511 



DIPHTHONG. 



DIRECTOIRE EXECUTIF. 



612 



and there is a fetid discharge from the nose and mouth. As the 

 sloughs separate from the fauces, haemorrhage frequently occurs. 



The general symptoms are those of low fever. The disease sets in 

 with shivering and intense depression, there is dryness and tingling of 

 the throat and ears, difficulty of swallowing, vomiting, and very fre- 

 quently headache. The tongue is loaded, the pulse is frequent and 

 feeble. In the early stages it might be taken for scarlet fever. But 

 there is no active fever, no eruption of the skin, no redness of the 

 papillae of the tongue, and when the patient recovers, no desquamation 

 of the cuticle, as is constantly the case in that disease. 



The prognosis in these cases is unfavourable. This disease generally 

 terminates life by extending to the air passages and producing effusion 

 in the glottis, which speedily terminates lif e. 



This disease is from the beginning attended with a great depression 

 of the vital powers, and its treatment demands that the vital processes 

 should be sustained. A purgative may be given at the onset, but in 

 most cases wine may be administered from the commencement of the 

 attack. Many writers also speak highly of the chlorate of potash 

 administered in the same way as in scarlet fever. To this may be 

 added the preparations of ammonia. Quinine has also been highly 

 commended, with the mineral acids. Many writers speak highly of the 

 tiucture of the sesquichloride of iron. The throat also requires local 

 treatment. Two remedies have been generally employed, nitrate of 

 silver and chlorine. The nitrate of silver is applied in the proportion 

 of one drachm to an ounce of water on a sponge several times in the 

 course of a day. Dr. Watson recommends injecting the uares with a 

 solution of chlorine in water. This relieves the fetid smell which is 

 very disagreeable to the patient and those around. The chlorate 

 of potash may also be given in a liuctus to lubricate the fauces, and 

 when swallowed to act on the system. 



Although this disease appears to arise where local causes predispose 

 individuals to its occurrence, there can be no doubt that it is a com- 

 municable disease. It frequently goes through a whole family, attack- 

 ing young and old. This is more especially the case in houses where 

 the veutilition is bad, and where the drains and water-closets have 

 been neglected. It seems especially active in houses with unemptied 

 cess-pools and uudrained privies. The disease is, however, com- 

 municated to those beyond these influences, and in many instances 

 nurses and medical men have been attacked with the disease after 

 attendance upon those who are atUiuted with it. When the disease 

 breaks out, the rest of the family should be removed from the house, 

 and its sanitary condition attended to. 



DIPHTHONG (Si'cfifloyyoj) is the sound of two vowels pronounced in 

 rapid is the German itu in uutiu, pronounced precisely like 



the English word tiviuse, the vowel sound consisting of the broad a of 

 father, followed quickly by the sound of u or uo. Again, the i in the 

 English word mind, though represented by a single character, is vir- 

 tually a diphthongal sound, consisting of the broad a of father, fallowed 

 by the vowel sound which is heard in mean. The name diphthong 

 however is commonly given to any vowel sound represented by the 

 junction of two vowels, as in dream, though the sound produced is not 

 compounded. 



All diphthongs are said to be long syllables ; and this would be true 

 if they were only employed to mark the union of two vowel sounds. 

 This probably was originally their sole office ; for in many English 

 words now written with diphthongs, but pronounced as if they had 

 single Towels, an earlier pronunciation contained the double sound ; 

 and indeed this view is often supported by the provincial pronunciation 

 of a word. For example, such words as meat, dream, boat, are pro- 

 nounced in many parts of England as disyllables, meat, dream, Loot. 

 In practice however a diphthong is often used where the vowel sound 

 is not only uncompounded but short, as in friend, breadth, 



Again, diphthongs are occasionally used to represent simple sounds 



intermediate between the vowels, as in the English word cough, the 



French fait and an, and the German sounds represented by ac, oe, uf, 



commonly written a, o, ii, where the dots placed over the vowels are 



,1 corruption of the letter e. 



Ill i'l.OMACY is a term used either to express the art of conducting 

 negotiations and arranging treaties between nations, or the branch of 

 knowledge which regards the principles of that art and the relui. 

 independent states to one another. The word conies from the Greek 

 diploma, which properly signifies anything doubled or folded, and is 

 more particularly used for a document or writing issued on any more 

 solfinn occasion, either by a state or other public body, because such 

 writings, whether on waxen tablets or on any other material, used 

 anciently to be made up in a folded form. The principles of diplo- 

 macy, of course, are to be found partly hi that body of recognised cus- 

 toms and regulations called public or international law, partly in the 

 treaties or special compacts which one state has made with another. 

 The superintendence of the diplomatic relations of a country has been 

 commonly entrusted in modem times to a minister of state, called the 

 Minister for Foreign Attain, or, as in England, the Secretary for 

 11 Affairs. Th<; different persons permanently stationed or occa- 

 sionally employed abroad, to arrange particular points, to negotiate 

 treaties commercial and general, or to watch over their execution and 

 maintenance, may all be considered as the agents of this superintending 

 authority, and as immediately accountable to it, as well as thence 

 deriving their appointments and instructions. For the rights and duties 



of the several descriptions of functionaries employed in diplomacy, see 

 the articles AMBASSADOR ; CHARGE D'AFFAIRES ; CONSUL ; ENVOY. 



