770 
PET 
PET 
Italian petto, the bread, Dr. Jamiefon fays; to be in a pet, 
thus fignifying to retain fomething ,in one’s breajl. 
Huloet renders pettijh into the Lat. impetuofus; thus 
Teeming to countenance the propofed Lat. etymon, impe¬ 
tus. Todd. —Rather from the French pfter, (crepare, Lat. 
whence petard,) to make a fudden and noify burft. “ To 
be in a pet ” is to be on the point of burfting into a paflioir, 
pret a peter, pret ci crever, as does a bladder when too 
much prefled. " Tanquam vejica pepedi, I buriled like a 
bladder.” Horace. —Or it may be an abbreviation of 
petulance, which comes from .petere, Lat. to attack; as, 
corum petit, “ he attacks with the horn;” &c. Etymolo¬ 
gical Gleanings .] A flight paflion ; a flight fit of peevifh- 
nefs.—If we cannot obtain every vain thing we afk, our 
next bulinefs is to take pet at the refufal. L'EJlrange. — 
Life, given for noble purpofes, muft not be thrown up 
in a pet, nor whined away in love. Collier. 
If all the world 
Should in a pet of temperance feed on pulfe, 
Drink the clear Itream, and nothing wear but frieze, 
The All-giver would be unthankt, would be unprais’d. 
Milton. 
A lamb taken into the ho ufe, and brought up by hand ; 
a cade-lamb: hence any creature that is fondled and 
indulged; [probably from the Fr .petit, little.] The 
other has transferred the amorous paflions of her 
firft years to the love of cronies, pets, and favourites, with 
which flte is always furrounded. Taller, No. 266.— 
Formerly fpelt peat. — Deliro’s wife and idol 5 a proud 
mincing peal, and as perverfe as Ihe is officious. 
A citizen and his wife the other day 
Both riding on one horfe, upon the way 
I overtook, the w'ench a pretty peat. Donne. 
To PET, v. a. To treat as a pet; to fondle; to 
indulge. 
PET-EN-L’AIR, f. A fart-in-gale, or farthingale.— 
A hoop to fpread the petticoats. One of our recent tra¬ 
vellers fays, that the reafon why long trains belonging 
to the gowns of great men were carried up in flate was 
“ to let out offenfive vapours.” 
Pet de religieuse, or Pet de nonne, a kind of puffed 
fritters, common in France. Previous to the batter 
being thrown into a deep pan of melted butter, the cook 
blows them with a tube like foap-bubbles; they are ge¬ 
nerally round, and empty; of a fine fawn-colour, and 
Tprinkled with fugar.—No wonder that our finical gen¬ 
try fliould be fo loofe in their principles, as well as weak 
in their bodies, when the (olid fubflantial proteflant 
mince-pie has given place among them to the Roman- 
catholic amulets, and to the light, puffy, heterodox, pets 
de religieuj'cs. Connoiffeur, N° 48. 
PETACCIA'TA, a town of Naples, in Abruzzo Citra: 
twenty-two miles fouth-eaft of Civita Borella. 
PETAGLOS'SUM, f. in botany. See Lythrai 
PETAG'UEL, a territory of South America, in Brafil, 
bounded on the north by Dele, on the eafl by the fea, on 
the Couth by the captainfhip of Rio-Grande, and on the 
weft by Tupuya. 
PETA'JA, a town of Sweden, in Tavaftland : twenty- 
two miles north of Jamfio. 
PET'AL, J'. \pctalum, Lat.] — Petal is a term in botany, 
fignifying thofe fine coloured leaves that compofe the 
flowers of all plants: whence plants are diftinguifhed 
into monopetalous, whofe flower is one continued leaf; 
tripetalous, pentapetalous, and polypetalous, when they 
confift of three, five, or many, leaives. Quincy. —Linnaeus 
obferves, that, when the nedfary is a diftindt organ from 
the petals, flowers fo conftrudled are to be fulpedled as 
polfonous. Both together conftitute the corolla. 
PETAL'IONS, a duller of fmall iflands, in the Grecian 
Archipelago, near the fouth-weft coaft of the ifland of 
Negropont. Lat. 37. 59. N. Ion. 24. 16. E. 
