against curved ramps on the sides of the non-recoiling frame and is forced up, so that thereafter the bolt alone recoils (the ejector is similar in principle to that of a rifle). The recoil spring then acts as before on reloading. Other varieties of the automatic pistol are the "Mannlicher," the " Mars," the " Bergmann" and the " Webley." The last, being simple in construction, small and light, weight 18 oz. and length over all only 6 in., may be classed as a pocket pistol.

Qualities of Automatic Pistols.-In reference to the general qualities of automatic pistols, while these weapons have the advantage over revolvers of longer range and greater rapidity of fire and recharging, on the other hand they are necessarily more complicated in their mechanism, which has to do the work of extraction, reloading and cocking that in the revolver is done by hand. A stoppage may occur through a cartridge missing fire, or continuous uncontrolled fire may take place through the trigger spring breaking until the magazine is exhausted. Their action is also to some extent uncertain, as it depends on the recoil of the discharge, which may be affected by variables in the cartridge; also the effective automatic working of the moving parts depends upon their cleanliness and lubrication. As automatic pistols, like revolvers, are intended for personal defence at short range and for sudden use in emergencies, simplicity of mechanism and certainty of action are in their case of paramount importance. There is usually no time to rectify a stoppage or jam, however slight. From a military point of view, therefore, before the revolver is altogether superseded by the automatic pistol, it is most desirable that the latter should be as certain in its action under service conditions as the former. Some automatic pistols, as already stated, are sighted up to 1000 yards, and provided with attachable butts. The practical value of these improvements is open to question, as the sighting of a pistol differs materially when used with and without a butt, and under no circumstances can the accuracy of shooting of a pistol, even with a butt, equal that of a carbine..>

The tendency in automatic pistols has been to reduce the bore to 3 in., and increase the muzzle velocity, on the lines of modern small-bore rifles. These, again, would appear to be advantages of minor importance in a weapon intended for use at short range in the field, where a heavy bullet of fairly large diameter, with a moderate muzzle velocity, has a more immediate and paralysing effect, and is therefore, from this point of view, and particularly in savage warfare, preferable to a small projectile of high muzzle velocity, (H. S.-K.)

PISTOLE, the French name given to a Spanish gold coin in use from 1537; it was a double escudo, the gold unit, and was worth 16s. 111d. sterling. The name was also given to the louis d'or of Louis XIII. of France, and to other European gold coins of about the value of the Spanish coin.

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PISTON (through Fr. from Ital. pistone or pestone, a great pestle, from Late Lat. pistare, to pound, a frequentative form of classical Lat. pinsere), in the steam engine, a disk or partition placed inside the cylinder, from end to end of which it moves alternately under the pressure of the steam. By means of the "piston-rod" attached to it this forward and backward motion is communicated to the machinery which the engine is employed to drive, and is in most cases converted into rotary motion by a connecting-rod," one end of which is jointed to the "cross-head" carried at the end of the piston-rod, while the other turns the crank on the crank-shaft. The piston in gas, oil and air engines has a similar function, but in a pump, instead of imparting motion, it has motion imparted to it by some prime-mover. In every case the piston must fit the cylinder so accurately that as little as possible of the working fluid, whether it be steam, gas or water, can escape past it, packing of various forms being commonly placed round its periphery in order to secure this fit. In music, the valves which in certain wind instruments, such as the cornet, enable the player to increase the length of the air-column and thus lower the note produced, are known as pistons. (See VALVES.)

