PENTLAND HILLS

land of Scotland from the Orkney Islands. It is 14 miles long and 64 miles broad at the narrowest. The Pentland Skerries, 5 miles north-east of Duncansbay Head, consist of two islets and of several contiguous rocks. The navigation of the Pentland Firth is more dangerous than that of any other portion of the Scottish seas, a current from west to east flowing through it with a velocity of from 3 to 10 miles an hour, and causing numerous eddies and whirlpools.

Pentland Hills, in the Lowlands of Scotland, extend 16 miles south-westward from within the burgh boundary of Edinburgh, through the counties of Midlothian, Peebles, and Lanark, have a breadth of 4 to 6 miles, and attain a maximum height in Carnethy (1890 feet) and Scald Law (1898). In the battle of the Pentlands or Rullion Green, 2 miles NNW. of Penicuik, Sir Thomas Dalyell routed 900 westland Covenanters, 28th November 1666. Pentonville, a populous district in London in the borough of Finsbury, the first buildings in which were erected in 1773 on fields belonging to Henry Penton. The name has since been extended to part of Islington, in which in 1840–42 Pentonville Prison was built on the radiating principle, so as to admit of thorough inspection.

Pentremites, fossil Crinoids common in the Carboniferous System (q.v.).

Pentstemon, an American genus of Scrophulariaceae, consisting of herbaceous or sub-shrubby species mostly yielding flowers of great beauty. Few of them are hardy enough to endure the winter climate of Britain, where consequently they are propagated annually by cuttings, which are protected in frames during winter and planted in the flower-garden in March or April. The numerous garden varieties of P. gentianoides, P. Hartwegii, and others are among the most popular of garden flowers. But there are many species even more beautiful than these, which are occasionally to be met in collections of rare plants. Of such may be mentioned P. azureus, P. secundiAorus, P. Murrayanus, P. miniatus. P. lævigatus, found from Florida to Pennsylvania, deserves to be planted by beekeepers wherever it would grow. Penumbra. See ECLIPSES.

Penza, a large rural town of Russia, 330 miles by rail SE. of Moscow, has a cathedral (17th cen tury), a botanical garden, and manufactures of paper, soap, &c. ; pop. 80,000.

a

Penzance, a town of Cornwall, the most westerly in England, at the head of Mount's Bay, 10 miles ENE. of Land's End. Standing on finely-curved shore surrounded by rocky eminences, it is famous for its mild, equable climate, though the annual rainfall is heavy (43 inches). Its fine esplanade commands splendid land and sea views; and its chief buildings, constructed largely of granite, include a market-hall (1837) with a statue before it of Sir Humphry Davy (q.v.), an infirmary (1874), a post-office (1883), and public rooms (1867), Italian Renaissance in style, and comprising a guildhall, museum, library, &c. The harbour has two piers (1772-1845) half a mile long, forming a tidal basin of 21 acres; and docks. Mackerel and pilchard fisheries, market-gardening and flowergrowing are important industries. Much in favour as a watering place, Penzance has regular sailings to the Scilly Islands. Burned by Spaniards in 1595, and sacked by Fairfax in 1646, it was incorporated in 1614, and from 1663 to 1838 was one of the five 'coinage towns.' Pop. 12,000.

Peonage, a system of agricultural servitude common in Mexico (q.v.) and some other parts of Spanish America. The peón in debt to his employer was by the Spanish colonial system bound to labour for his employer till the debt was paid.

Peonage in New Mexico was abolished by act of congress in 1867. Formally abolished elsewhere, it survives in effect in remote regions.

