pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
PLANISPHERE signifies a projection of the sphere and its various circles upon a plane; in which sense maps, on which are exhibited the meridians and other circles of the sphere, are planispheres.
PLANT is defined to be an inorganical body, destitute of sense and spontanéous motion, adhering to another body in such a manner as to draw from it its nourishment, and having a power of propagating itself by seeds. See Anatomy Vegetable, Botany, Physical Geography, and Vegetable Physiology.
PLANTAGENET, the surname of the kings of England from Henry II. to Richard III. inclusive. Antiquaries are much at a loss to account for the origin of this name; the best derivation they can find for it being, that Fulk, the first Earl of Anjou of that name, stung with remorse for some wicked action, went, as a work of atonement, in pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where, being soundly scourged with broom twigs, which grew plentifully on the spot, he afterwards took the surname of Plantagenet, which was retained by his posterity.
PLANTERSHIP, in a general sense, is the business of a planter. In the West Indies, plantership denotes the management of a sugar plantation, including not only the cultivation of the cane, but the care of the various processes for the extraction of the sugar, together with the making of sugar-spirits.
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PLANUDES, Maximus, a Greek monk of Constantinople, who, towards the end of the fourteenth century, published a collection of epigrams entitled Anthologia ; a Greek translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses; a Life of Aesop, which is rather a romance than a history; and some other works. We know nothing more of him, than that he suffered some persecution on account of his attachment to the Latin church.
PLASSEY, a town of Hindustan, in the province of Bengal, and district of Nuddea, situated on the eastern bank of the Bhaggarutty or Hoogly River. Here was fought, in June 1757, between the British under Colonel Clive, and the army of the Nabob Suraje-ud-Dowlah, the battle of Plassey, which ultimately decided the fate of Bengal. Long. 88. 15. E. Lat. 23. 45. N.
PLATAEAE, in Ancient Geography, the name of a strong town in Boeotia, which from its situation was exposed to the north wind. It was burned to the ground by Xerxes; and it was famous for the defeat of Mardonius the Persian general, as also for the signal victory of the Lacedaemonians and other Greeks under Pausanias the Lacedaemonian, and Aristides an Athenian general, in memory of which the Greeks erected a temple to Jupiter Eleutherius, and instituted games which they called Eleutheria. Plataeae stood at the foot of Mount Citlrteron, on the road to Athens and Megara, and on the confines of Attica and Megaris.
PLATFORM, in the military art, an elevation of earth, sometimes covered with planks of wood, upon which cannon are placed to fire on the enemy. On the ramparts there is always a platform, where the cannon are mounted. It is made by heaping up earth upon the rampart, or by an arrangement of madriers, rising insensibly, for the cannon to roll on, either in a casemate, or, on attack, in the outworks. All practitioners are agreed that no shot can be depended on unless the piece can be placed upon a solid platform; for if the platform shakes with the first impulse of the powder, the piece must likewise shake, which will alter its direction, and render the shot uncertain.

Platform, in Architecture, is a row of beams which support the timber-work of a roof, and he on the top of a wall where the entablature ought to be raised.

This term is also used for a kind of terrace'or broad smooth open walk at the top of a building, whence a fair prospect may be obtained of the adjacent country. Hence an edifice is said to be covered with a platform when it is flat on the top, and has no ridge. Most of the oriental buildings are covered in this manner, as were all those of the ancients.
PLATINA is a metallic substance, the name of which has an allusion to its colour. It is a diminutive of plata, and signifies little silver. From its great specific gravity, and other resemblances which it has to gold, it has been called or blanc, or white gold; from its refractory nature, diabolus metallorum ; and from some doubts entertained of its character as a metal, juan blanco, white jack, white rogue, or white mock metal. It has also received the appellation of the eighth metal; and, probably from some district which affords it, has been called platina del Pinto.
PLATONIC, something which relates to Plato, his philosophy, his opinions, or the like. Thus, Platonic love denotes a pure and spiritual affection, for which Plato was a great advocate, sa subsisting between the different sexes, abstracted from all carnal appetites, and regarding no other object but the mind and its beauties; or it is even a sincere, disinterested friendship subsisting between persons of the same sex, abstracted from any selfish views, and regarding no other object than the person, if any such love or friendship has aught of a foundation in nature.

