, he sustained with reputa- 

 tion an inaugural thesis ' De Ossibus," 

 and was then created public lecturer in 

 the University of Bologna, and appointed 

 reader in anatomy to the institute in that 

 city. His excellent method of lecturing 

 drew a crowd of auditors ; and he em- 

 ployed his leisure in experiments and in 

 the study of comparative anatomy. He 

 made a number of curious observations on 

 the urinary organs, and on the organ of 

 hearing in birds, which were published in 

 the Memoirs of the Institute. Hisrepu- 

 -tation, as an anatomist and physiologist, 



was established in the schools of Italy, 

 when accident gave birth to the discovery 

 which has immortalized his name. His be- 

 loved wife, with whom he lived many 

 years in the tenderest union, was at this 

 time in a declining state of health. As a 

 restorative, she made use of a soup of 

 frogs; and some of these animals, skinned 

 for the purpose, happened to lie upon a 

 table in her husbaifd's laboratory, upon 

 which was placed an electrical machine. 

 One of the assistants, in his experiments, 

 chanced carelessly to bring the point of a 

 scalpel near the crural nerves of a frog, 

 lying not far from the conductor. Instant- 

 ly the muscles of the limb were agitated 

 with strong convulsions. Madame Galva- 

 ni, a woman of quick understanding and 

 a scientific turn, was present, and, struck 

 with the phenomenon, she immediately 

 went to inform her husband of it. He 

 came and repeated the experiment ; and 

 soon found that the convulsion only took 

 place when a spark was drawn from the 

 conductor, at the time the scalpel was in 

 contact with the nerve. It is unnecessary 

 in this place to mention the series of ex- 

 periments, by which he proceeded to in- 

 vestigate the law of nature, of which ac- 

 cident had thus given him a glimpse, for 

 which our article GALVANISM must be 

 consulted. 



In conjunction with these inquiries, his 

 duties as a professor, and his employment 

 as a surgeon and accoucheur, in which 

 branches he was very eminent, gave full 

 occupation to his industry. He drew up 

 various memoirs upon professional topics, 

 which have remained inedited; and regu- 

 larly held learned conversations with a 

 few literary friends, in which new works 

 were read and commented upon. He was 

 a man of an amiable character in private 

 life, and possessed of great sensibility, 

 which he had the misfortune of being 

 called to display on the death of his wife 

 in 1790, an event which threw him into a 

 profound melancholy. He rarely suffered 

 a day to pass without visiting her tomb in 

 the nunnery of St. Catharine, and pouring 

 out his prayers and lamentations over her 

 remains. He was always, indeed, punc- 

 tual in practising the minutest rites of his 

 religion, the early strong impressions 

 of which never left him ; and his attach- 

 ment to religion was probably the cause 

 of steadily refusing to take the civic oath 

 exacted by the new constitution of the 

 Cisalpine republic, in consequence of 

 which he incurred the deprivation of his 

 posts and dignities. A prey to melancho- 

 ly, and reduced almost to indigence, he 

 retired to the house of his brother James, 



