GAS 
$66 
GASTAL'DUS, f. In antiquity; an officer in a 
prince’s court anfwering to the fteward of the hourtiold, 
GASTAU'D (Francis), a French prieft, and coun- 
fellor of eminence, born at Aix in Provence. When lie 
was fourteen years of age he entered into the congrega¬ 
tion of the Oratory, and went through his courfe of 
philofophy at Marfeilles, and afterwards that of theo¬ 
logy at Arles. At the expiration of five years he quit¬ 
ted the congregation, and removed to Paris, where he 
was admitted into orders, and officiated for fome years 
in the pariffi church of St. Paul. He was greatly ad¬ 
mired and followed as a preacher, and indeed pofleired 
excellent qualifications for a pulpit orator. For, be- 
fides much natural vivacity, he was diftiiiguifiied by the 
corredtnefs and delicacy of his tafle, the eafe of his ad- 
drefs, the chaftity of his elocution, and, what is not 
often combined %vith the foregoing recommendations, 
the folidity and ufefulnefs of his matter. In 1699 he 
publiffied, A Colledlion of Homilies on the Epifile to 
the Romans, &c. in two volumes i2mo. which is a 
work of confiderable merit, and is preceded by an ex¬ 
cellent delineation of the charafter of St. Paul. In 
the fame year another piece came from his pen, of a 
very different nature from the former, entitled. The 
Funeral Oration of Maria-Angelica Carlier, Wife of 
M. Tiquet, Counfellorof the Parliament of Paris, who 
was beheaded for making an attempt upon the life of 
her huffiand. This is a piece of pleafantry, which the 
author’s complaifance towards fome ladies of his ac¬ 
quaintance induced him to draw up, and it was fent to 
the prefs without his karowledge. It occafioned, how¬ 
ever, fome fevere ftriitures to be written againft it by 
father Chauchemer, a Dominican, and a celebrated 
preacher, who very properly reproved the author for 
indulging in a fportive vein on fo ferious a fubjedf, and 
added to them A Moral and Chriftian Difcourfe on the 
Life and Death of Madame T. . . . Thefe pieces 
were colledted together and publiffied in 1699, in 8vo. 
The abbe Gaftaud returned to Aix in 1700 ; and after 
the death of his elder brother, a celebrated advocate in 
the parliament of Provence, determined himfelf to em- 
brace the fame profeffion. With this defign he retired 
into the country, and applied with great diligence to 
the ftudy of the law. He then took his degrees, and 
was admitted an advocate, after he had procured a dif- 
penfation from the court of Rome. At the bar he ap¬ 
peared with the fame diftinftion as had formerly at¬ 
tended him in the pulpit, and was eminently fuccefsful 
in condudling ecclcfiaftical caufes, and thofe in which 
the interefts of the poor were involved. He was one of 
the warmeft admirers of the celebrated Quefnel, and 
one of the moft active opponents of father Giraud, and 
his brethren the Jefuits, againft whom he gained a fa. 
moirs eaufe in 1747. He alfo wrote a bitter piece againft 
the order, entitled, The Policy of the Jefuits unmafked; 
9nd fome treatifes againft the biffiop of Marfeilles, on 
the fubjeil of grace and other topics, which occafioned 
him to feel the fevere vengeance of that prelate; for 
Gaftaud was by his intereft exiled to Viviers, in 1727 ; 
and after he had been permitted to return home, he 
was exiled to the fame place a fecond time in 1731, 
where he died in the courfe of the following year, and 
his corpfe was refufed the rites of Chriftian burial. 
GAS'TEIN, a town of Germahy, in the circle of Ba¬ 
varia, and archbiffiopric of Saltzburg; celebrated for 
its warm baths and mines of lead,, iron, and gold: thir¬ 
ty-fix miles fouth of Saltzburg, and fixteen weft-fouth- 
weft of Radftadt. 
GAS'TEL, a river of Wales, which runs into the 
Conway, in the county of Caernarvon. 
GAS'TERjyi [Greek.] The medical term for the 
belly, the ftomach, or the uterus. 
