DIGIT 



1797 



DINGO 



Bile 



Chyle 



Chyme 



Fat 



Fletcherizing 1 



Gastric Juice 



Health Habits 



Intestines 



Liver 



Mastication 



Mouth 



Nutrition 



Pancreas 



Peptones 



Proteins 



Saliva 



Starch 



Starvation 



Stomach 



Sugar 



Taste 



Teeth 



DIGIT, dij'it, a word derived from the Latin 

 digitus, meaning a finger. It is now applied to 

 any one of the ten numerals from to 9. A 

 number of three figures, such as 134, is said to 

 consist of three digits. See ADDITION : MULTI- 

 PLICATION; DIVISION. 



In astronomy a digit is one-twelfth of the 

 diameter of the sun or moon. In measuring 

 an eclipse, if eight of the twelve divisions of 

 the surface are covered, it is spoken of as an 

 eclipse of eight digits. 



DIGITALIS , dij i ta ' lis, a genus of flowering 

 plants, the most common of which is the fox- 

 glove, a native of Great Britain but now 

 extensively cultivated in the United States and 

 Canada. The word is Latin, and means per- 

 taining to a finger. It is applied to these flow- 

 ers because they bloom in finger-shaped tubes, 

 or* bells. The leaves of the plant are used in 

 medicine, for they are specially valuable for 

 their influence upon heart action and the cir- 

 culation of the blood. The drugs extracted 

 from the leaves are known by various names, 

 such as digitalis, digitoxin, digitonin and digi- 

 tin. They should never be administered except 

 by a skilled physician, as their unwarranted 

 use may lead to severe poisoning .and some- 

 times to death. See FOXGLOVE. 



DIJON, dezhoN', the capital of the French 

 department of Cote d'Or, beautifully situated 

 in a fertile valley at the junction of the Ouche 

 and Luzon rivers, 195 miles southeast of Paris. 

 It has important manufactures of woolen goods, 

 hosiery, chemicals and paper, and is partic- 

 ularly noted for its production of mustard. 

 There are also tanneries, iron foundries and 

 cotton mills. The cathedral, a magnificent 

 Gothic building dating from the thirteenth 

 century, has a carved wooden spire 300 feet in 

 height. The city is strongly fortified, according 

 to beliefs entertained before the War of the 

 Nations changed opinions as to defenses. Dijon 

 was the stronghold of the dukes of Burgundy 

 from the eleventh to the fifteenth century, but 

 after the death of Charles the Bold in 1477 it 

 was annexed to France. Population in 1911, 

 76,847. 



DIKE. In the formation of the earth's 

 crust molten rock was occasionally forced to 

 the surface through crevices in stratified or 

 igneous rock, the latter being rock formed by 

 the action of heat. The molten rock cooled 

 and became solid, forming a rock harder than 

 that upon each side of it. Geologists have 

 given the name dike to these formations, it 

 being probably from a Greek word meaning 

 wall, or dam. Dikes vary in thickness from 

 a few inches to a hundred feet or more. The 

 rock in them being harder than that on either 

 side, the dikes in time form ridges as the sur- 

 rounding rock is worn away, and large dikes 

 often cause unevenness of surface. Dikes 

 should be distinguished from veins, which 

 sometimes contain ore. 



Artificial embankments for the purpose of 

 keeping a river in its channel or to protect 

 lowlands from the sea are also called dikes, 

 particularly in Europe. Holland has been 

 reclaimed from the sea almost entirely by 

 dikes, without which the North Sea would 

 inundate the country (see NETHERLANDS, THE). 



DILLON, JOHN (1851- ), an Irish agitator 

 and politician, from 1896 to 1899 the recog- 

 nized leader of the Irish Nationalists. He was 

 born and educated in Dublin, and entered Par- 

 liament as a member for Tipperary in 1880. 

 He was twice imprisoned for inciting the Irish 

 peasantry to violence, but stoutly held to his 

 plans for freeing Ireland from English domina- 

 tion. Ill health caused him to remain out of 

 Parliament for a few years, but he was re- 

 elected in 1885, and has been regularly re- 

 elected since. He visited the United States and 

 Canada on several occasions and received en- 

 couragement from various Irish organizations. 



DIMITY, dim'iti, a dainty cotton fabric 

 with a raised stripe or figure woven in the loom. 

 It is used for summer dresses, curtains and 

 covers in bedrooms, white being the common 

 color. A heavier quality is often colored and 

 used on furniture. The name comes from a 

 Greek word meaning made with a double 

 thread. 



DINGO, ding 'go, the name for the wild dog 

 of Australia, remarkable as the only dog that 

 exists both wild and domesticated in the same 

 country. These wild dogs hunt in packs and 

 are sometimes very destructive to herds of 

 sheep, and on this account are fast being ex- 

 terminated. In color the dingo ranges from 

 tawny to almost black. It stands two feet 

 high; its body is about two and one-half feet 

 long, its hair is rough and coarse, and the tail 



