Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/52

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PIPER
PISON

PIPER, Richard Upton, physician, b. in Stratham, N. H., 3 April, 1818. He was grai hui t . . 1 at Dartmouth medical school in 1840. and noiv (1888) I practises his profession in Chicago, 111. Besides contributing to various medical periodicals, he has published a treatise on Operative Surgery," illustrated with about 2,000 drawings by the author (Boston, 1852), and " The Trees of America " (4 parts, 1857, incomplete). He also drew the illus- trations for Maclise's " Surgical Anatomy."


PIRES, Francisco (pee-ravsi. Brazilian missionary, b. in Celorico, Portugal, about 1520; d. in Bahia, Brazil, in 1586. He became a Jesuit in 1548, afterward went to Brazil as a missionary, and was for several years rector of the College of Bahia. He wrote " Cartas Annuas aos Padres da Provincia de Portugal escriptas na Bahia a 17 de Setembro. I"i52" (Italian translation, Venice, 155!)) and " Cartas escriptas da Capitania do Espirito Santo ao P. Manoel de Nobrega em o anno de 1558," also published in Italian (1562).


PIRTLE, Henry, jurist, b. in Washington county, Ky.. 5 Nov., 1798; d. in Louisville, Ky.. 28 Man-h, 1880. His parents were among the early set- tlers in Kentucky. The son received a good English education, working at intervals on his father's farm, studied law, and after practising five years in Harford. Ohio county, removed in 1825 to Louis- ville. A few months later he wa* appointed a judge of the general court to rill a vacancy, which post he resigned in 1832 and engaged in active practice. He was again appointed in 1842. but again resigned in a few days, at the close of the pending term of court. In 1840 he was elected to the state senate, and while chairman of the com- mittee on Federal relations he made a report iliat condemned certain state-rights resolutions of the South Carolina and Virginia legislatures. The same construction of the constitution that was made in this report was laid down several days later by the U. S. supreme court. Judge Pirtle was chancellor of the Louisville chancery court and professor of constitutional law, equity, and commer- cial law in the University of Louisville in 1846-'68. He published " Digest of the Decisions of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky " (2 vols., Louisville, 1832).


PISE, Charles Constantine, clergyman, b. in Annapolis, Mil. in 1S02 ; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y.. 26 May, 1866. After graduation at Georgetown col- lege, D. C., he entered the College of the propa- ganda, Rome, but was obliged to leave, owing to his father's death, and completed his theological course in Mount St. Mary's seminary, Emmetts- burg, at the same time teaching classes in rhetoric and poetry. He was ordained there in 1825, and appointed to a mission in Frederick, Md., but was transferred soon afterward to the cathedral at Baltimore. After doing missionary work for sev- eral years his health failed, and he went to Italy. He had already become recognized a? the pioneer of Roman Catholic literature in the United States, and at Rom. received the degree of D. D., and was made a kiimhl of the Holy Roman Empire. On his return In .a- .ni.h Lil i -M. Patrick's church in Washington. He was an intimate friend of Henry Clay, and, partly through the inflame,- of the latter, was appointed chaplain of the U. S. sen- ate, being the only Roman Catholic prie>t thai ever held that office. The same statesman offered Dr. Pi e a chair in Transylvania university ; but he pre- ferred active missionary work. He removed to New York on the invitation of Bishop Dubois. and wa< connected with several churches in the city, also attaining a reputation as a lecturer and preacher. He purchased Emmanuel church. I'.rouk- lyn, which became the Roman Catholic church of St. Charles Borromeo. and he assumed the pastor- ate of it in 1849. His works are " Father Row- land." a tale in answer to " Father Clement " (Bal- timore. 1829) ; " Indian Cottage, a Unitarian Story " ( t*2!h : History of the Church from its Establish- ment to the Reformation" (5 vols., 1830); "The Pleasures of Religion, and other Poems " (Phila- delphia. l*M:!i : Hone Vagabundse," an account of his travels in Ireland : " Alethia, or Letters on the Truth of the Catholic Doctrines " (New York, 1843) ; ' The Acts of the Apostles." a poem (1845) : " Zeno- sius, or the Pilgrim Convert (1845) ; "Letters to Ada"; "Lives of St. Ignatius and his First Com- panions" (1845); "Notes on a Protestant Cate- chism"; "The Catholic Bride." translated from the Italian (Baltimore. 1848); and "Christianity and the Church" (1850).


PISKARET, Simon, Algonquin chief, b. in Ot- tawa, Canada, in 1602: d. near Three Rivers in March. 1646. He was champion of the Algonquins, and his marvellous exploits are still recounted among the northwestern Indians. At first he was an enemy of the Jesuits, but he became a Christian in 1642. in the hope of gaining French favor, and soon afterward was really a convert. His conver- sion aided the French colonization of Canada, and secured a momentary peace between the French and the Indian allies and the Six Nations. This wa> brought about in the following manner, ac- cording to Parkman in his " Jesuits in North America " : In the spring of 1645 Piskaret. with

  • i other converted Indians, set out on a war-

party, and, after killing fourteen Iroquois, made two prisoners, whom, owing to the instructions of his Jesuit teacher, he treated with unexampled for- bearance. He led them to Sillery. and presented them to Gov. Montmagny, and they were after- ward conveyed to Three Rivers, where Champleur, the commandant, after clothing and equipping them, sent them home. The Mohawks fell this kindness deeply, and on 5 July following they sent an embassy to Three Rivers, led by the eliief Kiotsatou. The result was that, on IT Sept.. a grand council was held at Three Rivers by Gov. Montmagny, the Jesuit superiors, and representa- tives of various tribes, at which a general peace was concluded, and, although it lasted -caivelya year, it had valuable results for the colonization of Canada. Piskaret now followed agriculture in his domain near Three Rivers. He was killed by surprise by a party of Mohawks toward the close of March, 1646, when peace was partially broken.


PISON, Willrin (pe'-son). Dutch naturalist, b. in Leyden in 1596; d. there in 1681. He studied medicine and practised his profesMon successively in Leyden and Amsterdam. In 1637 he followed Prince Maurice de Nassau-Siegen (q. r.) to Brazil. With the help of two German students, one of whom was George Marggraff (q. i'.), he explored t hat country, and, discovering the ipecaeiianhu-t ivc, pop- ularized its use in medicine. Returning to Leyden in 1645 with a fine collection, which he presented to the city, he showed his manu-cript to. lean de Laet, who 'inserted in his " Historia naturalis Brasi- liae" (Leyden, 1648) Pison's treatise -De Me.li- cinx Brasiliensi, Libri IV." After the death of Prince Maurice, l'i><>n entered the >ervice of the Klcctor of Brandenburg, but. returning later to Holland, he published a revised edition of his former work with many additions, under the title of 1 ' He India' ulriiisquc re natural! et medicini, Libri XIV "(Amsterdam, 1658). Plumier dedicated to I'i-on a plant of the Nictaginei family, arbor spinis horrida Pisonia,