PAR 
405 
P A R 
PAR AB'OLOID, f. A parabolifdrm curve in geome¬ 
try, wliofe ordinates-are fnppofed to be in fubtriplicate, 
fubquadruplicate, &c'. ratio- of their refpeftive abfeiffie. 
There is another fpecies, for, if you fuppofe the para¬ 
meter, multiplied into the fquare of the abfeifla, to be 
equal to the cube of the ordinate; then the curve is 
called a femicubical paraboloid. Harris. 
PARABOS'CO (Girolamo), an Italian poet and mif- 
cellaneous writer, was born towards the beginning of the 
fixteenth century at Placentia. He appears to have been 
a mufician by profeflion, and a maeiiro di capella. Pie 
wrote feveral comedies in prole and verfe, which are laid 
to poffefs a character of originality. He alfo compoled a 
tragedy, entitled “ Progne,” printed at Venice in 1548. 
At the fame place was printed in 1558 “ Gli Difporti di 
Girolamo Parabofco,” confiding of novels in the manner 
of Boccacio and Bandello. He likewife publiflied “ Let¬ 
ters,” and other works now forgotten. 
Doni fpeaks very highly of this Parabofco, both as a 
writer and a mufical compofer and performer: “ Who¬ 
ever (fays he) is endowed by heaven with the power of 
receiving and communicating pleafure, Ihould imitate 
Parabofco ; who, not content with that mufical excel¬ 
lence, with which lie, has given fuch delight, both in 
public and private, and acquired Inch fame, lias afforded 
equal pleafure by bis literary and poetical talents, in the 
publication of works that are as much elteemed for their 
wit and learning as originality.” Dr. Burney, wliofe 
curiofity was railed by this account, procured feveral of 
Bis mufical compolitions, as well as his Difporti, or 
Novels; which laft lie “ purchafed at an extravagant 
price, as curi.ofities, at the fale of the late Hon. Tophatn 
Beauclerc’s books; but found, on perufal, that Doni fpoke 
of them, as he did perhaps of bis mufical abilities, with 
the partiality of a friend. Some of the motets and madri¬ 
gals he took the trouble to fcore, but found in them no 
fubje£t, and but little defign or contrivance ; and, if his 
literary character did not impofe on his friends, and on 
the writers who fpeak of his mufical productions, liis 
fame as a compofer mult have been eftablifhed on fome 
Jolt works fuperior to tliefe, which are mere rernpliilage, 
or notes heaped on each other totally devoid of meaning 
with refpeCt to melody.’" 
PARABRA'MA, a name given to the firlt of the gods 
of India. 
PARABYS'TE, one of the five principal civil tribunals 
of Athens. 
PA'RAC, a town of the illand of Borneo: zoo miles 
north of Banjar Malfim. 
PARA'CA, a town of Peru, in the audience of Lima: 
twelve miles fouth of Pifco. 
PARACA'LE, a town of the north coalt of the illand 
of Liifon. Lat. 14. 29. N. Ion. 123. 19. E. 
PAR'ACELS. See Pracels. 
PARACEL'SIAN, J'. A phyfician who follows the 
praCtice of Paraceifus.—The Puraceljiavs do life to give 
their patients, in this cafe, a kind of gentle vomit. Fer- 
rand on Love Melancholy. 
PARACEL'SIAN, adj. Denoting the medical practice 
of Paraceifus.—Joining the Galenical and Paracel/ian 
phyfick together, making ufe of them both as occalion 
lerves. Hakewill on Providence. 
If that the Paradefian crew 
The virtues of this liquor knew. 
Their endlefs toil they would give o’er, 
And never ufe extractions more. Nubbcs's Poems, 1639. 
PARACEL'SUS, an extraordinary adventurer in che¬ 
mistry and phyfic, is faid to have been born at Einfidlen, 
a little village near Zurich, in Swiflerland, in 1493; and 
his father, called William de Hohenheirn, is fuppofed to 
have been the natural fon of a grand matter of the Teu¬ 
tonic order, and a practitioner in medicine in Carinthia. 
With a view of dignifying himfelf and his family, his fon 
allumed the names of Philippas Aureolas Theophrajms 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1252. 
