Phelan

3699

Phi

colchicus. At the close of the iSth century, a
Chinese species, the ring-necked pheasant (P.
torquatus), was introduced, and has inter-
bred very freely with the original species, so
that purebred pheasants are now rare. Apart
from the beautiful plumage, especially of the
male, pheasants are characterized by the long
and wedge-shaped tail, the spurred legs, and
the absence of feathers on the sides of the
head. Of other genera special mention may

Phases of the Moon.

be made of Chrysolophus, to which belongs
the beautiful golden pheasant (C. pictus), a
native of wooded mountain regions in China
and Tibet; and Amherst's pheasant (C. am-
herstiaz), of almost similar distribution.

Phelan, James Duval (1861-1930), Amer-
ican public official, was born in San Francis-
co. He was graduated from St. Ignatius Col-
lege; studied law in the University of Calif-
ornia; was commissioner and vice president
of the World's Columbian Exposition at Chi-
cago in 1893; and was mayor of his native
town during 1896-1902. At the time of the
great San Francisco earthquake, in 1906, he
was chairman of the citizens' committee in
charge of the relief work. He was United
States Senator, 1915-21.

Phelan, Richard (1825-1904), American
Roman Catholic prelate, was born near Bal-
lyraggatt, County Kilkenny, Ireland. From
1:858 to 1868 he was priest at Freeport, Pa.,
and then became priest of St. Peter's at Al-
legheny, where he built a church costing
$150,000. In 1881 he was appointed adminis-
trator of the dioceses of Pittsburgh and Alle-
gheny, and afterward vicar-general. In 1885
he was consecrated coadjutor-bishop of Pitts-
burgh, becoming bishop in 1889.

Phelps, John Wolcott (1813-85), Amer-
ican soldier, was born in Guildford, Vt. He
served in the second Seminole War, and in
the Mexican War. He resigned from the army

in 1859 and devoted much of his time to ad-
vancing the cause of Abolition, but when the
War of the Rebellion came he re-entered the
army as a brigadier general of volunteers,
He was declared an outlaw by the Rebel gov-
ernment for having 'organized and armed
negro slaves for military service against their
masters.' In 1880 he was the candidate of the
American Party for President.

Phelps, William Lyon (1865-1943), Am-
erican educator, author and critic, was born
in New Haven, Conn. After 1901 he was pro-
fessor of English literature at Yale, and was
notably successful as a teacher and lecturer.
His published works include The Beginnings
of the English Romantic Movement (1893);
As 1 Like It (1923); Adventures and Confes-
sions (1926); Happiness (1926); Essays on
Things (1930).

Phenacetin, trade name for acetphenetidi-
num (U.S.P.) CoHi(OC2H5)NHCH2CO, the
acetamino-derivative of phenetole. It is em-
ployed in medicine as an antipyretic and for
the relief of pain, being the least likely of
this type of drug to have a poisonous effect.

Phenol. See Carbolic Acid.

Phenolphthalein belongs to the class of
triphenylmethane dyes, formed when'phthalic
acid is heated with phenol in the presence of
a dehydrating agent. It is largely used as an
indicator in acidimetry, in the form of an
alcoholic solution. For a number of years it
has been used extensively as a laxative, which
is sold under the trade name phenolax. The
latter is also sold incorporated in chewing
gum.

Phenomenalism, the philosophical doc-
trine derived from Kant, that we can know
only phenomena. But in more popular usage
it means simply an assertion of the limitation
of human knowledge to the objects of natural
science, and is thus interchanged with such
terms as naturalism, agnosticism, and posi-
tivism.

Phenomenon signifies strictly that which
appears, as distinguished from, or opposed to,
that which really exists, and was a term long
used in philosophy to denote the world of
sense as contrasted with the higher or more
real world known by reason. Phenomenon is
now freely used to mean simply any fact of
observation.

Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest of the Amer-
ican Greek letter societies, founded at Wil-
liam and Mary College in 1776 as a social
and literary society. Chapters were estab-
lished at Yale in 1780, at Harvard in 17815 at
Dartmouth in 1787, and there are now 114