T A L 



T A L 



S. A. fdrtkiagi. 



Chalcus (of copper) -81 '25 



JObol . 1-625 



*0bol . 3-25 



Obol . 12-5 



Diobolon 3 1 



Triobolon 4 3'5 



Tetrobolon 6 2 



Drachma 9 3 



Didrachm 172 



Tetradrachm 3 3 



Mma . 413 



Talent . 243 15 



2. The Aeginetan talent. It is a disputed question 

 what was the ratio of the Aeginetan to the Attic talent. 

 Pollux (ix. 76. 86) says that the Aeginetan talent con- 

 tained 10,000 Attic drachmae, and the Aeginetan drachma 

 10 Attic obols, which would give the ratio of 5 : 3 for that 

 of the Aeginetan to the Attic talent. According; to this 

 statement, the Aeginetan drachma weighed 110 grains 

 English. Now the existing coins give an average of only 

 96 grains ; and the question therefore is whether we are to 

 follow Pollux or the coins. Mr. Hussev takes the latter 

 course, explaining the statement of Pollux as referring to 

 the debased drachma of later times, which was about 

 equal to the Roman denarius. Bockh adheres to the state- 

 ment of Pollux, explaining the lightness of the existing 

 coins by the well-known tendency of the antient mints to 

 depart from the full value. He has supported his view by 

 some very strong and ingenious arguments, and on the 

 whole he appears to be right. 



There were other talents used by the Greeks and Romans, 

 most of which seem to have been derived from one of these 

 two standards, but the accounts of antient writers respect- 

 ing them are very contradictory. Their values are dis- 

 cu-sod ut length by Bockh and Hussey. 



The most important variations of the Aeginetan stan- 

 dard were those used in Macedonia, Corinth, and Sicily. 



The above talents were all reckoned in silver money. 



Then- was also a talent of gold, which was much smaller. 



It was used chiefly by the Greeks of Italy and Sicily, whence 



it was called the Sicilian talent as well as the gold talent. 



It was equal to 6 Attic drachmae, that is, about } oz. and 



71 grs. It was divided by the Italian Greeks into 24 



ni, and afterwards into 12, each minimus containing 



2J litrae. When Homer uses the word talent, we must 



always understand bv it this small one of gold. In other 



classical writers the word generally means the Attic talent. 



(Bockh, Mftrolrjs. I iitrrxuch. ; Hussey, Antient 



fili unit Money ; Dictionary of Greek and Ronnui 



.lufn/iii/ii-f, 1842.) 



TALE'S. At common law, when the number of jury- 

 men in attendance was so small, or so much diminished 

 by challenges that a full jury could not be had, a writ 

 (then in Latin issued to the sheriff, commanding him to 

 summon xm-k tales) other fit persons, &c. for the purpose 

 of making up the jury. The jurors so procured were called 

 talesmen, from the Latin word used in the writ. By the 

 statute :i.~> lieu. VIII., c. 6, the defect of jurors misfit, at 

 the request of the plaintiff or defendant in an action, be 

 .supplied from such other able persons of the said county 

 then present, and these were ordinarily called, from the 

 words in the Latin writ, ' tales de circumstantibus.' Sub- 

 sequent statute* extended and regulated the application of 

 this statute. But the act now in force is 6 Geo. IV., c. 50 ; 

 the 37th "iection, which contains the existing law on the 

 subject, and is in the following words : ' Where, a full jury 

 shall not appear before any court of assize or Nisi prius, 

 or before any of the superior civil courts of the three 

 counties palatine, or before any court of great sessions, or 

 where, Piter appearance of a full jury, by challenge of any 

 of the parties, the jury is likely to remain untaken for 

 default of jurors, every such court, upon request made for 

 the king by any one thereto authorised or assumed by the 

 court, or on request made by the parties, plaintiff or defen- 

 dant, demandant or tenant, or their respeeti\ c attorneys, in 

 :iuy action or suit, whether popular or private, shall com- 

 i the sheriff or other minister, to whom the making 

 of the ii'turn shall belong, to name and appoint, as often 

 'd shall require, .-o many of such other able men <,!' 

