DEA
D E c
bhe of the moft powerful d'nireticlcs, we arc acquainted with, of our own growth. They are alfo given in diforders of the treaft and lungs, in pleurifies, in firangunes, and m the ftone and gravel. They are alfo eftcemcd provocatives to venery. An mfufion of them in White wine is excellent in hyfterical comp'ainrs.
DAUGHTERS, aniong the antients, were more frequently ex- pofetl than funs, as requiring greater charges to educate and fettle them in the world. Potter. Archjeol.Grac. 1. 4. c. 14. T. 2. p, •53';. See Exposing of Children. Thofe who hid no legitimate fons were obliged, by the Athe- nian laws, to leave their eftates to their daughters, who were confined to marry their nearcft relations, otherwife to forfeit their inheritance ; as we find to have been praflifed likewife among the Jews, many of whofe laws feem to have been tranfci ibed by Solon.
If an heirefs happened to be married before her father s death, this did not binder the neareft relation to claim the inheri- tance, and even to take the woman from herhufband ; which is faid to have been a common cafe. Potter Archteol. Grcec. I.4. c. 15. T. 1. p.441. feq.
DAVIT, a piece of timber in a fllip, having a notch at one end ; in which, by a ftrap, hangs a block, called the fijb-bhek : the ufe of this is to hale up the fluke of the anchor, and to faften it at the (hip's bow or loof. This Davit may be fhifted from one fide of the fllip to the other, as occafion ferves. There is a fmall Davit in the (hip's boat, which is fet over her herd with a fheever, into which is brought the buoy-rope to weigh the anchor : it (lands in the cartings in the boat's bow.
DAUPHIN, (C;d.) — Dauphin, in natural hiftory, is the name of a fpecies of fhell-fifh. It is one of the round-mouthed fnails, or Cichhee Lunares, and is ornamented with rows of indented eminences on all the turns of the (hell.
CAWELL Coroxde, in the language of the Ceyloncfe, drum- cinnamon. This is called in Low Dutch Tromm eel Can- cel The reafon of the name is, that the wood of the tree which affords this fpecies, when dried, is light and tough, and is ufed to make drums of. The bark is taken off while the tree is growing, and is of a pale colour. It is a very bad kind of cinnamon, and is very rarely fold as fuch ; but the natives ufe it in medicine. Philof. Tranf. N °. 409.
DAY, (Cyd.)— Day-Coal, in natural hiftory, a name given by the minersof England, and the common people who live in coal- countries, to that fcam or ftratum of the coal which liesupper- moft in the earth. The fame vein or ftratum of coal ufually runs a great way through the country, and dips and rifes in the earth in different places ; fo that this upper ftratum, or day- Coal, is in the various parts of the fame ftratum, fometmies near the furface, and fometimes at many fathoms deep. The fubterranean fires found in fome of our coal-countries princi- pally feed on this coal, and are nearer, or farther from the fur- face as it rifes or finks. Phil. Tranf. N". 130.
Grand DAYS. See Grand.
Law DAY. See Law Day.
DAZE, in natural hiftory, a name given by our miners to a fort of glittering Hone, which often occurs in their works ; anil, as it is an unprofitable fubftance, is one of thofe things which they call weeds. The word Daze takes in, with them, every (lone that is hard and glittering ; and therefore it comprehends the whole genus ci~ the Telangia, or ftony No- dules, which have flakes of talc in their fubftance : thefe, ac- cording to the colour of the Cony matter they are bedded in, and their own colour, give the names of black Daze, white, red, and yellow Daze to thefe ftones. The Daze (tones in gene- ral much refemble fome of thofe nodules with which the ftreets of London are pave.1. But in fome, inftead of the mat- ter forming regular nodules of a compact fubftance, it forms itfelf into a vaTt number of thin plates, which are applied clofely over one another, and form (helves or even feries of planes, encompaffing, fometimes a rcundilh, fometimes an oblong mafs of ore.
Thefe Dazes are generally of the poorer part of the vein. The fhoad-ftones are many of them of this nature, and the ends of the veins degenerate again into them. The beds of rivers in Cornwall afford large quantities of thefe nodules ; and as there is alfo granite in that county, and pieces from the ftrata of that ftone are fometimes worn, and rounded into pebble-like fhapes, and found in the fame rivers ; thefe having alfo flakes of talk in them, are always called by the miners Daze. This however leads to no error in the working ; for thefe are never found, except in the rivers ; and the miners never attempt to trace a vein from any thing found in the bed of a river, becaufe they know how uncertain the original place of that ftone may be, which has been for fo many ages fubject to be tolled about by the ftream of a river, perhaps often rendered more rapid by land-floods. Philof. Tranf. N°. 69.
DEAD,(Cyr/.) — Dtad Mem-eyes, in a (hip, area kind of blocks, hauing many holes in them, but no (hcevers ; and throughthem the lanniers go, which make faff the fhrowds to the chains. Sometimes the main-ftays of a (hip are fet taught in Dcad-Mcns- tyes ; but moil great (hips u(c double blocks. The crowfeet reeve through the Dead-Mcns-cycs. Mar.wayring.
