discontinued.

Discipline. See ARMY DISCIPLINE, CHURCH DISCIPLINE.

Discipline, BOOKS OF, the First and Second, embody the constitution and order of procedure of the Church of Scotland from the period of the Reformation. The First Book of Discipline, or the 'Policie and Discipline of the Church, was drawn up under a commission from the Privy-council of Scotland, in 1560, by John Knox and other four ministers-John Row, John Spottiswoode, John Winram, and John Douglas. These ministers, the same year, had prepared the doctrinal Confession of Faith of the church, which was inscribed among the acts of parliament as a statute of the realm; but for the practical government and discipline of the church, a form of order more elaborate than that imported from Geneva was required, and this was provided in the First Book of Discipline. It was approved by the General Assembly, but on being presented to the Privy-council several members manifested opposition to some things in the book, and it was not ratified by the council as such. Most of the members, however, subscribed it, and pledged themselves to set forward its regulations. These had reference principally to (1) the providing of ministers for the numerous congregations all over the country, but as ministers were then few in number, the temporary expedient was resorted to of appointing readers, exhorters, and superintendents; (2) the order of public worship and dispensation of the sacraments; (3) the establishment of schools in every parish, and of colleges in every ' notable' town; (4) the provision to be made for the support of ministers, schoolmasters, and the poor; and (5) the mode of dealing with offenders against the laws of the church. Subscription of the First Book of Discipline was required of all

ministers of the church before admission to office. On account of the urgent need which was felt for such a book, it was prepared with haste, and several important matters were soon found to have been omitted. So early as 1563 a revised book of

discipline was desiderated, but in consequence of

the harassments of civil dissensions the revision was postponed. In 1575 a committee was appointed to take charge of the matter. Of this committee Andrew Melville was a prominent member, and the result of its labours was

The Second Book of Discipline, or Heidis and Conclusiones of the Policie of the Kirk.' This was received and adopted by the General Assembly in 1578, and in 1581 that venerable body ordered that it should be engrossed at length in their register, and that copies should be taken by all the presbyteries of the church. Efforts were made to have it ratified by parliament at the time, but without success. It was, however, on the basis of the Second Book of Discipline that the constitution of the Church of Scotland was settled by the Scots parliament in 1592, and again in 1690. It is sworn to in the National Covenant, and was ratified by the General Assembly in 1638 as well as in 1645, when the Assembly received and adopted the Form of Church Government' prepared by the Westminster Assembly of Divines. It was not intended that the Second Book of Discipline should annul or supersede the first, but rather that it might amplify and qualify its regulations Profiting by the experience gained under the operation of the first book, the church by the second abolished the temporary expedients to which the exigencies of the case had obliged them formerly to resort; and in the new book the Pres

·

byterian system was established on the broad and solid platform on which it stands to the present day. Both Books of Discipline are still standards in the Church of Scotland, and also in some of the other Presbyterian bodies which have seceded from it.

Disco, an island on the west coast of Greenland, under the parallel of 70° N. It is mountainous, reaching a height of 3000 feet, and has a total lengthi of about 90 miles, and contains much excellent coal. Godhavn harbour is on the south coast. Disco'bolus. See DISC.

Discomycetes. See FUNGI.

Discontinuance. See ABANDONMENT.

Discord is a combination of notes which leaves the ear unsatisfied unless it is followed by further combination, usually a concord, which is termed the resolution of the discord. See MUSIC.

Discount is an abatement made when a debt or bill is paid before its due date. True discount in arithmetic is the difference between the amount of a future payment and its present value. Thus if £105 be due one year hence, the discount (at 5 per cent.) will be £5, and the present value £100; for £100 will amount to exactly £105 in one year at 5 per cent. But the practice of bankers and billdiscounters, which is sanctioned by mercantile usage, is to charge interest on the principal sum for the period discounted-i.e. from the date when the cash is advanced till the date when payment is due. In the above example, a banker would charge £5, 5s. for discounting a bill of £105 due one year hence, at 5 per cent.; so that he gets an advantage of 5 per cent. over the arithmetical discount, which, as we have seen, is £5. The rate of discount varies according to circumstances, the official bank-rate being usually higher than that obtainable in the market.

