infection of the tonsils by the micro-organisms or the toxins of that disease. Acute tonsillitis is very apt to run on to the formation of abscess. Quinsy may begin with a feeling of chilliness or with an attack of shivering. Then comes on a swelling in the throat with pain, tenderness and difficulty in swallowing. Indeed, if both tonsils are acutely inflamed it may be impossible to swallow even fluid and the breathing may be seriously embarrassed. The temperature may be raised several degrees. There is pain about the ear and about the jaw, and there is a swelling of the glands in the neck. The breath is offensive and the tongue is thickly coated. There may be some yellowish markings on the surface of the tonsil, but these differ from the patches of “false membrane” of diphtheria in that they can be easily brushed off by a swab, but often a true diagnosis can only be made by bacteriological examination. The treatment consists in giving a purgative, and in encouraging the patient to use an inhaler containing hot carbolized water. Hot compresses also may be applied to the neck. As regards medicines, the most trustworthy are salicylic acid, iron and quinine. As soon as abscess threatens, a slender-bladed knife should be thrust from before backward deeply into the swollen mass. And if, as most likely happens, matter then escapes, the patient’s distress speedily ends. Convalescence having set in, a change of air and course of tonic treatment will be advisable.
Chronic tonsillitis is often associated with adenoid vegetations at the back of the throat of tuberculous or delicate children, such children being spoken of as being “liable to sore throat.” Chronic enlargement of the tonsils may seriously interfere with a child’s general health and vigour and, should the condition not subside under general measures such as a stay at a bracing seaside place and the taking of cod-liver oil and iron, it will be well to treat the tonsils by operation. (E. O.*)
TONSON, the name of a family of London booksellers and publishers. Richard and Jacob Tonson (c. 1656–1736), sons of a London barber-surgeon, started in 1676 and 1677 independently as booksellers and publishers in London. In 1679 Jacob, the better known of the two, bought and published Dryden’s Troilus and Cressida, and from that time was closely associated with Dryden, and published most of his works. He published the Miscellany Poems (1684–1708) under Dryden’s editorship, the collection being known indifferently as Dryden’s or Tonson’s Miscellany, and also Dryden’s translation of Virgil (1697). Serious disagreements over the price paid, however, arose between poet and publisher, and in his Faction Displayed (1705) Dryden described Tonson as having “two left legs, and Judas-coloured hair.” Subsequently the relations between the two men improved. The brothers jointly published Dryden’s Spanish Friar (1683). Jacob Tonson also published Congreve’s Double Dealer, Sir John Vanbrugh’s The Faithful Friend and The Confederacy, and the pastorals of Pope, thus justifying Wycherly’s description of him as “gentleman usher to the Muses.” He bought also the valuable rights of Paradise Lost, half in 1683 and half in 1690. This was his first profitable venture in poetry. In 1712 he became joint publisher with Samuel Buckley of the Spectator, and in the following year published Addison’s Cato. He was the original secretary and a prominent member of the Kit-Cat Club. About 1720 he gave up business and retired to Herefordshire, where he died on the 2nd of April 1736. His business was carried on by his nephew, Jacob Tonson, jun. (d. 1735), and subsequently by his grand-nephew, also Jacob (d. 1767).
TONSURE (Lat. tonsura, from tondere, to shave), a religious observance in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Eastern Churches, consisting of the shaving or cutting part of the hair of the head as a sign of dedication to special service. The reception of the tonsure in these churches is the initial ceremony which marks admission to orders and to the rights and privileges of clerical standing. It is administered by the bishop with an appropriate ritual. Candidates for the rite must have been confirmed, be adequately instructed in the elements of the Christian faith, and be able to read and write. Those who have received it are bound (unless in exceptional circumstances) to renew the mark, consisting of a bare circle on the crown of the head, at least once a month, otherwise they forfeit the privileges it carries. The practice is not a primitive one; Tertullian simply advises Christians to avoid vanity in dressing their hair, and Jerome deprecates both long and closely cropped hair. According to Prudentius (Hepio: xiii. 30) it was customary for the hair to be cut short at ordination. Paulinus of Nola (c. 490) alludes to the tonsure as in use among the (Western) monks; from them the practice quickly spread to the clergy. For Gaul about the year 500 we have the testimony of Sidonius Apollinaris (iv. 13), who says that Germanicus the bishop had his hair cut “in rotae speciem.”
