The vibrations or tremors excited in the air by percussion continue a little time to move from the place of percussion in concentric spheres to great Newton's Opticks.

distances.

Marbles taught him percussion and the laws of motion, and tops the centrifugal motion. Arbuthnot. PERCUSSION, in mechanics, the impression a body makes in falling or striking upon another; or the shock of two bodies in motion.

PERCY (Thomas), a learned prelate, related to the family of Northumberland, was born at Bridgenorth in Shropshire in 1728, and educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his master's degree in 1753, and, on entering into orders, was presented to the vicarage of Easton Mauduit in Northamptonshire, which he held with the rectory of Wilby. In 1769 he was made chaplain to the king, in 1778 promoted to the deanery of Carlisle, and in 1782 advanced to the bishopric of Dromore in Ireland, where he died in 1811. His works are, 1. Han Kiou Chouan, a translation from the Chinese; 2. Chinese Miscellanies; 3. Five Pieces of Runic Poetry, translated from the Icelandic Language. 4. A new Translation of the Song of Solomon; 5. Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, 3 vols.; 6. A key to the New Testament; 7. The Northumberland Household Book; 8. The Hermit of Warkworth, a poem, in the ballad style; 9. A Translation of Mallet's Northern Antiquities. PERCY ISLES, a chain of islands in the South Pacific, near the north-east coast of New Holland. They extend from about lat. 21° 32′ to 21° 45′ S., and are distant about thirty miles from the main land. They were visited by Flinders in 1802, who laid down their bearings, and gave them this

Quick let us part! Perdition's in thy presence, And horror dwells about thee! Addison's Cato.

PERDIX, in ornithology, a genus of birds, belonging to the order of gallina, ranked by Linnæus along with the genus tetrao, or grous; but now very properly disjoined by Dr. Latham, and classed as a distinct genus, of which he describes the following characters:-The bill is convex, strong, and short; the nostrils are covered above with a callous prominent rim: the orbits are papillose; the feet naked; and most of the genus are furnished with spurs. There are fortyeight species, of which the two principal are the partridge and quail.

1. P. communis, the common partridge, is so well known, that a description of it is unnecessary, and we have not room to describe the foreign species. We refer those who wish complete information to Dr. Latham's valuable System of Ornithology. Partridges are found in every country and in every climate; as well in the frozen regions about the pole, as the torrid tracks under the equator. In Greenland, the partridge, which is brown in summer, as soon as the icy winter sets in, is clothed with a warm down beneath; and its outward plumage assumes the color of the snow among which it seeks its food. Those of Barakonda, on the other hand, are longer legged, much swifter of foot, and choose the highest rocks and precipices to reside in. They all, however, agree in one character, of being immoderately addicted to venery.

P. coturnix, or common quail, is not above half the size of the partridge. The feathers of the head are black, edged with rusty brown; the breast is of a pale yellowish red, spotted with black; the feathers on the back are marked with lines of pale yellow, and the legs are of a pale hue. Except in the colors thus described, and the size, it every way resembles a partridge in shape, and, except that it is a bird of passage, it is like all others of the poultry kind in its habits and nature. The quail seems to be an inhabitant of every climate. It is observed to shift quarters according to the season, coming north in spring, and departing in autumn, and in vast flocks. On the west coast of Naples, within four or five miles, 100,000 have been taken in a day. In England they are not numerous at any time. They feed like the partridge, and make no nest, except a few dry leaves or stalks scraped together; and sometimes a hollow on the bare ground suffices. In this the female lays six or seven eggs, of a whitish color, marked with irregular rust-colored spots: the young follow the mother as soon as hatched, like young partridges. They have but one brood in a year. Quailfighting was a favorite amusement among the Athenians. They abstained from the flesh of this bird, deeming it unwholesome, as supposing that it fed upon the white hellebore: but they reared great numbers of them for the pleasure of seeing them fight, and staked sums of money, as we do with regard to cocks, upon the success of the combat. With us its flesh is considered as a very great delicacy. Quails are easily caught by a call.

PERDUE', adv. From the French perdue or forlorn hope as perdue or advanced sentinel. Close; in ambush.

