A dictionary of science, literature & art ... ed. by W.T. Brande ... assisted by Joseph Cauvin ... The various departments by eminent literary and scientific gentlement ...

POLYZONAL LENS. POOR, TlE
had been deified in the Sabian notions; e. g., darkness as Vertumnus is well known. (See OUid. XMet., xiv., 623.)
contrary to light, night to day, &c.; some to traditionary The name is derived from poma, fruit.
belief in the existence of evil or reprobate spirits: some to PO'MPHOLIX. (Gr. roybo;, a bubble.) An alchemical
a mere philosophical theory adapted by priests to popular term for oxide of zinc.
comprehension Daemon worship, or the worship of inter- Po'MPHoLIX. In Medicine, a vesicular eruption upon the
mediate intelligences, appropriated to external objects, and skin.
subordinate to the highest God, was a natural effect of Sa- PO'MUM ADA'MI. Jldam's apple. The protuberance
bianism. The worship of heroes, or deified mortals, arose in front of the neck formed by the thyroid gland. It has
again from it in a later stage of society; and the most been fancifully supposed to represent the forbidden apple
probable theory of the greatest systems of Polytheism eaten by Adam.
which have been recognised by divisions of the human POND. An artificial excavation in the soil, or a natural
race, viz., the Egyptian, Greek, Indian, and Scandinavian, hollow dammed up for the purpose of detaining water, genseems to be this, that hero worship, the most congenial of erally made in fields in order to supply drink to pasturing
all to the vulgar imagination, superseded former modes of animals. The essential difference between a pond and a
belief; that the gods were actually heroes, who had grad- lake is, that the former is formed by art, the water being
ually absorbed to themselves the honours formerly paid to often ponded, or impounded, by a bank of earth thrown
dramons and intelligences, and to the host of heaven, so across a natural gutter, hollow, or bourne containing a
that their attributes, in later mythology, present a vague stream. In Gloucestershire, Kent, and other counties
mixture of the characters of all. If, however, this be the where the soil does not abound in springs, the formation of
case, it remains to be explained how, after the gods of ponds in the fields is as essential to the business of farming
Olympus had acquired their station and attributes in the as the building of farm offices. A pond in a garden, when
Grecian religion, a secondary race of heroes, the mtpwue, of a round form, is ternhed a basin; and when of some
properly so called (whose worship is quite of recent ori- length, with parallel sides, a canal.
gin, and certainly posterior to Homer), should have found a PO'NE. (Lat.) In Law, a writ which lies to remove
place in the same mythology. The strange system of ani- actions of debt, detinue, writs of right, nuisances, &c., out
mial worship seems peculiar to ancient Egypt, and has been of the county or other inferior court into the Common Pleas,
derived by some from the natural circumstances of the and sometimes into the Queen's Bench.
country; the scarcity of domesticated animals having given PONS VARO'LII. The bridge of Varolius. An arched
them an importance which the priests made use of, and eminence of the medulla oblongata, formed by the two exteconnected with superstition. As to the theory and general nor crura of the cerebellum becoming flattened, and passing
history of Polytheism, the following among many other over the crura of the cerebrum.
sbooks may be mentioned: Stillingfleet's Origrines Sacrme; PO'NTEE. In Glass Manufacture, an iron instrument
Kames's Sketches of the History of Man; Court de Gebelin by which the hot glass is taken out of the glass-pot.
Monde Primitif; Bryant's Mythology; the Works of Her- PO'NTIA. (Gr. [Iov-ra, one of the names of the goddess
tder; Warburton's Divine Legation; Cudworth's Intelleo- of love.) A genus of butterflies, of which the common white
tual System; Vossius, De Origine Idololatrice; Mem. de or cabbage butterfly (Pontia brassice) is a well-known nal'.qcad. des Inscr., vol. xxxviii. tive species.