Platonic Year, or the Great Year, is a period of time determined by the revolution of the equinoxes, or the space wherein the stars and constellations return to their former places in respect of the equinoxes. The Platonic year, according to Tycho Brahe, is 25,816; according to Ricciolus, 25,910; and according to Cassini, 24,800 years. This period once accomplished, it was an opinion amongst the ancients that the world would begin anew, and the sameseries of things return in the same order as before.
PLAUEN, a city of the kingdom of Saxony, in the circle of Voightland, and the capital of a bailiwick of the same name. It is situated in a beautiful valley upon the banks of the Elster, is surrounded with walls, and contains 608 houses, with 7200 inhabitants, more than one half of whom are employed in making muslins and other kinds of cotton goods of fine quality. Woollen cloths, paper, and hosiery, are also extensively fabricated.
PLEA, in Law, is what either party alleges for himself in court, in a cause there depending; and in a more restricted sense, it is the defendant’s answer to the plaintiff’s declaration.

Pleas are usually divided into those of the crown and common pleas. Pleas of the crown are all suits in the king’s name, or in the name of the attorney-general in behalf of the king, for offences committed against his crown and dignity, and against his peace; as treason, murder, felony, &c.

Common pleas are such suits as are carried on between common persons in civil cases. These pleas are of two sorts; dilatory pleas, and pleas to the action. Dilatory pleas are such as tend merely to delay or put off the suit, by questioning the propriety of the remedy rather than by denying the injury; pleas to the action are such as dispute the very cause of suit.
PLEBEIAN, any person of the rank of the common people. It is chiefly used in speaking of the ancient Romans, who were divided into senators, patricians, and plebeians. The distinction was made by Romulus, the founder of the city, who confined all dignities, civil, military, and sacerdotal, to the rank of patricians. But, to prevent the seditions which such a distinction might produce, through the pride of the higher order and the envy of the lower, he endeavoured to engage them one to another by reciprocal ties and obligations. Every plebeian was allowed to choose, out of the body of the patricians, a protector, who should be obliged to assist him with his interest and substance, and to defend him from oppression. These protectors were called patrons; the protected, clients. It was the duty of the patron to draw up the contracts of the clients, to extricate them out of their difficulties and perplexities, and to guard their ignorance against the artfulness of the crafty. On the other hand, if the patron was poor, his clients were obliged to contribute to the portions of his daughters, the payment of his debts, and the ransom of him and his children if they happened to be taken in war. The client and patron could neither accuse nor bear witness against each other; and if either of them was convicted of having violated this law, the crime was equal to that of treason, and any one might with impunity slay the offender as a victim devoted to Pluto and the infernal gods. For more than six hundred years we find no dissensions or jealousies between the patrons and their clients; not even in the times of the republic, when the people frequently mutinied against the great and powerful.
PLECTRUM, Greek, πληκrgoι, a small implement of wood, horn, ivory, metal, &c. employed to strike the strings of certain musical instruments used among the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Arabians. It was of various shapes, often consisting of a heart-shaped head, and a short handle. In some of the ancient Egyptian paintings at Thebes, are representations of a three-stringed guitar, with an oval body and long neck, having a plectrum attached by a string to the neck, close to its junction with the body. Several foreign stringed instruments are still played with a plectrum, and amongst them the Tamboora of Hindustan.
PLEDGE (plegvus), in common law, a surety or gage, either real or personal, which the plaintiff or demandant is to find for his prosecuting the suit.

To Pledge, in drinking, denotes to warrant, or to be surety to one, that he shall receive no harm whilst he is taking his draught. The phrase is referred by antiquaries to the practice of the Danes heretofore in England, who used frequently to stab or cut the throats of the natives whilst they were drinking.
PLEDGERY, or Pleggery, in Law, suretyship, or an undertaking or answering for another.
PLEIADES, in fabulous history, the seven daughters of Atlas king of Mauritania, and Pleione, who were so called from their mother. They were Maia, Electra, Taygete, Asterope, Merope, Halcyone, and Celaeno, who were also called Atlantides, from their father Atlas. These princesses were carried off by Busiris king of Egypt; but Hercules, having conquered him, delivered them to their father. Yet they afterwards suffered a new persecution from Orion, who pursued them five years, until Jupiter, being prevailed on by their prayers, took them up into the heavens, where they form the constellation which bears their name.

