POLLOK. 209 POLO. withstanding. Pollok also wrote a meditative poem called Thottghts on Mrin, and three tales of the Covenanters. Consult the Life by his brothor, D. Pollok (Edinburgh, 1843). POL'LOKSHAWS. A municipal borough and manufacturing town in Renfrewshire. Scot- land, on the White Cart, three miles southwest of Glasgow, of which it is practically a suburban extension, connected by electric street railroads, etc. (Map: Scotland, D 4). Cotton-spinning, calico-printing, silk-weaving, bleaching, iron- founding, and fancv dveing are extensively car- ried on. Population, "in TSOl, 10,228; in inOl, ll.l(!!t. POLL-TAX. See Cai'Itatiox. Tax. POLLUTION OF WATERCOURSES (Lat. poUutiu, from polluere, to defile, from por-, forth + lucre, to wash ) . By the common law, owners of real property adjoining running streams are entitled to make a reasonable use of their waters, subject to the exercise of similar rights by own- ers above and below them on the stream. This right implies that they are entitled to the water in reasonable quantities and of a reasonable qual- ity. As this doctrine of 'reasonable user' is ap- plied, no absolute and definite rule can be framed as to what extent the waters of a stream can be polluted or contaminated by an adjoining owner. The courts will consider the circumstances of each particular case. As streams are natural means of drainage of land, it has been held that a city cannot be restrained from causing its sewage to flow into a stream, unless an unusual or unreasonable quantity is discharged therein. Slills and other industries along a stream natu- rally impair the quality of the water somewhat, but as a general rule the courts will "not inter- fere if they are adapted to the stream, and do not cause it to give ott' odors which are injurious to health." The discharge of dye materials, poi- sonous chemicals, unusual quantities of sawdust, and other waste into a stream, has been re- strained in various jurisdictions. The remedies of a riparian owner who is in- jured by pollution of a stream are to seek an in- junction and damages in a court of equity, or sue for damages alone, in a court of law. See Nui- sance; Riparian Eights, etc. Consult: Angell, The Law of Watercourses ("th ed., Boston, 1877) ; Haworth, River Pollution (1897). POL 'LUX. See Castor and Pollux. POLLUX, Julius (Gk. Toi'A^oc ITo?ii'(!£i'/(//f, /om- lios J'ulifdi'ukes). A Greek lexicographer who was born at Xaucratis, in Egypt, and flourished in the reign of the Eni]jeror Conimodus (..D. 180- 192). After a preparatory training under his father, he studied under the Sophists, and be- came a learned grammatical critic. He opened a school of rhetoric at Athens, and became so famous that he was made preceptor of the Emperor Conimodus. He pre|)ared for the use of the Emperor an Onomasticon, a Greek vocabu- lary divided into 10 books, designed to facilitate the learning of the Greek language by the young prince. It contains a variety of synonymous words and phrases, is useful in the study of Greek literatiire and art. and is valuable also because in the first part it treats of the gods and their worship. Pollux was the author of several other works, of which Suidas has pre- served the titles. The Onomasticon was pub- lished with Latin translation and commentary bv Dindorf (5 vols., Leipzig, 1825), and br liekker (Berlin, 1840). POLNISCH-OSTRAU, pol'nish (te'trou. A town in the Crownland of .Silesia. Austria, on the Ostrawitza. opposite iliihriseh-Ostrau, 60 miles west-southwest of Cracow. Its importance is due to the extensive coal deposits of the neigh- borhood, which form the southwestern part of the great Upper Silesia coal-belt. The town produces malt and liquors. Population, in 1890, 13.200; in 1900, 18,800: chiefly Czechs. POLO (from Tibetan jnilu, willow, the ma- terial of which the ball is made in Tibet). A game played on horseback, closely resembling hockey (q.v. ). While the antiquity of polo in the East is undeniable, in England and America it is of comparatively recent origin. Persian odes, some of them thouglit to antedate the Christian Era, celebrate the glories of the game ; and it is a matter of undoubted record that it has flourished at different courts of Central Asia from the tenth century. China and .Japan also had a game closely resembling the Persian sport. The game seems to have been first adopted in In- dia about 1764, by the English tea-planters in Cachar, from whom it spread to the English merchants of Calcutta. In 1809 some -subaltern officers of the Tenth Hussars, stationed at Alder- shot, introduced the game into England. The possibilities of the sport were immediately recog- nized, and at the present time the game is widely played in Great Britain and her colonies, and 'is almost as popular in the United States. The Hurlingham Club. London, became the acknowl- edged law-making authority, not only for Great Britain, but for her colonies. The executive, how- ever, is the Coimty Polo Association, which does not concern itself with rules, but regulates the principal contests, the County Cup Series, dividing England into four divisions, the winners only of which play in the finals at Hurlingham, where the Inter-Regimental Cups are also played for. The Champion Cup and the Hunt (up Cham- pionship are played for over the course of the Ranelagh Club, another noted home of the game. Polo was introducecf into the United States in 1876 b}' .James Gordon Bennett, and first prac- ticed in Dickler's Riding Academy, New .York City. The Westchester Polo Club was formed in New York City in the same year and a year later it went into summer quarters at Newport, R. I., which has been the American headquarters of the game ever since. The game went West as far as the Pacific coast, and a National Polo Associa- tion was organized, consisting of the principal Eastern clubs. JIany other clubs exist, besides those affiliated with the association, especially in the Middle West and on the Pacific Slope. The .system of handicapping adopted by the American Polo Association is universally com- mended. In order to give younger players a chance, each individual is penalized with so many goals, from two upward, according to his skill. This penalty he takes with him wherever he plays. So that if the penalties on a team of four, each of whom is penalized, amount, say, to 16 goals, and they meet another team of four whose indi- vidual penalties aggregate only 10. the first team has to make 6 goals before it can begin to score. Of course this penal handicapping does not apply to championship and open games. The rules of play adopted by the Westchester
