P H O 
found is conveyed to a greater diftance than on uneven 
ground, &c. 
3. As to the organ, which is the ear, it is helped by 
placing it near a wall, efpecially at one end of an arch, 
the found beginning at the other; or near the furface of 
water, or that of the earth. And alio by inftruments, as 
the ftentorophonicon, or fpeaking-trumpet. Alfo by an 
inftrument to help weak ears, as fpeClacles do eyes; by 
an inftrument to take in vaftly-retnote founds, as telefcopes 
do objeCts; by a microphone, or magnifying ear-inftru- 
ment;- and by a polyphone, or multiplying ear-inftrument. 
Colophonies, or reflected hearing, may be improved by 
feveral kinds of artificial echoes; for, in general, any 
found falling, either direCtly or obliquely, on any denfe 
body of a fmooth furface, whether plain, or arched, is beat 
back again, or reflected, i. e. it echoes more or lei's. See 
Acoustics and Music. 
PHONOCAMP'TIC, adj. [paw, and v.eipifta, to in- 
fleCh] Having the power to infleCt or turn the found, and 
thereby to alter it..—’The magnifying the found by the 
polyphonifms or repercuflions of the rocks, and other 
phonocamptic objeCts. Derham. 
PHONOL'OGY, J. [from the Gr. (pw, j, voice or found, 
and Xoyo;, a difcourfe.] A treatife on oral language. 
Fry's Panlographia. 
PHOO'RY, a town of HindOoftan, in Baglana: twenty- 
eight miles fouth of Tolnani. 
PHO'RA, in ancient geography, a town of Afia, in 
Greater Armenia, between Tafco and Mapa, according to 
Ptolemy. 
PHORA'GA, a town of Afia, in Aria. Ptolemy. 
PHOR'BZE, a town of Theflaly, which belonged to the 
Achaeans ; called alfo Phoreas. 
PHOBAN'TIA, an ifland on the coaft of Sicily. 
Ptolemy. 
PHORBAN'TIUM, a mountain of TheiTaly, in the 
Trazena. Steph. Byz. 
PHORBE'IA, f. in the hiftory of the ancient mufic, 
implies a capijlrum, or leather bandage, with which the 
players on the flute furrounded their heads. The phor- 
beia was placed before the mouth of the mufician, oppo- 
fite tp which was a flit for the reed to pafs through. 
This bandage was ufed for the purpofe of augmenting the 
force of the wind, and not only to prevent the fwelling 
the cheeks of the performer, but to prevent the wind 
from efeaping at the fides of the reed. See ths article 
Music, vol. xvi. p. 35a. 
PHOR'BUS, a fon of Priam and Epithefta, killed during 
the Trojan war by Menelaus. The god Somnus bor¬ 
rowed his features when he deceived Palinurus, and threw 
him into the fea near the coaft of Italy. Virg. JEn. v. 842. 
PHOR'CUS, or Phorcys, in fabulous hiftory, a fea- 
deity, fon of Pontus and Terra, who married his After 
Ceto, by whom he had the Gorgons, the dragon that 
kept the apples of the Hefperides, and other monfters. 
Hefiod. 
PHORCY'NUS, in ancient geography, a port of the 
ifle of Ithaca, mentioned by Homer, and alfo by Strabo. 
PHOR'MINX, f. An ancient mufical inftrument. 
It feems to have been the largeft kind of lyre ; indeed 
the defcription and ufe of it in Homer, leads rather to the 
rough, manly, harp-like , character. But a pafiage in Or¬ 
pheus feems to make phorminx the fame as clielys, the 
lutiform inftrument of Mercury : it is there faid of Chiron, 
that he “ fometimes (trikes the cithara of Apollo; fome- 
times the fhell-refounding phorminx of Mercury.” 
.AAAote S' av (p oi£s yjBtxgyti p.trot, ye^cnv aguffauv, 
’Hhiyvg/iv (po%i/.iyyu, y&w/.Mvov Argon. 380. 
