Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/541

* DROMEDARY. 471 DROPSY. or one-humped camel {I'anulus dromcdarius) ,■ but properly belonging to a variety of that si)e- cies, distinguished by slenderness of limbs and symmetry of form, and by extraordinary Ueel- ness, "bearing much the same relation to the ordinary camel as a race-horse or hunter does to a cart-horse."' A good one is valued in up|)er Egypt at from $oO to $75. The pace of the dromedary is a trot, which it can maintain for a prodigious length of time, often at the rate of nine miles an hour for many hours together; while a journey of upward of COO miles is per- formed at a somewhat slower rate in five days. Even its more rapid pace can be maintained for twenty-four hours at a stretch, without sign of weariness and without stopping to bait; and if then it is allowed a little refreshment, of a ball of paste made of barley and powdered dates and a little water or camel's milk, it will resume its journey, and go on with undiminished speed for twenty-four hours more. The jolting to the rider is terrible. The gallop is a pace unsuit- able to the dromedary, and at which it very soon fails. See C.iiel; and Plate of C.jiels AXD Llamas. DRO'MIO OF EPHi:SUS and DROMIO OF SYRACUSE'. In Shakespeare's Vomtdy of Er- rors, twin brothers who had been separated in childhood, and, at the opening of the play, have become attendants, respectively, of Antipholus of Ephesus and Antipholus of Syracuse. The first-named is thick-witted, the second is bright. DRONE. See Bee. DRONE (of a bagpipe). See Bagpipe. DRONE FLY ( so called from its resemblance to a drone). A common cosmopolitan fly of the family Syrphidie (Eristalis tenax). Its larvie live in liquid filth and the putrefying carcasses of animals, breathing by means of a very elon- gated anal projection bearing spiracles at the tip; they are sometimes called 'rat-tailed mag- gots.' The fly somewhat resembles the honey- bee, and this resemblance has given rise to the 'Bugonia myth,' which is found among many nations, and is of ancient origin (.Judges xiv. 8), to the effect that honey-bees may be born from filth or decaying bodies. DRON'GO ( Xeo-Lat. drongus, from the Mala- gasy name), or Drongo-Sheike. A bird of the passerine family Dieruridie, which is widely scattered throughout Africa and southeastern Asia, and whose systematic position is imdecided. The beak is very shrike-like, and beset with bristles at the base, in conformity with the insect- eating habits of the family. The plumage is in- variably glossy black, the tail has ten feathers, is forked, and the outer rectriccs are often greatly prolonged, or curled or racket-shaped. These birds are wholly arboreal, active on the wing, restless and pugnacious, and nest in trees. Sev- eral genera and many species are recognized. Most of them inhabit India and Malaysia, but two species arc natives of South Africa and one of Atiitnilia. See King-Crow. DRONGO CUCKOO. An East Indian cuckoo (iSi urn icM/u,9 dicruroidrx) remarkable for so re- sembling the common drongo, or king-crow (see Drongo) as to deceive any but a careful ob- fei^'er. This instance of 'mimicry' among birds is carried to the extent of imitating the forked tail, "a feature elsewhere entirely unexampled among the cuckoos." Ornithologists are of the opinion that this cuckoo, which is parasitic, selects the nest of the drongo, alone, as the re- ceptacle for its egg. Several others species ex- hibit similar tendencies. DRONTE. See Dodo. DRONTHEIM, dront'him. Sec Tro.diijem. DROOD, Edwin. See Mystery of Edwin Dkood. DROOGENBROECK, dro'gen-brook, Jan van (18;i.5-li»02|. A Flemisii poet whose ])seudonym was .Tan Fergixt. He was born at Saint .mands on the Scheldt, and was educated at J^ierre. He was for more than twenty-two years tutor and professor at a well-known music school of Brus- sels. As a poet, he was the first to introduce Oriental verse-forms into Dutch poetry, among his best productions of this kind being tlie cele- brated M aha me II rii dhazrlrli (2d eil. 1887). In 1S8 he receiveil a prize at Brussels for the treatise entitled. Dc ioriiassiiifj ran liet Oriek- sclie eii Lafijiifichr mctriiin op dc edi ilaiidsrhr Poczie. His poems of childhood, entitled Dit ciy» Zonneslralen (6th ed. 1884), are extreme- ly popular. He also wrote the libretto to Lortzins's opera Undine (first performed in 18021. " DROPSY (by aph;eresis, for the older form liildrojisfi. Lat. hydropisis, Gk. vSpunrtacis, lii/- diOpiusis. vipwiji, hydrops, dropsy, from USap, hydor, water I . A symptom occurring in several diseases. It consists of the effusion of watery fluid from the blood into the skin and subjacent tissues, or into the cavities of the body. When the effusion is chiefly in the superficial parts and over the whole body, the dropsy is called ana- sarca: when it is in the peritoneal cavity of the abdomen, it is teniied ascites; when in the chest, liydrothorax. Dropsy most commonly depends on disease of the heart (q.y. ) or kidneys (q.v. ), or upon the condition of the blood. Ascites is often caused by pressure upon the portal veins caused by a contracting liver, in a case of cir- rhosis of that organ. The treatment of dropsy is chiefly by diuretics, diaphoretics, and cathar- tics, which remove the fluid from the tissues by unloading the blood of serum. It is, however, a matter of some difficulty to find the proper remedy in every individual case. In all cases of dropsy, the internal organs should be submitted to a strict medical examination, and the treat- ment regulated accordingly. The fluid which is poured into the cavity of the pleura in pleurisy is not dropsical, but an exudation of plastic mate- rial from the blood which has the property of becoming organized and forming adhesions be- tween the lungs and the sides of the chest. In hydrothorax the fluid has no power of organiza- tion, although it contains blood-scrum. The presence of cysts in an ovary is called ovarian dropsy. Dropsy of the pericardium is called liydropericardium ; of the cavity of a joint, hy- drops articuli. or hydrarthrosis : of the cavity of the scrotum, hydrocele: of the skin and areolar tissue, crdrina. If the cerebro-spinai fluid be in- creased, the condition is called hydrocephalus. When internal medicines fail to remove an ac- cumulation of dropsical fluid, or when it is due to pressure which cannot be relieved, it often be- comes necessary to evacuate the fliid by tapping — that is, by making an incision i.ito the cavity