33 



TAURIN. 



TAX, TAXATION. 



patterns a better idea will be conveyed by the annexed bust of Shungie, 

 a New Zealand chief, copied from an engraving in the ' Missionary 

 Register ' for 1816, than by the most lengthened description. 



The process of tattooing as practised, or rather as it was formerly 

 practised, in other islands of the South Sea, was less painful than that 

 followed in New Zealand ; for, according to the account of Captain 

 Cook, in some cases the punctures could hardly be said to draw blood ; 

 while in New Zealand, having taken a piece of charcoal, and rubbed it 

 upon a stone with a little water, so as to produce a thick liquid, the 

 operators dipped into it an instrument made of bone, with a sharp edge 

 like a chisel, and shaped in the fashion of a garden-hoe. They then 

 applied the instrument to the skin, and struck it twice or thrice with 

 a piece of wood, thereby making it cut into the flesh as a knife would 

 have done, and causing a great deal of blood to flow, which they kept 

 wiping off with the side of the hand, in order to see whether the im- 

 pression was made sufficiently clear. If not, they applied the cutting- 

 instrument again to the same place. The instruments used, as described 

 by Captain Cook, were edged with small teeth, somewhat resembling 

 those of a fine comb ; and, aa in the case of New Zealand, the colouring 

 tincture was introduced at the same operation as that by which the 

 akin was punctured ; the substance employed in some places being a 

 kind of lamp-black. On the brown skins of the natives, the marks 

 made with this substance appear black ; but on the skin of a European 

 they are of a fine blue colour. Lafitau speaks of powdered charcoal as 

 the colouring-matter commonly used by the American Indians ; and 

 states that it was introduced by a process subsequent to that of cutting 

 or puncturing the skin. This insertion of the colour appears to have 

 been the most painful part of the operation of tattooing as practised 

 among them. 



TAURIN (C.HjNOjSJ, a peculiar crystallisable substance obtained 

 from the bile, and also produced artificially by the action of heat upon 

 isethionate of ammonia 



C 4 H 5 (NUJO,,S,0. = C,H,NO,S, + 2HO 



Isethionate of ammonia. 



Taurin. 



Ita properties are, that it has the form of a six-sided prism terminated 

 by pyramids of four or six faces ; the crystals are gritty between the 

 teeth, and have a sharpish taste, which is neither sweet nor saline ; 

 they undergo no alteration by exposure to the air even at 212, and 

 have neither an acid nor an alkaline reaction. When heated in the 

 naked fire, this substance becomes brown, fuses into a thick liquid, 

 swells up, exhales a sweetish empyreumatic odour resembling that of 

 burning indigo, and leaves a charcoal, which is readily burnt!: when 

 submitted to dry distillation, it yields much thick brown oil, and a 

 little yellow acidulous water, which holds an ammoniacal salt in solu- 

 tion, and reddens a solution of perchloride of iron ; one part requires 

 15( parts of water at 54 for solution ; it is much more soluble in 

 boiling water, and the excess crystallises on cooling ; it is but little 

 soluble, even in boiling alcohol of sp. gr. 0'835, and is nearly insoluble 

 in absolute alcohol. Concentrated sulphuric acid dissolves and forms 

 a light brown solution with taurin ; nitric acid readily dissolves it, and 

 when the acid is evaporated, it is left unaltered. 



TAUROCHOLALIC ACID. [CHOLEIC ACID.] 



TAUKOCHOLIC ACID. [CHOLEJC ACID.] 



TAURUS (the Bull), the second constellation of the ZODIAC. Its 

 position in the heavens, surrounded by Aries, Eridanus, Orion, and 

 Perseus, is easily obtained by the manner in which its bright star 

 ALDKBAHAN is connected with the belt of Orion. In all speculations 

 upon the origin of the Zodiac, Taurus must be an important object of 

 consideration, since, at the earliest date which prudent speculation can 

 consider it advisable to begin from, Aldebaran must have been at no 

 great distance from the vernal equinox. [ZODIAC.] The figure is 

 only a part of a bull the head, shoulders, and fore legs. Aldebaran 

 and the Hyades form the forehead and eye, and the Pleiades are in the 

 boulder. But Aratus must have drawn the figure differently, for he 

 puts the Pleiades in the knees. 



The Hyades form a group, of which five (some of the ancients said 

 seven) are distinctly visible to the naked eye, o, 9, y, t, and of the 

 constellation : there are many more in the cluster. These stars are 

 arranged in the form of a V, a and e being the extremes, and y at the 

 angular point. The star a is Aldebaran. The name seems to be 

 derived from four, to rain. The Latins called them tucula; (little pigs, 

 no doubt meaning Aldebaran for the sow, and the others for her off- 

 spring), a name which Cicero and others state to have arisen from sup- 

 posing the Greek word to have been from its (pigs), and not from Stic. 

