Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/364

LEFT TEBTIAEY 312 TERTULLIANTTS properly understood strata of Tertiary age were those in the vicinity of Paris, described by Cuvier and Brongniart in 1810. Other Tertiary strata were short- ly afterward discriminated in England, in London, in Hampshire, in Suffolk, in the Subapennine hills in Italy, near Bor- deaux and Dax in the S. of France, and elsewhere. As early as 1828, Mr. (after- ward Sir Charles) Lyell had conceived the idea that the Tertiary strata might be classified by the percentage of extinct species of shells which they contained. He found in 1829 that Deshayes of Paris had independently come to the same conclusion, and the latter geologist, after comparing 3,000 fossil with 5,000 living shells, intimated that in the Lower Tertiary strata about 3>4 per cent, of the species were identical with recent ones; in the Middle Tertiary about 17 per cent.; in the Upper Tertiary, in the oldest beds 35-50, and in the more modern ones 90-95 per cent. To these three Lyell gave the names Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene respectively, words which have since gained universal currency. The foregoing percentages are now known to be only approximately accurate. Next the newer Pliocene beds were called by Lyell Pleistocene, a name afterward transferred to the Post Tertiary, and Oligocene was proposed by Beyrich for beds intercalated between the Eocene and the Miocene. A gap, as yet only partially filled, occurs between the Chalk and the Eocene. This gap has been utilized to draw a natural line between the Secon- dary and the Tertiary beds. It probably arose from an upheaval of the sea bed. Thus, with the Eocene, as the name im- ports, the dawn of the present system of things began, and the percentage of shell species shows that the transition has gone on without stoppage or hiatus till now. Other classes present evidence of the same kind; but, as Lyell was the first to point out, which he did in 1830, Shell species have a longevity far exceeding that of the Mammalia. No recent mam- mal appears in the Eocene, though in Eocene strata various mammalian fami- lies which have well-known living repre- sentatives appear for the first time. Among the animals the Tertiary is the age of Mammals; among plants it is the age of Dicotyledons, the Cycads and Con- ifers of the Upper Secondary rocks having given place to plants belonging to many orders and a vegetation only less varied than now. For the most part evi- dences of gold are lacking in rocks of the tertiary period. Also in geology the period of time dur- ing which the Tertiary strata were depos- ited. It cannot yet be measured even approximately. When it commenced, England, as proved by the fruits in tho London clay at Sheppey, was a tropical or sub-tropical country. The tempera- ture fell till the Newer Pliocene, by which time the climate was semi-Arctic. Dur- ing the deposition of the Tertiary, there was a great increase of land both in Europe and America. In the plural, in ornithology the ter- tials; vdng feathers having their origin from the humerus. They are a portion of the quills. They are not scapulars, though Cuvier calls them by this name; nor do they cover the scapulars. Their use is to fill up the interval between the body and the expanded wing, and to op- pose a broader surface of resistance to the air. TERTULLIANUS, QUINTUS SEP- TIMITJS FLOBENS (more commonly Tertullian), a theologian of the West- ern Church; born of heathen parents in Carthage about 160. His father was a Roman centurion under the proconsol of Africa. The details of his life are little known, but the strongly marked charac- ter of the man comes out in every page of his numerous writings. He had a liberal education, and shows extensive ac- quaintance with poetry, history, and law, and considerable knowledge of philoso- phy and science. Though he calls the philosophers "the patriarchs of heretics" and the learning of secular literature "folly with God," he speaks of the de- light he once had in the indecent profani- ties of the public plays, and confesses that he had fallen into the greatest sins. He nowhere says much about his personal religion, but calls himself "a sinner of all brands, and fit only for penitence, and asks his readers to remember in their prayers Tertullian the sinner." He had sufficient command of Greek to write in that language his earliest treatises, all of which are lost. Jerome mentions that he was a presbyter of the Catholic Church, whether at Rome or Carthage is unknown. Tertullian himself speaks of his having lived at Rome. Eusebius says "he was accurately acquainted with the Roman laws and one of the most dis- tinguished men in Rome." It is possible that before his conversion he had prac- tised there as an advocate or rhetorician. He did not become a Christian till about 190, and he has not recorded the history of his conversion. That he was married is shown by his two books "To the Wife," in which he argues against second marriages. Some time between 199 and 203 his opposition to the spirit of worldliness in the Church culminated in his becoming a leader of