The earliest instance of an ecclesiastical precept on the subject occurs in can. 41 of the Council of Toledo (A.D. 633): “omnes clerici, detonso superius capite toto, inferius solam circuli coronam relinquant.” Can. 33 of the Quinisext council (692) requires even singers and readers to be tonsured. Since the 8th century three tonsures have been more or less in use, known respectively as the Roman, the Greek and the Celtic. The first two are sometimes distinguished as the tonsure of Peter and the tonsure of Paul. The Roman or St Peter’s tonsure prevailed in France, Spain and Italy. It consisted in shaving the whole head, leaving only a fringe of hair supposed to symbolize the crown of thorns. Late in the middle ages this tonsure was lessened for the clergy, but retained for monks and friars. In the Eastern or St Paul’s tonsure the whole head was shaven, but when now practised in the Eastern Church this tonsure is held to be adequately shown when the hair is shorn close. In the Celtic tonsure (tonsure of St John, or, in contempt, tonsure of Simon Magus) all the hair in front of a line drawn over the top of the head from ear to ear was shaven (a fashion common among the Hindus). The question of the Roman or Celtic tonsure was one of the points in dispute in the early British Church, settled in favour of the Roman fashion at the Council of Whitby (664). The tonsure at first was never given separately, and even children when so dedicated were appointed readers, as no one could belong to the clerical state without at least a minor order. From the 7th century, however, children were tonsured without ordination, and later on adults anxious to escape secular jurisdiction were often tonsured without ordination. Till the 10th century the tonsure could be given by priests or even by laymen, but its bestowal was gradually restricted to bishops and abbots.
TONTINE, a system of life insurance owing its name to Lorenzo Tonti, an Italian banker, born at Naples early in the 17th century, who settled in France about 1650. In 1653 he proposed to Cardinal Mazarin a new scheme for promoting a public loan. A total of 1,025,000 livres was to be subscribed in ten portions of 102,500 livres each by ten classes of subscribers, the first class consisting of persons under 7, the second of persons above 7 and under 14, and so on to the tenth, which consisted of persons between 63 and 70. The annual fund of each class was to be divided among the survivors of that class, and on the death of the last individual the capital was to fall to the state. This plan of operations was authorized under the name of “tontine royale” by a royal edict, but this the parlement refused to register, and the idea remained in abeyance till 1689, when it was revived by Louis XIV., who established a tontine of 1,400,000 livres divided into fourteen classes of 100,000 each, the subscription being 300 livres. This tontine was carried on till 1726, when the last beneficiary died—a widow who at the time of her decease was drawing an annual income of 73,500 livres. Several other government tontines were afterwards set on foot; but in 1763 restrictions were introduced, and in 1770 all tontines at the time in existence were wound up. Private tontines continued to flourish in France for some years, the “tontine Lefarge,” the most celebrated of the kind, being opened in 1791 and closed in 1889.
The tontine principle has often been applied in Great Britain, at one time in connexion with government life annuities. Many such tontines were set on foot between the years 1773 and 1789, those of 1773, 1775 and 1777 being commonly called the Irish tontines, as the money was borrowed under acts of the Irish parliament. The most important English tontine was that of 1789, which was created by 29 Geo. III. c. 41. Under this act over a million was raised in 10,000 shares of £100, 5s. It was also often applied to the purchase of estates or the erection of buildings. The investor staked his money on the chance of his own life or the life of his nominee enduring for a longer period than the other lives involved in the speculation, in which case he expected to win a large prize. It was occasionally introduced into life assurance, more particularly by American life offices, but newer and more ingenious forms of contract have now made the tontine principle practically a thing of the past. (See National Debt; Insurance.)
