Homer says he puts off that air of grandeur which so properly belongs to his character, and debases himself into a droll. Broome. As danger did approach, her spirits rose, And putting on the king dismayed her foes. Halifax. PUTAMINEÆ, from putamen, a shell, the name of the twenty-fifth order of Linnæus's fragments of a natural method; consisting of a few genera of plants allied in habit, whose fleshy seed-vessel or fruit is frequently covered with a hard woody shell. See BOTANY. PUTATIVE, adj. Fr. putatif, from Lat. puto. Supposed; reputed. If a wife commits adultery, she shall lose her dower, though she be only a putative, and not a true Ayliffe. and real wife. PUTEANUS (Erycius), LL. D., or Erick Vandeput, a learned professor, born at Venlo, in Guelderland, in 1574. He was educated at Dort, and studied rhetoric and philosophy at Cologne, in the Jesuits' college He next studied law at Louvain, and in 1597 went to Padua and Milan; at which last city he was chosen professor of eloHe was made historiographer quence in 1601. to the king of Spain; and in 1603 a patrician of Rome. In 1504 he became LL. D. at Milan, and married. In 1606 he was called to Louvain, appointed successor to Justus Lipsius, and governor of the castle. He published many works, amounting to 5 vols. folio; and died in 1646. PUTEOLI, an ancient city of Italy, in Naples, and in the province of Campania, so called either from its wells, there being many hot and cold springs thereabouts; or from its stench, putor, caused by sulphureous exhalations. (Livy, Varro, Strabo.) In a very remote age the Cumeans made it their arsenal and dockyard; and to this naval establishment gave the sublime appellation of Dicearchea, or just power. The Romans, sensible of the utility of this port, took great pains to improve its natural advantages. Nothing remains of their works but a line of piers, vulgarly called the bridge of Caligula. The ruins of its ancient edifices are widely spread along the adjacent hills and shores. phitheatre still exists entire in most of its parts, and a temple of Serapis. In the neighbourhood are many relics of ancient grandeur; particularly the Campanian way, paved with lava, and lined on each side with venerable towers, the repositories of the dead, which are richly adorned with stucco in the inside. An am PUTI CARAJA, in botany, a genus of Indian plants: CAL. five cleft: COR. has five equal petals, the pericarp a thorny legumen and two seeds, the leaves oval and pinnated, and the stem armed: SEEDS very bitter, and tonic. PUTID, adj. Let. patidus. worthless. Mean; low; He that follows nature is never out of his way; whereas all imitation is putid and servile. L'Estrange. PUT-IN-BAY,, a bay in the south-west part of Lake Erie, formed by the island of Edward, ten miles W. N. W. of Sandusky Bay. It is open to the north, and well-sheltered. The entrance is not more than a quarter of a mile wide, having on the western side a narrow rocky point, about forty feet high; where it joint the island the isthmus is so low as to be generally overflowed. From the point a block-house and strong battery defend the harbour, which has excellent anchorage. PUTIVL, a town of the government of Kursk, It is the chief European Russia, on the Sem. place of a district or circle; has a number of churches, a monastery, and 9000 inhabitants, who carry on a traffic chiefly in woollens and sink. Here is also a manufactory of vitriol, and some brick-works. It is 120 miles W. S. W. of Kursk. PUT'LOG, n. s. extract. From put and log. See the Putlogs are pieces of timber or short poles, about seven foot long, [put] to bear the boards they stand on to work, and to lay bricks and mortar upon. Moxon's Mechanical Exercises. PUTNAM, a town of Washington county, New York, twenty-eight miles north of Sandy It lies on lake ChamHill. Population 499. Nidorous ructus depend on the foetid spirituosity of the ferment, and the putridness of the meat. Floyer on the Humours. Tis such a light as putrefaction breeds With palsy shaken about him, blasted lie; sound state for a much longer time than they could be without the previous exhalation of their juices. Putrefaction is generally allowed to be a kind of fermentation, or rather to be the last stage of that process; which, beginning with the vinous fermentation, goes on through the acetous, to the stage of putridity, where it stops. In several respects, however, it differs so much from these processes, that it seems in some degree doubtful whether it can with propriety be called a fermentation or not. Both these vinous and acetous fermentations are attended with a considerable degree of heat: but in the putrefaction of animal matters especially, the heat is for the most part so small that we cannot be certain whether there is any degree of it or not produced by the process. A most remarkable difference is that the vinous fermentation produces ardent spirits, the acetous vinegar; but putrefaction produces nothing but earth, and some effluvia, which, though most disagreeable, and even poisonous to the human body, yet, being