Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/348

Rh 332 P O L - P L markings. Its skull is rough, strongly ridged, and alto gether of a far more powerful type than those of the stoats, weasels, or martens ; the skull of the female is very much smaller and lighter than that of the male. Its fur is long, coarse, and of comparatively small value, and changes its colour very little, if at all, at the different seasons of the year. The distribution and habits of the common polecat have been well described by Blasius in his Saiiyethiere Deutsck- lands, and the following is an abstract of his account. The polecat ranges over the greater part of Europe, reach ing northwards into southern Sweden, and in Russia to the region of the White Sea. It does not occur in the extreme south, but is common everywhere throughout central Europe. In the Alps it ranges far above the tree- line during the summer, but retreats in winter to lower ground. In fine weather it lives either in the open air, in holes, fox-earths, rabbit-warrens, under rocks, or in wood- stacks ; while in winter it seeks the protection of deserted buildings, barns, or stables. During the day it sleeps in its hiding place, sallying forth at night to plunder dovecots and hen-houses. It climbs but little, and shows far less activity than the marten. It feeds ordinarily on small mammals, such as rabbits, hamsters, rats, and mice, on such birds as it can catch, especially poultry and pigeons, and also on snakes, lizards, frogs, fish, and eggs. Its prey is devoured only in its lair, but, even though it can carry away but a single victim, it commonly kills everything that comes in its way, often destroying all the inhabitants of a hen-house in order to gratify its passion for slaughter. The pairing time is towards the end of the winter, and the young, from three to eight in number, are born in April or May, after a period of gestation of about two months. The young, if taken early, may be easily trained, like ferrets, for rabbit-catching. The polecat is very tena cious of life and will bear many severe wounds before succumbing ; it is also said to receive with impunity the bite of the adder. Its fetid smell has become pro verbial. To this it is indebted for its generic name Futo- rius (derived, as are also the low Latin putatius, the French putois, and the Italian puzzola, from jjuteo), as well as the designation foumart (i.e. foul marten), and its other Eng lish names fitchet, fitchew. Attempts to account for the first syllable of the word polecat rest entirely on conjec ture. The other species of the polecat group are the follow ing -. The Siberian Polecat (Putorius cvcrsmanni), very like the European in size, colour, and proportions, but with head and back both nearly or quite white, and skull more heavily built and sharply constricted behind the orbits, at least in fully adult indi viduals. It inhabits the greater part of south-western Siberia, extending from Tibet into the steppes of south-eastern European Russia. The Black-footed or American Polecat (Putorius nigripes), a native of the central plateau of the United States, and extending southwards into Texas. It is very closely allied to the last species, but has nevertheless been made the type of a special sub-genus named Cynomyonax, or &quot; King of the Prairie Marmots,&quot; a name which expresses its habit of living in the burrows of, and feeding upon, the curious prairie marmots (Cynomys) of the United States. An excellent account of this species may be found in Dr Elliott Coues s Fur-bearing Animals of North America. Lastly, the Mottled Polecat (Putorius sarmaticus), a rare and peculiar species occurring in southern Russia and south-western Asia, extending from eastern Poland to Afghanistan. It differs from the other polecats both by its smaller size and its remarkable coloration, the whole of its upper parts being marbled with large irregular reddish spots on a white ground, and its underside, limbs, and tail being deep shining black. Its habits, which seem to be very much those of the common polecat, have been studied in Kandahar by Captain Thomas Hutton, who has given a vivid description of them in the Journal of Ike Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1845. POLEVOY. See RUSSIAN LITERATURE. POLICE. The branch of criminal justice which com prises a methodical system for the prevention and detection of crime is commonly known by the name of &quot;Police.&quot; With the system having these objects is combined the execution of many duties not strictly involved in the popular defini tion of crime, but materially affecting the security and convenience of the public. Bentham, more comprehen sively, says that police is in general a system of precaution either for the prevention of crime or of calamities. It is destined to prevent evils and provide benefits. The system for the attainment of these objects and the introduction and establishment of that system in the L T nited Kingdom form the main subject of this article ; some account will afterwards be given of the police in other states. In this view the definition and use of the word &quot; police,&quot; as meaning the regulation and government of the city and country in relation to the inhabitants, are not sufficiently close. When Blackstone says that by the public police and economy he means &quot; the due regulation and domes tic order of the kingdom, whereby the individuals of the state, like members of a well governed family, are bound to conform their general behaviour to the rules of pro priety, good neighbourhood, and good manners, and to be decent, industrious, and inoffensive in their respective stations,&quot; the definition is capable of an interpretation at once too wide and too narrow for the present purpose. It is vain to look for an accurate description of police, as a system, in .writers of a period when the thing sought for had no existence. The system is of recent growth, and it is necessarily more associated with personal instruments for the attainment of objects than with the objects to be attained. An observation of Gibbon, referring to the aediles and quaestors of the Roman empire, that officers of the police or revenue easily adapt themselves to any form of government, correctly presents the idea of distinctive personal elements. A system of police administration includes neither the making of the law nor the law itself. Officers of police are neither legislators nor (in the usual sense) magistrates. They are the instruments by which conformity to the rules of the commonwealth is attained. Apart from the repression of crime as generally under stood, it is plain that, at least in crowded cities, a power ought to exist for the suppression of noise and disorder, the regulation of locomotion and traffic, the correction of indecency, and the prevention of a numerous class of annoyances and impositions which can only be restrained by cognizance being taken of them at the instant. To these may be added a number of petty disputes the immediate settlement of which tends materially to the public peace. Over such subjects as these it is obviously for the general advantage the police should have a summary control. Any apprehension of danger to liberty can only be founded on its abuse and not upon its proper exercise. The employment of persons in these various duties, as well as in the prevention and detection of graver matters of crime, constitutes a division of state labour. Therefore, while it is perfectly correct to speak of the various legisla tive and other measures for good order as &quot;matters of police,&quot; the organization and management of the police forces constitute a distinct subject. The essential features of the established police system, alike in Great Britain and in foreign states, in cities and towns as in countries and village communities, comprise the following matters : I. A body of persons in relation to the state enforcing obedience to the criminal law, the prevention and detec tion of crime, and the preservation of order, over a defined area, generally divided and subdivided for the purpose of distribution and immediate government of the force, but having one jurisdiction throughout.