TAP 



tiiHic to increafe, and in line becc«iies immoderately long. 

 Hence it is that the breaking, as it is called, of this vvorm, 

 does not dellroy it, and that the voiding large pieces of it is 

 no cure, fince it Hill recovers that length a^ain by new young 

 ones. Every feparate link of fuch a chain, if examined, is 

 found to be entire, lively, and briflc, and not at all injured 

 by the feparation. 



Dr. Tvfoii, in the Phil. Tranf. N'' 146, gives a curious 

 account of this worm : it is always fingle ; it lies vanoudy 

 convoluted, being fometimes as long as all the guts, and 

 fometimes it very much exceeds that lefigth. Olaus Bor- 

 richius afTures us, that a patient of his, in a year's time, 

 voided eight hundred feet in meafure of tliis worm, though 

 in that length he did not meet with the head ; in voiding, thc 

 patient always obferved it to break off. 



Dr. Tyfon parallels this cafe with that of a patient of 

 his, who difeharged vaft quantities of this vvorm for feveral 

 years, but in various pieces, of two, three, four, fix, or more 

 yards long, but all put together, would (he fays) much ex- 

 ceed the length of that of Boirichius. 



The joints in this worm are very numerous. In one of 

 twenty-four feet long. Dr. Tyfon numbered five hundred 

 and feven joints. Above the middle of the edges of each 

 joint, he obferved a protuberant orifice. Thofe orifices he 

 takes for fo many mouths ; the beft microfcopes difcovering 

 no mouth in that part which ufually pafTes for the head. 

 This worm is common in mofl kinds of animals, as dogs, 

 oxen, crabs, herrings, pikes, &c. 



Some authors have afferted, that it is not one, but many 

 worms linked together, and included in a fpolium of the 

 inteftines ; and that this fpohum is not animated, but 

 receives its fenfe and motion from a fort of vermiculi cuciur- 

 bitini enclofed in it. This Gabucinus, de Lumb. Com. 

 fays, he has plainly difcovered ; but Dr. Tyfon abundantly 

 evinces the contrary. 



Authors who have treated of thefe worms as a difeafe, 

 have given a canine appetite, or unnatural appetite to food, 

 as one of the fymptoms ; but this is wrong, for it has never 

 been found, in reality, that thefe worms, even where moft 

 numerous, have at all increafed the natural appetite ; and 

 indeed it is very difficult to judge of their being in the body 

 by fymptoms, fince they occafion none which are not alfo 

 common in many other difeafes. Many people have had 

 them a long courfe of time, without being fenfibly hurt by 

 them ; and there has never been known an inftance of their 

 occafioning any one's death, or indeed any confiderable dif- 

 order. 



Fern-root has been long known as a remedy againft worms. 

 Sec Difeafes ©/"Infan't.s, and Worms. 



However, it was funk into negleft till a few years ago, 

 when it again came into notice, by being difcovered to be 

 the remedy which had become greatly celebrated in Switzer- 

 land as a fpecific in the cure of the tsnia or tape-worm. The 

 fecret was purchafed by the king of France, after its 

 efficacy had been attefted upon trial by fome of the princi- 

 pal phyficians at Paris. 



The following has been publifhed as the mode of its ex- 

 hibition. After the patient has been prepared by an 

 emollient clyfter, and a fupper of panada with butter and 

 fait, he is direfted to take in bed in the morning a dofe of 

 two or three drachms of the powder of male fern-root. The 

 dofe to infants is only one drachm. The powder muft be 

 wafhed down with a draught of water, but nothing elfe 

 mufl be taken till two hours after, when a bolus of 

 calomel, joined with fome of the ftrongefl cathartics, is to 

 be given. If this does not operate, it mufl be followed by 

 a dofe of purging falls. By this method the worm is 



TAP 



commonly expelled in a few hours. If the trial does not 

 fuccced, the procefs mull be repeated at due intervals. 

 Lewis's Mat. Med. by Aikin, 1784. 



TAPEANDURIAN, in Geography, a town on the K. 

 coaft of the ifland of Borneo. N. lat. 1° 24'. E. long. 



ii7°J4'- 



TAPEANTAN, a fm.ill ifland in the Sooloo Archi- 

 pelago. Nlat. 6° 15'. E.long. 122° 9'. 



TAPECON, in Ichthyology, a name given by fome to the 

 fifli generally called the uranofcopus, or ftar-gazer. 



TAPEINIA, in Botany, a little plant of the ftraits of 

 Magellan, fo named by Commerfon, from TaTEivoc, humble, or 

 low ; JuiT. 59. This is the Ixia pumila of Forfler, PI. 

 Magell. 1 1, t. 2, referred by Vahl to Witsenia. See that 

 article. 



TAPER, Tapering, is underllood of a piece of timber, 

 or the like, when broad at one end, and gradually dimini/hing 

 to the other ; as is the cafe in pyramids, cones, &c. 



To meafure taper timber, &c. fee SLlDlNG-i?a//?. 



T APTiR-Borerl is applied to a piece of ordnance, when it is 

 wider at the mouth than towards the breech. 



Taper alfo denotes a kind of tall wax -candle, placed in a 

 candleftick, and burnt at funeral proceflions, and in other 

 church folemnities. 



Tapers are made of different fizes ; in fome places, as 

 Italy, &c. they are cylindrical ; but in moft other countries, 

 as England, France, Sic. they are conical or taper ; whence 

 pofTibly the name ; unlefs we rather choofe to derive taper 

 in the adjeAive fenfe from the fubftantive taper, in the Saxon 

 tapen or lapon, ceretis, luax-candle. 



Both kinds are pierced at bottom, for a pin in the candle- 

 ftick to enter. 



The ufe of lights in religious ceremonies is of a long 

 ftanding ; the ancients, we know, ufed flambeaux in their 

 facrifices, and particularly in the myfteries of Ceres ; and 

 they had tapers placed before the ftatues of their gods. 



Some fuppofe that it was in imitation of this heathen 

 ceremony, that lights were firft introduced into the Chriftiaii 

 church ; others take it, that the Chriftians borrowed the 

 practice from the Jews ; but recourfe need not be had to 

 the one or the other. Doubtlefs, as in the firft ages of 

 Chriftianity, they had their meetings in obfcure fubterraneous 

 vaults, there was a neceffity for tapers, &c. ; and there was 

 even occafion for them after they had the liberty of building 

 churches, thofe being contrived in fuch a manner as only to 

 receive very httle light, that they might infpire the greater 

 awe and refpeft by the obfcurity. 



This original of tapers in churches is the moft natural ; 

 but it is now a long time fince the ufe of tapers, which 

 neceffity firft introduced, is become a mere ceremony. 

 St. Paidinus, who lived at the beginning of the fifth cen- 

 tury, obferves, that the Chriftians of his days were fo fond 

 of tapers, that they even painted them in their churches. 



There are two ways of making tapers, the firft with the 

 ladle, the fecond by hand. 



In the firft, after the wicks (which are ufually half cotton, 

 half flax) have been well twifted, and cut of the due length, 

 a dozen of them are hung, at equal diftances, around an 

 iron hoop, direftly over a large copper bafon full of melted 

 wax. 



Then taking an iron ladleful of the wax, they pour it 

 gently over the wicks, a little below the tops of them, one 

 after another ; fo that, the wax running down them, they 

 become foaked and covered with it, and the furpliis re- 

 turns into the bafon, under which is a pan of coals to keep 

 it in fufion. 



Thus they continue to call on more and more wax for ten 



or 



