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DOW 
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D O U 
them low herbaceous plants, growing in the 
warm countries of America and China. The 
root is used in medicine, under the name of 
contra} erva. It is full of knots; an inch or 
two in length ; about half an inch thick ; ex- 
ternally ot a reddish-brown colour, and pale 
within ; long, tough, slender fibres shoot cut 
from all sides of it, which are generally loaded 
'' it h small round knots. I he root has a pecu- 
liar kind of aromatic smell, and a somewhat 
astringent, warm, bitterish taste, with a light 
and sweetish kind of acrimony when chewed, 
ihe fibres have little taste or smell; the 
tuberous part, therefore, should only be 
chosen. Contrayerva is indisputably a good 
and useful diaphoretic. Its virtues are" ex- 
tracted both by water and rectified spirit, 
and do not arise by evaporation with either. 
I he plants cannot be propagated in this coun- 
try without the greatest difficulty. See Plate 
Nat. Hist. fig. 173. 
DOItSUM, back. See Anatomy. 
DORYPHORI, in antiquity, an appel- 
lation given to the life-guard men of the 
Roman emperors. 
DOSITHEANS, in church-history, a sect 
among the Hebrews, being one of the branches 
of the Samaritans. They abstained from 
eating any creature that had life, and were so 
superstitious in keeping the sabbath, that they 
remained in the same place and posture 
wherein that day surprised them, without 
stirring till the next day. They married but 
once, and a great number never married. 
Dositheus, their founder, being dissatisfied 
among the Jews, retired to the Samaritans, 
wno were reputed heretics, and invented 
another sect; and, to make it more authentic, 
he went into a cave, where, by too long 
abstinence, he killed himself. The name of 
Dositheans was also given to some of the 
disciples of Simon Magus. 
DOSSER, in military matters, a sort of 
basket, carried on the shoulders of men, used 
ip carrying the overplus earth from one part 
of a fortification to another, where it is 
wanted. 
DOSSIL, in surgery, lint made into a cy- 
lindric form, used in dressing a disordered 
part. 
DO IE assignanda, in law, a writ that 
formerly lay for a widow, on its being found 
by office, that the king’s tenant was seized of 
lands in fee or tail at the time of his death, 
and that he held of the king in chief, &c. in 
which case the widow was to come into the 
court of chancery, and there make oath that 
she would not marry wtihout the king’s leave ; 
upon which she had this writ to the escheator’ 
to assign her dower. 
Dote unde nihil habet, a writ of 
dower which the widow may have against a 
person that bought land of her husband in 
his life-time, whereof he was seized in fee 
simple or fee tail, and of which she is 
endowable. 
DOUBLE-CAST, in husbandry, a term 
used by the farmers for that method of sow- 
ing that does not dispense the necessary 
quantity of seed for a piece of land at one 
sowing, but requires going over every place 
twice. See Husbandry. 
Double horizontal dial, one with a double 
gnomon, one of which points out the hour on 
the outward circle, and the other shews the 
hour upon the stereographic projection drawn 
upon it. This dial not only finds the meri- 
dian, hour, &rc. but shews the sun’s place, 
rising and setting, declination, amplitude, al- 
titude, and azimuth, with many other useful 
propositions. 
Double letter, in grammar, a letter 
which has the force and effect of two. The 
Greeks have three of these, viz. Z, s, ¥ ; the 
Latins have two X and Z ; and most of the 
modern languages have the same. 
Double plea, in law, is where the de- 
fendant in a suit alleges two several matters 
in bar of the plaintiff’s action, when one. of 
them is sufficient. This is not admitted in 
common law. Ihus, when a person pleads 
several things, the one having no dependance 
upon the other, such plea is accounted double, 
and will not be admitted ; but where the 
things pleaded, mutually depend on each other, 
and the party cannot have the last plea with- 
out the first, there the whole shall be re- 
ceived. 
Double quarrel, is a complaint made 
bv any clerk, or other, to the archbishop of 
the province against an inferior ordinary, for 
delaying justice in any cause ecclesiastical; 
as to give sentence, to institute a clerk pre- 
sented, or the like : the effect whereof is, that 
the archbishop taking notice of such delay, 
directs his letters under his authentic seal, to 
all and singular clerks of his province, thereby 
commanding and authorising them, and every 
ot them, to admonish the said ordinary, within 
a certain time, nine days, to do the justice 
required, or otherwise to cite them to appear 
before him the said archbishop, or his official, 
at a day in the said letters prefixed, and there 
to allege the cause of his delay. And lastly, 
to intimate to the said ordinary, that if he 
neither perform the thing enjoined, nor appear 
at the day assigned, he himself will, without 
delay, proceed to perform thejustice required ; 
and this seems to be termed a double quarrel, 
because it is most commonly made both 
against the judge and him at whose petition 
justice is delayed. Clark’s Prax. Tit. 84, 5. 
