PRICHARD, JANtEs COWLES, a distinguished ethnologist and physician, was b. at Ross, in Herefordshire, on Feb. 11, 1786. His father, Thomas Prichard, a member of the society of Friends, and a merchant, had been married young, and was early left a widower with four children, upon whose education he bestowed the greatest care. Of these children. James Cowles, the eldest, was educated at home under private tutors. He learned Latin and Greek from a Mr. Barnes; French from an emigre, named De Rosemond; and Italian front an Italian named Mordenti—while his father himself taught him history, for the study of which young Prichard showed a strong predilection. At Bristol, where his father resided for some time in the pursuit of his business, the embryo ethnologist gave the first indications of his love for the study in which lie afterward became famous. On the quays, he met with foreigners from every country, and took much interest iu observing their physical appearance, occasionally conversing with the sailors and others, as well as he was able, iu their native tongues. On retiring from business, his father again took up his abode at ,Ross, where the son continued to pursue his studies under private tutors. When the time for choice of a profession arrived. young Prichard chose that of medicine as the one he thoiight most akin to his ethnological pursuits. He accordingly becamea student of medicine, first at Bristol, afterward at St. Thomas's hospital, London, and' finally at Edinburgh, when he took his degree of M.D. Before commencing practice, however, he entered himself a student at Trinity college, Cambridge, where he read mathematics and theology for the most part. Subsequently he studied at St. John's college and Trinity college, Oxford. In 1810 he commenced practice in Bristol as a physician. His talents were soon recog nized, both privately and publicly. He was first appointed physician to the Clifton dis pensary and St. Peteit's hospital, and afterward physician to the Bristol infirmary. In 1813, lie published his first work, Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, which at once gave him a high standing as an ethnologist. Of this, a second and enlarged edition, in 2 vols.. appeared in 1826; and a third, still further improved and enlarged. in 5 vols., appeared between the years 1836 and 1847. The second and third editions of this work, each in succession, gave remarkable proofs of the extraordinary zeal with which Dr. Prichard pursued his ethnological investigations; and not only so, for at the same time he devoted himself much to the pursuit of philology, which he rightly judged to be absolutely necessary to an enlarged study of ethnology. In a few years he became acquainted, not only with the Teutonic and Celtic languages, but with Sanskrit, Hebrew, and Arabic, showing a practical result of his studies in the publication of his work entitled The Eastern Origin of the Celtic _Nations. In this publication, which appeared at
Oxford in 1831, he compared the different dialects of the Celtic with the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and Teutonic languages. and succeeded in'proving a strong affinity between theta all, from which he argued in favor of a common origin for all the peoples speaking those languages. His theory has met with general acceptation; and the work in whisk it appeared, says Mr. Norris, " is admitted by the most distinguished philologists to be unsur passed in ability and soundness, while not a few deem it to be that which has made the greatest advance in comparative philology during the present century." A previous work—namely, his Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, first published in 1819, had the honor of being translated into German in 1837, and edited by A. W. Schlegel, who, however, took occasion to dissent from some of the author's views. In 1843 Dr. Prichard pub lished the first edition of his Natural History of Man, in 2 vols. Two other editions of this work appeared during the author's lifetime; and a fourth. ably edited and enlarged, by Mr. Edwin Norris, was given to the world in 1855. Dr. Prichard:s other pubi—ed works are for the most part on medical subjects—namely. Ilistory of the Epidemic Fevers which prevailed in Bristol daring the years 1817, '18, and '19, published in 1620; Trea tise on Diseases of the Nervoils b'ystem (1822); A Treatise on Insanity and other Discuses affecting the Mind (183); and On the Different Forms of Insanity in Relation to Jurisp•u dence (1842). He also contributed various articles to the Cyclopedia of Practical Medi cine and to the Library of Medicine. As a tribute to his eminence as an ethnologist, Dr. Prichard was elected president to the ethnological society; while, in recognition of his researches into the nature and various forms of insanity, he received the government appointment of commissioner in lunacy. This occasioned his removal from Bristol to Loudon, where, unfortunately for the interests of science, he expired of rheumatic fever. Dec. 22, 1848, at the comparatively early age of .62. Dr. Prichard's fame as the greatest of ethnologists, which, during his lifetime, was universally acknowledged, remains undisturbed to this day, notwithstanding any difference of opinion as to his favorite doctrine of the unity of the human race, which he constantly upheld. He was the first to raise ethnology to the rank of a science, and in his work. The Physical Ilistoiw of Man kind, he has left behind him a noble monument of his genius, skill, and perseverance.