T H O 



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T H R 



taken great pains to give it as uniformly classical an air as 

 possible, not only by metamorphosing all his modern names, 

 both of places and persons, so as to give them antique forms, 

 o It en to the no small perplexity and hindrance of the 

 reader, but, what sometimes produces still more obscurity 

 or ambiguity, by generally endeavouring to describe 

 modern proceedings and transactions in the established 

 legal, political, and military phraseology of the old Ro- 

 mans. The best edition of De Thou's ' History' is that 

 published at London in 1733, in seven volumes, folio, 

 under the superintendence of Samuel Buckley, Esq., and 

 at the expense of Dr. Mead. The last volume of this edi- 

 tion contains De Thou's autobiographical memoir (first 

 published in 1620, and also written in Latin), in six books, 

 together with a mass of additional materials illustrative of 

 the history of his life and works. 

 THOUARS. [SKVRKS, DEUX.] 



THOUARS, LOUIS MARIE AUBERT DU PETIT, 

 an eminent French botanist, was born at the chateau de 

 Boumois, in Anjou, 1756. His family was wealthy and 

 noble, and being destined for the army, he was early sent 

 to the school of La Fleche. He was made a lieutenant of 

 infantry at the age of 1G. This was in a time of peace, 

 and he occupied Ins leisure in studying the science of 

 botany and its literature. At the time of the loss of 

 La Perouse and his companions. Aristide du Petit Thouars 

 proposed to his brother Aubert that they should go in 



a of him. To this he willingly con^i'iiled. hoping to 

 add t -\i of plants and his fame by the vo;. 



The two brothers sold their patrimony, raised a subscrip- 

 tion, and having secured the patronage of Louis XVI., 

 were ready to start on their voyage, when a curious acci- 

 dent separated them. The ship that was to have taken 

 them lay at Brest, and Aubert, with his vasculum (the tin 

 box which botanists carry to put their plants in) at his 

 back, intended to botanise on liis way from the capital to 

 the port. He was however found by some gens (formes 

 in the woods, and being suspected as an enemy of his 

 country in those days of disorder, he was arrested and 

 thrown into prison at Quimper. He was however soon 



>cd, but too late, as his brother had sailed. He fol- 

 lowed him to the Isle of France, but his brother had again 

 departed ; and being here without money and without 

 friends, his only resource was hia botanical knowledge, 

 and he accordingly applied for employment to some of 

 the rich planters of that island. He quickly obtained an 



.vinent. and remained in the island nearly ten years. 

 On this spot he was very favourably placed for making 

 those observations for which his previous studies had so 

 well prepared him ; and during his sta\ here he collected 

 most of the materials for the numerous works which he 

 published on his return. Whilst a resident in the Isle of 

 France he made a voyage to Madagascar, and collected 

 plants from that island. He returned to Paris in 1802. 

 Many of the results of his researches in the Isle of France 

 and Madagascar were communicated to the Institute and 

 other scientific bodies in Paris. His first work on the 

 botany of the islands which he had visited, was published 

 at Paiis in 1804, with the title ' Plantes des lies de 

 I'Afrique Australe formant des Genres nouveaux,' &c.,4to. 

 He also published on the same subject the ' Histoire des 

 \ eL r rt;iux (les lies de. France, de Bourbon, et de Madagas- 

 car,' 1804, 4to. In the same year Bory St. Vincent gave 

 an account of the vegetation of the African islands, in his 

 Voyage dans les quatre principales lies des Mers 

 il'Afrique,' Paris, 4to., although he did not go out till 

 Du Petit Thouars had returned. In 1800 Du Petit 

 Thouars was appointed director of the royal nursery- 

 ground at Paris, which office he held till the closing of 

 this institution a short time before his death, which took 

 place in May, 1831. In 1806 he published another work 

 on the plants of Africa, with the title ' Histoire des Vdge- 

 t;mx recueillics dans les lies Australes d'Afrique,' Paris, 4to. 

 In 181(1 his 'Genera nova Madagascariensia ' appeared, 

 in which the Madagascar plants were arranged according 

 to the system of .lussieu. His latest work on systematic 

 botany was one on the Orchidaceie of the African islands, 

 ' Histoire des Plantes Orchidces recueillies dans les trois 

 lies Australes d'Afrique,' 1822, Paris, 8vo. His publications 

 on vegetable physiology are equally numerous. Most of 

 these had their foundation in observations and experiments 

 which he made whilst in the Isle of France. In 1805 he 

 published his 'Essai sur ['Organisation des Plantes,' Paris, 



8vo. ; in 1809, another essay on the vegetation of plants ; in 

 1811, ' Melanges de Botanique et de Voyages,' Paris, 8vo. ; 

 in 1819, a kind of botanical miscellany, passing in review 

 his own labours, under the title ' Revue generate des Mate- 

 riaux de Botanique et autres, fruit de trente-cinq annees 

 d'observations,' Paris 8vo. 



