Perjury or prevarication committed before a committee of either House of Parliament may be dealt with as a contempt or breach of privilege as well as by prosecution. As to false oaths not perjury, it is a misdemeanor at common law, punishable by fine and imprisonment, to swear falsely before any person authorized to administer an oath upon a matter of common concern, under such circumstances that the false swearing, if committed in judicial proceedings, would have amounted to perjury. There are some cases of making false declarations which are punishable on summary conviction, e.g. certain declarations under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act 1874, and the Customs Consolidation Act 1876. In Scotland the law, as a general rule, agrees with that of England. Perjury may be committed by a party on reference to oath as well as by a witness. A witness making a false affirmation is guilty of perjury (The Affirmation [Scotland] Act, 1865). The acts of 1851 and 1859 do not extend to Scotland. The trial, though usually by the court of justiciary, may be by the court of session if the perjury is committed in the course of an action before that court. The punishment is penal servitude or imprisonment at the discretion of the court. Formerly a person convicted of perjury was disabled from giving evidence in future; this disability was abolished by the Evidence (Scotland) Act 1852.

In the United States the common law has been extended by most states to embrace false affirmations and false evidence in proceedings not judicial. Perjury in a United States court is dealt with by an act of Congress of the 3rd of March 1825, by which the maximum punishment for perjury or subornation of perjury is a fine of $2000 or imprisonment for not more than five years. Jurisdiction to punish perjury committed in the state courts belongs to the states, as the Federal Constitution did not give it to the Federal government. Statutory provisions founded upon the English act of 1749, have been adopted in some states. In the states which have not adopted such provisions, the indictment must set out the offence with the particularity necessary at common law.

On the continent of Europe perjury is also regarded as an offence of gravity punishable by imprisonment for varying periods. In Germany, as in England, it was at one time a matter for the spiritual courts. In Austria it is treated as a form of fraud, and the punishment is proportioned to the estimated amount of damage done to the party aggrieved. In France the term perjury (parjure) is specifically applied only to the making of false oaths by parties in a civil suit.

PERKIN, SIR WILLIAM HENRY (1838-1907), English chemist, was born in London on the 12th of March 1838. From an early age he determined to adopt chemistry as his profession, although his father, who was a builder, would have preferred him to be an architect. Attending the City of London School he devoted all his spare time to chemistry, and on leaving, in 1853, entered the Royal College of Chemistry, then under the direction of A. W. Hofmann, in whose own research laboratory he was in the course of a year or two promoted to be an assistant. Devoting his evenings to private investigations in a rough laboratory fitted up at his home, Perkin was fired by some remarks of Hofmann's to undertake the artificial production of quinine. In this attempt he was unsuccessful, but the observations he made in the course of his experiments induced him, early in 1856, to try the effect of treating aniline sulphate with bichromate of potash. The result was a precipitate, aniline black, from which he obtained the colouring matter subsequently known as aniline blue or mauve. He lost no time in bringing this substance before the managers of Pullar's dye-works, Perth, and they expressed a favourable opinion of it, if only it should not prove too expensive in use. Thus encouraged, he took out a patent for his process, and leaving the College of Chemistry, a boy of eighteen, he proceeded, with the aid of his father and brother, to erect works at Greenford Green, near Harrow, for the manufacture of the newly discovered colouring matter, and by the end of 1857 the works were in operation. That date may therefore be reckoned as that of the foundation of the coaltar colour industry, which has since attained such important dimensions-in Germany, however, rather than in England, the country where it originated. Perkin also had a large share in the introduction of artificial alizarin (q.v.), the red dye of the madder root. C. Graebe and C. T. Liebermann in 1868 prepared that substance synthetically from anthracene, but their process was not practicable on a large scale, and it was left to him to patent a method that was commercially valuable. This

