POPLAR, ECONOMICAL USES. 



POEOH. 



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vfaae** which eunctitutnl. under the Christian emperon, successors of 

 CoasUntin*. the vicariate ol Rome, namely, Ktruria, the March uf 

 Aacona. Valeria, Apulia, Calabria, Lucania, the Abruzzi, Siciljr, Sar- 

 dinia. and I'oniica, Then province* were under the by jurisdiction . -f 

 l*rial vicar. The mat of Italy, with Kh.cti.i, coimtituUxl the 

 vicariate of Italy, of which Milan wa* the capital. Both vioariate* 

 were subject to the prefect of Italy, who had also under hi* authority 

 the province* of Africa and lllyria. The province* which formed part 

 of toe vioariate of Rome were called " luburbicaritc," and their dio- 



acknowledged the bishop of Rome u their metropolitan. Such 

 U the opinion of Father Sirmond, and of I>u Pin, in bU ' De ant i<|uA 

 K~-l*-ir' Disciplini,' and of Oiannone, in hi* ' Storia civile del Regno 

 ill Napoli.' They contend that until the reign of Valentinian III. the 

 metropolitan authority of the bishop of Rome did not extend beyond 

 the suburbioarian province*. Allatius, Banuiiu*, Maiuibourg, and 

 others, on the contrary, contend that the bishop of Rome was by right 

 the metropolitan of the whole West, if not of the whole Roman empire. 

 Gregory I. (the GreaO, however, disclaimed the title of (Ecumenic 

 or universal bishop, and in token of humility assumed that of " Servus 

 Servonim Domini," the " Servant of the Servants of the Lord," which 

 hu successor* have continued to place at the head of their briefs and 

 decretals. 



In his quality of bishop of Rome, the pope delegates his authority 

 as ordinary to a prelate called Vice-Qerente, who is generally a bishop 

 i* jMuiiluu. In his quality of metropolitan of the province of Rome, 

 he has under him the bishops called Suburbicarii of Ostia and Yelletri, 

 9 ami Santa Knfina. of Sabina, of Frascati, of Albano, and of 

 Paleatrina, As primate of the Roman Catholic church, he has under 

 him all the cardinals, archbishops, and bishops of the Roman Catholic 

 states ; those placed in state* professing Reformed doctrine*, and tho > 

 in parlilitu, or having episcopal titles with a nominal see. The total 

 number of people who profess tfie Roman Catholic religion in Euro]*- 

 is roughly calculated at about 112 millions, or about two-fifths of the 

 population of Europe. The countries of which the established religion 

 is Roman Catholic are 1, Italy ; 2, Spain ; 3, Portugal ; 4, France ; 

 5, Belgium ; 6, Bavaria. In South America, the states formed by 

 Spanish and Portuguese settlers are also exclusively Roman Catholic. 

 Roman Catholic congregations are scattered about various countries 

 of Asia, but in small numbers. 



For the manner in which the pope carries on the spiritual govern- 

 ment of this extensive flock, see CATHOLIC Ciiriiui and CONCORDAT. 

 The form of election of the pope is given under COXCI.AVK. For the 

 history of the most distinguished popes, see their respective names in 

 the Bioo. Div. The reader may refer also to the ' Vita; et Res Gestto 

 Pontincum Romanorum ab Initio naacentis Eccleaite usque ad Urbanum 

 VII.,' by Ciaconio, Cabrera, and Vlttorello, fol., Rome, 1630. A list of 

 the succession of the popes will be found in Petau's ' Rationarimn 

 Temporum.' 



POPLAR, ECONOMICAL USES. There are several varieties of 

 poplar tree, which render useful service in the arts. The timber of 

 the vhilt poplar is very light coloured, and is used in France and 

 Germany for a variety of minor purposes. It makes excellent [Kicking 

 cases, because nails may be driven into it without causing it to split. 

 It is used extensively by turners and cabinet-makers. The boards and 

 rollers around which pieces of silk are wrapped in merchants' warehouses 

 and in shops are made of this wood, which is adopted on account of 

 it* lightness lessening the expense of freight. It is much used for 

 flooring-boards, for large folding-doors for barns, and for other building 

 purposes. It is used as a substitute for lime-tree in musical instru- 

 ments. Wooden dishes and casks are occasionally made of it. The 

 timber of the Hark poplar U used for much the same purposes as the 

 white. It is yellow, soft, and easy to work; and is preferred by 

 cabinet-makers for many purposes. It is used for clogs, the soles of 

 wooden shoes, bowls and other turner's ware, and in cart-building. 

 The AomAon/y poplar produces wood less serviceable than that from 

 the other varieties ; but rafters, small beams, boards, &c., made of this 

 wood and afterwards coated with tar, are found to be durable. The 

 wood of the Trembling pojJar or Aipen U white and tender; and is 

 employed by turners ; by coopers for herring casks, milk pails, &c. ; 

 by sculptor* and engraven ; by joiners and cabinet-makers ; and by tho 

 maker* of clogs, wooden shoes, butchers' trays, pack saddles, and a 

 number of other article*. 



A* fuel, poplar wood is of inferior heating power ; but it gives out 

 It* heat very quickly ; the ovens belonging to most of the Paris bakers 

 are heated by this wood. The bark of the black poplar is employed in 

 tanning leather ; when pulverised it is eaten by sheep ; and being very 

 thick, light, and corky, it i* used by fishermen to support their net*, 

 and even as cork* for bottle*. The bark of the aspen forms the 

 principal food of the beaver ; it i* also usefully employed in medicine. 



