DEL 



DEL 



DELIMA, jn botany, a genus of the 

 Polyandria Monogynia class and order. 

 Natural order of Rosaces, Jussieu. Es- 

 sential character : calyx five-leaved : co- 

 rolla none ; berry with two seeds. There 

 is but one species, viz. D. sarmentosa, a 

 native of Ceylon. 



DELIQUESCENCE, in chemistry, a 

 term to certain saline bodies that have 

 become moist or liquid, by means of the 

 water which they absorb from the at- 

 mosphere, in consequence of their great 

 attraction of water. When the salt has, 

 by exposure to air, become so far deli- 

 quesced as to be in a liquid state, it is 

 said to be in the state of deliquium. 

 Hence, alkali, reduced by this means to 

 a liquid state, was formerly denominated 

 oil of tartar per deliquium. 



DELIRIUM, in medicine, the produc- 

 tion of ideas not answerable to external 

 causes, from an internal indisposition of 

 the brain, attended with a wrong judg- 

 ment following from these ideas, and an 

 affection of the mind and motion of the 

 body accordingly ; and from these in- 

 creased through various degrees, either 

 alone or joined together, various kinds 

 of deliria are produced. 



DELIVERY, child-birth. See MID- 



WIFERJ. 



DELPHINUM, in botany, larkspur, a 

 genus of the Polyandria Trigynia class 

 and order. Natural order of Multisiliquac. 

 Ranunculaceae, Jussieu. Essential cha- 

 racter: calyx none; petals five; nectary 

 cloven, produced into a horn behind ; si- 

 liques three or one. There are eleven 

 species. These are mostly hardy, annuals 

 or perennials. The lower leaves digi- 

 tate or palmate : the upper less divided, 

 and sometimes even entire. The flowers 

 are in loose panicles at the ends of the 

 stem and branches, of various colours, 

 but chiefly blue. 



DELPHINUS, the dolphin, in natural 

 history, a genus of Mammalia of the or- 

 der Cetz. Generic character : teeth in 

 each jaw ; spiracle on the head. Shaw 

 enumerates six species, and Gmelin four. 

 C. phocaena, or the porpesse, is the most 

 abundant of cetaceous animals, and is 

 found particularly in the European seas, 

 whence it often advances very nearly to 

 the mouths of considerable rivers. Its 

 general length is from five to eight feet. 

 Porpesses are gregarious, and frequently 

 seen frolicking on the water, and playing 

 their uncouth gambols, more especially 

 in boisterous and tempestuous wea- 

 ther. They feed principally on smaller 

 fishes, and pursue the shoals of herrings 



and mackrel with apparently unwearied 

 vigour and insatiable appetite. They 

 are covered immediately under the skin 

 with a fatty substance of considerable 

 thickness, and which produces a large 

 quantity of oil. The porpesse was for- 

 merly considered, not merely as eatable, 

 but as a species of luxury, being served 

 up at noble and royal tables. Such, how- 

 ever, are the revolutions of taste, that by 

 the least fastidious appetite this food is at 

 present decidedly rejected. 



D. delphis, or the dolphin, has the 

 same general habits and appearance with 

 the preceding, but is considerably longer, 

 measuring occasionally even ten feet. It 

 abounds both in the Pacific and Euro- 

 pean Seas, and its appearance is in gene- 

 ral preliminary to a tempest. It not only 

 pursues and attacks small fish, on which 

 indeed it subsists, but assails the whale 

 itself, and is stated to have been seen 

 firmly adhering to whales as they hare 

 leaped from the water. The ancients 

 appear to have had almost a superstitious 

 attachment to this animal, and relate va- 

 rious anecdotes of it, implying a peculiar 

 susceptibility of gratitude and affection, 

 a strong attachment to mankind, and a 

 rapturous fondness for music. In natural 

 history, however, the ancients were 

 more fanciful than accurate, and, com- 

 pared with the moderns, were as dwarfs 

 to giants. The porpesse, though natu- 

 rally straight, swims in a crooked form ; 

 and the dolphin is said, by Linnaeus, to be- 

 crooked only when it leaps. Shaw thinks 

 it assumes this form also in swimming. 

 See Pisces, Plate III. fig. 5. 



D. orca, grampus. This is one of the 

 most ravenous and formidable inhabitants 

 of the ocean. It is found both in the At- 

 lantic and the Mediterranean, in the north- 

 ern and the southern seas, and is about 

 twelve feet broad, and twenty-four in 

 length. It preys both upon the porpesse 

 and dolphin, as well as upon smaller fish. 

 It frequently attacks seals, even on the 

 uncovered rocks, dislodging and often 

 destroying them by its dorsal fin. But it 

 is particularly and irreconcileably hostile 

 to whales, which it attacks without the 

 slightest hesitation, and often fastens on 

 with the most persevering and destruc- 

 tive tenacity. 



DELUGE, an inundation, or overflow- 

 ing of the earth, either wholly or in part, 

 by water. 



We have several deluges recorded in 

 history ; as that of Ogyges, which over- 

 flowed almost all Attica; and that of 

 Deucalion, which drowned all Thessaly, 



