northern part is mountainous, the south-west di- bank. POROSIS, in medicine, wpwo, the breed ing of callous or hard matter. PORPHYRIUS, a famous Platonic philosopher, born at Tyre in 233, in the reign of Alexander Severus. He was the disciple of Longinus, and became the ornament of his school at Athens; thence he went to Rome, and attended After Plotinus, with whom he lived six years. Plotinus's death he taught philosophy at Rome with great applause; and became well skilled in polite literature, geography, astronomy, and music. He lived till the end of the third century, and died in the reign of Dioclesian. There are still extant his book on the Categories of Aristotle; a Treatise on Abstinence from Flesh; and several other pieces in Greek. They were printed at Cambridge in 1655, 8vo., with a Latin version. He also composed a large treatise against It was the Christian religion, which is lost. answered by Methodius, Eusebius, St. Jerome, &c. The emperor Theodosius the Great caused it to be burnt in 338. PORPHYRE, n. s. Į From Fr. porphyre; PORPHYRY. Gr. noppupa; Lat. por phyrites. Marble of a particular kind. I like best the porphyry, white or green marble, with a mullar or upper stone of the same. Peacham. Consider, the red and white colours in porphyre hinder light; but from striking on it, its colours vanish, and produce no such ideas in us; but, upon the return of light, it produces these appearances again. saxa. Locke. PORPHYRY, in the old system of mineralogy, was a genus of stones ranking in the order of It is found of several different colors, as green, deep red, purple, black, dark brown, and gray. The porphyry of the ancients is a most elegant mass of an extremely firm and compact structure, remarkably heavy, and of a fine strong purple, variegated more or less with pale red and white; its purple is of all degrees, from the claret color to that of the violet; and its variegations are rarely disposed in veins, but spots, sometimes very small, and at others running into large blotches. It is less fine than many of the ordinary marbles; but it excels them all in hardness, and is capable of a most elegant polish. It is still found in immense strata in Egypt. The hard red-lead colored porphyry, variegated with black, white, and green, is a most beautiful and valuable substance. It has the hardness and all the other characters of the oriental porphyry, and even greatly excels it in brightness, beauty, It is found in great and variegation of colors. There are three famous obelisks of porphyry Porphyry is defined by Dr. Ure as a compound rock, having a basis, in which the other contemporaneous constituent parts are imbedded. The base is sometimes claystone, sometimes hornstone, sometimes compact felspar; or pitchstone, pearlstone, and obsidian. The imbedded parts are most commonly felspar and quartz, which are usually crystallised more or less perfectly, and hence they appear sometimes granular. According to Werner there are two distinct porphyry formations; the oldest occurs in Athole and Dalnacardoch, there is a very fine example of a bed of porphyry-slate in mica. The second porphyry formation is much more widely extended. It consists principally of clay porphyry, while the former consists chiefly of hornstone porphyry and felspar porphyry. It sometimes contains considerable repositories of ore, in vems. Gold, silver, lead, tin, copper, iron, and manganese occur in it; but chiefly in the newer porphyry, as happens with the Hungarian mines. It occurs in Arran, and in Perthshire between Dalnacardoch and Tummel-bridge. The columns of porphyry at Rome,' observes a writer in Dr. Brewster's Journal, are not nearly of so large a size as the large columns of granite. The urn of Constanza and the urn of Helena are each composed of a very large block of porphyry; and the great tazza or saucershaped reservoir in the rotunda of the Museo Pio-Clementino is of one great piece of porphyry. Pliny says that sculptors began to work in porphyry only in the reign of Claudius. Vopiscus mentions porphyry. The room in which the princes of the Greek empire were born was incrusted with porphyry, and the princes born in this room were called Porphyrogeneti. The name porphyry, or purple, applied to this stone, was taken from the ancient purple dye, made of the shell-fish called porphyrios, which was got near Tyre. It is, therefore, supposed that the ancient dye was of the dull red color which this stone