I 





DISCLAI1 





this constitution the legislative power wmi entrusted to two council*, 

 on* of 500 members, and the other called " dm ancient," consisting of 

 250 member*. The election was graduated ; every primary or com- 

 munal aiuwmbly choM an elector, and the elector) thu* chosen assembled 

 in their respective department* to choose the members (or the legis- 

 lature. Certain j>rojerty qualifications were requisite fur an elector. 

 One third of the councils was to l renewed every two years. The 

 Council of Elders, BO called because the members were required to be 

 at least forty yean of age, had the power of refusing it* assent to any 

 bill that was sent t> it by the other council. Tin- executive power 

 was entrusted to five director* chosen by th. i '..ini.-:l <'f Klileni out of 

 a list of candidates presented by the Council of Five Hundred. One 

 of the fire director* was to be changed every year. The directors had 

 the management of the military force, of the finances, and of the home 

 and foreign departments : and they apix>inted their ministers of state 

 and other public functionaries. They had large salaries, and a tint imial 

 palace, the Luxembourg, for their residence, and a guard. The history 

 of the event) which took place during the four years of its existence 

 ill be found under BARRAS, and BONAPARTE, NAPOLEON, in the 

 Drv. 



D1KECTKIX. (L'atta rfirrrtnV, a directing line.) This term is 

 applied to any line (straight or curved) which is made a necessary part 

 of the description of any curve, no that the- position of the former must 

 be given before that of the latter is known. Thus in the question, 

 " required the curve described by a point in a straight line the two 

 end* of which must be on two fixed straight lines," the two fixed lines 

 are directrices. Custom has sanctioned the special application of this 

 term to lines connected with a few curves, and particularly with the 

 ellipse, hyperbola, parabola, and conchoid of Nicomedes. But in reality, 

 with the exception of the circle, there can be no curve which is without 

 one or more lines to which the name of directrix might be given. 



D1ROE, in music, a hymn for the dead, a funereal song. This word 

 is a contraction of JHriyr, the first word of the antiphona, " Dirige, 

 Domine Deus," chanted in the funeral service of the Roman Catholic 

 Church. The abbreviation seems to have crept into use about the 

 middle of the 16th century. 



DISABILITY (Law), an incapacity in a person to inherit lands or 

 enjoy the possession of them, or to take that benefit which otherwise 

 he might have done, or to confer or grant an estate or benefit on or to 

 another. All persons who are disabled from taking an estate or benefit 

 are incapable of granting or conferring one by any act of their own, 

 but many persons who are by law incapable of disposing of property 

 may take it either by inheritance or gift. 



Disability is ordinarily said to arise in four ways : By the act of the 

 ancestor ; by the act of the party himself ; by the act of the law ; or 

 by the act of God. 



By the aft of the ancestor, as where he is attainted of treason or 

 murder, for by attainder his blood is corrupted, and his children are 

 made incapable of inheriting. But by the stat. 3 & 4 Will. IV., c. 106, 

 $ 10, this disability is now confined to the inheriting of lands of which 

 the ancestor is possessed at the time of attainder ; in all other cases a 

 descent may be traced through him. 



By the act of the party hinudf, as where a person is himself attainted, 

 outlawed, Ac., or where, by subsequent dealings with his estate, a 

 person has disabled himself from performing a previous engagement, as 

 where a man covenants to grant a lease of lands to one, and, before he 

 has done so, sells them to another. 



/};/ the act of laic , as when a man, by the sole act of law without any 

 default of his own, is disabled, as an alien born, 4c. 



By the ad of d'od, as in cases of idiotcy, lunacy, &c., but this last is 

 properly a disability to grant only, and not to take an estate or benefit 

 for an idiot or lunatic may take a benefit either by deed or will. 



There are also other disabilities known to our law, as infancy, and 

 coverture ; but these also are confined to the conferring of interests. 



Married women, acting under and in conformity to POWERS, and 

 formerly by fine, but, since the 344 Will. IV., c. 74, by deed executed 

 under the provisions of that statute, may convey lands ; and infants, 

 lunatics, and idiots, being trustees, and not having any beneficial 

 interest in the lands vested in them, are by various statutes enabled to 

 dispose of them under the direction of the Court of Chancery. 



(articular disabilities also are created by some statutes; as, for 

 instance, Roman Catholics, by the 10 Geo. IV., c. 7 (the Emancipation 

 Act), are disabled from presenting to a benefice ; and foreigners 

 although naturalised) cannot hold offices, or take grants of land under 

 the crown. [DE.MZEX.] (Cowel's ' Interp. ; ' ' Termes de la Ley.') 



DISA< T.Y I- An JM.meric modification of Aruoi 



]>Isl;ri)|)ING, in horticulture, consists in removing the buds of a 

 tree before they have had time to grow into young branches, 

 species of pruning which has for its object not only training, but also 

 economy with regard to the resources of a tree, in order that there 

 mar be a greater supply of nourishment for the development of those 

 buds which are allowed to remain. 



