PIANA DE’ GRECI—PLANETOIDS. 
  
  
  
It is built on a rising ground, near the bank of a 
stream, which, after a course of no great length, 
loses itself amidst the sands of the desert. Pop. 
about 15,000. 
PIA'NA DE’ GRE'CI, a town of Sicily, in the 
province of Palermo, 10 miles south-west from 
Palermo, on one of the head-waters of:the Belici. 
It was the chief colony of the Albanians who settled 
in Sicily in the 15th c., taking refuge from Turkish 
tyranny. Twenty-three such colonies were estab- 
lished in Calabria, but only four in Sicily, where 
King John II. granted them land, and guaranteed 
to them the free exercise of their religion. The 
colony at P. was founded in 1488. The descendants 
of the colonists still follow the Greek ritual, and 
adhere to all the customs of the Eastern Church, 
although acknowledging the supremacy of the pope. 
The Albanian dress is partially retained among the 
poorer classes, and particularly among the women. 
The inhabitants of P. are mostly husbandmen and 
shepherds. The houses are generally mean build- 
ings of a single story. Pop. (1861) 7270. 
PIATRA, a town of Moldavia, 62 miles west- 
south-west from Jassy, on the left bank of the 
Bistritza, a branch of the Sereth. The church of 
P. is one of the oldest in Moldavia. The only 
paper-mills in the province are here. Much wood 
is floated down the Bistritza and the Sereth to the 
Danube, to be exported from Galatz. Pop. (1860) 
11,805. 
PIA'ZZA, or, more fully, PIAZZA ARMERINA, 
a town of Sicily, in the province of Caltanisetta, 17 
miles east-south-east from Caltanisetta. It stands 
on the crests and slopes of an isolated hill on the 
left bank of the Terranova. It is the residence of 
many nobles and landowners. The chief trade is 
in corn, oil, fruits, and other agricultural produce. 
Pop. (1861) 20,310. 
PICTURES, RESTORATION oF. Some important 
observations on the action of light on oil-paintings 
have led to a series of experiments by Dr David 
Price of the Crystal Palace, and he has succeeded 
in demonstrating that the discoloration of pictures 
in galleries and dwelling-houses arises in a great 
measure from the presence of sulphide of hydrogen 
gas, which reduces the metal in the white lead, and 
thereby gives the dark dingy appearance which so 
frequently defaces even modern pictures in some 
places where the pictures are hung on walls not 
exposed to the direct light of the sun. Dr Price 
shews that pictures which have been thus injured 
can be completely restored by being fully exposed 
to light in a pure atmosphere, the light exerting a 
rapid and powerful influence over the lead com- 
pounds, even though well protected with varnish. 
The same holds good even in a stronger degree in 
water-colour paintings in which lead-whites have 
been used. 
PIEDIMO'NTE D’ALI'FE, a town of South 
Italy, in the province of Caserta, and 20 miles 
north-by-east from Caserta, at the base of the Apen- 
nines, on a branch of the Volturno. It is about 3 
miles north-east from Alife, the ancient Alifw, a 
city of the Samnites, now a small town of only 2689 
inhabitants. In a grand and gloomy ravine, called 
the Val d’Inferno, near P., a torrent issues from 
a cavern, which is supposed to derive its waters 
through subterranean channels from a lake, about 
five miles distant, amongst the mountains. This 
and other mountain torrents afford water-power for 
a number of cotton, paper, flour, fulling, and copper 
mills in and around the town. P. isone of the most 
active manufacturing towns in Italy. The exten- 
sive cotton-mills established by Mr Egg give employ- 
ment to about 1500 hands. There are copper-mines 
686 
in the vicinity. Pop. (1861) 7933.—Piedimonte is 
the name of several smaller towns and villages in 
Italy and Sicily. 
PIEDRA BLANCA, a town of the Argentine 
Republic, South America, in the province of 
Catamarca, and 20 miles south-west from Catamarca. 
Pop. (1863) 10,000. 
PIETRAPE'RZIA, a town of Sicily, in the pro- 
vince of Caltanisetta, and six miles south-east from 
Caltanisetta, on a lofty height rising from the left 
bank of the Salso. There are sulphur-mines in the 
vicinity. Pop. (1861) 10,296. 
PILLIBHI'T, or PHILLIBIT, a town of India, 
in the British district of Bareilly, North-west Pro- 
vinces, 28 miles north-east-by-east from Bareilly, 
on the left bank of the Gurrah, and on the road 
from Bareilly to Petagorah. P. is a place of con- 
siderable trade. The P. rice, celebrated throughout 
India for its excellence, is the produce of the south 
of Kumaon, brought to P. to market. Pop. 26,760. 
PIP, CHIP, or ROUP, a disease of poultry, often 
very fatal, particularly to chickens and turkey 
poults. It is very frequent also in young pheasants. 
Adult birds are, however, liable to it; and when it 
appears in a poultry-yard, it often attacks many in 
rapid succession, so that it is regarded as highly 
contagious. It most frequently occurs in wet or 
very cold weather, and is generally described as a 
kind of catarrh, although perhaps it might more 
accurately be called a kind of influenza. It begins 
with a slight hoarseness and catching in the breath, 
which is followed by an offensive discharge from 
the nostrils and eyes, rattling in the throat, and an 
accumulation of mucus in the mouth, forming a 
‘scale’ on the tongue. The communication of the 
disease from one bird to another is supposed to take 
place through the contamination of the water in 
their common drinking-vessel ; and therefore a bird 
affected with it should at once be removed from the 
rest. Castor-oil is freely administered by some 
poultry-keepers. Mrs Blair, in 7%e Henwife, recom- 
mends a table-spoonful, but without saying whether 
this dose is for a full-grown fowl or a young chicken. 
She recommends also a medicine composed of half 
a drachm of dried sulphate of iron, and one drachm 
of capsicum, made into 30 pills with extract of 
liquorice, one pill to be given three times a day. 
This after a certain time is to be followed by an- 
other compound of sulphate of iron, cayenne pepper, 
and butter. The eyes, nostrils, and mouth are to 
be washed with vinegar. In one of the most recent 
works on poultry (7'he Practical Poultry-keeper, by 
L. Wright, Lond. 1867), it is specially recommended 
that the diseased birds should be kept warm ; they 
are to be fed on oatmeal mixed with ale, and to get 
plenty of green food. In other respects, except as 
to the castor-oil, the treatment recommended nearly 
agrees with Mrs Blair’s; but the removal of the 
‘scale’ from the tongue is not regarded as necessary, 
because it will disappear of itself on the cure of the 
disease.—It is proper to mention that there is con- 
siderable confusion of nomenclature as to the dis- 
eases of fowls, and that, by some writers, the mere 
symptomatic affection of the tongue is called Pip, 
and the disease itself Roup. The terms, however, 
are generally used in the same sense. 
PI'ZZO, a seaport of South Italy, in the province 
of Catanzaro, 24 miles west-south-west from Cat- 
anzaro, on the Gulf of Santa Fufemia. It was at 
P. that Murat (q.v.), the ex-king of Naples, was 
taken, tried, and shot. He was buried in one of the 
common vaults of a church to the erection of which 
he had largely contributed. Pop. (1861) 6402. 
  
PLANETOIDS. The indefatigable zeal of