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 102 PUTREFACTION PYAT presided over a convention that met in Boston on March 1, 1786, and formed the Ohio com- pany, of which he was made a director. The company bought 1,500,000 acres of government land, and Putnam landed at the mouth of the Muskingum on April 7, 1788, and laid out the city of Marietta, the first permanent settle- ment in Ohio. In 1790 he was appointed judge 'over the territory N. W. of the Ohio, and in 1796 surveyor general of United States lands. In May, 1792, he had been appointed a briga- dier general in the United States army, and com- missioned to make a treaty with the tribes on the W abash. In 1803 Jefferson removed him from the surveyorship, and in the same year he was a member of the convention which framed the Ohio state constitution. PUTREFACTION. See FERMENTATIOX, 'vol. vii., p. 144. PUTTY, a kind of cement used for filling cav- ities in cabinet and carpenter's work, for fast- ening window panes in sashes, and kindred purposes. Ordinary glazier's putty is made of whiting (finely levigated chalk) and boiled linseed oil, kneaded into a doughy mass and beaten with a mallet. The addition of a small quantity of tallow prevents its getting too hard. French putty is made by boiling 4 Ibs. of brown umber in 7 Ibs. of linseed oil for about two hours, adding 2 oz. of melted wax, 5 Ibs. of whiting, and 11 Ibs. of dry white lead, mixing well. This putty is very durable, and will adhere to unpainted wood. PUY, Le, a town of France, capital of the department of Haute-Loire, 270 in. S. S. E. of Paris; pop. in 1872, 19,532. It is at the junc- tion of the valleys of the Loire, Borne, and Dolaison, and is one of the most picturesque towns of France. It is on the steep southern acclivity of Mont Anis, which is crowned by a mass of volcanic rock with a flat top, called Rocher de Oorneille. On this was erected in 1860 a colossal statue of the Virgin, made from 213 iron cannon captured at Sevastopol. The principal part of the town occupies a series of terraces. The cathedral, a fine Romanesque building of the 10th century, is reached by a stairway of 118 steps. Le Puy has also two ecclesiastical seminaries, a lyceum, normal school, public library, museum, theatre, and institutions for the deaf and dumb and the blind. It manufactures lace, bells, and clocks. PUY-DE-DOME, a S. central department of France, in Auvergne, bordering on Allier, Loire, Haute-Loire, Oantal, Correze, and Creuse; area, 3,073 sq. m. ; pop. in 1872, 566,463. It is traversed by the Forez moun- tain, branches of the Cevennes, and the Au- vergne group, among the highest summits of which are the Puy de D6me, nearly 5,000 ft., and Mont. Dor or Dore, more than 6,000 ft. There are many extinct volcanoes. The chief river is the Allier. A large part of the sur- face consists of the fertile valley of Limagne. Mineral springs, lead, antimony, coal, and tim- ber abound. The soil, though stony, is pro- ductive, particularly in the north; the hillsides are covered with orchards and vineyards, and there are extensive chestnut plantations. It is divided into the arrondissements of Ambert, Clermont-Ferrand, Issoire, Riom, and Thiers. Capital, Clermont-Ferrand. PYAT, Fflix, a French author, born in Vierzon, department of Cher, Oct. 4, 1810. He studied law in Paris, and was admitted to the bar in 1831, but devoted himself entirely to literature and politics. He contributed to several jour- nals, furnished Jules Janin with one of the most striking chapters of his Hamate, and was connected as feuilletonwte with the Siecle, and afterward for several years as political editor with the National. His first play, composed in conjunction with Theodore Burette, Une revolution d'autrefois, was brought out at the Odeon, March 1, 1832, but was suppressed at once on account of its bold political allusions. Une conjuration (Tautrefois, printed in 1833 in the Retue des Deux Mondes, and Arabella, in which, under assumed names, he branded the supposed accomplices in the death of the duke of Bourbon, were of a similar political charac- ter. In conjunction with Luchet, he produced in 1834 Le brigand et le philosophe, and in 1885 Ango. Politics now engaged his attention for about six years. In 1841 his Deux serruriers had an extraordinary run ; and his Cedric le Norvegien (1842), Diogene (1846), and Le chjf- fonnier (1847), his last play, were also success- ful. In 1844, for a violent pamphlet, Marie Joseph Chenier et le prince de critiques, against his former friend Jules Janin, he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment. He left the Na- tional for the more revolutionary Reforme, and on the proclamation of the republic in 1848 sided with the socialists. Elected to the con- stituent assembly, he became one of its secre- taries, and voted with the party of the moun- tain. After his reelection in 1849, he signed Ledru-Rollin's "Appeal to Arms," June 13, accompanied him to the conservatoire dcs arts et metiers, and making his escape first took refuge in Switzerland, and then removed to Belgium, where he occasionally wrote political pamphlets, became connected with the " Euro- pean revolutionary committee," and wrote an apology for the attempt to assassinate Napo- leon III. He refused to profit by the amnesty granted by the emperor in 1859 ; but after that of 1869 he returned to France. In the same year, however, he was again forced to conceal himself on account of prosecutions brought against him for articles in the Rappel. At first he remained in hiding in Paris, but after the plebiscitum of May, 1870, more vigorous measures were taken against him, and he es- caped to London. He was found guilty of taking part in various revolutionary conspira- cies, and although safe from arrest was sen- tenced in contumaciam to five years' imprison- ment and a heavy fine. On the fall of the empire Pyat returned to Paris, and during the German siege edited the Combat and the Ven-