D i G 
D I G 
with a great quantity of some oilier sub- 
stance. 
These consequences are too important to 
be admitted without a very rigorous exami- 
nation. The experiment must be repeated 
frequently, and we must be absolutely cer- 
tain that tire hen has no access to any cal- 
careous earth, and that she has not diminish- 
ed in weight ; because in that case some of 
the calcareous earth, of which part of her 
body is composed, may have been employ- 
ed. This rigour is the more necessary, as 
it seems pretty evident, from experiments 
made long ago, that some birds at least can- 
not produce eggs, unless they have access 
to calcareous earth. Dr. Fordyce found, 
that it the canary-bird was not supplied with 
lime at the time of her laying, she frequent- 
ly died, from her eggs not coming forward 
properly. He divided a number of these 
birds at the time of their laying eggs into 
two parties : to the one he gave a piece of 
old mortar, which the little animals swallow- 
ed greedily ; they laid their eggs as usual, 
and all of them lived ; whereas many of the 
other party, which were supplied with no 
lime, died.’ 
The chyle, after it has been absorbed by 
the lactea’ls, is carried by them into a pretty 
large vessel, known by the name of thoracic 
duct. Into the same vessel likewise is dis- 
charged a transparent fluid, conveyed by a 
set of vessels which arise from all the cavities 
of the body. These vessels are called 
lymphatics, and (he fluid which they convey 
is called lymph. In the thoracic duct, then, 
the chyle and the lymph are mixed to- 
gether. 
\ ery little is known concerning the nature 
of the lymph, as it is scarcely possible to 
collect it in any quantity. It is colourless, 
has some viscidity, and 'is said to be speci- 
fically heavier than water. It is said to be 
coagulable by heat ; if so, it contains albu- 
men ; and from its appearance it probably 
contains gelatine. Its quantity is certainly 
considerable, for the lymphatics arv very nu- 
merous. 
The chyle and lymph being thus mixed 
together, are conveyed directly into the 
blood-vessels. 'The effect produced by their 
union in the thoracic duct is not known, but 
neither the colour nor external properties 
of the chyle are altered. In man, and many 
other animals, the thoracic duct enters at 
the junction of the left subclavian and caro- 
tid veins, and the chyle is conveyed directly 
to the heart, mixed with the blood, which 
already exists in the blood-vessels. From the 
heart, the blood and chyle thus mixed toge- 
ther are propelled into the lungs, where in their 
united state they undergo farther changes. 
Such are the phenomena of digestion, as 
far as they have been traced. The food is 
first conveyed to the stomach, where by 
means of the gastric juice it is converted into 
chyme. The chyme passes into the intesti- 
nal canal, where it is subjected to a new pro- 
cess, being gradually decomposed and con- 
verted into chyle and exerementitious mat- 
ter, which by means of the bile are separat- 
ed from each other. The exerementitious 
matter is evacuated, but the chyle is absorb- 
ed by the lacteals, and conveyed to the 
blood-vessels by the lungs. 
DIGESTOR, in chemistry, a strong ves- 
sel, made of copper or iron, and fitted with 
a close cover and screws ; so as to remain 
perfectly tight in a considerable degree of 
heat, whilst water, common air, and the sub- 
ject of the operation, are contained in it. The 
cover of the digestor should alw ays be pro- 
vided with a valve to let out a part of the 
steam, otherwise the vessel will certainly 
burst, by which it may prove fatal to the 
by-standers. Of all chemical vessels hither- 
to invented, the digestor seems best calcu- 
lated for increasing the action of the men- 
struums. W ater, confined in a digestor, is 
susceptible of so much heat as to melt lead ; 
and it is frequently found to melt the sol- 
der of lead and tin, with which the copper 
vessel was held together: hence appears the 
. necessity of using lyud solder, made of spel- 
ter, or silver and brass, for this purpose ; 
otherwise, the digestor cannot contain the 
water, when much healed, without melting 
in the joints. In this vessel, fresh ox-bone 
will be so digested in the space of a quarter 
of an hour, as to become soft and tender, 
and capable of being cut with a knife ; and 
the water, in which it was boiled, turned into 
a hard jelly, and a large cake of fat on its 
surface, when all is properly cooled. 
DIGGING, among miners, is appropri- 
ated to the operation of freeing any kind of 
ore from the bed or stratum in which it lies, 
where every stroke of their tools turns to 
account: in contradistinction to the open- 
ings made in search of such ore, which are 
called hatches or essay-hatches, and the 
operation itself, tracing’ of mines, or hatch- 
ing. When a bed of ore is discovered, the 
beele-men, so called from the instrument 
they, use, which is a kind of pick-ax, free the 
ore from the fossils around it, and the sho- 
vel-men throw' it up from one shamble to 
another, till it reaches the mouth of the 
hatch. In some mines, to save the expence 
as well as well as fatigue of the shovel-men, 
they raise the ore by means of a winder, 
and" tw'o buckets, one of which goes up as the 
other comes dow n. 