In the case of foreign bills, instead of a fixed charge being made for discount, the usual practice is to quote a rate of exchange lower than the current rate, so as to cover this charge. The term discount is also applied to the depreciation in value of stock, &c. Thus if a loan is issued at the price of £90 cash for a nominal £100, it is Shopsaid to be at a discount of 10 per cent. keepers often grant a discount on prompt payment of an account, or as an encouragement to further

dealings.

Discovery. The English common law did not permit a party to an action to be a witness; but a court of equity would compel him to discover or disclose facts which his opponent had a right to know. Parties may now give evidence; but discovery is granted before trial, in any division of the High Court, of such facts or documents as a party requires in order to frame his own case. party is not permitted, by means of discovery, to obtain a premature disclosure of the case of his opponent. In the United States, the rules of practice are substantially the same as those of the English courts.

But a

Disease, according to its literal construction, a state of dis-ease, or absence of the condition of health, in which all the faculties and organs of the body and mind work together harmoniously and without sensible disturbance. It is common to treat of disease as being functional or organic–i.e. evidenced by changes of function or of structure; but function and structure are so closely allied in fact and in nature, that the more this distinction is examined, the more vague and impalpable it becomes, and it can therefore only be kept up as a provisional and conventional arrangement.

A classification of diseases is a necessary preliminary to any general inquiry regarding them; particularly to such statistical methods as are involved in the tabulation or causes of death by registrars,

in returns of hospitals, and of the medical departments of the army and navy, &c. The standard authority in Britain as regards diseases affecting man is the Nomenclature of Diseases, published under the supervision of the Royal College of Physicians of London. We give a short outline of the arrangement adopted in the fifth edition (1918). The list includes nearly 900 names of diseases, besides the various poisons and injuries specified,

which extend it to more than 1200.

I. Diseases caused by infection, including the common febrile maladies like chicken-pox, diphtheria, enteric fever, erysipelas, influenza, measles, pneumonia, scarlatina, small-pox, tuberculosis; less frequent conditions like malaria, leprosy, meningitis, plague, tetanus, yellow fever; venereal diseases syphilis and gonorrhoea; and diseases usually affecting only animals-e.g. anthrax, glanders, hydrophobia.

II. Diseases of the nervous system. These are divided into three sections. (1) Diseases of the nerves, spinal cord, brain and their membranes. (2) Diseases which are names for groups of symp toms of which the cause is not fully known-e.g. shaking palsy, chorea, spasmodic wryneck, and other habit spasms like writers' cramp, neuralgia, convulsions, epilepsy, migraine, hysteria, catalepsy, neurasthenia. (3) Mental diseases. Some of these are developmental, like idiocy; some are evidences of disordered function of the brain, like mania, melancholia, delusional insanity; in another group the symptoms are due to infective, toxic, or other general conditions-e. g. delirium, exhaustion insanity, alcoholic insanity.

III. Diseases of the eye. IV. Diseases of the ear. V. Diseases of the nose.

VI. Diseases of the circulatory system. This includes (1) diseases of the heart, like pericarditis, endocarditis, degeneration of the heart muscle, and disease of the valves; (2) disordered action of the heart; and (3) disease of the blood-vessels-e.g. arterio-sclerosis, aneurysm, and phlebitis.

VII. Diseases of the blood, such as anæmia, hæmophilia, and leucocythæmia.

VIII. Diseases of the spleen.

IX. Diseases of the lymphatic system-e.g. inflammation of the glands, lymphangitis.

X. Diseases of the glands of internal secretion, including those of the thymus, thyroid, adrenals, and pituitary gland.

XI. Diseases of the breast, such as inflammation, malignant growths.

XIL Diseases of the respiratory system, including those of the larynx, trachea, bronchi, lung, and pleura.

XIII. Diseases of the teeth and gums. XIV. Diseases of the digestive system, including those of the mouth, tonsils, salivary glands, gullet, stomach, intestines, pancreas, liver, and peritoneum.

