816 P O I 
all the chances of popular fury, rather than relinquish 
his poft as guardian of thefe valuable depofits. When 
the library was confumed, on the 20th of Auguft, 1794, 
he retired to a deferted and almoft ruined houfe; and 
here he palled the fevere winter which fucceeded, without 
fire, almoft without furniture, badly clothed, in a cham¬ 
ber of which the boards were half-confumed, which he 
could reach only by climbing over rubbilli up a ftair-cafe 
partly deftroyed, and where the water from the neigh¬ 
bouring roofs formed, during the froft, a mafs of ice, 
which he could pafs only by crawling on his hands and 
knees. Yet in this fituation his love of ftudy came to 
his aid; and he beguiled his time by compofing a cata¬ 
logue of thofe treafures which were afterward tranfported 
to the national library. So humble were the pretenfions 
of this venerable old man, that at the age of feventy his 
only requeft was to be placed in fome charitable endow¬ 
ment for the reception of indigent fenility. His merits 
were, however, more honorably appreciated ; and he died, 
when feventy-nine years old, in circumftances which, 
although they did not confer the fuperfluities, fecured 
the comforts of life, and in a fituation which was accor¬ 
dant to his charadter as a guardian of the interefts of 
literature. He left a variety of papers, which are pre- 
ferved in the Bibliotheque du Roi, Many traits of 
generofity and diftintereftednefs are recorded of him ; 
his means of exercifing fuch virtues being derived 
folely from the parfimonious habits which he impofed on 
liimfelf. Memoires de I'lnjlitut, tom. i. 1815. 
POIRPNO, a town of Italy, in Piedmont, province of 
Turin. It ftands on the river Bonna, and contains 5000 
inhabitants: twelve miles fouth-eaft of Turin. 
POIS (St.), a town of France, in the department of 
the Channel, and chief place of a canton, in the diftridt of 
Mortain. The place contains 608, and the canton 6640, 
inhabitants. 
POIS (Nicholas le), an eminent French phyfician, was 
born at Nancy in 1527. He ftudied, with his elder bro¬ 
ther Antony, in the Parifian fchool, and acquired the 
efteem of the celebrated profefibr Jacobus Sylvius. He 
fettled in his native place, and in 1578 fucceeded his bro¬ 
ther in the poft of firft phyfician to Charles duke of Lor¬ 
raine. His employment at court, however, did not in¬ 
terrupt the courfe of his habitual ftudies ; and no man 
read with more ardour and attention the works of his 
predeceflors frc/in the time of Hippocrates. The fruit of 
his application was a work entitled “ De Cognocendis et 
Curandis praecipue Internis Corporis Humani Adfedfibus, 
Lib. iii. ex Clariflimorum Medicorum tarn Veterum quam 
Recentiorum Monumentis colledli';” fol. Francof. 1580. 
This is a vaft compilation of medical practice both an¬ 
cient and modern, which Boerhaave fo much valued, on 
account of the hiftories and prognoftics of difeafes, judi- 
cioufly extradled from Hippocrates and Celfus, that he 
gave a new edition of the work with a preface of his 
own, at Leyden, 1736. 4to. reprinted at Leipftc, 1766, 
2 vols. 8vo. 
POIS (Charles le), an eminent phyfician, fon of the 
preceding, was born at Nancy in 1563. He was fent at 
the age of thirteen to the college of Navarre, in Paris, 
where he ftudied the languages and philofophy with the 
greateft aftiduity. In 1581 he took the degree of M. A. 
