Bodies seem to have an intrinsick principle of alteration, or corruption, from the dissolubility of their parts, and the coalition of several particles endued with contrary and destructive qualities each to other. Hale's Origin of Mankind. Lat. dissolvere, from dis, asunder, and solverc, to loose. To dis DISSOLVE', v. a. & n. DISSOLVENT, n. s. & adj. DISSOLV'ER, DISSOLV'IBLE, adj. unite the parts of a thing by moisture or by heat; to melt; liquefy: hence, figuratively, to destroy a union, compact, or delusion, as well as to dissipate obscurity or doubt. Dissolvent is having the power of dissolving; dissolver is synonymous with it as a substantive: dissolvible is, liable to liquefy or disperse by dissolution. I haue a desier to be dissolued and to be with Crist, it is mych more bettre. Wiclif. Filipensis 1. And I have heard of thee, thut thou canst make interpretations and dissolve doubts. Dan. v. 16. If there be more, more woeful, hold it in; For I am almost ready to dissolve, Hearing of this. Shakspeare. King Lear. She and I, long since contracted, Are now so sure that nothing can dissolve us. Id. By the king's authority alone, and by his writs, parliaments are assembled; and by him alone they are prorogued and dissolved, but each house may adjourn itself. Bacon to Villiers. Down fell the duke, his joints dissolved asunder, Blind with the light, and stricken dead with wonder. Fairfax. Witness these ancient empires of the earth In height of all their flowing wealth dissolved. Milton. The snow dissolved, no more is seen, The fields and wood, behold! are green. Id. Johnson. Despotic love dissolves the bestial war. Darwin. DIS'SOLUTE, adj. DIS'SOLUTELY, adv. I am as subject to heat as butter; a man of continual dissolution and thaw. Id. Merry Wives of Windsor. The life of man is always either increasing towards ripeness and perfection, or declining and decreasing towards rottenness and dissolution. Raleigh's History. Weigh iron and aqua-fortis severally; then dissolve the iron in the aqua-fortis, and weigh the dissolution. Bacon. Neither doth God say, I was the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; but I am. The patriarchs still live, after so many years of dissolution. Bp. Hall's Contemplations. Yet, I deny not, but dissolute men, like unskilful horsemen, which open a gate on the wrong side, may, by the virtue of their office, open heaven for others, and shut themselves out. Fuller. A longing after sensual pleasures is a dissolution of the spirit of a man, and makes it loose, soft, and wandering, unapt for noble or spiritual employments. Bp. Taylor. We expected Milton Paradise Lost. They cooled in zeal, Thenceforth shall practise how to live secure, Id. In the next place, Sir, I am clear that the act of union, reciting and ratifying one Scotch and one English act of parliament, has not rendered any change Fr. dissolu; Italian, whatsoever in our church impossible, but by a dissoSpan. and Port. dissolution of the union between the two kingdoms. DIS'SOLUTENESS, n. s. Sluto; Lat. dissolutus, from dis and solvere, DISSOLUTION. solutus, to loose. Unrestrained by law or morals; debauched; luxurious. Dissolution is more generally applied in the literal sense, and to death. Dissoluteness, to behaviour or manners yet both occur in the latter sense; and dissolution is used by lord Bacon for the substance formed by dissolving a body. Burke. A dissolution of all bonds ensued; The curbs invented for the mulish mouth Of headstrong youth were broken. Couper. DISSOLUTION, in physics, a general name for all reductions of concrete bodies into their smallest parts, without regard either to solidity or fluidity; though in the usual acceptation of the word among authors, it is restrained to the reduction Pope. DISTASTE', n. s. Dis and taste. DisDISTASTEFUL, adj. relish; aversion of the palate; disgust: the verb being derived from the noun, and both often applied figuratively. Dangerous conceits are in their nature poisons, Which at the first are scarce found to distaste, But, with a little act upon the blood, Burn like the mines of sulphur. Shakspeare. Othello. With certain half-caps, and cold moving nods, The king having tasted of the envy of the people, for his imprisonment of Edward Plantagenet, was doubtful to heap up any more distastes of that kind by the imprisonment of De la Pole also. Bacon's Henry VII. It is in the general behalf of society that, I speak, at least the more judicious part of it, which seems much distasted with the immodest and obscene writing of many in plays. Ben Jonson. The ground might be the distasteful averseness of the Christian from the Jew. Browne. On