PUNKAH-PURÂN'A.

tracts, and frequently spoken of as the plains of in the case of a female, one under the age of 12 the Indus, has a general slope towards the south-years. west. The climate in the plains is most oppressively hot and dry in summer, reaching in May 115° to 121° in the shade at several stations; but cool, and sometimes frosty, in winter. Little rain falls except in the districts along the base of the Himalayas. The soil varies from stiff clay and loam to sand; but, in general, is sandy and barren, intermixed with fertile spots. The rivers afford abundant means of irrigation. The indigenous vegetation of the P. is meagre. Trees are few in number and small, and fuel is so scarce, that cow-dung is much used in its stead. With an efficient system of agriculture, however, the territories of this part of India might be rendered very productive. Of the ordinary crops, wheat of excellent quality is produced in considerable quantities, and indigo, sugar, cotton, tobacco, opium, buckwheat, rice, barley, millet, maize, and numerous vegetables and fruits are grown. The manufacturing industry of this region is very considerable, and is carried on for the most part in the great towns, as Amritsir (q. v.), Lahore (q. v.), Multan (q. v.), &c. Spices and other groceries, dye-stuffs, cloths, metals, and hardware, are imported from the more eastern provinces of British India; and grain, ghee, hides, wool, carpets, shawls, silk, cotton, indigo, tobacco, salt, and horses are exported. The inhabitants are of various races, chiefly Jats, Gujurs, Rajputs, and Patans. Of the whole population, 17,411 are Europeans; 9,331,367 Mohammedans; 6,094,759 Hindus; and 1,141,848 Sikhs. The Jats are the most prominent of the races of the P., and are said to have formed the 'core and nucleus' of the Sikh nation and military force. Of the history of the P., all that is important will be given under the heading SIKHS.

PUNKAH, a gigantic fan for ventilating apartments, used in India and tropical climates. It consists of a light frame of wood, covered with calico, from which a short curtain depends, and is suspended by ropes from the ceiling; another rope from it passes over a pulley in the wall to a servant stationed without; the servant pulls the punkah backwards and forwards, maintaining a constant current of air in the chamber.

PUNT, a heavy, oblong, flat-bottomed boat, useful where stability and not speed is needed. Punts are much used for fishing. Some are fitted for oars; but the more usual mode of propulsion is by poles operating on the bottom. Punting is a very laborious exercise.

PUOZZOLA'NO. See CEMENTS.

PU'PA (Lat. a girl, or a doll), the second stage of insect life after the hatching of the egg. The first stage after the egg is that of Larva (q. v.). In those insects of which the metamorphosis is complete (see INSECTS), the pupa is generally quite inactive, and takes no food. This is the case in the Lepidoptera, the pupa of which is called a Chrysalis or Aurelia, and in the Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, and Diptera. Manifestations of life may indeed be produced by touching, or in any way irritating, the papa, but it is incapable of locomotion and of eating. It is quite otherwise with the pupae of other orders, which are often very voracious, and resemble the perfect insect in almost everything but that the wings are wanting. The peculiarities of the pupa are noticed in the articles on the different orders and genera of insects.

PUPIL. See EYE.

PUPIL, in the Law of Scotland, means, in the case of a male, one who is under 14 years of age;

