Thy years determine like the age of man, Sandy's Paraphrase of Job. A delinquent ought to be cited in the place or jurisdiction where the delinquency was committed by him. Ayliffe. Does law, so jealous in the cause of man, Denounce no doom on the delinquent? None. Cowper's Task. DELIQUATE, v. n. & a. Lat. deliquo; from DELIQUATION, n. s. de and liquo (lix, DELIQUIUM, n. s. liquid) to melt. As a verb active, to dissolve into liquid: deligation and deliquium both signify a dissolving chemically; and hence fainting or swooning. It will be resolved into a liquor very analogous tc that which the chymists make of salt of tartar, left in Boyle. moist cellars to deliquate. Their conscience was not stark dead, but under a kind of spiritual deliquium. It is caused by the great affinity which these substances have with water. The more simple they are, according to Mr. Macquer, the more they incline to deliquescence. Hence, acids, and certain alkalis, which are the most simple, are also the most deliquescent salts. Many neutral salts are deliquescent, chiefly those whose bases are not saline substances. Though the immediate cause of deliquescence is the attraction of the moisture of the air, yet it remains to be discovered, why some salts attract this moisture powerfully, and others, though seemingly equally simple, do not attract it. The vegetable alkali, for instance, attracts moisture powerfully; the mineral alkali, though to appearance equally simple, does not attract it at all. The acid of tartar by itself does not atborax, which has a little attraction for moisture tract the moisture of the air; but if mixed with the mixture is extremely deliquescent. See CHEMISTRY. DELIRATE, v. n. Lat. deliro (from de, and lira a ridge or furrow); to be mad, because a mad person passes the bounds of reason. Ainsworth. To dote; talk wildly or idly deliration is the same with delirium, and the latter a more common word, signifying alienation of mind; a state of dotage: delirious is light-headed; partaking of delirium. The people about him said he had been for some hours delirious; but when I saw him he had his understanding as well as ever I knew. On bed Delirious flung, sleep from his pillow flies. Swift. Thomson. Too great alacrity and promptness in answering, especially in persons naturally of another temper, is a sign of an approaching delirium; and in a feverish delirium there is a small inflammation of the brain. Arbuthnot on Diet. On the 6th, he was all day delirious, which he mentioned four days afterwards as a sufficient humiliation of the vanity of man. At the intermission of his deliriousness, he was always saying something kind either of his present or his absent friends. Johnson's Life of Pope. How profound The gulf! and how the giant element From rock to rock leaps with delirious bound, Crushing the cliffs, which, downward worn and rent With his fierce footsteps, yield in chasms a fearful vent. Byron. DELIRIUM. When the ideas excited in the mind do not correspond to the external objects, but are produced by the change induced on the common sensorium, the patient is said to be in a delirium. See MEDICINE. Leath. DELITIGATION, n. s. and litigo (lites ago, to raise rel. A striving or contending. DELIVER, v. a. & n. DELIVERANCE, n. s. DELIVERER, When salt of tartar flows per deliquium, it is visible that the particles of water are moved towards the particles of salt. Bp. Berkeley. Such an ebullition as we see made by the mixture of some chymical liquors, as oil of vitriol and deliquated salt of tarter. Cudworth. DELIQUESCENCE, in chemistry, the property which certain bodies have of attracting moisture from the air, and thereby becoming liquic. This property is never found but in saline substances, or matters containing them. Lat. delitigo; de strife), to quarSee LITIGATION. Fr. delivrer; Span. librár; Ital. liberare; from Lat. libero (à liber, free). To make or set free; to disburden; to rescue; to give up : hence to offer; present; exert one's self; utter by speech: delivering over and delivering up are only forms of delivering, and mean resigning DELIVERY, to. Deliverance and delivery are the act of delivering; utterance; activity; and the latter has a particular application to childbirth. Thanne he delyverede to hem Barabas, but he took to bem Jhesus, scourgid to be crucified. Wiclif. Matt. xxvii. Thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner, when thou wast his butler. Gen. xl. 13. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies; for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. Psalm xxvii. 12. Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out. Isaiah xxvi. 7. He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those that are bound. Luke iv. 18, He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not, with him also, freely give us all things? Rom. viii. 32. We allege what the Scriptures themselves do usually speak, for the saving force of the word of God; not with restraint to any certain kind of delitery, but howsoever the same shall chance to be made known. Hooker. People have a superstitious belief, that in the labour of women it helpeth to the easy deliverance. nimbly, or become the delivery more gracefully, or employ all more virtuously. Sidney. Him their deliverer Europe does confess; All tongues extol him, all religions bless. Halifax. I was charmed with the gracefulness of his figure and delivery, as well as with his discourses. Addison. Charmed with that virtuous draught, the' exalted mind Pope. All sense of woe delivers to the wind. Lord Ligonier did not deliver the army (which you, in classical language, are pleased to call a palladium) into Lord Granby's hand. Junius. It may be reckoned, therefore, a necessary characteristic of Divine Revelation, that it shall be delivered in a manner the most adapted to what are vulgarly called the meanest capacities: and by this perspicuity, both of precept and of doctrine, the whole Bible is remarkably distinguished. Bishop Horsley. Your sentiments with respect to me are exactly like Mrs. Unwin's. She, like you, is perfectly sure of my deliverance, and often tells me so. Cowper's Private Correspondence. DELL, n. s. Goth. dale; Belg. del. See DALE. The while, the same unhappy ewe, Whose clouted leg her hurt doth shew, Fell headlong into a dell. I know each lane, and every alley green, Dingle, or bushy dell, of this wild wood. Spenser. Milton. But, foes to sunshine, most they took delight But from mountain, dell, or stream Fearful lest the noon-tide beam Scorch its soft, its silken wings. Cunningham. Again the goddess speaks!-glad echo swells The tuneful tones along her shadowy dells. Darwin. DELLILE (Jacques), a celebrated French poet, born in 1738, at Clermont in Auvergne, and educated at the university of Paris. He was early distinguished for the brilliancy of his talents, and the extent of his acquirements; but the first work by which he made known his name to the public, and laid the foundation of his poetical fame, was a translation of Virgil's Georgics. This procured him a seat in the Academy. His next performance was an original work, entitled Les Jardins, which added considerably to his reputation. About this time, M. Le Comte de Choiseul Gouffier, who had formerly visited and described the interesting shores of Greece, was appointed ambassador to Constantinople, and Dellile was persuaded to accompany him to that city. Thence he went to Greece, where he remained for several months, and finally passed over to Asia Minor, where he was first attacked with a distemper in his eyes, that after his return deprived him entirely of sight. At Constantinople he wrote a considerable portion of his poem on Imagination, and on his return published a translation of the Æneid. He continued also to read lectures at Paris, till the revolution obliged him to emigrate into Switzerland. He afterwards visited Germany and England. Here, in misfortune and banishment, 'muses of melancholy inspiration,' he composed his poem Le Malheur et la Pitié, to give vent to his oppressed feelings. While he remained in England, he also trans K lated the Paradise Lost. After France had become settled under Napoleon, he returned to his native land, where he died in the summer of 1813. His other works are L' Homme des Champs; ou, les Georgiques Francaises, 1808; Les Trois Regnes de la Nature, 1809; and La Conversation, 1812, a playful satire. DELOS, an island of the Archipelago, very famous in ancient history. Originally it is reported to have been a floating island, but afterwards it became fixed. It was fabled to have been the birth-place of Apollo and Diana. It was governed by its own kings. Virgil mentions Anius a king of Delos, in the time of the Trojan war, who was afterwards high priest of Apollo, and entertained Æneas with great kindness. The Persians allowed the Delians to enjoy their ancient liberties, after they had reduced the rest of the Grecian islands. In after ages, the Athenians made themselves masters of it; and held it till they were driven out by Mithridates, who granted the inhabitants many privileges, and exempted them from all sorts of taxes. Strabo and Callimachus tell us that Delos was watered by the river Inapus: but Pliny calls it only a spring; and adds, that its waters swelled and abated at the same time with those of the Nile. At present there is no river in the island, but one of the noblest springs in the world, twelve paces in diameter, and enclosed partly by rocks, and partly by a wall. So sacred was the island of Delos held by the ancients, that hostilities were suspended by nations at war, when they happened to meet in this place. Livy tells us, that some Roman deputies being obliged to put in at Delos, in their voyage to Syria and Egypt, found the galleys of Perseus king of Macedon, and those of Eumenes king of Pergamus, anchored in the same harbour, though these two princes were then at war.