PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION 



PROTEUS 



449 



Simon N. Patten ( 1890 ); Our Sheep and the Tariff, by 

 the present writer (1891); Geo. B. Curtiss, Protection 

 and Proiperity (1896). 



[With the above article, by an American protectionist, 

 Mr Wm. Draper Lewis, should be compared the article 

 FREE TRADE, in Vol. IV., by Prof essor Shield Nicholson, 

 written from the opposite point of view.J 



Protective Legislation, a term applicable 

 to legislation in promotion of Protection as opposed 

 to Free Trade, is more specially used of legislation 

 in favour of classes of the community thought speci- 

 al ly to stand in need of it, the Factory Acts (q.v.) 

 being a notable example. To the same category 

 belong the Employer's Liability Act (see LIABILITY), 

 the Merchant Shipping Acts, much of the legisla- 

 tion in regard to mines, Crofters (q.v.), and Irish 



uanta (see LAND LAWS). The supporters of the 

 Laissez-faire (q.v.) theory of government, even 

 when admitting justification for some of those 

 measures, protest against others of them or parts 

 of them as interfering with industry and com- 

 merce, and tending to limit freedom and establish 

 a socialistic state-despotism. The proposal to limit 

 the working day to eight hours is resisted on the 

 same ground ; and some extend their protest to 

 free education, free libraries, and government 

 measures for the housing of the poor. See A Plea 

 for Liberty, edited by Thomas Mackay, with pre- 

 face by Herbert Spencer ( 1891 ). 



Protector, a title which has sometimes been 

 conferred in England on the rejjent or governor of 

 the kingdom during the sovereign's minority. It 

 was given to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in 

 1422, in the minority of Henry VI. Richard, Duke 

 of Gloucester, was Protector in 1483, prior to his 

 ascending the throne as Richard III. The Duke 

 of Somerset, one of King Henry VIII. 's eighteen 

 executors, was in 1547 constituted Protector during 

 the minority of Edward VI., with the assistance 

 of a council, consisting of the remaining seventeen 

 executors ; a dignity, however, which he enjoyed for 

 but twenty months. Oliver Cromwell, in December 

 1653, took the title of Lord Protector of the Com- 

 monwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. In 

 1658 his son Richard succeeded to his title and 

 authority, but was never formally installed in the 

 Protectorate, which he resigned in the following 

 year. 



Proteids are an important class of substances, 

 mostly of animal origin, but occurring also in the 

 vegetable kingdom, of which egg albumen may be 

 taken as a good example. The various members 

 of the class are closely related to each other, and 

 amongst them they make up the greater portion of 

 the animal organism. The classification of the 

 proteids is given in the article Animal Chemistry 

 (q.v.). The most careful analyses of the various 

 proteids show that they all closely approximate to 

 the same ultimate composition, and contain about 

 ~>3 '5 per cent, of carbon, 7 of hydrogen, 15-5 of 

 nitrogen, 22'5 of oxygen, and from '9 to 1'6 of 

 sulphur. The majority of the proteids exist in 

 two modifications, the one soluble and the other 

 insoluble in water. The latter modification can 

 be obtained from the former by the addition of 

 alcohol or ether, or of many mineral acids or 

 metallic salts to their aqueous solutions. Coagula- 

 tion also takes place in most cases by the applica- 

 tion of heat, as in the case of egg albumen in 

 boiling water. The proteids are all dissolved by 

 strong solution of acetic acid, and by phosphoric 

 acid. They are also dissolved by alkalies with 

 formation of alkali sulphide. When heated with 

 solution of mercuric nitrate containing a little 

 nitrous acid, they assume a violet-red colour; and 

 when the solution of a proteid substance in acetic 

 acid is mixed with strong sulphuric acid, a violet- 

 393 



coloured solution is obtained, which in the spectrum 

 shows characteristic absorption bands. 



By the action of the gastric juice, of pepsin and 

 dilute hydrochloric acid, and of several other fer- 

 ments, the proteids are eventually converted into 

 peptones. The latter are soluble in water, and are 

 not coagulated by heating. See ALBUMEN, CASEIN, 

 FIBRIN, and GLOBULINS. 



Proteles. See AARD-WOLF. 



Proterosanrns (Gr. proteros, 'first,' sauros, 

 ' reptile '), a genus of fossil reptiles occurring in the 

 Permian system, which is the lowest horizon at 

 which reptilian remains have as yet been detected. 

 It is of a primitive type, and belongs to a highly 

 generalised group of reptiles. The skull is imper- 

 fectly known, but the teeth appear to have been 

 anchylosed to the bone, and not implanted in dis- 

 tinct sockets, as was at one time supposed. 



Protestantenverein, an association of Pro- 

 testant ministers, professors, and others belonging 

 to the 'liberal' or advanced school of theology in 

 Germany, formed in 1863 to promote what its mem- 

 bers insisted was the spirit of true Protestantism 

 in opposition to what they regarded as reactionary 

 and obscurantist. By the orthodox and conser- 

 vatives the association was denounced as rationalist 

 or infidel; and though since 1867 it has held annual 

 meetings in various towns throughout Germany, 

 and has several organs in the press of the Father- 

 land (including the Protestantiscke Kirchenzeitung 

 and a Jahrbitch), it and its members have been 

 treated with marked disfavour by the ecclesiastical 

 authorities, membership in the association being, 

 it is alleged, practically a bar to appointments or 

 preferments. See Schenkel, Der Deutsche Protes- 

 tiintenvcrein (new ed. 1871). 



Protestantism, a term derived from the part 

 taken by the adherents of Luther in protesting 

 against the decree passed by the Catholic states 

 at the second diet of Spires or Speier in 1529. 

 This decree had forbidden any further innovations 

 in religion, and enjoined those states that had 

 adopted the Reformation so far to retrace their steps 

 as to reintroduce the Mass and order their ministers 

 to avoid disputed questions, and to use and explain 

 the Scriptures only as they had hitherto been used 

 and explained in the church. The name is repudiated 

 by a considerable section of the Anglican Church. 

 See CHUUCH HISTORY, LUTHER, REFORMATION. 



Proteus, in the Homeric or oldest Greek 

 mythology, appears as a prophetic ' old man of the 

 sea' (halios geron), who tends the seal-Hocks of 

 Poseidon (Neptune), and has the gift of endless 

 transformation. Bis favourite residence, according 

 to Homer, is the island of Pharos, off the mouth of 

 the Nile ; but according to Virgil, the island of 

 Carpathos (now Skarpanto), between Crete and 

 Rhodes. Here he rises at mid-day from the Moods, 

 and sleeps in the shadow of the rocky shores, 

 surrounded by the monsters of the deep. 'This was 

 the time when those who wished to make him 

 prophesy must catch him. But it was no easy 

 task. Proteus, unlike most vaticinal personages, 

 was very unwilling to prophesy, and tried to escape 

 by adopting all manner of shapes and disguises. 

 When he found his endeavours hopeless he resumed 

 his proper form, and then spoke out unerringly 

 about the future. 



Proteus, a genus of tailed amphibians with 

 persistent gills, represented by two or three species 

 in the caves of Carniola and Dalmatia. They are 

 lank animals, towards a foot in length ; and with 

 their peculiar habitat may be associated the pale 

 colour of the flesh, and the embryonic state of the 

 jyes, which are hidden beneath' the surface. It 

 :ias been shown, however, that sensitiveness to 



