D I O 
he reforts to cunning, and feems to fubmit : lie lowers 
his fpines, contrafts his body, and lies like a wet glove. 
But this artifice not.f'ucceeding, and perceiving the filh- 
erinan dragging him towards the land, he renews his de-' 
fenfive.attitude with redoubled fury. The fpines are 
now vigoroully ereCted, its form rounded, and its body 
lo completely armed at all points, that it is impotlible to 
take it by the hand ; it is therefore dragged to fome dif- 
tance, where it druggies, and quickly dies. 
The diodon hijlrix reticularis, or prickly bottle-fifh, is 
nearly allied to the preceding. It has twenty-one rays 
in the peCtoral fin, eleven in tfie anal and dorfid, eight 
in the tail. When this filh inflates itfelf, the body forms' 
a globe. The mouth is fmall; the fharpnefs of the jaws 
ferves inftead of teeth; the lips are fhortthe noftrils 
not far from the opening of the mouth ; and behind thefe 
lie the eyes, which have a black pupil and fea-green iris. 
The fpines are fliarp and ftrong, arifing from a treble 
root, which run under the fkin. The back is of a brown 
red colour ; the lides and belly of a dirty white, and the 
fins reddifh ; there are feveral round brown fpots on the 
fides. Ic is regarded by Linnaeus as a variety only of the 
hiftrix : though the ftrufture of the fpines is very dif¬ 
ferent ; it is not fo capable of defending itfelf, becaufe 
the fpines are fhort, and not fo numerous, being much 
farther apart. It is found in the Weft-Indian Teas, at 
the Cape, and the Moluccas; the flefli is not eaten, being 
accounted venomous. Bloch makes it a feparate fpecies. 
There are two other varieties, the echinatus and the- conicus, 
noticed in the laft edition of Linnaeus, by Gmelin. 
3. Diodon mola, the mole diodon : fpecific charafler, 
much comprefled, femi-oval, and nearly truncate behind. 
This fpecies was firft deferibed by Pallas ; it refembles 
the tetrodon mola, or fhort fun-fifh, in fhape, but is very 
fmall, feldom exceeding the fize of the palm of the 
hand. The top of the head is hollowed out into a fur¬ 
row, with a fpine at each end. The fnout projects; but 
the large bent tooth which (lands in front of each jaw 
is rather cartilaginous than boney. The back is armed 
with two fpines and three tubercles ; there are two fpines 
near the throat, and feveral on the fides, or on the cari- 
nated edges of the under part. There are fourteen rays 
in each pedtoral fin. The tail-fin is very thin, filvery 
white, but grows gradually darker towards the back. 
It is found near the tropics, where the reft of the dio- 
dons refort ; for they inhabit not only the feas which 
wadi the old continent, but thofe alfo which border upon 
the new. 
4. Diodon Plumieri, Plunder's diodon: fpecific cha- 
j-acfer.; body long ; no fpines on the cheeks ; head thick¬ 
er than the body at that part; tail-fin rounded. It has 
feven rays in the dorfal fin, nine in each peftoral, fix or 
feven in the anal, nine or ten in the tail. Plunder dif- 
eovered this fpecies 1 in the torrid zone, upon the eaftern 
coaft of America; it is found alfo near the flrores of fe¬ 
veral of the American ifles, and bears great refemblance 
to the atinga; but it is longer, its length being about 
feven times its height; the head is remarkably diftindf 
from the body, and the more fo as having no fpines upon 
it; neither are there any fpines on the tail beyond the 
dorfal fin. This fpecies is of a bluifh colour, with nu¬ 
merous fmall white fpots. 
5. Diodon muricatum, the muricated diodon : fpecific 
character ; body longifh ; fpines very clofe together, 
twice or thrice as long on the back as on the belly ; tail- 
fin rounded; three large fpots on each fide the body, 
and a femilunar one on the nape of the neck. It has 
fourteen rays in the dorfal’fin, twenty-four in each pec¬ 
toral, fourteen in the anal, nine in the tail. Commerfon 
is the authority we have for this fpecies, which he ob- 
ferved.on the coafts of New Cythera ; the feamen called 
it fea-toad and fea-porcupine. This is not fo long/in 
proportion as the atinga, nor even as its variety the ho- 
locanthus. It is brown above, and white underneath. 
