Taborites
a section of Calixtines, who received their name from a great encampment organized by them on a mountain near Prague in 1419, for the purpose of receiving the Communion in both kinds. On the same spot they founded the city of Tabor, and, assembling an insurrectionary force, marched on Prague under the lead of Ziska (July 30, 1419), and committed great atrocities under the pretence of avenging insults offered to the Calixtine custom of communicating under both kinds. On the death of King Wenceslaus (Aug. 16, 1419) they began to destroy churches and monasteries, to persecute the clergy, and to appropriate church property on the ground that Christ was shortly to appear and establish His personal reign among them. They were eventually conquered and dispersed in 1453 by George Podiebrada (afterward King of Bohemia).
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Tabriz
or TABREEZ (the ancient Tauris), a city of Persia, capital of the province of Azerbijan, on the Aigi, 36 miles above its entrance into Lake Urumia. It lies at the inner extremity of an amphitheater, about 4,000 feet above sea-level, with hills on three sides, and an extensive plain on the fourth. It is surrounded with a wall of sun-dried brick, with bastions, and entered by 7 or 8 gates. There are numerous mosques, bazaars, baths, and caravanserais. The citadel, originally a mosque, and 600 years old, was converted by Abbas Mirza into an arsenal. The blue mosque dates from the 15th century. Tabriz has manufactures of silks, cottons, carpets, leather and leather goods, etc. It is the great emporium for the trade of Persia on the W., and has an extensive commerce. Exports and imports annually over $100,000,000. In the World War it was occupied first by the Turks and then by the Russians. It has frequently suffered from earthquakes. Pop. about 200,000.
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Tabulata
in zoölogy, a group of Madreporaria Perforata. Tabulate corals, having the visceral chamber divided into stories by tabulæ, and with the septa rudimentary or absent. The group is of doubtful stability, some recent genera, as Millepora, Heliopora, etc., having been removed from it, and various fossil genera Favosites, Chætetes, Syringopora, Halysites, etc., being placed in it provisionally. Families, Favositidæ, Chætetidæ, Thecida, and Halysitidæ. From the Silurian onward.
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Tacahout
or TACOUT, the name of small, irregularly-rounded, tuberculate galls produced by a species of cynips on the twigs of a tamarix (probably T. articulata) in Algeria and Morocco. They contain a large quantity of gallic acid, and are used in photographic preparations. The above-named species of tamarix, as also T. gallica and T. dioica, supply a similar gall in India-the mahi of the Punjab and ad sakun of Sindh; used as a mordant in dyeing and in tannin
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Tacamahac
the name given to a bitter balsamic resin, the produce of several kinds of trees belonging to Mexico and the West Indies, the East Indies, South America, and North America. The balsam poplar or tacamahac is one of these.
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Tacca
a tropical genus of monocotyledonous herbs, some of whose species have a large tuberous root; e. g., the T. pinnatifida, a plant of the shores of the South Sea Islands. Its tubers, which resemble new potatoes, contain a large proportion of starch, and this being separated by rasping and maceration, is largely used as an article of food. It bears the name of South Sea, Tahiti, and Fiji arrowroot, and Otaheiti salep, and is also esteemed as a medicinal ag agent in dysentery and diarrhea.
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Tachinide
a family of Brachelytra, now merged in Staphylinidæ; small, excessively agile beetles of convex tapering form, with pentamerous tarsi. They frequent flowers.
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Tacitus
tas'i-tus (about 54-117 A. D.), a Roman historian and orator. His principal works are his Agricola, Germania, and Annals. The first is the life of his father-in-law, an eminent Roman general; the second is an account of the German tribes along the Rhine; the third is a history of his own time. His style is marked by brevity and a brilliant choice of words. He does not deal with cause and effect, nor does he attempt to give both sides. He is intensely partisan. In that respect, at least, there is a resemblance between Tacitus and Macaulay who admired the Roman very much. In a use of happily chosen words some have called attention to a similarity between Tacitus' Annals and Carlyle's Frederick the Great. See Latin
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Tacitus
MARCUS CLAUDIUS, a Roman emperor; born in Terni, Umbria, about A. D. 200; was elected on the death of Aurelian, A. D. 275, when in his 75th year. He was descended from the great year historian, and had been twice consul; but he reigned only six months, in which short space he displayed singular wisdom, vigor, and moderation. He was assassinated at Tyana, in Cappadocia, in 276.
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Tack
in nautical language: (1) The lower forward corner of a fore-and-aft sail. (2) The lower, weather corner of a course, or lower square sail. (3) The rope by which the forward lower corner of a course or staysail is drawn forward and confined. (4) A rope by which the lower corner of a studding-sail is drawn outward and held to the boom. (5) Hence, the course of a ship in regard to the position of her sails; as, the starboard tack or port tack; the former when she is close-hauled with the wind on her starboard, the latter when close-hauled with the wind on her port side. To tack is to change the course of a ship by shifting the tacks and position of the sails from one side to the other; to alter the course of a ship through the shifting of the tacks and sails. Tacking is an operation by which, when a ship is proceeding in a course making any acute angle with the direction of the wind on one of her bows, her head is turned toward the wind, so that she may sail in a course making nearly the same angle on the other bow. This is effected by means of the rudder and sails. A small sharppointed nail.
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Tackle
See RIGGING. Talc occurs in primitive rocks, as granite and serpentine. It somewhat resembles mica, but the latter is both flexible and elastic, while talc is elastic but not flexible. Its composition is silex 61, magnesia 30.5, potash 2.75, oxide of iron 2.5, water 0.5. It is used for crucibles, the manufacture of crayons, porcelain, etc. It is a soft white, transparent or translucent mineral, and is commonly termed steatite when massive. See SOAPSTONE. Tamping is the process of filling the hole above the charge when blasting rock, so that the force may be expended laterally, and thus rend the rock asunder.
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