Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/594

 D E V

DEW

The painters want a permanent green, and the callico printers, a lafting blue.

In {hort, all arts have their defeds, and it is not at firft to be gueffed, for how many of thefe, remedies may be found, by means of chemical refearches properly directed. Chemiftry itfelf is greatly defective in many particulars, as in an experimental hiftory of general fermentation, feparatory and combinatory, in fubjects of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. A hiftory of putrefaction, rancidnefs, muftinefs, mouldinefs; and of the making of glues, mucilages, and the like preparations in the moil perfect manner is alfo wanted. The fublimer metallurgy is in particular yet greatly defective. It wants a more eafy method of extracting the mercuries of metals, than thofe commonly defcribed ; a cheaper method of meliorations is wanted ; and, in general, all the parts of this branch of the art feem equally defective. The fchemes for new trades will rife occafionally in the pro- fecuting many of the fubjects ; thus, it is natural for the com- mon operations of brewing and iugar-baking, to fuggeft that fugar may be procured from malt and other vegetables. That nurferies of peculiar ferments, both native and foreign, may be raifed on the common principles ; and, it is evident, that the introduction of fuch new trades, would greatly improve the bufineffes of brewing, fugar-baking, and the like. If a proper number of perfons duly qualified for making expe- ments, and improving from them, would fet about each his particular fhare of the neceffary experiments, and communi- cate the refult of all their proceffes to one another, the bufi- nefs of chemical experiment, would be much better directed in regard to future ftudents, and many of the defiderata in the art probably fupphed. Vid. Shaw, Chem. p. 355. DESION, in chronology, the Macedonian name of the Atheni- an month Anthefterion. See Anthesterion. DE SON TORT demefh, in our law, words of form, ufed in an action of trefpafs by way of reply to the defendant's plea. Thus, if A. fues B. in fuch an action ; B. anfwers for himfelf, that he did that which it calls a trefpafs by the command of C. his mailer. A. replies that B. .did it de fin tort demefne, fans - ceo que C. luy command modo et forma ; that is, B. did it of his own wrong, without C.'s commanding him in fuch manner and form. Cowcl. DESPOTIC. See Despotism, Cycl. DETENTS, in a clock, are thofe flops which, by being lifted

up or let fall down, lock and unlock the clock in ftriking. Detent-//^/, or Hoop-ffheel, in a clock, that wheel which has a hoop almoft round it, wherein there is a vacancy, at which the clock locks. DETERRATION, is ufed to fignify a removal of the earth, fand, cj)V. from the mountains and higher grounds, down into the valleys and lower parts. This is occafioned by rains, which wafn the earthy matter down by degrees ; but this can- not be very confiderable, or much raile the furface of the earth, as feme have imagined, becaufe a good part ot it is funk into the clefts and caverns of the rocks and mountains, a great quantity is born down into rivers, and thence into the fea, and the richer and finer part helps to compofe the bodies of plants and vegetables. Harris. DETERSOR, in antiquity, a fervant whofe bufinefs it was to

attend at dinner, and wipe the table. Pitifc. DETERSORIUM, in antiquity, a name given to the common wafh, which was bean-meal, called Lomentum, or the meal of a fort of pulfe called Lupines : this laft they called Smegma. . The antients when they bathed ufed various wafhes for clean- ing the skin; butnatrum, and its thin froth, called in Greek ■ Aphronitron, were molt common.

DETRAHENS ^itadratus, in anatomy, a name given by fome authors, particularly Spigelius, to a mufcle, called by the ge- nerality of anatomifts the Plaiyfma Myodes ; and by Albinus, latiffimus Colli. Douglas calls it alfo quadratus genee. DEVENSHRING, or Denshring, a term ufed by the farmers to exprefs the burning land by way of manure : the method is to cut off the turf about four inches thick, and burn it in heaps, and then fpread the afhes upon the land ; they proba- bly call it Devenftring from its having been earlieft pradtifed in Devonfhire. See the article Burning. DEVEST, devejlire, in feudal writers, is ufed for the oppofite to in veiling. Invsjlirc fignifies poffejjionem Feudi tradere. On the contrary, Dheflire is pojfeffionem auferre. Feud. lib. 1. c. 7. Cowel. DKVINCTION, Devinclio, in antiquity, was ufed to fignify a love-charm or incantation to gain the affection of a perfon beloved.

It was done by tying knots, and differed little from what was called Obligaiio or Catadefmus. Virgil in his 8th Eclogue de- fcribes it thus :

]Sfe£le tribus nodis terms Amarylli colons,

Nefle Amaryllijnodo, & veneris, die, vincula necla,

Pitifc. Lex. Ant. in voc. DEVOIRS of Calais, in our old flatutes, cuftoms due to the

king for merchandize brought to or carried out of Calais, when

our ftaple was there. 34 Edw. 3. c. 18. & 2 Rich. 2. flat. 1.

