PHY 
311 
15. Phyfarum tigrinum. This fcarce fpecies is chiefly 
remarkable on account of its fpotted appearance. Found 
on rotten wood in November and December. 
16. Phyfarum farinaceum. The ftipes is often (hort, 
fometimes wanting. The peridiaare often double, fome- 
times treble. In fome the rudiments of the columella are 
obferved, but not in all. It occupies various kinds of 
dirt, but chiefly horfes’ dung. 
17. Phyfarum clavus; (talked, with a cap-fhaped peri- 
dium, black beneath, and thickly fprinkled above, with a 
cinereous villous farina. In the colour of all its parts, in 
its thick (hort ftature, and in its convex fuperficial cap, it 
agrees with the preceding fpecies; but, on account of the 
conftant form of the peridium, it feems to differ from it 
to a greater degree than any other of the fpecies. The 
ftipes is very fhort, not exceeding half the diameter of the 
peridium; it is ftrong, ftriated, and black. The peridium is 
middle-fized, round, and compreffed laterally; below it 
is light black, above afh-colour; and the fummit of the 
cap has a flight depreflion. The threads are moft abun- 
dant; the powder tawny, the columella abfent. Found 
on ftubble and other rubbifh but efpecially on the ftalks 
and fibres of dried leaves. It is abundant during the 
months of June, July, and Auguft. 
Albertini and Schweiniz, the difcoverers of this fpecies, 
have noticed many irregular varieties of it; among which 
they think proper to mention the P. flavo-virens and the 
P. compreflum. The fruit has a ftipes fomewhat tawny, 
a peridium oval or pyriform, with a bark fragile, thin 
(not fquamous), of a yellow-green caft, and the powder 
of a deep black; it grows on putrid modes in Auguft. 
The fecond variety has a firm, yellow, moderate-fized, 
ftipes; a peridium convex above, opening with a longitu¬ 
dinal fiffure 5'the threads are numerous, (mail, and white : 
it grows on leaves, boughs, femiputrid.ftalks, and leaves, 
in Auguft. 
For this article we are indebted to the ConfpeCtus Fun- 
gorum of Albertini and Schweiniz ; Leipfic, 1805. 
PHYS'CA, or Physcte, in ancient geography, a town 
of the Lower Mcefia, between the mouths of the rivers 
Axiacus and Tyras. Ptolemy. 
PHYS'CAi, a town of Macedonia, in Mygdonia, be¬ 
tween Baerus and Terpillus. Ptolemy. 
PHYSCEL'LA, a town of Macedonia, on the gulf 
Mecybernasus, according to Pliny and Mela. 
PHYS'CON, [tpvo-Kn, Gr. the belly, or an inflated blad¬ 
der.] A furname of one of the Ptolemies kings of Egypt, 
from the great prominency of his belly. 
PHYSCO'NIA, f. A term ufed by the nofologifts to 
exprefs every fpecies of abdominal tumour, which is hard, 
notfonorous like tympanites, nor fludtuatinglike dropfy, 
nor produced by pregnancy. Under the appellation of 
phyfconia a great variety of morbid enlargement in the 
abdomen is, therefore, neceflarily included; fuch as 
fchirrhous, fatty, and other, tumours of the omentum; 
morbid growth connected with theovariaor uterus, with 
the inteltines ormefenteny, with the liver, kidneys. See. 
PHYS'CUS, in ancient geography, a town of Caria, 
oppofite Rhodes.—A river of Afia, falling into the Tigris. 
The ten thoufand Greeks crofted it on their return from 
Cunaxa. 
PHYSE'MA, /. [Greek.] A kind of inflation, a tym¬ 
pany. The rofin of the pine-tree. 
PHYS'ETER, f. [from (pvauu, Gr. to blow', becaufe 
the animal fpouts out water from its fnout or neck.] 
The Cachalot ; a genus of animals of the clafs mamma¬ 
lia, order cete; generically diftinguiftied from the whale 
by having “ teeth in the lower jaw,” and from the dolphin 
by having “ none in the upper.” 