PHOR'MIUM, f. [a name adopted by Forfter from 
the ancient Greeks, whole (pogyujii was ufed for making 
mats or bafkets, being fo called from (poggos, a balket, or 
pannier. Forfter’s plant ferves for fimilar purpofes in 
New Zealand.] New Zealand Flax; in botany, a genus 
of the clafs hexandria, order m.onogynia, natural order of 
3 
P II O 291 
coronariae, (afphodeli, Jujf.) Generic characters—Calyx 
none. Corolla : petals fix, afcending obliquely, conver¬ 
ging into a tube, oblong, connate at the bafe, unequal ; 
three outer acute, more raifed on the back; three inner 
longer, rounded at the top, Concave. Stamina : filaments 
fix, filiform, afcending, longer than the corolla. Anther® 
ereCt, fubtriquetrous. Piftillum.: germ bluntly three- 
fided ; ftyle filiform, afcending, a little fhorter than the 
ftamens; ftigma Ample. Pericarpium : capfule oblong, 
three-fided, the angles grooved, acuminate, three-celled, 
three-valved. Seeds very many, oblong, comprefted.— 
Effenlial CharaRer. Calyx none; corolla iix-petalled, the 
three inner petals longer; capfule oblong, three-fided; 
feeds oblong, compreffed. There is but one fpecies, 
Phormium tenax. It has many leaves. Flowers like 
the hyacinth. Native of New Zealand, Norfolk Ifland, 
and other iflands in the Southern Ocean. The inhabi¬ 
tants of New Zealand make a thread of the leaves, with 
which the women weave a variety of fine matting for 
clothing and other ufes. Many other plants of the lilia¬ 
ceous tribe might be applied to the fame purpofes. It is 
now manufactured in Norfolk Ifland; canvafs and other 
coarfe linen cloth having been woven with the thread. 
Cook's Voyages, ii. 96. and Collins's New South Wales. 
Phormium aloides,bulbiferum,and hyacinthoides. See 
Lachenalia. 
PHORO'NEUS, in fabulous hiftory, the god of a river 
of Peloponnefus of the fame name. He was the fon of 
the river Inachus by Melifla, and he was the fecond king 
of Argos. He married a nymph called Cerdo, or Lao- 
dice, by whom he had Apis, from whom Argolis was 
called Apia, and Niobe, the firft woman of whom Jupiter 
became enamoured. Phoroneus taught his fubjeCts the 
utility of laws, and the advantages of a focial life, and of 
friendly intercourfe; whence the inhabitants are often cal¬ 
led Phoroneei. Paufanias relates, that Phoroneus, with the 
Cephifus, Afterion, and Inachus, were appointed as um¬ 
pires in a quarrel between Neptune and Juno, concerning 
their right of patronizing Argolis. Juno gained the pre¬ 
ference ; upon which Neptune, in a fit of refentment, 
dried up all the four rivers, whole decifion he deemed par¬ 
tial. He afterwards reftored them to their dignity and 
confequence. Phoroneus was the firft who railed a tem¬ 
ple to Juno. He received divine honours after death. 
His temple ftill exifted at Argos, under Antoninus the 
Roman emperor. Paufanias. 
PHORONO'MIA, J\ [from the Gr. (popa, motion, and 
1/oy.os, law.] A fcience comprehending the laws of mo¬ 
tion, both of folids and fluids. The work of Herman- 
nus, printed at Amfterdam in quarto, in 1715, under 
this title, is well known. 
PHORON'TIS, in ancient geography, a town of Alia 
Minor, in Caria. Pliny. 
PHO'RUM, a port of Greece, in Attica, in the vicinity 
of Pfyttalia. Strabo. 
PHOS, /! [Greek, light.] A word ufed by fo me me¬ 
dical writers to exprefs a diftemperature of the eye, in 
which there is feen a black circle wholly furrounding the 
pupil. 
PHOS'GENE GAS, in chemiftry, a fpecies of gas 
lately difcovered by Mr. John Davy, in his efforts to unite 
together the carbonic oxyd and the oxymuriatic gafes. 
Some unfuccefsful attempts had been made for this pur¬ 
pofe by Meffrs. Gay-Luffac and Thenard, and afterwards 
by Mr. Murray of Edinburgh. Mr. Davy accomplilhed 
this objeift apparently without any difficulty. The gales 
were put in contaCt, and expofed to a bright light for a 
quarter of an hour; when the mixture was diminjlhed to 
half its original bulk, and a gas was left, which poffeffed 
feveral remarkable properties. It is compofed of equal 
volumes of chlorine gas and carbonic oxyd gas, condenfed 
into half their bulk. It is colourlefs; and has a ftrong 
di(agreeable fmell. Its fpecific gravity is 3-669 ; and 100 
cubic inches, under a mean temperature and preffure, 
weigh 111-91 grains; hence it is by far the heavielt gas 
at 
