Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/598

 570 TAR TARANTULA general as consisting of from 3 to 15 per cent, of light oils, from 60 to 67 per cent, of heavy oils, usually termed " dead oil," and from 18 to 35 per cent, of pitch ; the best coals, as the cannel and boghead, produce tar richer in light oils, and yield least pitch. Wood tar is thick and hard in cold weather, and softens when warm so as to flow like thick molasses. Its specific gravity is about 1*04. It is boiled down to produce pitch, is used to coat the bottoms of vessels to render them water-tight, and to cover rigging of ships to preserve it from the action of the weather, and is a useful lubricant for the journals of wheels. In medicine it is used internally in chronic catarrhs, and in some cutaneous diseases, as ichthyosis. The inhala- tion of its vapor is recommended in cases of bronchial disease, the air of a room being im- pregnated with it by moderately heating the tar placed in a cup over a lamp. It has been found beneficial as an external application to ulcers and various diseases of the skin. It is administered in pills mixed with flour, or in an electuary of tar and sugar. It yields a portion of its properties to water with which it is stirred, and this preparation, known as tar water, is administered as a stimulant and diu- retic, and is applied as a wash in chronic cu- taneous affections. Coal tar has an exceeding- ly repulsive odor, and was long considered of no value ; but it has been found that the light oils* obtained by its distillation may be made to furnish a variety of singular products, pos- sessing rare properties, and affording the rich colors applicable to dyeing, known as the ani- line colors (see ANILINE, BENZOLE, and MAUVE), and also flavors of various essences and agree- able perfumes. The dead oil is frequently burned for the production of lampblack. One of its most useful products is carbolic acid. (See CARBOLIC ACID.) Coal tar is now in com- mon use as a coating for iron work exposed to the weather, and is used with asphalt and other substances to form a tight covering for roofs and the walls of vaults, &c. Its use in preparing a fuel with the dust of mineral coal is noticed in FUEL, vol. vii., p. 618. TAR, a river of North Carolina, which rises in Person co. and flows S. E., passing Tarbor- ough, Greenville, and Washington, and dis- charges into Pamlico sound by an estuary called Pamlico river. Its length is 140 m., or including Paralico river 180 m., and it is navi- gable for small steamers to Tarborough, 85 m. from the sound. TARANTO (anc. Tarentum), a city of S. Italy, in the province of Lecce, in Apulia, 44 m. W. S. W. of Brindisi; pop. in 1872, 27,546. It stands on an island at the N. end of the gulf of Taranto, and is connected with the mainland by two bridges. The inner harbor (mare pic- colo), 12 m. in circumference, is useless as a roadstead, and ships must anchor in the outer harbor (mare grande), which is much exposed. The castle and fortifications, built by Charles V., command both harbors. Taranto is the seat of an archbishop, and has a cathedral dedicated to St. Cataldus, an Irishman and the first bishop of Tarentum, about 166. Linen and cotton stockings are made here, and gloves from the byssus of the mollusk pinna ma- rina. Tarentum was colonized by exiles from Sparta in 708 B. C. Its harbor was then the best on the coast. It became a large and pow- erful city, and 14 other towns were subject to it. It carried on long contests with the Messapians and Peucetians ; and about 474 its army suffered a disastrous defeat from the former, in which so many of its nobles were killed that its government, previously an aris- tocracy, was thereafter democratic. It was predominant in the league of the Greek cities of Italy against Dionysius of Syracuse and the Lucanians. Rome declared war against it in 281. The Tarentines called in Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, after whose defeat and withdrawal from Italy the city surrendered to the consul Papirius in 272, while a Carthaginian fleet was approaching to its relief, and thereafter con- tinued subject to Rome. During the second Punic war the citizens betrayed it into the hands of Hannibal, who held it for more than two years, but was unable to dislodge the Ro- man garrison from the citadel. In 209 Fabius Maximus retook the city and gave it up to plunder, after putting the Carthaginians to the sword. It continued to be the chief town of S. Italy under the empire. The present town occupies only the site of the ancient citadel, which was originally a promontory, but was made an island by Ferdinand I. of Naples. TARANTO, Dnke of. See MACDONALD. TARAMI'LA, or Tarentula, a terrestrial hunt- ing or wolf spider of S. Europe, belonging to the genus lycosa, the L. tarentula (Latr.). It is the largest of European spiders, measuring 1^ to 2 in. in the length of the body ; the color is ashy brown above, marked with gray on the thorax, and with triangular spots and curved streaks of black bordered with white on the abdomen ; below saffron-colored, with a trans- verse black band. It received its popular name from being common in the vicinity of Taranto in S. Italy. It makes no web, wandering for prey, which it runs down with great swiftness, and hiding in holes in the ground and crevices lined with its silk ; it has one spiracle on each side, one pulmonary sac, and eight eyes. Its bite was once considered highly poisonous, producing the nervous febrile condition called tarantism, which was supposed to be curable only by dancing to lively music until the per- son fell exhausted. The L. Carolinensis (Bosc) is called tarantula in the southern states ; it attains a length of 2 in. with an extent of legs of 4 in. ; it is mouse-colored above, with white sides and whitish dots and lines on the abdo- men ; below blackish ; legs whitish tipped with black. It makes deep excavations in the ground, which it lines with silk; the females carry their young on the back. Its poison is active, and might cause troublesome symptoms >n man