PFAFERS 



Peziza badius, the brown species 



the flesh of the disk, the exterior 

 scurfy or warty, and usually some 

 tint of brown. A common form, 

 P. vesiculosa, is found on manure 

 heaps and rich cultivated ground. 



Pfafers OR BAD PFAFERS. Swiss 

 bathing establishment. It is 2 m. 

 by road S. of Ragatz (q.v.) in the 

 canton of St. Gall. In the romantic 

 gorge of the Tamina, alt. 2,235 ft., 

 it has a saline spring, efficacious in 

 nervous, rheumatic, and scrofulous 

 disorders. The spring was dis- 

 covered in 1038, and the first bath- 

 house was built in 1242. The 

 Benedictine abbey of Pfafers, 

 founded about 724, was rebuilt in 

 the 17th century ; it was converted 

 into a lunatic asylum in 1847. 



Pfennig. Coin of the German 

 currency. It represents the one- 

 hundredth part of a mark (q.v. ), and 

 normally copper coins of 1 and 2 

 pfennig value were issued. Iron 

 pieces of 5 and 10 pfennigs were 

 coined in 1915, aluminium pieces of 

 1 and 50 pfennigs in 1916 and 1919 

 respectively, and zinc pieces of 10 

 pfennigs in 1917. See Penny. 



Pfleiderer, OTTO (1839-1908). 

 German theologian. Born at Stet- 

 ten, Sept. 1, 1839, and educated 

 at Tubingen and at British uni- 

 versities, he became a pastor at 

 Heilbronn. He was appointed 

 professor of theology at Jena in 

 1870, and at Berlin in 1875. He 

 was Gifford lecturer in 1894. His 

 theology was of the rationalistic 

 type and his works include The 

 Development of Theology since 

 Kant, 1890, and Evolution and 

 Theology, 1900. He died July 19, 

 1908. 



Pforzheim. Town of Baden, 

 Germany. It stands at the union 

 of the Nagold and the Enz, 16 m. 

 from Karlsruhe, and is a rly. 

 junction. The chief buildings are 

 the town hall, the church, in which 

 are tombs of some of the mar- 

 graves of Baden, and the palace 

 in which those rulers lived. The 

 chief industries are the making of 

 jewelry and gold and silver orna- 

 ments ; others are the manufacture 

 of machinery, chemicals, paper, and 

 beer. A Roman settlement, Pforz- 



heim became part of Baden, and 

 from 1300 to 1565 was the resi- 

 dence of the margraves. Reuchlin 

 was born here. Much erudition 

 has been bestowed upon a story 

 that, in 1622, after the battle of 

 Wimpfen, 400 of its citizens gave 

 up their lives for their ruler, but 

 it is now believed to be fiction. 

 The town stands on the N. edge 

 of the Black Forest. Pop. 69,000. 



Phaeacians. People repre- 

 sented in the Odyssey as inhabiting 

 the island of Rcheria in the farthest 

 W. Their king Alcinous (q.v.) 

 hospitably entertained Odysseus. 

 The Phaeacians lived in much 

 luxury, and their name became 

 proverbial for persons of self- 

 _ indulgent disposition. 

 * Phaedo. Greek philosopher. A 

 native of Elis, he made the ac- 

 quaintance of Socrates at Athena. 

 After the death of the latter, he 

 returned to his native place and 

 set up a Socratic school. He is 

 chiefly remembered in connexion 

 with Plato's dialogue on the im- 

 mortality of the soul, which bears 

 his name. 



Phaedra. In Greek mythology, 

 daughter of Minos, king of Crete, 

 and wife of Theseus. _^__ 



king of Athens. She 

 took her own life } 

 because the passion ! 

 she had conceived ; 

 for her stepson, 

 Hippolytus, was 

 not returned by 

 him. See Hippo- 

 lytus. 



Phaedrus. 



Latin fabulist. A 

 Macedonian slave 

 freed by the em- 

 peror Augustus, he 

 published a col- 

 lection of about 

 100 fables and occa- 

 sional pieces. The fables, partly 

 imitated from Aesop (q.v.), have 

 had wide i^se as a schoolbook. 



Phaestus. Ancient city of 

 Crete. It is 25 m. S.W. of Candia, 

 on a ridge commanding the rich 

 plain of the Messara, and was 

 occupied from Neolithic to Vene- 

 tian times. Ruins of a great 

 palace, second only to Cnossus 

 (q.v.), were excavated from 1900 

 onwards. Beneath the palace, 

 built about 1800 B.C., are the 

 remains of an earlier one. Two 

 miles away, at Hagia Triada on 

 the same ridge, is a small palace of 

 about 1600 B.C., where rich finds 

 were made of inscribed tablets, 

 frescoes, seals, and steatite vases, 

 with realistic reliefs of a harvest 

 procession, games, etc. See Crete. 



Phaestus Disk. Clay tablet, 

 now in the Candia Museum, Crete. 

 Discovered in a subterranean 



PHALANGERIDAE 



palace-chamber at Phaestus in 

 1908, it is attributed to the latest 

 Middle Minoan period. Nearly 

 7 ins. in diameter, it bears on both 

 sides in spiral lines 241 pictorial 

 characters printed from 45 stamps. 

 The pictures include a mastless 

 galley and seamen with close-fitting 

 caps, of northern origin. The 

 script, non-Egyptian and mostly 

 non-Minoan, awaits full decipher- 

 ment ; Evans has suggested that it 

 may be a religious chant. See 

 Alphabet ; Clay Tablets. 



Phaethon (Gr., shining). In 

 Greek mythology, the son of 

 Helios, the sun-god. Attempting 

 once to drive his father's chariot 

 across the skies, he proved too 

 weak to control the spirited 

 horses, with the result that he 

 came so near to earth that a 

 portion of it was burned, the 

 parched condition of the Sahara 

 being attributed to this mishap. 

 Thereupon Zeus killed the pre- 

 sumptuous youth with a thunder- 

 bolt, and he fell into the river 

 Eridanus. 



Phaeton. High, four-wheeled 

 open carriage, for one or two 

 horses. Invented in the second 



Phaeton. Four-wheeled mail phaeton drawn by two 

 horses 



half of the 18th century, and 

 named after Phaethon, it had 

 long popularity as a showy 

 equipage for fashionable whips, 

 until largely superseded by the 

 landau and victoria. 



Phagocytes (Gr. phagein, to 

 eat ; kytoa, a vessel). Name given to 

 the white corpuscles of the blood. 

 See Blood. 



Phagocytosis. Destruction of 

 micro-organisms by the phago- 

 cytes or white corpuscles of the 

 blood. See Blood. 



Phalangeridae (Gr. phalanges, 

 bones of the fingers or toes). 

 Family of small marsupials of 

 arboreal habit, found only in 

 Australasia, where they are falsely 

 called Opossums. Phalangers are 

 distinguished by the peculiar con- 

 struction of the hind feet. The 

 first toe has no nail and can be 

 opposed to the others like a 



