Perekop
ISTHMUS OF, Russia, connecting the peninsula of the Crimea with the mainland of European Russia. In the N. of the isthmus is the small town of Perekop. PÉREZ GALDÓS, BENITO, a Spanish novelist. He was born in the Canary Islands in 1845, and studied law at Madrid, but followed literature as a He was a member of the Cortes career. for a time, and while there gave evidence of the revolutionary ideals that showed in his historical romances. He wrote voluminously, and completed 20 wrote voluminouslyis of "Episodios " Nacionales" Nacionale series by 1883. His best known work is "Doña Perfecta" which appeared in 1876. Others are "Gloria"; "La Familia de León Roch"; "Marianela"; "El Amigo Manso"; "El Doctor Centeno"; "Fortunata y Jacinta"; "Miau"; "Angel Guerra"; "Nazarin"; "Misericordia." He also wrote several plays. He died in 1920, statues having been erected to him in his lifetime, and national subscriptions being gathered to honor him.
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Perennial
. See Herb
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Perfectionist
in ecclesiastical and Church history, one who believes in the possibility of living without sin; a perfectibilist. Any member of an American sect of Antinomian Communists, which was founded about 1854, by John Humphrey Noyes, who had been an Independent minister at Yale College. He professed to have discovered from the writings of St. Paul that all Christian sects were in spiritual darkness, and determined to establish a church of his own. He founded a community at Oneida, N. Y., and others subsequently at Wallingford, New Haven, and New York, in order to carry out what he asserted to be a divinely revealed system of society, based on the following principles: (1) Reconciliation with God; (2) salvation from sin; (3) brotherhood of man and woman; and (4) community of labor, and of its fruits. They are called also Bible Communists. All possessions of the sect are held in common.
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Perfumes
substances emitting an agreeable odor, and used about the person, the dress, or the dwelling, having also some value as disinfectants. Perfumes of various sorts have been held in high estimation from the most ancient times. The Egyptians, Hebrews, Phœnicians, Assyrians, and Persians are known to have made great use of them, as did also the Greeks and Romans. Perfumes are partly of animal but chiefly of vegetable origin. They may be divided into two classes, crude and prepared. The former consist of such animal perfumes as musk, civet, ambergris, and such vegetable perfumes as are obtained the of essential oils. At the present time the manufacture of perfumes is chiefly carried on in Paris and London, and in various towns near the Mediterranean, especially in the S. of France. Certain districts are famous for certain productions; as Cannes for its perfumes of the rose, tuberose, cassia, jasmine; Nîmes for thyme, rosemary, and lavender; Nice for the violet and mignonette. England claims the superiority for her lavender, which is cultivated on a large scale at Mitcham in Surrey.
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Perga
An ancient and important city of Pamphylia. It was the first place in Asia Minor visited by the apostle Paul on his first missionary journey.
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Peri
according to the mythical lore of the East, a being begotten by fallen spirits, which spends its life in all imaginable delights, is immortal, but is forever excluded from the joys of Paradise. It takes an intermediate place between angels and demons, and is either male or female. The Peris live in constant warfare with the Devs. Otherwise, they are of the most innocuous character to mankind, and are just like the fairies. They belong to the great family of genii, or Jinn.
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Periander
one of the seven reputed sages of Greece, a tyrant of Corinth, who succeeded his father, Cypselus, 625 B. c., and died with the reputation of an able ruler, 585 B. C. He was a man of licentious manners, and, in the latter part of his reign, became a cruel ruler.
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Perianth
the envelope surrounding the reproductive organs in a flower, when the calyx and corolla are not easily discriminated. Example, the petaloid or dition against Sicyon and Acarnania; colored portion of a lily.
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Peridote
a name given by jewelers to the green transparent varieties of olivine. It is usually some shade of olive-green or leek-green. Peridote is found in Brazil, Ceylon, Egypt, and Pegu. It is a very soft gem stone, difficult to polish, and, when polished, liable to lose its luster and to suffer by wear.
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Perihelion
or PERIHELIUM, the part of a planet's or comet's orbit where it is nearest the sun, as opposed to aphelion. One of these is said to be in perihelion when it is at the extremity of the major axis of the elliptical orbit nearest the focus occupied by the sun.
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Perim
a barren island, and coaling and telegraph station, belonging to Great Britain, in the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, at the S. entrance to the Red Sea, 97 miles W. of Aden. It is about 3½ miles long by 2½ wide, and crescent shaped, the two horns embracing a deep and spacious harbor. The island was held by the British in 1799-1800, and was again occupied in 1857. In 1883 it was made a coaling station, and soon began to be a rival to Aden. the
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Perimeter
in geometry, bounds or limits of any figure or body. The perimeters of surfaces or figures are lines; those of bodies are surfaces.
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Period (Geology one of the largest)
in geology, one of the largest divisions of geological time. In this sense there are at least three periods, the Primary, the Secondary, and the Tertiary periods, to which a fourth or Quaternary one is sometimes added; also subdivisions; as, the Glacial period. In mathematics, a number of figures considered together; one of two or more sets of figures or terms marked off by points or commas placed regularly after a certain number, as in numeration, in circulating decimals, or in the extraction of roots. In music, two or more phrases ending with a perfect cadence. In pathology, an interval more or less fixed in point of time at which the paroxysms of In printing, the full a fever, etc., recur. stop (.) which marks the end of a sensto tence in punctuating, or indicates an abbreviation, as Mr., Mr., Jan., B. C., etc. In rhetoric, a complete sentence from one full stop to another; a sentence so constructed as to have all its parts mutually dependent.
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