633 



DILITURIC ACID. 



DIONYSIA. 



63-1 



Diligence is either against the person, by imprisonment, or against 

 the estate, by attachment and sale. The latter class is divided into 

 two kinds that against the heritable or real estate [ADJUDICATION], 

 and that against the moveable. This latter admits of a subdivision 

 into an attachment of property in the debtor's possession, called in the 

 ordinary case Poinding [PoiNDrNo], but where it is by a landlord for 

 rent, sequestration ; and an attachment, ill the hands of a person who 

 is owing money to the debtor or holds property belonging to the debtor 

 in his custody. [ARRESTMEXT.] Formerly diligence, in the greater 

 number of eases, proceeded on the clumsy fiction that the debtor, 

 being charged to pay in the name of the sovereign and refusing, was to 

 be denounced a rebel by a messenger at arms, who certified that he 

 performed the denunciation by three blasts of a trumpet, and it was 

 nominally as a rebel that his person or estate was seized. A more 

 simple and economical procedure has now been substituted. 



DILITURIC ACID. An acid, the existence of which has not been 

 fully proved, said to be produced by the action of boiling hydrochloric 

 acid upon alloxantine. 



DILUENTS comprise those liquids which are used to dilute the 

 fluids of the human body, and thereby modify their nature. They 

 are employed when the secretions are too viscid, or the contents of the 

 stomach, of the intestines, or any of the glands are too acrid, and 

 also when the heat of the body, as indicated by thirst, &c., is too 

 great, and causes a feeling of uneasiness. They manifest their bene- 

 ficial effects most quickly when the contents of the stomach or upper 

 part of the intestines require to be diluted, as in the case of many 

 poisons ; but they also reach the kidneys or skin in a very short time 

 after their introduction into the system, and render less acrimonious 

 the secretions of these organs. Their utility in allaying the thirst of 

 patients affected with fevers and other inflammatory complaints is 

 well known, and from such patients they ought never to be withheld, 

 as they were at one time, when erroneous notions on the subject pre- 

 vailed, as they not only mitigate the sufferings of the invalid, but often 

 determine to the skin, and cause a critical perspiration. It is equally 

 cruel and injurious to withhold drinks of a mild kind from dropsical 

 subjects, though they require to bo used by such persons in greater 

 moderation. 



Water is the simplest, and often the best diluent, but it may be 

 rendered more agreeable in Borne canes by being made into toast-water, 

 or by having acid or other substances added to it. Whey or butter- 

 milk are also agreeable diluents in many cases. The excessive use of 

 fluids at meal-times seems .to be hurtful to digestion ; and diluents 

 appear to be less proper for persons of a soft and lymphatic constitu- 

 tion than for the robust and sanguine. Children of a scrofulous con- 

 stitution do not prosper so well on a fluid as on a dry diet ; they 

 should therefore be allowed liquids in a very moderate degree, espe- 

 cially towards evening. A dry diet is rigidly enforced on all persons 

 training for athletic feats. 



DIMENSION (algebra), a term which is used In the same sense as 

 DEGREE. Thus z?y la of three dimensions or of the third degree. In 

 geometry, length IS of one dimension, surface of two, and solidity of 

 three. Thus geometry of three dimensions means solid geometry. 



DIMETHYLALLOXANTIN. [AMALIC AcU) ; CAFFEISE.] 



DI-METHYLAMIXE. [ORGANIC BASES.] 



DIM ETH Y LMUKKXID. [CAFFEINE.] 



DIMETHYLOXAMIDE. [OXAMIDE.] 



DIMETHYLPARABANIC ACID. [CAFFF.ISE.] 



DIMETHYL-UUEA. [UREA.] 



DIMORPHISM. [IsoMonn 



IMXAPHTYL-CARBAMIDE (0.^,^,0,). A derivative of car- 

 bamide prepared by the action of heat upon oxalate of naphtylamine. 



DIXAPHTYL-SULPHOCAHBAMIDE (C 45 H,,N S 2 ). An unim- 

 portant derivative of carbamide. It is dinaphtyl-carbamide in which 

 the oxygen is replaced by sulphur. [DlNAruTTL-CABDAMiDi:.] 



DIN ITKAXII.IXK. (C^H.jNO.V.N). [ANILISE.] 