exhibits. A small grained greenish porphyry is sometimes found, but much more rarely than the red porphyry, amongst the remains of ancient art at Rome; it is quite different from the antique green serpentine. PORPITES, the hair-button stone, in natural history, a name given by authors to a small species of fossil coral; which is usually of a rounded figure, considerably flatted, and striated from the centre every way to the circumference. These are of different sizes, and of different colors, as grayish, whitish, brownish, or bluish, and are usually found immersed in stone. PORPOISE, n. s. Į POR'PUS. Fr. porc poisson. The S sea-hog. And swallowing porpice sport and lord it in the flood. Drayton. Amphibious animals link the terrestrial and aquatick together; seals live at land and at sea, and porpoises have the warm blood and entrails of a hog. Locke. Parch'd with unextinguish'd thirst, Small beer I guzzle till I burst; And then a drag a bloated corpus Swell'd with a dropsy like a porpus. PORPOISE, CAPE, a cape of North America, on the coast of York county, Maine, seven Swift. leagues north by east of cape Neddock, and five south-west of Wood Island. It is known by the high lands of Kennebunk, on its north-west quarter. A vessel that draws ten feet will be aground at low water in the harbour, and it is so narrow that a vessel cannot turn. It is within 100 yards of the sea, and secure from all winds. Long. 70° 23′ W., lat. 43° 22′ N. PORRACEOUS, adj. Fr. porrace; Latin porraceus. Greenish. If the lesser intestines be wounded, he will be troubled with porraceous vomiting. Wiseman's Surgery. POR'RET, n. s. Lat porrum. A scallion. It is not an easy problem to resolve why garlick, molys and porrets have white roots, deep green leaves, and black seeds. Browne. PORSENNA, a king of Etruria, contemporary with Tarquin II. king of Rome, whom he endeavoured to restore after his banishment, and fought against the Roman republicans at first with such success that he laid siege to Rome, but the courage of Cocles and Scævola obliged him to retire. See ROME, and MUTIUS. PORSON (Richard), a late eminent Greek scholar, was born at East Ruston, in Norfolk, on Christmas-day, 1759. His father was in the humble condition of a parish clerk; but he was a man of great natural vigor of mind. To his father's care and direction in the commencement of his education, and particularly to his mode of cultivating the faculty of memory, this eminent linguist owed many of the high attainments which he afterwards made. By his father's aid he made a considerable progress in writing and mathematical calculations before he had completed his ninth year, and from that period till he was twelve he was placed under the village schoolmaster, of the name of Summers. Person derived his first instruction in classical learning from the rector of the parish, Mr. Hewitt. When he had passed the age of fourteen it was thought necessary to send him to a public school; and the means were chiefly supplied by the late Mr. Norris. In August 1774 he went, therefore, to Eton, with a temporary provision of £80 a year. He was from thence removed to Trinity College, Cambridge, in the end of 1777.. For a time he devoted himself to the study of mathematics; but he shortly after devoted himself entirely to classical literature. In 1781 he was elected by the vice-chancellor, the five regius professors, and the public orator, to a Craven scholarship. In 1782 he obtained a gold medal for his classical proficiency; and when he took his bachelor's degree he stood in the list of senior optimes. He was soon after elected a fellow of Trinity College, and took his master's degree in 1785. By the statutes he was obliged, in seven years after, either to take orders, and proceed bachelor of divinity, or to lose his fellowship. Having unfortunately imbibed Socinian opinions, he came to the honorable resolution, in 1791, of resigning. The college and university have been much blamed for driving from their bosom such a man, but without reason: the statutes leave no alternative. He was, however, recalled in 1792, in the most creditable manner, to succeed W. Cooke, M. A. of King's College, as Greek professor. In 1795 he married Mrs. Lunan, a sister of Mr. Perry, editor of the Morning Chronicle, to which paper Porson was a frequent contributor. He was afterwards appointed principal librarian of the London Institution, and resided chiefly at their house in the city, where