something handed down from one generation to another without being written. Thus the Jews Tradition Jews pretended, that besides their written law contained in the Old Testament, Moses had delivered an oral law which had been conveyed down from father to son; and thus the Roman Catholics are said to value particular doctrines supposed to have descended from the apostolic times by tradition.

**TRAGACANTH.** See **ASTRAGALUS**, *Materia Medica Index*.

**TRAGEDY,** a dramatic poem, representing some signal action performed by illustrious persons, and which has frequently a fatal issue or end. See **POETRY**, Part II. sect. I.

**TRAGI-COMEDY,** a dramatic piece, partaking both of the nature of tragedy and comedy; in which a mixture of merry and serious events is admitted.

**TRAGOPOGON,** Goat's-beard; a genus of plants belonging to the class of Syngenesia; and in the natural system ranging under the 49th order, Compositae. See **BOTANY Index**.

**TRAJAN,** Marcus Ulpius, a celebrated Roman emperor, who gained many victories over the Parthians and Germans, pushing the empire to its utmost extent on the east and north sides. He died at Siliunte, a city of Cilicia, which from him was called Trajanopolis, in the year 117.

**TRAJAN'S Column,** a famous historical column erected in Rome, in honour of the emperor Trajan. It is of the Tuscan order, though somewhat irregular: its height is eight diameters, and its pedestal Corinthian: it was built in a large square called Forum Romanum. Its base consists of 12 stones of an enormous size, and is raised on a socle, or foot, of eight steps: withinside is a staircase illuminated with 44 windows. It is 140 feet high, which is 35 feet short of the Antonine column, but the workmanship of the former is much more valued. It is adorned from top to bottom with bas-reliefs, representing the great actions of the emperor against the Dacians.

**TRAIN,** a line of gunpowder laid to give fire to a quantity thereof, in order to do execution by blowing up earth, works, buildings, &c.

**TRAIN of Artillery,** includes the great guns and other pieces of ordnance belonging to an army in the field.

**TRAIN-Oil,** the oil procured from the blubber of a whale by boiling.

**TRALLIAN,** Alexander, a Greek writer on physic, a native of Tralles in Lydia, who lived about the middle of the fifth century. His works are divided into 12 books; in which he treats of distempers as they occur, from head to foot. He was the first who opened the jugular vein, and that used cantharides as a blister for the gout. Dr Freind, in his History of Physic, styles him one of the most valuable authors since the time of Hippocrates. Though he appears on the whole to have been a rational physician, yet there are things in his writings that favour of enthusiasm and superstition.

**TRA-LOS-MONTES,** a province of Portugal, called in Latin *Tranmontana*, because situated on the east side of a chain of hills that separate it from Entre Duero-e-Minho. It is bounded on the north by Galicia; on the south by the provinces of Beira and Leon; by the last of which it is bounded also to the east. Its length from north to south is upwards of 120 miles, and its breadth about 80. It is full of mountains, and produces little corn, but plenty of wine, fruits of several sorts, and abundance of game.

**TRANSACTIONS,** a name generally given to a collection of the papers read before literary or philosophical societies. The name of Philosophical Transactions was first adopted by the Royal Society of London.

The Philosophical Transactions to the end of the year 1700 were abridged in three volumes by Mr John Lowthorp: those from the year 1700 to 1720 were abridged in two volumes by Mr Henry Jones: those from 1719 to 1733 were abridged in two volumes by Mr John Eames and Mr John Martyn; Mr Martyn continued the abridgement of those from 1732 to 1744 in two volumes, and of those from 1743 to 1750 in two volumes.

They were for many years published in numbers, and the printing of them was always, from time to time, the single act of the respective secretaries, till the year 1752, when the society thought fit that a committee should be appointed to reconsider the papers read before them, and to select out of them such as they should judge most proper for publication in the future Transactions. They are published annually in two parts at the expense of the society, and each fellow is entitled to receive one copy gratis of every volume published after his admission into the society.

