293 
P H O P H O 
phorus is flrongly dried, or half calcined, and needs only 
the contaft of air to fet it on fire. 
A phofplwric gas may be extracted from phofphorus, 
which takes fire by the mere contact of air. It is to the 
difengagement of a gas of this nature, that we may attri¬ 
bute the ignes fatui wliich play about burying grounds, 
and generally in all places where animals are buried and 
putrefy. It is to a fimilar gas that we may refer the 
inflammable air which conftantly burns in certain places, 
and upon the furface of certain cold l'prings: Chaptal's 
Chemijlry , vol. iii. 
PHOS'PHOR ATED, adj. Impregnated with phofpho¬ 
rus.—Saline lubflattces (gypfuin and phofphorated calx 
excepted) feem to ferve vegetables (as they do animals) 
rather as a copdimentum, or promoter of digeftion, than as 
a pabulum. Kirzvau on Manures. 
PHOSPHORES'CENCE,yi See the articles Lampyris, 
and Light, vol. xii. In the latter article it has been 
fu lly afcertained, indeed it has long been known, that 
light is emitted from organized bodies when putrefa&ion 
takes place under certain circumftances: the fame phe¬ 
nomenon fometimes occurs in wounds, and doubtlefs a 
greater number of inftances would be recorded were they 
often drelfed in the dark. Baron Percy, who, during 
twenty-five years of wars, has had under his care more 
than a million wounded, had often been deprived of the 
advantage of light. It was thus that he obferved, in a 
young foldier, the phofphorefcence of a flight wound in 
the leg for more than fifteen days. In this cafe it might, 
perhaps, be attributed to the man’s having applied com- 
preffes dipped in urine to the wound : but fome time af¬ 
terwards, at the liege of Manheim, a vivid light, a true 
ignis fatuus, exifted for more than fix days over the 
wound of an officer, who had been drelied with com- 
preffes wetted with pure wateronly. Baron Percy has fince 
had frequent opportunities of obferving fimilar faffs. Ana - 
hjfe des Travaux de l'Academic des Sciences de Paris , pour 
1819. Par M. le Baron Cuvier. 
PHOS'PHORITE, J'. See the article Mineralogy, 
vol. xv. p. 4.51. 
PHOTIN'IANS. See the next article but one. 
PIIOTI'NUS, or Pothinus, the name of an eunuch 
who was prime minifter to Ptolemy, king of Egypt. See 
that article, vol. vi. p. 309. 
PHOTI'NUS, a learned Pannonian bifhnpin the fourth 
century, after whom the believers in the doftrine of the 
fimple humanity of Chrift were for fome time denomina¬ 
ted Photinians, was a native of Galatia, and probably 
of Ancyra, the chief city in that country. He became 
thedifciple of Marcellus, bifhop of the place, who ap¬ 
pears to have been a Sabellian, or Unitarian, and to whom 
he was appointed deacon. Afterwards he was ordained 
bifiiop of Sirmium in Lower Pannonia. According to 
the teftimony of Epiphanius, Socrates, Sozomen, and 
others, he denied the eternal generation and fubfiftence 
of the Son, and maintained that Chrift began to 
exift when he was born of Mary •> though he ap¬ 
pears to have held the doffrine of the miraculous con¬ 
ception, fince he allowed that Chrift w'as born of the 
HolyGhoft and Mary, and that on this account he was 
the Son of God. He alfo denied the perfonality of the 
Spirit. Photinus mu ft have publicly maintained thefe 
opinions fome time before the year 344 5 for during that 
year he was condemned in a council of Arian or Eufe- 
bian bifhops held at Antioch. He was condemned a fe- 
cond time, in a council at Sardis in 347 ; and again, by a 
council of Weftern bifhops at Milan in 348. Two years 
afterwards, thefe prelates affembled at Sirmium, with the 
intention of depofing him; but the citizens difcovered 
fuch a firm and aftedlionate attachment to their bilhop, 
that his enemies could not carry their defign into execu¬ 
tion. At length, in the year 351, as is generally fuppofed, 
the emperor Conftantius, being at Sirmium after the de¬ 
feat of his rival Vetranio, convened a council of Eaftern 
and Weftern bifhops, for the purpofe of coming to a final 
Vol. XX. No, 1368. 
decifion on the cafe of Photinus. At this council, hav¬ 
ing offered to defend his do&rines againft any of the bi¬ 
fhops who were prefent, the challenge W3S accepted by 
Bafil, the Arian bifhop of Ancyra, and a time was fixed 
by the emperor, "when himfelf and many perfons of fena- 
torial rank would be prefent, and notaries fhould be pro¬ 
vided to write down the difputation. After a warm de¬ 
bate, our orthodox hiftorians inform us, that Photinus 
was vanquished, depofed, and fentenced to be banifhed. 
