T A K 



T A 11 



Ccrvora; 5 miles W. of Ccrvcr.i. N. lat. 41° 36'. E. 

 lonjT. 0° 19'. 



TARRIE, in Commerce, a meaiurc at Algiers for corn 

 and dry goods, holding fomcwh.U lefs than 2\ pecks Eng- 

 liih meafure ; 16 tarries make a caffife. 



TARROCK, in Ornithology, the name of a fea-fowl of 

 the larus or gull-kind, and diftinguidied by authors by tlic 

 name of the larus dnereus Bellonii ; and called by Linnncus 

 the Larus trtdaBylus ; which fee. 



It is of the fize of the common pigeon, and is not mucli 

 unhke it in fhape, except that the head is larger and tliickcr. 

 The bill is black, (hort, thick, and ilrong ; the throat, 

 neck, and under fide are white ; near each ear, and under 

 the throat, is a black fpot ; on the hind part of the neck is a 

 black crcfcent, with the horns pointing to the throat. 



Its gre.it diftinAion, however, from all the other birds 

 of the gull-kind, is, that it has no hinder toe, but in lieu of 

 it a fmall protuberance. It is very common on the coalls 

 of Cornwall, and fome other of the Englifli fhores. Ray 

 and Pennant. 



TARRY-TOWN, in Geography, a town of New York, 

 where major Andre, of the Britilh army, was appreliended 

 as a fpy ; 24 miles N. of New York. 



TARSAH, a town of Hindooftan, in Berar ; 18 miles 

 E. of Nagpour. 



TARSI, in the Materia Medica, a name by which fome 

 authors have called the root of the cypenis efculeiitus, or fweet 

 cyperus of the (hops, and by which it is, in fome places, 

 ufually called by the druggifts. See Avellanda and 

 Habhazzis. 



TARSO, in the Glafs Trade, a fort of white ftone found 

 in many rivers in Italy, and other places ; and ufed inftead 

 of fand for the fineft cryftal-glafs, being firft burnt, and cal- 

 cined with the fait of the polverine into frit. Neri's Art 

 ol Glafs, p. 7. 



Neri calls this ftone a kind of white marble ; and adds a 

 general rule, that all ftones that will ftrike fire with fteel, are 

 fit to vitrify ; and thofe that will not ftrike fire with fteel, 

 ivill never vitrify. 



The criteria or determinate characters of foffils were not 

 At all fixed in this author's time, otherwife he had not called 

 this ftone a kind of marble ; fince his own general rule of 

 trying ftones by fteel is, though liable to a few exceptions, a 

 very good one ; and, according to that, this tarfo could be 

 of no affinity to marble ; for marble will not ftrike fire with 

 fteel, nor ever be converted into glafs. 



The tarfo, therefore, of this and other authors, could be 

 notliing of the marble kind ; but is truly a cryftalline mat- 

 ter debafed by an admixture of white earth, and found in 

 form of fmall pebbles, of a whitilh, yellowifti, or pale 

 reddini colour ; and this is common in all the gravel-pits of 

 England, and in the beds of fome of our rivers ; and might 

 be ufed with great advantage by our glafs-makers, if they 

 knew it was fo eafily to be had. 



On comparing thefe ftones of ours, with the cuogoli, or 

 tarfo of the foreign glafs-makers, there is no diff'erence dil- 

 tinguiftiable to the eye, nor will the niceft experiments by the 

 fire, acid menftrua, &c. (hew the leaft diftinftion between 

 them. We are not to wonder, however, tliat the glafs- 

 makers did not hitherto diftinguifh this to be the true cuo- 

 goli, or tarfo, fince the charafters of folTils have been hi- 

 therto fo little afcertained, that the beft and lateft author on 

 thefe fubjetts. Dr. Woodward, fo far miftook the ftrufture 

 of this ftone, as to call it a fparry pebble. It is certain 

 that fpar could never have any thing to do with glafs- 

 making ; but this ftone has no fpar iii its conipofition. 



TARSUS, in Ancient Geography, a town and country of 

 Afia, in Bithynia. Steph. Byz. 



