(C. E.*)
DISTRACTION(from Lat.distrahere, to pull asunder), a drawing away or apart; a word now used generally of a state of mind, to mean a diversion of attention, or a violent emotion amounting almost to madness.
DISTRESS(from the O. Fr.destrece,destresse, from the past participle of the Lat.distringere, to pull apart, used in Late Lat. in the sense of to punish, hence to distrain), pressure, especially of sorrow, pain or ill-fortune. As a legal term, the action of distraining or distraint, the right which a landlord has of seizing the personal chattels of his tenant for non-payment of rent. Cattledamage feasant(doing damage or trespassing upon a neighbour’s land) may also bedistrained,i.e.may be detained until satisfaction be rendered for injury they have done. The cattle or other animals thus distrained are a mere pledge in the hands of the injured person, who has only power to retain them until the owner appear to make satisfaction for the mischief they have done. “Distress damage feasant” is also applicable to inanimate things on the land if doing damage thereto or to its produce; things in actual use, however, are exempt. Such distress must be made during the actual trespass, and by whoever is aggrieved by the damage. Distress for rent was also at one time regarded as a mere pledge or security; but the remedy, having been found to be speedy and efficacious, was rendered more perfect by enactments allowing the thing taken to be sold. Blackstone notes that the law of distresses in this respect “has been greatly altered within a few years last past.” The legislature, in fact, converted an ancient right of personal redress into a powerful remedy for the exclusive benefit of a single class of creditors, viz. landlords. Now that the relation of landlord and tenant in England has come to be regarded as purely a matter of contract, the language of the law-books seems to be singularly inappropriate. The defaulting tenant is a “wrong-doer,” the landlord is the “injured party,”; any attempt to defeat the landlord’s remedy by carrying off distrainable goods is denounced as “fraudulent and knavish.” The operation of the law has, as we shall point out, been mitigated in some important respects, but it still remains an almost unique specimen of one-sided legislation.
At common law distress was said to be incident torent service, and by particular reservation to rent charges; but by 4 Geo. II. c. 28 it was extended torent seck,rents of assizeand chief rents (seeRent). It is therefore a general remedy for rent certain in arrear. All personal chattels are distrainable with the following exceptions:—(1) things in which there can be no property, as animalsferae naturae; (2) ledgers, daybooks, title-deeds, &c.; (3) things delivered to a person following a public trade, as a horse sent to be shod, &c.; (4) things already in the custody of the law; (5) things which cannot be restored in as good a plight as when distrained, that is, perishable articles; (6) fixtures; (7) beasts of the plough and instruments of husbandry while there is other sufficient distress to be found; (8) instruments of a man’s trade or profession in actual use at the time the distress is made. If not in actual use they are only privileged in case there is other sufficient distress upon the premises. These exceptions, it will be seen, imply that the thing distrained is to be held as a pledge merely—not to be sold. They also imply that in general any chattels found on the land in question are to be available for the benefit of the landlord, whether they belong to the tenant or not. This principle worked with peculiar harshness in the case of lodgers, whose goods might be seized and sold for the payment of the rent due by their landlord to his superior landlord. By the Lodgers’ Goods Protection Act 1871, however, where a lodger’s goods have been seized by the superior landlord the lodger may serve him with a notice stating that the intermediate landlord has no interest in the property seized, but that it is the property or in the lawful possession of the lodger, and setting forth the amount of the rent due by the lodger to his immediate landlord. On payment or tender of such rent the landlord cannot proceed with the distress against the goods in question. By the Law of Distress Amendment Act 1908 this protection was extended to under tenants liable to pay rent by equal quarterly instalments, as well as to any person whatsoever who is not a tenant of the premises or any part thereof nor has any beneficial interest therein. The act, however, excludes certain goods, particularly goods belonging to the husband or wife of the tenant whose rent is in arrear, goods comprised in any bill of sale, hire purchase agreement or settlement made by the tenant, goods in the possession or disposition of a tenant by the consent and permission of the true owner under such circumstances as to make the tenant reputed owner, goods of the partner of an immediate tenant, and goods (not being goods of a lodger) upon premises where any trade or business is carried on in which both the immediate tenant and the under tenant have an interest. The act does not apply where an under tenancy has been created in breach of a covenant or agreement between the landlord and his immediate tenant. The Law of Distress Amendment Act 1888 also absolutely exempted from distress the tools and implements of trade and wearing apparel and bedding of a tenant and his family to the value of five pounds, and the Law of Distress Amendment Act 1895 gave power to a court of summary jurisdiction to direct that such goods, when distrained upon, should be restored if not sold, or, if sold, to order their value to be paid by the persons who levied the distress or directed it to be levied. Originally the landlord could only seize things actually on the premises, so that the remedy might be defeated by the things being taken away. But by an act of 1710, and by the Distress for Rent Act 1737, he may follow things fraudulently or clandestinely removed off the premises within thirty days after their removal, unless they have been in the meantime bona fide sold for a valuable consideration. The sixth exception mentioned above was held to extend to sheaves of corn; but by an act of 1690 corn, when reaped, as well as hay, was made subject to distress. That act was modified by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1851, under which growing crops seized by the sheriff and sold under an execution are liable to distress for rent which becomes due after the seizure and sale, if there is no other sufficient distress on the premises.
