Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/583

 DAG

D A G

D.

Din the Italian mufic, intimates that, in thorough baHes, a the treble or defcant ought to play alone ; as T does the tenor, and B the bafs. BroJJ'ard. Diet. Muf. in Voc. DC, in the Italian mufic, an abbreviation of Da Capo, i. e. from the head or beginning : thefe words or letters are common- ly met with at the end of rondeaus, or fuch airs and tunes as end with the firft ftrain, and intimate that the fong is to be begun again, and ended with the fair. part. Erojf. Diet. Muf. in Voc. DAB, in ichthyology, a name given by the Englifh to a fmall fifh of the pleuronectes kind, called by authors the Pajfer Jfpcr and Limanda. See Passer Asper and Pleuroicectes. DABUH, a name given by the Arabs to the Hyxna. See

Hyaena. Hofm. Lex. univ. DACE, in ichthyology, the Englifh name for the fifh called by authors the Leucifcus. According to the new fyftem of Ar- tedi, this is a fpecies of the Cyprinus ; and it is called by fome Albicula and Albicilla. See Leuciscus. This fifh is extremely common in our rivers, and gives the expert angler great diverfion. The Dace will bite at any fly ; but he is more than ordinarily fond of the Stone Caddis, or May-fly, which is plentiful in the latter end of April and the whole month of May. Great quantities of thefe may be ga- thered among the reeds or fedges by the water-fide, and on the hawthorn-bufhes near the waters. Thefe are a large and handfome bait ; but as they laft only a fmall part of the year Hi feaibn, recourfe is to be had to the Ant-fly. Of thefe the black ones, found in large mole-hills or ant-hills, are the heft. Thefe may be kept alive a long time in a bottle, with a little of the earth of the hill and fome roots of grafs ; and they are in feafon throughout the -months of June, July, Auguft, and September. The beft feafon of all is when they fwarm, which is in the end of July, or beginning of Auguft; and they may be kept many months in a wooden veflel, waffled out with a lblution of honey and water, even longer than with the earth and grafs-roots in the vial ; tho' that is the moft convenient method to be taken with a fmall parcel, taken for one day's faming. In warm weather this fifh very feldom refufes a fly at die top of the water; but at other times he muff have the bait funk to within about three inches of the bottom. The winter fifhing for Dace requires a very different bait : This is a white maggot with a redifh head, which is the produce of the eggs of the Beetle, and is turned up with the plough in great abundance. A parcel of thefe put in any vefTel, with the earth they were taken in, will keep many months, and are an excellent bait.

Small Dace may be put. into a glafs-jar with frelh water, and there prefcrved alive for a long time, if the water he pro- perly changed. They have been obferved to eat nothing but the animalcnla in the water. They will grow very tame by degrees. Vid. Philof. Tranf. N y. 478. p. 23. feq. DACCLITHUS, in zoology, a name given by many to a fmall fifti, a fpecies of the Loach, and diftinguifhed by the name of Cobitis burhatula aculeata by Ray and ethers. It is a very fmall fifh., feldom exceeding two, or at the utmoft three inches in length. Its head is broader and flatter than the reft of its body : its back is of a dufky brown, fpotted with black; and its belly yellow. It has two beards on each fide of the upper jaw; and on the coverings of the gills has, on each fide, two prickles, or a double-pointed fharp hook, by means of which it moves itfelf about among the ftones. This fifh loves {hallow waters with a ftoney bottom, and fpawns in May and June. Willughbjs Hift. Fife. p. 266.

There is another fpecies of this fifh, which has ten beards about its mouth, and otherwife refemhles this. There is an opinion that they fwallow little ftones, and they have hence the G erman name fignifying Stone-fwallowers, or Stone-biters. BACTYLETHRA, or Dactylithra, hmfafy*, Aumdutyoj digitate, among the antient phyficians, a medicine ufed to pro- voke vomiting. It was a fort of topical application, and is de- feribed at large by Oribafius.

It feems to have begun from the common practice of thrufting the finger down the throat, to provoke the ftomach to caff up its contents. The next ftep to this was, when the finger would not do alone, to rub it over with a preparation of fcammony, or with the crude juice of the root of the plant : If this had no effect, the next method was to take eight or ten goofe-feathers, and, rubbing them over with fome medi- cinal oil, they thruft thefe, as far as was necefiary, down the throat : And when all theft failed, they ufed the Daclykthra, which was made of fome kind of foft leather fowed together, and of ten or twelve digets in length, and of the fhape of a finger. This they filled with wool to the length of fix digets, and left the reft empty, to be adapted to the finger; then they rubbed it over with one of the medicinal oils, and introduced it as far as was necefiary into the ftomach. Orllaj. Collect. Med. I. 8. c. 6. BACTYLUS, in ichthyology., a name ufed by many authors for Vol. 1L

the folcri or razor-fifh, fuppofed to be thejbafiylus of Pliny, to which he attributes a quality of being luminous in the dark: but

