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P H L 
To PHLEBOTOMIZE, v. a. To let blood.—The frail 
bodies of men rauft have an evacuation for their humours, 
and be phlebotomized. Howell's Engl. Tears. 
PHLEBOTOMY, /. [Gr. from <ph etJ/, a vein, and 
TEftiw, to cut.] Blood-letting; the aft or praftice of open¬ 
ing a vein for medical intentions .—Phlebotomy is not 
cure, but mifchief; the blood fo flowing as if the body 
were all vein. Holyday. —Although, in indifpofitions of 
the liver or fpleen, confiderations are made in phlebotomy 
to their fituation, yet, when the heart is affefted, it is 
thought as effectual to bleed on the right as the left. 
Brown's Vulg. Err .—Pains for the fpending of the fpirits 
come nearelt to the copious and fwift lofs of fpirits by 
phlebotomy. Harvey. 
PHLEG'ETHON, in fabulous hiftory, a river of hell, 
whofe waters were burning , as the word (phiytSa , from 
which the name is derived, feems to indicate. Virg. 
JEn. vi. 
PHLEGM,/ [< pXiypoe ., Gr.] The watery humour of 
the body, which, when it predominates, is fuppofed to 
produce fluggiflinefs or dulnefs: 
Make the proper ufe of each extreme. 
And write with fury, but correftwith phlegm. Rofcommon. 
He who, fupreme in judgment as in wit, 
Might boldly cenfure, as he boldly writ, 
Yet judg’d with coolnefs, though he fung with fire; 
His precepts teach but what his works infpire. 
Our critics take a contrary extreme, 
They judge with fury, but they write with phlegm. Pope. 
Coolnefs; indifference.—They can talk of the wretched 
ftate of it [religion] amongft their friends and country¬ 
men, with the fame phlegm and indifference that they 
fpeak of the broken power of the States of Holland. 
War burton to Hurd. 
Phlegm, in chemiftry, an aqueous and infipid fluid, 
fuppofed to be found in all natural bodies, and obtained 
from them by diftillation or otherwife; coinciding with 
what the other philofophers call water .—By the older 
chemifts, the term phlegm was applied to the pureft ftate 
of water, when deprived by diltillation of all heteroge¬ 
neous matter. Chambers. 
Phlegm, in medicine,called by the Latins pituita, feems 
to be derived from (phtya, I burn; yet its fignification is 
very oppofite to that of inflammation. The ancient phy¬ 
sicians fpoke of phlegm as one of the four humours ex- 
ifting in the body, and giving the qualities of cold and 
moilture to the conftitution ; whence the phlegfkatic tem¬ 
perament flood in oppofition to the /anguine, and phlegm 
was fuppofed to predominate in dropfical difeafes. The 
later writers fpoke of phlegm as a crude, aqueous, mucous 
fluid, of an excrementitious nature, which prevailed before 
the proper concoftion took place. 
PHLEG'MAGOGUES, j. [from (phtypct, and uyu, I 
expel.] A purge of the milder fort, fuppofed to evacuate 
phlegm, and leave the other humours. Dr.John/on .—The 
pituitous temper of the ftomachic ferment mull be cor¬ 
rected, and plilegmagogues mull evacuate it. Floyer.— 
Thefe were purgatives of a violent and draftic nature. 
Rees's Cyclop. 
PHLEGMA'RI A,/ in botany. See Licopodium. 
PHLEGMA'SIA, f. [Greek.] Inflammation, or fever 
accompanied with inflammation, the derivation from 
(phtyio being here adopted. Sauvages conftituted his third 
clafs, comprehending inflammatory difeafes, with the title 
of Phlegmajiee-, and Dr. Cullen adopted the fame appel¬ 
lation for his fecond order of Febrile Difeafes, which in¬ 
cludes all the inflammatory fevers. See the article Pa¬ 
thology, vol. xix. p. 195 Sc feq. 
PHLEGMA'TIA,/ [from (pheyp.cc., phlegm.] Svno- 
nimous with oedema and anafarca, or dropfy of the.fkin. 
