T E S 



rant, though he adopted a charaftcr and form which are pe- 

 vuhar to himfclf. Of his compolhions, generally perplexed 

 and crowded, the beft known and moll correct is that of 

 Achilles dragging Heftor from the walls of Troy to the 

 Grecian fleet. He delighted in allegoric fubjeas, and pro- 

 duced many of piclurefquc effeft and attitudes : but, in their 

 meaning, as obfcure as the occalions to which they allude. 

 Of cxpreflion, he only knew the extremes, grimace, or loath- 

 lome nefs and horror. As a colourill, he was frequently rich and 

 effeftive, harmonious and warm : and his execution bears the 

 llamp of incredible freedom : while his chiaro-fcuro is ma- 

 naged with great breadth and depth. His juft charafter is that 

 of a powerful machinift. He was drowned in the Tyber, in 

 1650, endeavouring to recover his hat, which the wind had 

 blown into the water ; though fome fufpeft tliat he threw 

 himfelf in, in a fit of defpondency, to which he was 

 prone. 



He was an eminent engraver as well as a painter, and the 

 number of his works in both arts atteft his induilry and inge- 

 nuity, confidering the (liort period of his life. 



Testa, in Bolany and Vegdalk Phyfwlogy, is the fl^in of 

 a feed or kernel, which enfolds the embryo, cotyledons, and, 

 if prefent, the albumen, giving them their due fhape ; for 

 this integument is perfedily formed, before they have at- 

 tained any folidity or diftinft organization. The fliin is ge- 

 neraliy double, as may be feen in the peach, apricot, and 

 walnut, that glutinous coat of the latter, which ftains our 

 lingers in peehng the kernel, being lined with a much finer, 

 white and fmooth membrane, technically called membrana by 

 Gxrtner. In true pulpy feeds, like thofe of Jafminum, a 

 quantity of pulp is lodged between the membrana and the 

 outer fliin. Both thefe integuments burft irregularly, merely 

 from the fwelling of their contents in germination. 



Testa rtV Mora, in Geography, a Imall ifland near the 

 E. coaft of Sardinia. N. lat. 40° 45'. E. long. 9° 53'. 



Testa di Saori, a town of the ifland of Corfica ; 7 miles 

 N. of Baflia. 



Testa Ncvilli, or Tejla de Nevil, an ancient record kept 

 by the king's remembrancer in the exchequer, containing 

 the king's fees throughout the greateft part of England, 

 with inquifitions of land efcheated, and fergeanties. 



It was denominated from its compiler Johan. de Nevil, 

 one of the itinerant juftices under king Henry III. 

 Testa Sep'iic. See Cuttle-/7/& Bone. 

 TESTACEOLOGY, the fcience of teftaceous vermes, 

 or, in other words, of thofe foft and fimple worms, which 

 have a Ihelly or teftaceous covering; whether, as in fome 

 kinds, it be fufficient to envelope and conceal the whole 

 body, or only to cover a portion of it, as in others. The 

 term is derived from teJla, a (hell ; or we (hould rather wifh, 

 in order to fupport our definition, from Tejlacea, the name 

 t)f the order of thofe vermes which have a Ihelly covering, 

 and which, in the Gmclinian fyftem, are thus defined : 

 TeStacea. Animalia Mollufca fimpUcia, domo fsepius cal- 

 carea propria, obtefta. 



Under this idea of its derivation, the word teftaceology 

 mull be confidered preferable to that of conchology, in 

 dcfignating the fcience of thofe bodies which have a Ihelly 

 covering ; becaufe it may imply, or be underllood to imply, 

 not only the fcience of the {hells which form the covering 

 or habitation, but tlie animal alio by which it is inhabited, 

 while that of conchology might be confined to the Ihells 

 alone. It muft however be confeffed, that, ftridly fpeak- 

 ing, the terms teftaceology and conchology are fyno- 

 nimous, and that their application in the manner we propofe, 

 muft rather be determined by the tafte of the future natu- 

 ralift than any pofitive rule we might lay down. The 



T E S 



fcience itfelf is but a branch of vermeology; and either the 

 term conchology or teftaceology may be applied with much 

 propriety, at the difci'etion of the writer. 