PIT (O. E. pyll, cognate with Du. put, Ger. Pfütze, &c., all ultimately adaptations of Lat. puteus, well, formed from root pu-, to cleanse, whence purus, clean, pure), a term of wide application for a hole, cavity or excavation in the earth or other

1

surface; thus it is applied to the excavations made in the ground for the purpose of extracting minerals, e.g. chalk, gravel or sand, or for carrying on some industry, e.g. tan-pit, saw-pit, or to the group of shafts which form a coal-mine. Roots and other vegetables can be stored in the winter in a pit, and the term is thus transformed to a heap of such vegetables covered with earth or straw. The word is also used of any hollow or depression in a surface, as in the body, the arm-pit, the pit of the stomach, or on the skin, as the scars left by small-pox or chicken-pox. As applied to a portion of a building or construction, the word first appears for an enclosure, often sunk in the ground, in which cock-fighting was carried on, a “cock-pit." It would seem a transference of this usage that gave the common name to that part of the auditorium of a theatre which is on the floor, the French parterre. In the United States a special usage is that of its application to that part of the floor space in an exchange where a particular branch of business is transacted; thus in the Chicago Board of Trade, transactions in the grain trade are carried on in what is known as the " Wheat Pit."

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In Scottish legal history there was a baronial privilege which in Latin is termed furca et fossa, fork (i.e. gallows) and pit"; here the term has usually been taken to refer to the drowning-pit, in which women criminals were put to death; others take it to refer to an ordeal pit. There is a parallel phrase in M. Dutch, pulle ends galghen; here putte is the pit in which women were buried alive as a penalty.

PITCAIRN, an island in the mid-eastern Pacific Ocean, in 25° 3′ S., 130° 6' W., belonging to Great Britain. It lies south of the Paumotu archipelago, 100 m. from the nearest member of this group. Unlike the majority of the islands in this region, it is without coral reefs, but rises abruptly with steep and rugged cliffs of dark basaltic lava. The extreme elevation is over 2000 ft., and the area 2 sq, m. The soil in the valleys is volcanic and fertile, but the gradual utilization of natural timber increases the liability to drought, as there are no streams. The climate is variable and rainy. Stone axes, remains of carved stone pillars similar to those of Easter Island, and skeletons with a pearl-mussel beneath the head have been found in the island, though it was uninhabited when discovered by Philip Carteret in 1767. Pitcairn was the name of the midshipman who first observed it.

A

The island was destined to become the scene of a curious social experiment. On the 28th of April 1789 a mutiny broke out on board the "Bounty," then employed by the British government in conveying young bread-fruit trees from Tahiti to the West Indies. The commander, Lieutenant William Bligh, was set adrift in the launch with part of the crew, but managed to make his way to Timor in the Malay Archipelago. The twenty-five mutineers at first all returned to Tahiti. Some remained, and six of these were ultimately court-martialled in England, three being executed in 1792. Meanwhile in 1790 a party consisting of Fletcher Christian, the leader of the mutiny, eight Englishmen, six Polynesian men and twelve Polynesian women had taken possession of Pitcairn Island and burned the "Bounty." Treachery and debauchery filled the first years of the annals of the beautiful island. By 1800 all the men were dead except Alexander Smith, afterwards known as John Adams, who rose to a sense of his responsibility and successfully trained up the youthful generation left in his charge. An American vessel, the Topaze," discovered the strange colony in 1808; again, by accident, it was visited by the "Briton," Captain Sir F. Staines, and the "Tagus," Captain Pipon, in 1817; and by the exploring ship "Blossom " in 1825. On the death of John Adams on the 29th of March 1829 George Hunn Nobbs, who had settled at Pitcairn in 1828, was appointed pastor and chief magistrate. Through fear of drought the islanders removed to Tahiti in 1830, but disapproved of both the climate and the morals of this island, and returned to Pitcairn in 1831. Shortly after this an adventurer named Joshua Hill appeared, and, claiming government authority, tyrannized over the islanders till his removal by a British man-of-war in 1838. In 1856 the whole of the islanders-60 married persons and 134 young men, women and children-were landed on

