PONIATOWSKI 



6244 



PONTEFRACT 



Count Stanislas 

 Poniatowski 



Poniatowski. Name of a 

 famous Polish family. Stanislas 

 Poniatowski (1677-1762) was in 

 the service of 

 Charles XII of 

 Sweden, and 

 afterwards held 

 high positions 

 in Lithuania 

 and Poland. 

 One of his sons, 

 Stanislas, be- 

 came king of Po- 

 land ; another, 

 Michael, be- 

 came archbishop of Gnesen. The 

 family became extinct when Stanis- 

 las, a grandson of the earlier Stanis- 

 las, died in 1833, but a natural son, 

 Joseph (1816-73), carried on the 

 name. He became a prince in Tus- 

 cany and in Austria, and was for 

 many years the envoy of the former 

 country in Paris. His last years were 

 passed in England, where he shared 

 the exile of his friend, Napoleon III. 

 Poniatowski, JOSEPH ANTON, 

 PRINCE (1762-1813). Polish soldier. 

 Born May 7, 1762, he entered the 

 Austrian army. 

 In 1789 he be- 

 came a general 

 in the Polish 

 army, and in 

 1791 was com- 

 mander-in-chief 

 of the opera- 

 t i o n s against 

 Russia. D i s- 

 gusted at the 

 terms of the 

 treaty which concluded the war, he 

 went into retirement. War minister 

 of the duchy of Warsaw, he re- 

 sisted the Austrian invasion of 

 1809, in 1812 commanded a corps 

 in Napoleon's Russian campaign, 

 and remained in the emperor's 

 service until his death after the 

 battle of Leipzig, Oct. 16-19, 1813. 

 He had just been made a marshal. 

 Ponnani. Harbour of Madras 

 presidency, India, on the Malabar 

 coast. It is situated at the mouth 

 of the Ponnani river. A road joins 

 it to Tirur on the rly., and con- 

 tinues to Mysore. Pop. 14,000. 



Ponsard, FRANCOIS (1814-67). 

 French dramatist and academician. 

 Born at Vienne, June 1, 1814, he 

 abandoned law for literature, pub- 

 lishing a translation of Byron's 

 Manfred in 1837, and specialising 

 in the drama. Aided by the con- 

 summate acting of Mme. Rachel, 

 his Lucrece, 1843, scored an im- 

 mense success, but Ponsard is 

 now remembered chiefly for his 

 admirable comedy of manners, 

 L'Honneur et 1' Argent. He died in 

 Paris, July 7, 1867. 



Pons Asinorum (Lat., asses' 

 bridge). In geometry, name popu- 

 larly given to the fifth proposition 



Prince Poniatowski, 

 Polish soldier 



of the first book of Euclid, from 

 the supposed difficulty of beginners 

 in understanding it. The proposi- 

 tion states that the angles at the base 

 of an isosceles triangle are equal to 

 one another. See Geometry. 



Pons Varolii. Band of nerve 

 fibres on the under surface of the 

 brain which connects various parts 

 of the brain together. See Brain. 



Pons Winnecke. Name of a 

 periodical comet. First discovered 

 by J. L. Pons in 1819, and re- 

 discovered by Winnecke in 1858, it 

 has been seen at approximately 

 six year intervals since. One of 

 the lesser sized comets, it belongs 

 to the Jupiter family of comets, and 

 its irregular appearances and 

 change of orbit have been due to 

 the gravitational pull of the 

 planet. Its last appearance was in 

 1921, when it passed close to the 

 earth. See Comet. 



Ponta Delgada. Capital of St. 

 Michael's, Azores Islands. It is a 

 winter resort, and its harbour is pro- 

 tected by a breakwater nearly 3,000 

 ft. long. The commercial centre of 

 the Azores, it manufactures cotton 

 fabrics, pottery, straw hats, and 

 spirits. Pop. 16,200. 



Poiit-a-Mousson. Town of 

 France. In the dept. of Meurthe- 

 et-Moselle, it stands on the Moselle* 

 at the foot of the Mousson Mt., 

 18m. N.W. of Nancy. On a height 

 to the E. are the ruins of the 



Pont-i-Mousson, France. Building 

 known as House of the Seven Deadly Sins 



chateau. The Late Gothic church 

 has interesting vaulting and a 

 16th century altar-piece. Needles, 

 matches, plush, and velvets are 

 made. The town, which once be- 

 longed to the counts of Bar, 

 became a municipality in 1444 and 

 the seat of a university in 1571. 

 In the Franco-Prussian War it was 



important, as guarding a passage 

 over the Moselle. It was in French 

 occupation throughout most of the 

 Great War, though shelled by the 

 Germans intermittently. In 1918 

 American troops occupied the 

 sector to the north of it just before 

 their attack on the St. Mihiel 

 (g.v. ) salient. See Nancy, Battle of. 



Pontardulais. Village of Gla- 

 morganshire, Wales. It stands at 

 the junction of the rivers Dulais and 

 Loughor, 8 m. from Swansea, and 

 is served by the G.W. and L. & 

 N.W. Rlys. Coal is mined. 



Pontarlier. Town of France. 

 In the dept. of Doubs, it stands on 

 the Doubs, in the midst of the Jura 

 Mts., and on the Dijon-Neuchatel- 

 Lausanne Rly., 26 m. S.E. of 

 Besangon. It manufactures paper 

 and clocks, and trades in cattle, 

 cheese, and agricultural produce. 

 In the fort de Joux, near the town, 

 Mirabeau was imprisoned, 1775, 

 and Toussaint 1'Ouverture died a 

 prisoner in 1803. Pontarlier was 

 burned by the Swedes in 1639. 

 Pop. 8,800. 



Pont char train. Salt-water lake 

 in Louisiana, U.S.A. It is situated 

 in the S.E. part of the state, about 

 6 m. N. of New Orleans, and 

 measures about 37 m. by 23 m. 



Pont du Gard. Aqueduct of 

 France. Spanning the Gard above 

 Remoulins, it is one of the finest 

 Roman structures in existence. It 

 was built over the valley to con- 

 duct the waters of the Eure and 

 Airon to Nimes. The bridge is 880 

 ft. long and 160 ft. high, and con- 

 sists of three tiers of arches com- 

 posed of massive stones without 

 cement. Damaged in the 5th 

 century, it was restored 1855-58. 

 See Aqueduct ; Nimes. 



Pontecorvo. City of Italy, in 

 the prov. of Caserta. It stands on 

 the left bank of the Garigliano, 



39 m. N.W. of Capua and 5 m. 

 from Aquino station. It has a 

 cathedral, several churches and 

 convents, a castle, and a triumphal 

 arch with a statue of Pope Pius IX. 

 The city was included in the Papal 

 States down to 1860. Napoleon 

 gave the tiny principality (scarcely 



40 sq. m. in area) of Pontecorvo 

 to Bernadotte in 1806. Pop. 

 (commune) 11,400. 



Pontefract OK POMFRET. Mun. 

 borough and market town of York- 

 shire ( W.R.), England. It is 21 m. 

 from York and 

 14 from Leeds, 

 near the junction 

 of the Aire and 

 the Calder, and 

 is served by the 

 Mid., N.E./& L. 

 & Y. Rlys. The 

 ruins of the Nor- 

 man castle show Pontefract arms 