Pleiades, in Astronomy, an assemblage of seven stars, in the neck of the constellation Taurus.

These stars are so called from the Greek πλsιν, navigare, to sail; as being terrible to mariners, by reason of the rains and storms which frequently rise with them. The Latins called them vergiliae, from ver, spring; because of their rising about the time of the vernal equinox. The largest is of the third magnitude, and is called lucida Pleiadum.
PLENARY, something complete or full. Thus we say the pope grants plenary indulgences, that is, full and entire remissions of the penalties due to all sins.
PLENIPOTENTIARY, a person vested with full power to do any thing.
PLENITUDE, the quality of a thing that is full, or that fills another. In medicine, it chiefly denotes a redundancy of blood and humours.
PLENUM, in Physics, denotes, according to the Cartesians, that state of things in which every part of space is supposed to be full of matter, in opposition to a vacuum, which is a space supposed to be devoid of all matter.
PLEONASM, a figure in Rhetoric, by which we may use words seemingly superfluous, to express a thought with the greater energy; such as, “I saw it with my own eyes,” “I heard it with my own ears,” and the like.
PLETHORA, in Medicine, from πkη0ος, plenitude. A plethora is, when the vessels are too much loaded with fluids. The plethora may be sanguine or serous. In the former there is too much crassamentum in the blood, in the latter too little. In the sanguine plethora, there is danger of a fever, inflammation, apoplexy, rupture of the blood-vessels, and obstructed secretions; in the serous, of a dropsy, and other affections. A rarefaction of the blood produces all the effects of a plethora; it may accompany a plethora, and should therefore be distinguished from it. Mr Bromfield observes, that a sanguine plethora may be known to be present by the pulse. An artery overcharged with blood is as incapable of producing a. strong full pulse, as one that con [7:18:58] tains a deficient quantity; so that in both cases there will be a low and weak pulse. To distinguish rightly, the pulse must not be felt with one or two lingers on the carpal artery; but if three or four fingers cover a considerable length of the artery, and we press hard for some time on it, and then suddenly raise all these fingers except that which is nearest to the patient’s hand, the influx of the blood, if there is a plethora, will be so rapid as to raise the other finger, and make us sensible of the fulness. The sanguine plethora is relieved by bleeding; the serous by purging, diuretics, and sweating.
PLEXUS, amongst anatomists, a bundle of small vessels interwoven in the form of network. Thus a congeries of vessels within the brain is called plexus choroides, reticularis, or retiformis. A plexus of nerves is the union of two or more nerves forming a sort of ganglion or knot.
PLICA Polonica, or Plaited Hair, is a disease peculiar to Poland, and hence the name. Mr Coxe, who gives a short account of it, attempts likewise to assign the physical causes which are supposed to produce it. Many causes of this kind, he tells us, have been supposed to concur in rendering the plica more frequent in those regions than in other parts. It would be an endless task to enumerate the various conjectures by which each person has endeavoured to support his favourite hypothesis. The most probable are those assigned by Dr Vicat. The first cause is the nature of the Polish air, which is rendered insalubrious by numerous woods and morasses, and occasionally derives an uncommon keenness, even in the midst of summer, from the position of the Carpathian Mountains; for the south and south-easterly winds, which usually convey warmth in other regions, are in this chilled in their passage over the snowy summits of this.range. The second is unwholesome water; for although Poland is not deficient in good springs, yet the common people usually drink that which is nearest at hand, taken indiscriminately from rivers, lakes, and even stagnant pools. The third cause is the gross inattention of the natives to cleanliness. Indeed experience shows, that those who are not negligent in their persons and habitations, are less liable to be afflicted with the plica than others who are deficient in these particulars. Thus persons of the higher ranks are less subject to this disorder than those of inferior stations, the inhabitants of large towns less than those of small villages, the free peasants less than those in an absolute state of vassalage, the natives of Poland Proper less than those of Lithuania. Whatever we may think as to the possibility of all or any of these causes, by themselves, or in conjunction with others, originally producing the disorder, we may venture to assert, that they all, and particularly the last, assist its propagation, inflame its symptoms, and protract its cure. In a word, the plica polonica appears to be a contagious distemper, which, like the leprosy, still prevails amongst a people ignorant in medicine, and inattentive to check its progress, but is rarely known in those countries where proper precautions are taken to prevent its spreading.
PLINTH, Orle, or Orlo, in Architecture, a flat square member, in the form of a brick. It is used as the foundation of columns, being that flat square table under the moulding of the base and pedestal at the bottom of the whole order. It seems to have been originally intended to keep the bottom of the original wooden pillars from rotting. Vitruvius also calls the Tuscan abacus plinth. PLINTH of a Statue is a base, either flat, round, or square, which serves to support it.

