Per«iu«

3683

Perth

eight or ten seeds, very astringent when im-
mature, but sweet and delicious when ripe or
touched by frost.

Persius (34-62 A.D.), Roman satirist, was
born at Volaterrze in Etruria; his full name
was Aulus Persius Flaccus. His one surviving
work, six satires, attained great popularity.
The subject of his satire is the Rome of his
day, with all its vices and follies. See com-
plete bibliography of Persius by Morgan
(1893).

Personality (double or multiple), or
double consciousness, is a name given to cer-
tain striking cases of alternating personal
identity. The change of identity occurs at a
hysterical crisis. The normal state can usual-
ly be restored by hypnotic treatment. Some-
times the change lasts only for a few sec-
onds. In normal persons the dream state
often affords analogous phenomena. The
identity established in a dream is lost on wak-
ing, and may be re-established on sleeping.
By minute study of cases it has been shown
that they are all explicable as cases of dis-
sociation of consciousness. (See HALLUCINA-
TION, ILLUSION, HYPNOTISM.) In a normal
person such dissociation is usually evanescent.

Personal Liberty Laws, a series of laws
passed in various Northern states, prior to
the Civil War, to prevent or make difficult
the rendition of fugitive slaves from these
states to Southern slave owners. These laws
were an expression of the hostility felt by
Northern communities for the Fugitive Slave
Acts and were undoubtedly one of the causes
of the ultimate outbreak of hostilities be-
tween the North and South. See FUGITIVE
SLAVE LAWS.

Personal Property. In general such prop-
erty rights as, upon the death of the owner
intestate, pass to his personal representative
as distinguished from his heir, upon whom
the real property descends. It includes not
only chattels proper or 'chattels personal,'
corresponding to the movables of the Roman
law, but certain interests in land also, such
as estates, real mortgages, etc., known as
'chattels real/ and which have for years for
various reasons fallen into the category of
property devolving upon the executor or ad-
ministrator. Personal property law is much
simpler than that of real property and has
never shared the complexity and artificiality
of the latter.

Personal Representative. An executor or
administrator of a deceased person. Some-
times the term is used to mean the next of
kin, or the person or persons to whom the

personal estate would go by law if there were
no will. See EXECUTORS AND ADMINISTRA-
TORS.

Perspective. A drawing of an object may
show either its actual or its apparent size and
shape. The former is geometric or ortho-
graphic drawing—i.e. parallel projection; the
atter is perspective drawing, or projection
From a fixed point—i.e. radial projection.
Perspective deals wholly with appearances,
but objects have both an apparent form and
an apparent color. Both seem to differ much
as we look from different standpoints, and
they are quite separate studies. The study
of the apparent forms or shapes is called
linear perspective.' The study of the
apparent changes in color is called 'aerial
perspective,' Because of the varying at-
mospheric conditions no definite rules re-
garding aerial perspective can be laid
down. Linear perspective, however, is an
exact science, based on the fact that a
straight line passes from any point in an ob-
ject at which the spectator is looking to the
eye of the spectator, a ray of light carrying
with it the impression of the point to the eye.
From this fact rules or axioms are deduced,
and by the application of these, drawings of
objects can be made which will be exactly
similar in form to the apparent form of ob-
jects as seen from any fixed point. A knowl-
edge of solid geometry or of orthographic
projection is of great assistance in under-
standing this subject; indeed, perspective
drawing is but a development of solid geom-
etry.

Perspiration, an excretion from the sweat
glands of the human skin. On an average a
healthy male adult loses daily in this way
some 18 ounces of water, about 300 grains of
solid matter, and about 400 grains of carbon
dioxide. Should perspiration be rapidly ex-
creted or slowly evaporated, it becomes vis-
ible; but even when it does not gather in
drops, an invisible perspiration is continually
going on.

Perth, Ontario, Canada, county seat of
Lanark co. on the Tay River, which con-
nects with the Rideau Canal. It is a shipping
point for live-stock and has important man-
ufactures. The district is rich in minerals
particularly phosphate of lime; p.4,097.

Perth, city, Scotland, capital of Perthshire,
on the River Tay. Its beautiful site has won
for it the name of the 'Fair City/ and its his-
toric associations have added to its interest
The kings of Scotland frequently resided in
the Cistercian abbey, and many Parliaments