Now rare. [ad. L. tōph-us, more correctly tōf-us: see TOPHUS.]
1. Usually toph stone: Travertin, or other soft stone: = TOPHUS 1.
a. 1552. Leland, Itin., VI. 72. A Quarre of Tophe Stone by Driselege, wherof much of the Castelle was buildid.
1577. Harrison, England, III. xv. (1878), II. 61. For Tophe stone, not a few allow of the quarrie that is at Drisley, diuerse mislike not of the veine of hard stone that is at Oxford, and Burford.
1811. J. Milner, Eccles. Archit. Eng. Mid. Ages, 95. Arched with hard stone for the ribs and light toph stone for the interstices.
2. Path. A calcareous deposit or calculus formed within the human or animal body: = TOPHUS 2.
1584. T. Bastard, Chrestoleros (1880), 10. Phisition Mirus talkes of saliuation, Of Tophes and Pustules, and Febrication.
1651. Biggs, New Disp., § 141. A neutrall nature of a tophe, between a Cartilage and a Stone.
1694. Salmon, Bate’s Dispens. (1713), 64/2. It softens, dissipates, yea, and dissolves the chalky Concretions … pocky Nodes, Tophs, Gums, and Swellings. Ibid., 682/1. It cleanses the Skin,… takes away Gouty Tophs, cures the Leprosie.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Toph, a word us’d by some Chirurgical Writers for a kind of Swelling in the Bones.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), IV. 532. Some structural irritation within the cavity of the skull, such as a node or toph.
1843. R. J. Graves, Syst. Clin. Med., xxviii. 355. Exanthemata … nodes, tophes, syphilitic gout and rheumatism.
