Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/573

GALBANUM GALEN 561 by adopting Piso, a noble young Roman, for his successor. Otho, who had hoped for the adop- tion, formed a conspiracy among the soldiers, and Galba was murdered in the forum seven months after the beginning of his reign. GALBANUM, a gum resin obtained from India and the Levant. The plant which produces it is not known with certainty, but it is probably a species of ferula,, a genus of the order umbel- lifers. The drug is imported in massive lumps of irregular shapes, apparently made up of ag- glutinated tears. They are brownish yellow, sometimes greenish, the tears sometimes trans- lucent and bluish or pearl white. Its consis- tency in cold weather is that of wax ; in warm weather it is soft and adhesive, and at 212 F. it can be strained, a process requisite to separate the stems and other impurities with which it is commonly mixed. When quite cold it is brittle and may be pulverized. The taste of galbanum is bitterish, hot, and acrid, and its odor balsamic, peculiar, and disagreeable. It is wholly soluble in dilute alcohol ; less so in ether. Its specific gravity is 1*212; and its composition, by the analysis of Meissner, is as follows: resin, 65'8; gum, 22*6; bassorin, 1*8; volatile oil, 3-4; bitter matter with malic acid, 0*2; vegetal remains, 2-8 ; water, 2; loss, 1*4; total, 100. An essential oil is obtained by dis- tillation, of a fine indigo blue, which it imparts to alcohol. Varieties of galbanum of some- what different qualities are occasionally met with. Galbanum is rarely used medicinally as an internal remedy, though it possesses stimu- lant, expectorant, and antispasmodic properties, on account of which it is sometimes prescribed in catarrhs, chronic rheumatism, &c. 'Its most useful application is in the form of a plaster, alone or in combination with other substances, to produce a mild degree of counter-irritation. "When given internally the dose is from 5 to 16 grs., which may be administered in the form of pills, or made into an emulsion with gum arabic, sugar, water, and the like. GALE, James, an English inventor, born near Plymouth in July, 1 833. Before reaching man- hood he became totally blind. He was for a time a partner in a manufacturing house, and afterward practised as a medical electrician at Plymouth. In 1865 he announced that he had " discovered a means of rendering gunpowder non-explosive and explosive at will, the process for effecting the same being simple, effectual, and cheap, the quality and bulk of the gun- powder remaining uninjured." The invention consists in mixing powdered glass with the gunpowder, which renders it unexplosive, but which by a simple process can be separated from it again. Mr. Gale has also invented an ammunition slide gun, a fog shell, and a balloon shell. Mis biography, by John Plummer, was published in 1868, under the title, "The Story of a Blind Inventor." GALE, Tbeophtlns, an English theologian, born at King's Teignton, Devonshire, in 1628, died at Newington in March, 1678. He graduated at Magdalen college, Oxford, in 1649, became a fellow and an active tutor in 1650, and after- ward a popular preacher in Winchester. At the restoration he was ejected from his fellow- ship for nonconformity. In 1677 he became pastor of a congregation at Holborn, and after- ward taught private pupils at Newington. At his decease he left his property to trustees for the education of dissenting students, and be- queathed his library to Harvard college for the promotion of his principles in New England. Besides his great work, "The Court of the Gentiles, or a Discourse touching the Original of Human Literature, both Philologic and Philosophic, from the Scriptures and Jewish Church," &c. (5 vols. 4to, 1669-'77), he pub- lished " The True Ideal of Jansenism" (1669), PhilosopJiia Generalis (1676), sermons, &c. GALEAZZO. See SFOEZA, and VISCONTI. GALEN, ( hristoph Bernhard yon, a German sol- dier and prelate, born at Bispink, Westphalia, about 1600, died at Ahaus, Sept. 19, 1678. Early connected with the church, and having studied at the Jesuits' college and in various universities, he became prominent in the civil as well as in the ecclesiastical administration of Miinster, and was promoted to be bishop of that see in 1650, after the death of the elector Ferdinand of Cologne. But he had no sooner restored the discipline and prosperity of his diocese, and caused the last remnants of the foreign invaders to leave, than he had to con- tend with the jealousy of the deacon Malling- krott, and with the refractory citizens of Mun- ster. On his threatening to put the place in a state of siege, they sent emissaries with whom he concluded an arrangement. But the feeling against him continued, and the representative of the city at the Hague declared that it would rather be ruled by the Turks, or even by the devil, than by the bishop. While the Nether- lands loaned 25,000 florins to the insurgent city, the emperor Leopold I. threatened (1660) to put it under the ban of the empire, and sent troops for the restoration of obedience. Minister was obliged to surrender (March, 1661) to the bishop, who ruled thenceforward with an iron hand and remained undisturbed in his authority. In 1664 he was appointed by the diet of Ratis- bon as inspector, together with the margrave Frederick of Baden, of the military organiza- tion of the Rhenish alliance, joined with the bulk of his army the war against the Turks, and gained a renown which encouraged him to retaliate upon the Dutch republic, by at- tacking it on land, while England was to en- gage in hostile naval operations. Through the mediation of Louis XIV. peace was made in April, 1666, and the bishop was restored to the possession of his whole diocese with the exception of the domain of Borkelo. In 1672 hostilities were renewed by his joining France against the Netherlands, after having in the preceding year settled his differences with the Brunswick dynasty in regard to the abbey of Korvei, of which he had been appointed ad-