PORPOISE 



PORSON 



329 



Plotinus. After a few years in Rome he went to 

 Sicily, where, if St Jerome's account is to be relied 

 on, he wrote his once celebrated treatise in fifteen 

 books against the Christians, now known only 

 from the replies themselves lost which it elicited 

 from Methodius of Tyre, Eusebius of Czesarea, and 

 Apollinaris of Laodicea. His book itself was burned 

 by order of the emperors Theodosius II. and Valen- 

 tinian in 448. He then returned to Rome, and 

 taught there, where he is said to have died, prob- 

 ably about 303. His own most famous pupil was 

 lamblicus. For a view of Porphyry's position in 

 the history of the Neoplatonic school, see NEO- 

 PLATONISM. He was a very voluminous writer, 

 and, though no very profound thinker, a learned, 

 capable, earnest, and high-minded man. His philo- 

 sophy keeps close to life and practical duties, its 

 object the salvation of the soul, to be effected by 

 the extinction of impure desires through strict 

 asceticism together with knowledge of God. He 

 was a determined opponent of Christianity, and in 

 his trenchant criticism exposed many of its supposed 

 errors and imperfections. 



Of his writings the chief are the Lives of Plotinus and 

 Pythagoras ; Sententice ; De Abitincntia ; and the Epittola 

 ad Marcellam, addressed to his wife. There is a complete 

 list in Fabricius' KMiothtea Qrceea, v., ed. Harless. 

 See the works on the Alexandrian school by Vacherot 

 and Jules Simon, and Zeller's Philot. der Griechrn, voL 

 ii. ; also the monograph by Bouillct ( Paris, 1864 ). 



Porpoise (P/ioaena), a genus of Cetacea in 

 the family Delphinidre. The species are like 

 dolphins, but have shorter snouts. The Common 

 1'orpoise (P. communis) is the most familiar 

 Cetacean on the British coasts, especially to the 

 west of Ireland and Scotland. It is found also on 

 all the coasts of Europe from the Mediterranean 



Porpoise (Phocana communii). 



northwards, on the coasts of North America, and 

 in the Arctic regions. It is one of the smallest of 

 the Cetacea, its average length not exceeding four 

 feet, although individuals may measure six feet in 

 length. The liody is spindle-shaped, its greatest 

 diameter l>eing near the triangular dorsal fin. The 

 -kin is perfectly smooth, and destitute of hair. 

 The upper surface is black with a bluish shimmer, 

 but the under side is grayish white. There are 

 from forty to fifty teeth in each jaw, not conical, as 

 in most of the Cetacea, but compressed. The eye 

 is small ; the opening of the ear is very minute, 

 like a hole made with a pin. The crescent-shaped 

 hlnw-hnle, with the horns of the crescent directed 

 forwards, is situated exactly over the eyes. 



The porpoise is gregarious, and large numbers 

 are often seen together, sometimes swimming in 

 file, when their backs, appearing above the surface 

 of the water, suggest the idea of a great sea-serpent ; 

 sometimes gamboling in fine weather, or when a 

 storm is approaching, or even in the midst of a 

 storm. They feed on fish, which the teeth are 

 admirably adapted to catch, and schools of porpoises 

 pursue the vast shoals of herring, mackerel, &c. 



into bays and estuaries. They sometimes ascend 

 rivers, apparently in pursuit of salmon, as far as 

 the water is brackish, and are not unfrequently 

 raught on such occasions. The skin, the oil, and 

 the flesh are all useful. The skin is nearly an inch 

 thick, but is planed down until it becomes trans- 

 lucent, and is made into excellent leather, which is 

 used for covering carriages and for other purposes. 

 But much ' porpoise ' leather is obtained from the 

 Beluga (q.v. ), or white whale, whence come also the 

 so-called 'porpoise laces.' Under the skin is a 

 layer of fat, about an inch in depth, which yields 

 oil of the finest quality. The flesh was in former 

 times highly esteemed, and reckoned fit for the 

 table of royalty, perhaps partly because among 

 Roman Catholics it was accounted fish. In the 

 time of Queen Elizabeth it was still used by the 

 nobles of England, and was served up with bread- 

 crumbs and vinegar. It is now used only in very 

 northern regions. An entirely black Porpoise (P. 

 melas) from Japan has no dorsal fin and only 

 seventy-two teeth in all. The name porpoise is 

 from tne old French porpeis, from the Latin porcus, 

 ' hog,' t,nA pitfit, 'fish,' corresponding therefore in 

 meaning to the modern French marsouin, a corrupt 

 form of the German meerschwein ( 'sea- hog'). 



l'or|)or;i. NICCOLA, musical composer, was 

 born at Naples, on 19th August 1686, trained there 

 in music, and, having produced some successful 

 operas, was appointed master of the cnnservatorio 

 of San Onofrio ( 172*2). Shortly before that he had 

 established a school for singing, from which came 

 some of the greatest singers the world has known, 

 as Farinelli, Cafiarelli, Salimbeni, and Uberti. 

 From 1725 to after 1755 he led an unsettled life, 

 though he staved some time at Dresden, at 

 Venice, in London (with Farinelli, 1734-36), and 

 in Vienna, composing music, chiefly operas {though 

 none rises a)>ove the level of conventional respecta- 

 bility ), and teaching singing ; at Vienna he taught 

 Haydn. Of his other musical compositions a series; 

 of cantatas (twelve published in London in 1735), 

 several sonatas for the violin, and six fugues for 

 the clavichord are written with considerable fresh- 

 ness. He died at Naples in 1766 or 1767, and now 

 is chiefly known through George Sand's Coiisuelo. 



Porridge, a highly nutritious kind of food 

 made by boiling oatmeal in water, formerly at 

 least one of the chief elements of diet of the Scotch 

 peasantry. Besides oatmeal, porridge maybe made 

 of barley, beans, or the- like, and instead of water 

 milk may be used. 



Porrigo. See FAVUS, and RINGWORM. 



Porsena. See ETRURIA, Vol. IV. p. 446. 

 The story of the defence of the bridge across the 

 Tiber at Rome against Lars Porsena of Clusium in 

 the time of Tarnuin has l>een told in spirited verse 

 by Macaulay in nis Lays of Ancient Rome. 



Porson, RICHARD, perhaps our greatest Greek 

 scholar, was bom on Christmas Day 1759, at East 

 Ruston in Norfolk, where his father was parish 

 clerk. The Rev. T. Hewitt, curate of the parish, 

 noticing the lioy's omnivorous appetite for books 

 and his marvellous memory, had him educated 

 along with his own sons, and brought him under 

 the notice of a neighbouring squire, Mr Norris, 

 the founder of the NorriKian professorship at Cam- 

 bridge, who sent him to Eton in August 1774. 

 Here he remained four years, and in 1778 was 

 entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, mainly by 

 the help of the physician Sir George Baker. He 

 was elected a scholar in 1780, next year won the 

 Craven Scholarship, and subsequently the first 

 chancellor's medal. In 1782 he was elected a 

 Fellow of Trinity. He now began to contribute to 

 Maty's Review, his first critique being on Schutz's- 

 vlus, and his finest on Brunck's Aristophanes. 



