Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/795

 TINAMOU TINDAL 765 of ns on a commercial scale will doubtless be perseded by the modern magneto-electric machines, which furnish the necessary current by mechanical instead of chemical means ; or, to speak more accurately, by the combustion of coal, a cheap fuel, instead of the combustion zinc or other expensive substances. TINAMOU, a name applied to the tinamidce, a mily of gallinaceous birds peculiar to South America. The bill is moderate, rather straight, flattened, the base covered by a membrane, and the tip suddenly hooked ; wings short and con- cave ; tail short or wanting ; tarsi rather long, scaled in front, and without spurs ; toes long, with stout blunt claws, the hind one sometimes wanting. They live in the fields on the bor- ders of woods, are low and heavy fliers, but rapid runners, and feed on grains, fruits, and insects ; they lay about a dozen eggs, on the ground in tufts of grass, and the young when hatched soon disperse ; when pursued they en- deavor to hide in the bushes, and are often ght by a noose on the end of a stick ; their Tinamou. sh is exceedingly good ; they vary from 6 to 18 in. in length, and are usually of a reddish or ray brown. In the genus tinamus (Lath. ; ypturus, Illig.), the bill is shorter than the 3ad, the upper mandible the longer, and the >strils in the middle ; first quill short, fourth id fifth longest ; hind toe small and elevated, he great tinamou (T. Bra&iliemis, Lath.) is about 15 in. long, of a deep olive color, slightly and narrowly banded with black, with crown red and secondaries red and black ; pale red- dish ash below ; it is found in Guiana and Bra- zil, resembling in size, habits, colors, and qual- ity of flesh the partridges of the old world; though gentle and timid, it is said not to be capable of domestication. The males have a trembling plaintive whistle to warn of danger or attract the females ; they live in couples during breeding time, at other seasons in small flocks. The nest is made on the ground in a slight hollow, covered with dry grasses ; they lay twice a year ; the young follow the parent as soon as hatched. Other genera are rhyn- cTiotus (Spix), with the species R. rufescens (Wagl.) or rufescent tinamou, inhabiting the borders of lakes and the swampy thickets of Paraguay in small troops ; and tinamotis (Vig.), with three or four species, found in high des- ert places, some distance from fresh water. TINCTURE, a solution of a vegetable, animal, or in some cases mineral substance in alcohol, dilute alcohol, or ether. As tinctures present the active principles of many drugs in a small bulk, and are little liable to change, they are largely used in medicine. They are made by maceration or displacement. The former process consists in soaking the drug for a time which varies greatly in different cases. Displacement or percolation is largely em- ployed in the preparation of fluid extracts as well as of tinctures, and consists in allowing the fluid employed to filter slowly through the powdered drug, the lower layer of fluid, con- taining a large portion of the soluble constitu- ents, being constantly drawn off and its place supplied by fresh strata from above. This process is in most cases much more rapid than maceration. Tincture of iodine and tincture of the chloride of iron demand no maceration, as iodine dissolves rapidly in alcohol or ether, while the iron preparation is a mere mixture of a solution with alcohol. TINDAL, Matthew, an English author, born at Beer-Ferris, Devonshire, about 1657, died in London, Aug. 16, 1733. He was educated at Oxford, took the degree of bachelor in 1676, and was elected to a fellowship at All Souls, which he retained through life. He was cre- ated LL. D. in 1685, and soon after became a Eoman Catholic, but returned to the church of England just before the revolution of 1688. After the revolution, of which he was a zeal- ous partisan, he became an advocate, sat as judge in the court of delegates, and received a pension from the crown of 200. In 1706 he published u The Rights of the Christian Church asserted, against the Romish and all other Priests that claim an independent Power over it," in opposition to high church principles. This excited a long controversy, during which he published two defences, which he reprinted in 1709, with essays on obedience and the law of nations, the liberty of the press, and the rights of mankind in matters of religion. In 1710 he attacked the party of Dr. Sacheverell in a pamphlet entitled "New High Church turned Old Presbyterian;" but the house of commons on one day condemned SacheverelPs sermons, and on the next ordered Tindal's "Eights of the Christian Church" and the second edition of his "Defences" to be burned. His most important work is " Christianity as old as the Creation, or the Gospel a Republi- cation of the Religion of Nature" (1780), in which he expressly denies that Christianity contains any truth which the human reason might not have discovered for itself. Water- land, James Foster, Conybeare, Leland, Chap- man, and others wrote replies to it. He left a second volume of this, only the preface to which has been published.