An Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology

James Cowles Prichard, MD FRS (1786-1848) was a British physician and ethnologist with interests in physical anthropology and psychiatry. He was also an early proponent of the physical history and evolution of mankind. He coined the term "senile dementia" when he served as a medical commission in lunacy from 1845. Always fascinated by the origin of human varieties and races, as a Quaker by religion this fitted in with his belief system.

He took his MD at Edinburgh, and also read at Trinity College, Cambridge. There he became a member of the Church of England.

By 1845 he was made a commissioner in Lunacy in London, he died of rheumatic fever there three years later. At the time of his death he was president of the Ethnological Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Pritchard has been described by science historian Conway Zirkle as an evolutionary thinker who came very close "to explaining the origin of new forms through the operation of natural selection although he never actually stated the theory in so many words." His most famous works are apart from the book described below, 1829: A Review of the Doctrine of a Vital Principle. 1831: On the Treatment of Hemiplegia. 1839:- On the Extinction of some Varieties of the Human Race.

In very good condition with nice bright interior. Very slight rubbing to buff leather Ex King's Inns Library Dublin, Foxed endpapers. Lovely colour Osiris and the weighing of the heart by Thoth and Anubis opposite title page, which is the only colour illustration in the book. Very rare in this excellent condition, a real treasure.