being attributable to the unequal resistances of the air), the witnesses of this experiment were not convinced, so inveterately were they prejudiced in favour of the doctrines in which they had been taught to place implicit belief. Instead of making converts by his experiments, Galilei discovered that he had made many secret and some open enemies; he therefore left Pisa and removed to the university of Padua (1592), where he was appointed to a professor's chair for the limited period of six years. Here he invented an imperfect species of thermometer, depending on the expansion of the air which remained after a portion was expelled by heat from a narrow glass tube, which was then inverted and immersed in water. His correspondence with Kepler commenced about the same period, and continued with the greatest mutual friendship and regard until his death. A treatise on the Sphere, after the Ptolemaic system, which is attributed to Galilei, appeared about the same time. (Afterwards published at Rome, 1655.) On his re-appointment to the professorship at Padua his .salary was doubled, his fame increased, and his lectures were crowded; but these flattering events were over-balanced by a disagreeable intermittent disease to which he then first became subject, and which pursued him for the remainder of his life. A new star, almost as brilliant as that which directed Tycho Brahe's mind to the study of astronomy, having appeared in 1604, in the constellation of Ophiuchus, he made it the subject of his lectures, which it may be presumed were less explanatory of its cause, than intended as an attack upon the Ptolemaic system. The conjecture now most generally adopted relative to these remarkable phænomena is, that luminosity is not essential to the central body or sun of a planetary system, consequently the star may be quite opaque or partially luminous, and therefore would be either absolutely invisible or only seen when the luminous portion was in the line joining the earth and star: this explanation is sufficient for those which appear and disappear with regularity; in other cases this transitory phænomenon may merely indicate an epoch of change in the cosmogony of the peculiar system of the star. Astronomy did not however engross all the attention of Galilei. He read and admired Gilbert's work, ' On the Nature of Bodies,' and adopted his views on the subject of terrestrial gravity, and constructed magnets after his example; about the same time he attacked with some bitterness one Capra, who ascribed to himself the invention of a species of compass which Galilei had made; and he wrote also on practical methods for the measurement of heights and distances. Shortly afterwards he states in a letter, that 'he intended hereafter to write three books on the system of the universe; three books on local motion; three books of mechanics; also on sound, speech, light, the tides, continuous quantity, animal motion, and castrametation; many of which, it is supposed, were destroyed by his relatives after his death, at the instance of the family confessor. The year 1609 was signalized by the construction of the Galilæan telescope, which consisted of a plano-convex object-glass, and a plano-concave eye-glass, and thus he laid the foundation of the brilliant discoveries in the solar system, which have rendered that science the most perfect of which the objects are the most remote. It is true that Jansen, a Dutch optician, and some others previous to him, had constructed microscopes, and perhaps imperfect telescopes, but they cannot claim the invention of the astronomical telescope, their articles having been more intended for toys and puerile amusement than any valuable practical purpose; and as they had no notion of applying them to the heavenly bodies, it is obvious that their random constructions would be totally inapplicable to such a purpose. However the long-mooted question of the invention of this noble instrument of science may be decided, its application by Galilei to astronomy, for the first time, Indisputable. His first telescope was presented to the Doge of Venice, by whom the professorship at Padua was confirmed to him for life, with the greatest salary which had ever been there given to the mathematical professor, Viz., about 1000 florins. Galilei, impatient to obtain ocular evidence of what he called the structure of the universe,' soon provided himself with a second instrument, and on directing it towards the on, this luminary became immediately stripped of the character of geometrical perfection, absurdly attributed to all the celestial bodies by the schoolmen, according to whom they were all perfectly round, self-luminous, and uncorrupted by any terrestrial tarnisn. The more obscure parts of the lunar surface, which they imagined had arisen from some earthly taint consequent on the proximity of the moon, being