he died. In 1785 he added notes to a new edition of Xenophon's Anabasis, originally edited at Oxford by Hutchinson. In 1790 he added Nota breves ad Toupii Emendationes in Suidam, and Notæ in curas Novissimas, to a new Oxford edition of Emendationes in Suidam et Hesychium, et alios Lexicographos Græcos. In the same year he published with his name, Letters to Mr. Archdeacon Travis, in answer to his defence of the Three Heavenly Witnesses, &c., written certainly with great spirit, learning, and wit, but perhaps with too little respect for his learned adversary. In 1793 he corrected the press of a new edition of Heyne's Virgil, wrote a short preface, and added a few conjectural criticisms, &c. Porson possessed a copy of Pauw's edition of Eschylus, corrected throughout by himself. Having lent it to a friend, a surreptitious edition was published. Schultz printed another in Germany, adding, with just respect and admiration, the corrections and new readings of Porson. In 1797 he published the Hecuba of Euripides, in 1 vol. 8vo., with many emendations from MSS., notes, and a learned vindication. pro A MS. copy of the Lexicon of Photius, patriarch of Constantinople in 857, &c., belongs to Trinity College. On the transcription of this valuable remnant for the press from the original, which had become nearly obliterated, the fessor bestowed the labor of ten months, which, after all, was lost by an accidental fire at Merton, in Surry. Fortunately he himself was absent, and had the original with him. He lost a play of Eschylus, ready for the press, in the same fire. It is a singular proof of Porson's industry, that he sat down, without a murmur, and made a new transcript of the Patriarch's Lexicon, VOL. XVII. equal, it is said, in correctness, to a fac simile. In spring 1797 his wife died of a consumption. He had himself narrowly escaped this fatal disease in his early youth; and after his wife's death was incessantly afflicted with a spasmodic asthma for nearly twelve years, which doubtless deprived the world of many rich fruits of his learning. In September 1808, having experienced for some time a general debility, he fell into an intermittent fever, which was succeeded by two successive strokes of apoplexy, on the 19th and 20th of that month. He languished after this till Sunday the 25th, when he expired without a struggle. His body was removed from the London Institution to Cambridge, where he was buried in the chapel of Trinity College, on Tuesday the 4th of October, with every mark of Honor which the college could confer. His tracts and miscellaneous criticisms have been published by Mr. Kidd. Sax. ponte; Fr. porte; Lat. porta. "A gate: the aperture of a ship at which a gun is put out: portage is an obsolete word for port-hole: portal, a gate or gate-way: portcullis, a military defence of a gate. Shew all thy praises within the ports of the daughters of Sion. Psalm ix. 14. The city ports by this hath entered. Shakspeare. King Richard doth appear, Id. The mind of man hath two ports; the one always frequented by the entrance of manifold vanities; the other desolate and overgrown with grass, by which enter our charitable thoughts and divine contemplations. Raleigh, At Portsmouth the Mary Rose, by a little sway of the ship in casting about, her ports being within sixteen inches of the water, was overset and lost. Id. The cannon against St. Stephen's gate executed so well, that the portcullis and gate were broken, and Hayward. entry opened into the city. His force sustain, the torn portcullis talls. Denham. He through heaven, That opened wide her blazing portals, led To God's eternal house direct the way. 3 B Milton. Id. Come pouring in. to the ancients. Id. Id. The sick for air before the portal gasp. The portal consists of a composite order unknown Addison on Italy. Inscribed above the portal, kom afar Conspicuous as the brightness of a star; Legible only by the light they give, Stand the soul-quickening words-Relieve and live. Cowper. And now'-without the portal's porch she rushed, And then at length her tears in freedom gushed, Big-bright-and fast, unknown to her they fell, But still her lips refused to send- Farewell!' For in that word-that fatal word-howe'er We promise-hope-believe-there breathes despair. Byron. This thought, but thought amiss, that of himself And sooner than the devils hoped, arrived PORT', n. s. & v. a. Pollok. Fr. portée; Lat. porto. Carriage; air; mien; manner; bearing; external