TOR 



Torre de St. Bajilio, a town of Naples, in Bafilicata, on 

 the coaft of the gulf of Tarento ; 8 miles S.E. of Turfi. 



Torre St. Sufanna, a town of Naples, in the province 

 of Otranto ; 7 miles S.E. of Oria. 



Torre de las Salinas, a town of Spain, in Valentia, near 

 the coaft of the Mediterranean, which carries on a great 

 trade in fait, with which it is furnifhed by a fmall lake, 

 formed by faline fprings ; and though the water be appa- 

 parently weakened by rain, yet is fait made of it by the 

 exhalations of the fun. The ufual quantity thus produced, 

 one year with another, is about 900,000 fanegas, each 

 fanega being ijolbs. weight; but when heavy rains are 

 fucceeded by exceflive heat, it comes little fhort of 1,500,000. 

 This is the moft confiderable falt-work in all Spain ; 20 

 miles S.E. of Origuela. 



Torre de Sangid/mzzo, a town of the ifland of Candia ; 



9 miles E. of Retimo. 



Torre del/a Sajtnc, a town of Naples, in Capitanata ; 

 3 miles N.E. of Salpc. 



Torre Sicura, a town of the Popedom, in the maiquifate 

 of Ancona, on the Tronto, oppofite Afcoli. 



Torre Tavignaiw, a town of the ifland of Corfica ; 28 

 miles S.E. of Corte. 



Torre di VacarelLi, a town of Naples, in Capitanata ; 



10 miles N.E. of Troja. 



Torre di Varano, a town of Naples, in Capitanata ; 20 

 miles W. of Viefte. 



Torre la Vega, a town of Spain, in the province of 

 Bifcay ; 1 1 miles S.W. of Santander. 



TORRECILLA, a town of Spain, in Old Cailile ; 



11 miles S.E. of Najera. 



TORRECILLAS, a town of Spain, in Eftremadura ; 

 6 miles E.N.E. of Truxillo. 



TORRECUSO, a town of Naples; 5 miles W. of 

 Benevento. 



TORREDAL, a river of Norway, which runs into the 

 fea near Chriftianfand. 



TORREFACTTON, formed of /or;-f/"<7ffrf, to roajl, in 

 Metallurgy. See Roasting. 



ToRREFACTlON, in Pharmacy, a kind of roafting, or 

 afTation, in which a drug is laid to dry on a metalline plate 

 placed over or before coals, till it become friable to the 

 fingers. 



Torrefaftion is particularly ufed, when, after reducing 

 feme drug, as rhubarb, or myrobalan, into powder, it 

 is laid on an iron or filver plate, and that placed over a 

 moderate fire till the powder begins to affume a darkifh hue ; 

 which is a mark, that thofe remedies have loft their purgative 

 virtue, and have acquired a 'more aftringent one. 



Formerly they ufed to torrefy opium, to get out fome 

 malignant parts fancied to be in it, befoue they dared -ufe 

 it in medicine ; but the eifeft was, that its volatile fpirits 

 and fulphur, in which its greateft virtue confifts, were 

 hereby evaporated. 



TORREFIED Earth, in Agriculture, that which has 

 undergone the aftion of fire, or been burnt. It has been 

 obferved by the writer of a paper on peat in the third 

 volume of the " Tranfaftions of the Highland Society of 

 Scotland," that the uncommon fertility of torrefied earth 

 can fcarcely have efcaped the notice of any one^; but that 

 it is difficult to account for the caufe. It is fuggefted that 

 torrefaftion, by deftroying the cohefive power of clay, may 

 in that way render a foil containing torrefied earth more 

 permeable to the roots of plants. But brick-duft, or burnt 

 clayey matters, even when ftrewed on the furface of grafs- 

 ground, confumes the mofles, or plants of that kind, and 

 produces a deep verdure and lively vegetation oi' fweet 



TOR 



lierbage. It is ftated by the author of the " Elements of 

 Agricultural Chemiftry," that when clay or tenacious 

 earths arc burnt, their power of abforbing moifture is lef- 

 fened, and they are brought nearer to a ftate analogous to 

 that of fands. That in the manufafture of bricks, this 

 general principle is well illuftrated : as, if a. piece of dry 

 brick-earth be applied to tlic tongue, it will adhere to it 

 very ftrongly, in confcqucnce of its power to abforb water ; 

