DIS 
DIS 
ticular one undetermined. Such is the 
major of the following disjunctive syllogism. 
The world is either self-existent, or the 
work of some finite, or of some infi- 
nite being. 
But it is not self-existent, nor the work 
of a finite being. 
Therefore it is the work of an infinite 
being. 
DISPATCH, a letter sent abroad by a 
courier on some alfair of state, or other 
matter of importance. The business of 
dispatches lies upon the ministers of state 
and their clerks. 
DISPENSARY, a charitable institution, 
very common in London and some other 
large towns of Britain. They are sup- 
ported by voluntary subscriptions, and each 
has one or more physicians, surgeons, and 
apothecaries, who attend, or ought to at- 
tend at stated times, in order to prescribe 
for the poor, and if necessary to visit them 
at their own habitations. The poor are 
supplied with medicines gratis. Where 
these institutions are managed with' care 
they are of the utmost importance to so- 
ciety, it being unquestionably more for the 
coBifort of the sick to be attended at their 
own houses, than to be dragged from their 
families to an hospital. 
DISPENSATORY, denotes a book con- 
taining the method of preparing the various 
kinds of medicines used in pharmacy. 
Such are the London, Edinburgh, and Dub- 
lin pharmacopaeias. 
DISPLAYED, in heraldry, is under- 
stood of the position of an eagle, or any 
other bird when it is erect, wdth its wings 
expanded or spread forth, 
DISPOSITION, in rhetoric, the placing 
words in such an order as contributes most 
to the beauty, and sometimes even to tlie 
strength of a discourse. See Rhetokic. 
DISSECTION, in anatomy, the cutting 
up a body with a view of examining the 
structure and use of the parts. See Ana- 
tomy. 
DISSEISIN, is a wrongful putting out 
of him that is seized of the freehold, which 
may be effected either in corporeal inherit- 
ances, or incorporeal. Disseisin of things 
corporeal : as of houses and lands must be 
by entry and actual dispossession of the 
freehold. Disseisin of incorporeal heredi- 
taments, cannot be an actual dispossession, 
for the subject itself, is neither capable of 
actual bodily possession, or dispossession, 
bjit is only at the election and choice of 
the party injured, if, for the sake of more 
easily trying the right, he is pleased to sup- 
pose himself disseised. And so also even 
in corporeal hereditaments, a man may fre- 
quently suppose himself to be disseised, 
when he is not so in fact, for the sake 
of entitling himself to the more easy and 
commodious remedy of an assize of novel 
disseisin, instead of being driven to the 
more tedious process of a writ of entry. 
DISSENTERS, in church history, are 
a numerous body of people in this country, 
who made their first appearance in Queen 
Elizabeth’s time, when, on account of the 
extraordinary purity, which they proposed 
in religious worship and conduct, they were 
reproached with the name of Puritans. 
They increased in numbers by the act of 
uniformity, which took place on Barthole- 
mew’s day 1682, in the reign of Charles II. 
By this act 2000 ministers of the establish- 
ment, refusing to conform to certain condi- 
tions, were obliged to quit their livings, 
and hence arose the name of Non-confor- 
mists. The descendants of these are known 
by the name of Protestant Dissenters ; they 
may be considered in general as divided 
into the denominations of Presbyterians, 
Independents, and Baptists, which see. 
The principles on which Dissenters sepa- 
rate from the Church of England, are tlie 
same with those on which she separates 
herself from the Church of Rome ; these 
are the right of private judgment ; liberty 
of conscience ; and the perfection of scrip- 
ture as a Christian’s only rule of faith and 
practice. Dr. Taylor, speaking of the Dis- 
senters who were ejected in 1662, says, 
“ They were men prepared to lose all, and , 
to suffer martyrdom itself, and who actually 
resigned their livings, ratlier than desert 
the cause of civil and religious liberty, 
which together with serious religion, would, 
I am persuaded, have sunk to a very low 
ebb, had it not been for the noble stand, 
which these worthies made against imposi- 
tion upon conscience, prophaneness, and 
ai'bitrary power. They had the best edu- 
cation England could afford, most of them 
were excellent scholars, judicious divines, 
pious, faithful, and laborious ministers, un- 
daunted and courageous in their master’s 
work, standing close to their people in 
the worst times, diligent in their studies, 
solid, affectionate, powerful, awakening 
preachers, aiming at the advancement of 
real vital religion in the hearts and lives of 
men, which flourished wherever they had 
influence. 
Dissenters, before the revohition, many 
