DIAGONAL SCALE 



1784 



DIAMOND 



skin diseases, kidney disorders, carbuncles and 

 gangrene. Dieting is the most satisfactory 

 line of treatment, and this must be carried on 

 under the direction of a physician who fully 

 understands the case. The diabetic must not 

 eat foods containing starch and sugar, or ajiy 

 food not readily digested. He must therefore 

 avoid potatoes, turnips, carrots, cauliflower, 

 peas, beans, apples, pears, oranges, gooseber- 

 ries, plums, peaches, cornflour, white bread, rice, 

 sago, tapioca, candy, pastry and sugar of any 

 kind. Meat, game, poultry, fish, green vege- 

 tables, cheese, butter, eggs and nuts are per- 

 missible, and in place of white bread he may 

 eat bran or gluten bread. W.A.E. 



DIAG'ONAL SCALE, a scale consisting of 

 a system of lines by means of which fractional 

 parts of a unit of measurement may be meas- 

 ured and laid down by compasses. In surveying 

 or laying out maps or plotting land this scale is 

 d 



DIAGONAL, SCALE 



of great assistance. The accompanying dia- 

 gram explains how the scale is used. The space 

 from a to b represents one inch, and the space 

 from a to c is also one inch. The square inch 

 contained within a b and a c is divided into 

 equal spaces by parallel lines. Each small 

 space represents one-hundredth part of a 

 square inch. One-hundredth part of a lineal 

 inch is indicated by the line passing from d 

 to b at the point where that line intersects the 

 line ej. Two one-hundredths of an inch will 

 be found at the intersecting point of the lines 

 above, and so on. If it is required to measure 

 one inch and two one-hundredths of an inch, 

 place one point of the compass at the point 

 marked 2. The other, being placed at the ( . ) 

 on the scale, will indicate the two one-hun- 

 dredths. Each vertical line indicates ten one- 

 hundredths of an inch. 



DIALECT, di'alekt, a term used in several 

 closely related senses, but most commonly 

 taken to mean the idiomatic language of a cer- 

 tain district or class, differing from that of 

 other districts or classes, or from the generally 

 accepted li'terary language (see IDIOM). In 

 early days, before the establishment of easy 





means of communication and before the inven- 

 tion of printing, people of a certain locality in 

 the course of years might so modify their 

 language that other people, living but a few 

 miles away and using what was originally the 

 same language, could not understand them at 

 all. This was once true in England, and is yet 

 to some extent, although the adoption of a 

 standard literary language has done much to- 

 ward doing away with the differences, and has 

 made them practically non-existent in the 

 speech of well-educated Englishmen. . 



Just as- Scotch is a dialect of the English 

 language, so English is, or was, a dialect of 

 the Germanic or Teutonic group of languages; 

 but it has changed so radically through the 

 centuries and established itself so firmly that 

 it is never thought of as a dialect. Students 

 of languages find much in the study of dialects 

 which is enlightening, for often through the 

 idioms of differing dialects derivations can be 

 traced and resemblances can be discovered 

 which could not be detected by an examination 

 of a language in the more stable form. 



"Dialect stories" are fiction which attempts 

 to gain "local color" by the use of the idiomatic 

 speech of the region with which it deals. Of 

 late years a prejudice has grown up against 

 such fiction, it being regarded as inartistic, and 

 it is true that the method may be carried too 

 far; but many of the best English novels make 

 large use of dialect. They employ the dialect 

 for the sake of the stories, however, instead of 

 making it the excuse for the stories. 



DIAMOND, di'amund, a precious stone of 

 wonderful luster and beauty, the most bril- 

 liant of all gems and the hardest substance 

 known to man. Bidding defiance to the rav- 

 ages wrought by time and wear, it holds a 

 supreme place among the jewels, and because 

 of its unconquerable hardness has become fig- 

 uratively the emblem of fearlessness and in- 

 vincibility. 



Origin. The exact conditions under which 

 diamonds are formed in the earth have not 

 yet been discovered. They were first found 

 in gravel and sands in streams, and later were 

 discovered deep in the earth. Mined diamonds 

 are found in ancient volcanic vents, which 

 seems to indicate that they have been violently 

 blown out of the interior of the earth by 

 volcanic action, or that they have formed 

 under the conditions of cooling lava. Recently, 

 scientists have discovered that by heating pure 

 prepared carbon and iron to intense heat by 

 electricity, then letting the mass cool suddenly, 



