Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/439

 PRIESTLEY

PRIME

thus enabled to travel in Europe and study in England. Chemical laboratory work was new to Priestley, and the simplicity and ingenuity of his apparatus is remarkable, many of his devices being used to-day. He discovered nitric acid (HNO^) in 1773, and two years later discovered oxygen, and demonstrated its superiority to air as a supporter of animal life. In the next five years he discovered many important chemical compounds, and his accuracy in determining their properties is noteworthy. He was settled over a dissenting congregation in Birmingham, 1780, and owing to political and religious antag- onism, his chapel, laboratory and library were destroyed, July 14, 1791. He fled to London, and in 1794, after he had received damages to the amount of over £2,500, he sailed for New York. There he was warmly received, but declined many flattering invitations to lecture, preferring to make his home with his sons, who had previously settled in Northumberland, Pa. He delivered two series of theological lectures and declined the presidency of the University of North Carolina. A laboratory was built for him at Northumberland, and he continued his experi- ments, exhibiting that exactness and accuracy of detail that make his experiments so valuable. He received the degree of LL.D. from Edinburgh, and in 1766 was elected a member of the Royal society. A monument was erected to him at Leeds, a statue of him was placed in the corridor of the museum at Oxford in 1860, and in 1874 a statue to his memory was erected in Birming- ham. Dr. Priestley wrote more than three hundred books, the most significant of which are: Rudiments of English Orammar (1761); Course of Lectures on the TJieory of Language and Universal Grammar (1763); History and Present State of Electricity, xoith Original Ex- periments (1767); Discoveries in Vision, Light and Colors (3 vols., 1772); Experiments and Observa- tions Relating to Natural Philosophy with a Con- tinuation of the Observations on Air (S\o\s., 1779- 86); Early Opinions Concerning Christ (4 vols., 1786); Lectures on History and General Policy (1778); Evidence of Revealed Religion (1784): Letters to Rt. Hon. E. Burke, occasioned by his Reflections on the Revolution in France (1791); Answer to Mr. Paine's Age of Reason (1795); Comparison of the Institutions of Moses ivith those of the Hindoos and other Nations (1799); General History of the Christian Church to the Fall of the Western Empire (4 vols., 1803-03); Notes on all the Books of Scripture (1803), and TJie Doctrine of Heathen Philosophy compared with those of Revelation (1804). See Jolm Corry's "Life of J. Priestley" (1805); "Memoirs of Dr. Joseph Priestley to the Year 1795, Written by Himself, with a Continuation to the Time of his VIII.— 27

Decease by his Son, Joseph Priestley" (1806-07); and " The Scientific Correspondence of the Rev. Joseph Priestley " by Dr. H. Carrington Bolton. He died in Northumberland, Pa., Feb. 6, 1804.

PRIESTLY, James, educator, was born either in Pennsylvania or Virginia, and early in life removed to Kentucky. He was elected the second president of Cumberland university (University

of Nashville), Tenn., Oct. 34, 1809, and began his administration in January, 1810, with the Rev. William Hume as assistant professor and George Martin as tutor. They constituted the teaching force until the college exercises were suspended in October, 1816. In November, 1830, the insti- tution was again opened, and Dr. Priestly served as its president until his death, Philip Lindsley succeeding to the presidency in 1834. He died in Nashville. Tenn., Feb. 6, 1831.

PRIME, Benjamin Youngs, physician, was born in Huntington, L.I., N.Y., Dec. 20,1733; son of the Rev. Ebenezer and Experience (Youngs) Prime. He was graduated at the College of New Jersey, A.B., 1751, A.M., 1754, studied medicine under Dr. Jacob Ogden at Jamaica, L.I., and practised at Easthampton. He was a tutor in the College of New Jersey, 1756-57; went abroad in 1763; visited medical schools in Europe; was graduated at the University of Leyden, M.D., 1764, and in the same year began practice in New York city. He published "A Song for the Sons of Liberty in New York " on the passage of the stamp act in 1765. He was married, Dec. 18. 1774, to Mary (Wheelwright) Greaton, widow of the Rev. John Greaton of Huntington, L.I. He retired to Huntington, L.I., previous to 1775, and in that year was forced to flee to Connecti- cut, where he remained until the conclusion of peace in 1783, after endeavoring in vain to secure a commission in the army. He received the degree of A.M. from Yale in 1760. He is the author of: The Patriot Muse, or Poems on Some of the Principal Events of the Late War: Together with a Poem on Peace (1764); Colum- bia's Glory, or British Pride Humbled: A Poem on the American Revolution (1791). After his