his countrymen of their liberty, usurped the sovereignty, and committed the most shocking crimes. He committed incest with his mother, and kicked to death his wife Melissa. Yet he passed for one of the greatest politicians of his time; and Heraclides tells us that he forbad voluptuousness; that he imposed no taxes; caused all pimps to be drowned; and established a senate. He died A. A. C. 585.

PERIANTHIUM, from Teρt, round, and avoog, the flower, the flower cup properly so called, the most common species of calyx, placed immediately under the flower, which is contained in it as in a cup.

PERIAPATAM, PRIYA PATANA, OF THE CHOSEN CITY, a town and domain in the Rajah's territories, Mysore, towards the borders of the Coorg country, thirty-one miles west by south from Seringapatam. This domain formerly belonged to a polygar family, named Nandirax. About 160 years ago the chief was attacked by Chica Deva Raya, the Curtur of the Mysore; and, finding himself unable to resist so powerful an enemy, he killed his wives and children, and then rushed into the midst of his enemies, where he died also. On the approach of general Abercrombie's army, in 1790, Tippoo ordered both the town and fort to be destroyed. The fortifications are now a mere ruin. The surrounding country is beautiful, but at the time it was conquered by the British did not contain one-fourth the number of inhabitants necessary for its cultivation. The natives declare they have never seen ice or snow on the top even of the highest hills. There is at Bettadapoor a hill about 4000 feet above the level of the sea. Periapatam, in time of Peace, is an entrepot of trade between the Coorg and Mysore sovereignties. Sandal wood grows in the skirts of the forests. In twelve years it attains, in a strong soil, the most suitable size for being cut. The Periapatam district produces about 2000 cwt., and the whole sandal wood of India is now in the possession of the East India Company and the rajah of Mysore. The woods are much infested, and the crops injured, by wild elephants, which are more numerous on the borders of the Coorg country than either at Chittagong or in Pegu. Among the trees is abundance also of teak.

To prepare the sandal wood, the billets are here buried in dry ground for two months, during which time the white ants eat up all the outer wood without touching the heart, which is the sandal. The deeper the color the higher the perfume, but the root sandal is the best. The large billets are sent to China, and the middle sized used. The chops, fragments, and smaller assortments, are best for the Arabian market, and from them the sandal oil is distilled.

PER'IAPT, n. s. Gr. EpiаTTW. Amulet; charm worn as a preservative against disease or mischief.

The Regent conquers, and the Frenchmen fly: Now help, ye charming spells and periapts.

Shakspeare. PERICARDIUM, n. s. Fr. pericarde; Gr. Tepi and Kapdia, the heart. The membrane that contains the heart.

The pericardium is a thin membrane of a conic figure, that resembles a purse, and contains the heart in its cavity: its basis is pierced in five places, for the passage of the vessels which enter and come out of the heart: the use of the pericardium is to contain a small quantity of clear water, which is separated by small glands in it, that the surface of the heart may not grow dry by its continual motion. Quincy.

PERICAR PIUM, n. s. Fr. pericarpe; Gr. περι and καρπος, fruit. In botany, a pellicle or of a plant, or that part of a fruit that envelopes thin membrane encompassing the fruit or grain the seed.

Besides this use of the pulp or pericarpium for the guard of the seed, it serves also for the sustenance Ray.

of animals.

PERICHORUS, in antiquity, a name given by the Greeks to those games or combats that were not consecrated to any of the gods.

PERICLES was one of the greatest men that ever flourished in Greece. He was very brave; and so eloquent that he gained almost as great an authority under the republican government of Athens as if he had been a monarch. His fondness for women was one of his chief vices. He married the celebrated Aspasia, and died the third year of the Peloponnesian war. See ATTICA. Fr. pericrane; from

PERICRA'NIUM, n. s. Ep and cranium, the skull.

The pericranium is the membrane that covers the skull: it is a very thin and nervous membrane of an exquisite sense, such as covers immediately not only the cranium, but all the bones of the body; except the teeth; for which reason it is also called the peri

osteum.

Quincy.

PERIGE UM. point in the heavens wherein a planet is said to be in its nearest distance possible from the earth.

By the proportion of its motion it was at the creation, at the beginning of Aries, and the perigeum or nearest point in Libra.

Browne.

PERIGORD STONE, an ore of manganese, of a dark gray color, like the basaltes or trapp. It may be scraped with a knife, but is extremely difficult to be broken. It is found of no regular figure, is very compact, heavy, and as black as charcoal. Its appearance is glittering and striated, like the ore of antimony; its particles being disposed in the form of needles, crossing one another without any agglutination, insomuch that some are loose as iron filings when stuck to a loadstone; resembling the scoria from a blacksmith's furnace. By calcination it becomes harder, and of a reddish brown color, but is not magnetic. It has a considerable specific gravity, does not melt per se, but with borax runs

into an amethyst-colored glass. It is scarcely affected by nitrous acid without the addition of sugar. It seems also to contain some argil and iron. It is met with in the ci-devant provinces of Gascony and Dauphiny in France, and in some parts of England. It is employed by the French potters and enamellers in the glassy varnish of their earthen wares.

