Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/589

 GALLIA GALLIC ACID 577 English galley slaves. In France, Richelieu ordered the courts of justice to sentence crimi- nals to the galleys in preference to other pun- ishments, and even those who had committed capital crimes were thus utilized. In the reign of Louis XIV. nearly all convicts were con- demned to this service; and in 1676 it was seriously proposed that vagrants should be thus disposed of, but Colbert refused to sanc- tion the measure. At a later date this was carried into effect, and confirmed mendicants, poachers, and those convicted of the smallest crimes, were sent to the galleys. Even these did not suffice to man the benches, and vari- ous other means were resorted to. Crimi- .nals were sometimes purchased from coun- tries that kept no galleys, slaves were bought from the Turks, and negroes were imported from Guinea. The marquis de Denonville, governor of New France, kidnapped Iroquois Indians for this service. This excited against the French a spirit of hate among the savages which culminated in the massacre of Lachine, and Louis XIV. found it necessary to send back in 1689 all who survived. From the beginning of the 17th century to the early part of the 18th heretics were particularly sought out and condemned to the galleys. Galley slaves were subjected to the greatest cruelties and indigni- ties. Their heads and faces were shaved, and they rowed entirely naked, wearing a uniform only when in port. They were seldom released even when their term of service was accom-, plished. Henry IV. ordered the captains of the galleys to retain prisoners for six years, although condemned for a shorter time; and under Louis XIV. galley slaves sentenced for only two or three years were retained often for 15 or more. Criminals preferred mutila- tion and even death to labor in the galleys. In the Italian republics many free oarsmen were employed, who in their engagements agreed to be chained like the slaves, but their heads were not shaved and they were permit- ted to wear the moustache. These were mostly former criminals. This system was not adopt- ed in France because the lonnevoglies, as they were called, would not consent to be chained. In 1748 the officers of the French galleys, who had until then formed a separate corps, were merged in the royal marine. After this time convicts were employed at hard labor in the arsenals and on the public works, but it was not until 1791 that the detested name galerien went out of use. GALLIA, a S. county of Ohio, separated from West Virginia by the Ohio river and drained by Raccoon and Symmes creeks; area about sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 25,545. It has a rough surface, underlying which are beds of coal and iron. The soil is generally poor ex- in the vicinity of the Ohio. The chief productions in 1870 were 192,558 bushels of wheat, 0-26,033 of Indian corn, 135,688 of oats, 32,358 of potatoes, 438,623 Ibs. of butter, 65,293 of wool, and 12,297 tons of hay. There were 4,889 horses, 4,944 milch cows, 8,943 other cattle, 23,740 sheep, and 13,698 swine ; 3 manu- factories of woollen goods, 1 of sashes, doors, and blinds, 1 of machinery, 1 of furniture, 1 of pig iron, 2 of iron castings, 2 tanneries, 2 currying establishments, 5 flour mills, 4 planing mills, and 6 saw mills. The county was settled by Frenchmen in 1790^ whence its name. Capital, Gallipolis. GALLIC ACID, a product of the decomposition of tannic acid or tannin, obtained in slender, silky needles or crystals. When pure, these are colorless, without odor, sour, and astringent. They are soluble in 100 parts of cold or 3 parts of boiling water, very soluble in alcohol, and less so in ether. Their solution decomposes by exposure to the air. The decomposition of the crystals dried at 212 F. is supposed to be rep- resented by the formula C 7 H 6 O 6. Gallic acid is a useful reagent for detecting the presence of iron in solutions. It does not possess the property of the solution of galls of precipitating gelatine. The acid exists ready formed in the gall nut, in sumach, in valonia, and in a large number of other astringent vegetables, although the quantity in each is but small. Gallic acid is tribasic, and it forms three classes of salts ; those of the heavy metals are generally in- soluble. Several methods are in use for ob- taining it, either directly from the galls or from the solution of tannic acid first extracted from them. The powdered galls are made into a paste with water, and exposed for some weeks to the air at a temperature of 70 to 75 F., water being occasionally added to keep the paste moist. The residue, after expressing the paste to free it from the liquid portion, is boiled in pure water, and filtered while hot ; the crys- tals of gallic acid separate as the solution cools. They should be purified by redissolving and boiling with a little animal charcoal or filtering through the same. As the presence of the smallest quantity of sesquioxide of iron will cause the crystals to be colored, the charcoal should be purified, and the filtering paper be washed with dilute hydrochloric acid. Gallic acid is obtained from solution of tannic acid by pre- cipitation with sulphuric acid, the mixture being heated to the boiling point, and allowed to stand a few days. When gallic acid is heated to 410 F. it is wholly volatilized and converted into pyro-gallic acid and carbonic anhydride. Pyro-gallic acid is used to remove free oxygen from gaseous mixtures and as a developer in photographic operations. When swallowed, gallic acid is rapidly absorbed from the stomach into the blood, and remains in the blood unchanged. When tannic acid is swal- lowed, it undergoes the decomposition indicated above, either before or after absorption, into gallic acid ; so that tannic acid becomes gallic acid in the blood. Hence gallic acid is used as an astringent internally in preference to tan- .nic, and also because it is less irritating to the stomach and more agreeable to the taste. It is rapidly eliminated from the system, chiefly