Dead Nettles, in botany. See Samium.
DBkB-ri/mg, a term in a (hip for" that part of her which lies aft between the keel and her floor-timbers, and n:xt adjoining to the ftcrn-poft under the bread-room, in a man of war. Gnillet.
Dead ropes, in a (hip, are fuch as are not running, i. e. which do not run in any block.
DEADING bed, among miners. See Deads.
DEADS, in mining, is ufed to exprefs that part of the fhelf or faft "round which contains no ore, but which enclofes the vein or bed of the ore, like a wall on every fide. The drifts which they fink for the tin-ore in Cornwall are generally about three feet over, and about feven feet high ; fo that a man may conveniently ftaud upright at work, and manage his tools. In cafe the vein itfelf is not broad enough to allow this, as in many places it is not half a foot over, then they pick down the ftrata that enclofe it, fo as to make oil opening of the fame breadth. This work they call breaking up the deads. Phil. Tranf. N°. 69.
This word is alfo ufed for fuch parcels of common loofe mould or earth, lying above the fhelf, as ufually contain the Jlioail, which they find when they are training a load. In the Mendip lead-mines, when a vein of ore breaks off abruptly in an earth, they call it a Deading-bed ; and earth without oar they call Dead earth.
DEAL. A well-known kind of wood, of great ufe.
A very good method of feafoning planks ofZWand fir, is to throw them into falt-water as foon as they are fawed, and keep them there three or four days, frequently turning them. In this cafe they will be rendered much harder, by drying af- terwards in the air and fun ; but neither this nor any other means yet known, will preferve them from fhrinkiiig. Rods of Deal expand laterally, or crofs the grain, in moid weather, and contract again in dry ; and thence have been found to make an ufeful hygrometer. Phil. Tranf. N°. 480. p. 184. See Hygrometer, Cyd. & Suppl.
DEATH, {Cyd.) —It is generally taught, that the life of thofe ani- mals, which wecall perfeft, confifts in a continuedflux and reflux of blood, nervous juice and air, to and from the principal or- gans ; and that a man may be reckoned dead when he no longer breathes, and his heart and arteries have left off all circula- tion and pulfation. Even Lancifi, the bed author on this fubjedt, fays, that without a fmall degree of refpiration, and fome little motion or trembling of the heart, there is no life. In confequence of this fyftem, the general pradice is, that as foon as thefe fymptoms of life are gone, all hopes and endea- vours to maintain the fmall remains of life are laid afide. But Dr. Stevenfon does not admit this doctrine, being of opinion, that after the motion of the heart, arteries, and lungs ceafes, there often remains a fmall degree of vital principle, deferving attention. After a full flop of all thofe organic motions on which life is faid to depend, the juices frequently retain fo much of the animal procefs as frequently ferves to keep up warmth for a long time 5 which, with proper chcrifhing, might perhaps reftore life entirely. Every age and country affords inftances of furprizing recoveries after lying long for dead. From the number of thofe preferved by lucky accidents, we may conclude a far greater number might have been preferved by timelypains and (kill. Med. Eff. E\iinb. Vol. 5. Art. 77. This ingenious author hopes, from his theory, that one who from all the abovementioned motions ceafing, may with pro- priety be called dead, may recover, and be properly faid to come to life again.
His theory is, that the caufe of animal heat, or of the intcftine motion which had been going on profperoufly, while the progreflive motion of the fluids in the veffels continued, is now checked ; yet (fill proceeds in a lower manner, perhaps like the beginning of fermentation or putre- faction. By this degree of the animal procefs, the mafs of fljids, particularly in the great refervoir of venous blood, the heart, rarifying, preffing every way, and being refilled by the valves, fwells fo as to fill the flaccid right auricle of the heart, which had been fome time empty ; and thus ftimulating its fibres, which were at reft, fets them a moving again ; as we fee the heart, after being taken out of the body, by being pricked, or having warm water thrown on it, beats afrefll, tiio' it has been for fome time motionlefs. The right auricle being thus filled, and ftimulated into a contraction, fills the ventricle ; which being irritated, likewife contracts and emp- ties itfelf into the pulmonary artery ; whereby the circulation begins where it left off, and life is reftored, if the organs and juices are in a fit difpofifion for it, as they perhaps are much oftner than is imagined.
From hence it feems, that death does not inevitably attend an entire organic reft of what we call the folids of the body ; nay, that one cannot be called de'd till the energy of the blood is fo far gone, that, though affifted by all poifible means, it call never be again able to fill, and ftimulate into contraction, the right finus venofus and auricle of the heart. See a remarkable cafe, in fupport of this opinion, in Med. Eff. Edinb.Vol.5. Art. 55.
The learned Window has given us a trcatife upon the uncer- tainty of the figns of death.
DECACTIS, in natural hiftory, a name given by fome to a
kind of (far-lift, of the branched, or aftrophyte kind; whofe
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