-Hence this island was a general asylum, and protection was extended to all living creatures, dogs excepted; for this reason it abounded with hares, no dogs being suffered to enter it. No dead body was suffered to be buried in it, nor child to oe born there; all dying persons, and women ready to be delivered, were carried over to the neighbouring island of Rhenæa. It is now called Sdili. DELOS, an extensive city in the above island, which occupies a spacious plain, reaching from the one coast to the other. It was well peopled, and, after the destruction of Corinth, the richest city in the Archipelago; merchants flocking thither from all parts, both on account of the immunity they enjoyed, and of its convenient situation between Europe and Asia. It contained many stately buildings; as the temple of Apollo, Diana, and Latona; an oval basin, made at an immense expense, for the representation of seafights; and a most magnificent theatre. The temple of Apollo was, according to Plutarch, begun by Erisichthon, the son of Cecrops; but afterwards enlarged and embellished at the common charge of all the states of Greece. It contained an altar built with horns of various animals, so artificially adapted to one another, that they hung together without cement. This altar is said to have been a cube; and the doubling it was a famous mathematical problem among the ancients. This went under the name of Problema Deliacum, and is said to have been proposed by the oracle, to free the country from a plague. The trunk of the famous statue of Apollo, mentioned by Strabo and Pliny, is still an object of great admiration to travellers. It is without head, feet, arms, or legs; but from the parts that yet remain it plainly appears, that the ancients did not exaggerate when they commended it as a wonder of art. It was of a gigantic size, though cut out of a single block of marble; the shoulders being six feet broad, and the thighs nine feet round. Plutarch tells us, in his Life of Nicias, that he caused to be set up, near the temple of Delos, a huge palm-tree of brass, which he consecrated to Apollo; and adds, that a violent storm of wind threw down this tree on a Colossean statue raised by the inhabitants of Naxos. Round the temple were magnificent porticoes built at the charge of various princes, as appears from inscriptions which are still very plain. DELPHI, in ancient geography, a town of Phocis situated on the south-west extremity of mount Parnassus, famous for a temple and oracle of Apollo. A number of goats that were feeding on mount Parnassus, approached a place which had a deep and long perforation. The steam which issued from the hole seemed to inspire the goats, and they played and frisked about in such an uncommon manner, that the goatherd was tempted to lean on the hole, and see what mysteries the place contained. He was immediately seized with a fit of enthusiasm, and his expressions were so wild and extravagant, that they passed for prophecies. This circumstance was soon known, and many experienced the same enthusiastic inspiration. The place was revered; a temple erected to Apollo; and a city built, which became the most illustrious in Phocis. The influence of its oracle controlled the councils of states, directed the course of armies, and decided the fate of kingdoms. The temple of Apollo was at first a kind of cottage covered with boughs of laurel. An edifice of stone was next erected by Trophonius and Agamedes, which subsisted about 700 years, and was burnt in the year 636 after the destruction of Troy, and A.A.C. 548. It is mentioned in the hymn to Apollo ascribed to Homer. An opulent and illustrious Athenian family, called Alemæonidæ, which had fled from the tyrant Hippias, raised a new temple, the front of which was of Parian marble. The pediments were adorned with Diana, Latona, Apollo, Bacchus, the setting of the sun, the Muses, and the Thyades. The architraves were decorated with golden armour; bucklers suspended by the Athenians after the battle of Marathon; and shields taken from the Gauls under Brennus. In the portico were inscribed the celebrated maxims of the seven sages of Greece. There was an image of Homer, and in the cell was an altar of Neptune, with statues of the Fates, and of Jupiter and Apollo. Near the hearth before the altar, stood the iron chair of Pindar. In the sanctuary was an image of Apollo gilded. The enclosure was of great extent, and filled with treasures (in which many cities had con secrated tenths of spoils taken in war), and with the public donations of renowned states in va rious ages. The oracles were delivered by a priestess called Pythia, who received the prophetic influence in the following manner. A lofty tripod, decked with laurel, was placed over the aperture, whence the sacred vapor issued. The priestess, after washing her body, and especially her hair, in the cold water of Castalia, mounted on it, to receive the divine effluvia. She wore a crown of laurel, and shook a sacred tree which grew close by. Having mounted the tripod, she was seized with the most violent paroxysms of frenzy, and in that situation delivered her oracular responses; and if she declined acting, they dragged her by force to the tripod. The habit of her order was that of virgins. The season of enquiry was in the spring, during the month called Busius; after which Apollo was supposed to visit the altars of the Hyperboreans. The city of Delphi arose in the form of a theatre, upon the winding declivity of Parnassus, whose fantastic tops overwhelmed it like a canopy on the north, while two immense rocks rendered it inaccessible on the east and west, and the rugged and shapeless mount Cirphis defended it on the south. The foot of Cirphis was washed by the rapid Plistus, whose waters fell into the sea a few leagues from the city. This inaccessible and romantic situation from which the place derived the name of Delphi, or solitary, was rendered still more striking by the innumerable echoes which multiplied every sound, and increased the ignorant veneration of visitants for the god of the oracle. The principal inhabitants