PAR M ENTIER. 
pointed out the mixtures beft calculated to make palata¬ 
ble bread of this ftarch ; or at leaft a kind of bifcuit, 
adapted for foups. Without doubt, great advantages 
might be derived from the proceffes which he fuggeits; 
bur, as moft of thefe plants are wild and rare, and would 
coft more than the deareft corn, an abfolute famine could 
alone juftify their ufe. Parmentier was aware that it was 
much more efficacious to regulate cultivation and domef- 
tic economy, fo as to render a famine impoffible; and 
with this view he took great pains to recommend the 
cultivation of the potato, and combated with perfeve- 
rance the prejudices which oppofed the propagation of 
that beneficent root. 
Parmentier, who had become acquainted with the pota¬ 
to in the prifons of Germany, where he frequently had 
no other food, feconded the views of the miniftry by a 
chemical examination of this root, in which be demon- 
ftrated that none of its principles were hurtful. He did 
more : in order to give the people a tafte for it, he culti¬ 
vated fields of it by the road-fide, placing watchmen over 
them by the day only; thinking himfelf fortunate when 
the people were tempted to fteal a few of them during 
the night. He could have wilhed that the king, as is re¬ 
lated of the emperor of China, ffiould have planted the 
firft root in his field : but his majefty did almoft as much, 
for he wore on a full court-day a nofegay of the flowers 
of the plant on his bread:; and nothing more was requi- 
fite to induce feveral great landed proprietors to plant the 
root. 
Wheat itfelf was the fubjeft of long refearches on the 
part of M. Parmentier; and perhaps he did not render 
lefs fervice by publifhing his procefl'es for baking, than 
by propagating the potato. Chemical analyfis having 
taught him that the bran contains no principle capable 
of nourifliing mankind, he was led to conclude, that to 
exclude it from bread was to effeft a faving ; he proved, 
by experiments, that, by grinding and fifting the flour in 
fuch a way as to keep out all the hulks, a much whiter, 
more favoury, and more nutritive, bread was obtained. 
Previous to thefe difcoveries, this mode of grinding and 
fifting flour was prohibited under heavy penalties, as being 
wafteful. 
Parmentier ftudied with fcrupulous attention every 
thing connected with bread 5 and, as books, he knew, 
were of little ufe to millers and bakers, who generally 
read but little, he prevailed on the government to elta- 
blifli a public baking-fchool, the pupils of which fliould 
propagate the beftfyftemin the provinces. He travelled 
liimfelf, with M. Cadet de Vaux, into Brittany and Lan¬ 
guedoc, to propagate his doftrines. He fucceeded in dif- 
miffing the bran which was mixed with the bread of the 
army and navy; and, by thus procuring a more whole- 
fome and more agreeable food, he put an end to the mul¬ 
tiplicity of abufes of which this mixture was the fource. 
In (liort, it has been calculated, that, from the progrefs 
made in France in the arts of grinding and baking, the 
quantity of flour now necelfary for an individual may be 
reduced one-third. 
Ardent as was Parmentier for the public utility, it may 
be fuppofed that he took an aCtive part in the efforts oc- 
cafioned by the laft war to fupply the place of colonial 
produce. It was he, in (liort, who brought the fyrup of 
raifins to perfection; that preparation, which doubtlefs 
cannot be aflitnilated to fugar, but which neverthelefs 
greatly reduced its confumption, gave a new value to the 
vineyards, and a new fpecies of luxury to the poor. 
Thefe labours, purely agricultural or economical, did 
not detach Parmentier entirely from thofe connedted more 
clofely with his profeffion : he had publiffied, in 1774, a 
tranflation, with notes, of the “ Phyfical Recreations of 
Model,” a work in which pharmaceutical preparations 
are more particularly the objedt; and in 1775 he publilhed 
an edition of the “Hydraulic Chemiftry of Lagaraye,” 
which is merely a collection of receipts for obtaining the 
principles of medicinal fubftances without injuring them 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1270. 
