TESLA. 133 TETANUS. rents of high frequencies and very high poten- tials. TESSIN, tes-sen'. The German name of the Swiss I'nnton of Ticino (q.v.). TEST ACTS. Numerous acts of the English Parliniiicnt imposing religious tests upon per- sons in publie ollice. The most famous are the Corporation Act of 1(!G1 and the Test Act of 1()73. The Corporation Act directed that all magistrates should take the oaths of allegiance and supremac.y, as well as an oath renouncing the doctrine that it is lawful to take arms against the King, and provided that they must receive communion according to the rites of the Church of England. The Test Act, so called, im- posed the like conditions on the holders of all public oliices, civil and niilitary, and obliged them in addition to abjure all belief in the doctrine of transuhstantiation. Both of these acts were the result of the struggles against the Catholics in the reign of Charles II. They were repealed in 182S as regards most of the provisions. See Emilaxii. TESTAMENT (OF., Fr. testament, from Lat. festamentum, will, publication of a will, from testari, to make a will, attest, testify, from testis, witness). Literally, a calling upon wit- nesses. Technically, in Roman law, a will ; an act by which a person determines what person or persons shall take his property after his death. The oldest form of testation at Rome was a declaration in the presence and with the sanction of the Rouum people in assembly or meeting as an army on the eve of battle. Of the scope and effect of this form of testation little is known. It could, apparently, be employed by patricians only, and it probably affected only such property as did not form part of the house- hold estate (peoinia as distinguished from familia). In any case, the later Roman testa- ment was developed on a different and inde- pendent basis. It started as a sale (mancipatio) of the inheritance, and became a secret and revocable instrument, signed and sealed by the testator and seven witnesses. As this mancipa- tion testament is the ancestor of the testament or will in all modern eoimtries, its development is described under A'ill. In English and Ameri- can law the term testament is seldom employed except in the formal phrase 'last will and testa- ment,' though its related terms — testator, one who disposes of property by will: intestate, one who dies without a will: intestacy, the state of leaving property undisjjosed of by will ; and trsfameiitarij in various combinations, as 'tes- tamentary act,' 'testamentary guardian,' 'letters testamentary,' etc. — are in common use. Consult Jarman on Wills. TESTAMENT OF LOVE, The. A prose work erroneously credited to Chaucer by Speght in the 1.5118 edition. It was written about the close of the fourteenth century by a prisoner in peril of his life, and modeled on Boethius's CnnxrAation of Philosoph;/, substituting for phi- losophy Divine Love. TESTAMEN'TUM PORCEL'LI (Lat., Last Will of a Little Pig i . An amusing Latin skit parodying the legal testamentary forms. It is of luiknown authorship, and was written before the fourth century a.d. According to Saint .Terome, it was a favorite piece for recitation by school- boys. The little pig disposes of his various parts to his friends and relatives, all of whom bear names suggestive of some form of pork. The text is printed in Biicheler's smaller edition of I'etronius (Berlin, 188(')), and is edited with English notes in Peck and Arrow-smith's h'oinan Life in Latin I'rosc and Verse (New York, 1804). TESTIMONY (from Lat. testimonium, testi- mony, from testis, a witness). The declarations or statements as to the facts in issue made by witnesses in a judicial proceeding. This may include such written statements as are admissible under the rules of evidence. Although the terms- evidence and testimony are often used inter- changeably, the former is strictly a more general term, including every legal means of proving facts, as, for ex-ample, the introduction of an object for inspection by the jury, w-hereas testi- mony is properly only tiiat portion of the proof which is directlj- adduced from witnesses. A party may impeach or show to be false the testi- mony of his adversary's w-Jtnesses, but cannot impeach the credibility of one of his own w-it-, nesscs. The testimony in a case includes both- the direct and cross-e.xaniination of witnesses. See EviDEKCE, and the authorities there referred to. TESTING MACHINE. A machine employed for testing ajid determining the strength of materials used in construction and engineering works. In order to determine the strength of a given material such as the iron or steel u^ed in a boiler or engine, the wood of a building, or brick, .stone, cement, etc., it is usnal to select small samples and submit them to stres.ses of varying degrees, from which the characteristics of the material may be learned and various nu- merical values obtained. Testing machines may depend upon the action of an hydraulic press or of a system of screws and gears by means of w-hieh a given force applied can be greatly mul- tiplied by the time it is directly exerted on the piece under test. The various tests will be found discussed under Strength of Materials, to which the reader is referred. TESTRY, tes'tre'. A village of France, near Peronne, in the Department of Somnie, noted as the scene of a battle (087) in which Pepin of Heristal, the Austrasian Mayor of the Palace, defeated the forces of Neustria and Burgundy, thus bringing the three Frankish kingdoms un- der his power. See Franks. TESTU'DINA'TA. The reptilian order Chelonia (q.v.). TESTU'DO (Lat., tortoise). A device of Roman warfare, by means of which a body of men advanced for assault. The attackers would move in close order. Avith their shields held above their heads, the edges overlapping. The effect closely resembled the shell of a tm-toise (tes- tiido), and proved a very effeclive protection from the darts and weapons of the defenders. A later improvement w-as the tesfudo machine, which moved on wheels and -was roofed over, and under the protection of which soldiers could de- stroy or undermine the w-al!s of the defenses. A modified form of the same princiiile is seen in the flying sap. TET'ANtrS (Lat., from Ok. Teroris. spasm, tension, from Tdeeiv, ^eincin, to stretch, strain) , or LocKJ.w. An infectious disease character-