Paraceifus Xtombajlm de Hohenheirn. But Thomas Eraftus 
affirms, that there was no family bearing any of tliefe 
names in that part of Swiflerland, either noble or ignoble ; 
and Haller was credibly informed, that Paraceifus was a 
native of Gaifs, in the canton of Appenzel, and of an 
obfeure family of the name of Hochener, which was Hill 
exifting there. His father gave him early a turn for his 
own purfuits, and put him under the care of John Trithe- 
mius, abbot of Spanheim, at that time eminent for his 
knowledge of the Jpdgivic art , as chemiltry in its infancy 
was called. He afterwards followed another mailer of the 
art, Sigifmund Fugger; and from both tliefe he learned 
many fecrets. If any credit is due to his own ftatenients, 
he received inftruCliotas from feveral other tutors, whom 
lie has named ; although, in one of liis treatifes, he denies 
having had any inltruCtors at all. 
He very foon commenced a fort of rambling life ; for 
lie lays, he had examined the principles of the medical 
art with great attention, and found them defective and 
erroneous in all points ; and therefore lie refolved, after 
having vilited thefchools of France, Italy, and Germany, 
to travel in purfuit of medical truth, and not only to 
fearcli for it among phylicians and other learned perlons,. 
but among barber-furgeons, monks, conjurors, old 
women, and quacks of every defeription. He makes a 
pompous difplay of the names of all the countries which 
lie thus vilited, during a peregrination of feveral years, 
and of the important acquilitions in fcience which he 
thus colleCled, with the view of impreffing on the world 
the highelt opinion of his fuperiority; tor he feems to 
have pofleffed the talents of imputing and fuccefsful quack¬ 
ery in an eminent degree. Even the learned Erafmus 
appears to have confulted him, efpecially after a fortunate 
cure of his friend Frobenius, the celebrated printer of 
Bafle, in an attack of gout, (although the latter died of 
apoplexy a few months afterwards ;) and Qporinus, an 
eminent citizen of that place, left liis family to follow 
him. In the coiirfe of his travels lie had doubtlefs col¬ 
leCled much information concerning metallic chemiltry; 
which, however, he perverted to the vain fearcli of the 
philofopher’s Hone; and, by the bold ule of fbnie aCtive 
medicines, efpecially mercury and opium, the adminiflra- 
tion and properties of which were not underftood by 
medical men, he had certainly effected many cures, where 
ordinary medicine bad failed ; and, while tliefe fuccefsful 
cafes were blazoned forth with the ufual exaggeration, 
the unfuccefsful ones, and the miftakes, were long palled 
over in filence. To fuch a height, however, his reputa¬ 
tion had been railed in Swiflerland, that the magiflrates of 
Bafle were induced to engage him, at a large falary, to 
fill the chair of medicine in their univerfily. In the years 
1527 and 1528, he gave leCtures daily, fometimes in bar¬ 
barous Latin, but more frequently in German ; and, al¬ 
though he at firft acquired feveral enthufialtic adlierents, 
yet the barbarifm, vanity, and extravagance, of liis lec¬ 
tures, at length difgulled the itudents, and he was foon 
left without an audience. Indeed nothing could exceed 
the ridiculous pride and bombalt with which lie allumed 
the fupremacy, the monarchy, of medicine, and the con¬ 
tempt which he affeCted towards all the teachers and 
univerfities in the world. Seated in liis profefforial chair, 
at his firft leCture he publicly burnt the works of Galen 
and Avicenna, averring that his cap contained more 
knowledge than all phyficians, and that the hair of his 
beard had more experience than all the univerfities; 
“ Greeks, Romans, French, and Italians,” he exclaimed ; 
“you Avicenna, you Galen, you Rhazes, you Mefue; 
you doctors of Paris, you of Montpellier, you of Swabia, 
you of Mifnia, you of Cologne, you of Vienna; and all 
you throughout the countries that are waflied by the 
Danube and the Rhine, and yop who inhabit the iflands 
of the fea, Athenian, Greek, Arab, and Jew; you ffiall 
follow and obey me ; I am your king; the monarchy of 
phyfic is mine,” &c. That fuch an extravagant enthu- 
fiall fliould not long retain his profefforial chair might be 
5 L anticipated 