GAS'TER, a fortrefs of Africa, in the country of 
£egUmeffa, 
GAS 
GAS'TER, a bailiwic of Swifferland, belonging to 
the cantons of Schwitz and Glaris, to whom it was fold 
by the houfe of Auftria, in 1438. 
GASTEROPEL'ECUS, y, in ichthyology. See Sal- 
mo gafieropekcus, 
GASTEROS'TEUS, inichthyology, the Stickler 
BACK; a genus of the thoracic order of fillies, the ge¬ 
neric characters of which are, the tail carinated at the 
Tides, the back furnilhed with prickles, or fpiaes, fepa- 
rate one from the other. The body is long, laterally 
compreffed, and covered with fciua, or bony plates, in. 
Head of fcales. The head is long, and fmootli; the 
jaws ufually of an equal length, and armed with fmall 
teeth. The tongue is Ihort and blunt, the palate 
fmooth. The eyes are placed on the fides of tlie head ; 
they are round, ibmewhat protruded, and covered with 
a membrane. The noftrils are finall, lying midway be¬ 
tween the eyes and mouth. The gill-coverts are round, 
ftriated, and confift of two lamin:e. The membrane of 
the gills is in general quite concealed, and liiftained by 
from three to (even rays. The back is ftraight, and the 
lateral line is parallel with it. The belly is tJiin. They 
have feven fins;^ two peClorals, two ventrals, one anal,, 
one at the tail, and one at the back, with diftinCl fpines 
between it and the head. The ventral fins are behind 
the pectorals, but above the fteraum : this fliews an ap¬ 
proach to the abdominal order- 
Thefe fifties live in the fea; but fome fpecies are found 
in freffi water. They feed on infects, worms, and the 
ova of other fifties. Ho trace of this genus is to be 
found in the writings of the ancient naturalifts. There 
are twenty-one fpecies, three of which only are inhabi¬ 
tants of our rivers and fiiores namely, that with t[iree, 
that with ten, and that with fifteen, fpines upon the 
back. The former are feen in immenie quantities in the 
fens of Lincoliiffiire, and the rivers that flow from thein. 
At Spalding, they appear once every feven or eight 
years in the Welland, where they mount the river in 
Inch vaft columns, that they are ufed in manuring the 
land. An idea of their numbers may be formed, from 
a circuniftance mentioned by Pennant, of a man earning 
four ffiillings a-day by taking and felling tliem to tlie 
farmers at an halfpenny a buffiel. The eaufe of thefe 
temporary migrations of the ftickleback, is liippofed to 
arile from the vaft quantities waffied out of the fens by 
the floods, and collected in Ibme deep bole, till, over¬ 
charged with numbers, they are obliged periodically to 
attempt a change of habitation. The endeavours tliey 
ufe, and the exertions they make, in getting from one 
place to another where obftacles intervene, are very ex¬ 
traordinary ; for, though many fpecies among them are 
feldom known to be more than two indies in length, 
tliey have been feen to fpring a foot and a half (nine 
times their own length) in perpendicular height fronv 
the furface of the water, and in an oblique direClion 
much farther. They fpawn in April aiid June on the 
aquatic plants ; and are very fliori-lived, Icarcely ever 
attaining the third year. They are in general too fmall 
to be of any effential fervice as food to mankind but 
in fome parts of the continent they are of confiderable 
ufe in fattening ducks and pigs. 
I. Gafterofteus aculeatus, the tliree-fpined ftickie- 
back, or banftickle. The three fpines on the back form 
the fpecific charaCler and the Engliffi name. There are 
3 rays iutbe membrane of the gills, 10 in the peCloral 
fins, 2 in the ventrals, 9 in the anal, 12 in the tail, and. 
13 in the dorfal. The head Is foj e-Uiortened, and com¬ 
preffed at the Tides. The jaws are of equal length, and 
the aperture of the mouth pretty wide.. The eyes are 
protruded; pupil black; iris filvery. The covert of 
the gills is.large, and filver-coloured, as are the fides. 
In fome the neck and brealt are of a beautitul red,.which 
is fo durable as to be vilibie after the hill has been leve- 
ral months preferved iit fpirits. Two of the feuta ap- 
geas 
