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P M O
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PABOS, in botany. See Caamiki. PACA, in zoology, the name of an American animal of the Guinea-pig kind, having the general characters of the rat kind, and the voice and hair of the hog. This Is the largeft of all the animals of this kind, being of the ftze of a (mall pig, and ufually very fat. Its head is like ■that of a rabbit, and its beard long, and refembling that of the hare : its ears are naked, and a little pointed ; its noitnls very wide and large; the upper chop is longer than the under one, and the hinder legs than the fore ones. Its feet have all four toes a-piece; its hair is hard and harm, like that of a hog, and of a dufky brown colour: it has feveral grey fpots difpofed in a longitudinal direftion along the fides, and its belly is white. It does not ufe its fore feet in the nature ot hands, as the other fpecies do, but eats it on the ground in the manner of the hog. It is ufually fat, and the flefh very well rafted. Rays Syn. Quad p. 226. PACAMO, in zoology, the name of a long-bodied fifh of the muftela kind, caught among the rocks, and of a very well- tailed flefh- It is ufually about eleven fingers long, and grows narrower and fmaller toward the tail. Its head is large, broad, and thick. Its mouth is of the fhape of a half-moon, and has veryfolid, but not fharp teeth. Its eyes are final!, black, and placed very clofe together. Behind the gills are two fins foft and skinny j and lower on its belly, two more. Its back and belly fin, which runs from the middle of the back to the anus, is very foft and fkinny alfo ; the tail fin is more than a finger long, and is fkinnv like the reft. The fkin is fmooth, and has on each fide four rows of white fpots running from the gills to the tail. Its fkin eafily flips off from the body like that of an eel. Ma>ggrave% Hift. Braf. p. 113. PACHODECARHOMB1S, in natural hiftory, the name of a genus of foffils, of the clafs of the felenitse. The word is derived from the Greek: va^vt thick, h*a ten, tnd gip&s, a rhombus, and expreffes a thick rhomboidal body, compofed of ten planes. See Tab. of Foff. Clafs 2. The characters of this genus are, that the felenitse of it con- fift of ten planes ; but as the top and bottom in the leptode- carhombes, or moft common kind of the felenitse, are broader and larger planes than any of the reft, the great thicknefs of this genus, on the contrary, make its four longer planes in all the bodies of it, meeting in an obtufe angle from its fides, its largeft planes. HUH Hift. of Kofi", p. 1 20. Of this genus there are only four known fpecies: r. Avery pellucid one, with {lender tranfverfe ftrise. This is frequent in the clay-pits of Northamptonfhire, and fome other coun- ties ; and the ordinary people have an opinion, that it is good to ftop hemorrhages; whence it has acquired among them the common name of Jiauncb. 2. A dull-looking kind, with very fine tranfverfe filaments. This is found in the clay-pits of Northamptonfhire, Staftbrdfhirc, and Yorkfbire. 3. A fine and beautiful kind, with very flender longitudinal fila- ments. This is common in Yorkfhire, and feems almoft pe- culiar to that county ; it is not only found there in digging, but frequently lies on the furface of the earth. And 4. A brown pellucid kind, found very frequently in Germany, and fometimes in England. Bill's Hift. of Kofi", p. 130—133. PACHUNTICA, a term ufed by fome medical writers to ex-
prefs incraflating medicines; PACOS, in zoology, the name of a fpecies of camel, ufually, but very improperly accounted a fpecies of flieep ; and known among many by the name of the Indian Jheep, or Peruvian fijeep.
It very much refembles that fpecies of camel ufually known by the name of glama, and found in the fame countries ; but this is much fmaller, and is much lefs tractable, and a very obftinate animal.
