V E G 
PEL 
T E L 
In criminal cases, a nobleman is tried by 
bis peers. Peers shall have the benefit of 
clergy for the first offence of felony without 
being burned in the hand. 
PEERESS, a woman who is noble by 
descent, creation or marriage. If a peeress 
by descent or creation, marries a person 
under the degree of nobility, she still con- 
tinues noble; but if she obtains that dignity 
only by marriage, she loses it, on her after- 
wards marrying a commoner; yet, by the 
curtesy of England, she retains the title of 
her nobility. No peeress can be arrested 
for debt or trespass ; for though on account 
of their sex, peeresses cannot sit in the 
house of lords, yet they enjoy the privileges 
of peers, and therefore all peeresses by birth 
are to be tried by their peers. 
PEGANUM, zL'ild-rue, or harms!, a genus 
of the dodecandria monogynia class of plants, 
the flower of which consists of live oval 
petals; and its fruit is a trilocular capsule 
containing a great many small seeds. 
There are two species. 
This , herb is said to have an inebriating | 
and soporific quality. 
PEGASUS, in astronomy, a constellation ! 
of the northern hemisphere, in form of a j 
flying horse; said by different authors to j 
contain 19, 20, and 93 stars. 
Pegasus is also a genus of fishes of 
the order nantes : the generic character ! 
is, snout elongated, mouth beneath; pectoral 
fins large, ventral single-rayed; body de- 
pressed, mailed, with the abdomen divided | 
into bony segments. 
Pegasus draco, dragon pegasus. The prin- 
cipal species of this genus, the pegasus draco, 
is a small fish of about the length of three 
or four inches, and is remarkable for the 
size of its pectoral fins, which are supposed 
to enable it, like the exocoeti and some 
other fishes, to support itself for some mo- 
ments in the air, while it springs occasion- 
ally' over the surface of the water: the thorax 
or superior part of the body is of a broad, 
slightly flattened, squarish form, and is 
marked both above and beneath by several 
radiated shields or bony tubercles of consi- 
derable size ; from each' side of the abdomen 
springs a lengthened cirrus, which may be 
considered* as supplying the place of a 
ventral fin ; from the thorax the body de- 
creases suddenly in diameter, and is marked 
into several divisions or transverse segments ; 
the tail is small and slightly rounded ; the 
pectoral fins, as before observed, are large 
in proportion to the size of the animal, and 
of a rounded shape, with a kind of scalloped 
or indented outline ; the ey es are large and 
protuberant, and the snout of a subcorneal 
form, but with a slight dilatation towards the 
tip, so as to appear spatule-shaped when 
Viewed from above ; the colour of the whole 
animal is whitish, with a slight cast of pale 
brown. It is a native of the Indian seas. See 
Plate Nat. Hist. fig. 320. 
2. Pegasus volans : length about three 
inches ; snout much elongated ; on the 
bead a rhomboidal depression, and behind 
it two deep subpentagonal cavities ; last j 
joints of the body, next the tail, pointed on ! 
each side. Native of the Indian seas. 
3. Pegasus natans: length three or four 
inches ; shape much more slender than that 
of the P. volans; colour yellowish-brown. 
Vox. II. 
whitish beneath. Native of the Indian seas. 
PELAGIANS, a Christian sect who ap- 
peared before the latter part of the fourth, or 
the beginning of the fifth century. Pelagius, 
the author of this sect, was born in Wales, 
and his name was Morgan, which in the 
; Welsh language signfies sea-born ; whence 
he had his Latin name Pelagius. St. Austin 
gives him the character of a very pious man, 
and a Christian of no vulgar rank : accord- 
ing to the same father, he travelled to Rome, 
where be associated himself with persons of 
the greatest learning and figure, and wrote 
his commentaries on St. Paul’s espistles, and 
his letters to Melania and Demetrius ; but 
being charged with heresy, he left Rome, 
and went into Africa, and thence to Jerusa- 
lem, where he settled. He died somewhere 
in the East, but where is uncertain. He was 
charged with maintaining the following doc- 
trines: 1. That Adam was by nature mortal, 
and whether he had sinned or not, would 
certainly have died. 2. That the conse- 
quences of Adam’s sin were confined to his 
own person. 3. That new-born infants are 
in the same condition with Adam before the 
fall. 4. That the law qualified men for the 
kingdom of heaven, and was founded upon 
equal promises with the gospel. 5. That 
the general resurrection of the dead does 
not follow in virtue of our Saviour’s resur- 
rection. 6. That the grace of God is given 
accol’ding to our merits. 7. That this grace 
is not granted for the. performance of every 
moral act ; the liberty of the' will, and infor- 
mation in points of duty, being sufficient, 
&c. Pelagius’s sentiments were condemned 
by several councils in Africa, and by a sy- 
! nod at Antioch. 
j There was also a sect of semi-pelagians ; 
who, with the orthodox, allowed of original 
1 sin ; but denied that the liberty of the will 
■ could be so far impaired thereby, that men 
could not ot themselves do something which 
might induce God to afford his grace to one 
more than another; and as to election, they 
held, that it depended on our perseverance ; 
I God choosing only such to eternal life, as 
; continued stedfast in the faith. 