Excessive or disproportionate distress exposes the distrainer to an action, and any irregularity formerly made the proceedingsvoidab initio, so that the remedy was attended with considerable risk. The Distress for Rent Act 1737, before alluded to, in the interests of landlords, protected distresses forrentfrom the consequences of irregularity. In all cases of distress for rent, if the owner do not within five days (by the Law of Distress Amendment Act 1888, fifteen days, if the tenant make a request in writing to the person levying the distress and also give security for any additional cost that may be occasioned by such extension of time) replevy the same with sufficient security, the thing distrained may be sold towards satisfaction of the rent and charges, and the surplus, if any, must be returned to the owner. To “replevy” is when the person distrained upon applies to the proper authority (the registrar of the county court) to have the thing returned to his own possession, on giving security to try the right of taking it in an action of replevin.
Duties and penalties imposed by act of parliament (e.g.payment of rates and taxes) are sometimes enforced by distress.
DISTRIBUTION(Lat,distribuere, to deal out), a term used in various connexions with the general meaning of spreading out. In law, the word is used for the division of the personal estate of an intestate among the next-of-kin (seeIntestacy). The important scientific question as to the distribution of plants and animals on the earth is treated underPlants:Distribution, andZoological Distribution. In economics the word is used generally for the transference of commodities from person to person or from place to place, or the dividing up of large quantities of commodities into smaller quantities; and in a more technical sense, for the division of the product of industry amongst the various members or classes of the community. The theory of economic distribution,i.e.the causes which determine rent, wages, profits and interest, forms an important subject-matter in all text-books. Among recent works, see E. Cannan’sHistory of Theories of Production and Distribution, 1776-1848(1893), J. R. Common’sDistribution of Wealth(1893), and H. J. Davenport’sValue and Distribution(Chicago, 1908).
DISTRICT,a word denoting in its more general sense, a tract or extent of a country, town, &c., marked off for administrative or other purposes, or having some special and distinguishing characteristics. The medieval Latindistrictus(fromdistringere, to distrain) is defined by Du Cange asTerritorium feudi, seu tractus, in quo Dominus vassallos et tenentes suos distringere potest; and asjustitiae exercendae in eo tractu facultas. It was also used of the territory over which the feudal lord exercised his jurisdiction generally. It may be noted thatdistringerehad a wider significance than “to distrain” in the English legal sense (seeDistress). It is defined by Du Cange ascompellere ad aliquid faciendum per mulctam, poenam, vel capto pignore. In English usage, apart from its general application in such forms as postal district, registration district and the like, “district” has specific usages for ecclesiastical and local government purposes. It is thus applied to a division of a parish under the Church Building Acts, originally called a “perpetual curacy,” and the church serving such a division is properly a “district chapel.” Under the Local Government Act of 1894 counties are divided for the purposes of the act into urban and rural districts. In British India the word is used to represent thezillah, an administrative subdivision of a province or presidency. In the United States of America the word has many administrative, judicial and other applications. In South Carolina it was used instead of “county” for the chief division of the state other than in the coast region. In the Virginias, Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky and Maryland it answers to “township” or precinct, elsewhere the principal subdivision of a county. It is used for an electoral “division,” each state being divided into Congressional and senatorial districts; and also for a political subdivision ranking between an unorganized and an organized Territory—e.g., the District of Columbia and Alaska.
DISTYLE(from Gr.δι, two, andστῦλος, column), the architectural term given to a portico which has two columns between antae, known asdistyle-in-antis(seeTemple).
DITHMARSCHEN,orDitmarsh(in the oldest form of the nameThiatmaresgaho, Dietmar’s Gau), a territory between the Eider, the Elbe and the North Sea, forming the western part of the old duchy of Holstein, and now included in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein. It contains about 550 sq. m. with 90,000 inhabitants. The territory consists to the extent of one half of good pasture land, which is preserved from inroads of the sea by banks and dams, the other half being mostly waste. It was originally colonized mainly from Friesland and Saxony. The district was subjugated and Christianized by Charlemagne in 804, and ranked as a separateGau, included perhaps in the countship of Stade, orComitalus utriusque ripae. From the same century, according to one opinion, or from the year 1182, when the countship was incorporated with their see, according to another, the archbishops of Bremen claimed supremacy over the land; but the inhabitants, who had developed and consolidated a systematic organism for self-government, made obstinate resistance, and rather attached themselves to the bishop of Schleswig. Ditmarsken, to use the Scandinavian form of the name, continued part of the Danish dominions till the disastrous battle of Bornhöved in 1227, when its former independence was regained. The claims of the archbishop of Bremen were now so far recognized that he exercised the royal rights ofHeerbannandBlutbann,1enjoyed the consequent emoluments, and was represented first by a singleadvocatus, orVogt, and afterwards by one for each of the five Döffts, or marks, into which the land was divided after the establishment of Meldorf. The community was governed by aLandrathof forty-eight elective consuls, or twelve from each of the four marks; and even in the 14th century the power of the episcopaladvocatiwas so slight that a chronicler quoted by Conrad von Maurer says,De Ditmarschen leven sunder Heren und Hovedt unde dohn wadt se willen, “the Ditmarschen live without lord and head, and do what they will.” In 1319 and in 1404 they succeeded in defeating the invasions of the Holstein nobles; and though in 1474 the land was nominally incorporated with the duchy by the emperor Frederick III., the attempt of the Danish king Hans and the duke of Gottorp to enforce the decree in 1500 resulted only in their complete rout in the marshes of the Dussend-Düwels-Warf. During the early part of the century which began with such prestige for Ditmarsh, it was the scene of violent internal conflict in regard to the religious questions of the time; and, thus weakened, it was obliged in 1559 to submit to partition among its three conquerors—King Frederick II. of Denmark and Dukes John and Adolphus. A new division took place on Duke John’s death in 1581, by which Frederick obtained South Ditmarsh, with its chief town of Meldorf, and Adolphus obtained North Ditmarsh, with its chief town of Heide; and this arrangement continued till 1773, when all the Gottorp possessions were incorporated with the Danish crown.
