508 



TvENARUS TALC. 



food consists of small water plants and different 

 animalcule. The mouth has very minute teeth. 

 Alunit five or six weeks after it is hatched, the 

 first change takes -place. The hind legs first 

 appear, and, gradually increasing in length and size, 

 are succeeded, in ubout two weeks, by the fore 

 legs, which are formed at an earlier period beneath 

 the skin. The tail now decreases, so that, in ;i 

 day or two, it is quite obliterated. After this 

 change, the animal leaves the water, and covers 

 the shores in myriads. The sudden appearance of 

 such multitudes of young frogs has probably induced 

 the popular but groundless belief of their having 

 fallen from the clouds in showers. It has now 

 become a perfect frog. (See Rana.") Tadpoles, 

 just after they are hatched, are perfectly trans- 

 parent ; and, when placed before the double micro- 

 scope, the pulsation of the heart may be easily 

 seen, and the blood protruded thence may be ob- 

 served in its passage through the whole body. 



T^NARUS. See Tenants. 



TAFFEREL ; the uppermost par* of a ship's 

 stern, being a curved piece of wood, and usually 

 ornamented with some device in sculpture. 



TAFFIA, OB TAFIA, in the French West India 

 islands; that spirituous liquor which in this coun- 

 try is called rum, made of fermented molasses. 

 Taffia is inferior to rum in taste and smell. 



TAGANROC, OR TAGANROKA; a town in 

 the Russian government of Ekaterinoslav, on the 

 sea of Azoph, next to Odessa the most flourishing 

 commercial place in the south of Russia; lat. 47 

 13' N.; Ion. 38 39' E. Its population, in 1823, 

 was 14,000, mostly Greeks, and rapidly increasing. 

 Only ships of moderate burden can come up to the 

 town ; and these must discharge part of their car- 

 goes at Feodosia (see Cajffa) or Kertsch. (q. v.) 

 These three towns have each its peculiar govern- 

 ment. The climate is mild and healthy, and the 

 country around is fertile, producing fruit, corn, 

 grapes, mulberries, &c. Taganroc was founded by 

 Peter I., in 1699. Alexander died here in 1825. 



TAGLIACOZZI. See Rhinoplastic. 



TAGLIAMENTO; a small river of Austrian 

 Italy, emptying into the Adriatic, over which Na- 

 poleon forced a passage, March 16, 1797, in the 

 face of the archduke Charles, at the head of the 

 Austrian forces. 



TAG US (Spanish, Tajo; Portuguese, Tejo), 

 the largest river of Spain, issues from the moun- 

 tains of Albaracim, a little more than 100 miles 

 from the Mediterranean. Pursuing a south-west- 

 erly course, it passes by Aranjuez, Toledo, Tala- 

 vera, and Alcantara, enters Portugal, and passes by 

 Abrantes, Santarem, and Lisbon, and, about seven 

 miles below Lisbon, flows into the Atlantic. 

 Length 430 miles. It receives the tide at a con- 

 siderable distance above Lisbon, but is navigable 

 only as far as Abrantes. It absorbs the waters col- 

 lected between two parallel ranges of mountains. 

 It flows through a mountainous country, and its 

 current is much broken by rocks and cataracts. 



TAHITI. See Society Islands. 



TAI; Chinese for fortress, in many geographical 

 names. See Tchai. 



TAIL. For estates in tail, or entailed estates, 

 see Entail. 



TAKROUR. See Nigritia. 



TALAPOINS ; priests of Fo. (q. v.) 



TALAVERA; a town in Spain, lying on the 

 Tagus, thirty-five miles west of Toledo. A severe 

 battle was fought here July 28 and 29, 1809, 



between the French, under Soult, and the British, 

 under Wellington, in which the former were de- 

 feated. See Spain. 



TALBOT, JOHN, first earl of Shrewsbury, a 

 famous commander, born in 1373, was the son of 

 Sir Richard Talbot. In 1414, he was appointed 

 lord-lieutenant of Ireland, in which post he con- 

 tinued seven years, and performed great services 

 for the crown, by keeping the native Irish in sub- 

 jection. In 1420, he attended Henry V. to Franco, 

 served under the regent, the duke of Bedford, and, 

 by his exploits, rendered his name terrible to the 

 enemy. He commanded the troops sent to the 

 province of Maine, and made himself master of 

 Alencon. He afterwards joined the earl of Salis- 

 bury at the siege of Orleans. (See Joan of Arc.) 

 Talbot was soon after made prisoner. After a cap- 

 tivity of three years, he was exchanged ; on which 

 he repaired to England to raise fresh troops, and, 

 recrossing the sea, took several strong places in 

 succession, and, for his eminent services, was made 

 marshal of France, and, in 144:2, earl of Shrews- 

 bury. The following year, he was appointed one 

 of the ambassadors to treat of peace with Charles 

 VII.; after which he was sent once more to Ire- 

 land, and the earldom of Wexford and Waterford, 

 in that kingdom, was added to his honours. The 

 English affairs in France continuing to decline, he 

 was made lieutenant-general of Aquitaine, in which 

 capacity he took Bordeaux, and received the alle- 

 giance of several other towns. Receiving intelli- 

 gence that the French were besieging Chatillon, he 

 inarched to its relief, and made an attack upon the 

 enemy ; but he was left dead on the field of battle, 

 1453, at the age of eighty; and, the English being 

 wholly routed, their expulsion from France soon 

 followed. 



TALC; a well known and widely diffused species 

 of mineral. It is rarely seen under a distinctly 

 crystalline form. Its primary form is believed to 

 be a right rhombic prism of 120 and 60. It is 

 sometimes seen in minute hexagonal plates, and in 

 a figure resembling the frusta of two cones, applied 

 base to base. Cleavage highly perfect; frac- 

 ture not observable ; lustre pearly upon the faces 

 of crystallization and of cleavage; colour various 

 shades of green, as blackish-green, leek-green, 

 celandine-green, and apple-green ; streak similar to 

 the colour ; semi-transparent to translucent. It 

 exhibits different colours, sometimes in different 

 directions ; sectile in a high degree : thin laminae 

 are easily flexible. It is one of the softest of all 

 solid minerals. The massive kinds present a great 

 variety of structure. The composition varies from 

 imperfect columnar to granular and impalpable. 

 The individuals are sometimes strongly coherent 

 with each other, or flat, so as to give rise to an im- 

 perfect slaty structure. The species talc has been 

 subdivided into a great number of varieties or sub- 

 species, the most of which depend upon colours, 

 composition, and foreign admixtures. The varieties 

 of dark-green (leek-green, and celandine-green) 

 colours, inclining to brown, constitute the chlorite, 

 which has been subdivided into common, slaty, and 

 earthy chlorite. The first of these contains the 

 granular or crystalline varieties ; the second em- 

 braces those in which the individuals can scarcely 

 be traced, and which exhibit a slaty texture ; the 

 earthy chlorite consists of such as are but loosely 

 coherent, or already in a state of loose, scaly parti- 

 cles. Immediately with those varieties of chlorite 

 whose composition is impalpable, the green earth is 