he did in 1869, thus securing for the Greenford Green works a monopoly of alizarin manufacture for several years. About the same time he also carried out a series of investigations into kindred substances, such as anthrapurpurin. About 1874 he abandoned the manufacture of coal-tar colours and devoted himself exclusively to research in pure chemistry, and among the discoveries he made in this field was that of the reaction known by his name, depending on the condensation of aldehydes with fatty acids (see CINNAMIC ACID). Later still he engaged in the study of the relations between chemical constitution and rotation of the plane of polarization in a magnetic field, and enunciated a law expressing the variation of such rotation in bodies belonging to homologous series. For this work he was in 1889 awarded a Davy medal by the Royal Society, which ten years previously had bestowed upon him a Royal medal in recognition of his investigations in the coal-tar colours. The Chemical Society, of which he became secretary in 1869 and president in 1883, presented him with its Longstaff medal in 1889, and in 1890 he received the Albert medal of the Society of Arts. In 1906 an international celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of his invention of mauve was held in London, Harrow on the 14th of July 1907. and in the same year he was made a knight. He died near

His eldest son, WILLIAM HENRY PERKIN, who was born at Sudbury, near Harrow, on the 17th of June 1860, and was educated at the City of London School, the Royal College of Science, and the universities of Würzburg and Munich, became professor of chemistry at the Heriot-Watt College, Edinburgh, in 1887, and professor of organic chemistry at Owens College, Manchester, in 1892. His chief researches deal with the polymethylene compounds, the alkaloids, in particular hydrastine and berberine, and the camphors and terpenes (q.v.). He received the Davy medal from the Royal Society in 1904.

PERKINS, CHARLES CALLAHAN (1823-1886), American artist and author, was born in Boston and educated at Harvard, subsequently studying art in Rome and Paris. Returning to Boston, he helped to found the Museum of Fine Arts, of which he was honorary director, and for many years he played a leading part in artistic circles as a cultured critic and writer. His chief publications were Tuscan Sculptors (1864) and Italian Sculptors (1868)-replaced in 1883 by The Historical Handbook of Italian Sculptors-Art in Education (1870), and Sepulchral Monuments in Italy (1885).

PERKINS, JACOB (1766-1849), American inventor and physicist, was born at Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1766, and was apprenticed to a goldsmith. He, soon made himself known by a variety of useful mechanical inventions, and in 1818 came over to England with a plan for engraving bank-notes on steel, which ultimately proved a signal success, and was carried out by Perkins in partnership with the English engraver Heath. His chief contribution to physics lay in the experiments by which he proved the compressibility of water and measured it by a piezometer of his own invention (see Phil. Trans., 1820, 1826). He retired in 1834, and died in London on the 30th of July 1849. also

His second son, ANGIER MARCH PERKINS (1799?-1881), born at Newburyport, went to England in 1827, and was the author of a system of warming buildings by means of highpressure steam. His grandson, LOFTUS PERKINS (1834-1891), most of whose life was spent in England, experimented with the application to steam engines of steam at very high pressures, constructing in 1880 a yacht, the "Anthracite," whose engines worked with a pressure of 500 lb to the sq. in.

PERLEBERG, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, on the Stepenitz, 6 m. N.E. from Wittenberge by the railway to Neustrelitz. Pop. (1905), 9502. It contains a fine Gothic Evangelical church, a Roman Catholic church, a synagogue and several schools, and has a town-hall, dating from the 15th century, and a Roland column. Its chief manufactures are machinery, soap, blacking and clogs.

See Höpfner, Perleberger Reimchronik. Perleberg von 1200 bis 1700 (Perleberg, 1876).