In religion the islanders are Seventh Day Adventists. "They have adopted an extraordinary patois, derived from the language of the Tahitian women who accompanied the mutineers of the Bounty" to Pitcairn Island, although most of the adults can speak the English language fairly well" (R. T. Simons, Report, 1905). The island is a British colony by settlement, and is within the jurisdiction of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific (since 1898). There is a governing body chosen from among the islanders, the constitution of which has been altered more than once owing to internal jealousies, &c. The island produces sweet potatoes, yams, melons, bananas and other fruits, arrowroot and coffee. Goats and chickens run wild. Some trade is carried on with Mangareva in a vessel owned by the islanders. The population is about 170.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-J. Shillibeer, The Briton's" Voyage to Pitcairn's Island (London, 1818); F. W. Beechey, Voyage to the Pacific (London, 1831); Sir J. Barrow, History of the Mutiny of the " Bounty (London, 1831); W. Brodie, Pitcairn's Island in 1850 (London, 1851) C. E. Meinicke, Die Insel Pitcairn (Prenzlau, 1858); T. B. Murray, Pitcairn (London, 1860), revised to date by C. C. Elcum (1885); Lady Belcher, The Mutineers of the "Bounty (London, 1870); J. A. Brown, Stone Implements from Pitcairn Island," in Journ. Anthropol. Instit. (1900), xxx.; R. A. Hermann, "Die Bevölkerung der Insel Pitcairn," in Petermanns Mitteilungen (1901), xlvii.; Parliamentary Papers C. 9148, and Cd. 754 (London, 1899, 1901); Cd. 2397 (ibid., 1905; Mr R. T. Simon's report).

PITCAIRNE, ARCHIBALD (1652-1713), Scottish physician, was born at Edinburgh on the 25th of December 1652. After obtaining some classical education at the school of Dalkeith, Pitcairne entered Edinburgh University in 1668, and took his degree of M.A. in 1671. Having been sent to France for the benefit of his health, he was induced at Paris to begin the study of medicine, and after courses at Edinburgh and Paris he obtained in 1680 the degree of M.D. at Rheims. He began practice at Edinburgh, and in a short time, acquired so great a reputation that in 1692 he was appointed professor of medicine at Leiden. Among his pupils were Richard Mead and H. Boerhaave, and both of them attributed much of their skill to what they had learned from Pitcairne. In 1693 Pitcairne returned to Scotland to marry a daughter of Sir Archibald Stevenson, an eminent physician in Edinburgh. The family objected to her going abroad, so he did not return to Leiden, but settled once more in Edinburgh. He rose to be the first physician in Scotland, and was frequently called into consultation both in England and Holland. Soon after his return to Edinburgh, feeling the great want of the means of anatomical study, he importuned the town council to permit himself and certain of his medical friends to treat without fee the sick paupers in "Paul's Work," on condition of being allowed to dissect such of the bodies as were unclaimed by their relatives, and therefore had to be buried at the town's expense. Strangely enough this proposal was strongly opposed by the chief surgeons of the place, but ultimately the town council had the good sense to comply with Pitcairne's request, and in this way he may be said to have the credit of laying the foundation of the great Edinburgh school of medicine.

Pitcairne's medical opinions are chiefly contained in a volume of Dissertationes medicae which he published in 1701 (2nd ed. 1713). In these he discusses the application of geometry to physic, the circulation of the blood in the smaller vessels, the difference in the quantity of the blood contained in the lungs of animals in the womb and of the same animals after birth, the motions by which food becomes fit to supply the blood, the question as to inventors in medicine (in which he repels the idea of certain medical discoveries of modern times having been

