422 
PAR 
may be conftrained to make partition, of which there are 
feveral kinds. The properties of parceners are, in fome 
refpedls, like thofe of joint-tenants, as they have the fame 
unities of intereft, title, and pofTedion. They may fue 
and be fued jointly for matters relating to their own 
lands, (Co. Litt. 164,) and the entry of one of them fhall, 
in fome cafes, enure as the entry of them all. (Ibid. 188, 
243.) They cannot have an adlion of trefpafs againft 
each other; but herein they differ from joint-tenants, 
that they are alfo excluded from maintaining an adtion 
of wafte; (2 Inft. 403.) for co-parceners could at all times 
put a flop to any wafte by W'rit of partition, but till the 
ftatute of Henry VIII. joint-tenants had no fuch power. 
Parceners alfo differ materially from joint-tenants in 
other points. 1. They always claim by defcent, whereas 
joint-tenants always claim by purchafe. 2. There is no 
unity of time neceffary to an eftate in co-parcenery. 
3. Parceners, though they have an unity, have not en¬ 
tirety, of intereft. See Joint-Tenant. 
PAR'CENERY,_/; The tenure of lands by co-parceners. 
To PARCH, v. a. [from iew, fays Junius; from 
percoquo, fays Skinner; neither of them feems fatisfied 
with their conjeihire: perhaps from peru/lus, burnt, to 
perujl, to parch; or perhaps from parchment, the effect of 
fire upon parchment being almoft proverbial.] To burn 
flightly and fuperficially ; to fcorch ; to dry np.—With¬ 
out this circular motion of our earth, one hemifphere 
would be condemned to perpetual cold and darknefs, the 
other continually roafted and parched by the fun-beams. 
Hay. 
I’m ftupify’d with forrow, paft relief 
Of tears ; parch'd up and wither’d with my grief. Dryden. 
To PARCH, v. 11. To be fcorched.—If, to prevent the 
acrofpiring, it be thrown thin, many corns will dry and 
parch into barley. Mortimer. 
We were better parch in Africk fun, 
Than in the pride and fait fcorn of his eyes. Shahefpeare. 
PAR'CHEDNESS, f. State of being dried tip.—A 
barren heath, that feeds neither cow nor horfe ; neither 
fheep nor fhepherd is to be feen there ; but only a wafte 
filent folitude, and one uniform parchednefs and vacuity. 
More's Conj. Cahb. 1653. 
PAR'CHIM, a town of the duchy of Mecklenburg, on 
the Elda, which divides it into New' and Old Town, in 
each of which is a church. It has feveral times fuffered 
by fire. The number of fouls is about 3000 ■. thirty-four 
miles fouth of Wifmar, and fifty-five eaft of Lauenburg. 
Lat. 53.28. N. Ion. 11. 55. E. 
PAR'CHMENT, f. [pergamena, Lat.] Sheep or goats 
Ikin prepared after a peculiar manner, which renders it 
proper for feveral ufes ; particularly for writing on, for 
the covering of books, &c.—Is not this a lamentable 
thing, that the fkin of an innocent lamb fliould be made 
parchment; that parchment, being fcribbled o’er, fliould 
undo a man ? ShahcJ'peare's Hen. VI.—In the coffin, that 
had the books, they were found as frefti as if newly writ¬ 
ten, being written in parchment, and covered with watch- 
candles of wax. Bacon. 
Like flying fhades before the clouds we fhew, 
We fhrink.like parchment in confuming flame. Dryden. 
The word pergamena, the ancient name of this manu¬ 
facture, is faid to have been taken from the city of Per- 
gamos, to Eumenes, king whereof, its invention is ufually 
afcribed ; though, in reality, that prince appears rather 
to have been the improver than the inventor of parch¬ 
ment; for the Perfians of old, according to Diodorus, 
wrote all their records on lkins ; and the ancient Ionians, 
as we are told by Herodotus, made ufe of fheep-fkins 
and goat-fkins in writing, many’ ages before Eumenes’s 
time. Nor need we doubt, that fuch fkins were prepared 
and drelied for that purpofe, after a manner not unlike 
that of our parchment, though probably not fo artificially. 