:

PER DURABLE, adj. Fr. perdurable; Lat. perduro. Lasting; long continued. A word not in use.

Confess me knit to thy deserving with cables of perdurable toughness. Shakspeare. Othello.

O perdurable shame! let's stab ourselves.

Shakspeare.
Why should he, for the momentary trick,
Be perdurably fined. Id. Measure for Measure.
The vig'rous sweat

Doth lend the lively springs their perdurable heat.
Drayton.

PERECOP, an ancient fortress in the south of the isthmus which joins the peninsula of the Crimea to the continent. It is the ancient Taphræ. In the neighbourhood are lakes, on the surface of which a great quantity of salt crystallises naturally, in May, June, and July. This salt is collected and sold to the average amount of 20,000 waggon loads yearly.

He may have fifty-six exceptions peremptorily against the jurors, of which he shall show no cause.

Spenser.

As touching the apostle, wherein he was so resolute and peremptory, our Lord Jesus Christ made manifest unto him, even by intuitive revelation, wherein there was no possibility of error.

Not death himself

In mortal fury is half so peremptory,

Hooker.

As we to keep this city. Shakspeare. King John. Not to speak peremptorily or conclusively, touching the point of possibility, till they have heard me de

duce the means of the execution.

If I entertaine

Bacon.

As peremptorie a desire, to levell with the plaine
A citie, where they loved to live; stand not betwixt
my ire
And what it aims at.

Chapman. Daniel.

Norfolk denies them peremptorily. In all conferences it was insisted peremptorily, that the king must yield to what power was required. Clarendon,

Self-conceit and peremptoriness in a man's own opinions are not commonly reputed vices. Tillotson.

God's laws peremptorily injoin us, and the things therein implied do straitly oblige us to partake of the holy sacrament. Kettlewell.

Though the text and the doctrine run peremptory be denied by him; yet still there is a tacit condition, and absolute, whosoever denies Christ shall assuredly unless repentance intervene.

South.

He would never talk in such a peremptory and discouraging manner, were he not assured that he was able to subdue the most powerful opposition against the doctrine which he taught.

Addison.

PERENNIAL, adj. ? Lat. perennis. LastPEREN'NITY, n. s. Sing through the year: quality of lasting through all seasons.

The matter wherewith these perennial clouds are raised, is the sea that surrounds them. Harvey. If the quantity were precisely the same in these perennial fountains the difficulty would be greater. Cheyne. That springs have their origin from the sea, and not from rains and vapours, I conclude from the perennity of divers springs.

Derham's Physico-Theology. PERENNIALS, OF PERENNIAL FLOWERS, in botany, a term applied to those plants whose roots will abide many years, whether they retain their leaves in winter or not. Those which retain their leaves are called evergreens; but such as cast their leaves are named deciduous, or perdifols.

Fr. parfait; Latin, perfectus. Complete; full;

PERFECT, adj. & v. a. PERFECTER, n. s. PERFECTION, PERFECTIONATE, v. a. consummate; cerPERFECTIVE, adj. tain; due; not PERFECTIVELY, adv. defective or rePERFECTNESS, n. s. j dundant; blameless; pure to perfect is to finish; make complete; conclude; make skilful, or fully to instruct a perfecter is he who makes perfect: perfection and perfectness mean completeness; goodness; virtue; supreme excellence: to perfectionate, a word only used by Dryden for to advance to perfection: perfective is having the tendency to make perfect: perfectively, in such manner as brings to perfection.

If perfeccioun was bi the preesthood of leuy, for undir hym the peple took the lawe, what ghit was it nedeful another preest to rise bi the ordre of Melchisedech? Wiclif. Ebrewis vii. Put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Col. iii. 14. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.

Deut. xviii.

I'll perfect him withal, and he shall bring you Id. Measure for Measure. I do not take myself to be so perfect in the privileges of Bohemia as to handle that part; and will

not offer at that I cannot master.

Bacon.

We know bodies and their properties most perfectly. Id. Eternal life shall not consist in endless love; the other faculties shall be employed in actions suitable to, and perfective of their nature.

Prior.

