Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 16.djvu/83

 PIATUS

67

PREFECTURE

shoulrl not be taught that these tliree chapters do not contain true narrations of facts, but only fables derived from the mythologies and cosmogonies of earlier peoples, purged of their polytheistic errors and accommodated to monotheism; or allegories and symbols, with no objective reality, set forth in the guise of history to inculcate religious and philosoph- ical truths; or, finally, legends partly historical and partly fictitious put together for instruction and ed- ification. In particular, doubt shoidd not be cast on the literal and historical sense of passages which touch on the foundations of the Christian religion, as, for instance, the creation of the universe by God at the beginning of time; the special creation of man; the formation of the first woman from the first man; the unity of the human race; the original happiness, in- tegrity, and immortality of our first parents in the state of justice; the precept given by God to man to try his obedience; the transgression of the Divine precept, at the suggestion of the Devil, under the form of a serpent; the fall of our first parents from their original state of justice; the promise of a future Redeemer.

In explaining such pa,ssages in these chapters as the Fathers and Doctors interpreted differently, one may folUjw and defend the opinion which meets his ap- proval. Not every word or phra.se in these chapters is always necessarilj- to be taken in its literal sense so that it may never have another, as when it is mani- festly used metaphorically or anthroponiorijhically. The literal and historical meaning of some pii&sages in these chapters presupposed, an allegorical and prophetical meaning may wisely and usefully be em- l)loved. As in writing the first chapter of Genesis the purjjose of the sacred author was not to expound in a scientific manner the constitution of the universe or iIk^ complete order of creation, but rather to give to the people popular information in the ordinary language of the day, adapted to the intelligence of all, the strict propriety of scientific language is not always to be looked for in their terminology. The expression six days and their division may be taken in the ordinary sense of a natural day, or for a certain I)eriod of time, and exegetes may dispute about this question. Acta Apostolica Sedis (15 July, 1908); Rome (17 July, 1909).

Piatus of Mons (secular name, Jean-Joseph LoisE.\ux), b. 5 Aug., 1S1.5; d. in the Monastery of Ste. Claire, Bruges, 21 April, 1904. As a student for the priesthood he distinguished himself in moral theology and canon law. After his ordination as a secular priest of the Diocese of Tournai, Belgium, in 183.S, he continued his study of canon law at Louvain. In 1S4IJ he wa.s appointed a vicar of the cathedral of Tournai, but the following year he went to Rome, and there spent two years in the Belgian college, studying canon law and working for the congrega- tions. He returned to Belgium in 1S46 and the next year was appointed to the chair of canon law and ecclesiastical history at Louvain. In 1847 in co- operation with Abb6 Felise he founded the quarterly magazine, "Melanges theologiques", and later the "Revue thC-ologique " and the "Nouvelle revue thtologique". The first was concerned chiefly with canon law; the second with liturgy. He continued to edit the "XouveUe revue thcologique" until 189.5, when it pas.sed into tlie hands of the Redemptorists. He twice refused the Bishopric of Tournai. In 1871 he entered the Order of Capuchin Friars Minor. His chief works are: "Pra>lectiones juris regularis"; a dissertation, "De sententia S. Bonaventura; circa essentiam sacramenti Poenitentia)"; "Trait6 du jubil*-". He al.so WTOte a great number of articles in theological reviews.

AnnUrla Ord. FF. Min. Capp. (Rome, July, 1904); Etudes franciscaines (Ixiuvain, May, July, and .\ugufit, 1912).

Father Cuthdert.

Plateau, Joseph-Antoine, Belgian physicist, b. at Brussels, 14 Oct., 1801; d. at Ghent, 15 Sept., 1883. His father, a flower-painter, wished him to be an artist, and, after his elementary studies, he was sent to the Academic de Dessein at Brussels. Left an orphan at fourteen, Joseph Plateau became the ward of a maternal uncle, an advocate, who intended him to study law. His intermediate studies were made at the Ath(5n6e Royal at Brussels, and in 1822 he entered the University of Liege, being en- rolled as a student both of jihilosophy and letters and of science. He graduated doctor of physical and mathematical sciences, 3 June, 1829. After a brief period of teaching in the Ath^nco Royal at Liege, he was appointed, in 183.5, professor of experi- mental physics in the University of Ghent. His thesis for the doctorate had been "On certain proper- ties of the impressions produced by light upon the organ of sight". This line of researcli he followed for many years, studying successively the persistence of luminous impressions on the retina, accidental colours, irradiation, the contrast of colours, coloured shadows, etc. Many of the results obtained by him are stiU classical. In the course of these researches he once kept his naked eye fixed on the sun for twenty-five seconds, and this imprudence brought on a choroid inflammation which, in 1843, resulted in total blindness. Being obliged to give up teaching, he nevertheless continued his experimental work with admirable courage and marvellous success, helped by his elder son, F6Ux Plateau, the naturalist, his son- in-law, Van der Mensbruyghe, the physicist (1835- 1911), and some friends and colleagues in the Uni- versity of Ghent. To this period belong almost all his famous researches on the statics of liquids freed from pressure, on surface tension, and on the properties of thin liquid plates. After 1844 Joseph Plateau had no laboratory but his study in his own modest home. He himself planned all the experi- ments and arranged all the details in advance. His assistants would announce in a loud voice everything they were doing, all that they observed, and th(' results of each process. Joseph Plateau would then dictate the notes and, later on, the text of the memoirs for publication. In this way he worked until he was upwards of eighty. Joseph Plateau was a sincere Christian, faithful to all the duties of a practical Catholic. He wa.s a member of the Royal .4cademy of Belgium, punctually attending all its meetings, a correspondent of the Institute of France, and a mem- ber of most of the academies and learned societies of Europe.

A complete list of Plateau's works with sources indicated will be found in Van der Mensbruyghe, "Notice sur J. A. F. Plateau" (extract from the An- nuaire de I'acadcmie royale de Bclgi(|iu' fur 188.5). His p;ipers on visual phenomena have not bi-cii i)ubli.shed separately: they are scattered through -Memoires and Bulletins of the Academic Royale of Belgium. His researches on liquids have been corrected, arranged, and published by the author in G. Plateau, "Statique exp(''rimentale et theorique des liquides soumise aux seules forces inoleculaires" (2 vols., Pari,-<-London, 1873). The best and most eoin])lete study of his scien- tific work is that of Joseph Delsaulx, S.J., published under the title of "Les travaux scientifiques de Joseph Plateau" in the "Revue des questions scien- tifiques" (1st .series, XV, 114-58, 518-77; XVI, 3S3-437). J. Thirion.

Prefecture Apostolic. — An account is here given of the prefectures -Vpostolic that have been erecte<l or changed during the publication of the earlier volumes of this work.

Bar-ei^Gaz.\l. — This mis,sion was separated from the Vicariate .Vpostohc of the Sudan, and formed into a prefecture Apostolic on 30 May, 1913. It was