Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/587

 GALLE GALLEY 5T5 goat, and antelope). In the orycteropus of the Cape of Good Hope, an animal related to the ant-eaters, there are two gall bladders. With the exception of the dolphins, it seems that all mammals in which it is absent are vegetable feeders. GALLE, Johann Gottfried, a German astrono- mer, born at Pabsthaus, near Wittenberg, June 9, 1812. He studied at Wittenberg and Berlin, and became a teacher and subsequently an as- sistant at the observatory in the latter city, of which Encke was director. In 1839-'40, for the discovery of three new comets, he received med- als from the king of Denmark and the Lalande prize from the French academy. A doctor's diploma was given to him after his publication in 1845 of Triduum Roemeri, relating to the observations of Ole Komer. In 1846 Le- verrier applied to Galle for aid in searching for the planet which he supposed to exist beyond Uranus. With the assistance of a map just completed by Dr. Bemicker, Galle had the good fortune to be the first to detect this Leverrier planet, subsequently known as Neptune, on the evening of the very same day on which he had received the French astronomer's application (Sept. 23). Encke declared that theoretic as- tronomy had never before achieved so great a victory as on this occasion, and Galle received another Lalande prize from the French acad- emy. In 1851 he was appointed professor of astronomy and director of the observatory at Breslau. Besides numerous contributions on the subject of astronomy and meteorology to scientific periodicals, he has published Grund- zuge der schlesischen Klimatologie (Breslau, 1857), and an extensive supplement to Encke's Kometentafel (1863). GALLETTI, Johann Georg August, a German historian and geographer, born in Altenburg, Aug. 19, 1750, died in Gotha, March 16, 1828. He was a professor at th,e gymnasium of Gotha from 1783 to 1819, and published several man- uals of history. Among his larger works are Kleine WeltgescMchte (27 vols., Gotha, 1787- 1819), and Allgemeine Welfkunde (Leipsic, 1807; 12th ed., Pesth, 1859-'61). GALLEY (Fr. galere), a long, low, narrow vessel of war, propelled by oars and sails. The derivation of the word is uncertain, but it is generally supposed to be from galea, a helmet, either because it was used sometimes as a figurehead, or because the basket-like construc- tion at the head of the mast, for the use of archers and slingers, was shaped like a helmet. The name was first applied under the Byzan- tine empire to this class of vessels, which the ancients designated, according to the number of banks of oars in each, biremes, triremes, quadriremes, &c. The first galleys were mere- ly open boats, with a single rank of rowers on each side, and sometimes with a single mast and a square sail. The rowers were placed amidship and the fighting men in the bow and stern. Platforms for combatants were soon built on the forecastle and stern, and bulwarks 344 VOL. vii. 37 were raised for the protection of oarsmen ; but it was not until the 3d or 4th century B. C. that the two platforms were connected so as to make a complete deck. The Egyptian war galleys of the 15th century B. C. differed very little in general construction from the Mediter- ranean galleys of the 17th century A. D. They were from 116 to 120 ft. long by 16 ft. wide, were propelled by both sails and oars, and were armed with a beak. They are represented sometimes with 22 oars on a side, always ar- ranged in a single bank. According to Pliny, the Erythreeans were the inventors of the bireme, or galley with two banks of oars; Thucydides ascribes the trireme, with three banks, to the Corinthians; the quadrireme, with four banks, is said by Pliny and Diodorus to have been built first by the Carthaginians; and Mnesigiton ascribes the quinquereme, with five banks, to the Salaminians. In the times of Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies, galleys of 12, 15, 20, and even 40 banks of oars were built, according to ancient writers. A vast deal of learning has been expended in at- tempts to explain the method of arrangement of these oar banks, but it is still an unsolved problem. Some scholars maintain that the several banks were actually placed one above the other, and others that the benches were in rising grades, like stairs; but those familiar with naval construction reject these theories. A more plausible one is that of L'Escalier, who supposes that the three banks of the trireme were arranged, not one above the other, but all in a line, one amidship, one abaft the main- mast, and one forward of the foremast; and that in the quinquereme two banks, one above the other, were put amidship, two aft, and one forward. The possibility of two superimposed banks is generally admitted, and some writers believe in three. On the column of Trajan is represented a trireme with three banks of oars one above another, but beyond this number we have no example. The Athenians used nothing but triremes for a long time, but in the 4th century B. C. quadriremes and quinqueremes wsre introduced. In the most flourishing state of their navy they seldom carrie'd more than 10 fighting men in each galley, depending on superior seamanship and sinking an enemy by piercing him with the spur, rather than on overcoming him by a hand-to-hand conflict. The Romans adopted a different system when they built their first navy in the Punic wars. Of the 420 men in each quinquereme, 120 were combatants ; and they fitted their galleys with a boarding bridge, by means of which an ene- my's deck could be reached easily when the vessels were laid alongside of each other. Quinqueremes had usually two masts, each of which carried a square sail. These masts were lowered previous to going into action, and the galleys were manoauvred by oars alone. In time experience proved the superiority of light- er vessels, and the trireme gradually supplant- ed other forms and came to be recognized as