PARACELSUS 



directly under the highe-t point reached. 

 and the lint would be a horizontal one above 

 point. Another definition of a 

 parabola describes it as the section of a right 

 ,!ar cone made by a plane parallel to a 

 00 the -lanting surface of the cone. The 

 !,..|-i i- -tudied in analytical geometry: 



PARACELSUS, poJratei'MM M.i;;-i:>u . . 



::i:in physician who i- remembered chieily 

 for the new impetus he gave to medical it: 



i: II. ua-bornat Kinsiedeln. in Switxer- 

 land. and in his boyhood wa> educated for the 

 profession of medicine by his father, himself a 



-ician and chemist. Paracelsus later ai- 

 d the I'niversity of Basel for a brief pe- 

 riod, and then, after -tudying chemistry and 

 alchemy under the learned bishop of \Yurzburp. 

 began an independent career. He wandered 



d Kurope. learned all he could, including 

 in hi.- investigations the study of metals and 

 their relationship to medicine, and pained a 

 n putation through many marvelous cures. 

 From l.>26 to 1528 he lectured at the Univer- 

 sity of Basel, but was dismi.-.-ed because of his 

 denunciation of existing methods in medical 

 practice, his scorn of all accepted traditions 

 and hi.* di-.-olute personal habits. Thereafter 

 he lived a wandering life, stirring up opposi- 

 tion wherever he went. Several stories are told 

 count for his death at Salzburg, in 1541. 

 One commonly heard is that he was thrown 

 from a window by the servants of a physician 

 who hated him. and that his neck was broken 



by the fall. 



While Paracelsus is credited with no single 

 important medical discovery, he deserves honor 

 as an original investigator. He showed the fal- 

 lacy of the accepted belief that people were 

 made -ick by too much or too little bile or 

 blood, and he laid the foundation for the later 

 hod of curing diseases by specific remedies. 

 1 chemistry are both indebted to 

 him. and he introduced into medical practice, 

 among other remedies, .sulphur, iron, ar-enic. 

 opium and mercury. 



PARACHUTE, itair'athoot, a word meaning 

 to rt ii<ii r a jail Imrmli ..*. is an invention in 

 the form of a large umbrella. u>ed to break tin- 

 fa 11 of a person from a balloon or from any 

 great height. The principle embodied was well 

 understood in early times, and acrobats are 

 -aid to have used the device m oertain 

 After balloons were invented, parachute- 

 u.-ed as a means of descent from them. SOUK 

 years ago balloon ascensions and descent by 



PARAFFIN 



means of a parachute were common features 

 at county fairs. The parachute was attached 

 by mean.- of a rope to the basket below and re- 

 mained closed when the balloon rose; but when 

 it was cut loo-e and the descent began, the air 

 forced it open, just a< wind will blow an um- 

 brella open, and thus the fall was checked. 



::d method- have been devi-ed to fa-ten 

 :i parachute to the Operator of a flying ma- 

 chin. break the fall in Case of acci- 

 dent-. Kxperimeni- have -Imwn this to be po-- 

 -ible. but then- are disadvantage- connecied 

 with the plan which have yet to be overcome. 

 The operator sits surrounded by a mas> of 

 wins, with broad wing expanse above and be- 

 low him, if he i< in a "biplane," or is well down 

 in a surrounding basket, if in a "monoplan* ." 

 and operation of a parachute under such con- 

 ditions is difficult. 



PAR'ADISE LOST, the name given by John 

 Milton to liis great epic in which he describe- 

 the fall of man. One critic calls it "perhaps 

 the loftiest monument of human genius." and 

 all agree that it ranks with the greatest poem- 

 the world has ever known with the Iliad, the 

 Divine Comedy and Faust. Milton, who wrote 

 the poem after he had become blind, had had 

 the production of some such work in mind for 

 many years, and had considered many subjects. 

 among them the Arthurian legend; but he cho-t 

 the Biblical narrative as the only theme lofty 

 enough. For sustained majesty no other poem 

 equals it. See MILTON, JOHN. 



PARAFFIN, pair 'a fin, a hard, white, taste- 

 less and odorless substance that resembles wax 

 and is used to a great extent in making can- 

 dles. For this purpose it is mixed with small 

 quantities of stearin (which see). Among other 

 uses it is employed in the manufacture of 

 matches and of wax paper, is used to give 

 weight and luster to calicoes and other fabric--. 

 and to extract oils from plants and flowers, and 

 is a frequent adulterant in -chewing gum. Al- 

 though paraffin occurs in nature in the mineral 

 ozocerite, the greater part of the commercial 

 product is obtained by distillation from petro- 

 leum. In Germany, it is prepared by distilla- 

 tion of various kinds of brown coal, and in 

 Scotland, an important center of th,e para I I'm 

 industry, it is manufactured from boghead coal 

 and bituminous shales. Paraffin oil, benzine 

 ami asphalt are important by-products obtained 

 in the manufacture of paraffin, and oil gas. 

 which is obtained from paraffin oil, is used to 

 a considerable extent in illuminating ships and 

 railroad cars and to improve the quality of coal 