Ray on the Creation. What toil did honest Curio take To get one medal wanting yet, And perfect all his Roman set? As virtue is seated fundamentally in the intellect, so perfectively in the fancy; so that virtue is the force of reason in the conduct of our actions and passions to a good end. Grew.

Too few, or of an improper figure and dimension, to do their duty in perfection. Blackmore.

If God be infinitely holy, just, and good, he must take delight in those creatures that resemble him most in these perfections. Atterbury.

Whoever thinks a perfect work to see, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be.

Pope.

This practice was altered; they offered not to Mercury, but to Jupiter the perfecter. Broome. The question is, not whether gospel perfection can be fully attained, but whether you come as near it as a sincere intention and careful diligence can carry Law. you. PERFECTIBILITY, a word which we owe to the new philosophy, which made so great a noise in the first stages of the French revolution. As far as we understand, the word perfectibility is pretended, in the writings of that disastrous period, to mean the ultimate and absolute perfection to which man and society have a natural and necessary tendency; and which, we were told, neither the tyranny of kings nor the bigotry of priests could eventually restrain.

PERFECTION is divided, according to some writers, into physical, moral, and metaphysical. 1. PERFECTION, METAPHYSICAL, TRANSCENDENTAL, or ESSENTIAL, is the possession of all the essential attributes, or of all the parts necessary to the integrity of a substance: or it is that whereby a thing has or is provided of every thing belonging to its nature. This is either absolute, where all imperfection is excluded, such as the perfection of God; or secundum quid,

and in its kind.

2. PERFECTION, MORAL, is an eminent degree of virtue or moral goodness, to which men arrive by repeated acts of piety, beneficence, &c. This is usually subdivided into absolute or inherent, which is actually in him to whom we attribute it; and imputative, which exists in some other, and not in him it is attributed to.

3. PERFECTION, PHYSICAL, or NATURAL, is that whereby a thing has all its powers and faculties, and those too in full vigor; and all its parts both principal and secondary, and those in their due proportion, constitution, &c., in which sense man is said to be perfect when he has a sound mind in a sound body. This perfection is by the schools frequently termed EveрYNTIKη, because a thing is enabled thereby to perform all its operations.

Fr. perfidie; Lat. perfidia. Treachery; want of faith; breach of faith: perfidious

PERFIDY, n. s. PERFIDIOUS, adj. PERFIDIOUSLY, adv. PERFIDIOUSNESS, n. s.. is treacherous; false to trust.

The first consideration in building of cities is to make them open, airy, and well perflated.

Arbuthnet on Air. PERFORATE, v. a. Į Lat. perforo. To PERFORATION, N. S. Spierce with a tool; bore; act of boring or piercing.

Draw the bough of a low fruit tree newly budded without twisting, into an earthen pot perforate at the bottom, and then cover the pot with earth; it will yield a very large fruit. Bacon's Natural History. The likeliest way is the perforation of the body of the tree in several places one above another, and the filling of the holes.

Bacon.

second joints of fingers and toes, and the drawing

The industrious perforation of the tendons of the

the tendons of the third joints through them. More's Divine Dialogues.

A perforated bladder does not swell. Boyle. That the nipples should be made spongy, and with such perforations as to admit passage to the milk, are arguments of providence.

Ray on the Creation. The aperture was limited by an opaque circle placed between the eye-glass and the eye, and perforated in the middle with a little round hole for the rays to pass through to the eye.

Newton.

The laboured chyle pervades the pores, In all the arterial perforated shores. Blackmore. Worms perforate the guts. Arbuthnot.

The patient, placed in a convenient chair, dipping the trocar in oil, stab it suddenly through the teguments, and, withdrawing the perforator, leave the waters to empty by the canula. Sharp.

And such in ancient halls and mansions drear

May still be seen; but perforated sore,
And drilled in holes, the solid oak is found,
By worms voracious eaten through and through,
Cowper.
PERFORCE', adv. Per and force. By vio-
lence; violently.

Guyon to him leaping, staid

His hand, that trembled as one terrified;
And though himself were at the sight dismayed,
Yet him perforce restrained.

Spenser.

Shakspeare.

Jealous Oberon would have the child, But she perforce withholds the loved boy.