1821), but his raw levies were repulsed. The army was gradually disbanded, and Pepe spent several years in England, France and other countries, publishing a number of books and pamphlets of a political character and keeping up his connexion with the Carbonari. When in 1848 revolution and war broke out all over Italy, Pepe returned to Naples, where a constitution had again been proclaimed. He was given command of the Neapolitan army which was to co-operate with Piedmont against the Austrians, but when he reached Bologna the king, who had already changed his mind, recalled him and his troops. Pepe, after hesitating between his desire to fight for Italy, and his oath to the king, resigned his commission in the Neapolitan service and crossed the Po with 2000 volunteers to take part in the campaign. After a good deal of fighting in Venetia, he joined Manin in Venice and took command of the defending army. When the city was forced by hunger to surrender to the Austrians, Pepe and Manin were among those excluded from the amnesty; he again went into exile and died in Turin in 1855.
The story of Pepe’s life down to 1846 is told in his own interesting Memorie (Lugano, 1847), and his Narrative of the Events. . . at Naples in 1820 and 1821 (London, 1821); for the later period of his life see the general histories of the Risorgimento, and the biographical sketch in vol. ii. of L. Carpi’s Risorgimento (Milan, 1886).
PEPERINO, an Italian name applied to a brown or grey volcanic tuff, containing fragments of basalt and limestone, with disseminated crystals of augite, mica, magnetite, leucite, &c. The typical peperino occurs in the Alban Hills, near Rome, and was used by the ancients, under the name of lapis albanus, as a building stone and for the basins of fountains. Other tuffs and conglomerates in Auvergne and elsewhere are also called peperino. The name originally referred to the dark coloured inclusions, suggestive of pepper-corns. In English the word has sometimes been written peperine.
PEPPER, WILLIAM (1843–1898), American physician, was born in Philadelphia, on the 21st of August 1843. He was educated at the university of Pennsylvania, graduating from the academic department in 1862 and from the medical department in 1864. In 1868 he became lecturer on morbid anatomy in the same institution, and in 1870 lecturer on clinical medicine. From 1876 to 1887 he was professor of clinical medicine, and in 1887 succeeded Dr Alfred Stillé as professor of theory and practice of medicine. He was elected provost of the university in 1881, resigning that position in 1894. For his services as medical director of the Centennial Exhibition in 1876 he was made knight commander of St Olaf by the king of Sweden. He founded the Philadelphia Medical Times, and was editor of that journal in 1870–1871. He was known particularly for his contributions on the subject of the theory and practice of medicine, and the System of Medicine which he edited in 1885–1886 became one of the standard textbooks in America. Among his contributions to the medical and scientific journals of the day, were “Trephining in Cerebral Diseases” (1871); “Local Treatment in Pulmonary Cavities” (1874); “Catarrhal Irrigation” (1881); “Epilepsy” (1883), and “Higher Medical Education: the True Interest of the Public and the Profession.” He died on the 28th of July 1898 at Pleasanton, California.
PEPPER, a name applied to several pungent spices known respectively as black, white, long, red, or cayenne, Ashanti, Jamaica, and melegueta pepper, but derived from at least three different natural orders of plants.
Black pepper is the dried fruit of piper nigrum, a perennial climbing shrub indigenous to the forests of Travancore and Malabar, from whence it has been introduced into Java, Sumatra, Borneo, the Malay Peninsula, Siam, the Philippines, and the West Indies. It climbs on tree-trunks by roots in the same way as ivy, and from its climbing habit is known as the pepper vine. It is one of the earliest spices known to mankind, and for many ages formed a staple article of commerce between India and Europe. Tribute has been levied in pepper; one of the articles demanded in 408 by Alaric as part of the ransom of Rome was 3000 ℔ of pepper. Its exorbitant price during the middle ages was one of the inducements which led the Portuguese to seek a sea-route to India. The discovery of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope led (1498) to a considerable fall in the price, and about the same time the cultivation of the plant was extended to the western islands of the Malay Archipelago. Pepper, however, remained a monopoly of the Portuguese crown as late as the 18th century. In Great Britain it was formerly taxed very heavily, the impost in 1623 amounting to 5s., and as late as 1823 to 2s. 6d. ℔.
The largest quantities of pepper are produced in Penang, the island of Riouw, and Johore near Singapore—Penang affording on an average about half of the entire crop. Singapore is the great emporium for this spice in the East, the largest proportion being shipped thence to Great Britain. The varieties of black pepper met with in commerce are known as Malabar, Aleppy or Tellicherry, Cochin, Penang, Singapore and Siam.
Piper nigrum.
a, Twig with fruit (about 12 nat. size); b, longitudinal section of
flower much enlarged, c, section of fruit.
It owes its pungency to a resin, and its flavour to a volatile oil, of which it yields from 1·6 to 2·2%. The oil agrees with oil of turpentine in composition as well as in specific gravity and boiling point. In polarized light it deviates the ray, in a column 50 mm. long, 1·2° to 3·4° to the left. Pepper also contains a yellow crystalline alkaloid, called piperine, to the extent of 2 to 8%. This substance has the same empirical formula as morphine, C17H19NO3, but differs in constitution and properties. It is insoluble in water when pure, is devoid of colour, flavour and odour, and may be resolved into piperic acid, C12H10O4, and piperidine, C5H11N. The latter is a liquid colourless alkaloid, boiling at 106° C., has an odour of pepper and ammonia, and yields crystallizable salts. A fatty oil is found in the pericarp of pepper, and the berries yield on incineration from 4·1 to 5·7 of ash. The only use of black pepper is as a condiment, but it may be given therapeutically in doses of 15 to 20 grains. It has the pharmacological actions of a volatile oil.
In the south-west of India, where the pepper-plant grows wild, it is found in rich, moist, leafy soil, in narrow valleys, propagating itself by running along the ground and giving off roots into the soil. The only method of cultivation adopted by the natives is to tie up the end of the vines to the neighbouring trees at distances of at least 6 ft., especially to those having a rough bark, in order that the roots may easily attach themselves to the surface. The underwood is then cleared away, leaving only sufficient trees to provide shade and permit free ventilation. The roots are manured with a heap of leaves, and the shoots are trained twice a year. In localities where the pepper does not grow wild, ground is selected which permits of free drainage, but which is not too dry nor liable to inundation, and cuttings are planted at about a foot from the trees either in the rainy season in June or in the dry season in February. Sometimes several cuttings about 18 in. long are placed in a basket and buried at the root of the tree, the cuttings being made to slope towards the trunk. In October or November the young plants are manured with a mixture of leaves and cow-dung. On dry soils the young plants require watering every other day during the dry season for the first three years. The plants bear in the fourth or fifth year, and if raised from cuttings are
