I'KKI 



PREJKVALSKI 



younger Fiehte, in Ghinvil and Henrj- More, and 

 in one of the profoundest works nf modern t heology 

 MUller's Cnrittinn Doctrine of Sin where il 

 fin ins n Ka--i- for the doctrine of hereditary -in. 

 Among the early Christian* tlu> as-umptioii of 

 such pre-existence wan connected with the belief 

 that God had created the -mils of men )>efore the 

 world, and that these were united with hiiinan 

 bodies at generation or at birth. Another view 

 lnc prevalent in the Western Church wax that 

 of Traducianisni, according to which children 

 received soul as well an body from their parents 

 through natural generation.' The third theory, 

 whirh ultimately liecame that of the orthodox, 

 was Creationixin, according to which each HOP I i- 

 created successively. Direct intellectual interest 

 in the doctrine of pre-existence has nearly alto- 

 gether ceased in modern timed, yet the dream 

 lias again and again haunted individual thinkers. 

 Almost every one is familiar in dreams, and even 

 in a waking state, with a haunting sense of a 

 want of reality in the common objecte around, 

 ami a vague consciousness that everything one 

 see* or hears has happened before, when we seem, 

 in the words of Tennyson, 



To UjMe far back in a confuted dream 

 To iUte of iiiynt leal llmllitude. 



There is a striking expression of this experience in 

 Sir Walter Scott's ]>inr>i, under February 17, 1828, 

 and there is an interesting allusion in the same 

 subject in a well-known passage in Hm/ Munnrr- 

 ing. Anil Wordsworth has given supreme poetical 

 expression to it in his famous ode Iiiliiiintiinu of 

 Immortality from Recollection* of Early Childhood 

 (the germ of which will lie found in a less known 

 poem of Vaughan the Silurist ) : 



Our birth la but a l*p and a forgetting. 

 The mul that rim with on our life'i ttar, 



Hath had rluwhcra ita Kiting, 



And cometh from afar, 

 Not in i-ntire forgetfulum, 

 And n<>t in utt.-r naki-dncM, 

 But trailini! c-L.ii.U of nlor.v do we come 



Prom God, wlu> in our home. 



Prefect ( Fr. jirrfrt, from Lat. prttfeetus ; see 

 Pii.KKKiT i. tin- administrative head of a nuKlern 

 French department (see FKANCE, Vol. IV. p. 775), 

 whose duties correspond with those of the old 

 Intendant before the Revolution. 



Pregnancy. The first symptom which calls 

 attention to the occurrence of pregnancy is usually 

 absence of the menstrual How. This may, of course, 

 IM; suppressed by many other causes; and, excep- 

 tionally, may persist during the first few months 

 of pregnancy. 'Quickening,' or the sensations r\ 

 penenced in consequence of the movements of the 

 firtu.s, is usually noticed in the fourth month. Of 

 the changes which take place elsewhere than in 

 the generative organs the first and most noticeable 

 is sickness, usually occurring in the early morning, 

 ami not persisting lieyond the first three months. 

 'Longings,' or cravings for special, and sometimes 

 \ei\ i-u rioiis articles ot diet, are not unusual. The 

 heart becomes enlarged in order to provide the 

 increased MOIMI supply necessary for the nutrition 

 of the fietus. There is often an increased liability 

 to toothache, fainting, and other disturbances of 

 health; and not unfrequently the disposition is 

 altered, and an unnatural fretftilness or irritability 

 manifest* itself. In some cases, on the other hand. 

