TARTARUS-TARTARY. 



527 



tion of a small quantity of fine clay, which attracts 

 the colouring matter. By evaporation, it is ob- 

 tained crystallized, forming the purified tartar, 

 crystals, or cream of tartar of the shops. From 

 tin* salt the tartaric acid is obtained, by adding 

 to a solution of the super-tartrate of potash in 

 boiling water, carbonate of lime in powder, as long 

 as any effervescence is excited : the tartrate of lime 

 which is formed and precipitated, being well washed, 

 is decomposed by adding sulphuric acid equal in 

 weight to the chalk that had been employed, pre- 

 viously diluted with half its weight of water, 

 digesting them with a moderate heat : the sulphuric 

 acid combines with the lime, and forms the sul- 

 phate, which, being of sparing solubility, is separated, 

 while the tartaric acid is dissolved by the water, 

 and, by evaporation, is obtained in a crystallized 

 form. The crystals are tables or prisms, white, 

 and nearly transparent. Their taste is sour, and 

 they deeply redden vegetable blues. They are 

 very soluble in water, and form a solution so con- 

 centrated as to have an oily appearance. By the 

 action of very strong nitric acid, tartaric acid is 

 converted into oxalic acid. The crystals are com- 

 posed of acid 66 and water 9 in 75 parts. The 

 acid appears to be composed of 



Hydrogen, 



Carbon, 



Oxygen, 



4-48 

 35-82 

 5970 



Tartaric acid is decomposed by heat, affording, 

 among other products, a white sublimate, which is 

 a peculiar acid, named, from its origin, pyro-tartaric 

 acid, which has been regarded by some as acetic 

 acid disguised by the addition of a little oily matter. 

 Tartaric acid combines with the alkalies and earths, 

 forming salts named tartrates. The acid appears to 

 have a peculiar tendency to enter into combination 

 with more than one base, and to form ternary salts. 

 It has also a tendency to form salts with an excess 

 of acid, in uniting with those bases, with which it 

 forms soluble compounds. Tartrate of potash is 

 usually formed by neutralizing the excess of acid 

 in the bi-tartrate, by the addition of carbonate of 

 potash. From its affinity to water, it is not easily 

 crystallized, but, by a slow evaporation, affords 

 four-sided prisms. It is deliquescent in a humid 

 atmosphere, and very soluble in water, whence it: 

 name, also, of soluble tartar. Tartrate of soda is 

 soluble and crystallizable. A triple salt, the tar- 

 trate of potash and soda, formerly named Rochelle 

 salt, is formed by neutralizing the excess of acid in 

 the super-tartrate of potash, by adding carbonate ol 

 soda. It crystallizes in rhomboidal prisms, soluble 

 in five parts of water. Tartaric acid acts on some 

 of the metals, and it may be combined with the 

 oxides of all of them by double affinity. By em- 

 ploying the bi-tartrate of potash to act on these 

 oxides, ternary compounds are obtained. The 

 most important of these is that formed with tne 

 oxide of antimony. It has long been known, in 

 medical practice, under the name of tartar emetic 

 as one of the mildest and most manageable of th 

 antimonial preparations. It is prepared by boiling 

 three parts of the brown oxide (obtained by defla- 

 grating sulphuret of antimony with nitre) with fou 

 parts of bi-tartrate of potash in 32 parts of wate 

 for half an hour : the solution, when strained, i 

 set aside to crystallize. 



TARTARUS, in the earliest mythology of th 

 Greeks; the kingdom of the dead, the inferna 



egions in general, or the realm of the subterranean 

 upiter Pluto. (See Cemetery.') At a later 

 eriod, it was limited to that part of the infernal 

 egions in which the Titans and the damned were 

 onfined. It was represented as a dark and gloomy 

 egion, surrounded by a triple wall, and encircled 

 >y the fiery river Phlegethon, Cocytus, the stream 

 f lamentation, and Acheron. We find a descrip- 

 ion of Tartarus in Hesiod, one of the earliest 

 reek poets ; and Virgil (^En. vi, 577) paints the 

 Horrors of the place. Here lay the monstrous 

 Pityos (who attempted to violate Latona), stretch- 

 ng over nine acres, while two vultures incessantly 

 jnawed his liver ; here Sisyphus rolled a ponderous 

 tone ; Ixion revolved on his wheel ; Tantalus was 

 ormented with inextinguishable hunger and thirst, 

 and the Danaids toiled in vain to fill their sieves 

 rom the waters of the Lethe. See, also, the 

 article Hieroglyphics, division, Egyptian Mytho- 

 ogy. 



TARTARY, TARTARS. The old geogra- 

 )hers divided the country of the Tartars into 

 uropean or Little Tartary, and Asiatic or Great 

 Tartary. The former comprised those countries 

 round the Black sea which were inhabited by the 

 STogay Tartars, and the Budshiac Tartars, or Bes- 

 sarabians, and a part of the country between the 

 Dnieper and the Dniester. But since these dis- 

 ;ricts have been annexed to Russia (1784), the 

 name has gone out of use ; and they constitute the 

 ^overnments of Taurida (q. v.), Cherson (q. v.) 

 and Ekaterinoslav, which contain several commer- 

 cial cities, and, besides Tartars, have many Russian, 

 Greek, German, and Jewish colonists among their 

 population. Asiatic Tartary, called, from its ex- 

 tent, Great Tartary, borders on the Asiatic pro- 

 vinces of Russia, on Persia, Thibet, and the Chinese 

 empire. The northern part (Dschagatai, or Zagatai, 

 or Independent Tartary) contains extensive steppes, 

 and is partly occupied by nomadic tribes, which are 

 governed by separate khans (princes), and differ 

 considerably in their character and manners: some 

 of these khans are under the protection of Russia. 

 The southern part is called Great Bucharia, in 

 which, among other commercial cities, is Samar- 

 cand, once the residence of Timour. Little 

 Bucharia is subject to China. (See Bucharia.) 

 The whole of Central Asia, to the west of Dscha- 

 gatai, is often improperly styled Chinese Tartary. 

 This error arises from the confusion of the Mongol 

 and Mantchoo tribes, who roam over these regions, 

 with the Tartars, with whom they have no affinity. 

 (See Mongols, Calmucs, and Mandshures.) The 

 proper Tartars, or, more correctly, Tatars, ai e divided 

 into numerous branches, and, under different names, 

 occupy a large extent of territory in Europe and 

 Asia. Their true name is Turks, or Turcomanns, that 

 of Tatar being, according to some, a Chinese term 

 for all the nomadic tribes of Central Asia, and, ac- 

 cording to others, the name of a Mongol tribe. 

 Once the terror of their neighbours, and not without 

 civilization, some traces and monuments of which 

 still exist, they are now, for the most part, subject 

 to foreign masters. Some tribes continue to 

 preserve their independence, occupying regions too 

 barren to offer any temptation to conquerors, or too 

 remote to be easily accessible ; but these circum- 

 stances, which have protected them from the ant's 

 of foreign conquerors, have also prevented them 

 from being much visited by travellers; and little is 

 known of them and of their country. The Tartar 

 population in Russia amounts to about three mil- 



