Pittsfield
Pittsfield, Pits'feld, Mass., City, County-seat Of Berkshire County, On The New York, New Haven And Hartford And The Bos Ton And Albany Railroads, About 50 Miles North West Of Springfield. It Was Settled In 1743, In Corporated As A Town In 1761 And Chartered As A City In 1891. It ...
Pittston
Pittston, Pits'ton, Pa., City In Luzerne County, Is Situated In The Historical Wyoming Valley, Along The Susquehanna River, Nine Miles Northwest Of Wilkes-barre, The County-seat. Its Railroad Facilities Consist Of The Lehigh Val Ley Main Line, Delaware, Lackawanna And West Ern, Delaware And Hudson, Central Railroad Of New Jersey, Erie ...
Pius
Pius, Oils, The Name Of 10 Popes, As Fol Lows: Pius I, Saint: D. 155. Little More Is Known Of Him Than That He Succeeded Hyginus About 140, And Died About 154. His Day Is 11 July. Pius Ii ( ./en Ea S Sylvius Piccomm In', E-neas Sil'vi-us Lb. Corsig ...
Pizarro
Pizarro, Pi-za'ro (sp. Pe-thar'ro), Fran Cisco, Spanish Adventurer, The Discoverer And Conqueror Of Peru : B. Truxillo, Estremadura, About 1471; D. Lima, Peru, 26 June 1541. The Spirit Of Adventure Which In His Time Pervaded Spain Induced Him To Seek His Fortune In The Newly-found Continent Of America. He Was ...
Placet
Placet, Plese't, Or Placitum, (placitum Regium), The Assent Of The Civil Power To The Promulgation Of Pontifical Ordi Nances Within Its Jurisdiction; Called Also Exe Quator. The Right To Exercise Supervision Over Communications Of The Holy See With Bishops, Clergy And People Of Sovereign States And To Prevent Or Suspend ...
Plague
Plague, History Of The. The Plague, So-called, Has Been A General Name For Centuries For Any Prevailing Sickness That Carried Off Great Numbers Of People. While All The Instan Ces Recorded Below Are Spoken Of As "the Plague" It Is Probable That Several Diseases Have Figured In The Records. See ...
Plaids
Plaids. A Plaid Is A Pattern In Textile Fabrics Consisting Of Bars, Or Stripes, Of Color Crossing Each Other At Right Angles. A Plaid Is A Development Of The Check, Which In Textile Fabrics Is A Pattern Of Squares Of Alternate Colors. Properly Speaking, A Check Should Have No Divisions ...
Plain
Plain (lat. P/anum, Level Ground), A Tract Of Land Which Is Level Or Undulating. That Por Tion Of The Earth's Surface Not Covered By Water May Be Classified Into Twogreat Divisions, This Namely, Mountains And Plains. Is Broad Classi Fication Includes Under Plains All Broad Tracts Whose Surfaces Are Not ...
Plain Song
Plain Song (plain Chant, Cantus Planus, Gregorian Chant), The Most Ancient And Sim Ple Form Of Church Music, Consisting Of Easy Progressions In One Of The Church Modes, Suit Able For Use By Priests Or A Congregation. When Counterpoint Was Introduced, It Was Cus Tomary To Compose Parts Above Or ...
Planchette
Planchette, Plan-chk' (fr. Plifi-shet), A Thin Heart-shaped Piece Of Wood Supported On Two Castors At The Ends Of The Base And On An Ordinary Pencil At The Apex That Was Popular About 1860 To 1880, Before The Ouija Board Supplanted It. If The Finger-tips Be Placed Upon This Device, The ...
Plane
Plane, A Popular Name For Several Trees Of The Genus Plantanus, Which Alone Constitutes The Family Platanacece, Which Includes Six Or Seven Species, All Natives Of The Northern Hemi Sphere. The American Plane, Sycamore, Button Wood, Or Buttonball (plotanus Occidentalis), The Largest Tree Of Eastern North America, Often At Tains ...
Planimeter
Planimeter Is A Machine For Deter Mining The Area Of Any Plane Figure Drawn To Scale Such As Maps, Sections, Diagrams, Indi Cator Diagrams. There Are Two Kinds, And (trolling.'" The Polar Planimeter Invented By Amsler In 1850 Consists Of Two Principal Parts, Viz., The Tracer Arm Carrying The Tracing ...
Plankton
Plankton, A Term Given By Haeckel To The Life, Both Animal And Plant, Which Occurs Floating At The Top Of Lakes And Seas, In Contrast To The Forms Of The Shores Or Bottoms. The Vegetable Element In The Plankton Is Largely Diatoms While The Animals Show A Much Greater Variety. ...
Plantagenet
Plantagenet, Plan-tre'-net, A Family Whose Various Branches Occupied The Throne Of England From The Reign Of Henry Ii (1154) Until The Accession (1485) Of Henry Vii, The Representative In The Female Line Of The Lancas Trian Branch Of It Who, By His Marriage (1486) With Elizabeth Of York, Daughter Of ...
