_Physician in Ordinary to the Queen_: The physician who attends the Queen in ordinary cases of illness.

_Pitt, William_: A celebrated English statesman, son of the Earl of Chatham. He was born May 28th, 1759, and at the age of twenty-three was made Chancellor of the Exchequer, and soon afterward Prime Minister.

He died January 23d, 1806.

_Political Economy_: The science which treats of the general causes affecting the production, distribution, and consumption of articles of exchangeable value, in reference to their effects upon national wealth and welfare.

_Pollen_: The fertilizing dust of flowers, produced by the stamens and falling upon the pistils in order to render a flower capable of producing fruit or seed.

_Potter"s clay_: The clay used in making articles of pottery.

_Prairie_: A French word, signifying meadow. In the United States, it is applied to the remarkable natural meadows or plains which are found in the Western States. In some of these vast and nearly level plains, the traveler may wander for days without meeting with wood or water, and see no object rising above the plane of the horizon. They are very fertile.

_Prime Minister_: The person appointed by the ruler of a nation to have the chief direction and management of the public affairs.

_Process_: A protuberance or projecting part of a bone.

_Pulmonary_: Belonging to or affecting the lungs.

_Pulmonary artery_: An artery which pa.s.ses through the lungs, being divided into several branches, which form a beautiful network over the air-vessels, and finally empty themselves into the left auricle of the heart.

_Puritans_: A sect which professed to follow the pure word of G.o.d in opposition to traditions, human const.i.tutions, and other authorities.

In the reign, of Queen Elizabeth, part of the Protestants were desirous of introducing a simpler, and, as they considered it, a _purer_ form of church government and worship than that established by law, from which circ.u.mstance they were called _Puritans_. In process of time, this party increased in numbers and openly broke off from the church, laying aside the English liturgy, and adopting a service-book published at Geneva by the disciples of Calvin. They were treated with great rigor by the government, and many of them left the kingdom and settled in Holland.

Finding themselves not so eligibly situated in that country as they had expected to be, a portion of them embarked for America, and were the first settlers of New England.

_Quixotic_: Absurd, romantic, ridiculous; from _Don Quixote_, the hero of a celebrated fict.i.tious work written by Cervantes, a distinguished Spanish writer, and intended to reform the tastes and opinions of his country-men.

_Reeking_: Smoking, emitting vapor.

_Residue_: The remainder or part which remains.

_Routine_: A round or course of engagements, business, pleasure, etc.

_To Run a seam_: To lay the two edges of a seam together and pa.s.s the threaded needle out and in, with small st.i.tches, a few threads below the edge and on a line with it.

_To Run a stocking_: To pa.s.s a thread of yarn, with a needle, straight along each row of the stocking, as far as is desired, taking up one loop and missing two or three, until tie row is completed, so as to double the thickness at the part which is run.

_Sabbatical year_: Every seventh year among the Jews, which was a year of rest for the land, when it was to be left without culture. In this year, all debts were to be remitted, and slaves set at liberty. See Exodus 21:2:23:10; Leviticus 25:2, 3, etc.; Deuteronomy 15:12; and other similar pa.s.sages.

_Saleratus_: See _Pearlash_.

_Sal ammoniac_: A salt, called also muriate of ammonia, which derives its name from a district in Libya, Egypt, where there was a temple of Jupiter Ammon, and where this salt was found.

_Scotch Highlanders_: Inhabitants of the Highlands of Scotland.

_Selvedge_: The edge of cloth, a border. Improperly written _selvage_.

_Service-book_: A book prescribing the order of public services in a church or congregation.

_Sharps_: See _Blunts_.

_Shorts_: The coa.r.s.er part of wheat bran.

_Shrubbery_: A plantation of shrubs.

_Siberia_: A large country in the extreme northern part of Asia, having the Frozen Ocean on the north, and the Pacific Ocean on the east, and forming a part of the Russian empire. The northern part is extremely cold, almost uncultivated, and contains but few inhabitants. It furnishes fine skins, and some of the most valuable furs in the world. It also contains rich mines of iron and copper, and several kinds of precious stones.

_Sinclair, Sir John_: Of whom it was said, "There is no greater name in the annals of agriculture than his," was born in Caithness, Scotland, May 10th, 1754, and became a member of the British Parliament in 1780.

He was strongly opposed to the measures of the British government toward America, which produced the American Revolution. He was author of many valuable publications on various subjects. He died December 21st, 1835.

_Sirloin_: The loin of beef. The appellation "sir" is the t.i.tle of a knight or baronet, and has been added to the word "loin," when applied to beef, because a king of England, in a freak of good humor, once conferred the honor of knighthood upon a loin of beef.

_Slack_: To loosen, to relax, to deprive of cohesion.

_Soda_: An alkali, usually obtained from the ashes of marine plants.

To _Spade_: To throw out earth with a spade.

_Spermaceti_: An oily substance found in the head of a species of whale called the spermaceti whale.

_Spindling_: Shooting into a long, small stalk.

_Spinous process_: A process or bony protuberance, resembling a spine or thorn, whence it derives its name.

_Spool_: A piece of cane or reed or a hollow cylinder of wood, with a ridge at each end, used to wind yarn and thread upon.

_Stamen_, (plural, _stamens_ and _stamina_:) In _weaving_, the warp, the thread, any thing made of threads. In _botany_, that part of a flower on which the artificial cla.s.sification is founded, consisting of the filament or stalk, and the anther, which contains the pollen or fructifying powder.

_Stigma_, (plural _stigmas_ and _stigmata_:) The summit or top of the pistil of a flower.

_Style_ or Stile: The part of the pistil between the germ and the stigma.

_Sub-carbonate_: An imperfect carbonate.

_Sulphate, Sulphates, Sulphites_: Salts formed by the combination of some base with sulphuric acid, as _Sulphate of copper_, (blue vitriol or blue stone,) a combination of sulphuric acid with copper.

_Sulphate of iron_: Copperas or green vitriol. _Sulphate of lime_: Gypsum or plaster of Paris. _Sulphate of magnesia_: Epsom salts.

_Sulphate of potash_: A chemical salt, composed of sulphuric acid and potash. _Sulphate of soda_: Glauber"s salts. _Sulphate of zinc_:

White vitriol. _Sulphuret_: A combination of an alkaline earth or metal with sulphur, as _Sulphuret of iron_, a combination of iron and sulphur. _Sulphuric acid_: Oil of vitriol, vitriolic acid.

_Suture_: A sewing; the uniting of parts by st.i.tching; the seamor joint which unites the flat bones of the skull, which are notched like the teeth of a saw, and the notches, being united together, present the appearance of a seam.

_Tartar_: A substance, deposited on the inside of wine casks, consisting chiefly of tartaric acid and potash.

_Cream of tartar_: The crude tartar separated from all its impurities by being dissolved in water and then crystallized, when it becomes a perfectly white powder.

_Tartaric acid_: A vegetable acid which exists in the grape.

_Technology_: A description of the arts, considered generally in their theory and practice as connected with moral, political, and physical science.