628 
PARMENTIER, 
the death of Darius, having produced aconfpiracy againft 
his life, Philotas, on its detedtion, was involved in the 
guilt, or at leaft in the accufation, and was put to the 
rack. Unable to endure the torture, he named many ac¬ 
complices, and among the reft his father. Philotas was 
put to death ; but Parmenio, then commanding in Media, 
was not publicly declared a culprit. Alexander, how¬ 
ever, who had now adopted the character and policy of 
an eaftern defpot, was refolved to remove the man of 
whom he ftood in awe, and accordingly difpatched a 
trufty mefienger with orders to fome officers who ferved 
under Parmenio to affift in putting him to death. This 
was eft'edted in a bafe and treacherous manner. Ap¬ 
proaching the general as he was walking in his pleafure- 
grounds, they prefented him with a letter from the king, 
and another in which the hand of Philotas was counter¬ 
feited; and, while he was intent upon reading them, they 
ftabbed him with repeated wounds. His head was then 
cut off, and fent to Alexander ; whilft the foldiers mourn¬ 
fully interred his remains. Parmenio was in the 70th 
year of his age, B.C. 330. He died in the greateft po¬ 
pularity ; and it has been judicioufly obferved, that Par¬ 
menio obtained many victories without Alexander, but 
Alexander not one without Parmenio. Pint, in Alex. 
Quintus Curtins.' 
PARMENTI'ER (John), a fcientific French naviga¬ 
tor, was a native of Dieppe, where he was born in the 
year 1494. He was educated to the mercantile profeffion ; 
but poilefled a love of fcience, and a fpirit of enterprife, 
by which he acquired celebrity among his contempora¬ 
ries, and deferved to have his name tranfmitted with 
refpedt to pofterity. He alfo wrote verfes on different 
fubjedfs ; of which a collection was publiflted in 1531, 
quarto, by the author’s friend, Peter Crignon, under the 
title of “ Defcription Nouvelle des Dignites de ce Monde, 
et de la Dignite de l’Homme, compofee en Rithme Fran- 
coife, et en Maniere d’Exhortation, &c.” This volume 
is extremely fcarce, and highly prized by collectors of 
rare and curious books; but is chiefly valuable on ac¬ 
count of the particulars concerning the author, prefixed 
to it by the editor, which deferve to be extracted. 
“From the year 1522,” fays Crignon, “he had applied 
himfelf to the fcience of cofmography, and the ftudy of 
the wonderful fluctuations of the fea. On thefe fubjeCts 
he became profoundly {killed, as he was likewife in the 
fcience of aftrology. He drew feveral maps and charts, 
both fpherical and plane, which were of eflential fervice 
to navigators. He was a man worthy of the efteem of all 
men of learning, and capable, had his life been prolonged, 
of reflecting honour on his country by his great enter- 
prifes. He was the firft pilot who conducted fliips to the 
coaft of Brafil, and the firft Frenchman who difcovered 
the Indies as far as the ifland of Samothra or Sumatra, 
called Trapobane by the ancient cofrnographers. It was 
his intention to have proceeded as far as the Moluccas ; 
and he frequently told me that he was determined, after 
he ffiould have returned to France, to feek a northern 
pafiage, and from thence to purfue his difcoveries to¬ 
wards the fouth.” Thefe defigns, however, were unhap¬ 
pily fruftrated by his death, which took place in 1530, at 
the ifland of Sumatra, when he was only thirty-fix years 
of age. Nouv. Did. Hift. Did. Bill. Hijl. fy Ci-it. 
PARMENTI'ER ( Antony-Auguftine), a celebrated 
French chemift, was born at Montdidier in 1737, of a 
family long eftablifhed in that city, various members of 
which had rilled the higheft municipal offices. 
