PHRENOLOGY, a modern science, which professes to teach, from the con formation of the human skull, the par ticular characters and propensities of men, presuming that the powers of the mind and the sensations are performed by peculiar parts of the brain : the front parts being intellectual, the middle senti mental, and the hinder parts governing the animal propensities : the degree being in proportion to the projection or bulk the parts. It wits long ago observed by physiologists, that the characters of animals were determined by the forma tion of the forehead, and that the intelli gence of the animal, in roost eases, rose or fell in proportion to the elevation or depression of the skull. But it was re served to Drs. Gall and Spnrzheim to ex pand this germ of doctrine into a minute system, and to map out the whole cranium into small sections, each section being the dwelling-place, or workshop, of a certain faculty, propensity, or sentiment, in all amounting to thirty-six, and to which certain names have been given in order to mark their specific qualities, their uses and abuses.
I'llYLAC'TERY, among the ancients, a general name given to all kiiids of spells, charms, or amulets, which they wore about then], to preserve them from disease or clanger. It is more particu larly used to signify a slip of paper on which was written some text of Scripture, especially of the Duologue, which the more devout .Tews wore on the forehead,
breast, or neck, as a badge of their re ligion.—Among the primitive Christians, a ?My/artery was a case in which they inclosed the relics of their dead.
P11V'I Ai, the tribes into which the whole of Attica was divided in antiquity. Originally there were but four phyla), which were frequently remodelled, but remained the same in number till soon after the expulsion of the Pisistradidre, when Cleisthenes caused their number to be increased to ten. What the precise nature of the change effected on this occasion was is not known, but it is prob able that the new tribes embraced a large number of citizens that had been exclu ded from the former. The phyla: were afterwards increased to twelve, by the addition of two in honor of Antigonous and his son Demetrius. The Athenian senate was composed of fifty delegates from each of these tribes.
Pll Y'LARC ll, an Athenian officer ap pointed for each phyle or tribe, to super intend the registering of its members and other common duties. The title ans wers to that of the Boman tribune, but its functions never reached the same im portance.