813 



PEOSODT. 



PROVERB. 



814 



PHOSODT 



is derived from a Greek word, which has 



fnaetly the same meaning as the Latin accentus, and was used by the 

 Greeks in the same sense. (Quintil., ' Inst. Orator,' i. 5 ; Aulus 

 Gellius, xii. 6.) Most modern writers however make a distinction 

 betwvea prosody and accent, understanding by the former what is 

 usually called quantity, that is, the duration of a sound. Thus it is 

 said that the principle of Greek and Roman versification is quantity, 

 while that of the poetry of the modern European languages depends on 

 accents. It- is not however improbable that what the ancients meant 

 by quantity was not very different from what we call accent. [ACCENT.] 

 The subject is well treated in an able article in the fourth volume of 

 the ' Journal of Education,' published under the superintendence of 

 the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1832. 



PROTECTION ACTS. The object of these statutes is to enable a 

 debtor in insolvent circumstances to avert or forestall the impending 

 danger of imprisonment; for any person not a trader within the 

 Bankrupt Acts, or who, being a trader, owes less than 300/., whether 

 in prison or not, may apply in London to the Insolvent Court, in the 

 country to the County Courts, for protection from process. A schedule 

 of debts, and of the names of his creditors, must accompany the 

 petition ; which must set forth an account of his whole estate and 

 liabilities, and be verified by affidavit. 



On the petition being filed, the court makes an interim order, which 

 protects the petitioner from all civil process until his examination, but 

 he may still be arrested under a judge's order, to hold him to bail. If 

 in prison, the order effects the petitioner's discharge. The presenta- 

 tion of the petition vests all the petitioner's effects in the registrar, 

 who, as official assignee, proceeds to possess himself of all that can be 

 obtained without suit. Notice of the petition is given to the creditors, 

 and inserted in the ' Gazette ' and local newspapers, a public sitting of 

 the court being at the same time appointed for the first examination 

 of the petitioner. If it appear that the allegations in the petition and 

 the matters in the schedule are true, and that the debts have not been 

 contracted fraudulently or improperly, and do not arise from any of the 

 acts of misconduct enumerated in the statutes, a day ia fixed on which 

 a final order shall be made, unless cause be shown to the contrary. 

 If made, its effect is to permanently protect the petitioner from all 

 process, in respect of the debts due, at the tune of filing the petition, 

 to the creditors named in the schedule. On the other hand, if cause 

 ia shown, the court may adjourn the consideration of the final order 

 tine die, or dismiss the petition. 



At any time after the final order, the assignees of the estate may 

 < laim property since acquired by the insolvent, which claim may be 

 summarily enforced by the order of the court. So that under the 

 Protection Acts, as in the case of an insolvency, the future as well aa 

 present property of the debtor may be applied hi payment of his debts. 

 In this consists the great distinction between the relief afforded by the 

 bankrupt laws to a trader, and that obtainable by an insolvent debtor, 

 or a petitioner under the Protection Acts. 



(Blackstone's ' Commentaries,' Mr. Kerr's edition, vol. ii. p. 616.) 



PROTECTOR. [SETTLEMF.NT.] 



PROTEIN, a substance obtained by Mulder from albumen, casein, 

 horn, and animal and vegetable fibrin. When any one of these is dis- 

 solved in a solution of potash, and the filtered solution is mixed with 

 a slight excess of acid, a copious grayish-white, flocculent precipitate is 

 formed, and a slight smell of hydrosulphurie acid is perceived. This 

 white substance is protein, so called from its occupying the first or 

 most important place in relation to the albuminous principles. 



IU properties are : While moist the white flocculi are diaphanous, 

 but by drying they become yellowish, hard and brittle. It possesses 

 neither smell nor taste, attracts moisture rapidly from the air, and 

 loses water at 212. It is insoluble in water, alcohol, ether and essen- 

 tial oils. By long continued boiling in water it undergoes some change 

 of properties, and is rendered soluble. 



Acetic and phosphoric acids, whatever may be their state of con- 

 centration, dissolve it ; hydrochloric acid also dissolves protein, and 

 acquires an indigo tint. When heated the solution blackens. With 

 concentrated sulphuric acid it produces a jelly which contracts in 

 water, and which, after being washed with water and alcohol, though 

 it doe* not redden litmus-paper, contains 8'34 per cent, of sulphuric 

 Mulder calls this compound Sulphoproteic acid. When protein is 

 boiled in dilute sulphuric acid, it acquires a purple tint. 



Protein is precipitated from it* acid solutions by the ferro and ferrid- 

 cyanide of potassium, by tannin, and by neutralisation with an alkali. 

 When strongly heated, protein is decomposed with the production 

 of ammonia and a charcoal which burns with difficulty, but leaves 

 no residue. 



Protein consists entirely of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen ; 

 I be observed, that whether obtained from albumen (1), 

 casein (2), horn (3), animal fibrin (4), or vegetable fibrin (5), the 

 statements of its composition differ so slightly, as to show that 

 it must be the same from whichsoever of the sources named it is 

 procured. 



