DE P 



271 



DER 



with little teeth, applied to various ob- 

 jects, from their appearance. 



DEN'TICULE. In architecture. See DEN- 

 TALS. 



DENTIROS'TRES, a family of passerine 

 birds characterised by having the beak 

 emarginated on the sides of the point, 

 Whence the name from dens and rostrum, 

 a beak. The shrikes, thrushes, tanagers, 

 crown-birds and fly-catchers are exam- 

 ples. 



DENTTDA'TION, Lat. deiwdatio, a laying 

 bare ; applied, In geology, to those disap- 

 pearances of upper strata in particular 

 districts, by which lower strata are par- 

 tially exposed to view. 



DENTJDA'TUS, naked. In botany, applied 

 to the polish of bodies, being the reverse 

 of hairy, downy, &c. 



DE'ODAND. In law, Lat. deodandum, a 

 thing given or forfeited to God to appease 

 his anger (that is forfeited to the king to 

 fce applied to pious purposes), when a per- 

 son comes to a violent death without the 

 fault of any reasonable creature. Thus 

 if a cart run over a man and kill him it 

 is forfeited as a deodand. 



DEONTOI/OGY, SEX, due, and Koyos , dis- 

 course. The science of duty. 



DE-OXIDA'TION, ) depriving a substance 



DE-OXYDA'TION, ) of the oxygen which 

 it contains ; reduction from the state of 

 an oxide. 



DEPARTI'TION, from de and partior, to 

 divide; an old chemical name for the 

 process of separating metals. 



DEPAR'TURE. In navigation, from Fr. 

 dtpartir, to move from ; the easting or 

 westing of a ship in respect to the meri- 

 dian it departed from ; or it is the differ- 

 ence of longitude in miles, either east or 

 west between the meridian which the 

 ship is under, and that where the last 

 reckoning or observation was made. 



DEPHLEOMA'TIO.N, from de and phlegm 



S\. v.) ; the process by which liquids are 

 eprived of their watery particles : ap- 

 plied chiefly to spirituous liquids, and in- 

 volving the ak-hemistical notion of a par- 

 ticular principle called phlegm. 



DEPHLOOIS'TICATED, from de and phlo- 

 giston (q. v.) ; a term formerly applied by 

 chemists to bodies which were supposed 

 to be deprived of phlogiston or the inflam- 

 mable principle. Thus oxygen was called 

 dephlogisticated air, and chlorine dephlo- 

 gisticated muriatic acid. 



DEPIL'ATORY, from de and piliis, the 

 hair; a name for any substance capable 

 of removing hair from the human skin. 

 Thus a pitch plaster which on being 

 removed pulls the hairs along with it 

 by the roots, is a mechanical depilatory , 

 the chemical ones are composed either of 

 caustic alkalies, sulphuret of baryta, or 

 tome arsenical preparation, and act by 



destroying the roots of the hairs. They 

 are very unsafe. 



DEPLO'Y, from Fr. de and plo>jei-,to (Wd 

 i.e. to unfold. In miliiar* <acics,the ex- 

 pansion of a body of troops previously 

 compacted in column, &c., so as to offer 

 a large front. 



DEPO'NENT, from de and pono, to place. 

 1. In law, one who answers interroga- 

 tions under oath in Chancery. 2. In 



grammar, such verbs as have no active 

 voice are called deponents or deponent 

 verbs. 



DEPORTA'TION, from de and porto, to 

 carry ; a sort of banishment amoni? the 

 Romans by which the individual exiled 

 was sentenced to remain in some al- 

 lotted place under pain of death. 



DEPOSITION. 1. In geology, the subsi- 

 dence from a fluid of the different strata 

 which now form the crust of the earth. 



2. In surgery, the depression of the 



lens in the operation of couching. 



DEPRESSION, from deprimo, to press 

 down. The depression of the sun or of a 

 star is its distance at any time below the 

 horizon, measured by an arc of the ver- 

 tical circle. The depression of the pole is 

 the phenomenon which appears to an 

 observer as he travels or sails towards 

 the equator, the pole appearing to sink 

 as he recedes from it. The depression of 

 an equation is the reducing of such equa- 

 tion to a lower degree : thus a biquadratic 

 may be depressed (in particular cases) ta 

 a cubic equation, and the cubic equation 

 to a quadratic. 



DEPRIVA'TION, from de and privo, to 

 take away; an ecclesiastical censure by 

 which a bishop or other dignitary is de- 

 prived of his spiritual dignity. 



DEP'UTY, from Fr. dtputt ; a person ap- 

 pointed to act for another. In law, a 

 person who exercises an office in another's 

 right. One or more deputies sent to trans- 

 act business, either with a special com- 

 mission and authority, or with general 

 powers, constitute a deputation. The 

 Chamber of Deputies is the lower of the 

 two legislative chambers in France. 



DER'BYSHIRE SPAR, a fluate of lime, 

 named alsojtfuor spar, and found in great 

 beauty and abundance in Derbyshire. 



DER'ELICTS, from de and relinqiio, to 

 leave; things forsaken, as, 1. Tracts of 

 land left dry by the sea and fit for culti- 

 vation. 2. Goods relinquished b> the 



owner. Vessels forsaken at sea are like- 

 wise called derelict ships. 



DERMAT'OGRAPHY, 1 from Ssjtta, the 



DERMOG'RAPHY, ) skin, and <ygaifea, 

 to describe; the anatomical description of 

 the skin. 



DER'MATOID, ) from Sefita, the skin, 



DER'MOID, > and iT3f , like ; 

 bliug skin. 



