It was too wide a peck; It looked the great collar just About our young colt's neck. Suckling. Burn our vessels, like a new Sealed peck or bushel, for being true. Hudibras. To every hill of ashes, some put a peck of unslacked lime, which they cover with the ashes till rain slacks the lime and then they spread them. Mortimer's Husbandry. He drove about his turnips in a cart; And from the same machine sold pecks of pease. King. PECK, v. a. 7 Fr. becquer; Belg. bicken; PECKER, n. s. Span. pecan; Port. bicar; or from Sax. becca, a BEAK, which see. To strike with the beak; to pick up food as with the beak; strike with any pointed instrument; pick up slanderous tales. With a pick axe of iron about sixteen inches long, sharpened at the one end to peck, and flat-headed at the other to drive little iron wedges to cleave rocks. Carew's Survey of Cornwall. She was his only joy, and he her pride, She, when he walked, went pecking by his side. Dryden. Id. The titmouse and the peckers hungry brood, And Progne with her bosom stained in blood. They will make head against a common enemy, whereas mankind lie pecking at one another till they are torn to pieces. L'Estrange. Two country factions, both inveterate enemies of our church, which they are perpetually pecking and striking at with the same malice. South. Can any thing be more surprising than to consider Cicero observing, with a religious attention, after what manner the chickens pecked the grains of corn thrown them? Addison. The worthiest people are most injured by slander, as we usually find that to be the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at. The worm, more expensively fed, Swift. Cowper. PECK (Francis), was born at Stamford, in Lincolnshire, May 4th, 1692, and educated at Cambridge where he took the degrees of B. A. and M. A. He was appointed rector of Godeby, near Melton in Leicestershire. He was the author of many works, viz.:-1. A Poem, entitled Sighs on the Death of Queen Anne; 1714. 2. ΤΟ ΥΨΟΣ ΑΓΙΟΝ, or an Exercise on the Creation, and a Hymn to the Creator of the World; 1716, 8vo. 3. In 1721, being then curate of King's Cliff in Northamptonshire, he issued proposals for printing the History and Antiquities of his native town, which was published in 1727, in folio, under the title of Academia tertia Anglicana; or the Antiquarian Annals of Stamford in Lincoln, Rutland, and Northampton shires; containing the History of the university, monasteries, guilds, churches, chapels, hospitals, and schools there, &c., inscribed to John duke of Rutland. 4. The History of the Stamford Bull-running. 5. In 1732 he published vol. I. of Desiderata Curiosa; or a Collection of divers scarce and curious Pieces, relating chiefly to matters of English History; consisting of choice tracts, memoirs, letters, &c., transcribed, many of them from the originals, and the rest from divers ancient MS. copies, or the MS. collations of sundry famous antiquaries, &c. This volume was dedicated to lord William Manners, and was followed, in 1735, by a second volume, dedicated to Dr. Reynolds, bishop of Lincoln. 6. A Complete Catalogue of all the Discourses written both for and against popery in the time of king James II., containing an account of 457 books and pamphlets, &c., 4to. 1735. 7. Nineteen Letters of the Rev. Henry Hammond, D. D., to Mr. Peter Stainnough and Dr. Nathaniel Angelo, on curious subjects, &c., 1739. 8. Memoirs of the Life and Actions of Oliver Cromwell, as delivered in three panegyrics of him written in Latin, supposed by Mr. John Milton; with an English version; illustrated with a large historical preface and notes, &c., 1740, 4to. 9. New Memoirs of the Life and Poetical Works of Mr. John Milton. PECKLED, adj. Corrupted from speckled. Spotted: varied with spots. Some are peckled, some greenish. Walton's Angler. PECKWELL (Henry), D. D., a divine of the church of England, born in 1747. He was chaplain to the marchioness of Lothian, and rector of Bloxham in Lincolnshire; but attached himself to the Calvinistic Methodists, among whom he was very popular. He patronised the Humane Society, and the society for the relief of persons imprisoned for small debts. He studied physic, and founded a society for visiting the sick at their own houses; but fell a sacrifice to his philanthropy, by wounding himself in the hand, while opening the body of a patient who had died of a putrid fever. The part mortified, and he died August 18th 1787. He printed several sermons. PECORA, in zoology, the fifth order of the class mammalia, in the Linnæan system. See ZOOLOGY. PECQUET (Anthony), a celebrated French philosopher, born in 1704. He was appointed grand master of the water-works and forests of Rouen. His writings on philosophy, politics, and morals, are numerous. His Spirit of Laws and of Political Maxims, and his Thoughts on Man, are most esteemed. He died in 1762. PECQUET (John), a celebrated physician born in Dieppe. He was physician in ordinary to the celebrated Fouquet, whom he entertained with experiments in natural philosophy. He acquired immortal honor by the discovery of a lacteal vein, which conveys the chyle to the heart; and which from him is called le Reservoir de Pecquet. This discovery was a fresh proof of the truth of the circulation of the blood; though it was opposed by many of the learned, particularly the famous Riolau, who wrote a treatise against the author of it, with this title: Adversus Pecquetum et Pecquetianos. Pecquet's works are, 1. Experimenta nova Anatomica; Paris, 1654. 