Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/542

Rh 522 P R P O R The horizontally-expanded caudal fin is of the form common to all Cetacea. The external surface, as in the rest of the order, is smooth, shining, and devoid of hair, though in the foetal condition a few bristles are found near the nose. The upper parts are dark grey, or nearly black, according to the light in which they are viewed, and the state of moisture or otherwise of the skin ; the under parts are pure white. The line of demarcation between these colours is not distinct, washes or splashes of grey encroaching upon the white on the sides, and varies somewhat in different individuals. Usually it passes from the throat (the anterior part of which, with the whole of the under jaw, is dark) above the origin of the pectoral fin, along the middle of the flank, and descends again to the middle line before reaching the tail. Both sides of the pectoral and caudal fins are black. The anterior edge of the dorsal fin is often furnished with a row of small rounded horny spines or rather tubercles of very variable number, which have been thought to indicate a specific distinction between the animals possessing them (Phocxna tuberculifera, Grey) and those without them, but this has not been confirmed by other characters. One of the most characteristic ana tomical distinctions be tween the porpoise and other members of the Delphinidae is the form of the teeth, which FIG. 2. Teeth of Porpoise. natural size. Twice (numbering twenty-three to twenty-six on each side of each jaw) instead of the usual conical, sharp-pointed, recurved shape, all have expanded, flattened, spade-like crowns, with more or less marked vertical grooves, giving a tendency to a bilobed or often trilobed form (see fig. 2). The porpoise is sociable and gregarious in its habits, being usually seen in small herds, and frequents coasts, bays, and estuaries rather than the open ocean. It is the commonest cetacean in the seas around the British Isles, and not unfrequently ascends the river Thames, having been seen as high up as Richmond ; it has also been observed in the Seine at Neuilly, near Paris. It frequents the Scandinavian coasts, entering the Baltic in the summer; and it is found as far north as Baffin s Bay, and as far west as the coasts of the United States. Southward its range is more limited than that of the common dolphin, as, though very common on the Atlantic coasts of France, it is not known to enter the Mediterranean. It feeds on fish, such as mackerel, pilchards, and herrings, of which it devours large quantities, and, following the shoals, is often caught by fishermen in the nets along with its prey. In former times it was a common and esteemed article of food in England and in France, but is now rarely if ever eaten, being commercially valuable when caught only for the oil obtained from its blubber. Its skin is some times used for leather and boot-thongs, but the so-called &quot; porpoise hides &quot; are generally obtained from a different and larger species of cetacean, the Beluga of the northern seas. A closely similar if not identical species from the American coast of the North Pacific has been described under the name of Phoceena vomerina, and another from the mouth of the Rio de la Plata as P. spinipennis. Another nearly allied form is Neomeris phocienoidcs, a small species from the Indian Ocean and Japan, with teeth of the same form as those of the common porpoise, but fewer in number (eighteen to twenty on each side of each jaw) and of larger size, and more distinctly notched or lobed on the free edge. _ It is distinguished from the common porpoise externally by its entirely black colour and the complete absence of a dorsal fin. PORPORA, NICCOLA (or NICCOLO) ANTONIO (1686- 1767), operatic composer and teacher of singing, was born in Naples on 19th August 1686, and educated at the Con- servatorio di Santa Maria di Loreto by Gaetano Greco and Francesco Mancini. His first opera, Hasilio, was pro duced at Naples, his second, Berenice, at Rome. Both were very successful, and he followed them up by in numerable compositions of like character ; but his fame rests chiefly upon his power of teaching singing an art in which he has never been surpassed, if even equalled. At the Conservatorio di San Onofrio and the Poveri di Gesu Cristo he trained the finest voices of the age. Farinelli the greatest singer who ever lived Caffarelli, Mingotti, Salimbeni, and other celebrated vocalists owed all they ever knew to his teaching. Still his numerous engagements did not tempt him to forsake composition. In 1725 he visited Vienna, but the emperor Charles VI. disliked his florid style, especially his constant use of the trillo, and refused to patronize him. After this rebutt he settled in Venice, teaching regularly in the schools of La Pieta and the Incurabili. In 1728 he removed to Dresden, where he was received with great cordiality by the electoral princess Maria. In 1729 he was invited to London as a rival to Handel ; but his visit was an unfor tunate one. Little less disastrous was his second visit to England in 1734, when even the presence of his pupil, the great Farinelli, failed to save the dramatic company known as the &quot; Opera of the Nobility &quot; from ruin. In order to fulfil his English engagement he procured a release from that previously contracted in Dresden ; but he finally quitted London in 1736, and again settled in Venice. There he remained until 1745, when he returned to Vienna in the suite of the Venetian ambassador, giving lessons in 1754 to the young Joseph Haydn, and returning in 1759 to his birthplace, Naples. From this time Porpora s career was a series of misfortunes. His last opera, Camilla, failed ; and he became so miserably poor that the expenses of his funeral were paid by subscription. Yet at the moment of his death (1767) Farinelli and Caffarelli were living in princely splendour on fortunes for which they were indebted to the excellence of the old maestro s teaching. Porpora was a learned scholar, an accomplished linguist, and a genial wit. Some excellent stories are told in illustration of this last-named characteristic. His compositions are masterly and brilliant, but less remarkable for depth of feeling than for technical display. The style of his oratorios and cantatas is far more elevated than that of his numerous operas. PORSENA or PORSENNA, king of Clusium. See ETRURIA, vol. viii. p. 635, and ROME. PORSON, RICHARD (1759-1808), in some respects the greatest of modern Greek scholars, was born on Christmas Day 1759 at East Ruston, near North Walsham, in Nor folk, the eldest son of Mr Huggin Person, parish clerk of the place. His mother was the daughter of a shoemaker named Palmer, of the neighbouring village of Bacton. He was sent first to the village school at Bacton, kept by Mr John Wooclrow, and afterwards to that of Happisburgh, kept by Mr Summers. Here his extraordinary powers of memory and aptitude for arithmetic were soon discovered ; his skill in penmanship, which attended him through life, was very much due to the care of Mr Summers, who be came early impressed with his abilities, and long afterwards stated that during fifty years of scholastic life he had never come across boys so clever as Person and his two brothers. He was well grounded in Latin by Mr Summers, remaining with him three years. His father also took great pains with his education, making him repeat at night the lessons he had learned in the day. He would frequently repeat without making a mistake a lesson which he had learned one or two years before and had never seen in the interval. For books he had only what his father s cottage supplied a book or two of arithmetic, Greenwood s England, Jewell s Apology, an odd volume of Chambers s Cyclopaedia picked up from a wrecked coaster, and eight or ten volumes of the Universal Magazine.