T O R 



it became dry. The fire, it is thought, would eat along the 

 furface without penetrating deep, when a body of moift 

 unaltered peat lay below, and not only convert the earth 

 within its reach into brick-duft, but confume many of the 

 incorruptible elaftic fibres by which the foil is kept too 

 loofe. And by the mixture of incombuftible earth check- 

 ing the rapidity of the combuftion, mofl of the peat would 

 be converted into a fort of charcoal, not aflies. The 

 refidue might be mingled with the fubfoil, and the field 

 would then be in excellent condition, it is faid, for any 

 crop, particularly for turnips ; and there is, perhaps, no 

 plant better adapted to fuch a fituation, from its power to 

 refifl: the autumnal frofts, by which fome other cultivated 

 plants are often ruined. See the Paperi 



The fame writer has, indeed, proved the great difpofition 

 of this powdery fubitance to pi-oduce fertility in a variety 

 of experiments, which he has recorded in an elementary 

 work on agriculture, already before the public. See 

 Naifmith's Elements of Agriculture. 



TORREJON, in Geography, a town of Spain, in New 

 Caftile ; l-^ miles S. of Madrid. 



TORR'EJONCILLOS, a town of Spain, in New Caf- 

 tile ; 20 miles S. of Huete. 



TORRELAGUNA, a town of Spain, in New Caftile ; 

 17 miles N. of Guadalaxara. 



TORRELLA de Mongri, a town of Spain, in Cata- 

 lonia, on the north fide of the Ter, near its mouth ; remark- 

 able for a battle fought here between the French and 

 Spaniards in the year 1694, in which the latter were de- 

 feated ; 18 miles E. of Gerona. 



TORREMOCIIA, a town of Spain, in New Caftile ; 

 6 miles W. of Melina. 



TORRENT, ToRREXS, in Hydrogrnphy, a temporary 

 ilream of water, falling fiiddenly froin mountains in which 

 therehavebeen great rains, or an extraordinary thaw of fnow ; 

 fometimes making great ravages in the plains. 



TORRENTE, in Geography, a town of Spain, in the 

 province of Valentia ; 5 miles S. of Valentia. 



TORRENUEVA, a town of Spain, in New Caftile; 

 23 miles S.E. of Civdad Real. 



TORREPARA, a town of Hindooftan, in Lahore ; 20 

 miles W. of Nagorcote. 



TORRES, a tovv'n of Spain, in the province of Granada, 

 on the coaft of the Mediterranean ; 9 miles E. of Velcz 

 Malaga. 



Torres, a river of Sardinia, which runs into the fea, 

 about 10 miles N. of Saffari. 



Torres, Cape, a cape of Spain, on the coaft of Afturia. 

 N. lat. 43° 37'. W. long. 5<^ 4^. 



Torres Ijlands, a clufter of iflands in the Indian fea, 

 near the coaft of Siam. N. lat. 11° 25' to 11° 48'. E. 

 long. 96'' 50' to 97''. 



Torres Novas, a town of Portugal, in Eftremadura ; 

 12 miles E. of Santaren. * 



Torres Vedras, a town of Portugal, in Eftremadura, 

 one of the oldeft towns in the kingdom, and containing four 

 churches, an hofpital, a caftle, four convents, and about 

 2250 inhabitants ; 21 miles N. of Lifbon. 



TORRESIA, in Botany, a genus fo named in the Flora 

 Peruviana, p. 114, in honour of Jerome de las Torres, 

 under-gardener of the botanic garden at Madrid. De 

 Theis. 



TORREXIMENO, in Geography, a town of Spain, in 

 the province of Jaen ; 8 miles W.N.W. of Jaen. 



TORRICELLA, a town of Naples, in Principato 

 Citra ; 4 miles S.W. of Amalfi. — Alfo, a town of Naples, 



in Abruzzo Citra ; 6 miles N. of Lanciano Alfo, a town 



of Italy, in the department of the Mincio ; 10 miles S.S.W. 



