Is Perl's AUTOLOAD feature available in PHP?

Hello -

I just read an interesting article in The Perl Journal (TPJ) about using 
AUTOLOAD as a layer of abstraction for accessing database columns.  I 
would like to write something similar in PHP.  Is this possible?

I have written a number of PHP/MySQL applications, but do not consider 
myself an expert.  I cannot find anything on various PHP-related 
websites and was hoping someone with more in depth knowledge would be 
able to make a few suggestions.

Thanks!

Chip Castle
chip (at) chipcastle (dot) com