 but that after it has been burnt, there will be fcarcely a fen- 

 fible adhefion. The procefs of torrefaftion or burning 

 may, therefore, render an earth lefs compaft, lefs tenacious 

 and retentive of moifture ; and, when properly apphed, may 

 convert a matter that was ftiff, damp, and, in confequence, 

 cold, into one that is powdeiy, dry, and wai'm ; and much 

 more proper as a bed for vegetable life. 



Dr. Darwin, in his " Phyt'ologia," has fuppofed 

 that clay, during torrefaftion, may abforb fome nutritive 

 principles from the almofphere that may afterwards be 

 fupplied to plants ; but the earths are pure metalhc oxyds, 

 faturated with oxygen ; and the tendency of torrefadtion, 

 or burning, is to expel any other volatile principles that 

 they may contain in combination. If the oxyd of iron in 

 earths be not faturated with oxygen, torrefaftion tends 

 to produce its further union with this principle ; and 

 hence in burning, the colour of clays changes to red. The 

 oxyd of iron which contains its full proportion of oxy- 

 gen, has lefs attraftion for acids than the other oxyd, and 

 is confequently lefs likely to be diffblved by any fluid 

 acids in the earthy parts of land ; and it appears in this 

 ftate to aft in the fame manner as the earths. And though 

 it has been fuggefted, that the oxyd of iron, when com- 

 bined with carbonic acid, is poifonous to plants ; and that 

 one ufe of torrefaftion is to expel the carbonic acid from 

 it ; yet the carbonate of iron is not foluble in water, and 

 is a very inert fubftance ; befides, a luxuriant crop of 

 crcfles has been raifed by the writer in a foil compofed 

 of one-fifth carbonate of iron, and four-fifths carbonate 

 of lime. Carbonate of iron, too, abounds in fome of the 

 moft fertile foils of this country, particularly the red hop- 

 foil. And there is no theoretical ground, it is faid, for 

 fuppofing tliat carbonic acid, which is an efl'ential food 

 of plants, fliould, in any of its combinations, be poifonous 

 to them ; befides, it is known that lime and magnefia are 

 both noxious to vegetation, unlefs combined with tliis 

 principle. 



The firft of the above writers has likewife found, 

 that cohefive earth which has fuffered torrefaction, inch, 

 for inftance, as brick-duft, is one of the moft powerful 

 agents in promoting the folubility of peat, and, confequently, 

 not only of afiifting in the cultivation of land of that fort, 

 but in expediting the preparation of that earth as a niani-rc. 

 And as it has this very powerful effefl in exciting the 

 fertility of peat, kilns might, perhaps, be conftrufted, in 

 which cohefive earth might be burnt either with the re- 

 fufe of coal or peat-fuel. After the peat had been fome- 

 what mellowed by the firft culture as propofed, into a foil, 

 a qiiantity of this brick-duil material might be fpread out 

 on the furface, alter being turned up, to be harrowed 

 in with the feed. But although the torrefaftion or 

 burning of clay for this purpofe fliould not be attainable at 

 3 moderate expence, if a fufficient quantity of earth be 

 once mixed with the peat, it will not be dilTicult to re- 

 duce that eaith to the ftate of brick-dui!:. As when the 

 vifcidity of peat is deftroyed, and its parts feparated by the 

 intervention of earthy particles, it is very fufceptible of 

 combuftion ; it might be lightly turned over in the begin- 

 ning of fummer, and. lire be communicated to it as fooii as 



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