PARE PAJIERE. 



415 



Is limited, in several states, by the constitution, par- 

 ticularly in cases of public impeachment against offi- 

 cers of the state ; for instance, in Wurtemberg. In 

 Bavaria, abolition, after the trial has commenced, is, 

 in all cases, unconstitutional. In several countries, 

 the prince has the right of stopping a process already 

 commenced, for an uncertain time, and keeping it 

 undecided, which is called Sistirung. The king of 

 Prussia availed himself of this arbitrary power but a 

 few years ago, in the case of an action brought by a 

 citizen against one of his officers for slander. 



PARE, A.MRKOISK, the father of French surgery, 

 was born in the beginning of the sixteenth century, 

 at Laval, and studied at Paris. In 1536 he accom- 

 panied Rene de Mont Jean during his campaign in 

 Italy, and, in 1552, became surgeon to Henry II., 

 under whose successors (Francis II., Charles IX., and 

 Henry III.,) he held the same post. His enemies 

 were numerous among the physicians, who accused 

 him of having poisoned Francis II. ; but Pare, having 

 cured Charles IX. of a dangerous wound, established 

 himself so strongly in the favour of the court, that 

 Charles allowed him, though a Protestant, to escape 

 the massacre of St Bartholomew, by taking refuge 

 in liis own apartments. He died at Paris, in 1590. 

 We are indebted to him for improvements in the 

 treatment of gun-shot wounds, and in the operation 

 of trepanning. He also restored the practice of 

 tying up divided arteries, operated on articular con- 

 cretions, &c. His works appeared in French, in 

 1561 ; in Latin, in 1582. 



PAREGORIC ELIXIR. Paregoric is a prepara- 

 tion of opium, and has different names in the phar- 

 macopoeias of different nations. 1 1 is quite a popular 

 medicine, and is much used by nurses as a palliative 

 in many of the lighter, but more or less painful ma- 

 ladies of infants. As, however, there is some uncer- 

 tainty about the effects of opium, in all cases, and as 

 there is much in the constitution of infants to increase 

 this uncertainty, in the use of this and almost all 

 medicines, it is the safest course never to give pare- 

 goric, or any other preparation of opium, in their 

 diseases, unless under the direction of a physician. 



PARENT AND CHILD. The duty of main- 

 taining and educating a child naturally falls upon the 

 parent ; and this precept of the law of nature is re- 

 cognised and enforced among all nations. The laws 

 of the Athenians enforced the duty of the parent 

 towards the child, so far as to prohibit the disinheri- 

 tance of the child, but for reasons to be approved by 

 a magistrate ; and the laws of some modern countries 

 restrain the right of the parent in disposing of his 

 property by will, or during his life, so as to defeat the 

 inheritance of his children. The laws of England, 

 and those of the United States (whose code is founded 

 upon the common law of England), only require the 

 parents to maintain the child during his minority, or 

 until he arrives at the age of twenty-one years, or 

 such other age as is fixed upon as that of majority, 

 unless afterwards the child is unable to maintain 

 himself, in which case the laws more generally, if not 

 universally, in civilized states, impose upon the pa- 

 rents, or other relatives, the duty of maintaining him; 

 and so, vice versa, in case of the parents being un- 

 able to maintain themselves, the law imposes the 

 duty upon the children. This law, enjoining the 

 duty of maintenance reciprocally between parents 

 and children, and extending it, in certain cases, to 

 other relatives, is founded partly on the motive of 

 exonerating the public from this charge. Such is 

 the ground of the provision in those countries and 

 states in which the common law of England is the 

 foundation of the system of jurisprudence. But in 

 many countries, of which the legal system is en- 

 grafted on the civil law. the regulations are extended 



more minutely to the mutual rights and obligations of 

 members of the same family. The father has the 

 right of custody and control of his children, and is 

 entitled to their service and obedience, unless he is 

 insane, or, by some act or circumstance specified by 

 the laws, forfeits, or is deprived of these rights ; for 

 the child, though to many purposes under the domi- 

 nion of the father until the age of majority, is not 

 absolutely so; on the contrary, the law recognises the 

 existence of the child, and extends protection to it, 

 not only from the time of the birth, but even before; 

 for a child may inherit an estate that descends during 

 the time of the mother's gestation. In case of the 

 gross abuse of the parental authority, or egregious 

 disqualification of the parent for the office of guar- 

 dian, the law extends its protection to the child by 

 the appointment of another guardian. All systems 

 of laws do not agree as to what circumstances give 

 proper occasion for the substitution of another guar- 

 dian in the place of the parent. The insanity or 

 idiocy of the parent, which divests him of all moral 

 or legal capacity or responsibility, will, of course, 

 under all laws, exempt the child from all duty of 

 obedience. The laws also usually make provision 

 for cases of abuse and extreme cruelty on the part of 

 the parent. In case of the decease of the father, 

 the law transfers his authority over his children to 

 the mother, but usually with some qualifications and 

 limitations, making a distinction, in this respect, 

 between sons and daughters, giving the mother a 

 more extended authority over the daughters, for the 

 obvious reason that she is supposed to be more ca- 

 pable of governing them, and superintending their 

 education. The laws relating to the mutual rights 

 and duties of parents and children, are obviously a 

 very important part of every code, and have a very 

 intimate connexion with the state of society, and with 

 civil institutions. The welfare of the community is, 

 for instance, directly and deeply affected by the edu- 

 cation of youth, and one object of every code is to 

 encourage such a course of education as may form 

 good citizens. Solon provided, for this purpose, that 

 a child, not educated by the parent, to some art or 

 trade, should not be obliged to support the parent in 

 old age. In ancient times, when paternity was a 

 great foundation of civil authority, the parental rights 

 were much more absolute than in the modern, ex- 

 tending, in some countries, to the right of life and 

 death, and continuing during the life of the two par- 

 ties. The Persians, Egyptians, Greeks, Gauls, and 

 Romans, allowed to fathers a very absolute dominion 

 over their children. Among the Romans, it was not 

 an absolute power of life and death, but a regulated 

 domestic jurisdiction, gradually softened by the pro- 

 gress of refinement. Bynkershoeck thinks the power 

 of life and death, on the part ot the father, ceased 

 during the reign of Adrian. In the time of Con- 

 stantine, the putting to death an adult child, by the 

 parent, was made a capital crime. No such power 

 is permitted among moderti civilized nations, as we 

 have already seen ; but provisions are made, by law, 

 to prevent and punish cruelty on the part of the pa- 

 rent. But the law every where allows the parent to 

 inflict moderate chastisement on the child a liberty 

 which must be given, in order to secure authority on 

 one side, and obedience on the other. The more 

 general time of majority of the child is the age of 

 twenty-one years, when he is liberated from the au 

 thority of the father. This is the age of majority in 

 England and the United States ; and it is so now, 

 also, in France, though it formerly commenced there 

 at the age of twenty-five. 



PARJERE; in some countries, the written decision 

 of impartial merchants on litigated points, concern- 

 ing which parties wish to know their opinions. 