The term teftaceology is certainly of late invention, and 

 may in fome degree be regarded rather as an innovation than 

 amendment; for even with the definition we might be in- 

 clined to adign it, in order that it may be retained, there is 

 itill no aftual difference in its meaning from the term con- 

 chology, a term which, to ufe the words of a writer of the 

 lall century, " comprehends the ftudy of all animals that 

 are teftaceous, or have fhelly coverings ; not only thofe of the 

 lea, but alfo thofe of the rivers and land ;" and it has more- 

 over an evident claim to priority, having been in ufe for at 

 leafl the lad forty years among the beft Englilh authors. 

 Da Cofta, a writer of no ordinary information, indeed ap- 

 pears to have affumed to himfelf the eftablifhment, if not the 

 attual invention of the term ; for in his " Elements of Con- 

 chology," publilhed in 1776, he exprefsly obferves, " this 

 pecuhar branch of the hiftory of nature, I fliall call con- 

 chology." Many authors call it conchyliology ; and this we 

 find to be true in compliance both with the French and the 

 Latin, the " Conchyhologie" of D' Argenville, and " Hiftoria 

 Conchyliocum" of Lifter, two works of great celebrity, that 

 had appeared fome time before his " Elements" were pub- 

 hfhed. We have thus endeavoured to prove that the terms 

 teftaceology and conchology are purely fynonimous ; and if 

 any doubt remained, we might finally quote one further 

 paffage from the Elements before alluded to, in which we 

 are diltinttly told, that " the term of Conchology, applied to 

 this branch of natural hiftory by all authors, is quite appli- 

 cable to its arrangement by the (hells, and not by the fifli." 

 As we have already endeavoured to exemplify the rife, pro- 

 grefs, and prefent ttate of the fcience of teftaceous bodies in 

 a very ample manner under the article Conchology, and 

 may be allowed to prefume, with fome little confidence, that 

 we have therein concentrated much ufeful information upon 

 this truly pleafing and very favourite fcience, it might be 

 efteemed a wafte of words to enter into any very confiderable 

 digreffion upon the fame fubjetl; again ; we (hall therefore 

 merely recommend a careful perufal of that article to the at- 

 tention of the reader, and trull the refult will be confidered 

 fatisfaftory. 



It was indeed our wilh, and we had made fome general 

 promife to that effeift, that under the prefent article we 

 would refume this fubjett, and fubmit the outlines of what 

 we were induced to think an improvement upon the prefent 

 prevailing arrangement ; and upon this point it is now in- 

 cumbent to offer a few remarks. 



The moft ardent admirer of the great Linnaeus will 

 readily concede to us, that the fcience of conchology was 

 not one of thofe within tlie province of his deep refearch, or 

 the decided contemplation of his aftive mind. Its introduc- 

 tion as a fcience, was neceffary to complete the feries of the 

 vaft chain of animated nature, the clafTification of which he 

 had undertaken in his " Syltema Naturx," and it was 

 therefore one he could not omit. But for this, it is believed, 

 and with tolerable certainty, th.it he would have willingly 

 avoided the fubjefl altogether in the latter editions of that 

 work, as it was in the early ones. We have already (hewn, 

 under our article Conchology, the affual ftate in which 

 Linnxus found the fcience, as handed down to him by his 

 predeceffors ; and the var-ious purpofes to which he applied 

 their labours and afliftance. From a general view of the 

 v;hole, there can no doubt remain that there is yet much to 

 amend in the claffification of (hells, and that the fubdivifion 

 of many of the genera already eftabKfhed into natural genera, 

 appears defirable. It was under this perfuafien that we 



had 