Peony (Paonia) a genus of Ranunculacea, with large showy flowers composed of five leafy herbaceous sepals, 5 to 10 petals, numerous stamens, and 2 to 5 carpels, each with numerous round, black, shining seeds. The leaves are compound, the leaflets variously and irregularly divided. The fibres of the root are often thickened into tubers. The species are large herbaceous perennials, or rarely half-shrubby, natives of Europe, Asia, and the north-west of America. None of them are truly indigenous in Britain, although one (P. corallina) is undoubtedly naturalised on Steep Holme Island in the Severn. On account of the beauty of their flowers, some of them are much cultivated in gardens, particularly the Common Peony (P. officinalis), a native of the mountain-woods of the south of Europe, with carmine or bloodred flowers. A variety with double flowers is common. The White Peony (P. albiflora) is another favourite species, of which there are now many beautiful varieties which have originated in French and Belgian gardens. It is a native of the central parts of Asia. Its flowers are fragrant. The Tree Peony, Chinese Peony, or Moutan Peony (P. Moutan), is a half-shubby plant, a native of China and Japan. In favourable circumstances it attains a very large size, and a height of 12 feet or more. It has long been cultivated in China and Japan; and is now also a favourite ornamental plant in the south of Europe, but is too tender to endure the climate of Britain, except in the most favoured parts; it is, however, often to be met with in conservatories, being of a very distinct and ornamental character when in flower. It flowers in spring. The varieties in cultivation are numerous. It is propagated by cuttings and also by grafting. The roots of most of the peonies have a nauseous smell when fresh, and those of the Common Peony were in high repute among the ancients as an antispasmodic-hence the name Peony, from Paion, a Greek name of Apollo, the god of medicine; but their medicinal properties are now utterly disregarded.

Peoria, capital of Peoria county, Illinois, on the west bank of the Illinois River, at the outlet of Peoria Lake, 160 miles SW. of Chicago. It is an important railway centre, and is connected by steam navigation with the Mississippi and by canal with Lake Michigan. It contains a Roman Catholic cathedral, colleges, and hospitals. The streets are wide, and there are many parks, the largest Jefferson (35 acres). Mines of bituminous coal supply the city's numerous and varied manufactories. Much grain is shipped. In the lower city are large stockyards. Pop. 76,000.

Peperino, a variety of tuff, met with in the Alban Hills near Rome. It is dirty grayish brown to white, earthy, and granular, and contains crystals of mica, leucite, augite, &c., with fragments of limestone, basalt, leucite-basalt, &c.

Peperomia. See PIPERACEÆ.

Pepin, or PIPPIN, surnamed the Short,' king of the Franks, was the son of Charles Martel and the father of Charlemagne, and founder of the Frankish dynasty of the Carlovingians (q.v.). Charles Martel shortly before he died divided his kingdom between his two sons, Carloman and Pepin, Carloman taking the German part, and Pepin the Neustrian or territories in northern France; still they were only rulers (dukes) in the name of the Merovingian king. Carloman, after six years of office or rule, was persuaded by the English monk Boniface to enter (747) the monastery of Monte Cassino; his duchy passed over to Pepin.

St

PEPPERCORN RENT

several handbooks of popular science. But he is best known as the improver and exhibitor of 'Pepper's Ghost,' in its earliest form the invention of Henry Dircks (q.v.), a device for associating on the same stage living persons and phantoms to act together. The phantom is produced by a large sheet of unsilvered glass on the stage, practically invisible to the spectators, which reflects to them, along with a visible actor or actors, the appearance of another actor on an understage, himself invisible. Pepper travelled with this show in America and Australia, and became public analyst in Brisbane, Queensland. He died in 1900.

Peppercorn Rent, a nominal rent of one peppercorn a year, to be paid on demand; an acknowledgment of tenancy when lands or houses are let virtually free of rent.

Peppermint. See MINT. Pepper-pot, a celebrated West Indian dish, of which Casareep (q.v.) is a principal ingredient; and along with it flesh or dried fish, vegetables, chiefly the unripe pods of the ochro (a Hibiscus, q.v.), and chillies (see CAPSICUM).

Pepper-root ( Cardamine diphylla), a perennial herbaceous plant, of the Cruciferæ, a native of North America, with pairs of ternate leaves, and racemes of white flowers. The root, of pungent mustard-like taste, is used as a condiment.

Pepsin is the characteristic digestive enzyme of the gastric juice of all vertebrate animals (see DIGESTION), and a similar enzyme is found in flesheating plants (such as the sundew, &c. ). It is only active in the presence of acid, and requires such a concentration of acid as rapidly inhibits the action of all other enzymes. Commercial pepsin is made by digesting the mucus membrane of the stomach of the pig with dilute hydrochloric acid for twentyfour hours, filtering and evaporating the clear filtrate in a vacuum at a low temperature, the residue being obtained in the form of a powder or of brown scales. It is largely used in medicine as a remedy for digestive troubles.

