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Rh to persons who had served ninety days or more in the military or naval service in the civil war, or sixty days in the Mexican war, and were honourably discharged, no other conditions being attached. The rate of pension was fixed at $12 per month when sixty-two years of age, $15 per month when seventy years of age and $20 per month when seventy-five years of age. The act of April 1908, fixed the rate of pension for widows, minor children under the age of sixteen and helpless minors on the roll or afterwards to be placed on it at $12 per month, and granted pensions at the same rate to the widows of persons who served ninety days or more during the civil war, without regard to their pecuniary condition. In 1908 there were 140,600 invalids on the roll, and 4294 minor and helpless children. In the same year under the act of 1907 there were 338,341 dependants, while under the act of 1908, 188,445 widows were put on the roll. All women employed by competent authority as nurses during the Civil War for six months or more, who are unable to earn a support, are granted a pension of $12 per month by an act of the 5th of August 1892. In 1908 the pension rolls contained the names of 3110 pensioners under this act.

There were on the roll in 1908 on account of the Spanish war, 11,786 invalids and 3722 dependants. The total amount paid in pensions in 1908 on account of that war and the insurrection in the Philippine Islands was $3,654,122. The grand total of pensioners on the roll for all wars was, in 1908, 951,687.

In addition to pensions, the United States government grants the following gratuities: First: If a soldier lost a limb in the service, or as a result of his service in line of duty, he is furnished with an artificial limb free of cost every three years, or commutation therefor, and transportation to and from a place where he shall select the artificial limb. Second: An honourably discharged soldier or sailor is given reference for appointment to places of trust and profit, and preference for retention in all civil service positions. Third: There are ten National Soldiers' Homes situated at convenient and healthy points in different parts of the country, where comfortable quarters, clothing, medical attendance, library and amusements of different kinds are provided free of all expense; government providing the soldiers free transportation to the home, continuing payments of pension while the are members of the home, and increasing the same as disabilities increase. Fourth: There are thirty homes maintained by the different states, which are similar in their purpose to the National Homes, the sum of $100 per year being paid by the general government for each inmate. Many of these state homes also provide for the wives and children of the inmates, so that they need not be separated while they are members of such home. Fifth: Schools are established by the different states for the maintenance and education of soldiers' orphans until they attain the age of sixteen years.

From the close of the Civil War in 1865 to 1908, the government of the United States paid to its pensioners for that war the sum of $3,533,593,025. The payments on account of all wars for the fiscal year ended on the 30th of June 1908 were $153,093,086 Over $17,000,000 has been paid to surgeons for making medical examinations of pensioners and applicants for pensions. The total disbursement for pensions from 1790 to 1908 amounted to $3,751,108,809. No other nation or government in all time has dealt so liberally with its defenders.

The money appropriated by Congress for the payment of pensions is disbursed by eighteen pension agents established in different parts of the country Pensions are paid quarterly, and the agencies are divided into three classes, one of which pays on the 4th of every month.  PENSIONARY, a name given to the leading functionary and legal adviser of the principal town corporations of Holland, because they received a salary, or pension. At first this official was known by the name of “clerk” or “advocate.” The office originated in Flanders. The earliest “pensionaries” in Holland were those of Dort (1468) and of Haarlem (1478). The pensionary conducted the legal business of the town, and was the secretary of the town council and its representative and spokesman at the meetings of the Provincial States. The post of pensionary was permanent and his influence was great.

In the States of the province of Holland pensionary of the order of nobles (Ridderschap) was the foremost official of that assembly and he was named—until the death of Oldenbarneveldt in 1619—the land’s advocate, or more shortly, the advocate. The importance of the advocate was much increased after the outbreak of the revolt in 1572, and still more so during the long period 1586–1619 when John van Oldenbarneveldt held the office. The advocate drew up and introduced all resolutions, concluded debates and counted the votes in the Provincial Assembly. When it was not in session he was a permanent member of the college of deputed councillors who carried on the administration. He was minister of justice and of finance.

All correspondence passed through his hands, and he was the head and the spokesman of the deputation, who represented the province in the States General. The conduct of foreign affairs in particular was entrusted almost entirely to him.

After the downfall of Oldenbarneveldt the office of lands’-advocate was abolished, and a new post, tenable for five years only, was erected in its place with the title of Raad-Pensionaris or Pensionary of the Council, usually called by English writers Grand Pensionary. The first holder of this office was Anthony Duyck. Jacob Cats and Adrian Pauw, in the days of the stadtholders Frederick Henry and William of Orange II. had to be content with lessened powers. but in the stadtholderless régime 1650–1672 the grand pensionary became even more influential than Oldenbarneveldt himself, since there was no prince of Orange filling the offices of stadtholder, and of admiral and captain-general of the Union. From 1653–1672 John de Witt, re-elected twice, made the name of grand pensionary of Holland for ever famous during the time of the wars with England. The best known of his successors was Anthony Heinsius, who held the office from 1688 to his death in 1720. He was the intimate friend of William III., and after the decease of the king continued to carry out his policy during the stadtholderless period that followed. The office was abolished after the conquest of Holland by the French in 1795.

See Robert Fruin, Geschiedenis der Staats-Instellingen in Nederland, The Hague, 1901, G. W. Vreede, ''Inleiding tot eene Gesch. der'' Nederlandsche Diplomatic (Utrecht, 1858).  PENTAMETER, the name given to the second and shorter line of the classical elegaic verse. It is composed of five feet or measures, and is divided into two equal parts of two and a half feet each: the second of these parts must be dactylic, and the first may be either dactylic or spondaic. The first part must never overlap into the second, but there must be a break between them. Thus: In the best Latin poets, the first foot of each part of the pentameter is a dactyl. The pentameter scarcely exists except in conjunction with the hexameter, to which it always succeeds in elegaic verse. The invention of the rigidly dactylic form was attributed by the Greeks to Archilochus. Schiller described the sound and method of the elegaic couplet in two very skilful verses, which have been copied in many languages:

The pentameter was always considered to add a melancholy air to verse, and it was especially beloved by the Greeks in those recitations to the sound of the flute, which formed the earliest melodic performances at Delphi and elsewhere.  PENTASTOMIDA, or, vermiform entoparasitic animals, of which the exact zoological position is unknown, although they are usually regarded as highly modified degenerate Arachnida of the order Acari.

The body is sub-cylindrical or somewhat convex above, flatter below, broad and oval in front and narrowed and elongate behind. Its integument is marked by a large number of transverse grooves simulating the segmentation of Annelids, and near the anterior extremity close to the mouth are two pairs of recurved chitinous hooks. The alimentary canal is a simple tube traversing the body from end to end, the anus opening at the extremity of its narrowed tail-like termination. The nervous system is represented by an esophageal collar and a suboesophageal ganglion, whence paired nerves pass outwards to innervate the anterior extremity and backwards towards its posterior end. No respiratory or circulatory organs are known. The sexes are distinct but dissimilar in size, the female being usually much larger than the male. The generative organs occupy a large part of the body cavity. In the female the ovary is a large unpaired organ from the anterior end of which arise two oviducts, and connected with the latter are a pair of large so-called copulatory pouches, which perhaps act as receptacula seminis. These and the oviducts lie on the anterior half of the body; but the oviducts themselves soon unite to form a single tube of great length, which runs backwards to its posterior extremity, terminating in the genital orifice close to the anus,