PALANQUIN 



4457 



PALERMO 



Palais Royal make the Palais Royal a very 

 popular public resort. 



PALANQUIN, palankeen', the name of a 

 vehicle, formerly much used in India, but more 

 recently a favorite means of transportation in 

 China and Japan. The word is derived from 

 the Sanskrit palyanka, meaning bed. It is 

 simply a covered litter on which the passenger 

 [t is a box-shaped conveyance, about 

 feet long by four feet in width and 

 iit ; the sides and ends are usually protected 

 by blinds or shutters which can be let down so 

 as to leave windows ; the door is in the side. It 

 is suspended on poles, passing through rings 

 near the top and projecting about four feet 

 from each end, and is carried by four men, who 

 rest the poles on their shoulders, which are pro- 

 <1 by pads. Many palanquins are richly 

 made and approach luxuriousness in their ap- 

 pointments. The carriers move forward in a 

 slow trot. An inexpensive form with canvas 

 sides is used by poorer people. 



PAL 'ATE, the roof of the mouth. The pal- 

 ate consists of two parts, the hard palate, in 

 front, and the soft palate, behind. The hard 

 palate is formed by projections of the upper 

 maxillary bones and the palate bones, which 

 are covered with 

 a thick layer of 

 periosteum. A 

 ridge extends 

 from front to 

 back on the me- 

 dian line. The 

 hard palate is 

 covered with a 

 mucous mem- 

 brane which i* TIII-: P.M. 

 lined with a thin (a) Is the location of the 

 membrane, the Boft palate ' 

 epithelium. In these membranes are num< ; 

 minute sacs which form tin- pil.ito glands. 



The soft palate consists of a fold of muscular 

 tissue covered with mucous membrane. It 

 forms a partial partition between the mouth 

 and the pharynx and is raised in the act of 

 swallowing to close the entrance to the back 

 nasal passages. A conical projection call* .1 the 

 uvula hangs from tin- mid.llo of the soft pa! 

 and on each side of the uvula are two cu 

 folds of membrane called the arches of the soft 

 palate. The soft palate contains numerous 

 L'l.mds that secrete mucus which lubricates the 

 TH ; TONSILS. 



PALATINATE, pa lat'i note, the name of 

 two German states, distinguished as the Upper, 



or Bavarian, Palatinate and the Lower, or 

 Rhenish, Palatinate. The former was bounded 

 mainly by Bohemia and Bavaria, and its capital 

 was Amberg. The Lower Palatinate, or the 

 Electoral Palatinate proper, covered an area of 

 3,150 square miles and lay on both sides of the 

 Rhine ; its capital was Heidelberg. The Counts 

 Palatine were in possession of the Palatinate 

 and the districts belonging to it as early as the 

 eleventh century, and they were among the 

 most powerful princes of Germany. By the 

 Peace of Westphalia in 1648 the Lower Palati- 

 nate was separated from the Upper. To Ba- 

 varia was given the latter, while the foi 

 became a separate electorate and thenceforth 

 was generally known as the Palatinate. By the 

 treaties of Paris, 1814 and 1815, the Palatinate 

 was split up, Bavaria receiving the largest part, 

 the remainder being divided between Hesse- 

 Darmstadt, Baden and Prussia. The name now 

 belongs to the detached portion of Bavaria 

 of the Rhine, while the Upper Palatinate 

 forms another portion of* Bavaria. See GER- 

 MANY, subtitle History of Germany. 



PALEONTOLOGY, pa le on tol' o ji, the 

 science of ancient beings, particularly the classi- 

 fied study of fossils. Each system of rocks con- 

 tains fossils of the plants and animals that ! 

 when the rocks were formed. By the study of 

 these fossils geologists can tell what sorts of 

 plants and animals lived during each period in 

 the earth's formation. Those who devote their 

 entire time to this study are known as pa 

 tologists. They are able to classify the plants 

 and animals of the past ages nearly as well as 

 botanists and zoologists classify those of the 

 present time. This classification is a great aid 

 in separating geologic time into eras and pe- 

 riods as they are now recognized. See Fo- 

 GEOLOGY. 



PALEOZOIC, palcozo'ik, ERA, that great 

 division of geologic time extending from the 

 Proterozoic to the Mesozoic Era. It includes 

 the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian. 

 Carboniferous and Permian periods, each of 

 wlurh is described under its title. The era was 

 . long, as is known from the number of 

 periods it included and also by the great thick- 

 ness of the rock systems that were for; 

 During the era life developed from the simplest 

 forms of plants and animals to complex forms 

 resembling those of the present day. See GE- 

 OLOGY. 



PALERMO, palur'mo, a seaport, formerly 

 capital of Sicily, picturesquely situated in 

 northwestern part of the island, on the Bay 



