siderable frontier towards Persia, it is well guarded and fortified; but its many ancient cities are at present dwindled into heaps of ruins. Diarbekir, Bagdad, and Mosul, are however considerable places. The rivers Euphrates and Tigris have almost their whole course through this country.

DIARBEKIR, OF DIARBECK PROPER, is bounded on the north by Turcomania, on the west by Syria, on the south by part of Arabia Deserta and Yrack Proper, and on the east by Curdistan. It is the same country that is called Padanaram by Moses, signifying fruitful, which it still is in a very high degree, especially on the north side; where it yields corn, wine, oil, and fruits, in great abundance. Christianity flourished here in an eminent manner, till its purity was sullied about the beginning of the sixth century by the heresy of the Jacobites, whose patriarch resided here at a very recent period. It is now a pachalic or government of Turkey, subdivided into twelve districts. The principal towns are Diarbekir, Mosul, Orsa or Edessa, Nisibis, Gezir, Merdin, Zibin, Amadia, and Carasara; all of little note except Diarbekir and Mosul.

DIARBEKIR, DIARBECK, or CARAHMED, the capital of the above district, is situated in a delightful plain, on the banks and near the head of the Tigris, about 155 miles or fifteen caravan days' journey, north-east of Aleppo. A bridge of ten arches over the river is said to have been built by order of Alexander the Great. It is one of the richest and most mercantile cities in all Asiatic Turkey; and was once well fortified, being encompassed with a double wall, the outermost of which was flanked with seventy-two towers; but the whole is now in a very dilapidated state. The streets are narrow, but the houses, being of stone and lofty, look respectable; and it has several stately piazzas or bazaars, well stored with all kinds of merchandise, and twelve magnificent mosques, said to have been formerly Christian churches. The Armenian cathedral is a handsome structure, the roof of which is supported by two rows of pillars; and the whole floor covered by carpets. A very handsome

fountain in the court in front throws the water to a considerable height. Extensive manufactures are carried on here in iron, copper, silk, wool, and cotton; but its chief article of trade and manufacture is Turkey leather, of which the sale is immense. It has also a manufacture of fine dyed linen and cotton cloths, which are nearly in the same request. There are many large and convenient inns on both sides of the river, for the caravans that go to and from Persia; and the place is much frequented by pilgrims of all nations and religions. The Turkish ladies are said here to enjoy an extraordinary degree of liberty, and are commonly seen on the walks of the city in company with the Christian women, with whom they live in great friendship. The citizens generally are said to be polite, affable, and courteous. A basha resides here, who has very extensive jurisdiction. He has commonly a body of 20,000 horse under him. The adjacent territory is very rich and picturesque; the bread, wine, flesh, and fruits, excellent. The inhabitants, who consist of Turks, Armenians, Kurds,

Catholics, and Jacobites, are computed at 80,000 by Gardanne, at 38,000 by Mr. M'Donald Kinneir; the real number may probably be a medium between the two. Diarbekir is sixty miles from Merdin, 172 from Malatia, and 540 E.S. E. of Constantinople.

DIARRHEA, n. s. Į Gr. διαρροιη. A flux, DIARRHE TICK, adj. productive of frequent stools. The adjective signifies purgative.

In the midst of that service was I surprised with a miserable distemper of body; which ended in a diarrhaa biliosa, not without some beginning and further threats of a dysentery; wherewith I was brought so low, that there seemed small hope of my recovery. Bp. Hall's Account of Himself.

Millet is diarrhætick, cleansing, and useful in diseases of the kidneys. Arbuthnol.

During his diarrhea I healed up the fontanels.

Wiseman.

DIARRHEA, in medicine, an excessive purging, distinguished by frequent stools with the natural excrement, not contagious, and seldom attended with pyrexia. It is a genus of disease in the class neuroses, and order spasmi of Cullen, containing the following species :1. Diarrhoea crapulosa. The feculent diarrhea, from crapulus, one who overloads his stomach. 2. Diarrhoea biliosa. The bilious, from an increased secretion of bile. 3. Diarrhea mucosa. The mucous, from a quantity of slime being voided. 4. Diarrhoea hepatirrhoea. The hepatic, in which there is a quantity of serous matter, somewhat resembling the washings of flesh, voided; the liver being primarily affected. 5. Diarrhoea lienterica. The lientery; when the food passes unchanged. 6. Diarrhoea cœliaca. The coeliac passion: the food passes off in this affection in a white liquid state like chyle. 7. Diarrhea verminosa Arising from worms.

DIARY, n. s. Lat. duarium. An account of the transactions, accidents, &c. of every day; a journal.

In sea voyages, where there is nothing to be seen but sky and sea, men make diaries; but, in land-trave', wherein so much is to be observed, they omit it.

· DIATHESIS, ASTHENIC, is described to be that state of the body, wherein there is too little excitement of the whole living system, arising from the debilitating noxious powers, impairing all the functions, disturbing some, giving a false appearance of increasing others, but always debilitating.'

