d£;a 
111 real actions there are common days 
and special days given by the judges in an 
assise, &c. 
Days in hank, are days set down by sta- 
tute or order of the court, when writs shall 
be returned, or when the party shall appear 
on the writ served. They say also, if a 
person be dismissed without day, he is fi- 
nally discharged. 
Days of grace, are those granted by the 
court at the prayer of the defendant, or 
plaintiff, in whose delay it is. 
Days of grace, in commerce, are a cus- 
tomary number of days allowed for the pay- 
ment of a bill of exchange, &c. after the 
same becomes due. 
Three days of grace are allowed in Eng- 
land ; ten in France and Dantzic ; eight at 
Naples ; six at Venice, Amsterdam, Rot- 
terdam, and Antwerp ; four at Frankfort ; 
five at Leipsic ; twelve at Hamburg ; six in 
Portugal ; fourteen in Spain j thirty in Ge- 
noa, &c. 
Day light, in our law; sometime after 
sun-setting, and before sun-rising, being ac- 
counted part of the day, when the hundred 
is liable for any robberies committed with- 
in that time. 
Day’s work, in naval affairs, the reckon- 
ing or account of a ship’s course and dis- 
tance, run during 24 hours, or from noon 
to noon, according to the rules of trigonome- 
try. See Dead Reckoning. 
DEACON, one of the three sacred or- 
ders of the Christian church. The word is 
sometimes used in the New Testament for 
any one that ministers in the service of 
God, in which sense bishops and presbyters 
are styled deacons; but in its restrained 
sense it is taken for the third order of the 
clergy, as appears from the concurrent tes- 
timony of ancient writers, who constantly 
stile them ministers of the mysteries of 
Clirist, ministers of episcopacy and the 
church, and the like. 
DEAD menls eyes, ip the sea language, a 
%ind of blocks witli many holes in them, 
but no sheevers, whereby the shrouds are 
fastened to the chains : the crow-feet reeve 
also through these holes; and in some ships 
the main stays are set taught in them ; but 
then they have only one hole, through 
whieh the lanyards are passed several 
times. 
Dead nettle. See LamIum. 
Dead reckoning, in navigation, the cal- 
culation made of a sliip’s place by means of 
the compass and log ; the first serving to 
point out the course she sails on, and the 
t)EA 
other tlie distance run. From tliese two 
things given, the skilfid mariner, making 
proper allowances for the variation of tlie 
compass, lee-way, currents, &c. is enabled, 
without any observations of the sun or 
stars, to ascertain the ship’s place tolerably 
Well. 
DEAFNESS, the state of a person who 
wants the sense of hearing; or, the disease 
of the ear, which prevents its due reception 
of sounds. Deafness generally arises either 
from an obstruction or a compression of 
the auditory nerve; or from some collec- 
tion of matter in the cavities of the inner 
ear; or from the auditory passage being 
stopped up by some hardened excrement ; 
or, lastly, from some excrescence, a swell- 
ing of the glands, or some foreign body in- 
troduced within it. Those born deaf are 
also dumb, as not being able to learn any 
language, at least in the common way. 
However, as the eyes in some measure 
serve them for ears, they may understand 
what is said by the motion of the lips, 
tongue, &c. of the speaker ; and even ac- 
custom themselves to move their own, as 
they see other people do, and by this 
means leai-n to speak. Thus it was that 
Dr. Wallis taught two young gentlemen, 
born deaf, to know what was said to them, 
and to return pertinent answers. Digby 
gives us another instance of the same, with- 
in his own knowledge; and there was a 
Swiss physician lately living in Amsterdam, 
one John Conrad Amman, who effected 
the same in several children born deaf with 
surprising success. 
In the “ Phil. Trans.” No. 312, we have 
an account by Mr. Waller, R. S. Secretary, 
of a man and his sister, each about .50 years 
old, born in tlie same town with Mr. Wal- 
ler, who had neither of them the least sense 
of hearing; yet both of them knew, by the 
motion of the lips only, whatever was said 
to them, and would answer pertinently to 
the question proposed. It seems they 
could both hear and speak when children, 
but lost their sense afterwards; whence 
they retained their speech, which, thougli 
uncouth, was yet intelligible. Such ano- 
ther instance is related by Bishop Buniet 
of a young woman. “At two years old, they 
perceived she had lost her hearing; and 
ever since, though she hears great noises, 
yet hears nothing of what is said to her: 
but by observing the motions of the moutli 
and lips of others, she acquired so many 
words, that out of these she has formed a 
sort of Jargon, in. which she can hold con- 
