Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/21

 TEUCE OF GOD TRUFFLES 13 in brass brought from England was declared by act of congress the legal standard of the United States mint. It is equal in weight to 22-815676 cubic inches of distilled water at 62 F., the barometer being at 30 inches. It contains 5,760 grains, of which 24 make a pennyweight; 20 pennyweights an ounce, and 12 ounces a pound. It is the standard of the imperial system of weights in England, and from it is derived the avoirdupois pound, which contains 7,000 troy grains; and 1 Ib. avd. = 1-2152777+ Ib. troy. (See AVOIRDU- POIS:) It is identical with the pound of apoth- ecary's weight, and the ounce and grain of these two weights are also correspondingly the same. The pennyweight subdivision of troy weight, determining the weight of the silver penny, was established in 1266, as equal to the weight of 32 grains of wheat taken from the middle of the ear. As the kings of later times found it expedient to reduce the value of the penny, this reduction was ac- companied by a proportional diminution in the number of grains of which it was composed. A troy weight was established in 1618, the pound of which weighed 1-321 pound troy. This is now abolished by law. TRUCE OF GOD (Lat. treuga Dei or trewa Dei, from Ger. Treue, faith), an institution of the middle ages, designed to mitigate the vio- lence of private war by prohibiting hostilities from Thursday evening to Sunday evening of each week, also during the entire season of Advent and Lent, and on certain festival days. The days of the week selected were supposed to be rendered holy by the death and resurrec- tion of Christ. It was introduced after the great famine of 1028-'30, by the bishops of Aquitaine, who proclaimed a universal peace ; as it waa found impossible to enforce this, they were obliged to limit it to certain days, and thus arose the truce of God in its peculiar sense. The regulation soon spread over all France. In 1041 the Aquitanian bishops or- dered that no private feuds should be prose- cuted from sunset on "Wednesday to sunrise on Monday following. This was extended by the council of Clermont to the time from Ad- vent to Epiphany, from Lent to eight days after Pentecost (Whitsuntide), and afterward to the feasts of the Virgin, of John the Bap- tist, of the apostles Peter and Paul, and of All Saints, and the eves of those days. Calixtus II., at the council of Kheims in 1119, renewed the truce of God, commanding war to cease on the above mentioned times throughout Christendom ; all violators were to be excom- municated, and, unless satisfaction were given either by themselves or by their children, were to be denied a Christian burial. When the states of Europe began to assume a more con- solidated form, and violations of peace and order came under the control of the civil authority, the truce of God disappeared. TRUFFLES, underground fungi, used as food; those of commerce belonging to the genus tu- ~ber, while others which bear the name are of related but different genera. The early English writers called them "trubbes," both names being derived through the Italian from the Latin terras tuber. They are somewhat oblong or globose, varying from two ounces to several pounds in weight, according to spe- cies and locality ; there are white kinds, but generally the surface is blackish or brownish, and roughened with warty protuberances. When cut open they present a variously mar- bled appearance, and have no resemblance to the generally known forms of fungi ; the hy- menium, or reproductive portion, is found in the veins which traverse the mass in all direc- tions ; in these are found minute sacs, each containing several spores, the surface of which is covered with spines or is honeycombed. But little is known about their early develop- ment, and their mycelium, or vegetative por- tion ; when mature, they are quite free from attachment to any other body. Truffles are generally found in calcareous soils, and always in woods, of oak or beech ; hence it has been inferred that at some stage of their existence they are parasitic upon the roots of trees ; they are found in many parts of England, more French Truffle (Tuber melanosporum). abundantly on the continent, and in Africa. The existence of truffles in the United States is very doubtful ; the occasional announcement of their discovery is due to the finding of the Indian bread. (See TUCKAHOE.) In England truffles are hunted by a particular breed of dogs, which are trained by hiding a truffle and teaching them that their food, depends upon finding it by the scent; the dogs become so expert that they rarely make a mispoint ; when the truffle is dug up, the dog is rewarded with a bit of food. On the continent a simi- lar service is performed by sows. The at- tempts to cultivate the truffle have not been successful, as the mycelium or spawn, the vege- tative portion of the plant, which allows mush- rooms to be cultivated so readily, has not yet been obtained. They have been produced by sprinkling the earth with water in which the parings of truffles had been steeped; and in some parts of France a piece of calcareous soil, sown with acorns, has yielded truffles as soon as the saplings attained a few years' growth. The English truffles are tuber astitium ; the more highly prized French are T. melanospo- rum, and the Piedmontese, which bring the highest price of all, T. magnatum ; several others are known which are not found in com- merce. In Algiers a truffle of another genus