DIATHESIS, STHENIC, is that state of the body, wherein all the functions are first increased; a disturbance or irregularity then takes place in some; others are impaired; but not, as long as this diathesis lasts, by a debilitating operation.' DIATONΊC. Οἱ διάτονος. The ordanary sort of music which proceeds by different tones,

either in ascending or descending. It contains only the two greater and lesser tones, and the greater semi-tone. Harris.

DIATONIC, in music, is compounded of two Greek words, viz. the preposition dia, signifying a transition from one thing to another, and the substantive Tovos, importing a given degree of tension and musical note. It is indifferently applied to a scale or gamut, to intervals of a certain kind, or to a species of music, whether in melody or harmony, composed of these intervals. We copy the following scale of the Greek diatonics from Dannely's Musical Dictionary :—

DIAUGOPHRAGMIA, in natural history, a genus of fossils of the order of septariæ, whose partitions, or septa, consist of spar with an admixture of crystal. Of this genus there are three species: 1. A red kind, with brownish-yellow partitions; 2. A brownish-yellow kind, with whitish partitions; 3. A bluish-white kind, with straw-colored partitions.

DIAZ (John), a martyr to the frantic zeal of his brother against the protestant religion, was born in the beginning of the sixteenth century, at Cuenza in Spain. He studied theology at Paris, and under the celebrated Calvin at Geneva. He was the companion of Bucer at the Ratisbon conference; and, going soon after to Neuburgh, was visited by his brother and murderer Alphonsus Diaz, an advocate of the court of Rome. This zealot, failing in his endeavour to reclaim him to popery, immediately plotted against his life. He pretended to close his visit and take his departure, but secretly returned at break of day to the apartment of Diaz, with a companion, who affected to be the bearer of a letter. Gaining admission on this pretence, while Diaz was reading the paper presented, Alphonsus's comrade

gave him a death-blow on the head with an axe, and fled. This murder took place in March 27th, 1546; and, though the assassins were taken, the emperor Charles V. put a stop to the proceedings against them. The miserable fratricide afterwards hanged himself. An account of his death was composed in Latin, under the title of Historia vera de Morte J. Diazii. It produced a great sensation at the time. J. Diaz was the author of A Summary of the Christian Religion.

DIAZEUTIC TONE. Oι δια and ζευγνυμι. In the ancient Greek music, it disjoined two fourths, one on each side of it; and which, being joined to either, made a fifth. This is, in our musick, from A to B.

They allowed to this diazeutick tone, which is our La, Mi, the proportion of nine to eight, as being the unalterable difference of the fifth and fourth. Harris.

DIB'BLER.

DIB'BLE, n. s. & v. a. Į Dut. dipfel, a sharp point, Skinner; from dabble, Junius; or a corruption of dog-bill, according to Mr. Thomson. A small spade; a pointed instrument with which are made holes for planting or sowing. The verb is of recent introduction.

DIBDIN (Charles), a celebrated writer of Songs and musical composer, was the son of a silversmith of Southampton, where he was born about the year 1745. He was intended for the church, and received his early education at Winchester school. At the age of fourteen, however, he became a candidate for the situation of organist in a Hampshire village, and, relinquishing all views of entering the church, came at the invitation of an elder brother, a captain in the West India trade, to London. Here he was first engaged in composing ballads, and tuning pianofortes. He made his first appearance as a performer in 1762, at the Richmond theatre, and two years afterwards appeared on the London stage, as Ralph in The Maid of the Mill. The chief part of the music to Lionel and Clarissa,

and the whole of that to the musical entertainment of The Padlock, now established his fame as a composer for the drama, which he rapidly increased. The most celebrated of his pieces, perhaps, are The Deserter, The Waterman (the dialogue of which is also his production), and the Quaker, which appeared between 1772 and 1775. Mr. Dibdin never shone as an actor; and, having quarelled with Garrick and some other proprietors of the London theatres, he quitted the stage altogether, and made a successful attempt to entertain the public by accompanying himself, in his own songs, on the piano-forte. His saloon was near Leicester square, and known by the title of Sans Souci. His songs and entertainments produced at this time are said to have exceeded 1200. His sea songs are considered very superior witness the immense popularity of his Tom Bowling, Poor Jack, &c. The former is said to have been a tribute of affection to the memory of his brother. Imprudence, however, always kept Dibdin poor; and, though assisted by government and many opulent individuals, he died in indigent circumstances in 1814. An edition of his best songs has been published by Dr. Kitchiner.

DIBRA, a town of European Turkey, in Macedonia, near Albania. It was besieged by the Turks in 1442, who conveyed a dead dog into the only spring that supplied the town with water, which compelled the inhabitants to surrender. It is thirty miles north of Akrida.

DIB'STONE, n. s. A little stone which children throw at another stone.

I have seen little girls exercise whole hours together, and take abundance of pains, to be expert at dibstones. Locke Pertness;

DICACITY, n. s. Lat. dicacitas.

sauciness.