now rendered distinctly visible, taught Galilei that the surface of the moon was irregular and uneven, having mountains and valleys of much greater extent, in proportion, than those on our globe; the faint light on the darkened portion of the moon's surface he recognised to be the reflection of the sun's rays from the earth; the luminous isolated points near her inner border, and the jagged outline of that border, showed the great inequalities on her surface, since the mountain-tops would be illuminated by the sun, while the sides and base would lie in obscurity, in consequence of the convexity of the surface. In pursuing these observations, he found that the moon turns towards the earth the same face constantly, so that nearly a hemisphere of her surface can never be visible to us. From this remarkable fact he does not appear to have drawn the inevitable consequence, that the time of her rotation round her own axis, and the time of a revolution round the earth, must be exactly equal. Lagrange afterwards suggested that this effect was primitively caused by the determination of the lunar figure, in which the heavier part being originally accumulated towards the attracting primary, the moon, in its revolution, would always have a tendency to fall towards the heavier side s determined. Galilei subsequently observed the librations of the moon, by which small portions of her more distant hemisphere are alternately brought in view; but he was not in a situation to give a satisfactory explanation of the cause, from the imperfection of theoretical astronomy. The idea which was suggested from the appearance of oceans and continents, mountains and valleys, on the moon, that she might be habitable, overwhelmed the schoolmen with horror, and struck the religious with alarm. On examining the nebula, and particularly the Milky Way, with his glass, he perceived that they were composed of myriads of stars, or, in the language of Milton, powdered with stars.' It may be remarked in passing, that Milton visited Galilei, and entertained the highest opinion of his philosophy, to which he makes several beautiful allusions in his Paradise Lost.' The planet Jupiter furnished matter for still greater wonder. Galilei perceived three very small stars eastward of the planet, and close to its disc; two of them, on a subsequent observation, had distinctly changed position to the westward: he soon perceived that they were satellites; and shortly afterwards he discovered the fourth. The strength which this discovery gave to the Copernican system, from the analogy with our moon, however gratifying to Galilei in a speculative point of view, did not prevent his ever-active mind from perceiving its great practical importance in the question of determining longitudes at sea; but it was reserved for a future age to bring this and other methods to a degree of perfection then impracticable. The theory of astronomy and the construction of chronometers were, at that time, in a most imperfect state; and though Galilei offered his services to Spain, then a great maritime power, it is doubtful whether he would not have had cause for regret if the wished-for arrangement had taken place. The manner in which he was assailed after this discovery must have caused him amusement rather than chagrin: some would not look through his glass to be convinced; one Horky asserted that he had used the telescope, and that he saw nothing of the kind; one thought it odd that nature should give satellites to Jupiter for no purpose but to immortalize the Medici family (for Galilei had denominated them Medicean stars, in honour of his patron). Some time after, his opponents found out five satellites for Jupiter instead of four; while one had the impudence to say that he actually saw nine satellites. (1610.) On examining Saturn with the telescope he perceived his ring, or rather rings (as Sir W. Herschel has since shown), but viewing it in perspective, he took the lateral portions for two small stars, which induced him to announce in transposed letters the following sentence 'Altissimum Planetam tergeminum observavi.' (The most distant planet I have observed to be threefold.) Huyghens was the first who corrected this error; though it is remarkable that the occasional disappearance of the supposed lateral planets, which arose from the relative change of the position of the ring, which so much asto- | nished Galilei, had not suggested to him the correct nature of the phænomenon: we must however remember the great imperfections of the first-constructed telescopes. His next discovery he also concealed in the same enigmatical manner; the transposed letters signify, in their proper order 'Cynthia figuras æmulatur mater amorum; (Venus rivals the moon's phases;} alluding to the crescent form of this planet when in or near conjunction. His discovery of spots on the