TAP 



53 



TAP 



But it would seem that the most common method of 

 catching them is by imitating their sharp but not very 

 shrill whistle, and thus bringing them within shot of the 

 Indian's poisoned arrow. 



Lieut. Maw, who, as we have above seen, brought a 

 young animal of this species to England, speaks of it as 

 feeding \ipon herbs and the branches of trees, and going 

 much into the water, walking along or rather perhaps 

 aeross the bottoms of rivers. ' It possesses,' says Lieut. 

 Maw, ' great strength, particularly in the fore part of the 

 body ; but is harmless, except when attacked. It is said 

 to pass directly through the thickets without following 

 any previous track.* We were told that when the Tapir 

 is :it lacked by a Tiger' (Pel is On fa) [LEOPARD, vol. xiii., p. 

 4:Vi], ' the Tiger generally springs upon the Tapir's back, 

 when the latter rushes into the woods and endeavours to 

 kill the assailant by dashing him against some large tree. 

 Although strongly' v and apparently heavily made, the Tapir 

 is s;iiil to be fleet.' (Journal of a Passage, &c.) 



This species is mild in captivitv and easily domesticated. 

 Sonnini states that several tame Tapirs are permitted to go 

 at liberty through the streets of Cayenne, and to wander 

 into the woods, whence they return in the evening to the 

 house where they are kept and fed. He adds that they are 

 capable of attachment to their owner, and expresses his 

 opinion that care and attention might convert its qualities 

 of strength, docility, and patience to account as a beast of 

 burthen. 



AmerSrnn Tapir. 



FOSSIL TAPIRS. 



Dr. Buckland, in his Itctiqnice Diliirinna; notices the 

 remains of Tapir in company with those of rhinoceros, 

 elephant, horse, ox, deer, hyaena, bear, tiger, fox, wolf, 

 mastodon, hog, and beaver, in the Val d'Arno, on the 

 authority of Mr. 1'entland ; and in his interesting and in- 

 itractive fint plate illustrative ol\a*BridgeiDater Tn-ttti.\<- 

 figures a Tapir in little among the mammalia of the first 

 period of the Tertiary series (Eocene of Lyell). In the 

 Kppleshcim sand (Miocene of Lyell), Professor Kaup 

 found two species larger than those now living. 



It should be borne in mind that the second or Miocene 

 system of tertiary deposits contains a mixture of the ex- 

 tinct genera of lacustrine mammalia of the first or Eocene 

 series, with the earlie.-t forms of existing genera. M. 

 Desnoveis i'r.,t noticed this in the Faluns of Touraine, 

 where" the remains of I'lilrrntlu'rintii. Anthrucothvriiini, 

 and Ijiphifid'in were found mixed with the bones of the 

 tapir, mastodon, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and horse. 

 These remains were i';;\<-tun <! and rolled, .and sometimes 

 ccncrcd with flustra, and must, Dr. Buckland observes, 

 have been derived from carcasses drifted into an actuary 

 or sea. 



Von Meyer records the following species : Tapir 

 -, Croiz. and Job., from the diluvium, Puy-de- 

 Dfime, Cussac; Tapir Mailodontoidtt, Harlan, from Ken- 

 tucky, wit li a justifiable query, whether it is a Tapir at 

 all :' and Tnjiir Prisms, Kaup, from the Epplesheim sand, 

 iuilesto other remains noticed m the works of 

 lift, and Kichwald. (Diluvium, Irawadi.i 



Dr. Lund, in his ' View of the Fauna of Brazil,' states that 



he h:id in vain looked for either remains or foot-prints o! 



the living Tapir; whence he concludes, that it does not 



: but. -he says that he is in possession 



of fo which evidently belong to the genus 



Iltlt te aliovr. 



t I'r ,frir OWTO l-l,.nci UiU called Tpir to Iw the young of }Iatl<iAm 



VBt. 



hough they are too imperfect to determine their relation 

 o the recent animal. 



