_Powder Prover._—The proper “epreuvette” is very correctly made; the
wheel on which the gradations are marked is large, and the spring
strong, consequently the resistance to the force of the powder is
considerable. The stronger it is the better; for without the resistance
is strong, a correct proof cannot be obtained; because if not
sufficiently strong to detain the powder in the chamber long enough for
all the particles to ignite, many of them (especially in powder of good
firm grain) will fly off unburnt, and of course a part only of the
charge would be proved.
The part attached to the wheel of the epreuvette, which shuts the mouth
of the chamber, should be so nicely adjusted, that on looking closely at
the parts when in contact, no light can be seen between them; for if any
light, there is of course so much vacancy, and consequently so much
windage; and in proportion to the windage the proof will be lower, and
therefore incorrect.
Three fires at least should always be made in proving, and the average
taken as the mean amount, for variations frequently happen in fires
immediately following each other, although made with considerable
attention. Care should be taken after every fire to clean the chamber
nicely, or otherwise the foulness left by the preceding discharge would
lessen the space, by which the succeeding charge would become
proportionally less.—_Hawker._
PRECIPITATE, _s._ A corrosive medicine made by precipitating
mercury.
Red precipitate, nitric oxide of mercury, or red nitrated quicksilver,
is a mild caustic, and an efficacious remedy in foul ulcers. It may be
used alone, finely powdered and sprinkled on the affected part; or mixed
with various ointments. It is made from quicksilver and nitrous acid,
but is considerably weaker than a solution of that metal in nitrous
acid. It becomes, however, a strong and very efficacious caustic, when
dissolved in nitrous acid. This solution may also be mixed with unctuous
substances, forming with them good _detergent ointments_; or it may be
diluted with water so as to form a detergent lotion of considerable
strength.—_White._
PREDACEOUS, _a._ Living by prey.
PRESERVE, _s._ Fruit preserved whole in sugar; a place set apart for
breeding and protecting game.
_To preserve Birds._—Large birds should be carefully skinned; the head,
tail, and feet, left entire. The skin may then be either put into a
vessel of spirits, or rubbed well on the inside with the following
mixture:—One pound of salt, four ounces of alum, and two ounces of
pepper, pounded together. Small birds may be thus treated:—Take out the
entrails, open a passage to the brain, which should be scooped out
through the mouth; introduce into the cavities of the skull and the
whole body some of the above mixture, putting it also through the gullet
and entire length of the neck; hang the bird in a cool, airy place,
first by the feet, that the body may be impregnated by the salts, and
afterwards by a thread through the under mandible of the bill, till it
appears to be sweet; then expose it in the sun, or near a fire. After it
is well dried, clean out what remains loose of the mixture, and fill the
cavity of the body with wool, oakum, or any soft substance.
* * * * *
If you shoot a curious bird, and have not the means of getting it
stuffed while fresh, you may preserve the skin of it for many months by
putting therein dry tow and powdered ginger. May and June are the only
months that you need fear the moth; and just then cedar shavings or
camphor would be a good addition. To skin a bird, open him either on one
side or down the back.
* * * * *
To send grouse any distance, put some pepper to the parts where they
have been shot, as well as into their mouths, and then pack them
carefully, separated from each other, and keep as air tight as possible
in boxes of hops.—_Hawker._
PRICK, _v._ To pierce with a small puncture; to erect with an
acuminated point; to set up the ears; to animate by a puncture
or mark; to spur, to goad.
PRICKET, _s._ A buck in his second year.
PRICKLE, _s._ A small sharp point.
PRICKLY, _a._ Full of sharp points.
PRIME, _v._ To put in the first powder, to put powder in the pan of
a gun.
PRIMERO, _s._ A game at cards.
PRIVATEER, _s._ A ship fitted out by private men to plunder enemies.
PRODUCE, _s._ Product, that which anything yields or brings.
PRODUCE STAKES. _Vide_ RACING.
PROJECTILE, _s._ A body thrown forward with violent force, as a
stone from a sling, or a ball discharged from a cannon.
PROOF, _s._ Evidence, testimony, convincing token; test, trial,
experiment; firm temper, impenetrability; armour hardened till
it will abide a certain trial.