DICEARCHUS, a scholar of Aristotle, who composed a great number of books which were valued highly by Cicero and Atticus. He wrote a work to prove that men suffer more mischief from one another than from all evils beside. Another work he composed, concerning the republic of Lacedæmon, was read every year before the youth in the assembly of the ephori. Geography was one of his principal studies, on which science there is a fragment of a treatise of his still extant, and preserved among the Veteris Geographiæ Scriptores Minores.

ble.

DICE, n. s. & v. n.
DICER, n. s.
DICE BOX.

The plural of die. See DIE. To dice is to play with dice, or gam

A dicer; a gamester.

DICE, among gamesters, cubical pieces of bone or ivory, marked with dots on each side of their faces, from one to six. Sharpers have several ways of falsifying dice: by drilling and loading them with quicksilver; by filing and rounding them, &c.

The dice box is a narrow deep cornet, channelled within. It answers to what the Romans called fritillus; whence, crepitantes fritilli: and, in Seneca, resouante fritillo. Besides the fritillus, the Romans, for greater security, had another kind of dice-box called pyrgus, upyos, and sometimes turricula. It was placed immoveable in the middle of the table, being open at both ends, and likewise channelled within; over the top was placed a kind of funnel, into which the dice were cast out upon the fritillus; whence descending, they fell through the bottom on the table; by which all practising on them with the fingers was effectually prevented. For want of some contrivance of this kind, our sharpers have opportunities of playing a variety of tricks with the

box.

DICH. This word seems corrupted, says Dr. Johnson from dit for do it.

Rich men sin, and I eat root: Much ood dich thy good heart, Apemantus. Shakspeare. Timon. DICHOTOMY, n. s. Aixоropia. Distribution of ideas by pairs.

Some persons have disturbed the order of nature, and abused their readers by an affectation of dichoto mies, trichotomies, sevens, twelves, &c. Watts. DICHOTOMY, a term used by astronomers for that appearance on the moon, wherein she is

bisected, or shows just half her disk. In this situation the moon is said to be in a quadrate aspect, or to be in her quadrature.

DICK'ENS. A kind of adverbial exclamation, importing, as it seems, much the same with the devil. Belg. dicker.

Where had you this pretty weathercock!

I cannot tell what the dickens his name is my husband had him of. Shaks. Merry Wives of Windsor.

What a dickens does he mean by a trivial sum ? But ha'n't you found it, Sir?

Congreve. Old Bachelor. DICKINSON (Edmund), a celebrated English physician and chemist, born in 1624. He studied and took his degrees at Merton College, Oxford; and, in 1655, published there his Delphi Phonicizantes, &c., a learned piece, in which he attempted to prove, that the Greeks borrowed the story of the Pythian Apollo, and all that rendered the oracle at Delphi famous, from the Holy Scriptures, and from the book of Joshua in particular. He practised physic first at Oxford; but, removing to London in 1684, and restoring the earl of Arlington from a dangerous illness, he was promoted to be physician in ordinary to Charles II.; and continued in his appointments by his successor. After the Revolution, being afflicted with the stone, he retired from practice, and died in 1707. He published Physica Vetus et Vera, &c., containing a system of philosophy chiefly framed on principles collected from the Mosaic history.

Wotton.

And management of this main enterprise To him their great dictator.

Milton.

He that was fetched from the plough to be made dictator, had not half his (a clown's) pride and insolence.

Butler.

Kind dictators made, when they came home, Their vanquished foes free citizens of Rome.

Waller.

Judgment, like other faculties, is improved by practice, and its advancement is hindered by submission to dictatorial decisions, as the memory grows torpid by Johnson. the use of a table-book.

Thou, who with thy frown
Annihilated senates-Roman, too

With all thy vices, for thou didst lay down
With an atoning smile a more than earthly crown--
The dictatorial wreath,-couldst thou divine
To what would one day dwindle that which made
Thee more than mortal?

Byron.

A DICTATOR was first chosen during the Roman wars against the Latins. The consuls being unable to raise forces for the defence of the state, because the plebeians refused to enlist if they were not discharged from all the debts they had contracted with the patricians, the senate found it necessary to elect a new magistrate with absolute and uncontrolable power to take care of the state. The dictator remained in office for six months, after which he was again elected, if the affairs of the state seemed to be desperate; but if tranquillity was re-established, he generally laid down his power before the time was expired. He knew no superior in the republic, and even the laws were subjected to him. He was called dictator, quoniam dictis ejus parebat populus, because the people implicitly obeyed his command. He was named by the consul in the night viva voce, and his election was confirmed by the auguries. As his power was absolute, he could proclaim war, levy forces, conduct them against an enemy, and disband them at pleasure. He punished as he pleased, and from his decision there lay no appeal, at least till later times. He was preceded by twentyfour lictors with the fasces; during his administration, all other officers, except the tribunes of the people, were suspended, and he was the master of the republic. But amidst all this independence, he was not permitted to go beyond the borders of Italy; he was always obliged to march on foot in his expeditions, and he never could ride in difficult and laborious marches, without previously obtaining a formal leave from the people. He was chosen only when the state was in imminent danger from foreign enemies, or