TAPPING, or Paracentesis (in Surgery), is the operation 

 .isually employed for the removal of fluid from any of the 

 serous cavities of the body in which it has collected in a 

 dangerous quantity. It is accomplished by means of an 

 'nstrument called a trocar, and a tube, or canula, in which 

 t exactly fits. The trocar is of steel, cylindrical through 

 ;he chief part of its length, and terminated by a three- 

 sided pyramid which ends in a very sharp point. The 

 L-anula being placed upon its shaft, the trocar is thrust 

 nto the cavity containing the fluid, and being then with- 

 drawn through the eanula, the latter is retained in the 

 aperture till all the fluid is discharged. The diseases for 

 which tapping is chiefly performed are ascites, hydro- 

 :horax, hydrocele, and, occasionally, hydrocephalus, and 

 fins-ions of fluid in the pericardium. 



TAPTY. [HINDUSTAN, p. 211.] 



TAPUH. [SooLoo ARCHIPELAGO.] 



TAR, a well-known empyreumatic product. 



The properties of tar are, that it is a viscid brown semi- 

 luid mass, which long preserves its softness. If it be 

 mixed with water, it acquires a yellow colour and the 

 :aste of tar, with slightly acid properties ; this solution is 

 well known by the name of tar-water, and has been used 

 in medicine. Tar is soluble in alcohol, in aether, and in 

 :he fixed and volatile oils. 



If tar be distilled with water, there passes over a brown 

 iquid which consists of much empyreumatic oil and some 

 oil of turpentine ; this product is called oil of tar ; by redis- 

 illation with water it becomes colourless ; the substance 

 emaining in the still is pitch ; so that, in fact, tar is a 

 mixture of oil and pitch. 



?. Within a few years, tar has been subjected to a minute 

 examination by Reichenbach, who has obtained from it a 

 variety of substances possessing very different properties ; 

 the most important of these is creasote. [CREASOTK.] 



After what has been stated of the many different com- 

 pound substances of which tar is constituted, no exact 

 analysis could of course be stated ; its chief constituent 

 is carbon, combined with hydrogen and oxygen, and a 

 small portion of azote. 



TAR (French, Goudron ; German, Them ; Italian, Ca- 

 trame; Spanish, Alquitran; Polish, SmolaGesta; Russian, 

 Degot, Smola shitkaja ; Swedish, Tjiira), is obtained from 

 wood or coal by distillation in close vessels, or in piles from 

 which the air is excluded. Pitch (French, Poix ; German, 

 Pcrh ; Italian, Pece ; Spanish, Fez ; Russian, Smolti gus- 

 taja) is commonly obtained by the jnspissation of tar, or 

 by boiling it until all the volatile matters are driven oft'. 

 For the chemical properties of tar, see the preceding 

 article. 



Tar is extensively manufactured from the roots and 

 branches of pines and firs in Norway, Sweden, Germany, 

 Russia, North America, and other countries in which those 

 trees abound ; but that made in the north of Europe is 

 considered far superior to what is produced in the United 

 Stales. The process usually followed is described in Dr. 

 E. D. Clarke's 'Travels in Scandinavia,' and is, he states, 

 similar to that which, according to Theophrastns and 

 Dioscorides, was practised by the antient Greeks. He 

 observes indeed that ' there is not the smallest difference 

 between a tar-work in the forests of Westro-Bothnia and 

 those of antient Greece.' After describing the noble fores! s 

 which cover'the soil down even to the water's edge, about 

 the inlets of the Gulf of Bothnia, Dr. Clarke says, ' From 

 the most southern parts of Westro-Bothnia to the northern 

 extremity of the Gulf, the inhabitants are occupied in the 

 manufacture of tar, proofs of which are visible in the whole 



extent of the coast The situation most favourable to 



the process is in a forest near to a marsh or bog ; because 

 the roots of the fir, from which tar is principally extracted, 

 are always most productive in such places. A conical 

 cavity is then made in the ground (generally in the side of 

 a bank or sloping hill), and the roots of the fir, together 

 with logs and billets of the same, being neatly trussed in a 

 stack of the same conical shape, are let into this cavity. 

 The whole is then covered with turf, to prevent the vola- 

 tile parts from being dissipated, which, by means of a 

 heavy wooden mallet, and a wooden stamper worked sepa- 

 rately by two men, is beaten down and rendered as firm as 

 possible above the wood. The stack of billets is then 

 kindled, and a slow combustion of the fir takes place, 