XV. Diseases due to disorders of nutrition-e.g. obesity, scurvy, gout, and diabetes.

XVI. Diseases of the generative system, male and female, including affections connected with

pregnancy.

XVII. Diseases of the organs of locomotion, including those of bone, joints, spine, muscles, tendons, and deformities.

XVIII. Diseases of the skin.

XIX. Diseases of the urinary organs. XX. Injuries general and local. Also there is an appendix containing lists of surgical operations, tumours, malformations, poisons, and para

sites.

Diseased Meat. See FOOD, MEAT, PTOMAINES, PYEMIA.

Dishonour. See BILL OF EXCHANGE. Disinfectants are, strictly speaking, agents which can prevent infectious diseases from spreading, by destroying their specific poisons. The term is, however, often applied to all substances which destroy or neutralise bad odours, though not all such have the power of counteracting infection. Many infectious diseases have now been proved, and all are believed, like Putrefaction (q.v.), to be due to special micro-organisms which are found in different parts of the body, and are communicable in different ways in different diseases (see GERM THEORY). The action of disinfectants is therefore exactly analogous to that of Antiseptics (q.v.), and consists in the destruction of low forms of life. But the two classes do not necessarily correspond, as the same substance may have unequal poisonous effects on different forms. It is of the utmost importance to discover the conditions which are most deadly to each disease-poison, and to apply them, if possible, within as well as without the diseased body. But little has yet been done in this direction.

Carbolic acid, which probably stands highest in popular esteem as a disinfectant, is undoubtedly one in the strict sense. It is not, however, in the very dilute state that it can act thus, and it is necessary to use it comparatively concentrated before good can result. Thus a 2 per cent, solution, mixed with vaccine lymph, completely destroys it, but a more dilute solution has almost no action on it. As a deodoriser, carbolic acid is not so energetic as chlorine and permanganate of potash, but there is this great difference, that while the acid destroys the organic substances which give rise to the offensive odour, the others mainly attack the odour itself, and therefore require to be applied frequently if perfect sweetness is desired. Thus a piece of putrid flesh is not rendered odourless so quickly by carbolic acid as by the other substances named, but one thorough application of it will prevent the recurrence of decay, a property not possessed by the others.

The vapour of carbolic acid is not a disinfectant at ordinary temperatures, as bacilli are not destroyed, even when exposed to it for six weeks. It is therefore evident that the mere exposure of that substance in vessels is of no service in disinfecting a room. It is curious that carbolic acid dissolved in oil or alcohol has no antiseptic action whatever, but that if water be present, as in the case of a wound, it acts powerfully.

Sulphurous acid has long been in repute, both in the form of solution and in the gaseous state. Experiments on cultivated bacilli seem to prove that, while in the liquid state it is a powerful disinfectant, it has little action either as dry gas or along with water vapour.

Mercury salts, such as the perchloride (corrosive sublimate) and biniodide, are powerful disinfectants, and are much used at present as antiseptics. For general domestic use, however, they have great disadvantages. The former attacks metals, and therefore ruins many pipes, while it is very rapidly neutralised by the presence of organic matter, especially where sulphuretted hydrogen has been developed. The biniodide is preferable, but neither of them is completely satisfactory. Of all the long list of popular disinfectants, chlorine, bromine, iodine, osmic acid, permanganate of potassium and of sodium, and corrosive sublimate seem to be the most certain and rapid, but all of these are open to objections. The employment of fumigating pastilles, burning brown paper, camphor,

benzoin, mastic, amber, lavender, and other odoriferous substances, is merely serviceable in cloaking over the offensive, fetid, and hurtful gases, and should never be resorted to unless in conjunction with the use of other agents possessing the properties of true disinfectants. For disinfecting clothes, bedding, &c., the most satisfactory treatment is heat. They may be heated to 250° F. without harm.

It will be seen from the foregoing that a general, satisfactory disinfectant is still a desideratum, and that even those in most use require favourable conditions, and a more lavish application than is generally forthcoming.