imbibed by the earth and vegetable creation, give life to a new race of beings. It is commonly supposed, indeed, that volatile alkali is a production of the putrefactive process; but this is disputed. The only thing in which the putrefactive fermentation agrees with the other kinds is, that in all the three there is an extrication of carbonic acid. One reason why an animal body does not putrify while alive is its ventilation, as we may call it, by respiration; and another is the continual accession of new particles, less disposed to putrify than itself, by the food and drink which is constantly taken in. But, if either of these ways of preventing the commencement of this process be omitted, then putrefaction will take place as well in a living as in a dead body. Bodies will not putrify in vacuo, because there the atmosphere has not access to impart its elastic principle. If the body is very dry, putrefaction cannot take place, because the texture is too firm to be decomposed by the weak action of the elastic principle. Putrefaction may also be prevented by the addition of certain substances. Thus various kinds of salts and acids harden the texture of animal substances, and thus are successfully used as antiseptics. The same thing may be said of ardent spirits; while oils and gums of various kinds prove antiseptic by a total exclusion of air, which is necessary in some degree for carrying on the process of putrefaction. Many vegetables, by the astringent qualities they possess, harden the texture of animal substances, and thus prove powerfully antiseptic; while, on the other hand, fixed alkaline salts, quicklime, and caustic volatile alkali, though they prevent putrefaction, yet they do it by dissolving the substances in such a manner that putrefaction could do no more had it exerted its utmost force. Sugar, though neither acid nor alkaline, is yet one of the most effectual antiseptics known : and this seems to be owing to its great tendency to run into the vinous fermentation, which is totally inconsistent with that of putrefaction; and this tendency is so great that it can scarcely be counteracted by the tendency of animal substances to putrefy in any circumstances whatever. In putrefaction the animal matter generally passes off in the gaseous form; and an inconsiderable quantity of earthy matter remains when the process is finished. The precise nature of these combinations has not, from the extreme offensiveness of the process, been accurately observed; and they probably vary according to the nature of the animal matter, and the circumstances under which it is decomposed. Ammonia, formed by the union of the azote and hydrogen of the animal matter, is always disengaged in considerable quantity. Phosphureted Hydrogen is likewise produced; and this gas, even when obtained pure, has the odor exclusively termed putrid. Sulphureted hydrogen forms another part of the vapors disengaged from putrefying substances. Carbureted hydrogen and carbonic acid are likewise separated. And, lastly, it is probable that not only these binary combinations, but compound gases, consisting of three or more of these elements with oxygen, are formed and discharged. As this process must necessarily be carried on at the surface of the earth, its products are diffused through the atmosphere, dissolved by water, and absorbed by the soil. They furnish the principal nutritious matter for the support of vegetables, and are again prepared for the nourishment of animals. PUTTINGSTONE, n. s. Putting and stone. That is, a stone thrown or placed by the hands. In some parts of Scotland, stones are laid at the gates of great houses, which they call putting stones, for trials of strength. Pope. PUT'TOCK, n. s. Lat. buteo. A buzzard. Who finds the partridge in the puttock's nest, But may imagine how the bird was dead? Shakspeare. The next are those which are called birds of prey, as the eagle, hawk, puttock, and cormorant. Peacham. PUTTY, n. s. Fr. potée; Sp. potea. A kind of powder on which glass is ground; a cement of glass. An object glass of a fourteen foot telescope, made by an artificer at London, I once mended considerably, by grinding it on pitch with putty, and leaning on it very easily in the grinding, lest the putty should scratch it. Newton. PUTTY is compounded of whiting and lintseed oil, beaten together to the consistence of a thick dough. It is used by glaziers for fastening in the squares of glass in sash windows, and by painters for stopping up the crevices and clefts in timber, &c. PUTUMAYO, or Ica, a river of South America, which has its rise in the district of Ibarra, Quito, about eighty miles to the south of Popayan. Its course is S.S. E. about 300 miles, when, being joined by a branch of the Caquet, it takes the name of Ica, and, after a south-east course of about 200 miles, joins the Amazons, in long. 50° 40′ W., lat. 3° 30′ S. It washes down considerable quantities of gold. is a settlement of this name on the river. PUY (Peter de), a learned French writer, born in Paris in 1583. He wrote twelve