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PALOLO 96 PAMIKS, THE ville, where the first battle of the Mexi- can War was fought, May 8, 1846. Gen. Zachary Taylor was in command of the .^ United States troops of 2,300 men, while the Mexicans, under General Arista, had about 3,500. The battle was fought principally with artillery and the Mexicans were defeated. PAIiOLO (Palolo viridis), an edible annelid, allied to the lug worm, extremely abundant at certain seasons in the sea above and near the coral reefs which surround many of the Polynesian Is- lands. The body is cylindrical, slightly tapering at both ends, divided into nearly equal joints, each joint with a small tuft of gills on each side. In thickness the palolo resembles a very fine straw; in length it varies from 9 to 18 inches. These annelids made their appearance in great multitudes, apparently rising out of the coral reefs. They are eagerly sought after by the islanders. They often occur in such numbers that they niay be grasped by handfuls. After sun- rise the creatures break into pieces and the shoals are not seen till the next period; the two stated periods being in October and again in November. PALPITATION, a sensible abnormal beating of the heart, most frequent in adolescents, particularly females, and in advanced life, indicating want of power and laborious efforts rather than in- creased excitement and action. It is fre- quently associated with dyspepsia, and morbid states of the heart. PALSY, the loss of the power of mo- tion. It is a symptom of disease, usually of apoplexy. The two causes on which it depends are an affection of a nerve or nerves, or a morbid state of the nervous centers, the brain or spinal cord. Under the former head poisoning of nervous matter or any morbid process impairing the nerves or solution of continuity, or pressure may cause it; under the latter, it is due to a morbid state of the centers of the nervous system. The commonest form is hemiplegia, a paralytic stroke on one side or half, which may be com- plete, profound, or incomplete. There are six forms : Cerebral, spinal, epileptic, choreic, hysterical, and peripheral, their frequency being in the order named. Palsy is uncommon but serious in the young, and most common in advanced life. There are four modes of termina- tion: (1) Death; (2) complete recovery with wasting muscles; (3) partial re- covery with rigid muscles; (4) complete recovery. In hysterical hemiplegia the lower hmb, instead of being dragged by a rotary movement, is usually dragged straight forward. PALTSITS, VICTOR HUGO, an American historian, born in New York in 1867. He was educated in public and private schools in New York and took a scientific course at Cooper Institute. He also studied European and other lan- guages. For many years he was as- sistant of the New York Public Library. He was appointed State historian in 1907, serving until 1911. In 1914 he was appointed keeper of manuscripts in the New York Public Library and in 1916 became chief of the Division of American History in the same institu- tion. He was a member of many his- torical societies and was a prolific writer on historical subjects, and edited a large number of historical works and con- tributed largely to encyclopjedias on his- torical subjects. PAMIRS, THE, ("roof of the world") the name given to that part of central Asia where the frontiers of Russia, China, and Afghanistan adjoin. It forms the nucleus of the central Asiatic highland system, uniting the Himalaya and the mountains of the Tian Shan range with the Hindukush, and is tra- versed by a number of mountain ridges interspersed with broad valleys, the aver- age altitude of the intervening table lands being 13,000 feet. It was tra- versed by Marco Polo and in recent years has been visited and described by Lord Dunmore, Lord Curzon, Col. T. E. Gor- don, Mons. Bonvolet, Maj. C. S. Cumber- land, Captain Younghusband and Sven Hedin. The term pamir implies a mountain valley of glacial formation. During the brief summer these valleys are strewn with patches of grass, which serve as pasturage for the herds of the nomadic Kirghiz, while for the rest of the year the whole of the pamirs are covered with snow. The pamirs contain much game. The only population existing in the region are Kirghiz of the lowest type In 1895 the Russo-Afghan border line across the pamirs was settled by a con- vention drawn up by an Anglo-Russian boundary commission. The Russian- Chinese frontier was not, however, af- fected by this convention, the only under- standing existing being that entered into between Russia and China in 1894, by which Russia undertook never to inter- fere with that portion of the pamirs occupied by China. In 1899, however, the Russians manifested a desire to annex Sirikul, a province of the Kirghiz, and to break their treaty with China.