Russian province of Perm, where the rocks are extensively developed) was introduced in 1841 by Sir R. I. Murchison. In England the series of red sandstones, conglomerates, breccias and marls which overlie the Coal Measures were at one time grouped together in one great formation as the "New Red Sandstone," in contradistinction to the Old Red Sandstone below the Carboniferous: they were likewise known as the Poikilitic series (from Gr. Tokios, mottled) from their mottled or variegated colour. They are now divided into two systems or groups of formations; the lower portion being included in the Palaeozoic series under the name Permian, the upper portion being relegated to the Mesozoic series and termed Trias. In Germany the name Dyas was proposed by J. Marcou for the rocks of this age on account of the twofold nature of the series in Thuringia, Saxony, &c. The intimate stratigraphical relationship that exists in many quarters between the Permian rocks and the Carboniferous beds, and the practical difficulties in the way of drawing a satisfactory base-line to the system, have led to the adoption of the term Permo-carboniferous in South Africa, southern Asia, America, Australia and Russia, for strata upon this horizon: C. W. von Gümbel used "Post-carbon" in this sense. In a similar manner Permo-triassic has been employed in cases where a stratigraphical passage from rocks with Permian fossils to others bearing a Triassic fauna is apparent. The Permian system in England consists of the following subdivisions:

The lower subdivision attains its greatest development in the vale of the Eden, where it consists of brick-red sandstones, the Penrith sandstone series, with some beds of calcareous conglomerate or breccia, locally known as "brockram," derived from the waste of the Carboniferous Limestone. These red rocks extend across the Solway into the valleys of the Nith and Annan, in the south of Scotland, where they lie unconformably on the Lower Silurian rocks. Their breccias consist of fragments of the adjacent Silurian greywackes and shales, but near Dumfries some calcareous breccias accumulated in small lakes or narrow fiords. Much farther south, or "brockrams" occur. These brecciated masses have evidently in Staffordshire, and in the districts of the Clent. and Abberley Hills, the brecciated conglomerates in the Permian series attain a thickness of 400 ft. They have been shown by Sir A. C. Ramsay to consist in large measure of volcanic rocks, grits, slates and limestones, which can be identified with rocks on the borders of Wales. Some of the stones are 3 ft. in diameter and show distinct striation. The same writer pointed out that these Permian drift-beds cannot be distinguished by any essential character from modern glacial drifts; on the other hand, W. W. King and others have opposed this view. The middle subdivision is the chief repository of fossils in the Permian system. Its strata are not red, but consist of a lower zone of hard brown shale with occasional thin limestone bands (Marl Slate) and an upper thick mass of dolomite (Magnesian Limestone). The latter is the chief feature in the Permian development of the east of England. It corresponds with the Zechstein of Germany, as the Marl Slate does with the Kupfer-schiefer. It is a very variable rock in its lithological characters, being sometimes dull, earthy, fine-grained and fossiliferous, in other places quite crystalline, and composed of globular, reniform, botryoidal, or other irregular concretions of crystalline and frequently internally radiated dolomite. Though the Magnesian Limestone runs as a thick persistent zone down the east of England, it is represented on the Lancashire and Cheshire side by bright red and variegated sandstone covered by a thin group of red marls, with numerous thin courses of limestone, containing Schizodus, Bakevellia and other characteristic fossils of the Magnesian Limestone.

Concerning the rocks classed as Permian in the central counties of England there exists some doubt, for recent work tends to show that the lower parts are clearly related to the Carboniferous rocks of the higher beds from the Trias. Similarly in south Devon, by their fossils; while there is little evidence to warrant the exclusion where red sandstones and coarse breccias are well exposed, it has been found difficult to say whether the series should be regarded as Triassic or Permian, though the prevailing tendency is to retain them in the latter system.

The "Dyas " type of the system is found in enormous masses of strata flanking the Harz Mountains, and also in the Rhine provinces, Saxony, Thuringia, Bavaria and Bohemia. In general terms it may be said that in this region there is a lower sandy and the former is known as the Rothliegende, the latter as the Zechstein conglomeratic subdivision with an upper one more calcareous; group. On the south side of the Harz Mountains the following subdivisions are recognized:

Zechstein Group.

Rothliegende Group.

Upper

Middle

Lower

Anhydrite, gypsum, rock-salt, dolomite, marl, fetid shale and limestone. The amorphous gypsum is the chief member of this group; the limestone is sometimes full of bitumen.

