Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 15, PLA-RAM

PUR l 672 ] PUR
Punirh- ably beautiful; and one with ftriped fiowere. 2. The
ment lianaj 0r dwarf American pomegranate, rifes with a
p 11 j. fhrubby ftcm branching four or live feet high, with
u''ce narrow fhort leaves and fmall red flowers, fucceeded by
fmall fruit; begins flowering in June, and continues till
O&ober.
Culture. Both thefe fpecies are propagated by lay¬
ers : the young branches are to be chofen for this pur-
pofe, and autumn is the proper time for laying them.
Thofe of the common fort may be trained either as
half or full ftandards, or as dwarfs. But thofe defigned
for walls mull be managed as diredled for peaches.
Ufes. The dried flowers of the double-flowered
pomegranate are poflefled of an aftringent quality; for
which rcafon they are recommended in diarrhoeas, dy-
fenteries, &c. where aftringent medicines are proper.
The rind of the fruit is alfo a ftroag aftringent, and as
fuch is occafionally made ufe of.
PUNISHMENT, in law, the penalty which a per-
fon incurs on the commiffion of a crime. See the ar¬
ticle Crime and Punl/hment.
The ingenuity of men has been much exerted to
torment each other; but the following are the punifh-
ments that have been ufually adopted in the different
countries of the world. The capital punilhments have
been beheading, crucifixion, burning, roafting, drown¬
ing, fealping, hanging by the neck, the arm, or the leg,
ftarving, fawing, expofing to wild beafts, rending afun-
dcr by horfes drawing oppofite ways, burying alive,
fhooting, blowing from the mouth of a cannon, com-
pulfory deprivation of Deep, rolling in a barrel ftuck
with nails pointed inwards, poifoning, prefling flowly
to death by a weight laid on the breaft, calling head¬
long from a rock, tearing out the bowels, pulling to
pieces with red-hot pincers, the rack, the wheel, im¬
paling, fleaing alive, &c. &c.
The punilhments Ihort of death have been, fine, pil¬
lory, imprifonment, compulfory labour at the mines,
galleys, highways, or corredlion-houfe ; whipping, ba-
ilonading, mutilation by catting away the ears, the
nofe, the tongue, the breafts of women, the foot, the
hand; fqueezing the marrow from the bones with ferews
or wedges, caftration, putting out the eyes, banilhment,
running the gauntlet, drumming, lhaving off the hair,
burning on the hand or forehead, &c.
PUNNING. See Pun.
PUPIL, in the civil law, a boy or girl not yet ar¬
rived at the age of puberty; i. e. the boy under 14
years, the girl under 12.
Pupil is alfo ufed in univerfities, &c. for a youth
under the education or difeipline of any perfon.
Pupil, in anatomy, a little aperture in the middle
of the uvea and iris of the eye, through which the
rays of light pafs to the cryftalline humour, in order to
be painted on the retina, and caufe vifion. See A-
natomy, p. 765, &c.
PURCELL (Henry), a juftly celebrated mailer of
mufic, began early to diftinguilh himfelf. As his ge¬
nius was original, it wanted but little forming, and he
rofe to the height of his profefiion with more eafe than
others pafs through their rudiments. He was made
organift to W eftminfter abbey in the latter end of the
- reign of Charles II. In that of William, he fet feve-
ral fongs for Dry-den’s Amphytrion and his King Arthur,
iihich were icceived with juft applaufe. His notes in
Ins operas were admirably adapted to his words, and fo pUrchas
echoed to the fenfe, that the founds alone feemed ca- \\
pable of exciting thofe paflions which they never failed Purgation,
to do in conjunction. His mufic was very different
from the Italian. It was entirely Englilh, and perfect¬
ly mafeuline. His principal works have been publilhed
under the title of Orpheus Britanmcus. He died in 1695,
in the 37th year of his agp ; and was interred in Weft-
minilei abbey, where a monument is ereCted to his me¬
mory.
PURCHAS (Samuel), an Englilh divine, famous
for compiling a valuable collection of voyages, was
born in 1577, at Thackfted in Effex. After Undy¬
ing at Cambridge, he obtained the vicarage of Eaft-
wood in his native county ; but leaving that cure to
his brother, he fettled in London, in order to cany on
the great work in which he was engaged. He pub-
lilhed the firft volume in folio in 1613, and the four
laft, 12 years after, under the title of Purchas his Pil¬
grimage, or Relations of the 'world, and the Religions ob-
ferved in all ages and places. Meanwhile he was col¬
lated to the reClory of St Martin’s, Ludgate, in Lon¬
don, and made chaplain to Dr Abbot, archbilhop of
Canterbury. His Pilgrimage, and the learned Hack-
luyt’s Voyages, led the way to all the other colleClions
of that kind, and have been juftly valued and elleemed.
But unhappily, by his pubhfiling, he involved himfelf
in debt: however, he did not die in prifon, as fome
have afferted ; but at his own houfe, about the year
1628.
PURCHASE, in law, the buying or acquiring of
lands, &c. with money, by deed 01 agreement, and not
by defeent or right of inheritance.
Purchase, in the fea-language, is the fame as draEo
in : thus, when they fay, the capftan purchafes a-pace,
they only mean, it draws in the cable a-pace.
PURE, fomething free from any admixture of fo¬
reign or heterogeneous matters.
PURFLEW, a term in heraldry, expreffing ermins,
peans, or any of the furs, when they compofe a bordure
round a coat of arms : thus they fay, He beareth gules,
a bordure, purflew, vairy; meaning, that the bordure is
vairy.
PURGATION, the art of purging, fcouring, Or
purifying a thing, by feparating, or carrying off any
impurities found therein. Thus,
In pharmacy, purgation is the cleanfing of a medicine
by retrenching its fuperfluities. In chemiilry, it is ufed
for the feveral preparations of metals and minerals in¬
tended to clear them of their impurities, more ufually
called purification and refning. See Refining.
In medicine, purgation is an excretory motion arifing
from a quick and orderly contvaClion of the flefiiy fibres
of the ftomach and intellincs, whereby the chyle, cor¬
rupted humours, and excrements lodged therein, are pro¬
truded further and further, and at length quite excluded
the body by ftool. See Materia Medica.
For the menllrual purgation of women, fee Menses.
Purgation, in law, fignifies the clearing a perfon’s
felf of a crime of which he is fufpe6led and accufed be¬
fore a judge. This purgation is either canonical or vul¬
gar. Canonical purgation is preferibed by the canon-
law, and the form thereof in the fpiritual court is ufual¬
ly thus : The perfon fufpetted takes his oath that he is
innocent pf the crime charged againft him; and at the
feme