GAL 
own house, suspected that his papers might 
contain dangerous heresies, and therefore 
committed them to the flames. 
Sir John Finch, in a letter to Thomas Sa- 
lisbury, attribute*! the destruction of Ga- 
lileo’s MSS. to his widow’s devotion, and 
the fanaticism of her confessor ; but the 
best authorities maintain that our philoso- 
pher was never married. His son Vincenzo 
Galilei, who, as we have already seen, ho- 
nourably supported his father’s reputation, 
by first applying his invention of the pen- 
dulum to clock-work, was of illegitimate 
birth. 
QALIUM, in botany, a genus of the Te- 
trandria Monogynia class and order. Na- 
tural order of Stellat®. Rubiaceap, Jussieu. 
Essential character : corolla one-petalled, 
flat ; seeds two, roundish. There are forty- 
eight species. 
GALL, in the animal ceconomy, the same 
with bile. See Bii.e. 
Gall, in natural history, denotes any 
protuberance or tumour, produced by the 
puncture of the insects on plants and trees 
of different kinds. Galls are of various 
forms and sizes, and no less different with 
regard to their internal structure. Some 
have only one cavity, and others a number 
of small cells communicating with each 
other: some of them are as hard as the 
wood of the tree they grow on, whilst 
others are soft and spongy ; the first being 
termed gall-nuts, and the latter berry-galls, 
or apple-galls. 
The general history of galls<is this : an in- 
sect of the fly-kind (see Cynips), is in- 
structed by nature to take care for the 
safety of her young, by lodging her eggs 
in a woody substance, where they will 
be defended from all injuries : she for this 
purpose wounds the branches or leaves of a 
tree, and the lacerated vessels, discharging 
their contents, soon form tumours about the 
holes thus made. The hole in each of these 
tumours, through which the fly has made 
its way, may for the most part be found ; 
and when it is not, the maggot-inhabitant 
or its remains, are sure to be found within, 
on breaking the gall. It is to be observed, 
however, that in those galls which contain 
several cells, there may be insects found in 
some of them, though there is a hole by 
which the inhabitant of another cell has es- 
caped. Oak-galls, put in a very small quan- 
tity into a solution of vitriol in water, 
though but a very weak one, give it a pur- 
ple or vitriol colour, w'hich, as it grows 
stronger, becomes black ; and on this pro- 
GAL 
perty depends the art of making our wait- 
ing-ink, as also a great deal of those of dye- 
ing and dressing leather, and other manu- 
factures. See Ink, &c. 
Gall bladder, called vesicnla, is usually 
of the shape of a pear, and of the size of a 
small hen’s egg. It is situated in the con- 
cave side of the liver, and lies upon the co- 
lon, part of which it tinges with its own co- 
lour. The use of the gall-bladder is to col- 
lect the bile, first secreted in the liver, and 
mixing it with its own peculiar produce to 
perfect it farther, to retain it together a 
certain time, and then to expel it. 
Gall fiy. See Cynips. 
Gall stone. See Calculi biliary. 
GALLEON, in naval affairs, a sort of 
ships employed in the commerce of the 
West Indies. The Spaniards send annual- 
ly two fleets ; the one for Mexico, which 
they call the flota, and the other for Peru, 
which they call the galleons. 
By a general regulation made in Spain, 
it has been established, that there should 
be twelve men of war, and five tenders, 
annually fitted out for the armada or gal- 
leons ; eight ships of six hundred tons bur- 
den each, and three tenders, one of an 
hundred tons, for the island Margarita, and 
two of eighty each, to follow the armada : 
for the New Spain fleet, two ships of six 
hundred tons each, and two tenders of 
eighty each ; and for the Honduras fleet, 
two ships of five hundred tons each : and, 
in case no fleet happened to sail any year, 
three galleons and a tender should be sent 
to New Spain for the plate. They were 
formerly appointed to sail from Cadiz, in 
January, that they might arrive at Porto- 
Bello about the middle of April, where 
the fair being over, they might take aboard 
the plate, and be at Havanna with it about 
the middle of June, where they were joined 
by the flota, that they might return to Spain 
with the greater safety. For this purpose, 
the viceroy of Peru was to take care that the 
plate should be at Panama by the middle 
of March. The plate is fifteen days re- 
moving from Potosi to Arica, eight days 
generally from thence by sea to Callao, and 
from that place to Panama twenty days, 
taking in by the way the plate at Paita 
and Truxillo. It has, however, been 
found by experience, that the month of 
September is the fittest for the fleet to 
sail: they are about two years iff the 
whole voyage. 
The galleons bring annually of gold about 
two or three millions of crowns, and the 
