PERSON 



Person (Lat. persona, theatrical 

 mask). A human being, or in- 

 dividual. In theology it is used for 

 each of the units of the Trinity. In 

 grammar it indicates the distinc- 

 tion between the person speaking, 

 the person spoken to, and the per- 

 son spoken of. See Trinity. 



Personal Equation. In science, 

 a constant deviation from the 

 correct result of a series of obser- 

 vations due to the personality of 

 the observer. Such a deviation has 

 always to be allowed for in accurate 

 scientific investigations. In astro- 

 nomy there is often a compara- 

 tively large difference, for example, 

 between actual results obtained by 

 different observers, though when 

 the known corrections for personal 

 equations have been applied the 

 results are within close agreement 

 with one another. To obtain a true 

 estimate of any particular judge- 

 ment of a person the personal equa- 

 tion must be taken into account. 



Personal Exception OR OBJEC- 

 TION. Term in Scots law almost 

 equivalent to estoppel (q.v.) in 

 English law, constituting a con- 

 clusive admission which cannot be 

 denied. Thus a man is barred by 

 personal exception from disputing 

 his own act and deed, which is con- 

 clusive against him and against 

 others claiming under him, even in 

 respect of the facts recited in it ; 

 and also from averring against 

 any matter of record to which he 

 has been made a party. 



Personality (Lat. persona, 

 theatrical mask, character). Ety- 

 mologically, the quality which 

 enables a being to sustain a part 

 in life. Generally, those qualities 

 which distinguish human beings 

 from things, or one human being 

 from another, or, in a narrower 

 sense, existence as a self-conscious 

 being. An animal may be con- 

 scious, but not being conscious of 

 itself as the subject of its ex- 

 perience, has no personality. 



Persons, as opposed to things, 

 are individual, conscious, intelli- 

 gent and free. Things possess no 

 individuality, but only exist in or 

 as compounds, whereas each per- 

 son is conscious of his own existence 

 as one, can reflect upon himself, 

 can speak of an " I." Further, the 

 idea of personality is connected 

 with the moral law ; it carries with 

 it the possession of rights and 

 duties, the obligations of which 

 can only be appreciated by beings 

 who are free and intelligent. As 

 compared with his fellows, each 

 person has a certain particular 

 consciousness of his own, entirely 

 distinct from and independent of 

 those of others. 



According to certain thinkers 

 the word personality is meaning- 



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less, and the distinction between 

 persons and things artificial. 

 Things alone exist ; persons are 

 mere appearances, collective varie- 

 ties of organic forms, and the Ego 

 (" I ") is only a collection of states 

 of consciousness. The term per- 

 sonality is also used to express the 

 continuance of a person's distin- 

 guishing qualities, of one's personal 

 identity, in spite of bodily and 

 mental changes at different periods 

 of development. See Psychology. 



Personal Property. Term 

 peculiar to English law. It meant 

 originally all property in respect 

 of which a real action (i.e. an ac- 

 tion for the res or thing) would 

 not lie ; but in respect of which 

 only a personal action against the 

 defendant would lie. It comprises 

 all goods, chattels, choses in action, 

 leaseholds ; but not freeholds, 

 copyholds, or things thereunto an- 

 nexed. The distinction is quite 

 illogical, and the most logical 

 division of property is into mov- 

 able and immovable, as in every 

 system of law except the English. 

 On an intestacy, personal pro- 

 perty is divided among next of kin, 

 while real property descends to the 

 heir-at-law. 



Personal Security. Popular 

 phrase which in law has no mean- 

 ing at all. By " a loan on persona! 

 security " is meant a loan for the 

 repayment of which the lender 

 has only the personal credit or 

 promise of the borrower ; that is, 

 he does not take any mortgage, or 

 bill of sale, or pledge which he can 

 realise if the loan is not repaid. 

 Thus a loan on personal security 

 is a loan which is not secured, and 

 the phrase is self-contradictory. 



Personation (Lat. persona, 

 mask, person). In English law, 

 pretending to be someone else. A 

 person who does this in order to 

 obtain property is guilty of a 

 felony by the False Personation 

 Act, 1874, passed in consequence 

 of the Tichborne case. To person- 

 ate a master so as to give a false 

 character to a servant is a mis- 

 demeanour under an old statute of 

 George III ; and the Ballot Act, 

 1872, made it a criminal offence to 

 personate a voter at a parliamen- 

 tary or municipal election. Very 

 often the offence of obtaining or 

 attempting to obtain money, etc., 

 by false pretences is personation. 



Perspective (Lat. perspicere, 

 to look through). In art, the re- 

 presentation of objects occupying 

 different planes upon a single 

 plane surface in such a way that 

 the representation shall appear the 

 same to the eye as the objects 

 themselves ; also the science or 

 laws determining such representa- 

 tion. The colour as well as the 



PERSPIRATION 



size and form of objects being 

 affected by distance, perspective 

 is divided into two species, linear 

 and aerial. Linear perspective 

 concerns itself with the apparent 

 form and grouping of objects, 

 aerial perspective with their dis- 

 tinctness and colour. The former 

 thus belongs strictly to geometri- 

 cal science, and the latter to the 

 less scientific domain of pictorial 

 art. So far, however, as painting 

 and sculpture are concerned, the 

 importance of either kind of per- 

 spective cannot be exaggerated. 



In making a perspective plan of 

 the objects to be introduced into 

 a picture, it is necessary to draw 

 (1) a base line representing the 

 lowest limit of the picture as it 

 appears to the operator ; (2) a 

 horizontal lino representing the 

 horizon of the picture from the 

 same angle of vision ; (3) a verti- 

 cal line, drawn from the base line 

 to the horizontal, meeting the 

 latter at a point called the point of 

 sight. Often this point of sight 

 comes in the centre of the picture, 

 but just as frequently it is to the 

 right or left, though always on the 

 horizontal line. The base, horizon- 

 tal, and vertical lines are the 

 skeleton of the perspective. 



All parallel lines in nature, when 

 projected, will, if the different ob- 

 jects be correctly drawn, meet atone 

 point which is called the vanishing 

 point. The latter is not necessarily 

 within the limits of the picture it- 

 self ; it may, indeed, be far outside 

 them. But wherever it is, the 

 main principle of linear perspective 

 remains the same, viz., that 

 straight lines in nature, which ap- 

 pear parallel, are only parallel, 

 when projected on the perspective 

 plane, in the rare cases when they 

 are found to be parallel to the base 

 or vertical line ; all others meet at 

 vanishing points which may be 

 above, or below, or on the horizon- 

 tal line. 



Aerial perspective is concerned 

 with the colour of objects, which 

 is governed by atmosphere acting 

 as a screen or veil, and the greater 

 the body of atmosphere, i.e. the 

 longer the distance between the 

 spectator and the object, the less 

 bright does a colpur appear. It 

 first arose out of the growing im- 

 portance of the landscape back- 

 ground, but its scientific applica- 

 tion is the product of modern art. 

 See Drawing ; consult also The 

 Theory and Practice of Perspective, 

 G. A. Storey, 1910. 



Perspiration. Excretion of 

 water from the skin through the 

 sweat glands. In the human being, 

 the sweat glands consist of small 

 coiled tubes situated in the deepest 

 part of the true skin, from which 



