Pundit

3381

Puri

means of certain conventional sicrns, the d:-;
visions of a sentence in order to assist in !
brining out the meaning more clearly. Thf |
usual signs employed are the period or full j
stop (.), the colon (: i, the semi-co'on t ;., j
and the comma (,). In addition to these we j
have the dash (—), the mark of interroga-
tion (?), the mark of exclamation or ad-
miration (!), and the parentheses and brack-
ets, () [].

Pundit, a Brahman learned in Sanskrit lore
and language, and in Hindu science, laws, and
religion.

Punic Wars. See Carthage.

Punishment, a penalty exacted because of
wrong doing. Reformation of the criminal
and the prevention of crime represent the
most modern and generally accepted meth-
ods of dealing with the subject of punish-
ment. To that end reformatories for youth-
ful criminals have been established, the in-
determinate sentence has been adopted in
many cases, as well as a system of parole.

Punjab, or Pan jab ('the land of five
waters'), a province of British India lying
on the northwestern frontier. The area of
British territory is 99,846 sq. m., and 37,059
sq. m, are under native rule. The chief agri-
cultural products are cotton, sugar, wheat,
maize, rice, and pulse; p. 20,700,000.

Punkah, in the Orient a large, broad fan,
swung from the ceiling, and worked by an
attendant, to cool a room.

Puntarens, town, Costa Rica. It is the
only port of Costa Rica on the Pacific Coast,
and is a charming old fashioned town; p.
7,848.

Punts and Punting. A punt is a flat-bot-
tomed craft, without stern, keel, or stern
post, and in racing punts having the width
at each end at least half the greatest width.
It is propelled by a pole thrust against the
bottom of the lake or river. Punting is
almost exclusively an English sport and is
popular on the Thames River.

Pupa, the term applied to the quiescent
stage which, in insects with complete meta-
morphosis, intervenes between the larval and
the adult stages.

Pupil, of the eye, the opening, practically
round, at the center of the iris, through
which light enters to act upon the retina at
the back.

Pupin, Michael Wvorsky (i8$8-*935),
American electrical engineer and physicist
was bbrn in Idvor, Banet, Yugoslavia. He
was prof, of electro-mechanics, Columbia U.,
1901-31, BOW prof, emeritus. In 1896 he

invented a method of rapid x-ray photo-
graph) and discovered secondary x-ray ra-
diation Probably his most famous* invention
it the t'lectromu'jnetic loading employing the
luroidal inductance coil which is universally
employed in lons-dktance telephone trans-
mission . He also invented electrical tuning
and rectification of Hertzian waves, both
universally employed. He is the author of
From Immigrant to Inventor, an autobiog-
raphy ^1923); The .Vet? Reformation
(1927); Romance of the Machine (1930).

Puranas, * ancient traditions." 18 songs in
praise of Hindu deities—as the Brahmapu-
rana, Bhasavatapurana, Bhavishyapurana,
and so on.

Pur beck, Isle of, peninsular district, Eng-
land. The district is famous for its marble
quarries and potter^ clay.

Purcell, Henry (1658-95), famous English
musician, was born in Westminster. He early
began composing anthems, other Church com-
positions, and son*:? and wrote the music for
many plays. Purcell holds a very high place
in English musical history. His work was
characterized by inspirational and emotional
qualities, by technical ingenuity, and by a
certain austerity of melody. He is buried be-
neath the organ in Westminster Abbey,

Purdue University, a co-educational State
institution at Lafayette, Ind., founded in 1874
under the provision of the Morrill Act of 1862.
and named for John Purdue, an early benefac-
tor. The main purpose of the institution is
to train students for service in the fields of
Engineering, Agriculture and Applied Science,

Pure Food and Drug- Law, an Act of
Congress, approved on June 30, 1906, and
effective Jan. i, 1907, which prohibits adul-
teration and misbranding and use of unwhole-
some preservatives in preparation of food*
and drugs. The Bureau of Chemistry of the
Department of Agriculture was designated in
the Act as the tribunal to decide whether any
specified food substance was deleterious. Dr.
Harvey W. Wiley, chief chemist in the Depart-
ment of Agriculture was responsible for the
introduction of the act and its enforcement.

Purgatives, in medicine, drugs used to
evacuate the bowels.

Purgatory, in Roman Catholic theology,
a place or condition of souls intermediate be-
tween death and heaven.

Puri, commonly known as Jagannath, OT
Juggernaut, chief town of Puri district.
Orissa, Bengal, India. A temple of Vishnu
contains the famous idol called Jagannath—
'Lord of the World/ which each year is placed