Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/774

 GAL

GALACHIDES, or Garatides, in natural hiftory, the name of a ftone to which the writers of the middle ages have attri- buted many ridiculous virtues. They have left us no farther defcriptioh of it, than that it was of a blackifh colour j but 'they tell us^ that to try whether it was the right ftonej a man was to be daubed over with honey, and fet in the open air in a furrimer's day, and that holding this ftone in his hand, provided it was a right one, no fly nor other infect Would dare to approach him : after this trial they held it facred, and pretended that it would difcover the thoughts of people if only held in the mouth.

GALACTITES, in the hiftory of foffils, a fubftance much rc- fembling the morochthus, or French chalk, in many re- Ifoects 1, but different from it in colour. The anticnts found it in the Nile, and fome rivers of Greece, and ufed it in me- dicine as an aftringentj and for defluxions and ulcers of the eyes; At prefent it is common in Germany, Italy, and fome parts of France, and is wholly overlooked, being efteemed only a worfekind of the morochthus. See Morochthus. It is a very hard, and dry fubftance, an indurated clay, of a clofe compact texture, very heavy, and in colour of a pale grey, without the leaft admixture of any other tinge. It is of ii lefs even furface than the morochthus, and is Ids hard. It nicks but flowly in the mouth, and leaves fomething of a lu- fcious fweetriefs on the tongue; It does not adhere to the lips or tongue^ and if rubbed down on a marble with water it diffolves into a fubftance of a pure white, refcmbling milk. It does not ferment with acids, and in burning becomes of a pure white; Mill's Hift. of Foil, p. 23.

GALACTODES, milky, a word ufed by the antients in two or three different fenfes. Some ufed it to exprefs tepid, or a little warm, with fuch a heat as that of milk juft drawn from the cow : others expreffed by it a white, fomewhat opake, or milky colour : others expreffed by it only a want of tranfparence in fluids; Galen frequently ufes it in the fecond of thefe fenfes, when treating of urines,

GALACTOPSIA, a method of curing difeafes by drinking milk oh!yj_ The gout^ confumption, and many other chro- nical difeafes, are by many affirm'd to be curable by this means. See Cbeynes Nat, Meth. of curing Difeafes.

GALACTOSP'JNDA, YaT-urJ.w^a,, in antiquity, a libation made with milk. Pott. Archaeol. Grasc. 1. 2; c. 4. T. 1. p. 213. See Libation, Cycl.

GALADES, in natural hiftory, an epithet given by Rondele- tius to a fpecies of chama, remarkable for its milky whitenefs, It is derived from theGreek y*Kr, 3 m ilk. This chama is a very elegant (hell. See Chama.

G ALANG A, galangahj in the materia medica. There are two roots kept in the fliops under this name, a greater and a fmaller; of thefe however the fmaller is by far the moft in efteem, and is almoft the only kind ever heard of in pre- scription.

The galanga minor, or leffer galdngaf, is a fmall fhort root,- of an irregular figure, of the thicknefs of a man's little finger, and is feldom met with in pieces of more than an inch or two long. It has feveral protuberances at its ends, and on its furface, and is unrounded with many circular rings, that ftand out a little beyond the reft of the furface. It is of an extremely firm and compact texture, yet not heavy; it cuts difficultly with a knife, and leaves a polifhed furface. Its colour is a brownifh red 011 the outfide, and a fomewhat brighter red within* though ftill with a confiderable ad mixture of brown.

The fmall galangals are to be chofen full and plump, and of a bright colour, very firm and found, and of an acrid and in- fupportably hot tafte.

The larger galangal anfwers pretty much to the above de- fection, only that it is larger in bulk, and lefs unequal and tuberous than the leffer kind.

The galangah arc both brought us from the Eaft Indies, and are the roots of the fame plant which is of the number of the herhte bulbofis affiles of Mr. Ray. Herman calls that which pro- duces the larger, bauchale Indorum; and that which produces the lefler, lagoudi buhrum.

The people of the Eaft Indies ufe thefe roots by way of fpice. "W ith us the lefler is efteemed an excellent ftomachic, and as fuclMS an ingredient in almoft all bitter infuuons and tinctures. The great one poffeffes the fame virtues, only in a more remifs degree. Vid. HUH Hift. Mat. Med. p. 573, fen. GALARCIDES, or Galarictis, In natural hiftory, a name ufed by the writers of the middle ages for a ftone, to which they attribute great virtues. It is evidently only a corrupt way of fpellmg the word galaclites. See the article Galac-

TITES.

GALAXIUS, in natural hiftory, a name by which many of

the antients have called the morochthus, or French chalk.