PU'PPET, a name (derived from the Lat. pupus, a child or boy, Fr. poupée, a doll) signifying a childlike image. The Italian fantoccini (from fantino, a child), and the French Marionettes (q. v.) are other names for puppets. Puppet-plays, or exhibitions in which the parts of the different characters are taken by miniature figures worked by wires, while the dialogue is given by persons behind the scenes, are of very ancient date. Figures with movable limbs have been found in the tombs of ancient Egypt and Etruria. Originally intended to gratify children, they ended in being a diversion for adults. In China and India they are still made to act dramas either as movable figures or as shadows behind a curtain ('Ombres Chinoises'). In Italy and France puppet-plays were at one time carried to a considerable degree of artistic perfection, and even Lessing and Goethe in Germany thought the subject worth their serious attention. In England, they are mentioned under the name of Motions by many of our early authors, and frequent allusions occur to them in the plays of Shakspeare, Ben Jonson, and the older dramatists. The earliest exhibitions of this kind consisted of representations of stories taken from the Old and New Testament, or from the lives and legends of saints. They thus seem to have been the last remnant of the Moralities of the 15th century. We learn from Ben Jonson and his contemporaries that the most popular of these exhibitions at that time were the Prodigal Son, and Nineveh with Jonas and the Whale. Even the Puritans, with all their hatred of the regular stage, did not object to be present at such representations. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, puppet-plays were exhibited in Fleet Street and Holborn Bridgelocalities infested by them at the period of the The most noted exhibitions of the Restoration. kind were those of Robert Powel in the beginning of the 18th century. (See Chambers's Book of Days, vol. ii. 167.) So recently as the time of Goldsmith, scriptural Motions' were common, and, in She Stoops to Conquer, reference is made to the display of Solomon's Temple in one of these shows. The regular performances of the stage were also sometimes imitated; and Dr Samuel Johnson has observed, that puppets were so capable of representing even the plays of Shakspeare, that Macbeth might be represented by them as well as by living actors.

These exhibitions, however, much degenerated, and latterly consisted of a wretched display of wooden figures barbarously formed, and decorated without the least degree of taste or propriety, while the dialogues were jumbles of absurdities and nonsense.

The mechanism of puppet-plays is simple. The exhibiter is concealed above or below the stage, works the figures by means of wires, and delivers the dialogues requisite to pass between the characters. The exhibition of Punch (q. v.) is perhaps the only example of this species of acting which exists in this country at the present time.

PURAN'A (literally old,' from the Sanscrit purá, before, past) is the name of that class of religious works which, besides the Tantras (q. v.), is the main foundation of the actual popular creed of the Brahminical Hindus (see HINDU RELIGION under INDIA). According to the popular belief, these works were compiled by Vyasa (q.v.), the supposed arranger of the Vedas (q. v.), and the author of the Mahabharata (q. v.), and possess an antiquity far beyond the reach of historical computation. A critical investigation, however, of the contents of the existing works bearing that name must necessarily

15

PURAN'A.

