Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/397

 PHASCOGALE PHEASANT 333 hyoid bone, at the root of the tongue. The fibres of the inferior constrictor are mostly united in front to the thyroid and cricoid car- tilages. The elevator muscles rise from points at the base of the skull, and, passing nearly vertically downward, have most of their fibres inserted into the posterior border of the thy- roid cartilage. From this description the ac- tion of these muscles, as far as the pharynx is connected with the function of deglutition or swallowing, will be apparent. When a portion of food is about to be swallowed, the pharynx is drawn upward and dilated to receive it, the elevator muscles drawing the sides outward as well as upward. As soon as the food is thrown into the cavity by the action of the tongue, the elevators relax, and the constrictors, be- ginning above, contract successively and pro- pel the food downward into the oesophagus, which transmits it to the stomach. Besides its action in deglutition, the pharynx exerts an important influence in modulating the voice by the different dimensions it is capable of assu- ming. It is well supplied with mucous glands. Follicular glands are spread over its whole extent beneath the mucous membrane, and across the upper part is a thick layer of race- mose glands, all of which, especially during mastication and deglutition, pour out an abun- dant secretion of lubricating mucus. The pha- rynx is liable to be attacked by inflammation (pharyngitis), and is one of the common seats of exudation in diphtheria. Its mucous mem- brane is often the seat of common catarrh, like that which lines the respiratory passages. In scarlet fever, measles, and other exanthematous diseases, it has a specific inflammation. PHASCOGALE, or Poached Monse, a genus of small marsupial mammals of the dasyurus fam- ily, inhabiting Australia and Tasmania. The dental formula is: incisors |, the two ante- rior in each jaw larger than the others, ca- nines ~, premolars fzf, true molars |c, studded with prickly tubercles. All the feet are five-toed, the inner one on the hind feet a small, nailless, prehensile thumb ; tail either wholly clothed with short Lairs, or with long and bushy ones on the apical portion; the females are sometimes destitute of a pouch, the young being protected only by the hair of the abdomen ; mammae eight, arranged in a circle. The cranial cavity and occipital open- ing are comparatively large, and the muscular ridges of the skull and the cervical spinous processes feebly developed ; the muzzle point- ed and moderately long, muffle naked, nostrils lateral, ears moderate, and limbs short; they are insectivorous, and climb trees in search of food. The largest species is the brush-tailed phascogale (P. penicillata, Temm.), about the size of a common rat, 18 in. long, of which the tail is one half ; the fur is long and soft, gray pencilled with white, below white, the middle part of the head dusky, and the tail bushy, with long black hairs except on the. basal third, where they are short and gray ; 655 VOL. xin. 25 it is widely distributed in Australia ; it makes a nest in the hollows of trees, and is accused of attacking the poultry and plundering the Brush-tailed Phascogale (Phascogale penicillata). stores of the settlers. Several other species are described by "Waterhouse in " Natural His- tory of the Mammalia," vol. i. PHASIS, the ancient name of the Eion or Faz, a river of western Asia, in Transcaucasia, which rises at the foot of Mt. Pasmta in the western division of the Caucasus, flows S. W. and W. for about 50 m., S. for more than 40 m., and W. for about 60 m., and enters the Black sea about lat. 42 10' K, Ion. 41 40' E. It receives in succession the Kvirila, the Tzkhate, and the Tekhur, besides several small- er streams. It is navigable in its lower course, and forms an important transport facility for Kutais and other inland towns. The railway from Tiflis to the sea follows the lower (west- erly) portion of its course. Its width at Kutais varies from about 125 (in very hot summers) to nearly 1,000 ft. The Phasis was an impor- tant river in the ancient world, being consid- ered by the oldest geographers the boundary between Europe and Asia, and by later classi- cal writers between Asia Minor and Colchis, of which latter country it was the principal stream. The three affluents named above seem to be respectively the Ehium, the Hippius, and (probably) the Glaucus of the ancients, and the modern Kutais was their Cytsea or Cuta- tisium. The legend of the Argonauts repre- sents them as landing at the mouth of the Pha- sis. The town of Phasis was a well known ancient trading port, founded and strongly for- tified by the Milesians a little south of the riv- er's mouth, near the modern Poti. Our word pheasant (the avis PJiasiana of the Romans) is derived from the supposed origin of that bird in the neighborhood of the Phasis. PHAULCON. See CONSTANTIN FATTLCOX. PHEASANT, an extensive family of gallina- ceous birds, comprising the subfamilies pavoni- nce or peacocks, gallince or jungle fowls, pha- sianince or pheasants proper, loptiopliorina or-