PARANAGUA 



597O 



PARASITE 



opposite Santa Fe, with rly. con- 

 nexions with Concepcion on the 

 Uruguay, and with Buenos Aires, 

 350 m. to the S.E., it is an impor- 

 tant river port and exports the 

 agricultural produce of the state. 

 The cathedral is reputed to be the 

 most beautiful in Argentina. 

 Local industries are flour-milling 

 and meat-packing. From 1852 to 

 1861 it was the capital of Argen- 

 tina. Pop. 65,000. 



Paranagna. Seaport of Brazil. 

 Situated on the bay of the same 

 name in the state of Parana, it has 

 rly. connexion with Curityba, 80 

 m. to the W., Sao Paulo, and Rio 

 de Janeiro. Mate, sugar, rice, and 

 cereals are exported. Pop. 6,000. 



Paranahyba. River of Brazil. 

 One of the headstreams of the 

 Parana, its waters ultimately 

 reach the Plate Estuary. W. of 

 the Brazilian Highlands a wide 

 depression extending to the Goyaz 

 Plateau is occupied by the Parana- 

 hyba and Parana, which flow S W. 

 for 500 m. and receive numerous 

 tributaries from the heights on 

 both sides. The name Parana is 

 applied to the main river below 

 the confluence of the Paranahyba 

 with the Rio Negro. The Para- 

 nahyba separates the Brazilian 

 states of Goyaz and Minas Geraes. 

 '"^"Paranoia. Form of mental dis- 

 order characterised by delusions, 

 mainly of persecution. The de- 

 lusions are systematised, i.e. the 

 patient finds reasons for his beliefs, 

 and endeavours to conduct his 

 life in accordance with these beliefs. 

 In the early stage of the disease the 

 patient appears to be merely self- 

 centred and morbidly suspicious, 

 perhaps continually complaining 

 that people have slighted him, and 

 the most trifling action may be 

 seized upon as an insult. When 

 the condition is more developed, he 

 may believe that people in the 

 streets are jeering at him, or that 

 efforts are being made to poison 

 him or ruin his business. Hallucina- 

 tions may occur, and he may hear 

 voices constantly persecuting him. 

 A frequent delusion in such 

 patients is that other persons can 

 read their thoughts. Delusions per- 

 taining to matters of sex are 

 common. 



Parapet (Ital. par are, to guard ; 

 petto, breast). Term in architecture 

 denoting a low wall rising from the 

 lower level of a roof. In the 

 medieval castle it was generally 

 battlementedi and the more elabo- 

 rate examples are pierced with 

 tracery as well. The parapet was 

 revived in Georgian architecture, in 

 combination with the hipped roof, 

 but in the form of a balustrade. 



As a military term a parapet is 

 the head cover provided on the for- 



ward face of a trench or fortification 

 to protect the occupants from the 

 effects of frontal fire or fragments 

 of projectiles bursting in front of the 

 position. See Battlement ; Castle ; 

 Cover ; Entrenchment ; Firestep. 



Paraphernalia (late Lat. from 

 Gr. para, beside; pherne, dower). 

 Term of English law. It is de- 

 scriptive of articles of personal 

 adornment and apparel given by a 

 husband to his wife, not as her 

 absolute property, but for her use. 

 Before the Married Women's Pro- 

 perty Act of 1870, subsequently 

 amended, he could sell them or 

 otherwise dispose of them, but on 

 his death they became the wife's as 

 against the husband's executors. 



Paraphrase. Rendering in 

 other words of anything said or 

 written, generally for the purpose 

 of elucidation. The recasting of 

 the works of great writers into 

 other words in the same language 

 was a practice recommended by 

 the ancient teachers of rhetoric to 

 their pupils with a view to their 

 obtaining command of vocabulary 

 and syntax. Formerly paraphrase 

 was restricted to such recasting of 

 prose, metaphrase being the term 

 applied to poetry. The most 

 famous example of paraphrase 

 generally known to-day is the 

 metrical version of the Psalms in 

 use in the Presbyterian churches 

 of Scotland. 



Paraplegia. Paralysis affecting 

 both sides of the body. See Loco- 

 motor Ataxia ; Myelitis ; Paralysis. 



Para Rubber Tree (Hevea 

 brasiliensis). Tree of the natural 

 order Euphorbiaceae. A native of 

 Brazil, it has alternate leaves, 

 divided into five leaflets, finger 

 fashion. The bell-shaped flowers 

 are greenish white and the sexes 

 separate. The tree abounds in a 

 thin, milky juice which exudes 

 when incisions are made in the 

 trunk. It is collected in earthen 

 vessels and hardened by exposing 

 it to smoke, when it becomes 

 crude rubber or caoutchouc. See 

 Rubber. 



Parasite (Gr. parasites, one 

 who eats at another's table, from 

 para, beside ; sitos, food) Name 

 applied to an organism, animal or 

 vegetable, which lives upon or 

 within another organism and 



Parapet. Example o! Early English 

 paranet in Salisbury Cathedral 



nourishes itself at the expense of 

 its host. The parasite may live 

 permanently on or in its host, as 

 in the case of intestinal worms ; 

 or it may only visit its host, as in 

 the cases of the flea and mosquito. 

 Animals may be parasites on other 

 animals, as the ticks and flukes ; 

 or on plants, as the scale insects 

 and aphides. Plants may be para- 

 sitic on other plants, as the mistle- 

 toe ; or on animals, as the fungus 

 which produces ringworm. 



Speaking generally, parasites in 

 the animal world usually show 

 evidence of degeneration. Not 

 having to travel in search of food, 

 they tend to lose their organs of 

 locomotion ; thus the flea has lost 

 its wings and the tape-worm its 

 cilia. Receiving their food in an 

 assimilated form from the tissues 

 .of their host, they have not to 

 digest it in any complete fashion, 

 and consequently the alimentary 

 canal tends toward degeneration 

 or total disappearance. In the case 

 of internal parasites, which cannot 

 travel in search of mates, herma- 

 phroditism is a common phenome- 

 non. Parasites also appear to 

 have developed immunity against 

 the gastric juices or other defensive 

 measures of their hosts, but this 

 immunity only avails in the case 

 of their true hosts. 



Parasitism occurs in most of the 

 phyla of the animal kingdom. 

 Among the vertebrates the only 

 known example and that a very 

 doubtful one is the hag-fish, 

 which bores into the bodies of fish 

 and feeds upon them. A few forms 

 of molluscs are parasitic on sponges 

 and echinoderms ; the arachnida 

 are represented by the ticks and 

 mites, the crustaceans by certain 

 lowly types which live upon the 

 bodies of fish, and the insect para- 

 sites on both animals and plants 

 are known to everybody. Most of 

 the bacteria which invade human 

 bodies and cause many diseases are 

 parasites belonging to the vege- 

 table kingdom. Thus parasites 

 are not merely uninvited boarders, 

 but actual enemies of man. 



In the vegetable kingdom para- 

 sitism is a common phenomenon, 

 especially among the fungi, which, 

 being without chlorophyll, cannot 

 assimilate inorganic food, and are 

 therefore dependent on other 

 organisms. The mistletoe is a well- 

 known example, the dodder does 

 serious damage to the clover crops, 

 and many fungi cause disease and 

 ultimate death to trees. See Bac- 

 teriology; Commensalism ; Dodder; 

 Malaria ; Symbiosis ; consult also 

 Handbook of Practical Parasit- 

 ology, M. Braun, 1910; Some 

 Minute Animal Parasites, H. B. 

 Fantham and A. Porter, 1914. 