and immediately began to attend the medical ledlures of 
Duret, Pietre, and Marelcot. He afterwards fpent two 
years at Padua, and returning to Paris, obtained his li- 
cenfe in 1590, but was unable to take a dodtor’s degree 
on account of the narrow circumftances in which his 
father had left him. At Nancy he was appointed con- 
fulting phyfician to duke Charles III. whom he accom¬ 
panied to the Spa, and upon other journeys. In 1617 he 
attended duke Henry II. to Frankfort. He employed his 
influence with this fovereign to eftablifh a fchool of medi¬ 
cine at Pont-a-Mou!Ton, of which, after having graduated 
at Paris, he was nominated dean and firft profeffor. He 
diftinguifhed liimfelf by very extenlive erudition, and by 
P O I 
an enlightened purfuit of profeflional improvement, 
founded on practicalobfervation, and the frequent dif- 
fedfion of morbid bodies. His acknowledged fkill, with 
the fimplicity and integrity of his character, raifed him to 
the height of reputation throughout Lorraine, where he 
enjoyed the confidence of all the principal families. His 
patriotifm was the caufeof his death; for, in attempting 
to check the ravages of a peftilence at Nancy, he fell a 
vidlirn to the contagion in 1633. The name of this phy¬ 
fician is preferved by the two following works: 1. Selec- 
tionum Obfervationum et Confiliorum de praeteritis hadle- 
nus Morbis, affedftibufque praeter Naturam, ab aqua feu 
ferofa colluvie et diluvie ortis ; Pont-a-Mouflon, 1618, 
4to. re-edited by Boerhaave at Leyden, 1733, and Amft. 
1768. It is the objedt of this work to point out all the 
difeafes which arife from fuperabundance of watery or 
ferous humour; and, like other reafoners upon a particu¬ 
lar morbid caufe, he afcribes effedts to it which a founder 
theory would not admit. There are, however, many 
valuable obfervations in this work, derived from long and 
accurate experience. 2. Difcours de la Nature, Caufes, 
et Remedes, des Maladies populaires accompagnees de 
Dyflenterie et autres Fluxes de Ventre ; 1623, 12010. In 
this work there is much good pradtice derived from the 
author’s own obfervation ; he particularly confiders the 
febrile nature of dyfentery, and adapts his curative me¬ 
thod to that idea. He likewife publiftied a work on 
comets, the refult of his mathematical ftudies. Halleri 
Bill. Bled. 
POI'SCHWITZ, a town of Pruflian Silefia, two miles 
from Jauer. Population 1600. 
To POISE, v.a.[pefer, Fr.] To balance; to hold or 
place in equiponderance.—All her fpeeches poifed be. 
Sidney. 
Our nation, with united intereft bleft, 
Not now content to poize, (hall fway the reft. Dryden. 
To load with weight; 
Where could they find another form’d fo fit. 
To poize with folid fenfe a fprightly wit! Dryden. 
To be equiponderant to.—If the balance of our lives had 
not one fcale of reafon to poize another of fenfuality, the 
bafenefs of our natures would condudl us to prepofterous 
conclufions. Shakefpeare’s Othello. —To weigh; to exa¬ 
mine by the balance.— He cannot fincerely confider the 
ftrength, poize the weight, and difeern the evidence, of the 
cleared: argumentations, where they would conclude 
againft his defires. South. 
We, poiziny us in her defedtive fcale, 
Shall weigh thee to the beam. Shahefpeare. 
To opprefs with weight: 
I’ll drive, with troubled thoughts, to take a nap, 
Left leaden (lumber poize me down to-morrow, 
When I fliould mount with wings of vidtory. ShakeJ'peare. 
POISE, or Poize, J. \_poids, Fr.] Weight ; force of 
any thing tending to the centre.—Labouring with poyfes 
made of lead, or other metal. Sir T. Ehjot's Gov. 
He fell, as an huge rockie cliff, 
Whole falfe foundation waves had wafh’d away 
With dreadful poize, is from the main land reft. Spenfer. 
Where an equal poij’e of hope and fear 
Does arbitrate the event, my nature is 
That I incline to hope. Milton's Comus. 
Balance; equipoife; equilibrium. — The particles that 
formed the earth, muft con vene from all quarters towards 
the middle, which would make the whole compound to 
reft in a poize. Bentley's Serm. A regulating power.— 
Men of an unbounded imagination often want the poize 
of judgment. Dryden. 
POI'SERS, J". in entomology, two pedicelled heads, 
placed one undereach wing of fuch inledts as have only 
two. ’ 
6 
POISON. 