We

Peptones. See DIGESTION. Pepys, SAMUEL, the celebrated diarist, son of John and Margaret Pepys, was born on 23d February 1632-33. He was a member of a junior branch of an old and widely-spread family in the eastern counties, but there was little property in the possession of this branch, and Samuel's father for a time followed the business of a tailor in the city of London. It was long doubted whether he was born at Brampton, near Huntingdon, where there was a small property belonging to his father's family, or in London. know, however, that he was christened in London, that he went to school at Huntingdon before entering St Paul's School, and that he remained at the latter until he was seventeen years of age. On 5th March 1650-51 he first put on his gown as a scholar at Magdalene College, Cambridge. On the 1st December 1655, very soon after leaving college, he was married to Elizabeth St Michel, a beautiful but portionless girl of fifteen. Sir Edward Montagu (afterwards Earl of Sandwich), whose mother was a Pepys, gave a helping hand to the imprudent couple, and allowed them to live in his house. As Samnel does not appear to have owed much to his father, it seems probable that Montagn acted as a patron at a still earlier period of his life. At all events his true start was entirely due to this patron, for whom Pepys always expressed the most unbounded attachment. Pepys's real life begins for us on the 1st January 1659-60, when the Diary was commenced. His appointment to the clerkship of the Acts of the Navy in 1660 was distinctly a job, for he knew nothing of the work of the navy when he undertook the office, but it was a job that amply

justified itself, for his intelligence and industry were so great that he soon became master of the work of his office, and as Clerk of the Acts, and subsequently as Secretary to the Admiralty, he was one of the most distinguished officials in naval affairs that England has ever possessed. At the Revolution his career was closed, but until the end of his life he was still looked upon as the Nestor of navy affairs, to be consulted upon matters of particular importance, and his name is still held in honour at the Admiralty. It is not, however, as an official that the fame of Pepys still lives, but as the writer of a Diary which is unique in the literature of the world. This work has thrown the most unexpected light upon the history and manners of his day, while at the same time it presents a most remarkable psychological study. Never before had man written down his inmost feelings with so little disguise. Hence Pepys's character has suffered which had but little real influence upon his actions while his fame has spread. Passing thoughts were set down by him, and they have given a wrong impression of the man to numerous readers.

Pepys's life was prosperous, for he made money and held high offices. He was twice Master of the. Trinity House, first in 1676 and a second time in 1685, Master of the Clothworkers Company in 1677, and President of the Royal Society (1684-86). But he was not without his troubles. At the period of the supposed Popish Plot in 1679 he was com mitted to the Tower, and in 1690 he was placed in Gatehouse at Westminster for a few days; and at his death the crown was indebted to him to the extent of £28,000, a sum which was never paid. The Diary ends on 31st May 1669, and we must ever regret that it was not continued to a later period. The shorthand MS. was deciphered by the Rev. J. Smith, and first published in 1825 under the editorship of Lord Braybrooke, but never in its entirety until 1893-99. Besides the Diary, Pepys wrote Memoirs relating to the State of the Royal Navy, published in 1690. Pepys was essentially a collector, and he never saw a curious or uncommon object without wishing to possess it. His library, bequeathed to Magdalene College, Cambridge, still remains in the exact condition in which he left it. In the room containing that library and among his books and papers we the better understand that method, diligence, and general intelligence which is exhibited in the Diary, and which, united with the power of carrying out his views, helped to consolidate the British navy.

See Memoirs of Samuel Pepys, Esq., Comprising his Diary from 1659 to 1669, edited by Lord Braybrooke (2 vols. 1825); Diary and Correspondence, by Rev. Mynors Bright (6 vols. 1875); Life, Journal, and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, by Rev. John Smith (2 vols. 1841); Samuel Pepys and the World he lived in (1880) and the edition of the Diary (9 vols. and supplement, 1893-99), by H. B. Wheatley; and Private Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers of Samuel Pepys: 16791703, by J. R. Tanner (2 vols. 1926), consisting almost wholly of unpublished matter; besides several works by Dr J. R. Tanner.