IilXlTROIJKXZolC ACID. [B'lxiTuoBENZoic ACID.] 



] HMTROBEN ZOLE. [BENZOLE.] 



DIXITROETHYLIC ACID (N 2 C,H 5 3 ). An acid obtained in com- 

 bination with oxide of zinc by the action of zincethyl upon binoxide 

 of nitrogen. This acid may be regarded as a double equivalent of 

 binoxide of nitrogen (N 2 O f ), in which one atom of oxygen is replaced 

 by one of ethyl, the reaction being quite analogous to that by which 

 Wanklyn succeeded in producing propionic acid from sodium-ethyl and 

 carbonic acid. Dinitroethylic acid is therefore an analogue of pro- 

 pionic acid. The acid itself is very unstable, and many of its salts 

 dcflawate violently on exposure to heat. 



DIXITROPHEXYL-CITRACYNAMIC ACID (C 10 H.(C,,H,(N0 4 )J 

 NI ), i. A derivative of citric acid. 



Dl'OCESE (oW7j<m, diuiket'a, literally "administration"), in the 

 time of Constantino and afterwards was used to designate one of the 

 civil divisions of the empire; but it is now used only in reference to 

 istical affairs. A diocese is a district over which the authority 

 of a bishop extends. It is equivalent to BISHOPRIC. 

 OID.] 



I ) I ( ) X !'., an ocean-nymph, or female Titan, was, according to Homer 

 and Hesiod, the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys ; but some later 

 writers make her the daughter of Uranus and Ge. She was the mother 

 of Aphrodite by Zeus ; and Homer describes her as receiving Aphrodite 



in Olympus, after that goddess had been wounded before Troy, and 

 soothing her with the assurance that Diomedes should die early and 

 childless. (' Iliad,' b. v., 370-406.) Dione was worshipped in the 

 temples of Zeus, and had a grove dedicated to her at Lepreon, in the 

 Peloponnesus. She is often represented by Greek sculptors : usually 

 with a certain resemblance to Aphrodite, but of a fuller and more 

 matronly form. The beautiful statue in the second ' Gncco-Roman 

 saloon at the British Museum, commonly called the Townley Venus, is 

 by several authorities considered to represent Dioue, and it now bears 

 the inscription Aphrodit or Dione. 



. 



[Dione, or Aphrodite : from a marble statue in the British Museum.] 



DION Y'SIA (Aiovuffin), festivals held in honour of the god Dionysus. 

 The most important of such festivals, and those which alone deserve 

 to be specially mentioned, were held at Athens and in Attica ; and 

 these are important by reason of their being the occasions on which 

 all the dramatic exhibitions of the Athenians took place. Both the 

 tragedy and comedy of the Athenians arose ultimately from parts of 

 ceremonies, which prevailed in very early times among the Greeks, at 

 the festivals of Dionysus (Aristot. ' Poet.' 4. 14) ; and it is alike a con- 

 sequence and a proof of this origin, that the dramatic exhibitions and 

 contests among the Athenians, from the earliest to the latest times at 

 which we can trace them, always took place at some one of the Attio 

 Dionysia. 



These Attic Dionysia were four in number. Enumerated in the 

 order of time, according to the Attic year, they were : 1, the Lesser 

 or Rural Dionysia, held in the month Poseideon ; 2, the Lenoca, held 

 in the month Gamelion ; 3, the Anthesteria, held in the month Anthea- 

 terion ; and 4, the Great or City Dionysia, held in the month Elaphe- 

 bolion. They were held in four consecutive months, the first of 

 which, Poseideon, coincides with part of December and part of 

 January, and the last, Elaphebolion, with part of March and part of 

 April. 



We proceed to apeak of these festivals separately, and in the order 

 in which they occurred in the Attic year. 



1. TlieRural or Later Dianyiia, was a festival celebrated all over Attica, 

 the other three being confined to Athens. This appears to have been the 

 oldest of the Dionysia. It was a festival of the vintage, and though it may 

 appear to have been held somewhat late in the year (in the latter part 

 of December), it was not held later than the vintage now takes place; 

 in a more rigorous climate, in some of the vineyards producing the 

 Tokay wine. The Rural Dionysia were celebrated by means of sepa- 

 rate festivals in all the demos of Attica ; the expenses of these separate 

 festivals fell on the several demes and the performances, processions 



