and books in the fields of travel and geography, anthro-
pology, psychology, heredity, anthropometry, statistics,
and more. Twenty-three publications alone were on the
subject of meteorology.
Hebecame interested in the use of fingerprinting
for identification and published Finger Prints,the first
comprehensive book on the nature of fingerprints and
their use in solving crime. He verified the uniqueness
and permanence of fingerprints, and suggested the first
system for classifying them based on grouping the pat-
terns into arches, loops, and whorls.
As late as 1901, close to 80 years old, he delivered
a lecture “On the Possible Improvement of the Human
Breed Under Existing Conditions of Law and Senti-
ment,” to the Anthropological Institute, and he even
returned to Egypt for one more visit. He published his
autobiography, Memories of My life,in 1908 and was
knighted the following year. Galton received a number
of honors in addition to the ones already cited. He was
a member of the Athenaeum Club (1855). He received
honorary degrees from Oxford (1894) and Cambridge
(1895) and was an honorary fellow of Trinity College
(1902). He was awarded several medals that included
the Huxley Medal of the Anthropological Institute
(1901), the Darwin-Wallace Medal of the Linnaean
Society (1908), and three medals from the Royal Soci-
ety: the Royal (1886), Darwin (1902), and Copley
(1910) medals.
Galton lived with a grandniece in his later years,
and a month short of his 89th birthday, in 1911, his
heart gave out during an attack of bronchitis at
Grayshott House, Haslemere, in Surrey. He is buried in
the family vault at Claverdon, near Warwick, Warwick-
shire. Galtonia candicans,a white bell-flowered mem-
ber of the lily family from South Africa, and commonly
known as the summer hyacinth, was named for Galton
in 1888.
gametangium A reproductive organ that produces
gametes (reproductive cells); nuclei that fuse and pro-
duce sexual spores in algae, fungi, mosses, and ferns.
gamete A haploid (half the number of chromo-
somes) sex cell, either male (sperm) or female (egg),
that fuses with another sex cell during the process of
fertilization.
gametophyte For plants with alternation of genera-
tions, the gametophytic generation has haploid nuclei
and generates gametes during mitosis.
See alsoSPOROPHYTE.gamma band Identical to SORET BAND.ganglion Aknot or cyst of fibrous material in fluid
in joints and tendons; also a cluster of nerve cells locat-
ed outside the central nervous system. In invertebrates,
ganglia and nerve bundles make up the central nervous
system.
See alsoNEURON.gap junction A site between two cells that allows
small molecules or ions to cross through and connect
between the two cytoplasms; allows electrical poten-
tials between the two cells.
See alsoCELL.gastrin A hormone (linear peptide) produced and
regulated by the pyloric gland area of the stomach that
stimulates the secretion of gastric acids from the stom-
ach walls and duodenum after eating. It is synthesized
in G cells in the gastric pits located in the antrum
region of the stomach. It occurs in the body in several
forms. Gastrin is released after the eating of food con-
taining peptides, certain amino acids, calcium, coffee,
wine, beer, and others.
Too much secretion of gastrin, or hypergastrine-
mia, is a cause of a severe disease known as Zollinger-
Ellison syndrome, which affects both humans and
dogs. It creates gastric and duodenal ulceration from
excessive and unregulated secretion of gastric acid, but
it is also commonly brought on by the action of gas-
trin-secreting tumors (gastrinomas), which develop in
the pancreas or duodenum. The hormone also stimu-
lates the proliferation of gastrointestinal cells and ade-
nocarcinomas (cancer of glandular linings) of the
gastrointestinal tract.gastropod The most successful and largest class of
mollusks (phylum Mollusca). There are more than138 gametangium