PET 
u 
this circumftance would form the fpecific ch a rafter, or 
occafion a fubdivifion in the genus. The mouth is wider 
than the head is broad; and the lips are capable of 
extenfion and retraftion at the will of the animal. The 
teeth are fixed in flefliy capfules ; nine double ones ftand 
circularly at the entrance of the gullet. The tongue is 
whitifli, and has fmall teeth or prickles upon it; and be¬ 
fore it is a femicircular bpne, orange-coloured, and armed 
with nine prickles. The fifhermen of Quevilly, a com¬ 
mune where this fpecies has been moil frequently ob- 
i'erved, remark that it never appears except at the feafon 
of fiffiing for (had. Upon one of tliefe it fallens with its 
lips and teeth, and, fixing on the foftell part of the belly, 
it gains its nourilhment in the fame manner as a leach, 
fucking the blood with the greateft avidity ; its intellinal 
canal is commonly found full of blood, and containing 
no other nutritive fubftance whatever. 
7. Petromyzon argenteus, the filverlamprey : the body 
entirely of a fiver colour. The rays of the fins are lo 
very fmall, they cannot be counted. This eaftern lam¬ 
prey has a larger mouth, a longer head, a larger eye, and 
thinner fkin, than thofe of Europe; the eye has a black 
pupil and filvery iris. The anus is much nearer the tail 
than the head. The dorfalfin is very (hort in the middle; 
the anal is narrow; and the tail, which joins to it, ends 
like the point of a lance. The teeth are yellow, like the 
other lampreys ; but they (hand forwarder in the mouth, 
and are of a different ftrufture; in the lower jaw there 
are ten handing clofe together, very flrarp, looking like a 
bent comb ; oppcfite thefe is a broad flat cartilage, and 
on each fide fome infuiated teeth of the fame fubftance, 
fhaped like nails. The lateral line is very vifible in this 
fpecies. This fiih is from Tranquebar, in the Ealt Indies ; 
it meafures about fix inches in length. It was added by 
Dr. Bloch in the Twelfth Part of his Iclithyologie, wdiich 
had not appeared when the 14th edition of the Syftema 
Naturae was publilhed, and could not therefore benoticed 
by Gmelin. It is reprefented at fig. 5. 
8. Petromyzon plumbeus, the lead-coloured lamprey : 
body decreafing from head to tail in a conical manner; 
mouth large; dorfal fins rounded; tail fpatule-fhaped. 
Colour of the upper part of the animal leaden-grey; of 
the under yellowilh white: fize not mentioned. Ob- 
ferved by Noel in the Seine, where it is very plentiful. 
9. Petromyzon bicolor, the brilliant lamprey. This 
fpecies is eafily diflinguifned by its colours ; the upper 
part being of a fine black, and the under of a brilliant 
lilver-colour. The mouth is very fmall; both the dorfal 
fins rounded, and each nearly as fliort as the caudal, 
which is fpatule-fhaped. Firft defcribed by Noel, by 
whom it was communicated to Cepede : found in the 
Seine, and laid to be fometimes taken in great plenty. 
Size not mentioned; but Cepede’s figure, (tom. iv. 
planche 15.) is 4^ inches long, and of the preceding 
about 55 inches. 
PETRO'NA, a town of Croatia : fourteen miles north 
of Carlfladt. 
PET'RONEL, or Petrinal, f. [ poitrir.al , Fr. from 
poitrine, the bread.] A fpecies of fire-arm between the 
arquebufe and the piltol, which was ufed among the 
French during the reign of Francis I. There is mention 
made of it in an account of the fiege of Rouen by Henry 
IV. in 1592. It was fhorter than the mufket but of a 
heavier calibre, and not unlike our blunderbufs; being 
flung in a crofs-belt, fo as to reft upon the cheft of the 
perfon who difcharged it. From this circumftance it 
obtained the name. 
And he, with petronel upheav’d, 
Inftead of fliield, the blow receiv’d : 
The gun recoil’d, as well it might. Hudibras. 
PETRONELL', a town of Auftria : feven miles north- 
eaft of Brugg. 
PETRO'NIUS, the name of feveral diftinguiftied Ro- 
P E T 
mans, one of which, Petronius Maximus, was emperor of 
Rome. See that article. 