2. A Dissertation, De Thoracis Lacteis; Amsterdam, 1661. He was a man of a lively and active genius. He recommended, as a remedy for many diseases, the use of brandy. The use of this remedy, however, contributed to shorten his own days He died at Paris, in 1674. PECTEN, the scallop, a genus of shell-fish. The characters are these:-the animal is a tethys; the shell bivalve and unequal; the hinge toothless, having a small ovated hollow. This shell fish is one of the spinners, having the power of spinning threads like the mussels; but they are much shorter and coarser than those of that fish. The use of the threads which are spun upon the scallop is to fix the 'creature to any solid body near its shell. All these proceed, as in the mussel, from one common tree. It is an evident proof that the fish has a power of fixing itself at pleasure to any solid body by means of these threads, that after storms the scallops are often found tossed upon rocks where there were none the day before; and yet these are fixed by their threads, as well as those which had remained long in their place. They form their threads in the same manner with the mussel; only their organ for spinning is shorter, and has a wider hollow, whence the threads are necessarily thicker and shorter. The pectens, such as the sole pecten, the ducal mantle pecten, the knotted, and others, seem to be in general inhabitants of the Indian Seas; some of them frequent those of Africa and the South Seas. The name pecten seems to have been given to these animals from the longitudinal Istria with which their surface is covered, which resemble somewhat the teeth of a comb; and hence also the Greek name кrç. By the general character of this shell, it evidently includes cockles as well as scallops, which are the pectens without ears, and having less flat or elated shells. Cockles are called by all authors by a name which is only a diminutive of pecten, pectunculus. The having ears indeed is the common mark of distinction between the pectens and the cockles, which last usually have none. The pectens by some are esteemed as delicious a food as the oyster. They differ very materially in a variety of circumstances. The pectens sail on the surface of the water; and, if attacked by a foe, they let down the membrane which nature has provided them for a sail, and drop to the bottom. Behold,' says Barbut, 'the splendor of the pectines, which rival the glowing colors of the papilionaceous tribe, as numerous as they are beautiful, flirting from place to place, and may well be called the papiliones of the ocean. What superior qualities does not the pecten enjoy above the ostrea edulis, which, constantly confined to its native bed, seems wholly destined to afford food for other creatures, not having any means of defence but its shelly castle, which is often attacked and stormed by its numerous enemies?' The grand mark of distinction between the pectens and oyster seems to be the locomotive faculty. It was long supposed that the oyster possessed no power of motion, that it always remained in the place in which nature or accident had placed it, and that its life differed little from that of vegetables. Experience, however, has taught us to reject these premature conclusions. See OsTREA. The most remarkable species is, the P. maximus, or great scallop, being the same with what Barbut calls the ducal-mantle pecten. It has fourteen rays, very prominent and broad, and striated both above and below. They are rugged and imbricated with scales. They grow to a large size, and are found in beds by themselves; are dredged up and barrelled for sale. The ancients say that they have a power of removing themselves from place to place by vast springs or leaps. The fish was used both by the Greeks and Latins as a food. When dressed with pepper and cummin, it was taken medicinally. The scallop was formerly worn by pilgrims on their hat, or the cape of their coat, as a mark that they had crossed the sea in their way to the Holy Land, or some distant object of devotion. PECTINAL, n. s. Lat. pecten. A comb : PECTINATED, adj. comb-like: state of bePECTINATION, n. s.) ing pectinated. There are other fishes whose eyes regard the heavens, as plain and cartilaginous fishes, as pectinals, or such as have their bones made laterally like a comb. Browne. The complication or pectination of the fingers was Id. an hieroglyphic