Dislocation consists in the displacement of one bone from another with which it forms a joint (put out of joint being the popular expression). Dislocations are generally the result of sudden accident, but may be the result of disease, or may be congenital. The displacement may be partial or complete; and surgeons classify their cases into simple dislocations, when the skin remains un'broken, and compound, when there is a wound by which the external air may communicate with the joint. Occasionally, in addition to the dislocation, there are fractures of the bones, or lacerations of important blood-vessels in the neighbourhood, or other injuries; it is then termed a complicated dislocation. Dislocation is a rare accident in infancy and old age, because in the former the joint-ends of the bones are very flexible, and yield to violence; while the aged skeleton is so rigid that the brittle bones fracture under force that would drive mature and stronger ones out of their sockets. Dislocations are most frequent between the ages of twenty and sixty. Persons with weak muscles, and lax, long ligaments, or those in whom the latter have been softened by inflammation of the joint, are predisposed to dislocation. The shoulder is far more frequently dislocated than any other joint in the body; in the lower extremity the hip most often suffers.

General Symptoms of a Dislocation.-After a blow, fall, or violent muscular exertion, a limb is found to have lost its natural mobility at the injured joint, though there may be some movement in abnormal directions under examination; there is some pain, and the shape of the part is changed; but soon swelling ensues, and every distinctive mark about it is obscured. If left alone, or merely treated as an inflamed joint, the swelling gradually subsides; but the immobility continues, the limb is crippled for months or years, when at last nature forms a new socket for the end of the bone, and some amount of useful motion is recovered. The proper shape of the part is never restored, but remains an eyesore to the patient, and a disgrace to the surgeon.

The general treatment of dislocations consists in their reduction, or bringing the displaced bone back into its place. Its return is opposed by the muscles attached to it, these being stimulated to contraction by the pain of the operation, and by the ligaments surrounding the joint, which generally fix it in its unnatural position. Sometimes it is necessary to remove this spasm of the muscles, and in former days bleeding from the arm, emetics, the warm bath, &c., were generally made use of; nowadays chloroform or ether attains the same ends, and renders the treatment of dislocations much more simple and humane than before the introduction of

anæsthetics.

Till about the year 1870, reduction of dislocations was generally effected by means of extension. When the surgeon is about to reduce a dislocation in this way, he fastens the part of the limb above the displaced bone or the trunk, so as to afford him counter-extension; he then pulls on the limb either with his hands, or with a bandage or skein of worsted attached to it. This he fixes

Of late years, however, reduction by extension has been to a very large extent given up in consequence of the general adoption of reduction by manipulation. This method, known it seems from ancient times, but curiously neglected, consists in executing certain complex movements of the dislocated limb which effect the return of the displaced bone to its socket by ingeniously utilising its unruptured attachments and evading the opposition of the muscles, by fraud rather than by force. It is particularly applicable to the hip, which, as it is commanded by the strongest mass of muscles in the body, always presented the most formidable obstacles to the old method. The first paper on this subject which attracted general attention was by Dr Reid of Rochester, U.S. (1851); and in 1869 Professor Bigelow of Boston published a careful and exhaustive discussion of injuries to the hip, with such full and clear directions for the manipu lation method, as to secure its general adoption in the case of this joint by surgeons in this country as well as in America. The method, however, had been described and used in France and elsewhere, though with less care and precision, in the earlier half of the 19th century.

The class of persons called Bonesetters (q.v.) almost invariably give the opinion, in cases of stiff joints brought to them, whether as the result of disease or injury, that a bone is out;' and if a regular practitioner has been treating the case, further say that he has failed to detect it. They are almost invariably wrong in this opinion; for there are very few cases of dislocation not easily recognisable, at all events after the swelling following the accident has subsided. When, however, the forcible movements they employ succeed in improving the condition of the joint, their view is naturally adopted by the patient and his friends that they have replaced the 'bone.' In most cases of this kind, what really takes place is the rupture of Adhesions (q.v.) remaining after sprains or bruises in the neighbourhood which limited and rendered painful the movements of the joint.

Whenever a dislocation occurs, the nearest medical man should be summoned, even should the mere displacement be rectified at once, because no such accident can occur without some tearing of the soft parts, and it will depend on the after-treatment whether the joint will ever become useful again or not. It must also be remembered that the sooner a dislocation is reduced the easier is the reduction. Since the introduction of anaesthesia, however, and the subcutaneous division of tissues, many ancient cases may be improved, and many crippled limbs restored to usefulness.

