proaches it, and conveys it to an orifice by which it passes into the stomach, and through which the undigested part is also voided. There is a great number of species of these little animals; the green, the brown and the orange-colored are the most common, and all the species have at the least six, or at the most twelve to thirteen arms. The latter are generally not longer than the body, but they are often one, and even eight inches in length. When, however, the polypi are taken out of the water, they look like a little mass of jelly, which frequently is hardly of the size of a grain of sand. They can extend one or several of their arms at the same time, and contract them in one or several parts, and thus are enabled to change their position, by applying them to a particular point, and drawing themselves to it. On examining the polypus with a microscope, the external surface resembles shagreen, and is covered with little grains, which are more or less close in proportion as the animal contracts or expands itself. On cutting the animal into pieces, the skin will be found to consist entirely of such grains, united by a kind of gummy substance. The color of these grains determines the color of the animal. The brown polypus has the longest arms, and employs the greatest variety of movements to seize its prey. All the species have not eyes, yet they have some method of discovering the approach of their prey to their arms, and show the greatest attention to it. When full, the polypus is torpid and motionless, but as it digests its food, it resumes its activity. As the whole animal is one entire stomach, the cavity of which is continued even to the extremities of the arms, the food may be seen to pass from the stomach through the latter, and from these back again to the stomach. To try this experiment, it is only necessary to give the polypus a worm of a red color. If it is constantly fed with insects of one color, the polypus takes the same color. It sometimes happens that two polypi lay hold of the same worm; in this case they continue eating till they break it asunder in the middle; and sometimes one also swallows the other; but they are incapable of digesting each other, and, after an hour or two, the one which has been swallowed issues out. The manner in which these animals propagate is not less remarkable than the rest of their organization. There appear small tubercles on the sides, which in a few days have the figure of small polypi. The connexion still remains; what the

young one seizes, goes to the nourishment of the parent, and vice versa. But the end by which they are joined gradually becomes thinner, and finally they choose different points to attach themselves to, and are thus torn apart. The polypus produces young in this way, in all parts of the body, and often bears five or six at a time. Trembley, who kept them in glasses above a year, never observed any act of copulation among them; but some modern observers have thought that they propagate by eggs. Sometimes a polypus, not yet detached from its parent, becomes a parent and grand parent, all the individuals forming one whole. The indestructibility of their life is most astonishing, and their power, when mutilated, of supplying the lost parts anew; and if cut to pieces in any direction, each part forms a new animal. They may also be turned inside out and even grafted together. This remarkable power of reproduction gave them the scientific name hydra, in allusion to the fabulous monster of that name. How far the stories of similar animals, but of enormous size, inhabiting the bottom of the sea, are true or fabulous, is yet uncertain.

POLYPUS, in medicine; a name given to swellings, which form chiefly in the mucous membranes, and were considered to resemble the animal of the same name. These tumors are most common in the nostrils, the throat, the uterus, and are more rarely found in the stomach, the intestines, the bladder, or the external passage of the ear. Polypuses differ much in size, number, mode of adhesion, and nature. One species is called mucous, soft, or vesicular polypuses, because their substance is soft, spongy, vesicular, and, as it were, filled with white juices; another is called the hard polypus, and has been distinguished into the fibrous or fleshy, and the scirrhous or cancerous. The fibrous polypuses are of a dense, close texture, and of a whitish color; they contain few vessels, and do not degenerate into cancers. The scirrhous or carcinomatous polypuses are really cancerous, painful tumors, which discharge blood, and exhibit all the pathological changes of cancerous affections. Different modes of treatment must be adopted, according to the particular nature of the disease. Among the methods of cure are exsiccation, which consists in subjecting the polypus to the action of astringent powders or solutions, to effect the resolution of the tumor; cauterization, or the application of fire and caustics; excision,

or the removal of the polypus by the knife; extraction, or its removal by the fingers, or by pincers; the seton, which consists in the application of a wire or thread, for the purpose of destroying the pedicle, or by ligature, which consists in tying up the base of the tumor, and causing it to fall off by the destruction of the vascular pedicle which nourishes it.