See Dahlmann’s edition of Neocorus,Chronik von Dithmarschen(Kiel, 1827), andGeschichte Dänemarks(1840-1844); Michelsen,Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte des Landes Dithmarschen(1834),Sammlung altdithmarscher Rechtsquellen(1842), andDithmarschen im Verhältniss zum bremischen Erzstift; Kolster,Geschichte Dithmarschens, nach F. R. Dahlmanns Vorlesungen(1873).
See Dahlmann’s edition of Neocorus,Chronik von Dithmarschen(Kiel, 1827), andGeschichte Dänemarks(1840-1844); Michelsen,Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte des Landes Dithmarschen(1834),Sammlung altdithmarscher Rechtsquellen(1842), andDithmarschen im Verhältniss zum bremischen Erzstift; Kolster,Geschichte Dithmarschens, nach F. R. Dahlmanns Vorlesungen(1873).
1That is, the right of claiming military service, and the right of bringing capital offenders to justice.
1That is, the right of claiming military service, and the right of bringing capital offenders to justice.
DITHYRAMBIC POETRY,the description of poetry in which the character of the dithyramb is preserved. It remains quite uncertain what the derivation or even the primitive meaning of the Greek wordδιθύραμβοςis, although many conjectures have been attempted. It was, however, connected from earliest times with the choral worship of Dionysus. A dithyramb is defined by Grote as a round choric dance and song in honour of the wine-god. The earliest dithyrambic poetry was probably improvised by priests of Bacchus at solemn feasts, and expressed, in disordered numbers, the excitement and frenzy felt by the worshippers. This element of unrestrained and intoxicated vehemence is prominent in all poetry of this class. The dithyramb was traditionally first practised in Naxos; it spread to other islands, to Boeotia and finally to Athens. Arion is said to have introduced it at Corinth, and to have allied it to the worship of Pan. It was thus “merged,” as Professor G. G. Murray says, “into the Satyr-choir of wild mountain-goats” out of which sprang the earliest form of tragedy. But when tragic drama had so far developed as to be quite independent, the dithyramb did not, onthat account, disappear. It flourished in Athens until after the age of Aristotle. So far as we can distinguish the form of the ancient Greek dithyramb, it must have been a kind of irregular wild poetry, not divided into strophes or constructed with any evolution of the theme, but imitative of the enthusiasm created by the use of wine, by what passed as the Dionysiac delirium. It was accompanied on some occasions by flutes, on others by the lyre, but we do not know enough to conjecture the reasons of the choice of instrument. Pindar, in whose hands the ode took such magnificent completeness, is said to have been trained in the elements of dithyrambic poetry by a certain Lasus of Hermione. Ion, having carried off the prize in a dithyrambic contest, distributed to every Athenian citizen a cup of Chian wine. In the opinion of antiquity, pure dithyrambic poetry reached its climax in a lost poem.The Cyclops, by Philoxenus of Cythera, a poet of the 4th centuryb.c.After this time, the composition of dithyrambs, although not abandoned, rapidly declined in merit. It was essentially a Greek form, and was little cultivated, and always without success, by the Latins. The dithyramb had a spectacular character, combining verse with music. In modern literature, although the adjective “dithyrambic” is often used to describe an enthusiastic movement in lyric language, and particularly in the ode, pure dithyrambs have been extremely rare. There are, however, some very notable examples. TheBaccho in Toscanaof Francesco Redi (1626-1698), which was translated from the Italian, with admirable skill, by Leigh Hunt, is a piece of genuine dithyrambic poetry.Alexander’s Feast(1698), by Dryden, is the best example in English. But perhaps more remarkable, and more genuinely dithyrambic than either, are the astonishing improvisations of Karl Mikael Bellman (1740-1795), whose Bacchic songs were collected in 1791 and form one of the most remarkable bodies of lyrical poetry in the literature of Sweden.
(E. G.)
DITTERSBACH,a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Silesia, 3 m. by rail S.E. from Waldenburg and 50 m. S. W. from Breslau. It has coal-mines, bleach-fields and match factories. Population (1905) 9371.
