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same manner. The legs of the criminal were laid on an anvil, and by main force fractured with a heavy hammer, somewhat similar to the modern barbarous custom of breaking the bones of offenders on the wheel by an iron bar. From the narrative of the evangelists, we may conclude, that breaking the legs of the thieves was to promote their death, that they might be taken down the same day from the cross. That spectators might learn the cause of punishment, a label, or inscription, indicating the crime, frequently surmounted the head of the criminal. The offence charged against Jesus Christ, was having called himself king of the Jews. Accordingly, the inscription on his cross was, "This is Jesus, the king of the Jews." By our own customs, a label is sometimes hung from the neck of an offender condemned to lesser punishments, describing his guilt, which is meant to aggravate the ignominy. But among the Romans, this was perhaps also the warrant for putting the sentence in execution. That the object of crucifixion might be fulfilled in exposing the body of the criminal to decay, sentinels were commonly posted beside the cross, to prevent it from being taken down and buried. Privation of sepulture was dreaded as the greatest evil by the ancients, who believed that the soul could never rest or enjoy felicity so long as their mortal remains continued on the earth. Thus it was a great aggravation of the punishment. Besides these, the ordinary modes of inflicting the punishment of crucifixion, assuredly sufficiently cruel in themselves, mankind have sought the gratification of vengeance in deviating from them. Such was the conduct of the Roman soldiers, under Titus, at the siege of Jerusalem, where the miserable Jews were crucified in various postures by their sanguinary enemies. Seneca speaks of crucifixion with the head downwards; and of this we have a noted example in the history of St. Peter, during the first century of the Christian era. Having been seized by the Roman government, and condemned to die on the cross, it is said that he solicited, as a greater degradation, that he might be crucified with his head downwards. It appears that delinquents were sometimes affixed to the cross, and burnt or suffocated to death. With respect to the persons on whom this punishment was inflicted, we have seen that the Carthaginian leaders were not exempt from it; but elsewhere, especially among the Jews and Romans, only the lowest malefactors

It was

were condemned to the cross. peculiarly appropriated for slaves. The cross has been made a more terrible instrument of destruction to a vanquished enemy. Thus Alexander the Great, after putting eight or ten thousand Tyrians to the sword, on taking their city, crucified 2000 more along the shores. Not less sanguinary was the vengeance of the Romans against the Jews; Minutus Alexander crucified 800, and Quinctilius Varus 2000, on account of some revolt. Titus, whom we are wont to esteem as humane and merciful, crucified above 500 in a day; and at the sack of Jerusalem, under his command, the Romans, wherever they could seize the affrighted fugitives, either in hatred or derision, nailed them to crosses about the walls of the city, until the multitude was so great, that room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses for the bodies. Crucifixion has been considered the most cruel of punishments, and merited by the most atrocious offences only. That the pain of the cross is cruel cannot be denied; yet we are, perhaps, accustomed to exaggerate it. Examples are not wanting of persons having been taken down from the cross alive, and surviving the laceration of their members. Josephus, the historian, relates, that, on leaving a particular town in Judea, he saw a great many of the enemy crucified; but it grieved him much to recognise three of the number with whom he had been in intimate habits. hastened to inform Titus of the fact, who immediately ordered them to be taken down, and their wounds carefully healed. Two, nevertheless, perished; but the third survived.

CRUOR. (See Blood.)

CRYSTALLIZATION. (See Cohesion.)
CUBEBS. (See Pepper.)
CUCUMBER-TREE. (See Magnolia.)
CUMULUS. (See Clouds.)

CUVIER died at Paris, May 15, 1832.
Cuzco. (See Cusco.)
CYANOMETER. (See Heaven.)

D.

He

DAHCOTAHS. (See Indians, American.)
DALMATIA, DUKE OF. (See Soult.)
DARK AGES. (See Middle Ages.)
DAVY, Sir Humphrey, died in 1831.
DE BAY. (See Baius.)

DEATH, APPARENT, was referred to from Asphyxia, for the treatment of persons in a state of suspended animation:

the process will be found described under Drowning.