treatises, chiefly on political subjects; such as, 1. The Origin of the Salique Law: 2. The Liberties of the Gallican Church: 3. The History of the There Templars, &c. He died in 1652, aged seventytwo. PUY, REVESSIO, a city and post town of high antiquity, and the principal place of the department of the Upper Loire, France, containing 13,000 inhabitants, and having an inferior court under the royal court of Riom; a board of manufactures, an agricultural society, and a communal college. It stands in a fine situation, in the centre of three broad and very fertile valleys, each watered by a fiver, and crossed by three great roads. Rising in the form of an amphitheatre on the south side of mount Anis, overtopped by the vertical rock of Corneil, and surrounded with volcanic rocks, richly cultivated fields, pretty country houses, gardens, shrubberies, fruit trees, and verdant meadows, this town presents a most picturesque appearance. It is generally well built, the houses being constructed of lava, which is very abundant in the neighbourhood; the streets, which are paved with the same material, are wide and airy, but very steep and impassable for carriages. Near the top of the hill appears the cathedral, the front of which is a mixture of ancient and Gothic architecture, presenting four rows of columns and porticoes with large arches, the middle one, which is most magnificent, being the entrance to the church. The ascent is by an immense flight of 118 steps, covered with a lofty vaulted roof, above which rises full half of the building. The steeple is of a pyramidal form, and very lofty; built entirely of volcanic stone. In the lower part of the town is a very steep basaltic rock, which resembles a tower, and on the summit of it stands the church of St. Michael. This rock, which is 300 feet high, has the form of a cone; and the steeple of the church, pointed and extremely slender, rises like an obelisk over all. The ascent to this building is by 260 steps cut in the rock. Here are considerable manufactories of lace, thread, black lace and blond, common stuffs, woollen counterpanes, and skin bottles for wine, nail factories, a foundry, tan-yards, fullingmills, and dye-houses. The trade consists in corn, lace, cloth, serge, iron goods, delf-ware, mules, horses, and cattle. The public library, containing 5000 volumes, the museum of pictures, statues, and antiquities, are also worth notice; as well as the tomb of Duguesclin, the promenade of Breuil, and the assembly room: an ancient building, in good preservation, once consecrated to Diana. About a mile and a half from Puy is the village of Espailly, remarkable for the ruins of its ancient castle, and some curious groups of basaltic prisms, called the organs of Espailly. This city is fifty-eight miles south of Montbrison, ninety south-west of Lyons, sixty-three north-west of Privas, eighty-seven south-east of Clermont, and 375 south of Paris. PUY-DE-DOME, a department of France, is formed out of the former province of Lower Auvergne, and derives its name from a high mountain which overtops the whole chain of the Dômes Mountains that extend over this country. The principal place of this prefecture is Clermont-Ferrand, and it consists of five arrondissements, Clermont-Ferrand, Ambert, Issoire, Riom, and Thiers, having a total population of 553,410 souls, on an area of 3295 square miles, and yielding a revenue of 22,428,000 francs. These are subdivided into fifty cantons and 438 communes. This forms part of the nineteenth military division, having a royal court at Riom, and a bishopric at Clermont, and consists of four electoral arrondissements, which send seven members to the chamber of deputies. The department is bounded by that of the Allier on the north, on the east by that of the Loire, on the south by those of the Upper Loire and Cantal, and on the west by those of the Creuse and the Corrège. This country presents, through almost its whole extent, mountains of remarkable elevation, among which are found rich hollows, beautiful valleys, and plains of the greatest fertility. The mountains are nearly all volcanic, and the whole chain extends, from south to north, over a space of fifteen or eighteen miles, in which are at least forty Puys, with their ancient craters, ravines, torrents of lava, prisms, and columns of basalt. Above these extends the smiling Limagne, the fertile soil of which is covered with orchards and vineyards, fruitful fields richly cultivated, and fine meadows intersected by a great number of rivulets and canals. The plains are filled with chestnut trees, the green foliage of which gives an indescribable charm to this delightful country. A number of artificial lakes, serving the purpose of watering the lands, are formed by a raised causeway resting on the sides of two neighbouring hills, which interrupts the course of the streams, and thus, swelling them insensibly, causes them to overflow and fertilize the pastures; where feed vast herds of horses and cattle of every description. In the chain or rather group of the Domes and the Dores, which