[Illustration]
This variety is so nearly allied to the bull-dog (from which he is
descended by a cross with the small Danish) in form and general
appearance, that a detailed description is quite unnecessary. The chief
difference is in its size, being much smaller, and its tail curled upon
its back. It differs extremely in another particular, which is in
courage, this animal being as timid as the other is valiant.
This dog was formerly very common in many parts of Great Britain, but is
now becoming very scarce, from the circumstance, we have no doubt, of
its being so useless. It may be prized as a pet, but certainly not for
its beauty. Although its admirers in this country are becoming very
limited in number, we are informed by Mrs. Piozzi, that in Italy it is a
great favourite, more particularly at Padua.
There is a Sunday market at Moscow, where German pug dogs, which are so
dear in London, can be bought for a sum of money equivalent to a
shilling.
PULLET, _s._ A young hen.
PULSE, _s._ The motion of any artery as the blood is driven through
it by the heart, and as it is perceived by the touch; vibration;
leguminous plants.
It seems, by the nicest observations, that the pulsations of a healthy
horse seldom exceed from forty to forty-five in a minute; exceeding
which, in any material degree, there is then reason to believe
inflammatory heat is predominant in the frame, and that fever is rapidly
advancing in proportion to the increased velocity of the blood.
PULVERISE, _v._ To reduce to powder, to reduce to dust.
PUMICE, _s._ A light and spongy cinder of some fossil. It is ejected
from volcanic mountains, or procured in melting glasses.
PUNCH, _v._ To bore or perforate by driving a sharp instrument.
PUNCH, _s._ A pointed instrument, which, driven by a blow,
perforates bodies; a liquor made by mixing spirit with water,
sugar, and the juice of lemons or oranges; an implement for
cutting out hat or card waddings.
_To make Punch._—A wine-glass nearly full of best refined lump sugar
pounded. Twelve ditto of cold spring water, a lime, and half a lemon,
(or if no lime, a whole lemon, which might yield about half a
wineglassful of juice). Two wineglasses brim full of old Jamaica rum.
Let the sugar be well melted, and the lemons thoroughly amalgamated with
it and the water, before you add the spirit.
* * * * *
It is better to make the punch with boiling water the night before it is
required for use. Strain it in the morning, and place the bottles in a
well or stream of water, sheltered from the sun. When wanted at dinner
time, you will have a cooler and much more mellow beverage than if the
water had been taken from the spring.—_Hawker_—_Wild Sports._
PUNCTURE, _s._ A hole made with a sharp point.
PUNGENT, _a._ Pungent, sharp on the tongue, acrid; piercing, sharp,
acrimonious, biting.
PUNT, _s._ A light flat boat for fishing and shooting.
_Dressing for Punts and Canoes._—To keep gunning punts and canoes from
leaking, or, as those who use them call it, weeping, melt a pint of tar
with a pound of pitch, and either half a pint of common oil, or a
proportional quantity of suet. You have then only to pour a little of
this mixture into the seams of your punt, and, instead of bedaubing her
all over the bottom, as we did in the old school, seven or eight years
ago, have the bottom painted with one or two coats of red lead, which
will last much longer, and with which the boat rows much lighter.
White resin and mutton suet is even a better dressing, and by far the
lightest of any.
* * * * *
_Punt Shooting._—The punt shooters (men who earn their livelihood in
winter by attacking the wild fowl, night and day, according as the tide
serves) kill great numbers. The pursuit is hazardous, especially when
there is much ice in the river, by which they sometimes get encircled,
and then can only float with the current, and are kept often two or
three tides before they can extricate themselves, and their punt is ill
calculated to sustain pressure against its sides, which are not twenty
inches high from the surface of the water; in this the punter by night
drops down with the tide, or uses his paddles after the fowl; he knows
their haunts, and takes every advantage of wind, tide, moon, &c.; his
gun, which carries as much as a little cannon, is laid with the muzzle
over the stem of the punt, in a hitch, which regulates the line of aim:
at the bottom of the punt he lies upon his belly, and gets as near the
rout of fowl that are upon the water as possible; when within the range
of his gun, he rattles with his feet against the bottom of his punt, and
when the fowl begin to spring at this unexpected sound, at that moment
he pulls the trigger, and cuts a lane through their ranks, he instantly
follows the direction of his shot, and gathers up those that are killed,
or just expiring, for very seldom he makes it answer to row after fowl
only wounded. He then charges his gun, and drifts further down the
river, in hopes of a second, third, and successive shots. By this mode a
man has brought home from fourscore to an hundred wild fowls, of various
kinds, in one night’s excursion; and this will not seem an exaggerated
account, when the multitudes which, in hard frosty weather, with the
wind at east or north-east, haunt the Blackwater river are known. The
numbers that are seen in their day-flights, and the noises of the
various kinds of a night, are almost beyond belief: to the compiler,
prepared as he was to behold amazing quantities, they exhibited far
beyond what he was led to expect, and to others who have seen their
throngs, the astonishment has been perhaps still greater. A punt shooter
of the name of Bowles, has been known to clear upwards of an hundred
pounds in a season by his gun; the wild fowl were sold to the higlers,
&c., at two shillings a couple, one with the other; allowing his
expenses to be only thirty pounds, here were two thousand six hundred
birds brought home; an immense destruction, when the whole period
allotted for it does not much exceed five months. Forty-two wigeons have
been killed at a single shot in the day-time, and the difficulty of
approaching the great flocks of fowl in the light is tenfold. A man, in
whose punt the compiler was, got eighteen wigeons at one shot, and many
that were crippled, escaped. If in the day, or at night, the punters get
a shot at the fowl at feed upon the ooze, they tie on their plashes
(similar to the mud-pattens used in Hampshire), and collect their spoil.
