436 



PATERCULUS PATRIARCHS. 



the deity and his worship. It is seen upon altars, 

 and in the hands of officiating priests. 



Patella, a smaller sort, gave to the household 

 gods the name Patellarii. 



PATERCULUS, CAIUS VELLKIUS, an ancient 

 Roman historian, was born in the year of Rome 

 735, of a family in Campania, which had borne 

 various important offices in the state. He served 

 under Tiberius in Germany, as commander of the 

 cavalry, and, in the first year of that emperor's 

 reign, was nominated pretor. Nothing further is 

 known of him ; but the praises he bestowed upon 

 Sejanus have led to a supposition that he was a 

 partisan of that minister, and involved in his ruin. 

 His death is placed by Dodwell in the year of 

 Rome 784, in his fiftieth year. Paterculus composed 

 an abridgment of Roman history, in ten books, of 

 which the greater part has perished, and, unfortu- 

 nately that which remains is incurably corrupted, 

 only one manuscript having been discovered. His 

 style is pure and elegant, and he excelled in a brief 

 and forcible manner of drawing characters ; but 

 his connexions with Tiberius and Sejanus rendered 

 him an adulator of those detestable personages, and 

 warped his representations of the actions and 

 characters of the republican party. The most 

 esteemed editions of this classic are those of Bur- 

 niann (Leyden, 1719), of Ruhnkenius (Leyden, 1779), 

 and of Krausius (Leipsic, 1800). 



PATERNOSTER ; 1. the Latin for our Father, 

 or the Lord's prayer ; 2. every tenth large bead in 

 the rosary which Catholics use in their devotions ; 

 at this they repeat the Lord's prayer, and, at the 

 intervening small ones, only an Ave Maria ; 3. the 

 rosary itself. 



PATHOGNOMIC, in medicine (from , a 

 disease, and yiw/rxu, \ know) ; an epithet signifying 

 that a symptom or course of' symptoms to which it 

 is applied is inseparable from, or exclusively charac- 

 teristic of a particular disease. 



PATHOGONY (from *a0/>s, suffering, and yovn, 

 origin); the science of the origin of diseases; a 

 part of pathology. 



PATHOLOGY (from tufas, a disease, and \oyos, 

 doctrine or system) signifies the science or doctrine 

 of diseases. As physiology teaches the nature of 

 the functions of the living body in a state of health, 

 so pathology relates to the various derangements of 

 these functions which constitute disease. Its objects, 

 therefore, are to ascertain the various symptoms 

 which characterize the disorders of each organ of 

 the body, and especially the diagnostic and pathog- 

 nomic symptoms, which afford the means of discrimi- 

 nation between diseases that resemble each other ; 

 to determine the causes, both predisposing and ex- 

 citing, by which diseases are induced ; to point out 

 the prognosis or the tendency and probable event of 

 each disease, from the changing combination of the 

 symptoms ; and, lastly, to teach the indications of 

 cure, pnd the nature and operation of the remedies 

 adapted to the various circumstances and periods of 

 iliseases. 



PATKUL, JOHN REGINALD, a Livonian patriot, 

 was born in 1660. When Charles XI. of Sweden 

 had encroached on the rights of the Livonian nobility, 

 Patkul took an active part in remonstrating and 

 obtaining a redress of grievances. One of his 

 appeals on this subject (1692) induced the govern- 



ment at Stockholm to summon the provincial authors 

 ties, and Patkul in particular, to the Swedish capital. 

 Patkul received a safe conduct, and went to Stock- 

 holm ; but, fearful of the intention of the court, he 

 withdrew into Courland, and was declared infamous, 

 and condemned to lose his right hand and his hriul. 

 After spending some time in Switzerland ami France, 

 he was received, in 1698, into the service of the 

 Saxon court as privy counsellor, and used all his 

 efforts to carry into effect the plan of a union with 

 Russia and Denmark against Sweden. (See Avgua- 

 his II. and Charles XJ1.) In 1702, he went to 

 Petersburg, and the league with Russia was con- 

 cluded. He now entered the Russian service, and, 

 after being employed in various capacities, was sent 

 as Russian ambassador to Augustus, and soon after 

 received the command of the Russian auxiliaries, at 

 the head of whom he captured Warsaw. Augustus 

 had just renewed his alliance with Russia by a per- 

 sonal interview with the czar, when, in December, 

 1705, Patkul, with eighteen of his confidential friends, 

 was arrested and thrown into prison, under pretence 

 that he had entered into treasonable negotiations 

 with Austria and Sweden, and had endeavoured to 

 excite dissensions between the czar and Augustus. 

 Augustus was soon after obliged to submit to the 

 peace of Altranstadt (September 24, 1706), in which 

 the surrender of Patkul to Sweden was stipulated. 

 He was accordingly delivered up to the Swedes, 

 although Augustus had given secret orders that he 

 should be permitted to escape. Peter in vain 

 demanded the release of his ambassador. The 

 Swedish troops are said to have tied him to a 

 cannon on their march from Saxony, and he was 

 tried by a court-martial at the monastery of Casimir, 

 near Possen, and condemned to death. October 10, 

 1707, he was broken alive on the wheel : his head 

 was cut off, and his body was quartered. 



PATMOS. See Sporadcs. 



PATNA ; a city of British India, in the presi- 

 dency of Bengal, on the Ganges, 250 miles north- 

 west of Calcutta ; population, 312,000. The city is 

 about four miles long and one broad, enclosed by a 

 brick wall, having small round bastions ; but many 

 parts are fallen to decay. It contains some mosques 

 and temples, but the houses generally make a mean 

 appearance. The houses of the Europeans are in 

 the suburbs, called Bankypore, and are handsomely 

 built of brick. The surrounding country produces 

 the finest opium, and saltpetre, grain, indigo, and 

 sugar. It carries on a large trade with Calcutta. 

 It has been in the possession of the British since 

 1763, and is the residence of a provincial court of 

 appeal, &c. It is supposed to be the ancient Pali- 

 bothra. 



PATOCKI, or BATOCKI ; two thin sticks with 

 which criminals were formerly beaten in Russia. 

 The party was stretched on the ground, while one 

 person sat upon his head, the other on his feet. The 

 severity of the punishment may be judged of from 

 the fact that it was abolished by the code of Catha- 

 rine II. though the knout was left. 



PATR AS (anciently Patra;) ; a town of the Morea 

 in the Greek province of Achaia, on the gulf of 

 Patras (see Lepanto) ; lat. 38 14' N. ; Ion. 21 46' 

 E. It is well fortified, and its citadel was never 

 taken by the Greeks, but capitulated to the French 

 troops in 1828. Previous to the revolution, it con- 

 tained about 10,000 inhabitants, chiefly Greeks, and 

 was the emporium of the Morea. The town was 

 almost wholly destroyed in the attacks on the citadel, 

 but has already a population of 8000, who have built 

 up temporary houses of rough boards. See Green, 

 Revolution of. 



PATRIARCHS (from the Greek var^u, family, 



