PALINURUS 



PALLADIUM 



719 



on Anagrams (1862); G. R. Clark, Palindromes 

 (Glasgow, 1887). 



Pulilllirus. the helmsman of ^Eneas, was 

 lulled to sleep at his post, and fell into the sea. 

 When .Eneas visited the lower world lie related 

 to him that on the fourth day after his fall he 

 made the coast of Italy, and was there barbarously 

 murdered, and his Imdy left un buried on the strand*. 

 The Sibyl prophesied that his death should be 

 atoned for, a tomb erected to him, and a cave 

 (Palinurus, the modern Punta delta tipartivento) 

 named after him. 



Palisander Wood, a name sometimes given 

 to Rosewood (q.v. ). 



Paltssy, BERNARD, the great French potter, 

 was born about 1509 in the diocese of Agen, anil, 

 after wandering for ten or twelve years all over 

 France as a glass- and portrait-painter, about 1538 

 married ami settled at Saintes. There he em- 

 ployed himself also as a land-surveyor, when the 

 chance sight of an enamelled cup made him resolve 

 to discover how to make enamels. So, neglecting 

 all else, he devoted himself to experiments for six- 

 teen years, by which time he had exhausted all 

 his resources, and, for want of money to buy fuel, 

 was forced to burn the tables and the flooring of 

 hi* house. His neighlioiirs, even his wife, mocked 

 at him ; his children cried to him for food ; but in 

 *l>ito of all these discouragements he persisted, and 

 was at length rewarded with success (1557). His 

 w;ire, bearing in high relief plants and animals, 

 coloured to represent nature, soon made him famous ; 

 and, though as a Huguenot he was in 1562 im- 

 prisoned at Bordeaux, he was speedily released 

 by royal edict, and appointed 'inventor of rustic 

 tigulihe* ' to the king. Removing to Paris in 1564, 

 lie established his workshop at the Tuileries, and 

 was specially exempted by Catharine de' Medici 

 from the massacre of St Bartholomew (1572). 

 During 1575-84 he delivered a course of lectures 

 on natural history and physics, and was the lirst 

 in France to substitute facts for fancies, as also to 

 give right notions of the origin of springs, the 

 formation of fossil shells, the fertilising properties 

 of marl, and the liest means of purifying water. 

 In 1585 he was again arrested as a Huguenot, and 

 thrown into the Bastille, where he died in 1589. 

 Palissv's writings, published between 1557 and 

 ).-.so, 'and edited by M. France (Paris, 1880), 

 ],.,--,... much interest ; but the man himself is 

 more interesting still, brave, ardent, sincere, a 

 mixture of Columbus and John Bunyan. 



See H. Morlej'a Paliv the Potter (2 vols. 1852), and 

 French Lives by Audiat (1868), Berty (188G), Dupuy (1894). 



I'fililiriis. a genus of trees and shrubs of the 

 natural order Rliainnoceie, nearly allied toZizyphus 

 (see JuJL'BE), but very different in the fruit, which 

 is dry, orbicular, and girded with a broad mem- 

 branous wing. P. acitleatits is often called Christ's 

 Thorn, and by the Germans Jews' Thorn (Jiulcn- 

 ilnrn ), from the fancy that it supplied the 

 crown of thorns with which our Saviour was 

 crowned. It is a deciduous shrub or low tree, with 

 slender, pliant branches and ovate three-nerved 

 leaves, each of which has two sharp spines at 

 the base, one straight and the other re-curved. 

 It is a native of the countries around the Medi- 

 terranean, of India, and many parts of Asia. It 

 is often used for hedges in Italy and other coun- 

 tries, its sharp spines and pliant branches admir- 

 ably adapting it for this pur|>ose. 



Pillk Strait, the northern portion of the shallow 

 passage lictwenn the south coast of India and the 

 Island of Ceylon (q.v.). 



