PHYSICIANS 



PHYSIOGNOMY 



159 



graduates in medicine of a recognised university or 

 licentiates of the College, who do not dispense or 

 supply medicine, and who, after being duly pro- 

 posed, have satisfied the College ' touching their 

 knowledge of medical and general science ami 

 literature.' No candidate is admissible if engaged 

 in trade or connected with a druggist's business, or 

 who even practises medicine in partnership with 

 another practitioner, so long as the partnership 

 lasts, or who refuses to publish, when required, the 

 nature and composition of any remedy he makes 

 use of. The members aie alone eligible for the 

 Fellowship. They have the use of the library and 

 museum and the privilege of admission to all 

 lectures ; but they do not take any share in the 

 government or attend or vote at meetings. The 

 examiners for the membership are the president 

 and censors. The Licentiates are not membera of 

 the corporation ; they have access to the museum, 

 lectures, ami reading-room, but are not allowed to 

 take l>ooks away from the library ; they may com- 

 pound ami dispense medicines for vniieiits" im >/<> 

 th.-ir ini-it care ; and in their qualifications very 

 nmeh resemble those who have diplomas both from 

 the College of Surgeons and the Apothecaries' 

 Hall. Thev must l>e twenty-one years of age, and 

 must have been engaged in professional studies for 

 four years before being admitted to examination. 

 The fee for admission as a Fellow is thirty guineas, 

 exclusive of stamp-duty ; the Member's fee is also 

 thirty guineas, and the'Lirentiate's fifteen guineas. 



The following bylaws of the College should l>e 

 generally known : (1) No Fellow of the College is 

 ntitled to sue for professional aid rendered by him. 

 This bylaw does not extend to Members. (2) No 

 Fellow, Member, or Licentiate of the College is 

 entitled to assume tin- title of Doctor of Medicine 

 unless he lie a graduate in medicine of a universii \ . 

 (3) No Fellow or Member of the College shall oft- 

 ciousiy, or under colour of a benevolent purpose, 

 oiler imvlieal aid to, or prescril>e for, any patient 

 whom he knows to be under the care of another 

 legally qualified medical practitioner. 



THE ROYAL. COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF 

 KiiiMii -I;H had its rise in 1617, in an attempt to 

 incor|K>rate the practitioners of medicine, and raise 

 the standard of the profession. King .lames I. of 

 England looked favourably on the pro|x>sal, and 

 granted an order for its establishment. Kin" Charles 

 I. also gave the matter his attention and referred 

 it to tin- Privy council, and Cromwell in like 

 manner issued a patent in its favour ; all these 

 attempts, however, were frustrated by the religions 

 and political dissensions of the times, and it was 

 not until 1681 that the liody liecame incorporated 

 under a charter from Charles II. A new charter 

 with many important provisions was issued in 1861. 

 To the I'hvsieians MMOgi the honour of having 

 mggested in 1725 the plan of an infirmary in Edin- 

 burgh for the sick poor, which has developed into 

 the present magnificent institution. From the first 

 they undertook its medical charge gratuitously. 

 TLe I'.oyal Kdinhurgh Asylum for the Insane at 

 Murningside was also first suggested by them in 

 17!M. The College, which in 1890 had over 190 

 Fellows, [Assesses a library of upwards of 30,000 

 volumes, a valuable anil interesting museum of 

 materiii medica, ami a splendidly equipped laliora- 

 'ory for the purpose of aiding the prosecution of 

 ntific research. An important arrangement 

 was made in 1859 between this college and the 

 Royal College of Surgeons (q.v. ) of Edinburgh, 

 making it competent for the two to combine, in 

 order, by a joint examination, to give a double 

 qualification, embracing medicine and surgery. In 

 l^t a further consolidation of the Scottish medical 

 ''>i|> orations took place, by the institution of a 

 triple qualification, granted by the Edinburgh 



colleges and the Faculty of Physicians and Sur- 

 geons of Glasgow conjointly. 



Physic Nut (Curcas), a genus of plants of the 

 natural order Eupborbiacea-, whose species are 

 tropical shrubs or trees, having alternate, stalked, 

 angled or lobed leaves, and corymbs of flowers on 

 long stalks. The Common Physic Nut of the East 

 Indies ( C. purguits), now also common in the West 

 Indies and other warm parts of the world, is a 

 small tree or bush, with a milky juice. It is used 

 for fences in many tropical countries, and serves 

 the purpose well, being much branched and of 

 rapid growth. The seeds are not unpleasant to 

 the taste, but abound in a very acrid fixed oil, 

 which makes them powerfully emetic and purga- 

 tive, or in large doses poisonous. The expressed 

 oil, commonly called Jatropha-oil, is used in medi- 

 cine like croton-oil, although less powerful ; it is 

 also used in lamps. Other species are C. multifidus 

 and C. lobattis. 



Physics, or PHYSICAL SCIENCE (Gr. physikos, 

 ' natural ' ), comprehends in its widest sense all that 

 is classed under the various branches of mixed or 

 applied mathematics, natural philosophy, chem- 

 istry, and natural history, which branches include 

 the whole of our knowledge regarding the material 

 universe. In its narrower sense it is equivalent 

 to Natural Philosophy (q.v.), which until of late 

 years was the term more commonly used in Great 

 Britain, and denotes all knowledge of the properties 

 of bodies as iKidies, or the science of phenomena 

 unaccompanied by essential change in the objects; 

 while chemistry is concerned with the composition 

 of bodies, and the phenomena accompanied by 

 essential change in the objects, and natural history, 

 in its widest sense, includes all the phenomena of 

 the animal, vegetable, ami mineral world. The 

 use (now obsolescent) of the term Phi/sic for a 

 branch of this last- viz. the science of medicine 

 is not peculiar to the "English language. The 

 Old French usage recognised /</, i/*/Vy <? in the sense 

 of medicine ; while almost all languages have used 

 some form of the word /ilii/xii-i<ni for a practitioner 

 of the art. See SCIENCE. 



Physiocratic School, a school of political 



economists in France headed by Quesnay and 

 Gournay, who, in opposition to "the Mercantile 

 System (q.v.), regarded agriculture as the great 

 source of national well-Ming, and sought to 

 regulate legislation accordingly. Turgot (q.v. ) was 

 the most conspicuous member. See POLITICAL 

 ECONOMY. 



Physiognomy (from a Latin shortened form of 

 the Gr. phy*iognom6nia), the art of judging of the 

 character from the external appearance, especially 

 from the countenance. The art, is founded upon 

 the belief, which has long and generally prevailed, 

 that there is an intimate connection between tin 1 

 features and expression of the face and the qualities 

 and habits of the mind ; and every man is conscious 

 of instinctively drawing conclusions in this way for 

 himself with more or less confidence, and of acting 

 upon them to a certain extent in the affairs of life. 

 Yet the attempt to reach this conclusion by the 

 application of certain rules, and thus to raise the 

 art of reading the human countenance to the dignity 

 of a science, although often made, has never yet 

 been very successful. Comparisons were instituted 

 for this purpose between the physiognomies of 

 human beings and of species of animals noted for 

 the possession of peculiar qualities, as the wolf, 

 the fox, &c. The subject was prosecuted by Delia 

 Porta (died 1615), Campanella, Cardan, Ingegneri, 

 and especially by Lavater (q.v.). Darwin's Sfpres- 

 sion vj the Emotions in Man anil Animals ( 1873) 

 is regarded as the first attempt to base a rational 

 physiognomic system on a basis of modern scientific 