C.3.

Devoir is French, fignifying duty. DEVOTION (Cycl.) — Cornelius' Nepos ufes the word Bhxthn for a kind of punifhment coniifting of direful curies and marks of infamy. See the article Execration. DEUS Myagrus. See Myagrus.

DEUTEROPOTMI, f among the Athenians, a defignation given to fuch who had been thought dead, and after the celebration of the funeral rites, unexpectedly reco- ver'd. It was unlawful for the Dcideropotmi to enter into the temple of the Eumenides, or to be admitted to the holy rites till after they were purified by being let through the lap of a woman's gown, that they might fcem to be new born. Pott. Archaeol. Grsec. 1. 2. c. 4. T. 1. p. 223. DEUTEROSIS, the Greek name by which the Jews called their Mifcfmab, or fecond law. Deuterofis in Greek has the fame fignification almoft as Mifchnah in Hebrew ; both fignify an iteration. Eufebius accufes the Jews with corrupting the true fenfe of fcripture with the trifling explanations of their Deutcrofcs. Epiphanius fays, that there were four forts of thefe quoted, the firil under the name of Mofes, the fecond under that of Akiba, the third under that of Adda or Judah, and the fourth under the name ot the fons of the Afmona^ans or Mac- cabees : It is not eafy to determine whether the prefent Mifch- nah is the fame with any of thefe, whether it contains them all, or only fome part, or whether it be different from them all, Jerom fays, that the Hebrews referred their Deuterofet to Shammai and Hillel. If it were well proved that they were of this antiquity, it would be confiderable ; fince Jofe- phus fpcaks of Sammeas, who is the fame with Shammai in the beginning of Herod's Reign. Jerom fpcaks always of the Deuterofes with the ntmofl contempt : he looked upon them as a collection of fables, childifh fluff, and obfeenities. He fays, the principal authors of thefe fine decifions, according to the Jews, are Bar-Akiba, Simeon, and Helles. Bar- Akiba is probably the grandfather or father of the famous Akiba. Si- meon and Shammai are the fame perfons, ib are Helles and Hillel. Calmet, Did. Bibl. in voc. DEVUIDER, in the manege, is applied to a horfe, that upon working upon Volts makes his moulders go too fail for the croupe to follow ; fo that inftead of going upon two treads, as he ought, he endeavours to go only upon one. This comes from the refiflance he makes in defending againfl the heels ; or from the fault of the horfeman, who is too hally with his hand. Gull. Gent. Diet, in voc. See Haste. DEW [Cycl.) — Thro' the whole courfe of the operations of na- ture, when there appear two methods by which any thing that we fee can be effected, we have many reafons to believe that it is done by that method which is the moil different from common appearances. As we know there mufl be a revolu- tion, for inftance, either of the earth round the fun, or of the fun round the earth ; tho' common appearances feem to inform us, that it is the earth which Hands ilill, and the fun which moves round ; yet when we come to enquire more deeply in- to nature, we very plainly find that it is in reality the earth which makes the revolution, while the fun remains fixed in its place. A thoufand other parallel inftances might readily be produced ; and according to this method of judging, we are to teach ourfelves to judge of the Dew, which then becomes one of the number.

The Dew which we fee continually appearing to fall at its fta- ted periods, may thus either tall originally from that middle re- gion of the air, whence it feems to us to defcend j or elfe it may be firft raifed from the bowels of the earth in form of a vapour, and fent up into that region, whence it again falls, if it do fall to us, in form of Dew. The moil natural opinion feems that of its falling ab origine out of the air ; and thus the generality of the world look upon it, efleeming it a gift of heaven for the enriching and fertilizing the earth. But the truth is on the other fide of the queftion ; and it is indifputa- ble, that all that we properly call Dew, all thofe drops of water which, tho' imperceptible, as fuch while feparate, eafily amafs themfelves into larger drops, and are in that ftate found on grafs, and on the herbs of the field and garden in the morn- ing, and remain there for a certain time, all this has unque- ftionably been firft raifed in vapour out of the earth to which it now again defcends.

This is no new opinion, tho' not a general one; the old na- turaliils have many of them affirmed it, and there are fo ma- ny familiar proofs of it, that one would think fcarce any ob- ferver could be ignorant of it. Every gardener knows that the glafs bell, which he places over a tender fruit, will be hung over with drops of Dew after a certain time, tho' it have no communication with the external air, nor can have received them any other way than in the vapours raifed from the earth. There have not however been wanting men of great genius and knowledge who have contradicted this opinion, and en- deavoured to account for all that appears in favour of it from other principles. Experiments however are the great guides to truth ■» and M. Dufay, of the royal academy at Paris, being refolved to try firil of all the grand queftion, whether the mat- ter of Dew did firft afcend in vapour, or did not, he brought the firil proof to this fimple procefs ; if the Dew did afcend, it

muft