109 



PITCH LAKE 



PITRA 



I'ii rli Lake. See TRINIDAD. 



Pitrhstone, or RETIMTK, an aci<i volcanic 

 glass, dark green, reddish lirown, yellow, dark blue, 

 or black, and occasionally showing a streaked or 

 clouded appearance. It has a pitch-like or greasy 

 lustre, breaks with a conchoidal or splintery frac- 

 ture, and is translucent on thin edges. It is usually 

 ricli in microlites. and often contains crystalline 

 granules and crystals of felspar, pyroxene, horn- 

 blende, biotite, and quartz. Now and again it 

 shows perlitic anil spncriilitic structures. When 

 conspicuous crystals of sanidine (see FELSPAR) are 

 abundantly present in the rock it is termed Pitch- 

 >,t'>iir I'urphyry. It occurs in the form of dykes 

 and also as lava-flows. The name pitchstone has 

 sometimes been given to the darker varieties of 

 inenilite, a form of opal. 



Pith, or MKHULLA, is the central cylinder of 

 tissue in the stems of Dicotyledons and Gymno- 

 sperms. In all plants where it is found it is con- 

 tinuous in the young state. In older plants it may 

 be continuous, as in the elder, oak, &c., in the 

 form of transverse discs, as in the walnut, or want- 

 ing in the intemodes, as in hemlock, &c. In MTV 

 young plants it is composed of thin-walled cells 

 tilled with protoplasm and cell-sap, and takes part 

 in the conduction of nutritive substances through- 

 out the plant. The cell-walls usually remain very 

 thin, the protoplasm in soon all used up within the 

 cells, and their further growth ceases. Examined 

 microscopically, pith cells are usually polygonal in 

 transverse section, while they are rectangular in 

 longitudinal section, and not much longer than 

 broad. The ring of wood immediately surrounding 

 the pith consists largely of spiral and annular 

 vessels, and is known as the medullary sheath. 

 The pii h is connected with the cortex and bast by 

 the medullary rays, which are composed of cells 

 Mtnilar to those of the pith, and which convey sap 

 to the inner parts of the stem. In the early life of 

 most trees the pith serves as a storehouse for 

 starch and other reserve snlistances ; but as the 

 tree becomes older the pith is crushed inwards, 

 communication with the cortex and i>ast is physio 

 logically obstructed, and the pith cells become dry 

 and full of air. 



Pithecanthropus erertus ('erect ape- 

 man'), the name given by I)r Eugene Dubois, of 

 the 1 ditch army medical service, to the animal re- 

 Constructed from fossilised remains found by him 

 in Java, These consist (p f the upper |,, lr (" ,,f a 

 cranium, a left femur, and two molar t<-eth, and 

 were found in 1891-2 on the left bank of the 

 Bengawan river, near Trinil, during r\|,loiatioiis 

 eondocted for the government oi' the Dutch Indies. 

 The cranium and teeth were found close together, 

 and the femur a few yards away and a year after- 

 wan Is ; but Dr Duhois l-clicvcs then, to' belong to 

 the Kanie skeleton, and to be such as could only 

 have belonged to an animal midway between man 

 and the higher apes, and of pleistocene age. The 

 eiaiimm is midway in form and size between the 

 normal human and the gorilla's skull, and rather 

 closely resembles that of a luicroceplialous idiot. 

 The find has given rise- to much discussion and differ- 

 ence of opinion ; many authorities holding that the 

 femur and cranium have not Wn proved to belong 

 t.i the same skeleton, and that, while the femur is 

 undoubtedly human, the cranium is also probably 

 of a very low human t\|>e ; others wholly or partly 

 agree with I), Idil-ois. The diversity of opinion 

 extends to the teeth, which are large and powerful. 

 See the dincorervr'n monograph, PMrt-anlhropiu ertctui 

 (BaUria, 1K94, in German); the paper read by Dr 

 ]>uboi to the Royal Dublin Society, Jan 23, 1896- 

 Jfalurr, vol.. 1L, lij., liii., liv. ; and in the present work 

 the article* ANTHROPOID APES, MAX, SKULL. 



