PAR 
the former is an annual plant, growing natu- 
rally in Jamaica, where it is called wild 
wormwood ; it thrives very luxuriantly in the 
low lands ; it is observed to possess similar 
qualities with feverfew : it flowers here in 
July and August. 
PARTI, Partie, Party, or Parted, 
in heraldry, is applied to a shield or es- 
cutcheon, denoting it divided or niarkcd 
out into partitions. 
The French heralds, from whom we bor- 
row the word, have but one kind of parti, 
the same witli our parti per pale, which 
they simply call parti ; but with us the 
word is applied to all sorts of partitioning, 
and is never used without some addition, to 
specify the particular kind intended : thus 
we have parti, or parted, per cross, per 
chief, per pale, per fess, per bend dexter, 
per bend sinister, per chevron, &c. 
PARTICIPLE. See Grammar. 
PARTICLE, in physiology, the minute 
part of a body, an assemblage of which 
constitute all natural bodies. See Ato- 
mical philosophy. 
It is the various arrangement and texture 
of these particles, with the difference of 
cohesion, &c. that constitute tlie various 
kinds of bodies. The smallest particles co- 
here with the strongest attraction, and com- 
pose bigger particles of weaker cohesion, . 
and many of these cohering compose big- 
ger particles, whose vigour is still weaker ; 
and hereupon the operations in chemistry, 
and the colours of natural bodies depend, 
and which, by cohering, compose bodies of 
sensible bulk. The cohesion of the parti- 
cles of matter, the Epicureans imagined, 
was effected by the means of hooked atoms ; 
the Aristotelians, by rest; but Sir Isaac 
Newton shews, that it is done by means of 
a certain power, whereby the particles mu- 
tually attract and tend towards each other. 
By this attraction of the particles, he shews 
that most of the phenomena of the lesser 
bodies are affected, as those of the hea- 
venly bodies are, by the attraction of gra- 
vity. 
In investigating the actions exerted be- 
tween minute particles of matter, we must 
distinguish them as acted upon by the force 
of aggregation, or the force of chemical affi- 
nity: hence the distinction between the 
integrant and constituent particles of bo- 
dies. The constituent parts are substances 
differing in their nature from each other, 
and from the substance which they form. 
The integrant parts are precisely similar to 
each other, and to the general mass which 
VOL. V- 
PAR 
is composed by their union, or, in other 
words, they are the smallest particles into 
whicli a substance can be resolved without 
decomposition ; while decomposition is al- 
W’ays implied in the division of a body into 
its constituent particles. The integrant 
parts are united by the force of aggregation, 
the constituent parts by chemical affinity. 
Hence chemists say tliat simple bodies con- 
sist entirely of integrant parts, all their 
particles being alike in their properties. 
But coinpoimds may be considered as con- 
sisting both of integrant and constituent 
parts ; and it has been supposed, that when 
an attraction is exerted between two com- 
pound substances, it is between tlieir inte- 
grant parts, not tlieir constituent princi- 
ples, and that it is the combination of tlie 
former whicli constitutes the substance 
formed by their union. 
Particle, in grammar, a denomination 
for all those small words that tie or unite 
others together, or that express the modes 
or manners of words, usually included by 
grammarians under these four parts of 
speech, viz. adverbs, prepositions, interjec- 
tions, and conjunctions. 
PARTIES, are those which are named 
in a deed or fine, as parties to it. See 
Fine. 
PARTITION, is a dividing of lands de- 
scended by the common law or custom, 
among coheirs or parceners, where there 
are two at the least. 
PARTITION, in music, tlie disposition 
of the several parts of a song set on the 
same leaf, so as upon the uppermost ranges 
of lines are found the treble ; in another, 
the bass; in another, the tenor, &c. that 
they may be all sung or played, either 
jointly or separately. 
PARTNERSHIP, in arithmetic. See 
Fellowship. 
PART-OWNERS, are partners inte- 
rested and possessed of certain shares in a 
ship. Owners are tenants in common with 
each otlier ; but one or more joint-owners 
refusing to contribute tlieir quota to the 
outfit of the vessel, cannot prevent her 
from going to sea against the consent of the 
majority of the owners, who, giving secu- 
rity in the Admiralty, may freight the ship 
at their own exclusive risk, by wliicli the 
smaller dissentient number of owners will 
be excluded at once from any share, either 
in the risk or in the profits. See Ship* 
PING. 
PARTRIDGE. See Tetrad. 
PARUS, the fifmuuse, in natural bistoiy, 