DITTERSDORF, KARL DITTERS VON(1739-1799), Austrian composer and violinist, was born in Vienna on the 2nd of November 1739, his father’s name being Ditters. Having shown as a child marked talent for the violin, he was allowed to play in the orchestras of St Stephen’s and theSchottenkirche, where he attracted the attention of a notable patron of music, Prince Joseph Frederick of Hildburghausen (1702-1787), who is also remembered as a soldier for his disastrous leading of the forces of the Empire at Rossbach. The prince gave the boy, now eleven years old, a place in his private orchestra—the first of the kind established in Vienna,—and also saw to it that he received an excellent general education. The Seven Years’ War proved disastrous to both music and morals; and young Ditters, who had fallen into evil ways, fled from Hildburghausen, whither he had gone with the prince, to avoid the payment of his gambling debts. His patron generously forgave and recalled him, but soon afterwards gave up his orchestra at Vienna. Ditters now obtained a place in the Vienna opera; but he was not satisfied, and in 1761 eagerly accepted an invitation to accompany Gluck, whose acquaintance, as well as that of Haydn, he had made while in the service of the prince, on a professional journey to Italy. His success as a violinist on this occasion was equal to that of Gluck as composer; and on his return to Vienna he was recognized as the superior of Antonio Lolli, who as virtuoso had hitherto held the palm. In 1764 he was again associated with Gluck in the musical part of the ceremonies at Frankfort, attending the coronation of the archduke Joseph as King of the Romans. His next appointment was that of conductor of the orchestra of the bishop of Grosswardein, a Hungarian magnate, at Pressburg. He set up a private stage in the episcopal palace, and wrote for it his first “opera buffa,”Amore in musica. His first oratorio,Isacco figura del Redentore, was also written during this time; but the scandal of performances of light opera by the bishop’s company, even on fast days and during Advent, outweighed this pious effort; the empress Maria Theresa sharply called the worldly prelate to order; and he, in a huff, dismissed his orchestra (1769). After a short interlude, Ditters was again in the service of an ecclesiastical patron, count von Schafgotsch, prince bishop of Breslau, at his estate of Johannesberg in Silesia. Here he displayed so much skill as a sportsman, that the bishop procured for him the office of forester (Forstmeister) of the principality of Neisse. He had already, by the same influence, been made knight of the Golden Spur (1770). At Johannesberg Ditters also produced a comic opera,Il Viaggiatore americano, and an oratorio,Davide. The title rôle of the latter was taken by a pretty Italian singer, Signora Nicolini, whom Ditters married. In 1773 he was ennobled as Karl von Dittersdorf, and at the same time was appointed administrator (Amtshauptmann) of Freyenwaldau, an office which he performed by deputy. In the same year his oratorioEsterwas produced in Vienna. During the War of Bavarian Succession the prince bishop’s orchestra was dissolved, and Dittersdorf employed himself in his office at Freyenwaldau; but after the peace of Tetschen (1779) he again became conductor of the reconstituted orchestra. From this time forward his output was enormous. In 1780 ten months sufficed for the production of hisGiobbe(Job) and four operas, three of which were successful; and besides these he wrote a large number of “characterized symphonies,” founded on theMetamorphosesof Ovid. He was now at the height of his fame, and spent the fortune which it brought him in much luxury. But after a time his patron fell on evil days, the famous orchestra had to be reduced, and when the bishop died in 1795 his successor dismissed the composer with a small money gift. Poor and broken in health, he accepted the asylum offered to him by Ignaz Freiherr von Stillfried, on his estate near Neuhaus in Bohemia, where he spent what strength was left him in a feverish effort to make money by the composition of operas, symphonies and pianoforte pieces. He died on the 1st of October 1799, praying “God’s reward” for whoever should save his family from starvation. On his death-bed he dictated to his son hisLebensbeschreibung(autobiography).
Dittersdorf’s chief talent was for comic opera and instrumental music in the sonata forms. In both of these branches his work still shows signs of life, and it is of great historical interest, since he was not only an excellent musician and a friend of Haydn but also a thoroughly popular writer, with a lively enough musical wit and sense of effect to embody in an amusing and fairly artistic form exactly what the best popular intelligence of the times saw in the new artistic developments of Haydn. Thus, while in the amiable monotony and diffuseness of Boccherini we may trace Haydn as a force tending to disintegrate the polyphonic suite-forms of instrumental music, in Dittersdorf on the other hand we see the popular conception of the modern sonata and dramatic style. Yet, with all his popularity, the reality of his progressive outlook may be gauged from the fact that, though he was at least as famous a violinist as Boccherini was a violoncellist, there is in his string quartets no trace of that tendency to sacrifice the ensemble to an exhibition of his own playing which in Boccherini’s chamber music puts the violoncello into the same position as the first violin in the chamber music of Spohr. In Dittersdorf’s quartets (at least six of which are worthy of their survival at the present day) the first violin leads indeed, but not more than is inevitable in such unsophisticated music where the normal place for melody is at the top. The appearance of greater vitality in the texture of Boccherini’s quintets is produced merely by the fact that, his special instrument being the violoncello, his displays of brilliance inevitably occur in the inner parts. Six of Dittersdorf’s symphonies on theMetamorphosesof Ovid were republished in 1899, the centenary of his death. In them we have an amusing and sometimes charming illustration of the way in which at transitional periods music, as at the present day, is ready to make crutches of literature. The end of the representation of the conversion of the Lycian peasants into frogs is prophetically and ridiculously Wagnerian in its ingenious expansion of rhythm and eminently expert orchestration. Every external feature of Dittersdorf’s style seems admirably apt for success in German comic opera on a small scale; and an occasional experimentalperformance at the present day of hisDoktor und Apothekeris not less his due than the survival of his best quartets.
See hisLebensbeschreibung, published at Leipzig, 1801 (English translation by A. D. Coleridge, 1896); an article in theRivista musicale, vi. 727; and the article “Dittersdorf” in Grove’sDictionary of Music and Musicians.
See hisLebensbeschreibung, published at Leipzig, 1801 (English translation by A. D. Coleridge, 1896); an article in theRivista musicale, vi. 727; and the article “Dittersdorf” in Grove’sDictionary of Music and Musicians.
DITTO(from the Lat.dictum, something said, Ital.detto, aforesaid), that which has been said before, the same thing. The word is frequently abbreviated into “do.” In accounts, “ditto” is indicated by two dots or a dash under the word or figure that would otherwise be repeated. A “suit of dittos,” a trade or slang phrase, is a suit in which coat, trousers and waistcoat are all of the same material.
