GALVANI. 
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 grove 
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 Rnbiacete, Jussieu. Essential 
character: calyx none; corolla four-cleft ; 
seeds two, naked. There is one species, 
viz. G. circmoides, a native of the Cape of 
Good Hope. 
GALVANI (Lewis) a modern physiolo- 
gist, who has had the honour of giving his 
name to a supposed new principle in na- 
ture, was born in 1737, at Bologna, where 
several of his relations had distinguished 
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 con- 
vent, the monks of which attached them- 
selves to the solemn duty of visiting the 
dying. He shewed an inclination to enter 
into this order, but was diverted from it by 
one of the fraternity. Thenceforth he de- 
voted himself to the study of medicine in 
its different branches. His masters were 
the Doctors Beccari, Jacconi, Galli, and 
especially the Professor Galeazzi, who re- 
ceived him into his house, and gave him his 
daughter in marriage. In 1762, he sus- 
tained with reputation an inaugural thesis 
“ De Ossibus,” and was then created pub- 
lic lecturer in the University of Bologna, 
and appointed reader in anatomy to the in- 
stitute in that city. His excellent method 
of lecturing drew a crowd of auditors ; and 
he employed 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. His reputa- 
tion, as an anatomist and physiologist, was 
established in the schools of Italy, when 
accident gave birth to the discovery which 
has immortalised his name. His beloved 
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 hus- 
band’s laboratory, upon which was placed 
an electrical machine. One of the assis- 
tants in his experiments chanced carelessly 
to bring the point of a scalpel near the cru- 
ral nerves of a frog, lying not far from the 
conductor. Instantly the muscles of the 
limb were agitated with strong convulsions. 
Madame Galvani, a woman of quick under- 
standing, and a scientific turn, was pre- 
sent, and, struck with the phenomenon, 
she immediately went to inform her hus- 
band of it. He came and repeated the 
experiment ; and soon found that the con- 
vulsion 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 se- 
ries of experiments by which he proceeded 
to investigate the law of nature, of which 
accident had thus given him a glimpse, for 
which our article Galvanism must be con- 
sulted. 
In conjunction with these enquiries, his 
duties as a professor, and his employment 
as a surgeon and accoucheur, in which 
branches he was very eminent, gave full oc- 
cupation to his industry. He drew up va- 
rious 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 melan- 
choly. He rarely suffered a day to pass 
without visiting her tomb in the nunnery of 
St. Catherine, and pouring out his prayers 
and lamentations over her remains. He 
was always, indeed, punctual in practising 
the minutest rites of his religion, the early 
strong impressions of which never left him, 
and this attachment to religion was proba- 
bly 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 melancholy, 
and reduced almost to indigence, he retired 
to the house of his brother James, a man of 
very respectable character, and there fell into 
a state oflanguorand almost imbecility. The 
republican governors, probably ashamed of 
their conduct towards such a man, passed 
a decree for his restoration to his profes- 
sional chair and its emoluments ; but it 
then was too late. He died on November 
