594 



POICTIERS POISON. 



onitions, and letters, the chief fault of which is 

 dilfuseness. His Historia Plorentina, which com- 

 prises the period from 1350 to 145o, is to be found 

 in the collections of Graevius and Muratori. The 

 whole of the works of Poggio were published toge- 

 ther at Basil, 1538. See his life by Shepherd 

 (Liverpool, 1802). 



POICTIERS. See Poitiers. 



POINT, in music, as conjoined with others, has 

 various significations. The different uses to which 

 points were formerly applied, render the perusal of 

 old compositions extremely difficult and perplexing. 

 In those works we meet with the point of perfection, 

 point of augmentation, point of division, and point of 

 alteration. The point of perfection was added to 

 those notes which were denoted by the modal signs 

 to be perfect, or equal to three notes of the same 

 value, but which were rendered imperfect by posi- 

 tion. The point of augmentation is that in modern 

 use, which the old masters used only in common or 

 imperfect time. The point of division, or imperfec- 

 tion, was placed between two shorter notes that fol- 

 lowed, and were succeeded by two longer, in per- 

 fect modes, to render both the long notes imperfect. 

 The point of alteration, or of duplication, was placed 

 before two shorter notes preceding a longer, in order 

 to double the length of the second short note. In 

 modern music, the point, taken as an increased 

 power of the note, is always equal to the half of the 

 note to which it appertains. 



POINT, in geometry, as defined by Euclid, is a 

 quantity which lias no parts, or which is indivisible. 

 Points are the ends or extremities of lines. If a 

 point is supposed to be moved any way, it will, by 

 its motion, describe a line. 



POINT is also an iron or steel instrument, used 

 tvith some variety in several arts. Engravers, 

 etchers, cutters in wood, &c., use points to trace 

 their designs on the copper, wood, stone, &c. 



POINT, in manufactures, is a general term used 

 for all kinds of laces wrought with the needle : such 

 are the point de Vinise, point de France, point de 

 Genes, &c., which are distinguished by the particu- 

 lar economy and arrangement of their points. 



POINT, among sailors ; a low arm of the shore 

 which projects into the sea, or into a river, beyond 

 the contiguous part of the beach. To point a gun ; 

 to direct it towards any particular object or point. 



POINT BLANC, in gunnery, denotes the shot of 

 a gun levelled horizontally. 



POINT COMFORT, OLD ; a cape on the coast 

 of Virginia, at the mouth of James river, on the 

 north side, about ten miles south-east of Hampton, 

 twenty north of Norfolk ; Ion. 76 20' W.; lat. 37 

 3' N. Extensive fortifications have been erected 

 here ; and at the Rip Raps, one mile distant, a mount 

 has been formed by placing stones in the water, thus 

 forming an island of four acres, with fortifications 

 commanding the entrance of the river. 



POINTER. The dog called pointer is found in 

 Spain, Portugal, and France, with but slight differ- 

 ence of form. It is not a native of England, but has 

 long since been naturalized there. " Those point- 

 ers,' 1 says Johnson in his Shooter's Companion, 

 " which I have seen direct from Spain, are heavy 

 and clumsily formed ; those from Portugal are some- 

 what lighter; while the French breed is remarkable 

 for a wide furrow which runs between the nostrils, 

 and gives to the animal's countenance a very gro- 

 tesque appearance. They are all thick and heavy, 

 with large, chubby heads, long, pendent ears, and 

 short, smooth hair ; they are often ill tempered and 

 snappish, and, in fact, are good for little in this 

 country till they have been crossed with the more 

 generous blood of these islands. Yet the conjunc- 



tion of the setter and pointer is by no means advis- 

 able. Excellent pointers have been produced by 

 the fox-hound and the Spaniard. In crossing with 

 the Spanish pointer, the deep-flewed hound is to be, 

 preferred, and from judicious crossing excellent 

 pointers are to be met with in most parts of Eng- 

 land. They differ from the setter, as, when they 

 have approached sufficiently near the game, they 

 stand erect, whereas the true-bred setter will either 

 sit upon his haunches, or lie close to the ground, 

 generally the latter. Pointers often suffer much 

 from sore feet. I have generally found white-footed 

 dogs much more tender in this respect than those 

 whose feet are of a dark colour. Pointers are some- 

 times used with bells round their necks in cover 

 shooting. When the dog sets, the ringing ceases, 

 and the shooter proceeds to the spot. Pointers are 

 very susceptible of education, and not so apt to for- 

 get their lessons as the setter, and their speed, 

 strength, and persevering spirit, enable them to con- 

 tinue the chase for a length of time almost incredi- 

 ble." Pointers are used in finding feathered game 

 of various sorts, partridges, pheasants, &c. 



POINT OF SIGHT. See Perspective. 



POISON. A poison is any substance of which a 

 small quantity taken into the stomach, mixed with 

 the blood by wounds, or through the lungs, or ab- 

 sorbed through the skin, can produce changes in the 

 bodies of brutes or men, deleterious to the health, 

 and even destructive to life, by means not mechani- 

 cal. Many poisons operate chemically, corroding 

 Die organized fibre, destroying the form and con- 

 nexion of the parts, exciting powerfully, and causing 

 inflammation and mortification. To this class belong 

 most of the poisons of the mineral kingdom ; as, 1 . 

 Many metallic oxides and salts, as arsenic, one of 

 the most destructive poisons, of which a few grains 

 produce fatal effects. Many preparations of copper 

 are also poisonous, as verdegris, and many paints ; 

 also very acid or salt articles of food or drink cooked 

 in copper vessels. Many preparations of quick- 

 silver, as corrosive sublimate, red precipitate, &c. , 

 some common preparations of antimony, should also 

 be named here. 2. Strong mineral and vegetable 

 acids, when introduced into the body in an undiluted 

 state, as concentrated sulphuric acid or oil of vitriol, 

 nitric acid, or aquafortis, muriatic acid, &c. 3. 

 Some plants contain an extremely powerful and cor- 

 rosive substance, as the wolf's milk (euphorbium 

 esula), the daphne mezereum, &c. 4. Of the animal 

 kingdom, the cantharides (q. v.),or Spanish flies, &s 

 they are called. The operation of all these poisons 

 is very expeditious ; when they enter the stomach, 

 violent sickness is felt, incessant straining and vo- 

 miting take place, with most excruciating pains in 

 the stomach and bowels, as if knives were driven 

 through them ; then follows inflammation, if relief 

 be not speedily obtained, and this is succeeded by 

 mortification. Other poisons operate more by a 

 powerful action upon the nerves, and a rapid de- 

 struction of their energy. These are the sedative 

 or stupifying poisons, and belong for the most part 

 to the vegetable kingdom. Their effects are sick- 

 ness, violent headache, dizziness, darkness or spots 

 before the eyes, powerful and involuntary motions 

 of the limbs and of the whole body ; distortion of 

 the eyes, anguish, loss of consciousness, and at last 

 apoplexy and death. To this class belong opium, 

 hemlock, henbane, belladonna, &c. There is also 

 a similar poison contained in the bitter almond and 

 in the kernel of peaches, which is rapidly destruc- 

 tive of life (the Prussic acid), which shows its effects 

 either when those substances are taken into the 

 stomach in great quantities, or when their concen- 

 trated oil, obtained by distillation, is swallowed. 