sun's dise, which were evidently attached to that luminary, was a severe blow to the imaginary perfection of the schoolmen. The Jesuits had always entertained a cordial hatred for Galilei, as he had joined the party by whom they had been expelled from Padua; the progress of his discoveries was therefore reported to the Inquisition at Rome, as dangerous to religion, and he was cpenly denounced from the pulpit by Caccini, a friar. In his own justification he wrote letters, one to his pupil Castelli, and another to the archduchess Christina, in which he repudiates any attack upon religion, and states that the object of the Scriptures was to teach men the way of salvation, and not to instruct them In astronomy, for the acquiring of which they were endowed with sufficient natural faculties. Nevertheless the Inquisition was implacable, and ordered Caccini to draw up depositions against Galilei; but his appearance in person at Rome in 1615, and his able defence of his conduct, for a moment silenced his persecutors. In March, 1616, the pope (Paul V.) granted Galilei an audience, and assured him of his personal safety, but positively required him not to teach the Copernican doctrine of the motion of the earth: Galilei complied, and left Rome in disgust. He had soon occasion to turn his attention again to Astronomy, for in 1618 there appeared no less than three comets, on which occurrence Galilei advised his friends not to conceive too hastily that comets are like planets, moving through the immensity of space, but that they may be atmospheric; his reasons for this, though ingenious, are fallacious, as are those which he afterwards gave for the causes which produce tides, which he attributes to the unequal velocities of different parts of the sea by reason of the combination of the rotatory and progressive motions of the earth, which at some points conspire together and at others are opposed. Wallis afterwards seems to have adopted the same opinion, which could never have been entertained had either of them reflected on the complete independence of the rotatory and progressive motions of bodies. The motion of the whole solar system too would, on their supposition, have affected the tides; but Dynamics had as yet no existence, and Galilei often frankly confesses that he is more a philosopher than a mathematician. He afterwards went to Rome, and was received with great kindness by the next pope (Urban VIII.): his enemies were silenced for awhile, and he was sent home to Tuscany loaded with favours and presents; and though his patron, Cosmo II. de' Medici, was dead, his successor, Ferdinand II., showed him strong marks of esteem and attachment. In 1630 he finished, and in 1632 completed his celebrated work, Dialogue on the Ptolemaic and Copernican Systems,' which he dedicated to Ferdinand II. By giving the work this form, his object seems to have been to evade his promise not to teach the Copernican doctrines. Three fictitious persons conduct the dialogue: Salviati, a Copernican; Sagredo, a banterer on the same side; and Simplicio, a Ptolemaist, who gets much the worst both by jokes and argument. The pope, who had been personally friendly with Galilei, fancied that he was the person held up to ridicule in the last character, as some arguments which he had used had been put into Simplicio's mouth; he was therefore mortally offended, and the Inquisition resolved not to allow the attempted evasion of Galilei's solemn promise. Galilei was accordingly summoned to Rome, though he was 70 years of age and overwhelmed with infirmities; he had however all the protection and comforts which the Grand Duke could confer on him, being kept at the Tuscan ambassador's house, and this spirited man (Nicolini) even wished to maintain him at his own expense when he perceived a penurious disposition in Ferdinand's minister. After some months' residence in Rome he was again summoned before the Inquisition, and on the 20th of June appeared before the assembled inquisitors in the Convent of 1st. The proposition that the sun is the centre of the world and immoveable from its place, is absurd, philosophically false, and formally heretical; because it is expressly contrary to Holy Scripture. 