Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/49

 PANTHER PAOLI 39 der the name of Sancta Maria ad Martyres, | but which is still commonly called the Panthe- on. It stands in a piazza between the Corso and the piazza Navona, near the centre of the ancient Campus Martius, and after the lapse of 19 centuries is the best preserved of the monuments of ancient Rome. It is a rotunda, 143 ft. in diameter, surmounted by a dome, of which the summit is 143 ft. above the pave- ment. (See DOME.) The most remarkable feature of the Pantheon is its Corinthian por- tico, 110 ft. in length by 44 in depth, composed of 16 granite columns, with marble capitals and bases, disposed in a triple row, each column being 46 ft. high and 5 ft. in diameter. These columns support a pediment, a large portion of the bronze roof of which was removed by the emperor Constantius II. and the remainder by Pope Urban VIII., to make columns for altars and cannons for the castle of Sant' Angelo. Benedict XIV. removed many fine marbles from the interior to decorate other buildings. Other features of the Pantheon, such as the bronze doors, the niches and adiculm, the mar- ble cornice and the mosaic pavement of the interior, are in excellent preservation, and give an adequate idea of the original splendor of the edifice. An inscription on the frieze of the portico shows that it was erected by Agrip- pa in his third consulate, while another below records repairs by the emperors Septimus Seve- rus and Caracalla. It contains the tombs of Raphael, Annibale Carracci, and other cele- brated painters. The Pantheon or Ste. Gene- vieve's in Paris is in the shape of a Greek cross formed of four aisles uniting under a dome 66 ft. 8 in. in diameter at the base, and 258 ft. in height from the floor to the top of the lantern. (See DOME.) The height of the edifice is 190 ft. from the ground, the length externally 340 ft. It was built at the instance of Mme. de Pompadour to replace the old church of Ste. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris. It was begun by the architect Soufflot in 1764, was finished in 1790, was dedicated in 1791 as a Pantheon to perpetuate the memory of illus- trious citizens, was made a church in 1822, be- came once more a Pantheon in 1831, and in 1853 was restored to religious purposes. In the insurrection of June, 1848, it was a refuge for some of the insurgents, and the interior was somewhat injured by cannon balls fired at them through the west doors. In 1871 the vaults were stored with vats of petroleum and barrels of powder, the communists intending to blow up the building ; but it was taken from them on May 24, and the explosion was pre- vented. The crypts contain cenotaphs and tombs of Voltaire, Rousseau, Souiflot, Lannes, Lagrange, and other eminent men. PANTHER (fells pardus, Linn.), a large Af- rican spotted cat, considered by Temminck and most modern naturalists as a variety of the leopard (F. leopardus, Linn, or L. varius, Gray), but regarded by Cuvier, Hamilton Smith, and others, as a true species. Skins of all the spotted cats vary so much, even the two sides of the same animal being unlike, that it is difficult to pronounce on the identity of these two animals; travellers and furriers consider them the same, and naturalists have been ready to follow their opinion. The description of the panther by Linnaeus is false, and others of the older naturalists confound this animal with the jaguar (F. onca) of South America. Cuvier gives them as separate, this animal being the pardalis of the Greeks and the panthera of the Romans, and says if any leopard was by them confounded with it, it was the cheetah or hunt- ing leopard (F. jubatd). If not distinct spe- cies, the panther and leopard are very marked varieties. The former is more powerful, dark- er colored, with the crowded markings ar- ranged with considerable regularity, and the tail longer in proportion; H. Smith describes one as 5 ft. long without the tail, and 2| ft. high at the shoulder ; of a buff yellow color, ap- proaching to ochrey on the back and sides, and with no white anywhere ; with seven vertical rows of imperfect dark rings on the sides, each formed by an assemblage of five or six sim- ple spots, darkest within the rings, descending even to the knees ; the tail spotted to the end, and a narrow black bar across the lower part of the throat; in the leopard the rings are more numerous and the spots smaller. This is prob- ably the animal so abundantly supplied to the public spectacles of ancient Rome, hundreds having been exhibited together. The panther is less common than the leopard, and confined chiefly, if not entirely, to Africa ; it is an ex- pert climber, very active, and readily trained; the female is gravid nine weeks, and the young are born blind. The panther of South America is the jaguar, and of North America the cou- guar. (See LEOPAED.) PMTICARffilM. See KEETCH. PAOLI. I. Pasquale, a Corsican patriot, born near Morosaglia in 1726, died in London, Feb. 5, 1807. His father Giacinto was a leader of the Corsicans in their struggles against the Genoese and the French. Being exiled, he went in 1739 to Naples. There Pasquale was educated, and subsequently served as an officer in one of the Corsican regiments of Naples, formed of refugees from that island. In 1755 he returned to Corsica, was unanimously chosen for the annual magistracy, and in a consulta, held July 16, was offered the supreme com- mand of the troops. He shared the command, however, with Mario Matra, who was killed in 1757, when Paoli procured from the consulta the confirmation of his rank as general for life, and, pursuing the war against the Genoese, beat them back from the interior of the island, hemmed them in within a few seaports, de- feated their army under Grimaldi, and organ- ized a navy that seriously interfered with their trade. Turning his attention next to civil affairs, he established permanent courts, in- troduced uniformity of weights and measures, regulated the coinage, encouraged agriculture,