cover a great portion of the department, are every where discoverable the effects of former volcanic eruptions; and the currents of lava yield most of the petrifactions dug for the building of houses: indeed whole towns are constructed of it. The volcanic cinders are very favorable to vegetation. The soil is most cultivated with horses and mules, and yields more than a supply for its population. It contains 54,250 hectares of forest (chiefly oak and fir), and 22,000 hectares of vineyards, and the mean produce of every hectare of arable land is twenty-four francs twenty-eight centimes. The productions of this department consist in corn of all sorts, chestnuts, very good hemp, fruit, good wine, wood, and excellent pasturage. The lakes and rivers abound in fish; horses of a small kind are bred, as well as horned cattle and sheep. There are also mines of lead and antimony; quarries of marble of different colors, granite, graystone, millstone, tripoli, puzzolani, basalt, and plaster, and pits of coal. There is a royal depôt of standard measures at Parentignac, a royal sheep walk from Puy-de-Dôme to St. Genest, and a large botanical garden at Clermont. At Mont-d'or-les-Bains, at Chateaumont, at Chatel Guyon, at St. Myon, at St. Nectaire, at St. Marguerite au Tambour, at St. Mark, and at Chateldon, are establishments of mineral waters and warm baths. The principal manufactures are those of linen, camlets, tent cloths, Turkish satins, blond-lace, playing cards, salt-petre, chemicals, glue, candles, mercery goods, ironmongery, cutlery, kettles, and copper vessels. They have also cotton and wool-spinning manufactories, paper-mills, delf and other potteries, brass foundries, tan yards, numerous hydraulic sawmills, &c. The trade consists in wines, corn, brandies, liqueurs, dry confectionary, walnut and hemp-seed oil, cattle, Auvergne cheeses, hemp, wool, linen, leather, paper, wood, fir-planks, coal, &c. This department is watered by the Allier, which is navigable, the Doré, the Dordogne, the Sioule, and the Morge; it is also crossed by the great roads of Lyons, Limoges, and Moulins. PUY-DE-DÔME, a celebrated mountain in Auvergne, situated towards the centre of the chain of the Dôme, which extends from north to south over a space of twenty-four miles, but varying considerably in breadth. This mountain is in the centre of the chain, and much higher than those around, appearing like a giant in the midst of his children; one of the mountains indeed, called the Little Puy-de-Dôme, rises at its side, and, being united at the base, seems to spring out of it. The Puy-de-Dôme presents a majestic cone, exact in all its proportions, having an extensive hollow like a disk at its top. From the base to the summit, notwithstanding its steepness, it is covered with a verdure, on which numerous herds of cattle feed; and the whole surface is a grass plat, except in two or three places, where the protuberances of white lava appear, and show that the mountain has been volcanic. This magnificent extent of verdure gives an inconceivable charm to a scene abounding in grandeur and beauty. The ascent to the mountain is by two different roads, one on the south side, called the road of Alagnat, the other on the north, called the Gravouse. From the crest one of the finest and richest prospects in the world is unfolded to the view. Elevated nearly 6000 feet above the level of the sea, and nearly 4000 above that of Clermont, there is no limit to the sight for an immense distance; below you are seen the forty neighbouring Puys, with their ancient craters, their ravines, currents of lava, and beds of black and red puzzolain. Farther distant is the whole country of Limagne, with its towns, villages, and hills without number; on all sides are fields of every color, vineyards, houses, roads, and mountains stretching into the distance, till they are lost to the view, and including an extent of nearly 400 miles. Although the Puy is only a scorched rock, yet the rain and vapors that it incessantly imbibes give it an amazing fertility, which it communicates to all the neighbouring mountains; all of them, with only one or two exceptions, being covered with grass. This mountain has been rendered immortal by the experiments of Pascal here on the weight of the atmosphere. PUZZLE, v. a., v. n., & n. s. For postle (or apposail as it has been written) from pose. Skinner. To perplex; entangle; confound; embarrass; involve; put to a stand; teaze: be bewildered, perplexed, or awkward: a puzzle is a perplexity; a perplexing occurrence; embar rassment; also a child's toy designed to exercise ingenuity. I say there is no darkness but ignorance, in which thou art more puzzled than the Egyptians in their fog. Shakspeare. Men in great fortunes are strangers to themselves, and, while they are in the puzzle of business, they have no time to tend their health either of body or mind. Bacon's Essays. I shall purposely omit the mention of arguments which relate to infinity, as being not so easily intelligible, and therefore more apt to puzzle and amuse, than