311 



DIGITALIS. 



DILLENIACE/E. 



343 



subsequent alteration in the intestinal canal ; so that they are 

 discharged among the faeces as completely useless." 



The chyme upon quitting the stomach passes into the duodenum 

 where it mingles with the Bile [BILE] and Pancreatic Juice. [PAN 

 CREATIC JUICE.] These fluids are not merely excretions, but exercise 

 an influence upon the mass of chyme with which they are mingled 

 A part of the bile is probably taken up again into the system ; anc 

 from the experiments of Barnard it would appear that the function 

 of the pancreatic juice is to render the oily matters of the fooo 

 miscible and fit for absorption. 



After mixture with these fluids a spontaneous change takes place 

 in the chyme. It separates into a whitish tenacious fluid termed 

 Chyle, and into a gray pulp ; the first is the nutritive part of the 

 food, the second is its excrementitious portion. If fat or oil, whether 

 of vegetable or animal matter, have formed part of the aliment, the 

 chyle is of an opaque white colour, if not, it is of a grayish colour. 

 It differs in its chemical character from chyme ; for chyme is acid, 

 chyle on the contrary is alkaline. 



The following is the composition of the chyle, according to an 

 analysis by Dr. G. 0. Kees : 



Water 90'237 



Albuminous Matter (coagulable by heat) . . . . 3'516 

 Fibriiious Matter (spontaneously coagulable) . . . 0'370 

 Animal Extractive Matter (soluble in water and alcohol). 0'332 

 Animal Extractive Matter (soluble in water only) . . 1 '233 



Fatty Matter 3'601 



Salts : Alkaline Chloride, Sulphate, and Carbonate, "I 

 with traces of Alkaline Phosphate, Oxide of Iron / ' 



0711 



100-000 



The chyle, together with the excrementitious portion of the food, 

 is slowly transmitted along the small intestines. The progress of 

 the chyle is rendered slow, partly by its own tenacity, in consequence 

 of which it adheres with some degree of firmness to the villi, and its 

 progress is still farther retarded by the val vulaj conuiventes, which 

 act as partial valves. [INTESTINES, SMALL.] In its course through 

 the small intestines the chyle gradually disappears, being absorbed 

 by the lacteal vessels, so called from the milk-like fluid they contain. 

 The lacteals commence on the surface of the villi. [LACTEALS,] 

 Loaded with chyle, the lactuals penetrate the coats of the intestine, 

 pass between the layers of the mesentery [MESENTERY], and enter 

 the first order of mesenteric glands. In the inesenteric glands the 

 lacteals unite freely with each other, and become exceedingly convo- 

 luted. On emerging from these glands the lacteals pass, still between 

 the layers of the mesentery, on to the second order of mesenteric 

 glands, which they enter, and in which they present the same convo- 

 luted appearance as in the first order. On emerging from the second 

 order of mesenteric glands, the lacteals pass on to the receptacle of 

 the chyle, which forms the commencement of the thoracic duct. 

 [THORACIC DUCT.] In the receptacle of the chyle terminates another 

 system of absorbent vessels, termed lymphatics, from the colourless 

 and pellucid fluid, called lymph, which they contain. [LYMPH.] From 

 the receptacle of the chyle the chyle and lymph commingled flow 

 into the thoracic duct, by which tube they are transmitted through 

 the abdomen and thorax to the left subclavian vein, where they are 

 mixed wittuvenous blood. Together with the blood contained in this 

 great vein, the chyle and lymph are sent by a direct and short course 

 to the lungs. 



The result of the successive changes thus wrought upon the food 

 by these progressive steps of the digestive process, is to approximate 

 the crude aliment more and more nearly to the chemical condition of 

 the blood. [BLOOD.] " This is accomplished partly by the gastric 

 and intestinal juices, and partly by matters combined with the food, 

 highly animaliscd in their own nature, and endowed with assimilative 

 properties, as the salivary secretion mixed with the food during 

 mastication ; the pancreatic and biliary secretions mixed with the 

 food during the conversion of chyme into chyle; the meseuteric 

 secretions mixed with the elaborated chyle of the mesenteric glands ; 

 and, lastly, organised particles, which have already formed a part of 

 the living structures of the body, mixed with the chyle under the 

 form of lymph in the thoracic duct" 



(Valentin, Tt.rt-Snok of Phytioloyy, translated by Brinton ; Carpenter, 

 Manual of Human Physiology; Muller, Physiology, translated by Baly.) 



DIGITA'LIS, a genus of Exogenous Plants belonging to the 

 natural order Scrophulariacea. It is distinguished by its 5-parted 

 leafy calyx, its irregular funnel-shaped inflated corolla with an oblique 

 limb, the upper lip of which is short and 2-lobed, the lower 3-lobed, 

 and its ovate acuminate capsule, splitting into 2 many-seeded valves. 

 The flowers in all the species are arranged in long racemes, are either 

 yellow, purple, or brown, and generally showy ; the leaves alternate 

 upon a round herbaceous stem. 



D. purpurea, Foxglove, is found all over the west of Europe, 

 especially in England and France. It is a very handsome species, 

 with large purple or white flowers. It is a biennal, with oblong 

 stalked scalloped wrinkled leaves, gray with hairs, and a stem about 

 two feet high, also covered with a close soft nap. The purple or 

 white pendulous flowers ore above an inch and a half long, and are 

 arranged ill one-sided racemes ; in the inside of their corolla, on the 



lower lip, they are bearded with long hairs, and gaily spotted with 

 blackish-purple specks. There are four didynamous stamens, shorter 

 than the corolla, with large smooth anthers, 2-lobed at the base. 



