T II I 



T R I 



way he employed to grind gold, by which, he fays, he could 

 render it as fluid as the fire does, and make an aurum po- 

 tabile by the bare motion of a mill. 



This autlior, in the Philofophical Tranfafiions, mentions 

 his way of grinding gold, and defcribes two engines, or phi- 

 lofophical mills, for the purpofe ; with one of which, in the 

 fpace of fourteen natural days, he reduced a leaf of gold to 

 a dun<y powder, and, putting it into a fhallow retort, placed 

 in a fand-heat, he thence obtained, by gradually increafmg 

 the fire, and giving a Rrong one at laft, a ver\' few red drops, 

 which, digeftcd per fe, or with tartarized fpirit of wine, af- 

 forded a pure and genuine aurum potabile. 



The fuccefs of this operation the doftor attributes, in a 

 great meafure, to the fait of the air, which, in grinding, 

 plentifully mixes and unites itfelf with the gold. 



It has been obferv-ed, that there appears to be an error in 

 reducing vegetable matter to the ftate of impalpable powder ; 

 as in this ftate, both during the procefs of grinding and 

 afterwards, the air and light aft powerfully upon them, 

 and produce changes, which, although they be not well 

 underftood, yet appear to alter the medicinal virtues of the 

 fubftances. 



Trituration is alfo ufed, in Medicine., for the aftion of 

 the ftomach on the food, by which it is fitted for nutriment. 

 See Digestion. 



TRIVADI, in Geography, a town of Hindooftan, in the 

 Carnatic. The pagoda forms a citadel ; 23 miles S.W. of 

 Pondicherry. N. lat. 1 1^42'. E. long. 79° 45'. 



TRIVANDOOR, a town of Hindooftan, in Madura ; 

 1 6 miles N. of Nattam. 



TRIVATOOR, a town of Hindooftan, in Marawar ; 

 20 miles N. of Trumian. 



TRIVATORE, a town of Hindooftan, in the Carnatic ; 

 6 miles S.E. of Arcot. 



TRIVELAWARY, a town of Hindooftan, in the Car- 

 natic ; 12 miles N. of Tritchinopoly. 



TRIVEMBAR, a town of Hindooftan, in Marawar; 

 27 miles N. of Ramanadporum. 



TRIVENALORE, a town of Hindooftan, in the Car- 

 natic ; 13 miles N. of Tiagar. 



TRIVENI, a term in the Sanfcrit tongue, faid to mean a 

 triad of rivers ; a junc&ion of three of the moft important 

 ftreams of Hindooftan being pre-eminently diftinguifhed by 

 this appellation. Thefe are the Yamuna or Jumna, the 

 Ganga or Ganges, and the Sarafwati ; being, in the mytho- 

 logical myfticifms of the Hindoos, perfonifications or fym- 

 bols of their three great goddeffes, Lakfhmi, Parvati, and 

 Sarafwati. 



Ttie Hindoo poets, as indeed all their writing priefts or 

 philofophers, and even mathematicians, feem to be, call the 

 Triveni the three plaited locks ; and elegantly wreathe this 

 idea into many pleafing allegories. See Radha. 



The fpot of junftion of the three river-goddeftes in quef- 

 tion, near lUahabad in Bengal, is extenfively efteemed very 

 facred ; and pilgrims refort thither from diftant regions to 

 bathe in the purifying triune ftream. Of this we have taken 

 fufficient notice under our article Junctions ; and under that 

 of Suicide, an account is given of meritorious felf-deftruftion 

 at this revered fpot. See alfo Sati. 



The Triveni has been noticed as a fruitful fource of poe- 

 tical allufion. 



We cannot refrain from briefly alluding, in this place, to 

 fome fuppofed coincidences in Irifh and Indian mythology, 

 of which fee fomething under our articles Soma and Surya. 