They were first set on foot in 1665, by Mr Oldenburg, secretary of the society, and were continued by him till the year 1677. Upon his death, they were discontinued till January 1678, when Dr Grew resumed the publication of them, and continued it for the months of December 1678, and January and February 1679, after which they were intermitted till January 1683. During this last interval they were supplied in some measure by Dr Hooke's Philosophical Collections. They were also interrupted for three years, from December 1687 to January 1691, beside other smaller interruptions amounting to near one year and a half more, before October 1695, since which time the Transactions have been regularly carried on.

**TRANSCENDENTAL,** or **TRANSCENDENT,** something elevated, or raised above other things; which passes and transcends the nature of other inferior things.

**TRANSCRIPT,** a copy of any original writing, particularly that of an act or instrument inserted in the body of another.

**TRANSFER,** in commerce, an act whereby a person surrenders his right, interest, or property, in anything moveable or immoveable to another.

**TRANSFORMATION,** in general, denotes a change of form, or the assuming a new form different from a former one.

**TRANSFUSION,** the act of pouring a liquor out of one vessel into another.

**TRANSFUSION of Blood,** an operation by which it was some time ago imagined that the age of animals would be renewed, and immortality, or the next thing to it, conferred on those who had undergone it.

The method of transfusing Dr Lower gives us to the following effect: take up the carotid artery of the dog, or other animal, whose blood is to be transfused into another of the same, or a different kind; separate it from the nerve of the eighth pair, and lay it bare above... Transfusion—an inch. Make a strong ligature on the upper part of the artery; and an inch nearer the heart another ligature with a running knot, to be loosened and fastened as occasion requires. Draw two threads between the two ligatures, open the artery, put in a quill, and tie up the artery again upon the quill by the two threads, and stop the quill by a stick.

Then make bare the jugular vein of the other animal for about an inch and a half in length, and at each end make a ligature with a running knot; and in the space between the two knots draw under the veins two threads, as in the other. Open the vein, and put into it two quills, one into the defending part of the vein, to receive the blood from the other dog, and carry it to the heart; the other quill put into the other part of the jugular, towards the head, through which the second animal's own blood is to run into ditches. The quills thus tied fast, stop them up with sticks till there be occasion to open them.

Things thus disposed, fasten the dogs on their sides towards one another, in such manner as that the quills may go into each other; then unstop the quill that goes down into the second dog's jugular vein, as also that coming out of the other dog's artery; and by the help of two or three other quills put into each other, as there shall be occasion, insert them into one another. Then slip the running knots, and immediately the blood runs through the quills as through an artery, very impetuously. As the blood runs into the dog, unstop the quill in the upper part of his jugular, for his own blood to run out at, though not constantly, but as you perceive him able to bear it, till the other dog begins to cry and faint, and at last die. Lastly, Take both quills out of the jugular, tie the running knot fast, and cut the vein afraiden, and sew up the skin: the dog, thus dismiffed, will run away as if nothing ailed him.

In the Philosophical Transactions we have accounts of the success of various transfusions practised at London, Paris, in Italy, &c. Sir Edmund King transfused forty-nine ounces of blood out of a calf into a sheep; the sheep, after the operation, appearing as well and as strong as before.

M. Denis transfused the blood of three calves into three dogs, which all continued brisk, and ate as well as before. The same person transfused the blood of four wethers into a horse twenty-five years old, which thence received much strength, and a more than ordinary appetite.

Soon after this operation was introduced at Paris, viz. in 1667 and 1668, M. Denis performed it on five human subjects, two of whom recovered of disorders under which they laboured, one being in perfect health suffered no inconvenience from it; and two persons who were ill, and submitted to the operation, died; in consequence of which the magistrates issued a sentence, prohibiting the transfusion on human bodies under pain of imprisonment.

Mr John Hunter, we are told, made many ingenious experiments to determine the effects of transfusing blood, some of which are sufficient to attract attention. But whether such experiments can ever be made with safety on the human body, is a point not easily determined. They might be allowed in desperate cases proceeding from a corruption of the blood, from poison, &c. as in hydrophobia.