The energetic stimulating acrid narcotic properties of this plant 

 have caused it to be extensively employed medicinally. For its 

 action and properties, see DIGITALIS, in ARTS. AND So. Div. 



There are about 25 species of this genus; most of them are 

 showy garden flowers. The only one which is truly a British plant is 

 the one described. 



DIGITA'RIA, a genus of Grasses belonging to the tribe Pantcece. 

 It has fingered spikes, the spikelets in two rows on one side of a 

 flattened rachis, unarmed, 1-flowered, with an inferior rudiment ; the 

 glumes 2, lower very small, upper 3-nerved ; the sterile flowers of 

 one 5-7 nerved palea,, resembling the upper glume and equalling the 

 flower. This genus has obtained its name from the singular form of 

 its heads of flowers, which look like fingers. Two species are 

 described as natives of Great Britain. D. sanyuinalis was formerly 

 found in Battersea Fields, near London, but is not a true native. It 

 has the leaves and sheaths hairy, the flowers oblong-lanceolate, 

 glabrous with downy margins. It is a common plant in Germany, 

 and has obtained its specific name from an idle trick which the boys 

 in some parts of Germany have of pricking one another's noses with 

 its spikelets till they bleed. It abounds by the roadsides in Poland 

 and Lithuania, in which countries its seeds are collected, and boiled 

 whole like rice with milk, and is esteemed as a pleasant article of diet. 

 The other species is D. humifma. It has leaves and sheaths glabrous, 

 flowers elliptical and downy, with glabrous nerves. This is a rare 

 plant, and grows in sandy fields. Is is a true native in many parts of 

 England. (Babingtou, Manual; Loudon, Encyclopedia of Plants.) 

 DIGITIGRADES. [CAHNIVORA.] 



DIGY'NIA, a systematic name given by Linnaeus, in his artificial 

 system, to such plants as have two styles, or a single style deeply 

 cleft into two parts. 



DILL, the common name of a species of Ane/hutn. The genus 

 Aiiethum belongs to the natural order Umbelliferce. It has the 

 following characters : Calyx obsolete ; petals roundish entire, invo- 

 lute, with a squarish retuse lobe ; fruit lenticular, flattened from the 

 back, surrounded by a flattened border; half-fruits (mericarps) with 

 equidistant filiform ridges, the 3 dorsal acutely keeled, the 2 lateral 

 more obsolete, losing themselves in the border ; vittsc broad, solitary, 

 filling the whole channel, 2 on the commissure. The species are 

 annual plants, with upright smooth stems. Leaves much dissected, 

 with setaceous linear segments. The flowers are of a yellow colour, 

 and there is no involucre. 



A . graveolent, the Common Dill, has the fruit rather more than two 

 lines long, oblong, bright shining brown and convex at the back, paler 

 and again convex at the edge, which is separated from the back by a 

 deep hollow ; dorsal ridges sharp, filiform, elevated, very distinct but 

 fine ; the commissure dull grayish-brown, with the tumid vittse only 

 indistinctly seen. 



The fruit of the Dill, like that of many of the order, is carminative 

 and stimulant. It may be taken with food as a condiment, but is 

 more frequently employed for making a distilled water, for which 

 there is a great demand in the nursery. Whether its popularity as a 

 domestic carminative for children is dependent on any specific power 

 is doubtful, and it is more than probable that other stimulants would 

 act as favourably. 



A. Sowa is a species found in the East Indies. It has properties of 

 the same kind, but more powerful than the last, and is employed in 

 Hindustan as an ingredient in curries. 

 (Lindley, Flora Medico.) 



DILLENIA, a genus of Plants, the type of the natural order 

 XHlleniacece. The young calyces of D. scabrella and D. speciosa have 

 a pleasant taste and are used hi curries by the inhabitants of Chitta- 

 jjoug and Bengal. Several species of Dillenia, are large trees, and 

 afford hard durable nnd valuable timber. 



DILLENIA'CEvE, a natural order of Plants belonging to Poly- 

 petalous Albuminous Exogens, and related on the one hand to Mar/no- 

 liacece, on the other to Ranunctdacece and to Annnaceip. They are 

 briefly characterised by having 5 sepals in a broken whorl ; 5 

 petals ; an indefinite number of stamens ; a definite number of 

 ovaries, which are either quite distinct or more or less consolidated ; 

 berried or capsular and 2-valved fruits ; seeds surrounded by a pulpy 

 aril ; and, finally, a minute embryo lying in solid fleshy albumen. 

 Differentially considered, Dilleniaceous Plants are distinguished from 

 Auonaceac by their flowers being arranged upon a quinary, not 

 ternary, type, by their albumen being solid, and not ruminated, and 

 by their want of aromatic properties; from Magnoliacere by their 

 want of stipules, and the presence of a pulpy aril round the seeds. 



The plants of this order are chiefly Asiatic trees or shrubs, and 

 usually yellow-flowered. A few occur in America. The trees are 

 found in the woods of tropical India ; the bushes inhabit Australia, 

 especially in the more temperate parts, and in China ; the woods of 

 Brazil contain several kinds, usually climbers or having a trailing 

 labit. They appear to possess astringent properties, but nothing 

 'urther of importance. 



The species in cultivation in this country are almost all Austral- 

 asian, and have something the appearance of yellow-flowered Cistunts. 