lead to the conclusion, that in their present form The modern age of this latter literature, in the they do not only not belong to a remote age, but form in which it is known to us, is borne out by can barely claim an antiquity of a thousand years. the change which the religious and philosophical The word Puran'a occurs in some passages of the ideas, taught in the epic poems and the philosophical Mahabharata, the law-books of Yajnavalkya and Sûtras, have undergone in it; by the legendary Manu (q. v.); it is even met with in some Upa- detail into which older legends and myths have nishads and the great Brahman'a portion of the expanded; by the numerous religious rites--not White-Yajur Veda; but it is easy to shew that in countenanced by the Vedic or epic works-which all these ancient works it cannot refer to the are taught, and, in some Purân'as at least, by the existing compositions called P., and therefore that historical or quasi-scientific instruction which is no inference relative to the age of the latter can imparted, in it. To divest that which, in these be drawn from that of the former, whatever that Purân'as, is ancient, in idea or fact, from that may be. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that which is of parasitical growth, is a task which there are several circumstances tending to shew Sanscrit philology has yet to fulfil; but even a that there existed a number of works called P., superficial comparison of the contents of the present which preceded the actual works of the same P. with the ancient lore of Hindu religion, name, and were the source whence these probably philosophy, and science, must convince every one derived a portion of their contents. The oldest that the picture of religion and life unfolded by known author of a Sanscrit vocabulary, Amara- them is a caricature of that afforded by the Vedic Sinha, gives as a synonym of P. the word Pancha-works, and that it was drawn by priestcraft, lakshan'a, which means that which has five interested in submitting to its sway the popular (panchan) characteristic marks' (lakshan'a); and mind, and unscrupulous in the use of the means the scholiasts of that vocabulary agree in stat- which had to serve its ends. The plea on which ing that these lakshan'as are: 1. Primary crea- the composition of the Purân'as was justified even tion, or cosmogony; 2. Secondary creation, or the by great Hindu authorities-probably because they destruction and renovation of worlds; 3. Gene- did not feel equal to the task of destroying a system alogy of gods and patriarchs; 4. Manwantaras, or already deeply rooted in the national mind, or reigns of Manus; and 5. The history of the princes because they apprehended that the nation at large of the solar and lunar races. Such, then, were the would remain without any religion at all, if, without characteristic topics of a P. at the time, if not of possessing the Vedic creed, it likewise became Amara-Sinha himself-which is probable-at least deprived of that based on the Purân'as-this plea of his oldest commentators. Yet the distin- is best illustrated by a quotation from Sâyan'a, guished scholar most conversant with the existing the celebrated commentator on the three principal Purân'as, who, in his preface to the translation of Vedas. He says (Rigv., ed. Müller, vol. i. p. 33): the Vishn'u-P., gives a more or less detailed account Women and S'udras, though they, too, are in want of their chief contents (Professor H. H. Wilson), of knowledge, have no right to the Veda, for they observes, in regard to the quoted definition of are deprived of (the advantage of) reading it in the commentators on Amara-Sinha, that in no one consequence of their not being invested with the instance do the actual Purân'as conform to it sacred cord; but the knowledge of law (or duty) exactly; that 'to some of them it is utterly inap- and that of the supreme spirit arises to them by plicable; to others, it only partially applies.' To means of the Purân'as and other books (of this the Vishn'u-P., he adds, it belongs more than to any kind).' Yet to enlighten the Hindu nation as to other P.; but even in the case of this P. he shews whether or not these books-which sometimes are that it cannot be supposed to be included in the even called a fifth Veda-teach that religion which is term explained by the commentators. The age contained in the Vedas and Upanishads, there would of Amara-Sinha is, according to Wilson, the last be no better method than to initiate such a system half of the century preceding the Christian era; of popular education as would reopen to the native others conjecture that it dates some centuries later. mind those ancient works, now virtually closed to it. On the supposition, then, that Amara-Sinha himself implied by Pancha-lakshan'a the sense given to this term by his commentators, there would have been Puran'as about 1900 or 1600 years ago; but none of these have descended to our time in the shape it then possessed.

Various passages in the actual Purân'as furnish proof of the existence of such elder Purân'as. The strongest evidence in this respect is that afforded by a general description given by the Matsya-P. of the extent of each of the Purân'as (which are uniformly stated to be 18 in number), including itself; for, leaving aside the exceptional case in which it may be doubtful whether we possess the complete work now going by the name of a special P., Professor Wilson, in quoting the description from the Matsya-P., and in comparing with it the real extent of the great majority of Purân'as, the completeness of which, in their actual state, does not admit of a reasonable doubt, has conclusively shewn that the Matsya-P. speaks of works which are not those we now possess. We are then bound to infer that there have been Puran'as older than those preserved, and that their number has been 18, whereas, on the contrary, it will be hereafter seen that it is very doubtful whether we are entitled to assign this number to the actual P. literature.

Though the reason given by Sayan'a, as clearly results from a comparison of the Purân'as with the oldest works of Sanscrit literature, is but a poor justification of the origin of the former, and though it is likewise indubitable, that even at his time (the middle of the 15th c. A.D.), they were, as they still are, not merely an authoritative source of religion for women and S'adras,' but for the great majority of the males of¡ other castes also, it nevertheless explains the great variety of matter of which the present Purân'as are composed, so great and so multifarious indeed, that, in the case of some of them, it imparts to them a kind of cyclopædical character. They became, as it seems, the source of all popular knowledge; a substitute to the masses of the nation, not only for the theological literature, but for scientific works, the study of which was gradually restricted to the leisure of the learned few. Thus, while the principal subjects taught by nearly all the P. are cosmogony, religion, including law, and the legendary matter which, to a Hindu, assumes the value of history, in some of them we meet with a description of places, which gives to them something of the character of geography; while one, the Agni-P., also pretends to teach archery, medicine, rhetoric, prosody, and grammar; though it is needless to add that that teaching has no real worth.

