Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/595

TANNAHILL country is watered by the Coleroon and Ca- very and their numerous branches. There are 64 irrigation tanks in the district, and exten- sive works connected with the rivers, so that the entire area of irrigation in 1872-'3 was 748,673 acres. The surface consists for the most part of an extensive plain of great fer- tility. Cotton goods are manufactured, and salt is made in the neighborhood of Point Calymere. The inhabitants are nearly all Hin- doos, and their institutions have been more perfectly preserved than in most other parts of India. The district forms the inland boun- y of the French coast settlement of Cari- . II. A city, capital of the district, on a ranch of the Cavery, 180 m. S. W. of Madras 45 m. from the bay of Bengal ; pop. about |,000. It contains two forts, the greater >ut 4 m. in circumference and the lesser out 1 m., both strong and well constructed. e rajah's palace stands in the centre of the great fort. The pagoda in the small fort is considered the finest building of the kind in India. The manufactures consist of silk, mus- lin, and cotton goods. Tanjore was founded about A. D. 214, and became the capital of a Hindoo principality of the same name, which was absorbed by the Mahrattas in the 17th century. The British assumed the government about the year 1800. TAMAHILL, Robert, a Scottish poet, born in Paisley, June 3, 1774, died May 17, 1810. He worked all his life as a weaver. His volume of "Poems and Songs" (1807) became very popular ; but while revising it he fell into a state of despondency, aggravated by the refusal of Constable to print a new edition, burned all his new and revised poems, and drowned himself. An enlarged edition of his remains, with a memoir, was published at Glasgow in 1838, and reprinted at Paisley in 1874. TAMIC ACID, or Tannin. The astringent prin- ciples existing in a great variety of plants, which render them capable of combining with the skins of animals to form leather, of precipi- tating gelatine, of forming bluish black precipi- tates with the per-salts of iron (or if a free acid be present a dark green color), were formerly termed tannin. These substances, being found to possess acid properties, are now known as tannic acid, and various distinctive names are given to them as they are found of different chemical compositions, though agreeing in their essential properties. Thus the tannic acid derived from the gall nut is termed gallotannic acid ; that of the oak, quercitannic acid ; of the fustic (morus tinctoria), moritannic acid; of the cinchona, quinotannic acid, &c. The prin- cipal sources of tannin have been named in the article LEATHER, and the method of extract- ing it has been particularly described in the article on GALLS, which are the most abun- dant source of it. Besides this variety, which is the same as that existing in the bark and leaves of many forest trees, fruit trees, and shrubs, and in some roots, as those of the TANSY 567 tormentilla and bistort, there is another less known, as the tannin of the catechu and kino, which precipitates the salts of iron dark green instead of blue. Gallotannic acid when pure is a whitish, uncrystallizable solid substance, without odor, intensely astringent to the taste ; it dissolves freely in water, to a less extent in dilute alcohol, and sparingly in ether. The best solvent for medical uses is glycerine. It changes blue litmus paper to red, and expels carbonic acid from its compounds with effer- vescence. Its formula is CavHsaOn. Its aque- ous solution exposed to the air absorbs oxy- gen, and is converted into gallic acid. Be- sides its use in tanning, gallotannic acid is employed to produce with the salts of iron the gallotannate of iron, which is the basis of most of the writing inks. It is also employed in medicine for its astringent property, chief- ly in checking haemorrhages, as a wash for ulcers, ophthalmic affections, &c. If taken internally in large quantities, it is an irritant ; but in small doses it is absorbed and makes its appearance in the urine as gallic acid, hav- ing undergone a process of oxidation in the organism. The combinations of tannic acid with iron and with lead have been applied in the form of ointments to the dressing of ring- worms, gangrenous sores, &c. TAMING. See LEATHER, vol. x., p. 275. TANSY (Fr. athanasie, contracted to tanai- sie, from Gr. adavaaia, immortality, in allusion Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare). to some supposed preservative quality of the plant, or to its durable flowers), tanacetum vulgare, a plant of the composite family, a native of Europe, which was formerly cultiva- ted, but has escaped from gardens and become a common roadside weed. It is a perennial herb, with large, twice or thrice pinnately di- vided, deep green leaves, and stems 2 to 4 ft. high, bearing corymbs of heads of golden yel- low flowers, which are nearly all tubular and fertile. A variety called double tansy has the