PET 
PET 
773 
who fits as if lie were on horfeback ; the driver pufties 
behind, and, by means of wooden levers, makes the car¬ 
riage, which is a fort of chariot, advance with fafety and 
expedition. The foil of this province is fandy, and pro¬ 
duces very little rice; but all other kinds of grain are 
abundant, as well as moftof the fruit-trees which we have 
in Europe. The rivers fupply abundance of fill), and the 
mountains have mines of coal. The temperature does 
not feem to agree with its latitude; for, though it ex¬ 
tends r.o farther than to 42 0 N. lat. yet all the rivers are 
frozen during four months in the year, from the middle 
of November to the middle of March, to fuel! a degree, 
that horfes and waggons, with the heavieft load, may 
fafely pafs over them. It is remarked, as a iingular cir- 
cumftance, that the whole body of ice is formed in one 
day, and thatfeveral days are requifite to thaw only the 
furface. The rainy feafon occurs towards the end of 
July, and the beginning of Auguft: there is little rain 
at any o'ther time, but the night-dew fupplies the want 
of it. It is obferved by Grofier, that the people of this 
province have not the lame aptitude for acquiring litera¬ 
ture and fcience as thofe who inhabit the fouthern pro¬ 
vinces of the empire ; but they are more robuft and war¬ 
like, and better fitted for enduring the hardfliips and 
fatigues of war. The fame obfervation applies to the 
Chinefe of all the northern countries. This province is 
diftinguilhed from all others, by being, as it were, the 
depot of the richeft produdfions of the whole empire 
According to the ftatement of fir George Staunton, this 
province contains 38,000,0000!’ people. See China. 
PETCHO'RA, or Petshora, a river of Ruffia, called 
alfo Boljkaia, or Great Petchora, by way of diftiniftion 
from the Vilhera, which the Siryanes call Petftioyra, takes 
its rife on the weftern fide of the Ural mountains, in the 
government of Vologda, follows a north-weft courfe, and 
falls into the Frozen Ocean in the government of Arch¬ 
angel, (lat. 67. 40. N. Ion. 50. 34. E.) afterdividing into 
feveral powerful arms. It now flow's through a low', 
forefty, and almoft uninhabited, country. At firft, when 
Siberia was conquered, the w'ay thither was generally by 
the Petchora: thofe w'ho vifited that country failed up 
the Duina, the Vichegda, and the Vim, then went a fliort 
fpace by land to the Petchora, then up that river,and by 
land over the Ural mountains to the Sofva ; hence into 
the Tavda,the Tobol, the Irtifch, the Oby, the Ket, and 
from the Ket into the Yenifley, &c. 
PETE'CHI-fiE, f. [derivation unknown.] Small 
purple, reddifh, livid, or blackifii, fpots upon the fkin, oc- 
cafioned by the effufion of a minute portion of blood 
under the cuticle, or fcarf-fkin. When thefe fpots are 
very minute, like fmall points, they are called figmala; 
when they are large, and fpread into broad irregular 
patches, like the eflfufions occafionecl by a bruife, they are 
called ccc/u/mofes and eccliymomata; and when they occur 
in ftripes, like the effefts of the llrokes of a whip, they 
are denominated vibices. 
Petechias occur under various circumftances; but are 
inoft frequently feen in fevere fevers, of a dangerous and 
malignant charadler, efpecially in typhus, when it exifts 
in gaols, hofpitals, and the ill-ventilated habitations of 
the poor ; they are occafionally feen intermixed with the 
puftules of fmall-pox, efpecially of the confluent kind, 
and with the worft fpecies of fcarlet fever. Whence they 
have generally been accounted indications of great dan¬ 
ger, and have been confidered as figns of the general pu- 
trefcency of the circulating fluids, and as demanding the 
exhibition of the moft powerful ftimulants and antifeptics, 
w'henever they appear. On the contrary, however, pete¬ 
chias of the largeft dimenfions, and even extenfive ecchy- 
mofes and vibices, together with actual haemorrhages, 
are occafionally feen, unaccompanied by fever, and fome- 
times with but little derangement of the health. Whence 
authors have written of “Petechias fine febre” as a dif- 
tinfif difeale, which has been alfo called Purpura, and by 
Dr. Good PoRrHYRA. See the article Pathology, p. 295. 