The fifties of this genus are not of fuch an enormous 
flze as thofe of the Balaena, or whale: but they are, when 
full grown, from fifty to fixty fedt long, and fixteen feet 
in thicknefs. Their heads are (till more difproportioned to 
the fize of the body than that of the common whale : in 
the latter animal it is equal to a-third of the body ; in thefe 
PHY 
it conftitutes nearly half. The cachalots are diftinguifhed 
from all the other cetaceous tribes by having fharp in¬ 
dented teeth in the lower jaw. Their bodies being more 
flender, they are more adtive than the Greenland whale; 
are capable of remaining longer at the bottom ; and yield 
a fmaller quantity of oil. The tongue is commonly fmall, 
but the mouth and throat are fo capacious that the animal 
could eafily fwallow an ox, whereas, in the whale, the 
gullet is fmall. The teeth are about feven inches long, 
exceedingly thick and hard ; they enter, when the mouth 
is (hut, into a number of cavities in the upper jaw pre¬ 
pared for their reception. This formidable conformation 
of the mouth and throat feems to indicate an extraordi¬ 
nary degree of voracity in thefe animals. The hiftory of 
the cachalot correfponds to thefe appearances; for, while 
the ftomach of the whale is feen to contain hardly any 
thing but froth, that of the cachalot is crammed with 
a variety of different kinds of fifties; fome half-digefted, 
others whole; fome fmall, others eight or nine feet long. 
The cachalot, therefore, is probably one of the moft rapa¬ 
cious fifties of the deep 5 and is as deftrudtive as the whale 
is harmlefs. But it is not to the fmaller fifties alone, that 
this animal is formidable ; among thefe the conteft is 
foon ended, for it can devour thoufands at one fwallow ; 
it purfues and terrifies thofe of its own order, the dolphin 
and the porpoife, to fuch a degree, that they are fre¬ 
quently driven afliore in endeavouring to efcape. 
Of the cachalot there are fix fpecies, befides varieties ; 
ail which were indiferiminately termed fpermaceti whales, 
till Mr. Pennant borrowed that name from the French, by 
which they are now diftinguiftied, and which is faid to 
mean “ an animal with teeth.” 
1. Phyfeter catodon, the round-headed cachalot: dor- 
fal fin none; fiftula on the fnout. This fifti is deferibed 
by Sibbald, who mentions a ftioal confifting of a hundred 
and two that was caft 011-fliore at the fame time upon the 
Orkney ifles. According to that writer, it wanted the 
fpout-holes that are reckoned charadferiftic of this order 
of fifties; it is probable, however, that what he has de- 
icribedas noftrils was this opening, which nature, as we 
have already feen, has deftined for a different purpofe. 
This fpecies does not exceed twenty-four feet in length. 
Its head is round, and the mouth fmall. It is reprefented 
on the annexed Plate, at fig. 1. 
z. Phyfeter macrocephalus, the blunt-headed cachalot: 
dorfal fin none; fiftula, or fpiracle, midway between the 
tip of the fnout and the eye. This is one of the largeit 
fpecies. It frequents warm latitudes, and is abundant 
in the Mediterranean! An individual of this fpecies ran 
afhore on Gramond Ifland, four miles above Leith, and 
was there killed, December 22, 1769. The following ac¬ 
count of it is given in the Phil. Tranf. vol. lx. “The 
fifti meafured 54.feet in length : its greateft circumference, 
which was a little behind the eyes, 30. The head was 
nearly half the whole fifti, of an oblong form, and rounded 
except within fix feet of the extremity, where it had in¬ 
equalities. The body was rounded, and gradually ta¬ 
pered to the tail, except about the middle of the back 
oppofite to the penis, where there was a bump or protu¬ 
berance, but 110 fin. The tail, as in all the whale-tribe,- 
was placed horizontal, a little forked ; the blades were of 
a wedge fhape, and 14 feet from tip to tip. In the lower 
jaw, which was 11 feet long, were placed 23 teeth on 
each fide, each two inches long, and all pointing a little 
outwards. The upper jaw, projecting five feet over the 
lower, was quite blunt or truncated, nine feet high. In 
the upper jaw, w ere 23 fockets on each fide, for lodging 
the teeth of the lower, when the mouth was lhut; but no 
teeth. The eyes were remarkably fmall in proportion 
to the fize of the animal, and placed in the moft promi¬ 
nent part of the head. The pedtoral fins were placed 
five feet behind the corners of the mouth, and meafured 
three feet in length, and 18 inches in breadth. The pe¬ 
nis was 75 feet long, and placed nineteen feet behind the 
corners of the mouth, inclofed in a ftrong (heath, tlur 
mouth- 
