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TONDRAY, an island of Scotland, one of the Shetland islands, about 6 miles in circuit, near the W. coast.

TONE, or TUNE, in music, is a property of sound, wherebyit comes under the relation of grave and acute ; or the degree ofelevation and sound has from the degree of swiftness of the vibra-tions of the parts of the sonorous body.

TONE is taken in four different senses among the ancients: 1.For any sound ; 2. For a certain interval, as when it is said thedifference between the diapente and diatessaron is a tone; 3. Fora certain locus or compass of the voice, in which sense they usedthe Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian tones; 4. For tension, as whenthey speak of an acute, grave, or a middle tone.

'LONGER F.N, TON GERES, TONGEREST, or TON-GRES, a town of the Netherlands, in the bishopric of Liege , 12miles S. \V. of Maestricht, and 15 AV. of Liege .

TONU-TCHOUEN, a city of China , ot the first rank, in theprovince of Se-tchucn, 1000 miles S. VV. of Pekin.

T ONC U E. See An atom y.

T ONIC, in music, signifies a certain degree of tension, or thesound produced by a vocal string in a given degree of tension, orby any sonorous body when put in vibration,

TONNAGE nnu POUN DAGE, an ancient duty on wine andother goods, the origin of which seems to have been this: Aboutthe 21st of Eduard 111. complaint was made that merchants wererobbed and murdered on the seas. The king thereupon, with thecon-ent of the peers, levied a duty of 2s. on every ton of wine,and 12if. in the pound on all goods imported ; which was treatedas illegal by the commons. About 25 years after, the king, whenthe knights of the shires were returned home, obtained a likegrant from the citizens and burgesses, and the year alter it wasregularly granted in parliament. These duties were diminishedsonuTines, and sometimes increased ; at length they seem to havebeen fixed at 3s. tonnage, and l.r. poundage. They were at firstusually granted only for a staled term of years, as, tor two yearsin 5 Ric. II.; but in Henry A’L’s time they were granted him forlife by a statute in the 31st year of his reign ; and again to EdwardIV. for the term of his life also: since which time they were re-gularly granted to all his successors for life, sometimes at the first,sometimes at other subsequent parliaments, till the reign of CharlesI. ; wheii these imposts were imprudently and unconstitutionallylevied without consent of parliament, for 15 years, whichwas one of the causes of the unhappy discontents. At therestoration this duty was granted to King Charles If. for life,and so it was to his two immediate successors; but now,by three several statutes, 9 Ann. c. 6, 1. Geo. 1. c. 12, and3 Geo. I. c. 7, it is made perpetual, and mortgaged for the debtof the public.

TONNAY BOUTONNE, a town of France , in the depart-ment of Lower Charente, and province of Saintonge , 10fmiles AV. of Rochfort, and 74 AV. of St. Jean d’Angely . Lon.0, 34. AV. Lat. 45. 58. N. 6 J

Tonnay Charknte, a town of France , in the department ofLower Charente; 3 miles E. of Rochfort, and 15 N. VV. ofSaintes . Lon. 0. 36. AV. Lat. 45. 56. N.

TON MERE, an ancient town of France , in the departmentof the Yonne, and province ef Burgundy, 27 miles E. of Troyes ,and 102 E. of Paris . Lon. 4. 4. E. Lat. 47. 51. N.

TONN1NGEN, a town of Denmark , capital of Eiderstadt, on41ie Eider, 2 miles from Ilusuni.

TONQ.UIN, a kingdom of Asia , in the East Indies, beyondthe Ganges; bounded on the N. by the province of Yunnan inChina , on the E. by that of Canton and the bay of Tonqtiin, onthe S. by Cochin China, and on the AV. by Laos . Jt is about1200 miles long, and 500 broad; and is one of the most consi-derable kingdoms of the East, as well on account of the numberof its inhabitants, as its riches and trade. T he country aboundswith villages; and the natives are of a middle stature, with atawny complexion. They are generally dexterous, nimble, active,and ingenious in mechanic arts.

TONSBERG, a sea-port-town of Norway , in the province ofAggerhuus, 42 miles S. oi Christiania . Lon. 10. 34. E. Lat.59. i 4. N.

