Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/605

 D I G

the tendon is incurvated, and prefently ends in the other flefhy body, which is fixed immediately above the internal labium of the bafisof the chin, near the fymphyfe, in a fmall unequal depreffion. fflhijfarfs anatomy, p. 254. The D'tgajiric mufcles, according to Mr. Monro, do not fole- ly pull the lower jaw down, but ferve to draw up the os hy- oides, and parts annexed to it, in deglutition. We have an -account of the fituation and ufes of thefe mufcles, by this learned profeffor, in the Med. Eff. Edinb. vol. 1. art. 11.

DIGESTION (Cycl.) -Some fuppofe Digejlion owing to gentle heat and motion. By this heat and motion the texture of the nourifhment is changed in the bodies of animals j and then, the conftituent folid parts are endued with peculiar attractive powers of certain magnitudes, by which they draw out of the fluids moving through them, like parts in certain quantities, and thereby preferve their forms and juft magnitudes. See Dr. Bryan Robin/on of the anim. cecon.

Others think digejlion performed by a violent trituration of the ftomach ; but feveral obfervations feem to contradidt this opi- nion. See Trituration.

Digestion, in cherniftry — The chemifts of late years have too much given into the more elaborate and forced procefl'es, and neglected the more natural and eafy ones. Among thefe latter is Digejlion ; a procefs fo eafy, that it requires fcarce any quality in the operator but patience, and yet will do fuch things as all the elaborate proceffes of that art can never arrive at without it. There is fcarce a procefs that has more puzzled the chemifts of an age or two ago, than the volatilizing fait of tartar ; yet Langelot allures us, that after ufing all the caution in the common procefTes that an earneft defire of fuccefs could infpire him with, he failed in them all ; till try- ing the effect of a long Digejlion, he fucceeded fo well in the firft attempt, that he converted almoft the whole fait into a pure white volatile fubftance, leaving only a few inlipid earthy fseccs behind.

Another great ufe of Digejlion is the duly preparing the eflences of mineral fulphurs ; the ftony fea plants, which greatly re- femble the nature of foffils, are alfo better treated by this pro- cefs than by any other. Tartarifed fpirit of wine, receiving a very high tincWe from red coral, after a long Digejlion, in any diftilled vegetable oil, though it will not in the common way be at all coloured by it. Phil. Tranf. N° 87. See Coral,

DIGGING, in mineralogy, a term appropriated by the miners to exprefs that penetrating into the earth, where they have the ore before them, and every ftroke of the tools turns to account. They appropriated the word to this fenfe, expreffing the ran- dom openings, which they make in fearch of mines, by the word hatching^ or ejfay-haiching. See the article Tracing of mines.

When the efTay hatches have been opened fo long, that the orifice of the mine or load is found, the opening which has led to it, lofes its name of effay-hatch, and is called a fhaft or metal-hatch ; this is to be funk down about a fathom, and then they leave a fquare fpace, called ajbamble, and fo conti- nue finking from caft to caft ; that is, as high as a man can conveniently throw up the ore with a fhovel, till the load is found to grow fmall, or elfe to degenerate into fome unprofi- table fubftance, or weed, as they metaphorically exprefs it. The degeneracy of the ore is foon perceived, by the finding mundick or marchafite growing more plentiful among it. This is a fulphureous mineral, of a yellow, whitifh, or green- ifh colour, and is very troublefome to the Cornifh miners. The other unprofitable fubftances found in the place of the ore, or mixed in large quantities with it, where it degenerates, are daze, which is white, black, or yellowifh ; iron mould, which is black or rufty ; caul, which is red ; gljler, which is blood-red, or black, is alfo another degeneracy of the ore. Thefe are the common names given by the miners to various foflils, explained under their feveral heads, and thefe are the marks by which they know the vein is almoft exhaufted in that part, and will not long be worth digging. In this cafe, they begin to drive either eaft or weft, as the goodnefs of the land, or the convenience of the hill, unite. The drift or opening, on this occafion, is three foot over, and feven foot high, fo that a man may conveniently ftand and work : but in cafe the land is not broad enough of itfelf, as fome fcarce are half a foot ; then they break down the deads firft on the north fide of the land, for the greater conveniency of the right arm in working, and then they begin to rip the load itfelf; by the term deads, they mean that part of the fhelf, which contains no metal, but enclofes the load or vein as a wall between two rocks.

The inftruments commonly ufed in mines with us, and that ferve for ripping the lands are the beck, or as it is called in Cornwall the lubber. This is a weapon of eight or ten pounds weight, well fteeled and fbarpened at each end, ending in a point each way, and having a hole in the middle : this will laft half a year, but muft be new fliarpened every fortnight. The fecond inftrument is a. f edge; this is ufually made from ten to twenty pounds weight ; and will laft feven years, if new ordered once in three or four months, Beftde thefe, they

D I L

have guilds, or wedges ; thefe are of about two pounds wfighi ; they are made four fquare, and well fteeled at the point, "and they muft have ladders and wheel-barrows to carry the deads,' and the ore out of the adits to the fhambles. The general proportion of the workmen in Cornwall is this, two (hovel - men and three beele-men in a drift ; thefe are as many as the drift will contain without {landing in one another's way. The beele-men rip the deads and the ore, and the (hovel-men carry it off and land it, by calling it up from one of the fhambles to another all the way up ; in fome places they fave the trouble of this catling it to the fhambles by a winder and two buckets ; thefe are fo contrived, that one goes ud as the other comes down, and they are filled and emptied with great cafe. Philof. Tranf. N» 69.