As a systematic botanist the views of Du Petit Thouars 

 were uncertain and speculative, and the delay in the pub- 

 lication of his works on African botany deprived him of 

 the merit of introducing to the world many new species. 

 In his physiological works his views are ingenious, but in 

 most cases wanting in sufficient data to establish them. 

 His views on the formation of buds, the motion of the sap, 

 and the origin of wood, are those which have excited most 

 attention. But each of these is perhaps more indebted 

 to the speciousness of its reasoning than to the correctness 

 of the facts, for the importance that botanists have 

 attached to it. But at the same time his great activity of 

 mind, his extensive erudition and original observation, 

 have had a great influence on the progress of botany in 

 the present century. He was a contributor to the ' Bio- 

 graphie Universelle,' and wrote the lives of many of the 

 botanists in that work. The genus of plants Thouarea was 

 named after him, and Bory St. Vincent named Anbertia in 

 honour of him. 



King. Univ., Supp. ; BischofF, Lehrbuch der Botanik.) 



THOURET, MICHEL-AUGUSTIN, an eminent French 

 physician, was born in 1748, at Pont-1'Evfique, in the an- 

 tient province of Normandy and the modern department of 

 Calvados, where his father was royal notary (notaire 

 royal). His education was commenced at his native town, 

 and finished at the university of Caen. He afterwards 

 went to Paris, and in 1774 w-as admitted gratuitously by 

 the Faculty of Medicine in that city to the degree of M.D., 

 an honour which was gained by public competition (con- 

 nuti-x). A few years later, upon the foundation of the 

 Royal Society of Medicine, Thouret became one of its 

 earliest members, and enriched the Memoirs of the Society 

 by several valuable essays. The most important public 

 work in which he took a part was the exhumation of the 

 bodies in the cemetery of the Holy Innocents, of which he 

 drew up a most interesting report. This cemetery, toge- 

 ther with a church of the same name, stood on the spot 

 now occupied by the Marchc des Innocens, and had be- 

 come in process of time so unhealthy from being the prin- 

 cipal burial-ground in Paris, that it was absolutely neces- 

 sary to destroy it. This great work had^een several times 

 attempted, but as often abandoned on account of the dan- 

 gers and difficulties of the undertaking ; at last however, 

 in 17K5, a committee was named for directing the works, 

 v. Inch were carried on without any intermission by night 

 and by day for more than six months, and which were at 

 length completely successful. Thouret afterwards filled 

 several public, situations with equal zeal and integrity; 

 and in the midst of the labours of his numerous employ- 

 ments was carried off, after a few days' illness, by a cerebral 

 atteelion, at Meudon, near Paris, June 19, 1810. Great 

 honours were paid him after his death by the Faculty of 

 Medicine at Paris, of which body he was dean. His works 

 consist almost entirely of essays published in the ' Histoire 

 et Memoires de la Societe Royale,' of which perhaps the 

 most interesting are the ' Rapports sur les Exhumations. iiu 

 C'imetiere des SS. Innocens,' mentioned above. These were 

 afterwards published in a separate form at Paris, 1789, 

 12mo. ( Biogruphie Mcdicale.) 



THOUROUT is a town in the province of West Flan- 

 ders, in the kingdom of Belgium, in the district of Bruges, 

 on the high road from that city to Menin and Courtray. 

 It is a well-built town, with a population of 8000 inhabit- 

 ants, who have a considerable trade in linen, flax, and lin- 

 leed. They also manufacture hats, starch, and wooden shoes. 

 [FLANDERS, WEST.] (Stein, Lexicon; Schulz, Allgemeine 

 Knlliunde, vol. xvii.) 



THRACE (epy'itj;, Thracia) was in earlier times 



the name of the country bounded on the north by the 



Danube, on the south by the Propontis and the ^Egean 



Sea, on the east by the Black Sea, and on the west 



by the river Strympn and the chain of mountains which 



form the continuation of Mount Rhodope. This coun- 



i divided into two parts by Mount Hsemus (now the 



Balkan), which runs from west to east, separating the 



of the lower Danube from the rivers which flow into 



the /Egean Sea. This mountain probably derived its name 



3 E 2 



