Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/322

 PUN

PUP

mountains, on and about which pumices are constantly found, and that in vaft abundance. The more violent explofions of thefe may alfo, at one time or other, have tofled vaft. quanti- ties of pumices to places fo diftant as to make people forget from whence they came ; or into feas, whofe tides and ftorms , may have carried them to other fhores, near which no fuch repofitories of pumices are fuuated ; and this might very much ■ puzzle and miflead people about its true nature and origin. The great quantities of pwni es found in this manner, far from fires by which they might have been formed, floating on the 1 furface of the fca, thus thrown on it, or perhaps raifed by the burfting of vulcanos from its bottom; and fomething altered from their original furm and colour, by being waflied and founded by the motion of the waves, and by rolling againfl: one another, gave rife to an opinion in fome, that thefe were of another kind, and were different from thoTe pumices found on the burning mountains, and that they were formed by the' concretion of the froth ,of the fea. Many have fupppfed, that the authors who have favoured this opinion ranked the alcyonia among the bodies they call pumices fo formed; and Theophraftus has been very unjuftly cenfured of the fame fault, tho* not guilty of it. Hill's Theophraftus, p. 48, There are whole mountains in the principality of Heffe, which ( confift of rocks of the pumice ftone, as it is there vulgarly called. This is a fpungy and cavernous ftone, of a grey co- lour, and very much refembles the pumices in external appear- ance ; but on examination, proves to be a very different fub- ftance, and there is not the Jeait ground for fuppofing, that it owes its prefer t appearance to the action of fire, as the common pumices thrown out of the burning mountains cer- tainly do. It is very neceflary, in order to treat accurately of the nature of the pumxe-ttone, to diftinguifh rightly between thefe ftones and fuch as have been burnt into their fpungy ftate. Yet this is generally neglected, and thefe are called pumices as well as the reft, and all are fuppofed to be of the fame origin.

PUMPING at fea, is ufually done by fpells, that is, by reliev- ing the men with frefh ones, and counting how many ftrokes they pump each watch. By this means they know if the fhip be ftanch, or how her leaks increafe.

When all the water is drawn up, and there comes up nothing but wind and froth, they fay the pump fucks.

PUMPKIN. See the article Pepo.

PUNARU, in zoology, the name of a final 1 fifh of the alauda kind. It has an oblong body, and a thick head, obtufe at the fnout. The mouth is fmall, and in the lower jaw there are only two oblong teeth, which are fharp and pointed like needles. The eyes ftand high in the head, the pupil is black, and the iris yellow ; and over thefe there are two fhort red fila- tnents. The gills are large, and have two oblong fins placed behind them. The back fin reaches from the head to the tail, and is prickly at the edge. The belly-fin reaches from the anus to the tail. The fkin and fins arc all brown. Befides this, there is another fpecies, variegated on its fides with lines of a dufky purple. Its jaws befet with very fmall teeth, and its fins not prickly. Both kinds are found among the rocks about Brafil, and fometimes get into the fhells of the larger fhell-fifh. Marggravet Hift. Brafil.

PUN AY, in natural hiftory, a name given by the people of the Philippine iflands to a very beautiful fpecies of turtle, common

• in their woods.

It is of the fize of a fmall parrot, and is of a fine green co- lour; but the extreme feathers of its wings are tipped with while, and the lower part of its belly is of a faffron colour. Its beak is yellow.

PUNCH (Cycl.)— Punch, in the manege, a well fet, well knit horfe, called in French go"JJhut. He fhould be fhort-backed, and thick fliouldered, with a broad neck, and well lined with flefli.

PUNCTICULARIS/<7;m, a name given by fome authors to a fever attended with fmall eruptions.

PUNCTURE (Cycl.)— Among the number of the moft fimple wounds are reckoned thofe which are made by pun£ture> or ftabbing on the external parts, and not penetrating to a very great depth. In thefe wounds, after the blood has been flopped at the firft drefling, by the application of dry lint, the com- mon digeftive, or linimentum Arcoi, is to be fpread upon a pledget and applied once every day ; or if the difcharge is but fmall, every other day, covering the dreffings with a plaifter and comprefs, and fecuring the whole with a proper bandao-e. At each drefling, care muft be taken to remove every thing that will give way readily ; the pus or fanies is to be gently wiped off with fine raggs; and unlefs a great difcharge of mat- ter make it neceffary, too frequent dreffings do rather harm than good. The firft dreffings that have been applied, efpe- cially when there has been a flux of blood, fhould by no means be removed forcibly ; but be left till they will fall off »f them- felves, which they will do after a fuppuration is formed : and by this caution, much pain, and, perhaps, a frefh haemorrhage, are avoided.