The best time for this shooting is the first or second day’s thaw after
a sharp frost, and when deep snow has long covered the ground; the fowl
are then flying in every direction to dabble in the fresh water, which
then appears all around inviting them. Another favourable opportunity is
at the commencement of a frost, with the wind strong at east, and a
sleet or snow falling: if the guns can but be kept dry, there is no
complaint about the using them, and the fowl in such weather always fly
lower than when the atmosphere is clear.—_Daniel_—_Hawker._
PUP, _v._ To bring forth whelps, used of a bitch bringing young.
All dogs that are much domesticated and confined, appear particularly
subject to difficulty in bringing forth; consequently during pregnancy
much exercise should be given, as nothing tends more to easy parturition
than full exercise. Sometimes the constitution itself, in these tender
and artificial breeds, is not equal to the exertion of labour; and
sometimes false presentation increases the obstruction. Whenever a
difficulty in pupping occurs, which has existed more than four or five
hours, the bitch should be examined by means of a finger passed up the
vagina; and, if any portion of a pup should be found to present itself,
so as to be within reach of the finger, a skein of worsted ought, if
possible, to be fastened around it; and, during the throes, or labour
pains of the animal, it should be gently drawn away. If it cannot be
reached in this way, a little longer time may be allowed; but, after
all, should it not advance, a pair of forceps may be used to assist the
extraction. It is a good practice to give a laxative as soon as any
symptoms of pupping appear; and, when delivery seems much delayed, it
will be prudent, in all cases, to bathe in warm water, and to give
nutriment if the labour is protracted: occasional doses of laudanum
united with æther must be given if any convulsive appearances come on.
The patience of bitches in labour is extreme, and their distress, if not
relieved, is most striking and affecting. Their look is, at such times,
particularly expressive, and apparently imploring.—_Blaine._
PUPPY, _s._ A whelp, a progeny of a bitch; a name of contempt to an
impertinent fellow.
PURGATIVE, _a._ Cathartic, having the power to cause evacuation
downwards.
PURGE, _v._ To cleanse, to clear from impurities; to evacuate the
body by stool; to have frequent stools.
PURGE, _s._ A cathartic medicine, a medicine that evacuates the body
by stool.
PURL, _s._ A kind of medicated malt liquor, in which wormwood and
aromatics are infused.
PURPLE, _a._ Red, tinctured with blue.
PURPLE, _v._ To make red, to colour with purple.
PURSENET, _s._ A net of which the mouth is drawn together by a
string.
PURSINESS, _s._ Shortness of breath.
PURULENT, _a._ Consisting of pus or the running of wounds.
PUS, _s._ The matter of a well-digested sore.
PUSS, _s._ The fondling name for a cat; the sportsman’s term for a
hare.
PUSTULE, _s._ A small swelling, a pimple, an efflorescence.
PUSTULOUS, _n._ Full of pustules, pimply.
PUT, _s._ A clown; a vulgar game at cards.
Put, played with a complete pack, generally by two people, sometimes by
three, and often by four, is a game at which the cards rank differently
from all others, tray being the best, next the deuce, then ace, king,
and so on in the usual order, as at whist. After cutting for deal, &c.,
at which the highest put card wins, three cards, by one at a time, are
given to each player, then the game is played in the following way. If
the non-dealer throw up his cards he loses a point; if he play, and the
dealer do not lay down another to it, he gains a point; but should the
dealer either win the same, pass it, or lay down one of equal value,
forming what is styled a tie, the non-dealer is still at liberty to put,
that is play, or not, and his opponent then only gains a point; then if
both parties agree to go on, whoever gains all the tricks or two out of
three, wins five points, which are the game; if each player win one
trick, and the third be a tie, then neither party scores.
Four-handed put differs only in this, that on both sides, one of the
players gives his best card to his partner, who lays out one in lieu of
it, and the game is afterwards played as in two-handed put.
If the dealer turn up any of his adversary’s cards in dealing another
deal may be demanded; but if he turn up his own he is to abide by it.
Should a faced card occur, the pack must be shuffled and dealt again.
When more cards than necessary are given to the non-dealer, he may
either claim a fresh deal, or have the extra cards drawn; but should the
dealer give himself too many, then his opponent is entitled to a point,
and may either have another deal, or draw the supernumerary cards.
Bystanders ought never to interfere, under penalty of paying the stakes.
Either party saying, I put, must abide the event of the game, or pay the
stakes.—_Hoyle._
PUTREFACTION, _s._ The state of growing rotten; the act of making
rotten.
PUTTOCK, _s._ A buzzard.
PUZZLE, _v._ To perplex, to confound, to embarrass, to entangle.
PYROTECHNY, _s._ The art of managing fire; the art of making
fireworks.
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QUACK, _v._ To cry like a duck; to act the part of a boasting
pretender to physic, or any other art.
QUADRANGULAR, _a._ Square, having four right angles.
QUADRILLE, _s._ A game at cards.
The game of quadrille is played by four persons, with forty cards; the
four tens, nines, and eights, are discarded from the pack; the deal is
made by distributing the cards to each player, three at a time, for two
rounds, and once four to each, beginning with the right-hand player, who
is the elder hand.
The stakes, consisting of several equal billets or contracts, comprising
the counters and fish, are distributed among the players, who agree upon
the value thereof, and upon the number of tours, which are usually ten.
After the trump is named, the right-hand player leads, and should the
ombre, either alone or with a friend, win all the tricks, he gains the
vole, or, if six tricks, the game; but if he get only five tricks he
loses by remise, and if only four, by codill. The game, consolation,
matadores, bastos, and other payments, are variously regulated,
according as the game is won or lost. The holder of either or both of
the red aces, is entitled to a fish for each.