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