Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/234

LEFT PEPPEBMINT 180 PERAK tnent, whole or gi'ound. White pepper is the berry deprived of its outer husk. It is imported into this country chiefly from Java, Sumatra, Malacca, and Bor- neo, and is named after the locality from which derived; thus, Penang, Malabar, Sumatra, Trang, etc. The ground peppers of commerce are gener- ally mijctures of different kinds of ber- ries; e. g., Malabar is used to give weight, Penang or Trang to give strength, and Sumatra to give color. Long pepper (P. longum), which belongs to the same natural order, and contains almost the same constituents, must be considered a true pepper, though of less value commercially. PEPPERMINT, Mentha 'piperita, a mint with oblong, lanceolate, serrate, glabrous leaves; pedicels and flowers nearly smooth; flowers in cylindrical spikes, interrupted below. Probably a garden form of M. aquatica. Oil of pep- permint, the oil distilled from the fresh flowers of M. piperita. PEPSIN, an azotized ferment, re- lated to the proteids, and contained in gastric juice. It possesses the power, in conjunction with hydrochloric acid, of dissolving the insoluble proteids and con- verting them into peptones. Pepsin is prepared from the stomach of the pig or calf on a commercial scale. PEPTONE, the products of the action of pepsin, or acid gastric juice on albu- minous substances. They are only found in the stomach and small intestines, are highly diffusible, readily soluble in water, and are not coagulated with boiling. PEPYS, SAMUEL, an English author, secretary to the admiralty in the reigns of Charles II. and James II, ; born in Brampton, Huntingdonshire, in 1632, and educated at Cambridge. He early acquired the patronage of Sir Edward Montagu, afterward Earl of Sandwich, who employed him as secretary in the expedition for bringing Charles II. from Holland. On his return he was ap- pointed one of the principal officers of the navy. In 1673, when the king took the admiralty into his own hands, Pepys was appointed secretary to that ofiice, and performed his duties with great credit. During the excitement of the Popish Plot he was committed to the Tower, but was after some time dis- charged without a trial, and reinstated in his_ office at the admiralty, which he held till the abdication of James II. He was president of the Royal Society for two years; but his title to fame rests upon his "Diary" (1659-1669), which is a most entertaining work, revealing the writer's own character very plainly, giv- ing an excellent picture of contemporary life, and of great value for the history of the court of Charles II. It is in short- hand, was discovered among a collec- tion of books, prints and manuscripts be- queathed by Pepys to Magdalene College Cambridge, and was first printed in 1820 He died in 1703. SAMUEL PEPYS PEQUOT, FORT, an old Indian fort on Pequot Hill, about 8 miles N. E. of New London, Conn. PEQTJOTS, or PEQTJODS, a tribe of American Indians, a branch of the Mohi- cans, were warlike and powerful in the country round the Thames river when Connecticut was first settled, and made treaties with the Dutch and English. Hostilities, however, broke out in 1637; and the tribe was cut to pieces and scat- tered; yet a few descendants may be found at Green Bay, Wis, PER.ZE3A, a term applied to many dis- tricts beyond a river or sea; most fre- quently to great part of Palestine beyond the Jordan. PERAK, a Malay state on the W. side of the peninsula of Malacca, under the protection of Great Britain since 1874; estimated area, 7,800 square miles. The interior ranges up to 8,000 feet. The soil is fertile, and for the most part cov- ered with luxuriant vegetation. Ele- phants, leopards, huge snakeSj, and deer swarm in the forests of the interior. The soil produces rice, sugar, tobacco, coffee, tea, vanilla, and spices. But the principal production of the state is tin. Lead also exists in great quantity. The