Mull of.** See WIGTONSHIRE.

New,** a royal and parliamentary burgh of Scotland, stewartry of Kirkcudbright, on the Ken, 19 miles Galloway, Thomas, a distinguished Scottish mathematician, was born at Symington in the upper ward of Lanarkshire, 26th February 1796. After receiving such education as the best schools of his own and some adjoining parishes could give, he removed in 1812 to Edinburgh, at the university of which city he distinguished himself, especially in the department of mathematical study. In 1823 he was appointed one of the teachers of mathematics at the military college of Sandhurst. On the death of Sir John Leslie in 1832, Galloway applied for the vacant chair of natural philosophy in Edinburgh, and was one of the three candidates among whom the chances of success ultimately lay. He was not the successful competitor; but in the following year was appointed actuary to the Amicable Life Assurance Office, the oldest institution of that kind in London. In this situation Galloway remained till his death, November 1, 1851.

Galloway was a voluminous though for the most part an anonymous writer, and took a leading part in the proceedings of the principal scientific societies of London. He contributed largely to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and other works of a similar nature. Some of his more elaborate treatises, such as that on Probability, have been published separately. His contributions to the Edinburgh and Foreign Quarterly Reviews, like the rest of his writings, display extensive erudition, great soundness of judgment, and fine powers of critical analysis.

Galls. See Gall.

Gallus, C. Cornelius, a distinguished Roman poet, orator, and politician. He was born of humble parents at Forum Julii (Fréjus) in Gaul, about the year 66 B.C. At an early age he removed to Rome, where he was taught by the same master as Virgil and Varius, with both of whom he afterwards lived on terms of the most intimate friendship. In political life he espoused the cause of Octavianus; and in reward for his services was made first prefect of Egypt. His good fortune, however, turned his head, and urged him to a course of conduct which brought him into disgrace with Augustus. The accusations of arrogance, extortion, and even cruelty, brought against him were so numerous and well supported, that Gallus, in order to escape exposure, put an end to his life by throwing himself on his sword, B.C. 26 years.

Gallus enjoyed a high reputation among his contemporaries as a man of intellect. He associated on terms of equality with all the literary notabilities of his day, Virgil, Ovid, Varius, Asinius Pollio, and others. He wrote four books of elegies, which were so good that Ovid claimed for their author the first place among the elegiac poets of Rome. His fame as an orator was hardly inferior to his renown as a poet; but as not a fragment of his composition has descended to our times, we have no means of judging the worth of his literary pretensions, and have to content ourselves with the somewhat partial estimate of his personal friends.

Galston, a small market-town of Ayrshire, on the left bank of the Irvine, and on the South-Western Railway, 22 miles S. by W. of Glasgow. Pop. (1851) 2538, chiefly cotton weavers.