DITTON, HUMPHRY(1675-1715), English mathematician, was born at Salisbury on the 29th of May 1675. He studied theology, and was for some years a dissenting minister at Tonbridge, but on the death of his father he devoted himself to the congenial study of mathematics. Through the influence of Sir Isaac Newton he was elected mathematical master in Christ’s hospital. He was author of the following memoirs and treatises:—“Of the Tangents of Curves, &c.,”Phil. Trans.vol. xxiii.; “A Treatise on Spherical Catoptrics,” published in thePhil. Trans.vol. xxiv., from which it was copied and reprinted in theActa Eruditorum(1707), and also in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences at Paris;General Laws of Nature and Motion(1705), a work which is commended by Wolfius as illustrating and rendering easy the writings of Galileo and Huygens, and thePrincipiaof Newton;An Institution of Fluxions, containing the First Principles, Operations, and Applications of that admirable Method, as invented by Sir Isaac Newton(1706). In 1709 he published theSynopsis Algebraicaof John Alexander, with many additions and corrections. In hisTreatise on Perspective(1712) he explained the mathematical principles of that art; and anticipated the method afterwards elaborated by Brook Taylor. In 1714 Ditton published hisDiscourse on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ;andThe New Law of Fluids, or a Discourse concerning the Ascent of Liquids in exact Geometrical Figures, between two nearly contiguous Surfaces. To this was annexed a tract (“Matter not a Cogitative Substance”) to demonstrate the impossibility of thinking or perception being the result of any combination of the parts of matter and motion. There was also added an advertisement from him and William Whiston concerning a method for discovering the longitude, which it seems they had published about half a year before. Although the method had been approved by Sir Isaac Newton before being presented to the Board of Longitude, and successfully practised in finding the longitude between Paris and Vienna, the board determined against it. This disappointment, aggravated as it was by certain lines written by Dean Swift, affected Ditton’s health to such a degree that he died in the following year, on the 15th of October 1715.
DIU,an island and town of India, belonging to Portugal, and situated at the southern extremity of the peninsula of Kathiawar. Area of district, 20 sq. m. Pop. (1900) 14,614. The anchorage is fairly protected from the sea, but the depth of water is only 3 to 4 fathoms. The channel between the island on Diu and the mainland is navigable only by fishing boats and small craft. The town is well fortified on the old system, being surrounded by a wall with towers at regular intervals. Many of the inhabitants are the well-known Banyan merchants of the east coast of Africa and Arabia. Native spirits are distilled from the palm, salt is made and fish caught. The trade of the town, however, is decayed. There are remains of several fine ancient buildings. The cathedral or Sé Matriz, dating from 1601, was formerly a Jesuit college. The mint, the arsenal and several convents (now ruined or converted to other uses) are also noteworthy. The Portuguese, under treaty with Bahadur Shah of Gujarat, built a fort here in 1535, but soon quarrelled with the natives and were besieged in 1538 and 1545. The second siege is one of the most famous in Indo-Portuguese history, and is the subject of an epic by Jeronymo Corte Real (q.v.).
See R. S. Whiteway,Rise of the Portuguese Power in India(1898).
See R. S. Whiteway,Rise of the Portuguese Power in India(1898).
DIURETICS(from Gr.διά, through, andοὐρεῖν, pass urine), the name given to remedies which, under certain conditions, stimulate an increased flow of urine. Their mode of action is various. Some are absorbed into the blood, carried to the secretory organs (the kidneys), and stimulate them directly, causing an increased flow of blood; others act as stimulants through the nervous system. A second class act in congested conditions of the kidneys by diminishing the congestion. Another class, such as the saline diuretics, are effectual by virtue of their osmotic action. A fourth class are diuretic by increasing the blood pressure within the vessels in general, and the Malpighian tufts in particular,—some, as digitalis, by increasing the strength of the heart’s contractions, and others, as water, by increasing the amount of fluid circulating in the vessels. Some remedies, as mercury, although not diuretic themselves, when prescribed along with those which have this action, increase their effect. The same remedy may act in more than one way,e.g.alcohol, besides stimulating the secretory organs directly, is a stimulant to the circulation, and thus increases the pressure within the vessels. Diuretics are prescribed when the quantity of urine is much diminished, or when, although the quantity may be normal, it is wished to relieve some other organ or set of organs of part of their ordinary work, or to aid in carrying off some morbid product circulating in the blood, or to hasten the removal of inflammatory serous exudations, or of dropsical collections of fluid. Caffeine, which is far the best true diuretic, acts in nearly every way mentioned above. Together with digitalis it is the most efficient remedy for cardiac dropsy. A famous diuretic pill, known as Guy’s pill, consists of a grain each of mercurial pill, digitalis leaves and squill, made up with extract of henbane. Digitalis, producing its diuretic effect by its combined action on heart, vessels and kidneys, is much used in the oedema of mitral disease, but must be avoided in chronic Bright’s disease, as it increases the tension of the pulse, already often dangerously high. Turpentine and cantharides are not now recommended as diuretics, as they are too irritating to the kidneys.
DIURNAL MOTION,the relative motion of the earth and the heavens, which results from the rotation of our globe on its axis in a direction from west toward east. The actual motion consists in this rotation. But the term is commonly applied to the resultant apparent revolution of the heavens from east to west, the axis of which passes through the celestial poles, and is coincident in direction with the axis of the earth.