The bifhops, indeed, offered to reftore him, if he would 
recant, and fubfcribe to creeds which they had compofed ; 
but he fteadily refufed to comply, and the fentence againft 
him was put in force. In his ftate of exile, however, he 
did not defift from maintaining his fentirnents, but wmote 
a treatife againft all herefies, comprehending under that 
denomination all opinions which militated againft his 
own. Both this work and the other numerous volumes 
which he is faid to have written, have either been fup- 
preffed or loft. An opinion has been fuggefted that he 
muft have been reftored by the ediCt of the emperor Ju¬ 
lian, with the other bifhops who were banifhed in the 
reign of Conftantius ; and that opinion derives fupport 
from a letter preferved in Facundus, written by Julian to 
Photinus, if it be genuine, in which the emperor highly 
compliments the bifhop for denying the divinity of Chrift. 
After the death of Julian, he was banifhed a fecond time 
by Valentinian, and died in Galatia about the year 37S. 
Photinus was a man of a bright and lively genius, and'ot 
extenfive learning, who poffeffed very perfuafive powers of 
eloquence, and alio recommended what he taught by his 
own utiblameable life. He fpoke and wrote, with pro¬ 
priety and elegance, both in the Latin and Greek lan¬ 
guages. Cave's Hiji. Lit. vol. i. 
PHOT'INX, f. The crooked flute ; an Egyptian in- 
ftrument. Its fhape was that of a bull’s horn, as may 
be feen in many gems, medals, and remains of ancient 
fculpture. Not only the .form of this inftrument, but the 
manner of holding it, is described by Apuleius, in (peak¬ 
ing of the myfteries of Ills: “Afterwards,” fays this au¬ 
thor, “came the flute-players, confecrated to the great 
Serapis, often repeating, upon the crooked flute turned 
towards the right ear, the airs commonly ufed in the 
temple.” All the reprefentaticns in fculpture which we 
have feen of this inftrument, have fo much the appear¬ 
ance of real horns, that they encourage a belief of its 
great antiquity; and that the firft inftruments in ufe of 
this kind, were not only fuggefted by the horns of dead 
animals, but that the horns themfelves were long ufed as 
mufical inftruments, at leaft thofe founded by the He¬ 
brew priefts at the fiege of Jericho, we are repeatedly told, 
were trumpets made of ram’s horns. 
The learned Dr. Jones, calls it, “a pipe or flute made 
of the lotus; (Plut. 10. 10.) It is fo called from its ufe 
among the Egyptians, as it ferved to allurea certain fifli 
called pagurus to leave its dark caverns, and come to the 
light." Jones’s Gr. and Eng. Lexicon. 
PHO'TIUS, a patriarch ot Conftantinople in the ninth 
century, famous for his learning and his ambition, and 
author of the fchifm between the Greek and Latin 
churches, was of a noble Conftantinopolitan family, and 
grand nephew of the patriarch Tarafius. His wealth and 
intereft railed him to the higheft offices of the ftate, 
whilft he enjoyed the reputation of being the moll uni- 
verfally learned and accomplifhed man of his age. When 
he was captain of the guards, he was lent on an embaffy 
to the caliph of Bagdad, and he employed the.leifure this 
million afforded him in compofing an extant monument 
of his vaft reading. He afterwards became fecretary of 
ftate under the emperor Michael III. I11 this fituation 
he contracted an intimacy with the Caffar Bardas, Mi¬ 
chael’s uncle, who, after lie had procured the exile of the 
patriarch Ignatius, perfunded the emperor to raife .Photius 
to that dignity. He was as yet a layman ; but in the 
fpace of fix days he went through the gradations requifite 
for prieftly orders, and on Chriftmas-day, 858, was con- 
4 F fecrated 
