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* PLIANT. 119 PLINY. PLIANT, Sib Paul. A henpecked, stupid husband in Congreve's Doiihle Dealer. Lady Pliant is a handsome, sillj woman wlio rules her old husband and presumes on his blindness. PLICA (Xeo-Lat., from Lat. plicare, to fold), Triciio.m.. Plica Poloxica. A condition in which the hair of the scalp, the beard, or the hair of the pubes becomes matted together, form- ing a stit: mass or a firm rope, which is exceedingly difficult to disentangle. The condi- tion is observed among the inhabitants of Galicia, Posen, Poland, and Silesia, and is due to neglect, especially during illness. It was formerly re- garded as a disease. ICaturally. such a mass becomes easily infested with fungi and vermin. Superstition prevents cutting or combing the hair, as the matting is believed to prevent sick- ness and misfortune. PLIMSOLL, pllm'sol, Samuel (1824-1898). An English reformer, kno^^^l as 'The Sailor's Friend.' He was born and educated in Bristol. As a coal dealer in London he began to take an interest in the carrying trade and to remark upon the risks to sailors in being shipped upon over-laden or unseaworthy vessels, largely in- sured. As a member of Parliament (for Derby), and by his book Our i<eainen ( 1873), he aroused so much discussion of the abu.ses that his meas- ures for reform ultimately were adopted. His Cuttle Ships ( 1890) was written with a view to reformation in that branch of the merchant ser- vice, and his name is remembered by the 'Plimsoll mark' on all ships, above which they must not be laden. See Load Line ilABKS or Vessels. PLINTH (Lat. pliiithtis. from Gk. ttXWos, plinthos. brick, tile, plinth ). The square memlier at the bottom of the base of a column. Also the plain projecting band forming a base of a wall. PLINT THE Elder. GAirs Plimus Secux- Drs. Tlie author of the celebrated Hislorin atii- rrilh. Ho was horn in the north of Italy, probably at Xo-um Comum {Como), a.d. 23. Whether it was Ills birthplace or not. Novum Comum was certainly his family's place of residence, since he had estates in its neighborhood. While still young he was sent to Rome, where his ample means and high connections secured him the best education. At the age of twenty-three he entered the army, and served in Germany as commander of a troop of cavalry under Lucius Pomponius Secundus. of whom, in later life, he wrote a memoir. He traveled over nearly all the frontier of that extensive province, visited the Chauci and the sources of the Danube, composed during the intervals of military duty his treatise De laciildlione Efjuestri. and commenced a history (afterwards completed in twenty books) of the Germanic wars. On his return to Rome in r>l with Pomponius. he entered on the study of juris- prudence : but his pleading was imsuccessful. and, accordingly, he retired to his native place. There he wrote his Hludioaus. a treatise in three books on the training of a young orator from the nursery to his entrance on public life, and ap- parently intended to guide the education of his nephew: also his grammatical work, Duhius Sermo. in eight books. Shortly before N'ero's death we find him a procurator in Spain, where, in 71. he heard of his brother-in-law's decease, and of his being intrusted with the guardianship of his nephew, Pliny the Younger, whom he adopted on his return to Rome before 73. Ves- pasian, the reigning Emperor, whom he had known while in Germany, received him as one of his most intimate friends; and it was at this period that he completed, in 31 books, and brought down to his own time the Roman liistory of Aufidius Bassus. His mode of study at this time was a model of systematic assiduity. He would begin his studies by candle-light in au- tiunn at a late hour of the night, and in winter at one or two in the morning. Before daybreak he would call on the Emperor, for whom he would proceed to execute various conmiissions ; this done he would return home and resume his studies. A slender meal would follow ; after which he would take notes or extracts from the books which were read to him. The practice of jotting down important facts or observations was habit- ual with him, and he was often heard to say that there was no book, however bad. fiom which some good could not be got. A cold bath, fol- lowed by a light meal and a short sleep, occupied anotlier interval, after which he would study till the cena, or dinner-time. Even at this meal some book was read to him on which he would make comments. When on a journey, again, he was never without a secretary at his elbow, provided with a book and tablets. By this mode of life he collected an immense mass of materials, from which he compiled his great Historia yaturaUs, published about 77. Xo fewer than IGO rolumiiia of notes were found at his death, two years afterwards. At the time of the great erujition of Vesuvius, which overwhelmed Herculaneum and Pompeii, in 79, he was stationed off Jlisenum, in command of the Roman fleet. Eager to examine the phenomenon more closely, he landed at Sta- bise, where he was suffocated by the vapors caused by the eruption. He was. as his nephew tells us, corpulent and asthmatic, and so sank the more readily. None of his attendants shared his fate. The story of his death is described in two letters of his nephew, Pliny the Younger, to Tacitus, written many years after the event (v., IG and 20). Of all his works, only his Bistoria yaturnlis has come down to us. It comprehends astronomy, meteorologA', geography, mineralogv'. zoology, botany, everything, in short, which is a natural or non-artificial product, iloreover, the work is interspersed with digressions on such subjects as human institutions and inventions, and the history of the fine arts. It is divided into 37 books, the first of them being a dedicatory epis- tle to Titus, with a table of contents of the remaining books, and eml)races, as we are told in the preface. 20.000 matters of importance, extracted from about 2000 volumes. Its scientific merit is not great. There is little attempt at philosophical arrangement; the observations are nearly all taken at second hand, and show small discrimination in separating the true from the false, or the probable from the marvelous. His meaning is often obscure, owing to his lack of personal acquaintance with the matters of which he treats and his failure to grasp the true sen.se of the authors whom he cites or translates. But the work is a great monument of industry and research, and most valuable as su|)plying us with details on a great variety of subjects as to which we have no other means of information. The best critical editions of the text are those of Sillig (8 vols., Gotha, 18.51-58) : Jan (Leipzig, 1875-80) ; and Mayhoff (a recension of Jan,