PLINTH of a Wall denotes two or three rows of bricks advancing out from a wall; or, in general, any flat high moulding which serves, in a front-wall, to sustain the eaves of a wall, or support the larmier of a chimney.
PLOCK, a province or waiwodschaft of Poland, which has been formed out of the ancient division of that name, [7:18:60]and the addition of part of Massovia. It extends in north latitude from 52. 14. to 53. 27., and in east longitude from 18. 39. to 22. 30., and comprehends 6842 square miles. It contains forty-five cities and towns, 3399 villages, with 346,500 inhabitants, of whom 14,000 are Protestants, 24,000 Jews, and the remainder adhere to the Catholic religion. The capital of the province, and of a circle of its name, is the city of Plock. It stands upon the banks of the Vistula, is surrounded with walls, and is the see of a bishop, whose cathedral is here, as well as eleven other churches, and several collegiate and monastic institutions. It contains 960 houses, with 7500 inhabitants, who carry on considerable trade by the river. Long. 19. 42. E. Lat. 52. 33. 3. N.
PLOERMEL, an arrondissement of the department of Morbihan,in France, extending over 682 square miles. It is divided into eight cantons, and these into sixty-one communes, with a population of 84,150 inhabitants. The capital is the city of the same name, situated in a fruitful district, watered by the river Oust. It contains 4720 inhabitants, who carry on manufactures of coarse woollens.
PLOMO, in Metallurgy, is a name given by the Spaniards who have the care of the silver mines, to the silver ore when found adhering to the surface of stones, and incrusting their cracks and cavities like small and loose grains of gunpowder. Though these grains be few in number, and the rest of the stone have no silver in it, yet they are always very happy when they find it, as it is a certain token that there is a rich vein somewhere in the neighbourhood. And if in digging forwards they still meet with these grains, or the plomo, in greater quantity, it is a certain sign that they are getting nearer and nearer the good vein.
PLOT, Dr Robert, a learned antiquary and philosopher, was born at Sutton-Barn, in the parish of Borden, Kent, in the year 1641. He studied in Magdalen Hall, and afterwards in University College, Oxford. In 1682 he was elected secretary of the Royal Society, and published the Philosophical Transactions from No, 143 to No. 166 inclusive. The next year Mr Elias Ashmole appoint-’ ed him first keeper of his museum, and about the same time the vice-chancellor nominated him primarius professor of chemistry in the university of Oxford. In 1687 he was made secretary to the earl marshal; and the following year received the title of historiographer to James II. In 1690 he resigned his professorship of chemistry, and likewise his place of keeper of the museum, to which he presented a very large collection of natural curiosities, which he had described in his histories of Oxfordshire and Staffordshire; the former published at Oxford in 1677, folio, and reprinted with additions and corrections in 1705, and the latter printed of the same size in 1686. In January 1694- 1695, Henry Howard, earl marshal, nominated him Mobray-herald extraordinary; two days after which he was constituted register of the court of honour; and, on the 30th of April 1696, he died of the stone, at his house at Borden.