PURÂN'A.

One purpose, however, and that a paramount one, the gods Brahmâ, Vishn'u, S'iva, and Twashtr'i; and is not included in the argument by which Sâyan'a the same scholar doubts whether this work could endeavoured to account for the composition of the have any claim to the name of a P., as its first porPurân'as it is the purpose of establishing a sec- tion is merely a transcript of the words of the first tarian creed. At the third phase of Hindu Religion chapter of Manu, and the rest is entirely a manual (q. v.), two gods of the Hindu pantheon especially of religious rites and ceremonies. There are similar engrossed the religious faith of the masses, Vishn'u grounds for doubt regarding other works of the list. (q. v.) and S'iva (q. v.), each being looked upon by If the entire number of works, nominally, at his worshippers as the supreme deity, to whom the least, corresponding with those of the native list, other as well as the remaining gods were subordi- were taken as a whole, their contents might be so nate. Moreover, when the power or energy of defined as to embrace the five topics specified by these gods had been raised to the rank of a separate the commentators on the glossary of Amara-Sinha; deity, it was the female S'akti, or energy, of S'iva, philosophical speculations on the nature of matter who, as Durga, or the consort of this god, was held in and soul, individual as well as supreme; small codes peculiar awe by a numerous host of believers. Now, of law; descriptions of places of pilgrimage; a vast apart from the general reasons mentioned before, a ritual relating to the modern worship of the gods; principal object, and probably the principal one of the numerous legends; and, exceptionally, as in the Purân'as, was to establish, as the case might be, the Agni-P., scientific tracts. If taken, however, supremacy of Vishn'u or S'iva, and it may be like-individually, the difference between most of them, wise assumed of the female energy of S'iva, though both in style and contents, is so considerable that the worship of the latter belongs more exclusively a general definition would become inaccurate. A to the class of works known as Tantras. There are, short description of each P. has been given by accordingly, Vaishn'ava-Purân'as, or those composed the late Professor H. H. Wilson, in his preface to for the glory of Vishn'u, S'aiva-P., or those which his translation of the Vishnu-P.; and to it, as extol the worship of S'iva; and one or two Purân'as, well as to his detailed account of some Purân'as in perhaps, but merely so far as a portion of them is separate essays (collected in his works), we must concerned, will be more consistently assigned to the therefore refer the reader who would wish to S'akta worship, or that of Durgâ, than to that of obtain a fuller knowledge of these works.-The age Vishn'u or S'iva. of the P., though doubtless modern, is uncertain. The Bhagavata, on account of its being ascribed to the authorship of the grammarian Vopadeva, would appear to yield a safer computation of its age than the rest; for Vopadeva lived in the 12th c., or, as some hold, 13th c., after Christ; but this authorship, though probable, is not proved to a certainty. As to the other Purân'as, their age is supposed by Professor Wilson to fall within the 12th and 17th centuries of the Christian era, with the exception, though, of the Mârkan'd'eya-P., which, in consideration of its unsectarian character, he would place in the 9th or 10th century. But it must be borne in mind that all these dates are purely conjectural, and given as such by the scholar whose impressions they convey.

The invariable form of the Purân'as,' says Professor Wilson, in his Preface to the Vishn'u-Purân'a, 'is that of a dialogue in which some person relates its contents in reply to the inquiries of another. This dialogue is interwoven with others, which are repeated as having been held, on other occasions, between different individuals, in conse. quence of similar questions having been asked. The immediate narrator is commonly, though not constantly, Lomaharshan'a, or Romaharshan'a, the disciple of Vyasa, who is supposed to communicate what was imparted to him by his preceptor, as he had heard it from some other sage. Lomaharshan'a is called Sûta, as if it was a proper name; but it is, more correctly, a title; and Lomaharshan'a was "a Sûta," that is, a bard or panegyrist, who was created, according to the Vishn'u-Puran'a, to celebrate the exploits of princes, and who, according to the Vayu and Padma Purân'as, has a right, by birth and profession, to narrate the Purân'as, in preference even to the Brahmans.'

