Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/859

 TOWNSHEND dng his seat in the house of peers attached limself to the wldgs. In 1706 he was ap- >inted one of the commissioners to treat for union with Scotland, and in 1707 captain the yeomen of the queen's guard ; and in 1709, in the capacity of ambassador extraor- linary to the United Provinces, he negotiated barrier treaty. The accession of George I. iving brought the whigs into power, Towns- jnd was appointed one of the principal secre- ries of state, and took the lead in the admin- stration until the summer of 1716, when, owing > the intrigues of his colleagues, Lord Sun- iand and Gen. Stanhope, he was dismissed, t'o break the ignominy of his fall, he was of- jred the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland, which 16 indignantly declined ; but the king, fearing public displeasure, induced him to accept The growing influence of Sunderland and Stanhope with the king rendered the position mcomfortable, and, with his colleague and rother-in-law "Walpole, he retired from office April, 1717. After remaining several years opposition, he was in 1720 appointed presi- it of the council, and on the reconstruction the ministry in 1721 he resumed his old po- sition of secretary of state, Walpole becoming irst lord of the treasury and chancellor of the jchequer. Finally, displeased with "Walpole's >wing ascendancy and disputing upon ques- ions of public policy, Townshend resigned, ly 15, 1730. II. Charles, an English states- i, grandson of the preceding, born Aug. 28, L725, died Sept. 4, 1767. He entered parlia- lent in 1747, and in 1753 brought himself into lotice by a speech of great power and eloquence on th e marriage bill. In 1 754 he was appointed a lord of the admiralty, and in the first admin- istration of Pitt he was treasurer of the cham- ber, which office in 1761 he exchanged for that of secretary of war. During the ministry of the earl of Bute he remained out of office, but in that of George Grenville which succeeded (1763), he was appointed first lord of trade nd the plantations. He zealously supported rrenville's stamp act, introduced in 1765, in a peech which elicited from Col. Barre in reply me of the most memorable efforts of parlia- mtary eloquence ; but during the Rocking- lam administration, in which he held the office )f paymaster of the forces, he advocated the apeal of the act. On the formation of the rad Pitt administration in 1766, he became lancellor of the exchequer, and, with a vacil- lation which gained him the name of the weath- ercock, advocated the necessity of a tax upon American ports. On June 2, 1767, he intro- duced into the house of commons the cele- brated resolutions imposing duties upon paper,, and other articles imported into the Ameri- m colonies, which eventually led to their jvolt and independence. The illness of Pitt mdered necessary a reconstruction of the ibinet, and Townshend was generally under- >od to have been selected to form a new rinistry, when he suddenly died. TRACHEOTOMY 829 TOWNSHIP. See TOWN, and SURVEYING. TOXICODENDRON. See SUMACH. TOXICOLOGY. See POISON. TOXODON (Gr. T^OV, a bow, and bdoi^ a tooth), a name applied by Owen to a genus of extinct mammals of the order of ungulates, with affinities to edentates and rodents. The first species, named by Owen the T. Platensis, was found in a miocene clay in South America, about 120 m. N. W. of Montevideo ; it was established on a cranium 2 ft. long, elongated, with a flattened occiput, small cerebral cavity, remarkably strong and widely expanded zygo- matic arches, and transverse glenoid cavity; the upper molars were seven on each side, implanted with the convexity outward, the opposite of what occurs in rodents ; they were long, arched, without roots, the enamel form- ing an irregular prismatic grooved tube ; upper incisors four, the external the largest, like those of rodents in structure, and worn away in the same chisel shape ; in the lower jaw were seven molars on a side, and six incisors ranged in a semicircle ; the name was derived from the curve of the outer upper incisors. It was large, low on the legs, with the aspect and habits of a pachyderm. It shows an affinity to the sire- nia (like the manatee) in the flattened occiput, small brain cavity, and nasal passages widely opened above, but differs in the size of the frontal sinuses and in the incisors ; it seems to have formed a connecting link between the rodents and the ungulates. It was probably aquatic to a certain extent. See " F.cssil Mam- mals of the Voyage of the Beagle," described and figured by Prof. Owen (4to, London, 1840). TRACHEOTOMY (Gr. rpa^eZc, the windpipe, and rfyzmv, to cut), a surgical operation by which the trachea or windpipe is opened. Trache- otomy may be performed with propriety in cases where admission of air into the lungs is obstructed either by disease or by a foreign body ; and it has sometimes been tried with success to facilitate the inflation of the lungs in cases of suspended animation. The opera- tion is not free from danger, and in the first class of cases, though giving marked temporary relief, it does nothing toward curing the disease itself. It consists in first making an incision in the median line of the throat, either below or above the thyroid gland, and dissecting down to the trachea, cautiously pushing aside the sterno-hyoid muscles and vessels lying in the vicinity, till the trachea is exposed. When the bleeding has ceased, the trachea is opened by a vertical incision, and a portion of one or more of its rings removed ; through the open- ing thus made a silver canula is introduced, which when obstructed by mucus may be re- moved, cleansed, and again inserted. If the obstruction to respiration is removed, the can- ula may be withdrawn and the orifice allowed to heal ; but if not, the canula must continue to be worn. If the operation is performed to aid in restoring animation or to remove a for- eign body, no canula need be inserted, and