642 DEC 
man nature ; of whole deceptible condition, perhaps, there 
fliould not need any other eviction, than the frequent er¬ 
rors we fhall ourfelves commit. Brown. 
DECEP'TION, /. £</e«jMw,.Lat.] The adt or means 
of deceiving ; cheat ; fraud ; fallacy.—.All deception is a 
mifapplying of thofe figns, which, by compadt or infti- 
tution, were made the means of men’s fignifying or con¬ 
veying their thoughts. South. —The ftate of being de¬ 
ceived : 
Reafon, not impoflibly, may meet 
Some fpecious objedt by the foe fuhorn’d. 
And fall into deception unaware. Milton. 
DECEP'TION BAY, a bay on the weft coaft of North 
America, in the north Pacific Ocean. Lat. 46. 10. N. 
■;lon. 124. 5. W. Greenwich. 
DECEP'TIOUS, adj. Deceitful; apt to deceive : 
Yet there is a credence in my heart, 
That doth invert th* atteft of eyes and ears; 
As if thofe organs had deceptions functions, 
Created only to calumniate. Skakefpeare. 
DECEP'TIVE, adj. Having the power of deceiving. 
DECEP'TORY, adj. Containing means of deceit. 
DECE'RPT, adj. [decerptus, Lat.] Cropped; taken off. 
DECERP'TIBLE, adj. [ decerpo , Lat.] That may be 
taken off. 
DECERP'TION,/ The adt of cropping or taking off. 
DECERTA'TION,/ [decertatio, Lat.] A contention; 
a driving ; a difpute. 
DECES'SION,/. [ decejio , Lat.] A departure; a go¬ 
ing away. 
DECHA'LES (Claud-Francis-Milliet), an excellent 
mathematician, mechanift, and aftronomer, born at Cham- 
bery, the capital of Savoy, in 1611. He chiefly excelled 
in a juft knowledge of the mathematical and mechanical 
fciences ; not that he was bent upon new difeoveries, or 
happy in making them ; as his talent rather lay in ex¬ 
plaining thofe fciences with eafe and accuracy ; which, 
perhaps, rendered him equally ufeful and delerving of 
efteem. Indeed it was generally allowed that he made 
the bed life of the productions of other men, and that he 
drew the feveral parts of the mathematical fciences to¬ 
gether with great judgment and perfpicuity. It is alfo 
faid of him, that his probity was not inferior to his learn¬ 
ing ; and that both thefe qualities made him generally 
admired and beloved at Paris, where, for four years to¬ 
gether, he read public mathematical ledlures in the col¬ 
lege of Clermont. From hence he removed to Mar- 
feilles, where he taught the art of navigation and the 
practical mathematical fciences. He afterwards became 
profefforof mathematics in the univerfity of Turin, where 
he died, March 28, 1678, at fixty-feven years of age. 
Among other works which do honour to his memory, are, 
1. An edition of’Euclid’s Elements; in which he has 
omitted the lefs important propofitions, and explained 
the ufes of thofe he has retained. 2. A Difcourfe on 
Fortification ; and another on Navigation. Thefe per¬ 
formances, with fome others, were colledted in 3 vols. 
folio, under the title of Mundus Mathcmaticus, being in¬ 
deed a complete courfe of mathematics. And the fame 
was afterward much enlarged, and publiflied at Lyons, 
1690, in 4 large vols. folio. 
To f)ECHA'RM, v. a. [decharmer, Fr. ] To counteract 
a charm; to difenchant.—Notwithftanding the help of 
phylic, he was fuddenly cured by dccharming the witch¬ 
craft. Harvey. 
DE'CIA LEX,/ was enadted by M. Decius the tri¬ 
bune, in the year of Rome 442, to impower the people 
to appoint two proper perfons to fit and repair the fleets. 
DECIA'TES, or Deciatii, a people of Gallia Nar- 
bonenlis, next the borders of Italy, on the Mediterra¬ 
nean. Now the diocele of Grace and Antibes. Deciatum 
oppidum, was a town iituated between Antibes and Nice. 