2ndly. The proposition that the earth is not the centre of the world, nor immoveable, but that it moves, and also with a diurnal motion, is absurd, philosophically false, and theologically considered at least erroneous in faith.' After a long and declamatory exposé, from one passage in which it has been suspected that Galilei was put to the torture, it concludes thus We decree that the book of the Dialogues of Galileo Galilei be prohibited by edict; we condemn you to the prison of this office during pleasure; we order you, for the next three weeks to recite once a week the seven penitential psalms, &c. &c.' To obtain so mild a sentence Galilei was obliged to abjure, on the Gospels, his belief in the Copernican doctrine. We quote a part of his abjuration: ‘With a sincere heart and unfeigned faith I abjure, curse, and detest the said errors and heresies (viz. that the earth moves, &c.); I swear that I will never in future say or assert anything, verbally or in writing, which may give rise to a similar suspicion against me. · 'I Galileo Galilei have abjured as above with my own hand.' Rising from his knees after this solemnity, he whispered to a friend, E pur se muove: It moves, for all that.' This sentence and abjuration having been generally promulgated, the disciples of Galilei found it necessary to act with prudence, but their esteem for their master was not diminished by this compulsory abjuration. Afflictions followed quickly the old age of Galilei. In April, 1634, he lost a beloved daughter who was his only stay. He was allowed to return to Arcetri, where she breathed her last, but he was still kept in strict confinement. After two years spent in this unhappy condition his confinement became more rigorous through some new suspicions entertained by the pope, so that after having been allowed to remove to Florence for the benefit of his declining health he was ordered to return to Arcetri. In 1636 he became totally blind, about which time he finished his Dialogues on Motion,' which were remarkable enough for the time or for any other man, though not perhaps commensurate with the high ideas associated with the name of Galilei; and though he believed this work could not annoy the holy office, yet the terror was so great and universal that he could not get it published until some years after, when it was undertaken at Amsterdam. Amonst the most celebrated pupils of Galilei are Viviani and Torricelli, the former of whom in particular bore a strong attachment for his master. While Torricelli was arranging a continuation for the Dialogues on Motion,' Galilei was suddenly taken ill with a palpitation of the heart, and, having lingered two months, he died on the 8th January, 1642. He appears to have been of a sprightly temperament, easily crossed and easily reconciled; his kindness to his relatives, which distinguished him from his childhood to old age, and which went frequently to such an extent as to embarrass himself, forms a noble trait in his domestic character; he was somewhat attached to the bottle and was considered a good judge of wine; he contrived to have his son Vincentio legitimized, but afterwards had the misfortune to find his hopes in this lad rather disappointed. Galilei was also acknowledged to have an excellent taste for music, painting, and poetry, and the style of his 'Dialogues is still much praised by his countrymen. His works have been collected in 13 vols. 8vo., Milan, 1811; there have been also several other collections of the same, and they have been published in separate tracts. Viviani, his disciple, wrote his life and left a legacy to raise a monument to his memory. Newton was born one vear after Galilei's death. One of the best-written biographies of Galilei that has yet appeared is by Mr. Drinkwater. see. GALINUS. The reference to this word is a typogra-cessary, were not the true Angostura bark liable to be conphical error. It should have been GALIACEAE, which founded with the false, which possesses such poisonous properties that very fatal consequences have resulted from GALIPE'A, a genus of Rutaceous shrubby or arborescent the substitution of the one for the other. It is probable plants, inhabiting the warmer parts of South America. that the false is the bark of some species of South AmeTheir leaves are often simple, occasionally 3-4-5-leafleted, rican strychnos, as it contains strychnia as well as brucia not divided at the edge, covered with pellucid or glandular [BRUCIA], two most potent alkaloids. The idea that this dots. The flowers are small, white or pink, often fragrant, spurious bark is obtained from the Brucea ferruginea is enin axillary, extra-axillary or terminal, racemes, corymbs, or tirely unfounded, as that tree grows in Abyssinia, and the panicles. The most remarkable species is the Galipea or false Angostura bark comes mixed with the genuine, and Bonplandia trifoliata, which has also been called Cusparia not as an isolated or distinct commercial article. febrifuga, and Galipea Cusparia, a plant yielding Angostura False Angostura bark was first observed in 1804 by Dr. bark, a medicine employed as a febrifuge and in dysentery. Rambuch, of Hamburg, by poisonous effects following the It is found in the neighbourhood of Angostura on the use of a decoction of the bark; and similar consequences Spanish Main. having been observed at Vienna, the Austrian government ordered all the Angostura bark in the empire, genuine as well as false, to be burnt, and interdicted its future importation. The Russian