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as for some defect in the writ, as a misno- 
mer of the defendant, or other want of form 
in am material respect. These pleas were 
formerly used as merely dilatory, without 
any foundation of truth, and calculated only 
for delay ; but now by stat. 4. and 5 Anne, 
<-. 16. no dilatory plea shall be admitted, 
without affidavit made of the truth thereof, 
or some probable matter shjwn to the court 
to induce them to believe it true. 3 Black. 
301. 
DILATE IS, in botany, a genus of the mo- 
nogynia order, belonging tothetriandria class 
of plants. There is no calyx ; the corolla has 
six petals, and is shaggy ; the stigma is simple. 
I'li re e species, herbaceous plants of the Cape. 
DILEMMA, in logic, an argument con- 
sisting of two or more propositions, which 
divides the whole into all its parts, or mem- 
bers, by a disjunctive proposition, and then 
infers something concerning each part, which 
is finally referred to concerning the whole. 
DILLENIA, in botany, a genus of the 
polyandrla-polygynia class of plants the 
corolla of which, consists of five coriaceous, 
large, roundish, and hollow petals : the 
fruit is roundish, and externally covered 
with a number of capsules, , which are oblong, 
and divided by a furrow ; within, there is a 
large column or pulpous. receptacle: the 
seeds are numerous, and very small; and 
nidulated underneath the capsules. There 
are seven species, beautiful trees of the East 
Indies., 
DIMENSION, in. geometry, is either 
length, breadth, or thickness ; hence a line 
has one dimension, viz. length; a super- 
ficies two, viz. length and breadth ; and a 
body or solid has three, viz. length, breadth, 
and thickness. 
Dimension is used with regard to the 
power of the roots of an equation, which are 
called the dimensions of that root. Thus in 
a. simple equation x — u -j- b, the unknown 
quantity is only of one dimension : in a 
quadratic equation x 2 = a 2 -|- b 1 , it is of 
two dimensions: in a cubic x 3 = a J -} ~b z it 
is of three dimensions ; and so on. 
DIMINUTION, in architecture, a con- 
traction of the upper part of a column, by 
which its diameter is made less than that of 
the lower part. 
Diminution, in law, is where the plaintiff 
or defendant in a writ of error, alleges on an 
appeal to a superior court, that part of the 
record is omitted, and remains in the infe- 
rior court not certified; whereon he prays 
that it may be certified by certiorari.. Co. 
Ent. 222.242; 
Diminution, in music, is when there are 
several words which are to make tones,' and 
several quick, motions in a cadence, several 
qjiavers, semiquavers, &c. corresponding to 
a crochet or minim, as when a semibreve is 
divided into two minims, four crotchets, &c. 
Diminution, in rhetoric, the exaggerat- 
ing what you have to say by an expression 
that seems to diminish it. 
DIMINUTIVE, in grammar, a word 
formed from some other, to soften or dimi- 
nish the force of it, or to signify a thing is 
little in its kind. Thus cellule is a diminu- 
tive of cell, globule of globe, hillock of hill. 
DIMISSORY letters, are such as are 
u sed where a candidate for holy orders has 
.title in one diocese, and is to be ordained 
yj. another: the proper diocesan sends his 
letters dimissory, directed to. ■■some other or- 
daining bishop, giving leave that the bearer 
may be ordained, and have such a cure 
within his diocese. 
DIOCESE, the circuit of every bishop’s 
jurisdiction: for this realm has two sorts 
of divisions ; one into shires or counties, in 
respect of the temporal stale ; and another 
into provinces, in regard to the ecclesiastical 
state; which provinces are divided into dio- 
ceses. The provinces are two, Canterbury 
and York ; whereof Canterbury includes 
twenty-one dioceses, or sees of suffragan 
bishops ; and York three, besides the bishop- 
ric of the Isle of Man, which, was annexed 
to the province oi A ork by king Henry the 
VIII. 
DIODIA, in botany, a genus of the mo- 
nogynia order, in the tetrandria class of 
plants ; and in the natural method ranking 
under the 47th order, stellate. The corol- 
la is monopetalous and funnel-shaped ; the 
capsule bilocular- and dispermoas. There 
are six species. 
DIODON, or sun-fish, a genus of fishes 
belonging to the order of amphibia nantes. 
There are three species. l.The atinga, 
grows to a great bulk ; one examined by 
Sylvianus was above 100 pounds in weight; 
and Dr. Borlase mentions another taken at 
Plymouth, in 1734, that weighed 500 pounds. 