DECIGRAMME. (See Gramme.)
DEMESNE. (See Domain.)
DEMURRER. (See Issue.)

DENYS, ST., ABBEY OF. (See Denis.) DERTZHAVIN. (See Derschawin.) DESIDERADA, or DESIRADA. (See Deseada.)

DESSOLES died in 1828. DEVA-NAGARA. (See Sanscrit.) DIABETES is an affection of a very peculiar nature, and which, both with respect to its origin, its proximate cause, and its treatment, has given rise to much controversy. Its most remarkable symptoms are, a great increase in the quantity of urine, a voracious appetite, a stoppage of the cutaneous perspiration, thirst, emaciation, and great muscular debility. The urine is not only prodigiously increased in its quantity, but likewise has its composition completely changed; the substance named urea, which it contains in the healthy state, is entirely removed, or exists in very small proportion, while in its stead we find a large quantity of a body possessing the physical and chemical properties of sugar. Whether diabetic differs essentially from vegetable sugar, is to be regarded more as a chemical question, than as what, in any respect, influences either our pathology or our practice; and it has been a subject of controversy whether there be a proper diabetes insipidus, that is, a disease attended with the increased discharge of urine, the voracious appetite, and the morbid state of the skin, but where the urine does not contain sugar. There is much obscurity respecting the origin of diabetes: it has been attributed to improper diet, to the use of spirituous liquors; to large quantities of watery fluids; to exposure to cold during perspiration; to violent exercise; and, in short, to any thing which might be supposed likely to weaken the system generally, or the digestive organs in particular. It does not, however, appear that any of these circumstances so commonly precede the disease, as to entitle it to be regarded as the cause, although many of them may contribute to aggravate it, or to bring it into action, when the foundation is laid in the constitution. The proximate has been no less the subject of controversy than the exciting cause; and on this point two hypotheses have divided the opinions of pathologists: some have ascribed it to a primary affection of the stomach and the function of assimilation, and others to a primary dis

ease of the kidney. With respect to the treatment which may afford the best chance of success, or which may possi bly remove the complaint in its incipient state, we should recommend that a moderate bleeding be premised, and that a diet be employed, of which vegetable matter should form only a small proportion at the same time we may administer vegetable tonics, and may endeavor to restore the natural action of the skin by diaphoretics and the warm bath.

DIARRHEA; a very common disease, which consists in an increased discharge from the alimentary canal, the evacuations being but little affected, except in their assuming a more liquid consistence. They are generally preceded or accompa nied by flatulence, and a griping pain in the bowels, and frequently by sickness; but this should, perhaps, rather be attributed to the same cause which produces the diarrhea, than be considered as a part of the disease itself. The symptoms of this complaint are so obvious as seldom to leave any doubt respecting its existence; but there are two diseases that resemble it, and from which it is important to distinguish it-dysentery and cholera. For the most part, an attention to the nature of the evacuations is sufficient to point out the distinction; or if, as occasionally happens, the diseases appear to run into each other, our remedies must be administered accordingly, always adapting them rather to the symptoms than to a technical nomenclature. The exciting causes of diarrhoea are various; perhaps the most frequent is repletion of the stomach. or the reception into it of some kind of indigestible food: cold applied to the surface of the body, and especially to the legs and feet, is also an exciting cause of diarrhoea; and it is occasionally produced by impressions upon the nervous system, or even by mere mental emotions. In children, the peculiar irritation produced by teething seems to be a frequent exciting cause of diarrhoea, as well as that which arises from the presence of worms in the alimentary canal. Diarrhoea is often symptomatic of some other disease: of these, one of the most violent is the colliquative discharge from the bowels, which occurs in the latter stages of hectic fever. It is also a frequent attendant or sequel of the affections of the liver that come on after a residence in hot climates, and is then found to be one of the most unmanageable symptoms of these diseases. In its simple form, diarrhea is not difficult of cure, and, perhaps, in a