POLYTECHNICS; used on the European continent, particularly in Germany, for the science of all mechanical arts and skill, aided or unaided by machinery. POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL (École Polytechnique); an establishment which ranks among the first in the history of education. This school was established by a decree of the national convention of March 11, 1794, which was passed by the influence of Monge, Carnot, Fourcroy, &c. The committee of public safety had seen the necessity of providing for the education of engineers. The school was first called école centrale des travaux publics, which name was changed a year after. Men like Lagrange, Laplace, Berthollet, Fourcroy, and many other distinguished individuals, were its professors. It is now established in the buildings of the ancient college of Navarre. Napoleon did much for it, and under him it received considerable modifications. The pupils were obliged to live in the building, and wear a uniform. Its object is to diffuse the knowledge of the mathematical, physical and chemical sciences, and to prepare the pupils for the artillery service and the various departments of engineering, military, naval and civil. The number of pupils is limited to 300. The terms for the students not supported on the foundation are 1000 francs a year, independent of the expense of uniform and books. The pupil, at the time of admission, must be more than sixteen and less than twenty years old. The course of studies lasts two years, in certain cases three. A rigorous examination precedes admission, and another examination takes place before the pupils leave the institution, and it is invariably attended by the greater number of the marshals of France, together with many of the most distinguished scholars; "and," says an English writer, "the replies of the pupils might well astonish a senior wrangler of Cambridge, or a medallist of Dublin." The origin of this establishment, and the high character of the course of instruction, has always inspired the students with a warm love of their country. March 30, 1814, they fought bravely against the allies. In

April, 1816, the school was abolished, the students appearing not sufficiently devoted to the Bourbons, who, however, were obliged to reestablish it, in September of the same year. In the revolution of July, 1830, the students immediately took part with the people, and were of the greatest use, as well by their military knowledge as by their heroic enthusiasm; and several of the most important attacks during those memorable days were conducted by these youths. The école polytechnique is a favorite institution with the whole nation. (See France, vol. v, p. 237. See the work of M. Fourcy on this school, and La Correspondance de l'École Polytechnique, by M. Hachette.)

POLYTHEISM; worship of several or many gods, opposed to monotheism (q. v.), (from Toλus, many, and 0ɛos, god). The origin of polytheism may be different. We find tribes whose polytheism can be ascribed, almost beyond doubt, to the deification of the powers and phenomena of nature; but with others it cannot be so clearly traced. As to the views of the polytheism of antiquity, they may, perhaps, be classified under the following heads:-1. Monotheism was the pure religion revealed to the progenitors of the human race, handed down through the patriarchs, and, after its decline, revived in its purity by Moses, and taught to the children of Israel, whilst all nations except this chosen one deviated more and more from the true revelation, and created a host of gods, good and evil. (See Monotheism.) 2. Man, beginning with the savage state, proceeded in every thing from the concrete to the abstract; from the observation of nature, he rose to the natural sciences; from the measurement of space to mathematics; from the idea of just dealing, so natural in families, to that of politics and ethics; from the observation of beautiful things to ideal beauty; and from the knowledge of effects, only ascribable to higher powers, to the veneration of the powers of nature, to polytheism, and from this to monotheism. The chief objections to this view are that there are numerous nations which refined their polytheism more and more, but never arrived at monotheism, the two most civilized nations of antiquity not excepted, and that we meet with monotheism in the very records where, according to this view, we should expect it least,

those of the most ancient races, as given in the Bible. 3. Another view is taken of polytheism by Creuzer (q. v.), in his Symbolics and Mythology of the Ancient Nations, particularly of the Greeks (partly