appearance: to carry in form: portage is the price of carriage: portly is, grand or great of mien portliness and portance corresponding. In that proud port, which her so goodly graceth, Whiles her fair face she rears up to the sky, And to the ground her eyelids low embraceth, Most goodly temperature ye may descry. Spenser. There stepped forth a goodly lady, That seemed to be a woman of great worth, And by her stately portance born of heavenly birth. Id. Their port was more than human, as they stood: I took it for a faiery vision Of some gay creatures of the element, Milton. Turned fiery red, sharpening in mooned horns Now lay the line and measure all thy court, Dryden. A portly prince, and goodly to the sight, He seemed a son of Anak for his height. Thy plumy crest H. Nods horrible, with more terrific port A proud man is so far from making himself great by his haughty and contemptuous port, that he is usually punished with neglect for it. Collier. PORT, n. s. Fr. port; Lat. portus. bour; a safe station for ships. Her small gondelay her port did make, And that gay pair, issuing on the shore, Disburden'd her. I should be still A har Spenser by nature or art to receive and shelter shipping A PORT, harbour, or haven, is formed either from the storms and waves of the open sea. Artificial ports are those which are either formed by throwing a strong mound or rampire across the harbour's mouth to some island or rock, or erecting two long barriers, which stretch from the land on each side like arms, or the horns of a crescent, and nearly enclose the haven; the former of these are called mole-heads, and the latter piers. PORT is also a name given on some occasions to the larboard or left side of the ship, as in the following instances. Thus it is said, the ship heels to port, i. e. stoops or inclines to the larboard side. Top the yard to port! the order to make the larboard extremity of a yard higher than the other. Port the helm! the order to put the helm over to the larboard side of the vessel. In all these senses this phrase appears intended to prevent any mistakes happening from the similarity of sounds in the words starboard and larboard, particularly when they relate to the helm, where a misapprehension might be attended with very dangerous consequences. PORT is also a strong wine brought from Portc or Oporto. PORT, in music, or PORT OF THE VOICE, the faculty or habit of making the shakes, passages, and diminutions, in which the beauty of a song or piece of music consists. PORT, in ships of war, the embrasure or opening in the side of a ship of war, wherein the artillery is ranged in battery upon the decks above and below. The ports are formed of a sufficient extent to point and fire the cannon, without in juring the ship's side by the recoil; and, as it serves no end to enlarge them beyond what is necessary for that purpose, the shipwrights have established certain dimensions by which they are cut in proportion to the size of the cannon. The ports are shut in at sea by a sort of hanging doors called the port lids; which are fastened by hinges to their upper edges, so as to let down when the cannon are drawn into the ship. Thus the water is prevented from entering the lower deck in a turbulent sea. The lower and upper edges of the ports are always parallel to the decks, so that the guns, when levelled in their carriages, are all equally high above the lower extremity of the ports, which is called the port cells. PORT, in geography, makes part of the names, both distinct and compounded, of a great number of bays, harbours, and sea port towns, in various places of the world. The principal of these, not elsewhere described by us, will be found below. PORT DALRYMPLE is a harbour or estuary on the north coast of Van Diemen's Land, into which the Tamar discharges itself, after receiving the North and South Esk rivers. At the union of the latter the Tamar is navigable by vessels of 150 tons. Kangaroos are found in numbers; ducks of various kinds, and black swans. A British settlement was sent out from Port Jackson, and established at Port Dalrymple, in 1804. An animal described as a species of striped hyena, but most probably of the opossum genus, is found here. It is said to have a remarkably large mouth, and to be very voracious. PORT DISCOVERY is a harbour on the northwest coast of America, in the gulf of Georgia, a little to the east of New Dungeness. It received its name from the