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TARSUS 260 TASMANIA decay; but even yet this modern, squalid, and ruinous city, under the name of Tarso or Tersus, has a population of about 25,000, and exports corn, cotton, wool, gall nuts, wax, goats' hair, skins, hides, etc. TARTAR, the substance called also argal , or argol, deposited from wines in- completely fermented, and adhering to the sides of the casks in the form of a hard crust. What is called tartar emetic is a double tartrate of potassium and antimony, an important compound used in medicine as an emetic, purgative, dia- phoretic, sedative, febrifuge, and coun- ter-irritant. Tartar of the teeth is an earthy-like substance which occasionally concretes on the teeth and is deposited from the saliva. It consists of salivary mucus, animal matter, and phosphate of lime. TARTARIC ACID, CJlcO,, the most important of vegetable acids, occurs in many fruits, especially the grape. Dur- ing fermentation the juice of the grape deposits the substance known in com- merce as tartar or argol. This substance, essentially the bitartrate of potash, is hardly soluble in cold water, but may be crystallized by cooling from its solution in boiling water. Thus purified it is known as cream of tartar, having the composition KHCjH^Oo. TARTARS, or TATARS, originally certain Tungusic tribes in Chinese Tar- tary, but extended to the Mongol, Turk- ish and other warriors, who under Genghis Khan and other chiefs were the terror of the European Middle Ages. The name, originally Turkish and Per- sian Tatar, was doubtless changed to Tartar, either consciously or uncon- sciously, because they were supposed to be like fiends from hell (Greek tartaros, "hell"). The term is used loosely for tribes of mixed origin in Tartary, Si- beria, and the Russian steppes, including Kazan Tartars, Grim Tartars, Kipchaks, Kalmucks, etc., and has no definite eth- nological meaning. In the classification of languages Tartaric is used of the Turkish group. See Mongolian; Tu- ranian; Turks. TARTARUS, according to Hesiod, the son of .(Ether and Gsea, and father of the giants Typhoeus and Echidna. In the Iliad, Tartarus is a place as far be- neath Hades as heaven is above the earth — a dark desolate region into which Zeus hurled the rebel Titans. Afterward the name was sometimes used as a synonym of Hades, but more frequently to denote a place of punishment. TARTARY, properly Tatary, the name under which, in the Middle Ages, was comprised the whole central belt of central Asia and eastern Europe, from the Sea of Japan to the Dnieper, in- cluding Manchuria, Mongolia, Chinese Turkestan, Independent Turkestan, the Kalmuck and Kirghiz steppes, and the old khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and the Crimea, and even the Cossack coun- tries; and hence arose a distinction of Tartary into European and Asiatic. But latterly the name Tartary had a much more limited signification, including only Chinese Turkestan and Western Turkes- tan. It took its name from the Tatars or Tartars (q. v.). TASHKEND, or TASHKENT, the cap- ital of Russian Turkestan; 300 miles N. E. of Samarcand; on a small river which empties itself into the Syr-Daria or Jaxartes. It consists of an ancient walled city and a new European quarter with broad streets bordered by canals and avenues of trees. The Russian cita- del lies a little to the S. There are ex- tensive military stores, official buildings, Russian schools of all grades, an observ- atory and geographical society, Russian and Kirghiz newspapers, and a brisk trade with Russia and other parts of Central Asia. It is connected with the European system of telegraphs, and has manufactures of silk, leather, felt goods, and coarse porcelain. Once capital of a separate khanate, Tashkend was in 1810 conquered by Khokand, and since 1865 has been Russian. Pop. about 272,000. See Turkestan. TASMAN, ABEL JANSZOON, a Dutch navigator; born probably in Hoorn, about 1600. Commissioned by Van Die- men, the governor of the Dutch Indies, to explore the S. coast of the Australian continent, he left Batavia with two ships, Aug. 14, 1642; passed Mauritius Oct. 8, and on Nov. 24 discovered a coast which he called Van Diemen's Land, but which is now known as Tasmania. He sailed along its S. and E. coasts without being aware of its insular character, and pro- ceeding further E. discovered (Dec. 13) the S. island of New Zealand (Jan. 6), the Fiji Islands, returning to Batavia June 15, 1643. His account of this voy- age was reprinted at Amsterdam in 1722. On Jan. 29, 1644, he set out on a second voyage to explore the coasts of New Guinea and Australia, from which he never returned. TASMANIA, formerly Van Diemen's Land, an island in the Southern Ocean, 100 miles S. of Australia, from which it is separated by Bass Strait; greatest length, 186 miles; mean breadth, 165