P Y X 



Thefeus. — Alfo, a town of ^fia Minor, in C;iria ; after- 

 wards called NifTa. — Alfo, a town of Aiiatic Myfia. 



PYULCON, from touov, pus, and Uko, to draw, an old 

 furgical initniment anciently employed for drawing the 

 matter out of fniufes. 



PYURIA, in Mcdictne, from itwn, pus, and «fo», urine, 

 a term uled by Sauvages and others to denote all purulent 

 and mucous difcharges from the bladder. See Catakkhus 

 Vefuit. 



PYXIDANTHERA, in Botany, from x^|.,-, a box, 

 and avQf.p, an anther, becaufe, according to Michaux, each 

 cell of the anthers opens by a fort of lid ; fee Diatensia, 

 to which genus the plant in queftion is referred by Mr. 

 Purdl, in his J^l. Amer. Sept. v. i. 148, under the name 

 of D. cuncifolia, after Mr. Salilbury. 



PYXIS NaI/'TICA, in Navigation, the feaman's compafs. 



The word •ra-ufi literally fignities a box. 



Pyxis, among Anatomtjh, is alfo ufed for the cavity of 

 the hip-bone. See Acetabulum. 



P Z 1 



Pyxis, a fmall metal cafe for containing the confecrated 

 fpecies in the Catholic churcli. Anciently it was made in 

 the form of a dove and fufpended over tlie altar. 



PYXUS, in Ancient Geography, a fmall river of Italy, 

 in Lucania ; which took its rife northward towards Sontia, 

 and running fouthward difcharged itfclf into a gulf of the 

 fame name, E. of Pyxus, or Pyxuntum. 



Pyxus, or Pyxuntum, PoU-CaJlro, a town of Italy, be- 

 longing to Lucania, fituated at the bottom of a fmall gulf, 

 E. of a fmall river of the fiime name. It was founded by 

 Mirathus, prince of Zanele and Rhegiuni, in the year 471 

 B.C. It became a Roman colony in the year 194 before 

 the fame era. 



Pyxus Promontorium, a fmall cape of Italy, E. of a 

 peninfula of Laconia, which had on the W. the promon- 

 tory Palinurum. This promontory is found at the en- 

 trance of a fmall gulf of the fame name. 



PZINENIN, in Geography, a town of Bohemia, in the 

 circle of Boleflau ; 12 miles E. of Jung-Buntzel. 



Q. 



QA confonant, borrowed from the Latin or French, 

 ^ for which the Saxons generally ufed cp, cm ; and 

 the fixtcenth letter of the alphabet. 



The name of this letter is cue, from queue, Fr. tail ; its 

 form being that of an O with a tail. 



The Q has this peculiar to it, that it is always followed 

 by an U, and is therefore reckoned among the mutes. 



The Q IS formed from the Hebrew, p, hopli ; which mod 

 other languages have borrowed ; though feme of them have 

 reje&ed it again, particularly the Greeks, who now only re- 

 tain it as a numeral charafter, called .-lor-a sTij-r.^uov. 



In effeft, there is that refemblance between the O and 

 the C, in fome languages, and the K in others, that many- 

 grammarians, in imitation of the Greeks, banifli the Q as a 

 fuperfluous letter. Papias even afSrms, that all the Latin 

 words now wrote w-ith a Q, were written among the ancient 

 Romans with a C ; but we want better authorities for this. 

 'For, though that may hold in many cafes, infomuch that 

 fome write indifferently ^U!/*-, ov cur ; cum, or quum ; guo- 

 tidie, or cotidie, &c. yet it does not thence follow, that they 

 ever wrote cis, ce, cid, for guis, qua, quid. AVhat infcrip- 

 tions authoriiie fuch a reading ? 



Far from this, the ancients fometimes fubflituted Q for C ; 

 and wrote quojus, quoi ; for cujus, cui, &c. 



Varro, however, and fome other grammarians, as we are 

 told by Cenforinus, &c. would never ufe the Q. The truth 

 >s, its ufe or difufe feems to have been fo little fettled, and 

 agreed on, that the poets ufed the Q or C indifferently, as 

 belt fuited their meafures ; it being a rule, that the Q joined 

 the two following vowels into one fyllablc ; and that the 

 C imported them to be divided. 



Hence it is, that Lucretius ufes cuiret for three fyllables, 

 in lieu of quiret ; acua, for aqua ; and that Plautus ufes re- 

 licuum, for reliquum ; as in quod dedi, datum non velkm relicuum 

 Vol. XXIX. 



non ; where the cuum mull be two fyllables, otherwifc the 

 trochiac verfe will be lame of a foot. 



In the French, the found of the Q and K are fo near 

 akin, that fome of their niceft authors think the former 

 might be fpared. Ramus adds, that, till the cftablifhment of 

 royal profeffors in the univerfity of Paris, under Francis I. 

 they always ufed Q in the Latin the fame as in the French; 

 pronouncing tis, kalis, kantus. Sec. for quis, qualis, quantus. 

 See K. 



Some very learned men make Q a double letter, as well 

 as K and X. According to them, Q is evidently a C and TJ 

 joined together. It is not enough that the found is the fame, 

 but they fee the traces of the C U in the figure of the Q ; 

 the V being only laid obliquely, fo as to come within the 

 cavity of the C ; as C <. 



To confirm this, tiiey fay the ancients wrote qi, qn, qid. 

 Though Jof. Scaliger, Littleton, &c. think this is no proof 

 of the point ; for in Gruter's infcriptions we find not only 

 the Q, but alfo the C, put for Q U ; as Cintus, Quintus ; 

 Jicis hn- Jiquis, &c. Yet nobody ever imagined the C a 

 double letter. 



Q, among the Ancients, was a numeral letter, fignifying 

 500 ; as in the verfe, ' 



" Q velut A cum D quingentos vult numerare." 



A da(h over it, as Q, denoted it to fignify five hundred 

 thoufand. 



Q is alfo ufed as an abbreviature in feveralarts. §•/>/. in 

 phyficians' bills, ftands for quantum placet, or quantum vis, as 

 much as you pleafe of a thing ; q.f. for quantum fuficit, or 

 as much as is neceliary. 



Q, in the proper names of the Romans, fignifies Quintus, 

 or Quintius. Upon the French coins this letter denotes chat 

 they were ilruck at Perpignan. 



S Q feems 



