PRUSSIC ACID 



PRZEMYSL 



This corps was regarded as one 

 of special valour, and obtained 

 the pick of the recruits. It was 

 therefore called upon in times of 

 special need, as at St. Privat, in 

 Aug., 1870, and at Ypres, in Nov., 

 1914. See Goose Step. 



Prussic Acid. Common name 

 for hydrocyanic acid (q.v. ). It was 

 so called by Guyton de Morveau 

 because the acid can be made by 

 distilling Prussian blue. 



Pruth. River of Central Europe, 

 a left bank tributary of the Dan- 

 ube. It rises in the Carpathians, 

 flows through Galicia and Buko- 

 wina, and then through Rumania, 

 where it separates Bessarabia from 

 Moldavia. It has a swift course, 

 and is used for floating timber ; 

 boats can reach Jassy, 170 m. up- 

 stream. Its length is 500 m. It 

 was prominent in the Great War. 

 See Bukowina. 



Prynne, WILLIAM (1600-69). 

 English Puritan. He was born at 

 Swainswick, Somerset, and edu- 

 cated at Bath 

 Gramma r 

 School and 

 Oriel College, 

 Oxford. Called 

 to the bar in 

 1628, at Lin- 

 coln's Inn, he 

 early began 

 the writing of 

 polemical 

 pamphlets, 

 and in 1632 produced Histrio- 

 mastix, an attack on stage plays 

 and their players, which violently 

 offended the court. The author was 

 prosecuted in the Star Chamber, 

 fined 5,000, expelled from his uni- 

 versity and Lincoln's Inn, pilloried, 

 had both his ears cut off, and was 

 condemned to perpetual imprison- 

 ment. Although in prison, he man- 

 aged in 1636 to get another pam- 

 phlet printed, which gained him 

 a similar sentence, including the 

 shearing off of the stumps of his 

 ears and branding on the cheeks. 

 In 1640 the Long Parliament de- 

 clared his sentence illegal, and 

 awarded him 4,000. 



He sat in Parliament for a 

 time for Newport, Cornwall, and 

 in 1647 was appointed recorder of 

 Bath. After the Restoration he be- 

 came member of Parliament for 

 Bath, was appointed keeper of the 

 records in the Tower, and published 

 some valuable historical materials. 

 He died in Lincoln's Inn, Oct. 24, 

 1669. See Mont Orgueil Castle. 



Przasnysz. Town of Poland. 

 It is situated 59 m. N.E. of Plock 

 and 28 m. N. of Pultusk, and is an 

 important road centre, a fact 

 which made it of much strategic 

 value in the Great War. Pop. 

 10,000. Pron. Pzhashnish. 



William Prynne, 

 English puritan 



Przasnysz, BATTLE OF. Fought 

 between the Germans and the Rus- 

 sians, Feb., 1915. In mid-Feb., 

 1915, Hindenburg concentrated 

 two corps at Mlava, Chorzele, and 

 Willenberg, with an immediate 

 view to the recapture of Przasnysz, 

 which they had already won and 

 lost again in the preceding Dec. 

 The fresh attempt on the town 

 began to develop on Feb. 20-22. 

 On the W. the Germans advanced 

 along the rly. from Mlava in the 

 direction of Novo Georgievsk, and 

 on the N. by the roads S. from 

 Chorzele, while from Willenberg 

 farther E. an outflanking column 

 worked down the marshy valley of 

 the Orzyc, a small tributary of the 

 Nareff, the result of these move- 

 ments being the envelopment of the 

 inconsiderable Russian force which 

 was defending Przasnysz. The 

 Russians were compelled to evacu- 

 ate the town on Feb. 25, with heavy 

 losses, and, surrounded by the 

 Germans on all sides, were threat- 

 ened with destruction. 



They were saved by the arrival 

 of reinforcements from Ostrolenka 

 and other fortresses on the Nareff. 

 As these reinforcements came on 

 the scene, and deployed to the W. 

 and N., it was the turn of the Ger- 

 mans to be enveloped. For two 

 days, Feb. 26-27, there was very 

 heavy lighting in and about the 

 town, but on Feb. 28 the Germans 

 retreated in disorder back to 

 Mlava and Chorzele, their loss in 

 prisoners alone being about 10,000 

 men. Advancing up the rly., the 

 Russians drove the defeated enemy 

 on to Mlava. With this serious re- 

 verse at Przasnysz Hindenburg's 

 offensive against the Nareff came 

 to an end, and shortly afterwards 

 his attempt against the Niemen and 



the Bobr also failed. Przasnysz fell 

 to the Germans later in the year. 

 See Nareff, Battles of the. 



Przemysl. Town of Poland, in 

 Galicia, 60 m. by rly. from Lem- 

 berg. Formerly an Austrian for- 

 tress, designed to watch the passes 

 across the E. Beskids, a section of 

 the Carpathians to the S., it is situ- 

 ated on the San, which gives it easy 

 lines of communication to the Vis- 

 tula, Cracow, and Lemberg. A hill 

 to the S.W. of the town is crowned 

 by ruins of a castle reputed to have 

 been built by Casimir the Great. 

 Pop. 54,000. Pron. Pzhem-isl. 



Przemysl, SIEGES OF. After 

 their capture of Grodek on Sept. 

 14, 1914, the Russians under Bru- 

 siloff moved on by the rly. to Mocz- 

 iska, 15 m. E. of Przemysl, which 

 was their objective. On the S.W. 

 Brusiloff dispatched a force under 

 Dmitrieff to Sambor and Chyrov, 

 the latter being occupied on Sept. 

 24 ; Przemysl thus was cut off on 

 the S. Meanwhile, Jaroslav on the 

 N. had been taken and Przemysl 

 was isolated N., E., and S. 



The fortress was completely in- 

 vested by Sept. 27, and summoned 

 to surrender, but its commander, 

 General Kusmanek, refused, and as 

 an effort to carry it by assault 

 failed the Russians settled down to 

 a regular siege. Meanwhile the first 

 German invasion of Poland had 

 begun and simultaneously the 

 Austrian resistance in W. Galicia 

 stiffened. The Russian advance 

 towards Cracow was checked at 

 Dembitsa, about 100 m. from that 

 city, towards the end of Sept., and 

 in the first week of Oct. the Rus- 

 sians fell back to the San. 



This movement freed Przemysl 

 on the W., but it was still invested 

 N., E., and S. The Austrians made 



Przemysl, Poland. 



The fortress city of the Carpathians seen from the east, 

 looking towards the river San 



