the skins of sheep or goats prepared after such a manner as to render it proper for writing upon, covering books, &c.

The word comes from the Latin pergamenta, the ancient name of this manufacture; which is said to have been taken from the city Pergamos, to Eumenes, king whereof, its invention is usually ascribed; tho', in reality, that prince appears rather to have been the improver, than the inventor of parchment. For the Persians of old, according to Diodorus, wrote all their records on skins; and the ancient Ionians, as we are told by Herodotus, made use of sheep-skins and goat-skins in writing, many ages before Eumenes's time. Nor need we doubt that such skins were prepared and dressed for that purpose, after a manner not unlike that of our parchment; tho' probably not so artificially.—The manufacture of parchment is begun by the Skinner, and finished by the parchment-maker.

The skin having been stripped of its wool, and placed in the lime-pit, in the manner described under the article SHAMMY, the Skinner stretches it on a kind of frame, and pares off the flesh with an iron instrument; this done, it is moistened with a rag; and powdered chalk being spread over it, the Skinner takes a large pumice-stone, flat at bottom, and rubs over the skin, and thus scours off the flesh; he then goes over it again with the iron instrument, moistens it as before, and rubs it again with the pumice-stone without any chalk underneath: this smooths and softens the flesh-side very considerably. He then drains it again, by passing over it the iron instrument as before. The flesh-side being thus drained, by scraping off the moisture, he in the same manner passes the iron over the wool or hair-side: then stretches it tight on a frame, and scrapes the flesh-side again: this finishes its draining; and the more more it is drained, the whiter it becomes. The skin now throws on more chalk, sweeping it over with a piece of lamb-skin that has the wool on; and this smooths it still farther. It is now left to dry, and when dried, taken off the frame by cutting it all round. The skin thus far prepared by the skinner, is taken out of his hands by the parchment-maker, who first, while it is dry, pares it on a summer, (which is a calf skin stretched in a frame), with a sharper instrument than that used by the skinner; and working with the arm from the top to the bottom of the skin, takes away about one half of its thickness. The skin thus equally pared on the flesh-side, is again rendered smooth, by being rubbed with the pumice-stone, on a bench covered with a sack stuffed with flocks; which leaves the parchment in a condition fit for writing upon. The parings thus taken off the leather, are used in making glue, size, &c. See the article GLUE, &c.

What is called vellum, is only parchment made of the skins of abortives, or at least sucking calves. This has a much finer grain, and is whiter and smoother than parchment; but is prepared in the same manner, except its not being passed through the lime-pit.

PARDIES (Ignatius Gaillon), an ingenious and learned French Jesuit, born at Paris in 1636. He taught polite literature for several years; during which time he composed several small pieces, both in prose and verse, with peculiar delicacy of thought and style. At length he devoted himself entirely to mathematics and natural philosophy, and read all authors, ancient as well as modern, in those branches of knowledge. He died in 1673, of an infectious disorder contracted by conferring and preaching to the prisoners in the Bicêtre during the Easter holidays. Father Pardies published several works; of which his Elements of Geometry are well known in this country, where a translation of them has gone thro' several editions. In 1672 he had a dispute with Sir Isaac Newton respecting his Theory of Light and Colours; which may be seen in the Philosophical Transactions for that year.