great majority of cases, would be relieved by the mere efforts of nature. The proximate cause of diarrhoea appears to be an increase of the peristaltic motion of the intestines, which may depend either upon a stimulating substance applied to them, or upon an increased sensibility in the part, rendering it more easily affected by the ordinary stimuli. In cases of the first description, which constitute a great majority of those that fall under our observation, the most effectual remedies are mild purgatives, given in small doses, and frequently repeated. Along with the purgatives large quantities of mild diluents will be found serviceable; and the food should be of the least stimulating kind, and be composed as much as possible of liquids. The choice of the purgative will depend upon the state of the stomach, and various other circumstances: neutral salts, castor oil, rhubarb and magnesia, are, perhaps, among those that are the most generally applicable: the last will be especially proper when we have reason to suspect an acid state of the alimentary canal. After the due exhibition of purgatives, we shall generally find the complaint to subside without the use of any other remedies; and, by a proper regulation of the diet, the parts resume their healthy action. Considerable advantage has been gained by the use of warm clothing, and particularly of flannel worn next to the skin, in those who are subject to frequent attacks of diarrhoea; and sometimes it has appeared that the warm bath, or even the removal to a milder climate, has been of permanent utility.

DICKINSON, Jonathan, first president of Nassau hall, the college of New Jersey, was born at Hatfield, Massachusetts, April 22, 1688, graduated at Yale college in 1706, and, a few years after, became the minister of the first Presbyterian church in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. In 1746, he was appointed president of the new college, but died Oct. 7, in the following year. His numerous theological writings are much esteemed.

DIOCLETIAN, ERA OF. (See Epoch.) D'ISRAELI, Isaac, is the only son of an Italian merchant, of a Jewish family, who was long a resident in England. At a very early period of youth, he had a passion for reading, and even attempted to write little tales concerning giants and ghosts. But, though fond of reading, he was averse from regular study. He first went to an academy at Enfield, near his father's country-house; but there he learnt nothing more than a little imperfect Latin. Nor did he make much greater progress

under several private masters. He was then sent over to a private seminary in Amsterdam. Young D'Israeli now applied himself ardently to study. In classical literature, however, he made no great progress; but he gained an intimate acquaintance with several modern languages, and with the authors who have written in them. At the end of two years, Mr. D'Israeli returned to his native country. He next made a tour in France and Italy, and returned with a valuable collection of books, and a confirmed predilection for French literature. While he was at Amsterdam, he first tried to write verse, and took Pope for his model. His earliest effort in England appears to have been a Poetical Epistle on the Abuse of Satire, which was an attack on Peter Pindar (printed in the 59th volume of the Gentleman's Magazine). In 1791, he published a poem, entitled a Defence of Poetry, which was addressed to the poet laureate. It was an animated composition; but, when only a few copies were sold, Mr. D'Israeli destroyed the whole edition. His next work was the first volume of the Curiosities of Literature (1791), a selection made with taste and judgment, and which was so well received that he prefixed his name to the second volume (1793). The work has since passed through several editions. The seventh edition, published in 1824, forms five octavo volumes. Since that publication, he has constantly appeared in the character of a writer, with success. His works display extensive reading, a lively fancy, and a pleasant wit, and are written in a flowing and spirited style. The following is a list of them, in their order of publication:-a Dissertation on Anecdotes (1793); Essay on the Manners and Genius of the Literary Character (1795); Miscellanies, or Literary Recreations (1796); Vaurien, a Satirical Novel (2 vols., 1797); Romances (1798); Narrative Poems (1803); Despotism, or the Fall of the Jesuits, a novel (2 vols.); Flim Flams, or Life of my Uncle, a kind of satirical biography (3 vols.); Calamities of Authors, including some Inquiries respecting their Moral and Literary Characters (1812-13, 2 vols., 8vo.); Quarrels of Authors, or some Memoirs for our Literary History, including Specimens of Controversy, to the Reign of Elizabeth (1814, 3 vols., 8vo.); a new Series of the Curiosities of Literature, consisting of Researches in Literary, Biographical and Political History (3 vols., 8vo., 1823); and Commentaries on the Reign of Charles I (5 vols., 1831).—His son is the author of

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DOOMSDAY BOOK. (See Domesday Book.)