Dismal Swamp, measuring 30 miles from north to south by 10 in breadth, lies chiefly in Virginia, but partly in North Carolina. In the centre is Lake Drummond, about 6 miles broad; elsewhere its dense growth of cypress and cedar has been greatly thinned, and part of the region has been reclaimed. The tract is intersected by a canal connecting Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound.

Dismas, the Catholic traditional name of the penitent thief, the impenitent being Gesmas.

Dismembered. See DEMEMBRÉ.

Disorderly House. See NUISANCE, and PROSTITUTION.

Dispensaries are institutions for supplying the poor with medical advice and medicines. They are of two kinds, provident and free. The first are excellent institutions for encouraging habits of thrift, and training the poor not to depend on medical charity. The members of provident dispensaries pay a few pence weekly, which entitles them and their families to advice and medicine when necessary. The medical officer attends at the dispensary every morning to prescribe for those who call; after a certain hour he goes the round of the district, and visits those who are too ill to attend at the dispensary. It is often necessary in starting these institutions that there should be certain honorary members paying a subscription that will cover the expense of the building and drugs; the pence of the ordinary members should cover the officer's fee. Free dispensaries much resemble the out-patient department of hospitals, without the advantage of having wards to which the worst cases can be relegated. In Ireland, since 1851, when the Irish Dispensaries Act was passed, every district has a dispensary, where the poor are entitled to advice and medicine on presenting tickets, which are distributed by relieving officers, guardians, &c. The first dispensary founded in Britain was the Royal General Dispensary, Bartholomew Close, London, opened in 1770. See

HOSPITAL.

Dispensation, the remission of a law in a particular case by competent authority. It is generally admitted, even by the most extreme of the Roman Catholic canonists, that no dispensation from the natural and moral law can be granted by any human power (Liguori, Theol. Moral. vi. 1119). On the other hand, it is generally held that the pope can dispense from oaths and vows, because in this case the obligation is founded upon an act of free human will, which the pope may annul. Further, with regard to positive divine laws-i.e. with regard to things which are not essentially good or evil, but which God has been pleased to command or prohibit by special revelarevelation, it is held that the pope may declare that a particular case does not really fall under the law. For the rest, the pope may dispense from the general laws of the church. He may, e.g., allow a man to marry his deceased wife's sister, for the prohibition is derived solely from the church law, the Mosaic code, as such, having no authority among Christians; and, therefore, the supreme authority in the church may dispense from it. Of such dispensations the most noteworthy was that allowing Henry VIII. to marry Catharine of Aragon. In the earlier periods of church history, bishops and provincial councils also dispensed from the general law of the church, but since the time of Innocent III. the pope alone can do so as a general rule, and bishops only in certain cases mentioned by the canon law, unless, indeed, they act as papal delegates. Papal dispensations, if they are of a public nature, are granted through the Apostolic Dataria; if they concern the secret tribunal of conscience, through the

Penitentiary. Bishops, in the exercise of their ordinary power, dispense from the proclamation of banns, from certain irregularities' which impede ordination, from clerical residence, &c. Many canonists add that bishops may dispense in pressing cases, where recourse to the pope is impossible, and the approval of the pope may be certainly presumed. Besides this, in virtue of faculties which may be obtained from the pope for five years at a time, a bishop can dispense from the law of abstinence from flesh-meat, from all the ecclesiastical impediments which make marriage unlawful, and from some of those which nullify it, from most 'simple' vows, &c. The vicar-general can dispense in very few cases, except by commission of the bishop, During the vacancy of a see, the bishop's ordinary power of dispensation passes first to the chapter and then to the vicar-capitular. Parish priests, &c. have no power of dispensation. The Council of Trent (Sess. xxv. c. 18) requires that dispensations be given only for a 'just and urgent' cause, after full consideration, and gratis. The last word, however, does not exclude the payment of the statutory fees.

