PLATA....PLATINA. 299 the bite of a rattlesnake is as follows. Take of the roots of plantane and hoarhound (in summer roots and branches together) a sufficient quantity; bruise them in a mortar, and squeeze out the juice, of which give as soon as possible, one large spoonful, repeating the dose an hour after, unless the patient is perfectly relieved. If the roots are dried they must be moistened with a little warm water. This remedy is said never to fail....American Mu seum. PLATA, a river in South America, and one of the largest in the whole world. Patanco, a jesuit, who sailed up this river, gives the following, account of it."While I resided in Europe, (says Patanco,) and read in books of history and geography that the river La Plata was an hundred and fifty miles in breadth, I considered it as an exaggeration, because in this hemisphere, (that is, in the eastern continent) we have no example of such vast rivers. When I approached its mouth, I had the most vehement desire to ascertain the breadth with my own eyes, and I have found the matter to be exactly as was represented. This I deduce particularly from one circumstance; when we took our departure from Monte Video, which is situated more than a hundred miles from the mouth of the river, and where its breadth is considerably diminished, we sailed a complete day before we discovered the land on the opposite bank of the river; and when we were in the middle of the channel we could not discover land on either side, and saw nothing but the sky and water, as if we had been in some great ocean." This river empties into the south Atlantic Ocean, at about 35 degrees south latitude. It is white, but It is heavier than PLATINA, a metal found in Peru. darker and not so bright as silver. gold, consequently the heaviest of all known bodies. Its hardness is inferior only to that of iron; and its tenacity, which is more than thirteen times that of lead, is inferior to that of iron and copper alone. Exposed to the fire, it is very nearly as fixed as gold; neither water nor air occasions any alterations in it. Platina is a metal valuable for its great hardness, the high polish of 300 PLEIADES....PLUMMET....POISONED ARROWS. which it is susceptible, and its unalterability. It will not tarnish in the air, neither will it rust. It can be forged and extended into thin plates; and when dissolved in aqua regia, it may be made to assume an infinite diversity of colours.... Brisson. PLEIADES, a constellation in the heavens, mentioned in the book of Job. The ancients had observed seven stars in the Pleiades. Six only are now perceptible; the seventh disappeared at the seige of Troy. Ovid the Roman poet says, it was so affected at the fate of that unfortunate city, as from grief, to cover its face with its hand....St. Pierre. In this constellation wherein seven stars formerly appeared, and since only six, Herschel has observed seventy with his telescope. PLUMMET, a weight of lead on a string, by which the depths of the sea are measured; it is generally made of a lump of lead of about forty pounds weight, fastened to a cord. By frequent soundings with the plummet it has been found, that the bottom of the ocean (which on an average, is judged to be about a quarter of a mile from the surface of the water) is unequal; consisting of dales and hills, deep valleys and lofty mountains, like the dry land. M. Buache has actually given us a map of that part of its bottom, which lies between Africa and America, taken from the several soundings of mariners. In it we find the same uneven surface that we do upon the land, the same eminencies, and the same depressions.... Goldsmith. POISONED ARROWS, implements of war which are used only by barbarians, and particularly by some of the tribes of Africa; who have the art of infecting their weapons with such a deadly poison, that if they only pierce the flesh, death inevitably ensues. Mr. Park tells us, that among the Mandingo negroes the deadly poison for their arrows is prepared from a shrub called koona, which is very common in the woods. The leaves of this shrub, when boiled well with a small quantity of water, yield a thick black juice, into which the negroes dip a cotton thread; this thread they fasten round che iron of the arrow in such a manner that it is almost im possible to extract it, when it has sunk beyond the barbs, without leaving the iron point and the poisoned thread in the wound. POLAND, a large country in Europe; extending (before its partitions) 700 miles in length, and 680 in breadth; situated between 46° 30′ and 57° 35' north latitude; bounded, in part, by Hungary, Germany, the Baltic, Russia, and the territories wrested by that power from the Turks. "The common mode of salutation in this country is to incline the head and strike the breast with one of the hands, while they stretch the other toward the ground; but when a common person meets a superior, he bows his head almost to the earth, waving at the same time his hand, with which he touches the bottom of the leg, near the heel, of the person to whom he pays his obeisance." The government of the Poles was an elective monarchy; almost the whole power being in a proud and factious nobility, who held the people in the lowest state of vassalage. Internal divisions brought destruction upon Poland, and were the means of subjecting it to the neighboring powers. The first partition of this country was effected, in 1772, by the king of Prussia, the empress of Russia, and the emperor of Germany. The