of Delphi, claiming an immediate relation to Apollo, were entitled to officiate in the rites of his sanctuary; and even the inferior ranks were continually employed in dances, festivals, processions, and all the gay pageantry of an elegant superstition. Delphi, lying in the centre of Greece, and, as was then imagined, of the universe, was conveniently situated for the conflux of votaries. It was customary for those who consulted the oracle to make rich presents to the god: his servants and priests feasted on the numerous victims which were sacrificed to him; and the rich magnificence of his temple had become proverbial even in the age of Homer. In aftertimes Croesus, the wealthiest of monarchs, was particularly munificent in his donations. The sacred repository was, therefore, often the object of plunder. Neoptolemus the son of Achilles was slain, while sacrificing, by a priest, on suspicion of a design of that kind. Xerxes divided his army at Panopeus, and proceeded with the main body through Boeotia into Attica, while a part, keeping Parnassus on the right, advanced along Schiste to Delphi; but they were seized with a panic when near Ilium, and fled. The divine board was seized by the Phocians under Philomelus, and dissipated in a long war with the Amphictyons. The Gauls experienced a reception like that of the Persians, and manifested similar dismay and superstition. Sylla, more wise, wanting money to pay his army, sent to borrow from the holy treasury; and when his messenger would have frightened him, by reporting that the sound of a harp had been heard from within the sanctuary, he replied, it was a sign that the god was happy to oblige him. But the temple, in the time of Strabo, was reduced to extreme poverty; and Apollo was silent. Nero attempted to drive him, as it were by violence, from the cavern; killing men at the mouth, and polluting it with blood. An oracle of Apollo at another place informed the consulters, that he should no more recover the power of utterance at Delphi, but enjoined the continuance of the accustomed offerings. Yet the store appeared inexhaustible; and the robbery of Nero, who removed 500 brazen images, was rather regretted than perceived. The holy treasuries, though empty, served as memorials of the piety and glory of the cities which erected them. The Athenian portico preserved the beaks of ships and the brazen shields, trophies won in the Peloponnesian war; and a multitude of curiosities remained untouched. Constantine the Great, however, proved a more fatal enemy to Apollo and Delphi, than either Sylla or Nero. He removed the sacred tripods to adorn the Hippodrome of his new city; where these, with the Apollo, the statues of the Heliconian muses, and the celebrated Pan, dedicated by the Greek cities after the war with the Medes, were extant when Sozomen wrote his history. Afterwards Julian sent Oribasius to restore the temple; but he was admonished by an oracle to represent to the emperor the deplorable condition of the place. Tell him,' said the oracle, 'that the well-built court is fallen to the ground. Phoebus has not a cottage, nor the prophetic laurel, nor the speaking fountain, Cassotis; and even the beautiful water is extinct.' DELPHINIA, a new alkali, procured by the action of dilute sulphuric acid, on the bruised unshelled seeds of the larkspur. The solution of sulphate, thus formed, is precipitated by subcarbonate of potassa. Alcohol separates from this precipitate the vegetable alkali in an impure state. Pure delphinia is crystalline while wet, but becomes opaque on exposure to air. Its taste is bitter and acrid. When heated it melts; and on cooling becomes hard and brittle_like_resin. If more highly heated, it blackens and is decomposed. Water dissolves a very small portion of it. Alcohol and æther dissolve it very readily. The alcoholic solution renders syrup of violets green, and restores the blue tint of litmus reddened by an acid. It forms soluble neutral salts with acids. Alkalies precipitate the delphinia in a white gelatinous state like alumina. DELPHINIC ACID. The name of an acid, extracted from the oil of the dolphin. It resembles a volatile oil; has a light lemon color, and a strong aromatic odor, analogous to that of rancid butter. Its taste is pungent, and its vapor has a sweetened taste of æther. It is slightly soluble in water, and very soluble in alcohol. The latter solution strongly reddens litmus. 100 parts of delphinic acid neutralise a quantity of base, which contains 9 of oxygen, whence its prime equivalent appears to be 11.11. DELPHINIUM, dolphin flower, or larkspur: in botany, a genus of the trigynia order, and poyandria class of plants; natural order twentysixth, multisiliquæ: CAL. none; petals five; nectarium bifid, and horned behind; siliquæ three or one. Species fourteen; two of which are perennial. They are herbaceous plants of upright growth, rising from eighteen inches to four feet in height, garnished with finely divided leaves, and terminated by long spikes of pentapetalous flowers of blue, red, white, or violet colors. One species, viz. D. consolida, is found wild in several parts of Britain, and grows in corn fields. The seeds are acrid and poisonous. When cultivated, the blossoms often become double. Sheep and goats eat this plant; horses are not fond of it; cows and swine refuse