translated, partly rewrought by Guigniaut, in his Religions de l'Antiquité, considérées principalement dans leurs Formes symboliques et mythologiques, Paris, 1824 et seq.). He considers Greek polytheism as presupposing a whole system of ancient Asiatic poetry, philosophy and theology, the symbols of which gradually lost their hidden meaning, but still continued long in use as forms. 4. Others have considered the polytheism of the Greeks as the mere forms under which natural science had been preserved and taught in previous ages. 5. Some consider polytheism as having originated from a corruption of monotheism; others regard it as a deification of the powers of nature. Even the Greek polytheism is considered by many as indicating strongly the preexistence of monotheism. (See Mythology.) The two extremes of polytheism may be considered to be dualism (q. v.), and pantheism (q. v.). The former is the belief in two original beings, a good and an evil spirit. It forms the basis of several Oriental religions, and is considered by many as merely a misconception of the primitive monotheism. Pantheism originates from polytheism. It makes the world itself God, and God the world, the One and the Whole. (See Pantheism.)

POLYXENA; daughter of Priam and of Hecuba, whose fate is related by the postHomeric epic poets. Achilles loved her, and advantage was taken of his passion for her to effect his death. According to some accounts, she returned his affection, and killed herself on his tomb. But according to the most common story, she was sacrificed to his Manes, either in Thrace or at his tomb.

POMBAL, Sebastian Joseph Carvalho, count of Oeyras, more known as marquis of Pombal, a celebrated Portuguese statesman, was born in 1699, at the castle of Soura, near Coimbra, and died in 1782. His father was a captain of the poorer class of the nobility; but his mother, a Mendoza, and his uncle, a respectable ecclesiastic, opened to the young Carvalho, who, after having studied law at Coimbra, entered the army, the prospect of promotion. Nature had given him all the qualities which indicate a person destined for rule; a tall and strong frame, a vigorous constitution, a daring eye, a fiery temperament, strong passions, a penetrating judgment, and the most captivating address. In every thing which he undertook, he led the way. Having been banished from Lisbon on account of some youthful imprudences, the offspring of

his ardent temperament, he passed several years at Soura devoted to study. While there, he gained the affections of Theresa de Noronha Almada, a rich widow, whose proud relations rejected with disdain his advances. He eloped, however, with the object of his passion, and his courage and resolution saved him from the daggers of assassins. At the same time, the contempt with which the family of his wife, the counts of Arcos, treated him, kindled his ambition to rise. He returned to court, where his address acquired him such high favor, that in 1739 he was appointed ambassador to London. Here he became acquainted with the relations between England and Portugal, and formed the plan of delivering his country from the fetters of the English commercial system. The new minister, Peter di Motta, his enemy, recalled him in 1745; but the queen, who was his patroness, sent him to Vienna to act as mediator between the pope and the empress Maria Theresa. Carvalho here gained general esteem, and, his first wife being dead, obtained the hand of the youthful countess of Daun. He was obliged, however, to refute the calumnies which a Portuguese of rank had circulated against him in Vienna, and to prove his claims to nobility. The queen now procured his nomination as ambassador to the Spanish court; but the king and his minister hated him; he was recalled, and even the influence of the queen was insufficient to overcome the aversion of the king (John V). was in vain that Pombal insinuated himself into the favor of the Jesuits, and, by his entire devotion to the order, imposed upon them to such a degree as to obtain an intimate acquaintance with their organization, of which he afterwards made use when he was minister. The high nobility persecuted him with irreconcilable hatred; but Carvalho concealed his desire of revenge, and passed for the most amiable, modest and pious courtier in the service of the queen. John V died in 1750, and, through the influence of the queen dowager, Carvalho finally obtained from his successor, Joseph I, the long coveted post of secretary of state for foreign affairs. The confessor of the king, Moreira, a Jesuit, was his friend; and Carvalho courted the order with such zeal, that he He soon was called the great Jesuit. rendered the feeble and sensual king (particularly after the death of the queen mother, 1754) entirely subject to his influence. Joseph I, from fear of his brother dom Pedro, to whom Carvalho's enemies at

