Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/326

 PYK

PYR

animal fubftances do : neither is it particular to this plant, but all equally do this ; the acid and the alkaline, the fweet and the bitter, the aftringent and emoHent. Hence we may learn, how it is that nature, in our bodies, converts vegetable into animal fubftances ; and it is verv remarkable, that not a grain of fixed fait can be procured from this putrijied mats. Show's

Led.

p. 134.

Putrefaction of water. It is faid to be the peculiar quality of the Thames water, that it will (link and yet be wholefome ; and after this will recover itfelf again. Many failors have been obliged to drink it {linking, fo that they held their nofes while they poured it down their throats, yet no ficknefs en- fued from it. It generates a fort of fpirit alio in this {linking ftate, which will take fire at the approach of a lighted candle as if fpirit of wine were touched by the fame.

PUTTOCKS, or VuTTOCK-Jhrsuds, in a fhip, are fmall fhrouds which go from the fhrouds of the main-maft, fore-malt, and mizen-maft, to the top-mall fhrouds ; and if there be any top-gallant-mafls, there are pultoek s to go from the top-mail fhrouds into tbefe. TheCe puttoeh are at the bottom feized to a ftaff, or to fome rope which is feized to a plate of iron, or to a dead-man's eye, to which the lanniards of the fore-maft fhrouds do come.

PUWAKHAGA, in botany, the name by which fome authors call the faufcl-tree, of whofe fruit the expreffed juice called terra Japonka, or Japan earth, is made. Herm. Muf. Zeyl. P- 5»-

PYANEPSION, pv«w4*«F, in the Athenian chronology, a month of thirty days, in which the feftival piatupjia was celebrated. Potter, Archaeol. Graec. T. 1. p. 464. See the article Pyanepsia, Cycl.

I 1 CIELT, in botany, a name given by Hernandez, and fome other authors, to a peculiar fpecies of tobacco, diftinguifhed by Mr. Tournefort by the name of nicotiana major lata et rotundo folio, the broad roundifh leaved great tobacco. See the article Nicotiana.

PYCNI, mow, in the antient mufic, was ufed for fuch founds or chords of a tetrachord as might enter the fpiffum, or vrvxvw.

Thefc were the hypatae a, the parypatas b , and the lichani % of the feveral tetrachords. The hypata were called barypyeni, fiufvuvxHH the parypatce mefopyeni, tumvuxmr, and the lichani exypyeni, Qtrnmaf. becaufe the firft were the loweft notes; the fecond, the middle notes; and the third, the higheft of the fpiffum J. Such chords as could never enter the fpiffum were called apyeni, u.kvkw. [ a [/waroa&is. b vafimctTouSas- c 7Wj£««i&«. d Wallis's Append, ad Ptolem. Harm. p. 165.] Hence in the Greek fcale or diagram % containing eighteen chords, there were five barypyeni, as many mefopyeni, and an equal number of oxypyeni, together with three apyeni. The apyeni and barypyeni were ftabiles or fixed chords ; but the me- fopyeni and oxypyeni were moveable, or mobiles b. [ a See Diagram. b IVallis ityd. p. 165, 166.]

PYCNON, raw, in the antient mufic. See Spissum.

PYE, in mechanics. See the article Crabb.

PYGAIA, in the materia medica, a name by which fome au- thors have called the ipecacuanha, or vomiting Indian-root. DeLaet Ind.Occid.566, Purchas. Pilgr. Vol. IV. p. 1311.

PYGARGITES, in natural hiftory, a name given by Pliny and fome other of the old writers to the eagle-ftone, when it was variegated with white, in the manner of the tail of the eagle called pygargus.

Some have called this Hone pygarus, and others have applied the name to a ftone very different from the ac'tites, and only refcmbling the colour of the eagle. From hence it has hap- pened, that two very different flones have been confounded together ; but the virtues of both being merely ideal and ima- ginary, the world is not greatly the worfe for the want of the neceffary diflin£tions.

PYGARGUS, a fpecies of eagle, called alfo by fome authors albicilla, and ilianularia.

It is a large and fierce bird, of the fize of a common turkey. Its beak is yellow, and covered with a yellow membrane at its bafe. It has large hazel-coloured eyes. Its feet are yellow, and its claws extremely ft rang and fharp. The head is white, and there are no feathers, but fome fine hairs between the eyes and noltrils. The upper part of the neck is of a reddifh brown, and the rump black : all the body befides this is of an obfeure rufl colour, and its wings are partly black, partly grey. Its tail is long, and the upper half of it is white, and the reft black. It is from this white part that it has its name albicilla.

Authors who have written on this fubjed feem not all agreed to call the fame bird by this name. The pygargus of Aklro- vand feems different from this, and the pygargus prior of Bel- lonius feems no other than the male of that kind of hawk called in EngHfh the hen-barrier. Willughbfs QrnithoL p. 31 Pygargus acctpiter, in zoology, a name by which many au thors have called the fubbuteo, a bird of the hawk kind ; the male of which is called in Englifh the hen-harrier, and the fe- male the ringtail. Rays Ornithol. p. 40. See Henharrier and Ringtail. PYKER, orPvcAR, in our writers, a fmall fhip or herring boat. 31 Edw. III. c. 2. Blount. Cnvel.

