S27 
P O I 
TopOI'SON, v. a. To infedt with poifon s 
Virtue, dear friend, needs no defence. 
The fureft guard is innocence. 
Quivers and bows, and poifon’d darts, 
Are only us’d by guilty hearts. Rofcommon. 
To attack, injure or kill by poifon given.—He was fo 
difcouraged, that he poifoned himfelf and died. 2 Macc. 
x. 13. 
Drink with Walters, or with Chartres eat; 
They’ll never poifon you, they’ll only cheat. Pope. 
To corrupt; to taint.—Notions with which the fchools 
had poifoned our youth, and which only ferved to draw 
the prince to govern amifs, but proved no fecurity to 
him when the people were grown weary of ill-govern¬ 
ment. Davenant. 
The other mefTenger, 
Whofe welcome, I perceiv’d, had poilon'd mine. Shakefp, 
POI'SON-ASH. n 
-OAK. 1 _ „ 
i See Rhus. 
-WOOD. ) 
POI'SON-BERRY. See CestrVm. 
--BUSH. See Euphorbia. 
POISON CO'VE, a cove on the north-weft coaft of 
North America, fo called by Capt. Vancouver, becaufe 
mufcles were found in it of a poifonous quality, and by 
eating of which one of his feamen died. 
POI SON-NUT. See Strychnos. 
POI'SON-TREE, or Upas. See p. 825. 
POI'SONER, f. One who poifons: 
So many mifchiefs were in one combin’d ; 
So much one fingle pois’ner coft mankind. Dryden. 
A corrupter.—Wretches who live upon other men’s fins, 
the common poifoners of youth, getting their very bread 
by the damnation of fouls. South. 
POI'SONFUL, adj. Replete with venom.—They may 
know his poyfonfull heart againft this country and againft 
oiir liberty. Apol. of the Prince of Orange, 1581.—The 
fpider, a poyfonfull vermine, yet climbs to the roof of the 
king’s palace. Dr. White's Serm. 1615. 
POI'SQNING, f. An adl of adminiftering or killing 
by poifon.—This earl, after all his poifonings and murder- 
ings, was himfelf poifoned by that which was prepared 
for others. A/hmole. 
AfiafTinations, poifonings ; the deeper 
My guilt, the blacker his ingratitude. Gray's Agrippina. 
POI'SONOUS, adj. Venomous; having the qualities 
of poifon.—A lake, that has no frefh water running into 
it, will, by heat and its ftagnation, turn into a (linking 
rotten puddle, fending forth naufeous and poifonous 
fteams. Cheyne. 
Not Sirius (hoots a fiercer flame, 
When with his poifonous breath he blafts the Iky. Dryden. 
POPSONOUSLY, adv. Venomoufly. —• Men more 
eafily pardon ill things done than faid; fuch a peculiar 
rancour and venom do they leave behind in men’s minds, 
and fo much more poifonovjly and incurably does the 
ferpent bite with his tongue than his teeth. South. 
PQI'SONOUSNESS, f. The quality of being poifon¬ 
ous ; venomoufnefs. 
POISSI'NE, a fmall town of Swiflerland, on an arm of 
the Reufs, which falls into the lake of Neufchatel. Here 
are large cotton-manufaflures. 