The

In the English Church, papal dispensations were swept away by 25 Henry VIII. chap. 21. Archbishop of Canterbury grants special licenses for marriage, and the bishop of the diocese may dispense a clergyman from residence, or grant him leave to hold more than one living.

In civil matters, the dispensing power of the crown, grossly abused by James II., was abolished by the Bill of Rights, and the sovereign's power of pardoning criminals is the sole form of it which is left.

The term dispensation is also used in Mosaic or Jewish dispensation, Christian or gospel dispensation, for the systems of rights and duties imposed by Providence under the Old Testament economy and that of the New respectively.

Dispersion. The refractive index of a transparent medium is different for different kinds of fight. Thus, when white light passes through a given prism, the rays of different refrangibility of which it is composed are bent by different amounts from their original common direction. They are said to be dispersed. The dispersion for the given prism depends upon the difference of the refractive indices of the extreme rays of the visible spectrum. It varies with the substance and the angle of the prism. The relative breadth of any two parts of the spectrum varies with the substance of the prism. This constitutes the so-called irrationality of dispersion. In general, rays of short wavelength are more refracted than rays of long wavelength, but in some refracting media this law breaks down in part. This is known as anomalous dispersion. The term false dispersion is applied to the scattering of light by reflection from motes suspended in a transparent medium. See LIGHT.

Displayed, a heraldic term used to describe the position of an eagle or other bird with its wings expanded.

Disposition, in the Law of Scotland, is a deed of conveyance and alienation, which transfers a right to property, either heritable or movable. The most common form of disposition is that which conveys heritage from a seller to a purchaser. Dispositions of movable subjects are also known in practice. Another form of disposition is the general disposition and settlement, which is used to settle the whole succession to an estate including both heritable and movable property. When such a succession is settled by a conveyance to trustees with specified powers, the deed is called a trustdisposition and settlement. All these deeds have a form, similar, indeed, but varying according to

the nature of the property conveyed and its destination. For disposition in security, see HERITABLE SECURITIES.

Disputation, an exercise of logical and dialectic skill, in which one party advanced an argument, and the other sought to refute it. Challenges to such exercises were often issued-e.g. at Paris in 1577, by the Admirable' Crichton. Memorable religious disputations were those between Knox and Kennedy (1562), and between Laud and Fisher the Jesuit (1623). The practice survives as an academic form.

D'Israeli, ISAAC, man of letters, was born at Enfield in 1766, the only son of Benjamin D'Israeli (1730-1816), a Jewish merchant, who in 1801 was made an English citizen. Isaac was educated at a school near Enfield, and for two years at Amsterdam under a freethinking tutor; in 1782 he returned home, bent on authorship. He published

two volumes of verse and seven romances; but his Curiosities of Literature (6 vols. 1791-1834), the fruit of much reading at the British Museum, showed his forte to lie not in creative literature, but in the illustration of history and literary character. To this he devoted himself with much success, his chief other books being Calamities of Authors (1812-13); Quarrels of Authors (1814); Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles I. (5 vols. 1828-30), which won him the honour of D.C.L. from Oxford; and Amenities of Literature (1840). Though somewhat slipshod and inaccurate, they are pleasant, readable works, and gained for their author the friendship and admiration of Byron, Scott, Southey, Moore, Bulwer Lytton, and Rogers, the last of whom observed, with his usual sneer: There's a man with only half an intellect who writes books that must live.' In 1802 Isaac D'Israeli married Maria Basevi (1775-1847), and by her he had one daughter and four sons, the eldest the famous statesman, Lord Beaconsfield (q.v.). Always a lax observer of the Jewish faith, he broke with the synagogue in 1817, and had all his children baptised. In 1829 he removed from Bloomsbury Square to Bradenham House, Bucks, where, after nine years of blindness, he died 19th January 1848. See, prefixed to the 1849 edition of the Curiosities, a memoir by Lord Beaconsfield, who also published a collected edition of his works (7 vols. 1858-59). Disruption.

LAND.

See FREE CHURCH OF SCOT

Diss, an urban district of Norfolk, on a risingground above a mere of 5 acres, 19 miles SSW. of Norwich. It has a good Perpendicular church, with a fine peal of bells, of which, early in the 16th century, John Skelton was the unholy rector. The old weaving trade has long been a thing of the past. Pop. (1851) 2419; (1921) 3513.