Mr. Reaumur has obferved, that the common folen or razor-fifh has no fuch quality; but that the pholas, or, as the French call it, the dail has : and therefore it follows either that the pholas is the Dafiylus of Pliny, or clfe that this author has at- tributed to one fpecies of fifh what is the peculiar property of another. What Pliny has recorded of them is, that they fhine in the dark ; and that they fhine the more brightly in proportion to their having more water ; that their light is feen in peoples mouths while they are eating them ; and that the drops of water which fall from them upon the hands and the cloaths of perfons who eat them, have the fame fhining qua- lity. The fliell of this creature is not at all luminous, but only its body and juices ; and in this it is no way allied to fome kinds of fifh, which are known to have the quality of mining in the dark, fince they never fhine till they are in a ft ate of decay, and in part rotten ; whereas thefe have their luminous quality at all times, even when juft taken out of the fea. The glow-worm has only a part of its body luminous^ but the pholas is luminous all over, and is equally fa in every part : and when the fifh. is taken whole out of the fliell, and laid in a dark place, every part of its furface {nines with a very bright light : neither is the light peculiar to the external furface of the fifh, hut common to the whole body ; for if it be wounded tranfverfely, or longitudinally, the cut parts are equally luminous with the other furfaces. The pholas is therefore a true natural phofphorus, and, like the artificial phofphorus of urine, it renders every thing luminous that it is rubbed againft. It is fcarce poflible for the fingers to touch them without becoming luminous ; and, according to Pliny, they mult, if eaten, make the lips, tongue, teeth, and every other part of the mouth which they touch, luminous in the dark. Mr. Reaumur obferved of this fifh, that when frefh caught it abounds with water, and that this water natu- rally drops away in the handling it; and, according to Pliny's juft obfervation, thefe very drops of water are luminous. The light which this fifh gives to bodies that touch it, is not of any long continuance, but remains only-while they are wet. Mr. Reaumur obferved, that the light upon his fingers grew fainter and fainter by degrees as they dried ; and that on dipping them in water to wafh them, it brightened up again. This author was encouraged by this to attempt fome way of keeping the fifh, fo as to make it a phofphorus ready for ufe at pleafure ; but this did not fucceed to his wifhes. His firft trial was by drying the fifh, which loft its luminous property as it loft its natural moifture ; but after four or five days, on being wetted, became fome what luminous again. 'This light however was but very faint, in comparifen of the natural one in the vigo- rous ffate of the animal ; and all his other trials fucceeded worfe than this.

In the fummer months, the fifh maybe kept feveral days frefh, and with their luminous property ; but as they begin to decay, they gradually lofe it. It feems alfo, that there being fome dead ones among the living, would make them lofe their luminous quality, even in that which is their very beft ftate. It is well known, that the pholas lives in holes within ftones, from whence it cannot get out; and -Mr. Reaumur caufing fome of thefe ftones to be taken up, in which, on breaking, there ap- peared to be fome dead ones, and fome alive, found that the living fifh from thefe ftones had not their luminous property, which feemed as it were extinguiflied by the dead and ftinking ones. Mem. Acad. Par. 1723. Dactylus Idaus, in natural hiftory, a name given by many authors to the Belcmnites ; fuppofed erroneouflv by many, to • be the Lyncurius of the antients. For other meanings of the- word, feeDACTYLi, Cycl. DiEDALA, oxiax7\u, in antiquity, two fcftivals in Bceotia, one of which was obferved by the Plateaus at Alalcomenus, where was the largeft grove in all Bceotia. Here they aflcmbled, and expofing to the open air pieces of fodden flefh, carefully obferved whither the crows that came to feed upon them took their flight, and then hewed down all thofe trees on which any of them alighted, and formed them into ftatues, which by the antient Greeks were called Dcsdala.

The other folemnity was by far the greateft and moft remark- able of the two, being celebrated only once in fixry years. For the ceremonies obferved in it, fee Pott. Arcrucol. Gnec. I. 2. c. 20. DiEDIS, Wk, among the Greeks, a folemn feftival that lafted three days, during all which time torches were kept burning, which gave occafion to the name. Pott. Archceol. Grrec. 1. 2. c. 20. DiESION, Amo-taw, in antient chronology, the Macedonian name for the Athenian month dnthefterion, which was the fixth of their year, and anfwered to the latter part of our November and beginning of December. See Anthesterion andMoKTH. DAGUS. See Deis.

9 A DAIE,