TORBAY TORPEDO. 



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bouks of Moses, in which the written law of the 

 Hebrews is contained. (See Hebrew Literature.} 

 In the synagogues, tora is used for the parchment 

 roll which contains these five books, and from which 

 portions are read or sung on the Sabbath. The 

 tora is contradistinguished to the cabala, or oral 

 law, which is contained in the Talmud. 



TORBAY ; a bay in the English channel, on the 

 east coast of Devonshire, and a celebrated rendez- 

 vous for the British navy. It is about twelve miles 

 in compass, and is secure against westerly winds ; 

 but a south or south-east wind sometimes forces 

 ships out to sea. Lon. 3 28' W. ; lat. 50 26' 

 N. ; five miles north-east of Dartmouth. 



TORCH-DANCE. Dancing and music were, 

 even with the Greeks and Romans, essential to a 

 well-ordered festival ; and they were especially im- 

 portant at wedding feasts, which ended by conduct- 

 ing the bride to the house of the bridegroom, when 

 a youth, who personated Hymen, preceded them 

 with the wedding torch, and hymns were sung in 

 honour of the god. The Romans, who had bor- 

 rowed this ceremony from the Greeks, mingled 

 with it their Fescennine games. This seems to 

 have been the origin of the torch-dance, which was 

 introduced by Constantino at his court, after it was 

 transferred from Rome to Byzantium. It was 

 known to the Christian emperors in the fourth cen- 

 tury, as a court and ceremonial dance. In later 

 times, it was connected with the tournaments, with 

 which emperors and kings celebrated their marriages. 

 At the tournaments given by Henry the Fowler, 

 (he successful knight danced alone, with the lady 

 who presented him with the reward of victory, by 

 the light of torches, which were borne before and 

 after them. After tournaments ceased to be cele- 

 brated, the torch-dance was revived as a relic of 

 the chivalric ages; and it is used, in our times, at 

 the marriages of royal personages, when it is per- 

 formed with great splendour, at the conclusion of 

 the wedding, when the married pair are conducted 

 to their apartment. 



TORCH-RACE. See Lampadephori. 



TOREUTICS (from the Greek r^ur,**, the 

 art of making work in relief) is sometimes used in 

 a narrower sense, sometimes in a wider. Ernesti, 

 in his Archfcoloyia literaria (5th chap.), treats it as 

 almost equivalent to plastics in general. He says 

 the Greeks call ro^tvrav and yZ.vrret that which is 

 worked by the chisel. Winckelmann, on the other 

 hand, says toreutics signified the art of making 

 raised work in silver and bronze, while raised work 

 in gems was called ayXu^v. Eschenburg and 

 Heyne understand by it castings ; and, according to 

 Schneider's Greek Lexicion, T^ivwand moivpa, were 

 applied only to raised work in metal, produced by 

 casting, not by engraving. The later Greeks, as 

 Pausanias, applied the term also to entire figures. 

 Pliny understood by toreutice, statuary in bronze 

 in general. Veltheim and others have considered 

 the term as used, also, to express the finishing of 

 casts by the chisel. 



TORGAU, an important fortress on the Elbe, 

 in the government of Merseburg, Prussian province 

 of Saxony, belonged to the kingdom of Saxony till 

 1815. It has 4000 inhabitants and 700 houses. 

 Torgau has suffered much in various wars. Here 

 Luther and his friends wrote his Articles of Torgau, 

 the foundation of the Augsburg Confession ; and 

 the Book of Torgau, against Crypto-Calvinists, was 

 signed here by more than eight thousand clergymen 



TORNEA; a town of Finland, belonging, since 



1809, to Russia, on a small island in the river 

 Tornea, at its entrance into the north extremity of 

 the gulf of Bothnia; Ion. 24" 6' E. ; lat. 66 51' 

 N. ; population, 6*56. It is a central place for the 

 imports and exports of a wild and thinly peopled 

 country. The climate is less severe than might be 

 expected in so high a latitude. In June, the sun 

 is visible above the horizon at midnight. In 1736 

 and 1737, Tornea was visited by Maupertuis and 

 other French savans, in company with the Swedish 

 astronomer Celsius, to make observations to ascer- 

 tain the exact figure of the earth. 



TORPEDO ; a genus of fishes, belonging to the 

 family of the rays, and formerly united with them 

 under the raja of Linnaeus. It is distinguished by 

 the short and somewhat fleshy tail, and the nearly 

 circular disk formed by the body. This is smooth, 

 and the teeth are small and acute. The electrical 

 apparatus, which has rendered the torpedo so cele- 

 brated, consists of small membraneous tubes, dis- 

 posed like honey-comb, and divided, by horizontal 

 partitions, into small cells, which are filled with a 

 mucous substance. These occupy the space be- 

 tween the head gills and pectoral fins, and are 

 abundantly supplied with nerves from the eighth 

 pair. This conformation is analogous, in many re- 

 spects, to the galvanic pile, and, accordingly, the 

 identity of the benumbing power of these animals 

 with electricity may be considered established. A 

 Ley den jar may be charged by one of these animals. 

 This extraordinary structure, which may lead to 

 the determination of important points in general 

 physiology, serves a more humble purpose in the 

 economy of the animal. By exercising this power, 

 the torpedo is enabled to procure its prey, and to 

 protect itself against enemies. Whoever attempts 

 to lay hold of it receives a sudden, paralyzing shock 

 in the arms ; and small fishes, it is said, are com- 

 pletely stunned on approaching it. This faculty is 

 by no means confined to the species of torpedo. 

 The gymnotus, or electrical eel of the fresh waters 

 of South America, possesses it in a still more ex- 

 traordinary degree ; and it has lately been discovered 

 in a silurvs, or cat-fish, of the African rivers, as 

 well as in several other fishes of different genera. 

 The torpedo, however, is best known, as it has 

 been an object of astonishment and terror with the 

 common people in all ages. According to Cuvier, 

 several species inhabit the European seas, which 

 have been confounded under the raja torpedo of 

 Linnaeus. They frequent sandy coasts, and some- 

 times, it is said, even conceal themselves above 

 low- water mark. According to Mitchell, there is one 

 upon the American coasts, which is sometimes taken 

 on St George's Bank, in the ocean, near Block 

 island, and to the southward. Few are taken in 

 the course of the season, and these only by the 

 hook and line, while fishing for cod. These in- 

 stances are, however, well remembered by the fish- 

 ermen, who call the animal numb-fish, or cramp-fish. 

 It is said sometimes to attain to the weight of a 

 hundred pounds.. The liver is cut out for the sake 

 of the oil ; but no use is made of the body. 



TORPEDO; a machine invented by Robert 

 Fulton, and intended to blow up the largest ships. 

 The principal part of the apparatus is a copper box, 

 enclosing a certain quantity of gunpowder, and pre- 

 pared with a spring which sets fire to the powdor. 

 The whole is enclosed in cork, or some light sub- 

 stance. It was intended to be placed under the 

 keel of the vessel to be destroyed, by means of a 

 harpoon directed against the side. 

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