Philosophical Society
AMER- ICAN, a learned society, the oldest now existing in America, being founded as early as the year 1727. At that time it was merely a club in Philadelphia where learned men repaired for conversation, and among them Benjamin Franklin. In 1743 Franklin wrote "A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge Among the British Plantations in America," in which he advocated the formation of a society with members from all the colonies. The society was formed the next year under the title of American Philosophical Society Held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge. Franklin was the first president and he was succeeded by David Rittenhouse and then by Thomas Jefferson. The present society is the result of a merger of two learned societies both situated in Philadelphia. In 1785 a London gentleman, de Magellan, presented 200 guineas to the society the interest on which was to be used to provide a gold medal to be awarded for the best discovery or improvement in navigation, natural history, or astronomy. The medal is considered a great honor among scientists. Membership in the society is limited to fifteen new members each year from the United States and three from foreign countries. The hall of the Society is located at 104 S. Fifth St., Philadelphia, where there are interesting scientific collections, and many objects of great historical interest. term said by
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Philostratus
A famous Sophist born at Lemnos, or, according to some, at Athens . He came to Rome, where he was patronized by Julia, the wife of the Emperor Severus. She intrusted him with some papers referring to Apollonius, whose life he wrote. This biography is written with elegance, but contains many exaggerated descriptions and improbable stories.
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Philoxenus
Of Cythera, one of the most distinguished dithyrambic poets of Greece, was born B. C. 435 and died 380. He spent part of his life at Syracuse, where he was cast into prison by Dionysius, because he had told the tyrant, when asked to revise one of his poems, that the best way of correcting it would be to draw a black line through the whole paper. Only a few fragments of his poems have come down to us.
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Philter
a potion supposed to have the power of exciting love. At times, poisonous drugs drugs were employed, the death of Lucretius and the madness of Caligula being alike ascribed to philters administered by their wives.
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Phineus
A son of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, or, according to some, a son of Neptune, who became king of Thrace. He married Cleopatra (called by some Cleobula), the daughter of Boreas , their children being Plexippus and Pandion. After the death of Cleopatra he married Idaea, the daughter of Dardanus , who, jealous of Cleopatra's children, accused them of an attempt on their father's life, and they were condemned by Phineus to have their eyes put out. This cruelty was punished by the gods, Phineus being made blind, and the Harpies were sent by Jupiter to keep him in continual alarm. He recovered his sight by means of the Argonauts, whom he received with great hospitality.
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Phips
or PHIPPS, SIR WILLIAM, governor of Massachusetts; born in Pemmaquid (Bristol), Me., Feb. 2, 1651. He was successively a shepherd, a carpenter, and a trader, and in 1687 recovered from a wrecked Spanish ship off the Bahamas bullion, plate, and treasure valued at $1,500,000; this gained him a knighthood and the appointment of sheriff of New England. In 1690 he captured Port Royal (now Annapolis) in Nova Scotia, but failed in the same year in a naval attack on Quebec. In 1692, through the influence of Increase Mather, he was appointed governor of Massachusetts. He at once put a stop to the witchcraft persecutions by appointing a commission of seven magistrates to try all such cases. He died Feb. 18, 1694, in London, England, whither he had been summoned to answer certain charges of arbitrary conduct. PHIZ. See BROWNE, HABLOT KNIGHT.
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Phlebitis
inflammation of the veins. Though seldom an original or "idiopathic" disease, it is a frequent sequence of wounds, and is not uncommon after delivery. The disease is indicated by great tenderness and pain along the course of the affected vessel, which feels like a hard knotted cord, and rolls under the fingers.
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Phlebotomy
or VENESECTION, the act of letting blood by opening a vein; a method of treatment formerly applied to almost all diseases, but now chiefly confined of general or local plethora. Another mode of letting blood is by cupping or by the application of leeches. It has been one of the processes of the medical profession from the earliest times.
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Phlegethon
flej'e-thon, or Pyriphlegethon, in Grecian mythology, one of the five rivers of the infernal regions. The word Phlegethon signifies fire, and the river was supposed to be a stream of flame on whose parched banks nothing could live. The Phlegethon flowed into the Acheron. See Acheron ; Hades ; Cocytus ; Styx ; Lethe
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Phlogiston
a substance supposed by the earlier chemists to exist in all combustible matters, and to the escape of this principle from any compound the phenomenon of fire was attributed. The views held regarding it were, however, abandoned by chemists some time after the researches of Lavoisier on combus tion were made.
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Phocas
Emperor of the East, at first a centurion in the army of the Emperor Maurice. In 602 he took adand discontent vantage of the grievances to get himself elected emof the soldiers Constantinople folperor; a revolt at his five sons lowed, and Maurice and were murdered at Chalcedon. Phocas was of low origin; ignorant, cowardly, and cruel. The Empress Constantina, accused of conspiracy, was tortured, and daughters beheaded at with her three Chalcedon; and numberless meaner victims perished. Yet Phocas was acknowledged both in the East and West. Chosroes, King of Persia, declared war on him, and at length the tyrant was overby Herthrown and the empire delivered aclius, son of the Exarch of Africa, who led an expedition to Constantinople in 610. Phocas was seized, put in chains, tortured, and beheaded, and his body burned.
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