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tached themselves, fell in with the most daring projects of his minister; and the latter now proceeded to the accomplishment of his four favorite objects; the expulsion of the Jesuits; the humiliation of the high nobility; the restoration of the prosperity of Portugal, and the absolute command of the state, in the name of the monarch. The kingdom was reduced to the lowest condition. England, the Jesuits, and the high nobility, monopolized the wealth of the country, which was without an army or a fleet, without commerce or agriculture. The minister acted on the principles of the mercantile system, and although obliged to abandon many of his designs, succeeded in some of them. It required a man of his character to withstand the attacks to which he was exposed, from the inquisition, to which he prohibited its autos da fe; from the Jesuits, whom he expelled from their missions in Paraguay; from the high nobility, whom he deprived of their princely possessions in the colonies; and from the prelacy, whose powers he abridged. Then came the earthquake of Nov. 1, 1755, which buried 30,000 human beings, and destroyed property to the value of 400,000,000 dollars. Carvalho left the care of his own family and property, and appeared in the midst of the general despair, as a savior, displaying a vigor and resolution, which, alone, ought to have conciliated his enemies. He was to be seen for a whole week after this calamity, uninterruptedly employed in every place where aid was needed, in contriving means of relief, and restoring order; and, under the most disastrous circumstances and greatest difficulties, displayed the most active benevolence and most extraordinary energy. The king looked upon him as a favorite of Heaven, and submitted implicitly to his direction. Carvalho was now created count of Oeyras, and, in 1756, first minister. He then removed every one who ventured to obstruct his plans. It was necessary to proceed with the most unyielding rigor, since the profligate nobility perpetrated assassinations without hesitation, and plundered the people without mercy. But, with the pride of the great, whom he humbled, and the avarice, which his commercial regulations exasperated, was now connected the discontent of the country people, excited by his establishment of monopolies, which, however, was done only to counteract the actual monopoly of the English. The discontented vine-dressers committed excesses in Oporto; but Pombal suppressed the riots by

the most comprehensive laws against treason, which made the will of the king valid against all constitutions and privileges. He also exposed, to the astonishment of Europe, the conduct of the Jesuits (who endeavored to persuade the public that he was Antichrist), in their government in Paraguay. In his exposé of this matter, there are, certainly, many exaggerations; and there is no doubt that the fathers ruled these provinces much better than the government of Spain or Portugal would have done. Carvalho finally determined to remove the Jesuits entirely from the person of the king. They were deprived of the place of confessors, and were ordered (September 16, 1757) to retire to their colleges. Several Portuguese grandees, who had joined in intrigues against the minister, were banished from Lisbon. Pombal now pushed his measures with vigor; as his attempts to encourage agriculture had been unsuccessful, he proceeded to extirpate the vine, and was, finally, completely victorious. A conspiracy against the life of the king, who was wounded on the night of September 3d, 1758, by assassins, whose blows he escaped only through the fidelity of his attendant, or the fright of his mules, delivered the minister's mortal enemies into his hands. Three months after the attempt, Pombal, on the night of the celebration of his daughter's marriage, at which the principal nobility were present, arrested the marquis of Tavora and his family, the Jesuit Malagrida, and, the next day, the duke of Aveiro and others. The minister and a member of the supreme judicial tribunal conducted the examination, and, after a hasty trial, a dreadful sentence was passed, and executed before the castle of Belem (January 13th, 1759). The duke of Aveiro and the marquis of Tavora were broken on the wheel, as the principals of the conspiracy; the sons and the son-in-law, with the servants of the former, were strangled, as accomplices; the wife of the marquis was beheaded, and a servant of the duke burnt, as were also the dead bodies of the others. The Jesuits were suspected of being the authors of the plot; but the marquis of Tavora, who had thrown out some accusations against them, had retracted them in writing. Still the minister denounced them to the pope, as the contrivers of the scheme, and not being able to procure immediately a bull, permitting the secular tribunals to proceed against them, he caused some of them to be executed in prison. Malagrida, who had