To DECI'DE, v. a. [decido, Lat.] To fix the event of; 
«o determine; ■/ 
DEC 
The day approach’d when fortune fliould decide 
Th’ important enterprize, and give the bride. ■ Drydtn, 
To DECI'DE, v. n. To determine a queftion or difpute; 
Who fhall decide, when doctors disagree, 
And founded cafuifts doubt ? Pope. 
DECI'DENCE, / [ decidentia, Lat.] The quality of 
being fhed, or of falling off. The adt of falling away.— 
Men obferving the decidence of their horn, do fall upon 
the conceit that it annually rotteth away, and fucceflively 
reneweth again. Brown. 
DECI'DER,/. One who determines caufes. One who 
determines quarrels.—I cannot think that a jefter or a 
monkey, a droll or a puppet, can be proper judges or ,de¬ 
ciders of controverfy. Watts. 
DECI'DUOUS, adj. [deciduus, Lat.] Falling ; not pe¬ 
rennial; not lafting through the year. A botanical term. 
—In botany, the perianthium, or calyx, is deciduous, with 
the flower. Ouincy. 
DECl'DUOUSNESS, / Aptnefs to fall; quality of 
fading once a year. 
DE'CIES TANTUM, /. A writ that lies on ftatute 
38 Edw. III. c. 12. againft a juror who hath taken money 
of either party for giving his verdidt to recover ten times 
the fiun taken. This writ alfo lies againft embraceors 
that procure fucli an inqueft; who fhall be further pu- 
niftied by imprifonment for a year. 38 Edw. III. c. 12. 
DE'CIL, or Decilis,/ An afpedt or pofition of two 
planets, when they are diftant from each other a tenth 
part of the zodiac, or thirty-fix degrees ; and is one of 
the new afpedts invented by Kepler. 
DE'CIMAL, adj. [ dccimus, Lat.] Numbered by ten, 
multiplied by ten.—In the way we take now to name 
numbers by millions of millions of millions, it is hard to 
go beyond eighteen, or, at moft, four-and-twenty decimal 
progreflions, Without confufion. Locke. 
DE'CIMAL ARITHMETIC,/ The art of com¬ 
puting by decimal fradtions. See Arithmetic. 
To DE'CIMATE, v. a. [ deci>nus ) 'La.t.l To tithe; to 
take the tenth. 
DECIMA'TION,/ [ decimatio , Lat.] The punifliing 
every tenth foldier by lot, was termed decimatio legionis t 
among the ancient Romans. It likewife fignifies tithing, 
or paying a tenth part. There was a decimation during 
the time of the ufurp.er, in 1635 ; 
By decimation and a tithed death. 
Take thou the deftin’d tenth. Skakefpeare. 
A decimation I will ftridtly make 
Of all who my Charinus did forfake ; 
And of each legion each centurion fliall die. Dryden . 
DE'CINERS, Decenniers, or Doziners,/. [decen- 
narii, Lat.] In our ancient law, fiich as were wont to 
have the overfight of the Friburghs, or views of frank¬ 
pledge, for the maintenance of the king’s peace; and the 
limits or compafs of their jurifdidfion was called decenna, 
becaufe it commonly confifted of ten houfliolds; as every 
perfon, bound for himfelf and his neighbours to keep the 
peace, was (tiled decennicr. Brail, lib. 3. Thefe feem to 
have had large authority in the time of the Saxons, 
taking knowledge of caufes within their circuits, and re- 
dreffing wrongs by way of judgment, and compelling 
men thereunto, as appears in the laws of king Edward 
the Confeffor, Lambard, No. 32. But of late decennier is 
not lifed for the chief man of a dizein, or dozein ; but he 
that is fworn to the king’s peace, and by oath of loyalty 
to the prince, is fettled in the fociety of a dozein. A 
dozein feemed to extend fo far as a leet extendeth ; be¬ 
caufe in leets the oath of loyalty is adminiftered by the 
lteward, and taken by all fuch as are twelve years old, 
and upwards, dwelling within the precindt of the leet 
where they are fworn. There are now no other dozeins 
but leets ; and there is a great diverfity between ancient 
and modern times, in this point of law and government. 
2 Injl, 73. i Comm. 114, 
DE'CIO 