POLYZO'NAL LENS. (Gr. rosXvs, and sovq, zone.) PO'NTIFEX. (Lat.) The highest Roman sacerdotal
The name given by Sir David Brewster title. Numa instituted four pontifices, chosen from the paJ. — ~ to a burning lens constructed of several tricians; to which were added, long subsequently, four plezones or rings, each of which may be beians. Sylla increased their number to fifteen. The coly, { again composed of separate segments. lege was divided into two classes, distinguished by the epis In the annexed figure, A B C D is acen- thets majores and minores; but it is not certain whether
tral lens formed of one piece of glass; this difference of title marked out the patricians from the
0L ^ E F G H is a middle ring, or zone, com- plebeians, or the more ancient members from the seven
L posed of four separate pieces; I K L M added by Sylla. The pontifices judged in all causes relais another ring composed of eight segments, and surround- ting to sacred things, and inspected thle conduct of the infeing the former. The number of zones, and of parts in each, rior priests. They were a self-elected body down to the
may be as great or as small as we please, latter ages of the republic, when the power of election was
This method of forming lenses is attended with several sometimes held by the people. It was finally vested in the
important advantages. The difficulty of procuring flint emperors, who added as many to their numbers as they
glass of sufficient purity to render it fit for the construction thought fit. The chief of the pontifices was called the ponof a solid lens of large dimensions is removed, and the ex- tifex maximus, and was always created by the people, being
pense greatly diminished. If impurity exist in any of the generally chosen from those who had borne the first offices
spherical segments, or if an accident happen to any of in the state. His station was one of great dignity and powthem, it can easily be replaced. Another advantage attend- er, as he not only had supreme authority in religious mating the construction is, that it enables us to correct, very ters, but, in consequence of the close connexion between
nearly, the spherical aberration, by making the foci of each the civil government and religion of Rome, he had also
zone coincide. Lenses of this kind have been made in considerable political influence. The title of pontit'ex maxFrance of crown glass, and have been introduced into the imus being for life, Augustus never assumed it till the death
principal French light-houses. One was constructed, un- of Lepidus, after which it was always held by himself and
der the directions of Sir David Brewster, for the Commis- his successors to the time of Theodosius. The insignia
sioners of the northern light-houses. It was made of pure consisted of the toga pretexta, and a conical woollen cap
flint glass, was three feet in diameter, and consisted of nu- with a tassel (galerus). (See the dM.em. de l'"Ac. des Inser.,
merous zones and segments. (See Brewster's Treatise on vols. xii., xv., xxiv., xxxvii.) From this word the well-,Yew Philosophical Instruments; and "Optics" in Lard- known title of Pontiff in modern Europe is derived. "Summer's Cabinet Cyclopeedia.) preme Pontiff" is a common style of the pope.
POLY'ZOONS. Polyzoa. (Gr. noXvr, and (soov, ani- PONTOO'N. A Military term, denoting a kind of flatmal.) A class of compound animals resembling in their bottomed boat, generally lined within and without with tin.
organs of support the Sertularians, but in their internal or- Our pontoons are about 21 feet long, five feet broad, and two
ganization approaching nearly to the compound Ascidians. feet deep. They are carried along with an army for the
POMA'CEAE. (Lat. pomum, an apple.) That division purpose of making temporary bridges, called pontoon bridges,
of the natural order Rosacee to which the apple, pear, by which an army is pursued over rivers.
quince, and medlar belong. It differs from Rosacec proper POOP. A partial deck extending close aft, above the
in having an inferior ovary. complete deck of the vessel. A sea coming over the stern
POMEGRA'NATE. The fruit of the Punica granatum. is said to poop the vessel.
The pulp is acid, and the rind highly astringent. The dried POOR, THE. (Lat. pauperes.) In Political Economy,
flowers, which are also astringent, were formerly used in the term employed to designate those persons, or that pormedicine, under the name of Balaustine flowers. tion of the population of any county, who, being destitute
POM(E'RIUM. (Lat. post, behind, and murus, a wall.) of wealth, are, through age, bodily or mental infirmity, want
In Roman Antiquities, a space of ground, both within and of employment, or other cause, unable to support themwithout the walls of a city, kept free from buildings (Livy, selves, and have to depend for support on the contributions
xiii.), and consecrated by a religious ceremony derived from of others.
the Etruscans. (See a memoir of D'Anville on the extent The first notice of the poor by the legislature of England
of ancient Rome, Mem. de l'dlcad. des Inscr., vol. xxi., p. appears to have occurred in 1376; and there does not seem
206.) When it was found necessary to extend the limits of to be any good grounds for thinking that any portion of the
atny city, a new pomecium was formed, and the former one people were known by this designation previously to the
desecrated. 14th century. The truth is, how paradoxical soever the
POMO'NA. The Italian goddess of fruit-trees. Her statement may at first appear, that the poor, as a class, owe
worship was assiduously cultivated at Rome, where there their existence to the abolition of villenage and the progress
was a flamen pomonalis, who sacrificed to her every year of civilization. Previously to this abolition, the great bulk
for the preservation of the fruit. The story of Pomona and I of the people were in a state of predial slavery, or in a con
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