The. fpot on the hind head is very large, and fomewhat 
1 1 
DIO 8 So 
fringed, with the ends turned towards the eyes. One of 
the Ipots on each fide of the body is nearly oval, above 
the peftoral fin ; the fecond is a tranfverfe fpot or ftripe 
under the eye; the .third, fimilar in ftiape, is between 
the eye and the pedloral fin ; the under part of the 
muzzle is (haded with a broad fpot; and there is a round 
fpot about the dorfal fin : thefe fpots are all black, but 
of different (hades. Cepede calls this fpecies tach.de, 
from the fpots; but Commerfon names it from the 
fpines, muricatus. Thefe fpines are moveable at the will 
of the animal, as in molt of the genus; they are very 
long on the back, but fhort on the belly ; and are of a 
white colour, each peeping, out of a brown (heath. The 
fins are greenifh yellow. The noftrils lie between the eye 
and the tip of the fnout; the rims of their apertures are 
raifed like a pimple or wart. The eyes are (haded by a 
tranfpareot continuation of the outer fkin of the head ; 
yet they are. large and very prominent. The aperture of 
the gills forms the fegment of a circle, and is placed ver¬ 
tically ; the gills are only three on each fide. 
DfODO'RUS, named Siculus, an ancient hiftorian, 
native of Agyrium in Sicily, flourifhed in the times of 
Julius and Auguftus Casfar. Devoting himfelf to the 
compofition of hiftory, he fpent thirty years in his (Indies 
and enquiries, travelling to various parts of Europe and 
Afia, to the very fpots where great events had been 
tranfadted, and making a long refidence in Rome. The 
fruit of his labours was a work which he intitled The 
Hiftoric Library, treating, in forty books, on univerfal 
hiftory, divided into periods, before the Trojan war, 
from that to. the death of Alexander, and thence to the 
commencement of Caefar’s wars in Gaul. Of this only 
fifteen books and a few extracts remain. Photius praifes 
his ftyle as a good example of the middle didlion proper 
for hiftory, but later critics have judged lefs favourably 
of it. His laft books, however, contained much infor¬ 
mation, which would be highly valuable, and thofe which 
remain are of great fervice to the ftudent of hiftory. The 
. beft editions of Diodorus are thofe of Stephanus, Paris, 
1 559 j of Rhodomannus, Hanover, 1604; and of Welfe- 
ling, 2 vols. folio, Amfterdam, 1746. 
DIODO'RUS, bifhop of Tarfus in Cilicia, in the fourth 
century, a native of Antioch, in which city he long re- 
fided, and acquired confiderable reputation in difeharg- 
ing the fundlions of a prelbyter, and of an inftrudtor of 
youth in the knowledge of the feriptures and the princi¬ 
ple's of religion. The learned and celebrated Maximus 
bifhop of Seleucia in Ifauria, Theodorus bifhop of Mop- 
fueftia in Cilicia, and John Chryfoftom bifhop of Con- 
•ftantinople, were educated in his fchool. After the re¬ 
turn of Melitus to Antioch, he ordained Diodorus bifhop 
of Tarfus, about the year 378. In that place he appears 
to have enjoyed a peaceable epifeopate until his death, 
about the year 394. Of his various writings, which were 
numerous, confiding of commentaries on almoft all the 
books of the Old Teftament and feveral of the New, a 
few fragments only remain, to be found in the Catena Pa- 
trum Gracorum. The deftrudtion of his works is gene¬ 
rally attributed to the Arians ; but by fome writers, to 
the Athanafians. Be the truth what it may, the lofs of 
them is much to be deplored, on account of the learning 
which they difplayed. 
DICE'CI A, /. in botany, the name of the twenty-fecond 
clafs in Linnteus’s Artificial Syftem, comprehending thofe 
plants which have no hermaphrodite flowers; but male 
and female flowers on diftindt individuals. See the arti¬ 
cle Botany. 
DIO'GENES, furnamed the Babylonian , from the vi¬ 
cinity of Seleucia, his native place, to Babylon, was a 
ftoic philofopher, and flourifhed in the fecond century 
before Chrift. He was a difciple of Chryfippus, and the 
fucceffor of his immediate follower, Zeno of Tarfus, in 
the chair of the Porch ; where he taught the principles 
of his fedt with unwearied diligence, and eminent repu¬ 
tation. By Cicero he is called a great and refpedtable 
ftoic,- 