DOORNICK. (See Tournay.) DORSET, EARL OF. (See Sackville, Charles, and Sackville, Thomas.)

DOUBLE SPEEDER. (See Cotton Manufacture.)

DRABANTS, OF TRABANTS. (See Guards.) DRAWING FRAME. (See Cotton Manufacture.)

DREDGING is commonly applied to the operation of removing mud, silt, and other depositions, from the bottom of harbors, canals, rivers, docks, &c. The process of silting may be readily conceived, when it is considered that every rill of water carries with it a quantity, however minute, of earthy particles, and that these rills are so many tributaries to the brooks and rivulets falling into the great streams which form the drainage of the vast valleys through which they flow, finally carrying their waters to the sea. The beds of all large rivers, more particularly those which pass along comparatively flat or alluvial soils, are much encumbered in their channels by banks of sand and small gravel, while on their margins are found the finer or more minute depositions of silt and mud. Large streams, from the great body of water which they bring, and from the greater strength of their currents, will be always able to make a passage; but narrow and winding rivers, with slowly-flowing waters, are often materially injured by the depositions. To such a degree has this been experienced at Sandwich, in Kent, that that ancient seaport is left almost in the state of an inland town; and the port of Little Hampton, on the coast of Sussex, which was a harbor for the largest vessels two centuries since, at present admits only small colliers, and even those with difficulty, at high spring tides. The rivers of Holland, and those flowing through the plains of Italy, are, likewise, thus affected; and, according to the impurity of the waters, the entrances of docks and harbors, canals, basins, &c., are more or less silted up, and require to be cleansed or dredged. The late Mr. Rennie reported that 400,000 tons of mud were annually discharged into the Thames from the sewers of London. The innumerable shoals between the Nore and the Downs amply prove that this calculation is not exaggerated. The most simple mode of dredging, and probably the one

originally adopted for removing the inequalities from the bottom of rivers and harbors, is the spoon dredging-boat. An apparatus of this description was used for dredging the harbor of Leghorn so far back as 1690, the expense of which was fifteen paoli (about one dollar and seventy-five cents) the boat-load, of the size of a small river barge. But Cornelius Meyer, a Dutch engineer in the employ of Cosmo III, grand-duke of Tuscany, built, at Leghorn, a dredging-boat, after the fashion of those in common use in Holland at that period. The expense of the construction of this boat is stated to have been $105, and the cost of dredging a boat-load five paoli, being only one third of the Italian apparatus. The spoon dredging-boat has been long, and is, indeed, still used in Holland and Flanders, in deepening the extensive tracts of canals. The excavated matters are generally of a mossy description, which, being compressed in moulds and dried, are used as turf-fuel. On the Thames, this operation is conducted on a large scale, under the immediate direction of the Trinity board; and the stuff dredged from the bottom, consisting chiefly of gravel, is sold, at the rate of about one shilling a ton, for ballast, particularly to the colliers; and to such an extent is this process carried on, that the Ballast hills of Shields and Newcastle, which are curious from their great extent, have been chiefly raised by the discharge from the vessels which have brought gravel in ballast from the Thames. The spoon apparatus consists of a strong ring or hoop of malleable iron, about six or seven feet in circumference, properly formed for making an impression upon the soft and muddy ground. To this ring is strongly attached a large bag of bullock's hide or tanned leather, perforated with a number of small holes, with a capacity of four or five cubic feet. A long pole or handle is attached to the spoon, and a rope to the bottom of the bag, for directing their position at the commencement of each operation. pole or handle varies in length and thickness, according to the depth of water, from fifteen to thirty feet. This apparatus is generally worked with a wheel and pinion or winch; and the chain or rope is brought from the spoon to the winch, through a block suspended from a small crane, for bearing the spoon and its contents to the side of the boat. The purchase-rope is led upon deck by a snatchblock in the proper direction for the barrel of the winch. In situations where the

