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 606 PLAYFAIR PLEADING were without any question authentic, and these, being the comedies most carefully preserved, are all extant with one exception, the Vidula- ria, which, being last, was probably torn off in the manuscript. The Uaptwi is usually con- sidered the finest work of Plautus. His plots were mostly taken from the Greek writers of the new comedy, although in his treatment of the subject he does not slavishly adhere to his models. The real name of this poet was not known until it was demonstrated in an essay published by Ritschl in 1842 that it was Titus Maccius, and not Marcus Accius, as it had always been printed. The text of Plautus is very corrupt, some of the scenes having been forged at a later period. A palimpsest manu- script was found in the Ambrosian library of Milan, which was as old as the 5th century, and this also contains interpolations. The edi- tio princeps was published at Venice in 1472, by Georgius Merula. All the modern editions of Plautus have been superseded by that of F. W. Ritschl (5 vols., Bonn, 1848-'54; 2d ed., 1871). Thornton and Warner translated all the plays into English (5 vols. 8vo, 1767-'74). PLAYFAIR, John, a Scottish natural philoso- pher, born at Ben vie, Forfarshire, March 10, 1748, died in Edinburgh, July 19, 1819. He was sent at the age of 14 to the university of St. Andrews to be educated for the Scottish church. Here he was occasionally selected by Prof. Wilkie to lecture to his classes on natu- ral history. On the death of his father in 1772 he entered the ministry, and in 1773 he obtained his father's living of Benvie. In 1779 his " Essay on the Arithmetic of Impos- sible Quantities" was published in the 68th volume of the "Philosophical Transactions." In 1782 he resigned his living to become a pri- vate tutor ; and in 1785 he became assistant professor of mathematics with Dr. Adam Fer- guson in the university of Edinburgh. In 1805 he was appointed general secretary of the Edinburgh royal society, and in the same year became professor of natural philosophy. His literary productions comprise contribu- tions to the "Transactions of the Edinburgh Royal Society" and the "Edinburgh Review," and a number of separate publications, of which a collected edition appeared in 1822 (4 vols. 8vo, Edinburgh). In 1795 appeared his well known edition of Euclid, under the title "Elements of Geometry," prepared for his university classes; in 1802 his "Illustra- tions of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth," and in 1812-'16 his "Outlines of Natural Philosophy " (2 vols. 8vo), containing the sub- stance of his lectures. In 1815-'! 6 he made an extensive geological tour in France, Switz- erland, and Italy, to procure materials for an enlarged edition of the " Illustrations," which he did not live to complete. His last impor- tant work was a " Dissertation on the Progress of Mathematical and Physical Science," pre- pared for the " Supplement to the Encyclopae- dia Britannica," and left by him incomplete. PLAYFAIR, Lyon, an English chemist, born in- Meerut, British India, in 1819. He was edu- cated at St. Andrews, Scotland, studied chem- istry under Thomas Graham in Glasgow and London, and in Giessen under Liebig, and be- came professor of that science in the royal in- stitution at Manchester. He was consulted by Prince Albert on matters of art and science, drew up sanitary reports for the government, was appointed by Sir Robert Peel chemist to the museum of practical geology, and took a prominent part in the exhibition of 1851. He was joint secretary of the department of sci- ence and art from 1853 to 1856, when he was made inspector general of government muse- ums and schools of science. In 1857 he was elected president of the London chemical so- ciety, and in 1858 professor of chemistry in the university of Edinburgh. He resigned his- chair in 1868, and has since represented the universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews in parliament in the liberal interest. In Novem- ber, 1873, he became a member of Gladstone's administration as postmaster general, and re- tired with it in February, 1874. PLEADING. The pleadings in a cause are the alternate allegations, by plaintiff and defen- dant, of those matters of fact which constitute on the one hand the ground of action, and on the other the ground of defence. The science of pleading in general consists of the principles of those rules and formulas according to which, for the sake of method and certainty, these allegations are uniformly expressed. Special pleading is the invention of the English com- mon law ; it is particularly designed to develop the precise point in controversy, and to present it in a shape fit for decision. Other systems allow the parties to make their statements in- dependently of each other and at large, and then require the court, or sometimes the liti- gants themselves, to select from the undigested mass, as precisely as may be possible, the mat- ter of dispute. But it is the distinctive feature of the English method that it compels the par- ties themselves so to guard and narrow their respective statements, that the particular ques- tion for decision, and nothing else, shall be developed in the first instance. The very es- sential effect of this pleading is to clear away the undisputed or immaterial matter which conceals the issue. The system of English pleading, as it existed before its recent over- throw, was one of great antiquity. Like the l)rema or writs, that is, the formulas which were essential to the institution of different kinds of suits, pleading originated probably among the Normans, and was introduced by them into England at the time of the con- quest. To go still further back, it may per- haps be safely asserted that the ~brema and pleading of the English law had a remoter origin in the Roman jurisprudence; but it has been well suggested that the strict and subtle technicalities of the English pleading, which most resembles the earlier Roman forms, were