Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/297

TAR 253 TARANTULA tilled over constitutes artificial asphalt, but this on further distillation at a higher heat gives off "heavy oils," leav- ing in the retort pitch, a substance which when cold is hard, black, and shining, and breaks with a glassy fracture. The principal constituents of the heavy oil are carbolic acid (phenol), cresylic acid (cresol), and in the later stages of the distillatory process anthracene is ob- tained. All these substances are indus- trially important. Wood tar is obtained as a by-product in the destructive distillation of wood for the manufacture of pyroligneous acid (wood vinegar) , and methyl alcohol (wood spirit). Wood tar has several constituents in common with coal tar; its most characteristic fluid ingredients being hydrocarbons with methylic acetate, acetone, eupione, and creosote, with solid resinous matters, paraffin, anthracene, chrysene, etc. It possesses valuable an- tiseptic properties, chiefly owing to the creosote it contains, whence its principal value for most purposes is derived. In addition to its various uses in the arts of coating and preserving timber and iron in exposed situations, and for im- preg:nating ships' ropes and cordage, it has various applications for external use in medicine owing to its antiseptic prop- erties. TASA, a parish in Meath co., Ire- land, 21 miles N, W. of Dublin. It was a royal residence in the early days of Ireland and from the hill of Tara was brought the famous stone long used in the coronation of the Scotch kings at Scone. It is now in the chair of Ed- ward the Confessor at Westminster. A sort of Parliament used to be held at Tara, in which all the nobles and prin- cipal scholars of Ireland met to insti- tute new laws or to extend and renew old ones, and to examine and correct the national annals and history of the coun- try, TARAI. See Terai. TARA FERN {pteridinm aquilirM esct^ lenta) , a species of bracken, the rhizome of which was used as food by the Maoris before the British settlement of New Zealand. It is found in Australia, Japan, and the Hawaiian Islands. TARANTISM (tar'an-tizm) , a danc- ing mania attributed to the bite of the tarantula spider. It was especially prev- alent at Taranto in Apulia, Italy. TARANTELIiA, or TARANTELLE, in music, a rapid Neapolitan dance in triplets; so called because it was popu- larly thought to be a remedy against thft Q supposed poisonous bite of the tarantula spider, which was said to set people dancing. Older specimens of the dance are not in triplets. The dance was in vogue in the 16th century. TARANTO (ancient Tarentum), a sea- port of southern Italy, in the province of Lecce; on a rocky islet between tiie Mare Grande or Gulf of Taranto and the Mare Piccolo, an extensive natural harbor on the E, side of the town; 72 miles S. S, E. of Bari. The harbor is sheltered by two small islands, San Paolo and San Pietro, the Chcerades of an- tiquity, and is closed by Cape San Vito on the S. E. The town is joined to the mainland by a 6-arched bridge on the E. side, and on the W. by an ancient Byzantine aqueduct. The principal buildings are a modernized cathedral dedicated to St. Cataldo, a dubious 6th- century Irishman said to have been the first bishop of Tarentum, and a castle erected by Charles V, The Mare Piccolo is still famous for its shellfish. The honey and fruit are still famous also, but the people are today as lazy as in Horace's time. The ancient Tarentum, founded by a body of Spartan emigrants about 708 B. C, grew to be the sovereign city of Magna Grsecia. Here flourished about 400 B. c. the philosopher and geometer Arch>i;as, under whom it became the center of the Pythagorean sect. At the height of its greatness it insolently pro- voked a quarrel vnth Rome (281), was saved for a while by Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, but taken in 272, and retaken and punished severely in 207 for revolt- ing to the side of Hannibal five years before. Later it belonged to Byzantine, Saracen, and Norman, and shared the fortunes of the kingdom of Naples. Pop. about 56,000. TARANTULA (-ran'tu-la), the Ly- cosa tarantula, a large spider, with a body about an inch in length; its bite ^^^s^t^x..^ TARANTULA was formerly supposed to produce tarantism, and it doubtless, in some cases, produces disagreeable symptoms. Cyc— Vol. IX