and Würtemberg authorities made known the danger, and published the marks of distinction, which are sufficiently characterized, and to prevent accidents, may be here enumerated. Genuine. GALIPEA. (Materia Medica.) The genuine Angostura or cusparia bark is obtained from a species of this genus, but whether from the G. cusparia, as stated by Humboldt, or by a distinct species, G. officinalis, as asserted by Dr. Hancock, is not determined. Angostura bark is obtained both from the stem and branches; the specimens from the stem are flat, from 2 to 3 lines thick, while those from the branches are often quilled, and from to 1 line thick. The pieces are sometimes from 6 to 15 inches, but more frequently only from 2 to 6 inches long, and from to 2 inches broad. Some specimens have the surface covered with a thick, fungus-like, whitish-yellow or clay-coloured crust, which may be more or less easily scraped off, and beneath which is a yellowish-red smooth bark, often exhihiting small cracks. Other specimens have this covering much thinner and closely adhering to the bark. The internal surface is generally smooth, of a tawny or reddishyellow colour. The bark is easily broken, and the recent fracture is of a brownish-red colour, smooth, with a resiny shining surface. The shining appearance is best seen when a transverse section is made with a sharp knife. The smell is disagreeable: the taste pleasantly bitter, warm, aromatic, and causing a flow of saliva. The powder has the colour of rhubarb. The infusion is of an orange-yellow colour; the decoction a clear light brown. Brandes thought that he had discovered an alkaloid, which he proposed to call Angosturin, but it has not been detected by subsequent chemists. This bark contains neither gallic acid nor tannin. According to the analysis of Fischer it consists of Volatile oil (of an acrid nature) 0.3 1.7 Spurious. Pieces of greater breadth than length; thickness never less than a line, often two lines. Epidermis generally clear (but sometimes undergoing a peculiar transformation), and seldom having any, or not more than two lichens (Opegrapha Pelletieri, and Pyrenula nitida). The crust has the general properties of the bark, and assumes a deep green by the action of nitric acid. It contains a resinous colouring principle, Strychnochromin. Crust not easily removed. Inner surface brown, or even black, not separable into layers. Texture compact, heavy, not easily broken, fracture even, but not shining or resinous, exhibiting two layers. Very difficult to cut. Scarcely softens in water. Taste in the highest degree disgustingly bitter; very durable, and not at all aromatic or astringent. Re-agents produce the following effects on a cold infusion of each : Colour of infusion of spurious, light yellow. Colour of infusion of genuine, orange yellow. extent which it merits. In the treatment of the bilious | abound with fish and water-fowl. GALL, ST., THE CANTON OF, one of the cantons of the Swiss Confederation, situated at the north-east extremity of Switzerland, is bounded on the north by the canton of Thurgau and the lake of Constance; east by the Austrian province of the Vorarlberg; south by the cantons of Gri3ons and Glarus, and west by those of Schwyz and Zürich. Its area is reckoned at 780 square miles, and its population, which has been rapidly increasing for the last twenty years, amounted in 1831 to 165,740 inhabitants, of whom 62,500 were Protestants and the remainder were Catholics. St. Gall is a new canton, which was formed at the beginning of the present century by the union of the territories of the Abbot of St. Gall with the free town of St. Gall, and several districts formerly subject to the old cantons, namely, the Rheinthal, Sargans, Werdenberg, Utznach, Gaster, and Sax, and the town of Rapperschwyl. By the agglomeration of so many various districts which happened to be situated all round the old canton of Appenzell, that canton is now enclosed on every side by the territory of St. Gall. (APPENZELL.) The spoken language of St. Gall is a dialect of the German, resembling the Swabian. There are rich iron mines at Gunzenberg; and coals and turf are found in several districts. Manufactures constitute an important branch of industry. Ever since the thirteenth century the town of St. Gall was known for its linen manufactories, which now have been replaced by those of cotton goods and especially muslins. In 1828, 124,000 pieces of muslins and other cotton goods were manufactured in the canton. The women are also employed in embroidery, for learning which there is a gratuitous school for poor girls. The tanneries have fallen off of late years, the people now preferring to export raw hides. About 3000 bullocks' hides and 2000 goats' skins are exported annually. The town of St. Gall is a place of great trade, especially with Germany and Italy, and contains some