Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/392

 378 PFISTER PHALANGER 1845 she visited Norway, Lapland, and Ice- land. In June, 1846, she sailed from Ham- burg on a voyage round the world, in com- pany with Count Berchthold, from whom she subsequently parted. Disappointed in an at- tempt to cross South America, she continued her journey from Kio de Janeiro by water, touching at various points, crossing from Val- paraiso to Macao, and stopping at Tahiti. From China she went to Calcutta, and thence across India and Persia, and completed her journey by visiting the Black sea, Turkey, and Greece. Aided by the Austrian government, she again embarked in the spring of 1851, and from Lon- don proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope, in- tending to visit the interior of Africa; but, deterred by the great cost of the undertaking, she went on to the East Indian islands, and thence across the Pacific to California. After travelling in South America, she visited the United States and Canada in 1854, and sailed for Liverpool in November. Her subsequent journeys were to the Azores in 1855, and to Madagascar in 185 6-' 7. Here she arrived in company with a Frenchman, who was soon ar- rested for a conspiracy to dethrone the queen, and was ordered with his companion to leave the island. Mme. Pfeiffer's death was caused by a malarial fever contracted in Madagascar. She wrote Reise einer Wienerin in das Heilige Land (" Journey of a Vienna Woman in the Holy Land," 2 vols., Vienna, 1843) ; Reise nacTi dem skandinavischen Norden und der Insel Is- land (Pesth, 1846; English translation, "Jour- ney to Iceland, Sweden, and Norway," Lon- don, 1852) ; Eine FrauenfaJirt um die Welt (3 vols., Vienna, 1850; English, " A Woman's Journey round the World," London, 1854) ; and Zweite Weltreise (Vienna, 1856; English, "Sec- ond Journey round the World," London, 1857). See also " The Last Travels of Ida Pfeiffer," with a biography (London, 1861). PFISTER, Albrecht, a German printer of the 15th century, born about 1420, died about 1470. He was a card painter in Bamberg, but about 1455 began to print with movable types. The types of Pfister, although similar to Gutenberg's, are peculiar. He began with the printing of school and prayer books, and fragments of Latin grammars of his work have lasted to our time. Among his productions were indulgences printed with metal types of the years 1454 and 1455, an almanac of 1457, and a Biblia Pauperum. His great work is the Latin 36-line Bible in 3 vols. folio, and consisting of 881 leaves. PFORZHEIM, a town of Baden, at the con- fluence of the Nagold and the Enz, and at the foot of the Black Forest, 16 m. S. E. of Carls- ruhe ; pop. in 1871, 19,801. It has an ancient castle, the church of which contains the tombs and monuments of members of the grand-ducal family, a deaf and dumb institution, an insane asylum, an orphan asylum, and poorhouses. Its manufactures include jewelry, cloth, chem- icals, oil, paper, and leather. PHJEACES. See SOHERIA. PII*;i)0, or Pluedon, a Greek philosopher, who flourished in the early part of the 4th century B. C. He was a native of Elis and of noble birth, but becoming a prisoner of war, was brought to Athens and sold as a slave. Soc- rates obtained his release, and Plato introduces him in his dialogue on the death of Socrates, which bears the name of Phaedo. He finally returned to Elis and became the founder of the Elean school of philosophy. PHEDRA, in Greek legends, the wife of Theseus and daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and of Pasiphae, and sister of Ariadne. Her stepson Hippolytus, with whom she had fallen in love, refusing to gratify her passion, she ac- cused him to his father of an attempt upon her honor. Theseus hereupon cursed his son, and asked Neptune to destroy him, which prayer the god complied with. When the death of Hippolytus became known to her, Phaedra confessed her guilt and hanged herself, or ac- cording to some was put to death by her hus- band. The story of Phaedra is the subject of tragedies by Euripides ("Hippolytus") and Seneca. Racine also wrote a tragedy on it. PHffiDRUS, a Latin fabulist of the Augustan age. He was originally a slave, and was brought from Thrace or Macedonia to Rome, where he was freed by Augustus. He wrote 97 fables in iambic verse, distributed in five books, and says in the prologue to the first book that he has simply turned the matter of ^Esop's fables into poetry ; but in the prologue of the fifth book he says he often used the name of ^Esop only to recommend his verses. The first edi- tion was printed by P. Pithou (12mo, 1596), from a manuscript supposed to be of the 10th century. Later editions are by Orelli (Zurich, 1831), Dressier (Leipsic, 1838), O. Eichert (Han- over, 1865), and L. Miiller (Leipsic, 1868). PHAETHON (Gr. Qaeduv, the shining), in Greek mythology, the son of Helios (the sun) and the Oceanid Clymene. To satisfy those who doubt- ed whether the sun was his father, he obtained from Helios a promise that he would grant him any favor he asked, and thereupon demanded permission to drive his chariot across the heav- ens. The horses, despising their driver, turned out of their path, and when the chariot went so near to the earth as almost to set it on fire, Jupiter killed Phaethon with a thunderbolt, and hurled him into the river Eridanus (Po). His sisters, the Heliades, who found him, were changed into poplars and their tears into amber. PHALANGER, a genus of marsupial mammals, the type of the family of plialangistidce, so call- ed from having the second and third toes of the hind foot united in a common integument. They are expert climbers, dwelling upon trees, and eating leaves, buds, fruits, and occasionally small birds, mammals, and insects ; they keep concealed during the day on the branches or in the hollows of trees, quitting their hiding places at twilight ; they are rather sluggish, except such as are provided with a flying membrane.