Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/794

 780 PACHYDEEMATA recognized a common superior. On the oppo- site bank of the Nile there was a convent for women founded by the sister of Pachomius, and governed by the same rules as those for the men. The rules of Pachomius were trans- lated into Latin by St. Jerome, and are still extant in Lucas Holstenius's Codex Regularum Monasticarum et Canoniearum (fol., Geneva, 1769). Several of his letters have also been preserved, and both may be found in Galland's Bibliotheca Patrum (1768). P1CHYDERMATA (Gr. naxbs, thick, and dep/m, skin), the name given by Cuvier to a group of herbivorous mammals, generally large and un- wieldy, with a thick skin, naked or sparingly covered with hair. Among its living members are the elephant, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, manatee, tapir, hog, and peccary, and among the extinct genera the mastodon, dinotherium, palseotherium, lophiodon, macrauchenia, and toxodon. They are allied to ruminants by the fossil anoplotherium, and to rodents by the hyrax, while the hiatus bet ween the rhinoceros, tapir, and elephant was filled by the extinct lophiodon, macrauchenia, palaeotherium, and their allied genera. In the present epoch the genera and species are few, but during the ter- tiary period they existed under a far greater variety of form and in more northern habitats. In the system of Cuvier the pachyderms in- cluded all non-ruminating hoofed quadrupeds, divided into proboscidia (elephants), solidun- gula (horse, &c.), and ordinary pachyderms subdivided according to the odd or even num- ber of the hoofs. Wagner makes sections: I., anisodactyla, with hoofs in a single series around the bottom of the foot, and with skin usually naked, including the four families of elephant, tapir, hippopotamus, and rhinoceros ; II., zygodactyla, with two hoofed toes for walking and two others placed higher up, including the hog family; and III., lamnun- gia, with flattened nails instead of hoofs, including the hyrax family. According to Owen's cerebral system (see MAMMALIA), the pachyderms would comprise all the hoofed quadrupeds except the ruminants and solidun- gulates, with the addition of the sirenoid muti- , lata. Van der Hoeven combines the systems of Cuvier and Owen, as follows: order pachy- dermata, with phalanx I., proboscidia, with the elephant family; II., perissodactyla, with an odd number of toes, with the families nasicor- nia (rhinoceros), lamnungia (hyrax), tapirina, and solidungula ; and III., artiodactyla, with even toes, including the hog and hippopotamus families. Huxley divides the old pachyderms into proboscidea, hyracoidea, and the peris- sodactyl and artiodactyl ungulata, the latter including the ruminantia. Most modern sys- tematists, since Owen, do not use the term, dividing its members among various orders, according to the hoofs and toes. The skeleton is generally massive, indicating great strength but inactive habits; the thoracic cavity is enormous, in proportion to the great bulk and PACIFIC OCEAN weight of the viscera ; the limbs are robust, though adapted for running in the smaller members like the hog ; there are no clavicles ; the peculiarities of the skeleton and teeth are given in the articles devoted to the different animals. The stomach is generally simple, and the intestines very long and voluminous, in accordance with the bulky and vegetable char- acter of their food; the brain is well devel- oped, and the complexity of the convolutions ranks them with the subclass gyrencepliala of Owen, but, with the exception of the hog, be- low the ruminants and carnivora ; the nasal apparatus is richly endowed with nerves, form- ing a delicate organ of touch, and in some of prehension. They occur in the warmer cli- mates of all parts of the world except Austra- lia, in the present epoch. PACIFIC, the S. W. county of Washington territory, bordering on the Pacific ocean, and bounded S. by the Columbia river; area, 1,140 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 738. It is deeply indent- ed by Shoalwater bay, into which flows the Willopah river. The fisheries are a source of wealth, oysters being abundant, especially in the bay. In the valley of the Willopah there is considerable productive land, and a short dis- tance up the Columbia cement rock and sil- ver-bearing veins are found. Cape Hancock (formerly Disappointment) forms the S. W. ex- tremity of the county. The chief productions in 1870 were 550 bushels of wheat, 1,270 of oats, 4,695 of potatoes, 4,950 Ibs. of wool, 10,375 of butter, and 386 tons of hay. The value of live stock was $42,425. Capital, Oysterville. PACIFIC OCEAN, the largest ocean on the globe, bounded E. by the American continent, N. by the same and by the chain of the Aleu- tian islands (Behring sea not being properly oceanic in its character), and W. by the chain of continental islands and peninsulas lying off the coast of Asia, the chain of the Melanesian islands, and the continent of Australia. This whole boundary, starting from the S. part of Chili, following up the line of the Cordille- ras through Central and North America, the Aleutian islands, and the islands E. of Asia, and continuing it from Papua through the New Hebrides and New Caledonia to New Zealand, is remarkable as being, with some interrup- tions, the great zone of volcanoes; no fewer than 400, extinct and active, being known on that line. The southern limit, as in the Atlan- tic and Indian oceans, is an artificial one, the Antarctic circle. The first European discov- erer of the Pacific ocean was Vasco Nunez de Balboa, who on Sept. 26, 1513, saw it from one of the mountains near the isthmus of Da- rien. It was first traversed by Magalhaens, from the strait bearing his name to the Phi- lippine islands (1520-'21). From him it re- ceived its name of Pacific, on account of the constant fair weather which accompanied him during his voyage. It is also called the Great ocean with more propriety, or the South sea, a title now nearly obsolete. The E. or Ameri-