of impediment. To sit cross-legged or with our fingers pectinated, is accounted bad. Id. Vulgar Errours. PECTIS, in botany, a genus of the polygamia superflua order, and syngenesia class of plants; natural order forty-ninth, compositæ. PECTORAL, adj. & n. s. Lat. pectoralis. Belonging to the breast: forming the name of a breast-plate. Being troubled with a cough, pectorals were preWiseman. scribed, and he was thereby relieved. PECTORAL, a sacerdotal vestment, worn by the Jewish high-priest. The Jews call it Hhoschen, the Greeks λoytov, the Latins rationale and pectorale, and in our version of the Bible it is called breast-plate. It was about a span square. PECTORALE, a breast-plate of thin brass, about twelve fingers square, worn by the poorer soldiers in the Roman army, who were rated under 1000 drachmæ. See LORICA. PECULATION, OF PECULATE, in civil law, the crime of embezzling the public money, by a person intrusted with the receipt, management, or custody thereof. PECULIAR, adj. & n. s. Fr. pecule; Lat. peculiaris, peculium. Appro priate; belonging exclusively to one; particular; sole as a noun substantive the exclusive property of one; something exempt from ordinary jurisdiction: peculiarity is, particularity; that which is found only in one; oddity: peculiarly follows the senses of peculiar as an adjective. Some peculiars exempt from the jurisdiction of the bishops. Lesley. The only sacred hymns they are that Christianity hath peculiar unto itself, the other being songs too of praise and of thanksgiving, but songs wherewith as Hooker. we serve God, so the Jews likewise. Thus Tivy boasts this beast peculiarly her own. Drayton. Certain peculiars there are, some appertaining to the dignities of the cathedral church at Exon. Carew. One peculiar nation to select From all the rest, of whom to be invoked. Miltr. Every man hath something peculiar in the turn or cast of his mind, which distinguishes him as much as the particular constitution of his body. Mason. PECULIAR, in the canon law, signifies a particular parish or church that has jurisdiction within itself for granting probates of wills and administrations, exempt from the ordinary or bishop's court. The king's chapel is a royal peculiar, exempt from all spiritual jurisdiction, and reserved to the visitation and immediate government of the king himself. There is likewise the archbishop's peculiar: for it is an ancient privilege of the see of Canterbury, that wherever any manors or advowsons belong to it, they forthwith become exempt from the ordinary, and are reputed peculiars: there are fifty-seven such peculiars in the see of Canterbury. Besides these, there are some peculiars belonging to deans, chapters, and prebendaries, which are only exempted from the jurisdiction of the archdeacon: these are derived from the bishop, who may visit them, and to whom there lies an appeal. PECULIARS, COURT OF, is a branch of, and annexed to, the court of arches. It has a jurisdiction over all those parishes dispersed through the province of Canterbury in the midst of other dioceses, which are exempt from the ordinary's jurisdiction, and subject to the metropolitan only. All ecclesiastical causes, arising within these peculiar or exempt jurisdictions, are originally cognizable by this court: from which an appeal lay formerly to the pope, but now, by the statute 25 Henry VIII. c. 19, to the king in chancery. PECULIUM, in law, the stock or estate which a person, in the power of another, whether male or female, either as his or her slave, may acquire by his industry. Roman slaves frequently amassed considerable sumns in this way. The word properly signifies the advanced price which a slave could get for his master's cattle, &c., above the price fixed upon them by his master, which was the slave's own property. PECUNIA, in mythology, a goddess among the Romans, whom they invoked with a view of procuring money in abundance. But as the specie was coined of different metals, especially of gold, silver, and brass, and as one divinity had too much occupation in taking care of the different coinages, a particular one was appointed for each. Three goddesses represented upon some medals of the emperor Commodus and his successors, with a pair of scales, the cornucopia, and a heap of money by them, prove that there was at least that number, and the antiquaries agree that they presided over the coinage of three metals, æs, aurum, argentum. PECUNIARY, adj. Fr. pecuniaire; Lat. pecuniarius, pecunia. Relating to money; consisting of money. Pain of infamy is a severer punishment upon ingenuous natures than a pecuniary mulct. Bacon. Their impostures delude not only unto pecuniary defraudations, but the irreparable deceit of death. Browne. The injured person might take a pecuniary mulct Broome. by way of atonement. PED, n. s. From pad, a road. Commonly pronounced pad. A small pack-saddle, basket, or hamper. A pannel and wanty, packsaddle and ped. Tusser. A