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 794 ' POUILLET PGUP ART ital of $1,585,000, a savings bank, and an in- surance company. It is divided into six wards, is governed by a mayor and 12 aldermen, and has a police force, fire department, and water works. The principal charitable institutions are St. Barnabas hospital, a home for the friendless, old ladies' home, and house of in- dustry. .There are good graded public schools, including a high school department, Eastman business college, and about 15 private schools and academies. Three daily and six weekly newspapers are published. The city library, free to all, contains about 8,500 volumes, and has good reading rooms. The young men's Christian association has also a large build- ing, with reading rooms, &c., free to all. The number of churches is 20, viz.: 1 Baptist, 1 Congregational, 3 Episcopal, 2 Friends', 1 Ger- man Lutheran, 1 German Methodist, 1 Jewish, 4 Methodist Episcopal (1 colored), 1 Presby- terian, 2 Reformed, and 3 Roman Catholic (1 German). Poughkeepsie was originally set- tled by several Dutch families in 1690-1700. In 1778 the legislature was convened by Gov. Clinton at the Van Kleeck house, a stone building pierced for musketry and used for. defence, and among other acts gave its assent to the articles of confederation ; and it was here on July 26, 1788, that the national consti- tution was ratified in the state convention as- sembled for its consideration. Poughkeepsie received a city charter in 1854. A railroad bridge over the Hudson here is projected. POUILLET, Claude Gervais MatMas, a French physicist, born at Cuzance, Doubs, Feb. 16, 1791, died in Paris, June 15, 1868. He studied at the normal school in Paris, was successively a teacher there and in the college Bourbon, and tutor of the sons of Louis Philippe. In 1829 he became professor of physical sciences at the conservatory of arts and industry, and he was chief director of that institution from 1831 till the coup d'etat of Dec. 2, 185J. He was also elected to the academy of sciences. His Elements de physique experimental et de meteorologie (2 vols., Paris, 1827; 7th ed., 1856) served as the basis for J. H. J. Miiller's cele- brated Lehrbuch der PhysiTc und der Meteo- rologie (2 vols., Brunswick, 1842). The best known of Pouillet's other publications is No- tions generates de physique et de meteorologie (1850 ; 3d ed., 1860). POUJOULAT, Jean Joseph Francois, a French author, born at La Fare, Bouches-du-Rh6ne, Jan. 26, 1808. He was educated at the college of Aix, went to Paris in 1826, and assisted M. Michaud in preparing his Bibliotheque des croi- sades, and in 1830 accompanied him on a tour through the East, an account of which they published in their Correspondance d" 1 Orient (7 vols., Paris, 1833-'5). He edited with Michaud the Nouvelle collection des memoires pour ser- vir d Vkistoire de France depuis le 13" siecle jusqu'a la fin du 18 e (34 vols. 8vo, 1836-'8). He has written histories of France from 1814, of the French revolution, and of Jerusalem ; lives of St. Augustine (whose complete works he translated), Pere Ravignan, Cardinal Maury, and Archbishop Sibour ; travels in Algeria, &c. His brother BAPTISTIN (1809-' 64) wrote histories of Constantinople, of the popes, and of Richard Coaur de Lion, travels in the East, and other works. POULPE. See OCTOPUS. POUND (Lat. pondus, a weight), a measure of weight. Two different pounds are in use, one called the avoirdupois or commercial pound, equal to 7,000 grains, and the other the apoth- ecaries' or troy pound, of 5,760 grains. (See AVOIRDUPOIS.) POUND (Anglo-Sax, pund, a fold), in law, a pen, pinfold, or enclosure of any kind author- ized by law and belonging to a town, city, or county, in which domestic animals that are wandering about, or trespassing, may be con- fined until claimed and taken out by the owner, by due process of law or in a lawful way. The practice of impounding stray or mischievous cattle is extremely ancient in England, and was adopted by the American colonies from their beginning. The whole process is carefully regulated by statutes in the United States, the provisions of which differ very much. In general they permit a sale of the property im- pounded for the cost of keeping, if it is not taken away and costs paid within a fixed time. POUND STERLING, a denomination of money, originating from the pound weight of silver, which anciently was divided into 240 parts called pence. These pence were designated esterling, whence the name " sterling," the legal description of the English current coin. This is supposed by some writers to have been derived originally from Easterlings, the pop- ular name of traders from the Baltic and from Germany, who visited London in the middle ages, and some of whom were probably em- ployed in coining. By others it is supposed, perhaps with more probability, to be a diminu- tive of star, and in some old writers it is writ- ten starling, the penny being so called from the small star often stamped upon it. The pound sterling is a money of account ; the gold coin representing it is called a sovereign, the current value of which in United States coin is now (1875) $4-8665. POUPART, Francois, a French anatomist, born in Le Mans in 1661, died Oct. 31, 1709. He studied medicine at Paris and at Rheims, at which latter place he received his medical de- gree. His name has been connected by com- mon consent with the fibrous band known as " Poupart's ligament," extending from the an- terior superior spinous process of the ileum the spine of the pubis, although it is general- ly conceded that his description of this struc- ture was not remarkable for either originality or correctness. He became a member of the academy of sciences, and most of his worl mainly on subjects connected with anator and natural history, were published in the m< moirs of that body.