Tarsus, in Geography, a fua-port town of Afiatic Turkey, 

 in the government of Marafch, faidto have been founded b^ 

 Sardanapalus. It was at one time the capital of Cilicia, and 

 traverfed by the river Cydnus. It is mentioned by Dionyfius 

 Periegctcs, Ptolemy, Mela, Pliny, and Strabo, the latter 

 of whom fays, that it was very powerful and populous ; 

 that its inhabitants excelled in the ftudy of philofophy, and 

 of all the fcicnces cultivated among the Greeks ; indeed in 

 this refpetl they furpaffed Athens, Alexandria, and all other 

 academies in the world. It is now inhabited by Turks, 

 Greeks, and Armenians, and is the fee of a Jacobite bifhop 

 and Neftorian archbifhop. It is large, and furrounded with 

 a double wall. St. Paul called himfelf a native of Tarfus ; 

 and here the emperor Julian was buried. It has been faid 

 that in the time of St. Paul, Tarfus was a Roman colony, 

 and that the apoftle was a citizen of Rome by virtue of hia 

 n^itivity at Taifus. (Afts, xxi. 37 — 39. ch. xxii. 3.) But 

 Dr. Lardner has particularly examined this ])oint, and al- 

 leged feveral arguments to prove, that Tarfus, though it 

 was no mean city, as St. Luke fays, was not a municipium, 

 or town of Roman citizens. (See Si. Paul.) Tarfus 

 was taken by the Saracens in 640 ; 25 miles W. of Adana. 

 N. lat. 37° I'. E. long. 34° 37'. 



Tausus, in Anatomy, that part of the foot (confifting of 

 about its pofterior half ) to which the leg is articulated. Its 

 front portion correfponds to the inftep in common language. 



Sea EXTREMITIFS. 



The fame name is applied to the portion of cartilage con- 

 tained in each eyelid. See Eye. 



TARTAGLIA, Nicholas, in Biography, a celebmted 

 mathematician, was born at Brefcia about the beginning of 

 the 1 6th century. Being left deftitute in his childhood by 

 the death of his father, he was no lefs unfortunate at the 

 fiege of Brefcia in 15 12, in receiving feveral wounds, and 

 particularly one which divided his lip, fo that he loft the 

 power of diftinil articulation ; and from this circumftance 

 he got the name of Tartaglia. The defefts of his early- 

 education were amply compenfatod by his genius and dili- 

 gence. Having reilded ten years at Verona, he afterwards, 

 viz. in 1534, became profeffor of the mathematics at Ve- 

 nice ; and here, except during an interval of eighteen monthis 

 at Brefcia, he remained till the time of his death, in 1557. 

 His works are numerous. Befides tranflations of Archi- 

 medes and Euclid, he wrote many original treatifes in ma- 

 thematics, one of the moft important of which, entitled 

 " Quefiti e' inventione diverfi," was publifticd at Venice in 

 1546, and dedicated to Henry VIII. of England. It is 

 comprehended in nine books, and contams anfwers to feve- 

 ral queftions that were propofed to him at different timee 

 concerning mechanics, hydroftatics, &c.; and more pai'ticu- 

 larly worthy of notice is the hiftory of the invention of the 

 rules for folving cubic equations, which he conununicatedto 

 Cardan, under an oath that he wovild keep the fecrct. 

 (See Algebra and Cardan.) Tartaglia's genius was wo 

 lefs confpicuoufly difplayed in other fciences than in algebra. 

 He treats of artillery and gunnery, and alfo of tlie different 

 methods of fortifying towns, befides various mechanical and 

 algebraical queftions. He alfo propofes many queftions with 

 regard to the motion of bodies, and the metiiod of mea- 

 furing diftances, in his " Nuovia Scienzia" and " De' Numeri 

 e Mefure."- To Tartaglia we owe the fu-ft difcovery of the 

 beft angle, ('. e. 45°, as it was then thought, for elevating a 

 piece fo as to throw a ball or fhell to die greatell diilance. 

 He iJfo annoiuiced a method of raifuig reffttls that were 

 Q 2 fimk, 