When a punclure, however, penetrates very deep, the cure is attended with many difficulties ; efpecially if it is made per- pendicularly down, and has no depending orifice: for, in this cafe, tli* blood and matter are eafily collected at the bottom,

and protract, the cure, and frequently form.fiffube. To pre- vent thefe conlequences, it will be proper to prefs the wound from the bottom upwards, to apply a comprefs toward th : bot- tom of the wound externally, and to apply a bandage over all, which prefles much tighter upon the lower than upon the" upper parts. If all this precaution, however, prove of no ef- fect, which, indeed, is too often the cafe, it is the moll pro- per method to make a large opening at the bottom of the wound, before any fiftuls arc formed there. In order to make this opening to the greater advantage, it will be proper to get a particular fort of probe or needle, very blunt at top, and at the other end provided with a large eye, or hole, through which a linnen rag may be pafled. This probe 15 to be pafllrd to the bottom of the wound, and the blunt end of it prefied outwards toward the fkin, till you can feel it with a fin- ger : when you can feel it, cut down upon it if you can fafely, and make a large opening; fpread the rag that you have run through the eye of the probe with fome vulnerary balfam, and draw it through the wound after the manner of a feton, and leave it there, dreffing up bo.h the orifices with the fame balfam, and covering the whole with cornprefles and the proper bandages. In every fucceeding dreffing, that part of the rag that is left out of the wound is to be fpread with frefh ointment, and the lower part drawn down till this takes place in the new wound. This method is to be continued till the wound is well cleanfed, the difcharge greatly diminifh- ed, and all in a rcadinefs to heal : the feton is then to be removed, and the wound healed as ufual. Better's Surg. P- 35;

PUN1CA, the po?negranate, in botany, the name of a genus of trees, the characters of which are thefe ; the flower is of the rofaceous kind, being compofed of feveral petals, arranged in a circular form. The cup is of the fhape of a bell, and di- vided into feveral fegments at the edges; this finally becomes a fruit of a roundifh figure, coronated at the end, and divided into many cells within, which contain many kernels full of juice, affixed to a placenta, and feparated from one another by very fine membranes : thefe contain feeds of an oblono- figure. °

The fpecies of pomegranate^ enumerated by Mr. Tournefort 9 are thefe: I. The common cultivated pomegranate. 2. The common wild pomegranate. 3. The cultivated pomegranate^ with fwcet fruit. 4. The cultivated pomegranate^ with fruit of a middle tafte between fweet and four. 5. The laro-e fruited pomegranate, with large, crifp, amathyfline kernels. 6. The great double- flowered pomegranate, or balauftine. 7. The pome- granate with a double variegated flower. 8. The pomegranate with fmall double flowers. And, 9. The low dwarf Ameri- can pomegranate. Tcurn. Inflr. p. 636.

PUNICUS tapis, a name given by the writers of the middle ages to a ftone of a fpungy texture, the powder of which was good in difeafes of the eyes.

This feems to have been no other than the pumice, the wri- ters of thefe times having been ftrangely incorrect in their orthography ; and all the virtues afcribed to this ftone, as alfo the places where it was found, which are the JEolian iflands, c5V. feeming to have been copied from Pliny's" account of the pumice.

PUNK, in natural hiftory, the inward part of the excrefcence or exuberance of an oak. It is ufed by the Indians in Vir- ginia for medicinal burning, as the Eaft Indians ufe moxa Phil. Tranf. N°. 454, feet. 1. See Moxa.

PUPIL (Cycl)— Pupil contrasted. The diftemper of the eye called by furgeons a contratlion of the pupil, is fo total or clofe a contraction of that part as will not let it tranfmit light enough to the bottom of the eye, to enable the patient to fee objects diftinctly. Sometimes this diforder is from infancy, and fometimes it arifes from an interne inflammation of the eye, or other caufes.

The cure of this is extremely difficult ; but Mr. Chefelden has invented a method by which he has often proved very fuccefs- ful in his attempts to relieve it. The method is this : the eye- lids being held open by a fpeculum oculi, he takes a narrow fingle-edged fcalpell, or needle, aimoft like that ufed in couch- ing for a cataract, and paffing it through the fclerotica, as in couching, he afterwards thrufts it forward through the uvea or iris, and in extracting it cuts through the iris. If the diforder is not accompanied with a cataract, it will be beft to cut through the iris in the middle; otherwife, when there Is a cataract, the incifion mould be made a little higher in the uvea, that the cataract may not obftruct the inorefs of the rays of light. The cataracts that accompany this diforder are ufually very fmall, and fometimes their adhefion to the iris is fo firm, as to render it impracticable to couch or fupprefs them. HeiJIers Surg. p. 417.

PUPPETS, in natural hiftory, the name given by Swammerdam to thenymprue of animals, which he diftinguifhes from the chryfalifes by this fimple name, calling theie the gi 'it puppets, from their golden colour.

It has been a general diftinction eftablifhed by writers between the nymph and chryfalis, that in the former the limbs and li- neaments of the future animal might be feen, but in the latter not. But Swammerdam has proved, that the lineaments of every trace, and every part of the animal, is to be feen under

the