754 



PULTAWA PUMP. 



hard, moderately full. In mature age, the number 

 of beats is about seventy-five per minute, and the 

 pulse is regular, strong, or moderate, fluctuating 

 fx-tween hard and soft, oetween full and small. In 

 old age, the number of beats sinks to sixty. , The 

 pulse is sometimes irregular, strong, but slow, 

 km!, rather full than small. In the female sex, it 

 is more rapid, softer, and smaller than in the male. 

 In the sanguine temperament (so called), it is 

 quicker, fuller, softer ; in the choleric, slower, 

 harder, stronger ; in the phlegmatic, slower, 

 weaker, softer, fuller; in the melancholy, slow, 

 hard, and strong. A vegetable diet makes it slow, 

 weak, full, soft; a meat diet, spices, spirituous 

 liquors, make it quick and hard. In a pure, clear, 

 air, it is quick ; in damp, impure air, slow and 

 huiirnitl. Sudden agitation and violent passions 

 make it rapid and irregular ; joy makes it quick 

 and strong ; long-continued grief languid and soft. 

 The pulse is, therefore, a highly important indica- 

 tion of the state of the system. A deviation from 

 the regular pulse of an individual indicates a dis- 

 ordered state. When the irritability of the system 

 is so heightened as to produce fever or inflamma- 

 tion, the pulse is accelerated. If the action of the 

 nervous system is irregular, pr unduly heightened, 

 the pulse becomes frequent and irregular, as in the 

 case of cramps and a diseased irritation in the 

 abdomen, from worms, &c., and in hypochondriacal 

 and hysterical persons. In case of mechanical ob- 

 structions to the circulation, as in dropsy of the 

 pericardium, polypus in the heart, or in the great 

 arteries, the pulse is irregular and interrupted. It 

 is doubtful whether Hippocrates had any knowledge 

 of the pulse. Soon after his time, however, physi- 

 cians, especially those of the Alexandrian school, 

 were attentive to it. Areteus of Cappadocia 

 explained the pulsation as a motion occasioned by 

 a natural and involuntary extension of the warmth 

 belonging to the heart and arteries, by which their 

 own motion is occasioned ; and Athenseus of Cilicia 

 had given the same explanation before him. He 

 describes the various kinds of pulse connected with 

 different disorders. Galen wrote several works on 

 the pulse. For several centuries after, the doctrine 

 of pulsation remained much as he had left it, as 

 was the case, indeed, with many branches of 

 medical science. The demonstrations of the circu- 

 lation of the blood by Harvey, and of the irrita- 

 bility of the muscular fibre by Haller, threw new 

 light on this subject. The feeling of the pulse is 

 the principal examination which Chinese physicians 

 make of the state of their patients, and they discri- 

 minate its different states with a subtilty approach- 

 ing absurdity. 



PULTAWA, or POLTAWA; a fortified town 

 of Russia, on the river Worskla, capital of a 

 government of the same name; lat. 49 3QT N.; 

 Ion. 34 14' E. ; 450 miles south-west of Moscow ; 

 population 9000. June 27, 1709, Peter the Great 

 (see Peter L) defeated Charles XII. (q. v.) before 

 Pultawa. In commemoration of this victory, the 

 Russians have erected a column in the city, and an 

 obelisk on the field of battle. 



PULTENEY, WILLIAM, earl of Bath, an English 

 statesman, the political antagonist of Sir Robert 

 Walpole, was descended from an ancient family, 

 and was born in 1682. He became a student of 

 Christ-church, Oxford, and, after having travelled 

 abroad, returned home to devote himself to politics. 

 Being chosen a member of the house of commons, 

 he joined the party of the whigs, in the latter years 

 of the reign of Anne. Under George I. he was 

 made secretary at war; but a dispute with Sir 

 Robert Walpole caused his removal to the ranks of 

 the opposition, when he joined lord Bolingbroke in 



conducting an anti- ministerial journal called the 

 Craftsman. In 1731, a duel with lord Hervey 

 gave ollfiice to the king, who removed Mr Pulteney 

 from the office of privy-counseller, which he had 

 hitherto held, and also from the commission of tin- 

 peace. These and other marks of the displeasure 

 of the court only served to increase the popularity 

 of Pulteney, who, at length, succeeded in procuring 

 the resignation of his rival, Walpole, in 1741. The 

 party with which he had acted then came into 

 power, and he was raised to the peerage by the 

 title of earl of Bath. From that period, however, 

 his popularity and influence entirely ceased. He 

 died June 8, 1764. 



PUMA (felis concolor et discolor). This animal 

 is also known under the names of conger, panther, 

 &c., and is the largest animal of the cat kind found 

 in America. The puma is of a brownish-red colour, 

 with small patches of rather a deeper tint, which 

 are only observable in certain lights, and disappear 

 entirely as the animal advances in age. The belly 

 is pale-reddish ; the breast, inside of the thighs and 

 legs, of a reddish-white, and the lower jaw and 

 throat entirely white. The puma was formerly 

 found in most parts of the American continent, and 

 is still numerous in South America ; in the United 

 States, the advance of population has rendered it 

 scarce. It is a savage and destructive animal, 

 though possessing all the timidity and caution of 

 the cat kind. It can climb trees with great facility. 

 In the day time, it is seldom seen, the night being 

 the time it selects for committing its depredations. 

 Although it generally confines its attacks to the 

 smaller quadrupeds, it will sometimes assail those 

 of large size and strength, and even man himself. 

 The puma is said to be readily tamed, and may 

 even be rendered docile and obedient. When 

 domesticated, its manners closely resemble those of 

 the common cat, having the same fondness of being 

 caressed, and expressing its satisfaction by the same 

 kind of gentle purring. Mr Kean, the tragedian, 

 possessed an individual of this species, which was 

 so tame as to follow him about like a dog. It 

 should, however, be noticed that docility and sub- 

 mission in the cat kind are only apparent; man 

 has never been able to subject them as he has other 

 animals. Even down to the domestic cat, there is 

 no one of them that can bear to be thwarted ; and 

 they also manifest their native ferocity on the 

 slightest opposition to their desires or caprices, 

 and, unlike the dog, never appear to entertain a 

 personal attachment to their master. See Cat. 



PUMICE. See Pitchstone. 



PUMP, in the common acceptation of the term, 

 is a contrivance for raising fluids by atmospheric 

 pressure. (See Hydronamics, and jlir.) The op- 

 eration and the construction of the air-pump are 

 explained in a separate article. There are three 

 kinds of pumps used for raising water, of all of 

 which there are various modifications. The sim- 

 plest and most common pump is the ordinary lift, 

 or sucking, or household pump. It is of great 

 antiquity, its invention being ascribed to Ctesebt's 

 of Alexandria,about 120 B. C. 

 The annexed Figure is a sec 

 tion of the common suction 

 pump. This pump consists 

 of a hollow cylinder A, of 

 wood or metal, which con- 

 tains a piston B, stuffed so as 

 to move up or down in the 

 cylinder easily, and yet be air- 

 tight : to this piston there is 

 attached a rod which will 

 reach at least to the top of 

 the cylinder when the piston 



