DBA 



DEA 



deans of cathedral and those of collegiate 

 churches. The first, with their chapter, 

 are regularly subject to the jurisdiction 

 of the bishop. As to the latter, they have 

 usually the contentious jurisdiction in 

 themselves, though sometimes this be- 

 longs to them in common with the- chap- 

 ter. There are cathedral churches which 

 never had a dean, and in which the bishop 

 is head of the chapter, and in his absence 

 the archdeacon : Such are the cathedrals 

 of St. David and Landaff". There are al- 

 so deans without a chapter, as the dean 

 of Rattle in Sussex, dean of the arches, 

 &c. and deans without a jurisdiction, as 

 the dean of the chapel royal. In this 

 sense the word is applied to the chief of 

 certain peculiar churches or chapels. 



DEAN and chapter, are the. bishop's 

 council, to assist him in the affairs of re- 

 ligion, and to assent to every grant which 

 the bishop shall make to bind his suc- 

 cessors. As a deanery is a spiritual digni- 

 ty, a man cannot be a dean and prebenda- 

 ry of the same church. 



DEATH. Physicians usually define 

 death by a total stoppage of the circula- 

 tion of the blood, and a cessation of the 

 animal and vital functions consequent 

 thereon ; as respiration, sensation, 8cc. 



An animal body, by the actions insepa- 

 rable from life, undergoes a continual 

 change. Its smallest fibres become rigid; 

 its minute vessels grow into solid fibres, 

 no longer pervious to the fluids ; its 

 greater vessels grow hard and narrow ; 

 and every thing becomes contracted, 

 closed, and bound up ; whence the dry- 

 ness, immobility, and extenuation, ob- 

 served in old age. By such means, the 

 offices of the minuter vessels are destroy- 

 ed ; the humours stagnate, harden, and 

 at length coalesce with the solids. Thus 

 are the subtilest fluids in the body inter- 

 cepted and lost, the concoction weaken- 

 ed, and the reparation prevented ; only 

 the coarser juices continue to run slowly 

 through the greater vessels, to the pre. 

 servation of life, after the animal func- 

 tions are destroyed. At length, in the 

 process of these changes, death itself be- 

 comes inevitable, as the necessary conse- 

 quence of lite. But it is rare that life is 

 thus long protracted, or that death suc- 

 ceeds merely from the decays and im- 

 pairment of old age. Diseases, a long and 

 melancholy train, cut the work short. 



The signs of death are in many cases 

 very uncertain. Between life and death 

 the shade is often so very undistinguisha- 

 able, that even all the powers of art can 

 scarcely determine where the one ends 

 and the other begins. The colour of the 



visage, the warmth of the body, and sup- 

 pleness of the joints, are but uncertain 

 signs of life still subsisting; while, on 

 the contrary, the paleness of the com- 

 plexion, the coldness of the body, the 

 stiffness of the extremities, the cessation 

 of all motion, and the total insensibility 

 of the parts, are but uncertain marks of 

 death begun. In the same manner, also, 

 with regard to the pulse and breathing ; 

 these motions are so often kept under, 

 that it is impossible to perceive them. 

 By bringing a looking-glass near to the 

 mouth of the person supposed to be dead, 

 people often expect to find whether he 

 breathes or not. But this is a very un- 

 certain experiment ; the glass is fre- 

 quently sullied by the vapour of the dead 

 man's body ; and often the person is still 

 alive, though the glass is no way tarnish- 

 ed. In the same manner, neither burn- 

 ing nor scarifying, neither noises in the 

 ears, nor pungent spirits applied to the 

 nostrils, give certain signs of the discon- 

 tinuance of life; and there are many in- 

 stances of persons who have endured 

 them all, and afterwards recovered with- 

 out any external assistance, to the as- 

 tonishment of the spectators. This ought 

 to be a caution against hasty burials, es- 

 pecially in cases of sudden death, drown- 

 ing, &.C. 



All our first associations with the idea 

 of death are of the disgustful and alarm- 

 ing kind ; and they are collected from all 

 quarters, from the sensible pains of eve- 

 ry sort, from the imperfection, weakness, 

 loathsomeness, corruption, and disorder, 

 where disease, old age, death, animal or 

 vegetable, prevail, in opposition to the 

 beauty, order, and lustre of life, youth, 

 and health, from the shame and contempt 

 attending the first, in many instances ; 

 whereas the last are honourable, as being 

 sources of power and happiness, the re- 

 ward of virtue, &c., and from the sympa- 

 thetic passions in general. And it is ne- 

 cessary, that the heedlessness and inex- 

 perience of infancy and youth should 

 be guarded by such terrors, and their 

 headstrong appetites and passions curb- 

 ed, that they may not be hurried into 

 danger and destruction before they are 

 aware. It is proper, also, that they should 

 form some expectations with respect to, 

 and set some value upon, their future life 

 in this world, that so they may be better 

 qualified to act their parts in it, and make 

 the quieter 'progress to perfection dur- 

 ing their passage through it. 



DEATH -watch, in natural history, a little 

 insect, famous for a ticking noise like the 

 beat of a watch, which the vulgar have 



