DEL 



DEL 



DELIMA, in botany, a genus of the 



Polyandii.i Monogynia class and order. 

 Natural order of Itosacca.-, Jiissieu. Es- 

 sential character : calyx five-leaved ; co- 

 rolla none; berry with two seeds. There 

 is hut one species, viz. D. sarmcntosa, a 

 native of'C. \ Jon. 



1)111. Kit ESCENCE, in chemistry, a 

 term to certain saliiu- bodies that have 

 become moist or liquid, by menus of the 

 water which they absorb from t'.ie at- 

 niosphere, in consequence of their great 

 attraction of water. When the salt has, 

 b\ i- x post i re to air, become so far deli- 

 '1 as to be in a liquid state, it is 

 said to be in the state of deliqu'min. 

 Hence, alkali, reduced by this means to 

 a liquid Mate, was formerly denominated 

 oil of tartar perdeliquiiim. 



DEIJltll'M. in medicine, the produc- 

 tion of ideas not answerable to external 

 from an internal indisposition of 

 the brain, attended with a wrong judg- 

 ment following from these ideas, and an 

 utVi rtion of the mind and motion of the 

 body accordingly; and from these in- 

 rrcasrd through various degrees, either 

 alone or joined together, various kinds 

 of deliria are produced. 



DKI.IVEUY, cldld-birth. See Min- 

 WIKKIM . 



DKI.l'HIM'M. in botany, larkspur, a 

 genus of the Polvandria Trigynia class 

 and order. Natural order of Multisiliquae. 

 Ranuriculacez, Jussieu. Essential cha- 

 racter : calyx none ; petals live ; nectary 

 cloven, produced into a horn behind ; si- 

 liques three or one. There are eleven 

 species. These are mostly hardy annuals 

 or perennials. The lower leaves digi- 

 tate or palmate : the upper less divided, 

 and sometimes even entire. The flowers 

 are in loose panicles at the ends of the 

 stem and branches, of various colours, 

 but chiefly blue. 



DELPH1NUS, the d^fi/iin, in natural 

 history, a genus of Mammalia of the or- 

 der (,'et;c. (Jencric character : teeth in 

 each jaw i spiracle on the head. Shaw 

 enumerates six species, and (imelin four. 

 C. phocxna, or the porpesse, is the most 

 abundant of cetaceous animals, and is 

 found particularly in the European seas, 

 whence it often advances very nearly to 

 the mouths of considerable rivers. Its 

 general length is from five to eight feet. 

 Porpcsscs are gregarious, and frequently 

 seen fn>licking on the water, and playing 

 their uncouth gambols, more especially 

 in bu .'id tempestuous wea- 



ther. They feed principally on smaller 

 tishes, and pursue the shoals of herrings 



VOL.. IV 



and mackrel with apparently unwearied 

 vigour and insatiable appetite. 

 are covered immediately under the skin 

 with a fatty substance of considerable 

 thickness, and which produces a large 

 quantity of oil. The porpesse was for- 

 merly considered, not merely as eatable, 

 but as a species of luxury, being served 

 up at noble and royal tables. Buch, how - 

 ever, are the revolutions of taste, that by 

 the least fastidious appetite this food is at 

 present decidedly rejected. 



I), delphis, or the dolphin, has the 

 same general habits and appearance with 

 the preceding, but is considerably longer, 

 measuring occasionally even ten feet. It 

 abounds both in the Pacific and Euro- 

 pean Seas, and its appearance is in gene- 

 ral preliminary to a tempest. It not only 

 pursues and attacks small fish, on which 

 indeed it subsists, but assails the whale 

 itself, ajid is stated to have been seen 

 firmly adhering to whales as the}' have 

 leaped from the water. The ancients 

 appear to have had almost a superstitious 

 attachment to this animal, and relate va- 

 rious anecdotes of it, implying a peculiar 

 susceptibility of gratitude and affection, 

 a strong attachment to mankind, and a 

 rapturous fondness for music. In natural 

 historv, however, the ancients were 

 more fanciful than accurate, and com- 

 pared with the moderns were as dwarfs 

 to giants. The porpesse, though natu- 

 rally straight, swims in a crooked form -. 

 and the dolphin is said, by Linnaeus, to 

 be crooked only when it leaps : Shaw 

 thinks it assumes this form also in swim- 

 ming. See Pisces, Plate III. fig. 5. 



D. orca, grampus. This is one of the 

 most ravenous and formidable inhabitants 

 of the ocean. It is found both in the At- 

 lantic and the Mediterranean, in the north- 

 em and the southern se:.s, and is about 

 tv. i Ive feet broad, and twenty-four in 

 length. It prc\s both upon the po: 

 and dolphin, as well as upon smaller fish. 

 It frequently attacks seals, e\en on the 

 uncovered rocks, dislodgiiv. 

 destroyiug them by its dorsal fin. Hut it 

 is particularly and irreconcileably hostile 

 to whales, which it attacks without the 

 slightest hesitation, and often fastens 0:1 

 with the most persevering and destruc- 

 tive tenac 



DEI. I (.E, an inundation, or overflow- 

 ing of the earth, either wholly or in part, 

 by w atcr. 



\\ e . .'. deluges recorded in 



history; as that of <>gyg<% which over- 

 flowed almost all - and that of 

 Dei. eali. MI. which drowned all Thessaly, 



I 