_Proof of Barrels._—There has been lately cast in the foundery at
Ruelle, near Angoulême, a cannon, after a model differing a little from
that formerly adopted, and which has been submitted to an extraordinary
trial, called “proof to the utmost.” This trial, the result of which was
to burst the piece, was composed of two series, one of fifty, the other
of fifty-seven shots, in which the charge was successively increased, so
that the quantity of powder in the charge was raised to twenty-eight
pounds instead of six, and the number of balls amounted to twelve. For
the last six shots they succeeded in filling the barrel entirely with
clay over the balls; and besides, in some of the last shots they secured
each by four iron wedges, fastened on in such a manner that the number
of these wedges was sixteen for the 106th shot, and as many for the
last.
PROPHYLACTIC, _s._ A preventive against canine madness.
The oldest prophylactic with which we are acquainted is suction. We have
very ancient records of its employment, and, if we can believe these
legends, a particular family enjoyed the privilege, or devoted
themselves to this process of drawing, by the application of the mouth
to the wound, the poison inserted by a venomous animal. A ligature has
also been recommended to stop the progress of the rabid poison, but,
according to the present theories, it can have no preventive efficacy
whatever.
Cold-bathing, but particularly sea-bathing, as a preventive, is a
practice also of great antiquity, and, even yet, the uninformed classes
place implicit reliance on it. Its incapability of insuring safety was,
however, early noted; and Palmerius, Ambrose Parey, Desault, and others,
were at much pains to discredit the practice: nevertheless, both hot and
cold bathing long retained some powerful advocates. However respectable
the authorities in its favour, the lamentable experience of many who
have trusted to its efficacy, even when performed, as Van Swieten has
it, _ad sufficationem usque_, but too well proves. Among the well
informed, therefore, no reliance is now placed on it.
Mercury has long been employed as a prophylactic. Sauvages must have
been greatly deceived by its ill-deserved reputation. Sir G. Cobb’s
famous Tonquin remedy, so highly extolled by Claude Duchoisee, in India,
was prepared from the native and factitious cinnabars, with musk.
Turpeth mineral, which is a sub-sulphate of this metal, was highly
extolled by Tissot, and has been very generally used among the dogs of
this country. Many other authorities of note have extolled the
preventive efficacy of mercury, from its power in counteracting the
effects of the syphilitic poison; but as it has entirely failed in man
and beast, under every advantage of administration, so it has ceased to
be relied on as solely sufficient to guard the constitution. Neither has
arsenic any more claim to the character of a preventive than it has as a
curative.
Dr. Mead’s _pulvis antilyssus_, composed of lichen cinereus and black
pepper, has wholly lost its reputation, although, during his practice,
he expressed a wish that he knew as certain a preventive for any other
disease. The Ormskirk remedy is also another striking proof how easily a
reputation may be gained, and how undeservedly: for although palpable
instances of its failure are numerous, it once enjoyed great reputation,
and is even yet occasionally trusted to. The water plantain (alisma
plantago) has also proved one of those unfortunate articles offered to
notice, which only served to raise hopes it was doomed never to realise.
As it came recommended by a Russian counsellor of state, M. Jalowsky, at
the express direction of his government, it met with a cordial
reception, and a full trial in England and elsewhere, but everywhere it
proved fallacious, both as a preventive and cure.
To enumerate all the other articles, particularly of the vegetable
world, that at some period or other have been deemed prophylactics,
would be endless. Among the most popular we may mention the eglantine,
or wild rose (_rosa sylvestris_, Linn.), pimpernel (_anagallis_), deadly
nightshade (_atropa belladonna_), rue (_ruta_), garlic (_allium
sativum_), sage (_salvia_), daisy (_bellis_), vervain (_subena_), fern
(_polypodium_), wormwood (_artemisia arborescens_), mugwort (_artemisia
vulgaris_), betony (_betonica_), and the tree-box (_buxus_).—_Blaine._
PROWL, _v._ To wander for prey, to plunder.
PROWLER, _s._ One that roves about for prey.
PRUNE, _v._ To dress, to prink; to smooth a bird’s feathers.
PRUSSIAN BLUE, _s._ A dark blue pigment obtained from bullock’s
blood, carbonate of potash, vitriol of iron, alum, and muriatic
acid.
PRUSSIC ACID, _s._ A deadly poison.
PUET, _s._ A kind of water-fowl.
PUFFIN, COULTERNEB, MULLET, SEA PARROT, POPE, or WILLCOCK, (_Alca
arctica_, LINN.; _Le Macareux_, BUFF.) _s._ A water-fowl; a kind
of fish; a kind of fungus filled with dust.
