GLASER, CHRISTOPHER, a pharmaceutical chemist of the 17th century, was a native of Basel, became demonstrator of chemistry at the Jardin du Roi in Paris and apothecary to Louis XIV. and to the duke of Orleans. He is best known by his Traité de la chymie (Paris, 1663), which went through some ten editions in about five-and-twenty years, and was translated into both German and English. It has been alleged that he was an accomplice in the notorious poisonings carried out by the marchioness de Brinvilliers, but the extent of his complicity is doubtful. He appears to have died some time before 1676. The sal polychrestum Glaseri is normal potassium sulphate which he prepared and used medicinally.

GLASGOW, a city, county of a city, royal burgh and port of Lanarkshire, Scotland, situated on both banks of the Clyde, 401½ m. N.W. of London by the West Coast railway route, and 47 m. W.S.W. of Edinburgh by the North British railway. The valley of the Clyde is closely confined by hills, and the city extends far over these, the irregularity of its site making for picturesqueness. The commercial centre of Glasgow, with the majority of important public buildings, lies on the north bank of the river, which traverses the city from W.S.W. to E.N.E., and is crossed by a number of bridges. The uppermost is Dalmarnock Bridge, dating from 1891, and next below it is Rutherglen Bridge, rebuilt in 1896, and superseding a structure of 1775. St Andrew’s suspension bridge gives access to the Green to the inhabitants of Hutchesontown, a district which is approached also by Albert Bridge, a handsome erection, leading from the Saltmarket. Above this bridge is the tidal dam and weir. Victoria Bridge, of granite, was opened in 1856, taking the place of the venerable bridge erected by Bishop Rae in 1345, which was demolished in 1847. Then follows a suspension bridge (dating from 1853) by which foot-passengers from the south side obtain access to St Enoch Square and, finally, the most important bridge of all is reached, variously known as Glasgow, Jamaica Street, or Broomielaw Bridge, built of granite from Telford’s designs and first used in 1835. Towards the close of the century it was reconstructed, and reopened in 1899. At the busier periods of the day it bears a very heavy traffic. The stream is spanned between Victoria and Albert Bridges by a bridge belonging to the Glasgow & South-Western railway and by two bridges carrying the lines of the Caledonian railway, one below Dalmarnock Bridge and the other a massive work immediately west of Glasgow Bridge.

Buildings.—George Square, in the heart of the city, is an open space of which every possible advantage has been taken. On its eastern side stand the municipal buildings, a palatial pile in Venetian renaissance style, from the designs of William Young, a native of Paisley. They were opened in 1889 and cost nearly £600,000. They form a square block four storeys high and carry a domed turret at each end of the western façade, from the centre of which rises a massive tower. The entrance hall and grand staircase, the council chamber, banqueting hall and reception rooms are decorated in a grandiose style, not unbecoming to the commercial and industrial metropolis of Scotland. Several additional blocks have been built or rented for the accommodation of the municipal staff. Admirably equipped sanitary chambers were opened in 1897, including a bacteriological and chemical laboratory. Up till 1810 the town council met in a hall adjoining the old tolbooth. It then moved to the fine classical structure at the foot of the Saltmarket, which is now used as court-houses. This was vacated in 1842 for the county buildings in Wilson Street. Growth of business compelled another migration to Ingram Street in 1875, and, fourteen years later, it occupied its present quarters. On the southern side of George Square the chief structure is the massive General Post Office. On the western side stand two ornate Italian buildings, the Bank of Scotland and the Merchants’ House, the head of which (the dean of gild), along with the head of the Trades’ House (the deacon-convener of trades) has been de facto member of the town council since 1711, an arrangement devised with a view to adjusting the frequent disputes between the two gilds. The Royal Exchange, a Corinthian building with a fine portico of columns in two rows, is an admired example of the work of David Hamilton (1768-1843), a native of Glasgow, who designed several of the public buildings and churches, and gained the second prize for a design for the Houses of Parliament. The news-room of the exchange is a vast apartment, 130 ft. long, 60 ft. wide, 130 ft. high, with a richly-decorated roof supported by Corinthian pillars. Buchanan Street, the most important and handsome street in the city, contains the Stock Exchange, the Western Club House (by David Hamilton) and the offices of the Glasgow Herald. In Sauchiehall Street are the Fine Art Institute and the former Corporation Art Gallery. Argyll Street, the busiest thoroughfare, mainly occupied with shops, leads to Trongate, where a few remains of the old town are now carefully preserved. On the south side of the street, spanning the pavement, stands the Tron Steeple, a stunted spire dating from 1637. It is all that is left of St Mary’s church, which was burned down in 1793 during the revels of a notorious body known as the Hell Fire Club. On the opposite side, at the corner of High Street, stood the ancient tolbooth, or prison, a turreted building, five storeys high, with a fine Jacobean crown tower. The only remnant of the structure is the tower known as the Cross Steeple.

Although almost all the old public buildings of Glasgow have been swept away, the cathedral remains in excellent preservation. It stands in the north-eastern quarter of the city at a height of 104 ft. above the level of the Clyde. It is a St Mungo’s Cathedral. beautiful example of Early English work, impressive in its simplicity. Its form is that of a Latin cross, with imperfect transepts. Its length from east to west is 319 ft., and its width 63 ft.; the height of the choir is 93 ft., and of the nave 85 ft. At the centre rises a fine tower, with a short octagonal spire, 225 ft. high. The choir, locally known as the High Church, serves as one of the city churches, and the extreme east end of it forms the Lady chapel. The rich western doorway is French in design but English in details. The chapter-house projects from the north-eastern corner and somewhat mars the harmony of the effect. It was built in the 15th century and has a groined roof supported by a pillar 20 ft. high. Many citizens have contributed towards filling the windows with stained glass, executed at Munich, the government providing the eastern window in recognition of their enterprise. The crypt beneath the choir is not the least remarkable part of the edifice, being without equal in Scotland. It is borne on 65 pillars and lighted by 41 windows. The sculpture of the capitals of the columns and bosses of the groined vaulting is exquisite and the whole is in excellent preservation. Strictly speaking, it is not a crypt, but a lower church adapted to the sloping ground of the right bank of the Molendinar burn. The dripping aisle is so named from the constant dropping of water from the roof. St Mungo’s Well in the south-eastern corner was considered to possess therapeutic virtues, and in the crypt a recumbent effigy, headless and handless, is faithfully accepted as the tomb of Kentigern. The cathedral contains few monuments of exceptional merit, but the surrounding graveyard is almost completely paved with tombstones. In 1115 an investigation was ordered by David, prince of Cumbria, into the lands and churches belonging to the bishopric, and from the deed then drawn up it is clear that at that date a cathedral had already been endowed. When David ascended the throne in 1124 he gave to the see of Glasgow the lands of Partick, besides restoring many possessions of which it had been deprived. Jocelin (d. 1199), made bishop in 1174, was the first great bishop, and is memorable for his efforts to replace the cathedral built in 1136 by Bishop John Achaius, which had been destroyed by fire. The crypt is his work, and he began the choir, Lady chapel, and central tower. The new structure was sufficiently advanced to be dedicated in 1197. Other famous bishops were Robert Wishart (d. 1316), appointed in 1272, who was among the first to join in the revolt of Wallace, and received Robert Bruce when he lay under the ban of the church for the murder of Comyn; John Cameron (d. 1446), appointed in 1428, under whom the building as it stands was completed; and William Turnbull (d. 1454), appointed in 1447, who founded the university in 1450. James Beaton or Bethune (1517-1603) was the last Roman Catholic archbishop. He fled to France at the reformation in 1560, and took with him the treasures and records of the see, including the Red Book of Glasgow dating from the reign of Robert III. The documents were deposited in the Scots College in Paris, were sent at the outbreak of the Revolution for safety to St Omer, and were never recovered. This loss explains the paucity of the earlier annals of the city. The zeal of the Reformers led them to threaten to mutilate the cathedral, but the building was saved by the prompt action of the craftsmen, who mustered in force and dispersed the fanatics.

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Excepting the cathedral, none of the Glasgow churches possesses historical interest; and, speaking generally, it is only the buildings that have been erected since the beginning of the 19th century that have pronounced Churches. architectural merit. This was due largely to the long survival of the severe sentiment of the Covenanters, who discouraged, if they did not actually forbid, the raising of temples of beautiful design. Representative examples of later work are found in the United Free churches in Vincent Street, in Caledonia Road and at Queen’s Park, designed by Alexander Thomson (1817-1875), an architect of distinct originality; St George’s church, in West George Street, a remarkable work by William Stark, erected in the beginning of the 19th century; St Andrew’s church in St Andrew’s Square off the Saltmarket, modelled after St Martin’s-in-the-Fields, London, with a fine Roman portico; some of the older parish churches, such as St Enoch’s, dating from 1780, with a good spire (the saint’s name is said to be a corruption of Tanew, mother of Kentigern); the episcopal church of St Mary (1870), in Great Western Road, by Sir G. G. Scott; the Roman Catholic cathedral of St Andrew, on the river-bank between Victoria and Broomielaw bridges; the Barony church, replacing the older kirk in which Norman Macleod ministered; and several admirable structures, well situated, on the eastern confines of Kelvingrove Park.

The principal burying-ground is the Necropolis, occupying Fir Park, a hill about 300 ft. high in the northern part of the city. It provides a not inappropriate background to the cathedral, from which it is approached by a bridge, known as the “Bridge of Sighs,” over the Molendinar ravine. The ground, which once formed portion of the estate of Wester Craigs, belongs to the Merchants’ House, which purchased it in 1650 from Sir Ludovic Stewart of Minto. A Doric column to the memory of Knox, surmounted by a colossal statue of the reformer, was erected by public subscription on the crown of the height in 1824, and a few years later the idea arose of utilizing the land as a cemetery. The Jews have reserved for their own people a detached area in the north-western corner of the cemetery.