POISSON' (Nicholas-Jofeph), a learned French pried 
of the congregation of the Oratory, who flouriftied in 
the feventeenth century, was a native of Paris, the year 
of whofe birth was not known to his biographers. He 
entered the celebrated community above mentioned in 
1660., and fome years afterwards travelled into Italy, 
where he refided a confiderable time. His genius and 
erudition fecured him a ready introduction to the mod 
P O I 
diftinguiffced literary characters in the different cities 
which he vifited, particularly at Rome, Venice, and 
Padua; and he employed himfelf in writingan account of 
their talents, purfuits, and learned labours,therefult of his 
own knowledge and obfervation, as well as of the infor¬ 
mation which he was enabled to colled in his inter- 
courfe with other men of learning. This account he 
afterwards methodifed and retouched, and, in 1678, fent 
it to one of his friends at Rome. It is to be regretted 
that it was never publifhed, as it could not fail to 
furnifh many interefting particulars relating to his 
learned contemporaries, which would have proved pe¬ 
culiarly acceptable to biographers, as well as to the hif- 
torians of the literature of his time. After his return 
to France, he was chofen fuperior of the houfe belong¬ 
ing to his congregation at Vendome. His principal pro¬ 
duction was publilhed at Lyons, in 1706, under the title 
of “ DeleCtus ACtoruin Ecclefise Univerfalis, feu nova 
Summa Conciliorum, Epiftolarum, Decretorum Sanc¬ 
torum Pontificum, Capitularum et quibus Ecclefise Fides 
et Difciplina niti folent,” in 2 vols. folio; the greateft 
part of the fecond volume confiding of notes on the 
councils. Father Poilfon’s ftudies, however, were not 
confined to ecclefiaftical affairs, but were extended like- 
wife to the mathematical fciences. He lived in habits of 
friendftiip with Des Cartes, and was intimately conver- 
fant with his writings. In 1668, he printed Des Cartes’S 
treatifes on Mechanics, and on Mufic, with a commen¬ 
tary; and, in 1670, he publifhed fome highly-etteemed 
remarks on that philofopher's Diflertatio de Methodo 
reCte regendse Rationis, &c. After the death of Des 
Cartes, queen Chriflina of Sweden and M. Clerfelier, a dif- 
cipleof that great man, weredefirous of engaging him to 
undertake the compofition of his life, offering to hir- 
nifh him with all neceffary materials ; but he declined that 
talk, upon the plea that it would interfere too much 
with his other labours, immediately connected with his 
clerical profeflion. He died at Lyons in 1710, at an ad¬ 
vanced age. He left behind him a treatife “ On Bene¬ 
fices,” and another “ On the Ufages and Ceremonies of the 
Church,” neither of which has been committed to the 
prefs. Gen. Biog. 
POISSON'S, a town of France, department of the 
Upper Marne, on the Rongeaut, with 1800 inhabitants. 
It has confiderable iron w’orks ; and is four miles ealt- 
fouth-eaft of Joinville, and fourteen fouth-eaft of Vaffy. 
POI'SSY, a town of France, fituated on the Seine. 
It has 2500 inhabitants, and large weekly cattle mar¬ 
kets, from which Paris is in a great meafure lupplied. It 
gave birth to Louis XI. nine miles north-weft of Verfailles. 
POITIE'RS, a large town in the weft of France, the 
capital of the department of La Vienne, fituated on rifing 
ground, near the river Clain. It might be ranked 
among the firft cities of France, if its population were 
at all proportioned to its extent; but a great portion of 
the fpace inclofed by its walls is occupied by gardens 
and cultivated fields, fo that the total population does not 
exceed 21,300. It is divided into four quarters, all 
built in a mean and antiquated ftyle. The ftreets are 
for the moft part deep, winding, and ill paved. It has 
feveral fquares, the finelt of which is the Place Royale, 
fituated in the centre of the town, and furrounded with 
good buildings. Poitiers has no public edifices worth 
notice, except its churches. The cathedral is in the 
Gothic ftyle, and wants only a little more elevation. 
Of the other churches, the moft interefting is that of 
St. Hilaire. To the antiquary the town prefents feveral 
Roman antiquities, viz. fome arches of an aquedudt, the 
remains of an amphitheatre, and a few fcattered frag¬ 
ments of a triumphal arch. Its literary inftitutions are 
an univerfity on a fmall fcale, a royal college, or pro¬ 
vincial high fchool, and an athenaeum. It has alfo a 
public library, and a botanical garden. Thefe, together 
with agreeable walks and commodious baths, give a 
certain degree of attradtion to the place. Its trade is 
very 
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