1C9 



TEST PAPERS. 



TETANUS. 



170 







given to persona by which they might recogiiise one another. In this 

 case however the tesserae were probably small tablets marked with 

 certain signs. Thus we find mention of a tessera hospitalis, which 

 strangers when f onning a connection of hospitality gave to one another, 

 that they or their children might afterwards recognise one another, and 

 it appears that a tessera in this case was marked with the figure of 

 Jupiter hospitaUs. (Plautus, ' Poenul.,' v. 1, 25 ; 2, 87, &c.) Tesserae 

 frumentariiE, or nummarise, were occasionally given at Rome to the 

 poor to serve as a token or ticket, on the presentation of which they 

 received a certain amount of com or money. (Sueton., ' Aug./ 40 ; 

 'Nero,' 11.) The Roman soldiers also, before they commenced a 

 battle, received a tessera containing the watchword by which they 

 recognised then- comrades, and were enabled to distinguish them from 

 strangers. (Virgil, ' jn.,' vii. 637, with the note of Servius.) 



TEST PAPERS. Strips of paper impregnated with certain reagents 

 as litmus or turmeric, and used by chemists for detecting the presence 

 of certain bodies. [TESTS, CHEMICAL.] 



TESTAMENT. [WILL.] 



TESTAMENT, OLD AND NEW. Some critical disputes have 

 arisen respecting the meaning of the word Testament, as applied to the 

 Canonical Scriptures. These, under the name of the two Testaments, 

 comprise the revelations of God to man, which, being imparted under 

 two principal conditions the Law and the Gospel are divided into 

 two corresponding classes. The word translated by covenant is the 

 Hebrew berith, so used in the first division of the sacred writings, and 

 rendered in the latter by diatheke (8io9j|ioj). But a further notion than 

 that conveyed by the Hebrew is contained in the Greek term (and which 

 belongs also to the ecclesiastical Latin one, Teitamentum, the original 

 of the ordinary designation of the two portions of the Scriptures, the 

 Old and New Testaments). No more appropriate designation than that 

 of the New Testament can be applied to the second portion. Its appli- 

 cation to the books of the Old was defended by St. Jerome (among 

 other authorities of equal weight), on the ground that " Testamentum 

 non voluntatem defunctorum sonat, sed pactum viventium." The 

 books of the Old and New Testament are noticed at length under their 

 respective titles ; their inspiration is treated of under REVELATION : 

 see also SCRIPTURES ; BIBLE ; APOCRYPHA, &c. 



TESTAMENTS OF THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS, a Greek 

 work which professes to contain the last words of the twelve patriarchs, 

 the sons of Jacob, but which is considered to be undoubtedly spurious 

 by all writers except Whiston, who accepts it as a part of the canon of 

 the Old Testament; but no weight can be attached to his judgment 

 ' on the matter. 



The age and authorship of this work are much disputed. It is once 

 quoted by Origen, who flourished about A.D. 230. The most probable 

 opinion is that of Cave and Lardner, who suppose it to have been 

 written by a Jewish convert to Christianity about the end of the 2nd 

 century after Christ. 



It appears to have been the writer's object to foist his work into the 

 Canon, since, though he makes frequent quotations from the books of 

 the Old Testament, he never mentions any of them by name. The 

 only book which he quotes by name is ' the book of Enoch the 

 Righteous.' 



These testaments have been frequently published in Latin. They 

 were first printed in Greek by Grabe in his ' Spicileg. Patr.,' and 

 .afterwards by Fabricius in his ' Cod. Pseudepigraph.,' and Whiston 

 published an English translation of them in his ' Authentic Records.' 



(Lardner's Credibility, part ii., c. 29, 3, and the authorities there 

 quoted.) 



TKSTE OF A WRIT. [WRIT.] 



TESTIMONY. [EVIDENCE.] 



TESTIMONY, PERPETUATION OF. [PERPETUATION OP TESTI- 

 MONY.] 



TESTONE or TESTOON. [MONEY.] 



TESTS, CHEMICAL, or Chemical Re-agents, are those substances 

 which are employed to detect the presence of other bodies, by ad- 

 mixture with which they are known to produce certain changes in 

 appearance and properties : thus, for example, as the blue colour of 

 litmus is turned red by acids, it is considered as and used for a test to 

 determine their presence when uncombined or in excess : so also litmus 

 which has been reddened by an acid has its blue colour restored by 

 the action of an alkali : reddened litmus is therefore used as a test of 

 the presence of free or uncombined alkalies. 



Wu give these examples from thousands which might have been 

 selected, merely to explain the meaning of the term chemical tent, 

 observing that change of colour is one only of the many alterations 

 adduced in proof of chemical action : thus the solubility of certain 

 substances in some re-agents and not in others, constitutes another 

 criterion or test of the nature of bodies. 



We cannot enter particularly into this subject, for its extent is 

 equalled only by its importance ; and it is the less requisite that we 

 should do so, since, in describing the various metals, &c., the tests of 

 their presence are usually given with the properties of their salts. See 

 als<> ' ANALYSIS. 



TE'TANUH (Ttru>of t derived from ntra, to stretch) is both a generic 

 and a specific term : generically, it may be defined to be a more or less 

 yiolent and rigid spasm of many or all of the muscles of voluntary 

 motion ; the name is also particularly applied (as will be seen hereafter) 



to one of the species of this affection. Both the disease and also its 

 name are as old as the time of Hippocrates ; and, as it is proved by 

 experience to be much more frequent in warm climates, the ancient 

 physicians probably had peculiar advantages in observing it, and 

 accordingly seem to have paid particular attention to it. 



