174 G A L 
GAL'ATIN (Peter), a learned Francircan monk, who 
flourifbed at the beginning of the fixteentb century. He 
acquired confiderable reputation by different theological 
and literary-prodirtfions, particularly by De Arcanis Catko- 
bca Veritaiis, Libri XU. {juibm pleraque Religionis Chrifliance 
Capita contra Judaos, tarn ex Scripturis veterts Tejlamenti au- 
thevticis, quam ex Tdlmitdicorum Commentariis, confinnare (3 
illujirare conalus ejl. The firft edition of this work appear¬ 
ed in i 5’.8, and met with fo favourable a reception, that 
it afterwards underwent feveral impreflions at Bafil, 
Frankfort, &c. The befl editions are thofe of Frankfort 
in 1612 and 1672, in folio, to which is added a treatife 
of the learned John Reuchlin, entitled De Cabala, feu de 
fymholica Rcceptione, Dialogus tribus Libris abfoiulus, 
GAI.ATO'L'A, a town of Italy, in the kingdom of 
■Naples, and province of Otranto : four miles eaft-fouth- 
eaff of Nardo. 
GA'LATZ. See Galacz. 
GA'I.AX,/. [yaAcsl, Gr. milk.] In botany, a genus 
of the clafs pentandria, order monogynia. The generic 
charadters are—Calyx; perianth ten-leaved; outer leaf¬ 
lets alternate, fliorter, lanceolate, reflex; inner longer, 
lanceolate, acute, upright. Corolla; one-peialled, fal- 
ver-lliaped ; tube cylindric, length of the calyx ; border 
flat, five-cleft, fegments cbtul'e. Stamina; filaments 
fhort; antherte roundifli, converging within the throat of 
the corolla. Piftillum ; germ ovate, villofe ; (tyle fili¬ 
form, femibifid, length of the ftamens ; ftigmas round, 
ifli. Pericarpium : capfule ovate, one-celled, two-valv- 
cd, coloured, elaftic. Seeds two, large, convex, ovate. 
Callous, as it were lingle two-ldbed.— Effential CharaEltr. 
Calyx ; ten-leaved ; corolla falver-fnaped 5 capfule one- 
celled, two-valved, elaflic. 
Galax aphylla, the only fpecies. This plant is a native 
of Virginia, as yet very rare and little known in Europe ; 
leaves all radical ; ffem naked, Ample, probably woody j 
flowers in a loofe terminating fpike. 
GALAX'IA, f. [yaXafio?, Gr. milky.] In botany, a 
genus of the clafs monadelphia, order triandria, natural 
order enfatae, (irides, Julf ) The generic characters are— 
Calyx : fpathe one-valved, membranaceous, converg. 
ing. Corolla ; one-petalled, ftiperior ; tube filifornt, 
long, eredt, a little widened at top; border fix-parted; 
parts obovate, obtufe, fpreading; the three outer ones 
having a nedtareous pit. Stamina; filaments three, 
united in a cylinder ; antherae ovate. Piftillum : germ 
interior, obtufely triangular, fmcoth ; flyle filiform, a 
■little longer than the (tamens ;• ftigmas three, filiform, 
many-parted, fpreading. Pericarpium ; capfule oblong- 
liibcylindric, three^grooved, three-celled, three-valved. 
Seeds very many, globular, very fmall.— EJfential Charac- 
ter. Spathe one-valved ; corolla one-petalled, fix-clcft ; 
tube capillary ; (ligma many-parted. 
Rpccies. i. Galaxia ovaia, or ovate galaxia ; leaves 
■ ova'e. Root filiform, fixed to an ovate netted comole 
bulb; there are ufually feveral of thefe conglomerate; ftem 
none ; root-leaves heaped, fheathing, ovate, obtufe, flightly 
veined longitudinally, flat, Imootb, the edge fomewhat 
cartilaginous: the calyx is a very thin fheath ; corolla 
variegated with yellow', purple, and violet; capfule 
fmooth ; it flowers from June to September. 
2. Galaxia graminea, or gralfy galaxia : leaves linear- 
filiform. Root as in the preceding; leaves radical, in 
bundles, broader at the bale, then linear, briftle (haped 
at the tip, entire, channelled, , fmooth, very nearly'anlnch 
in lei'igth ; flowers radical, among the fheathing leaves, 
in bundles, feftile, with a long capillary tube, the length 
of the leaves; corolla yellow, varying witli a yellow 
tube and a violet-coloured border. Thefe are both na¬ 
tives of the C.'tpe of Good Hope, where they were fouiid 
by Tluinberg. 