TOR 



of Mantua — Alfo, a town of Italy, in the department of 

 the Panaro ; 8 miles W.S.W. of Modena. 



TORRICELLI, Evangelista, in Biography, a very 

 diftinguiftied mathematician and philofopher, was born at 

 Faenza in 1608, and at the age of eighteen he went to Rome 

 to complete his education, and particularly to extend his 

 acquaintance with mathematics, under the inftrudlion of 

 Benedetto Caftelli, who was profeffor of mathematics in that 

 city. After the perufal of Galileo's «' Treatife on Motion," 

 he compofed a work of a fimilar kind, which being (hewn 

 to Galileo by Caftelli, excited his admiration, and induced 

 him to invite the young author to his houfe. But as Galileo 

 died three months after his arrival, he propofed to return to 

 Rome ; he was diverted, however, from his purpofe, by 

 being appointed mathematician and philofopher to the grand 

 duke Ferdinand II., who alfo advanced him to the mathe- 

 matical ch.iir at Florence. In this honourable ftation he 

 affiduoudy profecuted his fpcculations and experiments, till 

 death prematurely deprived the world of the benefit which 

 could not fail to refult from them, in the year 1 647, at the 

 age of 39 years. His " Treatife on Motion," already men- 

 tioned, was publiftied in a " CoUedion of his Mathematical 

 Works" in 1644. Of his difpute with Roberval concern- 

 ing the Cycloid, we have already given a fiiort account under 

 that article. But Torricelli's fame is fufiiciently eftabliflied 

 by his difcovery of the true principle upon which the 

 barometer is conftruaed. (See Torricellian.) Torri- 

 celli was no lefs celebrated for his mathematical knowledge, 

 evinced by his improvement of the fcience of indivifibles 

 difcoyered by Cavalieri, and for his acquaintance with the 

 principles of optics, by which he was led to improve the 

 conftruftion of telcfcopes and microfcopes. His difcoveries, 

 by which his name is immortalized among the promoters of 

 ufeful fciences, are recorded in his " Lezioni Academiche," 

 publifhed at Florence in 171 5, 410. by Buonaventuri, with 

 the life of Torricelli prefixed. The ftyle with which he 

 wrote in his native language was pure and elegant, and his 

 general charafter was fuch as to command the refpedl and 

 eftcem of all who knew him. 



TORRICELLIAN, a term very frequent among 

 phyfical writers, ufed in the. phrafes Torricellian tube, or 

 Torricellian experiment, on account of the inventor, Torricelli, 

 a difciple of the great Galileo. 



Torricellian Tube, is a glafs tube, open at one end, 

 and hermetically fealed at the other, about three feet long, 

 and one-tenth of an inch in diameter. See Barometer. 



Torricellian Experiment, is performed by filling the 

 Torricelhan tube with mercury, then flopping the open 

 orifice with the finger, inverting the tube, and plunging 

 that orifice into a veffel of ftagnant mercury. This done, 

 the finger is removed, and the tube fuftained perpendicular 

 to the iurface of the mercury in the veflel. 



Tlie confequence is, that part of the mercury falls out 

 of the tube into the veftcl, and there remains only enough 

 in the tube to fill from twenty-eight to thirty-one inches 

 of Its capacity, above the furface of the ftagnant mercury 

 in t!ie veffel. 



Thofe twenty-eight, &c. inches of mercury are fuftained 

 in the tube by the preftiire of the atmofphere on the 

 furface of the ftagnant mercury ; and according as the 

 atmofphere is more or lefs heavy, or as the winds, blowing 

 upwards or downwards, heave up or deprefs the air, and fo 

 increafe or diminifli its weight and fpring, more or lefs mer- 

 cury is fuftained from twenty-eight inches to thirty-one. 



There is a cafe, however, firft taken notice of by Huy- 

 gens (Journal de S^avans, 1672. p. iii.) in which, if a 

 glafs tube of a fmall bore feventy or eighty inches in 

 length, be well cleaned, and filled with mercury well purged 



of 