 the health is exceptionally good. The duration of 

 pregnancy in, in the great majority of canes, aliout 

 27"i days ; but, as variations of a week or ten days 

 in either direction are common, it is impossible to 

 predict the exact date of delivery. Well-authenti- 

 cated cane* have occurred where it has been pro- 

 longed to nearly 300 days. It may, of course, come 

 to an end at any time prior to ite proper term (see 



FCKTIW). There is a curious condition called 

 tpuriotu pregnancy, which may so closely simulate 

 true pregnancy in all its main features as entirely 

 to deceive the patient as well as others. It is gener 

 ally associated with Hysteria (q.v. ) or some allied 

 mental disturbance (see MAKV I., and Sorrn- 

 COTT). A careful examination enables a medical 

 man to detect the mistake ; but it may \- 

 difficult to |.fi-naile the patient and her friends 

 of it. As a work of reference for others than 

 specialists, Chavasse's Advice to a Wife on I/if 

 Management of her Health (1842; new ed. 1H89) 

 may be recommended. 



CONCEALMKNT OF PREGNANCY is a criminal 

 offence, or rather it is taken to \te the main proof 

 of the offence of concealing the birth of a child in 

 certain circumstances. See BlRTH. 



Prehnite, a hydrous silicate of alumina and 

 lime, the alumina usually partly replaced by ferric 

 oxide. It is a widely diffused mineral, and, although 

 first discovered at the Cape of Good Hope, hag lieen 

 found in great lieauty in some places on the conti 

 nent of Europe and in Scotland. Pre.hnite exhibits 

 a great variety of forms, being found in crystals in 

 fan-shaped and cockscomb like groups, granular, 

 reniform, fibrous, &c. It is sometimes colourless, 

 I nit more generally greenish, and sometimes yellow- 

 ish. It occurs, as a product of the alteration of 

 various silicates, in veins and cavities in crystalline 

 igneous rocks, such as diorite, porphyritc, &c. Less 

 commonly it is met with under similar conditions 

 in granitoid and schistose rocks, and occasionally 

 in lodes associated with copper. 



Prejevalskl, NICHOLAS, Russian traveller, 

 was iiorn in the government of Smolensk on 31st 

 March 1839. He entered the army (1855), and 

 took part in quelling the Polish insurrection of 

 1881. Having joined the general staff in 1887, he 

 was moved to Siberia. There he began to satisfy 

 his longing for travel by exploring the Usuri 

 region, south of the Amur. This, bowever, was 

 a small thing in comparison with his subsequent 

 labours in geographical exploration. The three 

 years 1871-73 he spent in travelling from Peking 

 through southern Mongolia ( region of the Ordus) 

 to the Ala-shan, Koko-nor, and the upper waters 

 of the Yang-lMze-Kiang. Four years later he made 

 i he first of the journeys undertaken with the hope 

 of reaching Lhassa in Tibet, the goal of all his sub- 

 sequent efforts. He rediscovered Lob-nor on tin- 

 borders of East Turkestan and China, but failed 

 three times in the same year to penetrate into 

 Tibet. Two years afterwards he once more set 

 out, and, after crossing the difficult highland 

 region between East Turkestan and Tibet, had 

 reached a point some 160 miles north of Lhassa, 

 when the Tibetan authorities turned him back. 

 He then went east, and explored the up|>er course 

 of the Iloang ho for about 200 miles, and finally 

 reached Kiochta after a journey of nearly 15,<KH) 

 miles. In the winter of 1883-84 he once more 

 crossed the l>c-.crt of Gobi, and got in far as the 

 upper Yang ts/e Kiang, but, not being able to 

 cross it or travel down it, was obliged to return. 

 He died at Karakol, on the east siilc of Lake Issyk- 

 kul in West Turkestan, just starting on his fifth 

 expedition, on 1st Novemlier 1888. Prcjevalski 

 brought back from these journeys most valuable 

 collections of animals and plants, now all jire- 

 served at St Petersburg ; amongst cither things 

 that he discovered were the wild camel and 

 the wild horse, the ancestors of the domesticated 

 varieties. His accounts of his journeys were pub- 

 lished in the rnx-ecdingii of the St Petersburg 

 Geographical Society, in Petermatin's Mitteiltingen, 

 and other join mils, as well as in two independ- 

 ent Russian works (1875 and 1883). See Natun 



