PURCHASE 



64O8 



PURINE 



Purchase. Literally, to obtain 

 by payment. In a special sense the 

 word is used for the system by 

 which commissions in the British 

 army were bought and sold. The 

 practice also prevailed in other 

 armies. It was a survival of the 

 time when offices of all kinds were 

 bought and sold, a practice 

 abolished in England in the 18th 

 century. Promotion was also ob- 

 tained or accelerated by payment, 

 the safeguard against abuse being 

 that the names of intending pur- 

 chasers were laid before the sover- 

 eign for his approval. In Great 

 Britain purchase never prevailed 

 in the artillery or engineers. 



In 1871 the proposal of the 

 government to abolish purchase 

 was bitterly opposed in the House 

 of Lords, although 7,000,000 was 

 provided as compensation. It was, 

 therefore, ended by a royal warrant. 

 In 1783 the regulation price for 

 certain commissions was as follows : 

 ensign of foot, 400 ; ensign of 

 foot guards, 900 ; cornet of horse, 

 1,600. A lieutenant-colonel of 

 infantry, who bought all his pro- 

 motions, would pay 3,000 to the 

 previous holders of the com- 

 missions. 



Pure, SIMON. Character in 

 Susannah Centlivre's play A Bold 

 Stroke for a Wife. A Pennsyl- 

 vanian Quaker, he comes to London 

 with a letter of introduction to 

 Obadiah Prim, an English Friend. 

 Colonel Feignwell. who is in love 

 with Prim's ward, an heiress, 

 passes himself off as Simon Pure, 

 whose credentials he has obtained. 

 When the real Simon makes his 

 appearance, Prim treats him as an 

 impostor until he can prove his 

 identity. From this character 

 originated the phrase, " The real 

 Simon Pure." 



Purfleet. Village of Essex, 

 England. It stands on the Thames, 

 16 m. E. of London on the Mid. 

 (L.T. & S.) Ely. It has a small 

 harbour, government powder maga- 

 zines, and petroleum reservoirs. 

 The Cornwall reformatory training 

 ship is stationed here. 



Purgative. Substance which 

 promotes evacuation of the con- 

 tents of the bowel. They are 

 divided into : laxatives or drugs 

 which act as mild stimulants to 

 the muscular coat of the intestine, 

 such as magnesia, olive oil, castor- 

 oil in small doses, honey, figs, 

 prunes, and other fruits ; simple 

 purgatives, which stimulate secre- 

 tion as well as promote muscular 

 movements, and are more power- 

 ful in their action than laxatives, 

 the .commoner pimple purgatives 

 being aloes, rhubarb, cascara 

 sagrada, senna, and castor-oil ; 

 drastic purgatives, which strongly 



Pori, India. The temple of Jugger- 

 naut, where the Hindu idol is kept 



stimulate secretion and peristaltic 

 movements of the intestine, such 

 as calomel, podophyllin, scam- 

 mony, colocynth, and croton oil ; 

 and saline purgatives, which largely 

 increase the passage of fluid from 

 the tissues into the intestine. 

 Saline purgatives are the essential 

 constituents of many purgative 

 mineral waters. 



Purgatory (Lat. purgatorium, 

 that which cleanses). Theological 

 term for a state of purification 

 through which the souls of the re- 

 deemed who die before attaining 

 perfection are held to pass. The 

 doctrine was gradually developed, 

 and is nowhere directly taught in 

 the Bible (see Luke xxiii, 43), the 

 texts adduced being capable of 

 other interpretations. It is, how- 

 ever, implied in 2 Mace, xii, 41 ff. 

 The allusions in the Fathers before 

 S. Augustine are vague. S. Gregory 

 the Great was the first to define 

 the doctrine, A.D. 604. The 

 Eastern Church has generally 

 maintained the existence of a pur- 

 gatorial state, though denying that 

 it is accompanied by pains beyond 

 the pangs of conscience. The 

 Roman Catholic Church declares 

 that, as death does not in itself 

 cause sanctification, those who, 

 *;although saved from eternal pun- 

 'ishment, die without having made 

 satisfaction for their sins by the 

 fruits of repentance, require to be 

 purified thereafter by punishments. 

 The pains of purgatory, repre- 

 sented as purging fires, are gradu- 

 ated accordingly, and can be miti- 

 gated or shortened by the prayers 

 and alms of the faithful, and es-. 

 pecially by the Mass. 



The council of Trent, while 

 formulating the Roman Catholic 

 doctrine of purgatory, denounced 

 abuses and superstitions connected 

 with it. The Reformers generally 

 denied the doctrine altogether, as 

 it conflicted with their teaching 



on the Atonement and justification 

 by faith. The Church of England, 

 in the 22nd Article, condemns 

 "the Romish doctrine concerning 

 purgatory." 



. Among imaginative descriptions 

 of purgatory by far the greatest is 

 the second part of Dante's Divine 

 Comedy. He represents it as an 

 island in the Souther^ hemisphere, 

 rising by seven stages, correspond- 

 ing to the seven deadly sins, to the 

 earthly paradise. See Eschato- 

 logy ; Heaven , Hell : Indulgence ; 

 Limbus. 



Puri, JAGANNATH OR -JUGGER- 

 NAUT. Dist. and town of Bihar and 

 Orissa, India, in the Cuttack 

 division. The dist. is situated on 

 the Bay of Bengal, S. of the 

 Mahanadi delta ; it contains Lake 

 Chilka. Rice is the chief crop. 

 The town, standing on the coast, 

 contains the shrine of Juggernaut 

 (q.v.). Sometimes 250,000 people 

 assemble for the annual Car festi- 

 val. The temple is a magnificent 

 building 800 years old. The town 

 has become popular as a watering- 

 place and health resort. The area 

 of the district is 2.499 sq. m. Pop., 

 dist,, 1,023,000; town, 39,700. See 

 Juggernaut. 



Purification of the Blessed 

 Virgin Mary. Festival observed 

 by the Greek, Roman, Anglican, 

 and other churches on Feb. 2. Al- 

 ternatively called in the Prayer 

 Book the Presentation of Christ in 

 the Temple, it commemorates the 

 ceremonial visit of Joseph, the 

 Virgin, and the infant Christ to 

 the Temple, recorded in Luke ii, 

 22-39. Lev. 12 prescribes the rites, 

 including the offering of a lamb 

 and pigeon, or two pigeons, which 

 concluded the 40 days' ceremonial 

 uncleanness of a woman after the 

 birth of a male child. The 

 Christian festival, recorded at 

 Jerusalem about 450, was intro- 

 duced in Rome by Pope Gelasius 

 in 494, in place of the pagan Lu- 

 percalia. The English name 

 Candlemas alludes to the words 

 of Simeon, Luke ii, 32. See Mary. 



Purim. Jewish festival cele- 

 brating the escape of the Jews from 

 the plot of Haman (q.v. ). Held on 

 the 14 and 15 Adar, about a 

 month before the Christian Easter, 

 the festivities resemble those of 

 Christmas, including present giving, 

 feasting, and merrymaking, and the 

 performance of religious plays. 

 Formerly an effigy of Haman was 

 carried in procession and finally 

 hanged and burned. 



P urine (Lat. pus, pur is, pus). 

 Fundamental compounds of the 

 uric acid group of organic chemi- 

 cals. It can be prepared by con- 

 verting uric acid into trichloro- 

 purine by means of phosphorus 