Pequots, or PEQUODS, a tribe of American Indians, a branch of the Mohicans, were warlike and powerful in the country round the Thames River when Connecticut was first settled.

Pera, a suburb of Constantinople (q.v.). Peradeniya, 3 miles out of Kandy in Ceylon, is the seat of a celebrated Botanic Garden and laboratory.

Peræa (Gr. Peraia, the country beyond '), a term applied to many districts beyond a river or sea; most frequently to great part of Palestine (q.v.) beyond the Jordan. See KERAK.

Perak, one of the Federated Malay States, on the west side of the Malay Peninsula, under the pro

tection of Britain since 1874. Estimated area, 7800 sq. m. The interior ranges up to 8000 feet. The soil is fertile, and for the most part covered with luxuriant vegetation. Elephants, leopards, huge snakes, and deer swarm in the inland forests. The soil produces rubber, rice, sugar, tobacco, coffee, tea, vanilla, and spices. But the principal production of the state is tin. Lead also exists in great quantity. Pop., mostly Malays and Chinese, increased from 55,880 in 1879 to 600,000 in 1921. The capital is Taiping, a tin-mining town. There are several railways. The British have made many miles of good roads. The state is now in a highly prosperous condition.

Perambulation. See BOUNDS (BEATING THE). Perameles. See BANDICOOT.

Perception, in philosophical usage, may mean internal perception, the apprehension of any modification of consciousness; but it usually refers to external perception, the recognition of an external object by means of the senses-something more than sensation, and including an element of judgment or the comparing power.

Two great disputes connect themselves with perception, both raised into prominence by Berkeley. The first is the origin of our judgments of the distances and real magnitudes of visible bodies; Berkeley maintaining, in opposition to the common opinion on this subject, that these were learned by experience, and not known by the mere act of vision (see VISION). The second question relates to the grounds we have for asserting the existence of an external and material world. See BERKELEY, KANT, REID; also PSYCHOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY.

Perceval, SPENCER, English minister, was the second son of the second Earl of Egmont, and was born in London, November 1, 1762. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1786. He soon obtained a reputation as a diligent lawyer, and in 1796 he entered parliament for Northampton, and became a strong supporter of Pitt. In the Addington administration he was made Solicitor-general in 1801 and Attorney general in 1802, and in the Portland administra tion of 1807 he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was even then the real head of the government, being much trusted by George III. for his steadfast opposition to the Catholic claims. On the death of the Duke of Portland in 1809 Perceval became premier also, and retained office till his tragic death, 11th May 1812, when he was shot dead entering the lobby of the House of Commons, about five in the afternoon, by a Liverpool broker named Bellingham, whose losses had turned his head. Perceval's death was rather a private than a public calamity. He was a man of spotless integrity in his public and private character, but, though an effective parliamentary debater, his abilities were only moderate and his views were narrow. See Treherne, Spencer Perceval (1909). .

Perch (Perca), a genus of spiny-finned or acanthopterous fishes, well represented by the Freshwater Perch (P. fluviatilis). The members of the large family (Percida) to which the perch belongs are carnivorous fishes, frequenting the fresh waters and coasts of temperate and tropical regions. The body is somewhat compressed; the spinous dorsal fin is well developed; the ventral fins are thoracic in position; the teeth are simple and conical; there are no barbels. These characters are possessed by many perch-like fishes, some of which are discussed in separate articles-e. g. the Bass (Labrax); the Perch (Lates) of the Nile, Ganges, &c. ; the Pikeperch (Lucioperca); the Sea-perch (Serranus); the Murray Cod and Hapuku (Oligorus); the Growler (Grystes), &c. Of American Percidæ

PERCIVAL

the glass-eye' or 'yellow pike' (Stizostedion vitreum) is largest and most important, while the dwarf-perches or darters (Microperca, Percina, &c.) are among the minutest fishes, Microperca punctu lata measuring only an inch and a half.