The

command of head-water is considerable, it is retained in a scouring basin, which is a water-tight compartment of a harbor furnished with sluices to run off the water as required. All harbors left dry every tide at low water, wherein the deposition of mud is most apt to take place, ought, if possible, to be furnished with a scouring basin. For clearing the bottom and bar of a harbor, in conjunction with that mode of dredging which simply loosens the stuff, the use of the scouring basin is most effectual. The harbor of Montrose is a striking instance in point, where the great natural basin connected with that port is covered every tide, by which, it has been computed, about fifty-five millions of cubic yards of back water are obtained, which produce so great a current that the shifting sand-bank off the coast, called the Annet, is prevented from being thrown across the mouth or entrance of that harbor, in gales of wind from the eastward; and the navigation is kept open and preserved of considerable depth, even at the lowest ebbs. The same remarks are applicable to the entrance of all great rivers, in which the navigation can only be preserved by a strong current of water. The most eminent engineers in Europe, in accordance with this idea, have introduced scouring basins into their designs of tide-harbors. Of these, the sluices at Ostend and Ramsgate harbors are particular examples, where the silt in the outer harbors is dredged and loosened, and raked into the tracks or courses of the water issuing from the scouring basins. To effect this, the dredging-harrow, consisting of a frame of timber and plate iron, is used; the common harrow, the ordinary plough, and even large rakes, have been employed with good effect in many places, particularly in Holland, upon the extensive flats at the entrance of some of the large rivers. In wet docks connected with each other, much use may be made of this mode of scouring or floating away mud by opening numerous sluices from one dock into another. This has been done at Liverpool, Leith and Bristol, with good effect. But in the improvement of navigable rivers, many of these modes of dredging and scouring have been laid aside, and the operation of narrowing the channel and confining the current has been adopted. By this system, the bed of the river Clyde has been deepened from five to nine feet, to the great advantage of the trade and commerce of Glasgow. In like manner the opening of the 38

VOL. XIII.

Eau Brink Cut, a little above Lynn-Regis, has produced the most salutary effects in clearing away the obstructions in the river Ouse, below Ely; and the depositions in front of the town of Lynn will be scoured away so soon as a proper direction has been given to the current. The bucket dredging machine has been generally supposed to be of British origin; and it was certainly first used in England, by the late Mr. Rennie, at Hull. It is probable that steam was not applied to the bucket dredging apparatus prior to the commencement of the present century, nor brought into general use sooner than ten or twelve years after that period. At the present day, whenever a continued necessity exists for dredging, the steam apparatus is always employed. DSHAGATAI. (See Tartary.) DUN-FISH. (See Cod.) DUSE. (See Deuse.) DUTCH GOLD. (See Copper.). DUTCH LEAF. (See Divisibility.) DUTCH SCHOOL OF PAINTERS. (See Netherlandish School.)

DUTCHMAN'S PIPE. (See Snakeroot.) DWARF ROSE BAY. (See Rhododendron Maximum.)

DYKE. (See Dike.)

DYSENTERY (dysenteria; from dus, difficulty, and ivrea, the bowels); the flux. It is known by contagious fever; frequent griping stools; tenesmus; stools, chiefly mucous, sometimes mixed with blood, the natural fæces being retained or voided in small, compact, hard substances, known by the name of scybala; by loss of appetite, and nausea. It occurs chiefly in summer and autumn, and is often occasioned by much moisture succeeding quickly intense heat or great drought; whereby the perspiration is suddenly checked, and a determination made to the intestines. It is likewise occasioned by the use of unwholesome and putrid food, and by noxious exhalations and vapors; hence it appears often in armies encamped in the neighborhood of low, marshy grounds, and proves highly destructive; but the cause which most usually gives rise to it, is a specific contagion; and when it once makes its appearance, where numbers of people are collected together, it not unfrequently spreads with great rapidity. A peculiar disposition in the atmosphere seems often to predispose or give rise to the dysentery, in which case it prevails epidemically. It frequently occurs about the same time with autumnal intermittent and remittent fevers; and with these it is often complicated. The disease, howev

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