 the county tlien present as shall make up a full jury 

 th" sheriff' or other minister aforesaid shall, at such 

 mand of the court, return such men duly qualified as shall 

 P. C., No. 1489. 



be present, or can be found to serve on such jury, and shall 

 add and annex their names to the former panel, provided 

 that where a special jury shall have been struck for the 

 trial of any issue, the talesman shall be such as shall be 

 einpannelled upon the common jury panel to serve at the 

 same court, if a sufficient number of such men can be 

 found ; and the king, by any one so authorised or assigned 

 as aforesaid, and all and every the parties aforesaid, shall 

 and may, in each of the cases aforesaid, have their respec- 

 tive challenges to the jurors so added and annexed, and 

 the court shall proceed to the trial of every such issue 

 with those jurors who were before einpannelled, together 

 with the talesmen so newly added and annexed, as if all 

 the said jurors had been returned upon the writ of precept 

 awarded to try the issue.' (2 Williams's Saunders, 349 n. 

 (1).) [JURY.] 



TALIACO'TIUS, CASPAR, TAGLIACOZIO, or TAG- 

 LIACOZZI, was professor of anatomy and surgery at Bo- 

 logna, where he died in 1553, at the age of 64 years. His 

 name is now known chiefly through his reputation for re- 

 storing lost noses; but during his life he was equally cele- 

 brated for his knowledge of anatomy and his excellence as 

 a lecturer. These last are indeed the only qualities for 

 which he is praised in a tablet put up after his death in 

 one of the halls of the school at Bologna. A statue 

 erected in the amphitheatre formerly recorded his skill in 

 operating by representing him with a nose in his hand. 



Some writers have spoken of the original Taliacotian 

 operation as a mere fable, pretending that it never could 

 have been followed by success. But several credible wit- 

 nesses have recorded that they either saw Taliacotius 

 operating, or saw patients to whom he had restored noses, 

 which very closely resembled those of natural formation. 

 The truth is that the operation which Taliacotius really 

 performed is not commonly known ; the generally-enter- 

 tained notion of it being derived from the accounts of 

 those who had some reason to misrepresent it. It will 

 therefore be worth while to give a somewhat detailed ac- 

 count of it. 



The work in which it is described was first published 

 forty-four years after Taliacotius' death, with the title ' De. 

 curtorum chirurgia per insitionem libri duo, Venetiis, 

 1597, folio.' It is divided into two parts, of which the first 

 is chiefly devoted to a disquisition upon the dignity of the 

 nose, lips, and ears, and upon their offices and general 

 construction, and the theory of the operation, which he 

 considers to be exactly analogous to that of grafting upon 

 trees. In the second book he describes the mode of ope- 

 rating, dwelling first at great length upon the necessary 

 number and character of the assistants, the kind of bed to 

 be used, its position with regard to light, &c., and several 

 other minor matters, on all which he speaks like one tho- 

 roughly experienced in surgery. In the operation itself 

 he used the following plan: A part of the skin of the 

 upper arm of the proper size, and bounded by two longi- 

 tudinal parallel lines, being marked out over the middle of 

 its lore part, was seized between the blades of a very 

 broad pair of nippers. Each blade was about three inches 

 broad, so that it might include the whole length of the 

 portion of skin to be removed, and had a long slit near its 

 edge through which a narrow knife could be passed. The 

 portion of skin of which the new nose was to be formed 

 being raised up by the assistant who held it in the nippers, 

 Taliacotius with a long spear-shaped knife transfixed it 

 through the slits in the blades of the nippers, and cut it 

 through the whole length of the latter from above down- 

 wardsT Through the aperture thus made, which might be 

 compared to a very broad incision for a scton, a band 

 covered with appropriate medicines was passed, and by 

 being drawn a little every day, the wound was kept open 

 like a seton wound. When all the inflammation had 

 I away, which was usually in about fourteen days, 

 Lhe flap of skin was cut through at its upper end, and thus 

 i piece bounded by three sides of a parallelogram was 

 ai>ed from the arm, and remained attached to it by no- 

 thing but its fourth side or lower end. In this state it was 

 allowed to cicatrize all over, till it acquired the character 

 of a loose process of skin. This being, after some days, 

 completed, and the piece of skin having become firm and 

 lard, it was deemed ready for engrafting. The head 

 therefore being cleanly shaved, a dress and bandage of 

 angular construction, intended for the maintenance of the 

 ami in its due position, were carefully fitted on. Then 



VOL. XXIV.-G 