Dolomite (Haupt-dolomit), crystalline granular (Rauchwacke), and fine powdery (Asche) with gypsum at bottom.

Zechstein-limestone, an argillaceous, thin-bedded compact limestone 15 to 90 ft. thick.

Kupfer-schiefer, a black bituminous copper-bearing shale, not more than 2 ft. thick, often much less, but very constant.

Zechstein-conglomerate and calcareous sandstone.
Red sandstones (Kreuznach beds), red shales

Į (Monsig tuff,

Upper

Lower

quartz-porphyry-conglomerate (Wadern, Oberhof, Sötern and Tambach beds).

Sandstones and glomerates (Tholayer beds) on black shales with poor coal seams and clay ironstones (Lebach and Goldlauter beds).

Sandstones and shales with seams of coal on red and grey sandstones and shales with impure limestones (Cusel beds, including Manebach beds, upper, and Gehren beds, lower).

The name Rothliegende or Rothtodtliegende (red-dead-layer) was given by the miners because their ores disappeared in the red rocks below the copper-bearing Kupfer-schiefer. The Kupferschiefer, although so thin, has been worked in the Mansfeld district for a long period; it contains abundant remains of fish (Palaeoniscus, Platysomus) and plants (Ullmannia). The beds of rock-salt in the German Zechstein are of the greatest importance; at Sperenberg near Berlin it has been penetrated to a depth of 4000 ft. Associated with the salt, gypsum and anhydrite are numerous

potassium and magnesium salts, including carnallite, kieserite and polyhalite, which are exploited at Stassfurt and are the only important potassium deposits known. Permian rocks of the Rothliegende type are scattered over a wide area in France, where the lower beds are usually conformable with the Coal Measures. In the upper beds occur the bituminous or “Boghead" shale of Autun. In Russia strata of this age cover an enormous area, in the Ural region, in the governments of Perm, Kasan, Kostroma, and in Armenia. The Russian Permian shows no sharp division into two series; the two types of deposit tend to be more mixed and include in addition some deposits of the more open sea. The general sequence begins with the Artinsk beds, sandy and marly or conglomeratic beds in close connexion with the Carboniferous, overlain by the Kungur limestones and dolomites; these are followed by red fresh-water sandstones, over which comes an important series of copper-bearing sandstones and conglomerates. Above this, in Kostroma, Vyatka and Kasan there is a calcareous and dolomitic series, the so-called Russian Zechstein with marine fossils; the uppermost beds are red marls, with few fresh-water fossils, the Tartarian beds. The character of the fossils in the Permian of the Mediterranean and south-east Europe-well exemplified in the deposits of Sicilytogether with their more generally calcareous nature, indicate a more open sea and more stable marine conditions than obtained farther north. This sea is traceable across south-east Russia into the middle of Asia, through Turkestan and Persia, into the Salt Range of India, where the Productus limestone may be taken as representative of the normal marine plan of Permian times. Southwards, however, of the Nerbudda River another and quite distinct continental assemblage of deposits holds the ground, viz. the lower portion of the great fresh-water Gondwana system. The coarse Talchir conglomerates at the base are succeeded by the sandstones and shales of the Karharbari group, with numerous coal seams, and these in turn are followed by the Damuda series (upwards of 10,000 ft.) of similar rocks, with ironstones and very valuable coal seams. All these strata are characterized by the presence of the Glossopteris flora. A similar succession of beds has been recorded in north-west Afghanistan. In close relationship with the lower members of the Indian Gondwana series, both as regards fossil contents and lithological characters, are the lower Karoo beds of South Africa (Dwyka conglomerate, Ecca shales and mudstones, Beaufort beds and Kimberley shales), also the coalbearing beds of the Transvaal; the Permo-carboniferous rocks of Australia (including the rich coal measures of Newcastle, the Greta coal measures and marine beds, upper and lower, of New South Wales; those of Tasmania, the Bowen River beds of Queensland, and the Bacchus Marsh glacial beds of Victoria), and similar rocks in New Zealand (Maitai formation, south island; Dun Mountain limestone and Rimutaka beds of the north island) and South America. In North America Permian rocks occur in the east in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Ohio ("Upper Barren Measures "), and in Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, where they succeed the Carboniferous rocks very regularly, West of the Mississippi, in Texas (7000 ft., including the Wichita beds, Clear Fork and Double Mountain beds), Kansas and Nebraska, the Permian is more extensive and on the whole is more readily separable from the Carboniferous. Here the lower beds are marine and contain many limestones and dolomites; the higher beds are mainly red sand