wealthy merchants, manufacturers, and bankers or bill-brokers. The canton is divided into fifteen districts, namely: St. Gall, Tablat, Rorschach on the banks of the lake of Constance, Unter Rheinthal, Ober Rheinthal, Werdenberg, Sargans, Gaster, See Bezirk on the banks of the lake of Zürich, Ober Toggenburg, Unter Toggenburg, Alt Toggenburg, Neu Toggenburg, Wyl, Gossau. The finest districts are the Rheinthal, Rorschach, St. Gall, Wyl, the greater part of the Toggenburg, and the See Bezirk; the remaining or southern districts are mountainous. St. Gall, the capital of the canton, once a free imperial city, and afterwards an ally of the old Swiss cantons, is si tuated in a pleasant valley, is well built, well supplied with water, and contains above 400 houses within the walls, and 8900 inhabitants, of whom 1230 are Catholics. The principal buildings are, the old Abbey Church, one of the finest in Switzerland, with handsome paintings; the former convent, now a gymnasium; the Casino or assembly-room, the town-house, several hospitals and asylums, and the public granaries. The old Abbey library has above 1000 MSS., many of them valuable; several of the classics which were considered as lost, were discovered in the middle ages in this library by Poggio Bracciolini and other philologists. St. Gall is one of the most commercial towns of Switzerland; but its inhabitants are likewise fond of the sciences and literature, as appears from the existence of numerous societies, private libraries, collections of natural history, and other similar establishments within the town. The environs are em St. Gall is forty miles east of Zürich, and forty-five miles north of Coire in the Grisons. Rappertswyl is prettily situated on a peninsula projecting into the lake of Zürich, with a bridge 4500 feet long, which crosses over to the south bank of the lake; it has some manufactories and about 1500 inhabitants. Altstätten in the upper Rhein thal, in the midst of a fertile country, is a place of some trade, with about 6000 inhabitants, including its commercial ter ritory. Rheinek in the lower Rheinthal, on the left bank of the Rhine, which separates it from the Austrian territory has about 1400 inhabitants: the red wine made in the neighbourhood is among the best in Switzerland. The canton of St. Gall is in great part a mountainous country, being intersected by various offsets of the Alps, the highest of which are continuations of the great chain which bounds on the north the valley of the Upper Rhine in the Grisons country, and which on entering the territory of St. Gall at the summit called Scheibe (9000 feet) divides into three branches, one running north along the frontiers of Glarus as far as the south bank of the lake of Wallenstadt, another eastwards between St. Gall and the Grisons, forming the summit called Galanda (8800 feet high) and the third extending north-east into the canton of St. Gall, between the rivers Tamina and Seez. North of the lake of Wallenstadt is another chain running in a north-west direc-bellished with numerous country-houses and promenades. tion, which divides the basin of the Linth from that of the Thur, and contains several summits between 6000 and 7000 feet high. North of the Thur and between it and the lake of Constance is another extensive group of mountains, known by the name of Alpstein, which cover nearly the whole of Appenzell, and extend also into the adjacent districts of St. Gall. The general slope of the surface is towards the north and north-west, the streams running in those directions. The principal rivers are: 1. the Rhine, which coming from the Grisons touches the canton of St. Gall near Pfäffers, and flowing northwards forms its eastern boundary for a length of about fifty miles, dividing it first from the Grisons, and afterwards from the Vorarlberg, until it enters the lake of Constance below Rheinek. Its principal affluent in the canton of St. Gall is the Tamina, a rapid Alpine stream which rises in the Scheibe, crosses the south part of the canton, passes by Pfäffers, and enters the Rhine below Ragaz. 2. The Seez, which rises also in the south part of the canton, runs first north-east and then north-west, and enters the lake of Wallenstadt. 3. The Thur, which rises in the central part of the canton near Wildhaus, Zuingli's birth-place, runs northwards through part of the fine district of Toggenburg, passes by Lichtensteg, receives the Necker on its right bank, and after a course of about forty miles enters the canton of Thurgau near Bischofszell. 