Palladlo. ANDREA, Italian architect, was born 

 at Vicenza, 30th November 1518. After studying 



the writings of Vitruvius and the monuments of 

 antiquity at Rome, he settled in his native city, 

 and soon acquired a high reputation throughout tlie 

 country from his designs for numerous buildings in 

 Vioenza and the neighbourhood. He is the most 

 conspicuous of the architects who, following Brunel- 

 leschi, led the way in establishing the modern 

 Italian school of architecture, as distinguished 

 from the earlier Italian Style (q.v. ) of the Renais- 

 sance. His style, known as the Palladian, is 

 modelled on the ancient Roman as apprehended 

 by Vitruviua, reproducing its dignity and strict 

 proportions, but often to the neglect of usefulness ; 

 and his buildings are constantly encumbered by a 

 superfluity of pilasters and columns, broken entab- 

 latures, and inappropriate ornament, even where 

 there is real beauty of detail. The palaces Bar- 

 barano, Delia Ragione, Chierigati (now the Museo 

 Civico), Tiene, and the Olympic theatre at Vicenza; 

 the country mansions of Capra, Maser, and Rotunda 

 in the vicinity ; and the churches of San Giorgio 

 Maggiore and II Redentore, the facade of San Fran- 

 cesco della Vigna, and several palaces, in Venice, 

 are his greatest achievements. He died at Vicenza, 

 19th August 1580. Palladio wrote a work on archi- 

 tecture (I qnattro Libri dell' Architettura, 1570, 

 and often reprinted) which had a great influence 

 upon the styles of his successors, especially upon 

 Inigo Jones, the ' English Palladio,' whose notes 

 on the book are published in Leoni's Eng. trans. 

 (1715). The term Palladian was, indeed, long 

 practically synonymous with the beautiful and 

 perfect in architecture. Recent Lives (in Italian) 

 are those by Zanella (1880) and Barichella (1880). 



Palladium, among the ancient Greeks and 

 Romans, an image of Pallas, who was generally 

 identified with Athena (q.v), upon the careful keep- 

 ing of which in a sanctuary the public welfare was 

 lielieved to depend. The Palladium of Troy was 

 especially famous, and was the gift of Zeus to the 

 founder of Ilium. It has been supposed it may 

 have been originally a meteorite (see METEORS). 

 Ulysses and Diomede stole the Palladium, and so 

 helped to secure victory for the Greeks ; and both 

 Athens and Argon lioasted to have afterwards 

 secured the possession of the charm. 



Palladium (sym. Pd, atom. wt. 106'2, sp. 

 gr. 1T4) is one of the so-called noble metals, 

 which in its colour and ductility closely resemble? 

 platinum. It is not fusible in an ordinary wind- 

 furnace, but melts at a somewhat lower tempera- 

 ture than the last-named metal ; and, when heated 

 beyond its fusing-point, it volatilises in the form 

 of a green vapour. It undergoes no change in the 

 open air at ordinary temperatures ; but at a low 

 red heat it becomes covered. with a purple film, 

 owing to superficial oxidation. It is soluble in 

 nitric and iodic acids, and in aqua regia. It com- 

 bines readily with gold, which it has the property 

 of rendering brittle and white. (When it forms 

 20 per cent, of the mass the alloy is perfectly 

 white.) When alloyed with twice its weight of 

 silver it forms a ductile compound, which has been 

 employed for the construction of small weights ; 

 but for this purpose aluminium is superior. Pro- 

 fessor Miller states that it ' has been applied in a 

 few cases to the construction of graduated scales 

 for astronomical instruments, for which, by its 

 whiteness, hardness, and unalterability in the air, 

 it is well adapted ; ' its scarcity must, however, 

 prevent its general use for this purpose. 



It was discovered in 1803 by \\ oil as ton in the 

 ore of platinum, of which it seldom forms so much 

 as 1 per cent. Another source of this metal is the 

 native alloy (termed ouro pondre) which it forms 

 with gold in certain mines in Brazil ; it is from this 

 alloy that the metal is chiefly obtained. 



