COS 



DIATESSARON. 



DICTIONARY. 



610 



crystalline, soluble in water, but insoluble in moderately strong alcohol ; 

 the aqueous solution is nearly tasteless, and without any chemical 

 action, not precipitating subacetate of lead. The aqueous solution 

 quickly changes, becoming acid ; dry diastase undergoes the same 

 change in a longer time, but when boiled in water the alteration is 

 immediate. Common malt is stated in general not to contain more 

 than l-500th of its weight of diastase ; one part of it is sufficient to 

 convert 2000 parts of starch, thickened with water, into a mixture 

 consisting of much dextrine and a little sugar. It haa not yet been 

 obtained absolutely pure. [FERMENT.] 



DIATESSARON, in Greek music, the interval of the fourth. 



DIATHERMANISM. A body which is transparent to light is 

 said to be diaphanous : one which is transparent to heat is said to be 

 diathermanous, and the branch of science which treats of such bodies is 

 called diathermanimi. Bodies which do not transmit heat, are said to 

 be athermanous. [HEAT.] 



DIATON'IC, in Music (Sia, through, and rims, a tone), a term applied 

 to the first of the three ancient genera, and of the three modern scales, 

 but in both cases rather improperly, because the intervals of the Greek 

 genus and of the scale now in use consist not only of tones, but also of 

 semitones. The Major Diatonic Scale of the moderns proceeds thus: 



H 



tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, temitonc. 



The Diatonic genus of the Greeks, as exhibited in their several model, 

 comprised five tones and two semitones, differently disposed : that of 

 the Lydian mode, according to Sir Francis Styles (' Transactions of the 

 Royal Society," 1760), corresponded, as regards the position of the 

 intervals, to our major diatonic scale. [SCALE.] 



I)1BKXZANILIDE. Synonymous with phenylvibcnzamine, diben- 

 'inide, and phenyl-dibtnzamide. [BENZOIC GROUP; Phenyl- 



<'/,.,.:./,.,/, '. 



DIBENZOYLIMIDE. (C M H,.,NO,). A yellow crystalline body, 

 obtained by the action of ammonia upon oil of bitter almonds. 



DIBENZOYLPHENYLAMIDE. [DIBENZANILIDE.] 



UIBROMANIUNE. [ANILINE.] 



DICETYLANILINE. [CETYL, Compound* of.] 



DICHLORANILINE. [AMILINE.] 



DICHLORISATIN. [INDIGO.] 



DICHROISM. When light is transmitted through a crystallised 

 body, and its colour is found to vary according to the position of its 

 axis with respect to the incident pencil of light, the crystal is said to 

 possess dichro'urm, or double colour, from Jij and xp& a - [LIGHT ; 

 POLARISATION.] 



DICTATOR was the highest extraordinary magistrate in the Roman 

 republic. Though the name obviously contains the element die (from 

 dim), it wax doubted by the Roman writers whether the title had 

 reference to the mode of his nomination or to his power. He was also 

 called by the old name of Magister Populi, and in Greek SIO-I/JTOTOJ, or 

 " double consul." After the expulsion of the kings the consulship wag 

 established. The two consuls possessed the game power as the kings 

 in the administration of the state and the command of the army, yet 

 their authority was subject to some restrictions, and principally by the 

 appeal that could be made from their decisions. [CONSUL.] The two 

 con-uls, possessing equal authority, often differed in their views and 

 opinions ; a circumstance which necessarily caused jealousy and dis- 

 union, particularly in the command of the army when on active service. 

 In extraordinary emergencies, the republic therefore required a single 

 magistrate, invested with ample authority. Such circumstances led to 

 the establishment of the dictatorship. The first dictator was created 

 about the year 253 A.U.C., or 501 B.C. (Liv. ii. 18.) 



The dictator united in himself the power of the two consuls ; and 

 the authority of all other magistrates, except that of the tribunes, 

 ceased as soon as he wag appointed. He possessed the whole admi- 

 nistrative power of the state, and the command of the army without 

 any restrictions. (Dion Cassius, according to Zonares, vii. 13, where a 

 reference to a lost book of Dion is given. Dion Halic., v. 70, 78.) He 

 had the power of life and death, and there was no appeal from his 

 decision. Both within and without the city he was attended by 

 twenty-four lictors, with their fasces and axes. The dictators were 

 not chosen, like the other magistrates, in the comitia, but they were 

 appointed by one of the consuls, in conformity with a vote of the 

 senate. Sometimes the senate itself appointed the dictator, and in 

 some instances he was elected by the comitia. At first he was taken 

 only from the patrician order, but afterwards (B.C. 356) also from the 

 plebeians. After his election, the dictator nominated the master of 

 none (magister equitum), who commanded under him. It was only 

 when the state was menaced by sudden danger from within or without 

 that a dictator was nominated ; but in the course of time a dictator 

 was elected to preside at the elections in the comitia, when the consuls 

 were abroad, and therefore could not preside ; and also on some other 

 public solemnities. (Liv. vii. 3 ; viii. 18 and 23.) The dictator con- 

 tinged in office for six months, but he commonly resigned as soon as 

 the danger was over which had led to the nomination. The dictator 

 was not allowed to leave Italy, or to enter the city on horseback. Yet 

 there are instances in which the dictator left Italy, as for example in 

 the first Punic War, when a dictator commanded in Sicily. The rule 



that he should continue in office only six months was also neglected ; 

 Sylla and Julius Csesar were nominated perpetual dictators, the former 

 in the year 81 B.C., and the other after his victory at Pharsalus. The 

 office seems never to have been filled from B.C. 202, to the time when 

 Sylla, the head of the oligarchical party, was made perpetual dictator. 

