DELPHINAPTERU8 



M:M AI.KS 



743 



tatue of Apollo. The modern tout! of Kaatri 

 now occupies the site of Delphi, in the neighlour 

 liiMiil of tlio source of the still (lowing Castalian 

 spring. Sec A. Momnisen's l),-//i/n/.n ( l,eip. 1878), 

 vol. iii. (Issinof Bouche-Leclerq's Hi stain- de la 

 Jiii'i nation iluns /' A ntiijutte, and the Corn/till 



lrl[ilim:i|>lrriiN. See BELUGA. 



Dolphin 4'lassirs. an edit inn of the Greek 



and Roman classics ((U (juarto volumes, 1674-1730) 

 prepared Ity fiirty-nine of the lest scholars of the 

 time, under the editorship, originally, of Bossiiet 

 ami llii"t, tutors to the dauphin, son of Louis 

 .\l\'. The title-pages bear the words, 'In UMIIII 

 Serenissiini Dclphini,' hence the name. Editions 

 in octavo of particular authors, as Virgil and 

 Horace, were often reprinted in England. The 

 Classics are now esteemed of little value. 



Delphiimke. See DOLPHIN. 



De I phi n in 111. See LARKSPUR. 



Delta is the alluvial deposit formed at the 

 inoutli of a river from the deposition of the particles 

 which it has held in suspension or rolled forward 

 upon its l>ed. The term was originally applied to 

 the tract of land thus formed ( mainly within 

 historical times) by the Nile, which, l>eing inclosed 

 by two main branches and the sea, has the form 

 of the Greek letter A, delta. The formation of 

 deltas depends more upon the absence of opposing 

 currents at the mouth of the river than upon the 

 quantity of sediment held in suspension when it 

 readies the sea. Deltas are consequently of almost 

 invariable occurrence in inland lakes, in the quiet 

 estuaries of the nearly tideless Mediterranean, and 

 in t lie sheltered bavs and gulfs of other seas. When, 

 on the other hand, there are strong ebb-tides, or 

 powerful oceanic currents, the detritus is carried off 

 into the sea. 



Delta Metal is an alloy consisting of copper 

 and /inc in other words, brass to which some 

 manganese has been added in the form of ferro- 

 manganese, or spiegel-eisen which contains man- 

 ganese. A little silicon is also used, but enough 

 of this is usually present in ferro-manganese. The 

 iron added by the use of these substances should 

 be kept small in quantity. Delta metal has 

 similar properties to phosphor-bronze, if, indeed. 

 some of it is not simply manganese-bronze. The 

 silicon and the manganese modify the properties 

 of copper in the same way as phosphorus does in 

 the case of pliosphor-bronze (see BHON/.K). Delta 

 metal is used for parts of machinery and for orna- 

 mental work. See the patents of G. A. Dick, the 

 inventor of delta metal, No. 5914, December 1883, 

 and No. 0172, April 1S84. 



Dellie. JKAX ANDRE, geologist and meteorolo- 

 ^st, was born at Geneva in 1727. Settling in Eng- 

 and in 177.S, he was appointed reader to l^in-en 

 Charlotte, a post which he retained till his death at 

 Windsor, 7tli November 1817. He was author of 

 thirteen works. 



Dcltltfe (through the French, from Lat. //i/u- 

 ri i/in, 'a Hood'). There is scarcely any consider- 

 able race of men among whom there does not e\i-t. 

 in some form, the tradition of a great deluge, which 

 destroyed all the human race except their own 

 progenitors. The classical story of Deucalion and 

 Pyrrlm is but a typical example of similar myths 

 found everywhere, and savages and fathers of the 

 church alike have argued that the shells, corals, 

 and other marine objects often found on the tope of 

 mountains, offered distinct proof of the historical 

 reality of a deluge. That the Noachian deluge 

 recorded in Scripture covered the whole earth and 

 destroyed all mankind save one family, was the 

 universal opinion until towards the close of the 18th 



f' 



la 



., -iii ins. and is maintained even in Ifc-iiri Buck- 

 lands Ji'itn/iniH ZMfMMMM (18*<J3). The organic 

 remains, on which the science of pahfoiiUilogjr ! 