it. The annual larkspur makes a very fine appearance in gardens, and is easily propagated by seeds, being so hardy that it thrives in any soil or situation. DELPHINUS, the dolphin, in zoology, a genus of fishes belonging to the order of cete. There are five species, viz. 1. D. delphis, the dolphin. This fish was consecrated to the gods, and, celebrated in the earliest time for its fondness of the human race, was honored with the title of the sacred fish. Arion the musician, when flung into the ocean by the pirates, was said to be received and saved by this benevolent fish. Its natural shape is almost straight, the back being very slightly incurvated, and the body slender; the nose long, narrow, and pointed, not much unlike the beak of some birds, for which reason the French call it l' oye de mer. It has forty teeth; twenty-one in the upper jaw and nineteen in the lower; a little above an inch long, conic at their upper end, sharp-pointed, bending a little in. They are placed at small distances from each other; so that when the mouth is shut, the teeth of both jaws lock into one another. The spout-hole is placed in the middle of the head; the tail is semilunar; the skin smooth, the color of the back and sides dusky, the belly whitish: it swims with great swiftness; and its prey is fish. It was formerly reckoned a great delicacy. This species of dolphin must not be confounded with that to which seamen give the name; the latter being quite another kind of fish, viz. the coryphaena hippuris of Linnæus, and the dorado of the Portuguese. 2. D. leucas, a species called by the Germans wit-fisch, and by the Russians beluga; both signifying white fish: but to this the latter add morskaia, 'of the sea,' to distinguish it from a species of sturgeon so named. They are numerous in the gulf of St. Lawrence, and go with the tide as high as Quebec. 3. D. orca, the grampus, is found from the length of fifteen feet to that of twenty-five. It is remarkably thick in proportion to its length, one of eighteen feet being in the thickest part ten feet diameter. With reason then did Pliny call this 'an immense heap of flesh armed with dreadful teeth.' It is extremely voracious; and will not even spare the porpoise, a congenerous fish. It is said to be a great enemy to the whale. 4. D. orca ensidorsatus, the sword fish. The nose is truncated; the teeth, of which there are forty in both jaws, are sharp-pointed; and on the back is a very long sword-like spine, or bony fin. It inhabits the European seas, the Atlantic, towards the Antarctic Pole, and Davis's Straits. It is the largest species of the genus, being twenty-four or twenty-five feet long, and from ten to thirteen feet in diameter where thickest; the lower jaw is much larger than the upper: the spout-hole is on the top of the head, and has two orifices. The spine on the back is often six feet long. It is broadest at the base, and resembles a scimitar or bent sword; being, however, covered with the common skin of the back. It is a bitter enemy to the whale, and carries on a constant war with the seals. It also feeds on flounders. 5. D. phocana, the porpoise. This species is found in vast multitudes in all parts of the British seas; but in greatest numbers at the time when fish of passage appear, such as mackerel, herrings, and salmon, which they pursue up the bays. DELPHOS, now called Castri, a town, or rather village, of Turkey in Asia, in Livadia; occupying part of the site of the ancient Delphi. Some vestiges of temples are visible; and above then, in the mountain side, are sepulchres, niches with horizontal cavities for the body, some of which are covered with slabs. A monastery is erected on the site of the Gymnasium. Strong terrace walls and other traces of a large edifice remain. The village is at a distance. Castalia is on the right hand in ascending to it, the water coming from on high and crossing the road; a steep precipice, above which the mountain still rises immensely, continuing on in that direction. The village consists of a few cottages covering the site of the temple and oracle. DELTA, a part of Lower Egypt, which occupies a considerable space of ground between the branches of the Nile and the Mediterranean Sea: the ancients call it Delta, because it is in the form of a triangle, like the Greek A. It is about 130 miles along the coast from Damietta to Alexandria, and seventy on the sides from the place where the Nile begins to divide itself. It is the most fertile country in all Egypt, and it rains more there than in other parts, but the fertility is chiefly owing to the inundation of the Nile. The principal towns on the coast are Damietta, Rosetta, and Alexandria; but, within land, Menousia, and Maala or Elmala. See EGYPT. DELTOIDE, adj. from delta, the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet; so called by reason of its resembling, this letter. An epithet applied to a triangular muscle arising from the clavicula, and from the process of the same, whose action is to raise the arm upward. Cut still more of the deltoide muscle, and carry the arm backward. Sharp's Surgery. DELU'DE, v. a. Ital. and Lat. deludere, DELU DER, n. s. from de, and ludo to deimpose upon : deludable is, easily imposed upon. DELU'DABLE, adj. ceive. To cheat; deceive; O, give me leave, I have deluded you; Browne's Vulgar Errours. Dryden. |