The reafon of this creature's having been accounted a fheep, is, that its hair is fo long as to refemble wooll, and it is cloathed prodigioufly thick with it. Its head and neck alone, have more wooll on them than the whole body of our largeft fheep. Its body is cloathed in the fame proportion with a woolly hair, equally fine. It is a much weaker creature than the glama, and is never u^ed for carrying burthens, but is kept as our fheep for the fake of its wooll and its flefh, which is very well-tafted, and is a rich food. Ray's Syn Quad. p. 147, PACQUING, in natural hiftory, a name given by the people of the Philippine iflands to a fmall bird of the fparrow kind. but very beautifully variegated. It feeds on the feeds of grafs. PADDLE, in glafs-making, the name of an inftrument with which the workman ftirs about the fand and afhes in the cal car. Neiis Art of Glafs, Appendix. PiECILIA, in ichthyology, a name given by Schoneveldt % and fome others b , to the fifh called by moft authors the mujhlafof-
ftlis. It is properly a fpecies of tobitis, and is called by Ar- I tedi the bluijb ccbiiis, with five longitudinal black lines on the
body.— [*Scbmoveldt deFifc. HVWughby's Hift.Pifc.p. 124.] P^DARTHROCACES, in furgery, is a difeafe of the bnnes, raifing them into tumors near the joints, and differing from the fpina ventofa, in that it is not attended either with vio- lent pains, or erofions of the bone and adjacent parts. The word is derived from the Greek irm\ a child, *ftfm a joint, and Kxy.lv an evil, fignifying that it is a diforder of the joints, to which children are principally fubject; which is the cafe, becaufe the bones of children being fofter than thofe of adults, are therefore the more ealily diftended by humors, and more frequently raifed into tumors : thefe are hard in this cafe, and the adjacent foft parts are not inflated, and are free from red- nefs, inflammation and pain. It is, however, to be obfeiv- ed, that this diforder, tho' at firft very different from the fpina ventofa, is fometimes known to degenerate into that diforder. Heijier's Surg, p 261. P./EDEROTA, in botany, a name by which Linnaeus has dif-' tinguifhed a plant nearly related to the veronicas or fpeedwells, and called bonarota, by Micheli. This, in the Linna?an fyl'- tern of botany, is alfo a diftindt genus of plants, the cha- racters of which are, that the cup is a perianthium, divided into four fegments, and remaining after the flower is fallen. The feveral fegments are ftrait and pointed ; the flower is compofed of a fingle petal, which forms a cylindric tube, nearly of the length of the cup, placed erect at its extremity, and divided into two labia ; the upper of which is long, hol- low, and narrow ; the under expanded, but fomewhat erect, broadeft in its upper part, lightly divided into three fegmencs., and thofe all equal. The ftamina are two filaments bent down- ward, and of the fame length with the cup : the anthene are fomewhat erect : the piftil has a round ifh germen, a thread- like ftyle of the (lime length with the ftamina, and a trun- cated ftigma. The fruit is a flatted capfule of an oval figure, but bifid"and pointed at the top, confifting of two cells with four valves. The feeds are very numerous, oblong, and ob- tufe, and adhere to a columnar receptacle. Linnai Genera Plantar, p. 4. P^deuota, among fome of the old botanical writers, is alfo a name given to the acanthus, or bear's-breech. Ger. Emac. Tnd. 2. PI^DOTHYSIA, nmS'Aw-ia., in antiquity, an inhuman cuftom that prevailed among the antient Heathens of facrificing their children. 7 nus it is re'ated in the Scriptures, that the king of Moab being befieged by the Ifraelites in his capital, and reduced to great ftraits, took his eldeft fon that fhould have reigned in his ftead, and offered him for a burnt offering up- on the wall, on which the fiege was raifed. 2 Kings iii. 27. From Phoenicia this cruel practice paffed into Europe, and Africa, and fpread itfelf far and wide : and it is reported, that the Mexicans are, at prefent, guilty of it. Hofm. Lex. in voc. PiENULA, among the Romans, a thick garment fit for a de- fence aga'mft cold and rain. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. in voc. P./EONIA, picny, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe: The flower is of the ro- faceous kind, confifting of feveral petals difpofed in a circular form. The cup is alfo compofed of feveral leaves, and from it arifes a piftil, which finally becomes a fruit, compofed, as it were, of feveral capfules collected into a head : thefe all bend downwards, and are ufually hoary ; they fplit open lon- gitudinally wlien ripe, and contain roundilh (eeds. The fpecies of fi'.ny, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe: 1. The common male piony, with a Alining blackifti flower. 2. The male pi any, with fUifh- colon red flowers. 3. The white-flowered male puny, 4. The male piony, with larger fegments to the leaves. 5. The great male pijny, with f! em-coloured flowers. 6. The late flowering male piony. 7. The common female piony 8. The narrower-leaved fe- male piony. 9. The broader-leaved female piony. 10. The dwarf rofe-flowered winter piony. 11. The purple-flowered pinny, with finely divided leaves, hoary underneath. 12. The whitifh-flowered piony, with leaves hoary underneath. 13. The aquiline-leaved piony. 14. The orange-coloured piony. 15. The piony with variegated flowers-. 16. The piony with very deep-red flowers. 17. The Conftantinople piony, with pale-red flowers. 18. The large- flowered double deep red piony. 7Cj. The fmaller-flowcred double deep red piony. 20. The common piony, with double large pale red flowers. 21. The common piony, with fmaller double pale ied.flowers. 22. The final Icr-flowered whitifh double piony. Tourn. Lift. p. 273. See Piony. P/EONITES, in natural hiftory, a name given by fome wri r ers to the ftone called by others pet-amiss, and cfteemed of great