 no\\ founded, were regarded OH UM wreck*, and were 

 held to prove that it had covered every known 

 country, and rbmn over the higheMt InlU. In the 

 progress of geology, it soon became evident that 

 most of the stratified rocks demanded an earlier 

 origin than a few thousand yearn, and the influence 

 of the deluge was consequently restricted to the 

 slightly altered superficial deposit - ; but many of 

 these were, after a few years, found to belong to a 

 period vastly anterior to any historical epoch, and 

 to have been pnxluced by long-continued and per- 

 sistent agencies, differing totally from a temporary 

 cataclysm. The more common modern opinion 

 regards the flood of Noah as partial and local, 

 although the universality seems fairly enough to 

 ! implied in the biblical description, and although 

 the old theory has been revived by Sir Henry 

 Howorth in his work, The Mammoth and the Flood 

 (1887). M. Lenormant, the most brilliant as well 

 as erudite of orthodox scholars, in his great posthu- 

 mous Histoire Anciennc de I' Orient, argues the 

 partial character of the flood from the absence of 

 all record of a deluge amori" the black races of the 

 world, as the negrws and Papuans ; and another 

 Catholic scholar, M. 1'Abbe Motais, in his interesting 

 and learned work, Le Deluge Bibliyue ( 1885), main- 

 tains that this opinion is quite consistent with the 

 exegesis of Scripture, with tradition, and the doc- 

 trine of the church, while it is the only theory that 

 avoids all the ethnological and linguistic difficulties 

 presented by the existence of the great negro and 

 yellow races marked off so distinctly from the 

 Noachian type. The deluge traditions of many 

 primitive races are connected with religious mys- 

 teries, and it is scarcely true, as has often been 

 asserted, that it is the Old Testament alone that 

 gives a moral reason for the deluge sent upon the 

 world. The Chaldean account discovered by G- 

 Smith presents a striking resemblance to the 

 Genesis story, and agrees with it also in making 

 the Hood distinctly a divine retribution for human 

 sin, although it of course differs from the Je\\ i-h 

 account in being jxdytlieistic instead of monothe- 

 istic. The vessel in which Xisnthros, the Chaldean 

 Noah, sails, is a ship guided by a steersman, and 

 others lieside his own family are admit ted into ii. 

 The flood is seven days at its height, and Xisuthros 

 sends out in succession a raven, a dove, and a 

 swallow. The ship finally rest* on Ho wand iz, the 

 highest mountain of Eastern Kurdistan, and the 

 peak which supports the heavens, instead of upon 

 Ararat, the northern or Armenian continuation of 

 the range. Babylonian tradition also confounds 

 Noah with Enoch, for Xisuthros is taken to the 

 skies immediately after coming out of the ark. 

 Two deluge poems were amalgamated together in 

 an Akkadian epic, in twelve books, describing the 

 adventures of Gizdhuhar. A translation of Hanpt's 

 version is given by Sayee in his Fresh Light fntm 

 the Ancient Muniimtn'ts ; and see Pi eM witch, On 

 Certain rhenoinnm Mtinging to the Clote of the 

 last GeoUnjical Period ( 18U5). 



De Limatico Inqiiirendo. See INSANITY. 



DelullKtlUUtf, a kind of Civet (q.v.). 



Delusion. See HALLUCINATIONS, li.u - 



Delvlno, a town of Albania, 4,*i miles \VN\\ 

 of Janini'., with a trade in oil and fruit. Pop. 6000. 



Dem ades :i " Athenian orator, who, a bitter 

 enemy to Demosthenes, promoted eagerly the 

 Macedonian interest, and was sent away in safety 

 by Philip when taken prisoner at Clueronea (338), 

 but had not the grace to be honest even in his 

 anti-natriotism, and was put to death for his 

 treachery by Antipater in 318. 



