Part 177

Max M¸ller.

Per*cep`ti*bil"i*ty (?), n. [Cf. F. perceptibilitÈ.] 1. The quality or state of being perceptible; as, the perceptibility of light or color.

2. Perception. [R.] Dr. H. More.

Per*cep"ti*ble (?), a. [L. perceptibilis: cf. F. perceptible. See Perceive.] Capable of being perceived; cognizable; discernible; perceivable.

With a perceptible blast of the air.

Bacon.

-- Per*cep"ti*ble*ness, n. -- Per*cep"ti*bly, adv.

Per*cep"tion (?), n. [L. perceptio: cf. F. perception. See Perceive.] 1. The act of perceiving; cognizance by the senses or intellect; apperhension by the bodily organs, or by the mind, of what is presented to them; discernment; apperhension; cognition.

2. (Metaph.) The faculty of perceiving; the faculty, or peculiar part, of man's constitution by which he has knowledge through the medium or instrumentality of the bodily organs; the act of apperhending material objects or qualities through the senses; -- distinguished from conception. Sir W. Hamilton.

Matter hath no life nor perception, and is not conscious of its own existence.

Bentley.

3. The quality, state, or capability, of being affected by something external; sensation; sensibility. [Obs.]

This experiment discovereth perception in plants.

Bacon.

4. An idea; a notion. [Obs.] Sir M. Hale.

"The word perception is, in the language of philosophers previous to Reid, used in a very extensive signification. By Descartes, Malebranche, Locke, Leibnitz, and others, it is employed in a sense almost as unexclusive as consciousness, in its widest signification. By Reid this word was limited to our faculty acquisitive of knowledge, and to that branch of this faculty whereby, through the senses, we obtain a knowledge of the external world. But his limitation did not stop here. In the act of external perception he distinguished two elements, to which he gave the names of perception and sensation. He ought perhaps to have called these perception proper and sensation proper, when employed in his special meaning." Sir W. Hamilton.

Per*cep"tive (?), a. [Cf. F. perceptif.] Of or pertaining to the act or power of perceiving; having the faculty or power of perceiving; used in perception. "His perceptive and reflective faculties." Motley.

Per`cep*tiv"i*ty (?), n. The quality or state of being perceptive; power of perception. Locke.

||Per*ces"o*ces (?), n. pl. [NL., fr. L. perca a perch + esox, -ocis, a ||pike.] (Zoˆl.) An order of fishes including the gray mullets (Mugil), ||the barracudas, the silversides, and other related fishes. So called ||from their relation both to perches and to pikes.

Perch (prch), n. [Written also pearch.] [OE. perche, F. perche, L. perca, fr. Gr. pe`rkh; cf. perkno`s dark-colored, Skr. pÁni spotted, speckled, and E. freckle.] (Zoˆl.) 1. Any fresh-water fish of the genus Perca and of several other allied genera of the family PercidÊ, as the common American or yellow perch (Perca flavescens, or Americana), and the European perch (P. fluviatilis).

2. Any one of numerous species of spiny-finned fishes belonging to the PercidÊ, SerranidÊ, and related families, and resembling, more or less, the true perches.

Black perch. (a) The black bass. (b) The flasher. (c) The sea bass. -- Blue perch, the cunner. -- Gray perch, the fresh-water drum. -- Red perch, the rosefish. -- Red-bellied perch, the long- eared pondfish. -- Perch pest, a small crustacean, parasitic in the mouth of the perch. -- Silver perch, the yellowtail. -- Stone, or Striped, perch, the pope. -- White perch, the Roccus, or Morone, Americanus, a small silvery serranoid market fish of the Atlantic coast.

Perch (?), n. [F. perche, L. pertica.] 1. A pole; a long staff; a rod; esp., a pole or other support for fowls to roost on or to rest on; a roost; figuratively, any elevated resting place or seat.

As chauntecleer among his wives all Sat on his perche, that was in his hall.

Chaucer.

Not making his high place the lawless perch Of winged ambitions.

Tennyson.

2. (a) A measure of length containing five and a half yards; a rod, or pole. (b) In land or square measure: A square rod; the 160th part of an acre. (c) In solid measure: A mass 16Ω feet long, 1 foot in height, and 1Ω feet in breadth, or 24æ cubic feet (in local use, from 22 to 25 cubic feet); -- used in measuring stonework.