hask is a wicker ped, wherein they use to carry fish. Spenser. PEDAGOGY, adj. PEDAGOGUE, n. s. & v. a. Į Lat. pada$ gogus; Gr. waidaywyos, mais, a boy, and ayw, to teach. One who teaches boys; a school master: a pedant: to pedagogue is to teach with supercilious airs pedagogy, early or first discipline. Few pedagogues but curse the barren chair, Like him who hanged himself for mere despair And poverty. Dryden. In time the reason of men ripening to such a pitch, as to be above the pedagogy of Moses's rod and the discipline of types, God thought fit to display the substance without the shadow. South's Sermons. Prior. This may confine their younger stiles, Whom Dryden pedagogues at Will's: But never could be meant to tie, Authentic wits, like you and I. The old sabbath appertained to the pedagogy and rudiments of the law; and therefore when the great master came and fulfilled all that was prefigured by it, it then ceased. White. tor in grammar and other arts. The word is A PEDAGOGUE, or PÆDAGOGUE, is an instrucformed from the Greek awv aywyos, puerorum ductor, i. e. a leader of boys. M. Fleury observes, that the Greeks gave this name to slaves appointed to attend their children, lead them, and teach them to walk, &c. The Romans gave the same denomination to the slaves who were intrusted with the care and instruction of their children. PED'ALS, n. s. The large pipes of an organ: so called because Lat. pedalis; Fr. pedales. played upon and stopt with the foot. The organ which Dr. Kemp exhibited in his lectures at the Russel Institution, for which Mr. Loeschvol. xxxvii. p. 326, and vol. xxxvii. p. 47), has man has a patent (see the Philosophical Magazine, twenty-four sounds, and as many pipes in each octave. By the help of six pedals, and the twelve usual finger-keys, the performer is enabled to execute the mean-tone system correctly, or any other, in the twenty-four usual keys. Dr. A. Rees. 'Tis a practice that savours much of pedantry, a reserve of puerility we have not shaken off from school. Browne. The last maim given to learning has been by the scorn of pedantry, which the shallow, the superficial, and the sufficient among scholars first drew upon themselves, and very justly, by pretending to more than they had. Temple. The boy who scarce has paid his entrance down To his proud pedant, or declined a noun. Dryden. The earl of Roscommon has excellently rendered it; too faithfully is, indeed, pedantically, 'tis a faith like that which proceeds from superstition. Id. The preface has so much of the pedant, and so little of the conversation of men in it, that I shall pass it over. Addison. When we see any thing in an old satyrist that looks forced and pedantic, we ought to consider how it appeared in the time the poet writ. Id. Make us believe it if you can: it is in Latin, if I may be allowed the pedantry of a quotation, non persuadebis, etiamsi persuaseris. Id. The obscurity is brought over them by ignorance and age, made yet more obscure by their pedantick elucidators. Felton. We now believe the Copernican system; yet we shall still use the popular terms of sun-rise and sunset, and not introduce a new pedantick description of Bentley. them from the motion of the earth. In learning let a nymph delight, The pedant gets a mistress by't. Swift. A spirit of contradiction is so pedantiek and hateful, that a man should watch against every instance of it. Watts. To say a person writes a good style, is originally as pedantic an expression, as to say he plays a good fiddle. Shenstone. Pursuit of fame with pedants fills our schools. And into coxcombs burnishes our fools. Young. PEDANT is used for a rough, unpolished, man of letters, who makes an impertinent use of the sciences, and abounds in unseasonable criticisms and observations. Madam Dacier defines a pedant, a person who has more reading than good sense. Malebranche describes a pedant as a man full of false erudition, who makes a parade of his knowledge, and is ever quoting some Greek or Latin author, or hunting back to a remote etymology. Lord Chesterfield justly and successfully ridiculed this species of pedantry, but set the example, which has been since very much followed, of what may be styled modern pedantry, by constantly interlarding his letters and other works with French, Spanish, and Italian quotations. St. Evremont says, that to paint the folly of a pedant, we must represent him as turning all conversation to some one science or subject he is best acquainted with. There are pedants of all conditions, and all robes. Wicquefort says, an ambassador always attentive to formalities and decorums is nothing else but a political pedant. PEDARIANS, in Roman antiquity, a name anciently given to such of the Roman senators as by merely walking over to their party signified their opinion with their feet. According to Dr. Middleton, though the magistrates of Rome had a right to a place and vote in the senate both during their