Plantain
Plantain, Adam's Fig, Or Cooking Banana, A Tropical Herb Of The Family Mu Sacecr, Considered As A Distinct Species (musa Paradisiaca) By Some Botanists And As A Variety Of The Common Banana By Others. From India, Where It Is Native, It Has Been Taken By Man To All Tropical Countries, ...
Plants
Plants, Medicinal, Plants Of Which Some Part Is Used In Medicine Or From Which Some Preparation Is Extracted For Similar Purpose. To Persons Unacquainted With The Nature Of The Various Wild Plants Which Surround Them In Farm And Outdoor Life, It Comes As A Great Sur Prise To Find That ...
Plants
Plants, Breeding Of. Fundamental Prin Ciples.— Only The Most Limited View Of Plant Breeding Can Be Given In An Ordinary Thesis. It Would Be Necessary To Extend The Subject Through Many Volumes To Give Even A General View Of What Has Already Been Demonstrated, And That Which The Clear Light ...
Plants_2
Plants, Migration Of. Plants Need A Constant Change Of Situation Because They May Exhaust The Amount Of The Special Food Of Each Species In The Soil; Or Impart To That Soil Injuri Ous Elements ; Or For The Sake Of Increased Vigor. They Accomplish The Needed Change By Many Methods. ...
Plants_3
Plants, Recapitulation In. The Term, Recapitulation, In Plants And Also In Animals, Is Used To Designate Features Of The Embryogeny And Early Development Of The Individual. Uontogeny Recapitulates Is The Usual Classroom Term, Meaning That The Individual, In Its Own Development, Repeats The History Of The Race. The Frog Is ...
Plants_4
Plants, Regeneration In. The Subject Of Regeneration Has Received Much More Atten Tion From Zoologists Than From Botanists. It Has Long Been Known That If The Leg Or Tail Of A Salamander Be Cut Off, A New Leg Or Tail Will Be Formed, Or °regenerated.° If An Earthworm Be Cut ...
Plants_5
Plants, Sex In, Origin, Evolution And Determination Of. For The Origin Of Sex And The Early Stages In Its Evolution, One Must Turn To The Algae And Fungi, Since All Plants From The Liverworts To The Sunflowers And Orchids Have Already Reached That Degree Of Development Which Is Characterized By ...
Plasmodium
Plasmodium, A Genus Of Sporozoan Protozoa That Contains The Malarial Organisms. The Genus Belongs To The Order Hemosporidia Which Contains Highly Specialized Parasites Adapted For Fife In The Blood Stream. There Are Included Three Parasites Of Human Malaria And Also A Species Which Produces Avian Malaria. The Young Plasmodium (see ...
Plastering
Plastering Is The Art Of Covering The Surface Of A Wall Or Ceiling With Lime Or Plaster In Order To Give It A Smooth And Uniform Sur Face, And Generally In Interiors To Fit It For Painting Or Decoration. Technically The Term Plastering Is Used Only When The Plaster Is ...
Plastid
Plastid. A Plastid May Be Defined As A Differentiated Portion Of The Plant Protoplasm Which Is Not Formed De Novo, But Arises From The Division Of A Pre-existing Plastid. Plastids Are Denser Than The Surrounding Protoplasm And The Interior Is Denser Than The Surface. There Is No Surrounding Membrane. The ...
Plate Armor
Plate Armor. In General It May Be Said That At First All Plate Armor Used Was For Reinforcing Mail Or Other Armor. The Full Panoply (cap-a-pied) Was In Use By The Middle Of The 15th Century. The Early Period Produced The Finest Pieces; The 16th Century Showed Com Mencement Of ...
Plate Glass Insurance
Plate Glass Insurance. After The Repeal Of The Tax On Glass Windows In England In 1845 The Glass Industry Took A Great Upward Start, And In 1852 The Plate Glass Insurance Company Was Founded In London. The Business Spread Rapidly; Branches Were Established In New York And Australia, And The ...
Plate And Plated Ware
Plate And Plated Ware. The Terms Gold Plate And Silver Plate Are Properly Applied To Articles Or Utensils Of Approximately Solid Metal, For Use In The Household Or In Re Ligious Ceremonials Or Purely For Decorative Purposes, As A Prize Cup. Articles Of This Char Acter Have From The Remotest ...
Platen Hallermund
Platen-hallermund, Platen Ier-mint, August, Count Von, German Dram Atist And Poet, Distinguished For His Opposition To German Romanticism: B. Ausbach, Bavaria, 24 Oct. 1796; D. Syracuse, Sicily, 5 Dec. 1835. He Received His Education In The Military Acad Emy At Munich; Became A Lieutenant In The Bavarian Army And Served ...
Platinum
Platinum. The First Published Notice Of Platinum Is Contained In The His Tonca Del Viage A La America Meridional,' Is Sued In Madrid In 1748, Wherein Don Antonio De Ulloa, One Of The Members Of A French Ex Pedition For The Measurement Of An Arc Of The Meridian, Records His ...