stones and marls with gypsum; in Texas it is of interest to note the occurrence of copper-stained strata. These upper "Red Beds are often not clearly distinguishable from the Trias. Life of the Permian Period.-The records of the plants and animals of this period are comparatively meagre. The plants show that a gradual change from the Carboniferous types was in progress. Two floral regions are clearly indicated, a northern and a southern. In the latter, which may be regarded as conterminous with the continent of Gondwana, the Lepidodendrons, Sigillarias, Calamites, &c., of the Coal Measures gave place to a distinct flora, named from the prevalence of Glossopteris, the Glossopteris (tongue-fern) flora. Traces of this southern flora have been found in northern Russia. Gangamopteris, Callipteris, Taeniopteris, Schizopteris, Walchia, Voltzia, Ullmannia, Saportea, Baiera are characteristic Permian genera. Among the larger animals amphibians occupied a prominent position, their footprints being very common in the sandstones; they include numerous Labyrinthodonts, Archegosaurus, Stereorachis, Branchiosaurus. At this time the true reptiles began to leave their remains in the rocks; many highly interesting forms are known-Palaeohatteria, Proterosaurus, Stereosternum; others having certain mammalian characteristics include Pareiosaurus, Cynognathus, Dicynodon. Among the fishes may be mentioned Platysomus, Palaeoniscus, Amblypterus, Pleuracanthus. Turning to the invertebrates, undoubtedly the most interesting feature is gradual introduction into the Cephalopoda of the ammonite-like forms such as Medlicottia, Waagenoceras, Popanoceras, in place of the more simple lobed goniatites of the Carboniferous. Brachiopods (Productus horridus, Bakevellia tumida), Bryozoa and corals were by no means scarce in the more open Permian seas. Schizodus Schlotheimii, Strophalosia Goldfussi, Myophoria, Leimyalind, Bellerophon are characteristic Permian molluscs. The last of the trilobites appears in the Permian of North America.

The evidence so far obtained indicates that in Permian times much of the land in the northern hemisphere was near the general sea-level, and that conditions of considerable aridity prevailed which involved the repeated isolation and evaporation of marine lagoons and land-locked seas. South of this region in Europe and Asia there extended an open "Mediterranean "sea, the "Tethys of E. Suess; while over an enormous area in the southern hemisphere a great land area was spread, “Gondwāna land," the land of the Glossopteris flora. At many points in this vast tract, as we have seen, coarse conglomeratic deposits, Talchir, Dwyka, Bacchus Marsh, &c., indicate profound glacial conditions, which some have thought were present also in Britain, Germany and elsewhere in the north. Moderate earth movements were taking place in North America, where the Appalachian and Ouachita mountains were in course of elevation, and in Europe this was a time of great volcanic activity. In the Saal region volcanic rocks in the lower Rothliegende have been penetrated for 1100 ft. without reaching the bottom, and elsewhere in central Europe great sheets of con temporaneous quartz porphyry, granite porphyry, melaphyre and porphyrite are abundant with their corresponding tuffs. Melaphyres and tuffs appear in the Vosges, which in the south of France are enormous masses of melaphyre and quartz porphyry. Basic lavas and tuffs-diabase, pierite, olivine basalt and andesite tuffs-were erupted from many small vents in Ayrshire and the Nith basin, and basic lavas occur also in Devonshire. Volcanic rocks occur also in New Zealand, Sumatra and the Transvaal.

Saxony, Thuringia, Bohemia.