Galt, John, a popular Scottish novelist, born in 1779 at Irvine in Ayrshire—a small town that enjoys the triple literary distinction of having been the birth-place of Galt and James Montgomery, and the residence of Burns during an interesting portion of his early career. From the same place, too, Galt derived the prototypes of some of his best Scottish characters. Having received his education at Greenock, and acquired a knowledge of mercantile affairs, Galt proceeded to London to push his fortune. He was unsuccessful in a partnership scheme, and afterwards entered himself of Lincoln's Inn, intending to study the law. He was tempted abroad, however, partly by delicate health and partly to carry out some mercantile speculations. At Gibraltar he met with Lord Byron and Mr Hobhouse, and sailed in the same packet with them to Sardinia and Malta. This accidental acquaintance, which was afterwards slightly renewed, led Galt to write a life of Byron after the decease of the noble poet, but the work did not add to his reputation. After three years' residence and wanderings in Sicily, Greece, and Turkey, during which he was engaged in several commercial enterprises of importance, though not of profit, Mr Galt returned to England, published his travels, and entered on what may be called a professional literary life. A Scottish tale, The Ayrshire Legatees, published in Blackwood's Magazine, was highly popular; and this was followed by a series of works of a similar character—The Annals of the Parish, The Provost, The Steam-Boat, Sir Andrew Wyte, The Entail, and The Last of the Lairds. In these novels Galt opened up views of Scottish life and character scarcely touched upon by Scott, yet as true to nature as the portraits of that great master. They were types of classes fast disappearing—old-fashioned ministers, magistrates, and lairds, whose oddities are portrayed in lively colours, interspersed with scenes of genuine pathos and winning simplicity. Another charm in these works was their rich and copious Scottish diction—the fine old quaint Doric, so simple yet figurative and expressive—which is now rarely heard in the same unsophisticated purity and force even among the village elders. The Annals of the Parish stands at the head of these works, and there is little hazard in predicting that it will form Galt's best passport to a durable fame. He wrote many other novels, several plays and poems, the life of Cardinal Wolsey, and that of Benjamin West the artist. No author was ever more unequal than Galt—extravagant improbable fictions followed some of his happiest creations, and much of what he published must be considered as mere task-work written to meet the exigencies of the day. In one other novel he was eminently successful. He was appointed agent for the Canada Land Company, and was placed among the woods and wildernesses of the new world, and amidst settlers and squatters of various descriptions. New phases of life and strange adventures were thus brought before him, and he embodied his observations in a tale entitled Laurie Todd, founded on the real experiences of a pawky Scottish emigrant. This is a powerful and interesting work, resembling the fictions of De Foe in its life-like reality and teeming variety of incidents. The latter years of this ingenious writer were clouded by poverty and disease. All his splendid commercial and trading schemes had failed, his inventions, like those of most inveterate projectors, brought him only trouble or disappointment, and though his mind and pen were still as facile and ready as ever, he had exhausted his fine original vein, and had to contend with confirmed ill-health. Repeated attacks of paralysis reduced his frame to a helpless wreck, but still left his restless and energetic mind to work on its way eager and unsubdued. Having attained his sixtieth year, he died at Greenock, April 11, 1839.

Galvani, Aloisio, or Luigi, the celebrated discoverer of galvanism, or, as he himself called it, "animal electricity," was born at Bologna in Italy in 1737. In his youth he gave evidence of a strongly devotional cast of thought, and he was accordingly educated with a view to taking orders. He changed his plans, however, and studied medicine at the university of his native town. Shortly after graduation, he obtained a public appointment as a medical lecturer, and increased his fame by publishing his Observations on the Organs of Hearing in Birds; Observations on Galvanism the Urinary Organs, and by various contributions to the transactions of the university. An event, however, apparently accidental in its origin, occurred, which directed into a new channel the study of electrical science, and identified the name of Galvani with one of the most important branches of that great department of physics. His wife was preparing frogs for soup, and having skinned the animals, had placed them near the conductor of a newly charged electrical machine. Happening to touch them with a scalpel which had been in contact with the machine, she saw to her surprise the muscles of the frogs convulsed with violent spasmodic action. Galvani repeated the experiment in a variety of forms, and came to the conclusion that there existed what he called an "animal electricity" both in nerves and muscles. To this erroneous idea he clung through life, even after it had been disproved by his countryman Volta and other experimenters. He took great pains to develop his theory in regard to the phenomena in question as fully as possible, by publishing in 1791 his Commentarius de viribus electricitatis in motu musculari. The purport of this work, and its influence on electrical science, are fully discussed under ELECTRICITY.

In 1797 Galvani made a tour of the shores of the Mediterranean, with a view to verifying his theory by experiments on the electric eel. Soon after returning home he lost his wife; and his affliction was enhanced by his being expelled from his chair for refusing to take the oaths of allegiance when Bologna was incorporated with the Cisalpine Republic. His health and spirits gave way under these calamities, and though he was ultimately reinstated in his professorship, his death, in 1798, prevented him from profiting by his good fortune.