If the root* are capable of absorbing a given quantity of nutritive 

 matter for the supply of all the buds upon a stem, and if a number of 

 those bud* be removed, it must be evident that those which remain 

 will be able to draw a greater supply of sap and grow more vigorously 

 than they otherwise would have done. This fact has furnished the 

 idea of disbudding. 



This kin. I ctf pruning has been chiefly applied to peach and n< 

 trees, but the same principle will hold good ith all ..ihi-r.- <>f a similar 

 and might be practised upon them if they would repay 

 the labour so expended. 



The French gardeners about Montreuil and in the vicin 

 Paris hare carried this practice to a great extent, and with consider- 



methods have been described by Dr. NVill, the 

 secretary of the Caledonian Horticultural S* ii-ty. in' his hortict 

 tour. In one of them, termed A la Sieullr, and invented by Simile. 

 gardener at Vaux Praslin, near Paris, the training is made to depend 

 entirely upon the exactness of disbudding. 



The j>eculiarity of Sieulle's method is as follows : After the stock 

 has been budded, two branches are trained at full length to a trellis or 

 wall : late in autumn or in winter all the buds, with the exception of 

 four on each shoot, are neatly cut out, or disbudded ; these four in 

 their turn form shoots in the succeeding summer, which are cut down 

 to about one-third of their length in autumn, and also disbudded in 

 the same manner as the two principal branches of the preceding year. 

 This kind of pruning being always performed prevents a superfluous 

 development of buds and the consequent necessity of cutting them 

 out as branches in the following season. Du Petit Thouars, whose 

 opinions are entitled to much respect, passes a high eulogium upon 

 this system of Sieulle : he says, " by this method the young 

 more quickly brought to fill it place upon the espalier ; it is after- 

 wards more easily kept in regular order : many poorer flower-buds are 

 allowed to develop themselves, but the necessity of thinning the fruit 

 is thus in a great measure superseded, and the peaches produced are 

 larger and finer." 



Dumoutier's system of disbudding is somewhat different from that of 

 Sieulle. Instead of performing this operation late in the autumn, 

 he defers it until spring, when the buds are unfolded : all those upon 

 the young shoot of the previous year, with the exception of the lowest 

 and the one above the highest blossom, are then carefully removed ; 

 of the two which are left, the first is termed the bourgeon de remjJacc- 

 ment for the next year, and the Litter is allowed to remain to draw up 

 the sap for the maturing of the fruit. This method of pruning, as far 

 as disbudding is concerned, is precisely the same as that practised by 

 Seymour, of Carleton Hall, in England. 



It must not be thought, however, from this statement that the 

 training of Dumoutier and Seymour is the same, or that their trees 

 assume precisely the same appearance : for example, Dumoutier's 

 branches proceed from two principal arms, Seymour's from one in the 

 centre : in the system of the former, the fruit-bearing branches are on 

 both sides of the old wood ; while in that of the latter they are only 

 allowed to grow from the upper sides. 



Disbudding in spring is frequently and beneficially practised by 

 many intelligent gardeners, both in England and Scotland, upon 

 English fan-trained peach-trees, with a view to thinning the young 

 wood, taking care to leave enough for the production of fruit in the 

 following year. 



When spurious buds can be removed from peach or nectarine trees 

 before development, with the certainty of those succeeding which are 

 I to remain, it must be of material consequence, as the latter 

 will not only be better supported, but will also receive a greater 

 quantity of light, so essential to mature and ripen the young wood. 

 Unfortunately, however, Sieulle's plan cannot be practised with any 

 degree of success in England ; those buds which arc left, and upon 

 which BO much dependence is placed, often do not grow; a vacancy is 

 the consequence, and the tree is deformed. The climate of Mouticuil 

 is much more favourable to the growth of the peach-tree than 

 that of Britain; and although the winters of Paris arc sevci 

 the mean degree of summer heat is much greater there than in 

 any part of England ; and perhaps the peculiar nature of the soil 

 renders peach-trees much more yielding to art there than in this 

 country. 



For these reasons, however useful the plan of disbudding in autumn 

 or winter may be in the gardens of France, it would be improper to 

 practise it to any extent in those of England. 



It has, however, been proved that a judicious thinning of the 

 buds after they have been unfolded in spring (when an exper 

 individual can foresee the strength of those which he is about t<i 

 leave, and to which he looks for his fruit in the following year), is of 

 great utility. 



1 1 ISC (diicat, Slaitot), is used for the face of a circular plai 

 frequently for a thin plate of any substance. Thus we t-jicak of the 

 sun's disc (referring to the npprai.-.in c of the sun), and also of a disc 

 of metal. 



DISCIPLINE, MILITARY, the series of duties which are to be 

 performed by military men. It also signifies a conformity to the regu- 

 lations by which those who serve in the army arc governed in all 

 i s relating to the practice of their profession. 



I'lsrl.AIMKK. A plc.-i l.y a tenant in any Court of Record in 

 which he disclaims to hold of hix lord, which operates us a forfeiture 

 of the lands to the lord upon reasons most apparently feudal. So if 

 the tenant does any act which amounts to a disclaimer, as if he claims 

 a greater . -t.it. than was granted to him, or affirms the rever 

 be iu a stronger, siwh behaviour amounts to a forfeiture The writ of 