DIVAN(Arabicdīwān), a Persian word, derived probably from Aramaic, meaning a “counting-house, office, bureau, tribunal”; thence, on one side, the “account-books and registers” of such an office, and, on another, the “room where the office or tribunal sits”; thence, again, from “account-book, register,” a “book containing the poems of an author,” arranged in a definite order (alphabetical according to the rhyme-words), perhaps because of the saying, “Poetry is the register (dīwān) of the Arabs,” and from “bureau, tribunal,” “a long seat, formed of a mattress laid against the side of the room, upon the floor or upon a raised structure or frame, with cushions to lean against” (Lane,Lexicon, 930 f.). All these meanings existed and exist, especially “bureau, tribunal,” “book of poems” and “seat”1; but the order of derivation may have been slightly different. The word first appears under the caliphate of Omar (a.d.634-644). Great wealth, gained from the Moslem conquests, was pouring into Medina, and a system of business management and administration became necessary. This was copied from the Persians and given the Persian name, “divan.” Later, as the state became more complicated, the term was extended over all the government bureaus. The divan of the Sublime Porte was for long the council of the empire, presided over by the grand vizier.
See Von Kremer,Culturgeschichte des Orients, i. 64, 198.
See Von Kremer,Culturgeschichte des Orients, i. 64, 198.
(D. B. Ma.)
1The divan in this sense has been known in Europe certainly since about the middle of the 18th century. It was fashionable, roughly speaking, from 1820 to 1850, wherever the romantic movement in literature penetrated. All the boudoirs of that generation were garnished with divans; they even spread to coffee-houses, which were sometimes known as “divans” or “Turkish divans”; and a “cigar divan” remains a familiar expression.
1The divan in this sense has been known in Europe certainly since about the middle of the 18th century. It was fashionable, roughly speaking, from 1820 to 1850, wherever the romantic movement in literature penetrated. All the boudoirs of that generation were garnished with divans; they even spread to coffee-houses, which were sometimes known as “divans” or “Turkish divans”; and a “cigar divan” remains a familiar expression.
DIVER,a name that when applied to a bird is commonly used in a sense even more vague than that of loom, several of the sea ducks orFuligulinaeand mergansers being frequently so called, to say nothing of certain of the auks orAlcidaeand grebes; but in English ornithological works the term diver is generally restricted to the Family known asColymbidae, a very well-marked group of aquatic birds, possessing great, though not exceptional, powers of submergence, and consisting of a single genusColymbuswhich is composed of three, or at most four, species, all confined to the northern hemisphere. This Family belongs to theCecomorphaeof T. H. Huxley, and is usually supposed to occupy a place between theAlcidaeandPodicipedidae; but to which of these groups it is most closely related is undecided. Professor Brandt in 1837 (Beitr. Naturgesch. Vögel, pp. 124-132) pointed out the osteological differences of the grebes and the divers, urging the affinity of the latter to the auks; while, thirty years later, Professor Alph. Milne-Edwards (Ois. foss. France, i. pp. 279-283) inclined to the opposite view, chiefly relying on the similarity of a peculiar formation of the tibia in the grebes and divers,1which indeed is very remarkable, and, in the latter group, attracted the attention of Willughby more than 230 years ago. On the other hand Professor Brandt, and Rudolph Wagner shortly after (Naumann’sVögel Deutschlands, ix. p. 683, xii. p. 395), had already shown that the structure of the knee-joint in the grebes and divers differs in that the former have a distinct and singularly formedpatella(which is undeveloped in the latter) in addition to the prolonged, pyramidally formed, procnemial process—which last may, from its exaggeration, be regarded as a character almost peculiar to these two groups.2The evidence furnished by oology and the newly-hatched young seems to favour Brandt’s views. The abortion of therectricesin the gerbes, while these feathers are fairly developed in the divers, is another point that helps to separate the two Families.
The commonest species ofColymbusisC. septentrionalis, known as the red-throated diver from an elongated patch of dark bay which distinguishes the throat of the adult in summer dress. Immature birds want the bay patch, and have the back so much more spotted that they are commonly known as “speckled divers.” Next in size is the black-throated diver,C. arcticus, having a light grey head and a gular patch of purplish-black, above which is a semicollar of white striped vertically with black. Still bigger is the great northern diver,C. glacialisortorquatus, with a glossy black head and neck, two semicollars of white and black vertical stripes, and nearly the whole of the black back and upper surface of the wings beautifully marked with white spots, varying in size and arranged in belts.3Closely resembling this bird, so as to be most easily distinguished from it by its yellow bill, isC. adamsi. The divers live chiefly on fish, and are of eminently marine habit, though invariably resorting for the purpose of breeding to freshwater lakes, where they lay two dark brown eggs on the very brink; but they are not unfrequently found far from the sea, being either driven inland by stress of weather, or exhausted in their migrations. Like most birds of their build, they chiefly trust to swimming, whether submerged or on the surface, as a means of progress, but once on the wing their flight is strong and they can mount to a great height. In winter their range is too extensive and varied to be here defined, though it is believed never to pass, and in few directions to approach, the northern tropic; but the geographical distribution of the several forms in summer requires mention. WhileC. septentrionalisinhabits the north temperate zone of both hemispheres,C. arcticusbreeds in suitable places from the Hebrides to Scandinavia, and across the Russian empire, it would seem, to Japan, reappearing in the north-west of North America,4though its eastern limit on that continent cannot be definitely laid down; but it is not found in Greenland, Iceland, Shetland or Orkney.C. glacialis, on the contrary, breeds throughout the north-eastern part of Canada, in Greenland and in Iceland. It has been said to do so in Scotland as well as in Norway, but the assertion seems to lack positive proof, and it may be doubted whether, with the exception of Iceland, it is indigenous to the Old World,5since the form observed in North-eastern Asia is evidently that which has been calledC. adamsi, and is also found in North-western America; but it may be remarked that one example of this form has been taken in England (Proc. Zool. Society, 1859, p. 206) and at least one in Norway (Nyt Mag. for Naturvidenskaberne, 1877, p. 134).
