TJ 



riUJIATICCIO, FRANCESCO. 



PRINGLK, JOHN. 



provoki 



at ; bat, being a citizen of France, aud a friend to 



that Revolution, u sufficient" 



Hk wife died in 1796. Mil youngest aon bad died a few months 

 previous. He himself, in 1801, beouue subject to constant indigestion 

 and difficulty of swallowing any kind of solid food. This continued 

 to increase till 1803, when, perceiving bis end approaching, be told 

 his physician that if he could prolong his life for six months, he 

 should be satisfied, as in that time he hoped to complete the works 

 upon which he WM then engaged. Those were his 'General History 

 of the Christian Church from the Fall of the Western Empire to thu 

 Present Time,' 4 Tola., 1802-3 (which had been preceded by his 

 ' General History of the Christian Church to the Fall of the Western 

 Empire,' 2 vols., 1790), and 'The Doctrines of Heathen Philosophy 

 compared with those of Revelation ' (posthumous). He died February 

 6, 1804, expressing the satisfaction he derived from the consciousness 

 of having led a useful life and the confidence he felt in a future state 

 in a happy immortality. On his death becoming known at Paris, his 

 eloge was read by Cuvier before the National Institute. There is a 

 statement in more than one work that Priestley's death was occasioned 

 by poison, but it does not appear to be supported by any authority. 



The autobiography of Dr. Priestley, originally written, as he informs 

 us, during one of his summer excursions, concludes with the date 

 " Northumberland, March 24, 1795." It was published in America 

 after his decease, with a continuation by his son Joseph Priestley, aud 

 observations on his writings by Thomas Cooper (president judge of 

 the fourth district of Pennsylvania) and the Kuv. William Christie. 

 Priestley's Correspondence has been collected and incorporated with 

 the above memoir by Mr. John Towill Rutt, forming the first two 

 volumes of his collected edition of Priestley's ' Theological and Mis- 

 cellaneous Works,' in 25 vols., Svo, Hackney, 1817, Ac. At pp. 537- 

 44 of the second volume of this edition will be found, chronologically 

 arranged, a complete list of Priestley's works; au imperfect list is 

 given in Watt's ' iiibliotheca Britannica,' 



Butory 



of Priestley. _ . 



and ' Chemistry ' in the Encyclopedia Jfclropvlitana, by the Rev. 



Francis Lunn ; Uutt'a Memoin and Currapondenct of Priettley, above 



mentioned, &c.) 



PRIMATl'CCIO, FRANCESCO, was born at Bologna, in 1490. 

 He was of a noble family, and his parents intended to have him 

 brought up to the mercantile profession; but his natural genius 

 led him to the arts. He learned design and colouring from Innocenzio 

 da Imola and 13aguacavallo, and having manifested extraordinary 

 talent, be went to Mantua to study under Julio Romano, who was 

 engaged on some great works in the palace Del T<S at Mantua, many 

 of which Primaticcio and others of his disciples executed after his 

 designs. Frederic, duke of Mantua, recommended him in 1531 to 

 Francis, king of France, who intrusted him with many works. A great 

 jealousy arising between him and Rosso, who was likewi.-e in high 

 favour with Francis, the king sent Primaticcio to Rome to purchase 

 antiques, a commission in which he was extremely successful. He 

 was recalled from Home to complete a Urge gallery left unfinished by 

 the death of Rosso. The number of works which he executed in 

 France is astonishing, especially in the palace of Fontainebleau, where, 

 assisted by his pupil Nicolo Abate, he pointed, besides other works, 

 in the great gallery, which was 456 feet long aud 18 feet wide, fifty -eight 

 pictures, each 6{ feet high and 8 feet wide, representing the principal 

 scene* of the Odyssey; the roof, which was richly adorned with gilding 

 and stucco, was decorated with fifteen large and sixty small pictures, 

 chiefly subjects of heathen mythology. This great work WHS totally 

 destroyed in 1738, when the great gallery was pulled down to erect 

 apartments for some persons attached to the court. Francis II. gave 

 him the abbey of St. Martin de Troyea, with a revenue of 8000 crowns, 

 which he enjoyed till his death in 1570. 1'riiuuticcio'a talents however 

 were chiefly called into exercue under Henri II., most of the frescoes 

 with which Francis intended to adorn Foutainebleau not being executed 

 till after his death. The oil-paintings of Primaticcio are excewively 

 ran in Italy. Fuseli mentions a Concert of three female figures in the 

 Zambeccari gallery as an enchanting performance; and Dr. Waagen 

 says that a picture at Castle Howard representing Penelope relating 

 to Ulyxses what has passed in his absence, is the finest work of this 

 master that lie had yet seen. 



I'UINGI.K, JOHN, the youngest son of Sir John Pringle, Bart, and 

 Magdalen Eliott, the sitter of Sir Gilbert Eliott, Bart., was born at 

 Sticbell-House in Roxburghshire, April 10, 1707. Having received at 

 home, under a private tutor, the elements of a classical education, he 

 entered the University of St. Andrews, where a relative of his father, 

 Mr. Francis Pringle, was at that time profeaior of Greek. After 

 keeping the ordinary number of terms, he removed to Edinburgh, in 

 October 1727, in order t> qualify himself for the medical profession; 

 but in the year following he proceeded to the University of Leyden. 

