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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Phocha
an Ionian city, in Asia Minor, originally a colony from Athens. It stood on a peninsula between the gulfs of Elais and Sr Smyrna, and had an excellent harbor; and the Phocæans were distinguished among the Greeks for their nautical enterprise. When the city was besieged by the Persians in the time of Cyrus, many of its inhabitants emigrated to Corsica; Massilia (Marseilles) was a Phocean colony. The ruins of Phocæa are still known as Karadscha Tokia.
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Phocis
a division of central Greece until the Turkish War (1912) and with Bulgaria (1913). Now forms with Phthiotis a department. Pop. (1911) 174,the country 574. The greater part of is occupied by the mountain range of PARNASSUS (q. v.). The state derives its chief historical importance from possessing the famous oracle of Delphi. 12. During the Peloponnesian war the Phocians were close allies of the Athenians. In the time of Philip of Macedon they were involved in a 10 years' war, commonly known as the Sacred or Phocian War, which ended disastrously for the (22 Phocians, the whole of whose cities in number) were destroyed, with one exception, and the inhabitants parceled out among the hamlets. PHŒBUS (i. e., "the Bright"), an epithet, and subsequently a name, of both to the Apollo. It had reference and to the youthful beauty of the god when, latterly, radiance of the sun, Apollo became identified with Helios, the sun god.
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Phoebe
fe'be, or Pewee, a familiar bird of the flycatcher family. The phoebe bird takes its name from its "humble monotones." It is a trusting, quiet bird, building its nest of moss and mud, lined with grass and long hairs, on beams or rafters about houses, barns, and bridges. The nest is repaired and occupied from year to year. Four to six white eggs are sometimes spotted with cinnamon at the larger end. The phoebe is about seven inches in length, with olivacious upper parts and whitish under parts. It may be distinguished from other birds by its black bill and a white margin half a feather in width on each side of its forked tail. It is a lively bird. It sails about the barnyard, living on insects caught dexterously on the wing. In the latitude of Iowa, the phoebes arrive from the south in April. After the nest is made ready and the eggs laid, about thirty days are required to hatch the young and enable them to fly. Some night in October the family takes flight for the Gulf States. See Wood Pewee Phoebe
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Phoebe
fe'be, in Greek mythology, the daughter of Uranos and Gaea, and mother of Asteria and Leto. She presided at one time over the oracle at Delphi, but was succeeded by Apollo. Among the later poets, Artemis is sometimes called Phoebe, which means "the radiant one."
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Phoebus
. See Apollo
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Phoenicia
fe-nish'a, a bit of sea coast at the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean. It lay at the foot of the Lebanon mountains. The chief cities were Tyre and Sidon. The Phoenicians appear to have been related to the Hebrews in point of language and race, but they were gross idolators. They established colonies throughout the Mediterranean region. Out of the cuneiform inscriptions of Babylonia and the hieroglyphics of Egypt they constructed the first alphabet, one of twenty-two letters. It was invented for commercial purposes--the keeping of accounts--and is the basis of our present alphabet. See Tyre ; Carthage ; Cadiz ; Solomon When history first reveals the Mediterranean, about 1600 B. C., it is dotted with the adventurous sails of the Phoenician navigators, and for centuries more they are the only real sailor folk. Half traders, half pirates, their crews crept from island to island, to barter with the natives or to sweep them off for slaves, as chance might best offer. Farther and farther the Phoenician merchants daringly sought wealth on the sea, until they passed even the Pillars of Hercules , into the open Atlantic, and until at last we see them exchanging the precious tin of Britain, the yellow amber of the Baltic, and the slaves and ivory of West Africa, for the spices, gold, scented wood, and precious stones of India.--West.
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