IONSELLA, in botany, a genus of the triandria monogyniaclass and order. Calyx live-parted; petals five; nectary pitcher-shaped ; berry one-cclled, four-seeded. There are two species,

viz. T. scandens, climbing tonsella, and T. Africans, Africantonsella, both natives of Guiana.

TONSILS, in anatomy, two remarkable glands, situated oneon each side of the mouth, near the uvula, and commonly calledalmonds of the ears, from their resembling almonds in figure.

T heir use is to secrete a mucous humour for lubricating the pas-sages. See Anatomy.

TONSURE, in ecclesiastical history, a particular manner ofshaving or clipping the hair of ecclesiastics or monks. The anci-ent tonsure of the clergy was nothing more than polling the head,and cutting the hair to a moderate degree, for the sake of decencyand gravity ; and the same observation is true with respect to thetonsure of the ancient monks..

TONTINE, a loan given for life-annuities with benefit of sur-vivorship; so called from the inventor Laurence T’onti, a Neapo-litan. lie proposed his scheme in 1653 to reconcile the peopleto cardinal Mazarine’s government, by amusing them with thehope of becoming suddenly rich. He obtained the consent ofthe court, but the parliament would not register the edict. Hemade attempts afterwards, hut without success. It was not tillLewi3 XIV. was distressed by the league of Augsburg, and byhis own immense expences that he had recourse to the plans ofTonti. By an edict in 1689. he created a tontine royale of1,400,000 livres annual rent, divided into 14 classes. The actionswere 300 livres apiece, and the proprietors were to receive lOZ.per cent, with benefit of survivorship in every class. This schemewas executed hut very imperfectly. A few years after, anothertontine was erected upon nearly the same terms, but this wasnever above half full. They both subsisted in 1726, when theFrench king united the 13th class of the first tontine with the 14thof the second; all the actions of which were possessed by Char-lotte Bonneinay, widow of Lewis Barbier, a surgeon of Paris who died at the age of 96. This gentlewoman had ventured 300livres in each tontine, anil in the last year of her life she had forher annuity 73,500 livres, or about 3600/. a-year, for about 30/.The nature of the tontine is this ; there is an annuity, after a cer-tain rate of interest, granted to a number of people', divided intoclasses, according to their respective ages; so that annually thewhole fund of each class is divided among the survivors of thatclass; till at last it falls to one, and upon the extinction of thatlife, reverts to the power by which the tontine was erected, andwhich becomes therebysecurilyfor the due payment of the annuities.

TONVORE, a cape of Scotland , on the N. VV. coast of theIsle of Islay.

TOOL, among mechanics, denotes in general any small in*strumenl used for making other complex instruments and machines*or in other operations in the mechanic arts.

TOOTH. See Anatomy.

TOP, in ship-building, a sort of platform, surrounding thelower mast-head, from which it projects on ail sides like a scaf-fold. The principal intention of the top is to extend the top-mast-'shrouds, so as to form a greater angle with the mast, and therebygive additional support to the latter. Jt is sustained by certaintimbers fixed across the hounds or shoulders of the mast, andcalled the trestle-trees and cross-trees.— Besides the use above'mentioned, the top is otherwise extremely convenient to containthe materials necessary for extending the small sails, and for fixingor repairing the rigging and machinery with more facility and ex-pedition. In ships of war it is used as a kind of redoubt, andaccordingly fortified for attack or defence; being furnished wid*swivels, musketry, and other fire-arms, and guarded by a thic^fence of corded hammocks. Finally, it is employed as a place fn*looking out, either in the day or night.

TOPAZ, in mineralogy, is a species of the flint-genus, of 3wine-yellow colour, of all degrees of intensity, and passingvarious other colours. It occurs massive, disseminated, sometime 5in rolled pieces, but commonly crystallized. There are manyvarieties. Specific gravity, according to Werner, is about 3'5-The Saxon variety, in a gentle heat, turns white; but a strongheat deprives it of lustre and transparency ; the Brazilian, by cX"posure to a high temperature, burns rose-red ; and in a still high er 'violet-blue. Before the blow-pipe it is scarcely fusible; but ex-posed to a stream of oxygen gas, it melts into a porcellanous head*It is fusible with borax, but alkali has little effect on it. The Bra-zilian, Siberian, and other topazes, when heated, exhibit at on

extremity