John Ferry, 

 British scientist 



Elliott A Fry 



PERRY 



Perry (Old Fr. peri, from Lat. 

 pirum, a pear). Alcoholic liquor 

 obtained from fermented pear- 

 juice. It is largely made in France, 

 especially in Normandy and 

 Brittany, and in England, in the 

 counties of Worcester, Gloucester, 

 Hereford, Devon, and Somerset. 

 Made in a similar way to cider 

 (q.v.), it is a fine, pale-coloured, 

 sweet and aromatic beverage, con- 

 taining from 5 to 9 p.c. of alcohol. 



Perry, JOHN (1850-1920). British 

 scientist. Born Feb. 14, 1850, he 

 was educated at Queen's College, 

 Belfast. H e 

 was professor 

 of engineering 

 in Japan, 1875- 

 79, and in the 

 latter year be- 

 came a con- 

 sulting electri- 

 cal engineer. 

 With Professor 

 Ayrton he in- 

 vented many 

 electrical in- 

 struments. He was professor of 

 engineering and mathematics at 

 the City and Guilds of London 

 Technical College, Finsbury, 1881- 

 96, and professor of mathema- 

 tics and mechanics at the Royal 

 College of Science, S. Kensington, 

 1896-1914. He died Aug. 4, 1920. 

 His numerous publications in- 

 clude The Steam Engine, 1874; 

 Spinning Tops, 1890 ; and Applied 

 Mechanics, 1897. 



Persano, CARLO DI PELLION 

 (1806-83). Italian sailor. Born at 

 Vercelli, March 11, 1806, he en- 

 tered the Piedmontese navy and 

 rapidly rose to flag rank. He dis- 

 tinguished himself at the sieges of 

 Messina, Gaeta, and Ancona, 1860- 

 61, and in 1862 became minister of 

 marine. In supreme naval com- 

 mand in the war against Austria, 

 1866, he was defeated at the battle 

 of Lissa, and although not solely to 

 blame for the disaster, was made 

 the scapegoat and degraded. He 

 died July 28, 1883. 



Perseid Meteors. System of 

 meteors, which have their radiant 

 point in the constellation of Per- 

 seus. The shower appears in 

 August and lasts two to three 

 weeks. It was first recorded in the 

 6th century. The shower follows 

 the same path as Tuttle's comet, 

 (q.v.) and has been calculated to 

 have a width of 30,000,000 m. 



Persephone OR PROSERPINE. In 

 Greek mythology, daughter of 

 Zeus and Demeter, the goddess of 

 agriculture. She was carried off 

 while gathering flowers, by Pluto, 

 the god of the underworld. The 

 story of Demeter's search for her 

 lost daughter is told under the 

 entry Demeter. Persephone was 



allowed to spend six months of the 

 year in the underworld, and six 

 months with her mother. The rape 

 of Persephone is symbolical of the 

 process of agriculture, her abduc- 

 tion to the underworld represent- 

 ing the sowing of the seed, and her 

 return to her mother the growth of 

 the corn. As the wife of Pluto, 

 Persephone was queen of Hades. 

 See Demeter. Pron. Per-seffonee. 



Persephone, on her return from the underworld, in 



charge of Hermes, meets her mother, Demeter. From 



the painting by Lord L eight on, P.R.A. 



By permission of the Corporation of Leedi 



Persepolis (Gr., city of the Per- 

 sians). Capital of the ancient Per- 

 sian empire after Pasargadae. It 

 was situated in the valley of the 

 Medus or Murghab, near the 

 Carmanian desert, 35 m. N.E. of 

 the modern Shiraz. The vast ruins 

 attest the magnificence of its archi- 

 tecture. The palaces and other 

 public buildings are built on a 

 terrace of masonry some miles from 

 the city proper, and were ap- 

 proached by splendid stairways. 

 The great hall alone covered 2J 

 acres. Persepolis was founded, ac- 

 cording to some accounts, by Cyrus 

 the Great, according to others by 

 Cambyses. It was taken by Alex- 

 ander the Great in 331 B.C., and the 

 story goes that the burning of the 

 palace of Xerxes was the act of 

 Alexander himself, who in a 

 drunken frolic, instigated by the 

 courtesan Thais, applied the fire 

 with his own hand. See Persia. 



Perse School. English public 

 school. Its foundation dates from 

 1615, under the terms oi the will of 



PERSEUS 



Stephen Perse (1548-1615), of Cam- 

 bridge, which provided, among 

 other objects, for the building of a 

 free grammar school for the bene- 

 fit of the town of Cambridge. It 

 ) was erected soon after his death 

 in what was then known as Free 

 School Lane, behind Corpus Christi 

 College. About 1842 new buildings 

 were erected, and in 1873 a school 

 for girls was established under the 

 Perse foundation. 

 In 1888 the school 

 was removed to a 

 more convenient 

 site on the Hills 

 Road, the old site 

 and buildings be- 

 ing purchased by 

 the university. 

 Part of the original 

 structure is still 

 preserved. A Great 

 War memorial was 

 unveiled at the 

 school in 1921. 



Perseus. I n 



Greek legend, son 

 of Zeus and Danae, 

 daughter of 

 Acrisius, king of 

 Argos. Poly- 

 dectes, king of 

 Seriphus, wishing 

 to marry Danae, 

 was desirous of 

 getting rid of 

 Perseus, and sent 

 him to Libya to 

 secure the head of 

 Medusa, the 

 Gorgon. With the 

 help of Athena, 

 Perseus succeeded 

 in his task, and 

 on his return 

 journey passed through Ethiopia, 

 where he saved Andromeda (q.v.) 

 from the sea-monster, and made 

 her his wife. Reaching Seriphus, 

 and finding that Polydectes had 

 been treating his mother unkindly 

 in his absence, he turned the king 

 and his whole court into stone by 

 showing them the Gorgon's head. 



He subsequently presented the 

 head to Athena. Perseus now re- 

 turned to his original home at 

 Argos, to see his grandfather, 

 Acrisius, taking with him Danae 

 and Andromeda. Following him, 

 in disguise, to Larissa, he acci- 

 dentally killed him there with a 

 quoit. Perseus became king of 

 Argos, and subsequently ex- 

 changed it for Tiryns ; he is also 

 regarded as the founder of My- 

 cenae. See Cellini, B. ; Danae ; 

 Gorgon. Pron. Pers-yewss. 



Perseus. In astronomy, a 

 N. constellation extending from 

 Cassiopeia to Taurus. It is tra- 

 versed by the Milky Way, and con- 

 tains the well-known variable star 



IX 7 