discovery of the circulation of the blood, and refuting the view that it was known to Hippocrates), the cure of fevers by evacuating medicines, and the effects of acids and alkalis in medicine. Pitcairne was a good classical scholar, and wrote Latin verses, occasionally with something more than mere imitative cleverness and skill. He was supposed to be the author of a comedy, The Assembly, or Scotch Reformation, and of a satirical poem Babel, containing witty sketches of prominent Presbyterian divines of the time, whom, as a loudly avowed Jacobite, he strongly disliked. He was prone to irreverent and ribald jests, and thus gained the reputation of being an unbeliever and an atheist, though he was a professed deist. The stories about his over-indulgence in drink are probably exaggerated. He was repeatedly involved in violent quarrels with his medical brethren and others, and once or twice got into scrapes with the government on account of his indiscreet political utterances. Among his friends, however, he was evidently well liked, and he is known to have acted with great kindness and generosity to deserving men who needed his help. Thomas Ruddiman, the Scottish scholar, for example, was rescued from a life of obscurity by his encouragement and assistance, and by no one was his memory more gratefully cherished. Mead, too, appears never to have forgotten what he owed to his old teacher at Leiden. A son of Pitcairne's had gone out in the rebellion of 1715, and, having been condemned to death, was saved by the earnest interposition of Mead with Sir Robert Walpole. He pleaded, very artfully, that if Walpole's health had been bettered by his skill, or if members of the royal family were preserved by his care, it was owing to the instruction he had received from Dr Pitcairne. Pitcairne died in Edinburgh on the 20th of October 1713. He had been a great collector of books, and his library, which is said to have been of considerable value, was, through the influence of Ruddiman, disposed of to Peter the Great of Russia.

PITCH (1) (O. Eng. pic, an adaptation of Lat. pix, picis, Gr. Tiooa, TirTα, allied with Gr. Tirus, pine-tree, Lat. pinus), the name of various substances of dark colour and of extremely viscid and tenacious consistency when subjected to heat. Strictly the term is applied to the resinous substance obtained as a solid residuum by the distillation of wood-tar (see TAR), or the non-resinous substance similarly produced from Coal-tar (q.v.). The name is also applied to the natural mineral substances, i.e. asphalt or bitumen (qq.v.). (2) A noun of various meanings which are somewhat difficult to connect with the verb from which they apparently must be derived. "To pitch" means primarily to thrust in or fix a stake or other pointed object into the ground, hence to place in a fixed position, set in order, cast or throw, hence to incline or slope. The etymology is obscure, but it appears in Northern dialects as" pick," of which it may be a variant; there is some difficulty in connecting this form with "pick," variant of" pike" (q.v.). PITCH, MUSICAL. The pitch of a musical sound is aurally defined by its absolute, position in the scale and by its relative position with regard to other musical sounds. It is precisely defined by a vibration number recording the frequency of the pulsations of a tense string, a column of air, or other vibrator, in a second of time. In Great Britain and America the complete vibration to and fro (swing both ways of a pendulum) is taken as the unit; elsewhere the vibration in one direction only (swing one way of the pendulum). The only official standard is the French, dating from 1859, preserved by a tuning-fork vibrating 870-9 (double vib. 435:45) at a temperature of 15° Centigrade (59° Fahr.) in a second. The vibration number stated in the edict establishing the Diapason Normal is 870 (435), which for comparison will be here adhered to. The natural basis for a standard musical pitch is the voice, particularly the male voice, which has been of greater importance historically. There is no reason to suppose the human voice has varied, during the period of which we have evidence, more than other physical attributes. The only difference to be reckoned with may be in recent tendencies of solo vocalists to sing for effect, and so to

extend the compass of the voice upwards. Otherwise we may | assume no disturbing alteration has taken place for more than 2000 years in its position and extent. Vibrations increase in rapidity as a note rises and decrease as it falls. Any note may be a pitch note; for orchestras custom has settled upon a1 in the treble clef, for organs and pianos in Great Britain c2, and for modern brass instruments b flat1.