Doubles, nearly, the same as letters pa- 
tent. Stat. 14H. VI. J 
DOUBLETS, a game on dice within ta- 
bles : the men, which are only fifteen, being 
placed thus ; upon the sice, cinque, and 
quarter points, there stand three men a-plece ; 
and upon the trey, duce, and ace, only two. 
He that throws highest has the benefit of 
throwing first, and what he throws lie lays 
down, and so does the other: what the one 
throws, and has not, the other lays down for 
him, but to his own account; and thus they 
do till all the men are down, and then they 
bear. He that is down first bears first, and 
will doubtless win the game, if the other 
throws not doublets to overtake him ; which 
he is sure to do, since he advances or bears 
as many as the doublets make, viz. eight for 
two fours. 
DOUBLING, in the military art, is the 
putting two ranks or files of soldiers into one. 
Thus, when the word of command is, double 
your ranks, the second, fourth, and sixth 
ranks march into the first, third, and fifth, so 
that the six ranks are reduced to three, and 
the intervals between the ranksbecome double 
what they were before. To double by half- 
files, is when the fourth, fifth, and sixth ranks 
march up to double the first, second, and 
third, or the contrary. To double the files 
to the right, is when every other file faces to 
the right, and inarches into tlie next file to it, 
that the six ranks are turned into twelve 
and every file is twelve deep. To double the 
files to the left, is when every other file faces 
to the left, and marches into the next. Jn 
doubling the files, the distance between the 
files becomes double. 
DO \ E-tailin g, in carpentry, is the man- 
ner of fastening boards together by letting 
one piece into another, in the form of the tail 
of a dove. .1 he dovetail is the strongest of 
the assemblages or jointings, because the te- 
non, or piece of wood which is put into the 
other, goes widening to the extreme, so that 
it cannot be drawn out again, because the 
extreme or tip is larger than the hole. 
DOUG LASS I A, a genus of the class and 
order polyadelpbia polyaiidria. The cal. is 
halt six-clett; cor. none; nett, six; filam. 
none ; germ superior ; stigma six-cleft ; berry 
ovate, one-celied, seed one. There is one 
species, a shrub of Guiana. ° nC 
DOULEIA, in Grecian antiquity, a kind 
ot punishment among the Athenians,' by which 
the criminal was reduced to the condition of 
a slave. It never was inflicted but upon the 
cm/Aoi, sojourners, and freed servants. 
DOWER the portion which a widow has 
of the lands of her husband, after his decease 
for the sustenance of herself, and the educa- 
tion of her children. 
To the consummation of dower, three 
things are necessary, viz. marriage, seisin 
and the husband’s death. * V 
There were formerly five kinds of dower 
m this kingdom, viz. 1 . Dower by the com- 
mon law. 2 . Dower by custom. " 3. Dower 
ad ostium cede six. 4. Dower ex assensu 
patris, and 5. Dower de la plus belle. But 
ot all these kinds of dower, only the first two 
are now in use. 
Dower by the common law, is a third part 
of such lands or tenements whereof the hus- 
band was sole seized in fee-simple, or fee-tail 
during the marriage, which the wife is to en- 
joy during her life ; for which there lies a 
writ ot dower. See Distribution of In- 
testate’s Effects. 
Dower by custom varies according to (lie 
custom and usage of the place, and is to be 
governed accordingly ; and where such custom 
prevails, the wife cannot wave the provision 
thereby made for her, and claim her thirds at 
common law, because all customs are equally 
antient with the common law itself Co 
Lit. 39 b. 
Dower ad ostium cede six, is where a man 
of full age, seized of lands in fee, after mar- 
riage, endows his wife at the church-door of a 
moiety, a third, or other part of his lands 
declaring them in certainty ; in which case’ 
after her husband’s death, she may enter into 
such lands without any other assignment 
because the solemn assignment at the church- 
door is equivalent to the assignment in pais 
bj metes and bounds ; but this assignment 
cannot be made before marriage, because 
before, she is not entitled to dower. I it 
sect. 39. 
Dower ex assensu patris, is where the 
father is seized of land in fee ; and his son and 
heir apparent after marriage endows his wife 
by his father’s assent, ad ostium ecclesix, of a 
certain quantity of them ; in which case, after 
the death of the son, his wife may enter into 
such parcel without any other assignment 
though the father be living; but this assent 
of the father’s must be by deed, because his 