" Tetanic spasms," says Aretseus (' De Caus. et Sign. Morb. Acut. ,' 

 lib. i., cap. 6, p. 6, ed. Kuhn), " are attended with severe pain, and 

 prove rapidly fatal, and by no means readily admit of relief ; they 

 make their attack on the muscles and tendons of the jaws and neck, 

 but impart the disease to every other spot, for all parts become 

 sympathetically affected with those which were primarily assailed. 

 There are three forms of the convulsions : the straight, the backward, 

 and the forward. The straight one is true Tetanta, when the patient 

 is stretched straight and inflexible ; the backward or forward varieties 

 have their name from the direction and locality of the tension ; hence 

 the deflexion of the patient backwards is termed opisthotonos (biria96- 

 TOVOS), from the nerves being affected in this direction ; while, if the 

 bending be forward, by the nerves in front, it is termed emprosthotonos 

 (tyirpoaBoTovos), for tonos (rims) is a term which signifies both a nerve 

 and tension." 



The three forms of the disease mentioned by Aretseus are described 

 by most of the ancient writers : the species called trismus, or locked- 

 jaw (which is the name applied to it when the spasms are confined to 

 the muscles of the jaw or throat), forms a fourth in modern authors ; 

 and to these has been added a fifth, under the name pleurosthotonos 

 (it\fupo<r86rovos), which signifies that the body is drawn to one side. 

 These different terms applied to tetanic affections do not imply so 

 many particular diseases, but only the seat and various degrees of one 

 and the same complaint. Trismus is invariably a part of each of the 

 other varieties. This subdivision of the disease is of little or no 

 practical importance ; but a much more essential division is into acute 

 or chronic, according to its greater or less intensity. The former 

 kind is exceedingly dangerous and usually fatal ; while the latter, on 

 account of the more gradual progress of the symptoms, affords more 

 opportunity of being successfully treated. (Larrey, in 'M<Sm. de 

 Chirurgie Hilitaire' tome i.) Tetanus is also divided into traumatic, 

 or that arising from a wound, which is also occasionally termed 

 tymptomalic ; and into idiopathic, or that which proceeds from other 

 causes. 



Traumatic tetanus sometimes comes on in a surprisingly sudden 

 manner, and quickly attains its most violent degree. The most 

 rapidly fatal case that has ever been recorded is one that we have on 

 the authority of the late Professor Robison of Edinburgh. It occurred in 

 a negro, who scratched his thumb with a broken china plate, and died of 

 tetanus a quarter of an hour after this slight injury. Most commonly, 

 however, the approaches of the disorder are more gradual, and it 

 slowly advances to its worst stage. In this sort of case the commence- 

 ment of the disorder is announced by a sensation of stiffness about the 

 neck, a symptom which, increasing by degrees, renders the motion of 

 the head difficult and painful. In proportion as the rigidity of the 

 neck becomes greater, the patient experiences in the throat a sense of 

 dryness and soreness, and about the root of the tongue an uneasiness, 

 soon changing into a difficulty of mastication and swallowing, which 

 after a time become totally impassible. The attempt at deglutition is 

 .attended with convulsive efforts, especially when an endeavour is made 

 to swallow liquids; and so great is the distress which accompanies 

 these convulsions, that the patient becomes very reluctant to renew 

 the trials, and occasionally refuses all nourishment ; sometimes it even 

 inspires him with a dread of the sight of water, and a great resem- 

 blance to hydrophobia is produced. 



With respect to the causes of tetanus, " it must ever be regarded," 

 says Dr. Gregory (' Theory and Practice of Med.';, " as a very singular 

 fact in pathology, that an affection of so peculiar a character as this 

 should have its source in causes apparently so dissimilar ; that the 

 puncture of a nerve, the laceration of a tendon, or an extensive burn, 

 should bring on the same kind of nervous affection as that which is 

 the occasional consequence of cold." Every description of wound, no 

 matter how inflicted, or in what part, or in what stage, may be the 

 occasion of tetanic symptoms which form the species denominated 

 traumatic. Cases are on record wherein the patient was attacked with 

 the disease in consequence of a bite on the finger from a tame sparrow ; 

 in which it supervened on the mere stroke of a whip-lash under the 

 eyes, though the skin was not broken ; in which it was occasioned by 

 a small fish-bone sticking in the pharynx ; by a slight solution of con- 

 tinuity in the external ear from a musket-shot ; by the application of 

 a seton to the thorax ; by the stroke of a cane across the back of the 

 neck; by a blow on the hand from the same instrument; by the 

 extraction of a tooth, &c. In short, according to Sir James M'Grigor, 

 " it occurs in every description and in every stage of wounds, from 

 the slightest to the most formidable, from the healthy and the slough- 

 ing, from the incised and the lacerated, from the most simple and the 

 most complicated." 



Next in frequency to wounds as an exciting cause of tetanus is 

 exposure to cold and damp ; indeed there are but very few cases of 

 true idiopathic tetanus which are referrible to any other. The 

 irritation of worms and other disordered states of the alimentary canal 

 have been considered by some authors as the cause of tetanic affections. 

 To generate this form of disease, however, it would appear that a 



