PHY 
PHYSICIANS. By statute 3 Hen. VIII. 
c. 11, no person within London, nor within 
seven miles of the same, shall practice as a 
physician or surgeon, except he be ex- 
amined and approved by the Bishop of 
London, or by the Dean of St. Paul’s, as- 
sisted by four persons of the faculty, under 
a penalty of SI. pei- month, half to the King, 
and half to the informer. A doctor of phy- 
sic of the Universities must still have a li- 
cence from the College of Physicians to 
enable him to practice in London, and witli- 
in seven miles of the same. In the country 
such a doctor of physic may practice, but no 
other, without licence from the College. 
It has been said, it is murder if a person 
die under the care of a medical practitioner 
not qualified ; but although it might be 
punishable as a misdemeanour, yet it cer- 
tainly cannot be murder. 
PHYSICS, a term made use of by Dr. 
Keil and others, for natural philosophy, ex- 
plains the doctrine of natural bodies, their 
phenomena, causes, and effects, with the va- 
rious affections, motions, and operations. Ex- 
perimental physics inquire into the reasons 
and nature of things by experiments, as in 
hydrostatics, pneumatics, optics, &c. but 
more particularly in chemistry, in which more 
has been done the last thirty years than could 
possibly have been conceived by the imagi- 
nation. Mechanical physics explain the 
appearances of nature from the matter, mo- 
tion, structure, and figures of bodies, and 
their parts, according to the settled laws of 
nature. See Mechanics. 
PHYSIOGNOMY, is the peculiar com- 
bination of features, which designates the 
feelings and dispositions of the mind. That 
every individual of the human race pos- 
sesses a set of distinctive marks, in the 
form of the head and the outlines of the 
countenance, is visible to the most inatten- 
tive observer ; and it is well known, that 
those marks insensibly lead ns to form con- 
clusions as to the nature and inclinations of 
persons to whom we are introduced for the 
first time, which may sometimes be correct, 
but are frequently erroneous. 
Every man is unconsciously a physiogno- 
mist, he feels a partiality or dislike, which 
partakes exceedingly of the sense of the 
lines in one of Richardson’s novels. 
“ I do not like thee. Dr. Fell, 
The reason why I cannot tell ; 
But I do not like thee, Dr. Fell.” 
Admitting tWs fact, as to mankind in ge- 
neral, it will be proper to observe, tliat 
PHY 
however the study of physiognomy may bfe 
commended and recommended, it should 
be exercised with great discretion and judg- 
ment, or very fatal, or, at least, very disa- 
greeable consequences may be the result ; 
for it must be remembered, that numerous 
causes exist to derange and discompose the 
human frame during infancy, and even be- 
fore the' birth, which may impress a cha- 
racter or expression on the features, de- 
scriptive of evil passions that never existed 
in the mind of the unfortunate person so si- 
tuated ; for instance, it would be inhuman 
to judge of the soul of one who has had the 
vertebrae of his back doubled, from the ex- 
pression of his face, which is uniformly that 
of peevishness and confirmed ill-nature ; 
nor would it be just, to think a man capa- 
ble of eveiy kind of wickedness, wlrose 
head and face bears the marks of malicq, 
through a deformity existing perhaps be* 
fore his birth. Were the bones incompres- 
sible from the instant they are formed, and 
the muscles incapable of being moulded to 
their shape, in short, did mankind receive a 
decided and unalterable outline from the 
Creator, we should then make correct con- 
clusions from the beauty or irregularity of 
his face. 
Having thus hinted at the impropriety of 
forming hasty conclusions, we shall give a 
sketch of what has been advanced on this 
subject by a person of great observation, 
and extremely capable of drawing just in- 
ferences, but who was rather tinctured by 
enthusiasm. Lavater asserts, that “ each 
creature is indispensable in the vast com- 
pass of creation ; but each individual,” he 
adds, “ is not alike informed of the truth of 
this fact, as man only is conscious that his 
own place cannot be supplied by another,” 
The idea thus conceived, he thinks one of 
the best consequences of physiognomy, 
and he exults, that the most deformed and 
wicked persons are still superior to the 
most perfect and beautiful animal, because 
they always have it in their power to 
amend, and in some degree to restore them- 
selves to the place s^signed them in crea- 
tion ; and however their features may be 
distorted by the indulgence of their pas- 
sions, still the image of the Creator remains, 
from which sin only is to be expelled, to 
render the likeness nearer perfection. 
The aid of Lavater is not necessary la 
inform us, that there exists a national phy- 
siognomy, by which a stranger in any given 
country may be known by those who are 
possessed of previous observation, to be * 
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