PARAGUAY. 



PARKER, WILLARD. 



641 



number of Germans has rapidly increased. 

 The leading cities are : Asuncion, the capital, 

 with a population of 20,000 souls ; Villa Rica, 

 12,570; Villa Concepcion, 10,697; Villa San 

 Pedro, 9,706 ; Luque, 8,878 ; San Estanislao, 

 7,453 ; Itangua, 6,948 ; Ita, 6,332 ; Paraguari, 

 5,315; Villa Humaita, 3,868; Villa Pilar, 3,- 

 722 ; and Jaguar on, 3,413. 



Government The President is Gen. B. Ca- 

 ballero (since Nov. 25, 1882). The Cabinet is 

 composed of the following ministers : Secre- 

 tary of the Interior, Col. Mesa ; Foreign Af- 

 fairs, J. S. Decoud ; Finance, J. C. Jimenez ; 

 Justice and Public Worship, Sefior Gonzalez ; 

 War, Col. Duarte. The United States Charge 

 d' Affaires is the Hon. W. Williams. 



Army and Navy. All Paraguayan citizens are 

 bound to perform military service, but for eco- 

 nomical reasons the standing army has been 

 reduced to 500 men (350 foot and 150 horse), 

 a portion thereof keeping garrison at Asun- 

 cion, and the rest doing frontier duty. In case 

 of war, the National Guard is enrolled. The 

 country is divided into seventy departments, 

 and at the head of each stands a chief of police. 

 The navy consists of a screw-steamer man-of- 

 war of 440 tons, mounting 4 guns, and hav- 

 ing a crew of 36 sailors, commanded by 6 

 officers, besides 3 small steamers guarding the 

 ports. 



Finances. The home debt has been reduced 

 to $475,720 by the sale of public lands and the 

 railroad, and through the operations of a sink- 

 ing fund created by setting aside for it 10 per 

 cent, of extra duty. The foreign debt amount- 

 ed on Jan. 1, 1883, to $16,818.42. 



Paraguay derives its revenue chiefly from 

 the customs, which in 1882 produced $477,- 

 621 ; adding thereto other items of income, 

 the aggregate amount reached $542,000. 



The estimates of expenditure for 1883 were : 



Interior $148,628 



Foreign Affairs 8.760 



Treasury 58,148 



Justice, Public Worship, etc 63,>S4 



Army and Navy 78,744 



Total $352,964 



Communications. The only railway in opera- 

 tion is the one from Asuncion to Paraguari, 

 forty-five miles, which in 1882 conveyed 90,418 

 passengers, and in 1883, 92,334. In 1882 the 

 gross earnings amounted to $68,343, and in 

 1883 to $71,055. Two telegraph lines are in 

 operation, one running parallel with the rail- 

 road aforenamed, and the other, inaugurated 

 in March, 1884, called the Paso de la Patria 

 line, connecting with the world's cable system. 

 The items of mail matter forwarded were : 



Commerce. The commercial movements in 

 two years were as follow : 



VOL. xxiv. 41 A 



The chief articles of import in 1882 were: 

 Cotton goods, $264,576 ; groceries, $230,743 ; 

 liquors, $195,579 ; hardware, $142,145 ; wool- 

 ens and linens, $85,315 ; and drugs, $35,332. 

 The exports consisted of yerba mate or Para- 

 guay tea, $964,800 ; leaf-tobacco and cigars, 

 $410,380 ; hides and skins, $143,482; oranges, 

 $25,073 ; besides woods, tanning-bark, essence 

 of orange-blossoms, leather, and minor arti- 

 cles. 



PARKER, WILLARD, an American surgeon 

 and physician, born in Lyndeborough, N. H., 

 Sept. 2, 1800; died in New York city, April 

 25, 1884. He was' the son of a New Eng- 

 land farmer, and the eldest child of a family 

 that numbered five sons and two daughters. 

 Before he was five years old his parents went 

 to Chelmsford, Mass., where a home had been 

 owned by his ancestors since the year 1652. 

 He there began the education that is com- 

 mon to New England boys; working on his 

 father's farm in summer, and attending the 

 village school in winter. Later, he taught the 

 same school, and saved up money with which 

 to go to college. A long course of economy 

 was required ; and when, in 1822, he entered 

 Harvard College, he was five or six jears older 

 than the average freshman of that time. George 

 Bancroft was one of his tutors. The most no- 

 ticeable incident of the four-years' course was 

 one that determined his choice of a profession. 

 He had begun his studies with a partly formed 

 plan of entering the ministry. His room-mate 

 fell seriously ill ; the cause of the disease was 

 obscure. Dr. John C. Warren, being called, 

 recognized the case as one of strangulated her- 

 nia, and that it was so far advanced as to re- 

 quire immediate surgical aid. Dr. Warren was 

 successful in relieving the patient by the meth- 

 od of taxis; his life was saved, and young 

 Parker was so deeply impressed with the skill 

 and success of the operation that he abandoned 

 the idea of studying theology and chose surgery 

 for his profession. He was graduated with 

 fair standing in 1826 ; beginning his medical 

 studies at once, he was entered at the Harvard 

 Medical School, where Prof. Warren was one 

 of his instructors. On completing the two 

 prescribed annual courses of lectures and re- 

 ceiving his medical degree, he entered the Chel- 

 sea Hospital as interne. Henceforward his life 

 became a matter of public record. In 1830 he 

 was appointed Professor of Anatomy ; in 1833, 

 Professor of Surgery, in the Berkshire Medical 

 College; and in 1836 and 1837 he visited the 

 great hospitals of Paris and London. On his 

 return he was solicited to go to Cincinnati to 

 accept a surgical professorship, but declined, 

 and chose New York city as his home. He 