the part of heaven, Milton's Paradise Lost. None but a fool distasteful truth will tell; So it be new and please, 'tis full as well. I am unwilling to believe that he doth it with a design to play tricks, and fly-blow my words to make others distaste them. Stillingfleet. With stern distaste avowed, To their own districts drive the suitor crowd. DISTANCE, v. a. & n. s. Į DIS'TANT, adj. Pope's Odyssey. Fr. distance; Span. distancia; Ital. distanza; Lat. distantia, from dis, asunder, and stans, stantis, standing. The extent of space between two standing bodies. The verb seems here derived from the noun. Distant is, remote in place, time, or nature; and in any degree: hence, not obvious; not intelligible. We come to see fight; to see thy pass, thy stock, thy reverse, thy distance. Shakspeare. Merry Wives of Windsor. Banquo was your enemy, So is he mine; and in such bloody distance, That every minute of his being thrusts Against my nearest of life. Shakspeare. Macbeth. A good merchant never demands out of distance of the price he intends to take. If not always within the touch, yet within the reach of what he means to sell for. This heaven which we behold Distant so high. On the part of heaven, Now alienated, distance and distaste, Fuller. Milton. If a man makes me keep my distance, the comfort is, he keeps his at the same time. Swift. These dwell at such convenient distance, That each may give his friend assistance. Prior. I help my preface by a prescript, to tell that there is ten years distance between one and the other. Id. Each daring lover, with adventurous pace, Pursued his wishes in the dangerous race; Like the swift hind the bounding damsel flies, Strains to the goal; the distanced lover dies. Gay. "Tis by respect and distance that authority is upheld. Atterbury. The wondrous rock the Parian marble shone, And seemed to distant sight of solid stone. Pope. The senses will discover things near us with sufficient exactness, and things distant also, so far as they relate to our necessary use. Watts's Logick. The worse living authors fare now, the better they will succeed with posterity; for the critics love the Which puts some of us in distemper ; but I cannot name the disease, and it is caught Young son, it argues a distempered head, So soon to bid good-morrow to thy bed. Id. Romeo and Juliet. Aquinas objecteth the distemperate heat, which he supposeth to be in all places directly under the sun. Raleigh's History. The true temper of empire is a thing rare, and hard to keep; for both temper and distemper consist of contraries. Bacon. ment. I was not forgetful of those sparks, which some men's distempers formerly studied to kindle in parliaKing Charles. He distempered himself one night with long and hard study. Boyle's History of Fluids. Distempered zeal, sedition, cankered hate, No more shall vex the church and tear the state. Dryden. They heighten distempers to diseases. Suckling. Sin is the fruitful parent of distempers, and ill lives occasion good physicians. South. They were consumed by the discommodities of the country, and the distemperature of the air. Abbot. When I behold a fashionable table set out in all its magnificence, I fancy that I see gouts and dropsies, fevers and lethargies, with innumerable other distempers, lying in ambuscade among the dishes. Addison. A night of fretful passions may consume, All that thou hast of beauty's gentle bloom, And one distempered hour of sordid fear Print on thy brow the wrinkles of a year. Sheridan. DISTEMPER, in painting, a term used for working up of colors with something besides water or oil. If the colors are prepared with water, that kind of painting is called limning; and if with oil, is called painting in oil, and simply painting. If the colors are mixed with size, whites of eggs, or any such proper glutinous or unctuous matter, and not with oil, then they say it is done in distemper. Fr. distendre; DISTEND', v. a. and tendere, to stretch. To stretch breadth-wise. Wind and distention of the bowels are signs of a bad digestion in the intestines; for in dead animals, when there is no digestion at all, the distention is in the greatest extremity. Arbuthnot. DISTICH, n. s. Fr. distique; Ital. Span. and Port. disticho; Lat. distichon; Gr. disixov, a song of two verses, i. e. duo two, and είχος a verse, from six to step, because ancient verses were measured by the steps. A couplet; a couple of lines; an epigram consisting only of two DISTI'L v. a. & v. n. DISTILLERY, n. s. & adj. DISTI LMENT. Fr. distiller; Sp. destilar; Ital. destillare; Lat. distillare, from stillo; Gr. salaw, to drop. To let fall in, or reduce