In Sweden the leave* of the white poplar are eaten by cattle. The 

 buds of the black poplar, macerated in boiling water, and afterwards 

 bruised in a mortar and prewed, yield a fat substance which burns like 

 wax and shales a fine odour. The baUvunic sap with which the buds 

 arc covered forms the basis of an ointment that was much prized in 

 former time*. The young (hoot* may be used in basket-making ; and 

 the shoot* with the leave* on are sometime* used as brooms. The 

 cottony substance or flock that surrounds the Heed has been used in 

 Germany and France as wadding; and it has also been occasionally 



manufactured into vlotlu, hat*, and paper. The llaltam jw>/./,ir yield* 

 a balsam from the buds ; it is collected from the trees in spring, at 

 which Mason it collect* into drops on the point* of tho buds. In 

 Siberia a medicated wine is prepared from the buds. 



POPLIN. Among the varieties of woven good* in which silk and 

 worsted or silk and woollen are used in combination , poplin is one of 

 the best and most esteemed. Taljinrt u one form of this material ; 

 and Ireland has been distinguished for the excellence of it* poplins 

 and tabinet*. The demand is now small, as other kinds of untile 

 fabric have lately been more in favour ; hut tin- rich Irish poplin* ami 

 tabinets, though employing only a small number of person* in their 

 manufacture, maintain their high character. 



POPULATION [fKXSC*.] 



POPULIN, Beiuoil-taliciH (C..H,.<C,,H,0,X),,+ 4 q.) a peculiar 

 product obtained from the bark and leaves of the poplar i I'l'imlut Ire- 

 mala). After extracting salicin from them, this remains in the mother 

 water : carbonate of potash being added to it, a white precipitate is 

 obtained, which is to be dissolved in boiling water. On cooling it 

 crystallises in needleform crystals, which have an acrid and also a 

 sweet taste, resembling that of liquorice. It dissolves in 70 parts of 

 boiling water and in 2000 of cold water. Its solution in acids is pre- 

 cipitated by water. To sulphuric acid it imparts a red colour. The 

 crystals contain 5'43 per cent, of water of crystallisation. 



PORCELAIN. [IVmiHY.] 



PORCH (from the Latin porttnu), a general term for any proj- 

 forming a covered space immediately before the entrance to a luiildiir.:, 

 njii'ii in front, and more or less enclosed at its sides. Th< 

 between a porch and a portico is, that, however important it may be as 

 a feature, the porch appt ;;:* only a subordinate port of the lunl 

 which it is attached ; whereas the portico [PORTICO] may be tho whole 

 of a front : therefore, though the term porch is usually employed only 

 in speaking of the Romanesque and Gothic styles, it would b. 

 correct and convenient to apply it, without regard to style, to \vlnt 

 bears the character of a porch. By attending to such distinction, 

 misconception would sometimes be prevented : for instance, if tin- 

 Athemcum Clubhouse, London, were described as having a I'mie 

 portico, any one unacquainted with the design would imagine that the 

 order was carried up as high as the general entablature of the building : 

 whereas by terming it a Doric porch, such misconception would be 

 avoided. 



As far as we are aware, the only instance of a porch in Greek archi- 

 tecture is that in the octagonal structure called the Tower of the 

 Winds, or that of Andronicus Cyrrhestes, which has a small prostyle 

 portal on two of its faces, north-east and north-west, each consisting of 

 a simple dutyle, or two columns and their entablature, surmounted by 

 a pediment ; and which therefore may be regarded as the prototype of 

 those ornamental compositions for doors and windows, so greatly 

 affected in Italian architecture, which present a microttylc application 

 of the orders, that is, small columns adapted not to the entire structure, 

 but to subordinate parts of it, 



When portico fronts were laid aside, as partaking too much of the 

 previous Pagan temple ; when columns began to be not only ai i 

 to the building, but employed as microstyle decorations to its <li. 

 external stages or stories, often very irregularly, and generally con- 

 nected together by arches ; in short, when the Roman style v&f 

 formed into and superseded by the Byzantine and the Romanesque 

 styles, porches began to be important features, subordinate indeed in 

 size to the structures to which they were attached, but principal in 

 regard to embellishment, being frequently composed of group* ni 

 columns, elaborately wrought, and some of them often placed on the 

 backs of lions or other animals, and supporting a series of concentric 

 arches or archivolt mouldings equally enriched. Here microstyle 

 embellishment may be said to have been carried to such a height as to 

 be ultimately lost sight of : the columns became at length mere sub- 

 sidiary members, and a combination of vertical mouldings or shaft* cut 

 out of the receding angles constituted the general splay of the whole 

 portal, which was thus extended in appearance ad libitum, without 

 regard to tho size of the actual doorway or aperture itself, a very im- 

 portant advantage as regards design. 



In the Norman-Gothic stylo, the porches or portals are little more 

 than a modification of the similar features in Romanesque architecture. 

 Of porches however strictly so called, that is, portals projecting out 

 from the edifice, so as to form a sheltered external vestibule, we have 

 comparatively few Norman instances, and those do not occur in th.- 

 principal front, but at the sides of buildings. The name also U the 

 case in. Pointed Gothic architecture, whore, though we often 

 with spacious and magnificent portals, especially in continental 

 examples, we do not find advanced porches brought out beyond the 

 general plan of the building in front ; the porch being there almost 

 invariably enclosed within the lower part of the structure, even where 

 it may be said to project with respect to that part of the front which 

 is seen above it, but on a different plane, as for instance in tho front of 

 Westminster Hall, Winchester Cathedral, &c., although in those cases 

 the entrances are placed rather within deep recesses than porches. In 

 church architecture, entrances of the last mentioned kind hardly ever 

 occur at tho west end or front, but were frequently made very cou- 

 spicuous features in the side elevations, of which we have striking 

 instances in the beautiful north porches at Salisbury and Wells 