(A. N.)
1The remains ofColymboides minutus, from the Miocene of Langy, described by this naturalist in the work just cited, seem to show it to have been a generalized form. Unfortunately its tibia is unknown.2A. H. Garrod, in his tentative and chiefly myological arrangement of Birds (Proc Zool. Society, 1874, p. 117), placed theColymbidaeandPodicipedidaein one order (Anseriformes) and theAlcidaein another (Charadriiformes); but the artificial nature of this assignment may be realized by the fact of his considering the other families of the former order to beAnatidaeandSpheniscidae.3The osteology and myology of this species are described by Dr Coues (Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. History, i. pp. 131-172, pl. 5).4Lawrence’sC. pacificusseems hardly to deserve specific recognition.5In this connexion should be mentioned the remarkable occurrence in Europe of two birds of this species which had been previously wounded by a weapon presumably of transatlantic origin. One had “an arrow headed with copper sticking through its neck,” and was shot on the Irish coast, as recorded by J. Vaughan Thompson (Nat. Hist. Ireland, iii. p. 201); the other, says Herr H. C. Müller (Vid. Medd. nat. Forening, 1862, p. 35), was found dead in Kalbaksfjord in the Faeroes with an iron-tipped bone dart fast under its wing.
1The remains ofColymboides minutus, from the Miocene of Langy, described by this naturalist in the work just cited, seem to show it to have been a generalized form. Unfortunately its tibia is unknown.
2A. H. Garrod, in his tentative and chiefly myological arrangement of Birds (Proc Zool. Society, 1874, p. 117), placed theColymbidaeandPodicipedidaein one order (Anseriformes) and theAlcidaein another (Charadriiformes); but the artificial nature of this assignment may be realized by the fact of his considering the other families of the former order to beAnatidaeandSpheniscidae.
3The osteology and myology of this species are described by Dr Coues (Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. History, i. pp. 131-172, pl. 5).
4Lawrence’sC. pacificusseems hardly to deserve specific recognition.
5In this connexion should be mentioned the remarkable occurrence in Europe of two birds of this species which had been previously wounded by a weapon presumably of transatlantic origin. One had “an arrow headed with copper sticking through its neck,” and was shot on the Irish coast, as recorded by J. Vaughan Thompson (Nat. Hist. Ireland, iii. p. 201); the other, says Herr H. C. Müller (Vid. Medd. nat. Forening, 1862, p. 35), was found dead in Kalbaksfjord in the Faeroes with an iron-tipped bone dart fast under its wing.
DIVERSandDIVING APPARATUS.To “dive” (Old Eng.dúfan,dŷfan; cf. “dip”) is to plunge under water, and in the ordinary procedure of swimmers is distinguished from simple plunging in that it involves remaining under the water for an interval of more or less duration before coming to the surface. In the articleSwimmingthe sport of diving in this sense is considered. Here we are only concerned with diving as the function of a “diver,” whose business it is to go under water (in modern times, assisted by specially devised apparatus) in order to work.
Unassisted or Natural Diving.—The earliest reference to the practice of the art of diving for a purpose of utility occurs in theIliad, 16, 745-750, where Patroclus compares the fall of Hector’s charioteer to the action of a diver diving for oysters. Thus it would seem that the art was known about 1000 years before the Christian era. Thucydides is the first to mention the employment of divers for mechanical work under water. He relates that divers were employed during the siege of Syracuse to saw down the barriers which had been constructed below the surface of the water with the object of obstructing and damaging any Grecian war vessels which might attempt to enter the harbour. At the siege of Tyre, divers were ordered by Alexander the Great to impede or destroy the submarine defences of the besieged as they were erected. The purpose of these obstructions was analogous to that of the submarine mine of to-day.
The employment of divers for the salvage of sunken property is first mentioned by Livy, who records that in the reign of Perseus considerable treasure was recovered from the sea. By a law of the Rhodians, their divers were allowed a proportion of the value recovered, varying with the risk incurred, or the depth from which the treasure was salved. For instance, if the diver raised it from a depth of eight cubits (12 ft.) he received one-third for himself; if from sixteen cubits (24 ft.) one half; but upon goods lost near the shore, and recovered from a depth of two cubits (36 in.), his share was only one tenth.
These are examples of unassisted diving as practised by the Ancients. Their primitive method, however, is still in vogue in some parts of the world—notably in the Ceylon pearl fisheries and in the Mediterranean sponge fisheries, and it may, therefore, be as well to mention the system adopted by the natural, or naked, diver of to-day.
The volume and power of respiration of the lungs vary in different individuals, some persons being able to hold their breath longer than others, so that it naturally follows that one man may be able to stay longer under water than another. The longest time that a natural diver has been known to remain beneath the surface is about two minutes. Some pearl and sponge divers rubtheir bodies with oil, and put wool, saturated with oil, in their ears. Others hold in their mouth a piece of sponge soaked in oil, which they renew every time they descend. It is doubtful, however, whether these expedients are beneficial. The men who dive in this primitive fashion take with them a flat stone with a hole in the centre; to this is attached a rope, which is secured to the diving boat and serves to guide them to particular spots below. When the diver reaches the sea bottom he tears off as much sponge within reach as possible, or picks up pearl shells, as the case may be, and then pulls the rope to indicate to the man in the boat that he wishes to be hauled up. But so exhausting is the work, and so severe the strain on the system, that, after a number of dives in deep water, the men often become insensible, and bloodsometimesbursts from nose, ears and mouth.