4. The Sitter, which coming from the canton of Appenzell, passes near the town of St. Gall and enters Thurgau,. where it joins the Thur. 5. The Goldach, which rises also in Appenzell, and runs into the lake of Constance. The north ai.d north-west districts of the canton towards the borders of Thurgau are mostly level, as well as the banks of the Linth, between the lakes of Wallenstadt and Zürich, where an extensive marsh has been drained by means of the canal of the Linth. The agricultural produce of the canton consists chiefly of wine, fruits in great abundance, especially apples and cherries, some corn, Indian corn, potatoes, and pastures. There are considerable forests in the southern part of the canton, and much wood is exported. The domestic animals are oxen, sheep, goats, pigs, and horses; the rivers and lakes The The government of St. Gall is a democracy. members of the Great Council or Legislature are chosen in their respective districts by all the citizens above twentyone years of age, except those who are supported by the public charities, bankrupts, and those whose immoral conduct is attested by legal proof. The members are elected for two years. The Great Council appoints from among its body the members of the Little Council or Executive for four years. It also appoints those of the Criminal Court and of the Court of Appeal. The citizens of each district appoint every year their own amman or prefect, and other local authorities. All the laws emanating from the Great Council are subject to the sanction of the electors of the various communes, if they choose to exercise their right within forty-five days after the passing of the law: that period being expired without any objection made by the majority of the communes, the law becomes in force. All absent electors are considered as voting in favour of the law. The constitution of St. Gall is one of the most democratic among the representative cantons of Switzerland: it approaches nearly to that of the landsgemeinde or pure democracies of the little cantons. This constitution dates from 1831, when, being laid before the communal assemblies for their sanction, the number of citizens having the right of voting being 32,980, it was negatived by 11,097, and approved of by 9,253, to which latter number was added that of 12,630, who were absent, and who were considered, according to a clause in the project of the constitution itself, among the ayes. tained by discerning how far one portion of the head sur- At length, after unremitting exertion, and constant study for upwards of twenty years, Dr. Gall delivered his first course of lectures, in 1796, at his house in Vienna. Supported by a vast accumulation of facts, he endeavoured to prove that the brain was the organ on which all external manifestations of the mind depended; that different portions of the brain were devoted to particular intellectual faculties or moral affections; that, cæteris paribus, these were developed in a degree proportioned to the size of the part on which they depended; and that, the external surface of the skull corresponding in form with the surface of the brain, the character of each individual was clearly discernible by an examination of his head. The revenues of the state derived from the income-tax, licenses for shops, public-houses, and sporting, stampduties, tolls, monopoly of salt, post-office, and national domains, amounted in 1835 to 305,597 florins, and the expenditure of the same year was 274,054 florins. Each of the two religious communions in the canton administer their own affairs. The Catholics have a Board of Administration; the property of their church is 1,627,776 florins, and they have four convents of monks and ten nunneries. They were formerly under the diocese of the bishop of Coire and St. Gall; but in 1833, on the death of the last bishop, the Catholics of St. Gall refused to acknowledge his successor, appointed by the pope; the Grisons likewise demanded the separation of their diocese from that of St. Gall; and after much discussion, the pope, in 1836, decreed the dissolution of the double bishoprick, and appointed an apostolic vicar to superintend the ecclesiastical affairs of St. Gall and Appenzell. The abbot of St. Gall has long since lost all his domains and revenues, and the convent has been suppressed. A pension was offered to the last abbot, Pancratius, in 1814, which he refused, and claimed the restoration of his former rights. Having endeavoured in vain to interest the Allied powers in his favour, he retired to the convent of Müri, in the canton of Lucerne. (Leresche, Dictionnaire Géographique Statistique de la Suisse; Walsh, Voyage en Suisse; Franscini; Dandolo.) | GALL, DR. FRANZ JOSEPH, the founder of the system of phrenology, was born at Tiefenbrunn, in Suabia, on the 9th of March, 1757. He seems at a very early age to have evinced habits of accurate observation, for it is said that, when a boy at school, he often amused himself with remarking the differences of character and talent among those educated alike, among his brothers and sisters, and his playmates and schoolfellows. He saw, too, that these characters seldom changed-that education rarely altered