PARAH
661
PARALYTIC
imlependent of Brazil, after the re-establisliment of peace in 1870, until the people had time to elect Kiver- ola as their president. In December, 1871, Salvador Jovellanos became president. Under his administra- tion the country was slowly recovering from the dread- ful devastations in which the war had resulted, when a rebellion broke out (1874), which has only been sup- pressed very recently. The arbitrary' measures which the unsettled condition of the country forced the g'ov- ernraent to adopt have resulted in driving many whites into the Argentine territory and the Brazilian prov- inces. In the spring of 187G the most heartrending condition prevailed. Little was produced by the farm- ers, and the principal staple of food, maize, sold at fam- ine prices.
The republic is divided into twenty -five depart- ments. The central department, in which the capi- tal, Assuncion, is situated, contained in 1857 398,G98, or nearly one third of the whole inhabitants, and the capital itself 48,000. The inhabitants of the towns consist chiefly of whites, or of half-breeds (mestizos), who closely resemble whites; the language commonly spoken, besides that of the native Indian, the Guaranis, is the Spanish. The established religion is the Koman Catholic, the ecclesiastical head of which is the bishop of Assuncion. Education is pretty well diffused, much more than is usually the case in countries so long ruled by the Jesuits. See Muratori, Chrislianesimo felice nelle missione nel Paraguai (Yen. 1713) ; Ibanez, Retjno da Soced. d. J. etc. (Lisbon, 1770) ; Charlevoix, Gesch. V. Pariupiay u. den Missionen der Jesuiten (Nuremb. 17G4) ; Dugraty, La repiiblique de Parag. (Brussels, 18C4) ; JIasterraan, Seven Years in Puruguay (Loud. 186il) ; and especially Washburn, History of Paraguay (Bost. 1871). See also Harper's Monthly, vol. xviii and xl.
Pa'rah (Heb. Parah', iTnQ [with the article], heifer; Sept. ^apd v. r. 'A<pdp), a city of the tribe of Benjamin, named in the north-eastern group between Avim and Ophrah (Josh, xviii, 23). Buckingham (Travels, p. 312) heard of a village named Faruh, which Robinson, however, could not find ; but the name exists farther to the south-east attached to the Wadg el-Fdi-ah, one of the southern branches of the great Wady Suwein- it, and to a site of ruins at the junction of the same with the main valley (Bitter, Pal. u. Syrien, iii, 529). This identification is supported by Van de Velde {Memoir, p. 339) and Schwarz (Palestine, p. 12G). The draw- back mentioned by Dr. Kobinson (Researches, ii, 112), namely, that the Arabic word ("mouse") differs in sig- nification from the Hebrew ("the cow") is not of much force, since it is the habit of modern names to cling to similarity of sound with the ancient names, rather than of signification (Beit-ur, el-Aal, etc.). A view of the valley is given by Barclay (City of the Great King, p. 558), who proposes it for ^non (q. v.); but he incor- rectly interprets the name (" valley of delight").
Parah. See Talmud.
Parallelism. See Poktky, Hebrew.
Paralytic (irapaXvYiKuc, ■KapaXtXvii'tvoc), a class of sick persons named in the Gospels in connection with demoniacs and epileptics (see Matt, iv, 24: comp. Acts viii, 7), as being deprived of the power of motion, and borne for cure on couches to the Saviour (Matt, ix, 2 ; Mark ii, 3 ; Luke v, 18; comp. Acts ix, 23). Elsewhere we find paralysis mentioned as a consequence of apo- plexy (1 INIacc. ix, 65). In our version the word vapa- XvTtKui; is rendered " sick of the palsy," and so other versions. Modern physicians understand by paralysis or palsy the loss of power over the voluntary muscles; sometimes accompanied with the loss of sensibility in certain parts of the body, in which the muscles affected are relaxed and slack. This last symptom seems to dis- tinguish paralysis from catalepsy and the various kinds oi tetanus, in all of which the muscles are rigid and con-
tracted. During palsy the circulation, the animal heat, and the usual secretions continue. The attack is often very sudden, following an apoplectic stroke ; but some- times comes on slowly and imperceptibly ; and in either case the cure is exceedingly difficult (see Sprengel, In- stit. Pathol. Spec, .iy, 441 ; comp. the Berliner Medicin. Encyclop. xxi, 16 sq.). But the ancient physicians un- derstood paralysis in a much wider sense, and, according to Richter's careful investigations (see his Dissert, qiiat. MeJ. dotting. 1775), applied the term to every dis- ease which destroyed the power of voluntary action, without regard to the condition of the muscles; thus including under it both tetanus and catalepsy. He ad- duces in confirmation of this view, besides other passages of ancient physicians, the treatise of Ca'lius Aurelianus (Morb. Chron. ii, 1), who distinguishes two kinds of paralysis — the one marked by spasms, the other by flac- cidity of the muscles. This would serve to explain the case (Matt, viii, 6) of a paralytic who was in great suf- fering (see Ackermann, in Weise's Material, fur Gottes- gelahrth. I, ii, 57 sq.). But pain is rarely experienced in the disease now called pais}' ; and when it does oc- cur it is not severe, being merely a pricking or itch- ing sensation. On the other ha«d the paralysis a con- ductione, or convulsive palsy of Coeliiis Aurelianus (or, as the moderns term it, the contractura ai'ticulornm, spasm of the joints), is an exceedingly painful disease. It is certain that the words used to denote diseases in the Gospels are to be understood as used, not with scien- tific definiteness, but like other words in the language of common life, as including various symptoms more or less allied to each other. It is not therefore necessary, in any case, to understand the case spoken of by Mat- thew as one of tetanus or lockjaw (as Choulunt. Sjjec. Pathol, u. Therap. p. 711 sq., 2d ed.), a disease more common in hot than in temperate climates, and in Af- rica than in the East; and often followed quickly by death. Some, again, interpret the case of the woman who was bowed together (Luke xiii, 11) of the tetanus enqjrosthotonos, that form of the disease which bends forward stiffly the neck and the whole body. But an arthritic Contraction of the body may also be meant (comp. Wedel, Exercitat. Med. Philol. p. 4 sq.).