The fresh-water perch is widely distributed in lakes, ponds, and rivers in Europe, North Asia, and North America, and is common in many parts of Britain. It is of a greenish-brown colour above and golden yellow on the under parts, with six or

seven indistinct dark bands on the back.

In

length it measures about 18 inches, and its height is about a third of this. It sometimes weighs from three to five pounds, and a prize of nine pounds has been recorded. Among its characteristics may be noted the small villiform backward-turned teeth, their presence on the palatines and vomer, their absence from the tongue, the two dorsal fins, of which the first has thirteen or fourteen spines, and the small scales on the body. The perch loves still waters, and thrives well in ponds, at the cost, however, of smaller fishes. It also feeds on insects, worms, &c. It can endure removal from the water for a considerable time. The eggs are laid in spring, and are attached in long viscid strings to water-weeds. The number of eggs in one spawn may exceed a million. As an edible fish the perch has a good reputation, eating best with lemon-juice and cayenne-pepper, but the American variety is less esteemed. Of species distinct from P. fluviatilis little is known.-The so-called Climbing Perch (q.v.) is separately treated.

Perch. See ROD.

Percival, JAMES GATES, an American poet, was born at Kensington, Connecticut, 15th September 1795, graduated at Yale in 1815, at the head of his class, and afterwards studied botany and medicine. But his heart was not in herbs and physic, and although he practised-or rather advertised his willingness to practise-both in Kensington and in Charleston, S.C., very few professional calls dragged him from his favourite studies. His poems Prometheus and Clio appeared at Charleston in 1822. Two years later he filled for a few months the chair of Chemistry at West Point; but he found the duties heavy and irksome, and took himself to Boston, and then to New Haven. There the third part of Clio was published (1827). Percival afterwards divided his attention between his verses and geology, and as he grew older he gave more and more of his time to the new love, the visible results being Reports on the Geology of Connecticut (1842) and of Wisconsin (1855). These are valuable but very dry, and in delicious contrast to his poems, which flow freely and with volume, and on whose fluent, half-careless lines their author's learning is borne as easily as trees on a river in flood. His Dream of a Day appeared in 1843, and occasional lyrics for a long time after. He was appointed geologist of Wisconsin in 1854, and died there at Hazel Green, on

PERCUSSION

2d May 1856. His collected works were published in 1859, his Life and Letters, by J. H. Ward, in 1866. Percussion, in Medicine, is the method of eliciting sounds by tapping or gently striking the surface of the body; its object being to determine by the nature of the sound the comparative density of the subjacent parts. This means of diagnosis was first employed by Auenbrugger in the middle of the 18th century, and it was afterwards adopted by Corvisart in the investigation of heart diseases; but its value was not fully appreciated till Laennec made the diseases of the chest his peculiar study; and since his time its application and various uses have been extended by the labours of Piorry, Skoda, Hughes Bennett, and other physicians.

Percussion is chiefly employed in the diagnosis of diseases of the lungs, heart, and abdominal organs. It may be direct (or, as some writers term it, immediate), or it may be mediate. In the former case, the part to be examined is struck with the ends of the first three fingers set close together on the same level, or with a small hammer tipped with india-rubber; while in the latter, which is now almost universally adopted, a flat body is placed upon the chest, or other part to be examined, and is then struck by the fingers or hammer. The flat intervening body is termed a Pleximeter (from the Gr. plēxis, a blow,' and inetron, a measure'). The instrument usually sold as a pleximeter is a flat oval piece of ivory, but the left index or middle finger of the physician, with its flat surface fitted accurately to the part to be examined, acts equally well. The force of the stroke on the pleximeter-whether the stroke be made with the fingers or the hammer-must vary according as it is desired to elicit the sound from a superficial or a deep-seated part. The surface to be percussed should be exposed, or, at most, only covered with one layer of clothing; and the blow should fall perpendicularly on the pleximeter. When percussion is made over a considerable cavity filled with air-as the stomach or intestines -a hollow, drum-like, or (as it is usually termed by medical writers) a tympanitic sound is produced. When any part of the surface of the chest is struck below which there is a considerable depth of healthy lung-tissue, consisting of small cells filled with air, a clear sound, less loud and hollow than the tympanitic sound, and termed the pulmonary percussion note, depending partly on the vibrations of air in the lung-cells, and partly on the vibrations of the walls of the chest, is evolved. When the subjacent substance is solid (as the heart, liver, or spleen) or fluid (as when there is effusion into a closed sac) the sound is dull in proportion to the density and want of elasticity of the part struck. Important information is also gained by attending to the varying degree of resistance experienced by the fingers during perenssion over different parts of the surface. The first thing that must be acquired in order to make percussion useful in the diagnosis of disease is an accurate knowledge of the sounds elicited from the different parts in their normal condition. When, for example, the healthy pulmonary percussion note is known, increased resonance of the walls of the chest will indicate a dilatation of the air-cells (or Pulmonary Emphysema), while various degrees of dullness will afford evidence of such morbid changes as deposit of tuberculous material, the widespread consolidation of pneumonia, or the presence of effusion in pleurisy. This is further shown in the articles PERICARDIUM and PLEURISY. Diagnosis by Auscultation (q.v.), directly and by means of the Stethoscope (q.v.), is often used in connection with percussion, and in recent years the conditions discovered by percussion are confirmed and further elucidated by X-ray examination.

