Prior (Title loosely applied before)
a title loosely applied before the 13th century to any monk ranking above his fellows. Priors are now of two kinds: conventual and claustral. A conventional prior is the head of a religious house, either independently, as among the Regular Canons, the Carthusians, and the Dominicans, or as superior of a cell or offshoot from some larger monastery. A claustral prior is appointed in houses in which the head is an abbot, to act as superior in the abbot's absence.
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Pripet Marshes
an extensive swamp surrounding the city of Pinsk, in western Russia, and extending up and down both banks of the Pripet river. Officially this region is known as the Rokitno Marsh. In area these bogs are about half the size of the entire terri tory of Rumania. Only a comparatively small portion of the marsh had been explored before the outbreak of the World War, when it became the theater of important military operations between the Russian and German forces, especially after the capture of Brest-Litovsk by the Germans, on Aug. 27, 1915. After their disastrous defeat at this time the Russian line retired and took its stand along the eastern side of the Pripet marshes. Along this front there was, of necessity, a large territory intervening between the Russian and German lines, invaded only by raiding parties and occasional patrols, moving in punts in summer, and on the ice in winter. It was only during the winter months that fighting of any magnitude could take place here, and then the contending forces would advance over the ice and engage 23 in pitched battles. The region was, however, impassable to heavy artillery, so that neither side was able to break the deadlock created by the nature of the country. Across this swamp region the two belligerents continued facing each other until the end of the war on the Eastern Front.
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Prism
in geometry, a solid having similar and parallel bases, its sides forming similar parallelograms. The bases may be of any form, and this form (triangular, pentagonal, etc.) gives its name to the prism. In optics, any transparent medium comprised between plane faces, usually inclined to each other. It is used to refract and disperse light, resolving it into the prismatic colors.
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Prison Association
AMER- ICAN, an organization of officials of American prisons, founded by Dr. E. C. Wines, of New York, in 1870, at a conference in Cincinnati, O., and incorporated under the laws of New York in the following year. The object of the association was the general improvement of conditions, not only for the officials and employees of such institutions, but for prisoners as well. Until 1877 the vigorous organization developed a growth, issuing reports in 1872, 1874, ng reports and 1877 of considerable value to students of penology. The death of Dr. Wines, however, at this time, caused a notable decrease in the activities of the association, which lasted until 1883, when it again showed signs of revival. The organization is now an influential factor in all movements toward prison reform, and has standing committees on criminal law, reform, prevention, probation, parole, prison discipline, discharged prisoners and prison statistics. With it are affiliated five other national organizations, comprising wardens, prison physicians, prison chaplains, women officials and employees, and criminologists.
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Prisrend
a city of eastern Serbia, close to the frontier with Albania, 75 miles E. of Scutari, and fourth city in size in the whole of Serbia, with a population, in 1911, of 21,244. a citadel 1,100 feet above sea level, and 24 mosques. It was part of the territory taken from the Turks during the Balkan Wars, in 1912. Through this city fled the broken remnants of the Serbian Army, after the invasion of the country by the forces of the Central Powers, in the fall of 1915, this being the last avenue of escape left open after their final defeat on Kossovo Plain, about 30 miles further N.
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Pristina
a town of Serbia, 30 miles N. E. of Prisrend, administrative seat of a department of the same name in the S. E. part of Serbia, in the foothills of inthe mountains of Albania. After the vasion of Serbia by the Austro-German forces, in the latter part of November, 1915, the remnants of the defeated Serbian forces made their last stand here, on the edge of the great Kossovo Plain, where 300 years before the last of the Serbian Czars had been crushed. The battle lasted four days, the aged King Peter being in the field with his men during the whole period. Finally the Serbian battle formation was smashed, and Pristina was taken by the Teutons, under General Von Mackensen, on Nov. 23, 1915. The population, before the war, was about 10,000.
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Pritchard
JETER CONNELLY, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia; born in 1857, he engaged in the printing business as a young man and in 1873 became the editor of the "Roan Mountain Republican" of Bakersville, N. C. He took a prominent part in political affairs and though a Republican, was elected several times to the State Legislature of North Carolina. In 1895 he was elected to the United States Senate and re-elected in 1897. As he was the only Southern Republican in the Senate his influence was considerable. He undertook to build a white Republican party in the South, called the "Lily-White" party. Appointed associate justice in the District of Columbia in 1903. In 1912 he was appointed by President Taft to head the new Circuit Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia.
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Pritchett
HENRY SMITH, an American educator and head of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching since 1906; born in Missouri in 1857, he took up, after his graduation from college, the study of astronomy, becoming in 1878 assistant astronomer in the United States Naval Observatory in Washington. In 1882, he traveled to New Zealand to observe the transit of Venus. The next year Washington University, St. Louis, Mo., appointed him professor of astronomy, a position he held until 1897. For the three years, 1897 to 1900, he was superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. From 1900 to 1906 he was president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, Mass.
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