Whence Phlegmatia dolens has been appropriately applied 
to denote a peculiar and painful fwelling, occurring in 
one of the lower extremities of women, during their con¬ 
finement in childbed. In Dr. Good’s fyflem, which we 
have adopted, this difeafe is called Sparganofis puerpera- 
rum, or milk-fpread. See our article Pathology, vol. 
xix. p. 268. 
At the time the above article was written, we adopted 
the opinion of Dr. Hull, that Sparganofis puerperarum 
arifes from general inflammation of the affefted part. 
Lately, however, Dr. Davis has attempted to account for 
the phenomena of the difeafe, afluming that a mechanical 
impediment exifts to the return of blood from the affefted 
limb. He fliows, by feveral dilfeftions, that the external 
iliac, or the crural veins, and fometimes both, or even the 
common iliac vein, may be affefted by an inflammation 
which caufes diminution of calibre, and adhefions of the 
contents (in the form of clotted blood) to their parietes. 
He does not find, on diffeftion, fuch manifefl indications 
of general inflammation as to induce him to think that 
the crural vein is inflamed in common only with other 
parts. He finds the vein difeafed always in proportion 
to the violence and fuddennefs of the malady; and he 
fays that we always find pain in the fituation of that veffel 
the firft fymptom. The treatment this fpeculation leads 
to is nearly fimilar to that we have laid down in the 
above-mentioned article; viz. leeching, gentle purging, 
and bliflering. Dr. Davis particularly objefts to the 
employment of general bleeding, both from reafoning 
and experience. With refpeft to the firft, he fays, as the 
crural vein is flopped, to reduce the general circulation 
can have no influence on the difeafed limb, and therefore 
only weakens the patient: as to the fecond, he recollefts 
no cafe where general bleeding did good, but fome where 
it feemed to do harm. Dr. D. propofes moreover cold to 
warm local applications. See a paper by Dr. Davies in 
the 12th volume of the Medico-Chirurgical Tranfaftions, 
1823. 
PHLEG'MATIC, adj. Abounding in phlegm. An 
epithet given to one of the four temperaments by the 
ancients, in which the prevalent humour was confidered 
to be pituita, or phlegm; whence the difeafes to which the 
phlegmatic temperament was fubjeft were faid to be de¬ 
fluxions, rheums, and other cold difcharges. See Tem¬ 
perament —The putrid vapours,though exciting a fever, 
do colliquate the phlegmatic humours of the body.Harvey. 
■—Chewing and fmoaking of tobacco is only proper for 
phlegmatic people. Arbuthnot on Aliments. —Generating 
phlegm.-—A neat’s foot, I fear, is too phlegmatic a meat. 
Shakefpeare. — Negroes, tranfplanted into cold and phleg¬ 
matic habitations, continue their hue in themfelves and 
generations. Brown. —Watery.—Spirit of wine is inflam¬ 
mable by means of its oily parts, and being diftilled often 
from fait of tartar, grows by every diftillation more and 
more aqueous and phlegmatic. Newton. —Dull; cold ; 
frigid.—As the inhabitants are of a heavy phlegmatic 
temper, if any leading member has more fire than comes 
to his fhare, it is quickly tempered by the coldnefs of the 
reft. Addifon. 
Who but a hufband ever could perfuade 
His heart to leave the bofom of thy love, 
For any phlegmatic defign of ftate ? Southern. 
PHLEGMATICLY, adv. With phlegm; coolly.— 
He introduces his ftory with a cool philofophic.nl lefture 
on the dignity of human nature : the interpretation of the 
harufpices is only taken notice of as it was evidence 
againft Lentulus; and all the rell is plilegmaticly pafled 
over. Warburton on Prodigies. 
PHLEG'MON,/. [from the Gr. <pheyu, to burn.] An 
inflammation ; a burning tumour.— Phlegmon, or inflam¬ 
mation, is the firft generation from good blood, and neareft 
of kin to it. Wifeman. 
PHLEG'MONOUS, adj. Inflammatory; burning.—It 
is generated fecondarily out of the dregs and remainder 
of a phlegmonous or oedematic tumour. Harvey. 
PHLE'GON, who was furnamed Trallianus, was born 
inTrallis, a city of Lydia. He was the emperor Adrian’s 
freedman, and lived to the i8thyear of Antoninus Pius; 
as 