We are not without a clue to the pitch usual in the classic Greek and Alexandrian ages: the vocal octave to which the lyre was adapted was noted as from e to e1. As in choruses baritone and low tenor singers always prevail, d-d', at French or at medium pitch, would really be the Greek singing octave; we may therefore regard it as a tone lower than that to which we are accustomed. But to sing the lower Greek modes in or near the vocal octave it was necessary to transpose (μeraßoλń) a fourth upwards, which is effected in modern notation by a flat placed upon the b line of the staff; thus modulating from our major key of C to that of F. This transposition has had, as we shall see, much to do with the history of our subject, ultimately influencing the ecclesiastical chant and lasting until the 17th century of our era. It does not appear from any evidence that the keyboards-when there were more than one--of the early organs were arranged for transposition, but it is certain that the Flemish harpsichords to 1650 were made with double keyboards to accommodate it (see Hipkins' History of the Pianoforte, 1897). But a positive identity of pitch cannot be claimed for any period of time, and certainly not for the early organs; the foot-rule of the organ-builder, which had to do with the lengths of the pipes, and which varied in every country and province, could easily cause a difference of a semitone. Scale and wind-pressure are also important factors. But with all these often opposed conditions, we find less variation than might be expected, the main and really important divergence being due to the necessity of transposition, which added a very high pitch to the primarily convenient low one.

The first to attempt to define pitch would seem to have been Arnold Schlick (Musica ausgeteutscht und ausgezogen, Heidelberg, 1511), who gives a measure, a line of 4 Rhenish inches, which, he says, multiplied sixteen times, should be the lowest F of a small organ. He gives no diameter or wind-pressure. Dr A. J. Ellis used this indication to have an organ pipe made which with one-sixteenth diameter and a wind-pressure of 3 in., at one-fourth Schlick's length, gave f1 301-6, from which he derived a just major third of a1 377, which would compare very well with an old Greek a1. Schlick goes on to say the organ is to be suited to the choir and properly tuned for singing, that the singer may not be forced to sing too high or too low and the organist have to play chromatics, which is not handy for every one. Further, he says pitch cannot be exactly defined, because voices vary; he nevertheless gives the measure above mentioned for the low F, but if a larger organ is built to include the still lower C, then this C must be of the same measurement, the reason being that a greater part of church music ends in "grambus," a word understood by Schlick's editor to mean the transposition of a fourth. The larger high-pitch organ will therefore be at a1 502-6. The Halberstadt organ, about which so much has been written, was, according to Praetorius (Syntagma musicum, Wölffenbüttel, 1618), built in 1361, and repaired or rebuilt 1495. He gives the longest pipe of this organ, B natural, as 31 Brunswick feet, and the circumference 3 ft. He further tells us this pitch was a tone, nearly a tone and a half, higher than a suitable church pitch (Chorton), for which he gives a diagram. Dr Ellis had pipes (now preserved in the Royal Institution, London) made to reproduce both these pitches at 3 in. wind-pressure. The Halberstadt pitch was found to be a1 505-8; the Chorton, 424.2. Ellis used mean-tone temperament in calculating this lower pitch; but as he used just intonation for the Halberstadt, it seems preferable to substitute it for the Chorton, thus reducing it to a 422.8. Praetorius's Cammerton, or chamber pitch, formulated in his diagrams for voices and instruments, is, he says, a whole tone higher; equivalent, therefore, to a1 475-65. Nearly all the German organs in his

