PELLEGRINI 



PELOPIDAS 



17 



following spring, and again in each successive 

 year, till the skin becomes shrivelled and yellow, 

 or even black in certain spots, and the body is 

 reduced to a munimitied state. A burning feeling 

 in the mouth and bowels is an accompanying 

 symptom, and profuse diarrhoea, along with a rapid 

 wasting, and dropsy, is a frequent cause of death. 

 As the disease progresses disorders relating to the 

 nervous system gradually develop, and culminate 

 in melancholy, iml>ecility, or mania ; death often 

 iMiMH's from delirium, or the wretched patients 

 drag out their life within the walls of an asylum. 

 In Ronmania 1"22, and in Corfu 3*2 per 1000 of the 

 ]">|iulation is affected ; in Italy in 1887 there were 

 3688 deaths from pellagra, or '2-04 per 1000 of the 

 estimated population ; but in 1881 the projiortion 

 was 4'H, anil since then it has steadily decreased, 

 in part owing to the number of hospitals built 

 within late years for the special treatment of this 

 disease. See the official report, La Pellagra in 

 Italia (Rome, 1880). 



Pellegrini, CARLO, caricaturist, was bom at 

 Capua in 1839, came to London in 1865, and from 

 1868 till hi.s death on 2*1 January 1889 was the 

 ' Ape ' of Vanity Fair, the delineator of its inimi- 

 table series of cartoons of celebrities. Especially 

 good was his statuette in red plaster of Air Lowe 

 standing on a match-box ( 1871 ). 



Pell'ico, SILVIO, an Italian poet, celebrated for 

 his long and cruel tanriMUMM by the Austrians, 

 was bom 24th June 1788, at Saluzzo, in Piedmont, 

 ami was educated in Pignerol, where his father, 

 Onorato Pellico, a lyric poet, had a silk-factory. 

 In his sixteenth year he accompanied his taster 

 Rosina (on her marriage) to Lyons, where he 

 remained until Foscolo's Xepolcri awakened in him 

 a strong patriotic feeling and an irresistible desire 

 to return to Italy. Coming, about 1810, to Milan, 

 he was warmly receivi-d by I go Koscolo and Vin- 

 cenzo Monti, and became French tutor in the mili- 

 tary school. His tragedies of Laodamia and Fran- 

 cetca da Rimini gained him an honourable name 

 amongst Italian poets. He also translated the 

 Mnnfreil of Byron, with whom he had become 

 ari|ii'aintfil. tie lived in great intimacy with the 

 most eminent patriots and authors of liberal views, 

 and took an active part in a periodical called // 

 Conciliatore, which niter a time was suppressed on 

 account of its liberal tone. In 1820 he was arrested 

 on a charge of Carlionarism, and sent to the prison 

 of Sui Margherita, and afterwards to the Piombi 

 at Venice. After two years' imprisonment he was 

 condemned to death, but had his sentence com- 

 muted to fifteen years' imprisonment, and was 

 carried to the fortress of Spielberg near Briinn ; he 

 was, however, liberated in August 1830. During his 

 imprisonment he had written two other dramas ; 

 and afterwards he published an account of his 

 sufferings during Ins ten years' imprisonment, 

 umler tiii- title Le tnie Prigioni ( Paris, 1833), which 

 has been translated into many languages, and has 

 made his name familiar where it would not have 

 been known on account of his poetry. Pellico's 

 health, never robust, was jiernianently injured. 

 The Marchioness of Bnrolo n-ci-ivi-d him into her 

 house at Turin as her secretary. IVllico subse- 

 quently published minnT'iiis tragi'dii", and other 

 poems, and a little catechism on the duties of man. 

 He died January 31, 1H54. See the Life by Chiala 

 (Italian, 1852), and that by Bourdon (Paris, 8th 

 ed. ISM.-, 



Pellltory. or WALL PKLLITORY (Parietaria), 

 a genus of plants of the natural order Urticrn , 

 having l>oth unisexual and hermaphrodite flowers 

 on the same plant, the perianth of Imlli kinds 4-t'nl. 

 Tlip Common Pellitory ( /'. iiffi'-iiinlix), which grows 

 mi old walls and heaps of rubbish in Britain and 

 360 



many parts of Europe and Asia, is a perennial 

 herb", with erect or prostrate stems, ovate leaves, and 

 inconspicuous 

 flowers. It some- 

 times attracts at- 

 tention from the 

 manner in which 

 the pollen is copi- 

 ously discharged 

 in hot summer 

 days by an elastic 

 movement of the 

 filaments. It is 

 an old domestic 

 remedy as a diu- 

 retic, emollient, 

 and refrigerant, 

 but only as a diu- 

 retic is it really 

 serviceable, a pro- 

 perty which de- 

 pends on the nitre 

 it contains. 



PELLITORY OF 

 SPAIN (Anacydus 

 pyrethnim ) is a 

 plant of the natural 

 order Composite, 

 of a genus nearly 

 allied to Camomile 

 (q.v.), a native of Pellitory (Parutaria officmalu). 



the Levant and of 



Barbary, and cultivated to some extent in Ger- 

 many and other countries. The root is spindle- 

 shaped and tleshy, and when dried is about the 

 thickness of the little finger, inodorous, breaking 

 with a resinous fracture. It has a very peculiar 

 taste, slight at first, but becoming acidulous, saline, 

 and acrid, with a burning and tingling sensation 

 in the mouth and throat, which continues for some 

 time. It is sometimes used in medicine. It is a 

 powerful local irritant. The plant cultivated in 

 Germany has more slender roots than that of the 

 Levant. 



Pelop'idas, a celebrated Theban general, of 

 noble descent, noted among his fellow-citizens for 

 liis disinterested patriotism. The inviolable friend- 

 ship between himself one of the richest men in 

 Thebes and Epaminondas one of the poorest 

 is amon<; the most beautiful things recorded in 

 Greek history. In 382 B.C. he was driven from 

 Thebes by the oligarchic party, who were supported 

 by the Spartans, and was forced to seek refuge 

 at Athens, whence he returned secretly with a few 

 associates, 379 B.C., and recovered possession of the 

 Ciu I iiii-iii. or citadel, slaying the Spartan leader, 

 Leontiades, with his own hand. Plutarch gives us 

 a vivid picture of the adventurous exiles gliding 

 quietly in disguise into the city on a winter after- 

 noon, amid bitter wind and sleet. Having been 

 elected Bffiotarch, in conjunction with Melon and 

 Charon, he set about training and disciplining 

 lii* troops, so that they soon became as formidable 

 as the Lacedaemonians, and were successful in 

 several small encounters with the latter. His 

 'sacred band ' of Theban youth largely contributed 

 to the victory of Epaminondas at Leuctra (371 B.C.), 

 but failed in a subsequent attack on Sparta itself. 

 In the expedition of the Thebans against the cruel 

 tyrant, Alexander of Phenu (368 B.C.), Pelopidas 

 was, after several important successes, treacherously 

 taken prisoner, when in the character of an am- 

 bassador, but was rescued by Epaminondas in the 

 expedition of the following year. He was then sent 

 to Susa, as ambassador from Thebes, to counteract 

 the Spartan and Athenian intrigues going on at the 

 court of Persia, anil bore himself very nobly whilst 

 there. His diplomacy wa^ successful. In 364 B.C. 