Besides these eighteen Purân'as or great Purân'as, there are minor or Upapurân'as, differing little in extent or subject from some of those to which the title of Purân'a is ascribed.' Their number is given by one Purân'a as four; another, however, names the following 18: 1. Sanatkumara-; 2. Narasinha-; 3. Nâradiya-; 4. Siva-; 5. Durvâsasa-; 6. Kâpila-; 7. Mânava-; 8. Aus'anasa-; 9. Vârun'a-; 10. Kâlikâ-; 11. S'âmba-; 12. Nandi-; 13. Saura-; 14. Pârâs'ara-;

18. Vas'ishtha-Upapurân'a. Another list, differing ably, however, a misreading for Bhargava); and from the latter, not in the number, but in the names, of the Upapurân'as, is likewise given in Professor Wilson's Preface to the Vishn'u-Purân'a. Many of these Upapurân'as are apparently no longer procurable, while other works so called, but not ininstance, a Mudgala and Ganes'a Upapurân'a. The cluded in either list, are sometimes met with; for character of the Upapurân'as is, like that of the Purân'as, sectarian; the Siva-Upapurân'a, for instance, inculcates the worship of S'iva, the KalikaUpapurân'a that of Durga or Devi.

The number of the actual Purân'as is stated to be 18, and their names, in the order given, are the following: 1. Brahma-; 2. Padma-; 3. Vishn'u-; 4. S'iva-; 5. Bhagavata-; 6. Nâradiya-; 7. Mar-15. Aditya-; 16. Mâhes'wara-; 17. Bhagavata- (probkan'd'eya-; 8. Agni-; 9. Bhavishya-; 10. Brahmavaivartta-; 11. Linga-; 12. Varaha-; 13. Skanda-; 14. Vâmana-; 15. Kurma-; 16. Matsya-; 17. Garud'a-; and 18. Brahmân'da-Purân'a. In other lists, the Agni-P. is omitted, and the Vayu-P. inserted instead of it; or the Garuda and Brahman'da are omitted, and replaced by the Vâyu and Nr'isinha Puran'as. Of these Purân'as, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 12, 17, and probably 1, are Purân'as of the Vaishnava sect; 4, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16, of the S'aiva sect; 7 is, in one portion of it, called Devimâhâtmya, the text-book of the worshippers of Durga; otherwise, it has little of a sectarian spirit, and would therefore neither belong to the Vaishnava nor to the S'aiva class; 14, Both Purân'as and Upapurânas are for a conas Professor Wilson observes, divides its homage siderable portion of their contents largely indebted between S'iva and Vishn'u with tolerable impar- to the two great epic works, the Mahabharata (q. v.) tiality; it is not connected, therefore, with any and Ramayan'a (q. v.), more especially to the former sectarial principles, and may have preceded their introduction.' The Bhavishya-P. (9), as described of them. Of the Purân'as, the original text of three by the Matsya-P., would be a book of prophecies; has already appeared in print: that of the Bhagabut the Bhavishya-P. known to Professor Wilson vata in several native editions, published at Bomconsists of five books, four of which are dedicated to bay, with the commentary of S'ridharaswâmin, and

17

PURBECK-PURCHASE-SYSTEM.