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time were tuned to this higher pitch. Ellis offered the suggestion of a much higher pitch for this Cammerton in his lecture "On the History of Musical Pitch," read before the Society of Arts, London (Journ. Soc. Arts, March 5, 1880), but the present writer is unable to accept it. The lower vibration number is justified by due consideration of the three divisions of the male voice, bass, tenor and alto, as given by Praetorius, whose Cammerton very closely corresponds with Bernhardt Schmidt's Durham organ, 1663-1668, the original pitch of which has been proved by Professor Armes to have been a1 474.1. The Halberstadt pitch is nearly a semitone higher, which again agrees with the statement of Praetorius, and also Schlick's high C organ. Yet it would seem there had been a still higher pitch used in the old ecclesiastical music. Upon this interesting question Praetorius is confused and difficult to understand, but he never wavers about the transposition of a fourth. In one passage he distinctly says the old organ high pitch had been a whole tone above his Cammerton, with which we shall find his tertia minore combines to make the required interval. The term tertia minore, or inferiore, is used by Praetorius to describe a low pitch, often preferred in England and the Netherlands, in Italy and in some parts of Germany. An organist, instead of transposing a whole tone down from the Cammerton, would for the tertia minore have to transpose a minor third. A corroboration of this pitch is found in A. Silbermann's great organ in Strasburg minster (1713-1716), the pitch of which, taken in 1880 and reduced to 59° Fahr. (as are all pitches in this article), is a1 393.2. An old organ at Versailles (1789) was very near this example, a1 395.8. Sir Frederick Gore Ouseley (vide Ellis's lecture) regarded the French ton de chapelle as being about a minor third below the Diapason Normal, a1 435, and said that most of the untouched organs in the French cathedrals were at this low pitch. Strasburg was French territory in 1713, but Silbermann's organ is not quite a whole tone below. Ellis quotes an organ at Lille, a1 374.2, but no other instance of the very low Schlick pitch is recorded, although trial of the French cathedral organs might perhaps result in the finding of examples. Ellis gives Dom Bédos (L'Art du facture d'orgues, Paris, 1766) as authority for a mean tone a1 376.6. To return to the tertia minore. Dr R. Smith, of Cambridge, in 1759, had the organ of Trinity College, built by Bernhardt Schmidt, lowered a whole tone, to reduce it to certain Roman pitch pipes made about 1720. His determinations of pitch by a weighted wire are not trustworthy; Ellis thinks they are not safe within four or five vibrations per second, but gives a mean pitch for this organ, when altered, of al 395 2. St Michael's church at Hamburg, built as late as 1762 and unaltered in 1880, had a 17th-century pitch, a1 407-945 This is about a semitone below the Diapason Normal, and a just minor third lower than the St Jacobi organ in the same city (1688), measured by Herr Schmahl, a1 489.2. What was remarkable in this organ was that it had one stop which was an equal minor third lower, a411.4. The difference of a minor third, or, as we shall see later, a whole tone, had replaced the earlier fourth. Sir Frederick Gore Ouseley's comparison of the church and chamber pitches of Orlando Gibbons (vide Ellis's lecture) clearly shows the minor third in Great Britain in the first half of the 17th century. But the narrowing continued. Bernhardt Schmidt, better known in England as Father Smith, was invited about 1650 to build the organ for the Chapel Royal, Whitehall; two years later he built the organ in Durham Cathedral a1 474-1, difference a whole tone, and practically agreeing with the Cammerton of Praetorius. The Hampton Court organ of 1690 shows that Schmidt had further lowered his pitch a semitone, to al 441.7. What happened at Durham was that at some subsequent date the pipes were shifted up a semitone to bring the organ into conformity with this lower pitch, with which it is probable Schmidt's organs in St Paul's and the Temple, and also Trinity College, Cambridge, agreed. This lowering tendency towards the low church pitch, and the final adoption of the latter as a general mean pitch throughout the 18th century, was no doubt influenced by the introduction of, the violin, which would not bear the high tension to which the

Verified by A. J. Hipkins. But for Leipzig a comparison with the Gewandhaus Band may be sought. (A. J. H.)

PITCHBLENDE, or URANINITE, a mineral species consisting essentially of uranium oxide, of importance as a source of uranium and radium. It is a very heavy (specific gravity 9.09.7), compact mineral with a conchoidal to uneven fracture, and a brownish to velvet-black colour and pitchy lustre. Crystals are rare; they have the form of regular octahedra or less often of cubes. The hardness is 5, and the streak is brown with a greenish tinge. The mineral has been known to occur at Joachimsthal in Bohemia since 1727, and it was early called pitchblende, because of its appearance; but its true nature was not recognized until 1789, when M. H. Klaproth's analysis of it resulted in the discovery of the element uranium. Analyses of material from different localities exhibit wide variations in chemical composition. In addition to uranium oxides, there are thorium, cerium (and lanthanum), yttrium and lead oxides, each varying in amount from a trace up to 10%. Calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, silica, water, &c., are also present in small amounts. The amounts of uraneus and uranic oxides (UO2, 21-72; UO3, 13-59%) also vary considerably. The mineral is often described as a uranate of uranyl, lead, thorium and cerium; but in the least altered material from Branchville in Connecticut the uranous oxide predominates, whilst in altered specimens uranic oxide is in excess. In the closely allied mineral, thorianite, thorium predominates (ThO2, 76; UO2, 12%). Since the dioxides of uranium, thorium and cerium may be obtained artificially as cubic crystals, it seems probable that pitchblende consists of isomorphous mixtures of these dioxides, the uranic oxide being due to oxidation,

