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PINTO— PITRA.

PINTO, Alexandre Alberto DA RocHA Sbrpa, was born April 20, 1846, at the Tendaes in the Province of Douro, Portugal, and educated at the Eoyal Military College, Lisbon. He entered the 7th Infantry Kegiment, Aug. 13, 1863 ; became ensign July 14, 1864 ; lieutenant in the 12th Eifles, Nov. 20, 1868; captain, Oct. 10, 1874 j major, April 17, 1877 ; and aide- de-camp of the King of Portugal, March 10, 1880. In 1869 he was in the Zambesi War, and in the battle of the 23rd Nov. at Massangano he succeeded in saving the regiment of India. He was then in command of the African Native Troop. Du- ring 1877-79 he crossed Africa from Benguella to Durban, and he has admirably described the journey in a work entitled "How I Crossed Africa," Lond., 1881. These geo- gi'aphical tasks obtained for him the gold medals (first class) of the Geographical Societies of London, Paris, Antwerp, Eome, and Mar- seilles. He was also elected a Fellow of all the most important geographical societies in the world, and of many scientific associations. Major Serpa Pinto is a Knight Commander of the Order of St. James of Portugal, a Knight of the Legion of Honour, and of Leopold of Belgium, and has received many other foreign orders.

P I R I E, William Robinson, D.D., son of the Rev. George Pirie, D.D., minister of Slains, Aberdeen- shire, was born in that village July 26, 1804, and educated at the Uni- versity of Aberdeen. He was ap- pointed minister of Dyce in 1830 j Professor of Divinity in the Uni- versity of Marischal College, Aber- deen, in Dec, 1843 ; and minister of Greyfriars, Aberdeen, in Sept., 1846. On the imion of the Uni- versities of Marischal and King's Colleges, Aberdeen, he was declared Professor of Divinity and Church History in the united University '1860). In 1877, he was nominated

' the Crown Principal of that

University, of which he is also Vice -Chancellor. Dr. Pirie has been connected with every impor- tant political measure which has been agitated in Scotland during the last forty years.

PITMAN, Isaac, born at Trow- bride, Wilts, Jan. 4, 1813, and edu- cated at the Gi'ammar School in that town, after having been clerk for some time, was trained in the Normal College of the British and Foreign School Society in London, and was appointed Master of the British School, Barton - on - Himi- ber, in 1832. He established the British School at Wootton-under- Edge in 1836, and removed to Bath in 1839. His first treatise on short- hand, entitled " Stenographic Sound- hand," appeared in 1837, and he became inventor of the system of phonetic writing, to which he has devoted his entire attention since 1843, in which year the Pho- netic Society was formed. His system of " Phonog^raphy, or Writ- ing of Sound," appeared in 1S40 ; and his " Phonog^phic Reporter's Companion" in 1853. The •* Pho- netic Institute," at Bath, is reaUy a phonetic printing office : Mr. Pit- man edits and prints the Phonetic Journal weekly, and lithographs the shorthand Supplemenl which accompanies it. This journal is printed in phonetic type, except a small portion in ordinary type, which records the progress of the "Writing and Spelling Reform." Besides printing his own instruc- tion-books for teaching phonetic shorthand, Mr. Pitman has issued a little library of books printed entirely in shorthand, ranging from the Bible to "Rasselas."

PITRA, His Eminence John Baptist, a French Cardinal, born at Champforgueil, near Auton, Aug 31, 1812, embraced the ecclesi- astical profession at an early a^e, and after being for some time teacher of rhetoric in the seminaiy of his native town, became a Bene- dictine monk in the abbey of So-