629 
by too much heat. Perhaps he would not have remained 
an indifferent fpedfator of the great revolution made in 
chemiflry about this time, if the intrigues to which we 
have alluded had not deprived him of his laboratory at 
the Invalids ; and yet we may venture to lay, that the 
chemical examination of milk and of blood, in which he 
was affifted by M. Deyeux, is a model of the application 
of chemiftry to the productions of organized bodies and 
their modifications. In the firft of thefe works the au¬ 
thors compare with the milk of women that of the domef- 
tic animals; and in the fecond they examine the altera¬ 
tions produced in the blood by inflammatory and putrid 
difeafes, and by fcurvy ; alterations frequently very im¬ 
perceptible, and far from accounting for the diforders 
which they occafion, or which they at leaft accompany. 
We have feen how Parmentier’s progrefs was checked, 
in fome meafure, by his removal from the Invalids, but 
he was not forgotten by government ; for, when, in 1788, 
a board of phylicians and furgeons was organized for the 
army, it was willied to place Parmentier there as chief 
apothecary; but Bayen was (till alive, and Parmentier 
refufed to lit above his rnafter. He was, therefore, ap¬ 
pointed afliftant to Bayen. This inftitution, like many 
others, was fupprefled by thofe revolutionists who wilhed 
to fee no fubordination even in medicine : but neceftity 
foon dictated its restoration under the name of the Coun¬ 
cil of Health for the Armies ; and Parmentier, whom the 
reign of terror had driven from Paris, was recalled to be¬ 
come one of its members. He exhibited, in this career, 
the fame zeal as in every other; and .the hofpitals of the 
army were under incalculable obligations to him. But 
his activity was not confined to the duties of his place : 
and every thing which was ufeful called him into aCtion. 
At the period of the eftablilhment of fire-engines, he af- 
fured the public of the perfeCt falubrity of the waters of 
the Seine, which ha,s been called in queftion fubfequently. 
He took an aCtive part in recommending economical 
foups ; he contributed greatly to the propagation of vac¬ 
cination ; it was chiefly he who produced, in the hofpi¬ 
tals of Paris, that regularity which now prevails in the 
apothecary’s department; he fuperintended the great 
bakehoufe where all the bread for the hofpitals is baked; 
the Hofpice des Menages was alfo under his particular 
fuperintendance, and he paid the moft fcrupulous atten¬ 
tion to every thing that could better the condition of 
800 old perfons of both fexes who fill it. 
In a word, wherever much labour was wanted for no 
remuneration, and wherever good was to be done, Par- 
mentier was the firft to aid ; and his time, his pen, and 
even his purfe, were immediately at the fervice of the in¬ 
ftitution. This long and conftant habit of watching over 
the welfare of mankind, actually impreffed upon his ex¬ 
terior the character of Benevolence perfonified. A tall 
and ereCt figure, a look at once noble and placid, with 
locks as white as fnow, made this refpeCtable old man 
the image of goodnefs and virtue combined. His phy- 
fiognomy was peculiarly pleafing from the lentiment of 
the good which he had done. Parmentier was never 
married : his After, Madame Houzeau, conftantly lived 
with him, and feconded him in all his labours of bene¬ 
volence with the zeal of a philanthropift. She died at a 
period when her affectionate fervices would have been 
more neceffary than ever to her brother, who began to 
be feized with a chronic affeCtion of the cheft. Grief for 
her lofs aggravated the diforder of this excellent man, 
and rendered his latter days more painful, but without 
altering in the leaft his character or arrefting his labours. 
He was finally removed from life on the 17th of December, 
1813, in the 77th year of his age. Cuvier's Eulogy, de¬ 
livered at the Inftitute. Monthly Mug. June 1815. 
PARMESAN'. See Parma. 
PARMESAN', f. A native of Parma ; an inhabitant of 
Parma. 
PARMESAN', adj. The name given to a cheefe much 
efteemed among the Italians, and made in that part of 
7 X Italy 
