Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 46.djvu/352

 gued—vainly at the time—that the British Association for the Advancement of Science ought to acknowledge its value by allotting its treatment to a distinct section at its annual meetings. In this address his views on the unity of the human race were finally summed up. ‘The further we explore the various paths of inquiry which lie open to our researches, the greater reason do we find for believing that no insurmountable line of separation exists between the now diversified races of men, and the greater the probability, judging alone from such data as we possess, that all mankind are descended from one family.’

Prichard was made a commissioner in lunacy in 1845, and from that time till his death resided in London. He died, on 23 Dec. 1848, of rheumatic fever and pericarditis. He was at the time president of the Ethnological Society. He was also fellow of the Royal Society, corresponding member of the National Institute of France and of the French Academy of Medicine, and had received the degree of doctor of medicine by diploma from the university of Oxford in 1835.

Prichard married, on 28 Feb. 1811, Anne Maria Estlin, sister of John Bishop Estlin [q. v.], and daughter of John Prior Estlin [q. v.], at whose house he frequently met Southey and Coleridge. He left issue.

As an investigator into both mental science and anthropology, Prichard ranks very high. Had he not divided his energies between the two subjects, he would doubtless have achieved results in one of them that would have entitled him to a place among the greatest of men of science. Of exceptional mental capacity, Prichard possessed a good memory and a strong philosophical tendency, and was able to undertake the most strenuous mental labour. His expression of countenance was singularly benevolent, and he was free from all feeling of professional rivalry.

His works, besides those noticed, were: ‘A Review of the Doctrine of a Vital Principle,’ London, 1829, 8vo; ‘On the Treatment of Hemiplegia, and particularly on an important Remedy in some Diseases of the Brain’ (‘Medical Gazette,’ 1831, and British Association for the Advancement of Science, Bristol, 1836); ‘On the Extinction of some Varieties of the Human Race’ (British Association, Birmingham, 1839).

[Memoir of Dr. Prichard by Dr. Hodgkin, read before the Ethnological Society of London on 28 Feb. 1849; Memoir read before the meeting of the Bath and Bristol Branch of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, March 1849, by Dr. J. A. Symonds (‘Journal,’ 1850, vol. ii.); Miscellanies, by John Addington Symonds, M.D., edited by his son, 1871; Prichard and Symonds in especial relation to Mental Science, by Dr. Hack Tuke, M.D., 1891; information kindly given by Dr. E. B. Tylor.] 

PRICHARD, RHYS or RICE (1579–1644), Welsh religious poet, born in 1579, was the eldest son of David ap Richard of Llandovery, and his wife Mary, daughter of John ap Lewis of Cwrt Newydd, Cardiganshire. At the age of eighteen he entered Jesus College, Oxford, whence he graduated B.A. on 26 June 1602, and M.A. in 1626. He had already (25 April 1602) been ordained priest at Witham, Essex, and on 6 Aug. 1602 he received from Bishop Rudd the vicarage of Llandingad and the chapelry of Llanfair ar y Bryn, which together form the living of Llandovery. He possessed considerable private property, and lived, not at the vicarage, but in his own mansion of ‘Neuadd Newydd’ (New Hall), which is still shown in the town. Through the influence probably of Sir George Devereux of Llwyn y brain, he became chaplain to the young Earl of Essex, and received the primate's authority to hold, as a nobleman's chaplain, the rectory of Llanedi, Carmarthenshire, in conjunction with his vicarage. He was instituted to Llanedi on 19 Nov. 1613, and on 17 May 1614 received a prebend in the collegiate church of Brecon. In October 1626 he was appointed chancellor of the diocese of St. David's and rector of Llawhaden, Pembrokeshire.

Prichard was an earnest and eloquent preacher, who, while a conformist and a royalist in politics, was profoundly influenced by puritan ideals. He attacked the frivolity and licentiousness of his age, and, finding, as he tells us, that set preaching did little good, while a snatch of song was always listened to, threw his teaching into rough, popular verse, which, despite its literary shortcomings, gained him a hearing. His stanzas, written in the colloquial Welsh of the district, were everywhere quoted, and his fame spread throughout Wales. So popular was he as a preacher that on many occasions he was forced to speak in the open air, and this, it is supposed, was made the occasion of complaint against him in an ecclesiastical court. Two of his compositions, a ‘Prayer in Adversity’ and a ‘Thanksgiving for Deliverance from the hands of Enemies’ (Canwyll y Cymry, Llandovery edit. Nos. xcix, c), appear to have reference to some incident of this kind.

On the outbreak of the civil war Prichard attacked the parliamentary party in his