in the animal economy. See Bile.

Gall, was generally given among the Jews, to persons suffering death under the execution of the law, to make them less sensible of their pain; but gall and myrrh are supposed to have been the same thing; because at our Saviour's crucifixion, St Matthew says, they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall; whereas St Mark calls it wine mingled with myrrh: The truth of the matter perhaps is, that they distinguished every thing bitter by the name of gall. The Greeks and Romans also gave such a mixture to persons suffering a death of torture.

A great number of experiments have been made upon the gall of different animals, but few conclusions can be drawn from them with any certainty. Dr Percival, however, hath shown, that putrid bile may be perfectly corrected and sweetened by an admixture of the vegetable acids, vinegar, and juice of lemons. These, he observes, have this effect much more completely than the mineral ones; and hence, he thinks, arises the great usefulness of the vegetable acids in autumnal diseases; which are always attended with a putrefactive disposition of the bile, owing to the heat of the preceding summer. On this occasion he takes notice of a common mistake among physicians, who frequently prefer elixir of vitriol in those diseases, where vinegar or lemon juice would be much more effectual.

Vol. VII. Part. II.

From this effect of acids on the gall, he also thinks, we may see why the immoderate use of acids is so pernicious to digestion. It is necessary to health that the gall should be in some degree acrid and alkaline; but as acids have the property of rendering it perfectly mild and sweet, they must be proportionably pernicious to the due concoction and assimilation of the food; which without an acid bile cannot be accomplished. Hence the body is deprived of its proper nourishment and support, the blood becomes vapid and watery, and a fatal cachexy unavoidably ensues. This hath been the case with many unfortunate persons, who, in order to reduce their excessive corpulency, have indulged themselves in the too free use of vinegar. From the mild state of the gall in young children, Dr Percival also thinks it is, that they are so much troubled with acidities.

Gall Bladder. See Anatomy, no 97.

natural history, denotes any protuberance or tumor produced by the puncture of insects on plants and trees of different kinds.

These galls are of various forms and sizes, and no less different with regard to their internal structure. Some have only one cavity, and others a number of small cells communicating with each other. Some of them are as hard as the wood of the tree they grow on, whilst others are soft and spongy; the first being termed gall nuts, and the latter berry galls, or apple-galls.

The general history of the gall is this. An insect of the fly kind is instructed by nature to take care for the safety of her young, by lodging her eggs in a woody substance, where they will be defended from all injuries; she for this purpose wounds the leaves or tender branches of a tree; and the lacerated vessels, discharging their contents, soon form tumors about the holes thus made. The external coat of this excrescence is dried by the air; and grows into a figure which bears some resemblance to the bow of an arch, or the roundness of a kernel. This little ball receives its nutriment, growth, and vegetation, as the other parts of the tree, by slow degrees, and is what we call the gall-nut. The worm that is hatched under this spacious vault, finds in the substance of the ball, which is as yet very tender, a substance suitable to its nature; gnaws and digests it till the time comes for its transformation to a nymph, and from that state of existence changes into a fly. After this, the insect, perceiving itself duly provided with all things requisite, disengages itself soon from its confinement, and takes its flight into the open air. The case, however, is not similar with respect to the gall-nut that grows in autumn. The cold weather frequently comes on before the worm is transformed into a fly, or before the fly can pierce through its inclosure. The nut falls with the leaves; and although you may imagine that the fly which lies within is lost, yet in reality it is not so; on the contrary, its being covered up so close, is the means of its preservation. Thus it spends the winter in a warm house, where every crack and cranny of the nut is well stopped up; and lies buried as it were under a heap of leaves, which preserves it from the injuries of the weather. This apartment, however, though so commodious a retreat in the winter, is a perfect prison in the spring. The fly, roused out of its lethargy by the first heats, heats, breaks its way through, and ranges where it pleases. A very small aperture is sufficient, since at this time the fly is but a diminutive creature. Besides, the ringlets whereof its body is composed, dilate and become pliant in the passage.

Oak galls put, in a very small quantity, into a solution of vitriol in water, though but a very weak one, give it a purple or violet colour; which, as it grows stronger, becomes black; and on this property depends the art of making our writing ink, as also the arts of dying and dressing leather, and other manufactures. See Ixv.

The best galls come from Aleppo: these are not quite round and smooth like the other sorts, but have several tubercles on the surface. Galls have a very austere styptic taste, without any smell: they are very strong astringents, and as such have been sometimes made use of both internally and externally, but are not much taken notice of by the present practice. Some recommend an ointment of powdered galls and hog's lard as very effectual in certain painful states of hemorrhoids; and it is alleged, that the internal use of galls has cured intermittents after the Peruvian bark has failed. A mixture of galls with a bitter and aromatic has been proposed as a substitute for the bark.

Gall (St.), a considerable town in Switzerland, and in the Upper Thurgow, with a rich and celebrated abbey, whose abbot is a prince of the empire. This place has for some time been a republic, in alliance with the Cantons. It is not very large; but is well built, neat, populous. It contains about 10,000 inhabitants, who are chiefly employed in the linen manufacture; and make annually, it is said, 40,000 pieces of linen, of 200 ells each; which renders it one of the richest towns in Switzerland. The inhabitants are Protestants; for which reason there are often great contests between them and the abbey about religious affairs. It is seated in a narrow barren valley, between two mountains, and upon two small streams. E. Long. 29.5. N. Lat. 47.38.

Gall-Fly. See Cynips.