partly in a Paris edition by Eugène Burnouf, which of the shells of a small oyster. This is preceded by remained incomplete through the premature death fresh-water strata, abounding in the remains of of that distinguished scholar; that of the Markan'- Entomostraca, and containing some beds of cherty d'eya-P., edited at Calcutta in the Bibliotheca Indica, limestone, in which little bodies, believed to have by the Rev. K. M. Banerjea; and that of the been the spore-cases of species of Chara, have been Linga-P., edited at Bombay; for, regarding a fourth, found. At the base of this sub-group, a marine shale the Garud'a-P., edited at Benares and Bombay, it occurs, containing shells and impressions apparently seems doubtful whether that little work is the same of a large Zostera. as the P. spoken of in the native list. Besides these, The Lower Purbecks begin with a series of freshsmall portions from the Padma, Skanda, Bhavish-water marls, containing Entomostraca and shells. yottara, Markan'd'eya, and other Purân'as have been These rest on strata of brackish-water origin; and published in India and Europe. Of translations, we then follows a singular old vegetable soil, containing have only to name the excellent French translation the roots and stools of Cycads, and the stems of by Burnouf of the first nine books of the Bhagavata, coniferous trees. From its black colour and and the elegant translation of the whole Vishn'u-P., incoherent condition, this layer has received from together with valuable notes by the late Professor the quarrymen the name of the Dirt-bed' (q. v.). H. H. Wilson, which has recently been republished This rests on the basement bed of the whole group, in his works, in a new edition, amplified with which is a fresh-water limestone, charged with numerous notes, by Professor F. E. Hall.—For Entomostraca and shells, and contains the thin layer general information on the character and con- in which Mr Beckles has lately found the remains of tents of the Purân'as, see especially Wilson's preface several species of mammalia. to his translation of the Vishn'u-P. (Works, vol. vi., PURBECK MARBLE is an impure fresh-water Lond. 1864), Burnouf's preface to his edition of the limestone, containing immense numbers of the shells Bhagavata (Paris, 1840), Wilson's Analysis of the of Paludina, from which it derives its 'figure' when Puran'as (Works, vol. iii. Lond. 1864, edited by Pro-polished. It was formerly much used in the internal fessor R. Rost), K. M. Banerjea's Introduction to decoration of churches and other buildings in the the Markan'd'eya (Calcutta, 1862), and John Muir's southern counties of England. It is quarried in the Original Sanscrit Texts on the Origin and History peninsula of Purbeck, in Dorsetshire, and belongs to of the People of India, vols. 1-5 (Lond. 1858-1871). the upper section of the Purbeck Beds (q. v.). PU'RBECK, ISLE OF, a district in the south of PURCELL, HENRY, the most eminent of English Dorsetshire, 14 miles in length from west to east, musicians, was born at Westminster in 1658, and and 7 miles in breadth, is bounded on the N. by was son of Henry Purcell, one of the gentlemen of the river Frome and Poole Harbour, on the E. and the Chapel-royal appointed at the Restoration. He S. by the English Channel, and on the W. by the lost his father at the age of six, and was indebted for stream of Luckford Lake, which, rising in the park his musical training to Cook, Humphreys, and Dr of Lulworth Castle, flows north, and joins the Blow. His compositions at a very early age shewed Frome. On the west, however, the water-boundary evidence of talent. In 1676, he was chosen to sucis not complete, the district being connected with the ceed Dr Christopher Gibbons as organist of Westmain portion of the county at East Lulworth; and minster Abbey; and in 1682 he was made organist of the so-called Isle of P. is therefore really a peninsula. the Chapel-royal. He wrote numerous anthems and In ancient times, the Isle of P. was a royal deer- other compositions for the church, which were forest. See PURBECK BEDS and PURBECK MARBLE. eagerly sought after for the use of the various cathedrals, and have retained their place to the present PURBECK BEDS, a group of strata forming day. P.'s dramatic and chamber compositions are the upper members of the Oolitic Period (q. v.), even more remarkable. Among the former may be and so named because they are well developed in mentioned his music to the Tempest, his songs in the peninsula called the Isle of Purbeck (q. v.), Dryden's King Arthur, his music to Howard's and south of Poole Estuary in Dorsetshire. They Dryden's Indian Queen, to Urfey's Don Quixote, &c. are, like the Wealden beds above them, chiefly A great many of his cantatas, odes, glees, catches, fresh-water formations; but their organic remains and rounds are yet familiar to lovers of vocal music. join them more closely to the marine-formed Oolites In 1683, he composed twelve sonatas for two violins below, than to the superior Wealden series. Though and a bass. P. studied the Italian masters deeply, of a very limited geographical extent, the Purbeck and often made reference to his obligations to them. beds have yet considerable importance, from the In originality and vigour, as well as harmony and changes in animal life that took place during their variety of expression, he far surpassed both his predeposition. Generally less than 200 feet in thick-decessors and his contemporaries. His church music ness, they, however, exhibit three distinct and has been collected and edited from the original MS. peculiar sets of animal remains. This has caused by Mr Vincent Novello, in a folio work which them to be arranged into three corresponding groups, appeared in 1826-1836, with a portrait and essay on known as the Upper, Middle, and Lower Purbecks. his life and works. He died of consumption in The Upper Purbecks are entirely fresh-water, and 1695, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. the strata are largely charged with the remains of shells and fish; the cases of the Entomostraca Cyprides are very abundant and characteristic. The building-stone called Purbeck Marble belongs