to, drops; to extract spirit in drops by a peculiar process; to diffuse. As a neuter verb, to drop, or fall in drops; to flow gently; to use a still. Distillation is the art of distilling; distillatory, belonging to that art. Distiller, one who practises it: and distillery, the place of disulling; or, as an adjective, belonging to such a place. Distilment is used by Shakspeare for that which is produced by distillation. They pour down rain, according to the vapour thereof, which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly. Job. Have I not been Thy pupil long; Hast thou not learned me how To make perfumes, distil, preserve? Shakspeare. There hangs a vapourous drop, profound; I'll catch it ere it comes to ground; And that, distilled by magick slights, Shall raise up articial sprights. Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, And in the porches of mine ears did pour The leperous distilment. Id. Id. Prior. From his fair head When you set about composing, it may be necessary for your ease and better distillation of wit, to put on your worst clothes, and the worse the better. Swift. Advice to a young Poet. In vain kind seasons swelled the teeming grain; Soft showers distilled, and suns grew warm in vain. Pope. The Arabians invented distillation; and thus, by obtaining the spirit of fermented liquors in a less diluted Darwin. state, added to its destructive quality. By act of parliament, distillers are not at liberty to draw off any low wines before they have charged Hey's Gauger. their wash-stills with wash or wort. We shall only here remark, that when a wash-back, or other distillery utensil, cannot be accurately measured by any other mode, recourse must be had to the method of equidistant ordinates. Id. DISTILLATION is the art of separating the volatile and s dspirituous from the fixed and watery parts of fermented liquors. Al When a fluid which has undergone the vinous fermentation is exposed to the action of heat, the vapor which arises from it is, when collected and condensed by the reduction of its temperature, again converted into a fluid: but the fluid thus obtained is found to have different properties to that from which it was derived, and it receives the name of spirit. This spirit consists of water, and a peculiar fluid called alcohol. cohol, in combination with more or less water, and flavored by the aroma of the different substances from which it is obtained, forms brandy, rum, geneva, and all the various descriptions of spirit known in commerce. The art of the distiller consists in selecting the most convenient mode of heating the fermented fluid, and of condensing the vapor it affords, while he prevents the intermixture with his products of whatever would injure their flavor. To accomplish these purposes, although they are apparently simple, it is found that great care and skill are required. The distillations performed by the chemist, with the retort, the alembic, the lamp-furnace, the pneumato-chemical and Woulfe's apparatus, for obtaining gaseous and volatile products in general, are essentially the same as the distilla The Euphrates distilleth out of the mountains of tions conducted for the commercial purpose of Armenia, and falleth into the gulph of Persia. Raleigh's History. obtaining spirit; but the scale is different, the chemist having his whole apparatus so completely 324 DISTILLATION. under his eye that, he can adjust the heat and other circumstances with much nicety. In using, for example, when he has vapor to condense, the lamp-furnace, a wet sponge placed on the beak of the retort will suffice: but the commercial distiller requires, for the purpose of condensation, a large convoluted tube, passing through an immense body of water, which must be constantly renewed: the difference of scale, therefore, requires more than a mere enlargement of the apparatus, and there has in fact been found ample scope for improvements in the art. The quantity and excellence of the spirit produced by the French, in consequence of the alterations they have made in the old method of distilling (the most improved form of which, by Saintmarc, we shall presently describe), have decisively shown the value of the new plans, which may be adopted without the disadvantage of increasing the first cost or complexity of the apparatus. They consist in the application of Woulfe's apparatus to this purpose. Wine being put into the boiler, and into all the intermediate receivers between the boiler and the worm, the tube from the boiler plunges into the wine of the first receiver, to which it communicates sufficient heat to raise its contents in vapor: this vapor has