TOOKE. 348 TOPAZ. sion of Catharine II. (1800). He published nu- merous miscellaneous books, as The Loves of 0th- nicl and Achsah, a Chaldee romance (1769); ^'arictics of Literature (1795); and Lucian of Saiiwuata, from the Greek, with the com- ments of Wieland and others (1820). His son, William Tooke (1777-1803), took a prominent part in founding University College, London, and also the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. He was also a member of the Royal Society and president of the Society of Arts. He edited the poems of Churchill, compiled Tlie Monarchy of France (1855), and published a volume of verse. TOOLE, John Lawrence (1832—). An English comedian, born in London. He made his debut in London at the Haymarket Theatre in 1852. Upon the opening of the new Adelphi Theatre by Benjamin Webster in 1859, Toole became the leading comedian, and there, in 1862, he appeared in his great part of Caleb Plummer, in Boucicault's dramatization of The Cricket on the Hearth. In 1868 he played the Artful Dodger at the Queen's Theatre, with Henry Irving as Bill Sykes. He visited America in 1875, and in 1890 made a successful trip to Australia. He opened Toole's Theatre (the Folly Theatre re- constructed) in November, 1880, and managed it as a home of comedj' for a number of years. Consult: Toole's Reminiscences, chronicled by Joseph Hatton (London, 1888) ; Matthews and Hutton, Actors and Actresses of Great Britain and the Vnited States (New York, 1886) ; Scott, The Drama of Yesterday and To-day (London, 1899). TOOMBS, Egbert (1810-85). An American statesman, born at W'ashington, Ga. He studied at the State University at Athens and graduated (1828) at Union College, Schenectady, N. Y. He studied law at the University of Virginia, and began practice in Wilkes County. Ga. After service against the Creeks in 1836 and several years in the Georgia Legislature as a States' Rights Whig, he was elected to Congress in 1844 and held his seat for four terms, until 1853, when he was elected to the United States Senate, and in 1859 reelected. He opposed the Mexican war and the annexation of territory by force, aided in the adoption of the Compromise of 1850, opposed the Nashville Convention, and helped secure the famous 'Georgia Platform.' As an impassioned political speaker he had few equals. The move- ment of secession had his full approval; and it was chiefly his influence, in opposition to the more conservative views of his life-long friend, Alexander H. Stephens, that led his State to pass its ordinance of secession, to which there was a strong opposition, especially among the 'old line Whigs.' On the election of Davis, Toombs was offered the office of Secretary of State, and with reluctance accepted it for a short time, on his resignation receiving a commission as brigadier-general. He served in the second battle of Bull Run and at Antietam, and later was made brigadier-general of the Georgia militia. After the war he lived for some time abroad: then from 1867 he carried on a success- ful law practice at his old home, being especially serviceable to Georgia by winning his contention that railroads should pay taxes like other prop- erty. He was noted for his brilliant wit, his legal sagacity, and his benevolence^ He was a bitter opponent of the 'Reconstruction' measures, and never took the oath of allegiance. He is mainly remembered as one of the most typical and vigorous of the so-called Southern "fire- eaters.' Consult Trent, Southern Statesmen of the Old Rfgime (New York, 1897). TOON (Hind, tun, tun, from Skt. tunna,. toon); or Too.na (Cedrela Toona). A tree of the natural order Cedrelaceie, one of the larg- est timber trees of India, occurring also in Australia, where it attains a height of 150 to ISO feet and a diameter of 5 to 7 feet. Hooker mentions one which he measured in India which was 30 feet in girth at 5 feet above the ground. The flowers are used in India for dyeing. The tree, sometimes called bastard cedar, occurs at 4000 feet on the Himalaya Mountains, and is found in the farthest south of the East Indies. The bark contains considerable tannin and is used to produce a kind of purplish leather. The wood is soft, durable, easily worked, and ex- tensively used in house-building and for furni- ture. Veneers cut from the roots or from the trunks where large branches occur are said to be very beautiful. The timber is exported from India in considerable quantities, being known in the Englisli market as Maulmain cedar. TOOTHACHE TREE. See Aralia; Zan- TIIOXYH M. TOOTH-BILLED PIGEON. An extraordi nary member of the pigeon tribe (Diduneulus strigirostris) native to Samoa, and alone repre- senting a separate family (Didunculidie) . This species, known to the Samoans as manu-mea. or 'redbird,' is about one foot long, and glossy greenish black, with a chestnut tinge on the upper parts and brown on the wing-quills and abdomen. Its most striking characteristic is a great orange-colored, hawk-like, toothed bill, suitable for gathering the bananas and other large fruits upon which it lives. It was origi- nally wholly terrestrial in its habits, spending its time on the wooded mountain sides, where it roosted on rocks and stumps and nested on the-- ground, rarely gathering into parties. It was hunted for food. This circumstance, the fact that it laid but a single egg, and the introduc- tion by white settlers of cats, rats, and guns, led not only to its speedier destruction, but to an interesting change in habits, since it soon re- sorted much more to tall trees than previously and placed its nest on high branches. See Plate of Pigeons. TOPAZ (Lat. topazion, topazus, from Gk. To-d^ior, TiTrnCo?,- topaz; possibly connected with Skt. tapas, heat, but, according to Pliny, de- rived from the name of an island Topazns, con- jectured to be in the Red or in the Arabian Sea, from Gk. Torra^civ, topazein, to conjecture). A mineral aluminum fluosilicate, crystallized in the orthorhombic system. It has a vitreous lustre, and may be colorless, yellow, green, blue, or red. Topaz occurs in gneiss or granite associated with beryl, mica, tourmaline, etc., and occasion- ally with, apatite, cassiterite, and fluorite. and also in certain talcose rocks, in mica slate, in rhyolite, and in alluvial deposits and drift. The crystallized varieties, owing to their hardness, are valued as gem-stones, and the best varie- ties come from Ceylon and other parts of India, the Urals, Minas Geraes, Brazil, and in the.:
