8J3 



PATINA. 



PATRICIANS. 



334 



healthy body, and many things which were necessary to health are 

 supporters of disease, as the usual amount of food, of bodily and 

 mental exertion, Ac.; so that exclusion from them becomes neces- 

 sary, and this again further modifies the performance of the disordered 

 functions. 



The history of a disease is completed by the process of natural 

 recovery or by the observation of the changes in the structure of the 

 body which it produces. The influence of remedies cannot justly be 

 considered as a branch of pathology ; though most important for 

 their utility, still, in their relations to the natural history of a disease, 

 medicines can only be regarded as interfering circumstances, or as the 

 means of experiments for the determination of the relation of the dis- 

 eased body to particular agents, by which the nature of the disorder 

 affecting it may be sometimes ascertained. 



The recovery from disease is an example of the exercise of that 

 power by which the body can make unusual efforts to prevent its 

 own destruction : this has been called the vis medicatrix nature:, or 

 curative force of nature. It is exerted in many cases in which dis- 

 ease cannot be said to exist, but where rather there is an exaggeration 

 of health; as, for example, when a muscle subjected to unusual exer- 

 tion and an unusually great amount of waste not only repairs its loss, 

 but actually becomes larger and stronger, so that it can bear the same 

 amount of constant waste better than at first ; or as when a person is 

 exposed for a time to cold in bathing, the speedy consequence is an 

 increased warmth of the surface. The term reaction is applied to 

 phenomena of this kind, and it may be said that reaction takes 

 place whenever any injurious influence is applied to the body. In 

 simple cases the reaction effects at once a restoration to health, as in 

 the instances above mentioned ; in others the reaction is itself the 

 most prominent feature of the disease, as in fever and inflammation. 



The recovery from disease is rarely perfect. Although no visible 

 change may be left behind, yet the part diseased is commonly for ever 

 after weak, that is, more than usually liable to the same or to some 

 other disease. It is probable that this liability is owing to some morbid 

 change in the structure of the part inappreciable by our present means 

 of examination ; in more distinct cases, when any part has been 

 severely diseased, we never see a perfect restoration of its healthy 

 structure and form. Even in those tissues that are most easily re- 

 paired, there is not an actual reproduction of the injured structure. 



The period occupied in the progress of a disease to recovery or death 

 is the basis of the chief division of acute and chronic diseases. The 

 severity of the symptoms may in both cases be the same ; but in 

 general those of chronic cases we leas prominent than those of acute 



When the disease terminates fatally, or when death takes place 

 from any other cause at a distant period from its occurrence, we 

 obtain perhaps the most valuable because the most certain part of 

 pathological knowledge, that of the material effects which the morbid 

 process has produced. This, the study of morbid anatomy, is often 

 specially called pathology. By the examination of the altered parts and 

 a comparison of the changes of structure which they present with 

 those which are known by observation of external ilinrasni or by 

 experiment to result from certain leading morbid prooenex, as inflam- 

 mation, Ac., we are enabled to determine the nature of that which 

 had existed beyond the limit of our senses, and thus to appreciate 

 correctly the meaning of the several symptoms which had marked 

 its progress .during life, and the powers and modes of action of 

 the circumstances to which it owes it origin. The practical value 

 of such knowledge is the power which it affords of determining 

 during life the nature of each disease, and the appropriate remedy 

 {or each. 



PATINA, a shallow bowl, or basin, of earthenware, used by the 

 Greeks and Romans for various domestic purposes, but chiefly in 

 cooking or in serving at the table. Patinae were sometimes made of 

 bronze or silver. The eucharistic patena of the Romish Church is no 

 doubt derived from it, though it differs in form. [PATE.VA.] 



PATINA, a word used by archaeologists to express the polished rust 

 by which ancient remains of copper, bronze, or brass are covered when 

 laying in particular soils. This rust tends to the preservation of the 

 object, and enhances iu value, and appears to have been prized by the 

 Greeks and Romans. The variety of tints of red, green, blue, brown, 

 purple, olive, and yellow is owing to the combustion of oxygen, carbonic 

 acid, and other gases with the alloys of which the metal is composed. 

 [SCHISMATICS.] 



PATRIARCH (warptifxv, the head of a family), a title given to the 

 heads of families in the early history of the human race, and more 

 particularly to the ancestors of the people of Israel down to the time 

 of Moses, and especially applied to the twelve sons of Jacob, as the 

 ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel 



There is a book in existence entitled ' The Testament* of the Twelve 

 Patriarchs, the Sons of Jacob,' containing what profess to be the dying 

 admonitions of the patriarchs to their children, and their predictions 

 of the future fortunes of their descendants. This work has been 

 published in Greek by Grebe, from manuscripts in the universities of 

 Oxford and Cambridge (' Spicileg. Patr.,' torn, i.), and again by 

 Fabriciua (' Cod. Pseudepigr. Vet. Test.,' 1718) ; it was translated into 

 Latin by Orosteto, bishop of Lincoln (8vo, Haganoe, 1532), into French 

 by Francis Mace, and into English by Whiston, in ' A Collection of 



Records belonging to the Old and New Testament,' London, 1727-8. 

 Whiston has a dissertation to prove the authenticity of the work, but 

 his arguments are neither worth repeating nor refuting. It is un- 

 doubtedly spurious. There is no evidence to prove that it ever 

 existed in Hebrew, and the earliest reference to it by any ancient 

 writer is one by Origen, who expressly asserts that it formed no part 

 of the canon. Larduer has a very good notice of the work. (' Credi- 

 bility," pt. ii., oh. xxix., s. 3.) 



The author of this book was probably a converted Jew, though not, 

 as Cave supposed, a Judaising Christian. It seems to have been 

 written about the end of the 2nd century. 



Patriarch, in Church history, was also the ecclesiastical chief of a 

 diocese, which included several provinces. It is not known at what 

 time this title was introduced into the Church, but before the 4th 

 century the bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria, had obtained a 

 degree of pre-eminence over the other bishops. In the time of Con- 

 stantine the Great the bishop of Constantinople was made to rank with 

 the three just mentioned ; and either then or not long after the title 

 of patriarch was given to these four prelates. The number of these 

 dignitaries was increased in the 5th century. The patriarch of Constan- 

 tinople reduced under his jurisdiction those of Antioch and Alexandria, 

 and obtained the title of " Universal Patriarch." The bishop of Home 

 was called " Prince of the Patriarchs." The struggle between the patri- 

 archs of Rome and Constantinople for supremacy was the chief cause of 

 the separation between the Eastern and Western Churches. 



The powers of the patriarchs are thus described by Mosheim : 

 " They alone consecrated the bishops who lived in the provinces that 

 belonged to their jurisdiction. They assembled yearly iu council the 

 clergy of their respective districts, in order to regulate the affairs of 

 the Church. The cognisance of all important causes, and the deter- 

 mination of the more weighty controversies, were referred to the 

 patriarch of the province where they arose. They also pronounced a 

 decisive judgment in those cases where accusations were brought 

 against bishops. And lastly, they appointed vicars, or deputies, 

 clothed with their authority, for the preservation of order and tran- 

 quillity in the remoter provinces." (Mosheim, 'Ecc. Hist." Cent v., 

 [it. ii., chap. 2 ) There were, however, provinces of the empire which 

 were exempt from their jurisdiction. 



The Greek Church is at present governed by four patriarchs, namely, 

 those of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. 



PATRICIANS (Patrei, Patricii, in Latin) was the appellation of the 

 members of the original houses or gentes, of which the Roman 

 populus, the ruling power in the community, was at first composed, and 

 of their descendants, either by blood or adoption. They were origin- 

 ally divided into three tribes, the Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres ; each 

 tribe into ten curia;, and each curia into ten decuriae, which Niebuhr 

 has identified with the gens or house. The Luceres were admitted 

 later to the rank, and were styled gentes minores, in opposition to the 

 other two tribes, styled majores. Each bouse became subdivided into 

 several farailue, which were distinguished by a surname, in addition to 

 the name of the gens, which was common to all, like that of the Scotch 

 clan. Thus the gens Cornelia comprised the families of the Scipioues, 

 the Lentuli, the Sulke, &c. The families composing a gens were not 

 necessarily related by consanguinity, for individuals might be adopted 

 into a gens, and under the early Roman kings such admissions were 

 frequent. The definition of a gens by Scaevola (Cic., ' Top.,' c. 6) is, 

 that the members bore a common name, were descended from freemen, 

 without any stain of slavery among their ancestors, and had never 

 incurred any legal disability ; they hod common saured rites, or 

 sacrifices appointed for stated days and places. When a family became 

 extinct by default of heirs in the male line, its property reverted to the 

 gens of which it formed a part. Gentile and patrician were therefore 

 synonymous. Freedmen and their descendants belonged to the gens 

 of which they bore the name, but they had not the rights of the gens, 

 that is to say, the gentile rights. Natives of the confederate towns of 

 l.atium coming to settle at Rome attached themselves to some gentile 

 family, the head of which was styled their patron, and they were styled 

 his clients. [CLIENT.] 



The members of the senate, the consuls, and the pontifices were, in 

 the first ages of the republic, chosen exclusively from among the 

 patricians, until the year 365 B.C., when Licinius carried his rogations, 

 by which the plebeians were admitted to the consulship, as well as to 

 the custody of the Sibylline or sacred books. [Lioiwius STOLO, in 

 Bioo. Div.] 



When the plebeians became eligible to all the offices of the state, a 

 new nobility was formed, consisting of those who hod filled the offices 

 of consul, prator, or curule uxlile, and this nobility was transmitted to 

 their posterity with the " Jus iniaginum," or the right of setting up in 

 their houses the images of their ancestors. Still a distinction in 

 opinion continued to prevail in favour of the patricians, or older nubi- 

 lity, as distinguished from the plebeian families. 



When Constantine transferred the seat of the empire to his new city, 

 he established there a new senate and a new patrician order, the mem- 

 bers of which were appointed by the emperor. Their privileges con- 

 fisted in being freed from certain taxes and jurisdictions, and wearing 

 the chlamys and calceus. After the fall of the Western Empire, the 

 officers sent by the Byzantine emperors to administer the provinces 

 of Italy subject to them, were chosen from among the patricians of 