to convince. Wilkins. Both armies of the enemy would have been puzzled than connect the sense. Id. Persons who labour under real evils will not puzzle themselves with conjectural ones. Clarissa. She strikes each point with native force of mind, While pussled learning blunders far behind. Young. Few angles were there in her form, 'tis true, Thinner she might have been and yet scarce lose, Yet, after all, 'twould puzzle to say where It would not spoil some separate charm to pare. Byron. PUZZULANA TERRA, or TERRA POZZOLANA, is a grayish kind of earth used in Italy for building under water. The best is found about Puteoli, Baiæ, and Cumæ, in Naples, from the first of which places it derives its name. It is a volcanic product, composed of heterogeneous substances, thrown out from the burning mouths of volcanoes in the form of ashes; sometimes in such large quantities, and with so great violence, that whole provinces have been covered with it at a considerable distance. This volcanic earth is of a gray, brown, or blackish color; of a loose, granular, or dusty and rough, porous or spongy texture, resembling a clay hardened by fire, and then reduced to a gross powder. Its specific gravity is from 2:57 to 28; and it is in some degree magnetic: it scarcely effervesces with acids, though partially soluble in them. It easily melts per se; but its most distinguishing property is, that it hardens very suddenly when mixed with one-third of its weight of lime and water; and forms a cement which is more durable in water than any other. According to Bergman's analysis, 100 parts of it. contain from 55 to 60 of sileceous earth, 20 of argillaceous, 5 or 6 of calcareous, and from 15 to 20 of iron. It is found also in France, in the late provinces of Auvergne and Limoges. PUZZUOLO, or PozzuoLI, the ancient Puteoli, a celebrated town of Italy, delightfully situated on a peninsula, in the centre of the noble bay of this name. In ancient times this was the chief mart of the inhabitants of Cumæ, and a rendezvous for merchants from Italy, Sicily, and Greece: the baths allured the most opulent Romans to its vicinity. But the devastations of war and earthquakes have long since greatly reduced it. Its population of about 1000 is now confined to the point which formed the ancient port. But in a square of the town stands a beautiful marble pedestal, covered with basreliefs, representing in allegorical figures the fourteen towns of Asia Minor that were destroyed by an earthquake, and rebuilt by Tiberius. The cathedral, which occupies the site of an ancient temple and is built chiefly of its materials, has a subterranean edifice attached, called the labyrinth, divided into a number of apartments. On the hill behind the town are the remains of an amphitheatre of considerable extent; but only the gates and portions of the vaults remain. Here are, however, massy remains of the temple of Jupiter Serapis, and of the mole that formed the ancient port. Several of its piers and arches still stand unshaken. At the end of this mole began the bridge of Caligula, which extended across part of the bay to Baia, no less than half a mile. Puzzuolo is still a bishop's see. In the neighbourhood is the plain of Solfotara. It is seven miles west of Naples. PWLLHELY, a large market town of North Wales, in Caernarvonshire, seated on the coast between two rivers. It has a market on Wednesday for corn and provisions; and lies six miles south of Nevin, twenty S. S. W. of Caernarvon, and 243 north-west of London. PYANEPSIA, in antiquity, an Athenian festival celebrated on the seventh day of the month Pyanepsion. Plutarch ascribes the institution of this feast to Theseus, who, after the funeral of his father, on this day paid his vows to Apollo, because the youths who returned with him safe from Crete then made their entry into the city. On this occasion these young men, putting all that was left of their provisions into one kettle, feasted together on it, and made great rejoicing. The Athenians carried about an olive branch, bound about with wool, and crowned with all sorts of first fruits, to signify that scarcity and barrenness had ceased, singing in procession a song. And, when the solemnity was over, it was usual to erect the olive branch before their doors as a preservative against scarcity and want. PYCNOSTYLE, in ancient architecture, a building where the columns stand very close to each other; only one diameter and a half of the column being allowed for the intercolumniations. The pycnostyle chiefly belonged to the composite order, and was used in the most magnificent buildings. PYDNA, an ancient city of Macedonia, originally called Citron, seated between the mouths of the Aliacmon and Lydius. In this city Cassander murdered the mother, widow, and son of Alexander the Great. A decisive battle was afterwards fought near it A. A. C. 168, between the Romans under Paulus Æmilius and the Macedonians under Philip V., in which the latter was defeated, and his kingdom was a few years after made a Roman province. PYE (Henry James), LL. D., an English |