DET 
admirable Wathington, ay many others,” who feemed to 
avoid detachments, at leaft {mall ee apni ring them, 
no doubt, as being eafily cut off. e generals ufually 
kept their forces as msuch a a as che means of fub- 
filtence, iss &c permitt 
neral who fends ps numerous {mall detachnents 
in various ““ireGtions, while in the vicinity of an enemy, fub- 
jeéts them to be cut off in detail, and to have his head- 
quarters ee by any enterprizing partizan. It fhould 
ever be recolle&ted, that ee yaar are forced to 
felf-prefervation, and leave to t e of the main wpe 
fuch others as may not be en figh t: hence, when 
tacked in their rear, thefe {mall parties are ordinarily auld 
in- 
r effet what may 
be confidered comparatively trifling, ng than to fubje& a 
{mall deat to the danger of being cut off. 
Derac t of a flect or fquadron, a certain number of 
we chofen oy an admiral or commodore from the reft of 
eet, and charged to gal fome — fervice. 
OEE AINER, in Law e Forcisuye entry. 
DETENT, in Horolozy, isa spine of feel that detains 
or arrefts the-motion of one wheel that would otherwife con- 
tinue its motion as actuated by the maintaining power. In 
the ftriking part of a clock, where a count-wheel is ufed, 
that bar which falls in the way of the notches in the count- 
wheel, and flops the motion of the ftriking train when the 
laft blow is made, is called the detent: but in a chroname- 
— that piece of metal which catches a tooth of the efcape- 
t-wheel, and holds it while the balance performs its ofcil- 
ftruGions, turn on pivots, or otherwife be made elaftic with- 
out pivots, a itainae to oe nglifh praGtice. Many of the 
clock~e etents, as ma een more 
EscarEMENT. 
particularly under our pate 
DETENTION, from detinco, [ detain, in Law, the poffef- 
fion or holding of lands, or the like, for fome other claimant. 
chiefl 
e word is y ufed in an ill fenfe, for an unju 
withholding, & 
e canons onae emn a perfon who has intruded into a 
benefice, to ake reftitution . all the fruits thereof, during 
the time of his unjuft detentio 
ETERGENTS, in Medicine ue snot conftitute a 
of remedies which ha fed to cleanfe or 
ee ertain fubftances applied to morbid parts, and efpecially o 
fores, “vill pass the furface more clean and healthy. 
Detergents are either mechanical or chemical. Pure 
water is et the beft detergents for common wounds : but 
where an ulcer remains fordid and ill-conditioned, it is often 
ufeful to apply a folution of fome irritating fubftance, which 
produces an healthy difcharge of pus. See the articles 
ABSTERGENT and Cicatrix. 
The detergents in general ufe for local sung are 
turpentine, nitre, verdigris, alum, vitriolated zinc and cop- 
per, red nitrated mercury, or red precipitate, rie cauftic, 
ex nitsated filver, &c. But, for internal ule, phyficians pre. 
DET 
{cribe what: are called balfamic medicines, pat i and 
vulneraries, which have been erroneoufly imagined to a 
as healing, fuppurating, and cleanting seus to the in- 
ternal parts of the-body. 
DETERIORATION, an act wh..eby a thing is im~ 
paired or rendered w 
When the detevioratic ion of a commodity, feized by 
— ls from the fault of the keeper, he is anfwersble 
for th 
deric ic Mayer, diate at Leipfic, printed a treatife 
of pa eae aia? in the year 1695, under the title of «* Trace 
e Deterioratione.”? 
E NATE Numser. See Nu 
INnATE Problem, is that which has | “eo one, or at 
leaft bee ta ea number of folutions ; in contradiftinGioa 
to an indeterminate problem, which admits of infinite folu- 
ions. 
Such, ¢. gr. is the probtem: To defcribe an ifofceles tri- 
angle on a given ‘line, whofe angles at the bafe tha a be double 
that at the vertex: which has only one folution; as that 
which follows has two, viz. To find an fofeeles triangle, 
whofe area oe perimeter are given. 
nate oe may either be fimple or linear, 
plane, oid, ore rfoli 
DETERMINATE Rina Caulis, in Botany, is often ape 
hat kind of fem 
Philcboabia Botanica, nor 
any other elementary work of the learned Swede. It is ex- 
emplified in many sea of Heath, as well as in the genus 
Azalea. See Cau 
DETERMINATION, in Phyfics, the difpofition or 
tendency of a body towards one way, rather than another, 
Heavy bodies have a fee natin towards the centre of the 
earth. 
Determination is alfo ufed for the a€ion whereby 
a caufe or 7 anee is aia or reftrained, to aét, or not a&t, 
in this or in that 
Beaeaioae pee oe {choolmen, proceed either from 
an efficient caufe, in which cafe the determination is called 
ncy e matte t 
terminations to aie iden aon the prefence of external obe 
a 
Or the oe : from the matter or fubje& that 
receives the action us the heating of oi upon clay 
de Para it opie ‘upon wax 2 ae 
Or it is from the 
colour deter- 
mines ie ifua 
¢ fay 
pee or, ‘altly, oe is boeey the end, as 
efir 
€ vi the 
end eset ant the 
erm ute again aia sea or Phy! fical. A 
caufe which 
e moral 
“God excites and 
aufe to ad, earns to all operation 
“Such a a eaacen the Thomifts and 
d 
ond caufes; and hold, that God 
exerts no influence on fecond caufes, but only withthe fecond 
caufe on the action. And thus they exclude a Galena des 
mination, 
