PEL 
known as a painter by his works in frefco, his pidlures in 
oil being extremely fcarce: his pieces in the Inftitute of 
Bologna, reprefenting ftories from the Odyfley in frefco, 
are his moll remarkable remains. Of thefe a book has 
been engraved. D'Argenville. Pilkington. 
PELLEGRU'E, a town of France, in the department 
of the Gironde: twelve miles north-north-eaft of La 
Reolle, and thirty eaft of Bourdeaux. 
PEL'LEN, a town of Prufiia, in the circle of Natangen: 
fixteen miles fouth of Brandenburg. 
PELLE'N A, in ancient geography, a town of the Pelo- 
ponnefus, in the Argolide. 
PEL'LENBECK, a village of the kingdom of the Ne¬ 
therlands, in the province of South Brabant; three miles 
of Louvain on the river Dyle ; and till the late peace was 
included in the (French) department of the Dyle. 
PEL'LENDORF, a town of Auftria : ten miles weft of 
Zifterdorf.—A town of Auftria: eight miles fouth-eaft of 
Vienna. 
PELLE'NE, in ancient geography, a town of the Pelo- 
ponnefus, in Achaia, fouth of Ariftonautae. It was built 
round a mountain, and formed a beautiful amphitheatre. 
The inhabitants pretended that it took the name from 
Pallas, one of the Titans ; but the Argians with greater 
probability afcribe its name to Pellene, the fon of Phorbas, 
and grandfon of Triopas, who came from Argos to this 
plage. Water was conveyed to this city by a beautiful 
aquedudt; and at a fmall diftance was a gymnafium. 
Near the tqwn was a temple, on a fpot confecrated to 
Neptune. About two leagues towards the fouth-eaft 
from Pellene was a famous temple of Ceres the Myftan. 
In its vicinity feafts were celebrated for feven days. Pel¬ 
lene was defended by a fortrefs called Olurus towards the 
fouth-eaft, and by the valour of its inhabitants long 
maintained its liberty; at length it became a part of Si- 
cyonia, retaining its liberty to the time when the Romans 
took pofleffion of Greece. 
PELLENIN'KEN, a town of Pruflian Lithuania : nine 
miles north-eaft of Inlterburg. 
PELLERIN' (Jofepli), an eminent medalift, born at 
Paris in 1683, was commiffary-general of the French ma¬ 
rine. Having obtained his difmiflion after forty years’ 
fervice, he devoted the remainder of his life to the ftudy 
of antiquity. His collection of medals, which was the 
richeft and moft valuable that was ever made by a private 
individual, was purchafed by the king in 1776. He con¬ 
tributed to the promotion of the numifmatic fcience by 
a publication in nine volumes, ^to. enriched with a great 
number of plates. It confifts of a collection of medals of 
kings, hitherto inedited or little known ; a collection of 
medals of people and towns, inedited or little known ; 
mifcelianeous medals; fupplements to the above; and 
letters on medallic fubjeCts. This is reckoned a very va¬ 
luable work, not only on account of the beauty of the 
engravings, but of the learned and judicious explanations 
fnbjoined. The author died at Paris in 1782, in the 
ninety-ninth year of his age. 
PELLERIN' a town of France, in the department of 
the Lower Loire, on the Loire, with a harbour for fmall 
veftels: nine miles north of Nantes, twelve fouth-eaft of 
Painbceuf. , 
PEL 1 LET, f. [from pila, Lat. pelote, Fr.] A little ball. 
—That which is fold to the merchants, is made into little 
pellets, and fealed. Sandijs. —I drelfed with littlepe//< 7 s of 
lint. Wijeman's Surgenj.-— A bullet; a ball to be fliot.— 
The force of gunpowder hath been afcribed to rarefaClion 
of the earthy fubftance into flame, and fo followeth a di¬ 
latation ; and therefore, left two bodies fliould be in one 
place, there mull needs alfo follow an expulfion of the 
pellet or blowing up of the mine : but thefe are ignorant 
fpeculations; for flame, if there were nothing elfe, will 
be fuffocated with any hard body ; fuch as a pellet is, or 
the barrel of a gun; fo as the hard body would kill the 
flame. Bacon. —In a fhooting-trunk, the longer it is to a 
PEL 517 
certain limit, the more forcibly the air pafles and drives 
the pellet. Ray. 