I'ilhe'CUS (<!r., 'ape '), a name formerly used by 

 zoologists for various groups of apes and monkeys. 

 See SAKI. 



I'itlliilll, one of the store-cities which the 

 children of Israel built for Pharaoh (Exod. i. 11), 

 conclusively identified in 1HH3 by the excavations 

 of M. Naville with the deserted Arab village Tell 

 El-Maskhuta, on the Fresh-water Canal and rail- 

 way line from Cairo to Ismailia, aliout half-way 

 between Ismailia and Tell El-Kebir. See NavfflA 

 Store City of PUhom (1885). 



PItlocliry, a Perthshire health-resort, on the 

 Tummel, 13 "miles NNW. of Dunkeld. It has a 

 tweed manufactory. Pop. 1131. 



Pitman, SIR ISAAC, founder of the Pitman 

 system of Shorthand (q.v.), who was knighted 

 iu IH94, was born at Trowbridge, \Viltshire, 4th 

 January 1813. His father, a factory overseer 

 and afterwards cloth manufacturer, was super- 

 intendent of the poet Crabbe's Sunday-school. 

 Young Pitman, a studious and religiously disposed 

 youth, was for a time a clerk, and after some pre- 

 liminary training taught a school at Barton-on- 

 Humber (1832-36) and at Wotton-undei K.dge, 

 where he turned his attention to the popularising 

 of shorthand, and issued through Bagster his 

 Stenographic Sound Hand (1837). Copies of 

 his second edition were put into circulation 

 simultaneously with the introduction of the 

 penny post in 1840. Dismissed from Wot ton 

 because he had joined the New (Swcdenboigian) 

 Church, he conducted a school at Bath ( 1839- 

 43). Henceforward his career is the history of the 

 development of shorthand and spelling reform. 

 He wrote, travelled, and lectured in its interest. 

 his working day commonly lasting from 6 A.M. 

 till 10 P.M., with three hours for meals and 

 relaxation. In 1842 he brought out the l'1- 

 Journal, with which the late A. J. Ellis was for a 

 time associated. In 1845 premises were opened in 

 London for the sale of Pitman's publications. In 

 leeognition of bis exertions he was presented with 

 350 and a marble timepiece in 1SG2, and at a 

 phonographic jubilee meeting in 1887 was pre- 

 sented with a marble bust of himself. He died 

 2'2d January 1S1I7. In his early days he spent 

 much of his narrow income in the cause. I'p till 

 1890 he hod issued from his I'honetie In. tiinte, 

 Hath, 150 different shorthand books, ami his I'/mtio- 

 yraphic Teacher was selling at the rate of 160,000 

 annually. From the date of issue l.:!70,000 had 

 been sold. There were also eighty-four shorthand 

 associations, and a National I 'lionographic Society, 

 whilst the subject had been recognised in I lie 

 Education Code (1890) and the Technical Instruc- 

 tion Act of 1889, so that Pitman's labours of more 

 than half a century have been crowned with sin-. 

 About 95 per cent, of reporters in England, the 

 colonies, and America use Pitman's system, which 

 has l>een adapted to the Welsh, French, Ccrman, 

 Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, and Malagasy 

 languages. It is estimated that its practitioner- all 

 over the world number aliove half a million. See 

 T. A. Reed's Biography of Isaac 1'itnuni ( 1890). 



Piton Bark. See CARIBHKK HARK. 



Pilr.-i. JEAN BAPTISTE, was lx>rn at Champfor- 



gueil, near Autlin, August 31, 1812, entered the 

 order of St Benedict, and devoted himself to his 

 torical studies in the ablx-y of Solesme. In Is.'iS 

 he was sent by the pope to Kussia to study tin- 

 Slavonic liturgy, was created a cardinal-priest in 

 h I.Hli.1. librarian of the Vatican in 1869, and 

 Cardinal-bishop of Frascati in 1879. He, died 

 February 3, 1H81). His works include Ilistoire 

 de Saint I.njfr (1846), Vie du R. P. Libermntin 

 (1855), the invaluable BjtMtgium Snlmmenit 

 (6 voU. 1852-60), Jttrit Ecclesiattici Gr:rrnrum 



