in general signifies defilement, or the rendering a person or place unclean or unholy. For the Jewish pollutions, see the article IMPURITY.

The Romanists hold a church to be polluted by the effusion of blood or of seed therein; and that it must be consecrated anew. And the Indians are so superstitious on this head, that they break all the vessels which those of another religion have drunk out of, or even only touched; and drain all the water out of a pond in which a stranger has bathed.

**Pollution**, in Medicine, a disease which consists in an involuntary emission of the seed in time of sleep. This, in different persons, is very different in degree; some being affected with it only once in a week, a fortnight, three weeks, or a month, and others being subject to it almost every night. The persons most subject to it, are young men of a sanguineous temperament, who feed high and lead a sedentary life. When this happens to a person but once in a fortnight or a month, it is of no great consequence; but when it happens almost every night, it greatly injures the health; the patient looks pale and sickly; in some the eyes become weak and inflamed, are sometimes affected with violent deflexions, and are usually at last encircled with a livid appearance of the skin. This distemper is to be cured rather by a change of life than by medicines. When it has taken its rise from a high diet and a sedentary life, a coarser food and the use of exercise will generally cure it. Persons subject to this disease should never take any stimulating purges, and must avoid as much as possible all violent passions of the mind; and though exercise is recommended in moderation, yet if this be too violent, it will rather increase the disorder than contribute to its cure.

**Self-Pollution.** See ONANISM.

**Pollux**, Julius, a Greek writer of antiquity, flourished in the reign of the emperor Commodus, and was born at Naucrates, a town in Egypt. He was educated under the sophists, and made great progress in grammatical and critical learning. He taught rhetoric at Athens, and became so famous that he was made preceptor of the emperor Commodus. He drew up for his use, and inscribed to him, while his father Marcus Antoninus was living, an *Onomasticum* or Greek vocabulary, divided into ten books. It is extant, and contains a vast variety of synonymous words and phrases, agreeable to the copiousness of the Greek tongue, ranged under the general classes of things. It was intended to facilitate the knowledge of the Greek language to the young prince; and it is still very useful to all who have a mind to be perfect in it. The first edition of it was printed at Venice by Aldus in 1502, and a Latin version was afterwards made and published with it: but there was no correct and handsome edition of it till that of Amsterdam, 1706, in folio, by Lederlinus and Hemsterhuisius. Lederlinus went through the first seven books, corrected the text and version, and subjoining his own, with the notes of Salmasius, Is. Vossius, Valesius, and of Kuhnus, whose scholar he had been, and whom he succeeded in the professorship of the oriental languages in the university of Strasbourg. Hemsterhuisius continued the same method through the three last books: this learned man has since distinguished himself by an excellent edition of Lucian, and other monuments of solid and profound literature.

Pollox wrote many other things, none of which remain. He lived to the age of 58. Philostratus and Lucian have treated him with much contempt and ridicule. *Philostrat. de vit. Sophist.* lib. ii. and *Lucian in Rhetorium praecopere.*

**Pollux.** See CASTOR and POLLUX.

**Pollux,** in Astronomy, a fixed star of the second magnitude, in the constellation Gemini, or the Twins. See CASTOR.

**Pollux and Castor,** a fiery meteor. See CASTOR and POLYAR.

**Polocski,** a palatinate in the duchy of Lithuania, partly in Poland, and partly in Russia, and under the government of Russia since 1733; bounded on the north by the palatinate of Weytepski, on the south by the Dvina, on the north by Muscovy, and on the west by Livonia. It is a desert country, full of wood, and had formerly its own dukes.

**Polocski,** a town of Lithuania, and capital of a palatinate of the same name, with two castles to defend it. It was taken by the Muscovites in 1563, and retaken the same year. It is seated on the river Dvina, 50 miles south-west of Weytepski, and 80 east of Breslaw. F. Long. 29. O. N. Lat. 56. 4.

**Poltron,** or **Poltron,** a coward or dastard, wanting courage to perform any thing great or noble. The word is borrowed from the French, who according to Salmasius, derived it *à pollice truncato,* because anciently those who would avoid going to the wars cut off their thumb. But Menage, with more probability, derives it from the Italian *poltrone* and that from *poltro* a "bed;" because timorous, pusillanimous people take pleasure in lying a-bed. Others derive the word from the Italian *poltro,* a "colt;" because of that creature's readiness to run away.

**Polverine,** the calcined ashes of a plant; of a similar nature with our pot-ashes or pearl-ashes. It is brought from the Levant and Syria; and in the glass-trade it is always to be preferred to any other ashes. The barilla, or pot-ashes of Spain, yield more pure salt than the pulverine of the Levant, but the glass made with it has always some blue tinge: that made with the pulverine is perfectly white, which ought always to be used for the finest crystal.

**Polyadelphia** (from πολλα, many, and ἀδελφα, brotherhood), many brotherhoods; the name of the 18th class of Linnaeus's sexual system, consisting of plants with hermaphrodite flowers, in which several stamens or male organs are united by their filaments into three or more distinct bundles. See CLASSIFICATION UNDER BOTANY.

**Polyænus,** the name of many famous men recorded in ancient writers. Among them was Julius Polyænus, of whom we have some Greek epigrams extant. tant in the first book of the Anthologia. The Polyænus whom it most concerns us to know about, is the author of the eight books of the Stratagems of Illustrious Commanders in War. He was probably a Macedonian, and perhaps a soldier in the early part of his life; but of this there is no certainty. He was undoubtedly a rhetorician and a pleader of causes; and appears, from the dedication of his work to the emperors Antoninus and Verus, to have lived towards the latter part of the second century. The Stratagemata were published in Greek by Isaac Casaubon, with notes, in 1589, 12mo; but no good edition of them appeared till that of Leyden, 1690, in 8vo. The title page runs thus: Polyænus Stratagematum libri octo, Justo Vulterio interprete, Pancratius Maasvicus recensuit, Isaac Casauboni nec non suas notas adjectit.

We have in this work the various stratagems of above 300 captains and generals of armies, chiefly Greeks and barbarians; for the Romans seldom used such finesses; and Polyænus has shown further, that he was not well versed in Roman affairs. A great number of these stratagems appear to us to be ridiculous or impracticable; and neither the generals, or even common soldiers of our days, would be found simple enough to be caught by them. Few of this order are capable of reading Polyænus's Stratagems; and if they were, they would reap little benefit from it. The book is useful to such as study the Greek language and antiquity; for many things will be found in it, illustrating the customs and opinions of ancient times. The sixth and seventh books are imperfect.

Polyænus composed other works besides the Stratagemata. Stoibos has produced some passages out of a book De Republica Macedonum; and Suidas mentions a piece concerning the Thebans, and three books of Tacitus. If death had not prevented, he would have written Memorabilia of the Emperors Antoninus and Verus: for he makes a promise of this in the preface to his sixth book of Stratagems. Casaubon, in the dedication of Polyænus to Mornaeus, calls him an elegant, acute, and learned writer.