prophesied the death of the king, was condemned to the flames by the inquisition, and burnt in 1761. Pombal had already banished the whole order from the kingdom, as rebels and enemies of the king, by a royal decree, of September 3d, 1759, and, as they did not comply with the mandate, caused them to be seized by soldiers, and transported, to the number of 1854, to the States of the Church. These proceedings gave rise to a protracted dispute with the pope; in 1760, Pombal transported the papal nuncio beyond the frontiers, and was on the point of dissolving all connexion with Rome, when Clement XIII died, and Clement XIV, his successor, abolished the order in 1773. Portugal was soon after involved in a short war with Spain, and, at a subsequent period, in a second war, on account of the minister's haughty conduct towards that government. The Portuguese army received an entirely new organization, and the fortifications on the frontiers were put in a better condition. Pombal was no less active in his efforts to improve the country in every relation, and paid particular attention to the schools; he also rendered the censorship less strict, and, by a law of 1773, established the toleration of converts to Christianity, who had before been treated as secret Jews, and denied many civil privileges. Projects of ambition and of vengeance on his enemies, who repeatedly attempted his life, and his plan of placing on the throne the prince of Beira, the grandson of the queen, occupied the rest of his public life. Joseph I, whose daughter was the bitter enemy of Pombal, died February 24, 1777, and the minister was dismissed. The state prisoners, whom he had incarcerated, 9800 in number, were released, and all his regulations were abolished, so that Portugal sunk back into its former state of imbecility. Pombal transferred to the young queen a treasure of 78,000,000 crusados, and a well organized state. But the hate of his enemies was more powerful than his services. The Portuguese nobility left no means untried to bring him to the scaffold. The queen caused an examination to be made into the trial of the assassins of the king, and Pombal saved himself only by exhibiting the original proofs of the conspiracy, which had not been made public. The hated and persecuted Pombal retained his titles and his estates, and, retiring into the village of Pombal, occupied himself in reading and in works of charity. He died there, May 8, 1782, in the eighty

fourth year of his age. His history has been misrepresented by his Italian biographer, an ex-Jesuit, and in the Anecdotes du Ministère de Pombal (Warsaw, 1784). See L'Administration du Marquis de Pombal (Amsterdam, 1788, 4 vols.).

POMEGRANATE (punica granatum). In its wild state, this is a dense spiny shrub, eight or ten feet high, but, when cultivated with care, and in a favorable climate, it attains double these dimensions. It is supposed to have originated in the north of Africa, and thence to have been introduced into Italy. By the Romans it was called malum Punicum, or Carthaginian apple, and the country adjacent to Carthage was then celebrated for its production. The leaves are opposite, lanceolate, entire and smooth; the flowers are of a brilliant red, large, and almost sessile; the fruit, when cultivated, attains the size of a large apple, and has a thick coriaceous rind, crowned at the summit with the teeth of the persistent calyx. It is filled with a multitude of small red seeds, and the pulp is more or less acid, and slightly astringent. The pomegranate is now naturalized as well as extensively cultivated throughout a great part of the south of Europe, for the sake of the fruit; and, even in those climates where this does not attain perfection, the beauty of the flowers renders it a favorite ornamental shrub. Numerous remarkable varieties have been produced, differing in the beauty of their flowers, and in the taste and quality of the fruit. The pomegranate, in warm climates, sometimes attains an enormous size. A cooling and agreeable beverage is made of the juice mixed with water and sugar or honey. Another species (P. nana) inhabits the West Indies and Guiana, where it is sometimes used as a hedge plant. The flowers and fruit are very small. These two plants, by themselves, constitute a distinct natural family.

POMERANIA (in German, Pommern); a duchy belonging to Prussia, having Mecklenburg on the west, Brandenburg on the south, West Prussia on the east, and the Baltic on the north. It is divided by the Oder into Anterior or Hither Pomerania (Vorpommern), and Hinder or Farther Pomerania (Hinterpommern). It contained, in 1828, a population of 877,555, principally Protestants, on 12,000 square miles. It is a low and almost level country. The Oder (q. v.) is the principal river. The soil is in general sandy and indifferent. The mineral productions are unimportant, and the manufactures inconsiderable. The commerce, of which Stettin (q. v.) is the