Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/255

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black line. 10. The pea with eatable hufks. 1 1 . The dwarf pea with firm ftalks. 12. The angular-leaved peal J 3. The garden pea with a crooked or foliated eatable pod. 14. I he pea, with red ftriated flowers. 15- The Hcld-pea, with a greenifh yellow fruit. 1 6. The ficM-pea, with a white fruit. 17. The t\c\d-pea, with a green fruit. 18. The field -pea, with a grey fruit. 19. The field-^fl, with a blue fruit. 20. The field-pw, with black fruit. 21. The fidd-pea, with rofe. coloured flowers and variegated fruit. And 22. The wildEnglifh fez-pea. Tourn. Inft. p. 394.

PIT (Cycl.) Brww-PlTS, the name given by the people of

Worcefterfliire and Chefhire, to the wells or pits affording the fait water, out of which they extract the fait. Thefe waters, tho' they all contain fait, yet have other things alfo in them, and thefe not in fmall quantity. They all contain a very large proportion of ftony matter; this is com- mon to the whole fet, but particular fubftances befide this are found in the particular pits. At Northwich in Chefliire, there are four pits, the water of all which ftinks very ftrong- ]y of fulphur, and contains fo.much vitriol, that it will turn black like ink, with a decoction of galls ; yet this is boiled , into a very fine and pure kind of fait, common at our tables under the name of bafket-falt, and having no fuch pro- perties.

There is a vaft quantity of ftony matter precipitated from thefe pans of brine in the boiling them to fait ; this is partly faved in fmall pans fet at the fide of the boiler, and partly precipitates to the bottom of the pan, where it forms a crult like that at the bottoms and fides of our tea-kettles, which the workmen find it neceflary to remove every week ; but there is no vitriol or fulphur feparated. Phil. Tranf. N J

I5 °'

In the country near where thefe brine-pits are, the instruments

ufed in boring often bring up fine and hard fait ; fo that they give proofs of there being rocks of fait in many places. All along the river Weever, on each fide, the earth affords brine wherever it is opened : but all thefe are not fit for boil- ing, many of the pits affording a brine too weak to be work- ed to any advantage. The very ftrongeft pits fometimes alfo become at once too weak; this is owing to the irruption of frefh fprings into them, arid fometimes the river itfelf makes its way into them, and overflows them with fuch a quantity ot frefti water, that they are utterly fpoiled. The brine-pits at Wefton near Stafford, afford a brine that (links like rotten eggs ; this turns inftantly to ink with galls, and purges and vomits violently, if taken even in a fmall quantity. This in boiling depofits a white flaky fand, or ftony matter, without fmell or tafte, and the fait is pure and fine. The pit at Droitwich in Worcefterfliire, affords no fand in the boiling, nor any the leaft fediment of the ftony matter at the bottom of the pan, and the fait is the pureft of all the others : and by the people of the country it is efteemed the moft wholefome; becaufe of its being without the fand. This and the other pits hereabout, all have the fmell of rotten eggs, efpecially after a little reft, as on the Monday morning after the Sunday's reft. If meat be put to pickle in the brine of thefe pits, inftead of being preferved it will ftink in twen- ty-four hours, fometimes in twelve, yet they yield the beft fait of any inland pits in the world.

The fulphur fpaws of Yorkfhire, which are very numerous in different parts of the county, all ftink violently of rotten eggs; but if well drawn and worked, they would prove as inoffenfive as the reft, and only fo many weaker or ftronger brine pits; and the fmell is no other than that of the Chefliire and Staffbrdftiire brine, when it has been left fome time at reft. It is remarkable, that tho* the ftony matter is depofited in fuch vaft plenty by the waters of all our fait fprings, it is not found in any abundance in thofe places where fait is made out of fea fand, as in Lancashire and fome other places ; fo that it is much more than the natural quantity of fpar con- tained in water that is thus depofited ; and indeed it appears from trial, that the brine of our fait fprings, in general, con- tains more than twenty times the quantity of fpar that com- mon water does.

This ftony matter feparates itfelf from the water before the fait does, and thus it appears in many other waters impreg- nated with mineral particles. The vitroJic waters all con- tain ochre and fait, and in all thefe the ochre feparates itfelf firft in the boiling, and then the vitriol ; and the ftony matter precipitated from common fait fprings affords, on an analyfis, the fait called nitrum cakarium, in confiderable abundance. Phil. Tranf. N° 156.

Yvi-fiP), or ViT-vifcb, in zoology, the Dutch name of an Eaft Indian fifli, approaching very much to the nature of the Eu- ropean turdus, but that it has no fcales. Its body is not flat but rounded, and is variegated with blue and yellow fpots ; its eyes ftand very prominent, and the fifh is able, at pleafure, to thruft them out or draw them in; its back-fin is prickly. It loves muddy and foul places, yet is a very well tafted fifh. &t/s Ichthyogr. Append, p. 6.