the same effect on the wine of the next receiver; and after the continuation of the process through as many receivers as may be thought proper, the whole of the vapor finally extricated is condensed in the usual way by passing through a worm. By this truly ingenious apparatus, spirit of various degrees of concentration may be obtained at one operation, according as the product of the first, the second, or any other receiver is taken; the consumption of fuel is extremely small, the product excellent, as well as greater in quantity than by any other means; and by using water instead of wine, in the boiler, the possibility of an empyreumatic taste is prevented. In distilling from grain an oil is apt to come over, which injures the taste of the spirits; it is usual to keep it back by adding a little sulphuric acid to the wash. The comparative salubrity of the spirit or geneva made in Holland is notorious, and it has been supposed that nothing like it can be produced in this country; but it appears to be entirely the result of the care they take in their processes. They use the most perfect grain, and use it only when perfectly malted, aware that a fourth part more spirit is obtained from such grain than from that of which the germination has been checked too soon, or suffered to continue too long. The best Hollands is prepared from wheat, which is the fittest grain for this use, and is more productive than barley; but rye yields about one-third more spirit than wheat, and is more extensively used in Holland. The fermentation is continued about three days: the first distillation is extremely slow, and the observation of this point is essential; the second distillation or rectification is done with juniper berries. The most rigid cleanliness is observed, and the vessels are cleansed with lime-water instead of soap, which would give the liquor a urinous taste. They use the rye grown on a calcareous soil, and never, if they can avoid it, that of fat clayey ground: it is Prussian rye they employ. A little ses. usually barley, wheat, oats, rye, sugar, or molasThe substances from which spirit is obtained are In countries where the grape ripens in the the superiority of the brandies of France; the spirit afforded by good wines containing the finest open air, wine is distilled for this purpose: hence When grain is used it is malted according to the aroma of all products capable of yielding alcohol. fermentation is conducted in the same manner. usual process, like barley for brewing; and the After fermentation, the fluid intended to be distilled is called wash, and it is ready for the still. wash; and a tube, in passing through which the A still consists of a boiler, which contains the vapors are condensed: the tube is convoluted, in order that it may have a great length in a moderate compass, and it is thence called the worm. The boiler formerly used was a cylinder, the height of which was in general one-half greater than its diameter; but the French, who have always been foremost in the improvements which this art has received, have introduced a much superior form. The height of the boiler has been considerably diminished, its width augmented, and instead of being cylindrical it widens upward gradually to within about three or four inches of the top; there the sides are curved into an arch, and become narrower. nence its form is in fact similar to that of a common tea-kettle: the mouth cd, as is shewn in plate DISTILLATION, is of the same diameter as the bottom a b. To the boiler is fitted a conical head, in the interior of which, round the lower edge, is a channel, destined to and which, instead of returning to the boiler, is receive the liquid condensed against the sides, conveyed into the worm. tion the head communicated with the worm by In the old construcan inclined tube of a very small diameter; but wide as the head, and diminishes in diameter as now the tube in this situation, at its base fg, is as boiler and the old one, consists in the shape of approaches the worm, into which it opens. Anothe bottom: the old ones were flat; important difference, between the improved cave. By this means the heat received is nearly equal at every point directly exposed to the fire; and, as the bottom is convex within, the sediment from the wash falls round its edge, where, from its resting on the brick-work and not receiving the direct heat, it is not liable, from being burnt, inches of the circumference of the bottom rest on brick-work. to give an empyreumatic taste to the spirit. Two ture o. The boiler is filled by the aper it ther this is con was applied only to the bottom of the boiler; |