Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/838

 803 TORRICELLI TORT ca ; materials were sent to Dr. Torrey, who found it to be a new species of the genus bear- ing his name, and he described it as T. Califor- nica. It grows from 40 to 50 ft. high, and has a smooth bark, and leaves from 2 to 2 in. long; the nut bears much similarity in size and shape to the nutmeg, and the ruminated albumen shown when it is cut adds to a re- semblance that is not borne out by the taste, which is that of turpentine. Another species is mentioned as having been found in the Bo- gota Andes, though little is known about it. The Torreyas flourish well in England, but trees of other than the Florida species have not been sufficiently tested to know how they will suc- ceed in our Atlantic states. TORRICELLI, Evangelists, an Italian mathema- tician, born in Faenza, Oct. 15, 1608, died in Florence, Oct. 25, 1647. He received a math- ematical education in a Jesuit school at Faenza, which he completed at Rome. Some tracts written by him upon the dialogues of Galileo excited the latter's attention, and he invited Torricelli to Florence, who soon became his successor in the academy as professor of math- ematics. His greatest discovery is that of the barometer. (See BAROMETER.) He published Opera Oeometrica (4to, Florence, 1644). TORSION BALANCE. See BALANCE. TORSK, or Tnsk. See CUSK. TORSTENSON, Lennart, count of Ortala, a Swe- dish general in the thirty years' war, born at Torstena, Aug. 17, 1603, died in Stockholm in April, 1651. In 1618 he became a page at the court of Gustavus Adolphus, and as captain of the king's body guard accompanied him to Ger- many in 1630, where he directed the artillery. In 1632 he contributed materially to the pas- sage of the Lech, but was captured during the assault on Wallenstein's headquarters near Nu- remberg. He was carried to Ingolstadt, and the severity of his imprisonment made him an in- valid for life. On his exchange and release he was placed at the head of an army corps, and in 1633 he invaded Bavaria and captured Lands- berg. In 1635 he operated against the Poles in Prussia, and subsequently marched to the relief of Baner, and was with him in the cam- paign, of 1636-7. In 1641 he was made field marshal and succeeded Baner as generalissimo of the Swedish armies in Germany. With a re&nforcement of 8,000 men he joined the con- federates in the duchy of Lilneburg, marched through the territories of Brandenburg into Silesia, stormed Glogau, and in May, 1642, gained a great victory at Schweidnitz over Franz Albrecht of Saxe-Lauenburg. He then pushed into Moravia and reduced several cities, but retreated to Saxony before superior forces, and laid siege to Leipsic. Here he was attacked on Oct. 23 (N. S., Nov. 2) by the archduke Leo- pold, on the plain of Breitenfeld, and the con- flict resulted in the signal defeat of the imperial- ists. Torstenson, again resuming the offensive, reduced all Saxony, invaded Moravia, and laid the country under contribution as far as the Danube. In the mean time Denmark had en- tered into a secret alliance with the emperor ; and Torstenson, marching with wonderful ce- lerity from Moravia into Holstein, late in 1643, soon conquered the Danish peninsula, with the exception of Gliickstadt and Krempe. After an abortive attempt on the part of Gallas to check his return to Germany, Torstenson ad- vanced into Bohemia, and on Feb. 24, 1645, gained the battle of Jankau, which secured the submission of Moravia ; and, obtaining the control of the Danube, he took even the forti- fications which covered the head of the bridge at Vienna. Deserted here by his allies, he re- treated into Bohemia, and in 1646 his infirmi- ties obliged him to give up the command to Wrangel. In 1647 he was made a count. TORT (Lat. tortus, from torquere, to twist), in law, a private or civil wrong or injury, in contradistinction from a crime against the public or the state, but not technically inclu- ding breaches of contract or other agreements. Torts are injuries or infringements of the civil rights that belong to individuals considered merely as individuals, while crimes are wrongs which affect the community and so invade and violate the rights of society. The distinction between private injuries and public wrongs seems to be much dependent on the constitu- tion and positive laws of civil society. So long as the harm done by an offence is limited to the single individual against whom it was directed, the offender commits only a private injury or a tort ; but if the act, though imme- diately concerning an individual, disturbs the public order or safety and welfare, then the positive law interposes and elevates the hither- to private offence to the degree of a crime or of a misdemeanor. In some cases the injury may be both public and private, or at once a tort and a crime or misdemeanor. For ex- ample, the commission of a battery subjects the aggressor to a public prosecution as a dis- turber of the peace, while the party beaten may have his separate civil action for damages. Libel and nuisance are other examples of this twofold character. As wrongs are privations or infringements of rights, so torts, being pri- vate wrongs, are infringements of private rights, or the rights of individuals. These rights respect either the person or the prop- erty. In the former class is included the right of personal security, in respect as well to the body as to the health and the reputation, and the violations of this right in one or other of these respects bear the names battery, assault, nuisance, slander, libel, and malicious prosecu- tion. In this class is included also the right of personal liberty, which is violated by false im- prisonment. Rights of property, real or per- sonal, may be infringed by trespasses in vari- ous degrees by waste, conversion, and fraud, and the more incorporeal of these rights by nuisance and by infringement of patents and copyrights and rights in trade marks. These several names of torts have been applied by