Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/68

* TABSIEB. 48 TARTARIC ACID. Galago and ^tousE- Lemur; and consult au- thorities and Plate under Lemtjb. TAR'SUS (Lat., from Gk. Tapc6g, Tarsos, lapaol, Tarsoi). The chief city of ancient Cilicia, and of Eastern Asia Minor, situated on both sides of the navigable river Cj'dnus, in the midst of a beautiful and productive plain, about 10 miles from the sea. From its situation Tarsus commanded the pass over Mount Taurus, the Cilician Gates, which formed the only means of connnunication with Northern and Western Asia Minor, and in almost equal measure the route to Northern Syria and the East by the Amanian or Syrian Gates. The first mention of the place as Tarzi is on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser II., about the middle of the ninth century B.C., where its capture by the Assyrians is recorded. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Cilicia, which was long ruled, under Persian suzerainty, by a line of kings who bore the hereditary name of Syennesis, and later was the residence of a Persian satrap. With the conquest of Alexander the Great, it passed into Greek hands, and dviring the follow- ing period was usually in the power of the Seleu- cidiB of Syria. At the end of that century it passed under the Roman supremacy, and upon the or- ganization of the Province of Cilicia (B.C. 64) it became the capital. Later, Mark Antony made it a free city, and it was here that in B.C. 38 he was visited by Cleopatra. Under the Empire the free city seems to have enjoyed a popular form of government with a property qualification for the franchise. This gives additional point to the claim of the Apostle Paul — a native of this place — to be a citizen of Tarsus, as that implied a certain social position. It was a place of conse- quence even in Byzantine times, but suffered from its proximity to the Syrian frontier. The modern town, though large, is dirty and mean, containing no vestige of its ancient splendor, and but few ruins. The most conspicuous ruin is the large concrete foundation of a Roman building, popvilarly called the Tomb of Sardana- palus. TARTAGLIA, tiir-tii'lya, Nicol6 (1.500- 1557). An Italian physicist and arithmetician whose real name was Nicolo Fontana. He was born at Brescia, lectured at Verona, and became professor of mathematics at Venice. Tartaglia first became generally known through his solu- tion of cubic equations, and from his suggestions Cardan (q.v.) probably derived the solution known as Cardan's method. His work in physics is preserved in his A"»0!'0. scicnza (15.37; French trans., 1845-4(1), showing that he studied the theory of falling bodies and investigated the range of pi-ojectiles at various angles. His treatise on arithmetic, GcnernI trattuto de nii- meri et mistire (1556-60). is the chief authority on the Italian methods of his time. Quesiti et inventioni dierse de Nicolo Tartaglia (1546) is also well known. TAR'TAK. According to II. Kings, xvii. 31, the name given to a deity worshiped b.V the Avites. who were transferred to Samaria by the Assyrian King after the destruction of the northern Hebrew kingdom. .lewish tradition represents Tartak as worshiped under the form of an ass (Tal. Bab., Sanhedrin 63). No such deity as Tartak has been found in the Babylonian or Assyrian literature. TARTAN (Fr. tiretaine, tirtainc, linsey- tt'oolscy, from Sp. tiritafia, thin silk or woolen cloth, from liritar, to shiver), A well-known cloth of checkered pattern, also called plaid. The Scottish Gaelic tartan is a loan-word from the English; the native name is rather hreacun. These colored plaids have long been in great favor in the Highlands of Scotland, where each clan wears a particular kind as its distinctive dress. Consult: Skene, T}ie Highlanders of Scotland (new ed. by Alexander Macbain, 1901) ; Grant, Clan Tartan's (1886). TARTAR (ML. tartariim, IMGk. rdp^apov, tartar, probably from Lat Tartarns, from Gk. Taprapoc, Tartarus, Hades; hardly from Ar. diird, durdiy, dregs, from darida, to loose the teeth, in allusion to the action of tartar on the teeth). A mixture of bitartrate of potash and tartrate of lime, deposited from wine and known in its crude form as argol. TARTAR EMETIC. A name applied to the double tartrate of potassium and antimony, K(SBO) C^HA+ViH^O. It is prepared by making a paste of antimonious oxide, acid potas- sium tartrate and a little water, allowing to stand for several hours, then boiling the paste with water, and allowing the resulting solution to crystallize. Tartar emetic has a sweet taste, but leaves a disagreeable after-taste in the mouth. It is moderately soluble in water, but is insoluble in alcohol. It has a powerfully irri- tating etl'ect on the alimentary canal, and thus readily causes vomiting; Ijut vomiting is also due to the action of the compound upon the medulla, after being absorbed into the blood. Owing chiefly to its depressing efl'ect on the heart and nervous system, it is now much less used than formerly. TARTARIC ACID, C.HeO,. An acid com- pound of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, of which four diff^erent modifications are known. Ordinary tartaric acid is usually seen in the form of color- less, transparent crj'stals, which are not aifected by the action of the air, have an agreeable acid taste, and are soluble in water and alcohol. The crystals when gently warmed become strongly electric, the opposite sides of the crystals ex- hibiting the opposite forms of electricity. On heating tartaric acid to about 167-170° C. It fuses; and at slightly higher temperatures it be- comes changed into nietatartaric, tartralic, and tartrelic acids. Tartaric acid occurs abundantly in the vege- table kingdom both in the free and combined states. It is. however, from argol (q.v.), a prod- uct of the fermentation of grape juice, that the tartaric acid of connnerce is obtained. Argol, or crude tartar, is boiled with water and hydro- chloric acid, and the solution is precipitated with lime. The insoluble tartrate of calcium thus obtained is purified by washing with water, then decomposed by treating with sulphuric acid. This transforms the tartrate into the sparingly soluble calcium sulphate; white tartaric acid goes into solution in the free state. The filtered liquid, when cooled and evaporated, yields crys- talline tartaric acid. Being a dibasic acid, tartaric acid can form both acid and neutral salts. The most important tartrates are the following: Xriitral potaxxium tartrate, K^CjH.Ob, a soluble salt, which crystal-