 It is stated by Dr. Kippis, on the authority of Mr. James ISoswell, that 

 Priugle was at one time intended to follow a mercantile life, and that 

 on leaving Edinburgh he went to Amsterdam for that purpose, but 

 that hi* attention was accidentally drawn to the study of medicine by 

 attending a lecture of Boerhaave in the University of Leyden. He 

 entered thU Univrttitv in 172', and took the degree of Doctor of 



Physio, 20th of July 1730, his diploma bearing the signatures of 

 Boerhaave, Albinus, Uravootnde, and other eminent individual*. His 

 inaugural dissertation was entitled ' De Marcore Senili.' On quitting 

 Leyden, he proceeded to Paris, where he completed his medical 

 studies, after which he settled as a physician at Edinburgh. He had 

 not however given his attention exclusively to medicine. In 1734 he 

 was appointed by the magistrates and council of Edinburgh to the 

 professorship of moral philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, 

 jointly with Mr. Scott, during the life of the latter, and solely after his 

 decease. Dr. Kippis says he was appointed to the chair of pneumatics 

 and moral philosophy, but no mention of the former of those science* 

 is to bo found in any other notice of Prinele's life to which wo have 

 referred. He continued to practise at Edinburgh as a phjmrim till 

 1742, when he was nominated physician to the Earl of Stair, who then 

 commanded the allied armies of England and Austria, aud through 

 whose recommendation he received the same year the further appoint- 

 ment of physician to the military hospital in Flanders, at a salary 

 of 20. a day, and half-pay for life. He was present at the battle of 

 Dettingen (2(ith of June 1743), shortly after which he was promoted 

 by the Duke of Cumb-rland, second son of George II., to be physician- 

 general to his majesty's forces in the Low Countries, whereupon he 

 resigned his professorship. The benevolence of his disposition and 

 the exemplary zeal aud ability with which he discharged his ollicial 

 duties while connected with the army, are attested by all who knew 

 him. Impressed with the suffering frequently attendant on the .- 

 movement of on army, which necessitated as sudden a removal of the 

 hospitals or the abandonment of the men to the doubtful generosity 

 of au enemy, he applied himself earnestly to the consideration of the 

 means whereby it might be mitigated or removed. Prior to this it 

 had been the custom to place thu sick and wounded at a distant 

 the army, but even then it often happened that a position of salubrity 

 was incompatible with one of safety. Through his exertions a conven- 

 tion was entered into, in the early part of the campaign of 1743, 

 between Lord Stair and Marshal Noaillea, for the mutual pro' 

 of the hospitals of both armies. ThU convention was faithfully adhered 

 to by both the French and English generals. Pringla's situation 

 afforded ample opportunity of observing the influence of climate, diet, 

 confined aud humid quarters, habits of intemperance and uncleanness, 

 ike. These, with the characteristics of the epidemics peculiar to armies, 

 he carefully recorded and digested, applying himself indefatigalily to 

 the investigation of the proper modes of treatment under different 

 circumstances. His treatise ' On the Diseases of the Army,' which 

 appeared in 1752, and which passed through seven editions, besides 

 being translated into the French, German, and Italian languages, was 

 not a work from which the medical practitioner alone was capable of 

 deriving instruction. Among other instances corroborative of its general 

 utility, General Melville, who, while governor of the Friendly Islands, 

 was instrumental in saving the lives of near seven hundred of bis 

 soldiers, attributed his success to the plainness of the language em- 

 ployed iu this work and the soundness of the information which it 

 conveyed. 



Dr. Pringle was recalled from Flanders in 1745 in order to attend 

 the army employed under the Duke of Cumberland in suppressing the 

 Scotch rebellion. He remained with the forces till after the battle of 

 Cullodeu (16th of April 1746). The year following he again accom- 

 panied the army abroad, but on the conclusion of the peace of Aix-la- 

 Chapelle (30th of April 1748), he returned to England, after which he 

 resided principally at London, as physician iu ordinary to the Duke of 

 Cumberland. He hod been elected in 1745 a member of the Royal 

 Society, and his communication to their published ' Transaction* ' of 

 a paper entitled ' Experiments on Septic and Anti-septic Substances, 

 with remarks relating to their use iu the theory of medicine i 

 to which the Copley medal waa awarded, added to his reputation. 

 Empiricism indeed appears in some measure to have b-en looked upon 

 by him as not only the beginning, but the end of all useful inquiry, 

 and he not merely entertained a strong aversion to all hypothesis, bat 

 attached comparatively little value to theory oven when based on 

 experiment Upon one of the members of the Royal Society remarking 

 to him that it was at least necessary to reason on the results of observa- 

 tion and experiment, be is said to have replied, ' The less the better; 

 it is by reasoning that you spoil everything." 



In 1753 he was elected one of the council of the Royal Society. In 

 1768, on relinquishing his appointment in the army, he was admitted 

 a licentiate of the College of Physicians. In 1761, soon after the 

 accession of George III., he was appointed physician to the queen's 

 household, and in 1763 physician extraordinary to her majesty. The 

 same year he was chosen a member of the Academy of Sciences at 

 Haarlem, and Fellow of the College of Physicians, London. In 1766 

 he WM elected a member of the Royal Society of Sciences at Giittiugen, 

 and the name year the dignity of baronet was conferred upon In 

 George III. In 1772 ho was elected president of the Royal Society. 

 In 1774 he was appointed physician extraordinary to his majesty. In 

 1776 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences at Madrid, the 

 Society for the Promotion of Agriculture at Amsterdam, the Academy 

 of Medical Correspondence at Paris, and the Imperial Academy of 

 Sciences at St Petersburg. In 1778 he succeeded Linnaeus as foreign 

 member of tho Academy of Sciences at Paris, au honour which that 

 body has hitherto restricted to cijr. individuals. The same year he 



