PILCHEE
PISACANE
from Brussels on account of his attacks on
them, and he was several times imprisoned.
In 1791 he joined the revolutionary army ;
but in the following year his novel,
L enfant du carnaval, was so successful
that he devoted himself to letters. His
numerous stones and plays, which made
him one of the most popular writers in
France, were published in twenty volumes
(1822-24). In Le citateur (1806) he makes
a merciless attack on Christianity, largely
by quotations from Voltaire and the philo
sophers. D. July 24, 1835.
PILCHER, Edward John, Assyriologist (" Chilperic Edwards "). B. July 6, 1862. Ed. Ireland, where he spent his boyhood. Mr. Pilcher grew up among the Wesleyan Methodists, but the study of Biblical prophecy, especially in Daniel and Revela tion, convinced him of " the baselessness of Christianity " (he says). He adopted the anagram " Chilperic " when he began to write for the National Reformer in 1886. Many of his articles were republished under the name " Chilperic Edwards "- which has become familiar to nationalists with the title The Witness of Assyria (1893). He has published, also, an excel lent translation of the Babylonian code of law (The Hammurabi Code, 1904 ; The Oldest Laws in the World, 1906) and The Old Testament (1913) ; and has contributed for years to the Reformer, Freethinker, and Literary Guide.
PILLSBURY, Parker, American reformer. B. Sep. 22, 1809. Pillsbury had little schooling in his youth. We find him driving an express-wagon in 1829, then farming for a few years. In 1838 he decided to enter the Congregationalist ministry, and he studied for a year at the Gilmanton and Andover Theological Seminaries. He was licensed as a preacher in 1839, and he took charge of a chapel at New London. Realizing how grossly the Churches supported slavery, he abandoned the ministry and the creed, and threw himself ardently into the Abo-
603
litionist movement. He edited The Herald
of Freedom. His attitude to the Churches
at this time is warmly expressed in his
Church as It Is (1885). When American
slavery was suppressed he took up woman
suffrage and other reforms, collaborating
with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a fellow
Rationalist, on The Revolution. He was a
powerful and assiduous lecturer, and he
preached frequently for the Free (Theistic)
Churches at Salem, Toledo, and Battle
Creek. His Acts of the Anti-Slavery
Apostles (1884) is largely autobiographical.
D. 1898.
PINEL, Professor Philippe, M.D., French physiologist. B. Apr. 20, 1745. Ed. Toulouse and Montpellier. In 1791, when his work Sur I alienation mentals, first drew attention to his sane and advanced views on mental disease, Pinel was appointed Directing Physician at the Bicetre Hospital. In 1794 he passed to the Salp6triere. He brought about a great reform in the treatment of the insane, upon whom the barbarous methods of the Middle Ages were still used. Later he was ap pointed professor of physics and hygiene, and then of pathology, at the Paris School of Medicine. He was admitted to the Institut in 1803. His works, especially his Traite medico -philo sophique sur I aliena tion mentale (1801), are classics of mental pathology ; and his Nosographie philo- sophique (1898) is believed by many to have rendered equal service to general medicine. He was a Materialist, an ardent humanitarian, and a man of simple and most generous life. D. Oct. 25, 1826.
PIRBRIGHT, Baron. SeeVv WORMS, H.
PISACANE, Carlo, Italian soldier. B. Aug. 22, 1818. Ed. Military College of La Nunziatella. Son of the Duke of San Giovanni, and serving in the army in Algeria as an officer of engineers until 1848, Pisacane joined the revolutionary forces against Austria and the Papacy. He was, in fact, the chief organizer of