PETE'CHIAL, adj.—Petechial fevers are thofe varie¬ 
ties of typhus, in which petechias occur in confiderable 
numbers, conftituting one of the moft prominent features 
of the difeafe. Chambers. 
PETELAN'GE, a tow n of France, in the department 
of the JMofelle : nine miles'fouth-weft of Sarguemines, 
and thirteen north-eaft of Morhange. 
PETE'LIA, or Petil'ia. See Strongoli. 
PETEL'MA, f. The procurator-general of the efrefls 
of the Janizaries. When any one dies under the pro¬ 
tection of this body, he fe.als up their houfes, to fe.cure 
the tenth part of their effeCts ; which is due to the Jani¬ 
zaries. 
PE'TER (Saint), an eminent apoftle of Chrift, ori¬ 
ginally known by the name of Simon, was a native of 
Bethfaida, a town on the weftern fliore of the Lake of 
Gennefareth, or the Sea of Galilee. Fie was brought up 
to the occupation of a fifherman, as was his brother An¬ 
drew', another apoftle of Chrift; and it feems probable 
that their father Jonas, or John, was of the fame calling. 
Which w'as the elder of his fons, Andrew or Simon, is a 
point which antiquity does not enable us to determine 
with any certaint}G They appear to have become dif- 
ciples of John the Baptift, and by that means to have had 
their minds in feme meafure prepared for the reception 
of his doflrine, of whom John was only the fore-runner. 
In our article Andrew, (vol. i.) we have feen, that he was 
probably the firft difciple of Chrift, in whom he believed 
as the expeCfed Mefliah, upon hearing John’s allegorical 
declaration concerning him, that he was “the Lamb ot 
God which taketh away the fin of the world.” This 
joyful information he communicated to his brother, and 
introduced himtojefus; who, forefeeing the fortitude 
which he would difplay in preaching his religion, gave 
him the furname of Cephas, or Peter, fignifying “a ftone, 
or rock,” (the former in Syriac, the latter in Greek,) by 
which he w'as afterwards moft commonly diftinguilhed. 
From this time, Andrew and Peter frequently attended 
on Jefus, and heard his difcourfes, and w'ere witnefles to 
the firft miracles performed by him, which confirmed them 
in the perfuafion that he was the Mefliah. Yet they ftiil 
occafionally continued their occupation of fifhermen, till 
he called them to a more Hated attendance; when they 
left their nets, and followed him, encouraged by his magni¬ 
ficent promife, that he would make them fjhers of men, or 
qualify them to recover mankind from ignorance and 
error, folly and vice, and to form them to juft fentiments 
of religion, and the praitice of virtue. Afterwards, upon 
his choofing twelveof his difciples to be with him always, 
and to fuftain the character of his ,apoftles, the two 
brethren w'ere felefiled to be of that number. About 
this time Peter, who was a married man, removed from 
Bethfaida to Capernaum, where his wife’s relations feem 
to have lived ; and he was accompanied by his brother 
Andrew, who took up his abode in the fame houfe; on 
which account it is fometimes called in the evangelical 
hiftory Simon's houfe, and fometimes the houfe of Simon 
and Andrew. With them alfo Jefus refided, when he left 
Nazareth and came to Capernaum, as we learn from dif¬ 
ferent paflages in the Gofpels; and in this houfe the 
tribute-money for the life of the temple was levied upon 
him, which he directed Peter todifeharge, after furnifhing 
him with the means by an exertion of his miraculous 
power. 
Peter, now appointed an apoftle, fliowed on various 
occafions the ftrongeft faith in Jefus as the Mefliah, and 
the moft extraordinary zeal in his fervice. On the 
evening of the day on which Jefus had performed the 
miracle of the five loaves and two fillies, he directed his 
difciples fo enter a vefi’el, and to crofs over to the other 
fide of the fea, while he difmifled the multitudes who had 
been witnefles of that event. As they were on their 
paflage, ftruggling againft a contrary w ind, in the fourth 
watch of the night, or near morning, Jefus came towards 
them, walking on the fea as on dry land. Alarmed at 
fuch 