office and after it, and before they were put upon the roll by the censors, yet they had not probably a right to speak or debate there on any question, at least in the earlier ages of the republic. For this seems to have been the original distinction between them and the ancient senators, as it is plainly intimated in the formule of the consular edict sent abroad to summon the senate, which was addressed to all senators, and to all those who had a right to vote in the senate. From this distinctinction, those who had only a right to vote were called in ridicule pedarian; because they signified their votes by their feet, not their tongues, and, upon every division of the senate, went over to the side of those whose opinion they approved. It was in allusion to this old custom, which seems to have been wholly dropt in the latter ages of the republic, that the mute part of the senate continued still to be called by the name pedarians, as Cicero informs us, who, in giving decree of the senate upon it, says that it was made with the eager and general concurrence of the pedarians, though against the authority of all the consulars. an account to Atticus of a certain debate and PEDDABALABARAM, or GREAT BALIPOOR, a large trading town and fortress of Mysore, south of India. The latter, although entirely built of mud, is strong, as the shot buries itself in the rampart. The town is fortified likewise by a wall and hedge. On the dissolution of the Hindoo kingdom of Bijanagur, the polygar, or chief of Balipoor, kept possession of this fortress, and it was not taken from his successor until about the middle of the last century, by the niIt was then conferred as a jagire on a Mogul named Abdool Russoul, from whose family it was taken in 1761, by Hyder Aly; since which period it has been subject to the ruler of Mysore. Long. 77° 47′ E., lat. 13° 17′ N. Fourteen miles to the eastward is Little Balipoor, the capital of a small district. F zam. PE'DESTAL, n. s. Fr. piedestal. The lower member of a pillar; the basis of a statue. The poet bawls, And shakes the statues and the pedestals. Dryden. In the centre of it was a grim idol; the forepart of the pedestal was curiously embossed with a triumph. Addison. So stiff, so mute! some statue would you swear Stept from its pedestal to take the air. Pope. View him at Paris in his last career, Surrounding throngs the demigod revere, Statue, Pedestrian [is], a statue standing on foot; as that of king Charles II. in the Royal Exchange; and that of king James II. in the Privy Gardens. Dr. A. Rees. PEDIACI, or PEDIEANS, in Grecian antiquity. The city of Athens was anciently divided into three different parts; one on the descent of a hill; another on the sea shore; and a third in a plain between the other two. The inhabitants of the middle region were called Пediao, Pediæans; or, as Aristotle will have it, Pediaci; formed from widtov, plain or flat: those of the hill, Diacrians; and those of the shore, Paralians. These quarters usually composed so many different factions. Pisistratus made use of the Pediaans against the Diacrians. In the time of Solon, when a form of government was to be chosen, the Diacrians chose the democratic; the Pediaans demanded an aristocracy, and the Paralians a mixed government. PED'ICLE, n. s. Fr. pedicule; Lat. pedis. The footstalk, that by which a leaf or fruit is fixed to the tree. The cause of the holding green, is the close and compact substance of their leaves and pedicles. Bacon. PEDICULARIS, in botany, rattle coxcomb, or louse-wort, a genus of the angiospermia order and didynamia class of plants; natural order fortieth, personatæ. Species thirty-four, all European plants. PEDICULUS, the louse, in entomology, a genus of insects belonging to the order of aptera. It has six feet, two eyes, and a sort of sting in the mouth: the feelers are as long as the thorax; and the belly is depressed and sublobated. It is an oviparous animal, not peculiar to man, but infesting other animals, as quadrupeds and birds, and even fishes, insects, and vegetables; but these are of peculiar species on each animal, according to the particular nature of each. Nay, even insects are infected with vermin which feed on and torment them. Several kinds of beetles are subject to lice; but particularly that kind called the lousy beetle. The lice on this are very numerous, and cannot be shaken off. The earwig is often infested with lice, just at the setting on of its head; these are white, and shining like mites, but they are much smaller; they are round-backed, flat-bellied, and have long legs, particularly the foremost pair. Snails of all kinds, but especially the large naked sorts, are very subject to lice; which are continually seen running about them and devouring them. Numbers of little red lice, with a very small head, and in shape resembling a tortoise, are often seen about the legs of spiders, and they never leave the animal while he lives; but, if he |