 Wf think, however, it may be possible that they were right in their 

 idea of the Greek word : the large star and the cluster of small ones 

 might very easily suggest the notion of a sow and her litter. 



The Pleiades are so close a group of stars that it is very difficult to 

 ay how many are seen by the naked eye. " They are called seven," 

 says Higinus, " but no one can see more than six ; " and six seems to 

 be the number generally visible, though there are many more in the 

 cluster. These stars are 17, 19, 20, 23, 25, and 26 of Flamsteed. 

 There is accordingly a supposition that some one star, once visible, has 

 now changed iU magnitude, or disappeared altogether. The name has 

 been derived from *\iu>, to sail. One of the mythological stories 

 makes these stars the daughters of Pleione and Atlas. 



ARTS AND SCI. DIV. VOL. VIII. 



The principal stars of Taurus are as follows : 



Character. 



y 



!' 

 5- 



Magnitude. 

 4 

 4 

 3 

 4 

 4 

 3 

 4 

 4 

 4 

 1 

 4 

 2 

 3 



TAURUS PONIATOWSKI, a constellation formed by the AbbiS 

 Poczobut, a Polish astronomer (born in 1723 : we do not know the 

 year of his death ; but Lalande mentions his having resumed his 

 observations at Wilua in 1802), in honour of the reigning king of 

 Poland, and adopted in the French (Fortin's) edition of Flamsteed's 

 maps (or rather added to the plates). Poczobut, in 1778, proposed 

 this constellation to the French and other academies, by whom it was 

 received. Bode conjectures that a resemblance of certain very small 

 stars in it to the figure of the Hyades was the reason for the first word 

 of the name. It is situated between Aquila and Ophiuchus. 



TAURYLIC ACID. [BENZOIC ALCOHOL.] 



TAUTOCHRON. [TIME OF DESCENT.] 



TAX, TAXATION. A tax is a portion of the produce of a country 

 or its value, applied to public purposes by the government. Taxation 

 is the general charging and levying of particular taxes upon the com- 

 munity. 



In a free state it is assumed that all taxation is necessary for the 

 public good; and it is justified by necessity alone. The amount of 

 expenditure will, in a great measure, be determined by the magnitude 

 of a state and by the number and importance of its political relations ; 

 yet the prudence with which its affairs are administered will affect the 

 demands of the government upon the people nearly as much as its 

 necessities. The expenses of a private person must be regulated by 

 his income; but in a state, the expenditure that is needed is the 

 measure of the public income that must be obtained to meet it. A 

 civilised community requires not only protection from foreign enemies, 

 and internal security, but it needs various institutions which are con- 

 ducive to its welfare. It is the business of a government to provide 

 for these objects in the best manner and at the least expense consistent 

 with their efficiency. Every tax should be viewed as the purchase- 

 money paid for equivalent advantages given in return. This principle 

 assumes the necessity of moderation in levying taxes, and will scarcely 

 be denied by any one when stated in that form ; yet it is not uncommon 

 to hear it argued that so long as taxes are spent in the country, the 

 amount is not of consequence, as the money is returned through 

 various channels to the people from whom it was derived. The 

 principle we have just laid down exposes the fallacy of this doctrine, 

 by reducing it to a simple question between debtor and creditor. For 

 example, by paying a million of money every year, the people obtain 

 the services of an army. This we will suppose to be an equivalent, and 

 we will further assume that the food and clothing of the force are 

 purchased, and that the entire pay of the men is spent, within the 

 country. The whole of the money will thus be returned : but how '! 

 Not as a free gift, not as the repayment of a loan, but in the purchase 

 of articles equal in value to the whole sum. The only benefit obtained 

 by this return of the million is clearly nothing more than the ordinary 

 profits of trade ; for the community has already provided the money, 

 and then out of its own capital and industry it produces what is equal 

 to it in value, and this it stlli to the state, receiving as payment the 

 very sum it had itself contributed as a tax. 



No branch of legislation is perhaps so important as the wise applica- 

 tion of just principles in the matter of taxation. The wealth, happi- 

 ness, and even the morals of the people are dependent upon the 

 financial policy of their government. 



Adam Smith lays down four general maxims, which are as 

 follows : 



I. " The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the 

 support of the government as nearly as possible in proportion to their 

 respective abilities ; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they 

 respectively enjoy under the protection of the state." 



II. " The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be 

 certain, and not arbitrary. The time of payment, the manner of 

 payment, the quantity to be paid, ought all to be clear and plain to the 

 contributor, and to every other person." 



III. " Every tax ought to be levied at the time or in the manner 

 most likely to be convenient for the contributor to pay it." 



IV. " Every tax ought to be so contrived as both to take out and 

 keep out of the pockets of the people as little as possible over anil 

 above what it brings into the public treasury of the state." 



The justice of Adam Smith's first maxim requires no enforcement 



