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TANNENBEBG 248 TANSY Whole regiments were thrown into the lakes and drowned, and panic took pos- session of the rest. On Aug. 31 Sam- sonov himself was killed, and what re- mained of his army then was nothing more than a panic stricken mob. The Germany took 50,000 prisoners and hun- dreds of guns and large quantities of mu- nitions and other supplies. It was this striking victory which sent the name of Hindenburg sweeping over Germany as that of a great hero who had saved the country from threat- ening humiliation. He was at once made a field marshal and given full command of the Eastern Front. TANNER, BENJAMIN TUCKER, an American clergjTnan of the A. M. E. Church, born at Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1835. Educated at Avery College and Western Theological Seminary, he was ordained in the A. M. E. ministry and elected bish- op in 1888, serving as editor of the "Christian Recorder," the organ of the A. M. E. Church, for 16 years. He was the founder and for four years the edi- tor of the "A, M. E. Church Review" and a member of the Negro-American Acad- emy. He wrote: "The Origin of the Negro"; "Is the Negro Cursed?"; "Apol- ogy for African Methodism"; "Outlines of African Methodist Episcopal Church History"; "The Dispensations in the History of the Church"; "The Negro in Holy Writ"; "A Hint to Ministers, Espe- cially of the African Methodist Episco- pal Church"; "The Color of Solomon— V/hat?" TANNER, THOMAS, an English clergyman; born in Market Lavington, Wiltshire, England, Jan. 25, 1674; after graduating from Queen's College, Ox- ford, was in 1696 elected a Fellow of All Souls. He had already a high reputa- tion as an antiquary, and Wood at his death in 1695 left him the care of his papers. He took orders, and became in succession chaplain to his father-in-law, Bishop Moore of Norwich, chancellor of Norwich, prebendary of Ely, rector of Thorpe near Norwich, archdeacon of Norwich (1710), canon of Christ Church, Oxford (1723), and Bishop of St. Asaph (1732). An improved and enlarged edition of his "Notitia Monas- tica" (on Monasteries 1695), appeared in folio under the care of his brother in 1744. But Bishop Tanner's fame rests hardly less securely on his great posthu- mous biographical and bibliographical work — the labor of 40 years, "Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica" (British Hiberni- an Library, ed. by Dr. D. Wilkins, 1748). His edition of Wood's "Athenas Oxonien- ses" (The Oxonian Atheno), he had pub- lished in two volumes, folio, in 1721. He died in Oxford Dec. 14, 1735. See WOOD, Anthony. TANNHAUSER, or TANHAUSER (tan-hoi'-zer), in old German legend, a knight who gains admission into a hill called the Venusberg, in the interior of which Venus holds her court, and who for a long time remains buried in sensual pleasures, but at last listens to the voice of the Virgin Mary, whom he hears call- ing on him to return. The goddess al- lows him to depart, when he hastens to Rome to seek from the Pope (Pope Ur- ban) absolution for his sins. The Pope, however, when he knows the extent of the knight's guilt, declares to him that it is as impossible for him to obtain par- don as it is for the wand which he holds in his hand to bud and bring forth gre^i leaves. Despairing, the knight retires from the presence of the pontiff, and en- ters the Venusberg once more. Mean- while the Pope's wand actually begins to sprout, and the Pope, taking this as a sign from God that there was still an opportunity of salvation for the knight, hastily sends messengers into all lands to seek for him. But Tannhauser is nev- er again seen. The Tannhauser legend has been treated poetically by Tieck, and Richard Wagner has adopted it (with modifications) as the subject of one of his operas. TANNIC ACID, tannin, a term ap- plied to certain astringent substances occurring in the bark and other parts of plants, and widely distributed, in one form or another, throughout the vegeta- ble kingdom. "They are mostly amor- phous, have a rough but not sour taste, a slight acid reaction, and color ferric salts dark blue or green. Their most characteristic reaction is that of forming insoluble compounds with gelatin, solid muscular fiber, skin, etc., which then ac- quires the property of resisting putrefac- tion, as in the tanning of leather. TANSY (Tanacetum), a genus of Compositse, numbering about 50 species of strong scented herbs, often shrubby below, with alternate usually much-di- vided leaves, and solitary or corymbose heads of rayless yellow flowers. "The ge- nus is represented in Europe, North and South Africa, temperate and cold Asia, and North America. Common tansy (7*. vulgaris) has long had a reputation as a medicinal herb, causing it to be much grown in gardens in the past. It pos- esses bitter, tonic, vermifuge, and febri- fuge properties. The plant is a native of northern Europe, Siberia, and north- west America, and occurs in a wild state in Great Britain, but as met with along the sides of streams, etc., is often of gar-