Its

on

Percy, a noble northern family, famous in the history of England for five hundred years. founder, William de Percy, came with the Conqueror to England, and was rewarded with lands in Hampshire, Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire-among the last being Topcliffe and Spofforth, long the chief seats of the house. The male descendants became extinct with the death of the third baron, and the representation of the house devolved upon his daughter Agnes, who married Josceline of Louvain, brother-in-law of King Henry I., the condition that he assumed the name of Percy. Their youngest son, Richard de Percy, then head of the family, was one of the chief barons who extorted Magna Carta from King John, and the ninth feudal lord, Henry de Percy, gave much aid to Edward I. in the subjugation of Scotland, and was made governor of Galloway. The latter was driven out of Turnberry Castle by Robert Bruce, and was rewarded by Edward II. with the empty honour of Bruce's forfeited earldom of Carrick, and the governorship of the castles of Bamborough and Scarborough. În 1309 he obtained by purchase from Bishop Antony Bek the barony of Alnwick, the chief seat of the family ever since. His son, Henry de Percy, defeated and captured King David II. of Scotland at the battle of Neville's Cross (1346); his grandson fought at Crécy; his great-grandson, the fourth Lord Percy of Alnwick, was marshal of England at the coronation of Richard II., and was created the same day Earl of Northumberland. Henry, eldest son of the last, was the famous Hotspur whom the dead Douglas defeated at Otterburn (1388), and who himself fell at Shrewsbury (1403) fighting against King Henry IV. His brother, Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, was executed immediately after the battle. Their father, who had turned against Richard II., and helped Henry of Lancaster to the throne, was dissatisfied with Henry's gratitude, and with his sons plotted the insurrection which ended in Shrewsbury fight. Later he joined Archbishop Scroope's plot, and fell at Bramham Moor (1408), when his honours were forfeited on attainder, but restored in 1414 to his grandson Henry, the second earl, from which day the Lancastrian loyalty of the family never wavered. Henry became High Constable of England, and fell in the first battle of St Albans (1455). His son Henry, the third earl, fell at Towton (1461), and it was his brother, Sir Ralph Percy, who comforted himself as he lay bleeding to death on Hedgley Moor (1464), that he had 'saved the bird in his bosom.' The title and estates were now given to Lord Montagu, a brother of Warwick, the king-maker, but in 1469 Henry, the son of the third earl, subscribed an oath of allegiance to Edward IV., and was restored. He was murdered at his Yorkshire house of Cocklodge, in 1489, in an outburst of popular fury against an extortionate subsidy of Henry VII. The sixth earl, Henry-Algernon, in youth had been the lover of Anne Boleyn, and was forced against his will to marry a daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury. He died childless in 1537, and, as his brother Sir Thomas Percy had been attainted and executed for his share in the Pilgrimage of Grace, the title and honours were forfeited, and the title of Duke of Northumberland was conferred by Edward VI. upon John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, who in turn