 And we allude to them here in view to the opportunity of 

 faying that poetical traditions exifted, and perhaps ftill exift, 

 in Ireland of a mythological origin and junftion of three 



rivers, reminding us ftj-ongly of the Indian Triveni. The 

 Irifh rivers appertain to the county of Kilkenny ; and our 

 own Spenfer has defcribed them fo exaftly in the ftyle of 

 Eaftern hyperbole, that we muft invite the reader to turn 

 to our article Kilkenny, where he will find an extraft from 

 Spenfer defcriptive of the mythological origin and junftion 

 of the Irifti Triveni, that may be almoft fufpefted as of 

 Oriental origin. 



TRIVENTO, in Geography, a town of Naples, in the 

 county of Molife, the fee of a biftiop, immediately under the 

 pope ; 1 1 miles N. of Molife. 



TRIVERBIAL Days, in the Roman Calendar, denoted 

 judicial days, or fuch as were allowed to the praetor for 

 hearing of caufes. 



They were otherwife called diesfajli, in qutbus licebat prttori 

 fori tria verba, do, dice, addico. 



Of thefe court-days, the Romans had only twenty-eight in 

 the vsrhole year ; whereas with us, one-fourth of the year 

 is term-time, in which three courts conftantly fit for the dif- 

 patch of bufinefs ; befides the clofe attendance of the court 

 of chancery for determining fuits in equity, and the numerous 

 courts of aflize and nifi prius that fit in vacation for the trial 

 of matters of faft. 



TRIVESPER, in Mythology, one of the epithets of 

 Hercules. 



TRIVET, Nicholas, in Biography, an Englifh hifto- 

 rian of the thirteenth century, was the defcendant of a re- 

 fpeftable family in Norfolk. Having entered among the 

 Dominicans in London, he ftudied at Oxford and at Paris ; 

 and at the latter place coUefted from books on the hiftory of 

 the Normans and Franks fuch paflages as related to the 

 Enghlli nation, and fupplied their defefts from the beft 

 accounts which he could procure in his own country. In 

 this way he compofed his " Annals of the Six Kings of 

 England fprung from the Counts of Anjou," introducing a 

 detail of the moil remarkable events that occurred under the 

 Roman pontiff's, the emperors, the kings of France, and 

 other contemporary princes, together with an account of 

 learned men, particularly of his own order, and intending 

 that his work fliould be a continuation of that of WiUiam of 

 Malmftjury. He alfo wrote various other works, partly 

 containing illuftrations of ancient authors, but none of them 

 were printed, except his commentary on St. Auguftine's book 

 " De Civitate Dei." Soon after his return from France he 

 became prior of a monaftery in London, where he died in 

 1328, at the age of nearly 70 years. His hiftorical work 

 has paffed through feveral editions under different titles, for 

 which we refer to Aikin's Gen. Biog. 



TRIVIAL Names, Nomina Trivialia, in Botany, were 

 firft ufed by Linnjeus in his diflertation entitled Pan Suecus, 

 pubHfhed at Upfal in 1749. The plants there enumerated, 

 with a view to their economical qualities as the food of do- 

 meftic cattle, are each defignated by its generic and fpecific 

 name. The fame meafure was adopted in the firft edition of 

 the Species Plantarum, publiflied four years after, and was 

 extended fubfequently to every department of natural hiftory. 

 LinnjEus originally intended his fpecific definitions to be ufed 

 as names ; but however compendioufly fuch might be con- 

 ftrufted, they were foon found totally unmanageable for that 

 purpofe. He therefore adopted the method of Rivinus, of 

 mentioning each plant by a fort of appellative, in addition to 

 its generic name ; not intending, hke Rivinus, that fuch ap- 

 pellative fliould comprehend the fpecific definition of the 

 plant, which Linnaeus knew to be impoflible. That no fuch 

 expeftation might be formed of thefe names, and that ftu- 

 dents might not too much rely on them, as any thing like 

 definitions, he termed them nomina Irivialia, as ferving for 



common 