In form it resembles a bream or some deep 
fish cut off in the middle. The mouth is 
very; small, and contains in each jaw two 
broad teeth with sharp edges. The eyes 
are little; before each is a small semilunar 
aperture ; the pectoral fins are very small, 
and placed behind them. The colour of the 
back is dusky and dappled ; the belly silvery : 
between the eyes and the pectoral fins are 
certain streaks pointing downwards. »The 
skin is free from, scales. When boiled, it 
has been observed to turn into a glutinous 
jelly-, resembling boiled starch when cold, 
and serving the purposes of glue on being 
tried on paper and leather. The meat of 
this fish is uncommonly rank: it feeds on 
shell-fish. Care must lie taken not to con- 
found it with the sun-fish of the Irish, which 
differs in all respects from this. 2. The 
niola, or short sun-fish, differs from the form- 
er, in being much shorter and deeper. The 
back and the anal fins are higher, and the 
aperture to the gills not semilunar, but oval. 
The situation of the fins is the same in both ; 
and both are taken on the western coasts of 
this kingdom, but in much greater numbers 
in the warmer parts of Europe. 3. The 
hystrix, or globe, is common to Europe and 
South Carolina. As yet only a single speci- 
men has been discovered in our seas, 1 taken 
at Penzance in Cornwall. .The length was 
one foot seven ; the length of the belly, 
when distended, one foot; the whole cir- 
cumference in that situation two feet six. 
The form of the body is usually oblong ; but 
when alarmed, it has the power of inflating 
its belly to a globular shape of great size. 
This seems designed as a means of defence 
against fish of prey ; as they have less means 
of laying hold of it ; and are besides terrified 
by the number of spines with which that 
part is armed, and which are capable of 
being erected on every part. The mouth 
is small: the irides white, tinged with red: 
the back from head to tail almost straight, 
or at least very slightly elevated ; of a rich 
D I 
deep-blue colour. It has the pectoral, but 
Aants tiie ventral fins: the tail is almost 
even, divided by an angular projection in 
the middle; tail and fins brown. The belly 
and sides are white, shagreened or wrinkled : 
and beset with innumerable sharp spines, ad- 
hering to the skin by four processes. See 
Plate Nat. Hist. figs. 1 67 and. 168. 
DKE.CIA, from <br twice, and oik<* a- 
house or habitation, two houses. The name 
of the22d class in Linnaeus’s sexual method; 
consisting of plants which, having no her-, 
maphrodite flowers, produce male and fe- 
male flowers on separate roots. These latter* 
only- ripen seeds ; but require for that pur- 
pose, according to the sexualists, the vici- 
nity of a male plant ; or the aspersion, that 
is,, sprinkling, of the male dust. From the 
seeds of the female flowers are raised both 
male and female plants. The plants then in 
the class ciioecia are all male and female ; not 
hermaphrodite, as in the greater- number of 
classes ; nor with male and female flowers, 
upon one joot, as in the -class monoeeia of 
the same author. See Botan.y.. 
DIOMEDIA, in ornithology, the alba- 
tross, a genus belonging to the order of an- 
seres. The bill is straight ; the superior 
mandible is crooked at the point, and the 
lower one is truncated; the nostrils are oval, 
open, a little prominent, and placed on the 
sides... There are two species, viz. 1 . The 
exulans, has pinnated wings, and three toes 
on each foot. It is the albatross of Edwards ; 
and is about the size of a pelican. These, 
birds are found in the ocean betwixt the 
tropics and at the Cape of Good Hope. They 
are also often seen in vast flocks in Kamt- 
schatka, and the adjacent islands, about the - 
end of June, where they are called great 
galls; but it is chiefly in the bay of Pens- 
chinensi, the whole inner sea of Kamtschat- 
ka, the Kurile isles, and that of Bering ; for 
on the eastern coasts of the first, they are 
scarce, a single straggler only appearing 
now and then. Their chief motive for fre- 
quenting these places seems to be plenty of 
food ; and their arrival is a sure presage of 
shoals offish following. At their first com- 
ing they/ are very lean, but soon grow im - 
mensely fat. They are voracious birds, and 
will often swallow a salmon of four or five- 
pounds weight ; but as they cannot take the- 
whole of it into the stomach at once, part of the- 
tail-end will often remain out of the mouth ; 
and the natives, finding the bird in this situ- 
ation, make no difficult matter of knocking 
it on the head on tire spot. Before the 
middle of August they migrate elsewhere. 
They are often taken by means of a hook- 
baited with a fish ; but it is not for the sake- 
of their flesh that they are valued, it beings 
hard and unsavoury ; but on account of their 
intestines,, a particular part of which they 
blow up as a bladder, to serve, as floats to* 
buoy up their nets in fishing. Of the bones 
they make tobacco-pipes, needle-cases, and 
other, useful things. When caught, they de- 
fend themselves stoutly with their bills. 
Their cry is harsh and disagreeable, not 
unlike the braying of an ass.. The breeding- 
places of the albatross, if at all in the north- 
ern hemisphere, have not yet been pointed, 
out ; but we are certain of their multiplying in 
the southern, viz. at Patagonia and Falkland- 
islands; to this last place they come about 
the end of September or, beginning of Octo- 