PERIGRAPHE, a word used to express a careless or inaccurate delineation of any thing.

PERIGRAPHE, in anatomy, is used by Vesalius to express the white lines or impressions that appear on the musculus rectus of the abdomen.

PERIGUEUX, VESUNNA, an ancient and pretty city, the chief place of the department of Dordogne, France, having an inferior court of justice, under the royal court of Bourdeaux, a chamber of commerce, and an agricultural society. It is a bishopric, the principal place of the twentieth military division, and a post town, with 8500 inhabitants. This city stands in a fine valley, on the right bank of the isle, near the confluence of that river with the Vezère. It is encompassed with freestone walls tolerably well built, and contains several remains of ancient monuments, which show its splendor in the time of the Romans. There are some very pleasant walks round the town, and the neighbourhood abounds in excellent game and delicious truffles; Perigueux pies are also highly esteemed, and form a considerable branch of the commerce of the place. The manufactures consist of handkerchiefs, caps, fine liqueurs, &c., and the trade is chiefly in the patés, or pies, and truffles, just mentioned, together with wood, iron, grocery, brandy, game, poultry, and cattle. Here is a public library of 11,000 volumes; the prefect's house of modern construction; a botanical garden; the cathedral; the tower of Vesunna, a circular edifice, 100 feet high, without either door or window (thought to have been anciently the temple of Venus); several remains of antiquity, as an aqueduct, public baths, and several arcades of a large amphitheatre. This is the native place of Boetius and La Grange-Chancelle, celebrated authors. It is seventy-two miles S. S. W. of Limoges, ninety-six E. N. E. of Bourdeaux, fiftyseven south-east of Angoulême, and 364 S. S.W. of Paris; in long. 1° 37′ W., lat. 45° 11′ N.

PERIHELIUM, n. s. Fr. perihelie; Gr. περί and ηλιος, the sun. That point of a planet's orbit wherein it is nearest the sun.

Sir Isaac Newton has made it probable that the comet which appeared in 1608, by approaching to the sun in its perihelium, acquired such a degree of heat as to be 50,000 years a cooling.

Cheyne's Philosophical Principles. PER'IL, n. s. Fr. peril; Ital. periPERILOUS, adj. gleo; Lat. periculum. PERILOUSLY, adv. Danger; jeopardy; PERILOUSNESS, n. s. risk; danger denounced; denunciation: perilous is, hazardous; dangerous; and Shakspeare uses 'parlous' more than once for shrewd or witty, as Dr. Johnson thinks because of the opinion that children eminently forward do not live:' but query, Is it not a corruption of peerless? perilously and perilousness follow these senses.

Dear Pirocles, be liberal unto me of those things

In idleness or peril: both are bad. PERIMETER, n. s. Fr. perimetre; Gr. Ep and μETPEW. The compass or sum of all the sides which bound a figure.

By compressing the glasses still more, the diameter of this ring would increase, and the breadth of its orbit or perimeter decrease, until another new colour emerged in the centre of the last.

Newton.

PERINEUM, or PERINEUM, in anatomy, the space between the anus and the parts of generation, divided into two equal lateral divisions by a very distinct line, which is longer in males than females.

PERINSKIOLD (John), a learned Swedish writer, born at Stregnesia in Sudermania, in 1654. He was made professor at Upsal, secretary antiquary of the king of Sweden, and counsellor of the chancery of antiquities. He died in 1720. His principal works are, 1. A History of the Kings of Norway. 2. A History of the Kings of the North. 3. An edition of John Messenius on the Kings of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, in 14 vols, folio, &c. PE'RIOD, n. s. & v. a.` Fr. periode; Gr. PERIODIC, adj. περιοδος. A circuit ; PERIOD'ICAL, time during which PERIODICALLY, adv. any thing is performed that is continued in series; course of events; a given number of years; length of time; a complete sentence; particularly the end or conclusion of a series; the point or state at which a thing terminates: as a verb to put an end to: periodic and periodical mean circular;

Periods are beautiful, when they are not too long: for so they have their strength too as in a pike or javelin. Ben Jonson. Beauty's empires, like to greater states, Have certain periods set, and hidden fates.

Suckling. Light-conserving stones must be set in the sun before they retain light, and the light will appear greater or lesser, until they come to their utmost period. Digby.

Is this the confidence you gave me?
Lean on it safely, not a period
Shall be unsaid for me.