PELECOIDES, in geometry, a figure in 
form of a hatchet : such is the figure 
BC DA, (see Plate Miscel. fig. 182.) contained 
under the two inverted quadrantal arcs AB 
and AD, and the semicircle BCD. The 
I area of the pelecoides is demonstrated to be 
! equal to the square AC, and that again to 
j the parallelogram EB. It is equal to the 
square AC, because it wants of the square 
on the left hand the two segments AB and 
AC, which are equal to the two segments 
j BC and CD, by which it exceeds on the right 
1 hand. 
| PELICAN, in chemistry, a kind of double 
| glass vessel, used in distilling liquors by cir- 
culation : it consists of a cucurbit and alembic 
head, with two tubes bending into the cu- 
curbit again. 
PELICANUS, in ornithology, a genus 
belonging to the order of anseres. The bill 
is straight, without teeth, and crooked at the 
point ; the face is naked ; and the feet are 
palmated. See Plate Nat. Hist. fig. 321. 
Mr. Latham enumerates no less than 30 
different species of this genus, besides varie- 
ties. The most remarkable seem to be these 
that follow : 
3 A 
36 $ 
1. The carbo, or cormorant, sometimes 
exceeds seven pounds in weight ; the length 
three feet four ; the extent four feet two ; 
the bill dusky, live inches long, destitute of 
nostrils ; the base of the lower mandible is 
covered with a naked yellow skin, that ex- 
tends under the chin, and forms a sort of 
pouch ; a loose skin of the same colour 
reaches from the upper mandible round the 
eyes and angles of the mouth ; the head and 
neck are of a sobty blackness, but under the 
chin of the male the feathers are white ; and 
the head in that sex is adorned with a short, 
loose, pendant crest ; in some the crest and 
hind part of the head are streaked with white. 
The coverts of the wings, the scapulars, and 
the back, are of a deep green, edged' with 
black, and glossed with blue; the quill- 
feathers and tail dusky ; the legs are short, 
strong, and black; the middle claw serrated 
on the inside ; the irides are of a light ash- 
colour. 
The birds occupy the highest parts of 
the cliffs that impend over the sea : they 
make their nests of sticks, sea-tang, grass, 
&c. and lay six or seven white eggs of an ob- 
long form. In winter they disperse along 
the shores, and visit the fresh waters, where 
they make great havock among the fish. 
They are remarkably voracious, having a 
most sudden digestion, promoted by the in- 
finite quantity of small worms that till their 
intestines. The cormorant has the rankest 
and most disagreeable smell of any bird, 
even when alive. Its form is disagreeable, 
its voice hoarse and croaking, and its quali- 
ties base. These birds, however, have been 
trained to fish, as falcons to fowl. White- 
lock tells us, that he had a cast of them 
manned like hawks, and which would come 
to hand. He took much pleasure in them ; 
and relates, that the best he had was one 
presented him by Mr. Wood, master of the 
cormorants to Charles I. It is well known 
that the Chinese make great use of these 
birds, or a congenerous sort, in fishing ; anil 
that not for amusement, but profit. 
2. The graculus, or shag, is much inferior 
in size to the cormorant; the length is 27' 
inches ; the breadth three feet six ; the 
weight three pounds and three quarters. The 
bill is about four inches long, and more slen- 
der than that of the preceding ; the head is 
adorned with a crest two inches long, point- 
ing backward; the whole plumage of the 
upper part of this bird is of a line and very 
shining green ; the edge of the feathers a 
purplish black; but the lower part- of the 
back, the head, and the neck, wholly green ; 
the belly is dusky ; the tail of a dusky hue* 
tinged with green ; the legs are black, and 
like those of the cormorant. Both these 
kinds agree in their manners, and breed in 
the same places ; and what is very strange in 
web-footed birds, will perch and build in 
trees ; both swim with their head 'quite erect, 
and are very difficult to be shot ; for, like the 
grebes and divers, as soon as they see the 
Hash of a gun, they pop under water, and 
never rise but at a considerable distance. 
3. The bassanus, "annet, or solan goose, 
weighs seven pounds; the length is three 
feet one inch; the breadth six feet two 
inches. The bill is six inches long, straight 
almost to the point where it inclines down; 
and the sides are irregularly jagged, that it 