the good or bad temper of a child, or gave the talent which he exhibited in one subject a direction towards another. He observed that the boys who were his most formidable competitors were all distinguishable by a peculiar expression of countenance, the result of unusual protrusion of the eyeball, which seemed to him a certain sign of talent. On his removal to another school he still found himself invariably beaten by his bull-eyed' companions, as he called them, and making the same observations as before, he found all his playmates still distinguished for some peculiar talent or temper. He next went to the university of Vienna to pur-viously taught in psychology, produced no little excitement. sue his studies for the medical profession, and at once began to search for prominent eyes among his fellow-students; all that he met with were, as he found, well known for their attainments in classics, or languages generally, or for powers of recitation; in short, for talent in language; and hence the sign of a prominent eye, which he had first thought indicated talent generally, he became convinced marked a facility for acquiring a knowledge in words, which was the principal study in the schools of his boyhood. This coincidence of a peculiar talent with an external physiognomic sign, led him to suspect that there might be found some other mark for each talent, and remembering that at school there were a number of boys who had a singular facility in finding birds' nests, and recollecting where they had been placed, while others, and especially himself, would forget the spot in a day or two, he began to search among his fellow-students for all who indicated a similar knowledge and memory of places, that he might see in what feature that would be indicated, and he soon thought he found them all marked by a peculiar form of the eye-brow. He now felt convinced that by accurate observation of the shape of the head in different persons, he should find a mark for every kind of talent, and he lost no opportunity of examining the forms of the head in poets, painters, mechanics, musicians, and all distinguished in art or science. He found external signs in each class that separated them from the rest, and he thought he could now clearly discern the character of each by their cranial formation before he inquired into their pursuits or reputation. He had observed that persons remarkable for determination of character had one part of their heads unusually large, and he was therefore led to seek whether there were not signs of the moral affections similar to those which he believed he had discovered to indicate the intellectual powers. After some time he found that these affections also might be ascer P. C., No. 664. A doctrine so new, and so subversive of all that had been pre To some the number of simple facts, the apparently clear and necessary deductions from them, and the ease with which the new system seemed to lead to the knowledge of a science hitherto so obscure, were sufficient to secure at once their assent, while others said that Gall, beginning with a theory, had found at will facts to support it; that a plurality of powers in the same organ was too absurd to be imagined, and that the doctrine, leading on the one hand to fatalism, on the other to materialism, would, if received, be subversive of all the bonds of society, and opposed to the truths of religion. It was argued with all the ardour with which new doctrines are so generally assailed and defended, but Gall took little part in these disputes, and still continued to lecture and collect more facts. He gained disciples daily, and in 1800 Dr. Spurzheim became his pupil. In 1804 this gentleman was associated with him in the study of his science, and to this fortunate event phrenology probably owes much of its present clearness and popularity. Spurzheim possessed a mind peculiarly adapted for generalizing facts, of which the science at that time almost entirely consisted, and besides being most ardent and industrious in the pursuit of additional support for the doctrines, he had a suavity of manner and a brilliancy of conversation which prepossessed all in favour both of himself and his science. It is from him indeed that nearly all the knowledge of phrenology at present current in England has been derived; for till his arrival here in 1814, and the publication of his Physiognomical System' in 1815, nothing was known of the science except from a small translation of a German treatise in 1807, and some very unfavourable notices of it in periodicals. Since that time too the smaller size and more popular style of his books have made them far more generally known than those of his preceptor, and a large majority of the phrenologists of this country are entirely of the school of Spurzheim. Soon after their association, Drs. Gall and Spurzhe VOL. XI.-H |