The premature death of his father, and the fmallnefs 
of the fortune which he left to a widow and three chil¬ 
dren of tender years, confined M. Parmentier’s early edu¬ 
cation to a flight knowledge of Latin, which his mother, 
a woman of fpirit and education far above the common, 
gave him herfelf. In 1755 he entered upon his appren- 
ticeftiip with an apothecary of Montdidier ; and next year 
came to Paris to purfue the fame bufinefs, with a relation 
who was fettled there. Having ihown intelligence and 
habits of application, he obtained, in 1757, the employ¬ 
ment of apothecary in the hofpitals of the army of Hano¬ 
ver. The late M. Bayer, one of the moft diftinguiffied 
members of the lnftitute, then prefided over this branch 
of the fervice. He was not lefs commendable for. the ele¬ 
vation of his charadter than for his talents ; and, hav¬ 
ing remarked the regular conduct of young Parmentier, 
he made him acquainted with M. de Chamouflet, inten- 
dant-general of the hofpitals. 
It was from the converfation of thefe two excellent 
men, that Parmentier derived the ideas and fentiments 
which have fince given fuch celebrity to his name. He 
learned from them two truths, equally defpifed by thofe 
whofe duty it is to feel them ; namely, the extent and va¬ 
riety of miferies which might be prevented, if the wel¬ 
fare of individuals were more ftudied; and the number 
and power of the refources which nature would prefent 
againft fo many fcourges, if ffie was properly queftioned 
and ftudied on the fubjedt. Accordingly, when his du¬ 
ties fixed him in any town, he vilited the manufadtories 
leaft known in France, and requefted permiffion to work 
in the laboratories of the moft eminent chemifts. While 
in the country, he obferved the pradtice of the German 
farmers, and even noted down fuch objedts of intereftas 
ftruck him, when following the army. As it happened, 
no opportunity was wanting of his viewing all thefe va¬ 
rious objedts clofely; for he was five times made prifon- 
er, and conveyed to places which he never would have 
otherwife vifited : hence he learned, from his own expe¬ 
rience, to what length the horrors of famine were fome- 
times carried, acourfe of inftrudtion neceflary perhaps to 
kindle in him that fire of humanity with which he was 
inflamed during the reft of his long life. 
It was prudent, however, that before making public 
the ufeful knowledge which he had acquired, or feeking 
to ameliorate the lot of nations, he fhould render his own 
means of exiftence a little lefs precarious. He returned 
therefore at the peace of 1763 to the capital, and refumed, 
in a more fcientific order, the ftudies connedted with his 
art. The ledtures of Nollet, Rouelle, Antoine, and of 
Bernard de Juffieu, extended his ideas, and affifted him 
in giving them better method. He acquired in fadt a va¬ 
ried and folid intimacy with all the phyfical fciences ; 
and, the place of inferior apothecary being vacant in the 
Invalids in 1766, he obtained it after a fevere ftruggle. 
Means of exiftence were thus fecured to him; and, the 
adminiftrators of the eftabliffiment, obferving that his 
condudl fully juftified his recommendations, advifed the 
king in 1772 to make him chief apothecary; a recompence 
which an unexpected incident rendered more complete 
than he had even wiflied or expedted. The pharmacy of the 
Invalids had been managed iince the origin of the efta¬ 
bliffiment by the filters of La Charite ; thefe good ladies, 
who had cheriffied young Parmentier fo long as he was 
in a manner their fervant, were highly offended when he 
was placed on a level with them. They teazed the king 
fo effedtually, and fet fo many engines at work, that his 
majefty was obliged to give way; and, after two years 
controverfy, the lingular arrangement was made of allow¬ 
ing M. Parmentier to retain all the emoluments of his 
office, without difcharging any of its duties. 
This was giving him up entirely to his refearches upon 
fubjedts of general utility, and from that moment they 
were uninterrupted. The firft opportunity of publiffiing 
any refults was afforded him in 1771 by the Academy of 
Befangon. The fcarcity of 1769 had diredted the atten¬ 
tion of ftatefmen and philofophers to thofe vegetables 
which could bell fupply the place of the ordinary plants; 
and the Academy made this fubjedt a prize-queftion, 
which Parmentier fatisfadforily refolved. He endeavoured 
to prove in his difiertation, that the moft ufeful nutritive 
fubftance in vegetables is Jlarch; and ffiowed how it might 
be extradfed from the roots and feeds of feveral indige¬ 
nous plants, and cleared of the acrid and poifonous prin¬ 
ciples which accompany it in fome vegetables. He alfo 
4, pointed 