DIGIT, digitus, in astronomy, the 12th 
part of the diameter of the sun or moon, is 
used to express the quantity of an eclipse 
Thus an eclipse is said to be of six digits, I 
when six of these parts are hidden. 
Digits, or Monades, in arithmetic, sig- 
nify any integer under 10, as 1. 2. 3. 4 5 6 
7. 8. 9.’ 
Digit is also a measure taken from the 
breadth of the finger. It is properly 3-4lhs 
of an inch, and contains the measure of four 
barleycorns laid breadthwise. 
DIGITALIS, fox-glove, a genus of the 
angiospermia order, in the didynamia class 
of plants ; and in the natural method ranking 
under the 28th order, Iuridae. The calyx 
is quinquepartite ; the corolla eampanulated, 
quinquclid, and ventricose ; the capsule 
ovate and bilocular. There are 12 species; 
5 of which are hardy, herbaceous, biennial, 
and perennial plants, I he herbaceous species 
rise two or three feet high, crowned with 
spikes of yellow' iron-coloured or purple 
(lowers. The canariensis or shrubby sort rises 
five or six feet high, having spear-shaped 
rough leaves, four or live inches long, and 
half as broad ; the branches being all termi- 
nated with flowers growing in loose spikes. 
All the species are easily raised bv seeds. 
ITT rt * 
I An ointment made of the flowers of purple 
lox-glov e and fresh blitter, is much com- 
mended by' some surgeons for scrophulous 
ulcers which run much and are ill-condi- 
tioned. Taken internal!)', this plant is a 
Molent purgative and emetic; and is there- 
foie only to be administered to robust con- 
stitutions. An infusion of two drams of the 
leaf in a pint of water, given in half-ounce 
doses every tw'o hours, til! it begins to vomit 
oi purge, is recommended in dropsy, parti- 
cularly that of the breast. It is said to have 
pioduced ciii evacuation of water so copious 
and sudden, in ascites, by stool and urine, 
that the compression of bandages wits found 
necessary. ] he use of this remedy, how- 
evei, is thought dangerous by many physi- 
cians, yet the Edinburgh pharmacopoeia has 
retained it. 
DIGIIAYED, among botanists, an ap- 
pellation given to compound leaves, each of 
which is composed of a number of simple 
foliola-, placed regularly on a common pe- 
tiole ; though strictly speaking, there must 
be more than 4 foliola to make a digitated leaf. 
DIGNITY ecclesiastical : ecclesiasti- 
cal dignities are those of archbishop, bishop, 
dean, archdeacon, and prebendary, and the 
possessors of these dignities are called digni- 
taries. Of dignities and prebends, Camden 
reckons 544 in England. 
DIGA NIA, from hs twice, and <y w« a 
woman, tiie name of an order or secondary 
division, in each of the first 13 classes ex'- 
cept the 9th, in Linnaius’s sexual method ; 
consisting of plants, which to the classic cha- 
racter, whatever it is, add the circumstance 
of having two styles or female organs. 
D I LA 1’1 DA i ION, is where an incumb- 
ent of a church-living suffers the parsonage 
house or out-houses to fall down, or be In 
decay, for want ol necessary reparations ; or 
it is the pulling down or destroying any of 
the houses or buildings belonging to a spi- 
ritual living, or destroying of the woods, 
d ees, &c. appertaining to the same ; for it is 
said to extend to committing or suffering 
any wilful waste, in or upon the inheritance 
of the church Deg. Pars. Couns. 89. By 
13 Eiiz. c. 10. if any ecclesiastical persons, 
who are bound to repair the buildings where- 
of they are seised in right of their place or 
function, suffer them to fall into decav for 
w ant of repair, and make fraudulent gifts of 
their personal estate, with intent to "hinder 
their successors from recovering dilapidations 
against their executors or administrators, in 
such case the successor shall have like re- 
medy in the ecclesiastical court, against the 
grantee of such personal estate, as he might 
have against the executor or administrator of 
the predecessor. By 1 4 Ehz. c. 11. all mo- 
neys recovered by dilapidations, shall within 
two years be employed upon the buildings 
for which they were paid, on pain of forfeit- 
ing double so much as shall not be so em- 
ployed, to the queen. 
1)1 LA I ATORES, see Anatomy. 
DILATORY pleas, are such as are put 
in merely for delay, and are of three kinds : 
1. To the jurisdiction of the court, alleging, 
that it ought not to hold plea of the matter 
in hand, as belonging to some other court 
2. To the disability of the plaintiff, by reason 
whereof he is unable to commence or con- 
tinue the suit, as that he is outlawed, attaint- 
ed, an infant, or the like. 3. In abatement) 