PET'ALISM, J'. [Gr. from wETaAer, a leaf.] A form or 
fentence of banifhment among the Syracufans, by wri¬ 
ting the name of one whom they would be rid of in an 
olive-leaf.—I wonder why Mr. Harrington did not men¬ 
tion the petalifm of Syracufe, as well as the oftracifm of 
Athens, in imitation of which it was invented. Dp. Wren’s 
Monarchy affected, 1659.—The petalifm at Syracufe was 
nearly the fame thing as the oftracifm at Athens; e'xcept 
that the latter was for ten years, the former only for five. 
Chambers. 
This mode of banifhment was introduced in Syracufe 
about the year before Chrift 460, in order to prevent the 
tyranny of the richer citizens, who had often about that 
time aimed at the diadem. To bring down, therefore, 
the afpiring minds of the wealthy citizens, the Syracufans 
made a law not unlike that of the Athenian oftracifm ; 
for, as at Athens every citizen was to write on a fhell the 
name of the perfon whom they conceived to be the moll 
likely, on account of his wealth and adherents, to afpire 
to the crown; fo at Syracufe they were to write on a leaf 
the names of fuch as they apprehended powerful enough 
to ufurp the fovereignty. When the leaves were counted, 
he who had the mod fufFragesagainft him was, without any 
further inquiry, baniflied for five years. This law was 
attended with many evil confequences; for thofe who 
were moll capable of governing the commonwealth were 
driven out, and the adminiftration of public affairs com¬ 
mitted to the meaneft of the people; nay, many of the 
chief citizens, who were able to render their country 
great fervice, fearing to fall under penalties of this law, 
withdrew from the city, and lived private in the country, 
not concerning themfelves with public affairs: whence, 
all the employments being filled with men of no merit or 
experience, the republic was on the brink of ruin, and 
ready to fall into a flate of anarchy and confufion. The 
law therefore of petalifm, upon more mature delibera¬ 
tion, w'as repealed foon after it had been enadled. 
PET'ALITE,/. A mineral recently difeovered in the 
mine at Utoen in Sweden. Externally, it nearly refem- 
bles fome varieties of quartz ; but the cleavage is two¬ 
fold, parallel to the fides of a rhomboidal prifm ; two of 
the planes are fplendent, and two dull. The planes 
meet at angles of 100 0 and 8o°, forming a four-fided 
prifm with a rhomboidal bafe. Its colour is white with 
a flight tint of pink ; it fcratches glafs, but yields with 
difficulty to the knife. When expofed to the flame of a 
blow-pipe it remains for fome time infufible, but by con¬ 
tinual heat it exhibits a glazed furface, which, on exami¬ 
nation with a lens, appears full of minute bubbles. 
When triturated, the powder has the whitenefs of fnow. 
It is partly foluble in highly-concentrated nitric acid, 
lofing its colour, and changing to a dingy hue; the acid 
at the fame time becomes clouded. The prufliated alkali 
threw down a green precipitate, and the folution affumed 
an amethyftine colour, which afterwards changed to 
brown. The conftituent parts of this mineral are Hated 
to be, Silex ..... 80 
Alumine . . . . . 15 
Manganefe .... 3 
And a new alkali ... 2 
This alkali proves to be the oxyd of a new metal. The 
new alkali has been called Lithia and Lithion. It is 
readily obtained by fufing the mineral with potafh, dif- 
folving the whole in muriatic acid, evaporating to dry- 
nefs, and digefting the alcohol. The exadl quantity of 
Lithia in the Petalite is doubtful, but it cannot contain 
much more than 5 per cent. A more abundant fource 
has however been found in the Triphane, or Spodumene, 
which according to M. Arfwedfon, who alfo firft pointed 
out in it the exiftence of lithia, contains 8 per cent, pf 
the new alkali. The fame chemift has likewife afeertain- 
ed its exiftence in another mineral from Utoen, which is 
called cryftallifed lepidolite, in thp proportion of 4 percent. 
The pure alkali is very foluble in water, has a very- 
acrid cau(lie tafte, like the other fixed alkalies, and a£ts 
powerfully on blue vegetable colours. When heated on 
3 platinum 