^at DT^' ft ' ° f Fofr ' p ' 22, See the artideMoROCHTHUs.

vjALBULA, in zoology, the name of a bird of the thrufh kind, common in Italy and Germany, very remarkable for the elegant ftru&ure and hanging of its neft ; and thence called by lome putts wdum fufpendem, and by others oriolus, chloreus, and tajrus, being fuppofed to be the icterus of Pliny, and !he old writers, J

GAL

It is fomewhat larger than the common thrufh j Its beak is 6f a finger's breadth long and red ; its wing feathers are black, but fome of them are tipped, and others edged with white ■ others of the fmaller feathers have alfo a variegation of yel- low, and the reft are wholly black ; the bird is in all other parts of an extreamly bright and beautiful yellow, fo ele- gant, as very much to approach to the luftre of fome of the American birds. The female is lefs beautiful and has a blackifhnefs and brownifhn.fs mixed with the yellow. It feeds on infects, and is a very delicate tafted bird ; it is in moft places very much efteemed at the table, but is no where to be had at all feafonsj being a bird of paffage, Aldrovand de Avibus.

GALEA, in natural hiftory, the name of a genus of the echi- noderimta, or fea hedgehogs, whofe fhape is that of a large elevated helmet, compofed of feveral tranfverfely joined plates, or afluls, and covered with very fmall and rough tubercles, in the fhape of little granule. This genus,when foffile, is called in, Englifh the helmet ftone, and is marked with ten rows of dou- ble lines, either crenated, or punctated, and running from the top to the bafe; the anterior ones being much longer than the reft. & 6

Of this genus thefe are three known fpecies. 1. The fcu- tated headed one, which has on its fummit an oblon^ penta- gonal piate like a fhield. 2. The naked headed onef diftin- guifhed by its wanting this fhield. 3. That with the tsenUe lacerated and torn, and fhewing plainly that they have been once of the variolated kind. AfeVs Echinod.

Galea Pifcis, in ichthyology, a name given by Gefner, and fome other writers, to the fifh called by other writers muftela alia, and by Artedi reduced to the genus of the blenni. It is the blennus with four bifid beards under the throat. See Blennus.

Galea Venetorum, in zoology, a name given by fome authors to the common muftela. Wilkughby, Hift. Pifc. p. 121. See the article Mustela.

GALEANTHROPIA, in the writings of the antient phyfici- ans, a term ufed to exprefs a fpecies of madnefs, in which the patient fancied himfelf a cat, and endeavoured to perform all the motions of that animal.

GALEETTO, in zoology, the name of a fifh. of the alauda kind, called by Rondeletius, alauda non criftafa, and in Eng- lifh the mulgranoc and the bullcard. It is a fmall fifh of a greenifh yellow, or olive colour, without any variegation in fome, but in others a number of faint blue tranfverfe lines are difpofed on the back, the fides, and the fins j the inter- mediate fpaces between thefe lines on the back are of a redifh brown, and in fome two olive coloured and brownifh lines run longitudinally down the back. The colours, in fhort, vary extremely in this fifh.

The contour of the head is roundifh, but it is compreffed, and fwells out over the gills, and its top rifes into a fort of ridge, and is flatted at the back part, as if the creature had a kind of neck ; the upper jaw ftands our beyond the lower ; it has no fcales, and refembles in many things the gutterugine, but that it wants the eye fins; it is very full of life, and lives, like the eel, many hours without water. It is caught among rocks and ftones about the fhores in the Medi- terranean, and alfo in our own feas. IVilloughby, Hift. Pifc.

P-J33-

Artedi reduces this fifh to the genus of the blenni, and di- ftinguifhes it by the name of the blennus, having the upper jaw longer than the under, and the top of the head acu- minated.

GALEGA, goats rue, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is of the pa- pilionaceous kind, and the piftil arifes from the cup, and fi- nally becomes an oblong cylindric pod, containing ufually ob- long and fomewhat kidney-fhaped feeds : to this it is to be added, that the leaves ftand in pairs on pinnated ribs, to the end of which there grows a fingle or odd leaf. The fpecies of galegtr enumerated by Mr. Tcurnefort are thefe. 1. The common galega with blue flowers, 2. The common galega with blueifh purple flowers. 3. The common galega with white flowers. 4. The African galega with larger flow- ers, and thicker pods: and 5. The American fhrubby ^£'£(7, with purple flowers, and filky pods.

Galega, in medicine, is efteemed a great alexipharmic and fudorific. It is much ufed in Italy, but amongft us only as an ingredient in fome compofitions.

GALENA, a name given by mineralifts to a fpecies of poor lead ore. It was alfo the original name given by Androma- chus to che theriaca, from its effect in bringing on a pleafing calm over the blood and fpirits on taking it.

Galena inanis, in mineralogy, a name given by authors to a glittering fubftance, very much rcfembling fame of the plated ores of lead, but really containing none of that metal. It is more ufually called mock lead and blende.

GALENIA, in botany, a name given by Linnseus to a genus of plants, called by Pontedera, Sberardia. The characters are thefe : The^perianthium is very fmall, and is compofed of one leaf divided into four oblong and hollowed fegments. There are no petals. The ftamina are eight in number, 4. ■ they