to this division.

The Middle Purbecks record numerous changes during their deposition. The newest of the strata consists of fresh-water limestone, with the remains of Cyprides, turtles and fish. This rests on brackish water-beds Cyrena with layers of Corbula and Melania. Below this, there are marine strata, containing many species of sea-shells. Then follow some fresh and brackish-water limestone and shales, which again rest on the cinder-bed, a marine argillaceous deposit, containing a vast accumulation

much misunderstood arrangement in the British PURCHASE-SYSTEM, a highly unpopular and of the first appointments of officers and their subarmy, by which a large proportion-more than half from the first formation of an English standing sequent promotion used to be effected. It dates army, and was formally recognised in the reign of A price was fixed by regulation for each substantive Queen Anne. The system itself was very simple. rank (see PROMOTION), viz.—

Lieutenant-colonel, .

Major,
Captain,
Lieutenant,
Cornet or Ensign,

Difference.

Price. £4500

£1300

PURCHASER-PURGATORY.

PURCHASER. See SALE.

PU'RFLED, or PURFLEWED, in Heraldry, a term used with reference to the lining, bordering, or garnishing of robes, or ornamentation of armour. PURGA'TION. See ORDEAL.

When any officer holding one of these regimental compensation of officers who had lost their selling commissions desired to retire from the army, he was rights. Under that scheme, about £2,000,000 has entitled to sell his commission for the price stipu- been spent, up to 1874; and about £6,000,000 more lated in the above table-£4500, in the case of a will, it is expected, be required. lieutenant-colonel. This sum was made up by the senior major, who was willing and able to purchase, buying the rank of lieutenant-colonel for £1300; the senior captain, willing and able to purchase, buying a majority for £1400; a lieutenant purchasing his company for £1100; a cornet or ensign becoming lieutenant on payment of £250; and lastly by the sale to some young gentleman of an ensigncy or cornetcy for £450. In practice, fancy prices higher than the above were usually given, according to the popularity of a regiment, and vested interests in these over-regulation prices caused most serious complications whenever the government made any change affecting the promotion of purchase officers.

The value of commissions in the Guards was also greater; but as they constitute but a few regiments, and are mostly officered from the nobility, they do not need particular description.

No commission could be purchased by one officer unless another officer vacated his commission by its sale. Death-vacancies, vacancies caused by augmenting a regiment, vacancies resulting from the promotion of colonels to be major-generals, were filled without purchase, usually by seniority. No rank above lieutenant-colonel could be purchased.

