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PAR 
PAR 
anticipated. A quarrel with the magiftrates of Bade, on 
account of a decifion again!! him in refpedf to a demand 
of fees, which was deemed exhorbitant, increafed his dif- 
pleafure, and he fuddenly quitted that place in 1528. 
From this time he redded chiedv in Alface, and in dif¬ 
ferent parts of Germany, leading a life of extreme in¬ 
temperance, in the lowed company, being frequently in a 
itate of continued intoxication for many days and nights 
in fuccedion. Neverthelefs he dill maintained his repu¬ 
tation by the cures occafionally effected by his powerful 
remedies, though his-failures were equally confpicuous. 
But the mod dgnal failure of his boafted remedies occurred 
in his own perfon ; for, after pretending to the power of 
extending human life to an indednite limit by virtue of 
his elixir, he died in 1541, at an inn at Saltzburg, in the 
forty-eighth year of his age, in confequence of an attack 
of fever, and was buried in the holpital of St. Sebaftian, 
to which he bequeathed the little property he poffefi'ed. 
Notwithdanding the reputation, and the numerous 
eulogies bedowed on this dngular man, it can fcarcely be 
faid that either fcientidc chemidry or medicine is much 
indebted to him for its advancement. The fundamental 
doblrines of his chemidry, which refolved every thing 
into three elements, fait, fulphur, and mercury, and which 
were for a long time received, were, in faff, borrowed 
from his predeced'or, Bafil Valentine. As to his medical 
fkill, it conlided principally in the bold adminidration of 
fome powerful remedies, which had been heretofore 
thought too dangerous to be ufed. His mod favourite 
medicine was opium, a drug with which, it is obvious, he 
would be able in many indances to afford great and 
fpeedy relief; but with which alfo few permanent cures 
could be effebled, and much mifchief would neced'arily 
be produced wdien it was mifapplied. Antimony and 
mercury were alfo medicines which he liberally prefcribed, 
and he ufed various preparations of them of the mod 
aflive kind. He was indeed ,one of the fird to employ 
mercury for the cure of the venereal difeafe; and of 
courfe he mud, in this fevere and newly-didinguidied 
malady, have been fuccefsful in a degree to which none 
of his contemporaries, who did not refort to that remedy, 
could attain : and this fuccefs was a fource of condderable 
emolument. In fa ft, he mud be allowed to have con¬ 
ferred a fubdantial benefit on mankind, by the introduc¬ 
tion of mercury as a cure of this malady : and in this 
point coniids his principal merit in refpeft to medicine; 
for- his total ignorance of anatomy and rational phy- 
fiology, his inability from want of literature to invedigate 
the doctrines of the ancients, which he fo boldly im¬ 
pugned, and his employment of a barbarous jargon, as 
well as his infatuated notions of magic, adrology, geo- 
mancy, and all the other branches of mydical impodure, 
are totally adverle to any claim on his part to the im¬ 
provement of medical fcience ; and indeed he appears to 
have been entirely deditute of clear and methodical views 
upon any fubjeft. We fhall not pretend therefore to 
enter into any detail of the unintelligible jargon and 
abfurd hypotbefes which he employed, or to enumerate 
the immenfe farrago of treatifes which made their ap¬ 
pearance under his name after his death, the notices of 
which occupy above nine quarto pages in the Bibliotheca 
of Halle : for the fird we are unable to comprehend, and 
the latter would be a wade of time. The mod complete 
edition is that of Geneva, in three volumes folio, 1658. 
He publifhed little while lie lived. 
PARACENTE'SIS, J. [from TrapaxEilEW, Gr. to make a 
perforation.] A term in furgery, dgnifying the operation 
of tapping, or making an opening into the thorax, ab¬ 
domen, or bladder, for the purpofe of difeharging the 
fluid confined in thefe parts in cafes of empyema, hydro¬ 
thorax, alcites, and retention of urine. See the article 
Surgery. 