PITANGUAGUACU, in zoology, the name of a Brafilian

bird of the ftarling kind, called by the Portuguefe there the

bemetre. It is of the fize of the common ftarling; its beak

is long, thick, and of a pyramidal figure ; its head broad and

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flatted ; its neck fhort, which as it fits it contracts aifo, fo 3* to make it appear much fhorter ; its legs and feet are of a dulky brown; it has a very loud and fhrill voice ; its head, neck, back, wings, and tail, are all of a brownifh black, with a faint admixture of green ; the lower part of the throat, the breaft, and the belly, are yellow, the upper part of the throat white; its beak is very (harp-pointed. Marggrave's. Hi ft. of Brafil. PITCH (Cycl.)— The antients had a peculiar kind of pitch called brutia, which was infpiuated to a higher than ordinary degree for certain ufes ; fuch as the receiving a proper quantity of bees wax, to render it the zopiffa ufed in coating the bottoms of fhips.; which the common pitch could not do, being of too foft a cpnfiftence for this ufe, Pliny tells us, that it was made in this manner : The wood was cleaved and formed into a pile, with proper trenches cut in the earth to receive what run from it in burning. When the pile was lighted, the firft thing that flowed into thefe trenches was a thin fluid liquor like water. This, he fays, was called cedrium in Syria, and was ufed in Egypt in the preferving dead bodies. The next liquor that ran out from the pile, he fays, was thicker, and was pitch ; and that a part of this was afterwards boiled in brafs veffels, with an admixture of vinegar, and then be- came very folic! and hard, and was called by this name of brutia.

However right this author may be in his account of the bru- tw, it is evident that he errs in making the firft runnings of the wood the cedrium ; for this was peculiarly the name of the tar of the cedar ; and as there are plenty ot" turpentine trees in Syria, and the pitch and tar of that country were always made of thofe trees, it is very improper to give the name ce- drium to it : no one ever called the turpentine and cedar by the fame name; nor is there any reafon why their produces fhould be thus confounded. Vitruvius is very exprefs in af- certaining the fenfe of the word cedria to the produce of the cedar ; he fays, that the cyprefs and pine yield their feveral fat juices or refins, and that the cedar in like manner yields its oil; which is thence called cedrium, or cedria, and has fo much of the peculiar virtues of the wood, that it preferved books and other things, on which it was rubbed, from being eaten by worms.

This author, however, tho' he diftinguiflies the product of the cedar from that of the cyprefs and pine, yet he confounds . together the two fubftances, called by the Greeks cedrium and cedreltzum. The cedrium was properly the pitch of the cedar ; this was the hard fubftance produced by burning the wood; but the thin liquid fubftance called cedrelcsum, which was the only thing that could be ufed for rubbing over books, ■C5c. was an oil feparated from this cedrium, or pitch of the cedar by melting. Pitch of Cajlro, in the materia medica, the name given by Boccone and fome other writers, to a thick kind of bitumen found iffuing out of the cracks of fome rocks near the village of Caftro ; from whence it has its name : it is famous in the ecclefiaflical ftate for its medicinal virtues. Boccone Muf. : de Eifci. Pitch is alfo ufed by architects and builders, for the angle which a gable-end, and confequently the whole roof of a building is fet to. If the length of each rafter be £ of the breadth of the building, then they fay that roof is of a true pitch; but if the rafters are longer, they fay 'tis a high or Jharp-pitthed roof; if fhorter, they call it a Liv ox flat-pitched roof. Pitched, in the fea language. They fay the mafr. is pitched, when it is put or let down into the ftep ; alfo the raaft is pitched too far aft, when placed too near the ftern. PITH, {Cycl.} in vegetation, the foft fpungy fubftance contain- ed in the central part of plants and trees. As the fubftance of the trunk in trees become more woody, the pith is com- preffed and ftraitsned to fuch a degree, that it wholly difap- pears.

It is plain from this, that the office of the pith in vegetation cannot be very great, fince it is not of perpetual duration. By its fpungy ftrudture, it feems fitted to receive any fuper- fluous moifture that might tranfude thro' the pores of the woody fibres. If by the excefs of fuch moifture, or from any other caufe, it happens to rot and perifh, as frequently hap- pens in elms, the tree is found to grow fully as well without it; a proof it is of noefienti;.! ufe in vegetation. Boerhaams Chem. p. 139.

The pith of trees is continued farther into their minute parts than is generally conceived; the fmalleft branches and pedi- cles of the leaves and flowers have their fhare of it, accord- ing to the nature of the tree they belong to; and even the middle ribs of the leaves, when examined by the microfcope, are not without it : a tranfverfe fe£tion of one of thefe ribs of the leaf of a pithy tree, fhews a very beau'iful arrange- ment of veilels, or little bladders, containing a quantity of clear liquor, and refembling in all refpects thofe of which the />*>/.> in the branches is compofed. The pith in thefe is not round, however, as in the others, but flat, and runs from one end of the pedicle to the other, in form of a thin white rib, gradually lefiening to a point. .. The pithoi. plants, in fine, feems what the marrow is in ani- mals, a congeries of an infinite number of veficles, which 2 O o fcem