PETRO'NIUS AR'BITER (Titus), the author of a 
Latin work entitled “Satyricon,” which has come down 
to modern times in a very iinperfeft ftate, is commonly 
fuppofed to be the fame perfon as A. Petronius, mentioned 
by Tacitus in the 16th book of his Annals, under the 
reign of Nero, as a favourite of that tyrant, and at length 
a viftim to his fufpicion. “ He was one,” fays that hifto- 
rian, “ who parted his days in deep, and his nights in 
bulinefs and pieafure: and, as others acquire celebrity by 
aftive exertions, he obtained it by his indolence. He 
was regarded not as a common debauchee and fpend- 
thrift, but as a proficient in ftudied luxury; and his 
words and nftions, the more they were marked with an 
air of careleffnefs and negligence, the more they pleafed, 
as denoting a fimplicity of charafter. In the ftation of 
proconful of Bithynia, and afterwards of conful, he dif- 
plajed vigour and talents for public bufinefs, but relap- 
fing into vicious habits, or at leaft aftefting it, he was 
received among the few intimates of Nero as the direftor 
of his pleafures; and the emperor confidered nothing as 
peculiarly delicate and refined, which had not the appro¬ 
bation of Petronius.” This degree of favour proved fatal 
to him : it excited the envy of Tigellinus, who accufed 
him to Nero, as being the friend of one of the perfons 
condemned for a confpiracy. He was detained in cuftody 
at Cumse, where, impatient of the fufpence between hope 
and fear, he opened his veins, and died. This was in the 
year 66 : lie fent as a laft legacy to the emperor a fealed 
paper, reproaching him with his infamous and unnatural 
debaucheries. 
It is a matter of confiderable doubt, whether it was this 
Petronius who was the author of the “ Satyricon ;” for, 
while its contents are not at all unfuitable to a man of 
fuch a charafter, the ftyle and circumftances have been 
more appropriate to a later period of Roman literature; 
for it is written in fo correft and pure a ftyle, that Petro¬ 
nius has thence been called Auclor purijjimce impuritatis. 
“The work itfelf,” fays an able critic, “is a farrago of 
verfe and profe, of topics and ftories ferious and ludi¬ 
crous, intermixed with the mod deteftable obfcenity, and 
fo mutilated, that no connexion can be made out.” It 
has been thought that fome of the fcenes in it were inten¬ 
ded as a fatire againft Nero, written by Petronius in his 
laft moments. A new fragment was difcovered at Tran 
in Dalmatia, and publilhed in 1664: its genuinenefs was 
warmly difcufied among critics, but it has generally ob¬ 
tained an admiffion among the reft. The difficulties of 
this author, and, it is probable, the nature of his fubjefts, 
have caufed him to be much ftudied by the curious lite¬ 
rati, and have produced numerous editors and commen¬ 
tators, chiefly French, German, and Dutch ; but, fays the 
critic already referred to, “it is to the credit of England 
that none of her Icholars have contaminated themlelves 
with the attempt to elucidate him,’ 4 The moft elaborate 
edition is that of Burmann, in 1709, a vols. 4to. Gen. 
Bing. 
PETROPAULOVSKA'IA, a fort of Ruffia, in the 
government of Irkutlk : fixteen miles fouth-fouth-weft of 
Selenginik.—A fort of Ruffia, in the, government of 
Upha : fifty-two miles eaft-north-eaft of Verchourall'k. 
PETROP AULOV'SKOI, or St. Peter and St. Paul, 
a feaport town of Ruffia, on the fouth-eaft coaftof Karat- 
chatka, which gives name to a harbour in the bay of 
Avatlka. This, fays Capt. King, is “ one of the moft 
comfortable little harbours I ever law : it will conveniently 
holds half a dozen (hips moored head and ftern, and is fit 
for giving them any kind of repairs. The fouth fide is 
formed by a low Tandy neck, exceedingly narrow, on 
which the ojlrog is built; and whofe point may almoft be 
touched by (hips going in, having three fathoms water 
clofe in with it. In the mid-channel, which is no more 
than 278 feet acrofs, there are fix fathoms and a half: the 
3 deepeft 