ship commanded by Vancouver, in May 1792, who found here, in thirtyfour fathoms water, a muddy bottom, about a quarter of a mile from the shore. The entrance of the harbour is formed by low projecting points, extending on each side, from high woodland cliffs. A stream of water, near the ship's station, appeared to have its source at some distance. A few shrubs, that seemed to thrive luxuriantly, such as roses, sweetbriar, gooseberries, raspberries, currants, and other smaller bushes, were the vegetable productions. A few of the natives, in canoes, brought with them for sale some fish and venison. In their persons, canoes, and arms, these people resembled the inhabitants of Nootka, but were more cleanly. They wore ornaments in their ears; and some of them understood a few words of the Nootka language. They were clothed in deer and bear skins, well wrought; and, what was felt extraordinary, offered for sale, for some copper, two children, each about six or seven years of age. The entrance of the port is in long. 237° 20′ E., lat. 48° 7′ N. PORT EGMONT is a large and convenient harbour on the north-west coast of Falkland's Islands, discovered by Byron in the year 1765, and so named in honor of lord Egmont, then first lord of the admiralty. The mouth of it is south-east, twenty-one miles from a low rocky island, which is a good sea-mark. Within the island, at the distance of about two miles from the shore, are between seventeen and eighteen fathoms water; and, about nine miles to the west of the harbour, there is a remarkable white sandy beach, off which a ship may anchor. The whole navy of England, it is said, might ride here in perfect security; and here is abundance of fresh water, but wood is wanting. Commodore Byron took possession of the port, and al the islands, in 1765, in the name of George III. king of Great Britain. Long. 55° W., lat. 51' 27′ S. PORT ETCHES, a bay or harbour on the southwest of Hinchinbrook Island, where the Russians have a factory, at the entrance of Prince William's Sound. At first, by way of security, a galliot of about seventy tons burden was drawn ashore, and formed nearly one side of a square, within which houses were built: on the decks were some swivels and carriage-guns well mounted. Long. 213° 56′ E., lat. 60° 21′ N. PORT FRANCAIS, a bay or harbour on the west coast of North America, discovered by La Perouse, in the year 1786. The sea,' says he, 'rises here seven feet and a half at full and change of the moon; it is high-water at one o'clock. The sea breezes, or perhaps other causes, act so powerfully upon the current of the channel, that I have seen the flood come in there like the most rapid river; and in other circumstances, though at the same periods of the moon, it may be stemmed by a boat. I have, in my different excursions, found the high-water mark to be fifteen feet above the surface of the sea. These tides are probably incident to the bad season. When the winds blow with violence from the southward, the channel must be impracticable, and at all times the currents render the entrance difficult. The going out of it also requires a combination of circumstances, which may retard the departure of a vessel many weeks. There is no getting under weigh, but at the top of high-water; the breeze from the west to the north-west does not often rise till towards eleven o'clock, which does not permit the taking advantage of the morning tide; finally, the easterly winds, which are contrary, appear to me to be more frequent than those from the west; and the vast height of the surrounding mountains never permits the land breezes, or those from the north, to penetrate into the road. As this port possesses great advantages, I thought it a duty incumbent on me to make its inconveniences also known. The climate of this coast seemed to me to be infinitely milder than that of Hudson's Bay, in the same degree of latitude. We measured pines of six feet diameter, and 140 feet high. Vegetation is also very vigorous during three or four months of the year. should not be in the least surprised to see Russian corn, and a great many common plants, thrive there exceedingly well. We found great abundance of celery, round-leaved sorrel, lupines, the wild-pea, yarrow, and endive. The woods abound in gooseberries, raspberries, and strawberries; clusters of elder-trees, the dwarf-willow, different species of briar, which grow in the shade, the gum-poplar tree, the poplar, the sal |