Dr. Prideaux is a ftrenuous advocate for the antiquity 
PAR 
of parchment; and he imagines that the authentic copy 
of the law which Hilkiah found in the Temple, and fent 
to king Jofiah, was formed of this material 5 becaufe no 
other ufed for writing, parchment excepted, could be of 
fo durable a nature as to laft from the time of Mofes till 
that period, i. e. 830 years. But it has been replied to 
this argument, that the Egyptians wrote on linen thofe 
things which they defigned for long duration ; and thofe 
who have examined mummies with attention, afl’ure us, 
that the characters fo written continue to this day. It is 
not, therefore, improbable, that a copy of the law of 
Mofes, written after this manner, might have lafted 830 
years. Befides, it is not very likely that thofe fkins 
which were ufed, according to theteftimony of Diodorus 
and Herodotus, by the Perfians and Romans for writing, 
long before the time of Eumenes, were drefled like parch¬ 
ment. They muft have been prepared in a much ruder 
manner, and have little refembled the parchment of which 
Eumenes is faid to be the inventor; becaufe, if it had 
been found out before, it would have rendered the want 
of the Egyptian papyrus no inconvenience to that prince. 
Such fkins might do for records, and for fome occafional 
writings, but would have been by no means proper for 
books. Hence fome writers have concluded, that parch¬ 
ment was a later invention than the Egyptian paper. 
Manufacture of Parchment. —The manufacture of 
parchment is begun by the fkinner, and finiflied by the 
parchment-maker properly fo called. 
1. The fkin having been ftript of its wool, and having 
pafled the lime-pit, (after the manner defcribed under the 
article Leather,) the fkinner ftretches it on a kind of 
frame, confiding of four pieces of wood, mortifed into 
each other at the four angles, and perforated lengthways, 
from diftance to diftance, with holes furnifhed with wooden 
pins, that may be turned at pleafure, like thofe of a violin. 
To ftretch the ikin on this frame, they make little holes 
all round it, and through every two holes draw a little 
fkewer; to this fkevver they tie a fmall piece of packthread, 
and tie that over the pins; fo that, coming to turn the 
pins equally, the fkin is drained tight every way, like 
that of a drum. 
The fkin being thus fufliciently ftretched on the frame, 
the flefli is pared off with a (harp inftrument for that pur¬ 
pofe; this done, it is moiftened with a rag; and a kind 
of white ftone, or chalk, reduced to a fine duff, is ftrewed 
over it: then, with a large pumice-ftone, flat at bottom, 
much after the manner of a muller for grinding colours, 
they rub over the fkin as if about to grind the chalk; and 
thus they fcouroff the remains of the flefh. Then they 
go over it again with the iron inftrument; again moiften 
it as before, and again rub it with a pumice-ftone with¬ 
out any chalk underneath ; this fmoothens and foftens 
the flefh-fide very confiderably. They then drain it again, 
by paffing over it the iron inftrument as before. 
The flefh-fide being thus drained, they pafs the iron on 
the wool or hair fide; then ftretch it tight on the frame, 
by means of the pins, and go over the flefh-fide again 
with the iron; this finifhes its draining; and, the more 
the fkin is drained, the whiter it always becomes. They 
now throw on more chalk, fweeping it over with a piece 
of lamb-fkin that has the wool on ; this fmoothens it ftill 
farther, and gives it a white down or knap. It is now left 
to dry. and when dried it is taken off the frame, by cut¬ 
ting i round. 
2. The fkin, thus far prepared by the fkinner, is taken 
out of his hands by the parchment-maker, who firft fcrapes 
or pares it dry on the fummer with an iron inftrument 
like that ufed by the lkinner, only finer and fharper ; with 
this, worked with the arm from top to bottom of the fkin, 
he takes away about one-half of its thicknefs. The fkin 
thus equally pared on both fides, they pafs the pumice- 
ftone over both fides, to fmoothen it. This laft prepara¬ 
tion is performed on a kind of form or bench covered 
with a fack fluffed with flocks; and it leaves the parch¬ 
ment In a condition for writing on. 
The 
