TANTALUS n.
A genus of wading birds comprising the wood ibises. Tantalus's cup (Physics), a philosophical toy, consisting of a cup, within which is the figure of a man, and within the figure a siphon, the longer arm of which passes down through the bottom of the cup, and allows the escape of any liquid that may be poured in, when…
TEMPERAMENT n.
The peculiar physical and mental character of an individual, in olden times erroneously supposed to be due to individual variation in the relations and proportions of the constituent parts of the body, especially of the fluids, as the bile, blood, lymph, etc. Hence the phrases, bilious or choleric temperament, sanguine…
THEORY n.
The philosophical explanation of phenomena, either physical or moral; as, Lavoisier's theory of combustion; Adam Smith's theory of moral sentiments. Atomic theory, Binary theory, etc. See under Atomic, Binary, etc.
THEOSOPHY n.
attain intercourse with God and superior spirits, and consequent superhuman knowledge, by physical processes, as by the theurgic operations of some ancient Platonists, or by the chemical processes of the German fire philosophers; also, a direct, as distinguished from a revealed, knowledge of God, supposed to be attaine…
TORRICELLIAN a.
metically sealed at the upper, such as is used in the barometer. -- Torricellian vacuum (Physics), a vacuum produced by filling with a fluid, as mercury, a tube hermetically closed at one end, and, after immersing the other end in a vessel of the same fluid, allowing the inclosed fluid to descend till it is counterbal…
TRADE n.
smith, of a carpenter, or mason, but not now of the trade of a farmer, or a lawyer, or a physician. Accursed usury was all his trade. Spenser. The homely, slighted, shepherd's trade. Milton. I will instruct thee in my trade. Shak.