[Illustration]
The puffin weighs about twelve ounces, and measures twelve inches in
length, and twenty-one in breadth. Its singular bill looks not unlike a
kind of sheath slipped over both mandibles; and, from its appearance,
the bird is not improperly named coulterneb, or knife-bill. At the base,
where it is about an inch and a half in depth, it is rimmed with a white
callous border, the two corners of which project above the brow, and
below the chin. It is about the same in length, curved towards the
point, compressed vertically, very flat, and transversely furrowed on
the sides; the half of it adjoining to the head is smooth, and of a fine
lead-coloured blue; the other part, to the tip, red: the nostrils are
placed in long narrow slits, near the edge of the bill; the corners of
the mouth, when closed, are curiously puckered, and form a kind of small
star, or rose; the eyes are protected by small callous protuberances,
both above and below; the edges of the eye-lids are crimson; irides
grey; the chin and cheeks are white, bordered with grey—the latter much
puffed up with feathers, which makes the head look large and round. From
behind the corner of each eye the feathers are curiously separated,
forming a narrow line, which reaches to the hinder part of the head: the
crown of the head, hinder part of the neck, and upper part of the
plumage, are black, and a collar of the same colour encircles the neck;
the under parts are white; the tail consists of sixteen feathers; the
legs are reddish orange.
The puffin, like others of the same genus, takes wing with great
difficulty, and walks upon the whole length of the leg and foot, with a
wriggling awkward gait. In tempestuous weather it takes shelter in
caverns and holes in the nearest rocks, or in those made by the rabbit
on the beach among the bent grass, in which it sits dozing, in snug
security, till the return of the calm weather; for these birds cannot
brave the storm, and it is not uncommon, when they have been overtaken
by it, to find them drowned and cast on shore. Various kinds of fish,
such as small crabs, shrimps, sprats, and also seaweeds, are said to be
the food upon which they live; but it is evident from the structure,
great strength, and sharpness of the bill, that they are furnished with
powers to crush and pluck out other kinds of shell-fish, which
ornithologists have not noticed.
The female makes no nest; she deposits her single whitish-coloured egg
upon the bare mould, in a hole, dug out and formed in the ground, by her
mate and herself, for that purpose; or in those which they find ready
made by the rabbits, whom they easily dislodge. The parent birds are
very attentive to their young, which they will defend to the last, by
severely biting whatever enemy attempts to molest them, and will suffer
themselves to be taken rather than desert them: and yet, notwithstanding
this uncommon attachment, when the day of migration comes, the young,
which are not able to fly, are left behind, and mostly perish of want,
or are destroyed by birds of prey.
The bite of these birds is very severe: one sent to the author in a box,
covered with netting, caught hold of the finger of a poor man, and
brought away the fleshy part, as if it had been cut out with a knife;
but they may be tamed, and soon become familiar. They are fed on fish
and other animal substances.—These birds are spread over various parts
of the northern world, and are met with on almost all the rocky cliffs
on the coasts of Britain and Ireland, and on many of the surrounding
isles, in immense numbers. They congregate in flocks of magnitude,
regulated by the accommodations afforded them at their breeding places,
at which they first assemble early in April, but do not settle to
prepare for the business of incubation till May. They hatch their young
in the beginning of July; from which time until nearly the middle of
August, they are employed in returning and rearing their brood: when
this is accomplished, the whole associated swarm leaves the place at
once, and pursues its route to other regions, more suited to their
future exigencies, there to spend the remainder of the varied year.
* * * * *
_Astonishing emigration of puffins._—A most extraordinary event took
place at the great island of Arran, lying at the mouth of the bay
leading to Galway, in Ireland, some years ago. The stupendous cliffs to
the southwest of the island, which, from time immemorial, had been the
place of resort, or rather the natural habitation of such numbers of
rock-birds or puffins, as is almost incredible, were at once deserted,
on the 24th of June, by that entire species of fowl, which abandoned
their nests, eggs, and young ones, and went off to sea. The like
incident is said to have happened forty years before, and no reason
whatever could be assigned for these most extraordinary derelictions.
PUFFY, _a._ Windy, flatulent; tumid, turgid; out of wind.
PUG, _s._ A kind name for a monkey, or anything tenderly loved.