second partition was made by the empress of Russia, and king of Prussia, in 1793, when the Russians, under general Suwarrow, exercised towards the unfortunate Poles, the most detestable and shocking cruelties. An article in the Polish constitution, called Liberum Veto, produced infinite distraction among the nation, as well as opened a wide door to foreign influence; it was probably borrowed from the Roman tribunate. The Liberum Veto gave each nuncio or representative at a Polish diet, a power not only of putting a negative to any law, but even of dissolving the assembly by his single vote. This extraordinary power in every individual representative, commenced about the middle of the 17th century, in the reign of John Casimer; and within the space of a hundred and twelve years from its commencement, forty-eight diets or .national assemblies were precipitately dissolved by its operation. This absurd privilege or power, which the representatives who enjoyed it termed the most inv alu B b 302 POLAR BEAR....POLE STAR. able palladium of Polish liberty, was one great source of the anarchy that constantly agitated Poland, and at last brought it to ruin. Its POLAR BEAR, or Great White Bear, found in the polar regions. This animal (Winterbotham says) differs greatly from the common bear in the length of its head and neck, and grows to above twice the size. limbs are huge and of great strength; its hair long, harsh, and disagreeable to the touch, and of a yellowish white colour, and its teeth are large. It has been seldom seen farther south than Newfoundland, but abounds chiefly on the shores of Hudson's Bay, Greenland, Spitsbergen, and Nova Zembla: these inhospitable regions seem adapted to its sullen nature. The greatest admiral that ever commanded a British fleet, begun, it would seem, his career of heroic adventures by an encounter with one of these bears. In the year 1773, the administration of Great Britain sent two vessels, commanded by Captains Phipps and Lutwidge, to the regions of the nort.. pole, on a voyage of discovery; which proceeded to the eighty-first degree of latitude, where they were in the utmost danger of being locked in by the ice. Horatio Nelson (afterwards the celebrated lord Nelson) belonged to one of these ships; and was at that time only about fifteen years old. One night it happened, while the vessels were jammed in by the ice, that young Nelson was missing, and no small fears were entertained for his life; but early next morning he was seen, at a considerable distance from the ship, pursuing a bear on the ice. He was armed only with a musket, which, by reason of some injury that had happened to the lock, was rendered of no farther service to him than as a club; yet, thus poorly equipped, he had the resolution to pursue the formidable animal all night, in hopes of tiring it out, and knocking it down with the but-end of his gun. On his return to the ship, and receiving reproof from the Captain, who sternly demanded the reasons for so rash an undertaking, the young hero replied, "I was in hopes, sir, of getting a skin for my father.".... Charnock. POLE STAR, a very bright star that is situated exactly or almost exactly at the north pole. There are two immoveable points, the one at the north and the other at the south; round which points the stars in their neighborhood sem to turn, and have the singular property of neither rising in the east nor setting in the west. To a man standing at the equator both the poles are in the horizon. If he travel southward, the south pole rises; and the further he travels, the greater will be its elevation: but the southern polar point is not exactly designated by any particular star; nor are there so many stars near it as the northern. If a person travel northward from the equator, the northern pole rises, and the pole star is more and more elevated the further he goes in that direction. Towards the north there is a constellation consisting of seven stars, called Charles's Wain, from its supposed resemblance to the four wheels of a waggon and a file of three horses; and the pole star is almost in the range of the two stars which compose the hinder wheels of this wain or waggon; but is placed higher up in the sky. The pole star is not only of invaluable use to mariners, but is also capable of directing the benighted traveller. If a person be bewildered in the night, provided the sky be clear, he may easily find the points of compass. For while he faces the pole star, the north is before him, the east at his right hand, the west at his left, and the south behind him: on the other hand, if he turn his back to the pole star, the north will be behind him, the south in front, the west on his right hand, and the east on his left. POLES, in geography, the extreme points of an imaginary line passing from north to south through the centre of the earth; which line is called the earth's axis. The earth is thought to be nearly in the shape of an orange, largest at the equator, and flatted at the poles.-Hence the poles are nearer the centre of this terrestrial ball than the equator is; hence also its diurnal motion round its axis, as it respects bodies on its surface, is much slower towards the poles than at and near the equator. Experiments prove, as is said, that a pendulum which vibrates seconds near the poles, vibrates slower nearer the equator; which shows that it is less. attracted at the latter than in the former latitude. Bodies near the poles are heavier than those towards the equa |