in Ancient Geography, a mountain which is thought to have given name to Pieria of Macedonia; taking its name from Pierus a poet, who was the first that sacrificed to the Muses, thence called Pierides, if credit may be given to an ancient scholiast on Juvenal.

PIERRE D'AUTOMNE is a French name, translated from the Chinese, of a medicinal stone, celebrated in the east for curing all disorders of the lungs. Many imagine it had its name of the autumn-stone from its being only to be made at that season of the year; but it may certainly be made equally at all times. The Chinese chemists refer the various parts of the body to the several seasons of the year, and thus they refer the lungs to autumn. This is evident in their writings, and thus the stone for diseases of the lungs came to be called autumn-stone. It is prepared as follows: They put 30 pints of the urine of a strong and healthy young man into a large iron pot, and set it over a gentle fire. When it begins to boil, they add to it, drop by drop, about a large tea-cup-full of rape oil. They then leave it on the fire till the whole is evaporated to a thick substance like black mud. It is then taken out of the pot, and laid on a flat iron to dry, so that it may be powdered very fine. This powder is moistened with fresh oil, and the mass is put into a double crucible, surrounded with coals, where it stands till it be thoroughly dried again. This is again powdered, and put into a china vessel, which being covered with silk cloth and a double paper, they pour on it boiling water, which makes its way, drop by drop, through these coverings, till so much is got in as is sufficient to reduce it to a paste. This paste is well mixed together in the vessel it is kept in, and this is put into a vessel of water, and the whole set over the fire. The matter thus becomes again dried in bains maries, and is then finished. Observ. sur les Cout. de l'Afrique, p. 258.