PARAGUAY 



llss 



PARALLAX 



Indepemlt : - : in 1811. The 



Presidency of the iu-\v republic fell to Dr. 

 Francia. who ruled with a MM of iron until 

 1840. On hi* death in that year, his nephew. 

 Antonio Lopez, succeeded, and earned on the 

 ::i until his death, in 1862. Then 

 a third member of this family. F. Solano Lopez, 

 wrought i In* linal tragedy of his people. He 

 1 a hopeless war with Brazil, Argentina 

 and Uruguay for live years (1865-1870), impi 

 ing into < n the aged and infirm, and 



forming whole regiment of twelve to 



In his final retreat he destroyed, 

 so far as possible, all the property of his own 

 people. This misguided ruler and his last re- 

 maining force of 470 men were slain in the 

 :..p- of Aquidaban in 1870, and peace came 

 at last to a ruined land. It was practically :i 

 land without men. Out of a population of 1,337,- 

 439, enumerated just before the war, only 28,- 

 746 adult males were left, with 106.254 women 

 and 86,079 children. 



A foiiMitution was adopted in 1870, and 

 re the Brazilians withdrew their 

 forces. Financial reforms, for the adjustment 

 of the huge debt, began in 1895. From 1906 

 there has been progress in railway building. 

 The unit of money is the silver peso (equiva- 

 lent to $0.972 in U. S. money), which is equal 

 to 100 centavos. M.M.S. 



Consult Grubb s .!// I H known People of An 

 I'nknown l.n,\<\: Macdonald's Picturesque Para- 

 guay. 



PARAGUAY, a river in South America, im- 

 portant commercially beeau.-e it {lows through 

 productive temperate region of the 

 continent. It is the largest tributary of the 

 D i, \\hirh unites with the Uruguay to form 

 (Me Pi. VTA. Rio DE LA). Rising in the 



au of Western Brazil, the Paraguay flows 



uthirly direction for 1,500 miles. 

 Its longest tributaries are the Pilcomayo and 

 the Vermejo. Including the Plata and lower 

 Parana, it i- part of a \vat< r .-y.-tem about 

 2,500 mile- long, and tile to within 



ly :;(M) mi here falls and 

 rapid- make boat travel impu ibk. A-uncion, 

 the capital of Paraguay, and a floiin.-hllig com- 

 mercial port, i- -iiiiated on n< bank-: iir.-t -class 

 vessel plv lift ween this city and Bueno- Aires, 

 the capital of Argentina. 



PARAGUAY TEA, the popular name given 

 to MATE ( which see). 



PARALLAX, pair 'a lax. We never see the 

 sun, moon or .-tar- in their exact position in the 

 heavens, because of our position on the earth 



when ol-ervmg them. Astronomers use the 

 term paraHaf to denote this apparent change in 

 po.-ition. due to the change of position of the 

 oh-ervi r. This is illustrated in a simple way 

 in Fig. 1. The post p is directly in front of 

 the house, but when viewed from a it is in line 

 with the corner a', and when viewed from 6 

 it i> in line with h' ; that is. as the observer 



5'S'S' 



a 



FIG. i 



FIG. 2 



ILLUSTU A T I < t X ' > K PARALLAX 

 I :.\l donation of figures appears in the accom- 

 panying text. 



moves from a to b the post seems to move 

 from a' to b' . When viewed from c the post 

 appears in its true position in reference to the 

 house. The angle a p c is the angle of parallax 

 when the observer is at a, and the angle b p c 

 is the angle of parallax from b. As the ob- 

 server approaches c this angle becomes smaller 

 and smaller until, when he is standing at c, it 

 disappears. 



Fig. 2 shows how astronomers determine the 

 parallax of the heavenly bodies. For the pur- 

 pose of accuracy all observations of the position 

 of the nearest heavenly bodies are referred t<> 

 the center of the earth e, which corresponds in 

 its position in the diagram to p in Fig. 1. The 

 star s, could it be viewed from c. would appear 

 in the sky as at s' , its true position. When 

 viewed from a it appears at .>"; viewed from l> 

 it appears at s'". The angles of parallax are 

 a x e and b s e. Since the length of the line 

 a c is known, by the use of trigonometry (which 

 see) the size of the angle at s can be found, 

 and the length of the line a s, which gives the 

 di-tance of the star from the earth, can be de- 

 termined. Computing parallax is a very dilli- 

 cult matter and the most accurate instrument-: 

 are required. 



