made up the hordes which followed Genghis Khan (q. v.) and Timur (q. v.).
Tar′tary, the name given formerly to a broad belt of territory reaching from the Seas of Japan and Okhotsk to the Caspian or perhaps to the Don. Khiva was formerly called Independent Tartary; and the Crimea was called Little Tartary, also Crim Tartary, from the name of the tribe which settled there in the 13th century. The name is applied now, if at all, to the Turkestani region.
Taschereau (ta′sh’-rō′), His Eminence Elezear Alexander, the first Canadian cardinal, was born at Ste. Marie-de-la-Beauce, Quebec, Feb. 17, 1820, his father being a judge of the queen’s bench and his mother the daughter of the speaker of the first legislative assembly of Canada. He was educated at Quebec and Grand Seminaries, ordained in 1842, for four years a professor, later director and at last superior of Grand Seminary, and in 1860 director of Laval University as well. Vicar-general of the archdiocese of Quebec in 1863, he was consecrated archbishop in 1871 and elevated to the cardinalate in 1886. He died in Quebec, April 12, 1898.
Taschereau, Hon. Sir Henry E., was born in 1836. He was called to the bar of Quebec in 1857, and was a member of the Quebec legislature from 1861 to 1867. He was appointed a judge of the superior court of the province in 1871 and in 1878 a judge of the supreme court of Canada. He has written several textbooks on law. He became chief-justice of the court, and recently resigned.
Tashkend (tȧsh′kĕnd′), a city of Russian Turkestan (q. v.), on Saralka River. It stands in a rich plain, and is surrounded by a wall 12 miles around, which is pierced by 12 gates. The houses of mud, thatched with reeds, are scattered among gardens and vineyards. A fortified castle, which is the home of the governor, mosques, colleges, old temples and a bazar are the chief buildings. Gunpowder, silk, cotton-goods and iron are manufactured. A large trade is carried on with Bokhara, Mongolia and the Russian provinces of Orenburg and Petropavlovsk. Tashkend is an important military point and was long coveted by the Russians, who captured it in 1854. Population 155,673. See Vambery’s Travels in Central Asia.
Tasmania (tăz-mā′nĭ-ȧ), (formerly known as Van Diemen’s Land), is an island lying south of Victoria, Australia and separated from it by Bass Strait. It is one of the original states of the Commonwealth of Australia (q. v.). The colony is a British possession, and at the beginning of the century was a penal settlement. Transportation of criminals to it ceased in 1853. Its area is 26,385 square miles, including Macquarie, divided into 18 counties. The aborigines are extinct. The capital is Hobart, on the south of the island, with a population of 24,655. The other chief town is Launceston (18,077). The principal occupations are agriculture and stock-raising; wool, wheat, hay and oats being the chief exports. Fruit is successfully cultivated, especially apples and pears, which in size, appearance and variety surpass those of Britain. The climate is healthy and temperate. The island contains tin, coal, gold and silver. Education is unsectarian, and compulsory for all children between seven and fourteen. Government is exercised by a responsible ministry, with a parliament consisting of two chambers. A resident governor represents the crown. Population about 190,000.
Tasso, Torquato (tăs′sō̇, tor-kwä′to), an Italian poet, was born at Sorrento, March 11, 1544. His father, also a poet, lived in exile, and Torquato was brought up by his mother, and went to school to the Jesuits till his tenth year, when he joined his father at Rome. He passed some years in study and in helping his father by copying and correcting, when he left for Padua to study law, where he wrote Rinaldo, his first poem, and, after a course of philosophy at Bologna, returned to become a member of a literary academy established by one of his friends. While at the court of Alphonso II, duke of Ferrara, in 1575, Tasso finished his masterpiece, Jerusalem Delivered, but rashly sent it to a society of scholars, critics and churchmen at Rome, instead of publishing it at once. Their criticisms drove him to madness. He believed he had been denounced to the Inquisition and one evening in 1577 he drew his dagger to stab a servant, whom he fancied to be one of his secret enemies. He was imprisoned, but escaped to his birthplace, where he recovered his reason. Two visits to Ferrara were followed by two returns of madness, after one of which he suffered an imprisonment of seven years, being set free in 1586. In 1595 the excitement of visiting Rome to be crowned a poet — the same honor which had been bestowed on Petrarch — caused an illness from which he died on April 25. See Milman’s Life of Torquato Tasso.
Taste, the sense by which such properties of substance as sweet, sour, bitter, salt etc. are distinguished. The principal organ of taste is the tongue, especially its sides, base and tip. The soft palate and the arches of the palate also have the sense of taste. The sense of taste is weakened by any great change in temperature, either of heat or cold, as after holding the tongue in ice-water or in very hot water the taste of sugar will not be noticed. It is necessary that bodies to be tasted should be dissolved, so as to come in contact with