PARACEN'TRIC, or Paracentrical, adj. [n-aga, 
befide or out of, and xehtpoi/, centre.] Deviating from 
circularity.—Since the planets move in the elliptick orbits, 
1 
in one of whofe foci the fun is, and, by a radius from the 
fun, deferibe equal areas in equal times, we mud find out 
a law for the paracentrical motion that may make the 
orbits elliptick. Cheyne's Philof. Prin. 
PARA'CHO, a town of Kindoodan, in the circar of 
Gohud : fifteen miles north of Narwa. 
PARACH'RONISM, f. [from the Gr. befide, 
and time.] Falfe chronology ; error in the com¬ 
putation of time. 
PARACHUETE'AS, a town of Wed Florida, near the 
Apalachicola. Lat. 31.24. N. Ion. 85. W. 
PARACHU'RECOIL, a town of Hindoodan, in Mara- 
war: feven miles north-wed of Tripatore. 
PARACHU'TE, f. [French; from para, againd, and 
chute, fall.] A machine in the form of an umbrella, fome- 
times annexed to an air-balloon, and fometimes ufed 
feparately, and ferving to buoy up a heavy body in its 
afeent, or to prevent its precipitate fall (as its name im¬ 
ports) in the atmofphere. Umbrellas have been ufed 
for this purpofe from remote times in various parts of the 
Ead Indies. In the “ Hidorical Relation of the King¬ 
dom of Siam,” by M. de la Loubere, who vifited that 
country in the years 1687 and 1688, we have an account 
of the manner in which umbrellas were employed in the 
diversions of the court of Siam. “There died one,” fays 
this writer, “ fome years fince, who leaped from a hoop, 
fupporting himfelf only by two umbrellas, the handles of 
which were firmly fixed to his girdle : the wind carried 
him accidentally fometimes to the ground, fometimes to 
trees or houfes, and fometimes into the river. He fo ex¬ 
ceedingly diverted the king of Siam, that this prince had 
made him a great lord, he had lodged him in the palace, 
and had given him a great title, or, as they fay, a great 
name.” 
This very dangerous amufement has been but lately 
exhibited among us. When the novelty of common 
afeents and defeents with air-balloons began to wear off, 
Monf. Garnerin, a Frenchman, was, as we believe, the 
firft who tried the experiment of defeending under a 
parachute after detaching himfelf from his balloon. This 
was firft performed in London in the year 1802. See 
Air-balloon, vol. i. p. 220. (laft edit.) A young lady, 
his daughter, performed the fame intrepid feat at Paris 
on the 17th of March, 1815 ; and again, at Bourdeaux, on 
the 8th of February, 1818. She cut the rope when about 
200 toifes (1200 feet, near a quarter of a mile) from the 
ground. 
PARACLE'TE, f. [7r^«aX»To?, Gr. comforter, or ad¬ 
vocate.] The title of the Holy Ghoft ; the interceffor, by 
way of diftindtion.—Whereas we know not what we 
fliould pray for as we ought, the Spirit itfelf maketh in¬ 
terceflion for us with groanings which cannot be uttered ; 
and he that fearcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind 
of the Spirit, becaufe he maketh interceflion for the faints 
according to the will of God. From which interceflion 
efpecially I conceive he hath the name of the Paraclete 
given him by Chrift. Pearfon on the Creed. 
Immortal honour, endlefs fame 
Attend the Almighty Father’s name : 
The Saviour Son be giorify’d, 
Who for loft man’s redemption dy’d : 
And equal adoration be, 
Eternal Paraclete, to thee. Dryden. 
Any advocate or interceffor.—Bragging Winchefter, the 
pope’s paraclete in Englar.de, that is mayfter of the ftewes 
at London. Bale on the Rev. —He ftrengther.eth that con¬ 
ceit of the paraclete; by whom if he mean Montanus the 
arch-heretick, we need not much envy the cardinal for 
railing up fo worfhipful a patron of his purgatory. Abp. 
TJJher's Anfiver to the Jefuit Malone. 
PARAC'ME, f. [Gr. declenfion ; from wapse, beyond, 
and vigour, ftrength, or height.] Any thing paft its 
height, or perfe&ion. That part of life in which a perfon 
is paft his full vigour 5 the vale of life. 
PARACU'SIS, 