0) (2) W (4) (5) 



Carbon . . 55-30 55-16 65-408 85-44 54-99 

 Hydrogen . . 6-94 7-17 7-238 8-55 6-87 



Nitrogen . . 16-01 15-86 15-503 16-65 15-C6 

 Oxygen . . 31-34 Sl-81 21-761 31-86 32-48 



These analyses may be represented by the formula C 144 H, S ,N 14 0. , 

 and consequently protein may be regarded as albumen in which two 

 equivalents of sulphur are replaced by oxygen. 



When protein, or the substances which yield it, are boiled in a con- 

 centrated solution of potash as long as ammonia is evolved, and the 

 solution is afterwards neutralised by sulphuric acid, evaporated to dry- 

 ness, and the residue treated with boiling alcohol, three products of 

 the decomposition are dissolved, one of which, erytkropmtide, separates 

 in oily drops as the solution cools ; Icucin, is deposited in small crystal- 

 line scales by spontaneous evaporation; whilst the mother water 

 contains protule and formiate of ammonia in solution. 



Binoxide, or axyprotein, and tritoxide of protein are produced by the 

 long continued action of boiling water upon fibrin in contact with 

 air. They are the chief ingredients of the buflfy coat of the blood 

 in a state of inflammation, being produced at the expense of the 

 fibrin. 



PROTEST. [BILL OF EXCHANGE ; NOTARY; LORDS, HOUSE OF.] 



PROTESTANT, a general term comprehending all those who, pro- 

 fessing Christianity, yet are not in the communion of the general church 

 or confederacy of Christians of which the pope is the head and the 

 city of Rome the centre or capital. There is great variety of opinion 

 among persons thus separated, in points of faith, church order, and 

 discipline, but this term covers and comprehends them all, leaving the 

 varieties in opinion to be marks of specific differences only under the 

 genus Protestant. 



The term originated in Germany, and the occasion was this : At 

 the Diet at Spire, in 1526, decrees had been passed which were so far 

 favourable to the progress of the Reformation that they went to forbid 

 any peculiar exertions against it. The consequence was that the spirit 

 of reformation gained strength, and spread itself more extensively in 

 Germany. Then arose also commotions which were attributed to the 

 reformed and to the spirit kindled by them. Both the pope and the 

 emperor looked with increasing alarm on the aspect of aflairs, and at 

 another Diet, held at the same place in 1529, the emperor directed an 

 imperial brief to the persons assembled, to the effect that he had 

 forbidden all innovation, and proscribed the innovators in matters of 

 religion, who had notwithstanding increased since the decrees of 1526, 

 but that now, by virtue of the full powers inherent in him, he annulled 

 those decrees as contrary to his intentions. The peremptory tone of 

 these letters alarmed the persons present at the Diet ; and particularly 

 the elector of Saxony is reported to have said to his son, that no 

 former emperor had used such language, and that he ought to be 

 informed that their rights were more ancient than the elevation of his 

 family. 



This strong measure of the emperor had also the effect of uniting, at 

 least on this point, the two great sections of German reformers, the 

 Lutherans and the Sacramentarians, of whom Zuinglius was the head. 

 However, the party opposed to the Reformation was the stronger, and 

 the emperor's brief received the sanction of the Diet. Then it was 

 that the reformers took the high ground of declaring that this was not 

 a business of policy or temporal interests, with respect to which they 

 were ready to submit to the will of the majority, but it affected the 

 interests of conscience and futurity. On this and other grounds they 

 founded a protest, which was delivered in on the 19th day of April, but 

 refused by the Diet. A second protest, larger than the former, was 

 presented on the succeeding day. The princes and the cities who 

 favoured the Reformation joined in it, and thenceforth it became usual 

 to call the reformers Protestants. 



It is often found that a particular incident or occasion leads to the 

 construction of a name for a religious party, which becomes extended, 

 as in this instance, to parties who have no immediate connection with 

 the particular incident, or interest in the question with which it is con- 

 nected. The term Protestant, in fact, seems to have as much to do with 

 the constitution of the Germanic confederacy as with the principles of 

 the Reformation ; and certainly, neither England nor Scotland had any- 

 thing to do with the proceedings of the emperor or with the Diet of 

 Spire. The Reformed Church might seem to designate the Church of 

 England or the Church of Scotland more appropriately than the 

 Protestant church. However, it must be owned, that few things 

 are more difficult than to coin terms by which to designate a re- 

 ligious community which shall not be open to objection and cavil. 



PROTRACTOR. Any instrument for laying down angles is so 

 called, such as the graduated semicircle which is found in cases of 

 instruments, the rectangular ruler with graduated edges, and various 

 other more expensive contrivances. But the truth is that the easiest 

 and safest protractor is a table of CHORDS, a scale of equal parts, and a 

 pair of compasses : those who have not a sufficient table of chords 

 should take the chord from a table of sines by the formula 



chord of x = diameter x sine of half x. 



Even the scale of chords laid down on the rulers, used in the usual 

 manner, is a better protractor than the graduated semicircle, which is 

 worthless, except for very rough work. A good table of chords carried 

 to every minute under 180, is, we believe, not yet published in this 

 country. 



PROVERB (from the Latin proverlium, that ls,pro-i-erbum, in wljich 

 respect the form of the word bears analogy to prceludium, and other 

 words of the kind), a by-word, which meaning is also conveved by 