Cavanilles adds a third fpecies, found by Commerfon 
in the Straits of Magell .n. Being doubtful whether it 
belongs to this genus, h; name- it Gadxia ob/ciira. 
GALAXl'A, a feftival, in which they boiled a mix- 
GAL 
ture of barley, pulfe, and milk, called by tire 
Greeks. 
GAL'AXY, f. Gr. galaxte, Fr.] The 
Milky-Way, or Via Lactea, in aftronomy, that whit- 
ifh, luminous track, which feems to encompafs the hea- 
vens'like a fwarlh or girdle ; and which is eafily feen in a 
clear night, elpecially when the moon is not up. It is of 
a confiderable, though unequal, breadth; being alfo in 
fome parts double, but in others fiiigle ; 
A broad and ample road, whofe duff is gold, 
And pavement ftars,'as ftars to thee appear, 
See in the that milky way. 
Which nightly, as a circling ■zone,thou feed 
Powder’d with ftars. MiltoUi 
The galaxy pafles through many of the conftellations 
in its circuit round the heavens, and keeps its ex’aft place 
or polition with refpedt to them. 
Many fabulous ftories concerning the milky-way have 
been invented by the ancient poets and philofophers, fome 
of whom fpeak of it as the road by which the heroes went to 
heaven. The Egyptians called it the way ofJlraw, from the 
ftory of its rifing from btirning ftraw throvvn behind the 
goddefs Ifis in her flight from the giant Typhon. The 
Greeks, who affected to derive every thing in the heavens 
from their fabled intercourfe with the gods, have two 
origins for it : the one, that Juno, without perceiving it, 
accidentally gave luck to Mercury when an infant; but 
that as foon as flie turned her eyes upon him, Ihe threw 
him from her ; and, as the nipple was drawn from his 
mouth, the milk ran round the heavens, and effaced the 
fplendotir of the ftars over which it pafled ; tlie other, 
that the infant Her^cules being laid by the fide of Juno 
when afleep, on w'aking, fhe gave him the breaft ; but 
foon perceiving who it was, Ihe threw him from her, and 
the heavens were marked by the flowing current of milk. 
Philofophers, however, gave it a different turn, and a 
different origin, from the poets; th.efe deemed it to be a 
track of liquid tire, fpread in this manner along the fleies: 
and others again, fuppofing a celeftial region beyond all 
that was vilible, and imagining that fire, at fome time let 
loofe from thence, was to confume the world, made this 
a part of that celeftial fire, and appealed to it as prefage 
of w hat eventually would finely happen. This diffuled 
brightnefs they confidered as a crack in the vault or wall 
of lieaven, and fancied they faw a glimmering of celeftial 
flame through it; and that there required nothing more 
than the opening of this crack by fome accident of nature, 
or by the fiat of the gods, to make the whole frame ftart, 
and thus dilfolve the earth by liquid fire. 
Aiiftotle makes the galaxy a kind of meteor, formed of 
a crowd of vapours, drawn into that part by certain large 
ftars difpofed in tiie region of the heavens anfwering to 
it. Others, on a more rational hypothefis, finding that the 
galaxy was feen all over the globe, that it always conel- 
ponded to the fame fixed ftars, and that it was far above 
the higheft planets, fet Ariftotle’s opinion afide, and placed 
the galaxy in the firmament or region of the fixed ftars; 
concluding it to be an affemblage of an infinite number of 
minute ftars. And fince the invention of telefcopes, and 
the refearches made by the indefatigable Dr. Herlchel, 
tliis opinion has been confirmed. See the article Astro¬ 
nomy, vol. ii. p. ,344-350. 
GAL'BA (Servius Sulpicius), a Roman emperor, de- 
feended from the ancient family of Sulpicii, and fucceed- 
ed to the throne on the death of Nero. See the article 
Rome. 
GALBANE'TUM, f [with phyficians.] A medicinal 
’ compound in which tlie chief ingredient is galbanum. 
GAL'BANUM,. _/! \_ya.}.Zav/), Gr. from n:3‘?n, chalha. 
nak,Ht\s.'\ A concrete, giunuiy, relinous, .juice of an ever¬ 
green plant, with leaves like thofe of anile, growing in 
Syria, the Eaft Indies, and Ethiopia. It is the biibon 
galbanum oi Limnxns. See Bubon, vol. iii. p, 471. This 
drug is brought to us in pale.coloured,' lemitranfparent, 
foft. 