DIGITALIS, Fox-glove, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : the flower'confifts of one leaf, of a tubular form, very wide, open at the mouth, and feeming bilabiated. The piftil arifes from the cup, and is fixed in the manner of a nail into the hinder-part of the dower ; this afterwards ripens into a fruit, or capfule, of an oval, pointed figure, divided into two cells, and ufually con- taining very fmall feeds. The fpecies of Fox-glove enumerated by Mr. Tourncfort are thefe. I. The purple Fox-glove. 2. The pale red Fcx-ghve. 3. The white Fox-glove, with large dowers. 4. The fmall purple Spanifh Fax-glove. 5. The oriental Fox-glove, called by authors fefamum. 6. The dusky freded oriental Fox-glove. 7. The trifid leaved oriental Fox-glove, with fnow white dowers. 8. The fmalleft Fox- glove, called by many authors Gratiola. 9. The flax leaved Portugal marfh Fox-glove. 10. The large flowered yellow Fox-glove. II. The great Rx-gimi, with fmall pale yellow flowers. 12. The lefl'er Fox-glove with fmall yellow flowers. 13. The fmall narrow leaved yellow Fox-glove. 14. The broad leaved Fox-glove, with a ferrugineous flower. 15. The broad leaved Fox glove, with a fmall ferruginous flower. 16. The middle Fox-glove, with a yellowifli flower. 17. The narrow leaved Fox-glove, with a ferruginous flower. 1 8. The narrow leaved purple Fox-glove. 19. The narrow leaved yellow Spanifh Foxglove. 20. The narrow leaved black flowered Spanifh Fox-glove. See Fox-glove.

DIGITATED Leaf, among botanifts. See Leaf.

DIGITUS Veneris, Venus Finger, in botany, a name by which fome authors have called the nymphaa, or water lilly. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.

DIJAMBUS, in poetry, the foot of a latin verfe of four fylla- bles ; it is compounded of two iambics, as fSveritSs.

DIIPOLIA, Aiiwoz.hu, in antiquity, an Athenian feftival, ce- lebrated in honour of Jupiter Polieus, or proteflor of the city. For the ceremonies obferved at this folemnity, fee Potter's Archseol. Grjec. 1. 2. c. 20. t. I. p. 381.

DILA TATOR Pojl'uus Urethrte, in anatomy, a name given by Heifter, and fome others, to what is fuppofed to be a peculiar mufcle by many, and called alfo levator fexttis ani, and by fome other names, though it is really only a prnoTs of the fphinfler ani running into the perinasum. See Sphincter.

DILE, in Botany, a name by which fome authors have called the ifatisor woad. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.

DILIGENZA, in the Italian mufic, is ufed for a foft or fweet manner of finging or playing.

DILL, in botany, BV, See Anethum.

DILLENIA, in Botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : the perianthium is compofed of five leaves, which are large, roundifh, hollow, and of a co- riaceous texture, and remain when the flower is fallen : the flower is compofed of five roundifh hollow petals ; thefe alfo are large and of a coriaceous texture. The (lamina are nu- merous filaments forming a fort of globe, the anthera; are ob- long and erect The germina are about twenty in number, they are of an oval oblong figure, and pointed, they are fome- what comprefled, and adhere together by their inner furfaces : there are no (lyles. The (ligmata are large and pointed, and aredifpofed inform ofaftar; the fruit is roundiih, and is covered with a number of capfules, divided bv fo many furrows. The feeds are numerous and fmall. Linnet Gen. Plant. N" 253. Hort. Mai. vol. 3. 38, 39.

DILICTUM, a term ufed by Agricola, to exprefs a brine, made by pouring water upon fand, (lones, earth, &c. that had been before ftrongly impregnated with Sea fait ; from this brine, a fait, for the u(c of the table, was made by evaporation in his time, and is fo dill in many parts of the world. At Junthall in Germany they have a fait work of this kind, where they make at the rate of eight hundred loaves of fait in a week, each loaf weighing four hundred weight. Here, and at fe- veral other places in the Upper Auflria, there are deep mines, in which they dig mud and earth ftrongly impregnated with common fait. This faline earth they break into lumps, of a proper fize, and caft them into pits in the bottom of the mines, where they cover them with water; and this, in a few weeks (landing, becomes a brine faturated to the higheft de- gree, every pound of it containing fix ounces of fait. This brine is conveyed thence by pipes into cifterns, and is boiled in iron pans into a white fait, fe other places, as at Roche, the

water