Early Diving Appliances.—The earliest mention of any appliance for assisting divers is by Aristotle, who says that divers are sometimes provided with instruments for respiration through which they can draw air from above the water and which thus enable them to remain a long time under the sea (De Part. Anim.2, 16), and also that divers breathe by letting down a metallic vessel which does not get filled with water but retains the air within it (Problem.32, 5). It is also recorded that Alexander the Great made a descent into the sea in a machine called acolimpha, which had the power of keeping a man dry, and at the same time of admitting light. Pliny also speaks of divers engaged in the strategy of ancient warfare, who drew air through a tube, one end of which they carried in their mouths, whilst the other end was made to float on the surface of the water. Roger Bacon in 1240, too, is supposed to have invented a contrivance for enabling men to work under water; and in Vegetius’sDe Re Militari(editions of 1511 and 1532, the latter in the British Museum) is an engraving representing a diver wearing a tight-fitting helmet to which is attached a long leathern pipe leading to the surface, where its open end is kept afloat by means of a bladder. This method of obtaining air during subaqueous operations was probably suggested by the action of the elephant when swimming; the animal instinctively elevates its trunk so that the end is above the surface of the water, and thus is enabled to take in fresh air at every inspiration.
A certain Repton invented “water armour” in the year 1617, but when tried it was found to be useless. G. A. Borelli in the year 1679 invented an apparatus which enabled persons to go to a certain depth under water, and he is credited with being the first to introduce means of forcing air down to the diver. For this purpose he used a large pair of bellows. John Lethbridge, a Devonshire man, in the year 1715 contrived “a watertight leather case for enclosing the person.” This leather case held about half a hogshead of air, and was so adapted as to give free play to arms and legs, so that the wearer could walk on the sea bottom, examine a sunken vessel and salve her cargo, returning to the surface when his supply of air was getting exhausted. It is said that Lethbridge made a considerable fortune by his invention. The next contrivance worthy of mention, and most nearly resembling the modern diving-dress, was an apparatus invented by Kleingert, of Breslau, in 1798. This consisted of an egg-ended metallic cylinder enveloping the head and the body to the hips. The diver was encased first of all in a leather jacket having tight-fitting arms, and in leather drawers with tight-fitting legs. To these the cylinder was fastened in such a way as to render the whole equipment airtight. The air supply was drawn through a pipe which was connected with the mouth of the diver by an ivory mouthpiece, the surface end being held above water after the manner mentioned in Vegetius, viz. by means of a floating bladder attached to it. The foul air escaped through another pipe held in a similar manner above the surface of the water, inhalation being performed by the mouth and exhalation by the nose, the act of inhalation causing the chest to expand and so to expel the vitiated air through the escape pipe. The diver was weighted when going under water, and when he wished to ascend he released one of his weights, and attached it to a rope which he held, and it was afterwards hauled up.
Modern Apparatus.—This, or equally cumbersome apparatus, was the only diving gear in use up till 1819, in which year Augustus Siebe (the founder of the firm of Siebe, Gorman & Co.), invented his “open” dress, worked in conjunction with an air force pump. This dress consisted of a metal helmet and shoulder-plate attached to a watertight jacket, under which, fitting more closely to the body, were worn trousers, or rather a combination suit reaching to the armpits. The helmet was fitted with an air inlet valve, to which one end of a flexible tube was attached, the other end being connected at the surface with a pump which supplied the diver with a constant stream of fresh air. The air, which kept the water well down, forced its way between the jacket and the under-garment, and escaped to the surface on exactly the same principle as that of the diving bell; hence the term “open” as applied to this dress.
Although most excellent work was accomplished with this dress—work which could not be attempted before its introduction—it was still far from perfect. It was absolutely necessary for the diver to maintain an upright, or but very slightly stooping, position whilst under water; if he stumbled and fell, the water filled his dress, and, unless quickly brought to the surface, he was in danger of being drowned. To overcome this and other defects, Siebe carried out a large number of experiments extending over several years, which culminated, in the year 1830, in the introduction of his “close” dress in combination with a helmet fitted with air inlet and regulating outlet valves.
Though, of course, vast improvements have been introduced since Siebe’s death, in 1872, the fact remains that his principle is in universal use to this day. The submarine work which it has been instrumental in accomplishing is incalculable. But some idea of the importance of the invention may be gathered from the fact that diving apparatus on Siebe’s principle is universally used to-day in harbour, dock, pier and breakwater construction, in the pearl and sponge fisheries, in recovering sunken ships, cargo and treasure, and that every ship in the British navy and in most foreign navies carries one set or more of diving apparatus.
A modern set of diving apparatus consists essentially of six parts:—(1) an air pump, (2) a helmet with breastplate, (3) a diving dress, (4) a pair of heavily weighted boots, (5) a pair of back and chest weights, (6) a flexible non-collapsible air tube.
A, Air-distributing arrangement, for one diver or two divers.
B, Water jacket.
C, Suction and discharge valves.
D, Cylinders.
E, Pressure gauges.
F, Nozzles to which divers’ air pipes are attached.