As Dr Plot delighted in natural history, the above works were designed as essays towards a Natural History of England; and he had actually formed a design of travelling through England and Wales for that purpose. He accordingly drew up a plan of his scheme, in a letter addressed to Bishop Fell, which is inserted at the end of the second volume of Leland’s Itinerary, in the edition of 1744. Amongst several manuscripts which he left behind him were large materials for the Natural History of Kent, Middlesex, and the city of London. Besides the above works, he published De Origine Fontium Tentamen Philosophicum, 8vo, and nine papers in the Philosophical Transactions.
PLOUGH, in Agriculture, a machine for turning up the soil by the action of cattle, contrived to save the time, labour, and expense, which must otherwise have been employed in digging the ground, and fitting it for receiving all sorts of seed. See Agriculture.
PLOWDEN, Edmund, sergeant at law, descended from an ancient family in Shropshire, was born in 1517, and was first a student of the university of Cambridge, where he spent three years in the study of philosophy and medicine. He then removed to Oxford, where, having continued his former studies about four years more, he was in 1552 admitted to the practice of physic and surgery; but probably finding the practice of the healing art less agreeable than the study of physic, he entered himself of the Middle Temple, and began to read law. Wood says, that in 1557 he was summer reader to that society, and Lent reader three years afterwards, being then sergeant and oracle of the law. He died in the year 1584, aged sixty-seven; and was buried in the Temple church. He wrote, 1. Commentaries or Reports of divers Cases in the reigns of Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, London, 1571, 1578, 1599, and 1613. written in the öld Norman language; and, 2. Queries, or a Mootbook of Cases, translated, methodized, and enlarged, by H. B. of Lincoln’s-Inn, London, 1662, in 8vo.
PLUG, a certain piece of timber, formed like the frustum of a cone, and used to stop a hause-hole, or a breach made in the body of a ship by cannon-balls. Plugs used for the former purpose are therefore called hauseplugs, and those for the latter shot-plugs ; and they are formed of various sizes, in proportion to the holes made by the different sizes of shot which may penetrate the ship’s sides or bottom in battle. Accordingly they are always ready for this purpose.
PLUKENET, Leonard, a physician who flourished in the reign of Charles II., was one of the most excellent and laborious botanists of that or any other age. He was author of the Phytographia Plukenetiana, the Almagesti-cum Britannicum, and other works of a similar kind, on which he spent the greater part of his life and fortune. His Phytography is mentioned with the highest praise in the Philosophical Transactions for February 1696-1697. His Opera Botanica, with cuts, were printed at London, in six vols. folio, in 1720.
PLUMMET, Plumb-rule, or Plumb-line, an instrument used by carpenters, masons, and others, in order to μιdge whether walls or beams be upright planes, horizontal, or the like. It is so called from a piece of lead fastened to the end of a cord, which usually constitutes this instrument. Sometimes the string descends along a wooden ruler, raised perpendicularly on another; in which case it becomes a level.
PLUMMING, amongst miners, is the method of using a mine-dial, in order to know the exact place of the work where to sink down an air-shaft, or to bring an adit to the work, or to know which way the lode inclines when any flexure happens in it.

It is performed in this manner. A skilful person, with an assistant, and provided with pen, ink, and paper, a long line, and a mine-dial, after his guess of the place above ground, descends into the adit or work, and there fastens one end of the line to some fixed thing in it; then the incited needle is let to rest, and the exact point where it rests is marked with a pen. The person in question then goes on farther in, the line being still fastened, and at the next flexure of the adit he makes a mark on the line, by a knot or otherwise, and, letting down the dial again, he there likewise notes down that point at which the needle stands in this second position. In this manner he proceeds, from turning to turning, marking down the points, and marking the line, till he comes to the intended place. This being done, he ascends and begins to work on the surface of the earth what he did in the adit, bringing the first knot in the line to such a place where the mark of the place of the needle will again answer its pointing; and continues this till be come to the desired place above ground, which is certain to be perpendicular over the part of the mine into which the air-shaft is to be sunk.
PLUMOSE, something formed in the manner of a feather, with a stem and fibres issuing from it on each side: such are the antennae of certain moths, butterflies, and other insects.