It is alleged with truth that purchase enabled the rich man to step over the head of the poorer, but perhaps better-qualified non-purchasing officer; and that money decided where merit should be the only guide. These disadvantages, however, it is replied, were not unmixed. Purchase, it is argued, introduced into the army men of a very high class in society, who gave a tone to the whole of military life. A great proportion of these wealthy men entered with the intention of merely spending a few years in the army. This tended to keep the officers young-a great advantage; and, further, provided in the country, among its gentlemen, a body of men well adapted for commands in the militia and volunteers. Moreover, selection exercised arbitrarily, as it must be when the men from whom the selection is to be made are scattered all over the world, away from the selecting power, is liable to create dissatisfaction. Under purchase, exchange was a common thing; for the rich officers, for private reasons of locality, &c., were glad to change frequently from regiment to regiment, entering in each case at the bottom of the list of officers of their rank in their new regiment. This, of course, was an advantage to the non-exchanging officer, as it pushed him to the top; and the first death or other non-purchase promotion then fell to him. An officer who had not purchased at all, might nevertheless sell his commission for its full value if he had served twenty years, or for a sum less than the regulated price after shorter service. This was also a spur to promotion. On the whole, though exposed to the disadvantage and annoyance of being passed over by younger officers, the non-purchasing, i. e., the poor officers benefited pecuniarily by the purchase-system. This is proved by the slow progress officers made in corps where purchase did not exist, as, for instance, in the Royal Marines. Few would counsel the formation of a new army with such a system as purchase; but, on the other hand, it had its advantages in its working. Purchase did not exist in the artillery, engineers, marines, 19th to 21st regiments of cavalry, or 101st to 109th regiments of foot. The purchase-system was abolished by royal warrant in July 1871; and by the Regulation of the Forces Act of the same year, parliament laid down a scheme for the gradual

PU'RGATIVES are medicines which, within a definite and comparatively short time after exhibition, produce the evacuation of the bowels. The remedies included under this head have, however, various modifications of action, which adapt them for the fulfilment of different therapeutic applications. They are divided by Pereira into five groups,

viz. :

1. Laxatives.-A purgative is said to be laxative when it operates so mildly as merely to evacuate the intestines without occasioning any general excitement of the system, or any extraordinary increase of watery secretion from the capillaries of the alimentary canal. This group includes manna, sulphur, cassia pulp, castor oil, &c.; and purgatives of this kind are employed when we wish to evacuate the bowels with the least possible irritation, as in children and pregnant women; in persons suffering from hernia, piles, stricture or prolapsus of the rectum, &c.

2. Saline or Cooling Purgatives, such as sulphate of magnesia, and potassio-tartrate of soda, either in simple solution, or in the form of Seidlitz Powder (q. V.). They give rise to more watery evacuations than the members of the preceding group, and are much employed in inflammatory and febrile cases.

Senna

3. Milder Acrid Purgatives, such as senna, rhubarb, and aloes. They possess acrid and stimulating properties, and are intermediate in activity between the last and the next group. (generally in the form of Black Draught) is employed when we want an active but not very irritant purgative. Rhubarb is especially adapted for patients when there is a want of tone in the alimentary canal. Aloes is used in torpid conditions of the large intestine; but as this drug irritates the rectum, it should be avoided in cases of piles and of pregnancy, especially if there is any threatening of miscarriage.

4. Drastic Purgatives, such as jalap, scammony, gamboge, croton oil, colocynth, and elaterium, when swallowed in large doses, act as irritant poisons, and are employed in medicine when the bowels have resisted the action of milder purgatives, or when we wish to exert a powerful derivative action upon the intestinal mucous membrane (as in cases of apoplexy, when croton oil is commonly used), or when it is necessary to remove a large quantity of water from the system, as in dropsical affections, in which case, elaterium, from its hydragogue power, is usually employed.

5. Mercurial Purgatives, the chief of which are calomel, blue pill, and gray powder. They are commonly given with the view of increasing the discharge of bile, although their power in this respect has recently been denied. As their action is uncertain, they are usually combined with or followed by other purgatives. Podophyllin (q. v.) has recently been much used for the purpose of exciting bilious evacuations. Hamilton's book On Purgative Medicines, which was published more than half a century ago, is still the standard work on the subject of this article.

PU'RGATORY (Lat. purgatorium, from purgo, I cleanse) is the name given, in the Roman Catholic

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