DEWEY 



1783 



DIABETES 



head, were steaming toward Manila Bay. On 

 May 1, 1898, he opened fire on the Spanish 

 fleet of ten war vessels and two torpedo boats, 

 and about noon of that day the last Spanish 

 flag had been hauled down and the entire fleet 

 destroyed. Not one American vessel was seri- 

 ously disabled; not one man had been killed 

 and only seven were injured. 



He was soon after appointed admiral by 

 President McKinley; Congress presented him 

 with a sword, and all of his men received 

 medals. On his return to New York in 1899 

 he received an ovation, and the people of the 

 country, through popular subscription, pre- 

 sented him with a residence in Washington. 

 In 1901 he was president of the Schley court 

 of inquiry and a year later was placed in com- 

 mand of all united squadrons and fleets of the 

 American navy. In 1908 he assumed the presi- 

 dency of the naval board of strategy. At the 

 time of his death he was the ranking naval 

 officer of the world, by seniority. 



DEWEY, JOHN (1859- ), a distinguished 

 American educator, philosopher and psycholo- 

 gist, who has attracted wide attention in the 

 educational field by his theory of "immediate 

 empiricism." According to this theory, things 

 are what they are as shown by experience, and 

 knowledge itself is a form of experience. Pro- 

 fessor Dewey, in his teaching, makes practical 

 applications of his views, and he belongs to 

 the same school of thought as the distinguished 

 American psychologist William James (which 

 see). 



He was born in Vermont and was graduated 

 in 1879 at the University of Vermont, receiv- 

 ing, five years later, a Ph.D. degree from Johns 

 Hopkins University. In 1888-1889 he was pro- 

 fessor of philosophy at the University of Min- 

 nesota, held a like position at the University 

 of Michigan from 1889 to 1894, and between 

 1894 and 1904 was director of the School of 

 Education at the University of Chicago. In 

 the latter year he was appointed professor 

 of philosophy in Columbia University. His 

 writings include, besides numerous contribu- 

 tions to periodicals, Study of Ethics, School 

 and Society, How to Think and Influence of 

 Darwin on Philosophy. 



DEX'TRIN, a sticky substance made from 

 starch, which it closely resembles in its chemi- 

 cal composition. Dextrin may be made by 

 adding dried malt to water heated to 70 or 

 80 F., and then adding starch (the propor- 

 tions being 10 parts malt to 100 parts starch), 

 heating the mixture to 140 and maintaining 



this temperature for about twenty minutes, 

 then raising it rapidly to the boiling point. A 

 syrup is formed, which when boiled down forms 

 a solid substance resembling glue. This is 

 dextrin. Dextrin is used for gumming post- 

 age stamps, for sticking the colors upon cloth 

 in calico printing, for making varnish and for 

 numerous other purposes. 



DIABASE, di'abase, a crystalline rock 

 composed of lime-soda, feldspar and pyroxene. 

 The feldspar usually appears in long, flat crys- 

 tals that radiate from a center like the spokes 

 of a wheel. When the grains of pyroxene are 

 large the rock has a mottled appearance. Some 

 diabase contains olivine in place of pyroxene, 

 and has a green color. 



In most diabase the crystals are so small as 

 to give it a massive appearance. It is a hard 

 rock, very heavy and compact. The copper- 

 bearing rock of Keweenaw Peninsula, Michi- 

 gan, is diabase. Other noted examples are the 

 Palisades on the Hudson River and the Hang- 

 ing Hills near Meriden, Conn. In many places 

 it occurs in dikes and veins. When it decays 

 it forms depressed soil and boulders. See 

 DIKE; BASALT; FELDSPAR; CRYSTALLINE ROCKS. 



DIABETES, diabe'teez, the name applied 

 to two types of a certain disease, both of 

 which are characterized by the daily passage 

 of an abnormal quantity of urine. Diabetes 

 insipidus attacks children principally, and is a 

 nervous ailment of a not very serious character. 

 Intense thirst and the excretion of an unusual 

 amount of urine are its characteristic symp- 

 toms. Diabetes mellitus is a serious disease of 

 more common occurrence. A victim of this 

 type of diabetes suffers from continual and 

 intense thirst, dryness of the mouth and lips, 

 loss of appetite, muscular weakness, emacia- 

 tion, altered sight and in some cases mental 

 disorder, such as indecision and melancholia. 

 Instead of the normal passage of about three 

 pints of urine a day, the diabetic passes from 

 twenty to thirty pints daily. The liver of 

 such a person does not properly carry on its 

 function of transforming starches and sugars 

 during assimilation, and as a result large quan- 

 tities of liver sugar, resembling grape sugar, 

 make their appearance in the urine. In many 

 cases disease of the pancreas is a feature of 

 diabetes. 



Diabetics rarely recover, though some live 

 for many years. In over half the cases death 

 results from coma. Consumption of the lungs 

 is a frequent cause of death; other possible 

 complications are neuritis and paralysis, various 