Milton.

PERIOD, in astronomy. See ASTRONOMY. PERIOD, in chronology, denotes a revolution of a certain number of years, or a series of years, whereby, in different nations, and on different occasions, time is measured; such are the following:

1. PERIOD, CALIPPIC, a system of seventysix years.

2. PERIOD, DIONYSIAN, or Victorian period, a system of 532 lunæ-solar and Julian years; which being elapsed, the characters of the moon fall again upon the same day and feria, and revolve in the same order, according to the opinion of the ancients. This period is otherwise called the great paschal cycle, because the Christian church first used it to find the true time of the pascha or Easter. The sum of these years arise by multiplying together the cycles of the sun and moon.

3. PERIOD, HIPPARCHUS'S, is a series of 304 solar years, returning in a constant round, and restoring the new and full moons to the same day of the solar year, according to the sentiment of Hipparchus. This period arises by multiplying the Calippic period by four. Hipparchus assumed the quantity of the solar year to be 365 d. 5 h. 55 m. 12s.; and hence concluded that in 104 years Calippus's period would err a whole day. He therefore multiplied the period by four, and from the product cast away an entire day. But even this does not restore the new and full moons to the same day throughout the whole period; but they are sometimes anticipated 1 d. 8 h. 23 m. 29 s.

4. PERIOD, JULIAN. See JULIAN.

PERIOD, in grammar, denotes a small compass of discourse, containing a perfect sentence, and distinguished at the end by a point, or full stop, thus (.); and in members or divisions marked by commas, colons (:), &c. Rhetoricians consider period, which treats of the structure of sentences, as one of the four parts of composition. The periods allowed in oratory are three a period of two members, called by the Greeks dicolos, and by the Latins bimembris; a period of three members, tricols, trimembris; and a period of four, quadrimembris, tetracolos. See PUNCTUATION.

PERIOD, in medicine, is applied in certain diseases which have intervals and returns, to denote an entire course or circle of such disease; or its progress from any state through all the rest till it return to the same again. Galen describes period as a time composed of an intention and remission; whence it is usually divided into two parts, the paroxysm, or exacerbation, and remission. In intermitting fevers, the periods are usually stated and regular; in other diseases, as the epilepsy, gout, &c., they are vague or irregular.

PERIOEČI, TEρtoirot, in geography, such inhabitants of the earth as have the same latitudes, but opposite longitudes, or live under the same parallel and the same meridian, but in different semicircles of that meridian, or in opposite points of the parallel. These have the same common seasons throughout the year, and the same phenomena of the heavenly bodies; but, when it is noon-day with the one, it is midnight with the

Fr. perioste; Gr. Ept

other, there being twelve hours in an east and west direction. These are found on the globe by the hour index, or by turning the globe half round, that is, 180° either way. PERIOSTEUM, n. s. and ostov, a bone. All the bones are covered with a very sensible membrane, called the periosteum. Cheyne. PERIPATETICS, philosophers, followers of Aristotle, and maintainers of the peripatetic philosophy; called also Aristotelians. They were called Peripatetics, from TEOTαTE, I walk; be cause they disputed walking in the Lyceum. A reformed system of the Peripatetic philosophy was first introduced into the schools in the University of Paris, whence it soon spread throughout Europe: and has subsisted in some universities to this day, under the name of school philosophy. The foundation of this is Aristotle's doctrine, often misunderstood, but oftener misapplied whence the retainers may be denominated Reformed Peripatetics. Out of these have sprung, at various times, several branches; the chief are the Thomists, Scotists, and Nominalists. The Peripatetic system, after having prevailed with great and extensive dominion for many centuries, began rapidly to decline towards the close of the seventeenth, when the disciples of Ramus attacked it on the one hand, and it had still more formidable adversaries to encounter in Descartes, Gassendi, and Newton. See PHILO

ficiently hardy for this climate. The periploca is a fine climbing plant, that will wind itself with its ligneous branches about whatever tree, hedge, pale, or pole is near it; and will arise, by the assistance of such support, to the height of about thirty feet; and where no tree or support is at hand to wind about, it will knit or entangle itself together in a most complicated manner. The stalks of the older branches, which are most woody, are covered with a dark brown bark, whilst the younger shoots are more mottled with the different colors of brown and gray, and the ends of the youngest shoots are often of a light green. The stalks are round, and the bark is smooth. The leaves are the greatest ornament to this plant; for they are tolerably large, and of a good shining green color on their upper surface, and cause a variety by exhibiting their under surface of a hoary cast. Their figure is oblong, or rather more inclined to the shape of a spear, as their ends are pointed, and they stand opposite by pairs on short foot-stalks. Their flowers have a star-like appearance; for, though they are composed of one petal only, yet the rim is divided into segments, which expand in such a manner as to form that figure. Their inside is hairy, as is also the nectarium which surrounds the petal. Four or five of the flowers grow together, forming a kind of umbel. They are of a chocolate color, are small, and are in blow in July and August, and sometimes in September. In the country where this genus grows naturally they are succeeded by a long taper pod, with compressed seeds having down to their tops. The propagation of this climber is very easy; for if the cuttings are planted in a light moist soil, in the autumn or in the spring, they will readily strike root. Three joints at least should be allowed to each cutting; they should be the bottom of the preceding summer's shoot; and two of the joints should be planted deeply in the soil. Another, and a never-failing method, is by layers; for if they are laid down in the ground, or a little soil only loosely thrown over the young preceding summer's shoots, they will strike root at the joints, and be good plants for removing the winter following.

