Testacella
Testacella names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Testacella in zoölogy and palæon- Limacidæ
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in zoölogy and palæon- Limacidæ, with tology, a three recent species, from the S. of genus Great Brit- Europe, the Canary Isles. and to Jer- can sufficiently extol the eloquence of envy and Tertullian! " exclaims Vincentius of Lethe Roman rinum; " almost every word conveys_a causes were thought, every sentence is a victory. He character is among the Latins what Origen is and his re- among the Greeks - the greatest of all. " the Roman Like Origen, Tertullian was a man of the Lapsi, great genius, sincerity, and zeal, a vigorshown to ous ascetic, and an indefatigable worker, the Roman and, though wielding great influence over his contemporaries, was never more than a presbyter. Like him, too, this champion of the Christian faith against all opponents, Jews, heathens, and heretics, Montanists, was himself a heretic to the majority of دو the Christians of his time. Both show the same contempt of the world and enthusiasm for martyrdom. But in the tendency of their views the contrast between them is as striking as in their natural temper and their literary style. Tertullian is an intense realist, with leanings toward materialism, Origen a pure idealist. Origen, like Justin, holds that Greek philosophy was "a preparation for the Gospel," "a fragment of eternal truth from the theology of the everliving Word." Tertullian thinks that "philosophers are blockheads when they knock at the gates of truth," and that "they have contributed nothing whatever that a Christian can accept." "The eloquence of the one," says Presensé, "is broad and transparent like his genius: advocate. His it is a noble, full, majestic river; that adversaries of the other is a turbid mountain tor- . He rent. Origen speaks to philosophers as them a fiery a Christian philosopher: Tertullian is a tribune of the people passionately haranguing the crowd in the forum or at the cross roads; he is the ancient orator, with his vehement gestures, his vivid images, his grandiose pathos." His writings have been called "Tracts for the Times." Most of them are short. They are a rich mine of information as to the relations between Christians and heathens in his time. Though perhaps not the first of the Latin Christian writers, Tertullian was the creator of ecclesiastical Latinity, and impressed upon the language a new character, as he bent it to the service of Christian ideas. His .. works are divided into three classes: (1) Controversial writings against heathens and Jews. His "Apologetic" (ed. by Woodham, 1843; by Bindley, 1891), addressed to the Roman authorities, is an attempt to establish the Christian's right to toleration. A popular edition of this work is presented in his two books "To the Nations," as Uhlhorn and Hauck believe, of earlier date. In his "Concerning the Testimony of the Soul" he acutely develops the thought that Christianity responds to the religious necessi songs and ballads, he wrote: "Arsinda; d'Este," a or, the Line of the Princes ," a tragedy; Alcina drama; "The Isle of A an uncompleted epic , "C " Constantine"; "Italy," a poem in 43 stanzas in which Italy under the situation of the Spanish yoke. He died in Modena. he portrays Italy, Aug. 28, 1646. various substances by means of chemical
Testacella in zoölogy and palæontology
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in zoölogy and palæontology, a genus of Limacidæ, with three recent species, from the S. of Europe, the Canary Isles. and Great Britain. Shell small and ear-shaped, placed at hinder extremity of the body which is elongated, broadest behind, tapering toward the head. The species are subterranean in habit, feeding on earthworms, and visiting the surface only at night. During the winter and in long periods of drought they form a sort of cocoon in the ground by the of mucous; if this be broken away the exudation animal may be seen in its thin, opaque, white mantle, which rapidly contracts till it extends but a little_way beyond the margin of the shell. Fossil species two, from Tertiary strata.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The natural history in Collier's 1921 account still holds: Testacella is a slug with a small ear-shaped shell perched at its tail end, it burrows, it hunts earthworms, and it seals itself in a mucous cocoon in drought. The main correction is taxonomic — the genus is no longer placed in the Limacidae with the ordinary garden slugs but in a family of its own, the Testacellidae, reflecting its separate carnivorous lineage rather than a close kinship with plant-eating slugs. The "three recent species" figure was a European tally; the genus is now reckoned at roughly a dozen species, and Britain's three (Testacella haliotidea, T. scutulum and T. maugei) are generally regarded as introductions rather than natives. Human traffic in plants has since carried Testacella far beyond "the S. of Europe, the Canary Isles, and Great Britain," into gardens and greenhouses in North America, Australia and New Zealand.
Written for this edition, 2026.