To PEL'LET, v. a. To form into little balls. Not in 
■ufe : 
Oft did (lie heave her napkin to her eyne, 
Which on it had conceited characters, 
Laundering the filken figures in the brine 
That feafon’d woe had pelleted in tears. Shahefpeave. 
PEL'LETED, adj. Confiding of bullets: 
My brave Egyptians all, 
By the difcandying of this pelleted ftorm, 
Lie gravelefs. S/iahefpcare. 
PELLETI'ER (Bertrand), a very able French chemift, 
was the fon of an apothecary at Bayonne, where he was 
born in 1761. He received his early education at the 
college of that city, and diftinguifhed himfelf from child¬ 
hood by his ardour for ftudy. At the age of feventeen 
he came to Paris, and particularly attached himfelf to 
the eminent chemift Danet. He foon acquired an extra¬ 
ordinary paflion for chemical experiments, to the expen- 
fes of which he lacrificed almoft the neceflaries of life. 
At length a lover of the fcience offered him his labora¬ 
tory, which he gladly accepted, and for more than a year 
he paid it a daily vifit. He had conduCled his experiments 
with fo much care and accuracy, that at the age of twen¬ 
ty-one he made himfelf advantageoufly known by fome 
obfervations on the arfenical acid and other fubftances, 
printed in the Journal de Phyfique in 178a. In the next 
year Danet entrufted him with the management of the 
pharmaceutical eftablifhment of his father-in-law Rouelle. 
His reputation caufed him to be aggregated to the com¬ 
pany of apothecaries at Paris earlier than the regulated 
age; he alfo took his degrees in medicine; and in 178+ 
he married. Employing all his leifure in experimental 
chemiftry, he gave to the public fucceflively a variety of 
memoirs which have perpetuated his name among tiiofe 
of the moft ingenious and fuccefsful cultivators of the 
fcience. Of thefe, fome of the moft curious relate to 
phofphorus. In five papers upon this production, he 
confiders the beft method of preparing and purifying it, 
its powers of decompoiing the arfenical acid, and the 
mode of uniting it with the metals, 1b as to produce 
phofphurets of almoft all metallic bodies. Other 
memoirs relate to the analyfes of plumbago and molyb- 
dena, to acetic ether, to cauftic alkalies, oils, and the pre¬ 
paration of foap, to bell-metal, muriate of tin, carbonate 
of barytes and potaflium, and llfontian. The latter, with 
many more, are inferted in the “ Annales de Chymie,” 
in the compilation of which he was concerned from the 
year 1792. In the preceding year he had been admitted 
a member of the Academy of Sciences, an honour which 
few have obtained at fo early an age. After that efta¬ 
blifhment was fupprefled, he was employed by the go¬ 
vernment in feveral important commifiions. He was in 
fucceffion a member of the board of confultation for the 
arts, infpeflor of the hofpitals of Belgium, commifi’ary of 
gunpowder and faltpetre at Elfonne and La Fere, and 
member of the council for fuperintending the health of 
the armies. Notwithftanding his natural weaknefs of 
conftitution, he made a point of performing all his duties 
with the utmoll punctuality. 
When the National Inftitute had taken the place of all 
the other academical inftitutions, Pelletier was called to 
a feat in it, which he occupied with diftinftion. During 
the two laft years of his life he was employed to give a 
courfe of chemiftry in the Polytechnic fchool; and the 
clearnefs, precifion, and method, of his leClures were uni- 
verfally admired. His language was fimple, pure, and 
devoid of all ornament foreign to the fubjeCt. He ex¬ 
actly defcribed what he had feen and proved ; and never 
fuftered his imagination to wander in brilliant theories, 
or to lead him to-exaggerate in his faCts. A timid difpo- 
fition and feeble organization had caufed him to undergo 
feveral 