The radio-active properties of pitchblende are of special interest. The fact that this mineral is more strongly radio-active than metallic uranium led to the discovery in it of the elements radium, polonium and actinium. When pitchblende is ignited or dissolved in dilute sulphuric acid, a gas is evolved which consists largely of helium and argon: terrestrial helium was first recognized in this mineral.

The mineral occurs either as a primary constituent of granitic rocks or as one of secondary origin in metalliferous veins. Octahedral crystals ("cleveite "and" bröggerite") occur in the pegmatite veins of southern Norway, being occasionally found in the felspar quarries at Moss, Arendal and other places. Crystals are found under similar conditions at Middletown and Branch ville in Connecticut, Llano county in Texas (" nivenite "), Mitchell county in North Carolina, Villenveuve in Quebec, and other American localities. Thorianite, found as water-worn cubes in the gem-gravels near

Balangoda in Sabaragamuwa province, Ceylon, has also no doubt been derived from crystalline rocks. On the other hard, the mineral found in metalliferous veins, and to which the name pitchblende is more properly restricted, never occurs as crystals, but as compact masses rendered more or less impure by admixture of other minerals, the specific gravity being sometimes as low as 6.5; thorium, cerium, &c., are absent, and radium and helium are present in smaller amounts. This variety occurs with ores of silver, lead, copper, nickel, cobalt, bismuth, &c., at Johanngeorgenstadt, Marienberg and Schneeberg in Saxony, Joachimsthal and Przibram in Bohemia, Rezbánya in Bihar Mountains in Hungary, Gilpin county in Colorado, St Just, in Penwith, Redruth, Grampound Road and elsewhere in Cornwall.

Often associated with pitchblende, and resulting from its alteration, is an orange-yellow, amorphous, gum-like mineral called gummite, which is a hydrous uranic oxide with small amounts of lead, calcium, iron, &c. (L. J. S.)

PITCHER. (1) A large vessel for holding liquids, derived through Fr. from Med. Lat. picarium; the Lat. variant bicarium, Gr. Bikos, has given the Ger Becher, Eng. beaker (q.v.). (2) One who "pitches," i.e. throws, casts, fixes; the name of the player in the game of base-ball who pitches or delivers the ball to the striker.

PITCHER PLANTS, in botany, the name given to plants in which the leaves bear pitcher-like structures or are pitcher-like in form. The plant generally understood by this name is Nepenthes, a genus containing nearly sixty species, natives of tropical Asia, north Australia and (one only) of Madagascar. North Borneo is especially rich in species. They are shrubby plants climbing over surrounding vegetation by means of tendrillike prolongations of the midrib of the leaf beyond the leaf-tip.

B, Digestive gland from interior of pitcher, in pocket-like depression of epidermis, opening downwards.

same.

The pitcher is a development at the end of the tendril. It is generally tubular in form, but in some species two forms are produced on the same plant, lower or terrestrial goblet-shaped pitchers and upper suspended pitchers retaining the more form-funnel- or cornucopia-shaped pitchers-occurs in the primitive more or less tubular form; in a few species a third upper part. In the terrestrial type a pair of well-developed wings traverse the length of the pitcher; in the tubular or funnelshaped form the wings are narrow or ridge-like. The mouth of the

pitcher has a corrugated rim (peristome) formed by incurving of the margin, the convex surface of which is firm and shining, It is traversed by more or less prominent parallel