PYL^EA, Tt-jXxtx, in antiquity, a name given to the affembly of the Amphictyons, as well when they met at Delphi as at Thermopylae. The concourfe of people at tbefe affemblies was fo great, that the term pylaa came to be ufed for any very- numerous affembly, or croud of people. Mem. Acad. Infer. Vol. IV. p. 287, 290.

PYLAGORE, llwA«yof«f, in antiquity, a name given to the Am- phiclyons, becaufe they affembled at Thermopylae, or Pyla;. See Amphictyons, Cycl. and Suppl.

PYLORUS (Cycl.) — Kcrki ing gives us an account from his own knowledge of the entire ftoppage of this part, by a Dutch (li- ver accidentally fwallowed, the confequenre of which was the death of the patient in a few days. On the. other hand, he mentions an inftance of another, perfon's fwallowjng a copper coin, which without any other effect than violent naufeas and ficknefs, was, at the end of about a month, difcharged by- purges ; but fo corroded by the juices of the ftcmach, that it was fcarce to be known, all the letters and marks being eaten down to the fame common furface on both fides. Kerkrings Specileg. Anat.

PYNANG, in botany, a name by which fome authors call the faufel, or areca tree ; a kind of palm, from the expreffed juice of which the drug commonly, but improperly,, called Japan- earth is made. Bmt. p. go.

PYRACANTHA, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the lycium, or box-thorn.

PYRALI5, the fire-fly, a name given by authors to a fuppofed infedl, which they fay is produced in the violent fires of the glafs and metal furnaces. Plin. 1. 2. c. 36.

PYRAMIDAUS (Cycl.)— Pvramidaif.s abdominis. Thefe are called fuccenturiati by Fallopius ; they are fituated on the lower part of the recti, and feem only a portion or appendix of it. They are partly inclofed within the vagina of the recti, running clofe by each other along the linea alba, to which they are fixed at different diftances by oblique tendinous indentations, the uppermoft of which was fometimes very long. When thefe mufcles are wanting, the lower extremities of the recti are always thicker than ufual: often there is only one found, and fometimes, tho' rarely, three. lVmjkw\ Anat. p. 1 (•> 8.

Pyramidalis cculorum, in anatomy, a name given by Molinet and fome others to one of the mufcles of the face, called by Douglafs and Cooper aperient palp ebr am, and by Albums leva- tor palpebra fuperioris.

PYR^EIA, or Pyrethea, among the Eaftern nations of anti- quity, were great inclofures uncovered, and dedicated to the fun, in which a perpetual fire was kept up in honour of this luminary, which was worfhipped by moil of them. Cal- mct. Die!:. Bibl. See Chamanim.

PYRENE, in natural hiftory, the name of a ftone found always in the fhape of the ftone of an olive. It is of the lapis judai- cus kind, being no other than the petrified fpine of fome fpe- cies of echinites. SeeEcHiNUS maritms.

PYRETHRUM [Cycl)— Pyrethrum, in the materia medica, a root of which the druggtfls fell us indifcriminately two kinds ; the one the root of a corymbiferous plant, called by authors pyrethrum flore BeUidis, or the daily-flowered pellitory of Spain ; the other, the pyrethrum umhellfierum, or umbelliferous pelli- tory : and it is a difpute among the learned, which of the two is the genuine and proper kind. The description left us of it by Diofcorides, as it is differently written, fervino- as well to prove the one fo as" the other.

The roots of the daify-flowcred pellitory are what we moft frequently meet with. They are of three or four inches lon<r, of the thicknefs of one's little finger, greyifh and wrinkled without, and whitifh within, and of an acrid and burning tafte. Thofe of the umbelliferous pellitory are of the fame length, but fomewhat thinner, of a hrownifh grey without, and white within, and are furnilhed with a fort of beard at top, fomewhat like the roots of the mcum. It is of an acrid tafte, and much refembles the other in its virtues. They are both ufed in the tooth-ach, and are prefcribed by fome in dff- eafes of the head and nerves, and are found to be diuretic and violently fudorific, but they are very feldom given.

PYRGUS, among the Romans, a dice-box of the fhape of a medius, open above, and having a great many fhelves or partitions within it ; fo that when the dice were thrown into it out of the frittillum, they were thereby over- turned many times before they could reach the bottom, in which there was an opening for them to fail through upon the table. Pittfc. in voc. See Frittillum.

PYRHOPOECILOS, in the natural hiftory of the antients, a ftone fo called from its having a great many fpots of the colour of fire. Pittfc. in voc.

PYRIATERION, a word ufed by the antients to exprefs a

fweating room. PYRIATOS, a word ufed by fome authors to exprefs a brick when heated, in order to be applied to the body wrapped up m a cloth by way of a dry fomentation. PYRICAUSTUM, a word ufed by medical writers to exprefs a

burn or fcald. PYRICUBIUM, in natural hiftory, the name of a genus of folfile bodies, ufually comprehended, with many others of very different figure and ftruclure, under the general name pyrius. See Tab, of Foffils, Oafs 5.

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