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* PORPOISE. 259 PORSON. water, are apt to suggest the idea of a great sea-serpent. They feed on fish, and pursue the herring, mackerel, etc., into bays and estuaries. The porpoise sometimes ascends rivers, apparent- ly in pursuit of salmon, as far as the water is brackish, and is not infrequentlj- caught on such occasions, for the sake of its skin, oil, and flesh. The skin is nearly an inch thick, but is planed down until it becomes translucent, and is made into excellent leather, which is used for shoe- SKCSK, OR BAY PORPOISE. strings and for other purposes. Under the skin is a layer of fat, about an inch in depth, ^¥hich yields oil of the finest quality. The flesh was in former times highly esteemed, but it is now little eaten by civilized people. Several other species of Phocoena occur in the South Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, while the name 'por- poise' is carelessly extended to almost any of the smaller dolphins. Consult: Beddard, A Book of Whales (London, 1900) ; Goode, Fishery In- dustries, sec i. (Washington, 1884) ; True, Bulle- tin of the United States 'National Museum, No. 36 (ib., 1889). POR'PORA, XiccolO Aktoxio (1G8G-1766). A famous Ita'lian composer, born at Naples. He studied music under Padre Gaetano, of Perugia, and possibly under Scarlatti. He produced his first opera, Ba-silio, re di Oriente, in 1709. Bere- nice followed in 1710. He began the work for which he subsequently became famous in 1712, wlien he founded the music-school in Naples, which numbered among its pupils Farinelli, Tosi, Senesino, and Caffarelli. He held many im- portant appointments in Austria, Prussia, and Italy; and in 1728 became singing-master to the royal family at Dresden, in which city he also became concert-master of the opera. The follow- ing year he was invited to go to London, where a considerable opposition had been organized against Handel (q.v.). Although some of his best work was written and produced in London, he could not succeed against his rival, and returned in 173(j to Venice, where he was appointed director of the Conservatory. After a period of about nine years he went to Vienna in the train of the Venetian ambassador, and during the three years of his stay was held in high repute as a teacher, Haydn studying under him part of the time. He went to Dresden in 1748, where he became Court kapellmeister, and returned to Naples in 1751. PORRIGO. A general name for various scalp diseases, especially favus and ringworm (qq.v.). PORSE'NA, or PORSENNA, Laks. In the early and uncertain history of Rojne, a powerful King of Clusium (now Chiusi), in Etruria. Ac- cording to the legend told by Livy, when Tarquin the Proud was expelled from Rome he sought the help of his Etruscan kinsmen in Veii and Tar- quinii. against his revolted subjects: but their efforts not proving successful, he turned to Por- sena, who willingly espoused his cause, and inarched a great army against Rome. The Etrus- can King seized the Janiculum, a fortified hill on the west side of the Tiber, and would have forced his way into the city across the "Bridge of Wooden Piles" {pons suhlicius), had not a brave Roman, Horatius Codes, kept the whole of Por- sena's army at bay, while his comrades behind him hewed down the bridge; after which he plunged into the Tiber, and safely swam across its waves. Porsena, we are informed, now laid siege to Rome, and after a while the inhabitants began to suffer so severely from famine that they had recourse to a desperate expedient. Three hundred of the noblest Roman youths swore to risk their lives in an attempt to assassinate the Etruscan King. The first on whom the lot fell was C. ilucius, who stole into the camp of Por- sena, but, not knowing the person of tlie King, killed his secretary instead. He was instantly seized, and put to the torture ; but the unshrink- ing audacity with which he thrust his hand into the fire and let it burn moved the King so much that he pardoned him, whereupon Mvicius (ever afterwards called Sewvola, 'the left-handed') told him of the jeopardy in which he was placed. Porsena resolved to make peace with Rome at once, and, his conditions being accepted bj' the sorely pressed citizens, he withdrew his forces. This version of the story is believed to have been invented to conceal the fact of a temporary Etruscan conquest, and the evidence in favor of this view Is overwhelming. Tacitus expressly affirms that Porsena conquered the city; Diony- sius informs us that the senate sent him an ivory sceptre, a golden crown, and a triumphal robe, which was the form that had been adopted by the Etruscan cities themselves of acknowledging the supremacy of the Roman King, Tarquinius Pris- cus; and Pliny mentions that Porsena forbade the citizens of Rome to use iron, except for agricul- tural purposes. What seems most reasonable to believe is that a great rising of the Etruscan against the Latin races took place, and that Rome was exposed to the first brunt of the war, and suffered a disastrous defeat, but that shortly after the Etruscans themselves were decisively beaten, and forced back into their own terri- tories ; for after the conquest of Rome Aruns, a son of Porsena, proceeded against Aricia, under the walls of which city (according to Li^"y) his army was routed by the combined forces of the Latin cities, with the help of Greek auxiliaries from Cumse. POB'SOIT, RicuARD (1759-1808). A brilliant Greek scliolar, born December 25, 1759, at East Ruston. Norfolk, England, where his father, a worsted weaver, was parish clerk. The curate of the parish, ilr. Hewett. impressed by the boy's rare abilities, had him educated along with his own sons. Porson afterwards found a patron in Mr. Norris, the founder of the Norrisian pro- fessorship at Cambridge, who sent him to Eton in 1774, where he remained about four years, without, however, distingiiishing himself remark- ably. Another patron. Sir George Baker, sent him, in 1778, to Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he was elected a scholar in 1780. In 1781 he won the Craven scholarship and the first chan- cellor's medal. In 1782 he was chosen a fellow of Trinity. He now began to give indications of his subtlety and taste in the diffieult verbal criti- cism of the Greek dramatists. For four years he contributed to Maty's Revieio — his first critique