THEOPHRASTUS 



5785 



THERMAL SPRINGS 



In 383 Gratian met his death at the instiga- 

 tion of a usurper, Maximus, who for five years 

 ruled the Western Empire as colleague of Theo- 

 dosius; but in 388 the latter overthrew Maxi- 

 mus and became sole ruler. He recognized the 

 boy Valentinian, son of Gratian, as ruler of the 

 West, and undertook a successful campaign to 

 avenge his death at the hands of Arbogast. A 

 revolt in Thessalonica in 390 roused Theodo- 

 sius' wrath, and he took a cruel vengeance. 

 The people of Thessalonica were invited to at- 

 tend an exhibition in the circus, and when 

 7,000 or more of them had gathered the doors 

 were closed and they were massacred by bar- 

 barian soldiers. As a punishment for this in- 

 humanity Ambrose, bishop of Milan, refused 

 Theodosius communion for eight months. 

 Theodosius was zealous for the Christian faith, 

 and ordered the destruction of all heathen tem- 

 ples throughout his dominions. 



THEOPHRASTUS, the o jras ' tus (about 372- 

 287 B.C.), a Greek philosopher, born at Eresus, 

 in Lesbos. He was a pupil of Plato and Aris- 

 totle in Athens; on the death of the latter he 

 was made head of the Peripatetic School, and 

 held this position from 322 B. c. until the time 

 of his death. His work attracted a large fol- 

 lowing; he won fame in metaphysics, ethics, 

 natural history and, especially, in botany. 

 Most widely known are his History of Plants 

 (nine books), Theoretical Botany (six books), 

 and On Mineralogy (fragments of which still 

 remain). He also wrote sketches entitled 

 Characters, which won the distinction of being 

 imitated during the eighteenth century. 



THEOSOPHY, theos'ofi, a system of occult 

 teaching transferred from India by the efforts 

 of Madame Blavatsky and her followers. See 

 OCCULT ; BLAVATSKY, HELENA. 



THERAPEUTICS, therapu'tiks, the science 

 of healing disease. It includes every known 

 mode of treatment except the knife (see SUR- 

 GERY), and may be considered under six divi- 

 sions medical, general, electrical, mental, bac- 

 terial and preventive. Medical therapeutics 

 includes treatment by drugs; general thera- 

 peutics, treatment by water, sunlight, dieting 

 and massage; electrical, by the X-ray and 

 other forms of electric current ; mental, by sug- 

 gestion, direction of the mental attitude, etc.; 

 bacterial, by the use of antitoxins, vaccination, 

 serum, etc.; preventive, by the application of 

 the principles of sanitation and hygiene. 



For a detailed discussion of the various phases 

 of healing see the articles listed at the close of 

 MEDICINE AND DRUGS, DISEASE and HYGIENE. 



THERESA, tere'sah, also spelled TERESA, 

 SAINT (1515-1582), was a Spanish nun, a patron 

 saint of Spain. She was born at Avila, in Old 

 Castile, and studied in an Augustinian convent, 

 where she was so stirred by the tales of the 

 ancient holy martyrs that she determined to 

 seek martyrdom for herself. In 1533 she en- 

 tered a Carmelite convent, and though she fre- 

 quently deprecated the lack of severity and 

 asceticism in the discipline of the Order, she 

 made for many years no special attempt to 

 introduce reforms. The reading of Augustine's 

 Confessions, however, combined with the death 

 of her father and certain supernatural visita- 

 tions, or trances, to waken in her an intense 

 spirituality, and she began to feel that it was 

 her duty to restore the Carmelite Order to its 

 original rigidness of rule. With a few follow- 

 ers, therefore, she withdrew and set up a new 

 convent where her ideas might be put into 

 force. Opposition to her plan was strong, but 

 the Pope sanctioned it, and finally the general 

 of the Order invited her to introduce her re- 

 forms into the other convents. She opened 

 new houses everywhere in Castile and even be- 

 yond its boundaries, accomplishing wonders by 

 her unaided efforts. 



For years after her death at Alva in 1582 

 several cities contended for her body, and since 

 the power of working miracles was supposed to 

 inhere in her bones these were carried to va- 

 rious places. She was canonized by Gregory 

 XV in 1622. Despite the visions which those 

 hostile to her in her own day laid to devil 

 possession, but which succeeding generations 

 have interpreted as special signs of the divine 

 favor, she was a woman of the utmost whole- 

 someness of mind and of much practical wis- 

 dom. She wrote an autobiography, several 

 mystic treatises, and left a large number of let- 

 ters. 



Consult Saint Theresa, edited by Cardinal Man- 

 ning ; Jameson's Legends of the Monastic Orders. 



THER'MAL SPRINGS, or HOT SPRINGS, 



springs whose waters are warmer than the sur- 

 rounding air. A thermal spring with water at 

 the boiling point, which spouts into the air at 

 varying intervals, is called a geyser (which 

 see). There are also quiet springs which have 

 boiling waters. At the other extreme is the 

 pool at a high altitude whose water is of a 

 higher temperature than that of the surround- 

 ing region, but only a few degrees above freez- 

 ing. It is in volcanic regions that springs hav- 

 ing the highest temperature are found, and in 

 such cases the water is heated by flowing over 



