PIN 
thoraK plano-convex, margined; head ex- 
serted ; shells rather rigid ; generedly with- 
out wings. There are between one and 
two hundred species, divided into sections : 
A. antennae, moniliform at the tip. B. an- 
tennae, entirely filiform. The section is 
subdivided into a feelers filiform, and b 
feelers clavate. The section B is likewise 
subdivided into a, fore-feelers, filiform : b, 
fore-feelers, hatchet-shaped ; hind ones cla- 
vate. The species P. mortisaga, is black ; 
shells mucronate, subpnnctured. It is found 
in many parts of Europe ; and in Sweden it 
is regarded as a presage of death to one of 
the house in which it is found crawling. 
PIMPINELLA, in botany, burnet saxi- 
frage, a genus of the Pentandria Digynia 
class and order. Natural order of Umbel- 
late, or Umbellifer®. Essential character : 
petals bent in ; stigma subgloBular ; fruit 
ovate, oblong. There are nine species, 
among which we shall notice the P. anisum, 
anise, it has an annual root, producing a 
stem a foot and half in height, dividing into 
several branches, having narrow leaves on 
them, cut into three or four narrow segments; 
Jirabels large and loose, on long peduncles ; 
flowers small, yellowish white ; seeds ob- 
long, swelling, possessing an aromatic scent, 
and a pleasant warm taste: in distillation 
with water, three pounds of them yield an 
ounce of essential oil, which congeals into a 
butyraceous wliite concrete, even when the 
air is not sensibly cold ; these seeds also 
yield an oil, by expression, of a greenish 
colour and grateful taste, strongly impreg- 
nated with the flavour of the seeds. It is a 
native of Egypt; it is cultivated in Malta 
and Spain, whence the seeds are annually 
imported into England. 
PIN, in commerce, a little necessary im- 
plement made of brass-wire, used chiefly 
by tlie women in adjusting their dress. The 
perfection of pins consists in the stiffness of 
the wire and its whiteness, in the heads be- 
ing well turned, and in the fineness of the 
points. The London pointing and whiten- 
ing are in most repute, because our pin- 
makers, in pointing, use two steel mills, the 
first of which forms the point, and the latter 
takes off all irregularities, and renders it 
smooth, and as it were polished; and in 
whitening, they use block-tin granulated : 
whereas in other countries they are said to 
use a mixture of tin, lead, and quicksilver; 
which not onl^whitens worse than the for- 
mer, but is also dangerous on account of 
the. ill quality of that mixture, which renders 
a puncture with a pin thus whitened, some- 
PIN 
what difficult to be cured. The consumption 
of pins is incredible, and there is no com- 
modity sold cheaper. The number of hands 
employed in this manufacture is very greats 
each pin passing through the hands of six 
different w'orkmen, between the drawing of 
the brass wire, and the sticking of the pin 
in the paper. 
Pins are sometimes made of iron wire, 
rendered black by a varnish of linseed-oil, 
with lamp-black, which the brass-wire would 
not receive : these are designed for the use 
of persons in mourning, though not univer- 
sally approved. 
PINCHBECK. See Copper. 
PINE. See Pinus. 
Pine apple. See Ananas. 
PINEAL GLAND. See Anatomy. 
PINGUICULA in botany, butter wort, 
a genus of the Diandria Monogynia class 
and order. Natural order of Corydales. 
Lysimachias, Jussieu. Essential character: 
corrola ringent, with a spur; calyx, two- 
lipped, five-cleft; capsule, one celled. 
There are five species, natives of many 
parts of England. 
PINION, in mechanics, an arbor, or 
spindle, in the body whereof are several 
notches, which catch the teeth of a wheel 
that serves to turn it round : or it is a lesser 
wheel which plays in the teeth of a larger. 
In a watch, &c. the notches of a pinion, 
which are commonly 4, 5, 6, 8, &c. are 
called leaves, and not teeth, as in other 
wheels. For the pinjons of a watch, and 
the leaves, turns, &c. thereof. See Clock. 
PINION of report, is that pinion in a 
watch, commonly fixed on the arbor of a 
great wheel; it drives the dial-wheel, and 
carries about the hand. 
PINITE, in mineralogy, is of a blackish 
grey colour, usually crystallized, in six-sided 
prisms with truncated edges and angles. 
The crystals are of different sizes. Specific 
gravity almost three. It experiences no 
alteration before the blow-pipe, either alone 
or with the addition of borax. With car^ 
bonate of soda it forms an opaque globule, 
and with microcosmic salt, a transparent 
glass : it is compounded of 
Alumina 63.7.7 
Silica.. 29.60 
Oxide of iron 6.75 
100.00 
It has been found only in the mine level of 
Pini in Saxony, hence it derives its name ; 
and is usually accompanied with quartz, 
felspar and micar. 