Dissection. See ANATOMY. Dissemination. See GEOGRAPHICAL DIS

TRIBUTION.

Dissenters. See NONCONFORMISTS. Dissepiment, in Botany, the partition between two Carpels (q.v.) in an ovary or fruit composed of a number of carpels. See OVARY.

Dissidents is a general term for dissenters in various countries, but has been specially used of the Polish non-Catholics or dissidentes-Lutherans, Calvinists, Greeks, and Armenians (not, however, including Anabaptists or Socinians).

Dissipation. See ENERGY.

Dissociation. See ELECTRICITY, MOLECULE, PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY, and for mental dissociation, HALLUCINATIONS, HYSTERIA.

Dissonance is a combination of musical sounds which produces beats. See SOUND, MUSIC.

Distaff, the staff on which the flax or wool is fastened, and from which the thread is drawn in spinning by hand. See SPINNING.

Distemper (Fr. détrempe, from detremper, 'to moisten; Ital. tempera), a method of painting in which opaque colours are mixed with water and such glutinous substances as size, white of egg, the sap of the fig-tree, &c., and applied to a smooth surface of dry plaster or gesso, spread commonly upon wood, but sometimes upon canvas. It is a process of great antiquity; and it was the ordinary method by which the early Italian and Flemish painters produced their easel-pictures (see PAINTING). Such works, when they have been afterwards oiled or treated with an oil-varnish, are frequently difficult to distinguish from oil-pictures. It is to be distinguished from Fresco (q.v.), in which the colours are applied to a fresh damp porated. Distemper is now most commonly emsurface of plaster, with which they become incorployed for scene-painting.

Distemper is a contagious and infectious disease of dogs, and perhaps of all animals of the canine family, sometimes met with, it is said, in the cat. The causal organism is not known. As a rule, it occurs only once in a lifetime, runs a definite course, is accompanied by low fever and debility, and is most successfully treated by good nursing and attention to diet and regimen. It has been divided into five different forms-catarrhal, pneumonic, intestinal, hepatic (known as yellows), and nervous, perhaps really different diseases. The catarrhal always accompanies and frequently precedes the other forms. The eyes are red or yellow, weak, and watery; the nose dry and hot; draughts of air or movements of the animal readily excite sneezing or cough; there is dullness, fever, and loss of appetite. The thickened slimy mucus which the inflamed membrane after some days secretes, accumulates about the eyes and nostrils, and lodging in the bronchial tubes, prevents the free access of air and the proper purification of the blood. Hence ensue distressed breathing, increasing weakness, and symptoms of nervous disturbance, such as staggering gait, chorea, and fits. All dogs are liable to distemper, but the delicate and highly bred varieties suffer most severely, and amongst them the mortality is very great. Bleeding, physicking, and all irritating and reducing remedies, must be carefully avoided, and a good dry bed in a comfortable airy place provided. The stomach, if overloaded, should be relieved of its contents by an emetic, which, for an ordinary sized English terrier, may consist of two grains each of tartar emetic and ipecacuanha, with eight or ten grains of common salt, given in a wine-glassful of tepid water. If no effect is produced, the dose must be repeated in twenty minutes. Constipation, if present, should be corrected by half an ounce each of castor and olive oil, to which, in large dogs, a few grains of gray powder is a useful addition. The febrile symptoms, if acute, may be alleviated by giving four times daily, in cold water, five drops of laudanum, and five grains each of nitre and hyposulphite of soda. Distressed breathing may be relieved by applying to the chest and sides, for an hour or two continuously, a thick flannel cloth, wrung at short intervals out of hot water. The throat may also be rubbed with hartshorn and oil, and the nostrils sponged and steamed occasionally. Give frequently, and in small quantities at a time, milk and bread, or any other such simple and digestible food; and when recovery is tardy, and weakness ensues, endeavour by nursing, tonics, and stimulants, to support the strength. term is sometimes applied to Influenza in horses, and epizootic Pleuro-pneumonia (q.v.) in cattle.

The