THOREAU 



5797 



THOROLD 



from the lower limbs and chyle from the in- 

 testinal tract. This duct, which is about the 

 size of a goose quill and from fifteen to eighteen 

 inches long, begins below in a dilated portion 

 called the receptacle of the chyle, and extends 

 up along the front of the spinal column to the 

 seventh vertebra of the neck; there it curves 

 forward and downward, opening into the junc- 

 tion of the left jugular and left subclavian 

 veins (see color diagram opposite page 1388). 

 See also LYMPH, subhead The Lymphatic Sys- 

 tem. 



THOREAU, tho'ro, or thoro' , HENRY DAVID 

 (1817-1862), an American writer on nature, 

 born at Concord, Mass., of Scotch and French 

 descent. His father had been a merchant, but 

 had taken up the manufacture of lead pencils, 

 an occupation 

 which Thoreau 

 also followed at 

 times. He was 

 graduated from 

 Harvard in 1837, 

 and in the same 

 year began his 

 lifelong habit of 

 keeping a journal. 

 For several years 

 he taught school 

 at Concord and 

 on Staten Island, 

 N. Y., and deliv- 

 ered lyceum lee- HENRY D ' T HOREAU 

 tures in New England. Meantime he took a 

 boating trip with his brother on the Merrimac 

 River, and his description of this outing, with 

 his reflections by the way, later made up his 

 first volume A Week on the Concord and. 

 Merrimac Rivers. One thousand copies were 

 printed, but only about two hundred were sold, 

 and the rest were sent back to the author, who 

 used to say thereafter, "I have now a library of 

 nearly nine hundred volumes, over seven hun- 

 dred of which I wrote myself." 



A Life of Seclusion. In 1841-1843 and 1847- 

 1848 Thoreau lived with Emerson; but part of 

 the interval between he spent at Walden Pend, 

 near Concord, where he enjoyed a sort of her- 

 mit's life. He wished to prove his doctrine that 

 a man could live naturally, earn what he 

 needed, and have large leisure for study and 

 culture. His home, which he built with his own 

 hands, cost him twenty-eight dollars; he lived 

 very frugally, supported himself by odd jobs of 

 surveying and boat building, visited among his 

 neighbors, read widely in several languages, 



wrote for magazines and kept a journal which 

 he later revised and published under the title 

 Walden, or Life in the Woods. This book, 

 probably his best work, shows few discoveries, 

 but proves its author to have been a minute 

 observer. His familiarity with the creatures of 

 the woods was nothing short of remarkable; 

 the birds came when he called, the animals 

 showed no fear of him, even the fish he could 

 lift from the water with his hands. 



Thoreau spent most of his life, after leaving 

 Walden, with his parents and sister at Concord, 

 and in tramping trips in the Maine woods, 

 about Cape Cod and in Canada; and his later 

 works are but repetitions, with variations, of his 

 earlier ones. His style is original and stimu- 

 lating, and his writings, neglected for a time, 

 are taking higher and higher rank. He wrote 

 some verse, which has the charm of force and 

 originality, but which lacks warmth and melody. 



Unusual Character. There has been much 

 discussion as to Thoreau's character, his ad- 

 mirers holding that his independence and up- 

 rightness of spirit set him far above ordinary 

 men, his detractors declaring that his difference 

 from those about him was mere self-conscious 

 eccentricity. It is true that he indulged in 

 many vagaries. He refused to vote, to attend 

 church or to pay taxes, thus registering his pro- 

 test against what he felt was an artificial life. 

 He was not a hermit in the true sense of the 

 word, however, for he had many valued friends. 

 His bold public defense of John Brown proved 

 that he did have, at times, an interest in others 

 besides himself. A.MC c. 



Consult Rickett's The Vagabond in Litera- 

 ture; Charming' s Thoreau: The Poet-Naturalist. 



THO'RIUM, a heavy metallic element, the 

 dioxide of which, called thoria, is used in the 

 manufacture of the mantle of the Welsbach 

 burner. The element, which was discovered in 

 1828 by Berzelius, a Swedish chemist, is a gray 

 powder which burns with a bright flame when 

 heated in air; it occurs in monazite, orangite, 

 thorite and similar minerals. Thorium has a 

 wide distribution, though it occurs nowhere 

 abundantly. Brazil, Norway and North and 

 South Carolina are important sources of supply. 

 The monazite sands of North Carolina are ex- 

 tensively used by manufacturers of thoria for 

 utilization in the gas-mantle industry. Tho- 

 rium is one of the radioactive elements (see 

 RADIOACTIVITY) . 



THORN APPLE. See STRAMONIUM. 



THOROLD, thawr'old, a town in Welland 

 County, Ontario. It is on the Grand Trunk 