PERIPNEU'MONY, n. s. Į Gr. περι and PERIPNEUMONIA, N.S. πνεύμων, the lungs; Fr. peripneumonie. Inflammation of the lungs.

Lungs oft imbibing phlegmatick and melancholick humours are now and then deprehended schirrous, by dissipation of the subtiler parts, and lapidification of the grosser that may be left indurated, through the gross reliques of peripneumonia or inflammation of the lungs. Harvey.

A peripneumony is the last fatal symptom of every disease; for nobody dies without a stagnation of the blood in the lungs, which is the total extinction of breath. Arbuthnot.

PERIPNEUMONY, a disease attended with an acute fever, and a difficulty of breathing. See MEDICINE.

PERIRRIANTERIUM, a vessel of stone or brass, which was filled with holy water, and with which all those were sprinkled who were admitted by the ancients to their sacrifices. Beyond this vessel no profane person was allowed to

pass. It was used both by Greeks and Romans, and has been evidently borrowed by the church of Rome. The Hebrews also had a vessel for purification.

PERISCII, in geography, the inhabitants of either frigid zone, between the polar circles and the poles, where the sun, when in the summer signs, moves only round about them, without setting; and consequently their shadows in the same day turn to all the points of the horizon. PER'İSH, v. n. & v. a. Fr. perir; Port. PERISHABLE, adj. and Span. perecer; PERISHABLENESS, î. s. Lat. To die; pereo. be destroyed; come to nothing; be lost; be in a state of constant decay; be eternally lost as an active verb (obsolete) to destroy; cause to decay perishable and perishableness follow the senses of the verb neuter, which generally takes for or with before a cause. and by before an in

strument.

Suppose an island separate from all commerce but having nothing because of its commonness and perish ableness fit to supply the place of money: what reason could any have to enlarge possessions beyond the use of his family?

Id.

To these purposes nothing can so much contribute as medals of undoubted authority not perishable by time, nor confined to any certain place. Addison.

He was so reserved, that he would impart his secrets to nobody; whereupon this closeness did a little perish his understanding. Collier.

Human nature could not sustain the reflection of having all its schemes and expectations to determine with this frail and perishable composition of flesh and blood. Rogers.

So when the lust of tyrant power succeeds, Some Athens perishes, or some Tully bleeds. Pope. Familiar now with grief your ears refrain, And in the public woe forget your own, You weep not for a perished lord alone.

Id.

Thrice has he seen the perishable kind Of men decay. Id. Odyssey.

It is a prince's greatest present felicity to reign in their subjects' hearts; but these are too perishable to preserve their memories, which can only be done by the pens of faithful historians. Swift. PERISTALTIC, adj: Gr. περιτελλω, το contract; Fr. peristaltique. Contractile in the particular manner described below.

Peristaltick motion is that vermicular motion of the

guts, which is made by the contraction of the spiral wards and voided. fibres, whereby the excrements are pressed downQuincy.

The peristaltick motion of the guts, and the continual expression of the fluids, will not suffer the least matter to be applied to one point the least instant. Arbuthnot.

PERISYSTOLE, n.s.

In medicine, the pause or interval betwixt the Gr. περι and κυκολη. two motions of the heart or pulse; namely, that of the systole or contraction of the heart, and that of diastole or dilatation.

lar range of pillars. PERISTYLE, n. s. Fr. peristile. A circu

The Villa Gordiana had a peristyle of two hundred pillars. Arbuthnot on Coins.

PERITONE'UM, n. s. Fr. peritoine; Gr. περιτοναιον. A membrane that lies immediately under the muscles of the lower belly, and which encloses all the bowels there contained.

Wounds penetrating into the belly are such as reach no farther inward than to the peritoneum.

Wiseman.

My great father-in-law, renowned Warwick, Cried aloud-What scourge for perjury Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence? And so he vanished. Id. Richard III. Let us consider, that rash and vain swearing is very apt often to bring the practiser of it into that most horrible sin of perjury.

Barrow.