P I L P I N 97 or other marine animals swarming about the ship s bottom or parasitic on the shark, offal thrown overboard, or smaller pieces of flesh which are left unnoticed by the shark when it tears its prey. The pilot, therefore, stands to both in the relation of a so-called " commensal," like the Echeneis or sucking-fish, whose habits are in some respects identical with those of the pilot, and which is frequently found associated with it. All observers, however, agree that neither the pilot nor the sucker is ever attacked by the shark. The pilot attains to a length of about 12 inches. In the shape of its body it resembles a mackerel, but is rather shorter, especially in the head, and covered with small scales. A sharp keel runs along the middle of each side of the tail. The first dorsal fin consists of a few short spines not connected by a membrane ; the second dorsal and the anal are composed of numerous rays. The teeth, which occupy the jaws, vomer, and palatine bones, are all small, in villiform bands. The coloration of the pilot renders it conspicuous at a distance ; on a bluish ground colour from five to seven dark-blue or violet cross-bands traverse the body from the back to the belly. The pilot-fish spawns in the open sea, and its fry is constantly caught in the tow-net. But young pilot-fish differ con siderably from the adult, having the spines of the first dorsal connected by a membrane, and some bones of the head armed with projecting spines. These little fishes were therefore long considered to be a distinct genus, Naiiderus. PILPAY. See BIDPAI, vol. iii. p. 666. PiLSEN, the second town of Bohemia, lies at the con- iiuence of the Radbusa and the Mies, 50 miles to the south-west of Prague. It consists of the town proper, which is regularly built and surrounded with promenades on the site of the old ramparts, and of three suburbs. The most prominent buildings are the Gothic church of St Bartholomew, said to date from 1292 ; the Renaissance town-house, containing an interesting armoury ; the new real school : and the German and Bohemian theatres. The staple article of manufacture and commerce is beer, of which about 6,000,000 gallons are brewed here annu ally. Other industrial products are machinery, enamelled tinware, leather, alum, paper, earthenware, stoves, and spirits, while a tolerably brisk trade is carried on in wool, feathers, cattle, and horses. In the neighbourhood are several coal-pits, iron-works, and glass-works, as well as large deposits of kaolin. The four annual fairs have lost much of their former importance. The population in 1880 was 38,883, consisting of Germans and Czechs in nearly equal proportions. Pilsen first appears in history in 976, as the scene of a battle between Otlio I. and Henry V., duke of Bavaria, and it became a town in 127 2. During the Hussite wars it resisted several sieges, but it was taken by Mansfeld in 1618. "Viillenstein fixed his headquarters at Pilsen in 1633-34 ; and it was the principal scene of the alleged conspiracy which cost him his life. The first printing press in Bohemia was set up at Pilsen in 1468. PIMENTO, also called ALLSPICE (from a supposed com bination of various flavours) and JAMAICA PEPPER, is the dried immature fruit of Eugenia Pimenta or Pimenta offi- cinaJis, an evergreen tree about 30 feet high belonging to the natural order Myrtaceae. It is indigenous"! n the West India Islands, growing on limestone hills near the sea. The spice derives its name from pimienta, the Spanish word for pepper, which was given to it by the early explorers of the New World from its resemblance to peppercorns. The allspice of commerce is furnished wholly by the island of Jamaica ; and all attempts to cultivate the tree where it is not found growing spontaneously have hitherto failed. The so-called pimento walks or 7iatural plantations from which the pimento is collected are formed by cutting down other growth upon land where | the tree grows naturally, and thus allowing it to multiply freely. The berries are gathered in July and August, when of full size, but still unripe, the small branches bearing fruit being broken off and dried in the sun and ! air for some days, when the stalks are removed and the berries are ready for packing. These owe their aromatic properties to an essential oil, of which they yield on dis tillation from 3 to 4 per cent. This oil has a specific gravity of 1 037, deflects the ray of polarized light 2 to | the left when examined in a column of 50 millimetres, I and has substantially the same composition as oil of cloves, although differing in flavour. The berries also
- contain a tannin (giving a black colour with ferric salts),
- starch, and a minute quantity of an alkaloid which,
according to Dragendorff, has somewhat the odour of conia. The chief use of pimento is as a spice. The oil and distilled water are used to a limited extent in medicine to disguise the taste of nauseous drugs, and the oil is I also used in perfuming soaps. The yield of some trees is i said to reach as much as 150 K> of fresh or 112 Ib of
- dried berries. The highest export reached of late years
was 6,857,830 R> in 1870-71, valued at 28,574. In
1877-78 it was 6,195,109 fl>. About two-thirds of the produce goes to England, and one-third to the United States. The value in the London market is about 4d. to 6d. per Ib. The fruit of an allied species, Pimenta acris, Wight, distinguished by the calyx being crowned with teeth, is sometimes met with in commerce. The bay rum so much used as a toilet article in the United States is a tincture flavoured with the oil of the fruit and leaves of P. acris, which is commonly known as the bayberry tree. PIN. A pin is a small spike, usually of metal, with a bulbed head, or some other arrangement for preventing the spike passing entirely through the cloth or other material it is used for fastening together. In one form or another pins are of the highest antiquity, and it may be I assumed that their use is coeval with human dress of any kind, the earliest form doubtless being a natural thorn, such as is still often seen fastening the dresses of peasant | women in upper Egypt. Pins of bronze, and bronze brooches in which the pin is the essential feature, are of i common occurrence among the remains of the bronze age. Brooches and pins on which considerable artistic ingenuity was lavished were universally used among the civilized nations of antiquity (see BROOCH, vol. iv. p. 369). The ordinary domestic pin had become in the 15th century an article of sufficient importance in England to warrant legislative notice, as in 1483 the importation of pins was prohibited by statute. In 1540 Queen Catherine received pins from France, and again in 1543 an Act was passed providing that "no person shall put to sale any pinrtes but only such as shall be double headed, and have the heads soldered fast to the shank of the pinnes, well smoothed, the shank well shapen, the points well and round filed, canted, and sharpened." At that time pins of good quality were made of brass ; but a large proportion of those against which the legislative enactment was directed were made of iron wire blanched and passed as brass pins. To a large extent the supply of pins in England was received from France till about 1626, in which year the manufacture was introduced into Glou cestershire by John Tilsby. His business flourished so well that he soon gave employment to 1500 persons, and Stroud pins attained a high reputation. In 1636 the pinmakers of London formed a corporation, and the manufacture was subsequently established at Bristol and Birmingham, the latter town ultimately becoming the principal centre of the industry. So early as 1775 the attention of the enterprising colonists in Carolina was drawn to the manufacture by the offer of prizes for the first native-made pins and needles. At a later date several
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