 J. Cjesar, who was the head of the democratic party, or perhaps rather 

 chose that party merely that he might, by being at the head of one of 

 the great divisions which distracted the state, prepare the way for his 

 own unlimited power, after being dictator five times, became dictator 

 for life. Augustus declined the office, though offered to him by the 

 people (Suetonius, ' Aug.' 52), and the title of dictator was never 

 assumed by the emperors of Rome. 



These are the received opinions as to the Roman dictators ; but in 

 Niebuhr's Roman history we find other views of the subject, to which 

 we shall briefly advert. According to him, the dictatorship was of 

 Latin origin and was introduced from the Latins among the Romans. 

 The object of the Roman dictatorship was to evade the Valerian laws, 

 and to establish the power of the patricians over the plebeians ; for 

 the appeal granted by those laws was from the sentence of the consuls, 

 and not from that of the dictator. The later Romans had but an 

 indistinct knowledge of the dictatorship of the ancient constitution. 

 Dion Cassius is in error, when (without excepting the patricians) he 

 asserts that in no instance was there a right of appeal from the dic- 

 tator, and that he could condemn knights and senators to death with- 

 out a trial. Dionysius is also in error, when he says, that the dictator 

 decided on every measure according to his own pleasure. It is incor- 

 rect to suppose that the appointment of the dictator in all cases rested 

 with one of the consuls ; for the conferring of kingly power (such as 

 that of the dictator was) could never have been intrusted to a single 

 person. The pontifical books have preserved so much as this, that the 

 dictator was nominated by the senate, and that the nomination was 

 approved by the people. As the plebeians increased in power, the 

 dictatorship was seldom required, and then only for matters of less 

 importance ; and in such cases the nomination was left to the consuls. 



(For a general sketch of the dictatorial power, the reader may con- 

 sult Creuzer, Abriss der Romixr/tui Anti'/'iff'tten, &c., Leipzig, 1824; 

 Niebuhr's chapter on the Dictator, and his Remarks on the Relationship 

 of the Dictator and the Master of the Hone, vol. i., Engl. Trans.) 



DICTIONARY, the English form of Dictionarium, a word of low or 

 modern Latinity, which from its etymology should signify properly a 

 book of phrases or modes of expression. The term however has been 

 generally applied to any work which professes to communicate infor- 

 mation on an entire subject, or entire branch of a subject, under words 

 or heads digested in the order of the alphabet. This alphabetical 

 arrangement appears to be the distinctive peculiarity of what is called 

 a dictionary ; but to constitute the work a dictionary, it should seem 

 that there must also be attached to each of the terms, so arranged, 

 some explanation or interpretation. Thus, an index, in which words 

 or titles are merely put down in alphabetical order, with nothing more 

 than a reference to some page or passage appended to each, is not a 

 dictionary. The alphabet itself is not a dictionary. Again, a dictionary, 

 however arbitrary or artificial may be the order in which its parts are 

 distributed, must profess some unity and completeness of design. It 

 must profess, as has been said, to go over a whole subject, or field of 

 knowledge, of greater or less extent. Thus a mere list of miscellaneous 

 particulars, even with explanatory remarks or comments annexed, is 

 not a dictionary, but a catalogue. A collection of plays or of pamphlets 

 might be arranged in the order of the alphabet, but would not on that 

 account make a dictionary. That name is not applicable, and is never 

 given, even to the most extensive enumeration and account of things 

 which are merely brought together, without constituting when collected 

 a natural system or complete body of knowledge. 



Within the limitations noted, the term dictionary is applied to works 

 on all kinds of subjects, and with every diversity of object. Diction- 

 aries have sometimes been divided into three classes or descriptions : 

 1. Dictionaries of words. 2. Dictionaries of facts. 3. Dictionaries of 

 things. And although objections may be made to the principle of this 

 distribution (as has been done by D'Alembert in the ' Encyclopedic,' 

 article Dictionnaire), it is sufficiently convenient for practical purposes, 

 and we shall therefore adhere to it in what we have now to say. 



I. Dictionaries of Words. This is the original application of the 

 word dictionary, and the sense in which it is commonly understood 

 when it stands alone. It answers in this sense to the Greek lexicon, 

 and although etymologically that term, like the term dictionary, ought 

 perhaps to signify a book of phrases or modes of expression, yet among 

 the Greeks it seems rather to have denoted a book that explains words. 

 A dictionary or lexicon, indeed, usually combines an explanation of 

 phrases with an explanation of single words. When it contains nothing 

 beyond an explanation or translation of single words, it is more dis- 

 tinctively called a vocabulary or word-book. The word vocabularium, 

 we believe, is not found in the Latin of antiquity, any more than 

 dictionarium. A glossary, in Latin I/I<HWH>-!HM, which is used by the 

 later classics, from the Greek glotta (y\uaffa), "a tongue " or " lan- 

 guage," is generally understood to mean an explanation, more or less 

 diffuse, of terms of unusual occurrence. Among the Greeks them- 

 selves, indeed, ylotia was used for a foreign or otherwise peculiar word 

 or form of expression. (Aristot., ' Poet.,' c. 38.) As there is nothing 

 n the etymology of the term glossary, however, to confine it to this 



