Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/710

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C80 TEXIER dunes or 8and hills on the W. side, and strong dikes in other parts. The soil is remarkably fertile, and is chiefly occupied by pastures. TEXIER, Charles Felix Marie, a French archao- ologist, born in Versailles, Aug. 29, 1802. He studied architecture at the school of fine arts in Paris, was employed for ten years in ex- plorations in the East under the patronage of the government, and was afterward inspector of public buildings in France and Algeria. His works, remarkable for learning and magnifi- cent illustrations, include Description de VAr- menie, de la Perse et de la Mesopotamie (2 vols. fol., Paris, 1842-'5) ; Description de VAsie Mineure (4 vols., 1839 et seq., and simultane- ously in English by R. P. Pullan) ; fidesse et scs monuments en Mesopotamie (1859) ; and in conjunction with Pullan, "Byzantine Archi- tecture" (London, 1864), and "The Principal Kuins of Asia Minor " (1865). TEZCUCO, or Tezeoco, a town of Mexico, in the state and about 16 m. E. N. E. of the city of Mexico, near the E. shore of the lake of the same name ; pop. about 5,000. It contains several handsome buildings, public and private. "Woollen and cotton goods are manufactured. In ancient times Tezcuco was the second city in Mexico. One of the palaces of Montezu- ma is said to have stood in the N. W. quar- ter, and in the S. part there are massive re- mains of three pyramids, each measuring 400 ft. along the base of their fronts. THiCHER, James, an American physician, born in Barnstable, Mass., Feb. 14, 1754, died in Plymouth, May 26, 1844. On the breaking out of the revolution he was appointed sur- geon's mate to Dr. John Warren in the general hospital at Cambridge ; in 1778 he was made chief surgeon to the first Virginia state regi- ment, and in 1779 w-as transferred to a New England regiment. In March, 1783, he settled as a physician at Plymouth, Mass., where he also gave some attention to the manufacture of salt and iron. He published "The Ameri- can New Dispensatory" (Boston, 1810), which was long a standard work on pharmacy, medi- cal chemistry, and materia medica ; " Observa- tions on Hydrophobia" (1812); "The Mod- ern Practice of Physic" (1817; 2d ed., 1826); "The American Orchardist" (1822; 2d ed., 1825) ; "A Military Journal during the Revolu- tionary War" (1823; 3d ed., Hartford, 1854); "American Medical Biography" (2 vols. 8vo, 1828) ; " A Practical Treatise on the Manage- ment of Bees " (1829) ; " An Essay on Demon- ology, Ghosts, Apparitions, and Popular Su- perstitions" (1831); and "History of the Town of Plymouth" (1832; 2d ed., 1835). TtlACHER, Peter, an American clergyman, born in Milton, Mass., March 21, 1752, died in Savannah, Ga., Dec. 16, 1802. He graduated at Harvard college in 1769, and settled at Mai- den, Mass., in 1770. He soon attained a high reputation as a preacher, and received the name of the " silver-tongued Thacher." From January, 1785, till his death, he was pastor of THACKERAY the Brattle street church in Boston. His " Oration against Standing Armies," delivered at Watertown in 1776, still retains its reputa- tion. For 15 years he was chaplain of one or both branches of the legislature. He published 22 distinct works, including " Observations on the State of the Clergy in New England" 1783), and " Memoirs of Dr. Boylston " (1789). THACKERAY, William Makepeace, an English author, born in Calcutta in* 1811, died in Lon- don, Dec. 24, 1863. He was descended from an old Yorkshire family. His father was in the civil service of the East India company. He was educated at the Charterhouse in Lon- don, and at Cambridge, but did not take a de- gree. Coming into possession of 20,000 at the age of 21, he travelled on the continent, and studied art for several years. But he lost the bulk of his fortune by speculation, and about the age of 30 adopted literature as a pro- fession. He wrote for " Eraser's Magazine " under the pseudonymes of Michael Angelo Tit- marsh and George Fitz-Boodle, and contributed to " Punch" three series of papers : " The Fat Contributor," "Jeames's Diary," and "The Snob Papers." These and other works ap- peared in book form from 1840 to 1848, but he attained no very marked success in litera- ture till the publication of "Vanity Fair, a Novel without a Hero," in monthly numbers, in 1846 -'8. This gave him a reputation as a novelist which, though amply sustained, was hardly increased by any of his later works. In 1845 he visited the East for his health. He was called to the bar in 1848, but did not prac- tise. In 1851 he delivered to brilliant audiences in London a series of lectures on "English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century." He visited America in 1852, and again in 1855-' 6, where he repeated this course, and also de- livered for the first time another course on "The Four Georges," which he repeated in the principal cities of Great Britain. In 1857 he was an unsuccessful candidate, as a liberal, for the representation of the city of Oxford in parliament. The " Cornhill Magazine" was commenced at the close of 1859 with Thack- eray as editor, and quickly attained an enor- mous circulation. He resigned the editorship in April, 1862. He was found dead in his bed, from effusion on the brain. He was buried in Kensal Green cemetery. A bust of him, by Marochetti, was unveiled in West- minster abbey, Oct. 21, 1865. He was tall and powerfully built, with a massive head and silvery white hair. His geniality, even temper, and kindly disposition toward every- body with whom he came into personal re- lations, were curiously at variance with the charge of cynicism so often brought against his works. His domestic life was clouded for several years by the insanity of his wife. His novels and tales, with the dates of their pub- lication in book form, are : " The Great Hog- garty Diamond" (1841); "The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon " (1843) ; " Vanity Fair " (1848) ;