Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/369

TESTUDO 317 TETRABRANCHIATA TESTUDO, in Roman antiquity, a cover or screen used in assaults on for- tified towns. In cases where the town was of small size and accessible on every aide, while the force at the disposal of the besiegers was large, a ring of sol- diers was drawn round the walls, a por- tion of whom kept up a constant dis- charge of missiles on those who manned the battlements, while the rest, advancing on every side simultaneously, with their shields joined above their heads so as to form a continuous covering like a shell of a tortoise (testudme facta), planted scaling ladders against a number of dif- ferent points, and, at the same time, en- deavored to burst open the gates. Also applied to a movable structure, on wheels or rollers, used to protect sappers. In mining, a shelter similar in shape and design employed as a defense for miners, etc., when working in ground or rock which is liable to cave in. In medicine, an encysted tumor, from a supposed resemblance to the shell of a tortoise. In music, a name applied to a species of lyre, because, according to the legend recounted at full length in the Homeric hymn, the frame of the first lyre was formed by Hermes out of the shell of a tortoise. In zoology, the tortoise; the type genus of Testudinidse, with 25 species. Most abundant in the Ethiopian region, but also extending over the Oriental re- gion, into the S. of Europe and the East- ern States of North America. Thorax convex, rather globular, and solid; breast-bone solid, with 12 shields, those of the throat separated; five toes on fore feet, four on the hinder pair. TETANUS, stiffness or spasm of the neck; a disease common to mankind and animals. It is characterized by the con- traction of a greater or less number of muscles by paroxysmal spasms, which aggravate the contractions and by trou- bles more or less accentuated in the calo- rification of the circulation and respira- tion. It is most commonly located in the jaw and begins with painful stiffness at the maxillary muscles and the muscles at the nape of the neck or by difficulty in swallowing. The progress of tetanus is either acute or chronic. The acute form develops in from one to four days; the chronic form may last a fortnight. In acute tetanus the average number of deaths ranges from 65 to 80 per cent. The disease is caused by a bacillus which secretes a very active poison, and that earth from the street or garden and es- pecially from stables or manured land is swarming with these bacilli. It is the u contact of the earth with any kind of wound, especially wounds in the hands or feet, which is the most important fac- tor in the development of tetanus. No certain remedy for tetanus has as yet been discovered though antitetanic serum has been successfully used as a preven- tive. A very simple preventive of lock- jaw is here given. As soon as possible after the wound is received hold the part affected for 20 minutes in the smoke of woolen or flannel. This is easily pro- cured by placing butts or pieces of wool- en or flannel cloth on a shovelful of hot coals. TETARD, JEAN (tuh-ta'), a French philosophical and polemical writer; born in Longvic, Burgundy, in 1770, Among his writings are: "Moral Essay on Man in His Relation to God" (1818); "Against Obscurantism and Jesuitism" (1826) ; "Indelible and Historic Charac- ter of Jesuitism and Doctrinism" (1832). He died in Paris in 1841. t:StE-DU-PONT, in fortifications, a redan or lunette resting its flanks on the bank of a river and inclosing the end of a bridge for the purpose of protecting it from an assault. TETHYS, in Greek mythology, the greatest of the sea deities, wife of Ocea- nus, daughter of Uranus and Terra, and mother of the chief rivers of the uni- verse, Nile, Peneus, Simois, Scamander, etc., and about 3,000 daughters called Oceanides. The name Tethys is said to signify nurse. In astronomy, a Satellite of Saturn. Its mean distance from the center of Saturn is 188,000 miles; its periodic time, 1 day, 21 hours, 18 min- utes, 25.7 seconds. In zo-ology a genus of Tritoniadoe, with one species, from the Mediterranean, animal elliptical, de- pressed; head covered by a broadly ex- panded fringed disk with two conical ten- tacles; stomach simple. It attains a foot in length, and feeds on other mollusks and on small Crustacea. TETRABRANCHIATA, in zoology, an order of Cephalopoda, comprising three families; Nautildoe, Orthoceratidoe, and Ammonitidoe, though in some recent classifications the second family is merged in the first. Animal creeping, protected by an external shell; head re- tractile within the mantle; eyes pedun- culated; mandibles calcareous; arms very numerous; body attached to shell by adductor muscles and by a continu- ous horny girdle; branchiae four; funnel formed by the union of two lobes whkh do not constitute a distinct tube. Shell external, in the form of an extremely elongated cone, either straight or vari- Cyc — Vol. IX