DIPLOMATICS, from the same root, is the science of the know- 

 ledge of ancient documents of a public or political character, and 

 especially of the determination of their authenticity and their age. 

 But the adjective, diplomatic, is usually applied to things or persons 

 connected, not with diplomatics, but with diplomacy. Thus by diplo- 

 matic proceedings we mean proceedings of diplomacy ; and the corps 

 diplomatique, or diplomatic body, at any court or seat of government, 

 means the body of foreign agents engaged hi diplomacy that are 

 resident there. 



Among the most important works upon the science of diplomatics 

 are the following : Wicquefort's ' L'Ambassadeur et ses Fonctious,' 

 1764 ; Count Garden's ' Traite" complet de Diplomatic, par uu Ancien 

 Ministre,' 1833 ; Winter's ' Systeme de Diplomatic,' 1830. Among the 

 works relating to diplomacy is the collection of treatises by G. F. von 

 Martens, continued by C. von Martens, Koch, Scholl, Kliiber, and 

 P. A. G. von Meyer. 



DIPPEL'S OIL* Synonymous with bone oil. [BONE LIQUOR 1 



DIPTERAL. [GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE.] 



DIRECT and RETROGRADE, two astronomical terms, the former 

 of which is applied to a body which moves in the same direction as all 

 the heavenly bodies except comets ; the second to one which moves in 

 a contrary direction. The motions of the planets round the sun, of 

 the satellites round their primaries, and of the bodies themselves 

 round their axes, all take place in oue direction, with the exception 

 only of the comets, of which about one-half the whole number move 

 in the contrary direction. The course of these celestial motions is 

 always from west to east, which is the direct course. The retrograde 

 is therefore from east to west. The real diurnal motion of the earth 

 being direct, the apparent motion of the heavens is retrograde, so that 

 the orbital motion of the sun and moon has, so far as it goes, the effect 

 of lessening the whole apparent motion : or these bodies appear to 

 move more slowly than the fixed stars. With regard to the planets, 

 the effect of the earth's orbital motion combined with their own 

 makes them sometimes appear to retrograde more in the day than they 

 would do from the earth's diurnal motion only. [PLANETARY MOTIONS.] 

 In the Latin of the 1 7th century, the direct motion is said to bo in 

 'ntia, and the retrograde in atUeccdenlia. The most simple 

 way of remembering direct motion, is by recalling to mind the order 

 of the signs of the zodiac. From Aries into Taurus, from Taurus 

 into Gemini, &c., up to from Pisces into Aries, is direct motion; 

 while from Taurus into Aries, from Aries into Pisces, &c., is retrograde 

 motion. 



DIRECTION, a relative term, not otherwise definable than by 

 pointing out what constitutes sameness and difference of direction. 

 Any two lines which make an angle point in different directions; a point 

 moving along a straight line moves always in the same direction. Per- 

 manuiicy of direction and straightness are equivalent notions. A body 

 in motion not only changes its direction with respect to other bodies 

 but also the direction of other bodies with respect to it. 



The most common measure of direction, for terrestrial purposes, 

 refers to the north as a fixed direction, and uses the points of the 

 compass. But any lino whatever being drawn from the point of view, 

 the directions of all other points may be estimated by measuring the 

 angles which Hues drawn from them to the point of view make with 

 the standard line. 



When a point describes a curve, it cannot at any one moment be 

 said to be moving in any direction at all ; for upon examining the 

 basis of our notion of curvature, we find that it consists in supposing a 

 line to be drawn, uo three contiguous points of which, however near 

 are all hi the same straight line. But this is a mathematical notion' 

 which is contradicted in practice by any attempt at a curve which we' 

 can make on paper. For it is found that, as must be the case from the 

 proposition mentioned in the article ARC, when two points of a curve 

 are taken very near to each other, and joined by a chord, the widest 

 interval between the chord and the arc disappears or becomes imper- 

 ceptible long before the chord and arc disappear. Hence arises the 

 notion tliat a curve may in fact be composed of very small straight 

 lines, each of which has of course a definite direction. But though 

 such notion must be abandoned in geometry, yet it leads to the stricter 

 notion of a TANGENT [see also CONTACT], or of a straight line of which, 

 as soon as the term is explained, we unhesitatingly admit, 1, that if 

 a line moving on a curve be said to have a direction at all at any point, 

 the direction must be that of a tangent at that point ; 2, that it is 

 highly convenient to say that a point moving in a curve is moving in a 

 coiitiniuil/y varying direction. Hero, as in other cases [VELOCITY; 

 CURVATURE ; &c.], we obtain exactness by making definitions drawn 

 from the inexactness of our senses apply, not to the notions which first 

 gave them, but to the final limit towards which we see that we should 

 approach if our senses were mode more and more exact, but which at 

 the same time, we see that we should never reach as long as any 

 inexactness whatsoever remained. 



DIRECTOIRE EXECUTIF was the name given to the executive 

 power of the French republic by the constitution of the year 3 (1795), 

 which constitution was framed by the moderate party in the National 

 Convention, or Supreme Legislature of France, after the overthrow of 

 Robespierre and his associates. [COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY.] By 



