Poland

3773

Police

and Nationalism in Polish life find their ad-
vocates in L. L. Reymont (1868-1925), whose
novel The Peasants presents a panorama of
Polish life, and for which he was awarded the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1924. Alexander
Fredro has had no equal as a writer of Polish
comedy. Consult Chmielowski's History of
Polish Literature (6 vols.); Tarnowski's His-
tory of Polish Literature; Dyboski's Periods
of Polish Literary History (1923) and Modern
Polish Literature (1924).

Poland Springs, a well known resort in
Androscoggin co., Maine, 23 m. n.w. of Port-
land. The waters of the springs, which are said
to be highly beneficial, are widely used.

Polaris. The star nearest the North Pole.

Polarity, the property of having poles—
that is, ends having certain opposite qualities.

Polarization of Light, in its simpler as-
spects, is closely associated with the phenom-
enon of double refraction. A ray of ordinary
white light, either from the sun or from an
artificial source, when passed through a crystal
of Iceland spar is separated into two rays of
practically equal intensities. These are called
the ordinary and extraordinary rays. Let the
two rays be received on the surface of a plate
of glass (not a mirror) held at a fairly high
obliquity to the ray so as to reflect it through
an angle greater than a right angle. It will be
found that for most positions of the reflecting
plate the two rays will be after reflection
markedly different as regards brightness. An-
other variation of the same experiment is to
reflect the single ray first, and then pass it
through the doubly refracting crystal, when
in general the two rays will be of different in-
tensity. Thus we learn that the two doubly
refracted rays have what Newton called
'sides'; and it is this sidedness, or laterality,
which is known as polarization.

The true significance of the phenomenon is
best understood by expressing it in terms of
the generally accepted theory, that light is a
wave motion consisting of vibrations at right
angles to the direction of the ray. In common
unpolarized light the vibrations take place in
all possible planes containing the ray, the sole
condition being that they are perpendicular to
it. When the light is passed through the doub-
ly refracting crystal, every vibration is de-
composed into two components at right angles
to one another, the exact directions of which
depend upon the position of the Iceland spar.
This possibility of the separation of the ordi-
nary ray from the extraordinary permits the
use of the polarized beam in minerology stud-
ies, where the quality and property of sub-

stances may be thus analyzed, and also in the
study of the structure of the atom where the
spectral lines, when split in a magnetic field,
will prove to be polarized in different ways.
It is not possible to enter upon a description
of the beautiful phenomena of polarization
produced by means of uniaxial and biaxial
crystals when placed in a beam of diverging
or converging light. It remains to point out
that polarization effects are not confined to
luminous rays, but can be observed with the
infra-red and ultra-violet rays.

Pole, Reginald (1500-58), English cardi-
nal and Archibishop of Canterbury, was born
in Stourton Castle, Staffordshire. In 1521-7
he was in Padua and later in Paris at the order
of Henry vin. to collect information regarding
the king's divorce. On his marriage with Anne
Boleyn (1533) Henry wrote to Pole (1534),
asking for a definite avowal of his opinions on
the divorce and on papal supremacy, and Pole
replied with his treatise Pro Ecclesiastics Uni-
tatis Defensione. The king promptly cancelled
his preferments; but Paul m. appointed him
cardinal (1536) and papel legate to England
(1537). Pole's mother and relatives were ar-
rested and executed, and an act of attainder
was passed against Pole himself. On Henry's
death (1547) Pole unsuccessfully tried to re-
claim England from schism. It was not till
after Mary's marriage with Philip of Spain
(1554) that Parliament reversed his attainder,
and Pole landed in England. He was then
created Archibishop of Canterbury (1556).

Polecat, a European carnivore belonging
to the weasel family. The ferret is a domesti-
cated variety. A closely related animal is the
North American skunk.

Polenta, an Italian dish, the chief ingredi-
ents of which are maize meal and salt.

Poles, the two terminal points of the earth's
axis.

Police. Originally the word police meant
all goverment, but it has finally come to be
applied to that function of government which
attempts to prevent the happening of evil and
to promote the welfare of the people by means
of restraint and compulsion, with the object of
obtaining the greatest good to the greatest
number. In England, prior to 1829, the pro-
tection of the people was entrusted to watch-
men. At length through the efforts of Sir Rob-
ert Peel (from whose name are derived the
familiar British terms, 'bobby' and 'peeler') an
act was passed (1829) which provided a train-
ed corps of policemen for the area of the
Metropolis of London, with a systematic day
and night patrol.